King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (11 page)

When class let out, Jeff bolted to
her side.

“You’ve got to undo this.”

“Oh, come on,” she said, “aren’t
you enjoying it?”

A full blast of her voice
stimulated intense images and need. Jeff stifled his misery.

“Come on, you heard the teacher,
we aren’t supposed to use our abilities on fellow students.” Jeff gnashed his
teeth.

“Okay, hold still.” The Amazon
clasped either side of Jeff’s face. “Truth
be
told, I
really didn’t mean to suave you like that. You seem especially susceptible.”

“Tell me about it,” Jeff grumbled.

She rubbed his temples with her
thumbs and blew into his face. Jeff closed his eyes reflexively. Her breath
smelled like exotic spices and fine wine. The pleasing aroma stoked Jeff’s
trademark smile and when he opened his eyes again it was the Amazon that
appeared transfixed.

“I’m Mystic. And you’re very good
looking.”

Jeff snorted. “Not shy either, are
you? They call me Polar,” he stated. “Hey, I’m not
jonesin
’
on you anymore.”

Mystic stood tall and took measure
of Jeff’s considerable height. She was only a couple inches shorter than him.
“Unfortunate for me.”

“I’d better run. I don’t have the
excuse of being the new student to explain walking in late to class.”

Jeff darted down the hallway.
Mystic had left him feeling unsettled. Most likely due to knowing every
physical attribute she offered before knowing her name. Yet it felt like
something else was off. Pyro was right, Tubs needed to keep his eye on that
one.

Chapter 15

Jeff huffed in frustration when he
found Mystic sitting with Source at lunch. Source drooled into his peas while
Mystic lamented over her homeland.

When her eyes met Jeff’s, he
blushed and she winked.

“I’m never
gonna
forget, am I?” Jeff asked, sitting on the far side of Source so as not to be
too near Mystic.

“I hope not.” Her laugh sounded
like velvet-covered diamonds in a rock tumbler; low and rumbling, smooth, soft
and sparkling and bright all at once.

“You guys know each other
already?” Source appeared seriously annoyed.

Jeff thought about reminding him
that just yesterday he was head over heels for Sandra, but preferred to move on
from that weird situation.

“Mystic is in my math class. She’s
a psychic,” Jeff said.

“Oh, sorry, man.” Source patted
Jeff on the back.

“You know, Polar,” Mystic said, “I
could help you with that defense of yours.”

“You could?” he asked.

She shrugged and nodded.

Jeff gnawed on the inside of his
cheek. Should he trust her? Every instinct he had screamed no, but he really
needed help. “I don’t know. If Source hasn’t helped me, I don’t know how you
can.”

“I can make you believe.” Mystic’s
eyes sparked with mischief.

Jeff groaned. “Mystic, I can’t
handle more of you. No offense.”

Mystic
mock-pouted.
“You know how many men would kill to experience what you
experienced?”

“What did you experience?” Source
asked.

Jeff ignored him. “Not that you
aren’t an amazing creature, but I don’t know.” He shrugged then flashed his
trademark grin. “Maybe I need love.”

“She’s amazing? How is she
amazing?” Source leaned forward into Jeff’s line of vision.

Mystic ignored Source.

“You are the only man not to
follow me around panting afterward.”

“After what?”
Source cried.

Jeff glanced at Source. “It was
kinda
like mind sex.” He looked at Mystic. “Do you do that
often?”

“Mind sex? What’s that?” Source
looked from Mystic to Jeff and back. “Where does it come from?”

Mystic chortled at Jeff. “No, I
don’t. But still, of the few times I’ve used it, you are definitely the least impressed.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong.” Jeff
appraised Mystic. His eyes hovered on her long regal throat, so easy to kiss if
the implanted memory served him right. “I’m thoroughly impressed.
Just not necessarily interested.”

Mystic blushed. Jeff flushed.

“What’s going on?” Source yelled.

Jeff gave a brief description of
what had happened—with
Mystic
butting in to point out
the unintentional aspect and that she undid it as soon as possible.

Source got a dreamy expression on
his face while he listened. Jeff rolled his eyes and stuffed half his piece of
pizza into his mouth.

