Chapter One
Bryan and Vicky knew that they would have to search for Apple Muldoon quickly and thoroughly, but service for both of their smartphones had been disrupted by the attack.
“Communication tower must have been shut down at some point,” Bryan growled, stabbing at the buttons angrily.
From the driver's seat, Vicky laughed, guiding her sports car through the narrow streets of Colossal City. The main boulevards were jammed with abandoned cars and halted traffic, but the side streets that she knew as well as the back of her hand were surprisingly free.
“And here I thought you being a billionaire meant that you always got good reception,” she teased, swerving around a large pothole.
As she drove, they both kept an eye out for Apple Muldoon, the woman of the hour. Once reunited with the Psalms of Istarte, she could transform not just her lover Bellaron into a devastating beast that could repel the alien attacks, she could transform the rest of them as well. However, she had been missing since the attack started, and now, while the other heroes of Colossal City battled to keep the villainous angels penned up in the enormous park at the center of the metropolis, they were on a desperate quest to find Apple.
“I can handle this myself you know,” Vicky said, glancing at her husband out of the corner of her eye. “The battle gets by just fine without Vicky Campbell, ace reporter, but maybe it doesn't go so well when the Ghost is missing.”
Bryan laughed shortly. “If you think that I'm letting you wander into a city in a panic, you're crazy,” he retorted.
Vicky let go of the wheel long enough to slug him on the arm. “I don't care if you've got super strength, super speed and the ability to turn invisible,” she said. “You don't let me do things. After all, Mike gets to help people all the time.”
“In all fairness, Mike's just the mayor. He hasn't pissed off half the criminals in the city by exposing their crimes or shoving a microphone in their faces.”
Vicky had to concede that her lover was right, but she still wasn't going to let him put a rein on her activities. Bryan Hillman was a gentle man, and while other men might have had their heads turned by their fortune or their good looks, let alone his super powers, he was on the whole mild and willing to go along with what she said. It was only when there were downed alien ships in the park and a city in chaos that he got more firm, and as character flaws went, she supposed that wasn't a bad one.
“Okay, here we are...”
Archer Speedlight, who was already at the fight, had mentioned to Bryan that he had sent Apple to the Helping Hands shelter. The moment that Vicky and Bryan got out to try the doors, however, it was clear that it was empty and locked down.
“Damn,” Vicky swore. “If she's not here, she could be anywhere.”
“Maybe... maybe not,” Bryan said, picking up a flier on the ground.
It was printed on the back of one of Mike McIntyre's campaign posters from the year before. In bold black letters, it told people that the city was unsafe, and that there was shelter at the edge of town in the university buildings.
“Good old Mike,” Vicky said with a chuckle. “Trust him to find a random place for reminding us that, yup, he's still the mayor.”
“Save it for the interview, dear,” Bryan said, getting back into the car. “We've got to get to the edge of town.”
They met with frustrating road blockages, and in one case, Vicky had to guide them around an enormous truck that was blocking off almost all of the main road, but they were getting closer to the edge of town when they heard a terrifying screech.
“Angels!” Bryan hissed, turning invisible almost immediately, and Vicky stepped on the break.
There was an old man and a little girl in the alley nearby, and above them hovered a burnt wreck of a winged thing. It was hard to imagine that it had ever looked like one of the gorgeous angels that were battling at the park, but it had to be of the same species. However, unlike the inhuman perfection of the angels that were battling, this was a burned thing, it's flesh charred away and its remaining teeth livid white in its face.
It hovered above the old man and the little girl, and it reached down from its hover in the air to swipe at them with a long arm. Despite the thing's pathetic appearance, there was still a ridiculous amount of strength in its limbs, and the little girl who was defending her grandfather only had a kitchen knife that she waved at it, her face contorted with fear.
As Vicky watched, the enormous angel swiped at the little girl's weapon, catching it hard for a moment. She only hung on to it with the barest amount of luck, and then that terrible arm was sweeping back again.
