Beguiled damsel book 5, p.12
Beguiled (Damsel Book 5), page 12
The man simply nodded.
“Yes. I killed people. That young boy, but about twenty-five others, as well. Trying to perfect my serum. It works about half the time. A bit less than that. I need to isolate why, and then we can simply use it on those in need. That…” He sat down, on the steel bed inside the cell. There were no blankets or anything soft inside at all. “I knew it was wrong, the whole time. There’s no excuse. That boy lived, though? You saved him?”
Liberty nodded.
“He did. It was close. So much so that it won’t help you in court that he’s still alive.”
That was, Hannah knew, a lie. Showing up in court with a living, not at all dead, supposed victim was a great defense. The kind of thing that meant you instantly lost your case, no matter what kind of tale you spun about it. Still, she nodded behind her mask and after a bit, so did Don. Backing their side up.
Even if he wasn’t up on everything going on there, yet.
Inside half an hour, the man in the cell had pretty much agreed to work for the Federal Government for the rest of his life. Which wasn’t perfect, but would probably stop him from hurting people as often.
Possibly, at least.
It was in the hands of the government.
An idea that suddenly left Hannah feeling a bit less than totally secure, for some reason.
Chapter eight
As soon as Dr. Travis was taken away, the new intern was returned home. After all, as June mentioned, the man wasn’t being paid for his work, and therefore shouldn’t have to do the follow up paperwork on his first day. Hannah thought that sounded fair, so skated on doing that as well. After a day of running, in a non-stop fashion, she deserved a break.
Plus, she had a date later and wanted to actually dress up for it, if possible.
It was true that going out with Brian one day a week wasn’t the same as really having a solid relationship, but over the last month, the man had been the only one willing to sleep with her at all. More to the point, she’d been so busy that nothing else had even been offered that way.
Meaning she was putting on makeup and shaving her freaking legs, so they’d be silky smooth for him. At five-ten, her cell phone rang. Really it was a chirping sound, and not that annoying, but when she answered it, feeling a bit of dread, the man she was supposed to meet spoke into her ear.
“Hannah? Brian. I have to beg off tonight… Something came up.” The tone of that was dark and not at all indicating he simply had a reason to spend time with a prettier woman.
The man fought crime, after all. In fact, he was one of a half dozen of the costumed morons who was regularly in the news for it. Chiropter actually had fans. Groupies and people begging to be his side-kick. Which, if she understood correctly, the man ignored almost totally.
“Is it something you need help with?”
The words got a grunt, but not the man saying no, specifically.
“I’m on research for it, right now. It may be nothing, of course. I’ll call you, if that changes in a way you can help with?”
She sighed.
“Sure, sure…” She grinned though and shook her head at herself in the mirror. “I look good tonight, just so you know. My hair is finally growing out a little. Not that I can let it get too long, but I even look like a girl again. Darling even… Not that I’m going anywhere now. Grr.”
That got a laugh, at least. She wasn’t certain it sounded real, to be honest.
“I’ll call, if I can. Most of the time these sorts of things end up being little to nothing, but if I don’t check it out, people might die.”
She got that one, so nodded.
“Understood. Next week?”
“Of course! Talk later…” Then he hung up, probably being in an actual hurry. That or standing on a rooftop with a suspicious pigeon having landed nearby. One or the other.
Feeling a bit out of sorts, dressed up, with literally no place to go, and not being willing to call up her old friends for a girls’ night, since that meant drinking and drugs to her mind, as well as sleeping with the first cute stranger she found interesting, Hannah got ready to take her face off, and climb into a pair of sweats. She was actually standing up to do that when her phone chirped again.
“Hello? Hannah here.” It was her personal phone, the one she used for friends and family. That and the odd phone solicitor. When they called, she tended to bark at them and ask to be taken off the calling list.
So far that hadn’t worked, but it ended the calls without people badgering her for money.
