Heels and Heroes (5 page)

The door slipped from her grip and shut firmly behind her.

The super villain didn’t spring from the shadows, didn’t appear so fast her eyes couldn’t follow him, didn’t teleport from parts unknown. He opened the backdoor and walked into view. Though his entrance struck her as anticlimactic, her breath came faster and her heart threatened to beat itself from her chest.

Howler stood around five feet seven inches tall, and had gone old school with his outfit. Tan and brown spandex covered his body from head to toe, and for a moment images of Violet flashed in her mind. The cut of his uniform was similar, spandex from neck to calf in a light tan color, with darker brown boots, briefs, and gloves. A mask hid his head and the top of his round face. An image of what appeared to be a wolf head was emblazoned in the middle of his chest, mouth open and looking almost straight up. It was howling.
Funny
.

His body was as ill-suited to wearing spandex as Violet’s, but for a different reason. Where hers was a touch too round, Howler was more than a touch too scrawny. No one would mistake him for a villain with super strength. Oh there were a few of those who didn’t appear strong, but she’d never heard of one who looked weak. And that was exactly how Howler looked: weak.

“Let me guess? Shadow Woman? Dark Mistress?” he said, lip curling up in obvious disdain.

She glanced down at her outfit. Dark Mistress indeed. “I have your money.”

“Do you now? Well, let’s see it.”

She froze. See it? What if they’d put newspaper in the briefcase? One thing was guaranteed; the briefcase didn’t contain cash. The lump refused to move from her throat as she swallowed hard. Distract him, Justice had said, keep him busy.

“Not so fast.” Her voice came out steadier than she’d thought it would be, smooth and normal, as if she wasn’t facing down a super villain. “You need to show me the mayor first, so I can make sure he’s okay.”

“Oh, I think I’d like to see the money first, honey.”

Her reaction came just half a second too slow. She watched him fill his lungs with air, taking it in until his chest expanded to fill his ill-fitting suit. Her mind processed the scene in slow motion, and as realization hit that something was wrong, he screamed.

Too late, she touched the part of her mind that switched on her power with her consciousness. The sonic wave hit, and she fell to the floor.

Everything went black for what must have only been a few seconds, because when her eyes fluttered open she saw him moving toward her—what she could see of him from her vantage point on the floor anyway. Tan legs and dark boots moved to her, and she could hear them scuff the floor as he moved. She grasped at her power with her mind, but it slipped away, out of her reach. The boots paused when they got only a couple of feet away.

Where was Justice? Where were the other superheroes? She hoped they were getting the mayor and the shopkeepers out.

“Still awake?” Surprise coated the villain’s voice, and he knelt down and peered at her face.

She stared back at him, and tried to keep her expression neutral.

A great laugh boomed from Howler’s chest, seeming too loud to have come from such a slight person. “Oh, it’s like that, is it? Don’t worry, I know how you superheroes feel about me.” He reached out and poked her shoulder, and she lost the battle to keep her face blank.

Whatever crossed her face, it made Howler’s grin widen. “Barely awake though, huh? Guess my shot wasn’t as direct as I thought. Unless….” A full smile broke out on his face, revealing slightly stained, but straight, teeth. “You must be her. Silencer.”

His voice took on the booming quality of an announcer. “The one with the power to defeat the Howler.” He laughed again and grabbed the briefcase, which had fallen next to her, and then pushed himself up from the ground awkwardly.

“Sorry, hon, guess you weren’t a match for me after all.” Using his foot, he pushed her over onto her back. Her body wouldn’t obey her, and moved as easily as if she’d been unconscious. “Nice rack, though. You can call me anytime.” With one last snicker at his own joke, Howler strode toward the back room.

She couldn’t move for minutes after, and the ruckus happening just out of her eyesight made her want to move more than anything. Shouts from several people could be heard through the wall that separated her from the action. She shoved herself up from the floor, halfway into sitting position. Glass shattered somewhere out of sight, and she collapsed back onto the floor. Then, just before silence fell, Howler screamed.

