Chapter 31
KAYE
Down, down we go, far away from the lights and frivolity of the revelers upstairs. Into the dark corners of the house, with only the dank smell of mildew and chill to accompany us.
I hear a door close behind us, my other senses heightened by the true blackness that entombs us in.
My eyes fight to adjust, but without light to leak through cracks and windows, it’s a pointless endeavor.
All I see are the shapes of shadows I can’t trust. It’s much more likely that the rods and cones in my eyes are firing due to the lack of stimulation.
Through it all, Black Monarch’s grip remains steady on my side, guiding me forward. Toward Zane. And C.
She abruptly releases me. I turn, common sense and training insisting that I keep the most-immediate threat in view at all times.
“Stay where you are.” Her voice echoes from the left, uncomfortably close, though that’s probably a trick being played by the dark and acoustics.
The light padding of her footsteps on stone reverberates through the space, swiftly followed by a sharp grinding intense enough to create a humming squeak. I cringe against the pitch ringing in my ears, but it fades within a few seconds along with the movement.
Like a ghost in the night, Black Monarch’s at my side again. I startle just a little at the sudden proximity. “Take my hand. We wouldn’t want you getting hurt running around all alone in the dark, would we?”
A fingernail brushes a tantalizing trail up the center of my palm. I jerk backward, only to feel the firm band of her forearm wrap around my neck and shoulders once more. I try, and fail, to push her off, her laughter ringing all the while.
“So feisty,” she snarks. “But you’re not going anywhere without a pair of these.”
Her fingers wrap around my wrist, dragging my hand to find something thick and metallic covering the space where her eyes should be.
“Thanks.” I yank down on the device as hard as I can, then let it go. It slaps hard against her nose from the sound the crack makes.
“Son of a bitch!”
I bolt into the dark and careen almost immediately into a wall.
I stifle my pained moan as much as I can and keep moving.
Hand over hand, I trace my path to an opening.
For all I know, my next step could send me tumbling down a black pit, never to be seen again.
Black Monarch won’t be down for long, and she’ll be out for blood.
I’m fucked if I don’t get some distance between me and those night vision goggles.
“Where did you run off to, pet?” Her voice echoes off the walls. She could be in the next room still, or right next to me and it would still sound the same.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Why are you hiding? Let’s see if those pretty powers live up to all the hype.”
I keep following the wall until it turns again, praying that I’m not traveling in a circle, back into her waiting clutches.
“You can access your powers, can’t you, Checkmate? Or did Charade strip you of that particular talent too?”
“Fuck you,” I spit back despite my better judgment.
Of all the things Angelis told me, the fact that I am a Super is perhaps the most unbelievable. Like something that could only happen in books or movies. Not my real life.
It would help if I could actually access these supposed powers. Using them should be as natural to me as breathing, but… sometimes I think I can feel the threads of something there, just out of reach.
She laughs. “Hit a nerve, did I? Charade really messed up. Come with me, pet. C will get you all fixed up, and then you and I can fix everything else. Together.”
Shit. That last word sounded like it came from somewhere to my left, definitely too close for comfort. Those night vision goggles will spot me as soon as she walks in the room.
Okay, don’t panic. They said my powers are energy based, and that I need a reserve to draw from.
As far as I can tell, I won’t get any help in that department down here, so that leaves Black Monarch and me.
Her goggles have to have a power source.
If I can get my hands on them, I can try to draw it out and then…
What? Blast her with light? Then I’d still be stuck down here in the darkness with no idea where I’m going.
I may not be the Checkmate that everyone expects me to be, but she’s somewhere inside me. And she’s pissed. My chest heats with the warmth of it. Passion and anger. It doesn’t matter that I’m wandering around in the dank and the cold. Not when I carry a blaze of fire in my soul.
Slowly, a dull glow alights. I raise my fists to find small flames licking up the surface of my skin. Fuck.
I really am Checkmate.
“There you are.”
