Super Trouble (11 page)

She
wrapped her arms around him, letting the fool shield her with his body as she
shielded them both with her power and pushed the telekinetic blastwave a little
farther, buying them a little more space, a little more distance from Mathilda,
before her gift sputtered and died, pushed too far.

Silence
returned slowly, chasing away the ringing in her ears. Her head was already
beginning to throb. This was going to be a power hangover unlike anything she’d
ever experienced, but she’d do it again in a heartbeat to protect Frost.

She’d
saved the day. Kim Carruthers, perennial victim, had been the hero. Delight
sparkled in her blood.

Frost
levered himself onto his forearms above her in the rubble, grey warehouse dust
clinging to his eyelashes. He looked around them, ice blue eyes widening. “Remind
me never to piss you off.”

“If
you don’t want to piss me off, don’t go leaving me behind like that, you idiot.
You don’t leave your partner behind.”

And
they were going to be partners. She was a super badass now. His equal. She was
qualified to watch his back, so if he tried to walk away again, she’d go after
him this time. Before she’d worried that she wasn’t good enough for him, that
she’d only endanger him, but now she knew she could save him when he needed
saving.

Instead
of replying, he kissed her. It was an electric, I-thought-I-lost-you kiss and
she would have loved to enjoy it more, but her head was really starting to
pound. When he lifted his head, his eyes bore into hers, concern in their
glacial blue depths.

“You
aren’t invincible. Your powers protect you, but they don’t make you immortal. If
you think you can’t be hurt, you’re
wrong
. First rule of being a super
is that no matter how tough you are, there is always someone bigger and badder
than you. I won’t be able to handle it if anything happens to you, Kim. I love
you too much.”

Five
years she’d been waiting for him to say those words. Trust Frost to finally
bare his feelings when she felt like her eyeballs were about to explode. “I
love you, too, you idiot. But I’m not going to live in a bubble for you.” There
were more words. Words about how she wouldn’t be herself if she was playing it
safe. Words about how she would try to be more careful for him. Words about
forever and promises and things that couldn’t be put into words. She would have
said them. Would have kissed him again. But the burnout was riding her hard and
instead she fell into the thunderous blackness.

****

Frost
managed not to panic when Kim collapsed in his arms. He recognized the symptoms
of power burnout when he saw them. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t taking her
straight to the hospital to have everything checked out.

Right
after
he made sure Mathilda wouldn’t be able to touch a single
electronic device at the hospital.

That
was going to be a problem. If she could access electronics through signals in
the air now, they’d be lucky to find anywhere they could keep her where she
would be totally cut off. The dark ruthlessness in his soul urged him to take
her out. It was the only way he would ever know for sure that Kim was safe. But
would she forgive him if he killed Mathilda? Not in self-defense, as he’d been
forced to act in the past, but with icy premeditation.

It
was a decision that would have to be made quickly. He couldn’t afford to give
Mathilda time to regroup. There was no telling how many kidnappers she was
already activating. Or worse, hit men.

He
stood, gathering Kim up in his arms. Her power was drained now so he couldn’t
tap into it to teleport them away. He staggered through the pulverized remains
of the warehouse the old fashioned way—one foot in front of the other.

He
was halfway across the blast radius when DynaGirl touched down in front of him
along with her fiancé, Lucien Wroth. Sirens sounded in the distance, but it
would take them longer to arrive.

“What
happened?” the red-headed heroine asked, rushing forward, her hands hovering
protectively over Kim’s limp form. “Is she okay?”

“Power
burn out.”

“Oh,
thank goodness.” Darla scanned the leveled area. “She did all this?”

Frost
nodded and explained about Mathilda Torchwood and her remote minions. He didn’t
say anything about his plans for a permanent solution, but Darla must have seen
them on his face because the first words out of her mouth were, “You can’t kill
her.”

“She’s
been harassing Kim for years, plotting to kill her just to hurt me.”

“And
that’s evil and she deserves to stay in Area Nine—”

“Where
she isn’t secure. She might as well be walking free.”

“Which
is why we’ll have Tandy and Eisenmann disable her powers.”

Frost
stilled, his brain finally kicking back in to compete with his blindly
protective instincts. “The device that neutralizes powers is a machine. Mathilda
controls machines.”

“Eisenmann’s
device is a machine, but Tandy is flesh and blood. Tandy can disable Mathilda
until Eisenmann can point his machine at her and get it up and running.”

“If
it ever went down for any reason—”

“There
would be a problem, but Eisenmann has been working with the wardens at Area
Nine to create entire cell blocks that are covered in power-diffusing waves. Mathilda
can be at the top of the list of new residents in that wing.”

He
didn’t like it. He really wanted to kill her, he realized. It was pure,
undiluted bloodthirst. As simple as that.

“I’ll
fly Tandy out to Area Nine right now,” Darla went on. “We’ll get Mathilda
neutralized while you look after Kim. Trust us on this, Frost. You don’t have
to be the lone wolf all the time.”

Frost
grunted, tamping down the urge to argue, to demand a more permanent solution. “Look
after my sister. If Mathilda lays a hand on her, I’m taking it out on you.”

Lucien
Wroth growled, but Darla smiled sweetly. “Agreed. Tell Kim I want to hear every
detail when she wakes up.”

With
that DynaGirl and Wroth flew away, leaving him with his entire world in his
arms.

Chapter
Fourteen: Nothing But Trouble

Kim woke
up swathed in a fluffy duvet—and smothering under the worst power hangover
she’d ever experienced. She groaned and shoved her face underneath a pillow,
wishing she could hide from the throbbing in her skull.