***

“I’ll walk you up,” Justice said, and then before she could argue, he was out of the car.

Damn man anyway, he moved like he had super speed. The weight of what had happened suffocated her. She’d failed. There had been one thing she was supposed to do—use her useless power—and she hadn’t. Not fast enough anyway.

She followed Justice woodenly toward her building door. When he held it open for her, she glanced at him but didn’t comment. Her head hurt and her ears still felt stuffed with cotton. She imagined Justice felt even worse, but he didn’t show it if he did.

They reached her apartment and she opened her mouth to thank him and tell him good-bye, but he pushed past her into the apartment.

“Please, come in,” she said sarcastically.

“Don’t mind if I do.” His voice was too loud, but short of a yell that would bother the neighbors. She’d be spared that humiliation, at least.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Her inner hostess kicked in, and despite her intention to get him out of the apartment as quickly as possible, she ended up sitting across from him at her small kitchen table. A turkey sandwich sat in front of both of them, along with a glass of orange juice by her plate and a soda next to his.

“You did good tonight.” His voice had come down a decibel or two, and she was relieved as the cotton slowly faded from her ears, but her head still beat like a drum on her shoulders.

“I didn’t do what I was supposed to. I wasn’t fast enough to get my power up in time to stop him from taking me out.”

“You distracted him, Brenda. That was your job. You kept him busy while we got the mayor and the shop owners out. No one was killed. No one was seriously hurt. That’s a win.” He took a big bite out of his sandwich and studied her.

She glanced away, suddenly uncomfortable. She didn’t do much of anything, not really. Certainly nothing worthy of getting congratulations from the real superhero sitting across the table from her. But all’s well that ends well, right? Everyone was okay.

For the moment.

“We didn’t get Howler.”

Justice swallowed his mouthful of sandwich and took a drink from his soda before answering her. “Not yet. But we will.”

“But I’m not a secret weapon anymore.” A thought popped in her head, and she spoke without thinking. “If I ever was.”

“What do you mean?” Justice took another bite and, to her amazement, Brenda realized that more than half of his sandwich had disappeared. The man ate as quickly as her brother had in high school.

“He asked if I was ‘her,’ if I was Silencer.” She scooted her chair back from the table and walked to the counter. “He knew who I was, Justice. He was expecting me. How is that possible? It’s not like our members and their abilities are public knowledge, and I’ve never made the news.” She grabbed a knife from the wooden stand on the counter and walked back to the table. The knife easily cut through her sandwich and she offered Justice half.

He took the food with a grateful smile, but his frown returned quickly. “I don’t know how he could have found out about you. Unless…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to start making guesses yet, not until I’ve looked into it.” Two bites later, the sandwich half she’d given him was gone.

“Let me know if I can help. With whatever you’re looking into, I mean.” She shifted in her seat. Should she ask him why he’d kissed her? The timing seemed so inappropriate and the question so inane. No, it didn’t matter how much she wanted to know. She couldn’t talk about it. Not right now.

“I will,” he said, and then pushed back from the table and stood. “I’ll be in touch. In the meantime, try to keep a low profile.” He bent to kiss her cheek before she realized his intent. Hand on her shoulder, his lips were hot against her skin. “Stay out of trouble,” he whispered into her ear.

Before she could think of a suitable reply, he was gone.

***

The scratching woke her, like nails on a chalkboard. The sound grated at her and drew her from a troubled sleep. Confused, she rolled around on the bed to glance at her alarm clock. It read three o’clock, but outside it was still dark, as dark as it ever was in the city, anyway. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, mind still muddled. What was that? It was the middle of the night.

Light from the streetlamps shone through the curtains, seeming bright to her well-adjusted eyes. But the light was wrong somehow. As she stared at it she saw the shadow; it stretched across her room from the sliding glass door that led to her balcony.

The sheer curtains weren’t easy to see through when she changed, and a person would have to be clinging to the windowless side of the building next door to have a chance at a look, but they did allow enough light through to get around, if her eyes were dilated from the darkness. They weren’t shadowed; on the second floor there were no trees to block the light.

