Internally, Gina began to pray that Lilith had lost patience with her. She hoped that the beautiful woman would want nothing to do with Gina, after the suspicion she’d been under.
Wednesday, December 18th, 2030
Lilith’s Home, San Francisco
Lilith looked at her phone in suspicion as it rang, not entirely trusting it. If you didn’t count government agencies, SuperNet, the phone companies, or building management, there were only four people who had her phone number, which meant that this was either a cold call for some useless product or scam, or that it was likely her CEO, Calvin Warren. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to Calvin, but she paused in surprise when she picked up the phone, seeing Gina’s name on the caller ID. That was a surprise, and Lilith found her emotions flip-flopping.
Hope and elation warred with dread, and for an instant Lilith found herself debating whether or not to answer the call. She blinked as she realized that in the moment she was debating, she’d already swiped her finger across the button to answer, and she put it to her ear, warmth filling her voice as she spoke. “Hello, this is Lilith!”
“Hi, Lilith! It’s Gina, and I wanted to talk,” the other woman replied cheerfully, setting off warning bells in Lilith’s mind. “How’re you doing?”
Based on what Lilith knew of Gina’s personality, and the strain with which their last phone call had ended, there was no way Gina would be so happy the moment Lilith answered the phone. Gina was the type to be hesitant and apologetic, not to simply pretend that all of their difficulties didn’t exist. Something was up, and Lilith couldn’t help but wonder what it was. Still, she could play along and try to figure it out.
“I’m doing pretty well, considering everything that’s been happening. How’re you?” Lilith asked, listening closely. There was an odd echo in the background, and a soft, unfamiliar male voice was just barely audible.
“Oh, I’m doing great! Anyway, I was in town and wondered if you wanted to meet me for an early dinner? I’ve been thinking things over, and I don’t think the power test is necessary. I just want to start meeting with you again.” Gina spoke brightly, but there was something about her tone that made Lilith feel there was something wrong. Based on her suspicion, she decided to test Gina.
“I’d love to meet you, Gina! That’s an incredible relief,” Lilith replied with enthusiasm, careful not to let her suspicion show in her voice. “Is Rachel going to be meeting us too?”
The hesitation from the other end was notable, and the same voice was in the background again. Gina’s voice seemed mostly natural as she replied in a hesitant voice. “No, no… she had to work today and we haven’t discussed this yet. Still, I really want to meet you, and I’m in Hayward. Mind meeting me at that buffet we liked?”
“Sure, I’ll head for the subway as soon as I’m ready. I’ll see you in about an hour, I think?” Lilith told the other woman, heading for her bedroom.
She wasn’t certain what had happened, but something was obviously wrong with Gina. There was no way she’d meet Lilith again without Rachel, not with no warning like this, so Lilith wanted clothing she could move more easily in. She was probably walking into a trap, and she didn’t want to be too constrained by her clothing. Lilith didn’t know why Gina was going along with the potential ambush, but if she were fully willing, she wouldn’t have left such an obvious gap in her story.
“That sounds wonderful! I’ll see you then, Lilith,” Gina replied, hanging up quickly enough that Lilith didn’t have time to respond.
“Damn it, what’s going on?” Lilith swore, shaking her head in frustration. She debated for a moment, then dialed Rachel’s number from memory. The phone rang for a minute, and she hissed as it went to voicemail. After the beep, Lilith spoke quickly. “Rachel, this is Lilith. I just got a call from Gina, asking me to meet her in Hayward, and I’m pretty sure she’s acting under duress. I’m going out to meet her, since I’m afraid she’s in trouble. Call me as soon as you can.”
Ending the call, Lilith changed quickly and grabbed her purse as she headed for the door. Her boredom and melancholy were forgotten, and she could feel some new emotion growing inside her, one she couldn’t place.
Gina was shaking inside as she hung up, looking at Blue Impulse and smiling at him as she spoke, her voice calm and happy. “She’s on her way, Master. She said she’d be about an hour, and that she was taking the subway.”
