Temptress (11 page)

“You know you’re crazy, right?” Tank’s sigh rumbled against me.

“Yeah.” That wasn’t up for debate.

“As long as that’s clear. You know I’m falling for you?” Tank said.

I froze, completely still except for my heart, which beat faster and faster as I repeated the words.
You know I’m falling for you?

“You…are?” I pulled back to look him in the eyes. I’d thought—hoped—we shared something, but he was right. I was kind of crazy. That was me. I’d never expected to find someone who could deal with it, but Tank’s gaze was clear and warm. He could handle me and I needed him. I moved until our noses touched, and anticipation fluttered. “What if I already fell?”

“Even better.” Tank tilted his head until our lips brushed. I clutched him tighter, closing my eyes as electric connection jolted between us. He tasted like forever, and I really wished he wasn’t tied to the chair.

As I relaxed into him, the energies inside me stirred. Tank’s powers rose, and slipped back to him as naturally as if they’d meant to all along. Maybe they’d been waiting for this. Tank shuddered, and our contact broke as I slumped to the floor.

“Jenny!” I could feel his power working against me from the outside, testing my mind, but its touch was gentle.

I tried to wave him off, but I could barely lift my hand I was so weak. “It’s okay. It’s always like this.” Taking powers gave me a rush, but putting them back was like having my strings cut. It was one of many reasons I wouldn’t return that kind of energy mid-mission. For Tank, I’d make an exception

A low whine built around him and his ropes slipped to the floor. He picked me up and cradled me in his arms, kissing my forehead. “You’re a lot of trouble.”

“I know.” I sank into him. He’d have to get used to that. “Tank…”

“Hmm?” He smoothed my hair. I could feel his power in the air, but it was directed elsewhere. He’d joined the fight, even as he held me. Explosions rattled the building and shook the light fixtures.

“Why did Drake come after us?” I closed my eyes. My voice was husky from the psionic screaming I’d done earlier, and my body wasn’t going to be able to maintain consciousness much longer. Everything hurt, and the doubts that Drake had offered threatened to crush me. “Can you read my memories?”

“I shouldn’t—”

“Tank. Please.” I hoped he was reading my thoughts. My mental defenses were down and it was the best time to find the truth. I trusted Tank. He could do it if anyone could and I needed to know what Drake was to me before tangling Tank into the mess of my life.

“Okay.” He shifted me into a more comfortable position and put a hand over my temple. “Relax.”

His calloused fingertips felt like heaven. I opened my mind, offering my whole self to the man I loved.

Images spun from the shadowy depths of my mind. As Drake’s face came to forefront, my muscles tensed, and my world shattered.

Jenny’s body tightened. I tried to keep my mental touch light, but digging for suppressed memories was rough work. I’d blocked all the supers in the building, and the guys were mopping up the rest of Drake’s force.

Good to have you back, boss.
Ruin spoke first, but the rest of their voices followed.
They’re toast now. Boo-yah! Dibs on victory kisses from the boss’s girl!

The last was from Cyclone. I tuned him out and bent to focus on the task at hand. We had about two minutes before Drake and one of his buddies made it back to the office. They’d slipped the guys on the roof and were sprinting down the stairwell.

Two minutes would be enough. I didn’t want to do this now, but Jenny had thought right. The best time to break the hazy cage around her mind was while Drake’s powers were suppressed and she was vulnerable.

I stroked her hair as I delved into her thoughts. She was mine. Beautiful, spontaneous, strong and crazy. She looked like she’d put herself through hell to get to me, and it wasn’t far from the truth. Every part of her ached, and her exhaustion stretched soul-deep. If she kept using powers at this rate, she’d tear herself apart. It was impressive, but I couldn’t let it go on. I wanted to see her healthy and off the diet of booze and pain meds. Smiling next to me.

That wouldn’t happen until her thoughts were her own again. I moved deeper and deeper into her mind until the haze parted and a flood of memories broke from Drake’s dam.

A fresh-faced Jenny clutched a stack of books to her chest as she ducked her head against a misty rain. I recognized the street. It was Greenwich Village near NYU. She had to be late teens, early twenties, with long blonde curls that turned heads, though she didn’t notice the attention.

Jenny slipped into an alley and a smudge of something—a man?—shot through the air after her. A muffled scream, and the books toppled to the ground. She was flying.

No. Her attacker was flying.

He carried her to the top of a building and dropped her on the narrow ledge of ornamental stone. Old cigarette butts littered the space. Jenny tried to scrabble backward, but there were no windows and there was nowhere to go but down. The guy had scraggly hair and the melted look of wasted muscle. A failed hero?

As he closed in on Jenny, he unzipped his fly.

My blood boiled. I wanted to tear through the memory and rip his throat out, but I couldn’t change the past. I wanted to save her, but all I could do was watch.

“No!” Jenny batted at him, but he pinned her arms and fell on top of her. His lips crushed hers. I ached to take her into my arms and stop the muffled sounds of panic and pain.

It was getting too much to take when the man’s eyes widened. He tried to pull back, but his body went rigid. He slumped and tipped over the ledge, falling to the ground like dead weight.

Served the bastard right.

Jenny clapped a hand to her mouth, and panicked breaths sped through her fingers. She scrunched into herself, pressing her back to the wall as she clutched her knees.

She stayed that way as screams and sirens echoed from the street, but the terrible realization stole over her face. As the shadows tugged at her mind in the present, I remembered something too. A superhero turned serial rapist, who’d abducted women by plucking them from the street. They couldn’t fight back when a fall meant death.

Ending his life had wakened Jenny’s powers.

