He nodded, walked over to the van, and opened the back doors. The little guy started yelling at him again, and I kicked him in the ribs.
“Shut the hell up,” I muttered, power lacing my words.
The guy led three teenage girls out of the back of the van, wrists tied behind their backs, duct tape over their mouths. Two black girls, one Latina. Pretty, thin girls who would have made someone lots of money. I felt relief mingled with disgust. It took everything in my power not to kill the two men whimpering on the ground. As it was, I gave them each a well-aimed kick to the groin, as much for the girls’ benefit as my own. I gestured for the girls to come toward me, and they did, slowly, dazed, as if they weren’t sure this was for real.
I looked at the guy who had let them go. “You did the right thing tonight,” I said, pushing as much power as I could into my voice. “You want to stay out of this business. You want to get a job, go back to school. Stay away from these assholes,” I said, giving the loudmouth one another kick. “If I hear about you involved in anything like this again, I will find you.” I paused, felt the fear rolling off of him. “And you really don’t want that to happen.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. He got into the van and drove off after one more glance at me. Didn’t even look at the guys on the ground. Loyalty.
I looked at the two remaining thugs. “And you two,” I said, filling my voice, my eyes, with power. I watched their eyes glaze over. “You two are going to stay right the fuck where you are until morning. Once the sun comes up, you can move again. And when you do get up, you are going to the nearest Detroit police precinct, and you’re going to turn yourselves in for the abduction of Amber Johnson, Shanti Williams, and Maria Alvarez. And you are going to tell the police who you were going to sell them to. It will be done,” I finished, and power thrummed in the air around me.
They both nodded.
I shook my head and turned to the girls, who were looking at me in shock. I walked over to them and tried, as gently as possible, to remove the duct tape from their mouths, then I cut the ties confining their hands. I could sense intense fear, disbelief, and a glimmer of hope coming off of them.
“Are you alright?” I asked softly.
They all nodded. “Thank you so much. Thank you,” the petite one, Shanti, started saying. She made the sign of the cross with her hand and bowed her head. Praying.
“I have a car nearby. I can drive you home.” By now, all three were crying in relief. I started walking down the block, where I’d parked earlier. The three girls followed, hands clasped as if they were afraid to let go of each other. I could hear their soft sobs. I kept my eyes peeled for any trouble. Relief when we got back to the car without any incident. I opened the doors and looked back at the two would-be salesmen. They were still laying right where I’d left them. I could have ordered them to go to the precinct right away, but I wanted them to suffer. Pissing themselves and getting bitten by mosquitoes was nothing compared to what I wanted to do to them.
I climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed my door. Maria and Amber were in the back, and Shanti rode shotgun. I started the car, and AC/DC blared from the speakers. I turned it down with a grimace. “Sorry,” I said, tossing a smile at Shanti.
“This music suits you, I think,” Shanti said, turning the radio back up. “Back in Black” echoed through the night.
As we drove toward the Southwest side, where the girls had been taken on their way home from softball practice, I caught Shanti peeking at me every once in a while. Maria and Amber were doing the same thing from the back seat. Their thoughts were a jumble of being thankful they were going home and wondering who the hell the crazy lady was. All three, in the past five minutes, had told themselves they had to take self-defense classes. I just drove on.
I wasn’t much for conversation. Besides, I had a couple of other things on my mind. Currently, it was the asshole in the black pickup who had been following us since we’d left the neighborhood where I’d found the girls. I kept an eye on him in the rearview. He didn’t seem to be trying to catch me, but he was definitely tailing the car. I circled aimlessly through a few neighborhoods, just to make sure. He stayed with us. I sighed. Great. One more thing to deal with. Looked at my watch. I was behind schedule already.
“How did you do that?” Shanti finally asked.
“I knew a few things from self-defense classes,” I said, shrugging, hoping it would be enough. But I knew better. Shanti shook her head.
“No, I mean
all
of that. How did you know where we were? How did you beat the crap out of those two guys? How did you just convince them to let us go? Are you FBI or something?”