“Hannah? It’s Verthala… I…” She was crying, which for a spoiled socialite could mean anything, really. From her steak having been cool in the center to someone having kidnapped her dog.
If so, Muffin would be avenged. The tiny dog was actually sweet and cuddly.
“Ver, what’s wrong?” She managed to sound supportive, even.
“It’s Candice… She was going to a party, and I heard something… It sounded like she was being beaten. I called the police, but they won’t do anything. I don’t know what to do! I’m probably wrong, and she’s fine, but she isn’t answering her phone… No one will help me. They all think I’m making it up. Drugs…”
The woman did sound disoriented, after all. Hannah could see that happening. She could, also, see the whole thing being an overreaction, or even a prank. A thing being made up, simply for amusement, knowing that punking Hannah wasn’t going to get them in real trouble.
Which was true, strictly speaking. Then, neither of the women understood what she’d been getting up to, in the last months.
“Let me check on this? I know some people. Then, so do you. Call Kate and Terry?”
There was a loud sniff then.
“Katy scares me now. She’s one of those people… I haven’t talked to her since she came out.”
Hannah sighed.
“Which is stupid and narrow minded of you. She’s the same person she always was, also, connected when it comes to things like this. Do it and don’t be a bitch, all right?”
Saying it that way nearly caused a minor meltdown, or seemed to, but after a few seconds, there was a loud sniff, and a teary voice again.
“I’ll do it. Candice… It sounded really bad! People were yelling.”
It was actually hard for her to think of that as being true at all. Then again, even if it was nothing, Hannah had dropped out of her trance state and it was a reminder to stay that way, for practice. Once back into it, a minute or two later, she looked at Candice, half expecting to find the woman either dead or sitting in a car sipping champagne. The actual scene was a lot different than that. Enough so that Hannah paused, for a long time, watching it play out. Then, almost without thinking, she stole a gun.
Then a bullet, from the air itself. That one was almost impossible, and she felt a surge of panic, nearly missing the telekinetic grab on it. A thing turned into teleportation, in desperation to stop it from splitting a certain skull.
Candy, her socialite pal, one of the most entitled and frankly annoying of her old social group, a woman whose crotch had more exposure online than the Google home page, was busily fighting a group of men. There were at least six of them.
Also, the woman was in yellow and green, throwing knives, or something like that, which kept coming back to her, in glowing arcs. The men weren’t helpless, and were still shooting at her, which, so far, had mainly been missing, thanks to her having run directly into the crowd, like a crazy person.
It was a good trick, since she could hit any of them, but if they shot at her, they were likely to hit their own people. They seemed like a street gang, from the colors they were wearing, and Candice, who was in a tight, body-hugging outfit, with a half mask on, her lower face exposed, seemed to be winning.
At least once the one bullet had been removed from play.
Hannah nearly started to move her away, not being dressed to go and help fight, when a voice spoke in her head.
Alistair.
~Um… No? This isn’t what you think. She’s ripping them off. They’re a drug gang, but she isn’t actually a hero, Hannah. She’s just powerful enough to rob people who can’t complain to the police. More of a thrill seeker, than a villain, at least.~
She froze then, and glared at her living room. There was a new firearm on her low table, as well as a single, caseless, bullet.
“What the fudge should I do about this then? Also, where are you?”
A real voice called out then.
“In here, reading. One…” The man himself, looking decently good in a tight t-shirt, padded out, in jeans and socks, at a quick march. “I was reading.”
The boy smiled at her then and shook his head.
“Really, you need to go back into your trance. The truth is, you can’t do anything about this. You shouldn’t. This isn’t good, but turning her in to the cops won’t do anything right now, and she’s taking both money and drugs off the street. It isn’t good, but… It’s actually sort of helping the world, even if her intentions aren’t pure.”
She made a face then, and nodded.
“Like me kidnapping those people? It’s wrong, but sort of helps anyway?”
