...And waited.
And waited some more.
Finally, Allison's voice came through again. She sounded pleased. "So, ready for a little midnight stroll?"
"What, are we out of milk?"
Sarcasm came as naturally to me as breathing. It wasn't my fault my mouth was smarter than the rest of me.
"You're going to Yarborough and you're going to start up a little trouble. You'll have the other girls with you. I don't care what you do so much so long as it's loud, long, and annoying. I need as many Alliance members out and chasing you as I can get."
"Are you going to try to take over the building again while everyone's out?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Because that worked so well last time, I'm sure it'll be perfect this one."
"I'm going to kill every superhero I can, smear the road with their blood, and then walk in and take the information I want. Yarborough isn't that important to me, Nishelle. I want the world."
I paused and thought that through. What the hell did my home Alliance building have that others didn't? And why was she so intent on world domination? It was old school, sure, but it felt trite. Of course, she didn't have to tell me the truth, either. It wasn't like I had any way to prove it one way or another.
"I'm not doing your wet work for you," I snapped.
But then, I watched a... window, of sorts, pop up. I stood up from the floor and walked, obediently to a closet. There, I slipped into my Ardent supersuit and watched as Isabella and Lexi, their eyes as blank as their faces, did the same. Between the three of us, we were suited up and ready to go within minutes.
I couldn't feel anything, couldn't see anything beyond the weird window that Allison had opened. It wasn't right. This wasn't what I wanted but I couldn't get control of my body. I could see the three of us leaving, walking up a staircase. She must have realized I could have tracked the way out of the house, because the feed cut out. Then, I was driving. She had me driving without being in control of myself.
That was terrifying. If she lost control of my body, I could run straight into a tree or stop on some train tracks. If I could fight through the Dream, I could regain control. ...But you couldn't smash the brakes if you needed to if you were just coming around and an 18-wheeler was stopped in front of you.
I sat back and settled in for the ride, relenting control of everything for the moment. When we got the Yarborough, I'd sort it out. I'd drag myself out of the Dream and help the others stop Melody and Wreckless before we could do too much damage.
...Or I hoped I would.
Chapter 15
Night fell into morning, which drew long and quiet into the afternoon. We needed the break, the peace. The rest.
Edwin had long unlocked me from the bed frame. Occasionally, Adam tightened his grip on me just to make sure I was still there. I was.
Mostly.
The Dream kept nibbling at the edges of my mind. How easy it would be to fall apart, throw myself in it, never worry again. I'd be mindless, all my decisions made for me. I might even get to watch when I got killed, eventually, as some sort of release. At least, that's what I assumed. We'd seen what she wanted from superheroes if Melody and Wreckless were any proof.
Do you know how tempting giving myself up was? I'd never hurt again. Even if I was pitched off a building, if I was technically capable of functioning? I would still keep going. I'd go until they shoveled dirt on my corpse but I'd never have another splinter. I'd never feel another broken heart. I'd never have to deal with being late for another credit card payment.
Edwin nestled my neck from behind. I was sandwiched between my men, the two who had decided I needed to be taken care of that night. My cheek rested against Adam's chest. And I knew I could never leave them. The Dream meant never feeling like this again, too. So warm, cared for, most of all? I was safe in that lullaby land between the shifty silence of sleep and the waking world beyond it.
If the Dream offered me that, I don't know that I could have resisted. Instead, all it offered was darkness. Memories. Terrible things that had happened. I supposed it could give me more than that, but not if Allison was in charge of it.
"You awake down there?"
Adam's rumble stirred me from my half-wakefulness. I looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile. "Much as I ever am."
He returned the smile and kissed my forehead. "Can we talk about something before Edwin gets up?"
"Mm?" I asked.
Those big arms tightened around me. "I kissed Nate in a dumb, heated moment."
"I'd kiss Nate in a dumb, heated moment, too," I said, yawning.
He frowned down at me. "You aren't mad?"
"What's there to be mad about?"
I watched as he struggled to figure out a reason I should be lashing him. It was pretty cute. "I'm with you."
"You are," I said, just to confirm simple details for him. My Creed is a simple man.
"Then... but I kissed somebody else and I'm with you."
Edwin had, apparently, awoken while we were talking. He turned my head and kissed me. "There, now she kissed somebody else while you're with her. You're even."
It was hard not to giggle at the perplexed look on Adam's face. "But I'm serious. You're really not mad?"
"I'm not mad," I told him, kissing him, too. "I should talk to Nate, anyway. I like him. You must like him. And he must like you. Edwin?"
"I told you, not interested in the guy department."
"That's not what your tongue said last night," Adam said, his eyes dancing with delight.
Edwin snorted and rolled out of bed to go off to the bathroom. I patted Adam's chest. "It's fine. We'll talk to Nate... what time is it, anyway?"
"Six, six-thirty. Something like that."
"Dinner, then," I said, drawing away from him. "Pizza sound good to you?"
