Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DEUS
I do a triple take when Ellison comes down the stairs. “All that is demonic, bless my measly soul,” I whisper.
“Shut it or I’m going to change,” he growls.
Instead of the typical suit, he’s wearing tan slacks, a button-up with a sweater vest, and a scarf. Is it even scarf weather? Then again… is it suit weather? No one but Ellison seems to know the answer to that.
“I didn’t even know you owned clothes other than suits.”
“I don’t. A previous boyfriend left these,” he says.
My eyes narrow. “Take them off. You shall wear my clothes. Disrobe your beautiful body immediately.”
“I’m joking. I just wanted to see how you’d react. I was pleased by causing you irritation,” he says before he starts toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to run into work.”
“Well, I shall run with you. Let me feed you,” I say as I grab a box of cookies and rush after him.
“I’d very much rather you not stalk me at work.”
“You really think I’m going to leave you alone? Don’t make me chuckle, My Lord of Suits. Or should I call you My Lord of Sweater Vests today?”
“I’d rather you call me neither,” he says as I pop a cookie in his mouth. He seems startled by it before taking it and biting off a piece. “This is quite unhealthy. Is this also what you ate?”
“You’re enough sweetness for me,” I inform him.
Ellison ignores me and hurries out to his car. I get into the driver’s seat and pass him my ferret and my rifle.
“I want neither of these things,” he grumbles as he sets Pocket Lint down on the middle console. She’s staring at his cookie, stretching her long neck out as far as it’ll go to try to snatch a bite.
He watches her for a ridiculously long time before he breaks off the smallest piece and hands it to her. When he sees me watching, he glowers at me like I’ve caught him doing something bad. It makes me beam.
The drive to Superheroes United is rather uneventful, as is getting inside once I threaten the security team, causing Ellison to smooth things over.
“I’m going to go deal with Valerie. I’m safe in here, okay? Go… pester Nolan.”
“You may be safe from the stalker, but Valerie saps the life from our souls every time we’re within fifteen feet of her. I can already feel my life force draining from me. It hurts, Ellison, it hurts.”
Valerie chooses that moment to walk around the corner, confirming my declaration.
My eyes narrow the instant I see her. “I think she’s constipated. Look at her face.”
“Why’d you bring him?” she asks.
“He’s going to keep Nolan company,” Ellison says.
I grab Ellison. “If she sucks out your soul and replaces it with one of her parasites… do know that I will avenge you.”
“Go,” he says.
I grasp his face and press my forehead against his. “I had fun jerking you off yesterday,” I whisper so only he can hear.
He pulls back, face red as he quickly turns around and storms off.
Pleased by my ability to fluster him, I think about what to do. The idea of spending time with a man who can read my mind doesn’t sound overly appealing when my mind is in a state of turmoil, so I head down to the shooting range, but as soon as I get settled in, Nolan joins me.
“You can’t think about how much you don’t want me to read your mind and expect I won’t come bother you,” Nolan says.
“Understandable. How is life in the underworld?”
“Better than life while I was alive,” he responds as he goes over to a bench and lies down on it.
It isn’t long before Nemesis, his long-haired Persian, jumps up onto his chest and flicks his tail into Nolan’s face.
Pocket Lint, who is on the ground, is staring at that tail with desire in her eyes.
“Every time Landon stopped by, I did my best to pretend like I was loving life in that small room because I knew if I didn’t, he’d bust me out of there. ”
“This may be a new prison, but it should be a better one. So… you can control other people’s minds.”
“I can.”
“Are you good enough at it to control a person who seems to disappear in seconds?”
“I… I don’t think I’m that fast at it. I’ve used it very little. Both the length of time I can do it and my control over the person varies.”
“But if you practiced?”
Nolan laughs. “Who exactly is lining up for me to control? People don’t like it when their mind is taken over.”
“Control me, right now. Make me pick up that gun and shoot the target on the right.”
Nolan stares at me for a minute, like he’s not quite sure what he thinks about what I’ve said. “You want me to control you?”
“I spent over twenty-six years being controlled by sociopaths; I’m no stranger to having no control over myself. Do it.”
“You trust me that much? You don’t even know me.”
