Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 42
Silvie’s bright eyes welled up with tears before she broke the forceful kiss and buried her face in his neck, clutching him tightly. Boyd saw over her shoulder that Royce had fled the room and focused on finally taking a breath, locking the pain from the slap away. He simply held Silvie.
He consciously made the deep rumbling ‘purr’—as she called it. She’d told him long ago that she found it soothing. He didn’t mind her expressing her anger, but knew there was a fight coming and wanted to enjoy this moment to reconnect before it did.
Silvie shook a little in his arms, and he could feel some moisture on his neck, but she wasn’t sobbing. Boyd was pretty sure the jerks and shakes were more anger related than either sorrow or fear. Kitsune sauntered in a moment later, still in her red and white Hero suit. He could only sense relief from her across their Bond, but she kept her distance—for now.
Boyd wasn’t having any of that. He raised one arm to her, beckoning her to join them.
Kitsune smiled warmly and climbed up onto the bed. Silvie shifted over a little, wrapping an arm around the foxy woman, pulling her into a three-way hug. Apparently, she used too much strength because Kitsune let out a wheezing gasp as she was dragged in.
Silvie must have heard it, because she let up a little pressure on Boyd when she loosened her hold on Kitsune.
The redhead took a deep breath as she wrapped one arm around Silvie and the other around Boyd. The three just held each other, pressed together tightly. His loves each buried their face in one side of Boyd’s neck for several minutes. Boyd inhaled through his nose deeply, enjoying the way Silvie's floral scent mixed with Kitsune’s spicier notes.
Eventually, Kitsune leaned up to murmur soothing words into Silvie's ear. “Shh, babe, everyone is all right.” Her velvet voice sounded good in a murmuring, soothing yet still sexy way. “Boyd just loved you too much to let you die. It shouldn’t be such a surprise, you’ve seen how he looks at you. He would hop right into a meat grinder if he thought it would save your life. You shouldn’t be mad at him for that.”
Silvie made a non-committal noise, but Boyd tested the waters of their Bond and found her much calmer.
“I’m actually a little jealous,” Kitsune said, but her inflection told Boyd she wasn’t—which was good, because she didn’t need to be.
“Don’t be,” Silvie answered in a grumble with her face still pressed to his neck. He could tell she was still holding on to a little of her anger. “The big lug would do it for you, too.”
Boyd nodded his silent agreement against their heads. He knew better than to admit out loud that he’d have done the same thing for her.
“I know I shouldn’t be mad, but I still am,” Silvie ground this out, but it sounded more pouty than angry, which Boyd was grateful for.
“Hey, if anyone should be mad at the big guy, it’s me!” Kitsune pouted as well, lifting her head enough to give him a glare that their Bond revealed to be false.
“In his rush to get to you, he literally just dropped me! Mid-flight! We were at least ten stories up. He didn’t even slow down, and I almost tumbled off the roof he dropped me on.”
Boyd frowned, suddenly filled with guilt. “Sorry.”
He may have apologized in advance, but if she really almost fell off the roof, then he was doubly apologetic. “I didn’t drop you because I was rushing,” He admitted.” I was pretty sure I was about to die, and I didn’t want you anywhere near that bastard.”
Kitsune leaned up and pecked him on the lips. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not actually mad. I get it. I also didn’t almost tumble off the roof, your aim was good. You saw how leaving me behind worked out, though, didn’t you?” She leaned back and arched a sculpted red eyebrow at him. “You aren't going to make that mistake again, are you? Next time I will be mad.”
Boyd could both see the seriousness of her words in her eyes, as well as sense it through their Bond. “No, Ma’am,” Boyd rumbled the simple reply.
He wasn’t sure if he meant it or not, but doubted it would ever matter. Threats like Omega Ray didn’t come along every day. She had been critical to his victory against that monster, so who was he to keep her away from lesser dangers?
“I will admit to making the decision in a panic. Omega Ray was… well, Omega Ray.”
“And now he’s dead,” Kitsune said with a firm nod and a smile.
