“Okay.” My voice was about an octave higher than usual. Clearing my throat, I tried again. “Okay. We’re good. Yeah. Do you have a name we can call you?”
“I can think of something.” The stage whisper from Limox held more than a hint of a threat.
“Kol’tak,” the man said. “Shall we go now? I think your government friends are approaching.”
Putting a hand up to shield my eyes, I spotted the hovering dots in the distance advancing slowly but surely on the vineyards. “Yeah. Let’s get out of Dodge before the sheriffs decide to toss us in the hoosegow.” I jerked a thumb at the harness on my back. “Peter, May, Hunter—you’re riding with me. Let Kol’tak take the heavy guys. No offense.” Stephen was too busy laughing to respond to Limox’s grumpy expression.
The alien took hold of each super’s shirt, pulling them effortlessly up with him as if the pair were made of marshmallows. Slammer’s shocked face brought a wide grin onto Meltdown’s, which calmed them both down. I hoped. The last thing we needed was another midair fight with everyone trying to avoid shaking Limox’s hand or having our heads blown apart if May got really ticked off.
I lifted off, racing to gain altitude and keep up with Kol’tak. I’d gotten used to the idea of flying with passengers by now and easily kept pace with the alien.
We headed over Lake Erie to start with, outpacing the helicopters trying to catch up with us. If there had been planes, they either kept their distance or changed altitude, choosing to monitor us from afar. Worked for me.
Staying slightly ahead of the threesome, I mumbled to Hunter to keep an eye on them and hoped it wasn’t going to turn into something bad. As in, I’d have to drop someone in the water and start fighting right there and then.
Which wasn’t to say that we didn’t have some drama on the trip. Limox started bitching at Stephen about something and Kol’tak ended up coming to my side so that we could separate the two squabbling children. This involved having Peter move from the harness on my back to ride with the alien while Limox whined and bitched until he settled in next to May. Which shut him up for the remainder of the trip.
“You what?” David snapped at me. My own drama was happening in my head with David. Needless to say my old friend and bookstore owner wasn’t happy at the idea of us bringing an alien home for dinner.
I was tired, hungry and more than a little shaky both emotionally and physically, not the best time to fight with a friend. “Look, you said—”
“What I said is irrelevant to the conversation.” He continued his tirade. I rolled my eyes at that piece of male logic. You’d think I’d have learnt something after years of dealing with Mike. “You can’t just bring him back.”
“Well, we weren’t exactly in a situation to find a donut shop and sit down for a coffee and a chat.” I saw May frown, as if she didn’t approve of the tone I was taking with her new friend, but I didn’t care. The throbbing in my head was still there and I was afraid to look in a mirror and see exactly how much blood I had lost. “Besides, we need information. And this is as good as it gets. Tell Jessie to lay in a ton of sandwiches; I’m starving.”
“Don’t you think…” He paused. “Okay. We’ll see you in a bit then.”
I didn’t pursue why he cut off his argument, focusing on the horizon and not the growling in my stomach. There had been a few granola bars jammed into my jacket pockets that had survived the battle, but for the most part I was running on empty and then some, despite Hunter eagerly hand-feeding me the food, which was unfortunately not as much fun as I wanted it to be. The sun burning straight into my eyes threatened to start a headache, and I didn’t even want to start sorting out my feelings. But I had to.
I thought about killing Kol’tak on the way back, despite my previous comments to David. I could just whisper over the link to Slammer and have him slap his hands on each side of the grinning alien bastard’s head and pop it like a pimple. He’d never see it coming.
But Mike wouldn’t approve. I could hear his voice, the mellow tones berating me for even thinking about it.
“Girl, I ain’t worth it.” He’d laugh, stealing away the blankets in bed again. “The mission is what’s important. Not revenge. And if you don’t find out what this guy knows, you’ll be killing more supers than he did. ’Cause you know they’re not going to stop until they get every one of you and take out civilians in the process.” He’d give me that wide smile of his, the grin that signaled the end of the discussion because he was about to bounce me out of bed and force me to the workout room for another bout of sparring. “Go save the world. I’m good.” The vision in my mind’s eye faded slowly as I flew through the air. “I’m good.”