My eyes dart up just in time to see her charge at me from the shadows. My hands flare with light as the flames grow without bidding, and I brace myself.
She hits like a linebacker, her bodyweight an anvil aimed at my torso.
I stumble as her mass rockets shoulder-first into my stomach.
I gasp as my breath is knocked out of me.
I plant my hands on her back. Maybe a minor burn will shock her into letting go.
Just as I choke for air, so do the flames on my hands.
We tumble to the floor, darkness complete once again.
I move to roll away, but her thighs cage in my hips, planting like roots into the ground.
I flail blindly, desperate to knock her aside.
Run. Run. Run. The only thought there’s room for within my brain.
Adrenaline and panic lance through my veins as I feel the cold grasp of her fingers locking into place around my neck.
“Shh,” she croons. “It’s done. Don’t make me do something I’ll regret. The only people who get to see my power don’t live to tell the tale. And C wouldn’t like that one bit.”
But it’s not in my nature to surrender so easily. I might be cut off from the fire within, but there’s a new source pulsing against my skin.
Flames burn behind us in the night. Cool night air waits just on the other side of a gate. If only we could reach it.
…You’re a monster…
I close my eyes. Calm. Focus. The thread of her energy drums in the fingers at my throat. I pull it. Hard.
Her shoulders slump. Her grip on my neck relaxes. It dislodges the connection, but it’s too late. I have what I need now.
“You think you’re so clever.” Her voice comes out muffled, slow. Like she’s chewing taffy. “Weaken me all you want. I can kill you with one thought, Checkmate.”
“That’s your power?” My throat is scratchy from abuse.
It doesn’t matter. All I need is a distraction as I pull the stolen energy together, balling in at my core.
In my mind I see it, flaring like the sun.
My nostrils fill with the scent of it—sweet and slightly burned, like toasted coconut.
Can she smell it? Does she feel my torso heating under her?
“Mmm hmm.”
“Through touch?”
I hear a noise like brushing and guess that she’s shaking her head, forgetting or not caring that I can’t see. “I just need to establish a connection. Would you—would you say we’re connected, Checkmate? Do you want to find out?”
My body alights as I release the energy. For one second, I glow with the fusion happening within my body. It detonates as it leaves the confines of my body, singeing the pores it passes through.
It burns! Oh god—it BURNS!
My limbs shake with shock as I try to brush the invisible embers incinerating my cells away. But there’s nothing to brush away. Nothing to stop this impossible searing pain.
We are thrown apart with the force of the explosion.
My head smashes into the floor as I land.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I know I need to stay awake, that I probably have a concussion.
But every inch of my skin feels like it’s peeling from the inside out, and there’s something wet slicking down the back of my neck.
It hurts too much to try to move.
Brown and gray spots dance in my vision, and I let them. Chase them until they fill everything inside. Until everything else is blocked out.
Until I simply stop…
…being.
I would have expected better of you, Reina. Were my orders unclear when I told you to bring her to me unharmed?
No, sir. She attacked me.
Then how did she come out so much worse for wear?
I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.
Damn right it won’t. You’re dismissed.
The scent of antiseptic burns my nostrils. And something faintly metallic. The cool surface below me is soothing against my scorched body.
A wave of fatigue crashes through my thoughts, and then nothing else matters, but the black water rising up to claim me again. If only those voices would shut up so I could sleep.
What about the girl?
Have a little soft spot, do you? Don’t worry. She’ll be better than ever after a dose of my latest concoction.
Is that safe?
Are you volunteering to test it?
No. I just—it won’t hurt her, will it?
Awe. I didn’t know you were such a Checkmate fangirl or I would have sent you to get her in the first place.
I’m serious, C.
Too serious. Don’t worry, little Kitty’s in good hands. Besides, it’s well-past time for the real Checkmate to rejoin the world.
A spark, then—
—PAIN.
Like a wasp’s sting lancing through the left side of my neck. Burning. I’m BURNING.