Enhancer 3

by Wyatt Kane

  Ty snorted. When Lilith first appeared to him and Dinah in the deerkin’s bedroom, it had been the middle of the night. Both Ty and Dinah had been naked in the sheets, which had resulted in an awkward moment or two during the confrontation.

  Thinking about the episode brought a smile to Ty’s lips as he followed the deerkin’s suggestion. But Dinah’s thoughts went in a different direction.

  “Speaking of which, how about you get your police baton? Just in case?”

  It was a good thought. The police baton delivered an electric jolt powerful enough to stop a charging bull, and it was their only effective defense against Lilith’s power.

  As soon as he was dressed, he left to find the weapon.

  <<<>>>

  When the police baton wasn’t extended, it looked like no more than a cylinder of cool steel just a few inches long. He found it where he’d left it in Dinah’s bedroom and tucked it away in his pocket. He didn’t expect to need it, but couldn’t see any harm in having it on hand just in case.

  By the time he approached Tempest and Dinah at the mansion entrance, Lilith had arrived.

  She was standing just outside the sliding glass door, and she looked even more stunning in person than she did in holographic form. The hologram projected by Dinah’s device couldn’t adequately convey the luminous quality of her beauty. To Ty, only Tempest and Dinah were able to match her, and the three of them in one place was enough to leave him gaping.

  It was like being in a candy store where everything looked equally delicious. Yet Dinah and Tempest were both familiar to him, and Lilith less so. His eyes settled on her on the other side of the glass.

  Slightly taller than Tempest, Lilith was more voluptuous as well. The alterations that had given her demonic wings and other features had also tinted her skin slightly pink to match the darker shade of her hair. She wore a one-piece, leather costume that barely covered her torso, sheer leggings, and blood-red gloves that extended past her elbows.

  There was a heart-shaped window over her perfectly flat belly, and her entire ensemble did nothing to hide the exquisite perfection of her shape.

  Despite the unquestionable appeal of everything else, it was her face that drew Ty’s attention the most. Carved by the finest of sculptors, she was a picture of green-eyed innocence. Yet the determination and courage Ty had seen before remained in her expression as well. It gave her substance, he thought. Without it, she may have been beautiful, but perhaps almost too doll-like.

  “Have you got the remote?” Dinah asked, her expression mixing appraisal with her usual smile. Tempest’s reaction to Lilith’s appearance was more circumspect, and Gremlin had deigned to rejoin them. The cat was winding herself around Dinah’s hooved feet and looked at Lilith with overt suspicion.

  Ty didn’t know if the deerkin was addressing him or Tempest, but he dug into his pocket and clicked off the mansion’s shield, acutely aware of the irony. He had created the shield at least in part to keep Lilith out.

  As soon as the blue nimbus vanished, Dinah stepped forward and the door slid open.

  “Lilith,” Dinah said with the smile of a perfect hostess. “You look magnificent. Please, come in. Tell me, have you been formally introduced to everyone? This is Tempest, and you know Ty of course, and my name is Dinah. And what is that you brought with you?”

  As Dinah spoke, Ty realized he’d been so distracted by Lilith’s beauty that he had completely failed to notice until then that she was carrying a decent-sized, woven basket.

  “Oh,” the succubus said. She held her basket awkwardly, as if intending to offer it over. Then she hesitated, looking briefly at Ty before focusing on Tempest. “I brought an assortment of fresh berries and fruit. You know, the type of thing that can be hard to come by in town. Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for everything I did. And I realize I didn’t thank you properly for helping me and my father. So, thank you. It means everything to me that my father is safe.”

  She apologized mostly to Tempest, but included both Dinah and Ty in her thanks. It looked as if she wanted to say more, but she hesitated and awkwardly shrugged her shoulders. She held the basket out to Dinah.

  Tempest didn’t say anything, but her body language softened a little, and Ty just grinned. “You are very welcome,” Dinah said, accepting Lilith’s offering. “And thank you. Come on. Let’s take this to the kitchen and see what we can do with it.”

