House of Dolls 4: House of Dolls, Book 4
Author: Harmon Cooper Narrated Byneil Hellegers
Date: 2020-03-17 00:00:00+00:00
Description: Hate your job. Start all over. Become an assassin. Roman Martin's life continues to take twists and turns he could have never seen coming. A month after losing his power, Roman is greeted by an exemplar named Orange who has some damning information for him. Later, he's given an ultimatum that forces him to become a government assassin, where he's sent to the Western Province in pursuit of a Centralian fugitive he knows intimately. It's not something Roman is comfortable with doing, but if he hopes to survive and avoid prosecution by his own government, it may be his only choice. Contains matur
Publisher: Tantor Audio

House
of

Dolls IV

By Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2019 by Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2019 Boycott Books

Edited by Allison Erin Wright

Audiobook by Tantor Media, Narrated by Neil Hellegers

www.harmoncooper.com
writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Twitter: @_HarmonCooper
Harmon Cooper’s Patreon

All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Recap

Prologue: Bodega

Chapter One: The Crack on the Ceiling

Chapter Two: Dreams and Questions

Chapter Three: Return

Chapter Four: Surprise Visit

Chapter Five: A Trip to North Lake

Chapter Six: Stories Collide

Chapter Seven: Personal Development Hell

Chapter Eight: Upgrades

Chapter Nine: In Good Hands

Chapter Ten: A Long Time Coming

Chapter Eleven: Streamlined Removal

Chapter Twelve: New Horizons

Chapter Thirteen: Future Plans

Chapter Fourteen: Official

Chapter Fifteen: The Woes of Running a Successful Small Business

Chapter Sixteen: Suited Up

Chapter Seventeen: Room Service

Chapter Eighteen: Raises All Around

Chapter Nineteen: Devil and Meatloaf

Chapter Twenty: And You Will Know Her by the Trail of the Dead

Chapter Twenty-One: Big Mouth, Little Doll

Chapter Twenty-Two: Plummet

Chapter Twenty-Three: Snap

Chapter Twenty-Four: MindLenz

Chapter Twenty-Five: Send in the Dolls

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Last Supper

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Pleasure House

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Room Service

Epilogue: Now or Never

Back of the Book Content

Recap

This is the fourth book in the bestselling House of Dolls series, so if you’ve missed the first few, you can find the links here:

Book One: https://geni.us/HouseofDolls

Book Two: https://geni.us/HouseofDolls2

Book Three: https://geni.us/HouseofDolls3

Child of Chaos (House of Dolls Prequel): https://geni.us/ChildofChaos

Continue for a recap of the third book.

(Contains spoilers!)

The world is known as Centralia, which is also the name of its largest country. Centralia is a heavily populated country, the center of all civilization, with buildings and development as far as the eye can see.

To the west is the aptly named Western Province, a once-popular but currently battle-torn country where proxy wars are fought. To the east is the Eastern Province, which is the poorest country in the world and the producer of the best technologies.

To the north is the Northern Alliance, a country located in the hottest region of the world and whose people are isolationists. To the south is the Southern Alliance, the coldest country in the world, rich in history but very exclusive and backward in many of their views.

Exemplars and non-exemplars make up the world of Centralia. Exemplars are people with known superpowers that have been classified, and each country has its own classification system. Non-exemplars have a propensity for superpowers, but they are half-powered at best. Non-exemplars are treated differently in some of the countries, most notably the Southern Alliance.

In the third book, Roman had his power to animate inanimate objects taken away. Margo was thought to have been killed, only to reappear at her handler’s apartment in the body of one of the dolls. Orange, Margo’s handler, offered to help her. Meanwhile, Kevin barely escaped the battle between Margo and Roman, then decided to leave the country with his two catgirls, Turquoise and Obsidian.

Now, start reading!

-Harmon Cooper

Prologue: Bodega

Roman unpacked the box of cheap wine, placing each bottle on a metal shelf and making sure the labels faced outward. He saw a wisp of dust and picked it up, then dropped it in a trash can near the door.

He wore black, as he normally did, but he was also in a smock, something Roman was required to wear at this particular bodega.

It had been a month since he’d had his power stripped from him, and the powers that be were still deciding if he would be allowed to keep his ability or not.

In the meantime, he was supposed to attend Heroes Anonymous meetings, which he’d skipped altogether, and get a job, which he’d managed to accomplish even if it was somewhat of a lowly position considering Roman had once worked for the Centralian government.

It wasn’t hard work. Aside from his cleaning and restocking duties, there wasn’t much asked of him. But Roman had issues with pride at times, and being discovered working at a convenience store, especially coming off a cushy government job, was the last thing he wanted.

This was why he’d gotten a haircut and chosen a bodega far away from his former place of employment and the condo he’d lived in until Margo had destroyed it.

It was also why he worked the night shift.

It was a quiet neighborhood not far from the rail station, and most of the late-night customers wanted a quick bite to eat or something to drink, preferably wine. Hours would pass with no one entering, Roman allowed to be by himself, sometimes getting lost in his thoughts as he stared out at the streets.

He kept Casper with him, the tiny doll tucked in the front of his smock. Sometimes he would place his hand in there and hold her, remembering what it had been like when she was alive.

When it was especially slow, Roman would imagine himself with his power again.

He would look at the boxes that needed to be stacked or the floor that needed to be mopped and imagine what it would be like to animate everything, to breathe life into things that were internally dead.

Sometimes he would actually try to do it, his hand outstretched, his fingers curled, a vein appearing on the side of his forehead. Nothing.

It was a goddamn shame.

When he’d first started the job and was still getting used to working overnight, Roman had fallen asleep on one of his shifts, dreaming that he was in this very bodega, his power back, Celia and Coma with him.

Masked Coma helped unload some of the boxes while Celia quickly mopped the floor, even though Roman told her he could just have the mop do it.

She insisted, saying it was an honest day’s work. Roman laughed while Casper talked shit from his pocket.

He awoke from the dream when a customer entered, a drunken older woman looking for a late-night pick-me-up.

She tossed money onto the counter, more than necessary, then grabbed two bottles of wine and stumbled out, which somehow felt apropos at the time.

One thing Roman liked about the late shift was seeing the sun come up.

He was so used to seeing it go down and usually not awake when it came up in the morning. It always captured his attention to see the outside change from black to dark blue, morphing to purple and then lapis lazuli, and from there to various shades of orange and yellow.

So there were some benefits to working overnight, and he looked forward to zoning out soon, once he finished restocking the wine.

Roman was breaking down the empty wine box when the door chimed. He looked up to see a man with dark hair enter, dressed impeccably from head to toe.

“Hello,” the man said before Roman could greet him.

“Can I help you find something?”

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” the man asked.

“Probably not,” Roman lied. “I’m from southern Centralia and just got a job up here. I mean, unless you are from the South.” Roman cleared his throat. “You aren’t from the South, are you?”

“No, I’m from the West,” the man said, his dark eyes scanning Roman.

“Nice, I just have a few friends from there. So… can I help you?”

“You know, I’m sorry, but you just look so familiar. I had this friend named Ian, and I believe he looks just like you…”

Roman felt his nerves tense. There was something about the way the man was looking at him that made him feel uneasy.

He also noticed it was becoming harder and harder to breathe.

He took a step away from the man, placing his hand on one of the wine racks and then slowly wrapping his fingers around the neck of one of the bottles.

“Is there something in particular you’re looking for?” Roman asked him again. “And to answer your question, no, that’s not my name.”

“What is your name?”

“Marcus,” Roman said. “Marcus Strong.”

“Is it now?” the man asked as he examined a bag of almonds. “I like that name. It has a ring to it. It sounds like the name of a writer.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Roman said with a casual shrug. “But it’s what my parents gave me. Nothing I can do about it I guess, aside from write,” he said, laughing nervously.

“My name is Orange,” the man told him, “which is also an unconventional name.”

“So you’re from the actual West then, aren’t you? Roman asked, his grip tightening on the wine bottle.

“That I am,” Orange said. “Born and raised, lived through the Western Plague. I was even a soldier, if you can believe that.”

“And you managed to make it here. What kind of visa did you come on?”

Orange tilted his head to the side. “What do you know about visas?”

Roman shook his head. “I had a brother who worked in immigration. That’s why I ask. He was always going off about visa types and whatever. I mean, I know how that stuff works, but it’s not really a big interest to me.”

“I get that.” Orange looked around again, returning his focus to Roman. “Anyway, I just wanted to grab something to snack on.” He placed the bag of almonds on the counter. “I’m glad you’re open.”

Roman started making his way to the counter. “We stay open twenty-four hours a day.”

“What did you say your name was again?” Orange asked.

“Marcus,” Roman said, noticing that the air around him had started to thin again.

He tried to maintain his composure, but as he took the money from the man, Roman felt his legs start to grow weak.

He gasped, and the air refilled his lungs.

“Are you okay?” Orange asked, his dark eyes locked on Roman. “Should I call a teleporter to take you to the hospital?”

“No, that’s not necessary. I just have…” Roman tapped his chest. “Occasional chest pains.”

“Too bad there aren’t any healers around to help you.”

“Healers were before my time,” Roman told him. “It’s too bad, too. They would have done a lot of good around here.”

“That’s for sure,” Orange said as he turned away. He lifted his hand over his shoulder, glancing at Roman as he stepped to the door. “Have a good night. I’ll be seeing you.”

Chapter One: The Crack on the Ceiling

His shift over, Roman took the trolley to the studio apartment the Centralian government had provided him. The trolley was empty aside from a woman with a shaved head reading a romance novel, and she shifted a few seats away from Roman once she saw he had an ankle bracelet on.

He was used to the tracking device by now, definitely tech from the Eastern Province. He didn’t know who was actually tracking him, though. While he hoped it was Ava, his former teacher, he knew it could be anyone.

Even a month later and after plenty of time for reflection, Roman knew he would have still gone after Margo had he been given the choice. And he tried to cancel this thought, just in case there was a telepath in the vicinity hired by the Council to keep tabs on his thoughts.

But it was impossible.

The conviction was too strong, his desire to retrieve Celia’s body more powerful than anything he had felt before.

It saddened him that Ava had found herself in the crosshairs of all this. She was a firecracker, even before one considered her power over fire, and she’d gone to bat for Roman.

So if someone was tracking him, able to come to him in a matter of seconds, he wished it was her.

Roman wanted to apologize.

He wanted to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness, even if he would have done the same thing again.

But he hadn’t heard from Ava in over a month, and he really didn’t know where they would stand regardless of whether he got his power back.

The trolley started to slow; a dinging bell let Roman know his stop was approaching.

As he had before, Roman experienced a momentary sense of dread right when he neared the door of his home.

He wished he was allowed to carry a wrist guard, but if they found him with something like that, it would affect the final decision of the Council. He wanted to stay on their good side. He wanted his goddamn power back.

After quietly unlocking it, Roman kicked the door open as he normally did and stepped aside, waiting for something to fire out at him.

When it didn’t, he quickly shut the door behind him and hoped none of the neighbors had seen him act so oddly.

There was an ugly green couch in the place, and resting on the couch were Roman’s two dolls, Celia and Coma, lifelessly leaning against each other.

Coma was in all black as usual, one of the Gothic Lolita dresses she’d come with, a silver mask on her face. Celia was next to her in a flowing black dress Roman had picked out for her to replace her usual exemplar getup.

He shook his head as he took them in.

Roman took Casper out of the pocket of his jacket and placed her on Coma’s lap.

He moved to the bed on the other side of the room and kicked off his shoes before lying on it, his hands coming behind his head.

Roman got the urge to send a mental message to Ava but suppressed it.

Biting his lip, he turned to his side and looked over at his dolls.

Damn, did he miss them.

He still had people who wanted to see him, most notably Catherine, the Northern Alliance wind user who had been increasingly putting pressure on him to help her with her finances.

Of course, Roman had no money and could no longer counterfeit more, so he expected this relationship to come to an end soon. What he didn’t expect was for his door to blow open and for Catherine to fly inside the room, the door slamming behind her, an agitated look on her face and a bottle of wine in her hand.

“I think I messed up your door,” she said, drunkenly pointing her bottle of wine at it.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked her as he sat up, his feet now on the floor.

“I followed you from the bodega you work at. You didn’t see me in the sky?”

Roman imagined a drunken wind user doing twirls in the air, barely able to maintain her balance. “No.”

Catherine snorted as she looked over at Roman’s dolls. “Because that’s not unsettling…”

“We’ve been over this before,” Roman told her. “They may give me my power back, and when they do, I will reanimate them.”

“What do they have that a real woman doesn’t?” she asked, bending her ankles so she could stumble out of her heels.

Catherine approached Roman and placed her wine bottle on his nightstand.

“Did you miss me?” she whispered, her lips pressing into a pout.

“It was a strange night,” Roman said.

“How so?”

She placed a hand on his shoulder, and a gust of air lifted Roman off his feet to redeposit him on his bed. Catherine threw herself on top of him, straddling his waist.

“It was pretty quiet aside from this one guy that came in kind of late. I thought he was going to do something to me.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t work the night shift, baby,” Catherine said with a hiccup.

“It’s better that way—less chance of running into someone I know.”

Catherine lowered her face to Roman’s, her lips just above his.

“He was definitely an exemplar,” Roman said, recalling the dark-haired man. “I don’t know what his power was, but there was something affecting the oxygen around me.”

“I can do that too,” Catherine said, sucking in air, and Roman’s breath left his body.

He was now unable to breathe. Catherine smiled down at him as she continued to suck in air over his face.

She sat up and took the clip out of her white hair to release it, the red strand at the side bouncing above her right shoulder.

She placed her hands under her breasts and brought them together. “Do you think they’re big enough?” she asked, looking down at them.

“They’re fine,” Roman told her once he could breathe again. “Perfect.”

Catherine was a petite woman, yet she struggled with body image. She was constantly asking Roman questions about her size and how she stacked up to other people.

“Are you sure?”

She took off her red leather jacket and threw it on the floor, her hands coming back to her tits.

“Why would I lie about something like that?”

“So I’ll suck your dick,” she said with a giggle.

A grin stretched across Roman’s face.

He had noticed from the beginning that he and Catherine barely had any chemistry, but that didn’t stop her from constantly trying to seduce him, usually by saying dirty little things that often took Roman off guard, like the times she’d told him to come on her lips or put his finger in her ass.

That part he enjoyed, but he really had nothing else in common with the woman, and they didn’t have anything to talk about aside from sex and her money woes.

“I think they’re small,” she said, squeezing them again.

Catherine reached her hand back to try to unzip her dress but couldn’t reach the zipper.

“Need help?” Roman asked.

“Such a gentleman,” she said, turning and re-straddling his waist. “Then again, I’ve promised to suck your dick.”

She placed her hands on the front of his pants, squeezing his penis and testicles as he unzipped the back of her dress.

“Have you ever had sex in the air?”

“I have not, but I don’t think it’s the best idea for the daytime.”

“It’s pretty fun,” she said, blowing him a kiss. “I’ve only done it once, but he seemed to enjoy it.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Roman didn’t know how experienced Catherine actually was. At times she seemed like she knew what she was doing, but other times it seemed like Roman was the second or possibly the first guy she’d ever been with.

She scooted her knees back, bending forward and unzipping Roman's pants, then taking his cock in her mouth even though it was only half erect.

He felt her teeth on it for a moment, but then she let up.

Catherine started making loud slurping sounds, something that had thrown Roman off the first time she had given him a blow job.

He didn’t know where she had picked this up, and at first it had sounded a little strange, but now he was used to it. Now it sort of turned him on.

She kept at it for a moment, then pressed herself back. Her wind power came over her shoulders and swirled around his cock and balls, which felt incredible.

He placed his hands on Catherine’s ass, lifting up the ends of her skirt and massaging her cheeks. She was wearing a thong, and she moaned as Roman started to pull the string away.

She turned her ass toward him, Roman easily slipping inside her due to her wetness. With her back to Roman, her hands on his thighs, Catherine began to move up and down. She looked at him over her shoulder as a strand of hair fell in her face.

Roman stared at the ceiling for a moment, seeing the same crack in it that he’d noticed before.

If he had his ability to animate inanimate objects, he would smooth over the crack to fix the eyesore.

This thought caused him to smile. As Catherine bounced on his cock, Roman silently laughed that he’d become infatuated with the stray crack on the ceiling.

Even as she continued to fuck him, he glanced at his two dolls, which were still parked on his couch.

Roman remembered what it had been like for them to have life, and suddenly he felt guilty for doing what he was doing in front of them.

Trying to get back into the action, Roman placed his hands on Catherine’s ass and moved her to the side, then took a position on top after she arched her back some.

“Pull my hair,” she said as he continued to move in and out of her. “And fuck me harder—make me come.”

Roman did as he was told, now just going through the motions, trying to return to the situation at hand and failing.

He willed himself to orgasm in an effort to be done with it, but it wasn’t happening, at least not until Catherine began whispering for him to finish, her voice growing louder and louder as the friction finally started to rub him in the right way.

It happened eventually, and there was nothing glorious about it aside from the burst of euphoria that spread through them, lasting for less than ten seconds and leaving as quickly as it had come.

He slowly pulled out of her. Catherine rolled to the side and headed to the restroom, cupping herself as she walked.

Now on his back, Roman looked up at the crack in the ceiling and curled his fingers, wishing he still had his power.

“It could be worse,” he reminded himself, but that didn’t stop him from feeling empty in some way.

“What’s that?” Catherine called from the bathroom.

“Nothing.”

“Sheesh, that was a lot of jizz,” Catherine said as she returned to the bed and cuddled up next to him, still in her skirt. “Did you like that?” She asked, then kissed Roman’s cheek. “Want me to suck your dick some more?”

“It was fine,” he said. “I’m just tired. It was a long night.”

“What do you want me to do differently?” she asked, a hint of guilt in her voice.

“Nothing. Everything was fine. It’s just been a long night.”

“You should just be honest with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“What you really want to do with me? Let’s…” She looked away from him.

“What?” he asked, reaching for her. Catherine refused to look at Roman, not until he pulled her closer to his body.

“If you want to try different things, or want me to wear something sexy or whatever, I am into it. We can do crazier stuff, if that’s what you’re into. I haven’t really tried much, but we can.”

“Yeah, um, I guess I should say the same for you,” Roman told her. “If you want me to try something else, or… Well, I don’t think I can wear something sexy for you…”

She laughed. “That’d be funny.”

“But you should just be clear with me about what you want and we’ll make it happen.”

“I am being clear with you.”

“I feel like with sex, people are rarely clear with each other.”

“In an unhealthy relationship, yes.”

Roman took a deep breath. “I’m not saying that’s what this is.”

“Sometimes it feels that way.”

“I’m just going through a lot right now. You understand that.”

“And I’m not? I still barely have any money, and I…” She turned away from Roman again.

“What is it?”

“I know it might not be a good idea for me to return home, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll stay in Centralia.”

“I understand,” he said.

“Do you want me to stay here?” she asked, her voice quivering in vulnerability.

Roman looked over at his dolls again, and from there back to Catherine.

“I don’t know what I want anymore.”

Rather than get angry at him, which Roman assumed she would do, Catherine merely let out a sigh. “There’s something we can definitely agree on.”

“Let’s just get some rest and continue to work things out. I’m glad you came over.”

“Are you really?”

“Sure.”

“You still want me to suck your dick?”

“It’s fine.”

Chapter Two: Dreams and Questions

Roman pulled a wall of concrete from the floor, blocking Ava’s fireball. He lowered the ceiling, trying to take a swipe at her with a long tentacle made from building material, but the fire user zipped around the gym to avoid his attacks.

He’d already given some of his power to Coma, the masked doll on his left conjuring up something fierce.

That something came in the form of dozens of spheres made of concrete, which she lobbed at Ava.

Roman’s teacher spun in the air, dipping down to the ground as if she were diving into a pool of fire. The plumes blasted across the room, and Roman was barely able to get out of the way in time.

He now stood on a raised platform, the ceiling lowering and forming steps for him. Roman ran along them as he advanced upon Ava.

He saw Coma doing the same, the ends of her black dress flapping as she moved faster than he could.

Her hands were wrapped in steel now, which she used to throw a few fists at Ava.

The fire user flashed behind Coma, slapping her hand on the doll’s back and igniting her body.

Roman felt a heavy weight in his heart. He also felt disappointed that Ava had gone for such a cheap move.

Then again, in a fight against a real elementalist, this was something he would have to be prepared for.

Roman was just about to reach Ava when she fell to the ground, the floor of the gym spilling over her and pressing her body flat.

Panic rose in Roman’s chest.

He hadn’t been the one to attack her, which meant that Margo…

Roman glanced left and right, spotting Abby standing at the far end of the gym. The dreamwalker wore a trench coat, high-waisted black pants, and a bolo tie.

As he lowered to the ground, Roman started to understand what this really was—that none of this was real.

He met the woman with hazel eyes and a masculine jawline, and his first response was a shake of his head.

“Look who’s happy to see me,” Abby the dreamwalker said, offering him a pleasant smile.

“Sorry,” Roman told her as he approached the woman, the background fizzling behind him. The two of them now stood in Mystery Hills Park, where Celia was buried.

“How’s Nadine?” Roman asked. “I’ve been trying to send her messages, but…”

“I’m not here to talk about Nadine. Not today.”

“Then what are you here for?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about you, Roman, and I know the last month has been very hard on you. I am a psychometrist by trade who specializes in dreamwalking, as you know. So I’m not able to tell you your future or give you any hope in that regard, but I do think—and this is just a personal belief—that good things are on the horizon.”

“You think I’ll get a raise at the bodega?”

She laughed, motioning for Roman to walk with her. “No, you’re too terrible of an employee to be worthy of a raise.”

“Damn, I really could use a new flat.”

“You mean the one the government is already providing you for free isn’t good enough?”

“Come see for yourself in person one day. But no, it’s a basement apartment, one large room and a bathroom with a paper-thin door. Not that I can complain; at least I’m not in jail.”

Abby stopped and turned to him, the stars sparkling above her. “I will make you one promise. If you’re ever incarcerated, I will pull you completely into a dream. You can live any way you’d like here, but just be aware that it will turn you into a vegetable in the real world. I would be able to sustain it as long as I’m alive, so hopefully I would live past you, your body would die, and you would just forever exist within a dream.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I’ve done it for others. So I suppose there is some hope there, that you could become a vegetable and live in a dream,” she said, smiling again.

Roman smirked. “Yes, some hope.”

“Actually, I brought you here today to spend some time with Celia. I thought you’d like that.”

“You did what?” Roman asked, his limbs tingling.

“It isn’t the real Celia, clearly, but it is pretty close considering she’ll be constructed of all the memories you have of her. Obviously, I wanted to get your permission before I called her here.”

Roman gulped. “Are you serious?”

“I wouldn’t show up in your dreams if I wasn’t.”

“Please, I would just like to speak to her, to see her…”

Abby stepped aside. A blistering barrage of light started to form a cocoon in front of her, and Celia eventually stepped out. The beautiful redhead saw Roman and immediately went to him, collapsing in his arms, Roman already sobbing as he hugged her.

“It’s you, it’s you,” he kept saying. “Celia.”

“Roman,” she whispered.

He pressed himself away from her, both hands on her shoulders. “How are you? How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine,” she said. Abby started to back away and, before he could wave goodbye to her, she was gone.

“Celia…”

“It’s so nice to be at the park,” she said, taking Roman’s hand and turning. The sky brightened as the sun came up and a cool breeze moved through the trees.

“You always liked this park,” he reminded her.

“It’s good to get out into nature, to remember where we all came from, not the big city.”

“Agreed.”

“How was work today?” she asked as they walked.

“I don’t want to talk about work.”

“Don’t be so defensive about it,” she said with a playful squeeze of his hand. “Just tell me how it was. It’s good to get things off your chest.”

“Work was work.”

“So it wasn’t that bad?”

“A strange guy came in, but other than that it was the same old bodega stuff. Put up product, rotate things, that sort of work.”

“You weren’t at the immigration office?”

“Sure, I was at the immigration office,” Roman said, realizing the limitations of this lucid dream.

“And how was Kevin?”

“He’s the same as always. A little annoying but quiet, keeping to himself.”

“And Selena? She still causing trouble for you?”

Roman shook his head. “No, they sent her for retraining. Hopefully they’ll just keep her there.”

Celia laughed. “That would be great, wouldn’t it?”

“It would.”

“Let’s walk to those trees over there,” she said, leading him along a dirt path.

“We could just lie here,” Roman told her, gesturing toward a patch of grass.

“Sure,” she said, and as Roman looked at the ground, he waved his hand over it and the grass flattened. He noticed he was wearing a jacket, so he took it off, then took control of the fabric and made a blanket for them to sit on.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Celia said as she took off her shoes and sat on the blanket.

“It’s a new trick I learned.”

The ground began to rumble, the dream slipping away.

Roman reached out for Celia and was immediately yanked upward toward the sky, everything swirling around him as the sound of his own screams met his ears.

Roman blinked his eyes open to find himself back in his flat, Catherine returning from the restroom and settling next to him. He was about to curse when a mental message came in from the last person he was expecting to contact him.

I will be at your place in five minutes.

“Hey, good morning, you’ve got to go.”

Roman lightly tapped Catherine on the shoulder, and the white-haired wind user blinked her eyes open.

“W-what?”

“My sponsor is coming. It’s a long story, but basically, I could be in trouble if they see anyone else here.”

“Really?” she asked as she pressed herself up. Catherine had a dazed look on her face, her hair a mess. “You’ve never mentioned that before.”

“It never came up.”

She was still in the dress she’d worn when she’d come to Roman’s place, and as she slipped out of bed, she straightened her hands over the front of her outfit. Her ass cheeks peeked out of the bottom of the skirt as she did so.

“I should have taken my clothes off,” she said as she put her jacket on. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It didn’t cross my mind.” Roman was already at his wardrobe, changing shirts and pants. As he moved across the room toward the bathroom, he ran his hand through his hair, trying to fix it.

“Are they coming right now?” Catherine asked, sitting down again.

“I’m sorry, you’ve got to go,” Roman told her, immediately coming to Catherine’s side. “I hope you don’t think I’m trying to kick you out.”

She squinted at him. “But you kind of are…”

“These are real serious people. I mean, they took away my fucking superpower, so I’m trying to be on best behavior because…” Roman buried his head in his hand. “I know I’ve said this before, but I really want my power back. To be given something like that and then have it taken away is just…”

“I know, I know,” Catherine said, coming to his side.

“And then I can also get you money.”

“I know…”

“You are incredible,” he told her, his hand dropping to her ass. “I’m sorry for asking you to leave, for…” Roman took a deep breath. “For being myself. I’m sorry for being myself.”

“Who else would you be?” she asked with a chuckle.

“Something else, someone else. Anyway, I’ll spare you a running monologue of what I’m feeling right now. Please leave, and we’ll meet soon.”

“I’ve already called a teleporter,” she said with a yawn, and as the words left her lips, Roman noticed a powdery scent in the air.

He turned to see bits of particles falling from the ceiling to slowly form a man in the typical Centralian teleportation outfit, which meant this was from a regulated service.

“Bye, Roman,” Catherine said as she stepped forward, slowly turning to particles herself and then disappearing in a matter of moments.

Once they were gone, Roman walked over to the space where they’d just been standing. There had been no disturbance, even if it had looked like the man’s dust had fallen from the ceiling.

After he was dressed, he stepped into the bathroom to fix his white hair and wash his face, and not a moment too soon.

Roman heard a knock at the door and, after taking a quick look around his bedroom to make sure it didn’t look like he’d had sex last night, he answered it.

“Ava,” he said to the redhead who went by the exemplar name of Plume. Her hair was in a bun, her black eyes all but hollow as she looked at Roman. He heard a bark and glanced down to see Bonbon, her white lapdog.

“Roman.”

“Hi, Bonbon,” he said, crouching to pet the dog.

She barked and glanced up at her owner, then looked back at Roman as she came in for more pets.

“Is this visit for pleasure?” Roman asked her, instantly feeling stupid for phrasing the question that way.

“I’m not getting any pleasure out of this,” she told him.

“You know what I mean.” For a moment, he couldn’t make eye contact with her. Every time he tried, his head would gradually tilt away so he was looking just past her.

“I see things are…” Ava looked into his home, at his two dolls sitting on the couch with Casper tucked between them. “About the same.”

“I’m just doing what you—I mean, what the Council and the Centralian government—asked me to do. I’m waiting to hear the verdict on my case, to know if I will get my power back. So, no, it’s not pretty,” he said, lifting his hand at his apartment, “but I’m trying to keep my head down.”

“Do you mind if I come in?”

Bonbon barked and ran in a little circle around Ava’s feet.

“By all means. I…” Roman swallowed hard. “I can move the dolls.”

“That won’t be necessary. I won’t be sitting.”

“Sure,” Roman said as he opened the door wide, allowing Ava and her dog to step inside.

His teacher took a look around the space, and her lips started to purse. “Are you holding up okay?” she asked, her emotions slipping out.

“I’m fine,” Roman said softly. “I just…”

“You just what?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” she said firmly, sensing what he was about to say. “They want to interrogate you again. That’s why I’m here, to get you.”

“I understand.”

“There is a gap in your memory regarding a trip you made to the Eastern Province. This is the timeline they’re interested in. Do you recall having a portion of your memory erased?”

