Supervillainess (Part One) (12 page)

The words hit home harder than if she had
punched him in the solar plexus. “Keladry –”

“Reader!”

“Whatever! You have no clue
how I feel, or what I’ve been through, or why I chose to come to
this city. I
do not
want your people anywhere near me!”

“I don’t care what you want, Doc!” Keladry
whirled and strode away.

“If I see Igor or any of your ninjas within
a block of me, I’m calling the police,” Kimber called after
her.

She flipped him off.

Humming with anger, Kimber left the
warehouse and called a cab. Was he upset with her alone or with
himself as well? He barely knew Keladry, and she had verbally
skewered him in a way no one else had ever managed to do. He
despised her having any kind of insight into him and hated the idea
of anyone thinking he helped others for selfish reasons. He helped
others as a form of penance, yes, but he also did it because he
wanted to make the world a better place, a place where good people
who made a mistake, or got caught in the crossfires of Life itself,
weren’t punished forever because of it.

It wasn’t selfish to want
to help people, and he was
not
holding a pity party for himself! He was being
cautious, because he didn’t want to hurt anyone else by making bad
decisions.

Why was the year old wound, created when he
ditched his old life to start over, reopening? Why was he starting
to hurt again? A year of double shifts and few breaks had
effectively numbed him to the pain of what he’d been through. How
did a stranger like Keladry manage to rip him open again?

Kimber was still fuming thirty minutes later
when he entered the locker room at the hospital. He changed out of
his running clothes and lingered by his locker, too angry for any
of his thoughts to make sense.

“Hey, Doctor K.”

He closed the door to his locker and saw
Gary dressed in jeans and a sweater. Kimber braced himself for the
invite he knew was coming.

“You want to ride with me to Tapirs?”

Kimber hesitated, rolling Reader’s words
around in his head. Dealing with her always left him ready for a
stiff drink, and tonight was no different. He dreaded the idea of
trying to fall asleep in the bay reserved for staff in need of some
rest while working overtime. His thoughts were too agitated to
leave him in peace, and he had the urge to go for another run.

“Yeah. I’ll come,” he decided, unwilling to
be alone with his thoughts and the ache at his core. If nothing
else, a beer or two would help him sleep.

They joined two other nurses in the waiting
area nearest the parking lot and rode together to the trendy bar
and nightclub district located in the eastern part of the city.
Kimber had driven through the area once or twice without ever
having stopped.

He exited Gary’s car and glanced up and down
the busy street packed with college students and others out for a
night of drinking and fun. He didn’t spot Igor or any of Reader’s
ninjas and started to relax, hoping she got the point to leave him
alone.

“Their margaritas are amazing,” said the
female nurse, Anna, who got out of the car to stand beside him.

“I’m pretty much just a beer guy,” he
replied.

Gary held out his hand to Anna, who took it
with a grin. “C’mon, boys!” she said with the same cheerfulness
Gary often displayed.

The third member of their
party, Joe, fell in beside Kimber as they made their way out of the
parking area and towards the bar sporting a digital sign that
alternately flashed
Tapirs
and
Half-Priced
Margaritas for the Ladies
in bright
hues.

The bar was packed. Half a head taller than
most men, Kimber was able to keep an eye on Gary as he followed the
couple through the throng towards the bar.

“What’ll you have?” Gary called when they
had reached it.

“Guinness,” Kimber replied. He pushed a
twenty dollar bill at Gary, who pushed it back.

“I’ve got first round. You get second!”

Kimber nodded. Anna took his arm and tugged
him towards a table with standing room only on one half. The area
was large enough for all of them to squeeze in. Moments later, Gary
joined them with drinks.

Kimber breathed in the scent of fried bar
food. His eyes settled on the live band playing across the room.
Tension melted from his frame at the familiar surroundings. He had
spent nearly every Thursday through Saturday night at bars like
this in college; he hadn’t realized how much he missed it. He and
Suzanne had always gone together, along with whichever of their
friends were available. Social by nature, he didn’t realize how
much he had isolated himself since leaving Chicago.

One beer became two, three, four. He
welcomed the warm buzz of becoming tipsy that made it harder for
his more serious thoughts to stick around and easier to fall into
light conversation with his companions.

For the first night in a year, Kimber
relaxed, though it was impossible to enjoy himself when he couldn’t
stop replaying Keladry’s words in his mind.

Was it possible she was right?

Reader watched Kimber cross the crowded
street lined with bars, accompanied by three other people. He was
smiling. It wasn’t the terse expression she had seen while in his
care at his apartment, but a freer, broader, happier smile,
probably facilitated by alcohol.

She and the surveillance team tailing him
kept their distance after his visit to the training facility.
Already she had spotted two of her brother’s men, also discreetly
following the stubborn doctor. Her brother was nothing if not
impulsive, and she was as interested in his plans as she was in
what Kimber was doing. Jermaine had already tried to murder Kimber
once today.

Reader studied the doctor, unaccustomed to
being perplexed by anyone. She could read the minds of those around
her with ease, but when she went too close to the doctor, he
somehow managed to block her ability completely until she moved
away. Fortunately, he was too intoxicated this night to notice her,
which gave her the ideal opportunity to test the limits of his
ability.

Fifteen-ish feet. If she were within four or
five yards of him, she lost her superpower. The distance was far
greater than she would have liked. It basically ruled out her
ability to talk to him without rendering herself vulnerable to her
surroundings. Safe in her lair or at the training facility, it
wouldn’t matter. But anywhere else, especially in public, she
couldn’t risk approaching him outright, not when her brother – and
newfound arch-nemesis – was after her.

Kimber and his coworkers disappeared into
another bar.

