by Wyatt Kane
That provoked a saucy smile from Tempest. “Really? You’re going to just let me have him all to myself?”
Dinah laughed. “You wish,” she said. “Or—maybe. As long as I can watch.”
This time it was Tempest who laughed. Ty just lay there, blushing slightly and wondering at how much his life had changed. Sure, he had a far greater chance of being killed than before, but it was definitely worth it! He’d never even dreamed he could be so lucky as to have anyone like Tempest and Dinah in his life.
The women got him to sit up, then spent the next few minutes wrapping him in snug bandages that covered both his shoulder and leg. About mid-way through the process, Gremlin appeared in the doorway and offered a mournful meow. Ty glanced over to see his faithless, furry companion looking at him with an uncertain expression. But before he could even try to entice her over, the cat turned and strolled away.
Typical, he thought.
“So, how’s that feel?” Dinah asked.
Tentatively, Ty moved his shoulder about. The analgesic was excellent. He could feel the warmth of the bandage and knew that there was something going on, but there was almost no pain at all.
“Good,” he said. “Really good. Thank you. I feel like I could take on Bain himself without any problems.”
The deerkin smiled and shook her head. “Maybe you should rest for a bit first,” she said. Then she grew more serious. “But speaking of that, what actually happened? How did you get hurt?”
The last of the sexual tension faded from the room. Tempest’s expression became grim, and that grimness reflected Ty’s own mood very well.
“One of Rubio’s men was wearing a device. Called himself Steam. You can guess why,” Ty said.
The deerkin nodded. “How did he get through your shield?”
“He didn’t. Not really. Just heated it up from the outside. My shield stops most things, but heat?” He shrugged his shoulders, and was happy to note that his injury barely offered a protest. “Apparently, not so much.”
“So, what are you going to do about it?” Dinah asked.
“I guess I have to figure out a way to avoid getting cooked,” Ty said. “Maybe add some sort of heatsink to my shield. But that’s only part of the problem.”
“What’s the other part?”
“I can answer that,” Tempest said. “The other part is that this Steam character isn’t easy to hit.”
Dinah looked from Tempest to Ty, and back again. “What do you mean?”
“He’s insubstantial,” Ty answered. “I hit him with everything I had, and it just went straight through him.” He thought about it for a moment. “Or maybe not ‘straight through’. He felt the stronger blasts, at least.”
Coming up with a way to combat that was yet another project for Ty to add to his list. An important one, to be sure, but so was replicating Tempest’s healing factor, making it easier for them to get through the house shield, and figuring out how to use his talent to repair a hole in the wall of the apartment he still technically shared with Brad. And then there were the tasks that weren’t exactly essential, but which he wanted to do anyway. Like working out how to fly.
“You’ll figure it out,” Dinah said, smiling broadly.
Ty returned her smile. It was nice to have someone in his life who actually believed in him. He was trying to work out how to express his thanks when all three of their devices pinged at once.
Someone with a device of their own was trying to contact them.
◆◆◆
Dinah was fastest. She tapped the button on her device to pick up the call.
It was Lilith. A succubus made flesh in the same way that Dinah had been made into a deerkin, Lilith had the horns, wings, and tail of a demoness, and the hooves to match. It was beautiful work, done by a master, and Dinah’s device projected her in all her glory as a holographic image floating in front of them.
The time Lilith had spent in Bain’s containment cell had left her dirty and disheveled, but even that hadn’t been enough to hide her beauty. Now, she was clean. And her allure was undeniable. She shone like a well-polished diamond.
Ty felt his usual confused reaction to her infernal loveliness. There was no denying how he felt about Dinah and Tempest, and surely they should be enough for anyone. So why did he feel that same pull toward this woman?
“Um, hi,” Lilith said tentatively.
“What do you want?” Tempest asked, full of suspicion.
“I was just … I wondered if it would be okay to come by.” Lilith was visibly nervous, yet seemed hopeful as well.
