Chapter 12 #2
“Do you ever wonder if he actually knows what he’s saying?” Landon asks.
“What ails me is that I’m about to watch one of my friends get murdered,” Lex says. “I should probably do something.”
“My suffering shan’t be long. Ellison is quite thorough. It’s what I find sexy about him.”
Oddly enough, this seems to compel Ellison to try harder to lock me in the trunk.
He pushes me in and slams the lid shut. I turn invisible, drop the back seat, and slide out the front door before he has even pulled his new suit jacket completely on.
Then I hurry over to August, duck my head between his legs, and lift him off the ground to float him toward the building.
“Honey, you’re so tall and sexy,” Landon says.
“Thank you,” August replies.
“Now I’m jealous. I want someone to carry me. Lex, carry me.”
“No.”
“Ellison, carry me.” Landon flops his body against Ellison, who is stalking after me. I feel a bit concerned for my well-being as he does so. “Deus… Deus, there’s a real-life demon stalking you. Although, that might turn you on instead of worrying you. Are you turned on?”
“Deus is with the demons. I am… Bob,” I clarify.
“You know… I think you’d be ten times creepier if your name really was Bob,” Landon decides. “Like as Asmodeus the Destroyer NoToucho, you’re kind of mysterious in a sexy way, but if you were just a Bob… serial killer for sure. Hey, NoTouchy, I think Ellison is going for your Achilles’ heel.”
I turn around to see Ellison stalking closer, so I pick up the pace. “Now hear me out, Ellison. I actually did you a solid.”
“Asmodeus,” he growls.
“Oh, my sweet demons,” I hiss before I spin around, nearly giving August whiplash as he grabs my head to keep himself stable.
Quickly, I deposit him in Landon’s arms, which nearly crushes Landon’s weak body.
I drop my invisibility and rush up to Ellison.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t see it before. When the car crashed and your face brushed against the airbag, you forgot everything in your life but me…
that’s why you keep calling for me and saying nothing else.
It’s not a threat… it’s a love letter.” I reach for him, but strangely enough his hands go for my throat instead of my body.
“I’ve never been hugged before. Is this what it’s like? ” I ask as he throttles me a little.
“Usually, it’s a bit more like…” Lex demonstrates with an air hug.
“Honey… I’m so sorry,” Landon says, looking down at August who is splayed out from where Landon dropped him on the ground.
“It’s okay,” August assures him while he brushes rocks off himself.
I wave at them. “Ellison, look, Landon chucked August to the ground and August still loves him. All I did was hold up Pocket Lint so she could give you a kiss.”
“Let’s go inside,” Ellison says, obviously satisfied after some mild strangulation. “And if you ever put that vermin near my head again, I will personally find it a new home.”
“Pocket Lint says she’s sorry.”
“How can you be mad at Lint Roller?” Landon asks as we head inside where security meets us at the door. “She’s just so cute.” Zacia, who seems to have come to understand that Pocket Lint isn’t edible, trots after us.
“Sir, I think this one here needs a cavity search,” Ellison says.
Landon snickers. “He’s got the jokes today.”
“Be thorough,” Ellison demands before he struts up and hands off his ID, and then goes through their detector.
I debate how exactly I could turn invisible to get through this so I don’t have to hand over my weapons, but they’ve made it so there’s no way through this area without passing through their security protocol, since there’s a protective barrier above it. I narrow my eyes at it.
“You can’t take guns in here,” a man says.
Though it’s mostly a research facility, it does hold quite a few villains who need more specialized control than a prison could offer them, while not being as extreme as Trident, the supervillain prison where the worst offenders are sent.
Most of them have also agreed to medication that will dull their abilities.
“They’re August’s, I was merely holding them. He can do anything. August, confuse them with your smile and a superhero phrase.”
August smiles, poses, and goes, “Together… we can stand strong.”
“That made my peepee stand strong,” Landon says, which should have traumatized the others enough to let us through, but they are clearly professionals.
“Leave the weapons here; you can get them on the way out,” a woman orders.
I stare at her in disbelief. “Excuse me—”
Ellison raises an eyebrow at me so I sigh and pass them over, very dissatisfied. I’m pushed through the security detector before promptly being pulled aside and patted down where they remove the rest of my guns and weapons. It’s really quite unfair.
As we head down the hallway, I glance at Ellison. “Are you okay? Does your nose hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
I eye him, but I know that he could have lost an arm and would likely tell me the same thing… not that I’m any better.
