“Roman, you simply don’t know that.”
“No, I do know that. My power works quickly. It only takes me a second to kill someone. It’s not even that hard, Ava. And I’m not saying this in a threatening way or anything, I’m just saying that I could have ended this. And now…”
“She has Hazrat,” Coma said, scratching behind Bonbon’s ears.
“Yes, she has Hazrat, which will only make her more difficult to take out. And she has…”
“Roman, you can’t do this alone,” Ava said again.
“Then help me, or get out of my way,” he said with finality. “Either way, this is happening. I will die trying to stop her from ever doing this again. My wife, Ava. She animated her corpse. She killed my…”
“Who?” Ava asked.
“Harper, my… Well, I don’t really know what she was to me. My lady friend? Doesn’t matter now. She was nice to me, and I liked her.” Roman took a deep breath in. “There is no rhyme or reason to how Margo kills, no moral code, nothing. She just kills. And she wants to kill me.”
“Then we get you to another part of Centralia, let you lie low for a while and train. We bring in some of our heavy players to take her out. That’s how we do this.”
“But you see why I can’t have that, right?” Roman asked. “What’s the point of me having my power if someone is constantly going to be after me? What’s the point of running?”
“We would be able take care of her.”
“I hate to say this, and I mean no disrespect by it, but I highly doubt that you, or pretty much any exemplar you know will just be able to ‘take care of her.’ She fought during the Western Plague; she has Hazrat, Ian, and some other exemplar working for her.”
“Zelda. That’s the name of the other deceased exemplar,” said Ava. “We were able to get data from the second prison break at Prison South…”
Ava grew silent for a moment.
“Come again?” Roman asked.
“I don’t know how much of this I can tell you.”
“Well, by saying it like that, you’ve already shown me it’s something I need to know.”
Ava took her mask off, folded it, and placed it on a barstool.
“Centralia’s only healer was taken from the Prison South, and based on what we’ve been able to get using a telepath on those who witnessed it, one of the people responsible was a woman named Zelda, the one who is now dead and in Margo’s employ. The other people are a telepath named James Tew, a teleporter named Scarlett, one of the cat girls, the counterpart to the one you took out, this one named Obsidian and…”
“Kevin Blackbook?”
Roman shook his head; there was no way his bumbling former coworker had been able to successfully break into the most protected prison in the country. But Ava’s security clearance would definitely give her access to this kind of information. And why would she make this up? It just seemed impossible.
“Yes,” Ava said, “your former coworker.”
Roman eventually shrugged it off. “I don’t know what part Kevin plays in this, but I know what part I play, and the part I play is taking out Margo. I don’t care if Ian is there, I don’t care if Hazrat is there, and I don’t care if this power amplifier is there either. I am sorry to be like this, to be so…” Roman searched for the word. “Ornery? No, stubborn—yes, that’s the word. I’m sorry to be so goddamn stubborn about this, because I truly respect all that you have done, but I have to see this through, Ava.”
His teacher sat down on the couch next to Roman and placed a hand on his cheek.
“Deactivate Coma,” she said, and with the twitch of his finger, Coma went lifeless, Bonbon barking at her for a moment before giving up and hopping onto the floor.
“Roman, I don’t want you to get wrapped up in all this either. Aside from the political side of this equation, I don’t want harm to come to you. She will kill you.”
“Then help me,” Roman said, moving just a little bit closer to Ava, their faces now only a few inches apart.
“I don’t know…”
“Help me,” Roman said.
“I can’t,” she said as she moved in to kiss him.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Dinner with Coma
It was Ava who eventually stopped them from hooking up.
She was still crouched over Roman, her top unzipped, Roman fixated for a moment by the soft tones of her flesh, her large nipples red from his lips. For a moment he felt the urge to continue, his hands falling on Ava’s hips as she again moved back and forth, also not yet ready to give this up.
But she was right, and even though they both didn’t want this to end, Roman eventually stopped, wondering if their actions over the last several minutes had something to do with adrenaline.
“You’re right,” he whispered to her.
“It’s not that I don’t want to…”
“No, you’re right,” he said. “Right now isn’t the time for this.”
“But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.”
“I’m okay if it does, and I’m okay if it doesn’t,” Roman said coolly.
While an intense battle may be Ava’s element, the situation they’d just found themselves in was Roman’s, and he already could tell by the way she’d started moving her hips again that he could turn the tide in his favor…
But he didn’t want to now. Even with an erection, he realized that he needed to handle things, prepare for the hunt.
And not let being caught up in this strange moment get the best of him.
Emelia had already mental messaged him to let them know she could meet Roman at the shop in thirty minutes, that she was moving one of her appointments around. He appreciated this, and he wanted to show his appreciation by bringing her something, but he didn’t want to show up with flowers or something else cliché.
Chocolates?