She meant it, but also focused her mind again, so noticed that Kate was coming. Holding Verthala by the hand, which was different. The other woman wasn’t in her blue crime fighting Wisp costume, either.
Hannah pointed, gently.
“Kate and Verthala… Um, is she involved in this kind of thing, too?” Candice was tight with the other woman. As much or more so than Hannah was with Katherine, even.
Honestly, they were a couple, in all but name.
She didn't expect Al to say anything on the topic, since he generally didn’t. Not unless it was very important. Her friend being involved in crime probably wasn’t a good enough excuse to invade her privacy, either. Really, even if it was frustrating, knowing he knew things and wouldn’t share it with her like a gossip buddy, she respected him for it.
Most of the time.
He shook his head then.
“Not… She isn’t into that kind of thing, but there’s more there. It isn’t mine to tell, but…” He waited, catching, probably from Hannah, exactly when the two women were going to pop into existence. That meant they were both eerily looking in the right spot when it happened.
Kate was in her normal, fairly nice, but not that dressy, kind of clothing. Slacks and a loose shirt, that exposed enough pale and delicate shoulder to establish it as summer wear.
Verthala looked gorgeous, as always. She was in a gown that was nicer than the black thing Hannah had on, and her makeup was, as always, on point. It had been at least, before the tear fest had started. Moving in, Hannah gave her a hug, out of force of sheer habit. It was what you did when a friend was crying, after all.
Kate looked at her, seeming annoyed, which wasn’t like her, strictly speaking.
“Candice is in trouble? That… Doesn’t sound likely, does it?” The words were spoken, not to Hannah, but to the boy standing there. One who was noticed, by the crying woman, after a moment. She moved in and hugged him, as well. Even if they’d never met.
“I don’t know what to do…”
She was patted on the back. It wasn’t awkward at all, Alistair seeming fine enough with it. Probably because he understood it was what he was supposed to be doing at the moment, and that Ver wasn’t actually trying to get him into bed. No, she was just setting the groundwork for later, in case it came up. Hannah could have judged her on the move, but the truth was, she used to do things like that herself. It worked, as far as techniques went and was low risk. After all, the crying girl couldn’t be plotting things like that. Not while having a breakdown.
Hannah waved at the furniture, since they were near the door to the back rooms, at the moment.
“Let’s sit?” When they did that, Hannah shrugged.
Then, after blowing some air out, she started to speak, pretty openly.
“I located Candice. She was fighting a street gang, to steal their drugs and money. Throwing some kind of glowing knives or blades that kept coming back to her. I don’t think she’s in any real trouble or hurt too much or anything. Well, not after the first bit, where I took that gun and grabbed that bullet from the air, two feet from her skull. That was a bit intense.” She honestly wasn’t certain how it had happened.
The bullet had been moving fast, and it took time for her to teleport things. Even to stop it from moving, which she’d tried to do first. It wasn’t big, but it had to have been taken in a tiny fraction of a second.
Instead of asking how she knew all that, Verthala simply went very still.
“No… That bitch! She told me she wasn’t going to do things like that anymore. She promised me!”
Katherine nodded at the words, and so did Al. Meaning the only person not understanding the situation was little old Hannah. The tears drying up a bit, due to rage, it appeared, her old friend narrowed her eyes.
“She bought some powers a few years ago. We both did. It was like getting matching tattoos. You know, something a bit risky, but nothing all that important. We were supposed to just have them. I’m immune to poisons now. Drug overdoses, too. She can charge things with energy and they come back to her if she throws them. It isn’t that big of a deal. It was a joke, really. Not anything…”
Giving a nod, Hannah thought for a moment, before blurting out what she was thinking.
“Only she put on tights and started a life of crime?”
That got a head shake.
“No. Not at first. She tried to help people. Only, after a while, she started to like it. Getting into fights and all that? Hurting people. About two years ago, after the first few months, I asked her to stop. I thought she had. This… It can’t go on, can it? Was this the only time she did it?”
