“I think I do.”
“So that’s the good news; and there isn’t really any bad news here, but you are going to have to be careful as you level up your ability. You overpowered yourself back there, and if you let that red bar get to the end of your dial, you’re as good as dead. Red is dead.”
Roman squinted up at her.
“Yes?”
“Are there actual healers here?”
“It’s a training facility, so yes, we do have someone available to us who has some healing ability, a Type IV Class H, to use your phrase. Although there is a small waiting period if you get hurt… So, don’t get hurt? Yeah, don’t get hurt.”
“Wait a minute, are you telling me that because I’m now an exemplar, I have access to healers?”
“You aren’t part of a combat unit, so no—that’s your short answer. But the long answer is you have better access than non-exemplars, meaning that you can and will be healed before they are. Also, you aren’t an exemplar. I thought we went over this.”
Roman gritted his teeth. “That’s so fucked up,” he said as he pushed away from her.
“Fucked up?” Ava looked at him curiously for a moment. “You do realize what you are now, right? And that your life is more valuable to our country than their lives, right?”
Roman stood, his fists at his side as he considered the way she’d phrased that last sentence.
“Relax, it’s simply a fact of the matter, nothing to get worked up about. Once we get you trained, your new ability will be useful to the Centralian government and its mission. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I can think just off the top of my head of a number of different tasks you could undertake.”
“What if I just disappeared?”
Ava laughed. “If you just disappear, we’ll find you. There are Type IVs for that, and you’d know this better than I.”
“Yeah,” he said, turning away from her, his fists still clenched at his sides.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: One of Us
Kevin had gone from a guy who had just been cheated on by his wife to a man doted upon and banged by two sexy cat girls, their tails bouncing in the air as they led him to a table.
“Just wait here, honey,” Obsidian said as she turned away, heading towards what Kevin believed was the kitchen. He watched her go, her perky little ass wiggling as she moved toward the revolving door, her black tail bobbing up and down.
Turquoise, the cleverer of the two, sat across from Kevin fumbling with her prayer beads. She glanced up at him and as she smiled, her ears lifted ever so slightly.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked him.
“Just the choices I’ve made over the last couple days.”
While it had dawned on Kevin that he had seriously given up on ever living a normal life after what had transpired here, and while it was starting to dawn on him that he would never be able to see his old friends again, his brother, or anyone else that he’d known in his previous life, there was still some part of him that was excited by the change he had enacted.
There was also something fuzzy to everything he looked at, including Turquoise, who had hopped onto the table and was crawling over to him. She lifted a clawed finger and scraped it across his cheek.
“Shhh,” Turquoise said as she drew blood. “We were a little rough with you, and this is the only way we’ve kept you from dying from shock.”
She licked his wound, her sandpaper tongue rough against his skin. As soon as she did, he felt a sense of euphoria wash over him.
Kevin was in his happy place again, no longer worried about Centralia, the future effects of his supposed death, or the fact that he had no idea where he was. For all he knew, he was in the Southern Alliance, well past the border, smuggled out and being held hostage.
But was he being held hostage?
If you had asked him two minutes ago, he would’ve said yes.
Now he wasn’t so certain.
“You’re keeping me alive?” he finally asked.
Turquoise cocked her head at him. “Yeah, that’s one way to look at it. You were going to die, but we used our power to keep you alive.”
“And your power comes from…?”
“Yes, our power comes from our secretions. You could say it like that. Or you could call it our blood. Or anything else that is liquid from our body. Including our urine.”
“That is one of the strangest powers I’ve ever encountered. So you’re a Type I Class C? Or a Type II? Do you know?”
“You Centralians always like to rank and list things. It’s something I’ve noticed. It’s different where we’re from. The West has things that Centralia has never heard of or classified.”
Kevin nodded his head as a single drop of blood dripped down his cheek. “I can see that.”
“Don’t worry, Kevin, you’re one of us now.”
Turquoise scooted forward and brought her petite body into Kevin’s lap. She wrapped one arm behind his head and smiled at him, her little slit eyes enlarging as she dragged her claw against the back of Kevin’s neck.
“I’m not worried,” he said, dizziness coming over him. He could still sense Turquoise, her soft hairless skin, the way she moved in his arms, her light flowery scent, but he could no longer understand what she was saying.
And he was fine with that.
Kevin was in his happy place, or at the very least, a happy place.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dessert
Roman sat at the same table he’d been sitting at when he’d first met Harper.
She was busy with another customer, the only other customer in the joint, and he’d already had a shot while waiting for her to get off work, some tropical number the bartender had concocted on the fly.
It was nice watching Harper move around in her apron—the curve of her back as she came to a stop to greet the customer, the way she arched forward ever so slightly, just showing the tops of her breasts, and aside from the sexual part, the fact that she was actually happy to see him.
He didn’t know what was going to happen with her in the long run, but for now, she was a dominating, beautiful woman who actually was interested in Roman Martin.
