King of Superheroes, page 14
“Can you keep them here?” I asked Rhiannon.
“I can try,” she said with a nod. “They listen to you more than me, though.”
“Not a chance,” I said and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re doing great, keep them in check for me, okay?”
“Okay.” Rhiannon smiled faintly. “Go do your thing.”
I hurried back to Frank, who was covered in sweat at this point from the exertion of holding a spark inside the engine, and Danny had already seemed to stop the bleeding on the SUV driver’s head.
Hannah was still crouched over the two of them, but just as I turned to Frank in preparation to start our controlled explosion, I heard the blonde Dreamer let out a sudden wail.
I looked over my shoulder, but she was already barreling straight for the SUV. She skittered around the side of the vehicle and started to yank on the handle of the back door.
“Hannah, get back!” I yelled in fear.
“There’s a kid in there still!” she cried out. “I just heard him!”
“Mark, I can’t hold it any longer!” Frank groaned loudly. “It’s gonna blow!”
“Hannah!” I shouted, but the blonde Dreamer was already half-inside the vehicle and scrabbling on the backseat.
I felt a sudden surge of heat roll through my body, and I realized it was the presence of flames. They were buried inside the framework of the hood, but they’d already started to spread.
Time seemed to slow down when I realized Frank hadn’t been able to keep the spark away from the fuel line any longer. It had caught with the gasoline, and I felt my breath catch in my throat as I suddenly felt the presence of its heat.
Hannah was still half-inside the back of the vehicle, with just her legs out of the door, so I left Frank’s side and ran full speed toward her.
The fire was like a tsunami.
It rolled and pushed and shoved its way outward, in all directions, and its power continued to grow with each passing millisecond. It felt like I was moving at super speed, but that might’ve just been the adrenaline that rocketed through my bloodstream the moment I felt the presence of fire.
Super speed hadn’t presented itself to me before, and I was about ninety percent certain I was just able to process everything quicker than a normal person thanks to the situation at hand, but I made a surprisingly calm mental note to check with the Corps trainer.
My thought process seemed to spout distractingly calm tangents while I was barreling toward Hannah with an SUV engine about to explode at close range. Maybe it was my brain’s way of keeping calm.
But it was like I was watching the whole ordeal. I could look at it all with my thoughts calm and collected, so I knew exactly what I needed to do.
There was no way of stopping the explosion at this point. It had already sparked, and it was already completely set in motion. But if I could get to Hannah in time, then I could drag her out of the side door-- hopefully with the child passenger she’d just heard-- and guide the explosion upward and away from everyone on ground level.
Our hair might get a little singed, but it was better than going up in flames.
There wasn’t time to shout at Hannah anymore, so I just linked one arm around her slim waist and tugged as hard as I could. She tumbled into me, with her own arms wrapped around the unconscious body of a small boy who couldn’t have been more than seven years old. With my other arm, I pushed us away from the SUV wreckage just as the ball of roiling chaos started to seep through the cracks of the mangled engine hood.
It all happened within the space of a second and a half, but it felt like an age.
I hadn’t ever been able to control my fire power without the use of my hands, but I didn’t have that luxury considering I had Hannah’s waist in one arm, and the other was outstretched toward the fast approaching asphalt as we clattered to the ground.
I had to focus my power, focus my mind, until the only thing that was inside my head was the natural force of the explosion behind us. Then I clamped my eyes closed, hunched over Hannah and the boy from the back of the car, and let my instincts take over.
I held the ball of gasoline-fueled fire inside my head and sent it skyward. It was all I could think to do.
I had Hannah and the boy with me, Frank a little further away, Danny still healing the SUV passenger a few steps ahead of us in the middle of the road, and Rhiannon was with the ever-growing crowd of onlookers.
I heard the explosion almost before it happened, and the sound solidified its existence inside my mind. I used my body to protect Hannah and the unconscious boy, and I forced my mind to push the chaos up into the air as high as I could go.
The resounding bang made everyone hunker down with surprised shouts and screams, and the air fizzled and sang with the noise as black smoke plumed behind us like grisly angel wings.
There was a brief second, barely a beat, when the ringing in my ears stopped, and all hell broke loose.
I could hear the unified screams of the crowd at what they’d just witnessed, I could hear Rhiannon shouting at them in a surprisingly loud and confident voice that was nothing like her normal state of being, and I could hear Frank calling out to Danny to make sure he was okay.
I looked down to where Hannah was still in my arms, and she stared up at me with her icy-blue eyes wet with tears.
She still held the young boy in her arms protectively tight, but her mouth was hanging open with surprise, fear, and gratitude as her gaze locked with mine.
My breathing was haggard and choked, and I could taste the acrid gasoline smoke in the air, but I finally let my muscles relax slightly when I realized everyone was at least semi-okay.
“You saved us,” Hannah said in a choked voice, and her bottom lip quivered with fear and surprise. “Mark, you saved my life.”
“You saved his.” I nodded to the young boy in her arms, and I gently let them down on the road surface.
