Queen's Move (Lilith's Shadow Book 3) Page 26
“It isn’t just the dog. There’s also a higher power draw in the area… and I double-checked with the manager. Someone tampered with his mind, which is why we’re here,” Dreamer said, smiling slowly as she looked at the lodge with narrowed eyes. “It wasn’t the sort of touch I would expect from anyone human, not even the Sisters or their precious demons. This is something different.”
The mention of SMOKE sent a visible shudder through Vincent, to Dreamer’s amusement, but at least he stopped arguing and instead turned back to the lodge, looking at it in concern.
“How do we do this, then? Sure, we bought the psi-blockers, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t punch through them,” Vincent said, nodding toward the lodge nervously.
“Penetrating a psi blocker takes time, so we don’t give it any,” Dreamer said, grinning at Vincent, her eyes glittering malevolently. “You two break in there and beat the little alien into a pulp, holding it still if you can, and I’ll put it to sleep. It’ll have a difficult time fighting both of you and a mental assault at the same time. Then I deal with it more permanently, and we go claim our reward.”
“Mm… simple and straightforward. I like it, assuming we can do this right and no heroes interrupt,” Dreadnaught said, eyeing the building thoughtfully. “The door doesn’t look like it’ll slow me down much.”
“The only local hero is a mountaineer and usually is out patrolling different hiking trails to keep the common sheep from getting themselves eaten,” Dreamer said, rolling her eyes in annoyance as she thought about the man. “I can’t be bothered to remember his name, but it’s… Elk Ranger, or something silly like that. He’s not very powerful, anyway.”
“Ah,” Dreadnaught murmured, nodding absently. “Well, that makes it easier. We have the truck nearby, so we should be able to get out of here quicker than the authorities can react. Assuming the mooks keep the police busy.”
“I think they’ll be fine. Leading the cops on a drag race is practically a time-honored tradition around here!” Vincent said, then hesitated before admitting, “At least I think so. Haven’t you seen all those videos about mountain racing?”
“I think that’s Japan… and I think it was from an anime,” Dreadnaught said, frowning at Vincent.
“No, I’m talking about one of the movies. The ones with a bunch of guys in fast cars, and who did a bunch of super-spy stuff,” Vincent said, and took a breath to continue, only for Dreamer to interrupt.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t care. We’re her to take the adorable alien captive and hand it over to bad people,” Dreamer interrupted, a little frustrated with the two. “Are you going to help, or shall I just do it myself?”
“Damn, calm down, Dreamer. What’s got your panties in a twist?” Vincent said, looking taken aback.
“Nothing. I’m simply not willing to sit around and waste time when I know our target is right there,” Dreamer said flatly, narrowing her eyes at him. “If you aren’t going to be useful, what point is there to you being here?”
Vincent’s mouth worked, but no sound came out, as the man stared at her, both flustered and very obviously intimidated. When he didn’t manage to say anything, Dreamer rolled her eyes and looked at Dreadnaught.
“What? I’m ready to break down the door whenever you are,” Dreadnaught said, shrugging. “Once Vincent is ready, we can deal with this, and get a nice, tidy payday.”
“I was waiting for you!” Vincent shot back, his surprise turning to annoyance. “Don’t you shove this off on me, you big lug!”
Dreamer sighed and stood up, looking forward to ending her relationship with Vincent. Some days she actually missed Doctor Johnson, as he’d been able to hire better help.
“Then let’s do this, already,” Dreamer said, keeping her voice relatively pleasant.
“Right,” Dreadnaught agreed, grinning as he hopped over the fence and started toward the lodge door.
Okris was confused for a short time as the savages failed to move, then grew pleased as it realized that they were arguing among themselves. It gave Okris more time to prepare, and it took the time to reach out and examine what was coming.
There were three savages in the immediate vicinity, and another eight farther away, barely within easy reach of Okris’s senses. All of them had devices that made it more difficult to access their minds, but the devices weren’t enough to slow Okris down much, and they weren’t much of a threat to it. All but one, it corrected itself, focusing on one of the three, concern rippling through it briefly.
The female savage had a powerful mind, one which gave Okris pause, at least until it examined her more closely, which caused Okris to relax. While her mind was powerful, she had virtually no control over it, and her abilities were limited at best. It would be difficult to subdue such a powerful mind, but it would be possible, in Okris’s opinion. She also seemed to be one of the power-users of the planet, and when Okris examined the others, it realized that they were, too. Neither of the others had psychic abilities, but even through their defenses Okris was able to read some of their stray thoughts. Not the female’s, but the two males were accessible.
Both of them were even more selfish and self-centered than savages tended to be, to Okris’s disdain, and their reasons for coming after it were laughable. Some savage grouping had put a bounty on Okris, and they were here to collect it. One of them was considering which private island they wanted to try to purchase, while the other was more focused on their future. Both feared the woman, which they thought of as ‘Dreamer’, and Okris managed to glean much of their plans while they argued and came up with one of its own before they could act.
