Born a Queen (Lilith's Shadow Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  There was no response to her comment, and Lilith’s smile faded as a sense of loss washed through her. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and focused on something else. At least once the paintings and furniture were in place, the condo wouldn’t look so embarrassingly barren when someone visited. Maybe she could even get Gina to visit sometime.

  That thought improved Lilith’s mood again, and she smiled once more, feeling a little less alone.

  Thursday, November 21st, 2030

  Warden’s Home, Oakland

  Gina was surprised at how well she’d been sleeping, considering why she was staying home so much. She’d been dreading the nightmares that had plagued her the first couple of days after she’d been home, but fortunately they’d largely subsided after that, allowing her to have relatively uninterrupted nights of rest. That had changed still more over the last few days, though.

  She didn’t know why her dreams had turned so erotic, but they’d been incredibly indistinct most of the time. That had also changed, though, and the reason for that was Lilith. Unable to get the gorgeous woman out of her mind, Gina found herself thinking about Lilith even when she was preparing herself for bed, and as she drifted off at night.

  As she dreamt, Gina found herself unable to see almost anything, her entire world seeming cold and dark around her. The lonely darkness seemed to go on for an eternity, and in it Gina almost fell into despair, turning and stumbling across a broken landscape. Just as she was about to give up, she heard singing in the distance, the source warm and inviting, almost joyful. Stumbling toward it, Gina found a place where the darkness wasn’t as intense, where a dark figure was dancing joyfully, brilliant emerald eyes blazing in the darkness and shedding a deep heat.

  Spotting Gina, the figure gestured her closer, and pulled her into the dance, spinning her about the area intensely. Slowly the darkness began to vanish, revealing a campsite and the first hints of Lilith’s face. Seeing the other woman, Gina’s breath caught as Lilith’s lips curved into a smile and she leaned forward to meet Gina’s lips…

  The blare of her alarm going off woke Gina with a jolt, and her eyes snapped open. Glaring at the ceiling as she panted, the heroine growled in annoyance. “Oh, come on! Every time I have a good dream, it goes off in the middle of it, but it comes after bad ones. Argh, why couldn’t it have waited five minutes?”

  Gina was aching with need, frustrated by the dream that she could only barely remember even now. It faded as she tried to recall its content, and the heroine could only faintly remember that Lilith had been involved. Sweat covered her skin in a sheen, and slowly grumbling to herself, Gina dragged herself out of bed and grabbed a bathrobe as she headed off to take a nice, cold shower.

  The water helped wake Gina up quickly, and as she washed, she began to think more clearly. Something about the situation didn’t make sense to her. Certainly, Lilith was gorgeous, but that wasn’t a good enough reason to be dreaming about her so vividly this quickly. While Lilith had helped Gina in her guise as Warden, and had also complimented her artwork and purchased several paintings, it just didn’t make sense. The change was too sudden, when she’d never had a reaction like this before.

  Turning off the water, Gina quickly glanced around the shower, thinking. After a moment, she nodded to herself. She needed to make sure she wasn’t being mentally influenced, which meant getting the wards checked. She couldn’t do that herself, but she had another option.

  “Alright… let’s get Morgan to check the wards as soon as possible. Make sure they’re blocking psychic contact,” Gina murmured under her breath, feeling a little better. “Either way, I can figure out what I want to do.”

  The heroine stepped out of the shower and began drying off quickly, shivering at the chill in the air, which seemed a little sharper than normal. Only once she was mostly dry did she pick up her phone, ignoring a couple of notifications as she pulled up Morgan’s number and sent a text. ‘Hey, could you come check my wards for me today? It isn’t an emergency, just paranoia.’

  Once that was sent, she set the phone down and began to dry off more thoroughly. Right as Gina was finishing up, Morgan replied. ‘Sure! I’ll be over around noon, I think. Going on patrol with BC.’

  Smiling slightly, Gina shook her head at her friend, feeling a little bad. The others were getting run ragged, in her opinion, but there wasn’t anything she could do. After a few seconds she typed out a reply. ‘Thanks, I’ll see you then. I’ll be in my studio, trying to paint.’

