Beguiled damsel book 5, p.1
Beguiled (Damsel Book 5), page 1
Damsel Book Five
Beguiled
P.S. Power
Orange Cat Publishing
Copyright 2021
Chapter one
“Whad fug?”
The words were solidly being mumbled into her cell phone, which was being held to the side of her neck, Hannah’s head not even a little off the pillow it was, partially, resting on. Meaning that whoever had called her in the middle of the night couldn’t actually hear her. Not unless they had superpowers that let them do that sort of thing. Even in her new circle of friends, that one was decently rare. No more than a third. She didn’t let herself groan, simply sliding the device, small and pink, up the side of her face.
“Sorry there… How may I help you?” After all, anyone calling her at… She craned her neck a bit, looking out of one bleary eye at the clock on the table next to her bed. It was new, and actually projected the time onto her wall, making it larger and brighter than what a normal person would have ever bothered with.
She’d told herself that it was about being able to see the time when things like late night calls came in, but it was, at least a bit, about having a nightlight. Like a little kid. Not that seeing her room had helped her the last time someone had kidnapped her. That had only been about a month before, of course.
Just before everyone running the Black Soda nano implant had died. Being murdered by one single man. Hitoshi. He was, at least to her, clearly working with other people. Still, the man was famous now, being the greatest mass killer in history. In two hours, the man had murdered about ten million people, worldwide. They were still finding bodies, in a lot of places.
For her part, Hannah wasn’t worried about the man at all. She’d done her tiny bit in catching him, and that was enough. It had to be, since there wasn’t a lot she could do toward bringing back that many people. Maybe one or two of them, if she’d gotten to them in the first hour or so. At the time, when she’d learned about it, that option was pretty much off the table.
Still, she just didn’t want people sneaking into her room to kill her, without being able to see what was going on. That thought had her cranking around staring at the dark room, before whoever had rung her even spoke. The voice was deep, when it came. Male. A bit harsh sounding.
“Is this Damsel?”
She blinked, forcing herself to sit up. Her bed barely even rustled as she did it. After all, if you bought top end furniture it didn’t make that much sound, most of the time. Then, being a bit under a hundred pounds meant she wasn’t exactly going to create earthquakes when she rolled over. Even doing more vigorous things in bed wouldn’t have been too noisy. Which she showed by sitting all the way up. It was nearly silent. Wonderfully so.
“That’s right. What’s the situation?”
“Um, my sister is missing. I was told to ask you for help… I can pay, a bit? She’s been gone for six hours. The place… It was trashed when I came back. There was a fight. A bad one. There’s a lot of blood.”
Hannah took a deep breath.
“Got it. What’s her name? Just the first name.”
“Freya…”
“One second. Let me… I’m going to drop into a trance for this. It will make me sound funny.” The voice didn’t say anything else, just waiting for her to do whatever it was that she did.
In this case, it was clearing her mind, while letting her attention go to Freya. Totally. It was the right one, since that was how she worked. She got a name and found the missing woman. Instantly, or as soon as she could possibly manage it at least. It took about a minute, coming out of sleep like she was. Most of the time, during the day, she’d tried to stay mentally ready, constantly.
That broke while she rested, of course.
The face that slapped into her mind was, interestingly, familiar. The woman was tied up, her hands above her head. Not by ropes, but rather with strong looking chains being used. She was stripped naked, and had a combination of red welts, burns and blood over her pale skin. As far as build went the woman was jacked. Like a bodybuilder. At least a female one. Her face was strong, but not immediately identifiable at the moment. She’d been beaten too hard for that to work. Her long braid, which was a honey blonde color, lay on the floor, next to her. Clearly having been ripped off her head, by force. The man who’d done it moved back in, with something in his right hand.
A knife, of course. It glowed though, in a way that Hannah didn’t understand. That was a soft blue color that had hints of swirling black inside of it.
“I’ve got her. This is… Red Bitch?”
They’d met before, a few times, after all. The feeling was right for that, at least.
“You know where she is?”
“Yes. She’s being tortured, right now, but is still alive. The monster is moving back in for more. This is… I’ll bring her to me. This… is going to fucking hurt.” It always did, collecting a person from a distance. Objects as well. At least if they weighed in at more than twenty or thirty pounds.
Still, she set the idea up, concentrating so hard that she couldn’t tell what the deep voiced man on the phone was saying. He spoke, but the word no wasn’t in there, so she ignored him. They could talk later, after all. When the large woman wasn’t about to be stabbed to death.
That might not be happening in that moment, of course, since the knife didn't dart in, but rather reached out slowly, to be pulled along the left side of her stomach. Force was being used, it seemed. A lot of it. Otherwise, the woman probably wouldn’t have bled much, if at all. She was tough that way.
Hannah simply moved the sense of the other woman’s location from where it was, into her bedroom, in front of her. That took some care, since she only wanted the woman, not the cuffs or chains she was attached to.
When the field was strong enough, the woman moved. The vast information that made up her very being leveraged against what Hannah had as far as mass went. Making Hannah scream as the universe insisted that she move as well, to balance the equation out. It was a lot nicer to be able to go places herself, when she could. Still, she’d been practicing moving other people, each day, so, while it wasn’t fun for her, she recovered pretty quickly. Grabbing the gun from her nightstand, and scrambling over to the other side of her bed, over to the wall, near the door, where there was a light switch.
