He pressed a button on his watch, and Agent Lagarde collapsed, twitching.
“Nicole!” Walter shouted.
Val surged forward, nearly knocking Eddy over. “Get me closer to her.”
I pushed open the curtain just as the second Dr. Sweet shouted, “Kill everyone!”
Pandemonium descended as I limped with Val down the stage. The crowd scattered, screaming, as the No-Men and mind-controlled guests attacked. I couldn’t get to them in time.
“Elisa,” I said.
“On it.” She jumped, super-strong legs propelling her halfway across the room. She landed on a No-Men and immediately started punching.
Eddy and I brought Val to where Lagarde lay, as Walter drove his knee into the gut of an attacking, mind-controlled waiter. A No-Man came up behind him, and I punched it hard enough to send it flying five feet across the floor.
“Del Toro,” Walter growled. “I should’ve known you’d be here.”
“Good to see you, Walter,” I replied pleasantly, pushing away a mind-controlled chef trying to stab me with a steak knife. “You remember my wife, Val.”
He scowled in preparation to say something nasty, but then he saw her kneeling over Lagarde, her hands on the woman’s forehead. Agent Lagarde was lying still now, and though her face was tight with pain, she was still breathing.
“Screw you, you stupid zombie!” Across the room, Elisa threw a No-Men into one of the doors, breaking it down and giving the crowd an escape route.
“That’s my daughter, Elisa,” I said to Walter, who was gaping. “And this is Eddy, a family friend.”
Eddy shot an advancing No-Men. “We’ve met. Pretty sure he arrested me once.”
“Watch where you’re shooting,” Walter snapped. “There are innocent people in here.”
I threw myself at another No-Men, not willing to stray far from Val when her focus was completely on Agent Lagarde. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go far to find someone to fight. I incapacitated those under mind-control as gently as I could and tore into the No-Men mercilessly. Then a sudden wind hit me from behind, and I fell forward, sliding a few inches across the polished wooden floor.
My injuries didn’t appreciate being smashed into the floor, and I grunted as I rolled onto my back. Jocelyn hovered overhead, immense wings flapping and making the crystal chandeliers jingle as they swayed in the wind. Meeting her hazy brown eyes, I grabbed my cane and heaved myself up.
The handle of my cane burned red hot, and I dropped it with a hiss. It rolled a few feet across the floor, and I saw Julio approaching with the same dead look in his eyes.
“Dammit,” I grumbled. “Not this again.”
Jocelyn dive bombed me as Julio dropped the temperature to below freezing. I gasped, the icy cold painful against my skin, but held my ground. Shivering, I waited as Jocelyn streaked through the air towards me. My breath rose in a fog before my eyes, and Blue Sparrow shot close enough for me to see the smudges in her eyeliner.
I dodged at the last second, grabbed her arm, and spun. Then I let her go, sending her tumbling through the air at Julio. They collided and hit the floor in a heap.
I hit the floor, too, my knee having given out. Screwing dignity, I crawled towards my cane and used it to prop myself up. The ballroom seemed emptier now. A few people hid behind tables or crouched behind the grand piano in the corner, but most seemed to have made it out. I caught a brief glimpse of Elisa bashing a No-Man over the head with a chair before my attention went back to Julio and Jocelyn. They were getting back to their feet. If I wanted them to stay down, I’d have to hit them a lot harder than I was willing to.
“Val?” I glanced over my shoulder to see her still bent over Agent Lagarde. “A little help?”
She’d wanted to save her strength for the real fight, and this was it. But she gave no indication she’d heard me, still immersed in Agent Lagarde’s mind.
Jocelyn held out her hand, and a surge of wind slammed into me. I drove down my cane, punching a two-inch deep hole in the floor, and lowered my center of gravity, bracing myself against the unending barrage. Beside her, Julio held out his hand, and the wind turned arctic.
Shivering, I didn’t have to worry about dropping my cane. I was pretty sure the metal handle had grown so frosty that my skin was stuck to it. I squinted, trying to shield my eyes from the mercilessly cold air. My skin grew numb, and as I curled in on myself, I noticed that my shirt had gone stiff. Ice was forming on my clothes, over my face. It was getting hard to breathe. The air seemed to move too fast and forcefully for me to inhale it, and when I did get a breath, it sent a deathly chill through my insides.