Tempest and Dinah exchanged a quick glance, and Ty understood why. Their relationship with Lilith was convoluted at best and actively antagonistic at worst. As a servant of the Master, Lilith had fought against both Tempest and Ty, and the device she wore on her wrist used to belong to Dinah.
And yet, Lilith had acted under duress. The Master had held her father hostage.
“Is this you asking? Or is it Bain?” Dinah asked.
“No, no, no, I’m done with them!” Lilith said, her eyes flashing and her expression full of denial. “After you helped me with my father, I’ve got no reason to go back. Except maybe for revenge.”
Ty believed her, but he’d always trusted her more than Tempest and Dinah did. “Why do you want to come here?” he asked, acutely aware that none of them could stop her if she really wanted to. The shield Ty had made couldn’t prevent the demon-woman from teleporting right into the med bay if she so wished.
“I just want a few minutes to talk, that’s all. If you don’t want me there, I’ll leave. And I’ll never come back, I promise.”
“And what if we don’t want you here at all?” Tempest asked, clearly far from happy with the idea.
“Then I’ll just hang up. And I won’t bother you again.”
Dinah looked thoughtful. “Give us a moment,” she said, and did something with her device that made the image of Lilith freeze in place. She turned to Ty and Tempest. “She’s on mute. What do you say?”
“She’s dangerous,” said Tempest. “That power of hers is difficult to combat. If she wanted to, she could spirit any of us away, and there wouldn’t be anything we could do to stop her.”
Dinah agreed. “You’re right. But she could do that anyway, at any time. If that’s what she wanted, why would she bother to contact us at all?”
It was a good point, and Tempest reluctantly nodded. “Then sure. Why not?”
Dinah switched her focus to Ty. “Ty?”
“I don’t think she wants to do us any harm,” he said. “I trust her.”
Dinah stifled a smirk and said, “I bet you do.” But before Ty could ask what she meant, she continued. “There is also the fact that she wears a device. The Architect didn’t give it to her. Just like Ty was when he gained Zach’s, she is largely unknown. This should give us a chance to find out more about her intentions.”
Both Ty and Tempest acknowledged the point with a nod. When Ty had gained his device, Tempest and Dinah had worried that he might prove to be a force of disruption, like Bain. They’d wanted to keep an eye on him as well.
The deerkin smiled. “All right, then,” she said. She touched her device and un-froze the image of Lilith. “Can you give us five minutes? Meet you at the main door.”
9: Fruit Cupcakes
As soon as the call ended, Dinah suggested to Ty that he might want to get dressed. “Unless you think greeting her wearing nothing but skin has become a tradition?” she asked with a wry eyebrow raised.
Ty snorted. When Lilith first appeared to him and Dinah in the deerkin’s bedroom, it had been the middle of the night. Both Ty and Dinah had been naked in the sheets, which had resulted in an awkward moment or two during the confrontation.
Thinking about the episode brought a smile to Ty’s lips as he followed the deerkin’s suggestion. But Dinah’s thoughts went in a different direction.
“Speaking of which, how about you get your police baton? Just in cas
e?”
It was a good thought. The police baton delivered an electric jolt powerful enough to stop a charging bull, and it was their only effective defense against Lilith’s power.
As soon as he was dressed, he left to find the weapon.
◆◆◆
When the police baton wasn’t extended, it looked like no more than a cylinder of cool steel just a few inches long. He found it where he’d left it in Dinah’s bedroom and tucked it away in his pocket. He didn’t expect to need it, but couldn’t see any harm in having it on hand just in case.
By the time he approached Tempest and Dinah at the mansion entrance, Lilith had arrived.
She was standing just outside the sliding glass door, and she looked even more stunning in person than she did in holographic form. The hologram projected by Dinah’s device couldn’t adequately convey the luminous quality of her beauty. To Ty, only Tempest and Dinah were able to match her, and the three of them in one place was enough to leave him gaping.
It was like being in a candy store where everything looked equally delicious. Yet Dinah and Tempest were both familiar to him, and Lilith less so. His eyes settled on her on the other side of the glass.