So what was that?

Brenda jumped up from the bed and grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand. She hit Justice’s name, but her finger paused over the send button. What was she going to tell him? That a scraping sound woke her up? That there was a new shadow in her window? What if he showed up and there was nothing outside?

She swallowed and shut her phone, and then gripped it tightly in her palm. As she edged toward the window, the shadow stayed put.

It’s probably nothing
, she reassured herself. But when she got close to the window, the scraping sound stopped. Hand shaking, she pushed the curtain aside.

Howler.

A knife scraped on the glass as she watched, and he stared up at her with a strange expression on his face. Fascination, like she was a bug under his microscope. His other hand pressed against the door as if he could push it open.

She let out a scream and jumped back, touching the place in her mind that turned on her power as she moved. What was he doing here?

Frantically she looked for Justice on her phone and hit send. She didn’t bother putting it to her ear, but turned her attention back to Howler.

He smiled at her, mouth wide and teeth glinting garishly in the yellows and oranges and blues of the city lights. And he spoke, but she couldn’t hear him. Turning off her power would be suicide, but she was tempted, if only to reassure herself that he wasn’t talking about murdering her or wearing around her skin.

She shuddered. No more horror films for her.

Backing up, she kept her eyes firmly affixed on Howler until she cleared her bedroom doorway, and then she turned and ran to the front door. The knob was solid in her hand, real. And she clutched that piece of metal like it was the only real thing in the nightmare she’d become lost in. She wanted to turn it, unlock the deadbolt, run across the hall to her neighbor’s.

But what if he was out there? What if he’d driven her to the door for this very reason, to get her to open it?

No, that was silly, wasn’t it? If he wanted in, it would be easier for him to break the glass on the sliding door that led to the balcony he squatted on. Wouldn’t it?

With her hearing shut down, she couldn’t tell if he’d already broken the window, if he was sneaking up behind her as she struggled to make the right decision. She shouldn’t be running, she should be turning around, fighting him. But she’d never really fought anyone before. And he had that knife.

She shot a glance over her shoulder. No one crept through the shadows. She muttered a curse under her breath, turned the deadbolt and then threw open the door.

Running for her neighbor’s apartment, she crashed headlong into Justice’s chest.

***

The second he’d seen her number, he’d been out of bed and on the phone with Porter. The silence on the line was deafening, and he hadn’t been able to hang up or drop it from his ear. Instead, he grabbed the landline off the wall and called in a favor. He hadn’t even considered the Porsche, fast as it was.

Porter was faster.

A minute to wake him up, thirty seconds for Porter to dress. Another half a second and he was at Justice’s door. A second to grab his hand. Less than a second later and he was at her door. The whole process had taken less than two minutes.

It was the longest two minutes of his life.

Just as he approached her door, ready to kick it down, she burst out. Straight into his arms. She wore an old T-shirt that was several sizes too big, and flannel pajama pants. Not what he’d imagined her sleeping in, but still pretty damn sexy.

“What happened?”

She mumbled something. He couldn’t make out the words.

“Bren? Brenda?” He forced her face up so he could look at her. She didn’t appear injured, but tears streaked down her skin and her eyes were bright. “Can you tell me what happened?”

She shook her head, brow furrowing, before she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like one of his favorite four-letter words.

“Sorry,” she said. “I forgot.” She waved a finger at her ear. “I still had my power on.”

“What’s going on?”

She glanced back at the apartment, face suddenly serious. “He was here, Justice. Howler was here. Out on my balcony…with a big-ass knife.”

“Stay here,” he said, and then stepped past her to scan the apartment. More than anything, he wanted to stride in and beat the hell out of Howler. Not on general principle because he was a super villain. Not for robbing banks or kidnapping mayors. But because he’d scared her. Because he’d put that look on her face.

But if he went in there—no. Then she’d be here alone, unprotected the second Howler used his power. Porter was already gone and wouldn’t go for help, wouldn’t call anyone. He wasn’t a superhero. He was a mercenary, barely living on the right side of the line.