“I’ve already told you, I don’t. I know why I went to the East, but I don’t remember what happened there. I went to help reunite the, um, spiritual and physical body of a Type IV, Class C&F exemplar from the Southern Alliance who could use the Soul Speed ability. That’s really all I know.”

“Then they are going to be disappointed. Are you ready?”

“Ava…”

She turned away from him.

“Ava, I’m serious. I have…”

“Please, Roman, not now.”

“No, I’ve never been able to say these things to you. I just want you to know that…”

A flash followed by a percussive bang signaled that a teleporter had arrived. The woman had dreadlocks in a ponytail and a pierced nose.

“Not now, Roman,” Ava said as she turned to the teleporter.

The three of them and Bonbon appeared in the hallway of what Roman recognized as the government building. Everything was white, and there were gold-framed pictures on the wall of exemplars. The place was well maintained yet stark in a very bureaucratic way.

Bonbon barked.

“Is she supposed to be here?” Roman asked.

“No one will say anything.” A wry smile spread across Ava’s face. “If they know what’s good for them.”

“Great…” Roman said, taking a look around.

“Please sit here. They will call you when they are ready.”

Ava motioned to a bench against the wall, one Roman hadn’t seen when he’d initially scanned the area. And for a split second, he thought about animating the bench, making it a little bit more comfortable, only to remember he no longer had that power.

Shaking his head, Roman took a seat and waited for Ava to sit next to him.

She never did.

The fire user stood before him, the look on her face alternating between disappointment and apprehension. She paced for a moment, and Bonbon followed her back and forth.

“You can sit,” Roman started to tell her.

“I’m fine.”

“About what I was trying to say back at my flat…”

“Roman, please, not here.”

A man stepped out of a room wearing a dark outfit with gold trim. He was clean shaven with his long brown hair combed back, a crispness to his look.

Roman blinked twice, trying to recall where he’d seen the man.

It dawned on him at that moment that he had been part of the Centralian Intelligence Agency group that had come to check out his powers, one of the people who had planned to recruit Roman before he’d gone after Margo.

“Roman,” the man said, nodding him into the room. Rather than reply, Roman simply followed the man, trying to recall if he’d ever told Roman his name.

They came to a room with a round table and a large window on one side. Two women in similar outfits were seated on the other side along with an additional man. Everyone wore similar gear, black with a bit of gold trim, all aside from a curvy woman standing in the corner who had a long curl of blue hair in her face.

Roman felt the tendrils of a telepath immediately.

It was as if a delicate hand had softly grazed against the back of his skull. Roman immediately clenched his jaw, silencing his thoughts.

The woman in the corner looked at him, tilting her head. The curl of hair in her face fell to the side as he sat, Ava taking a seat near him.

Four members of Centralia’s most elite intelligence agency, plus a telepath?

Roman had a feeling this was going to be a long session.

“So, we’ll start from the beginning,” the man who had greeted him said. “By the way, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Rafner. This is Scott, Jess, and Naomi. Miranda, whom you have already clearly recognized as a telepath, is here to aid us in getting to the truth.”

Roman lifted his hand and offered a subtle wave to the five people. “I’m Roman.”

“We are aware, Mr. Martin,” Rafner said. “I suppose you know why you are here, yes?”

“He does,” Miranda the telepath said.

“You’re going to ask me questions about what happened in the Eastern Province, and I’m going to tell you that I don’t remember. To make it easier: all I know is that I went there to help someone, I returned, and…”

Roman took a deep breath in, recalling everything that had happened after he’d returned from the East, from Harper’s death to his inevitable fight against Margo.

“And the reason you don’t recall any of this,” Rafner continued, “is because you had your mind wiped. Plain and simple. It was wiped by someone with true skill, someone who really knew how to blur mental imagery and disrupt the memory process. This leads us to believe that the wiping was done by someone from the Eastern Province, perhaps one of the spies living in our country, perhaps someone associated with Nadine Under.”

“I do not recall who did it, or if it was done to me,” Roman said honestly.

Rafner looked at the telepath, who nodded. The woman came forward, swaying her hips as she approached Roman. She lightly placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled down at him. “This may hurt.”

Roman screamed.

He slammed his hands on the table, his head down, his brain on fire, his thoughts radioactive.

He dug his fingers into the table as a telepathic scalpel slipped through his mind, triggering a migraine the likes of which he had never experienced before.

He tried to bring his eyes open, tried to will away the pain, but he couldn’t. His face hurt, his teeth ground, his heart rate increased.

The telepath let up.

“Fuck you,” Roman managed to whisper, still squinting, spit dribbling from his lips to the table.

The telepath smiled at Roman as he hit the table again, his brain boiling inside his skull, his thoughts eviscerated, his memory starting to unravel.

Roman could see Celia reaching out to him, Coma on the periphery, Margo coming for him, steel spiraling up her arms as she formed a giant blade.

“Noooo!”

Roman slammed his hand against the table. The table came to life, its legs splaying and melting into the floor, the chairs uprooted.

Roman started to press off the table, his face red. The telepath took a step back, not paying attention to the fact that Roman’s clothing had formed a long tendril, seconds away from wrapping around her throat.

All Roman could see now was Celia, all he could hear were her screams, all he knew was that he had to fight for his life—that he had to get out of here.

Barely able to focus, Roman threw his arms forward.

The floor lifted into a wave, slamming the four spies into the sidewall. The floor instantly liquefied and then solidified again, trapping them.

Roman stood, his hands trembling at his side, energy swelling through him.

He turned to the telepath, his eyes narrowing on her as the tendril of his clothing started to choke the woman.

She tried to knock him over with a telekinetic wave. A shield lifted from the ground just in time, shattering her attack.

“Roman,” a voice said to his right, and Roman instantly recognized that it belonged Ava.

He turned to look at her, everything coming back to him at once.

Roman lowered his hand. “It’s… back?”

The tendril of his clothing dropped from the telepath’s neck, the woman gasping as the floor on the other side of the room slowly trickled away from the spy team.

“How?” Ava said, coming forward.

“I…” He ran his hand through his hair and turned to the man named Rafner, who was now aiming his wrist guard at Roman.

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” he said, and the tone of his voice indicated he had no idea how he was supposed to handle this.

It was theoretically impossible; Roman had never heard of a case of a non-exemplar gaining their power after puberty.

Even as he looked at his hands and then glanced back to the man standing in front of him on the other side of collapsed table, he still didn’t accept it was possible.

But rather than call for guards, rather than shoot Roman or have a telepath do something to his mind that would knock him out, Rafner grinned.

“Again.”

“Excuse me?” Roman asked.

“Try to use your power again.”

Roman glanced from the four people standing in front of him to the telepath and finally stopped at Ava. Bonbon ran into the room barking, and Roman started to slowly lift the ground beneath her.

He formed a ramp. The dog stopped and turned back around, trying to go the other way only so Roman could form an incline again.

The dog tried to jump off the structure Roman had created. Roman merely lifted another piece of the floor, preventing Bonbon from ever making it to the ground.

“Your powers are back…” Ava said, a flash behind her eyes as a fire ignited and settled.

Roman closed his eyes for a moment, clenching his fist at his side. Finally, he opened them and looked across the room at Rafner. “If you try to take my power away from me again, I will kill you,” he said, instantly aware of the fact that it wasn’t Rafner who had taken his power.

“Come again?” the man started to ask, his hand coming to his chest.

“I’m holding your heart right now—all of your hearts,” Roman said, a dark expression crossing his face. “You’re all exemplars; you know what it’s like to have power, but you don’t know what it’s like to have your powers taken from you. I know both worlds. You will not take this power from me.”

“What makes you think that was what we were planning to do?” Rafner said, his throat quivering. He took in a slow breath to regain his composure.

“I don’t know anything about what happened in the East. Stop interrogating me about it. Now, if you don’t mind, I have somewhere to be.”

Rather than walk out the door, Roman turned to his left. A doorway formed in the wall and pressed through each of the rooms until he saw the light of the setting sun.

He knew it was a dramatic way to go, but he felt more empowered than he had ever felt before. In a way, he was daring them to try to do something.

Roman stepped into the next room. With a flick of his wrist, his ankle bracelet fell to the floor, melting into a puddle of plastic and metal.

Just as he was making his way into the following room, Ava called after him.

“Where are you going?”

“To the bodega.” He paused, turning back to her. “I’m supposed to come in early tonight to cover part of someone’s shift.”

She shook her head. “Are you serious right now?”

Roman bit his lip. “I don’t want to be interrogated anymore. I just want to be left alone.”

“You have your power back,” she started to say, looking over her shoulder at Rafner, whom Roman could no longer see.

“Aware,” Roman said, “but…”

“You don’t have to go back.”

“I just need some time to think. You know how to get in touch with me.”

And with that, Roman turned away again, walking through every room until he came to an exit point of the facility.

From there, he made it to a tall fence, where he formed a hole large enough for him to walk through. He came to a street, not yet able to recognize which part of Centralia he was in.

It didn’t matter.

The teleporter came as soon as he called for her and took Roman back to his apartment.

Chapter Three: Return

Roman stood before his dolls, his hands twitching.

“Coma.” As her name left his lips, the masked doll in the black dress came alive, a smile forming on her face.

“You did it,” she said, running to Roman and jumping into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him and Roman took a step back, surprised at her reaction.

“I’m so happy to see you,” she said, hugging him, resting her head between his neck and his shoulder.

“I’m so happy to see you as well,” he told her in a trembling voice. He swallowed hard, eventually letting Coma down and turning his attention to Celia.

“How do you think she will react?” he asked.

Coma shrugged, a smile still on her face.

“Celia.”

The redheaded doll came alive and immediately brought her hand to her face. She started to breathe heavily as if she were going to cry, and Roman went to her instead of Celia coming to him.

He helped her stand, the doll wobbly at first, her knees shaking.

They strengthened relatively quickly. Celia lifted her arms around Roman’s shoulders and pulled him in, kissing him.

“You did it,” she said. “You brought us back.”

“I still can’t believe it…” Roman felt like he was viewing all of this from the outside. He started to feel lightheaded and then sucked in a deep breath, realizing he hadn’t been breathing.

“How did you do it?” Celia asked.

“I’ll explain it to all three of you,” Roman said, looking at his final doll. “Casper.”

“It is about damn time,” Casper said mere seconds after blinking her eyes open. She stood, placing both hands on her sides. She was in a black outfit, her cat-ear headband squarely on her head. “Ewww… Don’t tell me we’ve been on this couch in this creepy apartment this entire time?”

“You have.”

Still feeling lightheaded, Roman moved to the green sofa. Casper made way for him and Celia immediately sat in his lap.

“How long have we been out?” Casper asked.

“A month.”

“Wow,” said Coma, who now stood by the side of the couch. Her hand naturally fell on Roman’s arm and squeezed it.

He shook his head, still not able to process that he actually had his power back, that he was his true self again.

And literally.

This time he didn’t need someone else’s power to enact his own. It had still taken being tortured by a telepath to spur his ability, but at least it was his now, something that couldn’t be taken away from him.

“And you didn’t even change our clothing?” Casper asked.

“He changed my dress,” Celia said in her happy voice.

“And that’s how we know he’s a pervert,” Casper said, laughing.

“How is it that you have only been alive for a minute and I’m already ready to deactivate you?”

Casper blew raspberries at Roman. “You know you missed me.”

“I did,” he said, extending his hand to her.

Casper ran up his hand to his shoulder. She took a few steps over to his cheek and kissed him.

“Don’t get used to it. And how did you do it anyway? Did your shitty government finally give you your power back?” the tiny doll asked.

Roman explained what had happened, how his power had just come to him and how he had nearly leveled the room.

Celia gasped. “And they let you go?”

“I think they knew better than to force me to stay,” Roman told her. “If anyone had tried to do anything in that room, I would have exploded all their hearts and brains.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” Casper said, now sitting on Roman’s shoulder.

“You know what I mean. They were attempting to extract information from me, information I do not have.”

“What do they want to know?” Celia asked, moving even closer to Roman.

“They want to know what happened in the East, and to be honest, I don’t know.”

“You don’t remember?” Coma asked.

“You hardly gave me life over there, and even I can remember what happened,” Casper commented.

“Is that so?”

Roman squinted for a minute, trying to recall what could have possibly happened.

The days he had spent in the Eastern Province were a complete blur, as if he had been intoxicated the entire time. He had a strange feeling that knowing the information wouldn’t help very much, which was odd.

His normal instinct would have been to ask Casper to tell him what had happened. But instead, he suppressed this urge.

“So, you got your powers back and you immediately came back here to get your plastic posse, not to be confused with your plastic pussy…”

“Plastic pussy?” Coma asked, shaking her head.

“You never did appreciate my humor!”

“I’m going to work now,” Roman told them, “and you three can come with me.”

“Where do you work?” Celia asked, a sparkle in her eyes as she looked at Roman.

“At a bodega.”

“Ha! You went from being a relatively well-paid administrator to a guy who works at a bodega?” Casper clucked.

“Unfortunately, yes. And tonight will be my last night. But I told them I would come in to help out, and I’m going to actually stick to my word this time. Besides, with my powers, most of the tasks I have to do will be relatively easy. Also, I need to get some money from the register so I can replicate it.”

“Figures. I knew there was something in it for you.” Casper walked down his shoulder and slid into the palm of his hand. From there, she walked across Celia’s lap and then Roman’s, making her way to the armrest.

“You can be my ride,” she told Coma.

The doll in the Gothic Loli dress grumbled as she placed Casper in her pocket.

Coma, Casper, and Celia hung out in front of the bodega while Roman performed his shift-changing duties.

As his dolls waited outside, Roman explained to a coworker named Jasmine that this would be his last night, something that took her off guard.

“I thought you liked it here,” the dark-haired woman said as she finished balancing out the till.

“At the bodega?”

She nodded, and in that nod Roman saw someone who had never worked a different type of job before.

It wasn’t easy getting a position in the Centralian government. And strangely enough, the work at the bodega was actually more time- and labor-intensive than his former desk job.

But Jasmine would never know this.

She would continue working at this bodega until she worked at another one, or perhaps she would transition to a different type of retail job altogether.

“Things have changed,” Roman said.

“Have you told Paul?”

“I’ll leave him a message in the morning.”

Jasmine walked over to Roman, a hesitant grin on her face. There were times when she looked gorgeous, and other times Roman felt absolutely no attraction to her. She was a few years younger than him, and while she was nice, she was also incredibly…

Normal.

After what Roman had been through, normal just wasn’t going to cut it.

“We can go get a drink sometime,” his soon-to-be-former coworker said, finally making eye contact with him.

“Sure,” Roman lied. And he was just about to let her step away with that lie when he spoke up: “Actually, I don’t want to lead you on or anything. I am in a…” Roman gulped. “Serious relationship right now. So I don’t know if a drink will ever happen. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

Jasmine breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s fine. I figured you’d say something like that. Good luck with whatever you do in the future. You know how to get in touch with me.”

Roman waved at her as she left, her bag tucked under her arm.

He felt cruel for the way he had just rejected her, but then he remembered what had happened to Harper—hell, what had happened to almost every woman he’d met since getting his power.

Jasmine would never know it, but Roman had just done her a huge favor.

Coma and Celia entered the bodega, Casper tucked in the front of Coma’s dress. The tiny doll hopped to the ground and climbed up an energy-bar advertisement near the register.

The advertisement featured Mister Fist, the strongman grinning amidst a cloud of mist with the energy bars all in slots along his chest.

“What a job,” Casper said as she sat on the corner of the register, crossing one leg over the other. “And with all the money you must be making here, you can totally afford new clothing for us. Thanks, Flesh Daddy!”

“Flesh Daddy?” Roman shook his head at the doll.

“How can I help?” Celia came to Roman and lightly placed her hand on his arm. “What needs to be done? It looks like the floor could be mopped. Would you mind if I mopped the floor?”

“I can unpack the boxes back there,” Coma said, nodding her chin at a stack of boxes near the walk-in cooler.

“Sure,” Roman said. “And I appreciate the help.”

Over the next couple hours, Roman and his two life-sized dolls took care of all his nightly duties, Casper commenting along the way.

He thought about deanimating her a few times but decided against it, glad to finally have the company. Glad to finally have his life back.

Roman sort of expected Ava to send him a mental message, but one never came through, and he wondered how this was going to play out. He kept expecting the Centralian government to show up in some form or another. Perhaps they would send Mister Fist and his crew, or maybe they’d send another group, like Team Saint.

There really was no telling.

At a little after midnight, the Western Province man named Orange came into the bodega, a leather briefcase strung over his shoulder.

Celia and Coma were both in the back, Casper keeping quiet in Roman’s pocket as per his instructions.

The man with dark hair took a look around the place, nodding. “You’ve finished some of your work early tonight,” he commented.

“It’s my last day,” Roman told him.

“Is that so?” Orange stepped up to the register and took a long, hard look at Roman. “I suppose I should get right to it, then. You told me previously that your name was Marcus Strong, but I happen to have documents here telling me otherwise.”

Orange drummed his fingers on his leather bag.

“I am who I am,” Roman said, feeling Casper move in the pocket of his smock.

“Is that so?”

Roman’s breath was suddenly cut short.

He glared at the man from the Western Province.

“So it is you.” Orange brought his hand to his own chest, his mouth agape and the color draining from his face. It was interesting to see how quickly he went from shock to acceptance.

“Please leave,” Roman said, suddenly able to breathe again.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d let go of my heart,” Orange told him with a hint of rage in his voice. Coma and Celia came out of the backroom, Coma immediately lifting her fists and Celia getting behind her. “And these must be your dolls.”

Roman gritted his teeth. “I don’t know what the fuck you want with me, but this won’t end well for you.”

“I don’t think you know who I am.”

“I don’t give a fuck who you are.”

“I’m the only thing keeping you alive right now,” Orange said, his eyes narrowing on Roman. “And this is the last time I’m going to warn you. Release my heart.”

Roman let out a deep breath, releasing the hold he had on Orange’s heart and ribcage.

“There, that’s better.” Orange ran his hands over the front of his black jacket. “And just so you know, my ability is faster than yours.”

“Your ability to manipulate oxygen?”

Orange nodded. “Do you want to try me out? Or can I go ahead and tell you why I’m here?”

“Make it quick,” Roman said as Casper peeked out of his pocket.

Orange looked from Roman to this tiny doll and back again. “How fascinating. You know, you really are just like her when it comes to creativity. Well, not just like her, unless your dolls are actually corpses.”

“You know… Margo?” Roman asked, his fists tensing at his sides.

Seeing Roman tense up also caused Coma to tense, the combat doll again bringing her fists to the ready and nodding to Roman, letting him know he could transfer some power to her and she would take this guy out from behind if need be.

“Margo, Margo, Margo,” Orange said with a shake of his head. “The woman has become the bane of my existence.”

“She’s dead.”

He smirked. “Is that what you think?”

“I was there when it happened.”

Orange took a look around. “Is there a better place we can talk than this shitty bodega?”

“I need to finish my shift.”

“What do you care about finishing your shift?”

Roman nodded, seeing his point almost immediately. “I just wanted to do the right thing.”

Orange shook his head. “Let non-exemplars do the right thing; your priorities are all wrong. I saw a small wine bar two blocks away. Let’s go there. Your dolls can run the bodega while we talk.”

“We’re going with you, Roman,” Celia said.

Coma nodded, and Casper simply kicked her heel back, letting Roman know that she agreed with Celia.

“Then everyone can come. I don’t care. But not here. We will not have this conversation here. So lock up, and I will meet you outside.”

Orange turned away from Roman and paused at the door of the bodega before stepping out, a gust of wind blowing past him and whipping up the ends of his dark jacket.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Coma asked, her red eyes flaring up behind her black mask.

“We should see what he has to say.”

“I don’t like that motherfucker,” Casper added. “But I agree with Roman. If he knows Margo, we should at least hear him out.”

Roman locked up and met Orange outside, his dolls with him, Coma never taking her eyes off the man from the Western Province.

The two walked to the wine bar that Orange had suggested, a hole-in-the-wall type of place that was dimly lit with a sweetsick smell wafting through the air. Nothing was said until they took a booth at the back of the bar, a bottle of wine set between them. Orange readily poured up two glasses.

“Cheers,” he said, tilting his glass toward Roman.

“Why am I here?”

“Roman, I’m about to tell you something that may change the way you look at yourself. It could also affect relationships with people you care about, it may upset you, and it will definitely shock you.”

“That’s fine.”

“Do you understand why you have the power you have?” Orange asked, taking another sip from his glass of wine. “It is a truly unique power. The ability to animate inanimate objects stems from a particular tribe hailing from the Western Province. The people of this tribe have white hair, like you, and like…”

“Margo,” Coma said.

“Your creations are very smart. And yes, like Margo.”

“You’re saying that I’m related to Margo?”

“You are not from Centralia. You were not born here, and the unique power you have doesn’t come from this region.”

Roman studied the man for a moment.

He thought about telling him about how his power had been stripped from him, how it had just returned a few hours ago. But in the end, he bit his lip, letting Orange continue his explanation.

“And that’s where these documents come into play,” Orange said as he opened up his leather briefcase. He slid some papers across the table. Roman used his power to sift through them until he found a page of a birth certificate.

“What am I looking at?”

“It is your birth certificate. Your original name was Malusai Black. You were born in the Western Province to a man named Malus Black and a woman named Maria Mulhara. Malus was a teacher of mine, and he came from the same tribe you hail from. He was a wicked man, but that is a discussion for another day. I don’t know anything about Maria, but I’m assuming she is someone he did not stay with for very long.”

“No, I was born here…”

“The Martins adopted you, which you can find information about on the next page. It is common for Centralians to adopt orphaned children from the Western Province. Surely, as a former immigration advisor, you are aware of this.”

Roman nodded after he’d sifted through the adoption paperwork. “They never told me about this…”

“That is between you and them. Perhaps you could pay them a visit and ask for yourself if you’d like further confirmation. You can show them those papers too.”

“I don’t really talk to them much any longer. We sort of had a falling out about my lifestyle at the time, and…” Roman took a deep breath. “Things have just been easier without them in the picture.”

“That sounds like something you need to work out with a therapist or a telepath,” Orange said as he finished his glass of wine and poured up another. “I don’t know the reason Malus and Maria gave you up for adoption, but I do know there was another person Malus gave up for adoption, one he later became intimately familiar with.”

“What are you saying?”

“It was about a decade before you were born, when Malus was in his twenties. He fathered a girl named…”

“Margo,” Coma said.

Celia brought her hand to her mouth. “Margo?”

“Holy shit, you’re related?” Casper blurted out.

Orange narrowed his eyes at the tiny doll in Roman’s pocket. “Margo was fostered by a Western Province family, who later gave her to the State once her powers were revealed, as per the agreement they had signed. I should say that she later killed this family, but that’s not important at the moment. Not only did Margo and I grow up together, but we fought in the Western Plague together too, before things turned sour for her.” Orange brought his hands together for a moment and stared down at the table. “She wasn’t always like that, you know.”

Roman downed his glass of wine. “And you have documents for this?” he asked, breathing heavily now.

“I do.” Orange placed a manila folder on the table and slid it over to Roman so he could take a look. Sure enough, he saw the names on the birth certificate and the adoption paperwork confirmed what Orange had said.

“So she’s my half-sister?” Roman swallowed hard, and at that moment he felt Celia reach for him and squeezed his hand.

“I’m afraid she is,” Orange said carefully. “And that brings us to an even more pressing issue, the reason I have contacted you.”

“What else could you possibly have to tell me?” Roman asked, feeling a vein bulge on the side of his head.

Orange, too, finished his glass of wine. “Margo is still alive.”

Chapter Four: Surprise Visit

The two men at the front entrance to the Lottery Council shifted their attention to the beautiful blonde who had just turned the corner.

They watched as she approached, one nudging the other, a grin on his face as he took her in.

He would never know what it felt like the moment his brain ruptured.

His counterpart, on the other hand, saw him fall to the ground as the blonde approached. The man immediately pointed his wrist guard at her.

“It’s too early to be playing with that thing,” the woman said.

The man’s arm naturally started to lift until his fist was tucked under his chin, the wrist guard aimed at the back of his skull.

“There, there,” she said as she stepped up to him, a smile on her face.

The man didn’t know who she was, but he did notice something peculiar about her skin. The woman seemed perfect in every way, not a single blemish.

“You’re going to scan me in and lead me to the Council,” she said, “and I want you to act as naturally as you can about it.”

“I…” the man started to stutter.

“Too late.”

The woman forced him to trigger his own weapon. The back of his head blew out, bone and brain matter misting the air.

As she walked past the two, she cast her hand behind her, and their bodies dragged along the ground.

She reached the side entrance and brought both men to their feet. The one with the back of his head blown out slouched forward, his arms slung at his sides.

The blonde stepped aside as the man with his head still intact keyed her in.

Leaving the guards behind, she moved into a hallway, where she immediately came into contact with a strongman in a shiny exemplar uniform.

“What the hell?” he asked. Muscles bulged from his arms and veins rearranged themselves as he doubled in size.

“Hi, I’m looking for the Council,” the woman said in a sweet voice.

She lifted her left hand and the strongman’s muscles shriveled, a few of them popping. He went down to one knee, leaving a crater in the ground, gasping for air as she approached him.

“Who… who are you?” he asked, blood in his eyes. His teeth had started to press back into his gums.

“I’m just a doll,” the woman told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Now be a doll yourself, and tell me the easiest way to get to the Council. Or do you want everyone in here to die today?”

“Fuck you,” he said, offering her a bloodied grin. “You’re dead.”

“No, you’re dead,” the woman said as the man’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.

They stayed that way as he stood, his muscles reforming.

“Better guards, better guards,” the woman said as she continued down the hallway. The strongman followed behind her, dragging his feet as he walked.

It wasn’t long before she ran into a heavyset lady with a clipboard in her hands.

The woman brought her hands to her throat almost immediately and fell to her knees, her clipboard clacking against the ground.

“Nod me in the direction of the Council. I’m tired of searching.”

The woman’s eyes started to tear up when she saw the strongman, the veins in his body bulging, his eyes dark.

“I didn’t tell you to cry—just nod me in the direction I need to go,” said the blonde. “That’s all. I will let you live if you do that.”

Tears now streaming down her face, the woman slowly tilted her head to the left. “That… that way.”

“Thank you,” the beautiful blonde said, and the woman’s rib cage pressed out of her body, her spine cracking as she yelped and died.

Rather than go through the doors, the beautiful blonde looked at the wall and cast it away. Then she swiped away the wall in the next room, and the next.

“Stay here,” she told the strongman, “and don’t let anyone bother us.”

She came to a final wall, which quickly melted to the ground to reveal a central space with seven people sitting behind a raised desk.

“Hello, Lottery Council,” she said, and three of the people immediately fell forward. Two of them leaped out of their seats and tried to fire upon the beautiful blonde, only to be devoured by the wall, leaving two councilmembers alive. “What are your names?”

“What kind of…?” the man asked, his lip quivering.

“Be strong, Gary,” the woman in the center seat said. There was something indignant about the way she looked at the powerful blonde who stood before her, a fire behind her eyes. “You realize what you have done, don’t you? You have attacked the Centralian government. Backup forces will be here in a matter of seconds.”

“What’s your name?”

“What does it matter to you?”

“You are a telepath?” the beautiful blonde asked, looking at the bumbling man behind the raised desk.

“She doesn’t have a brain,” the man told the lead councilwoman. “I have nothing!”

“You are one of them, aren’t you?” the lead councilwoman asked, tilting her head as she looked at the blonde.

“You never told me your name.”

“You never told me yours.”

“Margo. And yours?”

“How is it possible?” the man named Gary asked. “Moira, she’s supposed to be dead!”

“Moira, is it?” Margo asked. “Before I kill you both, I would like a little information. I can make this quick, or we can do it the hard way.”

A teleporter appeared in the room behind them. Margo immediately sealed up the space they were in, allowing the strongman she had taken control of earlier to fight any incoming exemplars.

“Teleporter proof, huh?” she asked, looking at the walls, watching the bulges as the fight started up.

“You will not get away with this,” Moira said. “My sister…”

“Your sister?”

Moira swallowed hard.

“Answer my question, and we’ll make this quick. Where is Roman Martin?”

Gary and Moira exchanged glances.

“Ah, so you do know something. Well, in that case, go ahead and tell me what you know.”

“I’m sorry, Gary,” Moira said.

Gary started twitching and foaming at the mouth.

He fell forward, blood running out of his ears.

“So that’s how this is going to be?” Margo asked Moira.

“You will not get anything out of me.”

“We will see about that.” Margo playfully cracked her knuckles, no sound emitting from her hands as she did so.

Chapter Five: A Trip to North Lake

The trolley slowed to a stop and six older Centralian couples hobbled off, one of them complaining to his wife about the squeakiness of the brakes and how he planned to contact their local representative about it.

Roman looked over at Celia and smiled, the beautiful doll chuckling at the older man as he left the cabin.

“Sorry, Casper,” Roman said as he waved his hand over his pocket. Casper’s life left her body before she could say something witty.

He stood and straightened his black trench coat.

Coma was the first to step out, followed by Roman and Celia, the three of them weaving their way through the recently remodeled station.

They were in northern Centralia, at an area known for its retirement communities. This part of Centralia was one of the most active voting blocs, so everything here was always new. The politicians knew exactly who to pander to.

