Super Powereds: Year 3 (37 page)

This multiplex was located near the outskirts of town. The faded neon glow fell through the windows of Alice’s car, painting the whole interior in unnatural hues. A few other cars decorated the parking lot—there was only so much demand for obscure B-grade films, instead of Hollywood blockbusters, after all. In a way, the building was almost creepier than the movies it showed, years of neglect succeeding where poor special effects failed.

“And what am I?” Nicholas asked, staring at Alice, her blonde hair almost appearing green in the neon light.

“I don’t know,” Alice said, staring at her steering wheel. Maybe this whole thing had been a bad idea. Nicholas was making her miss Nick more, not less. She’d chosen to go see a stupid horror movie because it was where Nick would have tricked her into going, if they’d ever gotten a first date. But they didn’t; they’d had two years together, and she’d let so many chances to step up and advance their relationship slip away. Then, one day, there were no more chances. She wouldn’t risk doing nothing again. At least this time, she’d see what possibilities were there.

“I don’t know what you are,” Alice repeated. “That’s why we’re going on a date. I want to find out.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” Nicholas acquiesced, popping open his door and stepping out into the neon-filled night.

Alice took a moment to compose herself, then followed. In the brief time she hesitated, Nicholas covertly checked his phone to see if there were any messages from Eliza. It came up clean, so he pocketed the small electronic device. Eliza and Jerome were both pros; if they were staying silent, it meant everything was going to plan. Evidently, Nathaniel was still keeping his distance. That was a good thing; Nicholas had no desire to see his night ruined by the orange-eyed freak.

*              *              *

In the parking lot of Nicholas’s apartments, the flames were finally dying down as firemen doused the smoldering car liberally with water. Several police were on the scene, taking a quick scan of the area and immediately noting the tell-tale signs of a bomb. The car it had destroyed was a mid-size sedan, unremarkable in color or model. In fact, there was only one feature about the vehicle that distinguished it from the other automobiles in the parking lot, aside from having just been incinerated.

Warped by heat and thrown several feet from the blast was the car’s rear license plate. That was not the oddity, though, the thing that made it stand out. Every other vehicle around had California plates, but these weren’t from the golden state.

This car had possessed license plates from Nevada.

68.

The movie was pretty much exactly as terrible as both of them had expected it to be. Unfortunately, it was also a tense affair, since, as awkward as conversation between the two had been, silence turned out to be even worse. The fact that they were the only two people in the theater certainly didn’t help things much, and by the time the credits rolled, Alice and Nicholas both breathed a sigh of slight relief to be done with it.

The parking lot was even emptier than when they’d gone in—not surprising given the late hour and the poor options available for viewing. Still, the neon glow from the marquee lit the lot well, and neither felt particularly in danger as they walked toward Alice’s car. For Nicholas, this was because he erroneously believed he still had people watching over him. For Alice, her confidence came from surviving two years in the HCP and being very sure of her own abilities. In this manner, she was not the first Super to be caught unaware and overconfident, nor would she be the last.

The slight pop of sound was all the warning they received, and it was woefully inadequate. Nicholas felt the pinch of pain in his neck, immediately recognizing the sensation as a dart entering his skin. A cold, numb feeling began to flow through his veins. He barely made it another two steps before his feet refused to respond correctly. All Nicholas could do was twist his body as he began to fall, getting line of sight on his assailant. Even though the tall form was some distance away, the glowing orange eyes immediately gave away its identity.

“Alice,” Nicholas grunted, the unknown poison making his tongue slow and heavy. “Run.”

“No, Alice, was it? I must insist that you stay.” Nathaniel’s voice rang out across the parking lot as he gracefully stepped closer. Strangely, he was dressed better than either of them in a black suit paired with an orange button-down that clashed horribly with his flickering eyes. “I think our little party just wouldn’t be the same without you.”