A moan came from the floor.
Hannah spoke, her voice as calm as she could make it, with a bloody and beaten woman suddenly being exposed. One who was, at the moment, getting her cream-colored carpet all dirty. That sounded petty, even to her, so she tried to ignore that part of things. She could afford a new one.
“You’re safe now. We need to get you to a hospital. Um, the phone…” She grabbed her cell from the bed, ready to shoot the woman, if she reacted the wrong way.
After all, she’d tried to kill her before. Twice. Not that the lady seemed ready to jump up and start kung-fooing her face, in the moment. That had happened before, so Hannah wasn’t taking any chances. A single backhand, normally a weak move for most people, from this particular lady could not only knock her out, but possibly leave her crippled or dead.
Getting the small cell phone back to her ear, she explained what was happening. The man was talking the whole time, but just uselessly asking what was going on, in an urgent tone. She got the idea, but really, it was wasted breath and kind of preventing her from giving a real update. People panicked though, which was the real story on the other end of the line.
“I have her. Here with me. Teleportation. She’s a bit messed up. I need to get some help. First aid. I can get her to a hospital…”
The woman, barely moving, groaned again.
“No. No hospital. I’ll be all right. Where am I?”
Beat and cut up, as well as burned, or not, the woman, slowly, in a way that indicated great pain, pushed herself up, into a sitting position.
“Gah… This…”
The voice on the phone yelled then. Again. Even if Hannah hadn’t noticed what was said, the voice had gotten loud a few times already.
“Freya! It’s Gray… Let me talk to her!”
That meant passing her cell over, and holding it for the naked woman, the first person to be in her room other than Hannah, in over a month. It was a bit sad to think of. Al, her houseguest, ran into the room, distracting her from the lack of personal contact, at least. He wasn’t pointing a gun as he did it, but the teen boy did have one in his hand. She waited for him to explain things to her, yelling about how it was a trick, or a trap of some kind.
He could read minds after all, the situation was clearly a weird one. If he gave the word, she was going to shoot the downed woman in the head, and then run as fast as she could. She realized, after a moment that she needed to run and teleport, at nearly the same time. A thing she hadn’t really practiced. Not at all, actually. It suddenly seemed kind of important, the giant woman on the floor seeming…
Pretty dismal, and defeated, at least to Hannah’s eyes.
Instead, the blond-headed kid just seemed quietly freaked out, wearing sweats, instead of pajamas.
Then he blinked, looking at the large woman, and slowly started to nod. For her part, Freya spoke, to Gray, whoever that was.
“Hey. It was Kincaid. He grabbed me, with some of his goons. I’m a bit messed up. I’ll heal. I… Don’t know where I am? It’s nice. Expensive seeming. There are two people here. A man and a woman. Ah…” She tilted her head then and closed one eye, clearly fighting against double vision. “It’s that one chick? T he one we tried to kill, for the Collective? De Peyser.”
The man spoke then, nearly yelling.
“What?”
“I think it’s her. I could be on some shit though. Kincaid… He was going to kill me. He told me that. He wanted the account numbers first, the greedy asshole. I didn’t tell him anything. He said he was going for Roy next…”
The next words were quiet enough that Hannah couldn’t hear them at all. After a moment, perhaps two exchanges on the phone, the woman looked up, tried to stand and then sank back down.
“I don’t know? Are you… Working with Kincaid?”
The woman glanced at Alistair, but managed to focus on Hannah, as she spoke.
So she shook her head. It didn't make her short hair move at all.
“Nope. I’m working for… Gray, was it? He called me, to ask if I could find you. I hope I didn't ruin your plans?” That seemed unlikely, but just because the woman was about to be killed wouldn’t mean that it might not have been part of a larger scheme.
Probably not, but super types could do some weird things, on occasion. What she thought of as too big of a risk might not, to someone with certain kinds of power.
Freya shook her head, slowly.
“Nope. I’m good. Um, how did I get here?”
“Teleportation. Now… We need to get you cleaned up. Are you sure that you shouldn’t go to the hospital?”
That got a head shake.
“No. I’ll heal up in about an hour or two. I should…” This time the woman stood, shakily, and looked around the room, as if wondering what to do next. Hannah had to move the phone back a bit, and put out her arm, for the woman to grab, so she could steady herself. At the same time, Al went to the bed, and pulled at it, until he had the top sheet.
That was draped over the bloody woman, rather gently.
“Thanks. Sorry for the mess. I… What do we do now?” The woman seemed uneasy, which Hannah fully understood. Being kidnapped always did that to her, too.
Alistair nodded, and did the talking for them.
“We’ll get you food and water. You’re healing too fast for bandages to help you. This way? Bathroom first, so we can get some of the blood off. Then we’ll arrange for you to be taken where you need to go. Hannah can do that.” He glanced over at her, as if trying to tell her something, but didn't bother speaking into her mind. Probably because a solid look was enough, for the time being.