“Excellent job, Warden. I’ll have to reward you for that later, but in the meantime I need to get a hold of my men again. We don’t want them out of position, now do we?” Blue Impulse replied, grinning as he gave her a quick kiss. “Take the battery out of your phone again, then clean up so that you look as good as possible for her. No leaving the warehouse, though. I don’t want anyone realizing what’s happened to you. Not yet.”
“Yes, Master,” Gina replied softly, bowing her head. She waited until he’d left to let herself start crying, and her voice was soft as she spoke again in anguish. “I’m so sorry, Lilith… I wish I’d trusted you. If I had… maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
Chapter 22
Wednesday, December 18th, 2030
Hayward
When Lilith got off the train in Hayward, she checked her phone in concern, chewing her lip. Rachel still hadn’t called her back, and Lilith debated calling her again, but abandoned the idea. She definitely didn’t want to call the team’s hotline now, so she simply shook her head, hoping this wasn’t a trap by Ocean Shield, though she couldn’t imagine why they’d go through all this trouble. They knew where she lived, after all.
The trip along the sidewalk was fairly quiet, though Lilith was still getting quite a bit of attention from the people who were out. The two men following her after a full five minutes caught her attention, though, and Lilith suppressed a frown. There were dozens of people watching her, though, some of them even less savory than the two big men, who looked like they were probably gang members. Eventually she decided just to pretend that she hadn’t seen the two, continuing toward the restaurant.
Lilith left behind most of the other pedestrians after another few minutes, giving the men the best chance they’d have to ambush her, since she was getting close to the buffet where she was supposed to be meeting Gina. Spotting an alley ahead, Lilith pulled out her phone, and pretended to be about to call someone.
The man who lunged out of the alley to grab her wasn’t a surprise, as Lilith had been all but inviting the attack at that point, and as she was pulled into the alley she could see a white panel van behind him. The surprise was the second man with the stun gun, who was just fast enough to shove the tip into her side as he pulled the trigger.
As the electricity blasted through her body, it made Lilith feel strange. For an instant she felt a tingle throughout her body, almost like when a limb fell asleep, and then her body shrugged off the charge without any lasting effect. Lilith made a mental note to thank Amber for that particular modification to her body if she ever met her creator. The other two men were closing on her, and with the first man’s hands around her shoulders Lilith decided she’d had quite enough of this.
She started by bringing her leg up between the legs of the man with the stun gun with all the force she could muster, ignoring the cracking sensation that accompanied it. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head, and she turned her attention to the others.
Daren rushed up toward the alley alongside Henry, expecting Mike and Lorren to have already disabled the hot brunette that they’d been hired to pick up. The two of them had been following the woman since she’d left the subway station, and there’d been no sign of her spotting them as she wandered along the street. A part of him felt slightly annoyed that they were going to hand the woman over to someone else, but that was how it’d have to be. Daren wasn’t suicidal.
Turning the corner, Daren froze in shock as he saw Lorren on the ground, the stun gun inches from his hand. The woman who Daren had thought was blissfully unaware had just hit Mike with a blo
w to the chin that lifted the man a good three inches into the air with the sound of cracking bone.
Before Daren could decide what to do, Henry lunged forward, a knife coming out as he growled furiously. “You damned—”
The woman vanished in a blur, and Daren found himself unable to even follow what happened. An instant later Henry’s legs flew to the left while his upper body went flying to the right, and the sickening sound of his head hitting the alley wall echoed between the walls. The woman turned her gaze to Daren, and he froze in place, unable to convince himself to run. Her brilliant emerald eyes were practically glowing with anger, and Daren swallowed hard. Those were the eyes of a predator, not some helpless woman.
“Well, this is unpleasant. Were you hired to kidnap me?” the woman asked, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe off her hands, staring at him the entire time. Daren swallowed hard, only considering lying to her for an instant, then discarding it. He had to wonder if this was how some of the people he’d mugged had felt when he was threatening them, but doubted it.
“Y-yes,” Daren replied, and her smile nearly made him piss himself.
