The Enhancer series Box Set

by Wyatt Kane

  “You would do that for me?”

  “Of course,” Dinah said.

  It was then that Tempest spoke up. “It’s what we do,” the blonde superhero said. “We help people.” She smiled as well, but there was a bitterness to it that Ty didn’t understand. “It also makes sense from a tactical perspective. We don’t want to give the Master any chance to control you again.”

  Lilith suppressed an obvious shudder. “Neither do I,” she said.

  “Done, then.” Dinah said. “If you give me a list of the people you want hidden, I’ll do what I can. Banking records, leasing agreements, utilities bills, anything associated with your father and whoever else you choose will be hidden so that no one can find them. Even surveillance cameras and drones—your father will be able to walk through the streets and any footage captured of him will also be hidden. From a digital perspective, it will be as if he doesn’t exist.”

  The demon woman looked positively astonished. “You can really do all that?”

  Dinah nodded. She seemed very pleased with Lilith’s response.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Ty added. “Dinah’s skill is amazing.”

  Dinah beamed at him, but for some reason, Tempest glowered.

  As she’d been speaking, the deerkin had been simultaneously mixing the batter for the cupcakes. Once she was happy with the consistency of it, she separated it out into five separate bowls, one for each type of fruit, then took a moment to throw a handful of the blackberries into a small blender and blitz them. Then she returned to her narrative.

  “But that doesn’t mean he is invisible in the real world,” the deerkin warned. “There’s nothing I can do if one of Bain’s men should spot him by chance. I can monitor him from a distance, and set up an alert against that sort of thing, but that’s about it.”

  Lilith nodded. “I understand. Again, thank you.” She looked at Dinah with an appraising expression, and suddenly Ty understood Tempest’s glower. There was more going on than just the surface conversation. As Dinah had been speaking, she’d also been glancing at the demon woman more often than not, and sprinkling her expression with a range of subtle smiles, raised eyebrows, and interested looks.

  Without using words, was Dinah actually flirting with Lilith?

  Ty didn’t know what he thought about that. He understood the attraction. A blind man with a heart of stone and eighty years of confirmed celibacy would be attracted to Lilith. Yet when last the two met, Dinah had been full of suspicion and anger. It was, after all, Dinah’s original device that Lilith still wore.

  But none of that suspicion appeared to remain, at least on Dinah’s part.

  Then Ty started to wonder where that flirting might lead, and how it all worked. He had been a welcome addition to Tempest and Dinah’s existing relationship. Were others to be welcomed in just as easily? Or was this flirtation no more than a game?

  Either way, one glance at Tempest’s expression told Ty that she wasn’t happy about it.

  “Speaking of devices,” the blonde woman said with a studiously neutral expression, “what do you intend to do with yours?”

  It was enough to halt the flirting, at least for the moment. Dinah dipped her finger into the batter to taste, and Lilith’s beautiful face creased into a frown.

  The demon woman looked away. “I don’t know,” she said. “Part of me wants to just disappear. Move to another city—it would be easy, now—and start over. But even then, would I be completely safe from the Master and Bain?” She shrugged. “Another part of me wants to hurt them somehow. But I’m not a fighter. Never have been.” She glanced at Tempest, and gave a self-deprecating smile. “Well, unless I’m forced to be.”

  Dinah blitzed small quantities of each fruit and added them to each of the batter bowls. “You could help us against him,” she said casually. “Or, we could help you. Either way.”

  Ty was watching Lilith closely. He remembered when Tempest had made a similar suggestion to him. The range of feelings he’d gone through when he realized she was inviting him to join their superhero team was like riding a rollercoaster. He hadn’t known how to react, and at first had thought himself unworthy.

  He watched Lilith go through a similar range of emotions. Hope fought with fear and confusion on her innocent face. But it was the uncertainty that won, at least for the moment.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I’m asking for your help.”