Roman cringed at the dialogue running in his head.
None of that mattered at the moment; even if Emelia was going above and beyond, he could repay the favor later. What mattered now was getting Celia repaired, and possibly upgraded.
“I guess…” Ava zipped up her top slowly, allowing enough time for Roman to take one more glimpse at her breasts before they were concealed from the world.
He shook his head, a part of him wishing they had just finished what they had started here, realizing there would be tension between them until they did.
“I should probably go,” Roman said.
“No, you should stay. I can cook or…”
“Ava.”
“We could order some food, that would be nice. Would you like to go out? I know you were staying in one of Nadine’s safehouses, but you could stay here for the night. I have an extra room if…”
“Ava.”
“Yeah, sorry,” she said, sweeping her hand through her orange hair. “Maybe it’s better that you go.”
“Let me handle what I need to handle first,” Roman told her, “and then I will see if you’re still up.”
“That’s not the kind of relationship we’re going to have,” Ava told him firmly.
“I understand.” She got off his lap and sat next to him, her cheeks as red as he had ever seen them.
Roman knew he needed to be careful with Ava; aside from the fact that he genuinely liked her companionship, she was a fire user, and she could bring the building down if she wanted. A small part of him wondered what it would be like for her to orgasm, if there were flames involved, but he quickly tried to scrub that thought from his mind, focusing on the task at hand.
Repairing Celia.
“I’ll send you a message after I see to the repairs.”
“Do not go after Margo,” Ava reminded him. “We have people watching your home; I’ll know if you do something.”
“So that’s where she returned to?” Roman asked.
Ava nodded. “She probably went there because she knows it’ll get under your skin. You can’t let her get under your skin, Roman. A good part of this
battle will be psychological. And I don’t know how we’re going to go after her yet,” Ava said honestly, “but if I can somehow loop you into it, I will. How’s that?”
“Mister Fist isn’t going to like that, is he?”
“He may be the leader of the group, but I have more clout in the government than he does, especially with my sister’s position. Fist is a good soldier, and if he receives an order from a higher up, he will follow it without question. It’s sort of his fatal flaw, if you ask me. But he’s the most famous of all of us; people appreciate that in him.”
“I always wondered why your exemplar team didn’t have a name…”
“Because it doesn’t need a name. There have been multiple exemplars on the team, the pillar being Mister Fist.”
Roman placed Casper in the pocket of his jacket. He waved his hand at Coma and she came to life, her red eyes jumping between Roman and Ava.
“We are going to see about Celia,” Roman informed her.
“Good, I was hoping that was next,” Coma said.
A teleporter appeared, a registered one with stringy arms and white hair on his neck.
Once he confirmed the address, Roman heard a loud clap at the back of his head. Before he could respond, he was standing in front of a diner, Coma to his right.
“Thanks,” Roman told the teleporter as the man zipped away again, Roman not hearing a clapping sound this time.
It was dark out now, the street lit yellow by a pair of lamps. The entrance to the red-light district was across the street, which was where they’d find Emelia.
Realizing that he probably shouldn’t be walking around with the head under his arm, Roman quickly took off his jacket and wrapped Celia’s head in it. He carefully folded Casper and stuffed the doll in his jacket bundle as well.
“Shall we?” Roman asked, looking toward the diner, the bundle now tucked under his arm.
“Sure.” Coma stepped aside, letting a couple pass in front of them.
They lined up behind the couple, and when a seat by the window was available, they took it, Roman ordering a cup of tea and an Eastern Province meat pie.
The diner was busy, the sound of clinking glasses and knives scraping against plates meeting Roman’s ears. The people sitting in front of them were loud; the people behind them a little quieter, the couple to their left having some sort of argument.
“So…” Coma started to say.
“Coma, thank you,” he said, a smile lifting his cheeks.
“Why are you thanking me?” she asked.
“You have been there from the start of all this, and you’ve just been incredible. I really don’t know what to say other than that. I just have so much respect for what you’ve contributed, how you’ve grown, learned.”
“Why are you talking this way?” Coma asked.
“Because I don’t know what happens after this,” Roman admitted. “If Margo kills me, it’s the death of you as well, and that very well may happen. So I just want to say what’s in my heart just in case I don’t have a chance to say it later.”
“We should train more,” Coma said. “I think I could do more damage with your power.”
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t see? I was able to do something to Margo’s body.”
“What?” Roman asked, waiting for the waitress to set a cup of tea down. She scampered off and he returned his focus to Coma. “What did you do to her?”
“If only I had been more powerful, I think could have killed her for you.”
“How?” Roman asked.
“I animated her clothing, and started to strangle her with it, just seconds before the mist came.”
“But I didn’t see…”
“You might not have seen it, but she definitely felt it,” said Coma. “I think she would have disappeared anyway. I saw it in her eyes.”