“Our man killed him,” Silvie added, her face buried in Boyd’s neck. A smile could be heard in her voice.
“Messed with the wrong women,” Boyd agreed with a rumbling, protective growl.
“Messed with the wrong team,” Silvie corrected him, raising her head with a somewhat feeble smile on her lips.
“Yeah, messed with the wrong team,” Boyd corrected his error and leaned down to give Silvie a peck on the lips.
Chapter 5
Several hours later, after they’d once again been separated for the inevitable ‘final’ battery of scans and tests, Boyd was finally allowed to rejoin his lovers. They met him in the waiting room.
Tinker was with them but had fallen asleep in one of the terribly uncomfortable but durable chairs, leaning against the wall. Despite her exquisite face, Boyd noted she drooled a little in her sleep. Her mouth was hanging open and there was a little wet trail leading down to her chin. It was actually darn cute.
Boyd smiled warmly upon seeing Kitsune and Silvie, who each lit up as he entered the room.
Their time apart had been spent receiving multiple scans and being poked and prodded by all sorts of tools and devices. During the time in between pokes and prods, Boyd had caught the footage of the fight the news outlets had managed to capture. It started with Silvie sweeping up from between buildings to intercept Omega Ray, who’d been flying straight for The Tower. He was little more than a blue blur before one of Silvie’s silver bolts struck him from below. The bolt itself seemed to do little to him but it did achieve Silvie’s goal of distracting him and setting his attention firmly on her.
Then, Omega Ray streaked through the air towards her, and she dodged before leading him to a less inhabited section of the city—a business district that was all but empty on the weekend. Boyd knew she would have received intelligence that it was the best place for the fight with the horrendously powerful villain. They were a near match in speed, but only when Silvie’s agility was taken into account. Omega Ray had the clear edge when it came to straight-line motion.
Unfortunately for his lover, she was stuck to a limited location and couldn’t take full advantage of her agility without risking civilian lives. After a few barely followable exchanges, it was soon clear that Omega Ray had the advantage in almost every other category. Silvie landed punches and energy strikes that did little or nothing to the villain.
It all went horribly wrong at about the minute and forty-five second mark. Omega Ray got a grip on one of Silvie’s legs, which he promptly broke at the femur. From there, he leveraged that hold to move to her other leg, trading off his grip on each of her limbs as he broke them in a quick but deliberate matter.
Then, the monster grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the ground with immense force, creating the impact crater Boyd had found her in. Omega Ray then hit her with a few red energy blasts, shredding her uniform and leaving his wounded love nearly naked with angry red burns crisscrossing her recumbent form. The news footage was kind enough to blur out her nudity, but Boyd drew worried looks from passing nurses as he growled at the indecency.
Then Boyd arrived. It wasn’t the easiest thing watching himself literally having his limbs torn away and he realized he really needed to work on his roaring habit. Once again, he’d failed to notice it at the time, but he roared loud enough to shake the camera that captured the moment when he delivered his initial punches from atop the villain.
The camera shook again when he roared before making the charge that lost him most of his foot. It happened a third time when he charged with the Kitsune-generated copies. And finally, the whole time he was in the air during his final desperate arrow impersonation.
The most interesting part of the video was getting to see Kitsune in action. She’d done well for being so obviously outmatched. Once Boyd had been thrown into the office building, the illusionary copies of him kept the Powered Criminal distracted.
She had been hiding in a coffee stand built into the side of one of the buildings and had just been unlucky. One of the red beams passing through the stand must have hit a gas line or something, because she was forced to dive out into the open as the little stand exploded.
Omega Ray spotted her, and she dropped the duplicates of Boyd to replace them with copies of herself. She didn’t last long, but during the brief exchange she displayed a surprising prowess and acrobatic skill, dodging and rolling out of the way of beams and punches alike despite her opponent's vastly superior speed. She switched places with her duplicates skillfully, confusing her foe while playing a very dangerous shell game. She landed a few kicks, but they did absolutely nothing at all. At one point, she shot a gout of green fire into the back of the Powered Criminal’s legs where Boyd had wounded him, causing the monster to cry out in pain.