I reached across him for my shiny new phone and threw myself into Edwin's warm spot to dial Nate. Adam grabbed his own phone and I saw him flipping through a local pizza place's menu. Nivorik's was run by a former Russian mafia guy who'd immigrated to America to save his family from whatever nightmares were back where he grew up. And you'd never had better garlic knots than what they made.
Plus, they delivered to the Alliance building. And it was becoming strangely difficult to get that service after Melody had caused such a scene. I guessed they didn't care if they were taking down supers or bringing us take-out orders.
Out of the bed I went, tossing my credit card to Adam as I headed out of the room. He caught it and I heard him reading the numbers off a moment later. I wasn't certain who had bothered to go get my purse from my apartment, but I appreciated it. I sat down at Edwin's desk and went through it until I found a tiny marbled notebook. I flipped through it until I found Nate's number, then tapped it in.
He picked up in two rings. "Who's this?"
"Cassie," I said. "New phone and all. I guess it's a different number. Hey, listen. We're having pizza tonight. You wanna come down and hang out with us?"
There was a brief pause. "The lab?"
"Well, Edwin's bedroom, yes."
Another pause, this one notably longer. "If you grab me a sausage and pepperoni, I'll be there in twenty."
"Got it." I leaned back toward the bedroom, calling, "Adam? Can you add a sausage and pepperoni to that?"
He didn't answer and Nate had already hung up without waiting for it. I assumed that meant Nate was on his way. Standing, I turned off the phone's screen and headed back into the bedroom to tilt my head at Adam. "Did you hear about the pepperoni-"
"And sausage. I got it," Adam said, patting the bed beside himself. "I just didn't want to hurt Nate's ears. He's sensitive about them sometimes."
"Do I need to sign up for Nate-orientation with you?" I asked, sitting back down with him.
Adam grinned and wrapped an arm around me once again, dragging me down to his chest. "I might sign him up for one about you. Let him watch."
My brows raised and I found myself grinning, too. "That's very hos
pitable of you."
"So, pizza in and Nate's coming down. Are we inducting him into the Cassie Crowd, too?" Edwin asked, walking out of the bathroom and wiping his hands on a towel.
He was shirtless. It didn't matter how many times I saw that, it was worth seeing again. "We might. He hasn't said if he's interested or not, yet. Not really."
"I suppose I'll have to get him a doggy door," Edwin sighed.
"A nice collar, maybe. Tie him to the end of the bed and let him earn his way up," I muttered, more to myself than the others.
Nothing wrong with a little playful thought. Right? It wasn't as if I'd actually do it to him. Besides, he used his wolf less than he had in the past. Wouldn't it be more apt to get him one of those cool cat trees that people had?
The pizza guy came and went, bringing us four larges, but Nate was nowhere to be found. I put my hand on the box as Adam went to dig in and shook my head. I didn't want Nate to think we weren't willing to wait for him, but I was starting to wonder if he'd decided not to come after all. It'd taken twenty or thirty minutes to get the pies. Where was he?
My question was answered almost as soon as I'd thought it. Nate walked through the door dressed like a million bucks. The rest of us looked ragtag in what we'd thrown on to sleep in. I didn't even have pants on, just a pair of Edwin's boxers and a t-shirt. Not Nate. His collared shirt looked like it'd been pressed. The creases on his slacks? Pristine.
I felt like one of those rusty old VW Bugs parked next to a Rolls Royce.
"Well aren't you all dressed up and with nowhere to go," Adam drawled. "I got you the meat lover mess you want. Can't believe you don't proclaim the sanctity of pizza as vegetable central."
"No one likes vegetables on pizza," Edwin said, then he nodded at Nate. "Cassie wouldn't let us eat until you got down here. You're going to save us from starvation."
I gave him a little shove. "Make me sound like a dictator why don't you."
Edwin rolled his eyes and pulled his mushroom-and-chicken mistake out of the stack. "All hail Strikeout."
"All hail Strikeout," Adam intoned, desperately serious as he pulled his box off, too.
I reached for mine, but Nate was faster. He glanced at the label and offered it to me. "Philly cheesesteak sounds like a dream."
The blush crept up my throat, headed for my cheeks. I took the pizza and whispered a thank you. How was I supposed to bring up maybe dating him if he did that to me when he handed me my dinner?
He settled down with the rest of us as Adam made short work of his. Seriously, the guy can mow down an entire buffet, I couldn't have guessed that a single pie would last him long. And the thought seemed to strike him, too, because he pulled out his phone and scooted away from the rest of us to order more.
When he was done, he stretched out on the bed and tilted his head at Nate. "So, Cassie's dating both of us. Right?"
"Mmm."
"She wants to add you, too," he said.
I coughed and swallowed the bite in my mouth. Then I tossed a balled-up napkin at Adam's head. "Come on!"
"Are you collecting all the pretty boys in your life, Cassie?"