I need to distract the thing. Thinking quickly, Vicky scooped up a rock from the ground beside her and winged it hard at the burnt angel. She had been a pitcher on her college team for three years, and her aim proved true. Her missile hit the thing square between the eyes, and even if she couldn't actually injure it, she knew that she had hurt it from the way that its head snapped up and the way it opened its red mouth to scream.
“Hey, you ugly thing,” she shouted defiantly. “Come pick on someone your own size, huh?'
With another loud angry screech, the angel swept away from the little girl and the old man, tumbling through the air in its hurry to get to her. It was so large and so fast that it swelled to fill up the sky above her, and Vicky barely had the time to get her bottle of pepper spray up in time to empty the contents of the canister into the thing's face.
For a moment, she thought that it would barely have any more effect than the rock did, but the thing screeched again, a terrible sound that was even louder than it had been before. The angel tried to rise into the air, but it seemed confused now, as if it could not tell up from down, and instead it crashed to the ground in front of her, thrashing and flailing.
Vicky started to take a giant step back, but it grabbed her by the ankle. She had a moment to realize with panic how terribly strong it was, and then it had pulled her right down on the ground. She landed hard on her rear, her teeth clicking together hard, and then it was pulling her toward it, and oh god, all she could see were those teeth...
The fearsome roar seemed to come from the very air itself, and the arm that was grabbing Vicky's ankle let go abruptly. She scrambled back, watching with fascination as the arm seemed to crush in on itself before being twisted around with a stomach clenching snap. The angel screamed again, sounding as terrified as Vicky had been, but the thing that was holding it had absolutely no mercy at all.
“Never touch her,” a low and nearly sinister voice hissed, and then the thing was being lifted straight up. Vicky watched, horrified and fascinated, as the thing was hoisted up into the air and then flung with terrible strength straight into the brick wall of a nearby building. The burned mass of the thing hit the wall with a sickening crunch before sliding straight down in a lump, never to move again.
“Bryan?” Vicky called tentatively, and slowly, the outline of her husband became evident. He could mostly control when he was visible or not, but when he was emotional or feeling something very strongly, it could make him blink straight out of sight. Now he was breathing hard, and his eyes were bright with restrained fury and adrenaline.
“That was a damned foolish thing,” he snarled.
Vicky blazed right up to meet him. “I did what needed to be done,” she retorted, “and there are people we need to help.”
She spun on her heel and approached the little girl and the old man. They were frightened, but willing to talk to her, and the little girl told Vicky that they were trying to get across town to where the shelters were. They had been walking for more than an hour.
Vicky bit her lip in consternation. “Okay, that's enough,” she said. “Get in the car. We're all going the same way anyway.”
The little girl translated Vicky's words into Chinese for her grandfather, and Vicky managed to get both of their passengers into the backseat of her car without much fuss while Bryan watched, still angry from the fight.
They
drove to the university in silence, but when they got there, they were met by a scene of chaos. It seemed that most of the city had evacuated to the university buildings, and there was a rough intake section put into place across the gates. Vicky was ready to wade into the mess to try to get answers when she saw a familiar face.
“Dawn! Dawn, over here!”
Dawn looked up, and recognizing Vicky, hurried straight over. The small blonde woman looked as if she had been worn straight down to the core, but the hand that she closed around Vicky's arm was strong and steady.
“Vicky! Vicky, what's going on? We've not had any kind of real communication for more than an hour...”
Vicky shook her head. “You know what we know,” she said grimly. “But right now, we need your help. We're looking for Apple Muldoon. We need her at the park, and we need her there like, yesterday.”
Dawn bit her lip, and Vicky could already tell that it was going to be hopeless, that they would not find the missing woman here.
“She was with us at the shelter,” she said. “She decided to stay and to get as many people on the buses as she could. I've not seen her come in yet.”
“Damn it all,” Vicky muttered. “There's no way at all? There's no chance that she might have gotten past you?”