Slightly taller than Tempest, Lilith was more voluptuous as well. The alterations that had given her demonic wings and other features had also tinted her skin slightly pink to match the darker shade of her hair. She wore a one-piece, leather costume that barely covered her torso, sheer leggings, and blood-red gloves that extended past her elbows.
There was a heart-shaped window over her perfectly flat belly, and her entire ensemble did nothing to hide the exquisite perfection of her shape.
Despite the unquestionable appeal of everything else, it was her face that drew Ty’s attention the most. Carved by the finest of sculptors, she was a picture of green-eyed innocence. Yet the determination and courage Ty had seen before remained in her expression as well. It gave her substance, he thought. Without it, she may have been beautiful, but perhaps almost too doll-like.
“Have you got the remote?” Dinah asked, her expression mixing appraisal with her usual smile. Tempest’s reaction to Lilith’s appearance was more circumspect, and Gremlin had deigned to rejoin them. The cat was winding herself around Dinah’s hooved feet and looked at Lilith with overt suspicion.
Ty didn’t know if the deerkin was addressing him or Tempest, but he dug into his pocket and clicked off the mansion’s shield, acutely aware of the irony. He had created the shield at least in part to keep Lilith out.
As soon as the blue nimbus vanished, Dinah stepped forward and the door slid open.
“Lilith,” Dinah said with the smile of a perfect hostess. “You look magnificent. Please, come in. Tell me, have you been formally introduced to everyone? This is Tempest, and you know Ty of course, and my name is Dinah. And what is that you brought with you?”
As Dinah spoke, Ty realized he’d been so distracted by Lilith’s beauty that he had completely failed to notice until then that she was carrying a decent-sized, woven basket.
“Oh,” the succubus said. She held her basket awkwardly, as if intending to offer it over. Then she hesitated, looking briefly at Ty before focusing on Tempest. “I brought an assortment of fresh berries and fruit. You know, the type of thing that can be hard to come by in town. Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for everything I did. And I realize I didn’t thank you properly for helping me and my father. So, thank you. It means everything to me that my father is safe.”
She apologized mostly to Tempest, but included both Dinah and Ty in her thanks. It looked as if she wanted to say more, but she hesitated and awkwardly shrugged her shoulders. She held the basket out to Dinah.
Tempest didn’t say anything, but her body language softened a little, and Ty just grinned. “You are very welcome,” Dinah said, accepting Lilith’s offering. “And thank you. Come on. Let’s take this to the kitchen and see what we can do with it.”
The deerkin spun on her hooves, turning her words into action, her graceful movement leaving gremlin more exposed than the cat wanted to be. Realizing that Dinah had gone, the black furball stared at Lilith for a moment, then pinned back her ears and hissed once as if to show her displeasure. Then she sauntered casually away with her tail in the air, acting for all the world as if nothing had happened.
“Oh,” Lilith said again, but Ty laughed.
“Don’t worry about her,” he said. “Gremlin has a mind of her own and doesn’t generally like people much. Well, except for Dinah.”
Lilith managed a smile, and just like that, much of the tension faded, although Tempest still didn’t look entirely happy. The three of them followed the deerkin to the kitchen.
◆◆◆
As Dinah took the contents out of the basket and placed them on the bench as if considering her options. Ty hesitated. “Would you like a hand?” he asked, aware that Lilith appeared to be on the verge of saying the same thing.
But Dinah waved them both off. “No,” she said. “Sit down. This is my thing, remember?”
They did so, and Ty couldn’t hide his interest in what Lilith had brought. In a city the size of New Lincoln, it was possible to purchase literally anything, at a price. But in Ty’s living memory, apricots, peaches, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries had always been luxury items. Sure, most of the markets sold them, but they were seldom fresh, and were typically priced way outside Ty’s normal budget.
These ones were fresh. So fresh they might have been picked within the hour. Yet they were neatly wrapped, the berries in square, see-through plastic packages with the larger fruits packed singly in soft sleeves to prevent bruises.