Eventually, we’re let inside a room where Nolan, Landon’s oldest brother, looks up at us.
I haven’t spoken to him much, but he’s a handsome man who ended up in here after he joined the supervillains.
Honestly, I kind of feel like Landon and I also joined supervillains at some point, and we didn’t even get a slap on the wrist, but I’m not going to remind anyone, especially Valerie, of that.
He smiles. “Hey! I can’t believe you finally talked Brandon into inviting his girlfriend.”
“Really, nothing screams ‘normal happy family dinner’ more than bringing her to the research facility where our brother is imprisoned,” Landon replies.
“Knowing him, he met her when he failed to break into a bank,” Nolan says.
There’s a beautiful Persian cat who jumps from his lap that Pocket Lint is immediately fascinated by, so once it’s apparent the cat has no interest in attacking the ferret, I put her on the ground.
Pocket Lint immediately arches her back and hops toward the cat who smacks her to the ground.
Pocket Lint will not be deterred. She has fallen in love.
“And this must be the ‘long cat’ my father got Ellison,” Nolan continues.
“Would you like it? You can have it,” Ellison offers.
“Nope. Once you’ve been blessed with a supervillain cat, you can’t ever replace them.”
“I don’t want to replace it, I want to get rid of it,” Ellison says.
“You want me to break you out yet?” Landon asks Nolan. “I’ll happily blow a hole in the side of the wall. I’ll blame it on Deus, of course.”
“I shall take the blame,” I say.
Nolan looks over at me and I’m reminded that he can read thoughts. I guess as long as I don’t think about her… or the people I slaughtered, we should be dandy. Ellison, on the other hand, looks minorly concerned about something.
“I feel like you could use a lucky doll to take out your frustrations on,” I say as I whip out a doll that I put in Ellison’s hand as well as the pins that they foolishly let me enter with.
Obviously, they’re not aware I could kill everyone in this building with this small box. “Look, I even wrote my name on it.”
Ellison stares at it, like he’s unsure of what to do with such a thing, before stabbing it in the forehead while he looks me in the eyes.
And as I watch him, pleased with his stabbing abilities, I realize that instead of thinking normal thoughts, I’ve just thought about all the ways I could murder the people inside this building with pins.
“You know, the way to make sure I don’t know about things is to not think about them at all,” Nolan comments.
“Did you hear me thinking about August naked again?” Landon asks. “Because I’m not shy about that. I’m perfectly fine with everyone knowing about that.”
Ellison turns away and starts fussing with where to put the lucky doll.
“I’m joking,” Nolan says. “I’m on medication to help me cancel out the thoughts. I’m doing my best not to invade anyone’s privacy.”
“I don’t have dirty thoughts like the rest of these uncivilized men,” Lex announces, and Nolan looks over at him.
“Don’t you?” Nolan asks, and Lex’s face turns a brilliant red as he coughs and looks every way but at Nolan.
“I wasn’t. But wow, there’s something about trying not to think about something that makes you think about it. I want to know what Deus is thinking. Is his mind filled with thoughts of demon worship?” Lex asks.
“You may read it all,” I say.
“Packed full of it,” Nolan jokes. “Full of hymns dedicated to the demons. He’s a good singer too.”
I nod, as if any of this is true. “I do pride myself on my vocal range and memorization skills. Do tell me, what does Ellison truly think of me?”
Nolan looks over at Ellison, whose expression is impossible to read. “He’s mostly thinking about multiple ways to put you back in the trunk. Sounds like you were already in it once today.”
“For not long enough,” Ellison says.
Nolan laughs as he leans against the wall. “I really do appreciate that you guys aren’t put off by me. I know it’s hard to interact with someone you can’t keep shit from, but I promise I do my best not to listen, and even if I do hear something, I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“Really, wouldn’t it be for the best if someone told them what a monster you are?
So they know what kind of person they’re letting into their lives?
Because if they knew, they wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like you.
You weren’t good enough then and you’re definitely not now.
You don’t deserve this. Are you going to kill them all too? ”
I look up and notice Nolan watching me. I smile at him and think, “Feel free to tell them that there’s a monster living rent-free in my head, but if you do, there won’t be a damn one of them protecting your baby brother from the men who want to cut his life short.
You can’t do anything in here, now can you? ”
His eyebrow lifts. “You’re right.”