I looked down at the alien below me, the two supers chatting away as if they did this every day. Peter laughed at some joke Stephen said, his chuckles carrying through the link.
Kill Kol’tak and I’d be killing all the supers. The aliens wouldn’t stop and neither would the Agency until we succeeded in defending the planet and declaring our freedom.
I swallowed back the sour taste in my mouth. Revenge would come, but it had to be for all of us, not just for Mike. It’d be for Alan, Peter’s boyfriend. And for Limox’s Guardian. And for Tan and Ace and all the others.
I still didn’t have to feel great about it, though.
Through the entire flight back Kol’tak kept a stoic smile on his face as if he did this every day. Although for all I knew, he did. But he kept his promise and when we settled down on the rooftop of the bookstore, he released Peter and Stephen without a word.
“Right. Let’s get inside before someone actually looks up.” I had plotted a landing course that had kept us dodging between buildings, but I knew it was only a matter of time before someone connected us to Toronto and Toronto to the Bookworm’s Hideout and then it’d be a media circus beyond belief. In my mind’s eye I saw SWAT teams slamming onto the roof and setting up sniper nests all around us.
“Got a fresh pot of coffee, the Betty’s full of tea and we’ve got plenty of food for you.” David drew in a sharp breath as we came down the small stairs from the roof. “Oh, Jo…” His tone changed from stern to fatherly. “Your head…”
“I’m fine.” I jerked a thumb back at the alien. “This is Kol’tak. I’m not sure if he’s hungry or not, but he’s our guest right now so take care of him.” A sudden wave of dizziness came over me, pushing me to lean against the wall as the others moved past me. “Any media pick this up yet?”
“A few internet rumor sites,” Jessie replied. “But nothing leading back to us. Yet. Although everyone’s wondering about who the new kids on the block are.”
“Ah.” I couldn’t think of anything else. “Ah.”
Then all I could think of was how cold and black the world was and how hard the air had become to breathe.
It was August and we were sunbathing on the roof. “Ever think of switching sides?” Mike passed me the cold bottle of beer, laughing as I studied the label before putting the glass neck to my lips. “It’s Canadian, you snob.”
“You mean, be a villain?” I shifted in the sun chair and reached for the lotion. “No thanks. Besides, you’re the one who told me they don’t get good ratings.”
“Need some help with that?” He swung his legs off the lawn chair, sauntered over and took the bottle from me. “Dang, you white girls burn easy.”
“Hey, that’s a racist remark.” I rolled over, exposing my nearly bare back. The bikini had been an expensive purchase on our short-lived vacation to Rio for the tag-team match with Dawson, and I was determined to get every minute’s use that I could out of it. Besides, it would be good for ratings if I had some color and didn’t look like a pale ghost. So said the experts.
“Sue me.” The strong hands pressed down on my back, rubbing the lotion into the skin. “Can’t ever play the bad guy, hmm?”
“Never.” I let out a yelp as his hand rose to brush against the side of my head. “What are you doing?”
“Making sure you don’t
kill yourself, silly.” His mellow voice began to move away from me, the heat decreasing as the sun disappeared.
“I told you she was hurt.” May’s indignant words drifted across my face like a cool breeze. “But you wanted to be the tough guy.”
“Don’t start, May,” Hunter responded. “I didn’t know she was this badly hurt. You’re lucky she didn’t pass out and drop the lot of us into Lake Ontario.”
A cold cloth on my face. “She’s a tough one, she is,” May cooed to me gently. “A lot of stitches?”
“Two, maybe three.” Hunter’s voice was accompanied by a slight tug on the side of my head. “At least it’s not so bad that we need to take her to the hospital. That’d be the topper of this entire thing.”
“I don’t like hospitals,” I mumbled. “And I need a cup of tea.”
The voices stopped for a minute in the darkness.
