by Wyatt Kane
Tempest thought about it, then nodded. “Yes.” Then her expression hardened. “If anyone should happen to show up, we’ll deal with it.”
Despite her ordeal, Dinah responded to this with a broad smile.
36: Waffles And Information
Tempest flew them all back to the penthouse easily enough. It was still in disarray because of the break-in, yet all three of them shared a certain euphoria as they stepped back inside. Tempest and Ty hadn’t managed to stop Bane for good, but they had successfully rescued Dinah, and they still had their devices. In addition, they’d dealt the villain a serious blow at the same time.
Perhaps it wasn’t the decisive victory they had wanted, but it was a victory none-the-less. So instead of lamenting the state of her home, Dinah stood in the entrance for only a couple of moments before turning to the others.
“Anyone want some waffles?” she asked.
Ty realized he was famished. “Absolutely!” he said. Then he hesitated. “Are you sure you’re up to it?” he asked.
The deerkin smiled her beautiful smile. “I’m fine. And anyway, cooking is one of my skills. It helps me relax.”
“Then I vote for waffles,” Ty said, grinning.
Tempest agreed. “We can sort this mess out later,” she said.
In only a few minutes, the three of them were in the kitchen. Ty and Tempest were seated at the island while Dinah mixed the batter, and Gremlin had appeared to lend a supervisory hand, purring for no reason at all as sat on the floor.
Ty couldn’t help but admire the deerkin as she moved about with her usual unconscious grace. She gathered eggs, milk, and butter from the fridge and flour from the pantry, and made sure the waffle iron was ready to go.
As she worked, she asked questions about how Ty and Tempest had worked their rescue, and each of them took turns telling different parts of the tale. At various points, Dinah looked concerned, surprised, and impressed, and sought clarification regularly.
“So you thought all along that Bane would try to betray you?”
“Yes,” Tempest replied. “We figured he wanted to weaken us first. He’s tried to kill us both before and didn’t succeed. But without our devices, we would have been easy.”
“Ty said he modified the prototype?” Dinah asked.
Tempest grinned. “Yes. Look.” With that, Tempest stood and showed her the device clasped around her ankle.
Dinah looked at Ty with new-found respect. Then her eyes shone with good humor. “Maybe not so handy if you want to make a call,” she said.
Tempest and Ty both laughed. “I’ll reconfigure it so it can go back on your wrist,” Ty said to Tempest. “We only put it there to keep it away from Bane’s view.”
As the first warm scent of cooking waffles filled the kitchen and Ty’s mouth started to water, Dinah also expressed interest in Ty’s shield and blaster.
“Maybe you should make one of your onesies for me as well,” she said. “It would be nice not to feel so defenseless. And do you think I could have a blaster as well?”
“Sure,” said Ty.
After that, Dinah began telling her side of the story as well. At first, she hadn’t known anything was wrong. She was in the den playing with Gremlin, trying to get her to jump up on her lap like she’d done the day before, when all of a sudden the cat had sat bolt upright and started to hiss before taking off out of the room.
Dinah had only enough time to glimpse a number of armed men who barged in before one of them grabbed her from behind. She tried to scream and fight, but they had been too strong. They dragged her away, blindfolded, to Bane’s lair, to be used as bait to capture Ty and Tempest.
“Bane gave my device to a woman who looked like a demon, complete with horns, wings and a tail. If I wasn’t suffering at the time, I would have been impressed. It was one of the best splice jobs I’ve ever seen. Even better than mine.” Dinah flipped the first of the waffles out of the iron and onto a plate and added both butter and syrup. “Who’s first?” she said.
Ty couldn’t take his eyes away from the plate. For him, the waffles looked like pillows of golden deliciousness, and it was ingrained courtesy alone that prevented him from stuffing them all in his mouth right away.
Nor did his appetite go unnoticed. “Somebody get that man a fork!” said Tempest.
Dinah laughed out loud and found the requisite piece of cutlery, while Ty felt slightly embarrassed. Yet the waffle iron made four at a time, so he was able to share. Both he and Tempest dug in as Dinah continued to cook, and even Gremlin jumped up to the top of the island so she could see what all the fuss was about.
Dinah greeted Gremlin with a broad grin and scratched her under her chin. “Who said you could come up here?” she said, making no move at all to shoo the cat away. “Bad kitty. And you ran away and left me to those men, didn’t you? Yes you did.”
Dinah shook her head in mock disappointment, then turned her attention back to her story. “I don’t know what the woman’s skills might be or even if she has any. But she has my device.”
Ty swallowed, wondering how the deerkin managed to pack so much flavor into such a light, delicate waffle. It was even better than the ones he’d had before. “We met her. The demoness. She was able to create some sort of wind vortex somehow. And she can teleport. She’s the one who helped Bane escape.”
Dinah looked surprised. “Really? That’s a serious skill.”
“Yeah,” Ty and Tempest both agreed. They ate in silence for a time, each of them thinking through the implications. For Ty, having Bane out there was bad enough. But this demoness worried him. That she was aligned with Bane was obvious. What she might do with her power remained a mystery.
“Anyway,” Dinah said as she left Gremlin alone for long enough to pour more batter into the waffle iron. “It might interest you to know that Bane isn’t in charge.”
Ty had reasoned as much before, but the confirmation was unexpected. “How do you know?” he asked.