Ty couldn’t help himself. “Where did you get these?” he asked.
Lilith had taken the stool next to him. She smiled in obvious delight at the appreciation. “I didn’t always live in the city. When I was young, before my birth father died, we lived in a small town surrounded by farms.” As she spoke, her expression became wistful for an earlier time. “It’s been years since I’ve been able to go back. But now, it’s easy. I can go anywhere. I just need to know where, and I can be there in an instant.”
Ty glanced at the device on the demon woman’s wrist. Not for the first time, he wondered if it might be possible for him to duplicate Lilith’s skill. He didn’t enjoy the experience of being teleported, but he could certainly see the appeal.
Not even Tempest’s speed could compete with Lilith’s ability to simple be wherever she wanted to go.
Dinah leaned over the fruit, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. “Mmmmm,” she said. “You can smell the freshness. Delicious. Who wants to try some fruit and berry cupcakes?” she asked.
Ty didn’t even hesitate. “Me,” he said. He hadn’t ever eaten so well before the deerkin had come into his life. But Lilith looked a little uncertain, so Ty encouraged her. “You’ll love them. One of Dinah’s skills is ‘culinary intuition’.”
“Well, okay then,” the demon woman said. “Yes, please.”
Even Tempest, who had seated herself on Ty’s other side, seemed enthusiastic about the idea, although her enthusiasm competed with a lingering apprehension over Lilith’s presence.
“Great!” Dinah said. Immediately, the deerkin started dancing with her usual grace around the kitchen, turning on the oven so it would heat up, then conjuring mixing bowls, flour, eggs, sugar, and an assortment of other ingredients and tools she would need. “And while I’m busy with this, maybe you can tell us how your stepfather is doing?”
The demon woman seemed to relax a little at the question. “He’s fine. A little dehydrated, and unsettled by the whole experience. But mostly he’s doing okay.” She offered a shrug. “If he’d remained captive any longer, then perhaps things would have been different, but I think he’s going to be fine.”
It was another reminder to Ty that this superhero lifestyle came with serious consequences. Dinah had already added the core ingredients to her mixing bowl, but at Lilith’s words, she pa
used to study the demon woman closely.
“Where is he now?”
Lilith lowered her eyes and bit her lip. “Somewhere safe,” she said. “I’m taking care of him.”
Dinah nodded. “But you’re worried, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Lilith admitted. “I’m worried it might all happen again. The Master found him before. What if he does so again? If I’m there, I can help him. Take him somewhere else, you know? But I can’t spend every waking hour trying to protect him. And even then, I worry that transporting him like I do will hurt him somehow.” She shrugged again. In some way Ty didn’t understand, the gesture seemed to emphasize Lilith’s essential innocence. “He’s very frail,” she said.
Dinah glanced quickly at Tempest and Ty as if seeking permission to spill their secrets. Then, permission silently granted, she said, “The Master wants to control the devices we wear. He has gone after me and Ty, and Bain murdered a dear friend of ours for his. As long as you wear yours, the Master and Bain are a threat to you.”
The deerkin might have intended to say more, but what she’d said didn’t quite match Ty’s understanding. “Not just the devices,” he added. “He’s after those who can use them as well. Lilith would still be a target even if she gave up her device. The Master knows what she can do.”
Dinah nodded. “Which means your father is at risk as well. The Master already knows he can use him to manipulate you.”
An echo of fear passed over Lilith’s face, and she became glum. “I know. I just don’t know what to do about it.”
Surprisingly, Dinah broke into a broad grin. “Fortunately, we can help.”
10: Unified Field Control
The demon woman looked at the deerkin with a mixture of hope and confusion in her eyes.
“My main skill is information control,” Dinah said. “Many of those who wear devices have family members who would be at risk because of it. It’s part of my job to hide them. To remove their digital footprint as much as possible.” Dinah’s grin grew broader. “If you like, I can do the same for you and your father.”