  Lilith stared, her green eyes wide with disbelief. The demon woman hesitated, then shook her head. Yet it didn’t seem to be a denial, exactly. Just an indication that she didn’t have an answer.

  Abruptly, Tempest asked a question. “What happened to that guard?” she asked. “The one from where you were being held?”

  Ty was surprised. He and Lilith had shut the man in the demon woman’s cell before they left. He’d told Tempest and Dinah as much after the battle, and then promptly forgot about him.

  Lilith’s beautiful face hardened. “I went back and asked him some questions,” she said. “But he didn’t know anything. So I dropped him off the side of a building.” The way she said it was almost a dare, defying any of them to judge her.

  Ty wasn’t a fan of needless killing, yet the body count he’d racked up over the past few days would have made a mass murderer blush. He wasn’t going to judge Lilith for her actions. And anyway, in his mind, her captors deserved everything they got.

  But Dinah looked a little shocked. “Is he dead?” the deerkin asked.

  Lilith shook her head, relenting. “Not that I know of. But he won’t be able to bother me or anyone else for a while.”

  “So, you’ve already started to look for the Master yourself?” Tempest asked. For the first time during the conversation, Ty sensed a hint of approval from her.

  Lilith nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

  Dinah was still working on the cupcakes. She ladled generous dollops of the different batters into a muffin pan, then popped the pan into the oven. “Won’t be long now,” she said. She took another bowl and emptied part of a stick of softened butter into it, sieved in powdered sugar, and added a couple of drops of something that smelled like flowers. She whisked it all together with a thick plastic spoon.

  Out of a combination of curiosity and a desire to change the topic of conversation, Ty asked Lilith a question. “What are your skills? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  Lilith looked at him. “Skills?”

  “Your powers. The device tells you. They’re listed in the ‘Unique Skill’ section.”

  “Oh. I only have the one. Do you have more than that?”

  Her answer surprised him. “Just the one? No, I only have one as well. I just thought with your teleportation, flight, and the earthquake thing….” It was his turn to shrug.

  Lilith shook her head. “No. Just something called ‘unified field control’.”

  “Unified field control?” Ty repeated, wondering what it could mean. “At what level?” he asked.

  “Level?”

  “The number next to the skill.”

  “Oh. Two.” Lilith said.

  If Ty had been surprised before, now he was astonished. It was almost beyond comprehension. A single skill that gave the demon woman all her powers? And at such strength?

  What was this ‘unified field control’? Could it mean Lilith had power over the field that bound the whole universe together?

  The implications were staggering. If it was what Ty thought, and Lilith could punch a hole through reality at level two, what would she be able to do at a higher level?

  It was no wonder his energy fields couldn’t stop her. She could literally rip apart the fabric of reality. Maybe at level ten, Lilith could give Frieza a run for his money, destroying worlds with no more than a moment of effort.

  Dinah started to laugh, and Ty realized he was gaping. Like everything else about the deerkin, her laugh was rich, warm and beautiful, and he could listen to it forever.

&
nbsp; “Would you look at that?” she said, still laughing. “It seems our Ty has a serious case of talent envy.”

  Lilith smiled at this, and Ty himself joined in with a quiet chuckle. But his mind was still will awash with the ramifications of what Lilith had said.

  “Nearly there,” Dinah said when her laughter had faded. “Who wants a glass of bubbles with their cupcakes?” she asked.

  11: Bubbles and Drool

  In a surprisingly short time, the warm, enticing aroma of fresh cupcakes filled the air. Dinah artfully displayed the cupcakes on a large platter, stacking them according to the fruits she had used to flavor them. The blackberry cupcakes were tinted red, topped with a swirl of frosting that was starting to melt in the heat, and a scattering of berries for garnish. The other flavors were displayed similarly, the apricots and peaches sliced into sections, and sharing space on the frosting with sprigs of mint and a dusting of icing sugar.

