by Aidy Award
Apollo blanched and took a step back. “Thank you for the invite, but I have to…uh.”
Kady wrinkled her nose at him. “You need to work on your alibi a little bit better than that if you don’t want your future in-laws to figure out your shenanigans with their daughter.”
Ace snort laughed while Trip and Kurjerkwad stared at Apollo. Guess they weren't the only ones out trying to get laid. “Ha, busted, Goldilocks.”
Kady smacked Ace in the arm. “You'd better find a good excuse not to be there too. With your good looks and sex-appeal every woman in Rogue has RSVPd to this shindig hoping to cozy up to you, or you, or you.” She pointed to him, Trip and Jerkwad.
Neo’s laugh cut off mid guffaw. “I’m not entirely comfortable with you thinking the warriors of the Black Dragon Brotherhood are sexy.”
“Oh, come on. Those scowls alone have half the women in town swooning over them.”
That was the first he’d heard of anyone in Rogue even thinking twice about him. Who exactly were these swooners? He was about to ask, but Neo and Kady had already forgotten anyone else was even there.
“Scowls, huh? You like when I get all bossy with you, huh?”
She patted his cheek and her fingers definitely lingered. “Maybe.”
Ew. Ace grabbed Trip and Jerkwad's shirts and backed them both away before they had to see something they really didn’t want to. Like the intensity of Neo and Kady's love, mushy pet names, and other intimacies between mates. “I think I need to wash my eyes out with some very strong alcohol. Sleepy Folk? We can discuss this plan there.”
Rogue was small enough that it only took a few minutes to walk from the Reserve to the Old Town area where the wolves' bar and pie shop were. They ordered drinks and Apollo handed them tablets. Schematics for the cult's base they’d rescued Neo from were on the screens.”
“This is phase one of our plan. You three are on snatch and grab duty. Get in, get the scientist working in this lab and get out.” Apollo pointed to the highlighted area and zoomed in on the floor plans. “Ella hacked some secret server and got intel that they've been working on a containment field for the shadow warriors. She thinks we can turn that into a weapon against them.”
“What does the AllWyr think?” Trip asked.
Kurjerkwad snarled. “The AllWyr can fuck off.”
Ace examined the map and calculated all the ways this could go wrong. “Do you have more details on the scientist? Is he ready to flip, work with us?”
Apollo shook his head. “We don't know, so you should go in expecting a hostile. But we need that scientist’s knowledge and skills, so no killing anyone.”
“Ah, you're no fun.” Jerkwad ground one fist against his palm.
“Get in, get out with the scientist and then we’ll deal with the rest.” Apollo wasn’t normally the one giving orders and he wasn’t entirely comfortable with it either. Ace might taunt him, but the kid was a future Wyvern, and they could all see the potential in him, even if he couldn't see it himself.
“We’ll get him here. Neo can flip him. If he can’t, then I get to kill him, right?” Anyone who worked for those scumbags didn’t have a long life ahead of them anyway.
“Just get him here. Ella has reason to believe the cult has been keeping all but their upper ranks in the dark about the shadow warriors, so any scientists or pencil pushers they have working for them may not know what kind of organization they’re working for or the danger.”
Yeah, right. How could anyone not know the Cult of the Dead meant the end of all that was good in the world?
“There’s something else you aren’t telling us.” Jerkwad eyed Apollo. If anyone knew when someone was hiding something, he did. “This is a two-man job. Where’s Trip in all of this?”
The third demon dragon to rise from hell with them and join the Black Dragon Brotherhood was a quiet but deadly operator. “Jett has separate orders for me. I cannot and will not divulge them until the mission is complete and we debrief.”
Not exactly surprising. Jett was secretive as shit these days, but he'd do anything to save Yvaine.
Ace and Jerkwad nodded. “We’ll meet you back in Rogue then.”
