Super Bad (a Superlovin' novella) (16 page)

“Kim? How did you get
this number?”

At least he sounded
annoyed rather than lovey-dovey. Then Julian’s
why-the-fuck-are-you-calling-me-here
expression flickered through momentary confusion on its way to the righteously
pissed determination of a hero on the job. His head snapped up, his gaze
pinning Mirage to the spot, almost accusing. What the fuck had her subconscious
done without her permission this time?

But when he spoke, it
wasn’t to her. The darkly ominous growl was aimed at the threat on the phone. “Dr.
Wroth. What an unexpected surprise.”

Mirage felt the blood
drain from her face. Oh
shit
. Her father was back.

“He won’t hurt them. I
know it.”

Julian whipped the car
around another tight hairpin turn. “You know it? That’s funny because he flat
out told me he would kill them if I didn’t hand you over to him in—” he flicked
a look at the clock on the dash, “—seventeen minutes.”

“He was bluffing! You
said yourself the truth-sensing thing doesn’t work over the phone.”

“Mirage. He’s your
father and I know you love him, but a man doesn’t get a reputation as a
ruthless killer because he’s misunderstood.” Barely tapping the brakes, he
swung the car around another corner and Mirage grabbed for the dash as G-forces
threw her into the door.

She was grateful the
canyon road was abandoned at this hour of the night as they sped through the
twists and turns so fast the wheels skidded sideways and the side of the car
bumped against the guardrail. Mirage had never thought to see Justice racing
through the night with such reckless haste, but Kim was in danger and
apparently that changed everything.

She squashed the bitter
pang of jealousy. He didn’t necessarily care more about Kim than he did about
her. Justice was a hero. He’d be this much of a hero for anyone. They were
still a solid fifteen minutes out from her father’s valley lair. And it wasn’t
just Kim who’d been threatened. Her father had apparently kidnapped Eisenmann
as well.

But still, it was hard
not to be irritated when the slightest threat against Kim Carruthers had
triggered a shoot-first-ask-questions-later reaction from Justice when it came
to her father.

”It
is
a
misunderstanding. He’s never killed anyone.”

“Not for lack of trying!
Dammit, Mirage. He’s the enemy. If you can’t stay on task, I will tie you up
and leave you in the car while I save Kim and Eisenmann.”

“Don’t even think about
it,” she snapped, starting to wonder what she’d ever seen in the pompous,
overbearing ass in the driver’s seat. “He thinks you’ve been holding me against
my will. That’s the only reason he kidnapped Kim and Eisenmann—for leverage to
get me back. If I’m not in there telling him everything is fine and dandy,
there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“You just said he
wasn’t a threat and now there’s no telling what he’ll do?”

“Stop twisting
everything I say! He’s my father. He’s just trying to protect me.”

“By kidnapping two
people. I can’t believe I let this happen.”

“Is that some hero
thing? Like you are personally responsible for everything that happens in the
city, ever?”

“If I hadn’t been
distracted by you, this never would have happened.”

“Well, excuse me for
being such a
distraction
.”

“That wasn’t how I
meant it. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be a decoy for whatever your father has
planned.”

“You
asshole
.”

“What?”

“Just shut up. Before
you say anything else to make me regret ever liking you.”

His head snapped around
and the car swerved. He corrected, jerking them back into the lane with a skid
of tires. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I’m not blaming you for
anything.”

“How magnanimous of
you.”

“This isn’t about us.”

“The fuck it isn’t. If
you honestly think you can go after my father with guns blazing and it won’t
have any impact on us, you are out of your fucking mind.”

“I didn’t say anything
about guns blazing.”

“No, you were just
thinking it really loudly.”

“I will protect you
from him, whatever it takes. He’s dangerous.”

“Not to me. I know him.
He’s a pacifist. Yes, he’s a little unstable, but there isn’t a violent bone in
his body.”

“Is that why he blew up
the VanderCo factory?”

