by Jamie Zakian
“Alexie,” Lucius said in a whisper. He flung his cloak over his shoulder and walked down the hallway.
The world’s problems hung over Alexie’s head … her world anyway. She leaned against the elevator wall, beside Simon, as the lift shot up 113 floors to their penthouse. Shay could live a normal life, with one soul. Lucius and Cyrus would stop destroying Gemini City. All she had to do was be the bad guy.
“Max insisted on spending the night at Shay’s suite,” Simon said. “Swore he’d stay in the living room.”
The elevator door opened to their penthouse and Alexie made a beeline for her room.
“Is something wrong?” Simon asked, unclipping his cape.
Alexie couldn’t tell Simon she was scared to go along with his plan to sway the Grant brothers back to their side. She didn’t want him to know she was afraid of becoming an actual villain if she pretended to be one. A real hero didn’t wonder what it’d be like to do whatever they pleased and take whatever they wanted. She shouldn’t have those thoughts either. She definitely shouldn’t voice them.
“No. I’m just tired.” Without a glance back, Alexie hurried into her room and locked the door.
A faint glow shined through her wide windows. The city lights bathed her carpet in a yellow tinge, and lit the room like a tiny desk lamp.
If she returned to the asylum, alone, Lucius would appear. Then, she could convince him she wanted to be evil—so she could convince him to be good—but her legs wouldn’t move.
Simon had been her best friend since college. He really wanted this to work. Deep inside, she’d also like to have Lucius and Cyrus rejoin their group, in a non-villainous way.
“Thinking about me?”
Alexie yelped. She stared into the shadows of her room and Lucius crept into the soft light that beamed through her window.
“How’d you get in here?” she asked, as quietly as one could growl.
“I told you I’d be in touch,” Lucius said in a whisper. “Do you have an answer for me?”
“Why would I? You kidnapped Shay.”
“I took Shay to fix the Jenna soul problem, as a sign of good faith. She fought back. I didn’t want to hurt her, which is why I let her go.” Lucius stepped toward Alexie and she crept away from him, pressing her back against the cool window behind her.
“You blowing me off has nothing to do with Shay. You’ve always been a frightened little girl.”
Lucius reached for Alexie’s cheek and she slapped his hand away, giving him an electric-charged shove.
“I’m not afraid of you.” Lightning arced between her fingertips, but she forced it to subside. Simon was in the next room. The walls in this penthouse were thick, though not thick enough to mask the crackle of pure energy.
Lucius chuckled as he rubbed the spot where she had zapped him. “No, you’re not afraid of me. You’re afraid of yourself.”
His dark eyes locked on Alexie, a slight smile lingering on his lips. “I’ve seen inside your soul. It’s wicked, deliciously wicked.”
The tone of Lucius’s silky voice hummed in Alexie’s head. Two seconds. It would only take two seconds to throw Lucius through her window, but her clenched fists wouldn’t unlock.
“It must be difficult for you.” Lucius slid his hand into Alexie’s hair, his gentle touch igniting sparks beneath her skin. “Dealing with those two golden boys all day.”
He moved closer to Alexie and their chests pressed against each other.
“They’re not like us. They can’t think realistically, don’t have what it takes to actually change the world. Let me show you what it means to be a hero.”
Lucius ducked, bringing his lips inches from Alexie’s mouth. Warm breath tickled her lips, sending shivers to nip at her spine.
“If you kiss me, I’ll fry your ass to a crisp.”
Lucius backed away from Alexie, taking the air with him.
“When you finally decide to come around, I might not want you anymore.” He pushed open the window, smirked, and jumped out, leaving Alexie alone with the cool breeze.
Shay sat upright on the couch with a start. A scream had pulled her from a dreamless sleep. It was her name, shouted by a strange voice. She’d heard the fear-stricken call clearly; but now, in the stillness of a sun-lit room, she wasn’t sure.
The couch cushion beside Shay was bare, with only throw pillows in the place where Evie should be. She jumped up off the empty couch, and a snore drew her stare to the loveseat.
