The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (24 page)

“Why?”

“Because it is a good distance away, about 30 miles. Also, you have to get off the highway and navigate quite a few city streets to get there. It's not a straight shot. So that makes it harder.” Susan gestured for Kathryn to hold out her arm. She did, and Susan strapped the GPS to her wrist.

“Why can't we do something easy first?”

“You did that already. The cabin.” Susan held out her hand.

“What?”

“You're taking me with you.”

Kathryn looked at the red line on the screen. It left their position, curved down the highway, and led into the center of the city. After that, the line grew very crooked. “It gets complicated once it goes off the highway.”

Susan shook her outstretched hand. “So? Let's go.”

Kathryn reluctantly took Susan's hand and looked once again at the directions. “Okay, here goes nothing.” She teleported and headed down the mountain. Once she arrived at the highway, she followed it into downtown. She looked at her wrist to see where she was supposed to go next, and all of a sudden a sick, lightheaded feeling overcame her. She looked for a place out of the way to reappear and picked a secluded alley. She immediately dropped Susan's hand and grabbed her head.

“Are we there?” Susan said brightly.

“No.” Kathryn groaned.

Susan touched her gently on the shoulder. “Oh my god, are you okay?”

“No.” Kathryn groaned again.

“What's wrong?”

She couldn't explain it. Everything hurt, especially her head. The world swam in and out of focus, and her stomach did flip flops. She sort of felt the way she used to when she first started teleporting, but this was worse. Much much worse. Kathryn leaned one hand against a nearby brick wall. She was afraid that she might pass out. “My head,” was all that she could say.

“Here, sit down.” Susan led Kathryn to an overturned crate. Kathryn allowed herself to be led and carefully sat down. She put her head between her knees.

“Damn,” she whispered. “I feel like shit.”

Susan kneeled down next to her and stroked her back. “Give it a minute. It'll pass.”

Kathryn sat there with her head down and her eyes tightly closed. After a few minutes, the nausea subsided enough for her to raise her head. A few minutes later, the pounding in her head reduced down to a light tap, and she was able to open her eyes.

“Wow. That was shitty.” Susan grabbed Kathryn's wrist and pressed a few of the buttons.

“Ten point two miles,” she announced.

“Ten point two miles what?”

“That's how far you went. Ten point two miles.”

“Yeah, well, that was about ten miles too many.” Kathryn put her hand to her forehead and attempted to massage away the remaining pain. It wasn't working.

“Don't be ridiculous. This is great!” Susan's enthusiasm was not helping Kathryn's headache. “Ten miles is a long way. That is so fantastic.”

“Not fantastic,” Kathryn snapped. “I can't do that again. I seriously almost passed out.”

Susan stood up, still oozing optimism. “Wait, let's look at it this way. So maybe ten miles is too much, but you easily did about three miles to the cabin. So that means that your limit is somewhere in between there.”

“Yeah, well, there's a big gap between three and ten miles. And there's another problem. I couldn't read the damn GPS while teleporting. It's not like the turn-by-turn directions could keep up with teleportation speed.”

“Let me think a minute.” Susan grabbed Kathryn's wrist again and pressed a few more buttons. “Cool, here we go. Look.” Susan tapped at the screen. “I've programmed in the route from here to the Basement, but blocked it off in seven mile increments.”

“Why seven miles?”

“Because the GPS can display the turn-by-turn directions for a seven mile distance, and I'm guessing that you could probably go seven miles without passing out.”

“I wouldn't be so sure of that,” Kathryn said sourly.

“No, seriously. Look at this.” Her finger traced the red line. “Memorize the directions for the next seven miles. Teleport to this point.” Her nail tapped on the screen. “Then stop, memorize the next steps, and go again. It should only take three turns.”

“I don't know . . .”

“Shut up.” Susan held out her hand. “Let's go.” Kathryn glared at Susan before taking her hand. Susan helped her to her feet. “Ready?”

“No, but what the hell.” Kathryn studied the GPS. For the next seven miles, she had to make two turns. She memorized where they were. “Okay, let's go.” She teleported the distance, adjusting her course where she remembered the GPS telling her to. She rematerialized in another abandoned alley and checked the device again.

“How do you feel?” Susan asked.

Kathryn checked in with her head and her stomach. They still ached but no worse than before. “Okay. Yeah, I think I'm okay.”

“Great. Let's go again.”

Kathryn teleported them two more times. The last time she ended up right in front of the Basement.

“You did it.” Susan held out her hand to give Kathryn a high five. Kathryn reluctantly hit it.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, come on. You have to admit that my idea worked.” She paused. “And that it was pretty cool.”

Kathryn smirked. “All right. I'll admit it. It worked.”

“And?” Susan coaxed.

Kathryn rolled her eyes. “And that it was pretty cool.”

“Yes! Hate to say 'I told you so' but—”

“Yeah, yeah. Watch the gloating, or I'll leave your ass here, and you’ll have to take the bus back.”

Susan's mouth dropped open. “You wouldn't dare.”

“Oh, really? Just keep pushing it, and you'll find out.”

***

Over the next few days, Kathryn got more comfortable with the GPS. It turned out that seven miles was a good limit. Much more than that, and she would begin to get sick. Susan showed Kathryn all over LA, in seven mile increments. Despite the GPS distraction, Kathryn spent most of her days missing Charge and wishing he would return.

“I've got a meeting with one of my boys Saturday night.” Charge's excitement was evident, even over the phone. “After I meet with him, I should be able to come home.” Kathryn was stretched out in the bed, relishing the sound of his voice. She wished he was lying naked beside her.

“That's great, baby. I miss you.”

Charge chuckled, and Kathryn felt her body come alive at the deep, sensuous sound. “I miss you too, babe.” He paused. “What are you doing right now?”

