Blood of the Masked God (Book 1): Red Wrath

by Gehrke, Gerhard

  No. Stay at work. I’m okay. I could be just paranoid. Similar van, but I’m not taking any chances. Meet you at your place later.

  I moved the scooter to a spot by a red curb and took off my helmet. I should have been more tired, but the thought of taking a swipe at one of the goons that had almost clobbered me was exhilarating. Princess Pike and her flunkies were just as bad as Chronos. All part of the same problem. And I had to know how they had tracked me here.

  My hair was still tied back from my session at the dojo. Now I tucked it into the collar of my red jacket. There were no other pedestrians around and only a few cars driving past. I crept up behind the van. The big guy was drumming the fingers of his right hand on the steering wheel while his left arm rested on the open window. His hands were huge. Pike’s goon, no doubt about it.

  A stray thought made me wonder how many vans Pike had in her fleet.

  He wasn’t watching behind him as I walked closer. In fact, his eyes were closed and he wore earbuds. No one else was inside the vehicle unless they were lying down. So either he was alone or I had company in my apartment. Tangling with the goon wouldn’t get me anything.

  The apartment complex across from mine had an open walkway into the center courtyard, with the inner and outer gates propped open with rocks. I hiked the couple of steps into the shadows where the mailboxes were and watched the van.

  Not much happened in the next twenty minutes.

  A few tenants came and went, all watching me carefully as they collected mail. The last, an older guy in tight-tight jogging shorts, closed the gate to the inside courtyard.

  Soon after, I saw a tall masked woman in a long black raincoat crossing the street from my place. Her collar was up. She was as inconspicuous as someone wearing a tuxedo at a water park. At least her second thug, who trailed behind, wasn’t openly brandishing a weapon. As they approached the van the driver perked up and removed the earbuds.

  Then the mail carrier showed up. He ignored me as he produced a set of keys. The apartment building’s metal mailbox panel shrieked as he opened it.

  Princess Pike looked straight in my direction and we made eye contact.

  With the gate to the courtyard closed, I was trapped.

  The supervillain threw off her coat and let it fall to the street. Beneath she wore her gaudy orange outfit. She had her baton-sized weapon grasped in her hand. With a snap, it instantly extended into a seven-foot-long spear with a blue metal tip.

  I moved out of the alcove. The goon following Pike headed me off on my left. The other was getting out of the van.

  “Well, well,” Princess Pike said as she approached. “We were getting tired of waiting.”

  I kept a concrete planter box between us as I moved to my right. She lowered the tip of the spear as if to corral me in. I felt my face flush and my breaths come up short. My heart jackhammered in my chest. This woman was a killer, and who was I kidding thinking I could do anything to her?

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  She cocked her head. With her mask on, I could only see her eyes. “No, no, girl. You don’t get to play the poor innocent victim card now. You and me, we’re involved, see? You keep showing up to the party and now you don’t want to dance? Not feeling so brave without your widdle wifle?”

  The baby talk infuriated me. But I didn’t want to die.

  “Uh, Princess?” I said. “You said someone was paying you. Who wants you to hurt me?”

  “A lady doesn’t reveal her secrets.”

  Both of her men were closing in. I leaped forward, vaulting the planter. I headed between Pike and the driver of the van. But Pike was quick. She twirled the spear and smacked my foot. My reflexes knew it was coming but I was in motion and couldn’t dodge in time. I fell forward and landed hard on the sidewalk. She jumped towards me. I rolled and sprang to my feet as the tip of the spear sank into the concrete, chipping it right where I had been.

  The closest goon was running at me. I ducked under an arm and kept moving. He flailed at empty air.

  Pike had adjusted her grip and was stabbing the spear in my direction. As it extended even longer, I twisted away. The tip struck the van and impaled the side sliding door. She retracted it.

  A laugh escaped my lips. I couldn’t help it.