  The deerkin spun on her hooves, turning her words into action, her graceful movement leaving gremlin more exposed than the cat wanted to be. Realizing that Dinah had gone, the black furball stared at Lilith for a moment, then pinned back her ears and hissed once as if to show her displeasure. Then she sauntered casually away with her tail in the air, acting for all the world as if nothing had happened.

  “Oh,” Lilith said again, but Ty laughed.

  “Don’t worry about her,” he said. “Gremlin has a mind of her own and doesn’t generally like people much. Well, except for Dinah.”

  Lilith managed a smile, and just like that, much of the tension faded, although Tempest still didn’t look entirely happy. The three of them followed the deerkin to the kitchen.

  <<<>>>

  As Dinah took the contents out of the basket and placed them on the bench as if considering her options. Ty hesitated. “Would you like a hand?” he asked, aware that Lilith appeared to be on the verge of saying the same thing.

  But Dinah waved them both off. “No,” she said. “Sit down. This is my thing, remember?”

  They did so, and Ty couldn’t hide his interest in what Lilith had brought. In a city the size of New Lincoln, it was possible to purchase literally anything, at a price. But in Ty’s living memory, apricots, peaches, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries had always been luxury items. Sure, most of the markets sold them, but they were seldom fresh, and were typically priced way outside Ty’s normal budget.

  These ones were fresh. So fresh they might have been picked within the hour. Yet they were neatly wrapped, the berries in square, see-through plastic packages with the larger fruits packed singly in soft sleeves to prevent bruises.

  Ty couldn’t help himself. “Where did you get these?” he asked.

  Lilith had taken the stool next to him. She smiled in obvious delight at the appreciation. “I didn’t always live in the city. When I was young, before my birth father died, we lived in a small town surrounded by farms.” As she spoke, her expression became wistful for an earlier time. “It’s been years since I’ve been able to go back. But now, it’s easy. I can go anywhere. I just need to know where, and I can be there in an instant.”

  Ty glanced at the device on the demon woman’s wrist. Not for the first time, he wondered if it might be possible for him to duplicate Lilith’s skill. He didn’t enjoy the experience of being teleported, but he could certainly see the appeal.

  Not even Tempest’s speed could compete with Lilith’s ability to simply be wherever she wanted to go.

  Dinah leaned over the fruit, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. “Mmmmm,” she said. “You can smell the freshness. Delicious. Who wants to try some fruit and berry cupcakes?” she asked.

  Ty didn’t even hesitate. “Me,” he said. He hadn’t ever eaten so well before the deerkin had come into his life. But Lilith looked a little uncertain, so Ty encouraged her. “You’ll love them. One of Dinah’s skills is ‘culinary intuition’.”

  “Well, okay then,” the demon woman said. “Yes, please.”

  Even Tempest, who had seated herself on Ty’s other side, seemed enthusiastic about the idea, although her enthusiasm competed with a lingering apprehension over Lilith’s presence.

  “Great!” Dinah said. Immediately, the deerkin started dancing with her usual grace around the kitchen, turning on the oven so it would heat up, then conjuring mixing bowls, flour, eggs, sugar, and an assortment of other ingredients and tools she would need. “And while I’m busy with this, maybe you can tell us how your stepfather is doing?”

  The d
emon woman seemed to relax a little at the question. “He’s fine. A little dehydrated, and unsettled by the whole experience. But mostly he’s doing okay.” She offered a shrug. “If he’d remained captive any longer, then perhaps things would have been different, but I think he’s going to be fine.”

  It was another reminder to Ty that this superhero lifestyle came with serious consequences. Dinah had already added the core ingredients to her mixing bowl, but at Lilith’s words, she paused to study the demon woman closely.

  “Where is he now?”

  Lilith lowered her eyes and bit her lip. “Somewhere safe,” she said. “I’m taking care of him.”