“Did she say something?” May asked in a low whisper.
I blindly reached out, grabbing what felt like good dress shirt. “I’m going to open my eyes now and you’re going to hand me a cup of tea and a sandwich. Preferably with lots of sugar in the first and plenty of meat in the second.”
“Oh, she is a tough one.” Hunter laughed as his hand slipped under my back, pulling me up. Pressing me to his chest, I felt our hearts smash together in a rhythm that both comforted and terrified me. “Just don’t faint again. You gave us quite a scare.” The warmth of his body was a startling contrast to the cool sheets under me, the different temperatures fighting to control my still-clothed body.
I opened my eyes wider to see the worried faces of Hunter and May along with David and Peter. A hot mug of tea was pressed into my hand by David, who looked at me with reddened eyes. A quick glance around me showed that I was back in the single bed, pushed up against the wall with enough pillows to build my childhood dream fort.
“Thanks. Where’s Kol’tak?” I took a sip of the sweet nectar and let a sigh escape. “And please tell me you didn’t have to cut all my hair off.”
“Only a snippet. And it’ll grow back soon enough.” David moved a small lap table across my center. “Assorted cold cuts work for you?”
“Oh yeah,” I mumbled between bites of the sandwich and mouthfuls of hot sweet tea. “Lord, this is good.”
“Glad to hear it. I slaved hours over a hot table waiting for them to make ’em up.” David looked at Hunter. “I’ll go tell the others she’s okay.” He tugged at May’s sleeve as he walked by, pulling the obviously relieved senior along for the ride.
I looked at Hunter. “Where’s the alien?”
“Sitting in front of the television set trying to figure out our civilization from cartoons and news channels. It must be quite the confusion.” He slid in beside me. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a truck. Which I think I did.” I moved my right hand up to touch the tender area on the left side of my head, stopping when the Guardian took hold of it.
“Don’t mess it up. I just got finished. You look fine.” He grinned. “Limox was all worried about you.”
“I bet. Probably just biding his time to start the revolution.” I let out a painful gasp as I edged my way farther up the bed, readjusting the cushions. The side of my head felt numb and achy at the same time. “What’s been going on?”
“You’ve only been out for a short while, long enough for Slammer to take over the kitchen and offer to make cabbage rolls and/or pierogies for us if we supply the materials. Peter is working with Jessie on keeping track of the ships.” His tone was calm and balanced. “The craft over Pittsburgh disappeared, no trace of it. There’s been no other announcements at all, nothing.” A short glimpse of a smile. “Everyone’s flooding back to the city, minimal casualties. Heart attacks, car accidents…but nothing like what would have happened if they had leveled the city. You done good, in other words.”
“Thanks.” I started to put my hand up to touch the sore spot again and stopped, willing myself to put it back down and grab another sandwich.
“You can touch it if you really have to.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I didn’t mar your beautiful features for life.”
“Smartass.” Putting the bread triangle back down, I slowly made my way to the stitched area. “Kol’tak said something about a Challenge, Trials…” I winced as I gingerly touched the bald spot. “Oh, that’s going to leave a mark. What the hell was he talking about?”
Leaning forward, Hunter clenched his fingers together. He tightened his grip until the knuckles were white.
“I’ve been chatting with your new friend. By the way, he’s quite the honorable sort, thank goodness—think of his honor code as that of the ancient warriors, quite chivalric. Since you bested him in battle fair and square he’s under your command until you release him.”
“Great. As if I didn’t have enough stray dogs and cats to care for.” I finished off the first half of the sandwich and reached for the second. “And…because I know that look—all you Guardians have it patented—drop the other shoe.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, it seems that his civilization, which is called the Chu’kar, just so you know, has been at war with another group for eons.”
“Don’t tell me that they’re around the corner.”
“No, they’re a goodly distance away. Farther than we’d ever be able to travel for a long, long time.” Hunter took my empty mug from me, refilled it from the Brown Betty on the table and passed it back.