  It looked and smelled amazing. Ty couldn’t help but salivate at the delicious promise awaiting them. He wanted to attack the cupcakes like a pig at a trough, and only the thinnest veneer of politeness held him back.

  He could see that Lilith was equally enticed, the demon woman’s attention divided between the cupcakes and Dinah herself as the deerkin filled four flutes with bubbles. Only Tempest seemed immune to the spell of deliciousness Dinah had cast. She had turned on her stool to lean against the wall, and while her expression wasn’t exactly surly, it was heading that way.

  To Ty, the blonde superhero was as beautiful as ever, but he wondered at her current attitude. She was normally direct to the point of bluntness. Yet she hadn’t said anything directly negative about Lilith’s presence. Even so, she acted as if the whole situation upset her on a visceral level.

  Dinah finished pouring the wine and handed over the glasses. She raised her own in a toast.

  “To friends and lovers, and whatever the future may bring,” she said, her usual smile firmly in place as she glanced meaningfully at each of them in turn.

  They drank. It was another new experience for Ty, who had seldom had the funds for anything more than the most basic of drinks. He found the taste of the bubbles to be surprisingly sweet. And, less surprisingly, bubbly.

  “Now,” Dinah said. “Who’s hungry?”

  The four of them devoured Dinah’s cupcakes. Glorious, fluffy, and delicious, Ty couldn’t choose his favorite among them. The fruit added an entirely new dimension to a familiar dish. It was like eating the lightest, most satisfying fruit medley that ever existed.

  Nor was Ty the only one to think so.

  “Oh my God,” Lilith exclaimed at her first bite, her expression one of open delight mixed with surprise.

  Dinah and Ty both laughed at the reaction. “Good, aren’t they?” Ty said.

  “Good? These are amazing!” the demon woman said. “I’ve never tasted anything like it! It’s like an orgasm in my mouth!” At the last, the demon woman colored a little, and Ty understood she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He continued to smile, and didn’t miss the mischievous glint in Dinah’s eyes.

  Not even Tempest’s mood could hold against the onslaught of aromatic and flavorful perfection. She let out a soft groan of appreciation and murmured, “These are wonderful. You’ve outdone yourself this time.”

  As the unexpected feast continued, Lilith increasingly lowered her guard as Dinah steered the conversation away from the more serious topics of Bain and the Master. In between sips of bubbles and bites of cupcake-based perfection, the demon woman revealed snippets about her background.

  Born in a rural environment, she’d nevertheless spent much of her life in the city of New Lincoln. But she still yearned for the open countryside and clear skies. When Ty asked why she hadn’t returned, Lilith replied that it just never seemed to be an option.

  “And besides, these modifications aren’t the most practical for farm work,” she said, gesturing toward herself. “I like the country, but I don’t know what I would do there.”

  “Speaking of which,” Dinah said. “Those wings of yours. You can really fly, right?”

  The demon woman gave a genuinely happy laugh. “Yes, but not because of the wings. I can move them, but they’re not strong enough by themselves. It’s my skill that lets me to fly. I don’t fully understand how, but it seems I don’t need to. I can just do it.”

  Ty swallowed a bite of an apricot cupcake with a hint of perfumed frosting. “Your modifications are amazing,” he said. “That tail – I’ve seen others with similar tails, but yours seems way more natural.”

  Lilith nodded, apparently pleased. Not long ago, for various reasons, she’d been very angry with Ty. But much of that anger seemed to have passed.

  “The splicers who worked on me were the best. I have full control of my tail, just like my wings. At first, it felt weird suddenly having an extra limb that could move in different directions, but now it feels natural. Like I’ve always had it.” As she spoke, she wound her tail about to demonstrate her control. Ty couldn’t help but admire not just it, but everything about her.

  “Ty, you’re staring,” Dinah said with a grin. “Maybe drooling a little, too.”

  Before he’d started wearing his device, Ty might have blushed and looked away. But he had grown considerably since then, and not just in terms of height. He looked the deerkin straight in the eye and grinned.