There were various support structures in place for the disabled, from ramps to moving walkways, as well as young exemplars with shining white smiles on their faces standing around a kiosk in the middle of the station, eager to help anyone who needed assistance getting home.

Roman didn’t like visiting the place; not only did it remind him that he would age one day himself, it was also a visual representation of the social discrepancies in Centralia. And while he sometimes liked to think Centralia was above this kind of stuff, every time he came here Roman saw just how new and perfect everything was and how helpful government officials were compared to the other areas of the city, which only accentuated the discrepancy.

The city was divided by a number of things, from exemplars and non-exemplars, the rich and the poor, the old and the young.

Roman couldn’t help but see this station through that lens.

He made his way along a cobblestone boulevard with cafés on either side to take advantage of the nice, warm weather in front of the lake.

North Lake was the reason this area existed, the ocean-like body of water separating Centralia from the Northern Alliance. There was a constant breeze, the temperatures predictable year-round, rain showers few and far between.

Roman and his dolls approached the fork and headed toward the right, to the non-exemplar communities.

“It’s so pretty here,” Celia said, admiring the outdoor cafés and the way the buildings were all pressed together. “I’d love to spend a day exploring.”

“It is something,” Roman replied.

“This is really where they live?” Coma asked him.

“They moved here a few years ago. Maybe five now? I don’t know. I don’t visit often. I know I should, but it’s just not my favorite place to be.”

“Where is your favorite place to be?” Celia asked.

“The bodega,” Roman said with a grin on his face.

“But you just quit your job…” she said, then realized he was teasing her.

“I wish you had lived here instead of your old apartment,” Coma said. “There’s so much more to do outside.”

The streets that weaved through the retirement community featured numerous restaurants and other ways to pass the time. From boutique shopping to cosplay cafés, to gambling and businesses that specialized in unique experiences, it would be hard to get bored in this place.

That was, if a person liked being social.

Roman had never been that social, aside from being able to turn his charm on around the opposite sex; the retirement communities around North Lake would be a literal last resort for him.

He hadn’t thought much about it, but if he did reach that age, Roman would want to travel, perhaps live somewhere toward the South where it was cooler.

“I want you to wait here,” he told Coma as they came to a bench.

The three had been walking for about twenty minutes now, and they had just arrived at a community called Sunset Sands, which featured two-story townhouses all with unobstructed views of North Lake.

“Will do,” Coma said as she took a seat.

“Let’s make this quick,” he told Celia, taking her hand.

“Is it weird that I’m excited to meet your parents?” she asked as they came to unit 4L.

“We’re about to find out if they’re my parents or not,” he said. “But I know what you mean, and no, it’s not weird.”

“Will you see them any differently if they aren’t?”

“I don’t know. I just want the truth at the moment. I have to know if it’s true. I have to know if Margo is my half-sister.”

“That would be a turn of events,” Celia said as he knocked on the door.

Roman heard some grumbling on the other side and a man eventually opened up, his bushy eyebrows raising.

“Roman?” his father asked. The man was framed by blue light reflecting off the lake coming from the giant living-room windows. He wore a sweater vest, his dark hair peppered with bits of gray. “Honey, Roman’s here. Roman is here with… Who are you?”

“Her name is Ava,” Roman said, and Celia nodded.

“Ava, huh? Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you both. We weren’t expecting visitors, but I’m sure…”

“Roman?” his mom asked, coming to the door in her slippers. She wore a pair of spectacles, her eyes big and kind. “And who’s this?”

“Ava,” Celia said, extending her hand.

Roman’s mother took it and looked her over. “I am so glad to meet you. Such a beautiful girl,” she said genuinely. “It has been forever since you’ve stopped by, Roman. Forever!”

“Sorry. The last few weeks have been crazy.”

“A few weeks?” his father grumbled. “More like few months.”

“I’ve been swamped,” Roman said, waving his father’s concern away. “But I decided to stop by now, and I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner.”

“Well, please come in!” His mother slapped her husband in the gut to let him know he should step aside.

“Yes, come in,” Roman’s father said.

Roman and Celia entered the home, his mother nodding for them to take off their shoes. Celia slipped out of her heels and followed his mother into the kitchen, Roman taking a second longer to untie the laces of his black boots.

“Not bad, not bad,” his father said under his breath as he watched Celia move away. “Where did you meet her?”

“I met Ava through work,” Roman lied.

“And you’re a couple now, right? Or are we not using those terms?” His father laughed. “I’m sorry, I won’t give you any shit. You know how young people are about defining relationships.”

“Yes, a couple. That’s fine.”

“I’m glad you brought her out here. You know, I can’t remember the last time we talked. Did I tell you that your mother and I were having the bedroom redone? The bathroom too. Your mother didn’t like the height of the ceiling in the bathroom, so she’s having it lowered. The contractor should be here in a little while. It’s a father-and-son team, out of the district a couple miles to the east, on the edge of the retirement block. Great people.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“But it isn’t cheap,” his father said as he placed a hand on Roman’s back, motioning him toward the kitchen. “Your mother and her whims. I swear it’s going to be the death of me, and if not me, my pocketbook. Six inches? Who wastes money on lowering the ceiling six inches? The townhouse is perfectly fine.”

“The townhouse is not fine,” his mother said as they entered the kitchen, Celia already seated at the bar.

“Please let me help,” Celia said to Roman’s mother.

“Absolutely not. I can still chop, and I will cut up some fruit and some cheeses for us.”

“Just let her help, Mom,” Roman said. “She likes to cook.”

“Is that so?”

Celia nodded, and Roman’s mother smiled at her.

“I really like your hair,” his mother finally said. “That red look so unique, so fresh.”

“Thank you.”

“And those purple eyes? There’s something very familiar about them.”

His mother’s smile cracked a little as she looked at Roman, but by this point, his father was already going on about renovation costs and one of the contractors they’d been using before they met the new team.

“Oh, stop it,” his mother hissed. “They don’t want to know about renovating.”

“I just want him to know how much it costs, because he gets this place when we die and that six inches is coming out of his goddamn inheritance.”

“Dad…”

His mother sighed. “Let’s not talk about death for one day. Is that all you ever think about? Death and money?”

“It’s better to talk about it and accept it than just assume it will never happen,” his father said, motioning Roman to the bar. Celia was already up and helping his mother prepare fruits and cheeses.

“How about instead of talking about death, you help us?” his mother asked.

“I don’t mind cutting,” his father said as he took a knife from her and began working on one of the melons she handed him.

“Anything I can do?” Roman asked.

“No. Just sit tight, sweetie. It’s such a nice surprise to see you visiting.”

“Yeah,” Roman said, looking at Celia and noticing concern in her eyes. “Look, I need to talk to you two about something important.”

“What’s that?” his father asked. “Is it money? Do you need something?”

“It’s not money. But I do need something.”

His father quit cutting the melon. “Well, go on.”

“I need to know the truth. I need to know if I was adopted.”

Roman saw his father’s throat quiver. His mother glanced at him, her breath suddenly short.

“Who told you that?” his father asked, setting the knife down.

“So it’s true?”

“Where did you hear this?” his mother asked.

“Does that matter? Is it true, or is it not true?”

“Let’s move to the dining room table,” his mother said solemnly as she stepped away from the kitchen. Roman, his father, and Celia followed behind her.

She took a seat on one end of the table, his father next to her, Celia and Roman sitting across from them. As soon as they were in their chairs, Roman felt Celia squeeze his leg.

His mother shook her head. “I don’t know where you heard this from, but…”

“No, we should tell the truth,” his father said suddenly. “Look, your mother and I couldn’t conceive. There—is that what you wanted to hear?”

“And?”

“And, we worked with an adoption agency that helps children from the Western Province find homes here in Centralia. You’ve heard of these agencies, correct?”

Roman nodded, remembering dealing with their visa paperwork back when he’d worked for the Centralian government.

“You weren’t even two years old when we adopted you. You were underfed and mistreated. It was horrible. But that doesn’t matter now. You are our son, Roman. I don’t know where this information came from, or why you are pursuing it, or if you’re trying to find your biological parents or something, but just know that regardless of what you do…” His father sniffed, clearly choking back a sob. “You are our son.”

“I’m not disputing that,” Roman finally said. “I just wanted to know the truth.”

“Does it help?” his mother asked. “Does it help to actually know whether you are adopted or not? Do you feel any different?”

“No, that’s not why…” Roman bit his lip. “I just need to confirm some things. And no, I’m not searching for my biological parents.”

“What are you trying to confirm?” his father asked him.

Roman was on the brink of telling them about his superpower when a message came to him from Ava.

Roman, where are you? I need to come to you right now.

“Hold on a second,” Roman told his parents as he replied to her.

“Hold on? This is important,” his mother started to say.

I’m at my parents’ home. Why?

Ava’s response came a moment later. Where exactly?

Sunset Sands, North Lake, Unit 4L. Is everything okay?

Meet me outside. Margo is back, and she killed my sister.

Chapter Six: Stories Collide

“You found me,” Roman said as he approached the bench where Coma sat.

“She was sort of a dead giveaway,” Ava said, her red hair a mess and eyes puffy from crying.

“Are you okay?” Celia came forward, concern on her face.

“Deactivate them,” Ava said harshly.

“Celia, please take a seat,” Roman said, and his doll obediently sat next to Coma.

After what he’d been through over the last month, Roman hated to take their life away. He hated to see them dead to the world yet again. But he wanted to respect Ava’s wish, especially after what they’d been through.

The two dolls slouched as Roman reabsorbed the power he’d given them. Ava stood and began pacing, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Tell me everything.”

“What more is there to say?” Ava asked, throwing her hands in the air, an inferno igniting behind her eyes. “Margo is back. She killed my sister.”

“What?” Roman shook his head. “I saw Margo die. She was dead. We both saw her body.”

“No, she did something.” Ava turned toward the cobblestone street, her back to him. “And this is partially your fault.”

“My fault? I didn’t do anything this time,” he started to say, the words leaving his lips before he could process why he was becoming so defensive.

It all made sense a moment later when Ava buried her head in her hand. “She’s using your doll, Roman.”

“My doll?”

“The last one you ordered. I don’t know how she did it—I don’t understand this power the two of you have—but she gave it her consciousness. All of it. Margo transferred everything to the doll.”

Roman gasped, the realization coming to him in that moment. He had experimented with transferring consciousness some, but it wasn’t something he’d played with too deeply.

“How did she kill her?”

“She came to the lottery offices,” Ava said as she turned back to Roman. “She was looking for you.”

“For me?”

Ava nodded, tears of fire slowly trickling down her face. “That’s all we know, that and…”

“What?”

“My sister didn’t give anything up.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because we have people watching your apartment and the bodega you work at. No one has shown up yet. Plus we had a psychometrist sense through what was left of my sister’s body. Margo killed her by pressing the bones out of her one at a time. She started with her rib cage, keeping her organs pumping, her brain alive. How fucking terrible is that? She made her feel it; she forced my sister to claw her own eyes out and eat her own fingers. It was the most disturbing thing…” She started to sob again. “The fucking monster. The Lottery Council will be disbanded now, or what’s left of it. It hinged on my sister’s power, anyway.”

“What was her power? You never told me.”

“She was the strongest amplifier Centralia has ever seen. A Type 1, Class C and E, in words you may better understand. She was so strong that she could amplify a person’s dormant power, thus turning a non-exemplar into an exemplar. The whole Council hinged on her ability. All the other exemplars there were secondary. And they’re all dead as well. We suspect my sister actually killed one of the council members, the one named Gary, to prevent the telepath from speaking to Margo. But there’s no way to prove that.”

Silence stretched between the two; an older couple crossed the street to avoid walking near them, the woman pushing a small black dog in a stroller.

“I have some news as well,” Roman said, figuring he might as well come out with it. “It’s about Margo, too.”

“Do you know something?”

“Not about what she just did, or about her still being alive; it’s about her past. Margo is my half-sister.”

Ava’s eyes twitched. “Your what?”

“That’s right,” Roman said. “I quit my job at the bodega, as I’m assuming you’ve guessed by now. But I still worked last night, and the night before, and this guy came in both nights. He was just kind of weird the first night, asking a few questions, that sort of thing. He tried to attack me the second night. But I stopped him.”

“There weren’t any disturbances at the bodega…”

“None that your people monitoring me would have noticed,” Roman explained. “This guy’s power deals with oxygen. He can manipulate it somehow, and he got a hold of my lungs just as I got a hold of his heart. After what happened yesterday with the intelligence officers, I’m not fucking around any longer. I don’t want to be used, I don’t want to be exploited. So I took his heart as quickly as he took my oxygen.”

“And then what?”

“Then he told me who he was, an operative from the Western Province named Orange. Ring a bell?”

Ava started to shake her head. “I know exactly who that is. Continue.”

“Orange told me that I’m actually adopted, that I’m not from Centralia, that I’m from the Western Province. My father was a man named Malus who had an ability similar to mine. He was Orange’s teacher or something, and he just so happened to also be Margo’s father.”

Ava nodded, her lips tightening.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“That you were adopted? Yes. We would have those records. That you were related to Margo, or were Malus’s son? No.”

“So you think it’s true? I mean, I don’t know how much I should believe this guy. He just shows up and tells me the stuff and offers me a little bit of evidence. But anyone can fake anything, especially with the right exemplar working for them.”

Ava lowered her arms from her chest, relaxing just a little. “I never told you much about my involvement in the Western Plague, the vampire infection that nearly spread over the border to our country. It was a decade ago that Centralia sent my team there on a humanitarian mission. Of course, it wasn’t a humanitarian mission at all; it was mostly to aid Western Province forces in the infected districts of Ravja.”

“And you knew him then?”

“I did. Orange was part of the Protectorate, and we aided their teams more than once. Because of the strength of their exemplars—which, I’m not going to lie, is as real as any fictionalized version you’ve ever read—they usually patrolled in two- to four-person units. They were incredibly destructive. The exemplars in the West tasked with handling the vampiric outbreak were raised by the State to be in peak condition, and Orange’s group in particular had trained together since their early teens.”

“And Margo was in this group?”

“Yes, and while we were there, Margo and Orange often patrolled together. They sometimes did a four-person patrol with two operatives named Destry and Amethyst, but usually it was just the two of them. In my time in the Western Province, I became quite familiar with their group, especially Orange, who was their leader.”

“So I can trust him, then?”

“I don’t know if you can fully trust him. He’s a spy, no better than the one who disappeared off our radar, Nadine, or Paris, or even Margo for that matter. There may be something more to the story. Perhaps he was threatened by Margo to find you. But if that’s the case, he went against her wishes by giving you enough information to get a head start.”

Roman considered this for a moment.

Whoever Margo had been years ago, there was no way she was the same person now. Ava had said she was part of a government unit, and Roman couldn’t imagine a unit having to put up with her wild antics.

“Well, then it’s true. I am…” Roman looked back at his parents’ home. “That’s why I’m here, you know. I wanted to find out from my parents if they really had adopted me. So everything is checking out. I just wanted to know if I should believe the rest of what Orange said, about being related to Margo.”

“I only wish I could see the documents he gave you,” Ava told him.

“He didn’t let me keep a copy, unfortunately.” Roman shook his head. “This just gets weirder, doesn’t it? My half-sister’s trying to hunt me, and she killed your sister.”

“There’s another piece to this,” Ava said. “I’ve been sent here to get you.”

“Get me?”

“I suppose I should reword that. Not get you—escort you.”

“They’re having you work even after your sister just died?”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Ava asked, her voice rising. “My sister would have wanted it this way. I know she was strong in the end, and I have to be strong now. So yes, I’m working. And I need you to come with me, Roman.”

“Do I have a say in this matter?”

“No need to make this difficult. I’m not taking you into custody or anything,” she said, a fire igniting in the palm of her hand. “And I hope you’re not thinking of doing something to one of my internal organs.”

“You know, I’ve wanted to say so many things to you over the last month, and…” Roman swallowed hard, casting his gaze back down to the pavement. “I’m just sorry for how things turned out. I guess that’s the gist of what I wanted to tell you. But I missed you. There’s that, too. It wasn’t the same without you around.”

“Roman, now is not the time…”

“When is the time? Margo is apparently hunting me again, and she’s already killed—the fucking bitch. Plus, you’re taking me into custody…”

“I’m not taking you into ‘custody.’ This is actually a good thing that I am about to do for you. I’m trying to help you, Roman.”

“Usually when someone is trying to help someone, they don’t need to be ‘escorted’ somewhere. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a month now. You beat me down. Not you particularly, but our government. I went from up here,” he said, gesturing above his head, “to down here.”

Ava sighed audibly. “That was your choice, Roman. You disobeyed a direct order.”

“Have you ever had your power stripped from you?”

“Yes, we trained with the power nullifiers. In fact, in the first year of my training, they had us work on combat weekly with someone who had taken away our power.”

“How come you didn’t train me this way?”

“Because we never finished training together. I had other plans for you, but then you took matters into your own hands. It was something I wanted to do at some point because it’s good to be reminded of what it’s like to be powerless.” She frowned. “So yes, I know what it’s like. And I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about why they’ve sent me to fetch you. You aren’t really in trouble or anything. Not yet, anyway.”

“All right,” Roman said, pointing to his dolls, “but they come with me.”

Ava smirked. “I assumed that would be the case.”

“And before I reanimate them, before we go to wherever it is you want to take me, I just want you to know how incredibly sorry I am for your loss. I thought…” Roman bit his lip. “I thought Margo was dead. And to find out that she’s not only alive, but she’s killed your sister and now she’s still gunning for me? It’s just a lot to take in. A lot. I’m sorry, Ava. I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into this.”

“Thank you, Roman.” Ava took a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes, steeling herself. “Just give me a few moments to collect myself before we go.”

Roman, Ava, and his dolls appeared in a special teleportation zone in front of the Centralian Intelligence Agency. There were several zones, but this one was private access only, so Roman didn’t need to go through any security measures after they arrived.

They found Rafner waiting for them, the man wearing a black outfit with the agency logo on the sleeve. He approached Roman, his hand extended. “I’m glad you were able to make it. You left so suddenly yesterday.”

“Yeah,” was all Roman could say.

“And Ava, I’m sorry to hear about your sister. If you would like, I can take it from here. You do not have to be part of this meeting.”

“No,” she said, her head held high. “It’s better for me at the moment to have a distraction. Besides, I trained him, as you already know. I would like to at least see this through.”

“Very well,” Rafner said, glancing at Roman’s dolls.

“They stay with me,” Roman said.

“I don’t see any harm in that.” Rafner turned toward a walkway lined with shrubs. A quick look around told him they were in an atrium garden, steel slats above them arranged in a zigzag pattern. There were statues of various exemplars in parts of the garden with placards before each of them, and a few people were standing around a particular statue featuring a woman with wings.

Rafner walked with his hands behind his back, the fingers of his left hand clasping the wrist of his right. Calm, collected—the exact opposite of Roman in that moment.

They came to a door that opened on its own, the handle pressing into the surface of the door as it slid into the wall.

Roman looked over his shoulder at Celia and Coma as he walked. Casper was in his pocket, the tiny doll deanimated for the time being. He almost wished she was with him; he was in desperate need of a snarky remark or a witty observation.

After taking an elevator to the second floor, their group came to a conference room that was set up the same way as the one Roman had nearly demolished a day earlier.

He expected to find the other intelligence officers in the room, and he tried to remember what they looked like as Rafner scanned himself in. Roman was relieved to see there was only one other person present, the telepath with the blue hair named Miranda.

Roman felt the tendrils of her power almost immediately, lightly flickering against the back of his skull.

He looked at her and focused on her throat, watching as it constricted.

“That will be enough of that,” Rafner said as he took a seat across the table. “She is only here to record everything said. No need to threaten each other.” He looked from Miranda to Roman.

Roman took a seat with Ava to his right and his two dolls in a pair of chairs to his left.

The dolls definitely caught Miranda’s attention. The telepath looked at them for a moment, clearly wondering why she couldn’t check their minds. Her answer came in a matter of seconds as she took in some of the other thoughts in the room. The woman bit her lip, making a face that almost looked like she was disappointed in herself.

“Are you ready?” Rafner asked her.

Miranda nodded.

“Roman Martin,” Rafner began, “we have brought you here today to make you an offer to join our agency.”

Roman gulped. “Excuse me?”

“We have brought you here today to make you an offer to join the Centralian Intelligence Agency, the unit I oversee.”

Roman looked at Ava, the fire user keeping her attention on Rafner. He then glanced at Coma and Celia, both of whom simply nodded.

“It is a strange offer, I agree, but having seen what you are capable of in some of the trials before your powers were stripped, and after your powers came back, the evidence is clear: you are incredibly powerful, and you have a very unique power that would be an asset to your government.”

“I’m adopted,” Roman said, almost as an afterthought.

“Be that as it may, you are a Centralian citizen, an exemplar with a unique ability. Your power will help us gather intelligence to better protect innocent Centralians at home and abroad, and it will go a long way in maintaining the status quo in our world. There is no country like Centralia.”

“You let me rot in a bodega for a month, and the moment my power shows itself, you offer me a job?”

Roman stopped himself from saying what he wanted to say next, that Ava’s sister could have technically given him his power back.

If his ability to animate inanimate objects hadn’t arisen on its own, and Margo had still killed Ava’s sister, Roman would have been left with nothing aside from an overnight job at a bodega.

But he didn’t say this.

He cared deeply for Ava, and he knew it was taking all she had to keep it together, even if she didn’t show it.

It was best not to mention her late sister.

“Actually, you were supposed to have your power given back to you. The decision was made two weeks ago,” Rafner said, sliding a paper over to Roman, “but the Council had a weeklong vacation and a backlog of cases, as well as a few other matters to see before they got to it.”

Roman looked down at the paper, noticing the official Centralian seal. The paragraph that followed explained that they had decided to return his power to him, that he had acted under duress, and that Margo had represented a threat not only to the government but to the world as a whole.

It didn’t quite say that Roman had done a patriotic thing in going after her, but it did say his effort would be internally recognized, whatever the hell that meant.

“You sat on this for over two weeks?” he asked Ava.

“What would you have done, Roman? I didn’t have the power to give it back to you…” Her voice trembled on the last word.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Roman glanced back across the table at Rafner and Miranda. “So you want me to join then, that’s it? Because I feel like there’s a catch coming on here. One doesn’t simply join a high-level unit in the Centralian Intelligence Agency. I worked for the government too, and I’m aware of the red tape and bureaucratic bullshit that continues to weigh this country down.”

“You are aware of the differences in funding between the Centralian Immigration Service and the Intelligence Agency, correct?” Rafner asked.

“I’m aware there is a substantial difference,” Roman admitted, ignoring the powerful glare Miranda the telepath was giving him.

“Good. Things move differently here. There are recruits have who worked their way up from the bottom to the top. There are those who have trained for years, as Ava here has done. But the way we see it, you went up against perhaps one of the most powerful exemplars in our country. There is an internal ranking, you know, of our own exemplars and foreign exemplars, especially ones we expect to be in the country illegally. Margo tops that list. Now, there are others with different powers that can do a variety of amazing things, but in terms of sheer destructive capability, Margo holds one of the highest spots. And you went after her. And that’s not to mention you killed Hazrat, an equally powerful exemplar.”

“I had to,” Roman said, his voice growing haggard. “Margo disrespected my wife, Hazrat killed someone I cared for. They tried to destroy my life. I know for a fact there are non-exemplars out there,” he said, pointing to the wall, “who would have done the same thing, even though they would have been killed in an instant. What she did, what Margo did…”

Roman felt Celia’s hand lightly squeeze his leg under the table. He nodded. “I did what needed to be done.”

“And no remorse either,” Rafner said, “for the city block you practically destroyed in your fight against her, or all the people who got injured in the way. That is the part we have yet to forgive, but because of the way our government has been able to cover up the story, putting the blame on the foreign terrorists, we are at least able to forget it. On paper, anyway. Don’t for a minute think that anyone in this room or the people who will be on your team don’t know you put your own self-interest over your country. But as you just said, you had a pretty compelling reason to do so.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Roman said under his breath.

“While I understand, it does not mean I approve of what you did. But I’m also not stupid enough to throw an ability like yours away, especially with the fact that Margo is back now, and there are other issues plaguing this country that need to be addressed. Which leads me into how this is going to work out.”

“Here’s the catch I was waiting for…”

Rafner folded his hands together on the table. “You are right, there is a catch to all this. You are going to be given free agency after you deliver on a certain task we have in mind.”

Roman nodded. “You want me to find Margo and finish her for good?”

“What?” Rafner shook his head. “No. That isn’t what we want at all. Not at this time, anyway. It is almost poetic in a way, the first task we’ve assigned to you.”

“And if I refuse?”

“We will charge you with attacking a government office, which is a federal crime that comes with a minimum sentence of forty years in prison. Depending on the severity of the attack—which could be expanded upon if we looped in some of the destruction you caused in your fight against Margo or at the immigration office—it could come with the death penalty.”

Celia gasped. “Don’t let them do this to you,” she whispered. “Just do what they want.”

Roman stared Rafner down. “What are you asking of me?”

“Relax, it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Well, there may be parts that make it complicated. We want you to bring Kevin Blackbook to justice. Yes, your former coworker.”

Roman recalled the last time he’d seen Kevin, in the debris caused by his fight with Margo. He had told Kevin to run. He didn’t remember much more of their exchange, only that key detail.

“You want me to bring Kevin into custody, is that what you’re asking?”

“No. We want you to bring Kevin Blackbook to justice. We want you to kill him.”

Chapter Seven: Personal Development Hell

Nadine Under shook her head.

Lunch had been too short, and now she was being corralled back into a conference room. The event’s host stood at the front of the space, going through her notes.

“Everyone take their seats,” the retreat host said in a high-pitched voice, beaming a smile that reached all of them but didn’t stay long enough for the employees to actually feel invited.

Nadine took her seat and closed her eyes for a moment, hoping to just power through this.

“Now, I know we’ve already introduced ourselves, and a few of you even work together, but I find this next practice to be incredibly helpful in developing a close-knit team. It’s also nice to do something just a little physical after lunch.” The host laughed. “Sorry, I just know how lunch is! So, let’s get started. I want everyone to look at their hand,” the woman said, sticking her arm out in front of her face.

“Which hand?” a guy named Caleb asked.

“Your dominant hand,” the host replied.

Nadine did as instructed, her eyes narrowing on her Zero Ring.

“Okay, so I want you to try to remember this, because that’s part of the exercise too. Your thumb is your name, position, and your department. Your pointer finger is a reminder to point out something you look forward to this year. Your middle finger describes your pet peeve. Your ring finger is something you are committed to, something you love. And your pinky finger, that’s my favorite. Your pinky finger is a little fun fact.”

There were a few subtle groans in the room, their retreat host chuckling.

“Don’t give me that, guys! This is something that many of my students have found to be incredibly helpful during these personal development retreats. Now remember: your thumb is your name, position, and department; your pointer finger asks you to point out something you are looking forward to; the middle finger describes your pet peeve—and if you don’t want to reveal your pet peeve, you can tell us about a challenge you are working on; your ring finger something you’re committed to; and your pinky finger is a little fun fact. Now, who’s first?”

“I’ll go. My name is Caleb, I’m a civil engineer, and I work for the Department of the Interior in their Eastern Province border redevelopment project. I’m looking forward to…” He smiled. “My vacation.”

No one laughed. One the ladies at the back of the table smiled.

“One of my pet peeves is doing personal development. No offense.”

“None taken,” the host said with a happy grin on her face.

“I am committed to my government and my family. A little fun fact?” Caleb bit his lip. “Okay, I once visited Brattle and got to ride one of those big rolling machines they use over there. What the heck are they called?”

“A gana,” someone said.

“Yeah. One of those.”

“Great. Thank you, Caleb,” the retreat host said, turning to Nadine. “Are you ready?”

“Hello, everyone. My name is Diana Turn,” Nadine said. “I am a project coordinator and, like Caleb, I work for the Department of the Interior redeveloping the Eastern Province border. I’m looking forward to a glass of wine this weekend; one challenge I’m dealing with is corrosion along the upper north section of the border; I am committed to my government and the preservation of wildlife.”

“And a little fun fact?” the host asked.

“When I was in high school, I went on a school trip to the Southern Alliance. We actually got to stay in the countryside for a homestay. It was in the South that I developed my love for nature, and maybe next year, after we finish the leg of our current project, I will take a vacation there again.”

“Thank you, Diana,” the host said, turning to the next person.

An incoming message caused Nadine to gasp. “I have to go,” she told Caleb suddenly.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Family emergency. Please, um, take notes for me.”

Caleb chuckled quietly under his breath. “Yeah, Diana, I’ll be sure to do just that.”

Nadine ducked her head, waving her hand at the retreat host as she attempted to make it to the door.

“Not so fast.” The host jokingly took a step in front of her.

Nadine’s fists tensed.

She slowly relaxed them, a deep breath filling her lungs. Had this woman gotten in her way in any other circumstance…

“I’m sorry,” Nadine said, bowing her head slightly. “There’s been a family emergency. I have to see to it.”

“Ah, I see,” the host said, backing away after she noticed the intense look on Nadine’s face. “I only wish you could have stuck around for longer. We were just about to get to the fun part where we go around the room asking each other our fears.”

“Sounds like a great time.” Nadine ignored the woman’s enthusiastic grin as she ordered a private teleporter to meet her outside. “Have fun.”