  Once she’d finished, Gina got dressed in one of her sets of painting clothes, a set of paint-stained jeans and a spattered white t-shirt, then headed for her studio. In most houses, the room would probably be a home office or spare bedroom, but for Gina it was her studio. Shelves along one wall held a variety of oil paints, while a rack with several canvases was on another, along with a few half-completed paintings. The room had good lighting, and she pulled out a folded easel from the corner to set it up. Only then did she pause, trying to decide what she wanted to paint.

  The remnants of the dream flickered through Gina’s mind, with the way Lilith’s emerald eyes had blazed in the night, and Gina hesitated, then shrugged as she murmured. “Why not?”

  She decided to use a smaller canvas, setting it up and pulling out her pencils to prepare. Outlining Lilith’s face took much longer than expected, as Gina found herself trying to ensure that the proportions were as close to what she remembered as possible. In some ways it was disconcerting just how clear Lilith’s face was in Gina’s memory, but for the purpose she had in mind it was ideal.

  Starting with Lilith’s eyes might not have been the best of ideas, but they were also the most difficult part for Gina. Getting the paints mixed to the right color took her quite some time, but eventually she managed to get the shade neither too light or dark. Only then could Gina begin the slow, painstaking process of trying to replicate the eyes that seemed to be seared into her memory. Although she tried to set her worry aside, that they were so clear accentuated her concern.

  Getting the eyes just right took over an hour, by which point Gina had almost entirely lost herself in the act of painting. If she hadn’t developed her magic at the onset of puberty, she suspected that she actually would’ve become a professional artist. The only worry she’d ever had was that she might not have been able to afford the lifestyle she wanted. Still, it was a path untraveled, and not one she thought about often.

  Gina had finished most of Lilith’s face and eyes so far, but the woman’s hair and neck were still unpainted, save for their outlines. It took her a minute, but she finished Lilith’s lips, pulling away and considering for a moment. She’d need to go over the painting a couple more times, since only the eyes were what she considered to be good enough. Right as she was about to dip her brush into the paint again, Morgan suddenly spoke. “That’s a little creepy, Gina.”

  “Don’t sneak up on me like that! I might’ve ruined the painting, and then what?” Gina yelped and spun in surprise, her heart pounding at the sudden interruption. Morgan just laughed, shaking her head as she leaned against the wall, still in her superheroine outfit.

  “So, what made you start painting her?” Morgan asked, ignoring Gina’s protest as she smiled. “I know I showed you a picture of her, but it wasn’t a good reference. Besides, I texted before starting over, and you never replied. I was a little worried, and what do I find? You not seeming to have noticed that I tried to contact you.”

  “I didn’t notice, actually,” Gina admitted guiltily, glancing at her phone to see it slowly blinking its alert. She set down the palette and put the brush into a jar of mineral spirits, then looked at her friend, blushing. “I’ll admit it, I thought you were exaggerating about that power of hers. Last night she showed up at my exhibition, though, and now I don’t doubt you in the slightest. If anything, you understated how potent it is! She was mesmerizing to the point that I dreamt about her last night. That’s why I wanted to have the wards checked, actually. I’ve
never reacted this way to meeting anyone before, not after a single encounter, so what if she has other powers that allow her to slip into my dreams or such?”

  “I see. That’s disturbing, and more than a little unexpected. The idea of her having another power is troubling, but far from impossible. You saw the research we did on her, and how sparse it is… hmm.” Morgan frowned as she stepped away from the door to look around the room, then at Gina. “Do you think she knew who you are, or if she was deliberately out looking for you? If she was, we could have a problem.”

  “While I don’t think she had any idea about me, there’s no way to be sure, is there?” Gina asked, shrugging helplessly. “I know that she’d visited at least four other galleries first, which the guests who followed her confirmed when I chatted with them. She did purchase several of my paintings that she needs to pick up Saturday night. Aside from being friendly and asking if I displayed my art at galleries often, she didn’t do anything. I gave her my card when she asked about more art, because it seemed like the right thing to do, but I just don’t know. She did say she was redecorating her condo after moving in.”