My eyes drifted closed, and I had to force them open. I wobbled, and the wind nearly knocked me off my feet. The cold was sapping my strength. I had to get closer to Julio and Jocelyn, had to stop them somehow. At this rate, I wouldn’t—
The floor rushed up and hit me. No, wait, I’d fallen. I tried to pick myself up, but my arms wouldn’t listen. It was like someone had disconnected all my muscles. Had I frozen to death? No, the wind and cold had stopped, and I spotted Julio and Jocelyn both collapsed in front of me, along with a handful of guests who’d been behind them. Then I recognized the crushing weight that seemed to pin me to the ground: Agent Lagarde’s powers.
“That’s enough of that,” she said firmly from behind me.
The weight lifted. I sat up in time to see Agent Lagarde putting her electric blue glasses back on. Val sat at her feet, rubbing her head and looking tired. Julio and Jocelyn groaned. Given how they hadn’t made a sound when they’d been fighting me, and the first thing they did now was look each other over for injuries, I guessed Agent Lagarde had broken the mind-control.
“Dad!” Elisa rushed over and helped me to my feet. Surprised, I looked across the ballroom for the No-Men she’d been fighting. The place was empty except for the bodies on the floor.
“I’m getting pretty good at beating those things.” Elisa grinned in response to my look.
I grinned back. “No No-Men, huh?”
Her mouth turned abruptly flat. “Was that supposed to be a pun?”
“Better to just ignore it,” Val said with a tired smile, still sitting on the floor. “His jokes are bad enough when he hasn’t been hit in the head multiple times.”
We limped over to her, passing Agent Lagarde, who was hurrying towards Jocelyn and Julio. Eddy hobbled over to join us, and I figured one of the escaping guests had probably already called 911, and we could take a family trip in an ambulance soon enough.
“What did you just do?” Walter’s voice rang out sharply, echoing through the empty room.
I followed his gaze to see the Dr. Sweet Agent Lagarde had shot in the arm cradling the body of the one she’d shot in the back. It took me a second to zero in on the syringe sticking out of the dead one’s arm. The live one had just injected him with something.
“I know, I know” Dr. Sweet said. “It’s terrible of me. He’s the closest thing to family I have—my son, in a way. But if I can’t control the world, then at least I can have the satisfaction of killing all of you.”
The dead Dr. Sweet awoke with a gasp and started screaming. The live one let go of him, backing away as the corpse jerked and writhed. Then he began to grow. His muscles swelled, bursting through the sleeves of his lab coat, and the snapping and crunching of what I assumed to be bones breaking and reforming filled the room. He kept screaming, clutching his misshapen skull as his body spasmed and bulged.
Eddy shot him, and the bullet poked a small hole in his leg.
“What are you all standing around for?” Eddy shouted. “Don’t wait for him to finish!”
Agent Lagarde started shooting, and Walter must have grabbed a gun from somewhere, because he joined her. I felt the temperature drop as Julio sent a wave of frigid cold towards him. Spotting an overturned table, I broke off one of the legs and flung it like a javelin.
None of it stopped him. The mutated Dr. Sweet rose, breathing heavily, a
nd stood over ten feet tall. He was hunched, his forehead protruding like a caveman’s, and one of his massive arms was bigger than the other. His skin was veiny and wrinkled, and his growth had shredded all his clothing, including his pants.
“Ewww.” Elisa cringed. “I’m gonna need therapy after this.”
“You and me both,” said Julio.
The mutated doctor threw back his head and let out an animalistic roar. The Dr. Sweet who’d injected him clapped slowly.
“Very good,” he said. “Now kill th—”
The mutated Dr. Sweet backhanded him, and he went flying, smashing into a wall. His body dropped, limp, and I doubted anyone without super-strength could survive an impact like that.
“That’s one down,” Val muttered, confirming my suspicions.
The mutated Dr. Sweet charged us like a rampaging gorilla. Eddy and Walter opened fire, and Blue Sparrow soared into the air. Everyone who could move scattered, but Val couldn’t even stand. She scrambled frantically back across the floor, and Dr. Sweet’s rabid gaze found her.
