Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 76
Laura whistled at Daisy and waggled her brows. “Now that is a look. I would absolutely take you out for drinks in that.”
“I am not legal,” Daisy shot back, but her mouth twitched.
“There are ways,” Laura said, ominously.
Boyd was still processing Laura’s dress when Daisy sidled up beside him, close enough that her shoulder pushed into his side. “You gonna survive, dummy?”
“I’m re-evaluating my ability to process visual data,” the big demon replied, not really joking.
Daisy snorted, then bumped his side again. “She’s showing off for you, you know.”
Boyd raised a brow. “I’m aware.”
“And you like what you see?”
He pretended to consider the question, then sighed. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.”
She looked up at him, lips curling into a not-unfriendly smirk, before she pivoted to face the mirror again. “Good. That means you won’t be bored while we make you wait.”
Laura’s next selection proved to be too much. The woman had proved she never did anything halfway, so he shouldn’t have been surprised when she got swept up in her own momentum. It should have been obvious, given Laura’s penchant for escalation, that she would eventually emerge from a dressing room wearing nothing but ribbons and lace.
It was a matching set of black and cobalt lingerie, stockings, and a look of utter, shameless confidence. The set was aggressive, its underwire cups, strappy bits, and negative space turning her body into a postmodern sculpture.
Her lips were parted in a half-smirk, half dare.
Boyd’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “Uh…” He wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to respond with primal noises, but the words weren’t coming.
Laura gave him a slow once-over, then flashed a grin that would have gotten her banned from several school districts. “Don’t worry, it’s only for the dressing room,” she said, her voice low and intimate. A corner of her lip curled up in a lecherous grin. “Unless you want it to be for more.”
Daisy appeared in a cheerful yellow sundress with a cut that was technically decent but practically criminal with how high the slits went up each side. She stared at Laura with the flat, unimpressed expression only a fellow woman could muster. “Holy shit, Laura!” She sounded as impressed as she looked. “You’re going to get us flagged by security.”
Laura rolled her eyes but spun, showing a flash of taut cheeks barely separated by a strip of black velvet before vanishing back into her changing room. The nurse’s laughter trailed after her.
After the curtain whooshed back in place, Boyd could still see the afterimage of Laura’s ass.
“Breathe, dummy.” The fairy rolled her eyes. “You know she’s going to keep upping the ante until you stroke out,” Daisy said, not even bothering to look at him. “Why do you encourage her?”
The big demon coughed into his hand. “Is it encouragement if you’re just… stunned?” Boyd asked.
Daisy shook her head, muttering something about ‘dain bramaged dummies’.
Boyd had just enough of his senses left to turn his gaze to Daisy in her new dress. It didn’t help—he nearly lost the battle to get his heart rate back down to something reasonable.
Daisy, for her part, stood with her profile to the mirror, one hand resting on the curve of her hip, the other fixing a stray lock of hair that had fallen out of its pony tail. The skirt caught the air and split around her bare thighs. The upper half was cut in a way that mocked the idea of modesty. It had narrow straps, a sweetheart neckline, and an open back that left her wings free to flutter.
Daisy caught him looking—really looking—and immediately spun away, her wings snapping in place like one of Hopewing’s barriers. “You’re both idiots,” she muttered.
Boyd shook his head. “You look great.”
“Shut up!” Daisy hissed, not meeting his gaze.
That’s not to say that she didn’t flick her gaze to his reflection in the mirror. Her face was bright pink, eyes wide with surprise. The fair’s lips trembled as they twitched both up and down in a cycle that displayed mixed emotions. With a final scowl, she ducked back into her dressing room.
““Dress-up time is officially over,” Daisy called out from behind the curtain. “We are going to the kitchenware store Laura promised me we would visit.”
“Only if you buy that dress!” Laura sang out from behind her curtain.
“Absolutely not,” Daisy huffed. “But we are going to go get a new set of knives.”