Chapter Eight: Upgrades

Roman and his dolls settled into a diner across from the entrance to the red-light district.

He was hungry, and he figured an early lunch would do him good. It would also give him a moment to think things through.

A waitress with a tight little ass led the group to a booth near the middle of the restaurant, behind an elderly man reading a newspaper. The waitress went over the specials, and Roman selected a roast beef dish with a side of boiled carrots and red potatoes.

“And for you?” the waitress asked Coma.

“I’m good.”

“You?”

“I’ve already had breakfast today, thank you,” Celia told her.

“How about some waters?”

“No, we’ll be fine,” Coma said.

The waitress started to move away from the table and Roman almost turned to watch her go before remembering that he was in public and that his dolls could now scrutinize him.

He’d grown used to being alone over the last month, even if he preferred the company.

As a cup of tea came, Roman thought about what had happened at the Centralian Intelligence Agency.

He understood that the offer they’d made him was entirely to his benefit. But to become a killer for the State?

It didn’t sit right with Roman, even if he had killed people before.

It also made him rethink the general benevolence of the Centralian government. While he knew they had their flaws, especially since he’d once worked for them, Roman had always held them in higher esteem than some of the other governments in the world.

Had he been in the Southern Alliance, sure, the State may have orchestrated an assassination. Same with the East, the West and, while he didn’t know much about it aside from what Catherine had told him, the North.

But Centralia?

There was supposed to be rule of law here, protected liberties like the right to a fair trial. And the request—no, the ultimatum—Rafner had made of him defied the basic conventions of the city so large that it doubled as a country.

But Roman had agreed to their demands.

It would have been foolish not to.

And the plan was to get started tomorrow.

A teenager passed Roman on his way to the bathroom, briefly making eye contact with him.

It was odd to think the teen had just walked by someone sitting in a diner who’d been instructed by the State to kill a former coworker. And as Roman looked at some of the other patrons in the diner, he wondered what secrets they held.

He also wondered if he had ever been in a similar situation, just going about his own business while walking by a person tasked to do something heinous.

So many people, so many secrets.

The waitress returned and placed a glass of water in front of Roman, along with a small salad. She smiled at him and winked, turning away.

The wink barely registered with him.

Roman wasn’t the least bit interested in letting another waitress into his life, not after what had happened with Harper. And going forward, perhaps it was best for him to just ignore most women altogether, hoping not to drag them into his increasingly odd little world.

“Are you okay?” Celia asked.

Roman smiled at her. “It’s just been a strange couple days.”

“What are you thinking about?” Coma asked.

“Everything. From that kid who just walked by to…” Roman pursed his lips. “Other things.”

“Are you ready to go after Kevin?” Coma asked.

“I am.”

“And what about Margo?”

“I’m not supposed to go after her. And…” Roman took a sip from his water. “To be honest with you, if she is this powerful, maybe it’s best for a team to take her out. I know it’s the opposite of what I was saying a month ago, but that was before I’d had my power stripped from me, before I remembered who I was. Margo was strong enough to force her own consciousness out of her body, completely taking over an object and transferring herself to it. That’s practically unheard of. And if she’s strong enough to do that…”

“Maybe it’s better if we hold off on that for a while,” Coma said, her smile lifting the corners of her mask.

“And focus on Kevin.”

“Exactly, focus on Kevin.”

Roman shook his head. “If you two had known Kevin before all this, you would understand just how strange it is that I’ve been asked to eliminate him. The guy was just… a guy. A fat slob who was intelligent, but otherwise led a shitty life. And now this? Now he’s an enemy of the State? Part of this is so bizarre that words don’t do it justice.”

“But we’re going to do it, right?” Coma asked, her red eyes focused on Roman.

“Yes, there’s no doubt in my mind that we will handle this task. Kevin has to go.”

“Well, this is a surprise,” Emelia said, her violet eyes moving from Roman to his two dolls. The beautiful empath, dressed in a tight pantsuit with her gray hair clipped at the side, motioned for Roman to sit on the couch in the center of the room.

The decor of the sex-doll shop had changed again, vertical white stripes on the black walls at odds with a couch cast in horizontal stripes, the floor now displaying an interlocking cubic pattern.

“I see someone’s been doing some decorating.” Roman took a seat, his dolls next to him. Emelia lowered herself onto the plush sofa chair across from him. She relaxed, crossing one leg over the other, a smile on her face as she looked Roman over.

“Should I ask? Or should I read?”

“I prefer to explain it myself.” Roman told her what had happened over the last few days, leaving out a few key details, including the fact that he was related to Margo.

It wasn’t something he wanted to go around advertising.

He also didn’t tell her the task he’d been given by the Centralian Intelligence Agency, only that he had joined them.

“You could have just sent me a mental message, you know,” she said playfully.

Roman shrugged. “I thought you would like to see me.”

“I always like to see you. You seem to have that effect on women,” Emelia said, looking from Coma to Celia.

“It is not a superpower I would wish upon anyone,” Roman said, unable to hide his grin.

“If only you had a little more cunning to go with your good looks,” Emelia said.

Coma laughed, and Celia and Emelia joined in.

“Okay, okay, I deserve that.” Roman paused, a thought coming to him that he’d had earlier. “Did I ask you to help wipe some of my memories?”

Emelia tilted her head as she looked Roman over. “Did something happen?”

“Agents were interrogating me regarding what happened in the Eastern Province when my powers returned. I can’t seem to recall what went down in the East, or what I did. I know it wasn’t long enough ago that I would have forgotten something like that, and now that you two are here…” He glanced between Coma and Celia. “I suppose I could just ask what happened. But I’m curious whether I wanted to forget those details.”

Emelia made a sound with her lips. “The simple fact that you’re asking me this question tells me you already know the answer.”

Roman’s throat constricted. “I figured as much. Perhaps it is best I don’t know what happened.”

“Up to you. I guess you could ask Nadine as well, but…”

“We’re not on speaking terms at the moment. She really had an issue with the way I turned myself in rather than join her.”

“Maybe there’s more to it than that. You mentioned she had a handler.”

“Oscar.” Roman shrugged. “And you’re right, it could have been him influencing her. I tried to message her. I also bought a chalkboard and wrote messages on it, hoping she was visiting me with Lisa.”

“Lisa?”

Roman nodded. “Lisa is one of those rare Type IVs who can transport her spiritual body to various locations. But anyway, I digress.”

“All this talk and you still haven’t asked to take me out to dinner tonight?”

“Actually…”

“Good, I was hoping that was one of the reasons you came here. I’m hungry, Roman, and I don’t get off for another five hours. By then I’ll be famished. Do you remember where we ate that last time? Just outside the red-light district?”

Roman nodded.

“Great, so you can meet me there. In fact, maybe it’s best if you pick me up here. I don’t really like walking through the district at night.”

“Will do. So the next reason I’ve come,” Roman said, chuckling.

“My, are we demanding…”

One of Emelia’s coworkers came through a door at the back of the room carrying a tray with wine glasses and a chilled pitcher of water. She handed each of them a glass, then looked at Celia and Coma curiously for a moment before exiting.

“We just had an order placed for one that looks sort of like you,” Emelia told Coma after her coworker was gone. “Masks are always popular, but they’re especially popular right now for some reason. I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe that’s something we can discuss over dinner tonight. Anyway, why else have you come, Roman?”

He took a sip from the glass of water. “Do you remember that order I put in? The one.”

“The one,” Emelia said with a wry smile. “How could I forget the one?”

“I’ll need to have that order completed this week, as soon as possible. I can transfer the funds as well.”

“Good to know, good to know.”

“What?” Roman asked, noticing a mischievous smile on her face.

“Actually, I never canceled your order. It’s technically already ready. Of course, they will have to be shipped here, but that should be relatively quick. How about tonight you drop your ladies off before taking me out to dinner? We could have the upgrades ready for you by tomorrow afternoon. How does that sound?”

“That would actually work,” Roman said. “My plan tomorrow is to meet the new team I’m supposed to work with and figure out how…” He nearly mentioned Kevin Blackbook and caught himself just in time. “Figure out how we can work best as a team.”

“Fascinating, a real secret agent. I never thought I’d meet one, and I can’t wait to hear all about it. Okay, I should get back. I’ll see you here at seven, and be on time. We will handle the rest. And don’t worry, you two,” Emelia said, tilting her head at Celia and Coma. “You are in good hands.”

Chapter Nine: In Good Hands

“You did the right thing.”

Nadine glanced over her shoulder at the Centralian law enforcement officials and exemplars putting out the flames. She was in an alley across the street about a block down, far enough away that she had arrived without being noticed.

“It was horrible.” Lisa Painstake brought Eli into her arms, hugging the boy tightly. Eli was covered in black marks, his hair a mess.

“You’re safe now,” Nadine said, not asking the question that came to her mind. The answer would come soon enough, and she expected the worst.

Nadine wasn’t on the best terms with her government, especially in her dealings with Roman Martin. The recent project they had given her, as part of the Centralian group responsible for redeveloping the eastern border, was a snub to her true abilities.

She had essentially been given a desk job.

But as she’d dug deeper into the project, Nadine had realized the benefit it would have for her people, especially once she deliberately worked in ways for them to move under the border without being detected.

And now, as she stood with her back to the burning building, her eyes darting between Eli and Lisa, Nadine knew it was time to take the next step, one she had only briefly contemplated.

“The paperwork is in there, isn’t it?”

“Everything is in there,” Lisa said. “The only reason I wasn’t in there is because I stepped out…”

“Where did you go?” Nadine asked.

“I was depressed and wanted some chocolate. You know, it’s…” Lisa’s eyes glanced down and up again.

Nadine nodded, understanding the craving. “So you stepped out, and then…”

“I’m sorry,” Eli said, starting to tear up. “It wasn’t…”

“I know it wasn’t your fault,” Nadine said. “It was inevitable. What happened next?”

“I was returning to the building when it exploded,” Lisa explained. “Eli walked out, impervious to what he had done. And I did just as you said. I grabbed him and came here before anyone could see me. Or if anyone saw me, the explosion and aftermath were too distracting for them to remember me. What are we supposed to do now? Is the Eastern Province going to give us a place to stay?”

“Me? Yes. You two? No.”

“You’re leaving us?” Eli asked, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m sorry—I tried to hold it all in! But they kept performing their tests. The men… Dr. Reid and Dr. Miller. They were there when it happened. I think I…”

“You didn’t do anything to them. It was their fault,” Nadine told the boy. “I don’t want you to blame yourself for this or think it has anything to do with you. It doesn’t, Eli. This is all about people pushing you to a limit you don’t need to be pushed to. You are able to heal, and when you do so, you absorb the damage. You do not yet have the ability to control when you release it. That’s understandable. It’s natural. What they were doing to you…”

Lisa nodded.

“You get it?” Nadine asked her.

“I get it. You want us to disappear.”

“I will help you. I will do everything I can to make sure they don’t find you. We’ll need paperwork, identities, money…” Nadine sighed, ushering them deeper into the alley.

“What about Mr. Roman? He could help us,” Eli suggested.

“He doesn’t have his power any longer. Although…” Nadine shook her head.

“Maybe the Council has made a decision by now,” Lisa said.

“Perhaps. I suppose it is an avenue we should check, but I would rather not get him involved in this.”

“I know you’re upset with him, but…” Lisa bit her lip. “It’s not really my place to say.”

“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Eli said. “He was nice to me.”

“He was nice to me as well, and I did what I could to help him in the end,” Nadine said. “I tried. I risked my own life, and he still went and turned himself in. There’s no telling if he’s been given his power back. If any of our agents have found this information to be true, they haven’t shared it. And why would Centralia give it back? With a power like that, and for them not to be able to control him…”

“It is worth exploring,” Lisa said. “In the meantime, Eli and I should hide somewhere.”

Nadine nodded. “I know of a hostel you two can stay at for the next few days while I try to figure this out. No questions asked. It’s really not a bad place, either.”

“And what about Mr. Roman?”

Nadine smiled at Eli. “Maybe…”

“Maybe you and I can pay him a visit,” Lisa suggested. “After we get settled into the hostel, you and I can go check on him. It will be pretty easy to tell if he has his power back or not.”

“How?” Eli asked.

“His dolls. I mean, the women that usually hang out with him. He gives them power. You remember them?”

“Coma and Celia,” Eli said. “I liked them, too. And Casper.”

“So that’s the plan then,” Lisa said. “We’ll lie low, you can visit us later tonight, and you and I can go check on Roman. If he has his power back, then…”

“No, I’ll reach out to him privately.” Nadine ignored another mental message coming to her from the government representative. “I have to start handling this now. Luckily, I bought a little time through being at the retreat. But if I don’t do something now, they’re going to know something is up.”

“Right.”

“One more thing,” Nadine said to Lisa.

“What’s that?”

“Oscar?”

Lisa shook her head. “As far as I know he was in there too, upstairs making soup.”

“I figured as much,” Nadine said as she got some money out of her clutch. “The hostel is on 58th and 16th. Go there now and pay for the next week. I’ll be there later tonight.”

“I just don’t get him,” Catherine told her friend Anna. It was happy hour, and the two were at a bar near Roman’s flat.

Anna, who also hailed from the Northern Alliance yet was in Centralia legally, offered her friend a firm but understanding smile. “There’s a lot you haven’t told me about him, and I know you said you weren’t going to tell me some parts, but from what I’ve heard, it sounds like he’s not worth it. I mean, who is this guy anyway? You said he worked at a bodega, right?”

“That’s part of the complication…” Catherine downed her glass of wine. “Last one for me. And I’m going to go over there, by the way. I’ve made up my mind.”

“Why?”

“Because…” Catherine glanced from Anna to the bartender, who was coming by with the bottle wondering if she wanted a refill. She politely waved him away. “Because sometimes it just feels nice to be wanted.”

“It doesn’t even sound like he wants you, though.”

“He does,” Catherine assured her friend. “It’s just his nature. You have to meet him to understand.”

“You said he had pretty intense eyes, right?”

“Orange ones, which are at odds with his white hair.”

Anna took another sip from her glass of wine. “And he’s actually from Centralia? It sounds like he’s from somewhere else.”

“He’s definitely from Centralia. He used to work for the government in a position that immigrants aren’t normally allowed to work in.”

The bartender returned with the bill and set it down, thanking the two of them as he turned his attention to another patron, this one an off-duty exemplar by the looks of it, his uniform visible beneath his T-shirt. The exemplar looked over at the Northern Alliance women and offered them a toothy grin, winking as he made a gesture that said he would like to buy them drinks.

“We’re fine,” Anna told him. “And I’ve got this.”

Catherine winced as she watched her friend take the bill. “Next time…” she started to say.

“Don’t worry about it,” Anna told her. “I want you to think seriously about what you’re doing. I mean, it’s your life, so do what you want, but whoever this mysterious Centralian guy is, he doesn’t sound right for you. It sounds like he may even be seeing someone else.”

“I don’t know who would see him in his current state, but maybe…” Catherine’s eyes dropped to the left as she combed through her memory. When she couldn’t find anything aside from the empath she had met, Emelia, and Roman’s fuck dolls, she looked up at her friend and smiled. “I’ll get this figured out.”

“Soon?”

“Soon.”

Catherine gave Anna a hug when they stepped outside the bar, and after making sure she was clear, the wind user lifted into the air. A light zephyr picked up around her, whipping up the red and yellow leaves as she rose higher.

For a moment, Catherine just lazily flew in the general direction of Roman’s home, spinning in the air, watching her reflection on the windows of a tall building, the sun creating a corona of light against her eyes every time she blinked.

Eventually, she lowered to the streets, where she ordered a teleporter to take her into Roman’s home.

She wanted to surprise him, to seduce him before he went to work.

Maybe there was a solution to all this. Maybe Catherine needed to make him desire her more to scratch the itch for him.

Smoke rose from the ground as the teleporter appeared, the man confirming the location and disappearing with Catherine.

It was only a few moments later that she arrived in Roman’s living room, the teleporter gone before he could say anything about the single sex doll that sat on the couch.

Catherine shook her head at the doll, and she was just starting to pass it when she turned back to it.

“He bought a new one?”

She took a step closer to the doll.

This one didn’t look like the dolls she’d seen before, the woman in the mask and the red-haired bombshell. This doll had blonde hair and wore all black, the tight outfit exposing an insane amount of cleavage.

Curious now, Catherine reached out to the doll’s face, and from there down to one of its breasts. She squeezed it, shaking her head as she judged its buoyancy.

“I don’t know what he sees in you things,” Catherine said to it, shoving the doll to the side so it now lay in an awkward position on Roman’s couch.

Catherine turned to Roman’s bed, remembering the sex they’d had the other night.

That was the part she wasn’t really explaining to Anna, how good it felt to be with Roman, how the almost impassive way he made love to her was a complete turn on.

She got onto the bed and stared up at the crack in the ceiling.

Her mind started to wander, and as it did she returned to the sex she’d recently had with Roman, slowly lowering her hand down and lightly touching herself. She spread her legs just a little, flicking her pointer finger against her clit, imagining Roman over her, his arms holding him up, his white hair in his face.

Catherine felt something.

She started to look down when her neck straightened and her muscles tightened, the bed preventing her from moving.

Catherine felt something wet against her clit.

She panicked, wind kicking up around her until she heard a woman’s voice.

“Move, and I will kill you. Relax, and I will bring you joy.”

Catherine had never heard the woman’s voice before, but when she felt her ribs constrict slightly, she knew the woman meant business. Able to now move her head, Catherine looked down to see Roman’s doll between her legs, the doll’s dark eyes locked on her as she ate her out.

And as soon as their eyes met, Catherine, or who the world knew as Catherine, ceased to exist.

She never had a memory after that point. Her entire history was erased in a single instant as something came over her, something became her.

“Yes,” she said with a renewed vigor, slapping her hand on the back of the doll’s head and pushing its face in deeper. “Yes…”

Chapter Ten: A Long Time Coming

“You feel naked without your dolls, don’t you?”

Roman ran a hand over his chin, offering Emelia an uncomfortable smile.

“I’m sorry, sometimes I can hit too close to home,” she said, the beautiful empath now in a black dress that looked like it was made of velvet. A dazzling jewel hung from her neck, and it had drawn Roman’s attention several times now.

“It’s fine.”

“And I appreciate you telling me so much thus far. I assure you, I haven’t looked into your mind, not that I would be able to see as much as I would be able to feel, but you know what I mean.”

Rather than respond, Roman pressed his weight forward and went for the wine bottle, filling Emelia’s glass. An appetizer came, grilled chicken wrapped in spinach and sautéed in butter and other pungent spices.

The smell hit Roman’s nostrils and he nodded, ready to dive in.

He was just about to use his fork to take the chicken off one of the skewers when he stopped, then used his power instead.

“I take it you’re happy to finally be able to use your power without being scrutinized.”

Emelia watched as the fork held a piece of the meat, the knife sawing off a more manageable chunk.

“Oh, people still scrutinize me.”

“You know what I mean. It’s quite miraculous, you know, how it just came out of nowhere.”

“The power of a telepath,” Roman said, smiling up at her.

They’d been at the posh restaurant near Emelia’s place of employment for about forty minutes now, taking it slowly, enjoying wine as Roman went over most of the details of what had happened over the last few days, still leaving out the part where he had basically been ordered to go after his former coworker, Kevin.

“To telepaths and their bastard stepsisters, empaths,” Emelia said, raising her wineglass to Roman.

They clinked their glasses together. He returned his focus to the appetizer.

“In a way, this is the last time you and I will be able to be alone for the foreseeable future,” she said, her eyes locking on Roman.

“What do you mean?”

“Your upgraded dolls will be ready tomorrow, and then from that point forward, you will be some sort of secret agent man, who probably won’t make time for an old friend like me,” Emelia said with a sad smile. “At least that is what I’m sensing.”

“We’re old friends now?”

She clucked. “I don’t know what it is about you…”

“It’s definitely my checkered past and my redemption story,” Roman said, the words leaving his lips before he could fully process them.

He nodded at his own reply.

Often times it was true: this really was part of his appeal for some bizarre reason.

“It definitely isn’t that; I’ve never been into fighters and guys who go against their own governments.”

He shrugged playfully. “Well, aside from a humiliating month of working at a bodega—and trust me, it was humiliating—going against my own government appeared to work out in my favor.”

There was another piece of his recent history he wasn’t telling her, his relation to Margo. Roman hadn’t mentioned the terrible woman was back either, mostly for fear of bringing Emelia into the equation.

Maybe it was better if it was just Roman and his dolls for a while, at least until Margo was gone.

As much as he liked to flirt, and as distant as he could be at times, Roman didn’t want to see anything happen to anyone else he cared for, including the empath with the violet eyes sitting before him.

“How is the chicken?” she asked, noticing that Roman had rolled another skewer on his plate. His knife and fork were currently animated, cutting the pieces into smaller bites.

“Would you like to try some?”

“I thought you would never ask.”

Roman’s fork bent over at the waist and slowly formed legs to lift a nice piece of chicken. It walked to the other side of the table, making a show out of it, acting like it was bouncing something incredibly heavy on its head.

Emelia laughed, as did a little girl who was sitting at a table near them, her eyes locked on Roman’s creation.

“You know,” Emelia said as she grabbed the fork by its stem and lifted it to her mouth, “if this whole spy thing doesn’t work out for you, you could always join the circus.”

“Yes, I could.” Roman grinned over at the little girl, who immediately looked away with embarrassment.

Their main courses came, as did another bottle of wine.

Roman received a message from Ava telling him that the Centralian government had arranged housing for him and she would check on him in the morning.

She gave him the address, and even though it was a mental message read to Roman through a totally neutral voice at the back of his head, he sensed a longing in the way it had been dictated, like Ava was actually asking him to come to her.

He quickly replied and returned to his conversation, Emelia now discussing her job and occasionally flirting with Roman.

The attractive empath explained how she had recently upgraded her apartment. Her new place apparently had an incredible view of the city with a balcony that had sparkling lights strung through its railing, and she said he would enjoy the view.

The waitress came by after they were finished and asked if they wanted dessert.

“Dessert? Or should we take this back to my place?” Emelia asked. “I have some treats there.”

A mental message came in.

Roman felt his heart contract, the nerves in his legs tensing.

“Not tonight,” he said quickly.

Emelia’s smile faded as the empath read the look on his face, and quite possibly the thoughts spiraling through his mind.

“We’ll just take the check,” she said, almost as an afterthought.

Roman’s form took shape at a pleasant hotel in the eastern part of the city, the street lined with trees and discarded banners from a recent festival. At first he didn’t think it was the place, but then he saw the red flags, just as she had described them.

They really did look out of place, but they served as a recognizable landmark.

He entered the hotel, the heels of his shoes clicking loudly on the marble floor, where he was greeted by a thin man with dark skin who made a polite gesture indicating the bar was to the right.

For a moment he thought the front desk clerk was a telepath, but then Roman realized he wasn’t the first guy this man had seen show up here late at night with a hungry look in his eyes.

Roman found the woman sitting at the bar with one leg crossed over the other, staring down at cocktail.

Her hair was in a bun as it had been the first time he’d seen her, and she wore a tight green dress that matched the color of her eyes, eyes Roman was now locked onto through the floor-to-ceiling mirror behind the bartender.

He took a seat next to the woman. She didn’t take her gaze off his reflection, nor did he look away from her, both of them just staring at each other through the bar’s mirror for a moment before their strange spell was interrupted by the bartender.

“We’re open for another hour,” he said as he wiped his hands on his apron, “but the kitchen’s closed.”

“I’ll have what she’s having,” Roman said.

“Will do.”

The bartender slipped away. Still looking at the woman through the mirror’s reflection, Roman finally mustered the courage to speak. “It has been a while.”

“It has.”

“I’m sorry.”

Nadine didn’t respond; instead, she drained her cocktail, finally breaking eye contact with Roman to look over at the bartender and indicate she wanted another as well.

“Is this where you’re staying now?” Roman asked.

“Temporarily.”

“How do the rooms look?”

“Comfortable, but the art on the walls is terrible.”

The bartender returned with their drinks, and Roman broke eye contact with Nadine so he could lift his cocktail by the stem and take a sip from it. “That’s strong,” he said with a wince.

Nadine shrugged. “It has been one hell of a month.”

“For you too?” Roman asked, returning his focus to Nadine, both of them still not officially looking at each other even though they sat next to one another, their shoulders just a few inches apart.

“Let’s finish these cocktails and go to my room,” she said, taking Roman by surprise. “You have to see for yourself how bad the art is.”

Their cocktails finished, the two left, both lost in their own thoughts on how this was going to play out, what it meant, and for Roman, why she had contacted him in the first place.

Their cocktails finished, the two left, Roman following behind Nadine and definitely feeling the effects of the alcohol he’d consumed over the course of the evening.

They came to her door.

Nadine quickly opened it, ushering Roman inside, where he found a single bed and absolutely no art on the walls.

The only other decor aside from a nightstand was an outward-facing couch on the other side of the room, which provided a decent view of Centralia. Nadine instructed Roman to take a seat on the couch, and after a moment to freshen up in the restroom, she joined him.

They still hadn’t really looked at one another, and now, sitting next to each other, Roman was again presented with Nadine’s reflection in the glass of the window, her face harder to read due to the lighting.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, the words tumbling out of his lips meant to cover everything that had happened between them, even the parts he might have purposefully forgotten in the Eastern Province.

“There’s no need to apologize.”

“I mean, I’m sorry that the art is so bad in here.”

Nadine turned to Roman, a smile forming on her face. “It really is bad, isn’t it?”

They had been playing this weird little game for a good twenty minutes now, and to finally take her in, her soft features, her green eyes, the look of concern and determination on her face…

Roman swallowed hard.

“It’s so nice to see you,” he said, feeling the urge to move on her, to bring her into his arms.

Nadine nodded. “Sometimes life comes at us so fast we forget the things we’ve been through with certain people, only to be reminded once we’re finally eye to eye with them again.”

“I know what you mean. How have things been?”

“They reassigned me to the border. I’m working on a project there through a Centralian government that deals with border security. It’s not great.”

Roman shook his head. “I don’t know how you always get assigned to the Centralian government so easily; it’s like you have a knack for espionage.”

“It is what I was trained to do,” she said without hesitation. “But with this role…”

“You don’t like it?”

“I see the point of it. My goal is to help people from my country easily enter this country by making the Centralian border porous. Sure, makes sense. But it doesn’t have any of the same parameters as my previous roles, nor is there much risk. And while I enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere for about three days, I have since discovered that I’m much more attracted to danger.”

Nadine slowly placed her hand on Roman’s. She kept it there for a moment, Roman waiting to see how this would play out.

“I’m sorry you don’t like it,” he finally said, just to speak.

“It’s tolerable.”

“Is that why you called me here?” he asked, looking down at her hand again. “To tell me this?”

“There’s more, and to be honest with you, I don’t know why I called you here. Just that…” She shook her head as she took her hand back. “It’s been a bad day. Eli destroyed the safe house, killing Oscar and the scientists from my country that were experimenting on him. I have Lisa and Eli hidden in a different, temporary location, but I know my government will come looking at some point…”

“You’re trying to hide them?”

“Not Lisa, Eli.” Nadine considered what she had just said. “Well, both of them. They have already been exploiting Lisa for her power, which is how we’ve been able to discover a few things about your government that took even me by surprise. With Eli, I don’t want him to become a guinea pig.”

“What have you discovered about my government?”

Nadine gave Roman a sidelong glance and turned her focus back to the window, seemingly cold again. “Just some things.”

“Thank you for being vague.”

“It’s what I do. Any updates?”

“I have some news that may interest you.”

“What’s that?”

Roman thought of all the things that had happened over the last few days, and decided to start with the revelation. “Margo is still alive, and she’s my half-sister, so there’s that.”

“Half-sister? You’re kidding.”

“No, and she’s apparently coming for me again. I received information from a Western Province spy named Orange. Sound familiar?”

Nadine blinked twice. “Yes, I’m aware of the man.”

“Apparently, the same guy who fathered Margo fathered me about ten years later, putting both of us up for adoption. She stayed in the West and later became a soldier of the State or however her twisted story goes; I was adopted by a family from Centralia. I confirmed with my parents as well. It would explain my power.”

“How’s that?”

“Margo has the same power, and apparently her father did as well—our father did. From what Ava has told me, it has to do with a particular tribe from the Western Province who have white hair as one of their defining traits. I mean, not all of them must have had white hair, and surely there are people here in Centralia with the same color as me who don’t have the power to animate inanimate objects, but it is a known trait.”

“Had the power,” Nadine said, correcting him.

Roman stopped speaking, not able to hide his grin.

Instead of continuing, he glanced at a glass on one of the tables. The glass cylinder pressed together, scrunching up like a fist but keeping its base as he started to form a rose out of it.

He didn’t have a chance to finish.

“Your powers are back?” Nadine asked, bringing her hand to her mouth.

Roman nodded.

“How…? They actually gave it back to you?”

“Not quite.”

Roman quickly explained to Nadine that a woman Margo had killed would have been the one to give him his power back, but that instead, his ability had arisen naturally on its own after he’d been interrogated by a high-level telepath.

“That’s remarkable; I really don’t know what else to say.”

“I don’t know what else to say either,” Roman told her.

“I was unaware that your powers had been returned, but now that they have…”

“You could use them?”