Reader telepathically ordered one of her men
to stay with him before turning away and making her way down the
street, towards the car, where Igor awaited her. As she walked, she
sucked in the thoughts of those around her absently, always alert
for any sign of threat. Forefront on her mind, however, was the
unusual sensation she had first experienced the day she and the
doctor spoke about suffering.

Reaching Igor, who stood on guard at the
front of the car, Reader tilted her head back and gazed up at his
dark features and darker eyes. His thoughts were quiet and loyal,
as always. Igor was easy to understand, because he had no real
desire other than to assist her, and he generally spoke his mind,
unlike pretty much everyone else she had ever met. Moreover, she
trusted her longtime nanny, who had sneaked her candy when she was
in the dungeon, despite her father’s orders to let her starve until
she learned whatever lesson it was he wanted to teach her.

“Igor, what’s the opposite of hate?” she
asked.

“Love.”

She gave a snort of
derision and rolled her eyes. “Not
that
opposite. Less opposite but
still pretty far from hate.”

“Like?”

“No.” Reader frowned and sifted through the
thoughts and emotions she picked up from Igor on a daily basis to
provide some sort of basis for understanding what she was trying to
ask. “It’s how you feel about your first cup of coffee in the
morning.”

“Ah,” Igor said with a smile. “Happy.”

“Really?”

“Happy and grateful for its existence.”

“That seems extreme for coffee, doesn’t
it?”

“It’s the coffee, but it’s also the
experience. The smell, the flavor, the warmth, when that first sip
reaches my soul, and I know my day will go well, since I got my
coffee in.”

She rolled the explanation around in her
head with some skepticism. “Can you feel that way for a
person?”

“It might be a little different if you feel
that way towards a person.”

“Then what would you call that entire
experience if it involved a person?”

“That’s difficult.” Igor was quiet. “It’s
not one emotion but many.”

Her phone buzzed, and she plucked it from
her pocket. “My predictable brother,” she said. “He took the bait.
Let’s go.” She climbed into the car and closed the door.

Igor slid into the driver’s seat. Seconds
later, they peeled away from the curb, headed in the opposite
direction of the bars.

“Affection?” Igor asked, glancing at her
through the rearview mirror.

“Hmm. Closer,” she replied. “But without the
warm, squishy undertone.” She checked the alert on her phone again,
thoughts turning from Kimber to her brother. “I’m going to kill
that fucker.” As she said it, familiar pain radiated through her
insides. Her brother deserved everything he had coming to him, so
why did she ache when she thought about him? Why did she start to
remember the times when they were starving or injured or abandoned
in their father’s dungeon, and Jermaine was the only reason she
survived such an ordeal?

Reader locked her phone and set it down,
gazing out the window. The cityscape zipped by as Igor deftly
navigated through the city neither of them had ever left.

“Igor,” she started. “Is it wrong for me not
to want to kill my brother?”

“No, Reader,” was the quiet response. “His
betrayal was unexpected.”

“I should have known,” she replied. “I can
read his mind but I didn’t think it necessary, since we were always
united against our father. My guard was down.”

“Your father spent years trying to drive you
apart. He finally succeeded. No one is to blame except for him. If
not for the doctor, you’d be dead.”

I prefer death to
suffering.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll end
this tonight,” she said aloud. “My father will have his heir, and
the games will be over.”

Igor was quiet for a moment. “I want you in
charge of the city, Reader. But if you’re not ready for the final
confrontation with your brother, don’t force it.”

“I’m ready.”

She didn’t have to read his mind to know he
didn’t believe her. The man who helped raise her had a way of
pursing his lips when he wanted to say more but chose not to. She
studied his profile, aware of how her father had broken Jermaine.
No part of her believed she was safe from the same treatment,
especially if she did kill her twin and become her father’s heir.
He preached isolation as being the only true way to prevent
betrayal and maintain absolute, unbiased power.

He’d take Igor from her or force her to kill
him, just as he had done to the members of Jermaine’s inner circle.
Reader couldn’t let that happen. Igor was loyal, and she cared for
him more than he cared for his first cup of coffee in the
morning.

It was a weakness, a horrific one she was
ashamed of. If her father knew the extent of her feelings for her
nanny, he would have murdered him long ago. She couldn’t allow Igor
to be harmed, couldn’t dismiss her shame in knowing she had a
weakness others could exploit. She was left trying to sort through
her confusion alone, unable to ask her only mentor what she should
do.

Beating Jermaine was the first step in
protecting Igor. The second: preventing her father from ensnaring
her and forcing her to destroy her only remaining friend. She
wasn’t ready to face the city’s supervillain. Not until Igor was
safe. Her father would destroy her if given a chance, and he
wouldn’t hesitate to use everything, and everyone, he could against
her.

Before she faced her father, Igor had to be
safe and …

She cocked her head to the side, unease
sliding through her.

The doctor needed to be safe, too. She
didn’t feel for him what she did for Igor, but something about him
was special, even if she couldn’t identify what or why. The do-good
doctor had to survive.

Reader strapped on a mask.
She needed a solid plan to safeguard Igor. She had been debating
how best to protect him for months with no solid ideas. He wasn’t
safe anywhere in the city; her father or brother could always get
to him. That left
outside
the city, a place she wasn’t permitted to go.
Supervillains weren’t allowed to leave the city limits of their
assigned territory. It was the only real rule of the Supervillain
Council.

Igor would never voluntarily leave her, and
she’d been unable to invent a reason as to why she would ever need
to send him outside the city.

“Ptolemy wants to know if he has a green
light,” Igor said.

Reader pulled herself from her thoughts and
focused on the plan for this night. “Yeah.”

Igor gave the quiet kill order.

Still a mile away, the explosion was visible
from the car. Reader checked her weapons, eyes glued to the
location. The explosion wasn’t part of her plan, but it didn’t
surprise her that her brother had reacted so quickly.