The big woman, who was several inches over six feet tall, nodded, her face going blank.
“So, you really are her? Hannah de Peyser. You can teleport things now?”
That was kind of obvious, so she nodded.
“I learned some new tricks. People keep trying to kill me, so…” The words got a wince, at least.
There was a voice from her own hand then, which was audible, at least to her.
“Don’t hurt her. I’ll… Whatever you want. This is all my fault.”
Hannah put the slightly bloody phone near her own face, but didn’t let it touch her. It was a psychological thing, really. Fast healers didn’t normally carry significant diseases, as far as she’d heard. Still, that didn’t mean she wanted to bathe in the other woman’s bodily fluids. That was just gross, when she thought about it.
“No worries, Gray. Red Comrade?”
“Yeah. Um, I didn’t know that Damsel was you. I was given the number by a guy I know from back in the day, Johnny Fawks, who said that you helped people. That… You, more than anyone else in the world, could help us.”
She nodded.
“Got it. We left on pretty solid footing, so no need to worry. Freya is a bit messed up, but she seems to think she’ll be good, soon?”
Al had taken her arm, carefully, and led the woman to the bathroom. Hannah was tempted to follow, but the door was closed behind them. She nearly went in anyway, but the truth was that she doubted the woman, even with superpowers, was going to hurt the boy. He was seventeen, and while in good shape not a powerhouse in the same way. What he could do though was read minds, better than almost anyone on Earth. He didn’t talk about it much, but he could influence and control minds as well.
If the lady had been a threat to him, he wouldn’t have gone into the room with her like that. It seemed a bit strange that he’d shut Hannah out, but even that probably had a real reason behind it. Probably not even that he wanted to be with the naked woman alone, even. After all, she looked horrible, at the moment.
~She’s afraid that you’ll kill her, Hannah. I mean, truly freaked out. If you came in here with her, she was planning to start fighting. She’s fine with me, though. Because I’m so cute and innocent looking.~
“Ah, got it.” She spoke out loud, the man on the phone not understanding her. “Sorry, I was on with someone else there. So, we need a location for this Kincade person? Or… That’s not my business, I guess. I can get a place for Freya to be taken to?”
“Yeah. Um, I need to change locations. To a different safe house. I don’t want to give the address over the phone. Things are being monitored…” There was a hard undertone to the words, as if the man felt he was telling her something she didn’t already know.
He wasn’t.
Everything was being watched. Even using magic wasn’t safe, any longer, as far as passing messages. You either did it carefully, in person, or you used a telepath for it.
“Understood. Go to the location, and I’ll find you there for the drop off. We need to get her food. Does she like pancakes?” That sounded weird to ask, but got a grunt.
“Of course. Who doesn’t? She’ll need protein, too, if possible. For the healing. How… bad is it?”
She looked at the bathroom door, noticing the sound of low talking and running water.
“Bad enough that I’m still not certain we shouldn’t take her to the hospital? She’s walking on her own, which is pretty bad ass. Let me… I’m not a great cook. I can make about six different things, really. So, eggs and pancakes will have to do. Then… How are we handling this? It’s not my business, but I tend to take things like this personally. It’s a kidnapping thing, so…”
The man on the phone, Red Comrade, grunted again.
“Kincaid… He used to be on our team. Um, Freya and him, they used to date. It was serious. Then she met Roy, Red Fortune, and kind of dropped Kincaid like a hot rock. That, it wasn’t done well, you know? He’s higher up in the Collective than we are, so there probably isn’t a lot we can do about this. Kill him, but… If it was that easy to do, he’d be dead already. He’s strong. I mean, like Superion X type strong, not just like me or Bitch. Fast, too. Tough. He can be hurt though, so a bullet to the head might do it. Maybe a few of them in the same spot? That won’t kill him, but it will slow him down.”
She nodded, not being willing to shoot the man on Red Comrade’s say so.
“Wait… Does he have a criminal record, do you think?”
“Yeah? We all do. Why? He’s really wanted. Not just for theft. Murder, terrorism and worse things…”
“Let me make some calls? This could take a bit, but… Let me ask around first?”
“I need to get to that safe house. You can find me there? That… suddenly leaves me feeling a lot less safe about things, to be honest.” There was a weak chuckle at the end. It was deep, and nervous, not truly fearful.
She grinned, but kept most of that out of her voice.
“Finding people is what I do. Don’t worry, I’m really sweet and nice. Just, you know, stay on the side of right and good? You can call me back here, if we don’t talk in person, first.” She nearly hung, up, but cleared her throat. “So, Kincaid? I need a full name on that one, I bet.” She could find it psychically, at least in potential, but it was faster to just ask. A lot of things worked that way.
“Alan Davis Kincaid.” His date of birth and interestingly enough his social security number, both followed. She had to run to the living room, to grab her pad and a pen, in order to get the information down. Then she hung up, thinking about who to call first.
It was tempting to call in The Society, of course. They were the top-level super team and worked for the government, if in secret. Instead, thinking for a moment, she dialed a very different number. The one for the High Command. They also did government work, but tended to get lower-level assignments, most of the time. Less flashy things, at least.