Nadine nodded slowly. “That’s not exactly why I called you here, but part of it had to do with hoping you had a friend or two left in the immigration office that could forge documents. Yet with your power…”

“I don’t need a friend to forge anything, and before you ask, I’m willing and able to help you as much as I can, Nadine. But it’s going to have to be secret.”

“Would it be any other way?” she asked with a smirk as she scooted closer to him.

“The Centralian…” Roman shook his head. “Never mind. It just has to be secret. I don’t know where I stand with my own government yet. I would like to keep off their radar, if that makes sense.”

“And your dolls?”

“Actually, I’m having them modified. They should be back tomorrow.”

“So you’re alone for the night then, right?”

“It appears that way, yes. The government has arranged a hotel for me, but I haven’t checked in yet.”

Nadine’s eyes slowly looked from Roman over to her bed.

“I can sleep on the couch here,” he said, almost as an afterthought.

“Fuck it. I’m sick of holding back.” Nadine turned to Roman and straddled him in a matter of moments.

She started kissing him passionately, Roman’s hand naturally going to her sides as she squeezed her legs even tighter.

He ran his hand along her back and eventually found the zipper of her dress. As they made out, he helped her out as best he could, the rest of the fabric still tight across her thighs.

His hands came to her sides again, lightly grazing her scar.

“What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Nadine said between kisses.

Roman didn’t press her.

Instead, he buried his head in her breasts, sucking her nipples and occasionally looking up at her, at the top of her chin. Nadine’s head was thrown back, the woman gasping as he reached one hand around and cupped her ass, moving his fingers closer to her sex.

He started lightly touching the back end of her panties, and Nadine grew wetter and wetter as the room blurred all around him.

Roman knew he was drunk, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to make this one count, the pressure between the two having built up for so long.

Nadine arched her back, making space for Roman to unzip his pants.

He could tell in that moment that there wasn’t going to be any foreplay here. Both of them were practically thrumming from the tension they had bottled since meeting each other, since the first time he’d seen her at the immigration offices.

Keeping her eyes on him, Nadine pulled her panties aside and gave Roman enough room to slip inside her.

The fabric of her panties started grinding against the side of his penis; Roman quickly animated them, and the panties slid like a snake off Nadine’s body.

“That’s one way to do it,” she said, breathless now, Roman fully inside her.

“It really is a blessing,” he said as the two instantly found their rhythm.

Roman had been with plenty of women, and there were some he had never been able to develop a natural rhythm with. That didn’t mean that they didn’t have great sex, nor did it mean that portions of the sex weren’t pleasurable, like his relations with Catherine.

But there was something about the natural rhythm he had with Nadine. It was instantly gratifying, proof positive that the two bodies were made to unite, that the users understood each other, that there was a connection beyond desire, a greater power being exchanged.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Roman said, trying to maintain control, to stop from orgasming too soon.

Nadine was now backlit by the lights outside, the front of her body dark with shadows, her curves outlined, her nipples erect. He dug his fingers into her ass cheeks, helping her along, both of them breathing together, quiet as they ingrained this memory in the back of their skulls.

With the lives they lived, there really was no telling if there would truly be a tomorrow.

There was only the moment, and in that moment, Nadine whispered for Roman to finish inside her, that she was coming.

Roman dropped his head back and let out an audible sigh as he obeyed her command.

Chapter Eleven: Streamlined Removal

“Get me the documents you need me to forge,” Roman told Nadine once he was dressed, “and I will see that it is done.”

Nadine sat on the couch that looked out over the city, fully clothed, a cup of tea in her hands. The morning sun was shining into the room, both a welcomed sight and a reminder that time went on.

“That shouldn’t be very difficult,” she said almost as an afterthought. “And thank you.”

Roman was just about to make it to the door when he stopped, turning back to her. “I really did miss you over the last month. Did you see the messages I left you around my flat?”

She nodded. “I saw them.”

“Sorry if they sounded a little desperate.”

“I would have reached out to you—you know that, right?” She set her cup down and made her way over to Roman. “But I was already on thin ice…”

Nadine’s hair was down for once, and she looked completely different from the woman Roman was used to seeing. He wanted to bring her into his arms again but decided against it, not sure of how they would interact with each other after what had happened last night.

It was still too early to tell.

“Are you sure you don’t want to grab breakfast?” she asked. “My treat.”

“Believe it or not, I am sort of starting a new job today.”

“Where?” she asked.

“Just some stuff for the Centralian government. They’re still keeping a short leash on me for the time being. Maybe if I play my cards right, they’ll let me go after Margo.”

Nadine paused. “And you would do that again?”

Roman shrugged. “There is no doubt in my mind that Margo must be brought down, even if I have to kill her myself to do it. I’m not going to let the fact that Celia is now buried in a place where Margo could never find her distract me from finishing what I started. Then again…”

“You sound like the Roman I knew a month ago,” Nadine said, and Roman was uncertain whether this was a good or bad thing based on the tone of her voice.

“You never let me finish.”

“We really don’t change that much, exemplar or non-exemplar.”

The two smiled at each other for a moment, neither certain as to how they should end this meeting.

“Until we meet again,” Roman said, instantly feeling stupid for the words that had just left his lips.

Nadine covered her laugh in a cute way. “Sure,” she finally said. “Soon.”

Roman ordered a teleporter, and as he stepped out of the room, he noticed a square starting to take shape on the hotel carpet. The top of the square opened as if it were a trapdoor.

A short man in unregistered teleporter clothing stepped out.

“How does this work?” Roman asked.

“Get in the hole,” the man said, and as soon as Roman stepped in, he found himself in a narrow passageway with a single light at the end of the space.

He started walking toward the light, and steps started to form beneath him as he did.

Roman took the steps to the top, pressing the ceiling open and coming out in front of the sex-doll shop where Emelia worked. He looked back down to see the man on the stairs now, nodding as he locked eyes with Roman.

“Have a good day,” the teleporter said, and with that, the trapdoor snapped shut.

Taking a step back, Roman ran his hand through his hair, not quite sure how he should process what he had just experienced.

Luckily, he didn’t have to.

A breeze picked up, whipping a paper bag in the air. Emelia opened the door of the shop and invited him in.

If she was upset about Roman leaving so abruptly last night, her face didn’t show it as she asked him to take a seat on the plush couch in the center of the room.

“Are you thirsty?”

“I’ll be fine, I really need to get to…” Roman shook his head.

“What?”

“Work. Somehow I keep getting a job even though I don’t really want one.”

Emelia laughed at his statement. “Having a job can give one a sense of purpose.”

“Aware. Especially the job I’m planning to take. But sometimes it seems like I can never actually quit a job and stay unemployed. I guess it’s my fate to work,” he said with a smile.

“There could be worse jobs, especially with your power,” Emelia reminded him. “They could put you on a construction team, or even worse, some sort of crime scene cleanup detail.”

“I keep waiting for them to say they’ve reassigned me to the janitorial staff…”

“Well, if you press your luck with them, they just might do it,” Emelia said as she made her way to the back of the room. “Hold tight for a moment and prepare to have your mind blown.”

Emelia rolled a hand truck into the room about a minute later, and Roman’s eyes fell on Coma’s lifeless form.

He immediately animated her.

The masked doll took a step forward, then looked down at her hands and finally up to Roman.

“Beautiful,” Emelia said under her breath. But rather than stick around, she moved through the door at the back to retrieve Celia this time.

“And Casper is with you?” Roman asked.

Coma reached into the front of her Gothic Loli dress, retrieving the tiny doll.

Casper came to life and then hopped to the ground, charged over toward Roman and used his pantleg to scale up his body straight to her favorite jacket pocket.

“Did you miss me?” she asked when she was in place.

“Yes, I did.”

Emelia came out of the back room with the same hand truck, this time with Celia on it.

Roman activated her as well, and the redhead lightly stepped forward and brought her hands to her face.

“Do you mind if we see what they can do?” Roman asked Emelia.

“By all means, but don’t tear up the place,” she said with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

Celia made her way over to Roman and sat next to him, crossing one leg over the other, her hip pressed into his side.

Roman nodded Coma forward, and as she stepped in front of him, he willed some of his energy into the doll, instinctively looking down at his wrist and realizing he no longer had his power dial.

Roman was sure he could get another one, but he wanted to be able to do this on his own, without the device to fall back on. Besides, if he constantly relied on a device, there may be room for error, especially if someone managed to break it in the middle of a fight.

“You might want to take a step back,” he told Emelia.

The empath heeded his words and gave Coma some space.

“The floor is yours,” he told his combat doll.

Coma dropped her red eyes to her right hand, and as she did, the plastic started to melt away, her metal skeleton forming a long blade.

She lifted the blade and it started to split into two. From there, it merged back together to form one solid blade again.

Coma spun once, almost like a dancer, bringing her arm around into an incredible attack pose.

She did this again, moving even faster this time as the sound of her blade slicing through the air met Roman’s ears.

She morphed her other hand into a blade as well, and as she came forward, Coma performed a full-body spin. She landed in a crouch with one leg straight, balanced on her heel.

The doll stood, and both blades started to melt.

But they never actually dripped all the way to the floor.

Keeping them in their liquid metal state, Coma whipped her arms around and crashed both whip-like limbs together, forming a double helix that quickly morphed into an enormous double-armed sword.

She chopped her arms forward once again, her legs coming around to meet her and provide stability for her landing.

Coma dropped both arms to her sides, the blade splitting in two. The metal started to reform into a skeleton as her skin slowly melted over it and solidified.

“Exactly what I wanted,” Roman told Emelia, finally able to breathe again.

“I had no idea it would be like that…” the empath whispered, her hand over her mouth.

“Amazing,” he told Coma. “Absolutely stunning.”

“It was inspiring,” Celia said, looking down at her own arms.

“You want to try?” Roman asked her.

Celia nodded, and with a deep breath in, Roman focused some of his power into her.

She lifted her left arm and the skin melted away, showing her metal skeleton beneath. Her fingers formed into sharp metal spikes. Celia playfully scratched at the air as Casper laughed.

“They even gave me metal arms,” Casper said. “That was the plan, right?”

“Anything they get, you get,” Roman told her.

“In that case, are you going to let me try them out or not?”

“Sure,” he said as he took some of the power away from Coma and transferred it to Casper.

The tiny doll formed her right arm into a sharp needle and waved it around. She jabbed at the air and swung her arm around like a rapier.

“I’m going to stab the hell out of somebody with this,” she said. “I’m really going to fuck someone up. Just you wait and see.”

“That’s the plan,” Roman told her, “that’s the plan.”

Roman and his dolls appeared in front of the Centralian Intelligence Agency at one of the numerous designated teleportation spots. There was nothing strange about the teleporter this time. The man had simply placed his hand on Roman and they were standing here one flash later, the man gone before Roman could thank him.

Not that he would have.

While there were parts of Centralia, especially closer to the border, where manners were appreciated, in the city it was considered polite not to engage in conversation with someone unless absolutely necessary. This was one reason Centralia could be pretty quiet, even if it was so densely populated.

Roman mental messaged Ava to let her know he had arrived.

He didn’t know if she was going to be there or not, but she had asked him to message her, so he did.

A gust of wind blew past, and as it settled, he looked up at a large installation piece in front of the building.

He remembered learning about the symbol when he was a boy, that it had to deal with the truth and the way information was given to the public by the government. With as much news and important things going on at once, the Centralian government wanted to be as efficient as possible in what reached the public; they always wanted to have a clear and decisive answer.

The upside-down arrow represented that, but seeing it at this height, some two hundred meters tall, only drew attention to all the information they were holding back.

Roman passed under it, stepping around a few agents in dark suits who looked as stereotypical as they possibly could.

He had dealt with these types of suits before, most of them coming from the elite schools in northern Centralia. Many were non-exemplars, but there were exemplars in their midst, and all of them were highly trained and usually carried concealed weapons.

Or not.

That was the rumor, propagated to all ages and bolstered by fantasy novels, comic books, and other forms of escapist entertainment.

For all Roman knew, the men and women dressed this way were simply pencil pushers, no different than him when he’d worked back at the immigration offices.

A large glass door slid open and Roman made his way inside, where he came to a circular front desk and a woman with her hair combed to one side.

When she looked up at Roman, he instantly felt the telltale signs of a telepath scraping at the back of his mind.

A frown formed on her face as she looked at his dolls.

“They are with me.”

“They are not approved for entry,” the woman said.

“Well, you’ve already confirmed my identity, so you might as well take it to the next step and confirm what I can do, and the unit I’ve recently been forced to join. Go on. I’ll wait.”

The woman smiled curtly at Roman as she looked him over again.

“Are we good?”

Her desktop drawer opened on its own. An identification card floated out one of the files and touched down on the table between them.

“For now. Be sure to wear your identification.”

“Thanks,” Roman said as he clipped it to the front of his jacket. “Just so I don’t get lost in here and discover some secret even I don’t have clearance for, can you point me in the right direction?”

The woman smirked. “Sure. Your meeting has been scheduled on the second floor, room two twenty-three.”

“Thanks,” Roman said just as a message came in from Ava telling him the same thing.

“And you are late,” the woman called after him.

“Thanks.”

He moved around a waterfall in the center of the room cut into polished lime in the shape of the downward-facing arrow. Roman took the staircase to the left, and once he got there he located a sign pointing to room two twenty-three.

He entered without knocking, and Rafner’s team all looked up at him at the same time.

“I see you brought company,” Rafner said, raising an eyebrow at Roman.

“You’ll get used to them.”

Roman didn’t normally feel so cocky, nor did he normally act this way, but part of him was annoyed he had to be here, and he wanted to make the point known that he did not agree with what he was being asked to do, even if he had agreed to do it.

“We can get some chairs,” Rafner suggested.

“No need to,” Coma told him as she stepped to the left of the door, Celia joining her.

Casper was just about to say something when Roman deactivated her, realizing she may be just a little too much for the room, especially since three of the four women seated before him were already scowling.

He recognized the one with blue hair as the telepath, Miranda, and then there was Ava. Roman had seen the two other women before, but he probably hadn’t been introduced to them.

One had messy blonde hair and was a few pounds overweight. She was pretty and voluptuous in a way that caught Roman’s attention.

The other woman had dark purple skin, slicked-back hair, and a pierced nose. Of the three, she was the least impressed with Roman, glaring at him.

There was also a second male with stringy hair and a lantern jaw. Everyone except Ava was in the same black Centralian Intelligence Agency outfit that Roman hadn’t been given yet, somewhere between tactical gear and military clothing, with high collars and crisp lines.

“Sorry I’m late,” Roman said as he took a seat at the end of the table.

“We figured you might be,” Rafner told him. “I suppose I should introduce everyone. You’ve already met Miranda,” he said, gesturing toward the blue-haired telepath.

Miranda glanced at Roman, and he felt her telepathic power creeping at the back of his skull. She stopped, as if to remind Roman that she could still have power over him if she wanted.

“This is Scott,” Rafner said, referring to the man on his right. Scott rose and offered Roman a thin smile. “Jess,” he said, nodding to the woman with dirty-blonde hair, “and Naomi.”

The one with purple skin looked from Roman to his dolls and back to him, hardly concealing her skepticism.

“Glad to meet all of you,” Roman said, ready to be done with the meeting.

He could feel that it was awkward, that he had been invited into this mission by a higher authority to the chagrin of most of the people in the room, aside from Ava and Rafner. “This is Coma, Celia, and Casper,” Roman said, tapping on the doll in his pocket and almost giving her life.

“You have a doll in your pocket?” the woman named Jess asked.

“That I do. Care to meet her?”

“There will be time for further introductions later,” Rafner said, taking control of the meeting. “Everyone here already knows our mission, but since you are new to the team, I’m treating this like a first briefing. Normally, you would also receive paperwork with this information, but this particular mission is too classified to put down on paper, as are all initiatives under what we call Streamlined Removal, which is part of the Centralian government’s aggressive new policy when it comes to people guilty of federal crimes.”

“Are we still referring to Kevin here?” Roman asked.

“That we are. Aside from being responsible for numerous deaths, Kevin also broke Centralia’s only healer out of a maximum-security facility.”

“Which facility?”

“Prison South. He is also responsible for this healer’s death.”

“Kevin killed the healer?” Roman asked.

“She was already on her deathbed, to be fair, but his actions expedited her passing, which we are considering a crime against humanity because the government’s goal of holding her was to get to the bottom of her healing power and replicate it,” Rafner explained. “There are other agents investigating the fact that Kevin had a Type II Class E replicate her power and create a rumored serum from it, a man named Dr. Hamza Grumio, but that investigation is being handled by a different team here at the Centralian Intelligence Agency and an exemplar team known as Team Saint. However, we would like that serum, and we believe he may have had another serum created as well.”

“Got it.”

“But to summarize: this is why the government has chosen Streamlined Removal for Kevin Blackbook and anyone in his entourage, including two Western Province Type II Class Cs known as Turquoise and Obsidian.”

“Do you have any idea of his whereabouts?” Roman asked.

“I’m getting to that. As part of this team, you will be responsible for removing Kevin Blackbook. We do not want him alive, and you will be expected to engage when given the option in the quickest way possible.”

“Doesn’t all this seem a bit fast to you?” Roman asked.

“Excuse me?”

Roman looked to Ava for support, and when he didn’t get it, he continued.

“A month and a half ago, I wasn’t even allowed to use my powers in public; now you’ve asked me to join this group and use my powers to kill a former coworker. Am I missing something here? I feel like there’s a whole lot of training I’m going without, and also a complete and utter disregard for standard protocol. I could be wrong, but there’s no one here to tell me I’m wrong, and I don’t believe if I brought any of this information to a government lawyer they would be able to justify what is happening here through civil law.”

“You are being given a second chance, Roman, and you’re off to a bad start,” Ava reminded him.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help but feel like something is off here, that we’re going against standard procedures.”

“Let me worry about that,” Rafner said firmly. “And let’s be honest: if we offered you several months of training, would you even want to take it? Something you should know, and something you will soon learn to understand as you become eligible for higher security clearances, is that the government rarely works in the way people outside of it think it does. Surely, you’ve come to the same conclusion on your own.”

“Perhaps.”

“So to review: the government has let you off without any charges regarding the city block you helped destroy, and I have been an advocate for you behind the scenes. Our ultimate goal is for the good of the people. Now, this isn’t what this briefing is about. If you want to have a more drawn-out conversation, we can do so later. What this is about is Kevin Blackbook.”

“Where is he anyway?” Roman asked. “You mentioned something about extraction.”

“That is another piece of this puzzle that makes it a little more complicated than normal.” Rafner placed his hands on the table. “He is in the Western Province, in the city known as Ravja, which it turns out was ground zero for the Western Plague. We’ve already made an agreement with the Western Province government to allow us to extract him, but it isn’t going to be easy, and it is not a mission we decided to add you to without carefully considering the repercussions, regardless of how others in this room may feel.”

Chapter Twelve: New Horizons

Kevin Blackbook was in over his head.

To go from an immigration advisor to a wanted man guilty of fratricide and somehow end up as an up-and-coming kingpin in the Western Province city of Ravja was a story arc even Centralia’s most brazen comic writer wouldn’t touch.

Kevin was keenly aware of this, and sometimes at night as he lay there with his cat girls, he would think about the sheer circumstance that had brought all this together, how at points he’d played a role in what was happening and that other points he’d been far removed, his story etched in the sand oblivious to his whim.

It had been one hell of a month since Kevin had left Centralia.

Getting over the border had been relatively easy, especially after trading a single vial of the healing serum he’d had created. It only worked temporarily, but consuming even a milliliter of the substance gave a person the power to heal both themselves and others. The only downfall of ingesting the serum was its short-lived nature, and that it made a person drowsy.

That wasn’t the only serum Kevin had, even if his supply was limited.

While he didn’t know exactly how it would play out, the strange doctor Scarlett the teleporter had introduced him to would definitely catch the attention of Centralian authorities, if the man hadn’t already. Dr. Hamza Grumio would either be killed or, more likely, exploited for his powers.

But that matter didn’t concern Kevin any longer, especially now that he was in the Western Province.

He would have to make his supply last until a new scheme presented itself.

Luckily, there were still several crates, not only of the healing serum but the other one, the addictive cat-girl toxin currently giving Kevin the power to influence others.

It really was amazing how it all had come together.

The Brownlock District was one of Ravja’s eight districts.

It was practically ground zero for the Western Plague, a vampiric infection that had nearly spread over the Centralian border a decade ago.

The city had partially recovered, but since there had been so much destruction in a few of the districts, property values had never stabilized, and slowly, over the last decade, the Brownlock District had morphed into a place that harbored criminals, a place where people from other districts came to sin.

Having now visited all eight districts of Ravja, Kevin felt like he had a sense of the Western Province city, a place that reminded him of Centralia with its sprawl, and also its class separation between some of the nicer districts, like the Garden Edge District and its beautiful buildings with cozy verandas and flower-filled gardens, or the Turnstone District, which was where most of the military installations, diplomat apartments, and contractors were located.

The citizenry mostly kept to themselves, yet they were friendlier than the people of Centralia. There was a willingness to help that Kevin hadn’t experienced in his home country, strangers not afraid to come to someone’s aid, exemplar or non-exemplar alike.

Of course, this naivety made people easier to exploit, which was how Kevin had first come into possession of his current turf.

Kevin and his cat girls had arrived in the Brownlock District looking to gain a foothold. He didn’t think gaining a foothold would mean he would take over a pleasure house, but it was the first opportunity that had come to them, and one he’d gladly taken.

The original owner had been easy to dispose of.

It was shocking to Kevin that it would be so easy to simply claim another person’s illicit business as his own, but that was how it had played out in the end, even if there were a few skirmishes with local gangsters not happy with how Kevin had moved in.

Anyone questioning his authority had succumbed to his cat girls. While the healing serum was helpful in terms of bribery, it was the second serum, the one based on the cat girls’ toxicity, that really gave Kevin an advantage.

The twenty women working in the pleasure house were all addicted to it, no longer accepting payment in cash. Instead, they were each given one dose a day, doses that had been cut with a water solution. An added bonus of the serum was that it made them more docile, something that kept Kevin’s more barbaric customers coming back.

Managing the serums was something Kevin actually enjoyed. By his calculations, they had a year’s supply before they would need to figure out a way to create more of the stuff.

By then, he hoped to have saved enough money and influenced enough people to move on to bigger and better things. After all, being the owner of a pleasure house, while profitable, came with a whole slew of management issues Kevin had already come to despise.

Aside from the potential enemies in the area and the fact that he had to keep the place guarded, there were the women who worked in the establishment, all with their own attitudes and complications arising from their fucked-up backstories and the sometimes terrible things the clients did to them.

The power to heal had come in handy on more than one occasion, especially when one of his more violent clients had gotten ahold of one of Kevin’s women. While he could heal their wounds, something he would never be able to heal was the psychological impact of what they had been asked to do.

This was why a female telepath now sat before Kevin, an apprehensive look in her eyes.

“I’ve let you browse freely.” Kevin leaned back in his chair and brought his hands to his lips in a prayer position. “Do you think this is something you will be able to do?”

He could feel her at the back of his mind, and while he knew the steps to inhibit a telepath’s ability, he wanted her to take a look; he wanted her to know what he was planning before she joined.

He also wanted her to see some of the things she would be responsible for erasing.

“I don’t know,” the redhead started to say.

The woman’s name was Sandy Gray.

She wasn’t telekinetic, nor was her ability to read minds as strong as Kevin had hoped it would be. If it had been, she would have tried to run out of his room after taking a peek into Kevin’s skull.

No, she was but an empath, a Type IV Class A with a small amount of telepathic skill, and she had come to Kevin through the recommendation of one of his clients, who knew her father.

“Obsidian,” Kevin said, calling over to his favorite of the two cat girls.

The woman slowly made her way toward Sandy, who was shaking now, just about to get out of her seat. Obsidian placed a hand on Sandy’s shoulder, her nails growing from her finger as she dug into it.

“What are you doing to me?” the red-haired telepath asked, a frightful look coming over her eyes.

“Relax.” Kevin got out of his chair and came around to the front of his desk. He leaned against it, watching the toxin take effect.

“More,” Kevin told Obsidian.

Seeing Sandy sit there with a dazed look on her face had started to give Kevin an erection.

There was a time when Kevin would have hidden this fact and been ashamed of it, but now he no longer cared. Placing his hands on the front of his black uniform, he began touching the head of his penis through his pants as he watched the glazed look come over Sandy’s eyes.

Eventually, the empath started to drool, still staring at Kevin, barely blinking. After another moment, Obsidian looked from the woman to Kevin to see him touching himself.

“Right here?” she asked Kevin as she came over to him, her tail lightly flitting against her shoulder.

“Why not?” Kevin pulled his cock out and Obsidian slowly lowered to her knees, bringing it into her mouth. She bit the tip of it for a moment, looking up at Kevin as he stared at Sandy’s dazed face. “I like her,” Kevin said as she started up. “I think we should hire her.”

Chapter Thirteen: Future Plans

“You look agitated,” Ava told Roman. They were at a restaurant near the Centralian Intelligence Agency, a cozy place with a lunch special designed for the numerous tastes at the agency. His dolls were seated with them as well, Casper deactivated in his pocket.

A waiter came by and filled their glasses of water, assuring them that food would be ready at any moment now.

“I just don’t know how to process all this,” Roman finally told her. “You have to admit it is strange, right? To go from not having a power to suddenly having your power back and being told to kill someone you used to work with…”

“Our government has its reasons,” Ava said, something flashing across her eyes.

Roman could tell she was having a hard time with her sister’s passing, that it was still heavy on her mind. They hadn’t spoken about it today, but he could sense it from her, and he really wished there was something he could say or do that would make her feel better.

“You don’t have to go with us. You should stay,” he told her for the second time.

“No, it’s good for me to get away, and I have been to Ravja before,” she reminded him. “It will be interesting to see how it has changed in ten years.”

“I can only imagine.”

Ava nodded. “Ten years ago, Mister Fist’s team came to the aid of a Western Province patrol that had found…” She reached for her water and took a sip of it. “Well, to be frank, they’d found the people responsible for the Western Plague, for spreading the vampiric infection.”

“Who was responsible?” Roman asked, wondering if it aligned with what he’d read.

“A telepath who had grown up with Margo, of all people. Looking back now, I believe it was this encounter that sent Margo over the edge, because up until that point, and still for a little while after, Margo had been a valuable asset to the Western Province government. In fact, that’s who we were coming to rescue.”

“You were in the Western Province to rescue Margo?”

“That’s right. Margo, the man you know named Orange, and two exemplars who have since died named Destry and Amethyst.”

“And they were all on the same team?”

“I think I told you this before, or at least alluded to it, but one of the ways the Western Province dealt with the spread of vampirism was to have squads of high-powered exemplars go out on lengthy patrols, which weren’t really patrols at all but hunting missions. They were known as the Protectorate. They killed as many as they could, sometimes indiscriminately, and once a vampire was dead, they retrieved the person’s information for the government’s records. They were a highly effective group, but they couldn’t stop the spread due to their low numbers and the density of the city.”

“I didn’t read anything about that,” Roman said.

“What? In fantasy comics and novels?” Ava smirked at him.

“I mean, I knew there was a fictional element, but I thought at least parts of the stories were true…”

“Unfortunately, the story of some of these patrols has never been told before. There are statues in the city dedicated to them, but they are unmarked,” Ava explained, “or just labeled as ‘The Protectorate.’ The Western Province still has a Protectorate program, and they don’t want to draw attention to it. Where some civilizations would use these people as a point of pride, or as a selling point for joining the military, the Western Province has mostly kept it classified. And for good reason. These exemplars are trained to be soldiers from an early age. If they were to develop a large enough group of them…”

The food came. Roman had ordered grilled fish with a side of vegetables while Ava had gone with vegetable soup and half a sandwich.

“Well regardless, you still don’t have to go to the West with me…” Roman said. “I can handle myself.”

“You really don’t want me to go, do you?”

“It’s not that at all. I just don’t want you to be involved with my crazy life anymore. I know it has affected you, and…” Roman started to cut up his fish. “You know what I’m trying to say here. I don’t want to trouble you any longer.”

“I trained you, and I want to be there when you complete this mission. Aside from that, I know the city better than anyone on Rafner’s team, and we’re basically going in without any leads.”

Roman took a bite of his fish. It was soft, and the sauce drizzled on it was a bit tangy for his taste, but it was good and he was happy.

Roman still found it hard to believe he had been given access to a teleporter who could actually move across the border freely. Sometime this afternoon he was supposed to go with this teleporter and Ava to the Western Province, no passports or visas necessary.

Through the same teleporter, he would move back and forth between the compound they would be staying in, which was apparently a place used by Centralia to move people in and out of the country freely.

And Roman had a feeling this was only the tip of the iceberg.

What else would he experience in his new role? How did his government behave abroad and what was actually their mode of operation?

Roman shook his head.

A morbid part of him was curious as to where all this went. But another part of him didn’t want to know at all, preferring to be just like any other person in Centralia, not knowing that their own government could order someone to be killed.

Streamlined removal...

Roman understood that what Kevin Blackbook had done was a crime.

He wasn’t certain about all the other details of it, like working with this doctor they had mentioned, but if Kevin had purposefully killed people, he should be held responsible.

But to execute him without a trial?

This was the part Roman didn’t agree with, and even if he planned to do what he was told this time, it still didn’t sit well with him.