The villain started backing away, trying to get out from the middle of Kitsune and her three copies at that point. Honestly, as far as he was concerned, she’d done better than Boyd had. She’d at least kept her feet until the villain led her to the center of the street and stomped the ground with enough force to create a shock wave.
It caused Kitsune to stumble, which allowed the man to finally get ahold of her. That was right about when Boyd caught sight of them as Omega Ray choked her into unconsciousness after saying something the camera didn’t pick up.
All in all, Boyd was in agreement with what his handler had told him—it was best not to piss Kitsune off. He also regretted not taking her with him into the fight, despite the terrible danger that would have put her in. He had underestimated her; those illusions may have made a bigger difference if they’d been deployed earlier in the fight. Boyd promised himself to try and keep his overprotective nature under control in the future. His loves may be his loves, but they were Heroes first.
Upon reuniting with his loves after the battery of tests, they exchanged another round of hugs and kisses, grateful to be reunited once more. That done, they turned to the sleeping Tinker. For some reason her peacefully sleeping, and drooling form seemed incredibly amusing after the life-and-death struggle they each had just experienced.
It started with Kitsune, just a short laugh, really. But that short laugh made Silvie giggle. Silvie’s giggle caused Kitsune’s laugh to deepen which only brought Silvie along with it. Boyd followed them a moment later into one of those belly laughs that just couldn’t be contained.
Boyd’s voice, always loud, was amplified by the powerful laugh. Tinker startled awake and blinked owlishly, her mouth clicking closed with an expression of confusion and concern. Boyd did his best to curtail his laughter, but was undermined when Tinker reached up to touch her cheek, asking, “Is something on my face?”
Boyd’s laughter returned full force, Silvie’s bells and Kitsune’s velvet chuckle joining in.
Tinker had to clutch her ears as Kitsune’s ears flattened against her head, trying to block out Boyd’s loud laughter. The three collapsed together, unable to keep their feet alone. It lasted for a long moment until they all wound down.
Tinker stared at them with a mixture of confusion and embarrassment on her face. At some point, she’d found the bit of drool on her chin and wiped it away, apparently thinking it to be the cause of their laughter.
Silvie regained her composure first. “Oh… oh my.” She took deep breaths, getting the last few weak giggles out. “No, Sweetie, there wasn’t anything on your face. It was just the relief, I think, of seeing us all together again.”
She floated over and bent down so she could look Tinker in the eye. “Oh, and welcome to the team. I’m sorry I had to put you on the waiting list before.”
Tinker hopped out of the seat, waving her hands in front of her. She was wearing the same baggy coveralls she’d had on earlier, pulled back up over her shoulders and zipped all the way up, with a pair of thick-soled boots that added a few inches of height to her four-foot-nothing frame. Her hair was still in the braids Kitsune had put them in, although the braids were starting to fray.
“N-no, I understand,” she said quickly. “There had to be a lot of better candidates than me. I’m just happy to have a spot, at all. I don’t really deserve it,” she said quickly in her high voice, sounding as embarrassed as she looked.
“No,” Boyd answered firmly, putting a stop to the little woman’s self-deprecation. “You’ve saved my life twice now. This time, you also saved Silvie and Kitsune, too. You have more than earned your spot on the team.”
“I wasn’t even there. I’m useless when it really matters.” Tinker’s eyes dropped to the ground as a frown came to her lips.
“When it really mattered was when you put together a shield generator that stood up to Blast-Front’s explosions. When it really mattered was when you were also the only one to think of a way to make obsidian usable in the field,” Boyd pressed, though he tried to work as much gentleness as he could into his rumbling voice.
“No one else thought of it,” he added. “And without that dagger, Omega Ray would have killed me, then Kitsune, and then Silvie. Seriously, we all owe you our lives.”
“Really?” Tinker looked up at him shyly through her eyelashes, a frown still on her lips.