Not for the first time, he was finding it hard to concentrate on the mission ahead, which was stupid of him. Even more so after thinking about Jett and Yvaine he wanted to know what his future held, who his mate would be and if he would be able to protect her. His head was still back at that motel. Not on the woman, but on the fact that he’d been wrong about her.
If Yvaine, the epitome of all that was good in this world, could fall prey to the darkness that was the shadow, even with Jett to keep her safe, how would he ever be able to keep his mate from being taken over by his own darkness?
Nerd Girl vs the Universe
Ash
Ash hummed as she tinkered with the math on her latest calculations. A little tweak here and move this over here and maybe, just maybe, the containment field she’d been working on for months would work this time.
She’d continued to sing a tune while she put her experiment back to work. Studies had linked math and musical genius. She was a genius, according to some dumb tests, which didn’t really matter to her. Music helped her think. She always had a song stuck in her head anyway. Like always. Today it was the theme song to Scooby-Doo.
Saturday mornings were no longer for chores and beatings, like they had been in her foster home. It took more than a few bruises to learn her lesson not to let anyone catch her watching TV back then. Her guilty pleasure these days was to escape into the worlds of Marvel, DC, and any other comic book retelling. To this day, she refused to believe that there was anything bad about a group of friends catching the bad guys.
Not that friends were not her strong suit. She was a little too weird for most people, and she kept too many secrets for real friends. No matter how hard she tried to fit in, she simply didn’t.
Not really knowing who she was didn’t help.
Ash pushed her glasses back up her nose and punched in some new numbers, making adjustments to the electromagnetic fluid she was using to create her transient medium plasma field. She needed it to do more than protect against a shockwave if she was going to use it to contain the… creatures.
The first time she’d seen one of the non-photonic beings was outside of her own home. Something had been beating against her window, forming cracks over the glass, but not on it. Even through a haze of fear, the scientist in her wanted to investigate.
Another instinctual part of her told her to pray. She’d lost any faith in a higher power long ago, but there was something to asking the Universe for help. That’s what she did.
It wasn’t the first time she’d used her secret magic to protect herself. Ash shivered and pushed that memory back down into the depths of her psyche where it belonged. She was a scientist, dammit, not a witch.
Luckily for her crisis of faith in science, the very next day a team from the Organization, also known as OWL, looking like the Men in Black had shown up. They'd told her they were fighting against terrorists bent on destroying the human race and that she could help.
Kapow. That was the day her head exploded. Privately funded organizations circumventing the government's bureaucratic red tape by going rogue, secret underground bunkers filled with scientists doing work she hadn't thought was possible, and special ops teams who went on missions to save the world. All of it – real.
No one had ever asked for her help before. There was no way she was saying no to that.
The Organization paid off her mountain of school loans. Doctorates in experimental particle physics hadn’t exactly made her Richey Rich. They’d funded this lab hidden under the old Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant and put her to work in it. Unlike her colleagues working at universities all over the world, her operations were well beyond theoretical.
Now she got to catch bad guys. Or, well, she worked for the people who did anyway. Which was why she was back here in the lab on a Saturday mo
rning trying to channel her inner Spock.
It’s not like she had anything else to do. No hot dates for her. These days she was too busy for relationships anyway. Cartoons, comic books, and her cat Flerken, kept her happy. Mostly.
A couple more taps at the computer and she was ready to try again. “Come on my little electrons, be free today.”
Ash kept a close watch on the screen where the data flew by. Yes. There it was, a spike in the numbers showing the formation of the plasma field. It was working. She jumped over to the second computer and prepared to ignite the contained blast that could emulated the force of the non-photonic beings. Before she could launch the explosion, the numbers crashed and her plasma medium dissipated into nothingness.
She sighed and noted the results. A few seconds of field stabilization was a lot longer than before, so there was that. Maybe she should go back to using the large electrical currents instead of the magnetic induction.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t be wiser to be working with the new data on superfluid quasicrystal states or Bose-Einstein condensate?” A woman with red, like fire engine red, hair spoke from behind Ash, scaring her enough that she fell right off her chair.
