“Alright,” he said. “That… works. We’ll go now.”
He nodded to Rose, and the two of them hurried up the stairs.
The only thing that made the walk home bearable was the fog. Malcolm stayed close to Rose, and they both walked quickly. Besides the incident on their way out, he also knew that she’d be thinking about the things that Scribe had said.
“I don’t know if you should take her at her word,” he said, after a few minutes. “It sounds like she’s basing her assumptions off anecdotal evidence.”
“Maybe,” said Rose, in a quiet voice. “But maybe not.”
Malcolm wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“If I ever… have an episode,” said Rose. “And if it looks like I’m going to hurt, or kill people. I want you to be the one who does it.”
“Rose…”
“You’re a champion,” she said. “It’s your job. And I think… I’d rather have it be you than anyone else.”
“I’m not agreeing to that,” said Malcolm. “I think there is hope. We can find a solution, find a way to keep you from having another episode.”
“I don’t even remember,” whispered Rose. “How many people have I already killed, Malcolm?”
Again, he had no idea what to say. He reached over and squeezed her hand.
“I’m not giving up,” he said. “And if it does happen, I’ll chain you up in my bedroom, or something.”
Rose leaned her head from side to side and gave a tiny smile.
“I might like that, you know.”
CHAPTER 29
Malcolm put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt as soon as they were back in his apartment. Rose was folding her new wardrobe into neat piles when he came back out into the living room. She looked at him with a wicked gleam in her eye.
“So…” she said. “Do you want me to finish modelling my lingerie for you?”
Malcolm grinned and nodded enthusiastically.
She slipped into his room to change. Malcolm sat on the couch, and by the time she walked out in the skimpy underwear and fishnet stocking, he was already excited.
“I saw you eyeing that illusion spryte in the tavern, you know,” said Rose. “Do you think she can do for you what I can?”
Malcolm shook his head no, feeling a bit like a trained dog waiting on a treat. He decided to turn the tables a little bit as she walked toward him on the couch, pulling a gust of wind from behind her and knocking her into his lap.
“I think you’re falling for me,” he said, with a wink.
“You naughty boy.” She leaned in close, letting her hot breath tickle his neck. “Let’s see if you can make it through one of my lap dances without losing control early.”
Malcolm let out a low groan and ran his hands across her butt. His phone vibrated where it lay on the couch next to him, and he glanced over to see a text from Tapestry.
TAPESTRY: Are you up? I’m on my way over.
“Huh,” he muttered, picking up the phone.
“Let me guess,” said Rose. “Your champion mentor?”
“Yeah,” he said. “She said she’s on her way over but… I could always just pretend that I’m asleep.”
He ran his hands across Rose’s hips, feeling her grind her crotch against his hardness.
“No,” she said. “It’s okay. Be a good host for her. I’ll wait for you in your bedroom for when the two of you are… finished.”
Malcolm rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” he said. “It’s not like that between us. Besides, weren’t you just complaining about the illusion spryte a minute ago?”
Rose pulled herself up and off Malcolm’s lap, to his disappointment.
“I told you, I only get jealous when it comes to other sprytes,” said Rose. “I don’t consider normal women, even champions, to be much of a threat.”
Malcolm gave a shrug, and Rose licked her lips. She waved her hand, summoning several strands of darkness that formed into a set of feminine hands and a pair of luscious lips. They started rubbing his crotch, the lips poised right in front of his bulge as though preparing smother his erection to climax.
“Point taken,” said Malcolm. “This shouldn’t take long. Are you going to be okay in the meantime, given that, uh, you haven’t had your focus activity today?”
Lamest euphemism for sex ever.
“I’ll manage,” said Rose. “And don’t worry… I’ll leave the lingerie on.”
There was a knock at Malcolm’s door. Rose immediately vanished into the shadows of his room. Malcolm stood up, adjusted his sweatpants to minimize the obviousness of his package, and let Tapestry inside.
She almost ran into his apartment. She had on a leather jacket, jeans, and what looked like cowboy boots. She looked him over and frowned at his state of readiness.
“Are you serious?” asked Tapestry. “Why aren’t you ready?”
“Ready…?” Malcolm frowned at her. “For what?”
“We don’t have time!” she snapped. “Just put shoes on and come as you are.”
“Hold on, just let me-”
“Malcolm!” Tapestry looked at him seriously. “It’s the heat demon! I got a report from one of the Champion Authority’s informants saying that he was heading out of town, toward the old coal mine.”
This could be my chance.
“Let’s go.” Malcolm grabbed the sweatshirt he’d lent to Rose earlier and threw it on. He followed Tapestry downstairs and out to her BMW, barely getting into the passenger seat before she peeled out of her parking spot.
“Here.” She passed the BMW’s aux cord over to him.
“What?”
“Put your music on!” she said. “You’re going to need to be at full strength for this.”
Malcolm shrugged and plugged in his phone.
Nine Inch Nails should work well enough as a chorus to battle, right?
“We’re going to have to play this carefully,” said Tapestry. “Malcolm, my powers haven’t fully recovered yet. I won’t be able to regenerate if I get hit.”