“At night. Not even the
security guards were injured.”

“So detonating the
building isn’t violent?”

“They were making
weapons.”

“For the
government
.”

“And anyone else who
paid for them! The executives were all arrested for arms dealing three years
later. My father would’ve been a hero if he’d had better timing.”

“A hero? What about
when he tried to poison an entire city?”

Mirage ground her
molars at the familiar argument. “It wasn’t poison.”

“He admitted it.”

“He
calls
it
poison. It’s some kind of Ribonucleic-whatsit with the acronym R.A.T. so he
started calling it Rat Poison. I told you he wasn’t all there. He’s always been
different, but when my mom was killed, he went to a pretty extreme place,
philosophically. The press used his writings to condemn him as an anarchist in
the court of public opinion and then he admitted to trying to put
poison
in
the water supply, so yeah, I can see how it looks bad, but he’s not violent,
Julian. I swear it.”

“So what does this Rat
Poison do?”

“I’m not a scientist. I
don’t understand ninety-percent of what he tells me, but I know it activates
some latent thingy in your DNA and triggers the development of superpowers. He
tested it on himself, then gave it to both Lucien and me when we were kids.”

Julian jerked, the car
swinging into the other lane briefly. “That’s why your powers developed so
early? He accelerated them?”

“We weren’t super by
birth, Julian. I wouldn’t have powers at all if my father hadn’t stepped in and
given nature a hand.”

“Jesus, what kind of
father—”

“Don’t go there,
Julian. He wanted us to be able to defend ourselves. So we never had to rely on
the whim of a superhero to save us like they failed to save our mother. My
powers have saved my life a dozen times over. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t
done what he did and he gave it to himself first. How do you think he became a
Mind Bender?”

That seemed to get him
thinking. Thank God. It was about time he stopped reacting and gave his brain a
chance to do its job. “Even if he isn’t violent,” he conceded reluctantly, “he’s
still a master Mind Bender. We need a strategy to bring him in. Do you think
I’ll be immune to his gift as I am to yours?”

“I don’t know, but…” She
wasn’t sure she could do it. Plot with Julian to defeat her father. It just
felt so wrong.

“But what?”

In the end it was the
knowledge that she might be able to help her father if she could get Justice to
trust her that decided her. “I’m stronger than he is now. I surpassed him a few
years ago and with this new power jump, I’m sure I can roll him without even
trying. Let me put him under an illusion. You can get Kim and Eisenmann out and
no one has to get hurt.”

“That’s exactly what I
was planning.”

Her head snapped around
to stare at his profile as he never took his eyes off the road. “Really?”

“He’s your father,
Mirage. I wouldn’t hurt him if I could possibly avoid it. Give me a little
credit.”

Mirage blinked,
suddenly wondering if
she
was the one who’d flown off half-cocked,
convinced Justice was going to try to hurt her father just because he was a
villain. They swung around another turn and Mirage sat up straighter as the
partially hidden lane appeared ahead. “There. That’s the turn.”

Justice’s mouth set
with grim, heroic determination as he slowed to take the drive. He was in his
element. Rushing off to save the day seemed to bring out the purest, sharpest
version of him. If only it wasn’t so attractive. If only something about his
derring-do didn’t turn her crank big time. The last thing she needed right now
was to be falling for a hero. Because if tonight had taught her anything, it
was that heroes and villains didn’t mix.

* * * * * * * * * *

Julian had snuck into a
supervillain lair or two in his time, but never with another, not-necessarily-reformed
villain at his side who also happened to be the daughter of the supervillain in
question. His life had gotten a lot more complicated since he met Mirage.

The valley lair was
really some kind of rundown rustic lodge tucked back in a canyon. Isolated and
unsophisticated. It looked like the kind of place that didn’t even have indoor
plumbing, which didn’t gel with his image of Demon Wroth’s lair at all. Where
was the lab? Where were the sterile surfaces and high-tech defense systems?