  “Hmm… well, the condo was pretty bare when I visited, so I can see that being the case. Plus, I do remember Sky Defender muttering in annoyance about him wasting time watching her order furniture, so that could actually be the truth,” Morgan murmured, considering for a moment before nodding and looking Gina over. She could feel the other heroine using detection spells as a tickle against her mind, so Gina slowly relaxed her mental shields to try to help. Not many people aside from heroes bothered to learn how to create mental shields, and they were hardly foolproof against psychics and magic, but even mundanes could learn how to use them, and lowering them would help Morgan’s examination.

  After a few minutes Morgan nodded firmly, smiling gently at Gina. “I checked your wards before I came inside, and they’re rock solid. I doubt any psychic could get through them without ripping them wide open, and I’m not sensing anything out of the ordinary with you, other than the curse. Have you noticed any sign of it weakening? It’s a slimy piece of work, I have to say. Brilliant, but horrifying.”

  “Not the slightest bit, damn it all. I want to rip that jerk apart, and whoever he had make the curse for him,” Gina hissed, her mind flashing back to one of Blue Impulse’s leering taunts, her hands clenched tightly. She ground her teeth before forcing herself to relax. Reaching to the core of her power, she gently touched it, sensing her magic as carefully as she could. Though the knot had loosened slightly, it was still firmly in place, and there was no chance of it coming undone soon. “I do know he doesn’t have anywhere near the skill to make this himself. It’s too elegant, while he’s a powerful, untrained amateur. I can’t find any loose ends to the spell to unravel it, which means whoever did it knew what they were doing. I can only touch my power enough to check it, anything more and I just knot it up worse. What can I even do?”

  “Unfortunately, that’s about what I expected. I did manage to get in touch with Ivanova via SuperNet, and she told me a little, and none of it good,” Morgan replied, her voice deceptively mild compared to the look in her eyes. Gina’s eyes widened at the name of the woman commonly known as Dracula’s Bride, a superpowered woman who was considered one of the most powerful healers on the planet. Unfortunately, she also lived in Transylvania, which made contacting her a bit difficult. Morgan continued, her voice soft. “She said it sounds like it was derived from a nasty Chinese curse she’d heard of. She only had vague information, but that one is designed to rip out the magic of the victim to give the user a temporary power boost. It can only be removed by the caster, or allowed to run its course so the victim can try to heal the damage. If yours is similar, we’re going to have problems.”

  “At least my magic seems fully intact, so it isn’t the same one. Still… derived from a Chinese curse? If I remember right, Blue Impulse was a distraction for a group that included Ebon Dragon four months back, with the container ship,” Gina said, thinking hard, anger bubbling up again as she asked, her eyes narrowing, “Do you think he has the skill to make this curse?”

  “That was my thought as well, and it seems very likely to me,” Morgan agreed, scowling at the admission. “I wish we had any news on where they were holed up, but no one has seen any signs of them in the past week. We’re trying, but unless they crawl out of their hole, I don’t think we’ll have much luck. We can’t forget that Black Harbinger is out there, either, and confronting him without you on hand would be ugly.”

  “True enough, I suppose. I’ll focus on trying to get better, and keep an ear out for any news I hear. I doubt I’ll get anything, though,” Gina replied, grinning halfheartedly as she added, “Why would anyone tell a hero-obsessed artist about where villains were, anyway?”

  “Of course they wouldn’t… unless they’re a vain new villain looking for a portrait. Turnpike was startled when Ocean Spirit met him instead.” Morgan giggled, shaking her head. “So anyway, you dreamed about Lilith, hmm? What was it about?”

  “Uhh… I don’t exactly remember much,” Gina replied, blushing, and her hesitation caused the other woman to stare at her in surprise.

  “Gina! You didn’t dream about her that way, did you?” Morgan demanded in obvious shock. “I know she’s beautiful, but… you barely know her, and she’s another woman!”