Ash pulled herself up off the floor, checked to see that her heart was still beating and took a deep breath. “Holy Nikola Tesla. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
The sneaker-upper speaker was clearly nonplussed with Ash, as usual. She took off her jacket and rolled up her sleeves like she was going to help Ash with her work. “It’s my lab, I can sneak wherever I need to.”
Her lab? Ash glanced to the badge hanging from the lanyard around the women’s neck. Uh, no. Wait. That wasn’t any kind of identification she’d seen on anyone in OWL. Was it even a badge? More like a piece of sparkling, glowing jewelry that looked vaguely familiar.
“I’m sorry. You are?” Ash stamped down the strange buzz beneath her skin that this woman's presence brought on.
Red crossed her arms. “Waiting for you to live up to your reputation. I assumed you’d have the weap— containment field ready by now.”
Two men in black, wearing their stupid sunglasses inside came into the lab behind this completely irritating lady. “Ma’am. We have incoming.”
“Those stupid bastards.” She grabbed a small tablet, punched at it and then glared at Ash. “Lock down this lab and prepare for evacuation. When we get you to a new secure location, you get your ass into gear. I need that,” she pointed at the area that contained the experiment, “to work, like yesterday.”
She hurried out of the room and Ash followed her to the exit snagging Red's coat along the way. Ash had about a million and a half questions including exactly how much danger they were all in. The woman was moving like a fire was lit under her ass and was halfway up the hallway. Poop. There was no catching her and the MIBs didn't seem to care that their boss had left her jacket behind. Ash swung the heavy metal door shut and punched the keypad to lock the emergency deadbolt.
If they were under attack that would hold the bad guys off long enough for her to back up her data and erase everything else. If the terrorists or whoever it was that had brought the non-photonic beings into existence were to get their hands on her or her experiment… it would be bad. Like Batman Vs Superman bad, like Tesla vs Edison disastrous.
Ash rushed around, punching codes into computers, rifling through drawers to find a stupid external hard drive, and swearing. She swung the bottom desk drawer open and was met by a hiss and a growl.
“Sorry Flerkie. I didn’t mean to disturb your nap, but this is an emergency.” The cranky kitty she’d gotten from the shelter when she was in that witch phase, had been clingy and needy lately. Ash had started sneaking her into work and didn't feel even a little bit bad about it.
Flerken spent the majority of the day curled up in the blanket Ash had put in the file drawer of her desk. It had never shut right anyway, and Flerken easily pushed it open to come and go as she pleased.
Ash picked her cat up and snuggled her under one arm while rooting around under the blanket. “Aha. I knew I had a spare drive lying around here somewhere. Thanks, Flerkie.”
“Meow.”
“Sorry. You’ll have to go back in the kitty carrier bag. I promise some extra treats when we get home.” Ash pulled out the bag that looked more like a big pink purse than an animal carrier, and after some maneuvering got Flerken inside.
“Meow.” This sound was quite a bit more insistent than the last one.
“I know. Sorry about that. Tuna for you tonight.” Assuming they survived the terrorist attack.
She shoved the cord for the external hard drive into her computer, her fingers flew over the keyboard, and her data began its arduous download.
“Miss. You need to evacuate this area.” Security dude said from behind her.
Ash continued to watch the bar showing the percentage of her download creep across the screen. “Yeah, yeah. Be there in a minute.”
“Now,” he demanded.
Er muh Gerrrrd. They pick now to be alphaholes? Usually, the MIBs left her alone to do her job. “I’m not going anywhere until I get my experiments backed up. There’s no way I’m starting over. Trust me, you don’t want the super-secret sneaky spy terrorists getting their hands on my research.”
She heard the men cross the room but kept her eye on the data dump. Eighty-nine percent. Almost there.
“Mee-oow.”
The screen flickered. Uh-oh. Had the attack started?