“You could do it without my permission, could you not? Trust doesn’t matter. I want you to be good enough that you can stop a person from leaving so I can shoot them in the fucking head.”
His eyebrow lifts. “Care to explain what’s going on?”
“Make me.”
“What?”
“Make me tell you.”
Nolan hesitates before sitting up; his eyes touch mine but nothing happens.
He breaks eye contact as he rubs his head like it hurts.
“I’m still… the drugs make things a bit foggy and I have to concentrate harder.
” He falls silent, his eyes refocusing on mine, making me question if he needs eye contact. If he does, this might not work.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Nolan says in my mind, and it’s like everything grows quiet in there. The hell that constantly bounces around my head stills while everything revolves around his words. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I believe a person is stalking Ellison. There were two people in those woods. One was the brother of a girl I knew when I was in the cult. He wanted to kill me because my elders killed his sister to harvest her eyes where they believed her power was stored and gave them to me so I could use her power. I’m the reason she’s dead. I’m the reason they slaughtered her—”
“Stop. Stay focused. What’s going on with the person stalking Ellison?”
I abruptly stop spilling everything like I have no filter.
“I believe the second person from the woods is following Ellison. They’re so fast that I can’t even track them.
Their power must allow them to teleport or something.
They’re gone as quickly as they’re there.
But it’s like they’re toying with us. They want me to know that I can’t keep Ellison safe.
I want you to use your power to keep them there long enough I can shoot them. ”
“Pick up the gun on the table.”
I do so without hesitation. I even think about fighting against it, out of curiosity over whether I could, but it feels so peaceful and I find myself wanting to follow him more than anything. I want to do anything he says.
“Shoot the far-right target four times.”
I fire off four shots, and then the hold on my mind stops and I turn to Nolan. He looks away from me and I realize that he thinks I’m going to be upset with him.
“Faster.”
“What?”
“You need to be faster. Come on. I can’t teleport, but I can turn invisible. I need you to snatch onto my mind the moment you see me.”
I grab his wrist and haul him off toward the large indoor training area. He reluctantly follows while Nemesis and Pocket Lint trot after us.
“I… I don’t think I’m supposed to be training this aspect of my powers. Most people, including Valerie, would be very against this,” Nolan says.
“Good thing I’m not like most people.”
The door opens and Lex steps in just in time to see me dragging Nolan around by his wrist. His eyes zero in on my hold and he looks at me like I’ve betrayed him.
Landon, who is right behind Lex, gasps. “Oh, my brother. Nooooo, you don’t want to be friends with that one. That one’s weird. Only I have the power to befriend his weird ass.”
“I will fuck your ass up,” I warn him.
“You couldn’t touch me,” he says, and the instant I turn invisible, he slides some training equipment in front of him as though it’s some kind of barrier.
When I become visible again, the smirk is smacked right off his face when he sees me holding August above my head.
“Let me touch you or I’ll make you regret the day you popped out of your momma’s womb,” I threaten.
“Don’t bring my momma into this.”
“Nah, I’m just gonna bend your Chronobender.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” August says while submitting to his life of being in my arms, held above my head.
“This… This is for you, August. Don’t forget I love you with all of my heart. This should show you the amount of love I feel for your sweet, sweet soul,” Landon cries as he reaches out a hand and lets me touch it. I try to hand off August but Landon hastily shakes his head.
“Please, don’t put him in my arms again. His penis weighs sooooo much that I can’t hold him up,” Landon says. “It’s his massive penis… that’s why he weighs too much.”
“He looks like a man who has an understandably significant schlong,” I agree as I dump him onto Lex instead.
“I feel so uncomfortable about all of this,” Lex whines, setting August on his feet.
“I brought my lucky doll if you’d like to stab him some to feel better,” August says as he holds out a doll that has been stabbed over every millimeter of its body.
“We had some really stressful meetings before we came here,” Landon explains. “He’s not a serial killer, I promise.”
I turn back to the matter at hand. “Nolan, let us return to business.”
“What were you guys doing? I want to do it too,” Lex says.
“I was forcing Nolan to control my mind.”
“Sounds concerning and like… maybe something we shouldn’t do,” Landon comments.
I shake my head. “When you can’t control your power, it learns to control you. Nolan, when I appear, grab on to me. Understood?”