Mirage simply opened
the front door to the ancient log cabin and led the way into a single vaulted
room with exposed beams that seemed to take up the entire building. She’d been
pissed at him the entire drive here and he didn’t have time to wonder why,
because in the center of the room were two shadowy figures. It was too dark to
make out details, but he knew one of them was Kim. Her platinum hair caught the
little moonlight in the room. His eyes scanning the dense black shadows at
every corner of the room, he started toward her.

“Don’t take another
step.”

The voice was
Eisenmann’s, but it was rough, halting, like each word was a struggle. Julian
froze.

A spotlight turned on
directly over the figures in the center of the room, leaving the rest of the
room in shadows as it illuminated Kim and Eisenmann strapped into what looked
like dentist chairs. Kim was slumped over, unconscious but visibly breathing—thank
God—with a gag tied tight across her mouth and a pair of handcuffs locking her
to the bolted-down chair. Eisenmann, on the other hand, was awake, sitting
straight and totally unrestrained. They were both connected to IVs and there
was some kind of contraption between them, ready to send a pale, slightly green-tinged
liquid into their IV lines at the push of a button. Rat Poison, Julian
presumed. Eisenmann’s hand hovered over the button, shaking with the force of
his resistance.

“He’s nearby. He has to
be to talk through Eisenmann,” Mirage whispered at his side, her eyes not on
the pair in the center of the room, but on every dark shadow beyond them. “Dad?”
she called, her voice echoing in the open hall. “I’m here and I’m fine. See?”

She spread her arms out
wide and took a step away from Julian, which made him nervous as hell. He
didn’t want her out of reach. He needed to protect her. She’d said herself that
her father was unstable. What if he’d suffered a break and couldn’t remember
who was friend and who was foe? Julian wouldn’t take the chance that Demon
would hurt her by accident.

“He’s manipulating you,
using you,” Eisenmann ground out, visibly resisting his role as Demon’s
mouthpiece. “Just like that DynaGirl has done something to Lucien. You think I can’t
see the wrongness of it? I had to save you.”

Julian started to growl
that the one she’d needed saving from was
him
, but Mirage held up a hand
to stop him.

“Why did you kidnap Kim
and Eisenmann, Dad?” she asked, slowly pivoting to address her question toward
the far corners of the room. “That isn’t like you.”

“I learned you’d been
moved from Area Nine to Trident so
this one
could experiment on you, but
he refused to tell me where you were. He said you were gone. Disappeared with
Captain Justice
of your own free will
. Had to be lies, all of it lies. So
I asked him to come with me. Leverage. Bring the hero out of hiding.”

“You
asked
him?”

“I didn’t even have to
ask him very hard. He didn’t figure out how to fight the push for days.”

Days
.
All those days Eisenmann hadn’t been returning Julian’s calls, he’d been here,
held captive by the Demon Doctor, fighting a war for control of his own motor
functions.

“And Kim Carruthers?”
Mirage casually took a few steps closer to the hostages. Julian shadowed her,
trying to be inconspicuous.

“Stop right there,
Justice!” Demon-Eisenmann barked. “I’ll kill them both!”

“Dad.” Mirage’s voice
was mildly reproving. Like her father had embarrassed her at a social function.
It felt like the wrong reaction to a death threat, but what did Julian know
about villain parenting? “Kim?”

“She’s his lover,”
Demon-Eisenmann spat. “Everyone knows it. I was watching her, waiting for him
to go to her so I could take him directly, but then she broke that story. Claiming
you
were holding
him
against his will? They were turning public
opinion against you, Mirage. You know the steps. You’d already been convicted
in the public eye. They could kill you with impunity then. Fabricate some heist
or battle to pin on you when they produce a corpse. I had to do something. I
had to take something that was precious to him, so he would be motivated to
return that which is precious to me. And he has.” Eisenmann’s lips fought the
smile so it ended up looking sickly and grotesque, a leering twist.