“You’re the physicist?” Wow. His voice was low and too sexy for his shirt.
“Yes. It’s the twenty-first century. Women can be smart too.” Blockheads.
Ninety-two percent. Come on, come on.
Before the bar hit ninety-three her chair spun around, and she was looking up at two of the tallest, muscley-est, hot Men In Black she’d ever seen.
All the MIBs were tall, but these two were taller, and wider, and buffer. Wait. She’d never seen one of these sunglasses wearing lunkheads that were this good-looking. She'd sort of assumed they had to be red-faced, roided out, and unfortunate looking to even get hired.
“Are you the scientist working on the weapon that intercepts the shadow warrior's forces and attenuates its energy density that can harness them in place?” The one on the left asked her.
What were shadow warriors – did they mean the non-photonic beings?
The MIB to her right grabbed her arm and something that felt like a shock, but not painful, shot through her body. A burst of light exploded from his chest, blinding her for a minute.
Whoa. What was that?
Ash felt like she’d been wrapped in a warm blanket and fed every aphrodisiac on the planet. That was the only explanation she could come up with for the zings zipping through her body.
“Mine.” His voice was a low deep growl that sent all kinds of naughty thoughts spinning through her mind. “She’s the one.”
Her chest went itchy with warmth as her body lit on fire in a combination of embarrassment and sexual alertness. That needed to stop right now. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her, besides not having a sexy-times relationship, but she would not allow herself to fantasize over a coworker. How completely inappropriate.
Even if he was ultra-hot. Like a super hero power – Super Duper Hot Man.
Geez. Stop.
“Sorry guys, I think you’ve got the wrong department.” She tried to yank her arm away. “I’m working on a containment field for the non-photonic beings. I don’t do weapons. So, let go.”
Instead of releasing her, the one who had her arm ripped off his sunglasses, hugged her to him and kissed her.
He kissed her.
In her lab.
Right in front of the other guy.
In the middle of a terrorist attack.
And then he kissed her
Ash
Ash pressed her hands up against his chest to push him away. This was not supposed to happen. It had to be the adrenaline.
She’d seen a million disaster movies where people randomly hooked up with someone because they thought it was the end of the world. She doubted that was the case now. OWL was a big, bad, well-funded private spy and security organization. They were going to stop the bad guys and their monsters from taking over the world.
Her hands and arms did not obey her will. Instead of pushing him away, she found her arms slipping over his shoulders and around his neck. All that was missing was the cinematic movie music and some fireworks. What a kiss it was.
He pushed his way into her mouth, but not all bossy like some guys. Gently, like he was asking for her consent, but fully expecting her to give it. Which, of course, she did. It wasn't so much her giving her permission, more like begging him with her lips and tongue to have his babies.
He tasted like bourbon and chocolate and pyroclastic volcanic eruptions. The more she kissed him, the more she wanted to.
Her heart skipped a beat, then another. How, what, who even was she right now? She’d obviously gotten caught up in the burst of chemicals her brain was dumping into her system because of the danger and her sex-deprived body was like – yippee!
“Enough.” The other one interrupted. “Whether she is the one or not, she has the knowledge the Brotherhood needs. We have to get her out of here.”
Brotherhood? Must be a deep undercover division of the MIB.
The kisser broke with a quick nip to her bottom lip and pressed his forehead against hers. Then he pulled away, stared into her eyes a minute, and winked at her.
“She’s the one.” His eyes twinkled so beautifully when he said that.
She shook her head. She wasn’t anybody’s one. Except maybe Flerken's. “I don’t think I am whoever you’re looking for. But thanks for the kiss. I’ve got to get back to downloading my information and erasing these hard drives.”
The computer dinged, and the screen showed the bar filled to one hundred.
She reached for the little black box and something like bolts of electricity shot through the room. That wasn’t an accurate description, but Ash didn’t know what else to call them. She did know exactly what those bolts though. Damn. This wasn't the time or place or company.