“Max?” Shay muttered.
Max’s head rolled to the side and a strand of his hair fell over his closed eyes. She backed out of the living room. Max’s safe arms looked too inviting to stare at and not crawl into, hence her steady flee away from him.
A gust of air whistled as Shay stepped into the hallway. The scent of exhaust lingered on a chilled breeze, lifting the hairs on her arms. She hurried down the hallway, bursting through Evie’s bedroom door.
Curtains danced in front of an open window, and the sound of far-off street traffic was the only noise in the empty room. A spike of panic hit the bottom of Shay’s stomach. There was no cause for alarm. The room looked fine, yet a full-blown freak-out loomed on her horizon.
“Evie,” Shay yelled. She stumbled from Evie’s bedroom, crashing against the wall.
Max ran into the hallway. The bathroom door between him and Shay opened, and Evie stepped out.
“What’s wrong?” Evie asked, looking at Shay then Max.
“I, umm …” Shay didn’t know what to say. I’m a big sissy would fit, but she wasn’t about to let that fly from her mouth.
Max walked down the hallway to join Evie in staring at Shay. “Did something happen?”
“No.” Shay’s tight body unwound and she slumped against the wall.
“I couldn’t find you,” she said to Evie, instantly feeling stupid. The only explanation she could think of for her irrational behavior was …
“The window’s open.”
“Sorry.” Evie rubbed Shay’s shoulder on her way into her bedroom. “I was watching the sunrise.” She shut the window then pulled the curtains closed. “It’s been a while since I’ve gotten up early enough to do that.”
“But, you’re always up before the sun.”
Evie ignored Shay and pointed at Max. “When did you get here, and how’d you get in? Oh right, the front door’s been kicked open. Some operation you guys are running around here.”
Now Max squirmed, much to Shay’s enjoyment. It was nice to not be the one in the hot seat with a dumb look on their face for a change.
“We struck out last night,” Max said. “I thought someone should be here, to protect you both.”
“By snoring?” Shay asked in a snicker.
“I’m a light sleeper. I heard you squawk like a chicken.” Max poked Shay on the arm and she giggled, then whacked his hand away.
“All right.” Evie shooed Max from her bedroom doorway. He walked backward down the hall, and she kept shuffling him toward the front door. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”
“Nope.” Max sidestepped Evie. He strolled into the living room and sat on the arm of the couch.
Shay stood at the hallway’s edge, waiting for that little vein to pulse on Evie’s temple, for hilarious insults to be shouted at Max, but her sister just shrank down.
“This is … interesting,” Shay said, in a way that would strongly suggest otherwise. “But I need to shower, get to the lab.”
“The lab,” Evie called out as she fumbled with the espresso machine. “I’ll go with you.”
“Why? You hate the lab.”
“I have a slow day and it’ll be nice, like old times. Except now, I’ll follow you to work.”
“Sounds like fun,” Max said. He sunk into the couch cushions, making himself quite comfortable. “I’ll go too.”
Shay stared at Max just chilling in her living room, then looked at Evie bumbling around the kitchen.
That little anger vein was probably pulsing in her own temple right now.
“I don’t need a bunch of babysitters.”
“That’s not what this is,” Max said.
“Of course not,” Evie muttered.
They both rambled nonsense through fake grins, waving their hands around way too much. It’d be comical, if it weren’t her life.
“Whatever.” Shay walked away from the blah-blah-we-just-wanna-hang-blah, and shut herself inside the nice and quiet bathroom.
It was sweet they cared; annoying, but sweet. She didn’t need them though. When she got into her lab, she was going to make so many weapons.
Rusty hinges squealed as Lucius pushed open a heavy door. The lab his brother had set-up in the abandoned asylum’s basement impressed him. It paled in comparison to the sterile, pristine laboratory they had at the Grant manor, but Cyrus had tried his hardest with the rusted workbenches, fried wires, and piles of antiquated machinery they had to work with.