God, his voice was like a hot knife through my buttery center. I looked over at him and quivered. He leaned forward on his knees, watching me, his arms folded. There was a feral-ness to those eyes that I couldn't tear my gaze away from. Something that was inhuman, crude, but made of so much fire.
Thinking about it, I really had a thing for people that were just this side of what I'd call fiery, didn't I?
"I'm collecting the men worth collecting," I answered, keeping my voice from shaking. It was a close thing.
He leaned in closer and raised those dark brows all the way into his hairline. "And you deemed me worthy."
I let out a shivering breath. "I deemed you worthy a long time ago, Nate."
That was all he needed. He swept me up, unfolding to pull me to his chest. There, his lips locked to mine and took my breath away. I let out a whimper of protest, surprise mostly, and melted against him. Careful as he could, he situated me in his lap when he drew his head back. Then he offered me a slice of his pizza and whispered against my ear. "Accepted."
"I really didn't mean to be your rebound."
"You aren't."
"Are you sure about that?" I asked, taking a bite of that offered slice.
He kissed the top of my head and sighed, giving me a gentle squeeze. "I'm sure."
That fucking alarm roared across the lab not ten seconds later.
Adam looked out toward the sound. "You know, there are other superheroes here. We could let them deal with it, for once. Let them earn a little extra reputation or whatever."
"That's a poor way of looking at it," Nate said. "Always be ready. Always be on your toes. It's the best way to deal with a life like this."
"You don't like it?" I asked, frowning up at him.
He shrugged. "I do what I do because it's right. Not because it makes life easy. You're still on orders to sit these out, you know."
There was no pause, no place for me to argue. He just picked me up once again and put me back down on the bed, then tucked a box of garlic knots beside me. "Turn on a movie. Try not to listen to the alarm. And stay safe."
Oh, no. That wasn't going to do. I got up and followed him as he towed Adam along. "My powers are kind of back. Sort of."
"Your power are intensely unpredictable, Cassie. We need you out there like we need to go through bomb de-fusion school again."
"Edwin!" I snapped, looking back at him.
His hands went up in the air. "This is superhero stuff. I just run the computers. You two work it out."
And that said, he fled to his computer to get things ready. Nate and Adam were already hauling each other off to the elevator to go get their suits. I paced, furious. It was fine to be stuck at home for the brief period when I'd been incredibly squishy, but I could feel little jolts of thunder offering themselves to me. I knew if I concentrated hard enough, I could spark the lightning under my skin and go rampaging through the streets to fight off whatever idiot was stupid enough to dare smash my city up.
The blood quickened in my body, my heart pounding in my ears. I ground my teeth together then did something incredibly stupid.
I smashed my forehead into the brick wall just outside of Edwin's lab.
That did it. That was more than enough. The mania took hold, screaming through every bit of sinew and joint, threatening to rip me apart. It was stronger than I'd ever known, ever expected. And Edwin grabbed me when he saw me getting close to blowing a circuit, too.
"Stop, Cassie. Stop and slow down. I won't rat you out if you go. But you need to take it slower to that and you know it. You're pushing too hard,” he said, his voice pleasant in my ear.
But listening to him wasn't an option I wanted. No, I wanted to be out on the street with the others. I wanted to tear a building apart with my teeth, brick by brick, and spit the nails through a concrete block. My breathing slowly steadied but it wasn't what I wanted.
I wanted to be me.
And no one would let me do that. Because they were worried they'd lose me.
Pushing down every instinctual base I had for punching a hole through the brick, I pressed my forehead against Edwin and listened to the people walk out past the lab. To people leaving. So many people. So...many...?
"Please note this is an all-call alarm," came the voice overhead.
I chewed my bottom lip for a good second before I pulled away from Edwin and headed toward the door. "I'll talk to you when I'm outside. Okay? I'm not going to go throw myself into combat. I'm just going to watch. If everyone's being called, that's me, too."
"Cassie-"
I didn't wait to listen to him. Instead, I ran out of the lab and hurried back to where my suit hung in my closet. It was always where they put your stuff when you were found battered. Of course, it had been repaired, too. I pulled it on with no real ceremony, no hesitation or gleeful registration of doing so. I had a
job to do, and I was going to do it.
The race outside was over in seconds. There was no way to sneak into someone else's car, so I watched the direction they were going and... and...
I called a cab.
Yeah. That transportation thing. We really had to get on that.
Thankfully, my cab driver was the kind of guy who wanted a taste of the action. I entertained him with stories of old fights as we headed in to the nightmare and smoke so thick I could barely see ten feet ahead of me.
Blue flames covered everything. People screamed as they tried to make their escape. Superheroes, some of which I knew well and others I didn't, were fighting for their lives against three women who were tearing apart the entire city block around them. Wreckless did what she did best, taking out the physical combatants. Melody was busy screaming people down, breaking apart cars at the molecular level and tearing her hair out while she did it.
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