As the cloud of black smoke dissipated into the air above us, the road on either side was suddenly alight with the flashing red lights of several ambulances. A fire truck also turned up with a loud wail, and I could see police officers start to take over from Rhiannon’s surprisingly effective crowd control.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked breathlessly as I climbed to my feet.
“This boy is unconscious,” Hannah said and glanced down at the child she was cradling. “But I can hear his thoughts. His body just shut down out of shock, but I think he’ll be okay.”
I pulled her to her feet, and with adrenaline still coursing through my body, I pressed my lips against hers.
I was desperate to dispel some of the nerves, endorphins, shock, and every other crazy emotion that was running itself ragged inside my head, and Hannah apparently felt the same way.
She wove her hands up into my hair and kissed me back, and then she broke away with a breathless laugh.
“You needed that, huh?” she asked as she pushed a bunch of my hair away from my face.
“Damn right,” I said with a grin. “Let’s go talk with the EMTs and police, they need to know what the situation is.”
“They need to know how much of a hero you are.” Hannah nudged me with her elbow. “But here, help me with him.”
I picked up the unconscious young boy that Hannah had heard from the back of the SUV, and I carried him over to the nearest ambulance where they immediately took him and started to carry out checks.
“Your buddy with the healing powers,” one of the EMT guys suddenly said to me, and he gestured to the driver I’d pulled out of the SUV. “Tell him he’s a hero. This guy is gonna walk again thanks to him.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him.” I nodded and then turned to the nearest police officer. “Do you need anything more from us, sir?”
“No,” the officer said in a brusque voice. “Thank you for your service. We’ll send a report to the Academy for you to sign off on.”
“Okay, thank you.” I nodded to the massive group of police, firefighters, and EMTs, and then I met up with the rest of my gang as we slowly headed back over to Dahlia and the truck.
Our mentor had the faintest ghost of a smile on her face as we approached, and she just nodded once in approval.
“Good job,” she said to us.
“We rocked it,” Frank said with a wide grin, and I was pleased to see his usual chirpy self had already returned.
“Without any help from our mentor, no less.” My words were pointed, and I fixed Dahlia with a cool stare.
She studied me for a moment and then shrugged one shoulder.
“You didn’t need my help,” she said. “Besides, it’s not my job to get my hands dirty. My job is to clean up if needed. You need to learn how to deal with these things on your own.”
“Well, how’d we do for our first mission?” Rhiannon asked. Her voice was a lot quieter than usual, and far hoarser thanks to how much she’d yelled at the crowd of onlookers.
“Pretty damn good, actually.” Dahlia smiled fully this time, and the rest of my team shared a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting to have a major call-out like this as your first one, but the five of you did great.”
“For the love of god, though,” Danny said as he stretched his arms above his head with a groan. “Get us back home, I am starving after that.”
“I think I just need to collapse into bed…” Rhiannon murmured and shook her head.
The drive back to the Academy was mostly silent since the five of us were exhausted. We’d expended every ounce of our energy on the car accident, and though I had a strong sense of accomplishment, I was tired as hell.
“Oh, my god, I’m wiped!” Frank flopped down onto one of the couches in the common area almost as soon as we’d filtered out of the elevators.
“Me, too.” Danny stretched and then collapsed onto the leather couch beside Frank.
“I’m gonna head to bed,” Rhiannon said in her usual quiet voice. “I’m tired, too.”
“I think we could all do with some rest.” I nodded to the Tempest fledgling with a kind smile, and she flushed a little when she caught my eye.
Hannah had stayed by my side the entire trip back to the Academy, and she remained there even when I motioned to the guys that I was planning on heading back to my room.
It was like an unspoken agreement. Neither one of us had voiced how badly we wanted to stay together, but we were both on the same page.
Frank waggled his eyebrows, which he seemed to do all the damn time around me now, and Danny just waved lazily as I took Hannah by the hand and walked with her back toward my bedroom.
I just wanted to check that she was okay, especially after what’d happened to her, but the beautiful Dreamer seemed to have a slightly different plan in mind for the rest of the evening.
The moment my bedroom door clicked shut behind us, she wound her arms around my neck and pulled me down into a long, lingering kiss.
As her lips gently parted, I could hear the faintest echo of her voice whisper inside of my mind.
I want you, Mark.
Chapter Ten
Her words sent a jolt of desire coursing through my veins like electric fire, and I chose not to answer with my own.
Instead, I just wrapped my arms tightly around her waist so her lithe body was pressed flush against mine, and I couldn’t help but let out a breathless moan as she pushed herself up against me.
Her hands wound their way up my neck until they were in my hair, and her breath caught in her throat when I gently licked along her bottom lip like I was asking for her permission.
She responded exactly how I’d hoped, and her tongue tangled with mine in a dance that felt like it lasted forever.
“I want you, Mark…” she eventually managed to murmur when we pulled away to catch our breaths, as though I hadn’t heard her the first time when she spoke inside my head.
“I want you, too.” I smiled against her plump lips and continued to kiss her.
I let my hands travel down her waist and over the smooth curve of her hips, until they were gripping into the soft flesh of her ass, and I grinned again when I felt the blonde Dreamer gasp a second time as I pressed my growing erection against her.