“You saw what?”
“Fear.”
“I didn’t know…”
“I wanted to tell you in private, because I don’t think Mister Fist and his group really understand how much power you can transfer to me. You gave me a lot more than you normally do, and I figured it would be best to keep that a secret between us.”
“Yes, a secret,” Roman said, laying his hand on the table, palm up. Coma dropped her gloved hand into his, keeping it there as they shared their moment.
“I think this is just the start of what we may be able to do. But we need more training, more practice before we really move in for the kill,” said Coma, a flash of hatred painting across her red eyes. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“But we have to do it,” Roman said, “we have to.”
Chapter Twenty-Five: Forces at Play
Margo lifted up through the floor, a bubble around her body, Hazrat next to her, Paris the doll too. She collapsed to one knee, and Paris helped her over to Roman’s couch.
Celia’s dead body sat on the couch, her hands crossed over her lap, her head down, the woman currently dead. Zelda the power replicator and Ian were near the door, both of them still standing, neither too concerned with what Margo was going through.
Whatever Roman’s doll had done, the effect had lingered, and Margo had torn her top off to let her skin breathe.
She’d still seen the mission through—she’d still retrieved Hazrat—but that was only because this was what Margo had been conditioned to do, to never let the mission fall to the wayside.
Roman’s doll had been going for Margo’s clothing, but she ended up animating some of her skin as well, the skin on her arms, chest, stomach, even Margo’s face tightening just before she’d disappeared.
It had been a very long time, not since she got the scars that lined the bottom side of her face, that Margo had been attacked in a way that scared her.
And she knew exactly why what the doll had done was so frightening. It meant that Roman could…
No, Margo thought, I’m the only person who can use this power in that way.
But proof was there, and the fact that he was able to imbue his doll with his power was something she hadn’t prepared or accounted for.
Margo could do the same, but she much preferred to give other beings life after killing them, letting them use their own power, which seemed to gel better and not overcharge her.
It had been a long time since she’d paid much attention to going overboard with her own power. While troublesome, most exemplars were beatable, especially if Margo just focused on giving each of them a brain aneurysm.
It wouldn’t be her first resort; no, Margo actually looked forward to bit of a challenge, but it would be something she would eventually call upon, especially if they closed in.
But what Roman could do…
Margo finally smiled.
Sitting on Roman’s couch, topless, with Paris next to her and Celia on the other side, Margo felt vulnerable for once. And she liked it.
There was something almost arousing about the fear she was experiencing, something that made her want to touch herself.
She knew this sudden change in emotion came from adrenaline, that men and women had separate ways of handling it afterward, and she didn’t always get horny after a fight, but she sometimes did.
Regardless, now wasn’t the time for those sorts of shenanigans.
Now was the time to reach out to her government.
Well, maybe…
Margo’s hand fell between her legs. She pressed her fingers onto the front of her pants, lightly feeling the lips of her vagina through the fabric.
“You look like you’re having fun,” Paris the doll told her.
“You don’t suffer from adrenaline,” Margo said, breathing a little more heavily than normal.
“How does it feel?”
“Adrenaline?”
“Yes.”
“It feels to me like everything is coming at you at once, yet you’re still able to decipher different parts, almost like a slow-moving puzzle. If that makes any sense.”
“No,
it doesn’t make sense to me,” Paris said.
“It’s fine, you don’t need to understand it. I just need you to be a good little warrior for me,” Margo told her, her hand coming around the doll’s neck. She brought Paris in close and kissed her, still touching herself as she did so.
“We’re going to need to clean this place up a little bit,” Margo said when she pulled Paris’s neck away. “My people will probably be visiting.”
“Your people?”
“Yes, even handlers have handlers, and I’ve been a naughty girl,” Margo said with an evil chuckle. “But all that changes soon. To get to Roman, I’m going to have to fight dirty.”
“Don’t you already fight dirty?”
“In that case, I’m going to have to fight nasty.”
James Tew explained to Kevin that Roman’s apartment was being monitored by both the Centralian and Eastern Province governments.
“Shit, won’t be easy to attack her then, will it?” Kevin asked, glad that he’d sent the telepath to scout ahead.
They were at a new location, a spot cherry-picked by Turquoise and Obsidian, who had poisoned the owners and tied them up, putting them in the basement. The healer was there as well, in the other room, the old woman asleep at the moment, Obsidian occasionally checking in on her.
It was the nicest home they had taken shelter in so far, a wonderful place in the Robmon District with an actual gate out front and a backyard garden.
“The only way I can think of moving in would be through a teleporter. If government forces haven’t done it yet, that means that Margo has company.”
“Crap,” Kevin said, lightly punching a fist into his open palm. “This really isn’t how I wanted things to play out.”
“We should leave her alone,” Turquoise said.
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