Slowly,
the scent of the sheets penetrated her haze of ouch.
Frost
. His sheets. His
duvet. His big bed.

Frost
had taken her back to his apartment. She surfaced from beneath the pillow,
cracking her eyelids to check the immediate area. No Frost. But there were
distinct Frost-like sounds coming from the living room.

It
took her fifteen minutes to work up the energy to stagger to the bathroom and
another twenty minutes beneath the pounding hot water of the shower before she
felt semi-human again. By the time she emerged from the bedroom forty-five
minutes later, her hangover was almost under control. At least enough that she
could open her eyes all the way without groaning.

Frost
was standing in front of what had once been his entertainment center, wrestling
with cables. His television, DVD player and stereo were all stacked haphazardly
next to the ottoman—along with the microwave and what looked like an electric
toothbrush.

“Frost?”

He
jerked upright, stumbling over the cables before righting himself and striding
toward her. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Like
a thousand little elves are trying to tunnel out of my brain. Other than that,
great. What are you doing?”

“She
was watching us.” He glowered at the stack of electronics. “Tandy and Darla and
Eisenmann have some plan to neutralize her powers so she’ll never be able to do
it again, but she’s not the only technopath in the world. I figured better safe
than sorry.”

Kim
frowned, spotting the shards of what had once been her cell phone on the
island. “What did you do to my phone?”

“The
blast wave did that actually.” He shrugged. “Saved me having to do it. It’ll be
inconvenient, not having phones, but better safe—”

“I’m
not giving up my cell phone, Frost.”

“I
know it seems silly,” he soothed, clearly seeing the feral gleam in her eyes.

A
woman could not be expected to suffer the loss of her cell phone, especially
while hung over and before her first cup of coffee.

He
went on, “These precautions are necessary.”

Okay,
the protectiveness was kind of adorable, but she needed to nip this in the bud.
“Babe, we can’t avoid technology entirely. You live on the 47
^th
floor. Even if we teleport in and out most days, we’re bound to use the
elevator once in a while.”

He
frowned. “You’re right. We’re going to have to move. A cabin is probably best. Somewhere
remote. Off the grid.”

The
adorableness of his protectiveness was quickly wearing off. “I’m not going to
live in a cabin in the woods, Frost. I’m a manicures and designer shoes girl. You
know this.”

“It’s
a sacrifice, I know, but your safety—”

“Frost!”
she shouted, finally getting his pale blue eyes to focus on her. “I’m not going
to become Bubble Girl for you. You can’t protect me from the entire world and
if you keep trying, I will be forced to throw you out the window and it will be
justifiable homicide.”

He
just frowned. She crossed the last few feet to him, sliding her arms around his
waist and pressing against his chest. God, it felt good to be able to do this
again. His arms closed around her automatically.

“You’re
scared,” she murmured. “I get it. We live in a fucked up world with fucked up
targets on our backs. And there’s nothing we can do about that. There’s always
gonna be another super baddie coming after us with weapons we can’t predict. But
you can’t protect me by being with me and you can’t protect me by walking away.
So the question is, can you still love me if you can’t ensure, beyond a shadow
of a doubt, that nothing will ever happen to me? Because I love you, you idiot,
and I will keep loving you through every catastrophe because I know we can deal
with whatever life and super villains throw at us if we stay together and
always have each other’s backs. But only if you stop trying to control the
world and let us live in it. So are you with me? Can you do that?”

“Jesus,
you’re not asking for much, are you?” he grumbled.

She
leaned back in his arms, meeting his eyes and seeing a promise there. “I’m
greedy. I want all of you.”

“Kim…”
And there it was. That uncertainty.

She
didn’t let him get going. “I’m going to be good now. You’re never going to have
to come after me for crossing that line. I’ll be the best damn partner you’ve
ever had and I’ll never think for a second about vengeance because I’ve seen
Mathilda. I’ve seen what a life lived for revenge will turn you into and I
don’t want to be that.”

“She
was like that before she became obsessed with destroying me,” Frost admitted.

“Either
way, I’m done. No vengeance for Kimmie. I’m staying firmly on the good side of grey.
You don’t have to worry about that.”

“But
that’s exactly what I worry about. Though not that you’ll be the one who
crosses the line.” Frost tucked her hair, still damp from the shower, behind
her ear. “I wanted to kill Mathilda. Just to be sure it was over, once and for
all, and she could never touch you again. I wanted to destroy her for
everything she’s done to you. I still want to. I’m the one who would cross that
line, Kim. I’ve always known I would rain down hell if anything ever happened
to you. And I didn’t want you to see that part of me and hate me for it.”

It
should not have been a turn on, but the words
rain down hell
made her
knees go weak. Kim wound her arms around his neck. “There’s darkness in every
superhero. You aren’t just rescuing puppies. You’re doing the best you can to
save the day, and sometimes that means beating the shit out of the bad guy. Especially
for you, who gets called on to punish those who cross the line. You need to be
grey, Frost. And I’m not going to stop loving you because that’s who you are. Honestly,
I love knowing that you’ll tear the world apart for me. I’ll do the same for
you. That’s what love is. Well, that and sticking it out, even when it can kick
you in the face.”

She
tugged on his lapels, pressing ever closer.

“Leaving
me was the most cowardly thing I’ve ever seen you do. So be brave. Like me.” She
grinned. “I’m super brave.”

“You’re
super trouble.” But his lips were curving as he spoke and he was bending to
catch her lips.

“And
you love that about me,” she murmured against his mouth.

“I
do,” he agreed.

It
was several minutes before either of them spoke again. They were both
breathless, tangled on the couch, when Kim lifted her head. “So no more
running. No more bubble girl. Partners?”