  “Yep. And so are you,” he said.

  The deerkin laughed. “Too right I am,” she said. “She’s beautiful. It would almost be rude not to.”

  Lilith proved to be too shy to accept the compliment. She blushed and looked away, but couldn’t quite stifle an answering grin.

  Later, in a moment of silence between conversational topics, Tempest spoke up. “I just had another thought,” she said. With the wine and wonderful food on offer, even she had relaxed to a certain extent. “You can sense other devices, right? That could be another reason for the Master to be interested in you. Ty has made it difficult for anyone to attack us here, but you’re like a tracking device. With access to that ability, he could just wait until we’re away from here. Unprotected.”

  She said it all lightly, an observation more than anything else, with no intention of bringing the mood down. Yet the demon woman’s smile still faded.

  But Ty shook his head. “That would be true if the Master knew what Lilith can do. But he doesn’t, right?”

  Instantly, Lilith’s smile returned. “That’s right,” she said.

  The bubbles and conversation continued to flow, and Dinah kept producing more cupcakes. At some point, Gremlin wandered back in, but she stayed in the kitchen with Dinah and didn’t deign to acknowledge Lilith’s presence at all. Or Ty’s, for that matter. The furry little traitor had bonded with the deerkin in a way she never had with him.

  Not that he was particularly concerned. Gremlin was a cat, after all, and he was enjoying himself too much to be bothered. Not even his injuries could spoil the mood. He simply focused on the way Dinah was flirting with Lilith, joined in where he could, and relaxed.

  12: The Master’s Fury

  A little later, Ty felt comfortably stuffed and a little light-headed from the wine. He was starting to think they may have found, if not an ally exactly, then at least a friend in Lilith. And, given the way she and Dinah were flirting, perhaps something more than that as well. Although in Ty’s mind, that was uncertain. He still didn’t fully understand how this relationship worked with just him, Tempest and Dinah involved. Was there room for another?

  How would that even work?

  For the moment, it didn’t matter. As long as everyone was happy, including Tempest, then so was he.

  He was about to suggest that they all move to a more comfortable spot in the mansion when the conversation was interrupted by an electronic ping.

  Dinah was finishing up one of the blueberry cupcakes and had a dab of frosting on her lip. “Oh, that’s me,” she said. But it wasn’t her device. The deerkin, Ty was le
arning, never went anywhere without a connection to the online world. This time, she pulled a small tablet barely as big as Ty’s phone from a hidden pocket at her belt.

  She thumbed it unlocked, and immediately sobered when she saw what it was.

  “Remember how the Master contacted us last time, with a cryptic message embedded in the news nets?” she asked. “Well, I set up an alert for if he did it again, and he has.” She gave Ty and the others a bright smile. “So, who wants to find out what he has to say?”

  She said it all lightly, as if discussing something as innocuous as the weather. But the reactions she got were more serious.

  Tempest gave a curt nod, her expression almost a snarl. Lilith looked both horrified and uncertain, and Ty couldn’t help but remember the last time the Master had delivered such a message.

  The mysterious villain had put innocent people at risk at an amusement park, sabotaging the most popular ride. Only Tempest’s superhuman efforts had prevented disaster. Ty had helped as well, but Tempest had literally borne the weight of dozens—as well as the ride itself—as she lowered them safely to the ground.

  He didn’t know what the Master had in mind this time, but the mere thought of another message filled Ty’s stomach with a cold knot of dread.

  “I guess we don’t have a choice,” he said.

  But Dinah contradicted him. “Lilith does,” she said.

  Perhaps the bubbles gave the demon woman additional courage, or maybe she would have made the same choice by out of determination alone. Either way, she gave Dinah her answer. “I would like to know what he said.”

  “Good. Let’s go upstairs and find out.”

  She led the way, and within minutes all four of them were in Dinah’s communications room. This time, the screen that covered all four walls showed a single coherent image: a simple alert on a dark background.