A message came in from Nadine.

Roman. Are you able to visit me for lunch today? I have the paperwork.

As Ava spoke about her dog, Bonbon, and how her friend was going to take care of it while she was in the Western Province, Roman responded to Nadine.

What kind of time frame do we have here?

We can do this right now. It would be really helpful to me. I’m at my office near the border.

I may be going away for a few days, so it’s best we do this now.

Roman felt something on his leg and looked to see Celia lightly patting him. He smiled at the doll, waiting for the message from Nadine to give him a location.

Once it came in and he’d agreed to meet her there in thirty minutes, Roman tuned back in to what Ava was saying.

He played along, not able to take his thoughts off what he was doing later today or what had happened last night between him and Nadine. And then there was Ava, the beautiful redheaded woman who sat before him, someone he felt a true connection with—yet here he was, his mind adrift.

This was one thing he’d enjoyed about visiting the Eastern Province, at least from what he could remember, that he’d been able to get away from it all.

Maybe he’d be able to do that again, just escape.

How glorious it would be to be free from all the bullshit.

A woman walked by and Roman tried not to glance at her.

She locked eyes with him; he glanced back to Ava. The woman looked like Catherine with her mousy features, her petite form, a wild look behind her eyes cleverly disguised by a facade of fragility.

He almost took a double glance but decided not to.

He knew better, especially with Celia to his left, Coma to his right, and Ava sitting before him.

Curiously, another message came in, this one from a service that was used when a person hadn’t been given permission to message someone.

Hey, it’s me, Catherine. I’m sorry to be contacting you this way. I’m just afraid the Centralian government has started reading my messages. I have friends telling me about that, and I thought it was better if I sent a message anonymously. Can we meet today? You can reply to this service and the message will be transferred to me.

I’m busy today, Roman thought back to her, not too concerned that she had used a service like this.

They’d started popping up a few years back when there were a bunch of theories that the Centralian government was actually listening to people’s mental messages. After what Roman had been told to do recently, he wouldn’t put it past his own government to do something like that. And regarding Catherine and her immigration case, maybe it was a better idea for her to stay under the radar.

You’re always busy, aren’t you? she thought back to him. What about tomorrow? For lunch? Could you meet me then?

I’m going away for a while, Roman thought back to her as he ate some of his vegetables. I don’t know when I’ll return.

That’s no fun. Surely you want to meet me. Don’t you miss me?

I’m taking a trip. Get in touch with me in a week.

In a week? I don’t know if I can wait that long. I miss your big cock.

Roman smiled, and Ava quickly picked up that he was getting messages.

“Do you need me to give you a moment to respond?” she asked, a note of concern in her voice.

“No, it’s not important. The people from my former job are asking me for some things. One of them wants me to come back, if you can imagine that. ”

In a way, what Roman had told her was close to the truth.

He felt bad about the way he was treating Catherine, but he also knew it was necessary, especially now that he had…

Roman shook his head.

As soon as he’d gotten his powers back, he had dropped the woman who had been with him over the last month, regardless of his exemplar status. He’d never fully liked Catherine, but he did enjoy being with someone, and she had satisfied that urge.

Plus, she had started to grow on him, not only becoming better in bed but more accustomed to his personality, less needy.

But it was going to be impossible to continue a relationship with her, and he knew that.

That said, Roman needed to hold up his end of the bargain and counterfeit a good amount of money for her as a going-away present. He knew she was struggling, and maybe she could use the money to get back to the Northern Alliance and restart her life there.

Perhaps it was better that way.

Centralia was an incredible country with opportunities aplenty, but the place still had the capability of eating someone alive and spitting them out.

I will try, Roman finally thought back to her. But I truly am going away for a while, so if it isn’t for a week, just understand I’m not trying to blow you off. And I’ll have a surprise for you next time I see you. Just be patient with me.

Sure, I can do that, and I have a surprise for you too. Just message me on this channel, I will keep it open for you. Anytime, you know that. It doesn’t matter if it’s late at night. Also, you didn’t tell me you moved.

It’s a very long story, and right now I’m sort of in between places. I’ll have things settled soon, and we’ll be in touch.

I look forward to it, Roman.

“Well?” Ava asked.

“I have to make a quick trip after lunch,” Roman told her, thinking of Nadine, “and then I can meet you and we can go together.”

“A quick trip, huh?”

“Yes, I just want to see to something before we leave the country. No big deal.”

“So secretive,” Ava said, smiling at him.

Roman shrugged. “I’m a spy now, right? Isn’t that how we’re supposed to be?”

Ava started to laugh, her eyes turning to flames and then settling again. “You aren’t going to be able to use that excuse every time. You know that, right?”

Roman smiled at her. “I know, I know. Hopefully, I won’t be long.”

Chapter Fourteen: Official

A tingling sensation started at Roman’s feet, moving up his body to his shoulders and finally the crown of his head. Then it spun around the top of his head, cascading its way down his body as Roman and his dolls took shape at a construction site along the eastern border.

The teleporter nodded at them and disappeared.

The sky was pale blue, and a few hazy clouds basked in the orange light of the sun. There were a couple pallets of construction materials to Roman’s right, and he could see a watchtower being refurbished along the horizon.

Roman noticed a group of people all wearing hard hats. One of them looked at Roman and started walking toward him.

“So this is who we are coming to see?” Celia said.

“Yes,” Roman told her. “But I don’t believe it should be very long.”

Nadine wore the same orange hardhat as her colleagues. She was in a green blouse with a matching scarf around her neck. A briefcase was flung over her shoulder, and as she approached Roman, she motioned him toward a gazebo he’d yet to notice.

“I’m glad you could join me,” she said, offering a curt nod to Roman’s dolls. As she led Roman to the gazebo, she offered him food, explaining that they had just finished up lunch and there were still plenty of leftovers.

“I’m just coming from lunch, actually,” Roman said as he acknowledged the spread of food, which featured everything from sandwiches to soups and desserts.

“It looks better than it tastes,” Nadine said as she took a seat at a picnic table behind the gazebo.

“Having once been a government employee,” Roman said, deciding not to add that he was still a government employee, “I agree with you completely. It’s strange, how they can acquire food that looks so amazing yet tastes so bad.”

“It is truly an art form,” she said as she brought out paperwork and two passport books.

“Great, I can work with this.” Roman opened the first passport book and saw it already had a picture of Eli in it.

“It’s relatively easy for us to copy the way the Centralians take photos for passport purposes,” Nadine explained. “What’s difficult is making all the information look right, and especially the hidden information for those with psychometry skills.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be of much help there.” Roman started to rearrange some of the information on the passport, the ink pooling together and reforming. He’d seen so many passports and visa stickers that this came to him naturally.

He was just about to ask Nadine why she even needed him to do this in the first place when he turned his attention to the other paperwork, which happened to be birth certificates of people who were possibly alive.

Looking at the passport he’d just rearranged, Roman started to work on the birth certificate, carefully focusing so as not to make any errors. One of the problems he ran into was the Centralian seal stamped over the information, which he remedied by removing the seal completely, pushing it to the corner of the page while he finished adjusting the information.

“You are too sweet,” Nadine said as Roman started to focus on Lisa’s paperwork. He made the modifications, and when he had just about finished, the ground shook as the sound of people screaming reached both of their ears.

Roman looked past the gazebo to see a man in a green shirt and matching pants, his arms made of steel.

There was dust all around him now, and as a woman in a hardhat ran past the man, he grabbed her by the throat and drove her into the ground.

Concentrated energy blasts burst out of the dust as a female exemplar rose into the air, followed by another woman with wings, her wrist guard aimed at the Centralians.

“Rebels,” Nadine said, cursing under her breath as she fired off a few mental messages.

“From where?” Roman asked as he crouched next to Nadine, Coma now in front of them, Celia still seated and calm.

“The Eastern Province. They’ve been giving my government trouble as well…” Nadine shook her head, clearly angry as she continued sending a mental message to someone. “We have to engage.”

“Engage?” Roman asked, even as he started to nod. “Let me see your scarf.”

Nadine removed her scarf quickly as a bolt of energy struck the gazebo and more people screamed.

“Centralian troops will be here any minute,” Roman said, “but…”

The fabric expanded, tearing itself away from the rest of the scarf. Roman wrapped it around his face, and as he did so the scarf formed a mask that made only his eyes visible.

“Coma.”

As soon as the words left Roman’s lips, his combat doll dropped her hands to her sides, her skin peeling back as long metal blades formed.

Nadine nodded as she started to wrap the original scarf around her own face.

“No, you should stay back,” Roman told her, his hand now on her arm. “You don’t want your colleagues to know what you can do. Trust me.”

“But you may need help.”

Roman looked at Coma. “I won’t need help.”

Nadine nodded.

“Celia?”

The other doll stepped forward and Roman locked hands with her, her other arm starting to form into a sharp blade. “I need you to stay with Nadine.”

Celia nodded, a determined look on her face. “Will do.”

The two took off toward the action, Coma faster than Roman.

Knowing that her weapons wouldn’t work against the man with arms of steel, especially since it was clear the steel had made its way all the way up to the top of his neck, Coma veered toward the left and into the dust to narrowly avoid a concentrated energy blast.

The metal man locked eyes on Roman, and as he did Roman exploded his chest outward.

He wasn’t done yet.

Sweeping up the man’s collapsed metal form into a spiral of pointy death, Roman launched it at the woman with wings, his makeshift spear piercing her chest and driving her into the ground.

A man wearing a hard hat ran by, screaming. Roman got in front of him just as another rebel chased the Centralian out of the dust, his wrist guard aimed at the fleeing man.

As the rebel took his next step, his entire skeleton began to collapse until he was a melted sack of flesh.

The woman in the air with the energy powers spotted Roman.

Before he could react, she struck him to the ground, Roman’s body slapping against the soil as she sent bolt after bolt of blistering red energy through him.

Her head exploded in a matter of seconds. Roman looked to the right to see Coma now held a severed arm with the wrist guard attached to it.

A final rebel ran out of the dust, trying to get away. He took one more step and Roman shattered all the bones in his legs.

Coma approached the man who had been trying to get away, the combat doll walking with the sashay of a model as the ends of her dress beat in the wind.

She drove her blade into his throat, and the man let out a final gasp.

Portals opened up.

Centralian soldiers spilled out and began securing the area. Several of them came to Roman with their weapons drawn as another group surrounded Coma.

“I’m with the Centralian Intelligence Agency,” Roman told them, his hands up. “So is she, the woman with the sword arms.”

A thought flickered at the back of his mind that he could easily kill them all, but he ignored it. While his intervention had been sudden, he wanted his exit from the situation to be official.

“We need a moment to confirm,” said one of the soldiers, clearly the woman in charge. Another portal opened up, and a man in a military uniform identifying him as an exemplar stepped forward.

Roman felt the tingling at the back of his mind almost immediately.

“He’s with the agency,” the man said.

“And his counterpart?” the female commander asked.

“She’s my creation,” Roman told her. “You won’t get much by reading her mind.”

“Okay,” the woman said, a firm smile on her face. “Keep your mask on and leave the area immediately. We have it from here. If we have any further questions, we will reach out to you through official channels.”

One of the soldiers reached a hand down to help Roman up.

“Thanks,” Roman told him, trying to ignore the sense of pride moving through him. “Just let me get my other doll before I go.”

“By all means,” the commander said.

A few of the soldiers brought forth the rebel man who’d had his arm severed by Coma. “This one is still alive,” one of the soldiers told his commander.

“Great,” she said, “let’s question him now before he dies.”

Chapter Fifteen: The Woes of Running a Successful Small Business

Kevin Blackbook lightly patted Sandy Gray on the ass.

His newest employee stood next to his desk facing outward, a dazed look in her eyes and a bit of drool at the corner of her mouth.

The telepath was topless, still in the same pencil skirt she had been wearing earlier in the day.

It took her a moment to realize what Kevin was doing.

Once she did, Sandy merely let him touch her as she stared absentmindedly toward the entrance of the room.

Turquoise was on the couch, her legs propped up, her head to the side as she rested. Obsidian was around too, the cat girl somewhere else in the building dealing with their employees.

It was night now, which was generally their busiest time.

This was precisely why Sandy stood next to Kevin, ready for the inevitable customer with a complaint or employee asking for more of the cat girls’ serum.

While Obsidian had given Sandy a direct dose earlier, she had taken a little more since, Kevin noticing every now and then when the telepath tried to break free of the power of the narcotic.

Kevin knew the beautiful redhead wouldn’t be able to do it.

While Sandy may have been a Class A, she didn’t have a very strong will, which was a trait he was looking for in creating this role.

He had a feeling Sandy wouldn’t last long, that there would be a point when he would transition her to being one of the women in the rooms upstairs, his first exemplar prostitute. A telepathic whore, no less.

Kevin lowered his hand until it was at the edge of her skirt.

He grunted, and as he did so Sandy parted her legs a little, allowing him to reach his hand up and graze his fingers against the fabric of her panties.

The former administrator noticed she was a little wet, but he knew it wasn’t him doing it, knew it was because she had been standing there for over an hour.

Still, a part of Kevin’s brain liked to imagine her wetness was due to his soft touch.

Looking up at her confirmed just how wrong he was.

Sandy was terrified.

Her eyes were practically white, darting between Turquoise and Kevin, clearly wanting to move away from him yet not knowing what would happen to her if she did.

Kevin grinned.

It was intoxicating to be so powerful, to be so in control of someone just by holding the threat of violence over them.

He generally didn’t make himself available to any of his pleasure-house employees, but there had been one when they’d first taken over the brothel, an eighteen-year-old with incredible tits. He’d wanted to test his goods as soon as he saw the teen, and it was only a day or two after settling in that he’d sent his cat girls away and invited the woman to his bedroom, which was just off the office.

He never even got her name.

She came into his bedroom and obediently got down on her knees, Kevin knighting her with his proof of manhood. She was the most subservient woman he’d ever been with, encouraging Kevin to choke her, to make her his own, to mark his territory when he was ready to finish up.

Obsidian killed her not long after their interaction.

Kevin had gotten a feeling this would happen, especially when he’d seen the look on Obsidian’s face as the young woman had walked past her when Kevin had sent the cat girls out of his office.

Perhaps that was what would happen to Sandy.

Maybe she wouldn’t become an employee—maybe she would become Kevin’s toy, and then Obsidian would make it so he couldn’t play with her anymore.

It didn’t matter.

A knock at the door caught his attention.

Turquoise sat up immediately, the cat girl bringing her feet onto the couch so she was now in a crouching position, ready to pounce.

One of Kevin’s employees entered.

She was tall and thin with a flat chest, her nipples visible through her tight clothing. Her hair was braided into two pigtails, and as she cautiously approached Kevin, she brought her hands in front of her body, rubbing her palms together.

“Hi Kevin,” she started to say.

“We’ve already visited today,” Kevin told her sternly. “You’ve already received your daily supply.”

“I know, but I was just thinking, because I worked so many hours yesterday and, you know, some of the other girls have been taking time off, but not me—I’m always here.”

“That is true,” Kevin said as she stopped in front of his desk.

The woman looked at topless Sandy and then back to Kevin.

“She’s our newest employee, Sandy.”

“Hi…” Sandy said, grinding her teeth.

“Nice to meet you,” the woman told her.

“Would you like me to escort her out?” Turquoise asked.

The short cat girl stood next to the prostitute now, the difference in their heights jarringly evident.

“I suppose that is what we should do,” Kevin said, biting his lip as he debated his next move. “But she has been quite loyal, so…” He glanced at Turquoise’s hand. “Just a little, and make it fast.”

Turquoise’s nail elongated.

She drove it into the woman’s flesh, and the prostitute let out a gasp of euphoria. Turquoise only kept it there for a moment before moving away, the woman’s knees nearly buckling.

“Thank you, Mr. Kevin,” the pigtailed prostitute said weakly as she turned back toward the door.

Kevin watched her walk away, his eyes homing in on his employee’s ass.

He preferred women with more curves, but he could see why some of the johns liked her, the gap between her legs, the way they could feel powerful manhandling her, splitting her.

The woman was just reaching the door when a burst of energy tore into the room.

Turquoise leaped just in time to tackle an exemplar, both of their bodies slamming into the wall. The pigtailed prostitute screamed and stumbled out of the room.

Kevin grabbed Sandy by the arm and yanked her down, shoving her under his desk. He crouched as he fumbled inside his desk drawer for his wrist guard. “Stay the fuck there,” he told the telepath, and as she reached out to him, he slapped her hand away.

He popped up just in time to see Turquoise and the exemplar explode into the other side of the room. The man, who clearly had an advanced speed capability, drove her into the corner of the ceiling, dust falling as both of them dropped to the couch.

Turquoise was on top of the man in a matter of moments, digging her claws into his throat. The man tried to swing at her face, but Turquoise was fast enough to avoid his swipes.

Kevin charged forward and waited just a moment longer for Turquoise’s toxic bodily fluids to calm the man down.

He activated his Zero Ring.

Turquoise stepped out of his ring of influence.

“Who sent you?” Kevin asked, noticing the man trying to use his power and failing, a glazed look now in his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter,” the man spat.

“No, it doesn’t,” Kevin said as he triggered his weapon, exploding the man’s face onto the couch. Bits of brain and bone sprayed into the air as Sandy yelped from under Kevin’s desk.

“What do you think?” Kevin asked Turquoise as he deactivated his ring.

Before she could respond, an explosion at the front of the room sent the cat girl flying backward.

A man with energy radiating around his palms burst into the space.

Obsidian leaped onto the man’s back just in time to change his trajectory, his next shot going wide and striking the ceiling rather than Kevin’s chest.

“Keep him alive!” Kevin shouted to the black-haired cat girl as she dug her nails into his shoulder and bit into the side of his neck.

The man stumbled forward, one hand trying to throw Obsidian off while the other tried to blast Kevin.

The man started to fall, and as he did, Obsidian held strong, the exemplar smacking his chin against the carpet. She dug her claws in even deeper, an angry look on her face, smudges of debris across the skin of her forehead.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked.

“I took out another one,” Obsidian said breathlessly as she continued to press her venom into the man’s body. “It was a woman, out on the stairwell.”

“So there were three,” Kevin said, looking from the speedster with his head blown off to the man on the ground now drooling.

Obsidian nodded.

“Turquoise, check the rest of the place. Make sure none of the girls leave, and contact those men who visited us the other day.”

“The guy’s asking us if we wanted to hire security?” she asked, her ears raising.

“Yes, I believe I know who is responsible for this. Let them know we are interested, that we’ll be stopping by tomorrow.”

Turquoise nodded before bolting out of the room.

Kevin returned to his desk.

He reached his hand under it and grabbed Sandy by the hair.

He tugged it once, and the telepath obediently followed. Kevin pushed her forward, his eyes jumping from her ass to the small of her back, and then to the man on the floor.

The exemplar was in street clothing. He had a line shaved into the side of his head and bad skin, his cheeks covered in pockmarks.

“Confirm my suspicions,” Kevin told the telepath as she approached the man.

Sandy gulped, trying not to look at the dead body in the room. The man’s neck was a bloodied mess, and there was an explosion of red on the couch and the wall.

“Confirmed,” she said on the tail end of a sob.

“Good. Get back over here.”

Kevin approached the man on the floor. As he did so, Obsidian moved away.

“Thanks for stopping in,” he said as he aimed his wrist guard at the back of the exemplar’s head. He triggered his weapon, the blast misting the air with blood. The sight and sound of the exploding head caused Sandy to dry heave.

Kevin turned to Obsidian. “Also, are you injured in any way?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Good. Let’s get this cleaned up. I want a new couch and a new fucking carpet. We can deal with the construction repairs tomorrow, and…” Kevin nodded. “Let’s hire a little added security.”

Chapter Sixteen: Suited Up

Something resembling a giant eggshell formed around Roman and his dolls, the teleporter producing it from the palms of her hands.

“It can be a bit snug in here,” she said, looking up at Roman. And before he could comment, the shell began to filter away. Roman now stood outside of Ava’s apartment.

Another teleporter appeared with someone else in the designated teleportation zone, a male teleporter with an older female. She looked over at Roman and his dolls, scoffed, and moved on.

A gust of wind blew past as Roman’s teleporter turned to him.

“Until next time,” she said, the shell forming around her body again and fading out of existence.

“That was an interesting way to travel,” Celia commented, an ever-present smile on her face. “I don’t believe we’ve ever done something like that before.”

“I’m still pissed at you for not letting me fight back there,” Casper told Roman as he waited for Ava. “That was really selfish, you know?”

“It was sort of sudden,” Roman said as he sent a mental message to let Ava know he was outside her apartment.

“Do you realize the damage I can do now? Sure, I have tiny little metal arms, but they are just as capable of stabbing as Coma’s. I will seriously fillet someone if you give me the chance.”

“You are not designed for combat,” Coma reminded the tiny doll. She turned to Roman, narrowing her eyes on his jacket pocket. “I do not know what you are designed for.”

“Oh, and look at you, Roman’s favorite little fighting bitch. The reason he lets you do most of the fighting is because you wear a mask and you look tough. I’m sure if Celia over here put a mask on, she would look just as tough as you.”

“If Roman would like me to wear a mask…” Celia began to say.

“Well, we know who the brainwashed one is, don’t we? But that’s not me, and keep talking Coma, see if I don’t sneak up on you in the middle of the night.”

“And do what exactly?”

Casper considered this for a moment. “I suppose you’re right, there’s nothing that I can do to you to truly hurt you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try.”

“And then I will squash you,” Coma said, her fists clenched at her sides.

“No one is squashing anyone—and Casper, don’t bother Coma.” Roman felt the tiny doll shift in his pocket as she kicked him with her heel. “And don’t kick me.”

“I was supposed to have a bigger body, you know. Things would have been different around here if I was human-sized…”

“That’s true,” Roman said as he saw Ava exit her building, a small bag flung over her shoulder. Her doorman said goodbye to her, and Ava waved goodbye as well.

Roman couldn’t help but drop his eyes to her hips as she approached him, her red hair bouncing as she walked. He caught himself just in time and looked away, hoping he wasn’t too obvious.

“You aren’t bringing a bag?” Ava asked him.

“Do I need to bring one?”

“I suppose you don’t, but I figured…” She eyed him curiously. “What’s this?” Ava wiped the dust from his shoulder.

“It’s a long story,” Casper said from Roman’s pocket.

“I see,” Ava said as she looked Roman over.

“Don’t we need some type of documentation?” Roman asked.

“Not the way we’re going.”

“And who are we staying with again? You really haven’t gone over many of the details for this assignment,” Roman said, a little agitated. “I am literally steps away from going to a country I’ve never visited before, and I have no idea where I’m staying or how this is taking place. All I know is that I have a target.”

Ava laughed. “Welcome to the Centralian Intelligence Agency. It’ll make sense once we get there, and I should tell you now: with all these missions, there are details you may not understand until years later. Just be aware of that. I’m going to call the intercountry teleportation service now, and once they’ve come, you’ll have access to it as well. Rafner will be monitoring our trips in and out of the country, so I would advise not abusing the teleportation power, because it isn’t given to many Centralians.”

“He’s not coming?”

Ava shook her head. “He has something else to deal with here, something that involves a recent outbreak in vampirism. But they almost have it solved. So no. It will be you, me, Jess—who you may remember from the last two times we met with our group—and Miranda, the telepath.”

“And what is Jess’s power?”

“I’m sure you can ask her yourself,” Ava said as a small cloud appeared in front of them.

The cloud turned black and rain began to fall from it, but rather than hit the sidewalk, the droplets formed into the shape of a man a couple heads shorter than Roman with shaved eyebrows and gaunt cheeks.

“How many?” he asked to confirm.

“All of us,” Ava told him.

The man nodded and glanced up at his cloud, and as he did it doubled in size. Roman looked down at his hands just as he was sucked up into the cumulus formation.

He was still looking at his hands when his body began to reform.

The first thing he noticed was the large window on one side of the room letting in copious amounts of light. He instinctively walked to the window and looked out at a city of oddly shaped buildings, a large rail station in the distance, a few skyscrapers on the horizon, the sun creating a haze through a few wispy clouds.

“Where are we again?” Roman asked, turning back to Ava. The orange light of the sun extended all the way to her feet.

“We’re in a penthouse our government owns in the Western Province. This is the Turnstone District, in the city of Ravja. This district used to be the city’s military stronghold, also home to working-class families. It still has a few military installations, but after some rebuilding, the district has grown in popularity, hence new builds like this. Our government has purchased several of the buildings, renting them out to wealthy people from across our world as well as using them for diplomatic apartments and for missions like ours.”

“Good to know,” Roman said as he took in the hardwood floors, the open concept living area, and the sleek furniture. Miranda the telepath was seated on one of the couches, a lock of blue hair in her face.

She set down her magazine and turned to Roman and Ava.

“I was expecting you an hour ago,” she said.

“I had something to take care of,” Roman told her, and as soon as the words left his lips he felt the reach at the back of his head, the telepath sifting through his thoughts. “No,” he told Miranda firmly. “I do not consent.”

“You really are no fun,” she said with a pout.

“Which room is mine?” Roman asked.

“Down the hall, the first room on the left,” Ava said. “Why? It’s not like you have any luggage.”

“I would prefer to keep my thoughts to myself,” he told her, “which may be hard here in the living room.”

Roman heard a door shut down the hallway.

The woman known as Jess stepped out into the living room, immediately giving him a skeptical look. She was a few pounds overweight with messy blonde hair and a couple moles on her face that made her look interesting, a bit different from the women around her.

“We never really introduced ourselves,” Roman started to say as his dolls moved to the couch.

If they were feeling awkward in the situation, they weren’t showing it. Celia merely sat down, crossing one leg over the other and smiling at Miranda while Coma sat on a different chair, legs wide, her red eyes locked on the telepath.

“We did,” Jess said shortly. “And…”

“Yes?” Roman asked.

“Never mind. Are we ready?” she asked, turning to Ava.

“Yes, I believe we are. Also, I know there are factions within the agency that don’t agree with adding Roman to this mission, and I would like to address those factions now,” Ava said, narrowing her eyes on Jess. “I’m the leader of this mission. Regardless of how we got here, we are here now, and I want everyone to work together. I don’t want you sifting through his thoughts,” she told Miranda, “and I want you to work with him as if you’ve already done missions together,” she told Jess. “Professionalism. Anything else is unacceptable.”

“What about his dolls?” Jess asked.

“Treat them like humans,” Ava said without skipping a beat. “Treat them like you would treat me or any other agent. They have parts of his consciousness, as you may recall, and while their usage can be a bit unorthodox, they do come in handy.”

“Thank you, Ava,” Celia said with a smile on her face. “Is there anything I can do to help around here? Is anyone hungry? Maybe I can make some tea. I noticed the place is pretty clean, but if there’s anything that needs fixing or cleaning, I can try my best.”

“Oh boy,” Casper said from Roman’s pocket.

Jess and Miranda both looked at Roman’s chest, noticing the tiny doll climb out of his pocket and scale up to his shoulder.

“So that’s your tiny doll?” Jess asked, slightly horrified.

“It looks like he has a small one and a big one now!” Casper said, laughing so hard she nearly fell off Roman’s shoulder.

Jess glared at the tiny doll. “What was that?”

“Ignore her,” Ava said. “Roman, please deactivate Casper for the time being. Casper, take no offense.”

“Hey…” the tiny doll started to say. The life left her body, and as she fell, Roman caught her and tucked her back in his pocket.

Ava motioned everyone to the dining area, which featured a long table surrounded by chairs and an incredible view of the city. “Let’s go over today’s plan. And Celia, sure, we would love some tea and any snacks you can find.”

“My pleasure,” Celia said. “I’ll do my best.”

“Are you ready for this?” Roman asked, one of his hands on Coma’s shoulder.

“Yes,” she said with a nod. She wore a new mask now, one that was gray rather than black.

Roman pressed as much of his power as he possibly could into her, his knees buckling almost immediately. Ava came to his aid, helping him sit while Celia deactivated immediately and fell onto the sofa.

“Okay,” Roman said, his eyes closed, strength instantly returning to him. “Actually, it’s not that bad now.”

As she had been instructed to do, Ava tied a black blindfold over his face.

Roman heard a flash indicating a teleporter had arrived, his consciousness now partially inside Coma’s head. It wasn’t perfect, the periphery of what he saw covered in black scratches, but it would work.

It was something he’d meant to really try out before, and what Ava had proposed gave him the perfect opportunity. She’d been reluctant at first, but he’d convinced her he could do it. If Margo can do it, so can I, Roman had reasoned with himself.

The teleporter, who wore street clothes, simply lifted his hand in the air when Coma stepped forward, and a corona of light instantly radiated from his fingers to engulf her.

They began to reform in Overtone Heights, near a public park that didn’t look much larger than a block. There was a wrought-iron fence around it, and vines spiraled up a statue in its center.

Roman watched through Coma’s eyes as she approached the statue, which featured a female exemplar with tail and horns next to a man who had spikes tearing out of his arms. Portions of the statue were covered in vines, but other parts were also exposed, such as one of the woman’s horns. Coma curiously looked at a placard in front of the statues.

Roman couldn’t quite make out what it said, his vision too distorted.

He felt something creep at the back of his mind. “Hands off,” he said as his vision started to fade away.

Relax, Miranda thought to him, I’m only trying to see what is happening as well. I won’t pry.