Alice took in the scene, the initial sense of panic and surprise quickly fading as she assessed the situation. There was a dart sticking out of Nicholas’s neck, and from the way he had fallen, it appeared he was at least partially paralyzed. The young man advancing on them wore an expression of unmasked hatred; there was no question he was intent on doing Nicholas serious harm. Probably her as well, judging from his statement. Given his eyes, he was either a Super or a Powered, and not knowing his ability put her at a huge risk. On the upside, the small black gun in his hand couldn’t possibly hold more than one dart of that size at a time. It meant he’d have to reload—an opportunity she would never give him—and he’d used his first shot to take out Nicholas instead of the blonde date he surely assumed was no threat. Alice let a light smile wash over her face. He was going to regret the hell out of that decision.

“Party, huh?” Alice dropped her purse to the ground and stepped out of her heels in a practiced motion known only to debutantes and pageant queens. Her hands came up to her ears, deftly removing the modest earrings she’d selected for her night out. “What makes you think I want to party with a guy like you?”

“Given that you’re out with Nicholas, you clearly don’t have high standards,” Nathaniel rebutted. He looked over at his nemesis. “Really, Nicholas, I did warn you that I was specifically here to take away everything you wanted. I give you the courtesy of a warning, and then you stroll out to a nearly deserted location with such a fine-bodied harlot. It’s almost like you didn’t think I meant it.”

“Did you just fucking call me a whore?” Alice asked, an unexpected wave of anger washing over her mind.

“I actually said harlot—”

“I know what harlot means, you son of a bitch.” Alice tested her range of movement in her dress by carefully stepping back. She could use her footwork, but kicks were out of the question. That was all right, her hand-to-hand skills were likely more than adequate. She might not be allowed to use her powers, but two solid years of training and fighting had left her with plenty of mundane ass-kicking options. Then again, this fellow wasn’t under the same constraints as she was.

“Hey, what’s his power?” Alice asked Nicholas, making no attempt to whisper or hide her question.

“Fear,” Nicholas wheezed out. His eyes kept scanning the area; they were the only part of him able to function with some degree of normality. Where the hell were Eliza and Jerome?

“You can stop looking for your backup,” Nathaniel told him. “I see you searching all over for them, but they were unexpectedly detained by a very inconvenient car explosion.”

Strangely, his words had a more chilling effect on Alice than Nicholas. She’d been expecting a fight, and understood this person was an asshole, but she hadn’t truly grasped what was on the line until he’d casually admitted to murdering people. Her anger at his words faded instantly. This wasn’t a place for petty emotions. Alice was fighting for her life. No, for both Nicholas’s and her life. It was different from every match she’d been in so far. There was no safety net, no agreed-upon rules: this was win, or die. This, she realized, deep down in the core of her being, was what she’d signed up for. This was what it was like to fight as a Hero.

It said volumes about the character of Alice Adair that, upon reaching a moment that had broken the will of many before her, the idea of running away never even entered her mind.

Instead, she dashed forward, quickly closing the gap between her and the assailant. She was quick, but without super-speed, there was no way to be fast enough to not give him time to prepare. Nathaniel was ready when she arrived, sending a long-legged kick right for her midsection. Alice side-stepped it easily, countering with an open-palmed strike at his eye. Nathaniel dodged, barely, and still received a blow to the temple for his trouble. He darted backward quickly, faster than Alice could follow in her dress.

“You’ve got spunk,” Nathaniel complimented. “I think that’s enough of that, though.” He reached into her mind and found the biggest, oldest fear she had, the one that had dominated the majority of her life. With a minor exertion of will, he activated it, filling her brain with an illusion that was sure to send her into fits of terror.

To Alice, she went from fighting the orange-eyed man in the parking lot to tumbling through the air, miles above the ground and quickly dropping in an instant. It was the nightmare she’d had ever since she was a little girl: she’d floated too high and was now falling, dying the way any Powered with flight ultimately would.