I was silent for a minute. “Let’s go with ‘something.’” I saw Shanti shake her head, and I threw a small smile in the girl’s direction.
We reached the Southwest side, streets flanked with old brick bungalows. Virgin Mary statues dotted front lawns, and somewhere in the night, I could hear bass thumping and a dog barking. I dropped Amber off first, then Maria, and the amazed squeals that greeted each girl’s appearance went right to my heart.
When I pulled up to the curb in front of Shanti’s house, the girl hesitated. We both looked up at the house. Every window was lit. A candle burned on the front porch.
“Thank you,” Shanti finally said. “You’re the one who’s been finding the lost girls, aren’t you?” I was silent. Shanti watched me, and smiled. “I don’t know how you did that, but thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Go on, now,” I said softly. “You’ve got people waiting for you.”
The girl nodded, then leaned over, and, to my surprise, folded me in a big, strong hug that nearly took my breath away. “Thank you so much,” she whispered again.
I hugged her back. Our eyes met for just a second, then Shanti bounded out of the car with a smile. As soon as she stepped on the bottom porch step, screams erupted from the house, and about a dozen people came running out. I smiled to myself and pulled away.
Of course, now I had to deal with the asshole in the pickup truck.
He was still there, not even a car length behind me. He wanted me to notice him. It was obvious the driver didn’t want the girls. I figured he had a score to settle with me. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have any enemies.
I drove through downtown on my way toward my next stop, and the truck tailed me the whole way. Finally, I pulled up to a curb near Campus Martius, slammed the ‘Cuda into park, and got out of the car. The truck pulled up behind me and the driver turned off the engine.
I leaned against my door, arms crossed over my chest, glaring at the truck. A few cars drove by. I could hear the noise from whatever concert was going on over at Comerica Park in the distance.
Finally, the driver’s side door opened, and a mountain emerged from the truck. At least, “mountain” was the best way I could describe the man that stepped out and slammed the door. He was tall, easily six foot six or so. Broad. Dark brown hair, cut short. Strong chin, covered with dark stubble. Piercing blue eyes that, with just one glance, made me feel as if he saw much more than he should. He walked toward me with a very “don’t fuck with me” attitude, one I could appreciate from my own method. He reached me, and stood still in front of me. We just watched each other, like two wolves sizing each other up. I knew it was immature, but I refused to say the first word. He was following me, he could damn well talk first. I hated people who didn’t mind their own business.
And this guy was even more disturbing. I could feel power freaking rolling off of him. Power to rival my own. Dangerous.
He seemed just as stubborn as I was, but more patient. He just stood there, arms crossed like mine, watching me. Silence, the sizing up between the two of us dragged on for several slow minutes as life went on around us.
I let out an irritated sigh. “Okay, fine. What do you want?” I finally said.
“That was some work you did back there,” he said, his voice a low rumble, two stones grating against one another. It sent a shiver up my spine, and I tried to ignore it.
“Who are you?”
“Mind control is a very dangerous skill, Molly,” he said, as if he hadn’t heard my question.
Fuck. “You never saw me,” I said, pushing power into my voice.
He shook his head. “That doesn’t work on me. You’ll have to try something else.”
“Who. Are. You?” I asked again, standing up straight. My hands flexed into fists. Habit.
“You going to beat me up? I’m not some street thug,” he said.
“Am I going to have to?”
“The last thing I want to do is get into a fight with you.”
“You can start by telling me your name then, and why you were following me,” I said, lowering my hand and grasping the canister of tear gas in my pocket.
“You’re not going to need that. My name is Nain.”
I looked up at him, narrowing my eyes. “Is that your real name?”
“Close enough.
Le Nain Rouge
, Red Dwarf, Red Gnome, Lutin. I prefer Nain.”
“Right. Oookay. I don’t believe in fairy tales.”
“It’s not any more far-fetched than someone controlling people with her mind,” he said, meeting my eyes. Pretty eyes, a deep sapphire, practically glowing under the street lights.
“You don’t look particularly red, or, you know, gnome-like, to me,” I said.
“That’s one of my forms. I don’t do that anymore.” Anger, regret.
