Powerless Against You

by Elizabeth Gannon

With the gentle but overwhelming strength she loved about him, Carl pushed her forward ever so, just enough to move her away from the table. Her hands fell to his shoulders to brace herself.

  He lifted one hand and moved a strand of hair out of her eyes, then tenderly cupped her cheek. “We’ve been cooped up in here for six months waiting for this job to go down. Wouldn’t you like to work off a bit of energy?”

  A predatory smile spread its way across her face. Before Carl even had time to appreciate her wolf smile—which only led one thing—she snapped forward and sucked his bottom lip between hers. Sharp teeth bit at soft flesh before she pulled back. She watched the small bead of ruby red blood well up on his lip with wide, hungry eyes.

  She stuck her tongue out to lick it away when the loud crash of a door stopped her. Kate looked over Carl’s shoulder and had to quell the urge to snarl. “What?” she barked.

  The minion standing at the door gave a quick bow. “Sorry to intrude, my Queen. I have the information you asked—”

  “Leave us!”

  Her teeth snapped together just like when she bit Carl. A pleasant shiver ran through him. Biting him or biting her words, Kate was always full of fire, and he was the only one allowed to dance with it.

  “Yes,” the minion said. “Apologies.” The door creaked shut again, and they were alone.

  Carl pulled back to meet her eyes. “A little more venomous than usual. You know you don’t need to be so harsh with them.” He dipped his head and ran his lips up the side of her neck, purring the words into her ear. “They’re all under your thrall. They couldn’t disobey if they wanted to.”

  Yes, that was how it worked, what made her so deadly and her empire so efficient. No man could resist her charm. All she needed was to say the word, and their wills were hers. It was great fun. Her powers were so strong she was on the top most wanted super villains for eighteen different superhero organizations and five countries.

  But that was the tradeoff. She could control any normal man until the earth stopped rotating around the sun, but those blasted superheroes were something else. True, they had powers the same as her, yet they decided to use them for good instead of personal gain. Tiresome and so boring. She’d heard of many heroes with amazing powers that would be well suited for larceny, extortion, or any number of delicious pursuits. And they chose to use them to fortify banks. To secure other people’s money so that opportunistic thieves such as herself couldn’t get it. Tiresome.

  “You could,” she said, focusing back on Carl. “If you wanted to.” Carl had powers of his own. He was immune, yet he stayed with her through the years. Always by her side, ready to break necks or burn down a police station in her name. The only man she could ever trust—the only person.

  He gave a lazy shrug, his hand still stroking her back. “I don’t want to.”

  “What do you want?” Her fingers wound their way through his hair, nails scratching lightly at his scalp. He always kept it cropped in a short military style even though he’d never actually been in the service. Where she was excess, he was discretion.

  Flashing one of his rare smiles, he swiftly dropped to his knees and pulled at the bottom hem of her skirt, disappearing beneath it. Before Kate could even process, she felt his warm breath pressed against the front of her panties, wordlessly requesting entry. Yes, that would do nicely.

  She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back onto the floor. Ever prepared, Carl caught himself. “I thought you—” he started, though, he didn’t get much further.

  Kate climbed on top of him, coming to stop with her skirt pooled around his head, his face deliciously trapped between her thighs. She felt another brush of lips—another smile—against her skin before Carl was down to business. Strong fingers pulled at her underwear until they both heard fabric rip. The destroyed scrap of garment was quickly discarded, and Carl planted both hands on lovely, now-bare hips.

  For the moment, she was happy to let him work his magic. Humming tuneless nonsense into her skin as she rode his face, his tongue moving inside her, feeling his fingers tighten against her—pressing hard enough to leave marks. Yes, they both quite enjoyed times like this.

  While Carl’s talents extended far beyond planning and weapons knowledge, she always wanted more. The little stutter of her hips half pulling away was his signal. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it. Kate was very aware of her body language when it suited her to be, any other time she couldn’t give a damn. The little things she did were inconsequential for her, but for Carl they spelled out the next plan of action.