“
Wiwl
woo
hewp
me
towight
?” he
asked Mystic.

She raised an eyebrow.

Jeff finished chewing and
swallowed. “Will you help me tonight?”

“Sure.” She shrugged. “Not like my
social calendar is booked up or anything.”

Source giggled like a
twelve-year-old schoolgirl.

“Dude, get a hold of yourself.”
Eyeing Source’s goofy grin, Jeff’s stomach roiled. Had he made as big of a fool
of himself in math class?

* * * *

Jeff and Source met Mystic in the
gymnasium after dinner.

“No funny business,” Jeff warned
her.

“I won’t. Now that I know you are
an open book, I’ll be more careful.”

Jeff scowled. “So, what exactly
are you going to do?”

“Basically, I’m going to implant
the knowledge of how it works and then I’m going to make you believe it.” She
shrugged. “I guess.”

She reached for his head, but then
froze and stared intently at him. “But,
Polar
,
whatever I do can’t be undone.”

Jeff gnawed on the inside of his
cheek. “Will you make a mistake?”

“No.”

“Will you do something you
shouldn’t?”

“No.”

“Well, then okay, I guess.”

At last Mystic grabbed each side
of Jeff’s head and tilted it slightly downward so that he stared directly at
her.

“I’m going to tell you a story,”
Mystic said.

Jeff knit his brow together, but
didn’t say anything. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Source step closer to
them.

“I’m from Northern Italy. I was
born right in the bed I was conceived in. My mother was in labor…”

Mystic’s plush voice faded into
the background. Jeff could see her mouth moving, but the words he now heard
didn’t mesh with the movements her lips made. This new voice was crisper and
more direct.
No longer the slow slide of rum warming his
insides, but instead like a shot of whiskey.
Sharp,
quick and burning.

“A defense doesn’t stem from one
place. A defense is a tightly woven net that surrounds your psyche. The weave
is so tight as to be almost solid, yet it is interwoven for extra support.
There is no beginning and no end. Weave the defense now. Imagine a string of
titanium knitting together, building longer and taller.
Fitting
into the crevices just outside your skull.
Imagine it extending down and
around your jaw line, over your cheekbones and nose. Let the miniscule knit go
until you are completely protected from outside interference.”

“…lost my mental
virginity when I was just eleven.”

Jeff blinked at the change of
voice. The mix of whiskey and rum tones was enough to make him gag.

“Now I have to make you believe
it,” Mystic said.

“Based on this morning, it should
be a piece of cake,” Jeff said.

Mystic pursed her lips. “We’ll
see.”

After the initial adjustment of
his head, she hadn’t touched him during the conversation. Now she reached up
and rested her palm alongside his jaw. Her fingers pressed lightly against his
pulse. She stared into his eyes. Then she grabbed his waist with her free hand
and yanked him toward her. The startle effect made his eyes pop wider and he
felt their connection deepen.

“There we go.” The sharp burning
voice spoke directly to his mind. Outwardly Mystic only smiled. “Now, you’re listening.
Polar, you now have
a complete
defense ability. You
will be able to develop it further through training, but you will be equal to,
maybe even slightly ahead of, those at your training level.

“But there is another thing.
You’ve got another ability that you haven’t even discovered yet that I want to
keep hidden from you for a while longer. This isn’t really fair of me to do,
but if you discover it too soon, it’ll ruin everything.”

Jeff’s mind grew fuzzy as she
spoke. He couldn’t make sense of what she told him. His vision fogged over; it
sounded like someone had slapped earmuffs over his ears. The feeling of air
around him faded and disappeared as if he floated in a vacuum. He lost track of
time and place. But then his extremities tingled as if defrosting. Mystic’s
fuzzy features loomed in front of him.

He rubbed his eyes and blinked,
trying to bring the world into focus. Crystal earrings, in the shape of Mickey
Mouse’s head, glinted and sparked on her ears. They shook as she tilted her
head back to laugh. He could see, but he couldn’t hear. He grabbed her arms and
shook her.

“I can’t hear.” His throat
strained with the effort of yelling even though Jeff couldn’t hear his own
voice.