The memory dissolved with Jenny frozen on the ledge. Did she realize then that she could fly, or did she wait alone until she was found? I wanted it to end, but Drake hadn’t arrived on the scene. Where did he come into this disaster?

A new image rose, and Jenny looked more rumpled this time, with deep circles under her eyes. She knocked on an office door’s frosted glass. “Professor Darring?”

“Come in,” a familiar voice called.

Bookshelves filled with comic books and glossy texts ringed the room at waist height, and framed posters of supers crowded the walls. The man’s back was to Jenny as he fingered through a stack of comics. “You’re here about your term paper grade?”

“No.” Jenny fiddled with her scarf. “I’m not one of your students. But someone told me to talk to you…you’re head of Super Studies and I need…”

The man tensed and set down his comic. It was Drake before the dye job, in reading glasses and a tie. “Have a seat. What can I help you with, Miss…?”

“Ray. Jenny Ray. I think I’m…” She gripped the chair back but didn’t sit. “There’s something wrong with me.”

Drake came around the desk. He took her hand and pulled her into the chair. As he patted her hand, she gazed at him like he’d just thrown her a lifeline.

Fucking bastard.

The memory slipped, and a series of images shot me like machine gun fire. Professor Drake Darring seduced Jenny, slowly turning her into an object for his pleasure. One scene lingered longer than the rest.

A ragged guy with a scraggly beard was tied to a chair in a room jammed with space heaters. Bits of frost clung to his fingers, but it was too hot to form ice, and water puddled from his feet, submerging the floorboards.

Jenny wore clingy leather and Drake had ditched the reading glasses and tie. He hovered behind the guy, clutching his shoulders. “Do it, Jenny. For us.”

“I…” She hesitated at the edge of the puddle.

“You have to test this. Do you know what it means if you can take his powers? We can turn the city around, and with me hiding you, no one could touch us.” Drake dug his fingers into the guy’s shoulders. “The world could do without one more criminal, and you’re the only one who can stop him for good.”

She took a deep breath and splashed through the water. “I have to know if this is real.”

“You can handle it,” Drake said.

She leaned in, and as her lips touched the bound man’s, her expression broke my heart. It was a mix of disgust and terror, her eyes as hollow as they’d been when she crouched alone on the ledge.

The man jerked as his energy bled away, and Jenny jumped back as he slumped. She lifted a hand and stared in horror as tiny ice crystals blossomed on her fingertips. “I didn’t think it would work.”

Drake pulled her from the room and sat her on a couch with a blanket. “You’ll be fine, Jenny. You were born for this.”

“Born to steal other people’s powers?” Her voice trembled.

“No.” Drake grabbed her chin and forced him look in his eyes. “Born to reclaim them from people who don’t deserve them.”

“I’m not God, Drake. I didn’t even know I had pow—”

Drake cut her off with a kiss. She melted into him, dropping the blanket, clinging to him like she would to anyone who offered her a hand.

It should’ve been me.

“Relax,” Drake said. “I’ll take care of you. We’ll do this together, okay?”

Jenny nodded, and the scene blurred into a hundred others just like it. She didn’t want to steal powers, but Drake convinced her every time.
This one’s a criminal,
and
that one’s dangerous
. It was always, “You’re the only one who can stop them, Jenny.”

Every kiss they shared was a knife to my stomach. He taught her to control the new powers and gave her plenty of opportunities to experiment as he dragged her into the supervillain underworld. The more power Jenny took, the more her life crumbled, and it took a long time before all that pain gave her wisdom.

When she finally realized he was manipulating her, she left him, but Drake had never let go. He’d used his power to shield her from prying eyes, always intending to return and claim what was his.
 

As her past finished fast-forwarding, Jenny’s eyes snapped open, only Jenny wasn’t home.

The air condensed around her, and shadows twisted in her hate-filled gaze. I clutched her to me, but the door burst open before I could start to pull her back.

Two minutes were up. Drake and his follower stood panting in the doorway.

Jenny gave a cruel, cold smile and pushed me away. I hit the opposite wall before I could process what was happening.

She was out of control, and she had more power than I could stop.

We were all screwed.

Chapter Eleven

The truth seared through me, waking powers I’d forgotten and a strength I’d never known I had. The pain was fresh as ever.

I’d killed the man who tried to rape me, discovering a power I couldn’t understand. It wasn’t long until a glimpse of me flying triggered Mom’s stroke. My life was on the brink when I heard about Drake. I thought he was saving me, but he’d pulled me further into the darkness, taking advantage of me at my most vulnerable.

With me to take down his enemies, he’d gone from untenured professor to criminal mastermind in a matter of months. He’d been right about one thing. No one could stand against our powers together.

I’d followed him, mistaking sex for love, and though I’d forgotten what he did to me, I’d never escaped. The rush of memories burned so hot I tasted metal.

“Jenny.” Drake was covered in soot, his sleeve torn, but he smiled. “You remembered.”

Shadows boiled at the edges of the room. They darted out at my will, binding Drake and his goateed minion wrist and ankle. It was strange to feel so hot and cold at the same time. I craved revenge, and I’d do my worst to get it.

Black and silver lightning sparked along my arms, and a tear grew in the fabric of space in front of the two men. A life in Hell was exactly what they deserved.

“Jenny…” Drake’s smile faded. “Don’t do this.”

The building shook as the portal widened, and demonic screams carried the scent of sulfur in their wake. Strong arms wrapped my shoulders. Tank. “Don’t, Jenny.”

I pushed him away. He careened into the desk, slipping on the ice that spread across the floor. I frowned. I hadn’t meant to use that much strength.

The portal screamed louder, drawing my attention. Phantom arms reached through, and the two men trembled. Spectral flames reflected in their eyes. I felt powerful.

Invincible.