Boyd chuckled under his breath. He decided they would absolutely be stopping for delicious mall pretzels on the way to the kitchen store. He thought getting the fairy a pick-me-up before letting her handle sharp things would be… prudent.
Chapter 21
‘Mindy, status report,’ Boyd rumbled over the team’s new telepathic comms.
He was crouched on a ridge overlooking the luxury fortress the Bell family had built out in the Wild Lands for their private retreat. It was a three-story mansion, complete with a ballroom, several conference rooms, and resort-like accommodations for a hundred guests as well as the staff to meet their needs. Massive windows covered the structure—and while they were armored, the glaring structural weaknesses made Boyd wonder who thought they were a good idea, even in this moderately safe location.
It was situated in an enclosed valley, not unlike the one the team had begun to tame outside their base. This one had been made habitable for humans long ago, with much of the life driven from it and discouraged from returning by automated defenses. A strong threat could still push its way through if it was determined enough.
Or a sneaky one. That’s how they would get in, after all. Then, the inhabitants would find out exactly why windows were a bad idea.
Due to its location, nestled away in a forested valley like it was, the moderately defended mansion in the mountains was cast into shadow—even though it was still an hour before sunset. The compound was lit up, throwing light into the encroaching darkness in long arches while leaving several dark gaps between them. Boyd had already chosen the shadowed path he would use to cover his approach.
The Osprey had circumvented the building’s outer detection grid, which had taken some doing, as apparently privacy was deemed more important than security for the structure itself. Though there were an extensive sensor grid along the ridges and the entrance to the valley, it didn’t have a single sensor that would capture anything that occurred within a mile of the building itself.
Boyd thought it displayed a shocking amount of arrogance without enough sense to balance it out.
‘We’re inside and mingling,’ the Mindy who sat at the edge of the bed in his head smirked up at him and said, amusement in her eyes, ‘Nothing too strenuous, we aren’t really expected to speak much. I’m picking up a lot of useful intel that I’ve been passing along to Tinker, although I’m going to need you to help me wash some filth out of my head when we get home. These people are worse than Lenny Snell.’
Boyd was a consummate professional so kept any thoughts of how he would help her clear her the filth out of her head out of his mind.
‘Kuh-he! Oooh, I like that one. Do that.’
Okay, so maybe a few thoughts of what he would do slipped through for just a second. He did his best to refocus on the situation and not dwell on such thoughts.
Mindy, Silvie, and Raev had infiltrated the party under illusions conjured by his favorite vixen. They had chosen three sisters who looked a lot alike and were known to be inseparable. They all had to stay in Raev’s vicinity so she could continuously update the illusion. Otherwise, Mindy and Silvie could just walk right out of theirs.
Boyd flicked on his Black Flame Vision and scanned the mansion.
Seeing through the stream of bright and colorful orbs that poured out of the sun and bathed the planet took some practice. He still couldn’t pick out the non-Powered from the soup past more than twenty feet, but he found his three loves easily enough and used them as a beacon.
He counted six other bright clusters he assumed were Powered in the same ballroom as them: a red, two blues, an orange, a green, and a violet. They didn’t have enough data to figure out which colors represented which abilities, but none of them burned nearly as brightly as Silvie. Only one of the blues and the green were close to Mindy or Raev in brightness—and presumed Power.
That said, there were six Powereds. Three of them were sticking together which might indicate they were a team. It was common enough for low-ranked Powered to band together and be capable of fighting much higher Ranked.
That worried Boyd for his under-cover loves.
‘We seem to be waiting for the final guests to arrive,’ Mindy continued over the telepathic channel. ‘I’ll bring everyone up on the net… why don’t you run through the plan one more time. It will make you feel better and the sisters we are impersonating aren’t receiving any bites so far, so we are just standing around and looking pretty.’
‘Please do,’ Boyd gave her a mental nod and blinked the Black Flame from his eyes. It would be a good use of their time.