“You’re serious?” He blinked, realizing what that meant. “Tapestry, no offense, but what can you do without your regeneration?”
“Shoot a gun,” she said. “Here, I have an extra for you, too.”
She pulled open the center dash and brought out a pistol, which she passed over to Malcolm. His hand rested on hers as he accepted it, and felt a tingle as he absorbed her power. Malcolm pretended to be examining the weapon as he made a mental note to work on controlling his secondary ability more effectively.
The roads were mostly clear of other cars, and Tapestry only followed the speed limit until they reached the outskirts of town. As soon as they were on the open road, she floored it. It didn’t take long for the handiwork of their quarry to come into view.
Vanderbrook’s coal mine had basically been a massive, dirty hole in the ground not far from town. It’d never achieved all that much output, and the owner had abandoned it long before the coal was completely tapped out.
Malcolm could see it, or what it had once been, in the distance. A massive fire burned in the pit’s center, making the hole look like the site of an asteroid impact. The intensity of it reminded him of staring into the sun, and the car began to heat up as they drew closer.
Of course. Heat demon sets a fire there, absorbs more heat than he could find practically anywhere else.
“We’ll ditch the car here,” said Tapestry. “Our goal is to scout this out, Malcolm. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” he said, reluctantly. “But if I see a chance to get a shot off, I’m taking it. Tapestry, I have to.”
“Don’t be stupid!” she snapped. “I don’t have my powers right now, and your wind manipulation is practically useless against something like this. And as much as having a gun gives me peace of mind, I would be shocked if our bullets made it through that inferno without melting.”
Malcolm nodded. The two of them got out of the car, an
d he was a little surprised to see Tapestry immediately take off at full sprint. He set the wind on his back and caught up with her easily enough.
“Here!” he shouted. “Lengthen your strides!”
She did, and he extended the range of his ability, carrying her with him as they ran at high speed across the grass field, toward the coal mine inferno. Malcolm squinted and could just barely make out a shape at the center of the fire, arms pulled to the side, chest angled upward.
“Get down!” Tapestry threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him flat to the ground. The heat demon had just moved slightly. He let his arms fall and slowly turned in a circle, scanning the lip of the hole. If he saw them, he made no sign of it.
Malcolm’s forehead was slick with sweat from the heat of the flames. He wiped it away, frowning as he thought about what they were supposed to do to counter their opponent.
“His weakness has to be water, right?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said Tapestry. “Maybe water, maybe cold. Those might only be functional weaknesses to him. We have no way of knowing.”
The heat demon turned suddenly, looking right at them. Tapestry froze.
“He can see us,” said Malcolm.
“No, I don’t think he can,” she replied.
The heat demon pulled his hand back. Both Malcolm and Tapestry stood up and tried to back out of the way, but it was too late. The demon releases a massive blast of flame in their direction, a fireball the size of a small car.
“Tapestry!” Malcolm saw the path of the blast and knew where it was headed. She was looking away from it, and it was too late for her to react.
Malcolm did the only thing he could do. Hitting himself hard from the side with a blast of wind, he threw himself into her, pushing her clear of fireball. It hit him instead, and felt every inch of his skin erupt with nerve searing pain before it became too much, and he blacked out.
CHAPTER 30
“Mom!” shouted Malcolm. “Danny!”
The house had been burning for a while. The only shards of smoldering wood that weren’t black and white with char and ash were the ones blown loose into the street. Even as a young teenager, he’d known that no mere fire had caused the destruction before him.
“Danny!” he shouted. “Mom!”
His throat was already hoarse from calling to them. The remnants of the family home were still giving off heat, even if the core fire had long since burned out. The ash hid hot coals underneath. Malcolm dug through it anyway, burning his hands.
He thought that if he could yell a little louder, or dig through in just the right spot, he could find them. He’d find them, and they’d be fine. Or alternatively, he’d find them, and then wake up. They couldn’t be dead, regardless of what lay in front of him.
Police cars and emergency vehicles flew down the street, making a mockery of his situation by passing right by him. He wanted to believe that it was a good sign, that maybe they knew something that he didn’t. He was crying, but there was too much ash caked on his hands for him to trust wiping the tears away.
His hands were burning from heat.
“Mom! Danny!”
***
Malcolm sat up, awaking from the dream. He was in an unfamiliar bed, and it took him a couple of seconds to think of the last thing he could remember.
I took a blast from that demon head on…
The door opened, and Tapestry stepped through it, dressed in a t-shirt and sweat pants. She smiled at him when she saw that he was awake, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Good afternoon,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“To be honest…” he said. “Like I got my ass kicked.”
“You got it burned off, actually,” said Tapestry. “I thought you were dead, at first. When I realized that you weren’t… well, I barely managed to pull you back to the car.”
“How long was I out for?”
“Just the night and the morning,” said Tapestry. “It’s a little past noon.”
Malcolm groaned and leaned his head back on the pillow. He lifted the sheets up and realized that he was naked underneath. Tapestry seemed to sense his next question.
“Your clothes were burned off,” she said. “Good thing you left your phone in the car.”