I moved as fast as I could.
The bullets weren’t slowing Dr. Sweet down. Blue Sparrow dove in front of him, trying to distract him, but he batted her away. Val’s forehead wrinkled as she tried to assault him telepathically, but it didn’t stop him. He swung a massive fist at her—
I got in front of it just in time. The fist seemed to hit half my body at once, and then…
Then I took a break. My body floated dizzily, drifting over ocean waves. Everything had gone blissfully silent, and my muscles finally relaxed. I didn’t know what, where, how, or why, but I didn’t have to move for the moment, and that was ecstasy. How long had it been since I’d been able to rest? Retirement was supposed to be restful, but mine had never quite managed it.
My head seemed to bob and dip like a balloon. Was this what flying felt like? Must be nice for Blue Sparrow. I should fly Val somewhere nice where we could both rest, maybe a sunny beach with soft sand and gentle waves. No, we lived in Florida. I was sick of beaches. We should do mountains instead. Yeah, mountains… That would be nice. Snow, a log cabin, a nice cozy fire…
Smiling, I drifted off into darkness.
Chapter 19
Dave?!
My eyes flew open, and I found myself staring at a high, arched ceiling. Throbbing pain surged through me, and a bestial roar hit my ears. Woozy, I picked myself up from the broken table I’d crashed into. Across the room, Elisa had jumped onto the mutated Dr. Sweet’s shoulders and was stabbing him with a steak knife. Eddy was still shooting, but the others had either run out of bullets or stopped for fear of hitting Elisa. Jocelyn flew overhead, and Julio was pulling Val to a safe distance.
Dr. Sweet barely looked winded. If it wasn’t for the fact that whatever had mutated him had also scrambled his brain, he’d have crushed us all by now. Even with that disadvantage, it was only a matter of time before Elisa and the others started to tire. One good hit was all it would take. He was stronger than me—had nearly knocked me out with one punch. I couldn’t beat him, couldn’t save them. I—
I had to stop thinking like I was the only hero here.
My cane was nowhere in sight, so I snapped the leg off the table and used it to limp over to Julio and Val. She was pale from blood loss. Every moment she spent away from medical attention grew riskier. We had to take down Dr. Sweet and do it fast.
“We’re disorganized,” I said. “We can’t beat him like this.”
Julio was watching the battle, his jaw tight. “We can’t give up and run.”
“I’m not saying that.”
He looked at me with a frown.
“I’m saying we’re disorganized.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “So organize us.”
Julio’s eyes widened. His gaze darted away, but then he squared his shoulders and turned back to the fight. He surveyed the room quickly and then sucked in a deep breath.
“Nicole! Get ready to take off your glasses!”
She turned from where she had her gun trained on Dr. Sweet. “I do that now, and—”
“I know! Just be ready! Elisa!” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “You’re in the way! Back away from him and wait for my signal!”
She leapt off Dr. Sweet’s back without protest, and I swelled with pride. Dr. Sweet lumbered after her, but Jocelyn swooped in, blasting wind into his face.
“Eddy, Deputy Director Franke, keep shooting!” Julio shouted. “Aim for the face and keep him distracted for a second! Just stay out of Nicole’s line of sight!”
They obeyed, and Dr. Sweet swatted at the bullets like they were mosquitos.
“Jocelyn, get out of there!”
Blue Sparrow twirled in midair and swooped away, leaving Dr. Sweet isolated in the middle of the ballroom.
“Nicole, now!” Julio yelled.
Agent Lagarde removed her blue-tinted glasses. Her eyes burned yellow-orange like distant suns, and goosebumps rose on my skin even though she wasn’t looking at me. Dr. Sweet grunted, and one of his massive knees hit the floor, seeming to shake the entire room. He swayed drunkenly, but he didn’t collapse. A guttural growl came out through his clenched teeth, and he pushed himself up.
“It’s not enough,” Agent Lagarde said, her eyebrows drawing together.
“Val, can you help her?” Julio asked.
Val trained her dark eyes on the monster, murder written all over her face.
Dr. Sweet dropped to both knees, wheezing. The veins in his skin bulged even more prominently, and spittle flew from his lips as he snarled.