‘Hi, Darling!’ Silver cheered in his mind a moment later.
Her voice came to him as if it were over their comms, but with it being directional so she sounded like she was coming from the direction of the compound. It also had the added benefit of being otherwise silent on both ends.
‘I’m bored,’ Silver whined, ‘these dummies throw boring parties. Can we start yet?’
‘We don’t even have eyes on the Changed, Babe,’ Kitsune said with her velvet chuckle and mental shake of her head. ‘But I agree with you, this party is really boring. They all just stand around and talk quietly.’
She blew a mental raspberry. ‘No dancing. No real flirting. I don’t even see people getting close to each other. Which is great because I can only visibly hide Mind Witch’s tits. Anyone that gets close will feel their pillowy goodness a few inches beyond where it looks like they are. Same with her hips.’
She sighed. ‘Still makes for a boring party.’
‘I’m still upset I had to wear flats,’ Mindy groaned, joining the others’ grousing over what Boyd thought of as their mental comms.
It was what Mindy had gained when he returned to her bed after making Hope one of his Devoted… sort of. What she’d actually gained was the ability to implant her Power into an additional person the way she had Boyd.
His gothic love didn’t have a second mind she wished to make a second hub, but after some testing, she figured out she could attach it to the part of Boyd’s mind that managed his Bonds as opposed to his conscious mind. This allowed her to piggyback off the Bond to do things like this, bringing them all into a telepathic network as if she were touching all of them at once.
She could also connect to any of his Devoted the way she was with him—though this required a bit of constant effort. Mindy was polite and knocked before entering their minds. So far, his was the only head she had moved into full-time.
Moved into and started redecorating, Boyd thought with a snort.
‘Little shit… I thought you liked purple.’ The Mindy lying on her purple sheets in the room she’d taken over from his Other Self sniffed, though she kept that comment just between them.
‘Mind Witch would make me so insecure if I didn’t know that Devil loved me, despite how short I am.’ Tinker’s tone blended being pleased and put out as she joined the conversation.
In truth, Tinker wasn’t as short as she had been. Like Boyd had promised, this last enhancement they’d both thought about making her taller—and now she was nearly five foot. Well, four-foot-ten, to be exact. She was back on the Osprey manning her drone console, although the method with which she did so had changed after her recent boost.
The console was optional at this point. She’d had a realization that allowed her to vastly improve her mental interfacing with the tech she crafted.
‘Yeah, and you’re still an inch taller than the tallest Channel sister would be in four-inch heels.’ Kitsune chuckled again. ‘You know, most women your height avoid heels, let alone the platforms you break out—not that I’m complaining.’
The last was added quickly—as if she’d regretted dissuading the practice as soon as the words had crossed her lips. Raev enjoyed the way Mindy dressed almost as much as Boyd did. The big demon edged the vixen out by virtue of being allowed to unwrap the layers Mindy dressed in when she was showing off once she was done doing so. So far, the fiery redhead had not been permitted that wonderful treat.
‘They wouldn’t if they were dating Boyd, even if he is slightly less towering now,’ Mindy said with her own amusement.
He got the mental impression of Raev giving a short nod of assent with a specific ear flick he knew signaled mirth.
Then, Mindy growled in frustration. ‘Ugh… Hope is blocking me out again. I can’t even knock.’
A nearly impenetrable mental defense was part of what Hope had gained from her Enhancement. Her halo made her completely invisible to Mindy’s mind reading, and with a minor act of will, Hope’s new Powered mental defense became as sturdy as her golden walls— which was strong enough to take multiple blasts from the Last Dragon. She could block out Mindy’s Power, even when his gothic love was touching the angel.
Boyd let out a soft, barely audible sigh.
Mindy piggybacking off of his Bond with Hope effectively made it so his gothic love had her hand on his angel’s shoulder. That Hope still blocked her out meant that his angel had either intentionally or subconsciously made a deliberate effort to block Mindy’s Power.