Roman nodded, waiting for Coma to take her seat.

A man stumbled into the park, slurring some song under his breath as he looked up at the statue. He drunkenly whipped his penis out and began taking a piss at the base of it.

As he urinated, he made a snorting sound, which was just about the time he noticed Coma.

Still pissing, the disheveled man turned to her, cock in hand.

“We have hostile locals,” Roman reported.

“Engage if need be,” Ava reminded him.

Roman was glad for this; he had no way of actually communicating with Coma beyond seeing what she was seeing and, oddly enough, hearing what she was hearing in a weirdly distorted way, which meant he wouldn’t be able to stop her if she reacted violently.

“Sitting here all by yourself, huh?” the man asked, just finishing up. He zipped himself back up and adjusted the front of his pants. “Care for some company?”

“If you know what’s good for you, you will leave here now,” Coma told him.

The man laughed. “There’s no one around to stop me, honey,” he said as he took a step closer to her. “And look at you. So goddamn sexy. You look like one of those fuck dolls. Anyone ever tell you that? Perfect eleven, baby. That’s what you look like.”

“I would suggest that you leave,” Coma told him.

“You would suggest?” The man laughed so hard he nearly fell over. Instead, he belched, making an uncomfortable grimace with his face as he let it all out. “Whatever,” he said as he stumbled past Coma. “And fuck you, you stuck-up bitch.”

Coma merely returned her attention to the statue.

“Are you sure he’s coming?” Roman asked aloud.

“He should be there now,” Ava told him.

“Do you think he’ll be drunk?”

“There’s no telling.”

A man in a black trench coat and black boots approached the statue a few minutes later. He looked up at it, licked his lips, and then turned to see Coma. “You can’t be the one,” the man said, his bushy white eyebrows narrowing on her.

“Are you Devil?” Coma asked.

“They sent you?”

She nodded.

“I thought they were going to send someone else, perhaps that other one, the one that’s a little bit heavier with the blonde hair. A lot bit heavier. Ha! They really have started recruiting them young, haven’t they?” Devil asked as he approached her. The man saw that there was some piss on the ground and stepped around it.

“I suppose so,” Coma said.

“Do you know who they are?” Devil nodded up at the statue of the woman with horns and the man with spikes tearing out of his skin.

“No.”

“They are the goddamn reason the Western Plague never reached your pathetic country. But you wouldn’t know that, fucking Centralian—you wouldn’t know about the sacrifice those two made. Most people don’t. Most people just come here and look at the statues, maybe a few of them jerk off because the woman was hot. Apparently, someone pissed on it. The statue used to look better about five years ago. You know, they put the vines up because they want to represent new growth, but the vines have a way of making it look shabby. Just an opinion.”

“Do you have the information I need?” Coma asked, not skipping a beat.

“You see, that’s not how this is going to work. You’re not going to show up, some new recruit wearing a short skirt, thinking you’re going to just use me for information. We need to establish a relationship, a bit of a rapport, if you understand what I’m saying here,” the man named Devil said, offering her a grin. “What do you think their names are, the exemplars in the statue?”

“I don’t care.”

“Destry and Amethyst. Pretty much no one around here knows that. Hell, I probably shouldn’t know it. But I was here when it happened, one of those too crazy to leave,” Devil said. “The things I witness, stuff of goddamn nightmares if you ask me. I actually saw them on patrol once. The man could morph his bones, and that one, she looked normal most of the time unless you gave her alcohol—then she turned into that damn demon thing. But I digress. I guess it doesn’t matter who they are, that’s why the placard doesn’t say their names. It just says they were part of the Protectorate.”

Roman watched as Coma removed her mask, dropping it to the ground. The mask formed into the exemplar known as Jess, who had just about the most amazing morphing skill Roman had ever seen.

Rather than shapeshift into another person, Jess was able to actually shapeshift into inanimate objects, and for the most part, it didn’t matter the size of the object she morphed into.

“Enough,” Jess said.

“Jess?” the informant named Devil asked, clearly startled.

“She doesn’t need to hear your made-up story about the statue,” Jess told him crossly. “And fuck whatever you were saying earlier about me.”

“You? I wasn’t talking about you,” he started to say. “Honest!”

“You have information, and we’re here for that information. So, what do you have?”

“Argh,” Devil said, glancing down at his hands. “Fine, fine. I’ll get to it. There’s a guy that just moved in, matches this description of yours. Heavy, with a mustache.”

“Did he have cat girls with him?”

Devil shrugged. “I don’t know that part, but I know he’s holed up in a hotel six blocks away. The place is called the Magnificent Hotel and Bar, and apparently it lives up to its namesake. He’s taken over the entire presidential suite. Ha! I love that they call the top floor in that hotel the presidential suite. What president is going to stay in Overtone Heights?”

“Does he have a security detail?”

“He had several people with him, so yeah, maybe. But that’s all I know, Jess, honest. He matches your description though, and the one your telepath showed me. I’m pretty sure it’s him. And he was there just a few hours ago, so I’m guessing he’s there now.”

“We will be in contact,” Jess said as a teleporter appeared.

Coma and Jess reappeared in the Centralian government apartment in the Turnstone District. Roman removed his blindfold, taking in a deep breath as he opened his eyes and the light blinded him for a moment.

“Great,” Roman told Coma when his powers returned to him.

“I knew this disguise would take Devil off guard,” said Jess, smirking over at Ava and Miranda.

“Do we have any intel on this hotel in question?” Roman asked Ava.

“Working on it right now,” she said, clearly in the middle of firing off messages. Eventually, she glanced over at Roman, who immediately looked away, standing to cover the awkwardness.

“Well, I’m ready.”

“Same,” Coma said.

“I thought she was going to get in a fight back there,” said Jess. “You’re tough, girl,” she told Coma.

“If I had to, I would have.”

“She has an enhanced skeleton,” Roman explained, “made of metal. Well, show them for yourself.”

Coma nodded.

The plastic on her arm melted away as a long blade formed, the materials swirling together at the base of her weapon turning into a strange amalgamation of pink and silver.

“I did not expect that,” Miranda said, the telepath now standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

Roman glanced at her, stopping himself just in time from looking at the way her breasts were being lifted by her arms, almost like she was wearing a corset.

He shook his head. It was always a struggle.

“Here’s how this is going to happen,” Ava started to say. “We aren’t able to evacuate the hotel because command seems to think it would scare Kevin off. So that’s out of the question. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to go in as quickly as we can, meaning this is going to be a hit. So masks on. Miranda, you will be masks off outside, dealing with crowd control. Jess, you will take the rear entrance to ensnare Kevin or either one of his cat girls, Turquoise and Obsidian, if they escape. Remember the two women are poisonous, and you should consider them armed and extremely dangerous. Your best bet will be to take them out immediately. However, if you can keep one alive, that will help us locate Kevin’s pleasure house. Of course, if you see them coming out of the front, Miranda, you know what to do.”

“What about me?” Roman asked Ava.

“You, me, and Coma will be the main point of attack. You and Coma will go into the lobby after registering for a room. I’ll come in from the top. You and I will be in constant communication, and when you’re ready for me, I’ll make my entrance through a window.”

“Okay,” Roman said.

“You’ll find the clothing you need in your room, as well as masks. You should wear one, and you should as well,” Ava told Coma. “It will completely cover your face; there are no discernible markings on it or the uniforms. As I said, this is a hit, and we are going to make it as smooth and as fast as possible.”

“Got it,” Roman said, ignoring the voice at the back of his head saying what they were about to do was crazy.

He knew not to listen to this voice.

After Ava finished her briefing, Roman and Coma went to his bedroom, where he opened the closet door to find several black bodysuits.

There were two sizes, and one fit him perfectly.

Running his hand along the outer material told him that it was armored for wrist guards, but not much else. So while he would be able to deflect a blast, he would need to use his power to handle it if someone came at him with a knife or anything else.

He found the black mask and pulled it over his face, just his orange eyes visible.

There was a female costume as well, which Coma went for after Roman had changed. She took off her dress and quickly slipped into the bodysuit, Roman watching her undress.

“You look great,” he said as she pulled the mask over her chin.

Coma approached him and Roman slowly placed a hand on her hip, staring down at the doll in her black dress and mask.

“I’m glad you approve,” she said as she turned to the door, Roman watching her leave.

He shook his head and took in a deep breath, feeling the tension follow Coma out of the room.

“Teleporter is here!” he heard Jess call from the living room.

Roman joined the team, everyone wearing black now except Miranda, who was in street clothes.

“Remember,” Ava said, “hit and run. We have a team of teleporters on call. Roman, I need you to be in constant communication with me once you get inside.”

Roman nodded.

“Miranda, try to guide as many people away from the hotel as you can. And remember,” she said, also looking at Jess, “if you see Kevin or Turquoise or Obsidian leaving, do not let them get away. Also, Roman, Coma…”

“Yes?” Roman asked.

“How are you two supposed to book a hotel room wearing masks?”

Jess giggled.

“Makes sense,” Roman said as he quickly removed his mask. “I suppose I probably shouldn’t look like an assassin, right?”

“You’re catching on,” Ava said, flashing him a rare smile. “Throw a trench coat on. And Coma, you should be fine as long as you’re not wearing your mask. Just look like you’re with Roman. Imagine yourself as eye candy. I’m sure that won’t be very hard.”

Chapter Seventeen: Room Service

“Don’t worry about her,” Roman told Coma as they entered the hotel.

“I’m not.”

“And you’re doing an excellent job of looking like ‘eye candy,’ as she said.”

“As good as Celia would do?” Coma asked, looping her arm in Roman’s.

“Obviously.”

A bellhop to their right pointed them in the direction of the front desk.

And while it didn’t look like much from outside, the inside of the Magnificent Hotel and Bar did its moniker justice. There were frescoes painted on the high ceilings above, a backlit waterfall in the corner, and just about every amenity available through a stand of neatly arranged brochures to the right of the hotel clerk.

It was grand, the furniture comfortably lush, the hotel clearly catering to an exclusive clientele.

The clerk, a woman in a button-up with just enough cleavage showing to draw attention, quickly took Roman’s payment and told him his room was two floors up.

“Let us know if you need anything,” she said with a tight smile, “and please, enjoy your stay, Mr. Strong.”

“Please, call me Marcus. When does the bar open?” Roman asked, enjoying the opportunity to roleplay a little.

“It will open in about thirty minutes,” she told him. “We have a band playing tonight as well.”

“Great, we’ll try to make it down,” Roman said as he escorted Coma to the elevator.

Once he realized that getting to the presidential suite would require keycard access, Roman quickly led Coma toward the stairs.

“Is everything all right, sir?” the hotel clerk called over to them.

“Yes, we just feel like taking the stairs.”

“Right. Please let us know if you need anything, Marcus,” she said as she offered him another tight smile.

“Will do.”

I am moving into position, Roman thought to Ava.

As they reached the second floor, a message appeared at the back of his head: Let me know when you’re ready; I will also engage if I sense activity.

Definitely.

Roman wondered for a brief moment about his time in the Eastern Province and how mental messaging didn’t work there.

Had that really been the case?

He couldn’t really remember, the thought fuzzy, but it felt like it had been the case, which meant he and Ava and he must have been messaging over a private channel, or that the Centralian government had worked something out with the Western Province.

Most likely the latter.

They reached the third floor, then the fourth floor, and as they turned to the stairs, Roman noticed two men standing in front of it, both of them rather large and wearing black shirts with loose, flowing pants.

Rather than even speak to them, Roman simply took hold of their throats, the men dying as he exploded the blood vessels attached to their hearts.

The two fell to their knees, and straight to the carpet from there.

Roman and Coma stepped over them. As they made their way up the next stairwell, Coma’s arms started to morph into long blades.

Get ready to engage, Roman thought to Ava.

When they reached the fifth floor, the presidential suite, the door was guarded by two men with flashy wrist guards.

Roman disposed of them quickly, and both collapsed forward.

“Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a little more difficult once we get inside the room?” Coma whispered.

“Because you’re right, that’s why.”

An ear-piercing screech tore the door down, tossing Roman backward.

Roman shot forward a ripple in the floor, which slammed into a woman whose hair was standing on its ends.

He focused on her, just about to take control of her heart when an arm came out of nowhere, wrapped around Roman’s throat, and drove him up into the ceiling. He was slammed to the ground, bits of plaster falling on his head.

Roman had dealt with this type of exemplar before, instantly recalling the woman named Paris and how she’d been able to stretch her limbs. As Coma ran forward, he addressed the arm that was wrapped around his neck, quickly taking control of it.

Roman started to drag the man toward him, only to see that this let out more of the man’s arm, and Roman was just about to go for another attack when thousands upon thousands of cockroaches scuttled out of the room.

They engulfed the floor, all coming toward Roman at once, his only response being to send up spikes from the floor, hoping to prevent them from reaching him.

A gust of fire blasted into the hallway, signaling Ava’s arrival.

The cockroaches were followed by wasps, more than Roman had ever seen before, coming right at him.

He morphed the material directly in front of him into a solid wall, preventing the insects from coming through, the man’s outstretched arm still around his body.

It started to give way, Roman finally able to free himself.

He stepped to the side, closer to the stairs as the long arm tried to reach for him again, the man’s hand flailing.

He was just catching his breath when the wall came tumbling down, destroyed by a bone-shattering sonic boom.

Roman raised his hand in the direction of the sound manipulator, and her bones tore out of her flesh.

She fell forward, her skeleton hitting the ground followed by flesh and viscera, Roman momentarily taken off guard.

He had killed before, but to rip someone’s skeleton from their own body…

Roman didn’t have time to process what had happened.

The exemplar with elastic body parts came for him again, and as he did, Roman saw Coma slam into one of the outer-facing walls.

A man with rippling muscles charged toward her, his feet rumbling the floorboards with each step he took, a typical strongman.

Coma rolled out of the way just in time and came back around, leaping at him with her blades drawn.

The strongman swatted her to the side; Roman was about to engage him as well when a fist cracked him in the jaw.

He could tell the elastic man was hiding in the room to the right, and since there were no more insects, which he still hadn’t quite figured out yet, Roman decided to finish the job.

He pressed the walls and the floor forward, hopping on a portion of it as if it were a surfboard.

The surface lifted him up and Roman sailed into the other room, his creation striking the man with elastic body parts in the chin.

Roman didn’t waste any time.

He pinned the man down using the building materials, ignoring his pleas.

He let the building materials finish the man off, a combination of concrete, plaster, wood and metal diving into the exemplar’s mouth and killing him.

“You are done,” Roman said, and as the words left his lips, the strongman to his left fell to his knees, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

Coma went in for the final strike, jabbing her blade arm under his throat, the tip pressing out the back of his neck.

“We good?” Roman called out, and the only reason he did this was because everything was silent, which he took to mean that Ava had already apprehended Kevin.

He took a breath and stepped into the next room, Coma right behind him, where he found Ava standing over a charred body, the smell of burning flesh in the air. Coma stepped over to a sofa chair, retrieved one of the throw blankets on it, and wiped the blood off her blade.

“We’re good,” Ava said firmly.

Roman realized he wasn’t wearing his mask, and as he looked at Ava, he pulled it over his face.

The fire user started laughing. “You were supposed to be wearing your mask the entire time,” she told him.

“Aware. Don’t tell the others,” he said. “And what was with all the insects?”

“That would be him,” Ava said, nodding to the corner, where Roman saw another charred body with mangled hands. “Ever fought someone who could conjure and command insects?”

“I can’t say that I have,” Roman finally told her.

“If you ever do, kill them as quickly as you can possibly kill anyone. The things they can do…” She shuddered. “That’s a story for another day. Does this man look familiar to you?” she asked, turning one of the bodies over with her foot.

Roman could tell it wasn’t Kevin Blackbook, even though the man was burnt to a crisp.

“Nope, not him,” Roman said. “Kevin is way fatter, and definitely not as tall.”

He knew what Ava was capable of, but seeing her work in this way, as an assassin, stained the image of her he had his head. She was an exemplar on a team with Mister Fist, of all people, someone celebrated in Centralia.

He never expected her to be so barbaric.

A teleporter appeared as the forms of Miranda and Jess took shape in the room.

The teleporter, a petite female with braided red hair, took one look around the place and cringed. She stepped away, her back now to the charred bodies.

“ID him,” Ava instructed the telepath.

Roman watched as Miranda took a knee in front of the dead man, biting her lip as she looked over his body.

She then glanced around the room, to the place where he had ostensibly been sitting when the attack had started. Moving to the spot, Miranda opened the drawer to find a piece of paper and closed her eyes as she touched it. She then checked several other items in the room, touching them and closing her eyes.

“His name is Marlow Teal,” she finally said.

“I’ll run it,” Ava told her, stepping away, her arms crossing over her chest as she started pacing.

Roman looked at Jess. “Any activity out there?”

“I don’t know. Have you ever cosplayed as a fucking dumpster before?”

“What?”

“You heard me—have you ever cosplayed as a dumpster before? You know what happens in and around dumpsters, right? Some trash was thrown into me, and a homeless man took a runny shit near one of my wheels.”

“All that happened since we got here?” Roman started to grin but stopped, registering the irritable look on Jess’s face.

“Okay, I’ve got info,” Ava announced. “Marlow Teal was a criminal. In the scheme of things, he wasn’t much more than a low-level thug, but the Western Province has both federal and local warrants out for his arrest. He was definitely one of the bad guys.”

“So our license to kill came in handy,” said Miranda.

“Yes, and we probably shouldn’t think of it that way. This does leave us with a problem, however. At least for now, this was the only lead we had. Devil has been looking into this one for a few days now, which means we may need to start all over.”

“Or, you could let me talk to Devil,” Miranda said, a blue curl of hair falling in her face. “Maybe I can discover something he’s not telling us. I have a way with informants…”

Ava considered this for a moment. “Actually, yes, let’s do that. You can pay him a visit tomorrow. But try not to fillet his mind. We don’t need him to suddenly exhibit a formerly buried exemplar power.”

Miranda looked at Roman. “No, no we don’t.”

“Good. Let’s head back and call it a night. The Western Province relay team will be here shortly to wrap this up.”

It wasn’t long before their forms reappeared in the apartment they shared in the Turnstone District, Celia activating immediately and bringing everyone refreshments.

However it looked during the day, their digs were even more stunning at night, the lights of the city stretching as far as the eye could see. Some of the larger buildings nearby showed life inside, some people winding down while others were already asleep.

Still with his mask on, Roman took a step to the window, remembering Centralia and its endless expanse of skyline.

It was different here; he could actually see the contours of the city of Ravja, the areas that were less densely populated than others, buildings on the horizon proof that some other district was flush in development cash.

“Say that again?” he said, turning back to Ava, who had been speaking while he was gazing out the window.

“I would like this mission wrapped up over the next two days. I don’t want to be in Ravja any more than any of you. To motivate our group, I have temporarily disabled our ability to teleport back to Centralia. I know,” she said as Jess groaned, “I was planning to go back tonight as well, to take care of Bonbon. But this is important; I think we’ll focus better if we’re stuck here suffering together.”

“So we can’t travel back now?” Roman asked, recalling that Catherine wanted to meet with him.

“That’s what I just said. We find Kevin, and then we go back together, hopefully never coming back to the Western Province again. I’m sorry, I know none of you were here during the Plague, but believe me, there are some things you can’t unsee, and just being here reminds me of those things. See you all in the morning.”

Ava turned to the bedroom, her mask limp in her hand as she walked away.

Chapter Eighteen: Raises All Around

Kevin Blackbook wasn’t as fast as his cat girls, but he didn’t need to be.

The three, alongside their telepath Sandy, were in Meriday Heights at the security company that had visited their establishment the other day.

The company’s receptionist was dead, the two men in the lobby—presumably future customers—were frothing at the mouth, and the last line of defense, an exemplar with the power to harness electricity, was currently groveling at Kevin’s feet.

He wasn’t the only one.

The owner of the security company, an older man with a star-shaped scar on his cheek, was next to the exemplar as well, both of them with their hands behind their heads.

“So, let me get this straight,” Kevin said as he looked the two over. “Your plan was to attack and then offer me your security services to better protect my business, correct?”

“You don’t have to confess anything to him, Chap,” the business owner hissed. “Don’t answer him.”

“That’s pretty terrible customer service, if you ask me. Besides, I have money for you.” Kevin lowered a bloodied duffel bag before the owner. “I hope you’ll take a human head and a couple body parts as payment.”

Obsidian crouched next to Kevin and unzipped the bag. The business owner and the exemplar security guard named Chap both looked away once they saw its contents.

“These parts belong to the team you sent after me. I thought you would want them back. Also, I really could use a security company after all.”

“You… You could?” the owner asked, looking up at Kevin. The mask of horror on his face was quickly replaced by curiosity.

“It’s true, I really could.”

Kevin raised his wrist guard and shot the owner in the chest, the blast tearing out of his back.

The exemplar next to him gulped, trying to maintain his composure. He was unable to use his power to control electricity, not with Kevin’s Zero Ring activated, and Kevin could tell by the look on his face that the cat girl’s toxin was also starting to take effect. The man’s eyes were slightly glazed over.

“Don’t worry,” Kevin said as he lowered his wrist guard. “Chap, was it?”

“Y-yes.”

“I’m not going to kill you, Chap. Like I said, I could use a security company. However, I have a task for you.”

“Y-yes?”

“If you value your life, that is.”

“I do,” Chap said with a short exhale. “I do very much.”

“Since this can’t be all the employees, considering I only really killed a receptionist, I would like you to bring all the employees here. Now. There is a company teleporter, is there not?”

“Yes, there is,” Sandy the telepath said.

The redhead was beside Kevin, fully clothed this time and handling herself surprisingly well. She had gotten better in her role over the last twenty-four hours, the toxin definitely helping.

“Good, contact the teleporter and have them gather the best employees. I’m assuming you know who the best ones are, right?” Kevin asked.

“I do, sir,” Chap said.

“And have you mental messaged any of them yet?”

He shook his head.

“He’s lying,” Sandy said.

“Good, good,” Kevin said as he patted Sandy on the ass.

He was keenly aware that Obsidian had seen him do this, but Kevin was on a power trip, and he really didn’t give a damn.

The cat girls were going to have to get used to Kevin taking what he wanted.

And at the back of Kevin’s mind, he knew it wouldn’t be like this forever. He wouldn’t be able to maintain power indefinitely, which only made him want to control it and those around him even more.

It was inspiring, really, the amount of power he currently possessed, to be the most important person in the room.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Chap. Have the teleporter gather the company’s best employees now. Bring them all here. But do so one at a time. Can you handle that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t believe you. Sandy, make sure he can handle that.”

The telepath came forward, biting her lip as she narrowed her focus on Chap. It wasn’t long before he was nodding at her, putty in her hands.

Oddly enough, the toxin had made Sandy much stronger than she had been when she’d auditioned for this role.

Kevin had already felt her mentally reach out to him a few times now, which was fine—his finger was always ready to trigger his Zero Ring.

It wasn’t but a few minutes later that the teleporter appeared with a large man and woman, the two looking like they were twins aside from the woman’s square-shaped breasts. Both were muscled, and both wore the sleek clothing the security company had provided.

“I thought I said to bring them one at a time,” Kevin said.

“We always come together,” said the muscular male exemplar.

“Sit down,” Sandy said as she approached them, and the man scoffed at her suggestion to sit on the floor.

“I would do as she says,” Kevin said as he took a step toward the pair. Turquoise and Obsidian stood on the periphery, ready to pounce.

“What’s this about?” the man asked.

“The company has a new owner—me.”

It was then that the man and the woman both noticed the owner had been shot, the scar-faced man lying on the floor with a gaping wound in his back.

“Before you get upset,” Kevin said, “just know that I’m going to pay you twice what he was paying you. Does that sound fair?”

“Twice?” the woman asked, glancing at her counterpart

The teleporter appeared again, this time with a female whose hair reached all the way down to the back of her knees. It was braided, but Kevin could tell by the way it was moving that it had something to do with her power.

“Sit,” Kevin said. Sandy stood directly to his right, narrowing her eyes on the new exemplar in the room.

The woman looked at the two muscled twins, both of them nodding at her to follow Kevin’s orders while the woman whispered something to her. She did as she had been told, and as she sat on the ground her hair moved on its own to accommodate her.

“I’m sure the three of you have assignments, but that will be changing as well. Yes, I believe it is time we do something a bit bigger, something a little grander.”

Another man appeared, the guy dressed the same as the others with sinewy arms and legs. A wave of anger started to burn behind his eyes and as it did, Kevin waved his concern away. The man turned to his coworkers and then back to Kevin and Sandy, eventually taking a seat.

By the time the teleporter was done, there were eight exemplars seated before Kevin, the teleporter standing behind them.

“Now that everyone’s here, let me tell you more about what I’m planning to do. While it might not look like much, my little pleasure house has started to turn an incredible profit, so much so that I think I would like to expand. Maybe create a brand of sorts, like we do back in Centralia, perhaps even a franchise. I haven’t seen much of that here, but it is well-known that the people of the Western Province are less sophisticated when it comes to marketing than their counterpoints in Centralia. So I’m going to bring a little bit of that here.”

“A brothel?” the exemplar named Chap asked.

“Yes, it’s about time we treat sin as it should be treated—as a commodity, and a well-regulated one at that. Of course, it shouldn’t be very hard to figure out that doing this is going to bring me plenty of enemies, which is why I’ve hired all of you. If you weren’t here earlier, your salaries have now doubled. You will also be given access to healing capabilities if you are injured. We can work out the structure of our new little operation over the next week or so, but I think it’s safe to say that this is a good start. You all work for me now, we will expand, and as we do, there will be more avenues of revenue for the company, and through the company, for you.”

Kevin turned to his cat girls, smiling warmly at them. “Allow me to introduce you to Turquoise and Obsidian. They have been with me from the start, and in a way, they are what has inspired this journey. You see, there was a time in my life when I was nobody, an absolute nothing, so pathetic that I tried to commit suicide. I was kidnapped from the hospital by these two, strangely enough, because they thought I was my brother. My late brother.”

Kevin paused, letting this statement sink in, aware of the tone in which he had said it and what he had implied. “There are a few things that have happened since then, including the discovery of some incredible chemicals that could potentially change the world, but that’s not what matters right now. What matters right now, to me anyway, is gaining territory. And you, all of you, are going to help me do that. Anyone who objects may leave the room now, but once you step outside that door, you are my enemy—and if I or any of my associates ever see you again, we will treat you as such.”

Kevin placed his hands behind his back waiting for someone to take him up on his offer. When no one did, he continued, “I know I may seem a bit unconventional, and perhaps this isn’t the way you are used to business being done around here, but things have changed. As you will soon learn, I take what I do very seriously. But I can also have fun. And since our enterprise has expanded as of today, I propose that we have a ceremony tomorrow night. I will bring the entertainment and, of course, pay for all of the catering. But after that, we need to get down to business, which will also involve checking in on our competition. So what do you say—are there any questions? Any concerns?”

The female with the long hair raised her hand. “You said you would pay us double, correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Kevin told her. “I believe we will work in a bonus structure as well, once we’ve had a chance to sort through the paperwork.”

The woman nodded. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“Great. Now, take the rest of the day off—aside from you, Chap. You’re with me. We will message you the location of tomorrow night’s ceremony. Do not bring a significant other; I will be providing the entertainment.”

Chapter Nineteen: Devil and Meatloaf

Roman awoke to the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

He tightened his grip on both Coma’s and Celia’s seminude bodies. Celia placed her hand on his chest and looked up at him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Just a noise,” he said.

The beautiful doll he had imbued with what he recalled of his wife’s persona, the softer side of Roman, nuzzled her head against his chest.

Coma sat up, his combat doll in her mask as always, topless, and Roman slowly lowered his hand until it rested on her opposite thigh.

His combat doll turned to look at him, and as she did Roman slowly withdrew his life force from Celia.

“Something is different about you,” Coma said as he carefully placed Celia to the side.

“You think?”

She nodded. “What is it that you want?”

“Come again?”

“What is it that you want, Roman?”

“If I had the answer to that question, I wouldn’t be here in the Western Province.”

Coma smirked. “Yes, you would. They would have arrested you if you hadn’t come.”

“I would have given them hell.”

He placed his feet on the floor. Coma lay down in his lap, looking up at him with her red eyes, the side of her mask lightly grazing his bare stomach.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she reached her hand up to his chin, sliding her fingers against his skin.

“Yeah, I’m fine. The noise just woke me up.”

Roman drew his hand up her waist, slowly circling his finger around her nipple. As he did, a message came in from an anonymous source, the same source Catherine had been using earlier.

Good morning. I’m just checking to see if we are meeting today.

Roman frowned.

“What is it now?”

“I seem to constantly get myself into situations that could have been avoided had I not somehow put my dick in the equation,” Roman told her in a rare moment of self-reflection.

“I guess that’s one way to put it.”

“There are many ways to put it. But what can I say? It really is who I am, at least at the moment.”

“Does it make you happy? All these women?”

“How did you know what this was about?”

“A hunch.”

“I don’t know. I prefer being around women than men, and I enjoy being intimate with women. Maybe it’s like a form of communication with me. It clearly guides who I form friendships with; there’s no denying that.”

“And what do you want from me?”

Roman looked down at her, realizing he was currently cupping her right breast.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled his hand away. Coma stopped him, returning his hand to where it had just been.

