Chapter 33 #3
This was wrong. Heroes did not treat civilians like this. The Alliance Handbook had entire chapters dedicated to the strict guidelines regarding the use of force against non-powered individuals.
The pressure of his forearm dialed up, and black spots danced in my peripheral vision. He was going to crush my throat.
If I stayed a nameless Villain’s toy, I was going to die in this alley. My anonymity was supposed to be a shield, but right now, my actual identity was the only leverage I had left to stop him from snapping my neck.
I forced my hands up, fighting past the desperate instinct to claw at his restricting arm.
“It’s me,” I choked out. My fingers found the release points of the mask and I pulled it away. The chromatic filter deactivated and exposed my blue eyes.
Valor’s forearm froze against my throat. The cold, emptiness in his eyes fractured into shock. He dropped his arm, stumbling back a half-step.
“Annie?”
I sagged against the brick, dragging oxygen into my burning lungs.
“Yes, it’s me,” I gasped. “You need to let me go. You’re breaking at least three Alliance rules right now. Excessive force against a non-powered individual, failure to identify yourself before engagement, and—“
“Shut the fuck up,” he shouted, his face twisting with fury.
I blinked in shock. “I was just—”
“Just what?” Valor slammed me back against the brick wall again and I cried out as it scraped against my bare back. “Sneaking around with a Villain while you’re supposed to be my fiancée? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me?”
“Valor, that was an assignment. It’s ending. We were never actually...”
“You think that matters?” His fingers dug painfully into my shoulders. “The entire Alliance is watching me. The Aegis is watching me. The fucking Council is watching me,” he hissed and shook me hard again. “And you’re going to make me look like a fucking fool.”
The venom in his voice made me flinch almost as much as hearing him mention the Council. Why would they be watching him?
“My ratings dropped three points after you left that fucking party,” he spat.
A strobe of magenta light from the club above illuminated the vicious sneer on his lips.
“Three points because the perfect Hero’s perfect fiancée can’t even pretend to be committed.
Do you know what that does to my trajectory? My position?”
My cheeks burned. “I played the part I was ordered to play.”
“Bullshit.” He slammed his fist into the wall beside my head. The impact shattered a neon tube, raining blue sparks and glass down on me. “You couldn’t even fake it convincingly. You made every public appearance look forced. Every photo op looked like I was dragging you there against your will.”
I tried to push against his chest. “Valor, we were an assignment. It was never real between us.”
“And that makes it better?” His laugh was hollow and completely unhinged. “The perfect little Keeper. So professional. So by-the-book. You couldn’t even do your job right.”
“Valor, please.”
“Everyone is going to see you for what you really are.” He leaned in, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “A liability who can’t follow simple instructions. Who jeopardizes Alliance operations because she’s too busy fucking the enemy.”
Valor’s grip tightened around my arm and he yanked me roughly against him.
“Let’s go. I’m taking you back to the Tower.”
I struggled against his grip. “You’re violating Alliance code—“ I tried to plant my heels, but he jerked me hard enough to make me stumble.
Before he could drag me any further, the ground shook. Someone landed in the alleyway with enough force to crater the concrete and short out the holographic waypoint marker beside us. Valor spun us around.
Cipher straightened to his full height. He stood rigid, every line of his body coiled with cold, murderous fury.
“Well, well,” Valor sneered, his voice dripping with venom. “The boyfriend arrives. Tell me, does she call you ‘sir’ when she’s on her knees for you?”
“Only if she wants to,” Cipher replied. His hands flexed at his sides, though his body remained perfectly still.
“She’s made a mockery of everything I’ve worked for,” Valor said, his breath hot against my ear. “I doubt Havoc knows his precious Keeper has been sabotaging Alliance operations by fucking the enemy.”
“You’re breaking at least five codes right now,” I said through gritted teeth. “Excessive force. Verbal abuse of a Keeper. False imprisonment.”
The rules were my safety net. I recited them like a prayer, realizing exactly how useless they were against a Super who had lost his mind.
“Shut up.” Valor squeezed my arm and gave me a violent shake.
There was a sickening pop and fire shot through my shoulder joint. I screamed.
“Get your fucking hands off of her. Now.” Cipher took a step forward.
Valor laughed but the sound carried no humor. He pulled me tighter against him, positioning my body as a human shield. “No. Annie is going to answer for being a two-faced, cock-sucking whore and trying to destroying my reputation.”
I felt the shift in Cipher’s energy a split second before it happened. His stance changed imperceptibly. The air around us filled with a high-pitched whine.
Dozens of tiny drones swarmed from his suit. They moved fast, targeting Valor’s exposed skin and eyes.
Valor cursed and released me to swat at the mechanical swarm and the moment his grip loosened, Cipher’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Run.”
I broke away, sprinting toward the twisting corridors of the Maze. Behind me, I heard Valor’s enraged shout as Cipher engaged him directly. The sound of energy blasts and impacts echoed through the narrow alley as I ran.
I made it perhaps fifty yards before a golden streak flashed overhead again and Valor snatched me around the waist. The ground fell away as he shot upward, carrying me into the night sky.
“Stop.” I struggled against his grip. We were already thirty feet up and climbing rapidly into the fog rolling across Chroma Bay.
“Shut up,” he snarled.
Below us, I saw Cipher launch into the air in pursuit.
“You fucking coward.” Cipher’s voice carried through the night air, raw with fury. “Face me instead of using her as a goddamn shield.”
Valor’s arm tightened around my waist as we climbed higher. Fifty feet. Seventy. A hundred. The glowing city spread out beneath us, beautiful and terrifying.
“Come any closer,” Valor called back, “and I’ll drop your whore. Let’s see if she bounces.”
I stopped struggling immediately. I was acutely aware of the fatal distance between me and the ground.
Cipher slowed his pursuit and hovered perhaps twenty feet away from us.
We were at an impasse. Valor couldn’t escape with me without Cipher following. Cipher couldn’t attack without risking my life.
I dangled above the city, my life resting in the hands of a man I had never truly respected, a man I never imagined could be this unhinged.
“I’m taking her back to the Tower,” Valor yelled over the wind. “Havoc needs to see the trash he’s been harboring.”
“You aren’t taking her anywhere.”
I looked between them. Valor was unstable and unpredictable. If Cipher pushed him too far, I was going to die.
“It’s okay,” I called to Cipher. I forced my voice to stay steady. “I can go back to the Tower.”
Valor’s laugh sent chills down my spine with how dark and ugly it sounded.
“If you think you’ll be okay when we get back to the Tower, you’d better think again,” he hissed near my ear. “Havoc is going to see exactly what kind of bitch you are.” He glared across the gap at Cipher. “Follow us, and she falls. Understood?”
The silence stretched between them. I could see the calculations running behind Cipher’s mask, the desperate search for options.
Finally, he nodded once. “I understand.”
My heart sank as Valor turned, accelerating toward the Tower in the distance. I watched helplessly as the darkness and fog swallowed Cipher up while Valor sped away.