Kathryn smiled in the dark. “Lying here naked, wishing you were next to me.”

Charge's voice grew low. “Oh, yeah? Why? What would you do to me?”

“Mmm,” Kathryn closed her eyes. “Whatever you want, baby. I would kiss you, lick you, stroke you, bite you, until you couldn't control yourself anymore and had to be inside me.” Charge groaned softly. “We would start slowly at first, then a little faster, then faster, and faster, and faster until you came so hard that you couldn't breathe and you collapsed in a big ole sweaty heap next to me, worried that we broke the bed.”

Charge chuckled again, and Kathryn felt on fire. “That sounds familiar.”

A overwhelming sense of loneliness engulfed her. “It should. Come back home soon, Charge.” She paused. “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. And I will.”

Kathryn hung up the phone and sighed in the empty room.

Chapter Twenty Five

The energy of the city pulsated, and Charge inhaled deeply as he tapped into it. It wasn't just the delicious smell of the million watts that flowed around him, although that alone was invigorating; it was also the people packed together on the sidewalk, the cacophony of car horns, and the sounds of voices talking, arguing, and laughing all around him. LA was fine, but the energy was different—millions of people packed into their cars inching down miles of highway. New York pulsated like the electricity through his veins. LA throbbed like a broken stoplight blinking over and over again. At least the cabin was nice. It was peaceful and serene and had become his favorite place to be now that Kathryn was there. Charge smiled to himself as he made his way down the darkened Harlem street. Kathryn. Beautiful, sexy, powerful Kathryn. His Kathryn. Charge grew hard at the thought of her. He sped up his pace. The sooner he could get Mario's answer from Arsenal, the sooner he could get back.

“Charge!”

The sound of his name snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned, and standing in a dimly lit gangway was Alicia. The light from the single bulb attached to the brick wall shone on her jet black hair cascading down her shoulders.

“Hey.” He cautiously took several steps forward, leaving the busy sidewalk. The streetlights couldn't penetrate the gloom beyond her. Alicia seemed to be alone, but he could feel the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.

“That's all I get? 'Hey?'“

Charge didn't move. “Good to see you, Alicia. How you been?”

She snorted and swayed towards him, her hips rocking back and forth with every step. “I've been shitty ever since you left, and I should cuss you out and call you the
pendejo
that you are, but,” now right in front of him, Alicia touched him gently on his chest and slid her warm hands up and around his neck, “I'm just so glad to see you.” She pressed her curves up against him, and Charge inhaled sharply as his body responded to her touch. She tilted her head up to look at him, a slight smile at the corners of her full lips. “And I see that you're glad to see me, too.”

He stepped back, breaking contact with her. “Yeah, well, I gotta go. Someone's waiting for me.”

“Arsenal.” She nodded. “I know.”

“Right. I heard you're the new . . . uh . . . second. That sounds like a promotion, so I guess congrats are in order.”

“Thanks. Although what that really means is that I stand a greater chance of being killed, but you know,” she shrugged, and her dark hair shimmered, “no danger, no glory.”

“You can handle yourself.” Charge took another step back toward the sidewalk. Alicia closed the gap between them.

“This is true.” She wrapped her arms around him again. Heat emanated from her warmer-than-normal body. “So when you're done with your meeting, come by my place,” she murmured, her hands travelling to the front of his jeans. “We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

Charge groaned as he grew hard under her touch.
Kathryn
. “No.” He stepped back again, releasing himself from her grasp. “I can't, Alicia. I've got a girl.”

A flame flickered behind her eyes. They glowed like embers in the gloom. “Since when have you been concerned about fidelity?”

“Since now. I'm different, Alicia. It's been a long time since we were last together. Things change. People change.”

She stepped towards him again, the embers blazing. A wave of heat flowed around them. “People do change, Charge. But you don't.”

He shrugged. “I gotta go. It was good seeing you, Alicia.” He turned and began walking towards the busy street.

The sound he heard was barely perceptible, like a low whistle whizzing through the air. The pain, however, was undeniable. Something stuck him sharply in the back of the neck. His hand instinctively went to spot and came away clutching a small needle. The world swam in and out of focus, and Charge could feel himself falling—blacking out before hitting the pavement.

Chapter Twenty Six

“Okay, enough moping around. We're going out tonight.” Susan sat in the sun with Kathryn, who slowly sipped a hot cup of black coffee and smoked a cigarette, her third already that morning.

“I don't feel like it.”

“That's exactly why we need to do it,” Susan chirped. Her endlessly positive attitude was beginning to get on Kathryn's nerves. “Look, I miss him, too. How long has he been gone, ten days?”

“Eleven.” Kathryn crushed out her cigarette. “It's been three days since I last heard from him. But who's counting?”

“Okay, eleven days. We could use the entertainment.” Kathryn said nothing. “It’ll take our mind off of the fact that he's gone.” Kathryn still said nothing. Susan continued, “And we could get so wasted that we pass out for the next two days, and when we wake up, he'll be back.”

Kathryn finished her coffee and set the mug down on the wrought-iron table. “I do like that last part.”

“Good. We'll do that, then.”

“Just one problem.” Kathryn closed her eyes and turned her face up to the late morning sun. It felt good, but not good enough to lift her gloomy mood. “How are we going to get there? We could drive, but if we get hammered, we can't drive back.”

Susan raised one eyebrow. “Really? Have you forgotten what we've been doing all week? I don't know about you, but I'm done driving around. I'm catching the Kathryn express from here on out.”

Kathryn thought about it for a moment. It would be convenient to teleport there and back. The idea of not having to suffer through LA traffic ever again was appealing. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Susan paused. “Can I be your personal stylist again?”