Chapter Twenty-Nine Darius
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Darius
All right, so the plans got a little muddled. Fuck came first since self-control was lost in the haze of Monika giving little precious pieces of her heart to me, but now that she’s healed, we’re about to be back on schedule.
Fuck, kill, marry, destroy. Easy.
I text the Wyvern. He’s good to go, as aware of the kill portion of my plan as I intend for him to be.
Mr. Singkham and the COE forces he was able to wrangle up, and the SDD forces he had to borrow to make up for the deficit in his staff, are also aware of .
. . some aspects of this plan. The parts that matter.
Then I text Vanessa. I had Vanessa organize a brunch with Monika—one Monika is nearly late to after our morning’s activities. Doesn’t matter. I have plenty of time, and this shouldn’t take long.
I sigh, relaxed. I’m driving. It’s an odd sensation.
I haven’t driven a car myself in a long time—since I first got my license.
A rather useless affair, considering I can fly.
But I don’t need to be spotted by the peons, so flying is out of the question today.
It’s 11:00 a.m. exactly. Everything is right on schedule.
I turn on the radio, curious to hear the news.
It’s all about me, of course, though the bright irony of it all is that for the first time in my life, I’m not trying to get press and don’t even care.
It’s liberating. I should have tried this whole don’t-give-a-fuck-and-quit thing a helluva long time ago.
I smile while the radio presenter drones on, roll down the window, and let the sun stroke my horns and freshly shaved hair.
“And still, it’s been two weeks and Taranis has yet to make a public statement beyond what he posted to social media.
Since his initial post declaring that he would be stepping down as a Champion, the only follow-up information we’ve learned is from COE president Mr. Singkham, that personal reasons have caused Taranis to consider taking some time off . . .”
Time off? Time off! Mr. Singkham. Tsk tsk tsk. If he doesn’t quit with his obfuscations, he might just have to rejoin the master plan lineup and die after the Marduk.
“So, is Taranis simply stepping down as a Champion, or is he joining the villains? Forty-Eight expert Maya Lin is on the line with her thoughts . . .”
I lift my phone, the one I haven’t used in weeks, the shitty little Nokia burner, and place a call to the only number in the Rolodex.
It rings and rings and rings before cutting off.
I wait with a small smile on my face. By the time I place my next left turn, he’s calling me back. Our typical arrangement.
“Interesting,” he says as soon as I pick up. “I didn’t expect to hear from you.”
“Well, here I am.”
“It would seem so.”
I can’t hear anything in the background. I wonder where he is, decide I don’t care, make my next turn. I’m almost there.
“Are you calling because you’ve suddenly decided to join my team after the Champions’ last tragic loss? I’m sure you heard about it. The Villains Network is offering competitive compensation packages.” His voice is sardonic and nasty and mean.
I grin. “I did hear about that, actually. I happen to be close friends with the COE photographer that was on-site.”
A slight pause before he answers. “I see.” I wonder if my tone is making him nervous yet. If it’s not, it soon will be.
“She takes lovely photos, doesn’t she? So many clear images of the surprising members of your team.” I whistle theatrically as I find a parking spot directly in front of the building I’m going to enter. What luck. “I’m surprised you let her go, considering the information she gathered.”
“It wasn’t for lack of trying,” he says with a sigh. “She is rather wily, your key.”
“And knowing she is my key, you still went after her, injuring her quite badly. Here I was, thinking we had an unlikely, if not rather amicable, alliance.” I shift my car into park and glance out the window.
I cut the power to the building, watch as people panic, surprised, and then slowly filter out until it’s empty.
Almost.
“Alliances shift, Taranis. You should know that better than most. And your girl has an unfortunate amount of information on my friends. I’m not going to be able to let that go. In fact, if you weren’t hovering over her like a shadow, I might have had to do something about her already.”
“And that’s exactly what I’ve called to talk to you about.” I open the door to my car, cross the sidewalk, and head into my favorite coffee shop in all of Sundale. “You see, I can’t have that.”
“I’m not sure you have anything to bargain with, seeing as you already gave me my weapon and you no longer work for the Champions,” he grunts. “You’re reverted and still just as useless to me as the Wyvern, in an entirely different way.”
“You’re right: I am quite different than the Wyvern. He looks so good these days in a cape.” The bell dings as I step inside the space.