“Jeez,” muttered Malcolm. He noticed that, somewhat surprisingly, he still had his stabilizer on his wrist, though it looked like it had been in the oven on broil for a couple of hours.
“Malcolm,” said Tapestry. “I need an explanation. I know you’re not a regenerator. The test we gave you at HQ when we first picked you up would have shown it.”
There’s no point in lying to her. And… I think I can trust Tapestry.
Malcolm chewed his lower lip. He slowly sat up in the bed again, letting the sheets slide down to his lap, making eye contact with Tapestry.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you when I first discovered it. I was just paranoid about how you, or more specifically, the Champion Authority, might react.”
“Tell me.” Tapestry sat down on the bed next to him and set a warm hand on his leg through sheets.
“I can absorb, or copy, the powers of other champions,” said Malcolm. “I’m not sure how I do it. I never really mean to. It happened at the school, too. That’s how my cheek healed so quickly.”
“Power mimicry,” muttered Tapestry. She looked worried, and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds.
“What’s wrong?” asked Malcolm.
“It’s considered to be an uncontrolled power, Malcolm,” she said.
He nodded, remembering how Rose had explained it to him.
“That’s bad?” he asked.
“It means that if I told Multi and the others about it, well, I’m not sure you’d be able to stay in Vanderbrook,” said Tapestry. “They’d probably take you somewhere, for study or… confinement.”
“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” said Malcolm.
Tapestry rolled her eyes at him.
“No, Malcolm, it wouldn’t be much fun,” she said. “You need to be more careful with it. Be very aware of what you’re doing with your hands all the time. And if you do steal someone’s power, for the love of god, don’t use it openly.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to,” said Malcolm. “It just kind of happened. And regeneration is pretty nifty to have when you’re taking a fireball to the face.”
Tapestry smiled at him. She was still sitting on the bed, and the moment seemed to drag on, both of them just looking at each other. She was sitting on the bed, and he was naked under the sheets…
And then the door burst open, and Melanie charged into the room. Her eyes were red, as though she’d spent some time crying late into the night. Her gaze locked onto Malcolm, and she ran toward him, jumping onto the bed and giving him a tight hug.
“Oh Malcolm, I was so worried!” she said, rapid fire. “You saved Aubrey! And the condition you were in… I thought you were going to die! I couldn’t live with myself knowing that you died saving someone I love. I know how selfless you are, it was the same at the school! You don’t ever think of yourself, only others, and that’s what makes you so amazing!”
“Hi… Melanie,” said Malcolm.
She let up on the hug, pulling back a few inches, and put her hands on Malcolm’s shoulders. With the same speed that she usually unleashed torrents of words, she kissed him once on each cheek, and then full on the lips.
“Melanie!” snapped Tapestry.
The kiss went on for a long time. Melanie flashed a coy smile as she pulled back, caressing his cheek with one hand.
“I owe you more than just that,” she said. “Malcolm.”
“Young lady!” Tapestry stood up and literally shooed her out of the room. “That’s quite enough!”
Malcolm was laughing as she shut the door, as amused by their antics as he was pleased by the kiss. Tapestry shook her head and walked back over, sitting down in a spot even closer to him on the bed.
> “My great granddaughter can be so irritating, sometimes,” said Tapestry. “She… has a crush on you, Malcolm.”
Tapestry looked as though just saying the words was enough to make her seethe. Malcolm shrugged.
“Is that a problem?” He met her eye as he asked the question, and the words brought tension into the room.
He expected Tapestry to shut him down immediately, the same way she always did every time he invited her up into his apartment. Her face was so earnest, so young, but there was a weight to the look in her eyes that was almost too much to handle. Curiously, she was also blushing a little.
“I guess that’s up to you,” she said.
Why does Tapestry have to be so confusing?
“Anyway, we need to get moving soon,” she continued. “I have some clothes you can wear. They’re my late husband’s, so they’re a little out of date, but I’ve kept them in good condition over the years.”
Malcolm nodded, her words reminding him of the real age gap between them.
“Right,” he said.
Tapestry didn’t move from where she was on the bed. She was staring at him. Malcolm shifted a little, letting the sheets fall until they’d almost slid down past his crotch. He leaned in closer to her, close enough to smell a hint of soap and perfume on her skin.
“I… should go get them,” said Tapestry.
“You should.”
Another second or two went by, and Tapestry finally rose from the bed. She disappeared out the door and returned a minute later. She placed the clothes on the ground just within the room, as though she was wary of what could happen if she came in any further.
CHAPTER 31
The clothes Tapestry had given him consisted of socks, tight fitting white briefs, a flannel shirt, and an ancient pair of Levi’s jeans. It wasn’t as bad as what he was expecting, though he did look vaguely outside of time as he examined his reflection in the mirror.
There was already food waiting for him in the kitchen. Tapestry made him take it to go, in sandwich form. Melanie said a quick goodbye to him with a hug, one that turned into a full-on embrace, and lasted long enough for Tapestry to start tapping her foot.
Wind Runner: The Complete Collection Page 14