Neither option was good, as both displayed something Boyd had sensed in his angel. For some reason, she didn’t trust his gothic love.
‘I’ve tried talking to her about it.’ Boyd sighed again, this time mentally over their telepathic comms.
‘Me too.’ Silvie sounded concerned. ‘I’ve never seen her like this before. It’s like she doesn’t believe me and gets defensive.’
Which was similar to Boyd’s experience when he’d attempted to broach the subject. Hope invariably deflected his concerns and turned his attention towards some other distraction—and he had yet to be strong enough to resist those distractions.
Worse still, the lack of trust was likely the result of a deep-seated grudge… an old one.
Hope didn’t like Mindy and Hope wished Boyd wouldn’t like Mindy. It was something so incongruous with his view of his angel, that it had forced him to recalibrate his mental image of her—though it did help him stop holding her up on the pedestal of perfection he knew she wanted off of so badly. His angel had a spiteful side, maybe even vengeful.
The recalibration didn’t take too much work. A growing part of him found the idea that Hope wasn’t perfect hot as fuck. He thought it blended seamlessly with all the rough and dirty things she wanted him to do to her. If it existed for a good reason or was at least directed at one of their enemies, he wouldn’t take issue with her holding a grudge.
He could not tolerate it being held for another of his loves—especially as they were relying on Mindy’s ability to connect the team to replace the team’s standard comms for this mission. They weren’t sure who had what Power on location, and there was a risk of any transmissions being picked up—despite the apparent lack of sensors within or around the building.
Boyd’s Bonds would be there either way, which caused no transmissions. Of course, there was always a chance someone with a niche Power could detect it. However, they couldn’t do anything about that. But they were mitigating risks by using the telepathic channel. This would only work if one of their team members wasn’t blocking the method of communication.
Those two needed to sit down and talk in order to figure this out because Mindy couldn’t just pluck what was wrong out of his angel’s head.
‘You’re right, of course.’ Mindy sighed to him privately. ‘I’ve been meaning to address the issue, but she keeps avoiding me.’
Hope wasn’t the only one participating in the avoidance. It wasn’t like Mindy had made that much of an effort to force the issue.
Mindy sent him another private sigh as the Mindy in his mind pouted on her bed before speaking in their open telepathic channel.
‘We’ll have a heart-to-heart, just us girls as a group, to remove some pressure from her. But it’s clear there is something there the two of us need to talk out. I don’t think she’ll speak openly in front of Boyd about this, though.’ Mindy’s mental voice paused for a long moment. ‘Tinker, would you mind keeping an eye on Boyd during it? We’ll have Laura lead it, acting as a mediator, and I think everyone else should be there. But someone needs to keep an eye on Boyd, and that someone should be you—as the talk would probably just be uncomfortable for you.’
‘I don’t need someone to keep an eye on me.’ Boyd sent the equivalent of a mental eye roll.
‘Fine. Tinker, would you mind distracting Boyd from what will likely be very unpleasant emotions on his Bonds with us?’ Mindy corrected. ‘If any of us even get close to crying, he’s going to have a hard time staying away.’
‘Oh… yeah. That’s probably a good idea,’ Boyd allowed.
‘No. I wouldn’t mind keeping Boyd company while you talk it out,’ Tinker said with a little giggle.
‘We can work out the details when we aren’t in the middle of a mission,’ Boyd rumbled before someone tried to figure out a schedule… or, even worse, started suggesting how Tinker could keep his mind off his other ladies’ emotions. ‘I’ll get Hope’s attention.’
Chapter 22
The big Hero turned and glanced over his shoulder to where his bright and cheery angel waited just down the ridge from him. She was well out of sight from the compound, to hide her subtle glow. She returned an innocent smile, and he sensed her pleased excitement over their Bond at this being their first mission together—especially since she was part of team ‘Hammer’ with him.