“Really,” Kitsune answered for him. “Thank you for saving us. We’ll be counting on you and your tech from now on. You may not be in the field with us, but a Hero's equipment can be just as, if not more important, than their skills or their Powers. I personally feel relieved knowing that a genius like you will be in charge of ours.”
Boyd’s foxy lover swayed over to the smaller woman, bent forward at the waist, and wrapped her in a tight hug. She whispered something in Tinker’s ear that Boyd couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, it caused her to blush.
Boyd realized at that moment that he may have miscalculated. Sure, Tinker herself may have been too shy to press him to deepen their relationship, but she had two women to assist her who had no such compunctions. He banished the thought before it could darken his mood.
Now wasn’t the time. They’d survived a very dangerous enemy and won against all odds. Now was a time for celebration and good cheer, not sulking about the unfairness of having two lovers who wanted to add more women to his bed.
Shaking off the intrusive thoughts, Boyd decided to ignore the now whispered conversation going on between the athletic redhead and the adorably petite brunette. He looked over to find Silvie staring up at him, adoration lighting up her big light blue and silver eyes. She floated over and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him before leaning back and saying, “I love you so much.”
Boyd felt a big smile tugging his lips into a bow and murmured, “I love you, too.”
“Did Hopewing at least get a kiss?” Silvie asked coquettishly, her typically wicked smirk catching Boyd by surprise.
Boyd chuckled and shook his head in amusement before he admitted, “Yeah. Two of them.”
The wicked smirk transitioned to Silvie’s patented devilish grin. “Aren't her lips just the best? Just imagine how they’ll feel on your…”
“Okay, okay… that’s enough of that.” Boyd chuckled to interrupt her, not sure he needed that mental image dominating his waking thoughts right now. “You’ve already won on the Hopewing front. Hell, I almost Bonded her right there in the hospital room.”
Silvie’s grin somehow grew wider. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because she deserves better than a quickie in a hospital room for her first time,” Boyd grumbled, feeling his face burst into flame.
“She would have loved it!” Silvie laughed. “That would have played right into that dirty little mind of hers. Trust me, that girl is a freak.”
Boyd chuckled ruefully, but shook his head, not fully believing it. Silvie would know better than him, having actually had a relationship with the woman. The idea was just so incongruous with Hopewing’s appearance and demeanor, though, that his mind simply couldn’t accept it.
Or maybe he just couldn’t accept that he’d wasted an opportunity to claim her. Boyd banished the thought. What he’d felt in the moment for their angel was lust, not love. After Kitsune he had to be very careful about confusing the two. Boyd was confident that his foxy love would work out, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
“Listen,” Boyd said seriously. “I’m more open to the idea of adding people to our team and family, but we have to do it right. I’m terrified of what picking poorly might do to us, to the woman in question, or even just to me. I don’t think I could forgive myself if I permanently forced a woman to love me that I couldn’t love back. I don’t know for sure that I can love Hopewing; I definitely feel lust for her, but that’s not enough.”
Silvie’s face straightened, and he was thankful to see she was seriously considering his words. “Okay, Darling,” she said with a serious nod after a moment. “I won’t promise not to pressure you, because you’re just too stubborn to let this happen completely at your pace, but I’ll ease off a bit, okay?”
Boyd sighed. That was more of a concession than he’d thought he would receive, but less than he’d hoped for.
“You’re not regretting rocking my world, are you?” Kitsune asked, apparently done with her whispered conversation with Tinker.
Boyd looked away from Silvie’s bright blue eyes to find concern and hurt in Kitsune’s emerald gaze. He patted Silvie’s back, a silent request to release him that she understood. She unwrapped her arms from around his neck and floated to the side.
Boyd closed the distance between him and his newer lover, bending to scoop her into a firm embrace before his wings wrapped around her possessively. “Never,” he rumbled into one of her fluffy fox ears, which twitched from his breath. “I’m not sure how it happened so quickly. Maybe my Power affects me just as much as it did you, or maybe it is just the result of cheating death together, but I love you Kitsune. I am sure of that.”