  The man with the big hands closed with me, assuming a boxer’s stance, and tried to hit me. But I moved around his side and behind him as he turned to follow. His footwork was solid and it didn’t trip him up. The second goon paused right behind Pike.

  “How are you doing that?” Pike hissed irritably.

  It was too easy dancing around the driver. Avoiding his jabs was like playing keep-away with a toddler. Then Pike did something. She seemed to grow ever so slightly. Moving faster than before, she swung the spear like a bat. I was busy ducking and weaving when the weapon struck both me and the driver, knocking us down. It had connected with the side of my head. My vision swam and my ears rang.

  My reflexes were telling me to move, but I was having a hard time figuring out which way was up. I raised my hands protectively as the second goon strode in and tried to curb-stomp my face. His boot landed hard on my shoulder. Pain exploded along my arm. He pulled back to kick again. I rolled to protect my face and sides. His boot struck my stomach, making me gasp.

  “Leave some for me,” Pike said.

  I was trying to get up but could only manage a shaky prone position. The goon above me paused to crack his knuckles. A wicked grin parted his wormy lips. Then he tried to drive the heel of his boot against my head.

  Instinctively, I pushed off the ground. My reflexes were working for me once again, and now I found myself floating into the air away from him. It all happened so quickly. As I spun to regain control, I only moved faster. I sailed past Princess Pike and slammed into the other goon. We both went down. I got back up just in time to see Princess Pike spin around with her weapon twirling.

  “How did you do that?” she asked again.

  But she wasn’t waiting for an answer. With a roar she swung her weapon down. It sliced the air as I leaped back. She aimed the weapon towards me and the tip sprang forward. It whizzed past my face as my reflexes let me sidestep it. It was like avoiding a punch thrown by an amateur. When the spear snapped closed again, she advanced on me with a flurry of punches and quick stabs. I was practically running backward as I weaved, bobbed, and sidestepped. But she was crowding me like an experienced fighter. Finally I blocked a blow with my right forearm and it sent me sprawling. Whatever boost Pike had triggered made her incredibly strong. My arm radiated pain, and I held it tight against my body as I struggled back to my feet.

  “Drink a magic potion?” Princess Pike asked as she closed in on me. “Someone tap into your chi or your id and trigger some powers?” Her spear twirled. She moved it from arm to arm, the blue tip a streaking point of gleaming light. I got up and staggered back onto the street past her van. I knew I couldn’t beat her.

  I made it to the middle of the street. She followed. I was still in spear range. I didn’t dare take my eyes off her. If my reflexes failed just once, I would be skewered. And jumping into the air and falling flat on my face would be a stupid way to die.

  “So what happened to you that makes you special all of a sudden?” Pike asked.

  “I’m not special. Whoever hired you is wrong.”

  “Seems you’ve gained some skills. That means whoever wants you out of the picture thinks differently. Who knows? Maybe they knew you were about to manifest your powers and I was supposed to end you before that happened.”

  “How could anyone know what happened to me when I don’t even know?”

  She made an exaggerated shrug. “Thus are life’s mysteries, dear. I don’t get bogged down with questions like that. They make my head hurt. But this little job will pay a lot of bills.”

  With both hands, she tightened her grip on the shaft of the spear.

  She didn’t notice the green Prius speeding her direction until it struck
her dead-on. Princess Pike went sailing twenty feet before tumbling on the asphalt. Carter hit the brakes a second later to keep from running her over.

  Both goons were running towards me.

  “Get in!” Carter shouted.

  I considered staying and fighting. I was angry. But my arm really hurt where I had blocked Pike’s blow and I was afraid I had suffered a fracture. I piled into the back seat and Carter sped away. It didn’t look like Princess Pike was moving when we passed her. I watched out the back window as her men collected her.

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  “I left work once you texted and went to my place. But you weren’t there, so I came here.”

  I touched my arm. It was tender. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I saved you.”

  “I was trying to find out who hired her to come after me.”