“Good. This is your vehicle, I assume?” the woman asked, gesturing at the van. When he nodded, her smile widened even more and panic shot through him as she continued. “Put your friends in the van, then take me to wherever you were supposed to take me.”
“B-but…” Daren began to protest, and shivered as she glared at him again, not daring to stop either. “But he’ll kill me if I do that!”
“He might, whoever ‘he’ is. On the other hand, he isn’t here. If you’d prefer it, I can start breaking bones until I get the location out of you and go there myself,” the woman replied in a blizzard-cold voice. “Choose which you’d prefer, now. My patience has just about run out.”
Looking the woman in the eyes, Daren swallowed hard and nodded wordlessly, leaning down to pick up Henry and carry him toward the van.
“A wise choice,” the woman spoke behind him, her voice sending chills down his spine, and Daren couldn’t help but wonder how he could still find her attractive.
Daren kept going, but replied in an unsteady voice. “Y-yes ma’am.”
Chapter 23
Wednesday, December 18th, 2030
Warehouse, Hayward
Stepping out of the van, Lilith looked over the warehouse. She wasn’t worried that the man inside the van would be going anywhere without her permission, partially because she’d taken the keys with her. He was also far too afraid of her to dare leave, she knew, and that was satisfying, considering how she felt. Lilith’s eyes narrowed as she looked over the unassuming building carefully, the strange heat in her veins growing still hotter. It had taken a fair amount of effort for her to keep from hitting the thugs with her full strength earlier, and a part of her had wanted nothing more than to beat them all to within an inch of their lives. Especially after what she’d dragged out of Daren.
Daren hadn’t been happy, but he’d told her about a job from the previous day. He’d been hired along with the others to kidnap a woman who perfectly matched Gina’s description. They’d managed it easily, and after removing most of her things, they’d hidden her car in a busy parking lot while part of their group had brought the woman here for their employer. He’d hesitated before admitting that the man who’d hired them was Blue Impulse, and Lilith’s mood had grown still worse at the news.
It didn’t take a genius for her to put things together. Somehow Blue Impulse had coerced Gina into luring Lilith out, but how he’d managed it was another question. Even so, it didn’t really matter. For the moment, Lilith intended to beat the villain into a pulp if he’d done anything to her friend.
Approaching the door, Lilith knocked in the particular pattern that Daren had demonstrated, then began to wait. She felt a thin smile flicker across her face as she did so, though she didn’t feel happy at all.
Gina was silently thanking any gods watching over her for small favors. Blue Impulse had been too set on hurting Lilith first to do anything too nasty yet, though his threats were bad enough for the time being. He’d brought her a bucket of warm, soapy water and a sponge and had watched her clean herself up, then he’d chained her hands to the top of one of the pillars, and gone to a mattress in the corner to take a nap. Gina hated him, and hated that Lilith was actually walking into the trap he’d set. She’d hoped that Lilith would sense that something was wrong, especially with the comment about Rachel, but it seemed that she hadn’t noticed.
Another possibility, one which she didn’t dare hope would occur, was that Lilith had contacted the team and arranged a potential rescue instead. She had no way of knowing what had happened since then, though, and she was privately happy that Blue Impulse’s instructions for her had been so badly worded. He hadn’t made her make everything believable, yet, which was a relief. It probably was only temporary, due to how incredibly tired he’d been, but she could hope that it’d persist.
One of her biggest worries was the magical connection that she could feel linking her to the villain. It wasn’t terribly strong, but she could feel it slowly growing more stable, as Blue Impulse’s magic flowed through her. It was disturbing, but she felt that it might, might be able to be broken.
The sudden knock at the door made Gina flinch. The pattern to it was odd, but firm, and she’d desperately hoped it wouldn’t come. If it were her friends, they wouldn’t have knocked, she knew, so she closed her eyes in despair as Blue Impulse laughed. “Hah! Here we go, then. Give our new guest a nice, wide smile, Warden, and make her feel welcome. I want you to watch every moment without interfering with my fun.”