“Elisa!” Julio shouted. “Psy-attack him!
Elisa clenched her fists, and Dr. Sweet smacked into the floor like he’d been hit by a car. He clutched his head and howled.
“We’re hurting him,” Val said, her voice distant. “But his mind… It’s bestial but…strong. I’m not sure we can take him down.”
Julio swore under his breath then turned and thrust out both hands towards the monster. Heat hit my face like I stood in front of a bonfire, and Dr. Sweet yowled as his skin reddened.
“Hit him with everything you’ve got!” Julio barked.
Eddy and Walter emptied their guns into the monster. The mutated Dr. Sweet twisted, his greasy hair singed and smoking, blood dripping from his nose.
But he was still trying to get up.
I had no gun, and with Agent Lagarde’s gaze on Dr. Sweet, I couldn’t get close enough to punch him. I looked around for something to throw at him. The tables were too light to do much more than annoy him, and I doubted he’d even notice the chairs. There had to be something weightier in here. What I needed was a decent-sized car or…
My gaze fell on the grand piano.
I limped over to it, Dr. Sweet’s furious roar shaking the chandeliers overhead. The stench of burning flesh filled the room, and I heard the rush of Jocelyn’s wings as she flew overhead. A massive thud shook the floor, and I looked over my shoulder to see Dr. Sweet, angry red burns all over his skin, pushing himself up. His eyes feral and mad, he shuffled across the floor in a limping crawl—heading towards Julio and Val.
Knee on fire, I picked up my pace. Elisa screamed for her mom, and Eddy was shouting at Dr. Sweet. I reached the piano, grabbed hold, and shoved with all my might.
It shot across the floor like a bullet train. When it reached the air Julio had superheated, it burst into flames. A split-second later, the fiery wreck smashed into Dr. Sweet with a cacophony of jarring notes. The monster toppled, and there a brief, deathly silence as he lay still.
Then one of the chandeliers crashed down on him.
I looked up to see Jocelyn hovering by a dangling, broken chain. Then Val and Elisa gasped, drawing my attention. I limped back towards Val as Julio turned to her.
“Is he…?”
“Dead.” Agent Lagarde put her glasses back on. “His mind’s gone.”
I hurried back to Val, who held out her hands towards a shaking Elisa. “Come here,” she said.
&n
bsp; Elisa rushed over and practically tackled her mother with a hug. She clutched her like she expected someone to pull her away and buried her face in her shoulder.
“You okay?” I asked softly, reaching them.
“We’ll be fine,” Val said, stroking Elisa’s hair. “Being inside someone’s mind when they die is…disturbing.”
“That asshole deserved it,” Elisa mumbled into Val’s shoulder.
“Yes,” Val said gently. “Yes, he did.”
Jocelyn landed, wincing slightly at the impact, and Julio rushed over to check on her. Eddy hobbled towards us and lowered himself to the ground next to Val with an air of finality that suggested he wouldn’t stand up for at least another week. Then Walter came over, pulling loose his tie and tossing it to the floor.
“Remember where that machine is?” he asked Agent Lagarde.
She nodded.
“Then let’s turn it off and get out of here.”
“Follow me.” Agent Lagarde took a few steps before stopping and looking back at Jocelyn, whose wings pulled in tightly against her back, making her look small and vulnerable.
“Come on, honey” Agent Lagarde said. “We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
Jocelyn’s wings perked up, and she gave Julio’s hand a squeeze before joining her mother. Walter went to follow the pair, but then he stopped and turned. The look on his face reminded me of a time he’d taken a sip of coffee in the old office breakroom, not realizing the pot had made over a day earlier.
“Good work back there,” he said stiffly, like each word pained him.
I tried not to look too pleased.
Epilogue
Two months later…
I walked out the back door onto the patio, giving my eyes a second to adjust to the sunlight. It was a beautiful day: clear blue skies and a breeze coming off the waters of the bay, keeping our backyard cool. I didn’t know what music Elisa had playing over the speakers, but it was low enough not to interfere with anyone’s conversation.
I went to where my mother and her gentleman friend, Mr. Alfaro, were chatting with Eddy under an umbrella.
The White Knight & Black Valentine Series (Book 5): Superhuman Disaster ( Page 15