  Dinah nodded. “But you’re worried, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Lilith admitted. “I’m worried it might all happen again. The Master found him before. What if he does so again? If I’m there, I can help him. Take him somewhere else, you know? But I can’t spend every waking hour trying to protect him. And even then, I worry that transporting him like I do will hurt him somehow.” She shrugged again. In some way Ty didn’t understand, the gesture seemed to emphasize Lilith’s essential innocence. “He’s very frail,” she said.

  Dinah glanced quickly at Tempest and Ty as if seeking permission to spill their secrets. Then, permission silently granted, she said, “The Master wants to control the devices we wear. He has gone after me and Ty, and Bain murdered a dear friend of ours for his. As long as you wear yours, the Master and Bain are a threat to you.”

  The deerkin might have intended to say more, but what she’d said didn’t quite match Ty’s understanding. “Not just the devices,” he added. “He’s after those who can use them as well. Lilith would still be a target even if she gave up her device. The Master knows what she can do.”

  Dinah nodded. “Which means your father is at risk as well. The Master already knows he can use him to manipulate you.”

  An echo of fear passed over Lilith’s face, and she became glum. “I know. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

  Surprisingly, Dinah broke into a broad grin. “Fortunately, we can help.”

  10: Unified Field Control

  The demon woman looked at the deerkin with a mixture of hope and confusion in her eyes.

  “My main skill is information control,” Dinah said. “Many of those who wear devices have family members who would be at risk because of it. It’s part of my job to hide them. To remove their digital footprint as much as possible.” Dinah’s grin grew broader. “If you like, I can do the same for you and your father.”

  “You would do that for me?”

  “Of course,” Dinah said.

  It was then that Tempest spoke up. “It’s what we do,” the blonde superhero said. “We help people.” She smiled as well, but there was a bitterness to it that Ty didn’t understand. “It also makes sense from a tactical perspective. We don’t want to give the Master any chance to control you again.”

  Lilith suppressed an obvious shudder. “Neither do I,” she said.

  “Done, then.” Dinah said. “If you give me a list of the people you want hidden, I’ll do what I can. Banking records, leasing agreements, utilities bills, anything associated with your father and whoever else you choose will be hidden so that no one can find them. Even surveillance cameras and drones—your father will be able to walk through the streets and any footage captured of him will also be hidden. From a digital perspective, it will be as if he doesn’t exist.”

  The demon woman looked positively astonished. “You can really do all that?”

  Dinah nodded. She seemed very pleased with Lilith’s response.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Ty added. “Dinah’s skill is amazing.”

  Dinah beamed at him, but for some reason, Tempest glowered.

  As she’d been speaking, the deerkin had been simultaneously mixing the batter for the cupcakes. Once she was happy with the consistency of it, she separated it out into five separate bowls, one for each type of fruit, then took a moment to throw a handful of the blackberries into a small blender and blitz them. Then she returned to her narrative.

  “But that doesn’t mean he is invisible in the real world,” the deerkin warned. “There’s nothing I can do if one of Bain’s men should spot him by chance. I can monitor him from a distance, and set up an alert against that sort of thing, but that’s about it.”

  Lilith nodded. “I understand. Again, thank you.” She looked at Dinah with an appraising expression, and suddenly Ty understood Tempest’s glower. There was more going on than just the surface conversation. As Dinah had been speaking, she’d also been glancing at the demon woman more often than not, and sprinkling her expression with a range of subtle smiles, raised eyebrows, and interested looks.

  Without using words, was Dinah actually flirting with Lilith?

  Ty didn’t know what he thought about that. He understood the attraction. A blind man with a heart of stone and eighty years of confirmed celibacy would be attracted to Lilith. Yet when last the two met, Dinah had been full of suspicion and anger. It was, after all, Dinah’s original device that Lilith still wore.

  But none of that suspicion appeared to remain, at least on Dinah’s part.

  Then Ty started to wonder where that flirting might lead, and how it all worked. He had been a welcome addition to Tempest and Dinah’s existing relationship. Were others to be welcomed in just as easily? Or was this flirtation no more than a game?