Lucius stepped into the room and Cyrus turned away, pulling his mask over his head.
“You don’t need it. Your girl’s feisty, I had to sedate her.”
“If you hurt her—”
“Relax. Damn, little brother. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were in love with this woman.” Lucius yanked the mask off Cyrus’s face to gauge his brother’s expression. Blank, just like a man who manipulated minds should be.
He tossed the hood at Cyrus. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you be the one to hurt her.”
That chipped his brother’s icy stare, just a tad. He could push harder, force Cyrus into a telekinetic fury, but he needed most of the junk in this room.
“Have you finished your test?”
“Yeah.” Cyrus grabbed a test tube and a mouth swab off the steel table beside him. “I just need a DNA sample.”
Lucius held out his hand and Cyrus stormed past him.
“I’ll do it,” Cyrus said, stopping in the doorway. “Where is she?”
“In the same place you put Shay.”
Cyrus let out a low growl then hurried into the hallway.
“It’s okay,” Lucius called out as he rushed after Cyrus. “I spray-painted Shay was here real big on the wall, so she wouldn’t feel lonely.”
“Cute.”
The spite that trembled his brother’s voice kept Lucius back a few steps. Cyrus would only take so much. If Lucius pressed the wrong buttons, his brother would get into his mind and make him see his own flesh melt off. Again.
Cyrus headed deeper into the asylum. The thud of his boots echoed off the cracked walls, rumbling through the narrow hallways of cobweb-covered medical equipment. He stopped in front of a dented steel door, glancing at Lucius.
“I got this,” he said through gritted teeth.
It was clearly meant to be a warning, one Lucius would heed. He backed away from Cyrus, slowly. His steps didn’t reverse out of fear for Cyrus’s powers. He wanted to respect his brother’s wishes. Cyrus had given up everything for him, even his own belief in right and wrong. The least Lucius could do was give Cyrus the illusion of control, on rare occasions.
Cyrus pulled his shiny cloth mask over his face, opened the solid metal door at the hall’s end, and walked into the holding room.
Lucius made it halfway down the hall before the talons of curiosity dug into his side. In near silence, he crept toward the holding room’s doorway and peeked inside. Cyrus knelt in the dirt, caressing the unconscious woman’s hand through the bars. The mask hid his brother’s face, but those gentle touches gave away the truth. Love had infected his brother’s heart. It would be a complication for sure, though nothing was eternal. Except for power, of course.
Shay pushed past Max and bumped Evie from her way to get off the elevator first. It had been a weird morning. Evie hadn’t even made breakfast, for the first time in memory. Shay needed to get inside the lab, her sanctuary, her sanity, her place of true bliss. One whiff of machine oil, a glimpse of scattered circuit boards, and her frazzled nerves would level out to chilled vibes.
A smile popped onto her lips as she rounded the corner. The scent of fresh electronics filled her lungs, and Hetal’s face blocked her view of the lab.
“I knew they’d save you,” Hetal said, hugging Shay.
“Not us.” Max strolled into the lab, unhindered by a smothering embrace. “All that work we did and Shay walked up to the front door. Good thing too, it would’ve taken forever to search all those locations.”
“What work?” Shay asked. She squeezed past Hetal, who still crowded her, and scanned the lab to ensure everything was as she left it. “What locations?”
“You’re going to love this.” Hetal took Shay by the hand and pulled her toward the computers. “We constructed a program based on your theory.”
Shay stared at a map of Gemini City on the computer screen, which had clusters of blinking red dots all over it. “My theory?”
“Yeah. How individuals with superpowers emit a distinctive energy signature.”
“You found a way to track them?” Little lights flashed, entrancing Shay’s stare with its barrage of red glimmer. There were so many of them, spread throughout the city.
“Wait.” Evie pointed at the computer’s screen. “Are you saying all these blips are people who have the potential to gain superpowers?”