Dawn shook her head firmly. “Aurora and I were among the first to get here. There is no way that Apple would have gotten here before we did. I've been at the intake desk for hours now, and I've not seen her.”
Vicky nodded, but inside she sagged with dejection. The refugee center was her best bet for finding Apple, and now she wasn't sure where to turn.
She started to thank Dawn, but the smaller woman plucked at her sleeve again. “Vicky, you were at the park. Did you see Archer?”
Vicky started to respond, but there was another small hand, this one pulling at her skirt.
“Did you see my daddy?” asked Aurora, and Vicky's heart twisted like a rag.
Aurora was a small girl, and now, lost and with her hair mussed and her face smudged, she looked even younger. Vicky's own father had been a military man, and she could only imagine how much worse it might be to have a father who was a superhero.
“Your daddy's fine, sweetie,” she said. “He's fighting the bad guys right now, but he's just fine and he's going to come looking for you and your mommy really soon, okay?”
Aurora nodded and went back to where she was helping keep the color-coded files in order, and Dawn looked at Vicky with questioning eyes.
“I didn't lie to her,” Vicky promised. “When I last saw Archer, he was having a blast, shooting down space ships and whooping it up.”
“Sounds like him,” Dawn said with a faint smile. “Thank you. I know that everyone’s loved ones are in danger, but I couldn't stand not knowing.”
Dawn reached out to hug Vicky fiercely, a hug that Vicky returned with surprise. She had never thought that Dawn cared for her all that much, but she supposed that alien attacks made strange bedfellows of them all.
“Hey, Vicky, come over here...”
She looked up, and though Bryan looked no happier, there was a fierce victorious grin on his face.
“I think we've had our first patented Apple Muldoon sighting...”
Chapter Two
The old man and the little girl had been listening when Vicky had mentioned that she was looking for Apple, and after a quick conversation, the little girl had walked up to Bryan.
“There was a lady who helped us,” she started. “She couldn't get us on a bus, but she told us where to go...”
That was all it took, and Vicky and Bryan were back on the road, heading to the Third Ward, where the pair that they had rescued had last seen the woman who helped them.
“It's not likely that it's her,” Bryan said.
Vicky nodded tightly. “I know, but it's all we've got. And if there's a woman who's helping people there, there's a chance that she can help us. You never know.”
“Every lead counts, huh?” Bryan said, and she grinned at him, but there was still a tension to him that she couldn't quite tease out.
They drove in silence, the trip taking a long while because she couldn't get on the main roads or the freeway. Finally, just a few blocks away from their target, they had to abandon the car entirely.
Vicky locked it up with a sense of dread before pocketing her key. “If it’s not here and in perfect condition when I get back, those angels are going to have hell to pay,” she swore.
Bryan grinned at her. “If it gets ruined, I'll just buy you a new one.”
“You wouldn't understand, you're not into cars,” she said, but she smiled, taking his hand as they walked quickly.
The area that they had been directed to was empty, and though they both anxiously scanned the skies for signs of the angels, there was nothing there.
“We should keep the search going on foot,” said Vicky. “There were people here not long ago, maybe they didn't get far.”
They started walking through the side streets, and Vicky got more and more tense as they walked through avenues that should have been bustling with people but were now as still as a grave. Bryan's own stillness didn't help, and though her husband was largely a quiet man, now it was getting on her nerves.
“What?” she said finally. “You're holding out on me, and I can't take it.”
“You put yourself into danger,” he said flatly. “With that angel. You could have been killed.”
“Jesus, are we still on that?” Vicky raked the fingers of both hands through her hair. “I'm sorry, okay? I wasn't thinking.”
“You never think,” Bryan said as they walked into one of the narrow alleys. “You always rush in, and you never think about how bad it could be.”
“Says the superhero,” Vicky responded, a little stung.
“At least I'm strong and fast...”