“Mark…” she whispered my name as though it were a prayer, and the sound of it made my dick twitch in my pants.
“Yes?” I asked before I went right back to curling my tongue around hers and squeezing her ass.
She eventually pulled away enough to catch her breath, and I looked down at the gorgeous blonde with a smile.
“I…” Hannah gnawed at her already swollen bottom lip and refused to look me in the eye. “I haven’t…”
She shrugged, shook her head, and then brought her mouth up to kiss me even more ferociously.
“What is it?” I murmured the question into her hungry kiss, and she huffed once before she carried on.
I couldn’t resist and kept kissing her, until I could feel her words spiraling around inside her head.
I couldn’t hear them exactly, but it was though I could sense an inner monologue being spoken without either one of us having to open our mouths.
When it got louder, I reluctantly pulled away from her eager kiss and held her face in my hands so she had to look up at me.
She really was gorgeous.
Her long blonde hair was a complete and total mess, as usual, a little from the wind outside and since she’d worked so hard at the sight of the car accident, but mostly thanks to how she constantly ran her hands through it. It framed her perfectly heart-shaped face, and her pale skin was flushed a warm pink from our kissing. Her already plump lips were dark and swollen, and her eyes glittered like an ice-covered pond in the winter. I stared into them, and I was hypnotized by how her blue irises were made even starker against the backdrop of her smudged black eyeliner.
“Hannah,” I said her name with reverence and pushed a stray tendril of blonde hair behind her ear. “What is it?”
She tried to avert her gaze when I questioned her again, but I gently held her face so she couldn’t look away.
“You’ll laugh at me.” Her words were short and frustrated, but in an adorable sort of way.
“I won’t,” I said and then immediately broke my promise when I let out a breathless chuckle. “Okay, well, that didn’t count. I promise, whatever it is, I’m listening.”
“But you might…” She shrugged and eventually broke free of my gentle touch. “You might change your mind about… This.”
She gestured helplessly between us, and I frowned at her in confusion.
“There is nothing you could tell me right now that would sway me from how I feel,” I said to her. “I want you, too.”
“I know, I just…” Hannah let out a huff, and then she broke free enough to walk over to my bed and sit on the edge of the mattress. “Ugh! I’m no good at this.”
“No good at what?” I asked as I immediately went to sit beside her on top of my admittedly unmade bed.
“This,” she sighed and gestured between us again. “Being with… Someone.”
“What do you mean?” I asked slowly. “As in, you’ve never…?”
“No.” She said the single word dejectedly and refused to look at me again.
The blonde just stared at her feet with a scowl on her face, as though she were a kid who’d been told they couldn’t have ice cream for lunch.
“Why would that stop me from being interested?” I asked and put my hand lightly against her thigh.
I could feel her skin beneath the fishnet stockings she always wore, and I had to do my best to swallow the immediate taste of lust in my mouth.
“Because I’m not… experienced enough for it to be good,” Hannah muttered, and once she’d started, she couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. “I’ve never been with anyone before, ever, and I usually push people away, but I feel drawn to you for some stupid reason, and it’s probably your voodoo Omega powers or something, I don’t fucking know, but I know I want you, like a lot, but I know you probably won’t want me because I can’t… Make it good. For you. I should just leave, actually.”
She suddenly jumped up from my bed with her hands already ruffling her long blonde hair, but before she could make a break for the door, I grabbed her wrist in my hand.
“Hannah,” I said, and I stood up so I could make her turn to face me. “That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said, and you’ve said your fair share.”
It took her a beat to realize I was joking with her, and she immediately whacked me in the bicep.
“Don’t do that,” she grumbled, but I could see the hint of a smile pulling at her lips. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“I thought you liked that I could do that,” I teased.
“I do,” she replied, and then her laughter died away until she finally brought her blue eyes back up to meet mine. “I just… Want to be good enough.”
“We don’t have to do a thing,” I said, though maybe a little reluctantly because my dick was still half-hard and straining against the denim of my jeans.
But my mother raised a gentleman, so the offer still stood.
“I want to,” Hannah insisted as her brow furrowed. “I just… I don’t know how.”
“Well, if you do want to…” I started with an easy smile forming on my face. “And honestly, only if you’re one hundred percent certain that you want to, but… Why don’t you let me teach you?”
“Teach me?” The blonde Dreamer scrunched her nose up.
“Yeah, teach you.” I nodded. “And judging by how you kissed me just then, you could do damn near nothing, and I’d still be enjoying myself.”
“You’re just saying that,” Hannah muttered and whacked me in the arm again, though her familiar half-smile reappeared on her face.
“I promise you, I’m not,” I assured her with a grin of my own. “I am… Bothered.”
“Bothered?” Hannah repeated my word and reached up to brush my hair out of my face this time. “By what?”
“By you.” My words became slow and dark with desire, and I watched as the blue of her irises thinned into small rings as her pupils dilated.
“Will you teach me?” she asked, and her own voice became choked as she kept her blue eyes fixed on mine. “Teach me how to make you feel good?”