  He kept going, kept licking and sucking at the moist skin above him even as he felt a hand grabbing at his belt. He closed his eyes and appreciated the last moment he had before she pulled away and got along to what she wanted to do.

  When her skirt vanished from his face, Carl took a breath. Warm, wet, tight heat settled over him. “Shouldn’t we—” was as far as he got before she was there.

  The surprise of it forced the air from his lungs. He grabbed at her again, this time just to hold on. There was no way he’d be allowed to dictate their pace, so hanging on for dear life was his only option. She leaned forward and braced on his shoulders. “Mmm, yes…” she whispered to herself.

  A few more moments and that was it. She shouted into the rafters and Carl knew he had to go now or not at all. Chasing his orgasm, he let go and screamed with her.

  It never lasted long, it was never pretty, but hell if Carl could actually find something to complain about. Even after she’d pulled herself together and gotten to her feet (back to the plans) and he lay there in a content puddle, he knew that this was important to both of them. Even if it meant more to him than it did to her, it still meant something.

  ***

  Somehow, Carl knew before she did. He didn’t know how—he simply did. She hadn’t even shown any physical symptoms yet, which only made it worse. In the end, he chalked it up to how long they’d been together. When he watched her cross the room, her hips moving a little differently than usual… Reality slammed into him like a truck.

  The idea of being there when she put the pieces together was about as terrible as being the one to tell her. So he waited. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. Twenty years with Kate, watching her, getting to know her habits and reactions, none of it prepared him for this. It wasn’t in the plan and it wasn’t supposed to happen to them.

  He was there for it. When she sat bolt upright in bed, her face paling. At first, he grumbled to himself, “Finally got you to sleep for once—” She ran out of the room before he could finish his complaint. If he had any questions about what was going on, they disappeared when horrible retching sounds met his ears. It wasn’t some late-night plan that seized her, it was something much worse.

  Carl allowed himself one minute to quietly freak out. His breath hitched as he started into one of the short panic attacks he was so good at. He was the man with the backup plan, and the backup backup plan. He was not allowed to go off the rails like this, not allowed to feel the bile crawling up inside his throat as he wished the world away, regretting he hadn’t been able to stand up to her for once in their lives and stop this from happening in the first place.

  Grabbing his shirt from the floor, he wiped the anxious sweats from his brow. He had to be logical. She sure as shit wouldn’t be. He always had a way out; should she fail, he was in charge. This was a failure, and now it was his job to step in and correct it.

  Panic over, he looked up in time to see Kate emerge from the bathroom. Her face had blanched completely white, and there was a little vomit smeared at the corner of her mouth. Before they went to bed, he managed to convince her to remove her makeup, barraging her with facts about skin conditions and acne until she relented. Without the usual war paint of the highest quality cosmetics she could steal, she looked years younger… too young to deal with an unwanted pregnancy.

  That little episode alone wouldn’t immediately point to anything. But Kate wasn’t stupid
. Putting it together with half a dozen other little things that seemed out of place but not too strange, and it all pointed towards one answer. Now she knew and there was no going back.

  Carl spoke before she could fly into a rage and possibly harm him or herself. “Would you rather I told you?”

  She didn’t say anything. They both knew there was no correct answer. Instead, she said, “We could’ve dealt with it sooner.” She dropped her eyes from his and looked quickly around the room. “Do we have a directory somewhere? There has to be an all hours clinic nearby that’ll take care of—”

  “No.”

  For a full ten seconds, Kate didn’t move. He could tell how difficult it was for her, especially as stressed as she was, but she did it. Stood stock still and stared at him. The moment finally passed and whatever mental whiplash she suffered was gone. “Excuse me?”

  He took a breath, then lifted his eyes to hers. “No.”

  “What.” The sound hissed through her teeth with all the malevolence she could put behind it. How many times he’d heard those teeth bite at words, seen them cut off conversations, and once, even tear off an ear. Now they were turned on him, and he had to fight back.