“Right,” I said again. Dude was a complete nutcase. “You cause trouble. Harbinger of doom, all that shit.”
“People always get that fucked up. Where does it say that the harbinger of doom is the one that actually caused the doom? Maybe the so-called harbinger is there because he saw it coming and is trying to stop the doom.”
“Uh-huh. So you’re saying you had nothing to do with the ‘67 riots?”
“Trying to stop the fighting.”
“Or with burning the city to the ground in 1805?”
“Chasing the guy who actually did it.”
“And you didn’t, in fact, curse Cadillac?”
“That, I did. And he had it coming,” he said. Snarled, to be more accurate.
“Right. So you’re claiming to be over three hundred years old, and you can change into a little red dwarf. And I’m supposed to believe that you’re not completely insane?” I hissed, feeling my power spike in response to my emotions.
He just watched me. He was so serious looking I almost wanted to believe him. Almost.
“Okay. I don’t know how you found me, or what you think I can do. You stay away from me or you’re going to be wearing your balls as earrings. Do you understand?” I started getting into my car.
Crazy people, I thought as I slammed the door behind me. He was still standing there, next to the car.
Or we can just converse telepathically
, he thought at me.
I got out of the car again, looked up at him. “Shit.”
He gave a short bark of a laugh, crossed his arms over his chest.
You can really read my thoughts?
Yes, I really can.
How did you find me?
I could feel a headache coming on, always a side effect of reading thoughts, never mind actually conversing telepathically.
“We can just talk,” he said, seeming to understand my discomfort. “Once you’ve had more practice with it, it will hurt less.”
“You’re a telepath, too, then?” I asked, annoyed with myself for continuing to converse with this crazy person.
He nodded. “In some ways, I’m a lot like you. I can read thoughts. I can converse telepathically with someone who has the same skill, though it’s been awhile since I’ve come across another.”
“Are there many?”
He shrugged. “It’s always safe to assume that there are others around. Most don’t quite realize what it is that they can do.” He stopped talking, met my eyes again. “It would be a good idea to learn to shield your thoughts. You are wide open, Molly. That can be dangerous.”
I looked at him. Concentrated. “I can’t pick yours up.”
“I have a lot of practice shielding. It’s automatic at this point.”
“So someone can only hear your thoughts if you want them to?” I asked, interest piqued.
Yes. And then, only that person. No one else.
I thought about that. Any telepath around could hear everything I thought. Dangerous, for sure, if any of them were like me. I looked around, watching the shadows, as always.
“But, there is at least one big difference between you and I,” he said, as if he’d never stopped talking. “I can’t control thoughts. I can’t put my thoughts in other people’s heads, make them act on my command. That’s a whole different level of power.”
“And you want something from me, is that it?’ I asked.
“No. All I want from you is to help you learn to control your telepathy. Learn to shield yourself.”
“There’s no such thing as something for nothing,” I murmured, mostly to myself.
He was quiet for a bit. I was starting to think he hadn’t heard me. “You’re right. I do want something,” he finally said. I felt my stomach twist. My power was reacting weirdly around him, and it was only helping to throw me off even more.
“What?”
“I want you to come and work for me.”
“I work alone,” I said.
“Just come, meet with me and some of my associates,” he said.
“I work alone,” I said again, slowly and deliberately, stopping and looking him dead in the eyes. “I am not a team player. I don’t even like most people. I’m not interested.”
I felt irritation rolling off of him in waves. The first time he’d lost his cool at all, I realized. Most people lost their patience with me much quicker than that.
“Holy shit,” he said, staring at me.
“What?” I asked, my stomach turning in response to the spike of surprise I’d picked up from him.
“What was that?” he asked. “You can sense emotions?”
“Stay the fuck out of my mind,” I said, stomping my foot.
“Then learn to shield yourself,” he shot back.
“It’s a real violation, that you keep doing that,” I said to him, irritated and stalking back to the car. “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
I felt a tiny bit of guilt coming from him. But then he said, “Yes, and putting thoughts in someone’s mind, making them do what you want, isn’t a violation at all.”