“Yes, but it’s going to be easier because I can follow the sound of your mind, whereas if someone really can teleport, that won’t be an option.”
I contemplate that before deciding that if I could learn to hide my footsteps and how to hide my sounds, my emotions, and everything else it took to be a perfect assassin… why can’t I hide my mind?
“Well… let’s see what I can do about that,” I say as I clear my mind and disappear.
“What’s he doing?” Landon asks.
“Making himself unreadable to Nolan,” August explains.
“Is it working?” Landon asks when I appear on the far side of the room.
Nolan isn’t fast enough, and I’ve already moved on. “It… is.”
“It does make me wonder… that day back at the pond… were you actually that easy to hit?” Landon asks. “Or did you just really want me to touch you?”
I slide in behind him. “I love it when you touch me,” I whisper.
“August! He made me shiver and not in a good way!” Landon cries.
“You can control me,” Lex says, annoyed I’m hogging Nolan’s attention. That’s when I notice that the man is dressed head to toe in red.
I appear in front of him. “The demons say you look like a strawberry who wants to be eaten.”
“Am I sexy, though?” he asks as I move on, causing Nolan to lose me again.
“Dammit. The only time I can hear your mind is when you’re saying ridiculous shit!” Nolan snaps before he closes his eyes and I realize he’s finally getting serious.
“Stop.”
I slam to a stop.
“Ha. I got you now. Turn visible.”
I do as I’m told and fall into the bliss of him controlling my mind. It’s so quiet. It’s so peaceful, it’s so…
Ahhh, Ellison. Beautiful, pleasant, sweet Ellison.
“What’s going on here?” Ellison asks as he enters the room.
Nolan gives him a peculiar look, but it’s immediately erased by Landon’s gasp. “Who is this? AUGUST! AUGUST! Who is this man!?”
“Uhh… it’s Ellison?” Even August is confused.
Landon partially hides behind August. “No, no, no… did someone infiltrate Ellison’s body? Replace him with a different man? August, I feel extremely uncomfortable.”
Nolan drops his hold on me, so I hurry over to Ellison.
“Ellison’s skipped over Zaddy and gone straight to GrandZaddy, just the way I like it,” I say as I give his little sweater vest a tug.
“I am never speaking to any of you again,” Ellison decides.
“What did I do?” August asks.
“I am never speaking to Landon or Asmodeus again,” Ellison clarifies. “Now what are you doing?”
“Seeking forth the essence of our ancestors,” I explain, planning to throw him off the trail with a bit of wordage.
His eyes narrow. “My suspicions have grown. Speak.”
That’s when Pocket Lint bites the fur of Nemesis’s tail and the cat jumps, startled. Zacia scampers onto the scene and smacks Pocket Lint back.
“No! Be nice or I will make you repent by spending a whole day with Ellison,” I threaten.
“Asmodeus Death,” he says, and he knows that deep tone gets to me. “Do not ignore the question. What is going on here?”
“I was having Nolan practice his ability to control others on me. It was my idea. I thought it’d be fun.”
“Why would that be fun?” Ellison asks.
“It’s nothing weird like how you were controlling an illusion while we had se—”
Ellison clamps a hand over my mouth before I can say more, but the look on Nolan’s face tells me he heard it all. Maybe he even got to see it reenacted in my mind because the imagery sure is dancing there.
“Fine. Continue your shenanigans. I have a few more things to deal with here and then I’ll be done,” he says as he heads out.
“Back at it, then,” I say to Nolan.
Nolan’s quiet for a moment before nodding toward the door. “He’s leaving the facility without you.”
“Of course he is,” I say. “Pocket Lint, assemble!”
Pocket Lint the Third, Esquire scoots into action, racing after me until I scoop her up and hurry out the door, only to narrowly dodge Valerie.
“Your siren screeches will not work on my ears, devil!” I shout as I smack an invoice to her forehead, tape and all, before I scurry on my way.
The only issue is Ellison must know a sneaky, sneaky way out of here because by the time I make it to the surface he’s long gone, and I’m forced to hijack some man’s car as he’s pulling into the parking lot.
He even gives me a little money for some reason… maybe for gas.