Nothing to shake a stick at.
“Are you just going to watch me walk around all night, or are you going to order another drink?” Harper asked.
“Is ‘both’ an option?”
“I suggest the Ocean Blue. It’s tart, has a smooth finish, and the bartender here is pretty good at making it. I mean, I’ve seen the way other people make it, but they usually mix the liquids when they pour the top ingredient. He manages to keep them separated. I swear sometimes the guy has a superpower.”
“He could be an exemplar. Type IV, Class…”
“No, he’s a non-exemplar. I’m sure of it. He just knows how to make a good cocktail.”
“Is it always this slow?”
Roman especially liked Harper’s eyes, which were further apart than most women he’d met. With her long neck and her short brown hair, she looked almost alien—this coming from a guy who had white hair and orange eyes. Still, it was visually appealing to say the least.
“Yeah, midweek is usually like this.”
“Any chance you’ll get off early?”
Harper sighed audibly, blowing the hair out of her face. “Probably not. I’m here until the next person gets here, which should be thirty minutes from now. Maybe, and that’s a big maybe, she’ll let me go early, but we’ll have to see. Why? You getting bored?”
“Well, you told me I couldn’t watch you, so what else am I supposed to do?”
“You would like to watch me, wouldn’t you?” she said in a low voice.
Roman raised an eyebrow at her. He absolutely loved her energy, and if it weren’t for the fact that he knew she was a non-exemplar, he would’ve thought she was at least a Type III Class E.
“We can figure that out later. For now, I’ll have that ocean drink you were raving about. And I’ll behave. It can’t be much longer till you
’re off work.”
Roman had experienced aggressive women before, but he’d never had one slam him against the wall outside his apartment building and start kissing him.
They were both lucky he had the wherewithal to keep his powers from activating. As Ava had said, his powers played off his instincts, and he’d actually felt a surge in his chest as she’d pushed him forward.
Harper was ready to go then and there.
There were enough shadows around that they could make it happen, and Roman’s stairwell wasn’t usually that busy anyway, as most people took the elevator.
Maybe a few years back, a different Roman would have gone for it, but there were laws and he had powers now; he didn’t want these things to mix.
Besides, he was only a few floors up.
“Let’s take the elevator,” he said between her kisses.
“Quickly,” was her only reply.
She hopped into his arms, and, carrying her, Roman made his way over to the elevator. He slammed her back into the elevator button and she cried out in pleasure and pain, that strange mixture.
When the elevator door opened, she hopped down and they both entered. She immediately grabbed his cock and continued kissing him passionately. As they kissed, he pulled at the back of her hair, extending her neck so he could kiss her throat and her chest.
“I like it,” she whispered as his hands went into her shirt and came up to her bra.
“You really are something,” Roman told her as he kissed her again.
They got to his floor and she hopped into his arms again, her legs wrapping around his body. He had the notion to blow his door off its hinges, so he didn’t have to fumble for his keys, but a small voice at the back of his mind reminded him that his power was secret.
He got his key out between Harper’s increasingly powerful kisses, and he opened the door as she bit at his lips.
His entire home had been rearranged and it was clean, cleaner than he’d seen it since the incident.
But that wasn’t the strangest or the most pressing matter.
Coma the love doll sat on the couch, on her knees, in a short skirt that barely covered her thighs. She had her hands over her breasts and before Roman could de-animate her, Harper turned to see the strange young woman with the jet black hair and striking red eyes.
“Who’s she?” asked Coma.
“Who the fuck is she?” Harper asked as she hopped out of his arms.
Coma played with a single strand of her hair. Her mask was removed, and Roman couldn’t decipher the look on her face.
“Is this your new lady friend?” Coma asked.
“I can explain,” Roman said hurriedly to Harper.
“No, it’s fine…” A grin spread across the waitress’s face. “I didn’t know this was the type of thing you were into.”
“What you mean?”
Harper took a step closer to Coma.
“Come closer,” Coma said.
Harper did as instructed, sitting on the couch next to Coma. She reached her hand to Coma’s face and cupped it, her thumb stroking against the skin on her cheek.
“Are you a super?” Harper asked.
Coma smiled. “Do you want to kiss me?”
“Sure,” said Harper.
Their lips met, and Roman just barely saw the red bar on his power dial spike up. He wasn’t breathing—this he was sure of—and as they kissed some more, he took a deep breath, noticing that the power dial responded, the red bar diminishing some.
“I’ve always wanted to try this,” Harper said, as she pulled away from Coma.
“Then let’s try it,” Roman said. He’d been in this kind of situation twice before, and knew better than to try to stop the momentum. “You two just kiss for a moment,” he told them as he started unbuttoning his shirt.
“Yeah,” said Harper, “kiss me.”
Coma did much more than that.
She moved onto Harper, pulling off the loose blouse she was wearing in the process. Coma let her breasts spill out and Harper responded, taking her nipple into her mouth and sucking on it for a moment.