  “No,” he said again, and he knew it wouldn’t be for the last time. “We can’t go to a clinic and risk exposure. The Smith job is in two days, and L.T. afterwards.”

  “L.T. isn’t for two and a half years,” she snapped.

  “You’re the one who slated the timeline to begin two years out,” he said. “Super villain rule number fifteen: never lose focus on the job.” Kate rolled her eyes. Him and his stupid rules.

  He ignored her. “Any detours right now will fuck up everything. We need to be careful, or we’ll get off track. I’ll follow your plan, but you need to let me handle this.”

  Kate brought her arms up to cover her chest, curling in on herself in a way he hoped wasn’t conscious. “Who says we need to do it legally? We don’t do anything else by the rules. Why this? We’ll find someone discreet—”

  “No.” Soft but firm, he knew it was the right answer. “There is no way in hell I would risk your life with some back alley sawbones and his unsafe methods.”

  “We could kidnap a doctor. I use my powers to make him do it, you use yours to make him forget about it. Then we drop him in some alley.”

  “No!” he said, louder this time. “You know your powers short out something in their heads. Even the most skilled doctor wouldn’t be at full capacity. That gives us the same objection as before: no unskilled hacks!”

  “Us?” she hissed. “You’re the only one who keeps bringing up objections. If I didn’t know better—” Sudden revulsion crawled across her face, and Kate took a step back, her eyes running over him. “You want me to have it.” Not a question. “Don’t tell me you have some sort of feeling for it.” She spat the word like a curse, and to her it was.

  Carl swept forward, grabbing her arms and pushing until her back connected with the wall. “I have feeling for you!” he yelled. Shouted. Right in her face. He didn’t care. She needed to understand. “You nearly get us killed twice every job. And every time, I go with it. I know it’s how you work. But the second you try something that will actually get you hurt or killed or worse is the minute I reign you in. That’s how I work.

  “So let’s run through our options, shall we? We can’t do it under the table because fuck, absolutely fuck that. We can’t kidnap anyone to make him do it because you’d turn his brain to soup, and there is no way we could even walk into a hospital and try to do it the right way because we don’t even exist! They’d ask for papers, and IDs, and once we couldn’t produce those, there’d be questions. And inquiries. And police and there goes our next job! By the time we get forgeries good enough to get in, you’d be too far to have anything done. Have I covered all possibilities? Or do you need more?”

  “What do you suggest we do?” Even if he wasn’t looking right at her, he could hear the venom in her words. Oh, yes she’d cooperate. Her willingness was a different matter.

  “Right… before, we go to New Amsterdam, take advantage of their safe haven laws. Leave it at a fire station or something.”

  “How will we know when to leave?”

  Carl closed his eyes. She was resigning herself to his plan. She’d made the decision to cooperate, which made his answer even worse. “You’re twelve weeks along,” he whispered.

  She didn’t say anything. With his eyes closed, hours could’ve passed. And she didn’t say. Anything.

  The silence pressed on him hard enough to burst his ear drums. He couldn’t stand it. His eyes peeled open, and her face swam back into view. Her blank, emotionless face, the one that really made her look like a psychopath. It was the part she played for the world: bored, uninterested super villain who cared only for blood and gold. He was the amoral mercenary who would spill all the blood you wanted for the right amount. These were their parts, and they played them well. Usually, they didn’t have to play them for each other. Need to or want to…

  Now she had his attention, she started moving. Slowly, she turned them both until his shoulders brushed the wall, and she was free. She didn’t touch him, telling him her intent using those cold, impassive eyes.

  She stepped away and put her hand on the door knob. “I’m going to stay in the minions’ room,” she said.

  “Don’t,” he said, letting his eyes fall shut again and burying a hand in his hair. “I’ll stay with the minions. You take our bed.”