Hannah didn’t know, and Alistair held very still, not nodding or shaking his head even a tiny bit, as a clue. Katherine on the other hand tensed, shook her head a little and tightened her lips so much that they became white.
Being clever enough, Hannah went wide eyed.
“Wait… Two years ago… That was about when you said we should cut Candice out of our social circle. It wasn’t over her having a sex tape, was it?” Kate was a bit of a prude, maybe, or had been with Hannah, but she hadn’t really cut out everyone who had flashed a camera over the years.
It also came to her then that Kate Sinclair not wanting to sleep with her might not have been just due to the other woman being so straight that rulers envied her. It could be that she also recalled Hannah as having raised her. All of the Pond girls had acted like she’d belonged, when they’d first met, too. On a level that had seemed weird at the time.
Now all the times that she’d hit on Katie felt weird and kind of like she was a child molester.
Al, not speaking, looked at her and shook his head then. Clearly trying to get her not to go down that particular road. She set the idea aside, for the moment.
Her friend, not getting any of the garbage going on behind her eyes, nodded.
“Yeah. I knew about you too, Verthala, but just being immune to most of the fun chemicals isn’t that big of a deal. Really, I considered getting that kind of treatment myself, so I could fake drinking and all that when we went out. It’s a pretty good idea.”
Hannah had been warned that some of her old circle had powers. Even that some of them were on the wrong side of things. Though, the real issue in the moment wasn’t about her friend being a criminal, since stealing, while bad, was mitigated when you did it from thieves and drug pushers. At least to her mind. The problem was that, from what she’d been hearing, Candice was one wrong dodge away from taking a bullet to the head. She wasn’t always going to have Hannah there to catch for her, after all. Really, she was still baffled that it had worked even once.
“She isn’t super strong or invulnerable?” Everyone there shook their heads then. “So, this is… She could die doing this?”
That was understandable, of course. Even the little, fairly remote, things Hannah had been getting up to could end that way. If Red Menace had broken out of that cell, she wouldn’t have made it, for instance. It was probably the same with the murder doctor from earlier. Sure, she could fight, and teleport away, but that day had shown her that even things like that weren’t impossible to beat. She’d been hit dozens of times by paintballs. If they’d been real bullets, she’d be dead herself.
It was a simple truth that she tried not to run headlong into danger, if she could help it, but what she’d been doing kind of meant that telling Candice not to partake was simple hypocrisy. Like the guy with half a bottle of bourbon in him telling the kids not to drink. Saying that he could handle it, but they couldn’t.
Shaking her head, she sighed.
“This… It isn’t my business. I mean, targeting money like that sounds a bit off, but if she takes the drugs… Does she sell them?” She looked at everyone there, but only Ver shook her head.
“No. We didn’t even do them, since a lot of the time they’re crap. She doesn’t even keep the money, giving it away. Charity and that kind of thing? She could die.”
Hannah winced, getting it now.
“Fuck. So, she’s in real danger, getting high off of the thrill of it all, and playing Robin Hood, at the same time. That… Morally is that any different than what any of us have done? I kidnapped people today, and put them in federal custody. That’s no better than getting drugs off the street and depriving gangs of the money they need to operate, is it?”
Interestingly, Alistair actually spoke then. He normally didn’t, so that he wouldn’t risk giving any secrets away.
“Morally? It’s about the same. Not that you were kidnapping people. The difference isn’t in what you were doing, but in how it’s getting done. You’re careful, Hannah. You spend hours every day training, and walk around armed and in armor, when it’s needed. Even then, you avoid exposing yourself to violence as much as possible. Your friend is jumping in the middle of street fights, against armed men and women, with a power that’s barely better than a gun. She’s good with it, but she doesn’t practice really, or train. She just follows people on the street and gets into it with them, in a costume. It isn’t even bullet or stab resistant. She’s going to end up dead, one day, if she keeps doing it. Probably soon. She knows that too, and can’t see stopping.”