Gina’s eyes opened obediently, and she mentally spat at him as she answered. “Yes, Master.”
She watched the villain approach the door, her mood sinking as she realized he’d made certain that his suit was immaculate. That someone so horrible would go to such pains irritated her to no end, and she hoped someone would kill him soon. Still, that didn’t seem likely to happen.
Arrogant as always, Blue Impulse started speaking before he even had the door entirely open. “So, where’s my new pri—”
Blue Impulse suddenly staggered backward in response to the punch to his solar plexus, gasping breathlessly as Gina looked on in shock. Lilith stepped into the room calmly, but her eyes were blazing brightly as she glanced around the room. The woman was wearing a simple gray sweater and blue jeans that were easy to move in, and as her eyes met Gina’s own, her anger seemed to grow stronger. Gina, on the other hand, wanted to hide in shame.
“A prize, am I? Well, I suppose you deserve a reward. I have it on good authority that spellcasters need two things to use magic.” Lilith’s voice seemed to contain almost unbridled anger for the first time since Gina had met her. The woman’s leg snapped out into Blue Impulse’s stomach far more quickly than any mundane human could manage, and Lilith continued, her voice savage as she followed the staggering villain. “You need sight, and concentration. I personally don’t believe that you deserve either.”
When Lilith began to move, Gina almost went numb with shock, unable to look away. Not that she wanted to, as Lilith betrayed a speed that she should never have possessed. Lilith might have been slower than Black Comet by an enormous margin, but she was far faster than most superhumans, including Gina or Rachel. Blooming Orchid was one of the faster members of Ocean Shield, with an all-around boost to her body that allowed extreme speed and strength, and she was the closest one to the abilities Lilith was showing. Orchid would have a distinct edge over Lilith in the end, but it was far narrower than it should have been.
Blue Impulse, on the other hand, was about as fast as Gina was, and despite every effort he was making to fall back and use his magic, he couldn’t evade Lilith. She was raining blows down onto Gina’s captor, and for the first time in hours, Gina felt hopeful as she began praying that Lilith would win.
Something blazing hot was surging through Lilith’s veins, and the desire to hurt someone was
so intense that it was almost impossible for Lilith to hold herself back. Fortunately, she didn’t have to, since Blue Impulse was right there. While his original, mocking words had been obnoxious, she hadn’t felt the boiling sensation then, not fully. She’d been planning to hurt him and find out what he’d done to Gina, so she’d held back with her initial punch and stepped into the room. That was when she’d seen Gina, and everything had changed.
Their eyes had met only for a moment, and despite the forced smile on Gina’s face, the despair in her eyes had been evident. Her friend’s skin had changed colors subtly in most places and more visibly in others, taking on a strange blue hue. Gina was also completely naked, with her hands chained above her head to a rune-covered wooden pillar. Lilith didn’t know what the circle etched into the floor was for, but with the metal frame, almost a cage, and an immaterial blue rope of energy extending from Gina’s forehead to the circlet around Blue Impulse’s head, she knew he was controlling her, and had done something horrible to Gina.
At that moment, something new bubbled up in Lilith’s mind, boiling through her in a fiery torrent. She’d never felt anger before. She’d never had more than annoyances, irritations… but now pure, undiluted rage at Blue Impulse flooded through Lilith.
With the anger fueling her, Lilith began to hurt Blue Impulse, but even in the midst of that raging fire, she never allowed herself to lose her focus and sense of reason. He was so incredibly slow when compared to her, so fragile and weak compared to most heroes. If she wasn’t careful, he’d die under her assault, and if he died… well, he’d stop hurting. She wasn’t going to give the bastard that relief, not that easily.
“Warden, hel—” Blue Impulse began to call out, but Lilith didn’t allow him to finish. A punch in the larynx was a simple but effective expedient, even if she almost used too much force. That would have been unfortunate, but his throat survived, so she broke one of his ribs.
Born a Queen (Lilith's Shadow Book 1) Page 19