Hetal leaned back in her seat, staring at Evie in confusion. “Don’t you remember? Last night you said you were going to assemble a task force, bring them all in to interview and see if they displayed powers of any kind.”
“Right.” Evie pulled out her cell phone. “Didn’t get much sleep, must’ve slipped my mind. At least I started typing the email.” She glanced at the computer screen then at Hetal. “Can you send me a list with addresses?”
“Sure.” Hetal reached past Max, smirking when her arm brushed against his, and typed on the keyboard. “There you go.”
Evie grinned. She stared at her cell phone, her legs shuffling backward toward the door. “I’ll catch you later, Shay. I really want to get on top of this.”
“Okay. Text me about …” Shay glanced at the doorway, but Evie was gone. “Lunch.”
Her stomach grumbled and she grabbed it, but the mini roar kept howling.
“Hungry?” Hetal asked in a snicker.
“Yeah. Evie didn’t make breakfast.” It felt silly to say, since she was fully capable of dumping cereal into a bowl. She just never had to do that before.
“Me too.” Hetal took off her lab coat and draped it over a chair. “I’ll grab us something from the diner down the block.” She picked up her backpack and headed for the door. “Any requests?”
“Pancakes,” Shay and Max called out, almost in sync.
“Got it.”
Shay looked at Max, hoping he’d be the next to leave. The way he lounged on her couch, like he belonged, replaced the attraction she held toward him with layers of irritation. His need to hang around only tortured her mind. He had to know that. It had to bother him too, especially after that kiss.
“I remember everything that happened last night.”
Max lowered his gaze to the shiny floor. “Me too.”
The distraught look on Max’s face pulled Shay’s body toward him, but her brain kept her legs rooted in place, which put her in a somewhat defunct robot sway.
“I’m sorry,” Shay muttered to her shoes.
“Why are you sorry?”
“I never felt a love that intense before. Didn’t even know it could exist. I’m sorry you both lost that.”
“You could feel Jenna?” Max’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “What she was feeling?”
Even now, after Jenna had gone silent, the crushing weight of their love pressed against her chest. It stained her own soul, would follow her as long as she drew breath. She couldn’t tell Max that. He already had sad puppy dog eyes. If his misery grew any deeper, she’d likely throw her arms around him.
That would finish her. Once she held onto him, she’d never want to let go.
“I should be apologizing to you.” Max rose to his feet. “I feel all skeevy, kissing you without your permission.”
The air vibrated as Max moved toward Shay. She would run, but her legs wobbled too badly. She’d end up face down on the metal floor.
“When you collapsed in my arms,” Max said, in a near whisper. “I wasn’t thinking about Jenna.”
Shay’s breath, the light tremor in her muscles, even her precious thoughts stopped. Only tingles flowed throughout her body, and they traveled at a speed that threatened to rip her skin apart if Max so much as touched her.
Max stood directly in front of Shay and stared into her eyes. “I was thinking about you.”
The electric vibe between them surged. Shay backed away from Max, almost feeling the break in connection over the waves of shivers.
“Max, I …” Shay swallowed, hard, since her throat decided now was the perfect time to run dry. “I don’t think about you in that way.” The statement was spoken to him, though meant for herself. If she repeated it enough times in her mind it had to become true.
“You don’t, or won’t?”
Shay didn’t move, didn’t dare look at Max. The whole, if I don’t see you this isn’t happening thing might work. It was childish, but the only logical approach.
“I understand,” Max said. He returned to the small couch, which allowed cool air to rush over Shay. “I’m too old. It’s gross, I’m totally gross.”
“Yeah you are.” Shay held a straight face, for all of two seconds before a chuckle burst from her mouth.
Screams echoed down the halls of the asylum. They weren’t the terror-filled kind that Lucius had come to enjoy, more of the ‘I’ll rip your evil heart out’ variety.
Cyrus snickered as a slew of obscenities flowed into the room, trailed by a loud crash. “For such a sweet girl, she has a filthy mouth. I had no idea.”