It was rather pleased with the idea, and it would make the other plans it had much easier. The only thing to do was to carry out its plans. While it could use the weapons that it had assembled from the survival equipment to stop the group, that would use more energy than Okris like, and it wanted to save them for when it left the planet.
The door shattered as Dreadnaught hit it, splinters flying across the room, and Dreamer smiled, briefly musing about the frustration of whoever had to fix it, then abandoned the thought. As entertaining as it might be, it wasn’t important.
Her smile vanished as she heard Dreadnaught yelp, a bright blue bolt launching him out of the doorway, and he slammed into Vincent. The smaller man spun, but didn’t fall as he extended a leg to catch himself. A log fence broke as Dreadnaught hit it, but it stopped him, just as the alien stepped out of the lodge, the tendrils behind its head writhing.
The alien was truly repulsive, Dreamer thought, wrinkling her nose at it in disgust. It looked a little like a human, but only in the vaguest sense of the word. It had two arms, two legs, and a head, but its body was abnormally thin, with a dull orange and red exoskeleton and two vertical red eyes. While it had a mouth, it was decidedly more insectoid, and the only clothing it wore was a belt with some device hanging from it. It had seven fingers, none of them quite looking like a thumb, and she wasn’t sure how many joints each of its arms had… but most disgusting to her was how the back of its head swelled up, beneath which were a couple dozen thin, braid-like tendrils, each of which were moving independently.
Vincent charged at the alien, yelling. “You’re going down, you bloody—”
Dreadnaught was getting up, and at least he didn’t look like he’d been injured. While the alien could move the man, it didn’t seem to be able to injure him yet. That meant that Dreamer had time to work, and she did as the alien launched a flurry of blasts at Dreadnaught, most of which he managed to dodge before getting thrown backward.
Looking at the alien, Dreamer suppressed her disgust and instead called on her powers, focusing them on the alien’s mind, which was so ephemeral in her senses. It was harder to find
than those of other humans, to her annoyance, but it was close enough to some of the other animals she’d tested her abilities on when she was younger that she could still target it. Then, with her mind fixed on the creature, Dreamer smiled and stepped out of hiding as she spoke, her powers pulsing outward in seductive whispers trying to put the creature to sleep. Her powers always worked better when speaking, and when she was in sight of her victim.
“Savages? Perhaps you simply haven’t met the right humans, little lost alien,” Dreamer said sweetly, smiling at the creature in feigned kindness. “You’re on our world, so it really isn’t polite of you to be so rude.”
“Shh… just go to sleep, little alien. When you wake up, if you wake up, I’m certain you’ll change your mind about us,” Dreamer said, her smile widening as she walked forward, ignoring Vincent favoring an arm and how Dreadnaught was dusting off his armor.
The creature staggered, then slowly fell over as Dreamer approached, smiling even more broadly. While she might think the alien was completely disgusting, that didn’t mean that she was going to ignore the chance to gain the power of a psychic. While it wasn’t as good as draining Archon entirely, it would give her the chance to improve her strength yet again. Soon she’d be strong enough to face Morgan Le Fay again, as well as Warden and their precious Lilith.
So Dreamer drew closer, her smile widening as she felt the creature lose consciousness, and she murmured, “There we are… perfect.”
She was just beginning to reach into the creature’s mind when Dreamer finally felt something amiss. Another presence, which she hadn’t noticed before, was also there, and it struck mercilessly.
Searing agony lanced into Dreamer’s mind and she choked, her eyes going wide as something pierced deep into her and grabbed hold, paralyzing her where she stood.
“Dreamer, is it dealt with? Should I go get the mooks?” Dreadnaught asked, not appearing to have noticed what had happened.
Then it was too late.
Okris was pleased, for the most part. The female was squirming as hard as she could under its grasp, trying to use her powers to escape, but it wasn’t going to allow that. Her plans for it were more than it was willing to allow, and drilling deep enough into her mind to properly control her had taken almost too long. If it had been forced to take one of the savages as a host, it would have been a humiliation beyond measure and would have made it hesitant to return to the Multitude. Fortunately, it had stopped her before she could incapacitate its host entirely.
It hadn’t taken long to overwhelm the larger male, then Okris had used both of its new puppets to capture the third male. It planned to plant instructions into the pair in the near future, but for now it didn’t have the time. Instead, it focused on controlling the servants of the savages as well. That stretched its abilities somewhat, but not having to control the third powered individual helped allow it to work.
Instead, it had the servants move its fold-space drive, weapons, and other equipment into the truck to leave and made still more plans. These ‘villains’ would be useful for its distraction.
Sergeant Richard Perkins looked around the room and took off his hat, scowling as he considered for a few seconds, then muttered, “What in the hell happened here? This wasn’t a bunch of young punks. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think there were supers fighting…”
The ski lodge hadn’t taken a lot of damage, truthfully. The door had been destroyed, and Richard suspected that the frame was cracked as well, while a couple of logs in the fence needed to be replaced, but that was minor compared to most damage he’d seen supers inflict.