  “Let me be clear, Shanwick,” she said, voice soft but with a sharp edge that could cut him in two. “You will sleep in my bed tonight. I will go stay with my minions. Everything here is mine. You’re simply the hired help who cleans up the mess.

  “This.” She grabbed her stomach. Not the loving caress of a mother. With fingers rigid and nails digging in, it was more betraying of her want to claw the thing out. “This is all you have. This is your mess. And in twenty-eight weeks, you will clean it up.” She let her hand fall and wrenched open the door. Stomping out, she left it open behind her.

  Carl shut the door, letting his head fall against the cool metal with a thunk. It was going to be a long seven months.

  ***

  They ran away when they were fifteen. It would’ve been sooner, but they needed to wait until they were strong enough—superpowers got stronger with time, after all. Privately, Carl thought if they tried any sooner, the strain would’ve killed him. It almost did.

  Kate convinced her way into their school, the hospital where they were born, even the police station, and destroyed all their records until there wasn’t the smallest shred of data on either of them. For his part, he went around purging everyone’s memories.

  Their small-town Georgia could’ve been a little smaller, but he got it done. He passed out a few times from the strain, and he had a headache for a month. Still, the look on her face when he finished made it all worth it. She didn’t do happy very often, and when she did, she did it for him.

  Wrapped up in his arms, she pressed feverish kisses to his face. “We can go anywhere now,” she whispered between nibbles on his ear lobe. “Be anyone.” She pulled back, eyes bright and shining and absolutely mad, but it was why he loved her. “Who are you going to be?”

  Without hesitation, he said, “Carl Shanwick Jr.”

  Her smile melted away. “If you keep your name, they’ll find us. Shanwick is an unusual name. Your father—”

  “When my father wakes up, he won’t remember who he is. For all he’ll know he’s never heard the name Carl Shanwick,” he said. “I like who I am, and if we can be whoever we want, I wanna be me.” He gathered her back to him. “You can keep your name too, Katie. You destroyed all our records. Our names are a dead end.”

  She squeezed him tighter, her breasts pressing against his chest and sending a flutter south. She smiled at him. “I keep forgetting how devious you are.

  “Still,” she said after a moment. “I want people to know me. I want them to s
hake in fear when they hear my name. Katherine Westpfal won’t do that.

  “I want to be a queen,” she whispered.

  Carl smiled into her hair and kissed her again. “Then a queen you’ll be. I’ll make you one.”

  “No…” Her smile vanished, she stared off into the distance over his left shoulder. “I want to be The Queen.”

  Carl shrugged. “You’ve been my queen as long as I can remember. ‘Bout time the rest of the world knew it too.”

  Looking up through her lashes, she smiled at him and pulled him closer. Hard, demanding fingers tugged at him while sharp, pointed nails bit his skin. He loved it. He loved her.

  With her lips pressed close to his ear, she whispered, “We’ll make the world burn.”

  Months later, the first reports of a new super villain—known only as The Queen—would start surfacing. News stories of vaults found empty, guards with no memories of the past week, and bodies turning up in harbors would flood the country. Other super villains would quietly whisper about a new player in town. No one would ever suspect two teenagers from Georgia.

  She was the ostentatious name, he was the silent partner. They built an invisible empire other villains talked about with fear shaking their voices. Whenever someone got too close, Carl would make them disappear. Strip their memory and send them wandering to their death. He did it to protect her. He would always protect her.

  ***

  “This can’t happen again.”

  Carl woke with a groan as her weight settled on his stomach. A little heavier these days but nothing he couldn’t handle. His hands moved to bracket her hips before he could even think about it. “It won’t,” he said. “Surprisingly enough, it’s easier to bribe a doctor into an anonymous vasectomy than an anonymous abortion. Didn’t you notice I was walking funny two weeks ago?”

  She had noticed. She didn’t comment because this was the first they’d spoken since… it happened.

  “Finally get tired of the minions?”

  She flinched and dropped her eyes. “They keep staring at me.”