“And what, I've got nothing?” she shot back. “Listen, I was already chasing mob bosses and ambulances when you were breathing through a tube—”
She cut off abruptly, clapping her hand over her mouth. Bryan's eyes were wide and hurt, and she could have slapped herself for it. Years ago, before the revolutionary technology spearheaded by Dr. Rachel Deering had intervened, Bryan was nearly an invalid, the romantic, reclusive master of the manor who never allowed himself to be photographed. It was a painful and bitter time, and he had always been tender about it.
“Oh god, Bryan, I'm so sorry,” she began, but he cut her off with a quick motion of his hand.
To her astonishment, instead of being furious, there was an amused look on his face. Well, it was amused, and there was a hunger there that made her lick her lips.
“I know what's happening here,” he said finally. “We're both pent up. We can't be where the action is, where we both belong, and we're taking it out on each other. I'm sorry.”
“I...”
“But that still doesn't mean that you don't need a lesson, Miss Campbell,” he said, his voice dropping down to a deep purr, and all it took was his voice dropping down to that register to make her blush.
“A... lesson? Right now?”
“Right now,” he agreed. “Doesn't have to be long, just has to be hard enough that you remember it...”
Vicky laughed even as he closed her wrist in his large hand, tugging her so that she faced the brick wall.
“Fast and hard, hmm, I think I like that, Mr. Hillman,” she said huskily.
She knew that she should be worried about them being seen or about the fact that the battle was raging on. However, if they continued to claw at each other as they had been doing, there could be no good that came of it. She made the conscious decision to give herself and Bryan this. As he pointed out, it wouldn't necessarily take that long.
“You've been reckless, Miss Campbell,” he muttered in her ear. “You've been taking risks that aren't good for you or for me, and you've been putting yourself into danger. Guess how much I like that.”
“Mmm, feels like you like th
at just fine,” she murmured, pressing her hips back against him. She could already feel how hard his cock was through the thin fabric of her skirt, and she rubbed back against him, loving how hard he was and how easily he got turned on for her.
“Wrong,” he said, and with just a hint of that super speed, he pulled her skirt up and her panties down. Now she could feel the cool breeze against her bare buttocks, and when she glanced back to look at Bryan, she could see... nothing.
“You've been ridiculously bad,” he muttered, still right behind her. Arousal rendered him invisible, and the idea that she was pinned, helpless and apparently alone sent another wave of desire over her body. She tried to close her legs, but his feet were between hers. She had to stand there, legs spread and exposed, and she pressed her forehead against the brick wall in front of her, aroused at her own mortification.
“And really, you need to get your ass tanned but good,” he whispered, and he gave her rear a hard spank with his open palm. The sound echoed like a shot through the alleyway, and Vicky gasped, mewling in shock at the bright pain. It was incredible how much he could make each spank sting even while keeping it right within the lines of her pain tolerance, and in a moment, she was wiggling for more, angling her narrow rear so that he could strike more easily.
He obliged, peppering her ass with successively harder blows. Soon her whimpers had turned to yelps that she had to hold behind gritted teeth, and she knew that she was so wet because she could smell it.
“No more,” she gasped, “no more!'
Bryan stopped immediately, still invisible, and instead he fondled her burning flesh gently, making her whimper.
“Learned your lesson?” he asked softly. His breath tickled her ear, and she nodded frantically.
“Yes, oh yes, I have, I swear!” she said, her voice just short of a wail.
She wondered sometimes, if there was something wrong with her, that she could enjoy busting bad guys so much, enjoy being on television and having the city eat up her words and then receive such an illicit thrill from having her husband spank her until she cried. It had troubled her from time to time, and finally Bryan had taken her in his arms and told her quietly and with absolute firmness, that she was the same person no matter what. That she loved it when he was in charge, that she craved having that stinging edge between pleasure and pain, and that only added to the rich tapestry of who she was as a human. It only made him love her more.
Lynxar Series: Boxed Set (Books 14-19) (Superhero Romance - Werewolf Romance) Page 10