Roman, who had practically ripped all his clothes off by this point, was on the periphery now, waiting for his opening.
At that moment, everything in his life that he hated, everything that was troubling him and causing him extreme anguish, vanished.
All he could do now was focus on the immediate pleasure presenting itself to him, the carnal offering. And that was the entire point of pleasure—it was a rewarding distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.
His animal instincts had taken over, and he watched hungrily as Harper continued to kiss Coma’s breasts.
Hell, he hadn’t even kissed Coma’s breasts; he had no idea what they would be like, the texture, the softness.
No idea.
He was almost jealous of the fact that Harper was the first to try, but he was also completely fascinated by the way they were moving, their female forms, their curves and their secrets.
Coma had her legs around Harper’s waist now, and she was bent over her, kissing her, both of them feeling each other, Coma’s hand behind her back and pressed firmly into Harper’s mound.
Roman dropped to his knees, stroking himself as he watched them go at it.
He was consumed by their sexual energy; he had to remind himself to breathe every now and then when his power dial flashed, the red bar creeping up.
He didn’t have time to process it at the moment, but he was starting to notice just how stitched he was to his creations.
This was something Ava hadn’t told him, that his powers could fluctuate based on his emotions.
Of course, this likely wasn’t her fault. How could she have known? His power was something entirely new to her.
“Aren’t you going to join us?” Harper asked through quick breaths.
“Join us, Roman. Try me,” Coma hissed. She wrapped her fingers around Harper’s neck, and, keeping her hand there, she began to pull at Harper’s shirt.
Roman stopped jerking.
Something about the way Coma was moving reminded him of himself, as if he were looking in a mirror.
She was a part of him, and it dawned on him in that moment that if he animated something else and gave it artificial intelligence, whatever he animated would also exhibit some part of him.
But which part?
Seeing Coma in control as she went down on Harper reminded Roman that there were other parts of him, darker places he had visited in the past, and they might arise if he wasn’t careful in what he animated.
He would have to be careful. But for now, he’d have his cake and eat it too.
Chapter Thirty: Ghost in the Administrative Building
“How much do you need to know about the location to travel there?” Nadine asked Lisa Painstake.
“Not much, really. If you can tell me what part of the city it’s in, that will narrow it down a little for me, and if I’ve ever seen the building before, then I’d definitely know how to find it.”
The two were in Nadine’s apartment, both sitting at her dining room table. Nadine had some plans laid out on the table, some instructions from her handler, something she would file after she got the information she was looking for.
“And all I have to do is touch you to travel with you, correct?”
Lisa nodded, the tips on her pink bouffant hopping up and down as she maintained eye contact with Nadine.
“Then we should do this from a more comfortable place. And to be clear, what happens if my real body somehow lets go of yours?”
“Then your shadow form will come back here. It can be a little painful, but I’ve had it happen before and you won’t die or anything.”
“I didn’t figure I’d die,” said Nadine, “but I want to make sure our bodies don’t somehow separate. Let’s do this from my bed.”
“Okay.”
A small part of Nadine was actually jealous of Lisa, her looks, the fact that she was from the Southern Al
liance and clearly well off, and that wasn’t to mention her incredible power. She swallowed this little feeling of jealousy as they moved to her bedroom.
“Get on the bed.”
Lisa did as instructed, Nadine retrieving a thin scarf from her closet. She sat next to Lisa and used the scarf to tie their wrists together before lying back.
“I’m sure there’s an easier way of doing this,” Nadine started to say.
“There is, but I don’t know you well enough for us to cuddle.”
Nadine smirked. “Got it. Well, I’m ready when you are.” She lay down and positioned her arm so it was under Lisa’s, their hands clasped.
And before she could even get comfortable, she was standing in her bedroom with Lisa at her side, both of them looking down at their bodies.
They were translucent, Lisa’s head encompassed by a golden halo.
“This is what it’s like? This is Soul Speed…” Nadine looked down at her hand and saw that she could see through it now, her Zero Ring missing. She also saw a thin stretch of energy akin to an umbilical cord connecting her phantom body to the body that lay on the bed.
Lisa nodded as she approached Nadine.
It had been a long time since Nadine had felt fear, even with the fact that she’d woken up just a few days ago strung up from the ceiling of a warehouse. Those things were typical for her line of work—she’d trained for most scenarios.
But seeing translucent Lisa pluck at Nadine’s light-filled umbilical cord bothered the hell out of her, made her feel small and insignificant, like she really was just a sack of flesh lying on a bed with her spirit gone from her body.
“This is what tethers us to our bodies,” Lisa said, pointing out the obvious.
She spun around once, and Nadine saw that the cord of light never left the front of her body.
“It doesn’t matter which way we move or how far we go.”
“And it can’t be cut?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Okay, so how do we go there from here? Don’t tell me we walk,” Nadine said, a half-assed attempt at a joke.
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