“Information, remember? It’s my skill. Someone contacted Bane through the device. He had a raspy voice, like it was broken somehow. He specifically ordered Bane not to kill you. Bane didn’t seem to like it much, but he agreed. Although he gave himself an out, saying that if it came down to you or him, he would be the one to walk away alive.”
The mood around the kitchen island had suddenly become serious.
“Did you learn his name?” Tempest asked.
“No. But he was pulling the strings.”
Ty frowned, slightly puzzled. “But why? What are they planning?”
Dinah came back to Gremlin as she waited for the waffles to cook. She patted the cat’s head and grew serious.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s about far more than just us. Getting your devices – and mine – it’s just the first part of his plan. I don’t know what this hidden figure is up to, but he was frustrated with Bane’s lack of success. He said, ‘It’s like dominoes. I’ve spent months setting them up. All I need you to do is topple the first one. And you can’t even seem to manage that!’”
The deerkin shrugged. “He was talking to Bane as if he was a supreme disappointment. Which I rather enjoyed hearing, but it’s still a concern.”
She was right. It was enough to make Ty pause in his eating as he wondered about the hidden man in charge. Who was this mastermind, this puppet master pulling Bane’s strings? What was he planning? And why were the devices so important to him?
They were all important questions, but none of them had any answers.
“Do you think you can look into this?” Tempest asked. “You know, find out what you can? I have a feeling it’s going to be important.”
Dinah just grinned. “Of course. It’s what I’m here for.” Then she flicked a sly glance Ty’s way. “But not just yet. The last few hours haven’t been fun. I want to relax for a while, and remind myself of some of the good things about life. And I think I know just how to do it.”
The look in her eye was unmista
kable, and both Ty and Tempest saw it. Ty was amazed at the resilience of the deerkin. He thought that if he’d been kidnapped by someone like Bane, he might not have responded so well.
Tempest’s response was more direct. “I told you there would be other opportunities,” she said, snickering into her waffle.
<<<>>>
Ty lay happily tangled in Tempest’s blankets. The stunning blonde was on one side of him and Dinah was on the other, and all three were enjoying a moment of blissful relaxation after a thoroughly satisfying afternoon romp.
Yet even in his dreamy, languid state, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen. They had defeated Bane for the moment, but he was a problem that was sure to return. And it wasn’t just him they had to worry about any more. There was also the demon woman and the mysterious voice on the other end of the hologram.
What were they up to? In Ty’s mind, whatever it was couldn’t be good. So how would he, Dinah and Tempest, stop them?
Then he wondered if it needed to be just the three of them by themselves. Tempest had mentioned before that there were others who wore a device on their wrists, in other cities around the world. Could they ask these others for help? And if they did, what would that mean for the dynamic that he, Tempest and Dinah had between them?
Tempest shifted her naked body against him in a dreamy, contented way, and Ty absently stroked the smooth skin on her back. It was too complex a problem for him to solve just then, as was the ongoing issues of his apartment and his job at the Concubine Club.
All he knew at that moment was that there was a lot still to do. Dinah was right. She needed to be able to defend herself just as Ty could. But there was also the need to ensure the penthouse itself was protected from attack.
Bane knew where they lived. Ty didn’t want Tempest and Dinah to have to find other accommodation if he could help it. So that meant he had to figure out some sort of security setup.
Nor was that the limit of what he wanted to do. He still remembered the dream he’d had, where he was flying with a squadron of superpowered heroes arching out left and right. He remembered what it felt like to be part of a global network of people protecting the entire world from danger.
Perhaps he would never be able to realize such a dream. It seemed so far away, and there was so much he had to do to achieve it even if they managed to defeat Bane and his hidden master along the way.
But there was nothing stopping him from trying.
He was still thinking of that dream, of the steps he could take to make it real, when the alarm on his phone started to buzz. All three of them flinched at the sound.
“What is that?” Dinah asked.
Ty let out a groan. He knew what it was. Reality had come back to bite him.
“I’ve got to get ready for work,” he said.
Author’s Note
First, I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU! for reading the first in my Enhancer series.
I really hope you enjoyed following along with Ty’s grand adventure with Tempest and Dinah and the Architect’s device. I have big plans for them coming up in the rest of the series, including a few surprises.
What can you expect from book two? SPOILER ALERT! More superpowered bad guys, the hidden mastermind starting to flex his muscle and advance his nefarious plans, more hot harem action, more battles, and a few twists that will blow your socks clean off!
You can also expect to see Ty inventing cool new tech to help in their efforts, Tempest kicking serious ass, and Dinah doing some cool things to gather essential information - as well as cooking up sumptuous feasts and even more waffles (because I know some of you guys from Reddit like that)!
I also have a few plans for Gremlin that might appeal, but I’m not talking about that just yet!
Anyway, enough of all that. If you enjoyed my book (and I really hope you did), it really, really helps if you write a review on Amazon. Go on, I know you want to. Head back to where you got this book and let others know what you thought. And remember, a two word review (“Loved it!”) is as useful as a full-on, in-depth analysis.
Other than that, if you have any questions or spotted any typos or just want to say “Hi!” drop me a line at:
[email protected]
Or if you just want to be kept up to date with my latest releases (book two should be out in July), sign up to my newsletter here:
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Until next time,
Wyatt.