  “Why would someone pay to have you killed? No offense.”

  I slid to the center of the back seat and leaned forward. “I get it. It doesn’t make sense. I shouldn’t be on anyone’s radar, not enough for someone to hire an assassin like Pike. How she’s following me, I don’t know. But now that you’re involved it’s safe to assume she’ll come after you, too.”

  He just nodded. It wasn’t clear whether that meant he understood. But Carter was no longer on the sidelines. I felt a pang of guilt at getting him involved.

  “Is your sister going to be okay?” I asked.

  “She nearly flipped out when I left work early. But she’ll be fine. Are you hurt?”

  “Pike smashed my arm pretty good but I don’t think it’s broken.”

  He made a turn that caught me off guard. I sat back.

  “Why didn’t you just get out of there when you saw the van?” he asked.

  “Because first I wasn’t sure it was them. Then she surprised me and they boxed me in. But I learned a little bit more about what I can do.”

  “Fighting someone like Princess Pike isn’t the way to go about doing that.”

  “I’m looking to take on someone a lot bigger than Pike.”

  “You’re going to get killed if you’re not careful.”

  I watched the neighborhood go by outside the car window. We had driven just a couple of blocks away, and there were people getting dry cleaning delivered and kids buying ice cream from the corner store and moms pushing strollers. The world was getting pummeled by meteors, mankind was suffering through global mass hysteria, and a supervillain was trying to murder someone a few streets over, but everyone kept plugging along like everything was normal. I envied their ability to find refuge in routine. And I gave grudging respect to the city’s resilience.

  “I know I might get hurt, maybe even killed, doing what I’m doing,” I said. “I can’t ask you to do the same. I appreciate everything you’ve done. But I’m just going to get deeper into trouble in the next few days. This would be the time to rethink your commitment to helping me.”

  He sighed. “You know I’m in.”

  Then something occurred to me. “Carter, how did you make it to your place and mine in such a short time?”

  He hesitated. “I didn’t actually go in my apartment. I accessed the webcam on my computer.”

  “That wouldn’t show you the entire apartment.”

  “My tablet’s set up in my bedroom so I could see if you went through my stuff.”

  “So you have two cameras with which you can spy on me. Is there a third? Carter?”

  “No! It’s not like I was planning on watching you. It’s just…”

  I was only mildly upset. When he trailed off, I said, “Relax, I get it. I’m still pretty much a stranger and I’m inside your home. And I kind of got you drunk. But I better not find one in the bathroom, because believe me, I’m going to look. By the way, I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I think I can fly.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When your sense of touch is magnified, getting your minor abrasions disinfected is particularly painful. Carter cleaned both scraped knees, my bottom lip, and my chin with a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol. It wasn’t fun. I jerked away and winced as he found a spot on my left cheek he hadn’t yet assaulted.

  “I guess your ability to avoid getting hit needs some work,” he said dryly.

  “It has its limits. Princess Pike is fast and she’s like a whirlwind when she gets going. Has some sort of strength boost that I didn’t know about.”

  “Her abilities are documented. I’ve looked her up and it’s in the reports. It’s a fast-acting drug administered by something in her suit. It boosts agility and strength for a short duration. But Jade, Chronos is faster.”

  “I don’t plan on duking it out with him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “That’s good. You can’t become overconfident just because you can dodge tennis balls.” He dabbed the knuckles of my right hand.

  “Ouch!” I got up out of the dining room chair. “That’s enough of this. And as far as facing down Pike, I wasn’t expecting on fighting her like that but she had me trapped. I guess my reflexes have their limits. The fact that Chronos gets walloped on a regular basis shows me his does too. Like me, maybe it’s when there’s more than one person coming at him, or someone really fast using a variety of attacks. It means he can be hit when he’s overloaded.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “Go out again tomorrow morning, loaded for bear.”

  “How about laying low while Princess Pike is out to get you? If she’s being this reckless she’ll get spotted by the cops.”