“So, keep going.” I added a healthy amount of milk and an unhealthy amount of sugar from the tea service on the lap desk, which was now securely placed on the small table by the bed. Accept no substitutes.
“So what they do to season their warriors is to send them off to fight on other planets, civilizations that offer a challenge. They get the new recruits blooded and then rotate them back into the real fight.”
I couldn’t talk around the mouthful of salami so I waved one hand in the air until I could speak. “Beating us up is going to do what?”
“That’s the problem.” Hunter looked like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “This started decades ago, before the Agency, before supers. They monitored our transmissions. Our movies, our television shows, our cartoons.” He sighed. “They were coming whether there were supers or not, looking for the giant robots and mighty barbarians. But when we started the fights, started getting ready for them, they were watching.”
“And thought they were real. Thought we were real.” I closed my eyes. “I thought of that, but I was hoping it wasn’t true.”
“Well, you were right. Probably not for the first time and definitely not the last. Kol’tak doesn’t understand the idea of faking fights, so he still doesn’t really understand what we were doing. To them you don’t pretend anything, just as you don’t lie. The concept is…” he grinned, “…alien to them.”
I sipped the tea, slower now that the growling in my stomach had been quieted. “So can’t we just explain to them that it’s all smoke and mirrors and they go home?”
“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Hunter nodded, a wistful look on his face. “But there’s that matter of honor. They can’t return to their home planet and say that they totally misjudged our planet. Their entire system would be tossed into disarray. The fleet would lose face.”
“You men and your honor,” I grumbled into the soft white bread.
“Yeah, well…blame it on us but that still leaves half the world’s population to save.” He ran one hand through the badly dyed hair. “He wants to talk to you when you’re feeling up to it. Says that since he lost to you fair and square that he’ll answer anything you want to ask. He’s been pretty fair with us, think he just wants to score points with the big bad warrior who took him down.” Hunter chuckled. “You did really well out there, Surf.”
“It’s Jo.” I rolled the sweet tea around my mouth. “We got lucky. There were others out there. I don’t know why they didn’t come out when I called.�
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The Guardian shrugged. “I can’t blame them. They show up to defend the city and see a new team kicking ass and taking names? If they’ve still got Guardians, they’re worrying about their heads blowing off or worse, being trapped by the Agency. And it’s not unthinkable that the Agency would use you and your team to lure out supers and then tag them.” He met my eyes with another shrug. “Hell, that’s what I’d do.”
“Still…” I put the empty mug on the lap table and passed it to the man who placed it on the floor. Pulling my knees up, I wrapped my arms around them. “It’d be nice to have more people. More supers to kick it.”
“Well, you got a good one in Slammer.” Hunter paused for a minute, sending alarm bells down my spine. “For now.”
“Yeah, and what’s his story?” I looked directly at Hunter. “You might as well tell me now before I go try and wrangle it out of him. I know he played the other side. He was pretty friendly with Limox.”
Hunter glanced towards the entrance to the rest of the loft before speaking, dropping his volume to just above a whisper. “If he’s not with his Guardian, best bet is that he either killed him or let him die. Word was that Slammer was one of the tougher cases. Didn’t mind being a bad guy if you know what I mean.”
“I sort of gathered that looking at him.” I rubbed the back of my neck, wincing as my fingers tripped over the scar. “But he helped take Kol’tak down, and I can’t say that we’d have been able to do it without him. I just hope he continues playing on our side.”
“Can’t play if there’s no field to stand on. He’s not stupid; he knows that this is his best bet to stay alive and do what he wants to do—fight.” Standing up, Hunter offered me his arm, bending it slightly in a gentlemanly gesture that sent a pleasant shiver down my spine as I remembered Mike doing the same. “If you’re ready, then—might as well make your triumphant return to the rest of the team.”
“I’d rather have a hot shower first.” I sighed. “But time is not on our side, as usual.”
“You don’t smell that bad.” He leaned in suddenly, way too far inside my personal space again, his nose twitching. “You smell actually pretty darned good.”
Blaze of Glory Page 17