  Either way, one glance at Tempest’s expression told Ty that she wasn’t happy about it.

  “Speaking of devices,” the blonde woman said with a studiously neutral expression, “what do you intend to do with yours?”

  It was enough to halt the flirting, at least for the moment. Dinah dipped her finger into the batter to taste, and Lilith’s beautiful face creased into a frown.

  The demon woman looked away. “I don’t know,” she said. “Part of me wants to just disappear. Move to another city—it would be easy, now—and start over. But even then, would I be completely safe from the Master and Bain?” She shrugged. “Another part of me wants to hurt them somehow. But I’m not a fighter. Never have been.” She glanced at Tempest, and gave a self-deprecating smile. “Well, unless I’m forced to be.”

  Dinah blitzed small quantities of each fruit and added them to each of the batter bowls. “You could help us against him,” she said casually. “Or, we could help you. Either way.”

  Ty was watching Lilith closely. He remembered when Tempest had made a similar suggestion to him. The range of feelings he’d gone through when he realized she was inviting him to join their superhero team was like riding a rollercoaster. He hadn’t known how to react, and at first had thought himself unworthy.

  He watched Lilith go through a similar range of emotions. Hope fought with fear and confusion on her innocent face. But it was the uncertainty that won, at least for the moment.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I’m asking for your help.”

  Lilith stared, her green eyes wide with disbelief. The demon woman hesitated, then shook her head. Yet it didn’t seem to be a denial, exactly. Just an indication that she didn’t have an answer.

  Abruptly, Tempest asked a question. “What happened to that guard?” she asked. “The one from where you were being held?”

  Ty was surprised. He and Lilith had shut the man in the demon woman’s cell before they left. He’d told Tempest and Dinah as much after the battle, and then promptly forgot about him.

  Lilith’s beautiful face hardened. “I went back and asked him some questions,” she said. “But he didn’t know anything. So I dropped him off the side of a building.” The way she said it was almost a dare, defying any of them to judge her.

  Ty wasn’t a fan of needless killing, yet the body count he’d racked up over the past few days would have made a mass murderer blush. He wasn’t going to judge Lilith for her actions. And anyway, in his mind, her captors deserved everything they got.

  But Dinah
looked a little shocked. “Is he dead?” the deerkin asked.

  Lilith shook her head, relenting. “Not that I know of. But he won’t be able to bother me or anyone else for a while.”

  “So, you’ve already started to look for the Master yourself?” Tempest asked. For the first time during the conversation, Ty sensed a hint of approval from her.

  Lilith nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

  Dinah was still working on the cupcakes. She ladled generous dollops of the different batters into a muffin pan, then popped the pan into the oven. “Won’t be long now,” she said. She took another bowl and emptied part of a stick of softened butter into it, sieved in powdered sugar, and added a couple of drops of something that smelled like flowers. She whisked it all together with a thick plastic spoon.

  Out of a combination of curiosity and a desire to change the topic of conversation, Ty asked Lilith a question. “What are your skills? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  Lilith looked at him. “Skills?”

  “Your powers. The device tells you. They’re listed in the ‘Unique Skill’ section.”

  “Oh. I only have the one. Do you have more than that?”

  Her answer surprised him. “Just the one? No, I only have one as well. I just thought with your teleportation, flight, and the earthquake thing….” It was his turn to shrug.

  Lilith shook her head. “No. Just something called ‘unified field control’.”

  “Unified field control?” Ty repeated, wondering what it could mean. “At what level?” he asked.

  “Level?”

  “The number next to the skill.”

  “Oh. Two.” Lilith said.

  If Ty had been surprised before, now he was astonished. It was almost beyond comprehension. A single skill that gave the demon woman all her powers? And at such strength?

  What was this ‘unified field control’? Could it mean Lilith had power over the field that bound the whole universe together?

  The implications were staggering. If it was what Ty thought, and Lilith could punch a hole through reality at level two, what would she be able to do at a higher level?