4.
Sienna
“Holy hell,” I said as we watched the chopper-eye view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge explode under the assault of Eric Simmons’s powers. He’d been getting his ass kicked by that guy on fire, not putting up much of a fight, and then suddenly—
Whoosh. The bridge imploded underneath him, and Simmons disappeared in a cloud of dust while fire-guy just hovered there for a few seconds, like a candle in the night. Except it was midday.
“Wow,” Eilish said. It was just the two of us glued to the TV, but glued we were, unable to move. I was watching something really astounding unfold before my eyes, and it was a unique situation, because …
Normally, in these types of events … I would have been there in minutes.
Instead, here I sat, in Panama City Beach, Florida …
Powerless to do a damned thing.
The dust cleared a moment later, and Fire-guy just hung there, staring down into the dark waters below. The news choppers caught him on video, just silently floating there, watching. After a few seconds, he seemed to have decided that there was nothing else to be done, because he turned skyward—
And shot off into the heavens.
“Geez,” I said, taking a breath that I hadn’t known I’d been holding. “I guess that settles Simmons’s hash.”
“That was a pretty epic fight,” Eilish said, “from one side, at least.”
“What happened?” Reed asked, emerging from the hallway, suitcase in his hand. His eyes found the TV before we could answer, and he dropped the suitcase. “My God.”
“That guy was pretty powerful,” Eilish said. “Flying and fire. That’s not a normal combo, is it?”
My lips twitched. “I’ve seen it before.” Hell, I’d been it before. Aleksandr Gavrikov had both those powers.
My stomach twisted, hard. Thinking about Gavrikov was like a dash of salt in a fresh wound.
“But I mean—they’re two separate powers, right?” Eilish asked, though I suspected she knew the answer and just wanted to talk about what we were seeing. “Flight’s one, and fire’s another. This guy has both, so … it’s unusual to have two powers, right?”
“Yeah,” Reed said, and I deferred to him, because I didn’t want to comment. “It’s unusual. Not as unusual as it used to be now that these different serums are out there, but … still unusual.”
“See, that’s what I thought,” Eilish said, with a little satisfaction.
“What’s going on now?” Augustus said, emerging from his room with his own suitcase, Taneshia a few paces behind. Augustus had—I kid you not—a suitcase twice the size of his girlfriend’s, plus a backpack and a shoulder bag.
“You pack like a girl,” I announced, making Augustus look over his luggage.
“It takes a lot of work to look this good, all right?” Augustus said, unabashed.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Kat,” I said.
“Mission parameter change, I’m guessing,” Reed said, staying focused on what was actually important and not getting lost in the details of Augustus’s girlish packing habits. He pointed at the spectacle on the TV, a helicopter shot of the fallen bridge. “Did Simmons do that?”
“Presumably,” I said, still anchored to the couch, lead in my ass keeping me from getting too excited. Or at least from showing it. Part of me wanted to get up, to go with them, but there was enough sense and enough of a feeling like I was an old dog that should stay on the porch to keep me seated. “This new guy—fire and flying powers—had him down on the bridge, and then it went kaput. Fire guy flew off, Simmons was gone, so … my guess is that he’s out of the picture, one way or another. You’ll probably have to get Scott to comb the bay to be sure.”
“He’s already on his way to the airport in Eden Prairie,” Reed said, and then answered another call. “Go for Treston. Yes, I just—yes. We’re on our way, we’ll be there in a couple hours.” And hung up, looking at Taneshia and Augustus. “Let’s go. I’ll call Greg and Olivia, have them meet us en route.”
“Sounds fun,” Eilish said, in a tone that told me she did not think it sounded fun. If possible, she sounded less energetic than even I did. “Be safe, you lot.”
“Why?” Augustus asked, giving her a sour eye. “So you can keep fleecing us at cards?”
“Yep,” Eilish said with a curt nod. “That’s exactly it.” She was a cutthroat card player. I hadn’t dared to face her, personally, but then I had other hobbies lately.
Like scotch. Scotch was a perfectly valid hobby.
“Let’s move,” Reed said, and nodded toward the door. Augustus and Taneshia went for it, while he stayed anchored in place, all serious now, the mom-combo gone—or at least transformed. No guilt; just pressure. “You going to be here when we get back?” he asked, looking right at me.
I looked up. “Where the hell else am I going to go?”
“Just wanted to make sure you didn’t get any ideas,” Reed said, a little cautiously.
“My big idea is to count down the hours until five o’clock,” I said, pointing at the bottles against the wall on the counter in the kitchen, “so I can kick off this evening’s festivities.”
There was a flicker of disappointment in his eyes. “All right,” he said, postponing that argument for another day. “Don’t drink and swim.”
“Pffft, too cold for swimming,” I said, brushing off that idea. The sound of some idiot proving me wrong outside came in the form of a screech of joy.
“I left you some cash, and one of the rental cars is downstairs,” he said, making his way to the door. Augustus and Taneshia were just standing there, waiting. “Don’t wander far. Your disguise is okay, but a sharp eye could still pick you out.”
My disguise was dyed hair and being starvation thin, a little thing that had happened during my time in Scotland, and which I hadn’t exactly striven to change since I’d come back to the US. Scotch helped. Scotch, and skipping a lot of meals. “Aye aye, captain,” I said, and saluted.
He bit back his response, but I could see the worry in his eyes. “Just …”
“Dude, you’re the one going into danger,” I said, shooing him with a hand motion. “You be safe. And don’t forget to call your girlfriend. You promised her you’d check in on the regular, and I don’t want her to be madder at me than she already is for keeping you down here for months on end.”
“Yeah, okay,” he said, easing through the door with something that felt like lingering regret. “Just … take it easy, okay?”
“You too, bro,” I said, way too casual. Seeing him walk out the door was like a gut punch, but I waved him off anyway. “Be safe. Augustus, Taneshia … watch out for my big, worrying bro-mother, will you?”
“We got this,” Augustus said, and he and Taneshia were off.
“I’ll see you when I get back,” Reed said.
The door slammed behind him with alarming finality, and a nervous pit in my stomach that had started to subside over these last few weeks and months that we’d been here, all together …
It started to grow again—this gnawing, aching feeling within, like a black hole aiming to consume me.