  “No. If my powers are temporary then I don’t want to squander my chances sitting around and doing nothing.”

  Judging by his face he didn’t agree, but he nodded.

  “You need to get some sleep,” he said. “You look exhausted. I got you earplugs and put a blanket over the window in my bedroom to help with noise and light. I also picked up some sleep aids. I’ll stay out here on the couch.”

  I walked into the kitchen and saw a bag from the drugstore. He had purchased a packet of antihistamines. “I’m not taking these. I don’t want to be tranquilized.” I drew the sharpening steel out of the knife block. I tried to bend it but it didn’t budge.

  “So you were going to show me that you can fly,” he said, prompting me.

  “I don’t exactly know how it works. I can’t just jump off a roof and hope it happens. During the fight I hit the ground while my other powers were working. It’s happened twice so far.”

  I told him about my sparring match with my ex-boyfriend and launching myself away from Pike’s goon.

  “All from being inside Chronos’s house,” he said. He didn’t sound convinced.

  “I guess.” I tried not to even think about the locket around my neck. Touching it would let Carter know something was there. I put the sharpening steel back.

  “What if everyone in Dogwood is like this?” I asked. “Or like him? Maybe they’re all superpowered freaks and he’s the only one who goes out into the world?”

  “It’s a scary thought. That’s a lot of high-powered people. Chronos is on top of all the charts as far as strength and speed. If there were more of him, the world would become a lot more complicated.”

  “But they seem to be content in their secluded little enclave.”

  “Maybe not, if you manage to hurt him. Someone might come looking for you.”

  I scoffed. “Tell them to take a number.”

  ***

  I slept. The ache in my arm only got worse, but it didn’t swell and I had full use of my hand. I toughed it out. I slipped in and out of deep sleep, waking every time I had to readjust myself on Carter’s plush pillow mattress. I liked soft, but it was too much.

  The earplugs helped a little. The noise-canceling headphones would have been better, but as a side-sleeper I would have had a hard time getting comfortable. Sounds still crept in but I was getting better at ignoring them.

  When the clock read 6:00 a.m. I decided to get up. I
took out an earplug and winced. The world was just as loud as the morning before. Somehow as the previous day progressed I had gotten used to it, but now it felt like starting at square one. Leaving them in would have made sense, but I had to wrangle my heightened senses so I could function. If the locket had something to do with it, taking it off might help, but I refused to give up any advantage.

  Carter was snoring on the couch.

  I went into the kitchen as quietly as possible and began to scrounge for food. I found eggs and bacon and bread. The eggs were labeled organic but they looked like normal eggs. The bread was some sort of artisan multigrain stuff. And the bacon was applewood smoked.

  Time to test my taste buds to see if they too had gotten some sort of boost. The smell of the smoked bacon sizzling in the pan was heavenly.

  I made enough eggs for Carter but I ate all the bacon. Maybe I was just hungry, but the salty-savory flavor almost made me swoon. I put blackberry jam on the toast. It too was delicious and gone all too fast. I wanted more.

  Carter shuffled over to the kitchen counter and blearily looked at me and the mess I was making as I rummaged through his freezer. I took out some marble fudge ice cream.

  “Is there something I need to know about?” he asked.

  I ate a spoonful out of the carton. Chocolate and vanilla and creamy goodness, oh my.

  “This is so good I think I want to cry,” I said.

  “You’re going to get sick.”

  “Those eggs are for you.”

  He made coffee and then ate his eggs. He used enough hot sauce that the eggs were slathered red by the time he started in. The smell of the spicy condiment put me off. I closed the carton of ice cream.

  “Are you coming with me?” I asked.

  “Yeah. But aren’t we early?”

  “Not if today is another weird day like yesterday. I want to get across the bridge and be set up before anything happens.”

  He shoveled down the rest of his breakfast, managed to ignore the dirty dishes, and got dressed. In fifteen minutes we were out the door.