Back in reality, Nathaniel felt the burst of fear come from the girl, filling him with strength and energy. He turned to Nicholas, who was clumsily clawing at the ground, trying to pull himself up.

“Let . . . Alice . . . go . . .”

“I highly doubt I’ll be doing anything of the sort,” Nathaniel replied, lazily ambling over to the man who’d bested him year after year for the entirety of their lives. Seeing him sprawled out helpless on the ground warmed Nathaniel with a great glow of satisfaction. He couldn’t wait to hear Nicholas begging for his life. Or, perhaps, for the life of the girl. “I think she’ll be a great addition to our evening. I must say, you do have fine taste in women. Even among the gaggles of women in Vegas, you have a knack for pulling out the most beautiful ones.”

“Vegas, huh?”

Nathaniel felt a strange prickle of worry run down his spine at the sound of that voice. He turned around to find Alice staring at him with a dark humor in her eyes, clearly no longer bound by the illusion.

“If you’re one of his Vegas enemies, then that makes this a lot easier,” Alice said, mentally flexing her own abilities in preparation. If Nathaniel was from Vegas, then he wouldn’t be aware of the rules for the HCP, including the ones precluding the use of abilities or maintaining secret identities.

“Do not underestimate—”

“Save it,” Alice interrupted. “This fight is already over. You just don’t know it yet.”

69.

“How did you break out of my nightmare?” Nathaniel asked, regarding Alice far more warily than he had before.

“That two-cent illusion? Please, that kind of piss-poor power won’t hold someone like me. So, what’s your deal, you make people hallucinate their fears?”

“Feeds . . . off . . . them . . .” Nicholas added from his prone position on the ground.

“Not sure what that means, but it doesn’t really matter,” Alice said, keeping her eyes fixed on Nathaniel. “Because you picked the wrong fear.”

“Did I?” A wild grin cut across Nathaniel’s face, the orange glow from his eyes reflecting slightly off the veneers of his teeth.

“Yeah, you did. You had me tumbling toward the ground from a mile or so up, spinning helplessly out of control.” Alice returned his expression with a dazzling grin all her own. It would not have looked out of place plastered on the cover of a magazine, worn by an airheaded celebrity. All the same, it filled Nathaniel with a sense of unexpected dread, which only served to prove he wasn’t quite as stupid as Nicholas thought him to be.

“Your turn.” At Alice’s softly spoken words, Nathaniel blasted off into the air, a short yelp of surprise and an expression of unmitigated panic the last they could see before he rose out of sight. Alice turned to Nicholas, who was trying in vain to pull himself off the parking lot asphalt. “Are you going to be all right? Should I get you to a hospital?”

Nicholas shook his head. “Short . . . term . . . paralyze . . . not . . . poison.” The one upside to his current, near-incapacitated state was that he didn’t have to explain how he was so well versed in the effects of various drugs and poisons.

“Good.” Alice smiled at him, not the false grin she’d given Nathaniel, but a genuine expression of affection. This also induced a feeling of dread, though for very different reasons. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She looked up at the sky, where Nathaniel was now suspended in a zero-gravity field. Her summer with Mary truly had improved her level of control beyond what she’d ever expected. Last year’s final match had been a hell of a motivator. She just hoped it would be enough to see this through to the end.

“Stay put for a second, I’ve got to finish this.”

“No . . .” Nicholas protested, desperately willing his words to come out faster. She didn’t realize what she was doing, the danger she was stepping into.

“Hush now,” Alice instructed. “You know as well as I do that if I leave it like this, he’s going to come back sooner or later. I realize you don’t remember, but this is sort of what we do.”

“Dangerous . . .”

“Life is dangerous,” Alice replied, rising a few feet from the ground. “But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let someone come after one of us. Especially you. Now, shut up and watch, because today, the princess is going to be the one doing the saving.” She was off, soaring into the sky like a blonde bullet in a green metal casing.