  “So what? You know that I’m bi, and the dream never got that far. The alarm went off first,” Gina protested, blushing more brightly. “But that’s why I wanted you to check my wards. I just… this is really awkward to talk about, okay? I’ve been anxious for a while, I haven’t had any relationships going on, either, so I think my imagination just ran away with me.”

  “I suppose, but even so…” Morgan retorted, shaking her head with a bit of a flush in her cheeks. After a moment she frowned and asked, “Besides, what about Crimson Bull?”

  “What about him?” Gina asked, suddenly confused. She had no idea what the other hero had to do with her dreaming about someone else.

  “It’s pretty obvious that he has a crush on you, so…” Morgan began, her voice trailing off as she saw Gina’s expression. “You knew that, didn’t you?”

  “No, I didn’t realize it, though now that you mention it, it’s glaringly obvious.” Gina murmured, running her fingers through her hair. Looking back at some of their conversations, some of his comments were so obvious, and yet it just made her feel bad, because she didn’t like him. Growling softly, she shook her head. “Damn it, how did I miss it? That’s… really weird, actually.”

  “I thought that you knew,” Morgan replied quietly. She seemed slightly nervous, Gina noted idly, thinking about the information. “He isn’t exactly subtle.”

  “Not in the slightest. To be perfectly honest, he isn’t my type either,” Gina told her friend, swirling the brush in the spirits idly. “From things he’s said, he wishes that his powers had been mild enough that he could have been a football player. He’s big, tends to think with his fists, and is a braggart too. He’s a decent enough guy, but I just can’t see myself getting along with him every day. I’d go nuts inside a month.”

  “Shit, now I feel bad for even telling you.” Morgan sighed, shaking her head. A moment later her friend paused, though, and Gina could see Morgan’s eyes gleaming. “Actually, that’s a thought…”

  “What’s your idea?” Gina asked warily, eyeing Morgan. She had no idea what her friend had in mind, but Morgan tended to have a very odd sense of humor.

  “Oh, I was just reading a report from some other teams yesterday. Did you know that Nightsinger ran into Whispering Darkness on a blind date a few weeks back?” Morgan asked, grinning. “They were using the same matchmaking site. After they took out a new villain together, he asked about what it would take to reform. How about we—”

  “No! I’m not going to have anything to do with a dating site!” Gina interrupted, her eyes going wide in horror. “I don’t care if Nightsinger reformed a villain thro
ugh it, I’m not having anything to do with that!”

  “Fine, fine… then, how about we go out to dinner on Monday to relax a little?” Morgan asked, and she smirked as Gina relaxed. “Just a girl’s night out? Neither of us has a relationship, and since someone finds the idea of a matchmaking site offensive, we’re never going to get any if we don’t go out more.”

  “That would be fine. I’m just not going to leave my romantic life to software,” Gina replied gently, shaking her head. “I’m sure it’ll be fun. I was afraid you’d just give completely crazy options.”

  Morgan rolled her eyes, mock-sighing as she teased Gina. “As if you’re one to talk. After the incident in the laundry in college…”

  “That’s no fair! You encouraged me to throw the dye in their laundry!” Gina protested, cringing at the memory in question. They’d come entirely too close to getting caught after that prank.

  “Yes, but you’re the one who actually did it. It was hilarious watching the guys running around in pink clothing for a while,” Morgan replied, grinning. After a moment her smile faded, though, and she spoke more seriously. “Anyways, I should get back out there. Take care of yourself, Gina… you hear me? Everyone misses you, but especially me.”

  “Thanks, Morgan. It means a lot that you came by as quickly as you did,” Gina replied, blinking back tears as she did so. Glancing downward, she added, “I’d hug you, but I don’t want to get paint on your outfit. Be safe out there.”

  “Thanks, brat,” Morgan teased affectionately, turning to leave, then pausing. “I’ll see you on Monday. Oh, and you might want to wash the paint out of your hair before it gets too dry.”