“Cape’s no better than a collar, if you ask me.”
“On this, I happen to agree.”
I smile as the owner of the shop comes rushing through the doors that lead to the back. She’s holding some electrical cables in her hands but drops them when she looks up and sees me, trips over the bundle, and goes down between two tables in a tangled web of cables and long, willowy brown limbs.
I walk over to her as she looks up. She’s going to speak, but I lift a finger to my lips, successfully quieting her.
I drop into a crouch, sitting on my heels.
I note that she is rather pretty. Large lips, dark pink around the edges, lighter pink in the middle.
Clear dark-brown skin. Goddess braids that go down to her mid-back, even in a ponytail.
She smells like honeydew melon, even beneath the coffee-ground scent that clings to her.
“So, did you call to discuss new VNA uniforms, or was there something else you’d rather tell me?”
“Yes, let me get to the point. The point is that I actually think I do have something of interest to you, outside of weaponry, intel, and excellent taste in uniforms.” I hand the phone over. Out loud, to the woman, I tell her, “Say hello.”
Her manicured eyebrows pull together over a nose that gently slopes from a shallow brow. “Hello?” she says. Her voice is slightly accented. Very pretty. Even the gap between her front teeth is cute. This is going to be fun, I think with no small amount of pleasure, but a great one.
And any doubts I may have had that this was the right plan, or even a moderately good one, are erased by the Marduk’s response. For the first time since I’ve known him, he doesn’t have one.
“What’s going on?” she says to me, handing the phone back.
“Why don’t you put it on speakerphone, darling?”
Confused as ever, and so naive and trusting, she does as I ask.
“Now, you see, my friend, if you don’t give me your word—a word that I believe—that Monika will be left alone for the rest of her human life by you, the villains, and any and all of your minions, I will be left with no choice but to take matters into my own hands and repay the kindness you showed my woman to yours, with even greater kindness. ” I smile to show all my fangs.
The woman is nervous, but still doesn’t seem to realize the danger she’s in. She just stares up at me, wide eyed, even as I send the lightest electrical current tittering over her skin, causing goose bumps to rise on her arms beneath her stained yellow apron and white T-shirt.
The Marduk chuckles. It’s forced. “The Habesha Café owner isn’t my woman. The fact that you’d think that shows you’re a fool. And besides, you think your girl would like it if you did something villainous to another human woman?”
“Oh, my dear old friend, you underestimate Monika—at least, you haven’t seen her response to the power of my new magical blue dick.”
I grin at the woman and waste no time in sending a surge of electricity straight through her bones, electrocuting her from the inside. A few volts higher would incapacitate her entirely. Her whole body spasms, nearly jolting off the tiled floor in a position that’s utterly grotesque and inhuman.
Her mouth is closed and I frown. I release her. “Perhaps that was too much. You couldn’t hear her scream properly. What if I isolate the electrical burns to her feet? That will make it harder for her to run from me should she get that idea.”
I strike her legs with electricity and this time achieve my desired effect. She folds in on herself, reaching for her sneakers, and releases a bloodcurdling shriek that makes even the hairs on my neck rise up. The smell of burning fabric and skin reaches my nose.
I pause while she labors to catch her breath. In the desperate silence, I muse, “My powers are so much more sensational now that I’ve reverted.” I comb my fingers across the top of the woman’s hair. “I guess I have the Elders to thank for that.”
The coffee shop girl screams as I pass that lightning through her stomach, chest, and back. I bend her legs, twist her bones, and when I’m done I grab her by the back of the throat, stand, and begin dragging her limp body behind me out of the building to my car.
The Marduk’s breathing has become labored. He isn’t speaking, so I press, “Have I made my point, or would you like to hear more?”
“No, please! Please!” she screams from the floor of the back seat after I toss her in. She tries to rise, but I give her a little zap between her temples to keep her grounded. She releases a pained moan.
Through the sound of her sobs and shrieks, I hear a voice, as loud as it can be, shout through the rinky-dink little phone, “Enough!”
I cut off the flood of pain I’m causing this innocent, rather pleasant young woman. Well, I cut it off after I give her one final zap. “Auck!” She’s crying now, tears streaming down her cheeks as she cradles her head between her arms and spasms on the floor.
“You’ve made your point,” the Marduk says, voice gravelly as he struggles to regulate his breath.