Mystic’s brow knit in
consternation and then her mouth moved, but Jeff couldn’t tell what she said.

“What did you do to me?” Jeff
said. Other S.V.’s turned toward him.

Mystic pressed her fingers to
Jeff’s lips and her mouth puckered to form
a shush
. He
understood that and shut up. Mystic held up a finger to indicate it would be
another moment. Jeff glowered at her while he waited. The fast tattoo of his
tapping foot annoyed him, interrupting his concentration. Then he realized he’d
heard it.

“What exactly did you do to him?”
Source asked Mystic.

“It’s like restarting a computer
after loading a new program. He’s coming back now,” she said.

“Everything okay here?” Oceanus
scowled up at Mystic. Arms crossed, flint sparking from her turquoise eyes, Oceanus
looked twice as big as her petite stature actually measured up to. Yet, Mystic
still towered over her.

With a smirk, Mystic said, “Polar,
call off your watchdog.”

Jeff shook his head, thinking
maybe he was still in some sort of strange Mystic suave. Oceanus wouldn’t come
to his defense otherwise. Maybe Mystic was able to see the intense crush he had
on Oceanus when she was in his head and she was taunting him with this bizarre
scene. Fine, he’d play along. Maybe he’d get some mind sex with Oceanus out of
it.

“She’s not a dog, Mystic.”

Oceanus bounced up onto her
tiptoes and raised her eyebrows at Mystic.

Then she nodded in Mystic’s
direction and asked Jeff, “Who’s the tree trunk?”

Jeff snorted then froze. He
reached out and poked Oceanus.

She jumped and squealed. “What was
that?”

“I just…I thought…”

Both girls waited for his
explanation. Oceanus looked annoyed;
Mystic
looked
amused.

Jeff ran his fingers through his
hair. If this really was happening and not some Mystic voodoo, then why had Oceanus
come over?

“What makes you think things might
be wrong?” Jeff asked.

“Well, your shouting was a slight
indication,” Oceanus said.

“What shouting?” Jeff looked at
Mystic accusingly.

She rolled her eyes at him.
“When you were bellowing about not being able to hear.”

“Oh. I was yelling?”

The girls nodded in unison.

“Um, I’m better now,” Jeff said to
Oceanus. He kicked at a non-existent mound of dirt. “Thanks.”

Oceanus laughed; a clear chiming
sound that made Jeff think of fairies.
“You and your
manners.”

Source who had been quiet and
thoughtful during the entire episode stepped up next to Mystic. “What exactly
did you do in
Polar’s
head? I don’t understand why
you were telling him a story about your childhood. What are you tapping into?”

“Whoa! Slow down, little
buckaroo.” Mystic laughed.
“One question at a time.”

She walked over to the stage and
plopped onto it. Her long legs dangled toward the floor, and her feet banged
against the plywood side.

Source had to jump up to sit next
to her. He yammered the whole time, asking about her technique and the core of
her abilities.

“So, you didn’t answer,” Oceanus
said to Jeff, though she watched Mystic. “Who is she?”

Jeff shook his head and ran his
hand through his hair. “She’s a psycho. She’s amazing. She scares the shit out
of me.”

Oceanus’ lips parted as though she
were going to speak, but her brow knit and she closed her mouth again.

Staring at her lips, Jeff wondered
if her breath smelled like cherries or tasted like red
hots
.
Certainly if it came through those lips it had to be sweet or spicy.

“Hello?”

Jeff blinked. “What?”

Oceanus chuckled and rolled her
eyes. “I asked where she’s from.”

“Oh.
Um…Italy
somewhere.
But I’m not sure where.”

“What is she doing here?”

“I don’t know.”

Oceanus’ mouth hung open. “You
mean you let her mess with your head and you don’t know anything about her?
What were you thinking? She could have done anything in there. Were you just
blinded by her mile long legs or something?”

“Well, when you put it that way.
But I feel like I know her
real
well.” Jeff gave Oceanus a censored,
short version of how they’d met.

“Polar, that doesn’t mean you know
her. She could have shown you anything she wanted and made you believe whatever
she wanted you to believe about her. What did she just do to you?”