The interior of the lodge was what really had him stumped, though, as someone had moved tables into it, nice tables, and had been obviously working on machinery using them, from all the scratches he could see in the finish. It was a waste, considering there were significantly cheaper tables in the dining area above them. There were also bits of metal scattered around the room, looking like pieces that hadn’t been needed, which was even more confusing.
Finally, he shrugged, muttering, “I suppose it’ll be for forensics to tell me. Nothing I can do about this.”
Richard took a careful step out of the room after a moment, and waited for the others to arrive. It didn’t look like anyone had been injured, so this wasn’t quite as high of priority, in his opinion.
Chapter 33
Wednesday, May 14th, 2031
Clarkson Mall, Paragon City
“Lil, where are you?” Gina demanded, a frantic note in her voice, and Lilith resisted the urge to sigh.
“I decided to go shopping, now that I have a car again,” Lilith replied patiently, adjusting her grip on the phone as she continued through the mall at a sedate pace.
“Why didn’t you tell me that? Better, why didn’t you wake me up so I could go with you? Or Rach, for that matter!” Gina said, sounding almost outraged. “Where are you? I’m going to come over, and—”
“No, you aren’t,” Lilith interrupted, a tiny bit of frustration seeping through her. “I’m also not telling you where I am, not right now.”
“But… why not? You’ve been attacked, and I just want to keep you safe!” Gina protested, her outrage turning to confusion.
“That’s exactly why. I have my suit, and if I’m in trouble Circe will let you know to come help me. I just wanted a chance to go out on my own,” Lilith said, though she didn’t say everything. She suspected that Gina heard it, though, with how the blonde fell silent.
Gina and Rachel had been hovering over Lilith a lot over the last two weeks, and while Lilith hadn’t heard them discuss it, it was almost like they were taking shifts keeping an eye on her. At first it was endearing, since it told Lilith that they cared about her, which was reassuring.
Over time that had changed, though. Constantly being watched had started putting Lilith on edge, and while she didn’t snap at them, that was mostly because she knew they were just trying to keep her safe. It was… surprisingly frustrating for her, and the lack of freedom to go out and do what she wanted had started to get grating. That was part of why, once Circe had delivered her newly improved car, Lilith had taken the chance to slip out of the house when Rachel was distracted and Gina was still in bed.
“Lil… there are people out there trying to kill you,” Gina said at last, her voice a little subdued. “If they attack like that sniper did, I don’t know if there’d be time to save you. We might find out when it’s too late.”
“This is why Mistress Lilith’s suit has been upgraded, Gina,” Circe interjected calmly. “While it is not equal to other generators, I have installed a high-powered shield generator and a capacitor which can instantly create a shield to protect her from most attacks for a short period. Coupled with enhanced sensors to detect incoming fire, she should be safe from surprise attacks.”
“Exactly. Besides, people have been trying to kill me for as long as I’ve been alive. The only difference here is that they know what I look like,” Lilith said, glancing at a couple of the shoppers staring at her, but otherwise ignoring them.
The couple with cat ears and tails intrigued her, but she wasn’t going to invite conversation, not when it was likely to get her mobbed. The man was rather handsome, she admitted, which answered one of her idle curiosities about how a man who’d taken the medication to have feline traits would look.
“I guess that’s a little better… the equipment, I mean,” Gina said reluctantly. “I’m still not happy about this, though.”
“I know you aren’t. I just… I’ve felt a bit stifled, Gin
a. I wanted to go out and do something, and this is what I wanted. I’m going to buy some clothing, maybe get some dishes for the kitchen or something of that sort, and relax,” Lilith told her, trying to keep her voice gentle. “I know you worry, but I can’t stay cooped up all the time, and you two can’t always be around.”
“Says who?” Gina retorted, but didn’t wait for a response. “But, if you really feel that strongly, I guess I’ll let you stay out on your own. I just don’t want to hear about you getting attacked, you hear me? If you do, I’m not going to be this easygoing in the future.”
“Yes, dear,” Lilith said dryly, and hung up while Gina sputtered.
With the phone put away, Lilith could focus on shopping again, so she took her time as she looked around. There were lots of different stores in the mall, and plenty of them carried a variety of clothing, which gave her options to choose from, while she ignored most of the other shops. She simply didn’t care about watches or most of the beauty supplies, since Amber hadn’t been reticent about making sure Lilith wouldn’t need most of them.
Lilith was in the middle of going through some nice red blouses, wondering if they’d look good on her, when someone finally worked up the nerve to interrupt.
“Um, ’scuse me?” a young man said, and Lilith turned, opening her mouth to tell the person to go away, then paused as she saw the speaker.
The young man had dark skin and brown eyes, and looked to be no more than thirteen or so, in her opinion. His hair was cut short, and he was wearing jeans and a jacket with the logo of one of the major sports teams, though she didn’t know much more than that about it. Plus, there was something slightly familiar about his face that nagged at her memory. It also made her change her usual, rather caustic response. She really needed to get out of the habit of assuming anyone who approached her was going to ask for a date or something of that sort.