“It’s fine.”

“I don’t know what I want from you. I think I came into this assuming Celia and I would have whatever a ‘normal relationship’ is. But a lot has changed, and she’s so much like the real Celia that sometimes it frightens me. Other times it bores me. Not that Celia was ever boring, not that the, um, current Celia is boring. Does this make sense? Maybe I shouldn’t be speaking about it. Fuck, I sound like an idiot. I suppose I feel like moving on. Maybe that’s a better way to describe it. And being in a monogamous relationship with Celia the doll doesn’t make me feel like I’m moving on—it makes me feel like I’m regressing.”

“I wouldn’t tell her that,” Coma said. “And you still haven’t answered my question.”

“What do you want from me?” Roman asked her, turning the question around.

“I don’t really have a preference,” she said. “Having a sexual relationship doesn’t benefit me in any way, nor do I experience the same sensations you experience. I do like watching people; maybe you will let me watch some of your future encounters instead of deactivating me. I find them interesting.”

Roman smiled at her. “I never took you for a voyeur.”

“Maybe it’s the mask,” she said as she finally sat up, bringing her small ass into Roman's lap. Her face was inches away from his now, Roman holding her closely as he simply stared at her.

“I’ve really missed you,” he finally said. “I was going crazy over the last month. I’m so glad you couldn’t see me.”

“I’m sure you were,” she said.

“Sometimes I would just talk to the two of you as if you are both alive; I even made fun of myself in Casper’s voice.” He nodded over to the dresser, where Casper was deactivated and lying on her side.

“I’m here now,” Coma said.

She kissed Roman’s neck, and he hugged her for a moment. As he did, he fired off a message to Catherine, letting her know he wasn’t going to be back in Centralia for a while.

Roman was glad Ava had canceled his ability to teleport back.

That would keep him out of trouble, whether it be trying to break up with Catherine or helping Nadine in her sticky situation.

Maybe it was a good thing after all, the distance.

“Don’t go just yet,” Coma said as Roman started to move her off him.

“I thought you don’t feel anything,” he told her.

“It feels nice to be next to you. Does that count?”

“Sure, and sorry if what I said was insensitive.” He hugged her again, lightly running his fingers along her body.

Eventually, Roman got out of bed and dressed quickly, Coma doing the same. Once they were both dressed, he gave power to Casper and Celia, and the two dolls came alive.

“Did I miss something?” Celia asked, fluttering her eyes open.

“Just me getting dressed,” Roman said.

The redheaded doll sat up, covering her chest with the blanket.

“Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me you have an assignment for me today,” Casper said. “I’m getting so goddamn bored here in the West!”

The tiny doll took a running leap off the nightstand and made it to Roman’s pants. She climbed up his clothing and arrived at his shirt pocket.

“It’s not really up to me,” Roman told her, patting her on the head with his finger.

“First of all—and I feel like we’ve been over this before—do not pat me on the head.” She kicked Roman with her heel. “Second, there must be something for me to do. Anything!”

“You could stay here with Celia and pick up around the house,” Coma suggested.

“Oh, fuck the fuck off,” Casper said, sticking her tongue out at Roman’s combat doll.

“What do you think they would like for breakfast today?” Celia asked, interrupting Casper before she could continue. “The kitchen is fully stocked. I wish I had my recipe book, though. There were some great dishes in there.”

“I can find out,” Roman said as he exited his room.

The smell of a strong breakfast tea met his nostrils. As he walked down the hallway, he heard footsteps behind him, Coma a bit closer to him than she normally was.

“I wanted to wake you up,” Jess said as he came into view, “but I didn’t want to go in there and see something my eyes couldn’t unsee.”

“You could have knocked,” Roman told her as he took a seat at the main table, where Ava was already enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of fruit. Miranda, the telepath, was resting on the couch at the opposite side of the room, a book over her chest.

“She was up all night,” Jess explained. “Something about telepaths having issues going to sleep.”

“I wouldn’t wish telepathy on anyone,” Roman said under his breath.

Celia ended up making scrambled eggs with sausage and toast. The smell woke Miranda, who joined Ava, Jess, and Roman at the table for breakfast.

While the two women who worked for the Centralian Intelligence Agency weren’t exactly nice to Roman, they had become a bit more cordial. He could still sense some tension between the three of them, but it was less than it had been a day ago. Roman liked to think this was because of his performance last night, which Ava just so happened to be picking apart as they ate.

“So there are some things we should have done differently,” she said after going through some of the details of the report she had filed with Rafner. “For one, we need to move faster next time. If you and Coma are meant to be our initial assault team, you should be prepared for anything and able to act accordingly.”

“I lifted a wall…”

“It’s amazing the building is still standing after what you did to it—at least the top few floors,” his former teacher said. “I trained you better than this. Well, our training was never completed, but at least I tried to teach you as much as I could about situational awareness. Since you have taken to killing quickly, which can prove beneficial, it is important that you not only kill the right people but also know who to spare. Now, in our scenario last night, there was really no one we needed to spare. We were told to bring Kevin down; if the man had been Kevin, we would have done exactly as we had been ordered to do. But still, situational awareness.”

“Will do,” Roman said.

He didn’t feel like he was being berated by Ava. Truth be told, Roman missed their training sessions, and he knew there was more he could have learned from her.

He didn’t like the smirk Jess was giving him, but he knew not to engage.

“And we’re going to speak to Devil next, right?” Miranda asked, the telepath clearly not giving two shits about what Ava had been saying.

Roman didn’t know how much the telepath knew about their relationship, and he was fairly certain she wouldn’t be able to pry into Ava’s head, but he had a sense from the way she had changed the course of the conversation that she knew more than she was letting on.

“Yes, after breakfast. We know where he is staying, and as we discussed yesterday, it may be best to pay him a visit,” Ava said. “Perhaps he will be more persuaded to tell us useful information if there is a telepath involved.”

“And who is on this mission exactly?” Roman asked.

“Since we’re not planning to do anything aside from a bit of interrogation, you and Miranda should be able to handle it. Unfortunately, I have to go over to the Western Province garrison a few kilometers away from here to meet with their intelligence agency about what happened last night. Nothing to be concerned about, but this is generally how we operate.”

“And what about me?” Jess asked.

“You should go with them as well. I was planning to bring you to the garrison with me, but it will be, in your words, ‘boring as shit.’”

Jess nodded, happy she’d been given a better assignment.

“Should I bring Coma?” Roman asked.

“I don’t think you’ll be needing her, considering you’re just going for answers.”

Roman nodded.

“Let’s see what we can uncover today, people,” Ava said, smiling at the small team of exemplars. “While I would love to have dealt with Kevin Blackbook by the end of the night, I’m aware that probably won’t be the case. Let’s see what we can get from Devil, and I will also follow up with the agents at the garrison. Hopefully, we’ll be able to shake loose a lead. If not, we may have to start hitting the streets.”

“That’s my specialty,” Jess said.

“No, it’s not,” Miranda said with a snort. “Your specialty is becoming the street.”

Roman, Miranda, and Jess slowly began to descend from the sky, eventually landing alongside a teleporter in front of a three-story brownstone. It was a bit warmer than Roman was used to for this time of year, and unlike in Centralia, there was absolutely no breeze at the moment.

Roman took a quick look around to see a man asleep on the stoop in front of the brownstone, a bottle of wine still in his hand, a wet stain on the front of his slacks.

The teleporter nodded at them, and as she rose into the air, her form started to slowly pixelate, eventually turning to glitter and wisping away.

“Fancy,” Jess said as she turned to the drunk man. “I’m sorry, but do you want to see something funny?”

“By all means,” Roman told her.

“We really don’t have time for this,” Miranda started to say.

“Relax, it will only take a second.”

Jess approached the drunk man. She kicked his wine bottle away, instantly morphing into the exact same wine bottle and taking its place.

As the man blinked his eyes awake, Jess-as-the-wine-bottle started hopping around, startling him.

“What the…?”

The man stumbled sideways, falling to the pavement and catching himself at the very last moment. Jess-as-the-wine-bottle hopped toward him, the man crawling before getting up to his feet and taking off.

“Sorry,” Jess said once she was back to her normal form. “I hate drunks.”

Miranda exhaled audibly, one of her blue curls flying off her forehead. “I could have just made him think the wine bottle was jumping around in front of him.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

Roman glanced between both of them. “Let’s just get inside and get this over with,” he said, not quite comfortable with being the one in charge.

The stairwell smelled like garbage, and Roman found the culprit almost immediately.

Someone had taken the trash out, then failed to clean up the leak they’d left behind on the steps. Roman carefully stepped around the inconsiderate mess, and the three came to a door on the third floor. Roman looked down at the welcome mat, noticing what appeared to be a bloodstain on it.

“Any thoughts of how you would like to do this?” Miranda asked.

“I’ll make it easy,” Roman said as he raised his hand toward the door handle.

The handle melted inward, the door quietly swinging open.

“After you,” Roman said as he stepped aside.

“No way; you’re going in first,” Jess whispered.

They heard grunting as they came into the apartment. The grunts were followed by a high-pitched squeal that could either have come from a woman or an animal; Roman wasn’t quite sure.

The three passed an empty living room and turned down the hallway to the bedroom, the entire apartment smelling just about as bad as the hallway outside.

The bedroom door was halfway cracked, and as they neared it, Roman could see bodies moving on the bed.

He couldn’t quite make out what was happening, but he could definitely tell it had something to do with sex.

He glanced at Miranda over her shoulder, which she shrugged, and from there he looked at Jess, who had her fingers pinched over her nose with a cringe on her face.

Roman thought about pressing a face into the wall, but in the end he decided on the surprise entrance.

He kicked open the door, and his eyes came to a trio on the bed. He saw Devil, who currently had a girthy cock in his mouth, as well as a rail-thin woman riding their informant reverse-cowgirl style.

Devil spat the cock out of his mouth. “What the fuck!?”

The woman fell to the side, and Devil cried out as she snapped his erection in the process. The man who had been getting sucked off fell on top of both of them and rolled over. Devil pushed him aside.

“Well, well, well,” Jess said, offering Devil a disgusted look. “I think you know why we’re here.”

“If you need to talk to me, send me a fucking mental message!” Devil cried, his lips covered in spittle. “What in the actual fuck!? What did you do to them!? Fuck!”

“That’s an interesting side effect,” Miranda said as she looked at the other man on the bed, whose penis was still erect.

Roman cleared his throat. “The information you gave us was incorrect. So we figured we would pay you a house visit to see if you had heard of anything else.”

“Anything else?” Devil glared at Roman. “You could have mental messaged me to ask that question! And who the fuck are you anyway!? Where’s the chick with the mask?”

“Language, language,” Jess said. “And please, keep your voice down. It doesn’t matter who he is. We’re here for information, not to make introductions. We feel like you’ve been holding out on us, Devil, like maybe you have some information you haven’t told us about yet.”

“What…? No, I’ve told you everything I fucking know, honest! It’s not my fault if…”

“I’ll make this quick,” Miranda said, coming forward and lightly grazing against Roman’s hand. It startled him, and as he looked over, he briefly watched Miranda give him a sidelong glance before returning her attention to Devil. “Are you ready?”

The man slammed his head against the backboard. He instantly brought his hands to his temples, wincing as he screamed.

“Arrrrghhhhhh!”

“Careful,” Roman told her, “we don’t need him…”

“That has never happened before,” Miranda snapped back, her shoulders lowering some as Devil finally got some relief.

“Honest, honest, I really don’t know anything!” Devil cried, hoarse now. He looked around, his eyes stopping on the man he’d just been blowing moments ago. “He knows—Destin fucking knows something. He just told me about a guy. Ask him! Wake him up and ask him!”

“Okay,” Miranda said.

Devil’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell sideways, the man named Destin starting to wake up.

“What’s happening?” he asked, instinctively reaching for a blanket so he could cover himself.

“Your buddy Devil here has just sold you out,” Jess said.

“Sold me out? How? I didn’t do anything!” the man started to say, panic rising in his voice.

“He said you may have some information, that you just told him ‘about a guy.’”

“Told him about a guy?” Destin shook his head at Jess. “Is he talking about the attack on the security company?”

“I don’t know; tell us about that,” Jess said.

“Better yet, let me take a look.” Miranda came forward. Destin started to cringe, instinctively placing his hands on either side of his head.

“Stop! Please, I’m begging you!”

“He wasn’t there,” Miranda said, not letting up. “But he knows a guy who was, a guy he had a drink with at a bar last night. Chap is his name, right?”

“Please stop! Fuck! Please!” Destin cried, a vein pulsing on the side of his head.

“According to Chap, the security company was attacked by a fat man with two cat girls. They rehired all the employees at double their salaries, which was why Chap was buying rounds at a bar last night.”

“Let him tell it,” Jess said, “I’m tired of hearing him scream.”

“Please…” the man said as Miranda let up. “Thank you, thank you.”

“Tell us about Chap,” Roman said to Destin.

“Chap? Yeah, Chap. Just an acquaintance, honest. I’ve seen him in there a couple times, a bar some of us go to, some of us that…” The man looked at the bed. “Yeah, people who are open to both sexes. We have a bar. Chap was there celebrating. Anyway…” Destin rubbed his temples as he glared at Miranda. “Did you have to go so far?”

“Finish telling your story, or I will go further than you can possibly imagine.”

“Chap said he was at his job when this big guy came, big as in fat. He had two cat girls with him. They killed everyone. They took over the company, and…” The man paused, trying to remember what else Chap had told him. “That’s right, he said they’re having a ceremony or something tomorrow night. Not tonight. He said it was two days, so it must be tomorrow night, you know, some kind of party to celebrate the new business venture.”

“Do you know where we can find Chap?” Roman asked.

“No, unless he goes to the bar again tonight. Maybe you could find him there. The place is called Cheer-Up Charlie’s. Maybe you could check the security company’s headquarters too. I used to live by that area, over in Meriday Heights.”

“Got it,” Miranda said, stripping the information from his mind.

“That’s it?” Destin asked. “You’re just going to leave us like this?”

“Everyone will wake up eventually,” Miranda said as she turned to the door. She nodded at Jess and Roman. “Let’s go.”

“You can’t just leave us like this!” Destin called.

Roman looked over his shoulder, slamming the door shut behind them and locking it.

“Should we tell Ava before we check the security company?” Jess asked.

“No need,” said Miranda. “It’ll just be a quick check. And think how happy our fiery boss will be if we come back with an actual lead.”

“Let’s hope this guy is a day drinker,” Jess said as the three stepped out of the security office. The place had been ravaged, Miranda unable to use her psychometry power to pick up much. The filing cabinets had been emptied as well, which might have been helpful in locating the man named Chap.

Unfortunately, there was only one option left…

A teleporter appeared in front of them, followed by a large splash of color that cut wavy arcs through the air.

It was only a matter of seconds before Roman, Miranda, and Jess were standing outside of the bar known as Cheer-Up Charlie’s. The restaurant was in need of a good remodeling, with dead plants outside and a brown roof made of corrugated metal.

Sure enough, it was open, and since it was close to lunchtime, Roman suggested they see what kind of food the place served.

“This should be interesting,” Miranda said as they made their way inside what resembled a diner. Cheer-Up Charlie’s was clearly a fight-your-way-in-and-fight-your-way-out kind of place that reeked of booze and fried meat. There were two men seated at the bar, both watching as Roman and his counterparts entered.

“Please don’t tell me we’re going to have to be here all day,” Jess said under her breath as the waitress led them to a booth in the back.

The black-and-white checkered floor was sticky; it was clear there was space at the front of the establishment for a dance floor, with some of the tables and chairs still cleared out.

Jess sat with her back to the door, Roman and Miranda taking the seats in front of her so they could see who entered.

Again, Miranda bumped into Roman as she shuffled into her seat, her ass grazing against the front of his pants.

He was starting to get the sense that she was subtly flirting with him. But, knowing that she was a telepath, Roman did everything in his power to not actually think about this, only sense it and move on.

“All we have is meatloaf today,” the waitress said, smacking her lips. She was an older woman with droopy eyes who looked like she worked several jobs.

“Then I guess we’ll have the meatloaf,” Miranda told her.

“And to drink?”

“Three glasses of wine,” Miranda said. “Whatever is on tap.”

Jess looked at her after the waitress stepped away.

“What? We’re trying to blend in here,” Miranda whispered.

“She’s not wrong,” Roman started to say.

“How long are we actually planning on being here?” Jess asked, a disgusted look on her face. “Because if we’re talking more than a few hours, I might just set up outside as a plant or something, mostly for the fresh air.”

“It would have to be a dead plant,” Miranda quipped.

“That’s easy.”

“We’ll be here however long it takes,” Roman told Jess.

He saw a flash outside signaling a teleporter had arrived with someone.

A woman stepped inside the place, fixed her skirt, and made her way to a stool at the front. The two men seated at the bar looked at the brunette and nodded, and the woman nodded back.

“I’m so glad you two can’t see what they’re thinking,” Miranda told Roman and Jess.

“I’m glad too,” said Jess as the three glasses of wine came.

Once the waitress had stepped away again, Miranda raised her glass. “To getting out of the Western Province, Ravja in particular.”

“I feel like we’ve barely explored it,” Roman said as he raised his glass as well.

The three clinked their glasses together, Miranda swirling her wine before taking a sip of it. “Are you really interested in hitting all the touristy spots?”

“No, I’ve just never been to the Western Province before.”

“But you have been to the East,” she reminded him. “And for some reason, you have conveniently forgotten about it.”

“I do remember there being a lot of trees there, beautiful trees.”

Jess smirked. “You know, we never talked about it, but that was pretty crazy what happened when your power came back to you. I’ve…” She took a sip of her wine and swallowed hard. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’ve heard of people with your power, but to see the walls just melt away… Weird.”

“And to think there’s a more powerful version of you out there somewhere,” Miranda said, chiding him. “That’s what we should be worried about.”

“Margo?” Roman shook his head. “According to what I’ve been told, she’s in the body of a sex doll. There’s no telling if she is as powerful as she once was.”

“You fought her, right?” Jess asked. “I mean, of course you did—I read that part of your file—but what was it like? That’s what I meant to ask.”

“Not as fast as it should have been.” Roman sighed as he nearly finished his glass of wine. “I feel like Margo could have killed me quicker had she wanted to. It was almost as if she wanted to toy with me. She’s had much more training than I have, and she’s been using her power since she was a child. But I’m glad I attempted it, even if it really put me on the government’s shitlist. Even if Margo had killed me or I’d been forced to go to jail. I’m glad I did it. She animated my wife’s corpse. Just imagine that for a moment.”

Jess shuddered. “I remember reading that part. It sounds gruesome.”

“It’s a story for another day,” Roman finally said.

“I’m assuming that’s what our next mission will be,” Miranda said. “It feels to me like they’re really trying to clean up that mess.”

“Mess?”

She nodded. “I mean all the stuff that involves you, from Kevin to Margo. It seems like they’re trying to clean all that up, one piece at a time. First, we take on Kevin, and then we put everyone we can on figuring out what happened to Margo. She may be in another country by now, but after her attack on the Lottery Council, I don’t believe they’ll let her live for long.”

“It actually makes no sense to me,” Roman admitted. “No offense to you all, but I don’t see why they’ve sent us to go after Kevin. He’s a low-level offender in my book.”

“He broke into Centralia South and is responsible for the death of our country’s only healer,” Jess reminded Roman. “As well as countless other deaths, including his own wife’s.”

“Yes, but he’s Kevin. I worked with this guy. He’s a fat slob. There’s nothing special about him. He’s smart, but he’s also an idiot. Have you ever met someone like that? That’s how I would describe him. So that’s what I mean by low-level offender. It seems like a waste of time for us to try to go after him when Margo is clearly out there.”

“There are other branches of the agency,” Miranda said. “Just because they have, for some reason, easily let you join our particular group doesn’t mean there aren’t things happening you don’t know about.”

“I figured that much,” Roman said as the meatloaf came.

The meatloaf looked like someone had scooped a square out with a spatula and slapped it onto the white plate, dollops of orange grease around its edges. There were also a couple half-charred potatoes and some withered asparagus.

“Yummy,” Miranda said, barely hiding the sarcasm in her voice.

“Maybe it tastes better than it looks.” Roman cut off a piece of the meatloaf with his fork and tasted it.

He nodded, impressed.

“Really?” Jess asked, curious now.

“It’s not bad.” Roman went for another bite. “Really,” he said, still chewing.

“Are you sure you aren’t just fucking with us?”

Roman shook his head at Jess. “If you don’t want yours, I’ll eat it.”

Jess took a bite, chewing slowly at first. “Damn,” she finally said.

“Now you both are just fucking with me.”

As Miranda reluctantly tried her meatloaf, a man with platinum-blond hair stepped into the bar.

“Hey,” Roman said, elbowing Miranda, who was slowly nodding at the surprisingly good flavor of the meatloaf. “That him?”

“Let me check,” Miranda said. As soon as she started to focus on the man, he turned to them, electricity crackling around his eyes.

The bolt struck the wall next to Miranda, a warning.

By this point Roman had already taken control of the floor, the checkered tile forming two hands that yanked Chap to the ground.

A ball of lightning fired into the air as the bartender and waitress screamed and the patrons all ducked for cover.

“Get down,” Roman told Miranda and Jess before he dove out of the booth.

“I’ve got this,” Miranda said, and as the words left her lips, Chap started to scream, bolts of electricity zipping across the inside of the restaurant and leaving black marks on the ceiling and walls.

“Shit, shit,” Jess said, her hands on her head now. “Someone get this guy under control!”

“Last chance,” Miranda said aloud, and as she did Chap stopped firing off lightning bolts. He was on the ground now, on his back, his hands trembling.

“Everyone move behind the bar,” Miranda instructed. The waitress, the bartender, the chef who had come out of the kitchen, and the three patrons followed suit. Miranda was focusing so hard now that her face was starting to turn red, a Y-shaped vein appearing on her forehead.

The man named Chap let out a final yelp and closed his eyes, his body going limp.

“What did you do?” Roman asked, ignoring the seven people now all huddled together behind the bar.

Miranda nodded. “I got the information about tomorrow’s ceremony. Then I wiped his mind. Now I’m going to do the same for the people behind the bar. Remove the tile from his body and leave him lying on the ground. I’m going to have them believe he got drunk and passed out. He’ll wake up in five minutes, after we are long gone, not remembering any of this.”

“What about all the black marks around the room?” Jess asked. “From his electricity.”

“Right, thanks for reminding me. I’ll have him think he did that in a drunken stupor. Easy.”

“So then we should leave?” Roman asked.

“Why? You still want to eat your meatloaf?”

Roman and Jess exchanged glances, both nodding at Miranda.

“Fine, fine, eat your food. I’ll keep everyone as they are until you’re finished. How’s that?”

“So they’re just going to be standing behind the bar and staring at us?” Jess asked, raising an eyebrow at the six people who currently looked like zombies, their arms at their sides, their faces blank.

Miranda shook her head. “Would you prefer I have them lie down?”

“I mean, it would look a little better.”

All six people got down behind the bar, no longer visible. “Happy?”

“Yep,” Jess said as she filed back to the booth.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Roman asked Miranda.

“No, but I will have another glass of wine to wash the meatloaf out of my mouth.” The telepath reached for her glass and made her way over to the bar, where she proceeded to locate the best wine in the establishment.

“We really cannot tell Ava about this,” Jess told Roman as she shoveled the meatloaf into her mouth. “Seriously.”

Roman looked up from his meatloaf and nodded. “Nope, we really shouldn’t.”

Chapter Twenty: And You Will Know Her by the Trail of the Dead

A mousy young woman entered the bodega. She was a petite female in a red leather jacket, the only thing interesting about her look being the single red stripe in her white hair.

“Can I help you?” a man named Paul asked.

He was the manager of the bodega, forced to work overtime because his former employee, Roman, had recently quit. He turned to the other side of the bodega to see Jasmine, his employee, stepping out of the back room.

“Hi,” Jasmine told the customer, a box of snacks tucked under her arm.

Jasmine and Paul had just finished setting up a new display stand featuring MindLenz with salty snacks hanging from her body via plastic hooks that matched the famous telepath’s uniform.

“Hello,” the petite woman said. “I’m looking for someone, and I was hoping someone here could help me find him.”

“Okay,” Paul said, stepping around the register. “I don’t how helpful we can be, but maybe we can point you in the right direction, young lady.”

“Roman Martin,” the woman said with a smile, a dead look in her eyes. “I’m a friend of his.”

“Roman…” Paul shook his head, an irritable look painted across his face. “Unfortunately, he quit a few days back.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“Actually, I really have no idea where he is. And another thing—if you do find him, be sure to let him know I wasn’t happy with the way he just locked up and left the place. We’re a twenty-four-hour convenience store, not a place that just closes when an employee feels like taking the night off.”

“I just messaged him,” Jasmine said, a helpful smile on her face. “What was your name again?”

The petite woman turned to Jasmine, slowly starting to tilt her head to the side. “Did I ask you to message him?”

“No, I just thought…”

A gust of wind swept Jasmine off her feet, smashing her into the glass doors of the walk-in freezer, the sound of the impact ricocheting across the bodega.

Jasmine hit the floor, glass falling on top of her. Part of the floor wrapped around her and lifted her, repeatedly smashing her into the ceiling until the bodega employee was a bloodied mess.

Paul froze in his tracks, his hands shaking at his sides, his heart starting to give way.

He’d been on heart medication for some time, but seeing this, especially when he was already stressed from working a double shift, only made things worse.

“Let me help you with that,” the white-haired woman said as Paul let out a final gasp, his heart exploding inside his chest.

He blinked twice, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

“Useless corpses,” the woman said as she looked down at her hands.

Margo was still getting used to being in someone else’s body.

It was different than the doll she had inhabited for the last month. And while she had taken over others’ consciousness before, she had never completely willed herself into someone else’s psyche.

Now that she saw that it was indeed something she could do, she wished she had done it earlier, possibly after she had been attacked by the vampire during the Western Plague, the bottom half of her face shredded beyond recognition.

Margo crouched in front of the man she’d just killed.

Something about him reminded her of her father. Perhaps it was his goatee, or how groomed his eyebrows were.

She placed her hand on his head, noticing that it was still warm.

As she stood, a tornado swept beneath Paul and lifted him into the air, tearing through the shelves of the bodega before depositing him at the back of the room.

A noise caught Margo’s attention. She turned to see that Jasmine’s hand was still twitching, her fingernails tapping against the floor, the woman likely paralyzed.

Margo exploded her heart as well and then brought the woman back to life. As Jasmine sat up, Margo instructed her to walk out on the streets to stir up a little trouble.

The woman—whose face was black and blue now, her nose broken, one of her eyes now looking to the right and her jaw barely holding on—nodded slowly, her jaw flapping as she exited the bodega.

Margo watched the woman leave, noticing she’d left a trail of blood in her wake.

People were going to have to start dying.

Margo had attacked the Lottery Council, and now that she had this new body, this wind user named Catherine, she planned to do a whole lot more, starting with the bodega.

Careful not to get blood on her white high heels, which she’d taken from Roman’s shitty basement apartment, Margo stepped out of the bodega. She found the sex doll she had once inhabited standing with her back against the wall, arms crossed over her chest.

She smiled at the beautiful doll and her perky tits, her perfect body. “Are you ready to go, Paris?”

“I am, Margo,” the doll told her.

“He wasn’t there, by the way.”

“I figured. So where are we going to go then?” Paris asked as they turned down a side street. People behind her were already starting to notice Jasmine and her mangled face. It wouldn’t be long until Centralian law enforcement came, which gave Margo an idea.

“Actually, maybe we should stick around for a moment. I don’t believe we’ve made a big enough statement. What do you think?”

“I think whatever you think.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Margo and her doll returned to the street, watching as Centralian police began to appear via teleporter. Margo waved her hand and all of them fell to their knees, face-planting near the trolley track, dead.

People started to scream, no one yet understanding how the three police officers had died.

A man ran out to them, a good Samaritan by the looks of him, and his reward came in the form of a spike that lifted from the pavement, tearing through his neck and out the back of his head.

“Had enough fun?” Paris asked Margo.

Margo slowly slipped her hand around her doll’s waist and drummed her fingers on Paris’s left ass cheek.

“Why? Are you getting bored?” Margo asked her.

“No, but I think there are better ways to entertain ourselves.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Margo smiled at the ensuing pandemonium. “Let’s have dinner somewhere, or at least I will, and then we’ll visit Orange. For some reason, I get this feeling he’s not living up to his side of the bargain.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Truly.”

Margo and her doll stepped back to the side street, leaving the chaos she had caused behind them.

“What are you hungry for?” Paris asked her.

“Meat. Something hearty, perhaps a Western Province restaurant. It has been a while since I had a good meal.”

Nadine ran her hands along the front of her skirt.

She looked left and right to make sure no one was going to step in her way, then joined the crowd in one of the main trolley stations in northeastern Centralia.

The Eastern Province spy passed advertisements on the walls, exemplar teams selling everything from toothpaste to health insurance policies. One featuring famous duplicator William Bottorf caught her eye. He was depicted wearing a variety of uniforms, from doctor to construction worker, in a public service announcement reminding the viewer that everyone, exemplar and non-exemplar alike, played a role in Centralian society.

As she had been instructed to do, Nadine made her way to the third floor of the station to a tea shop at the far end that overlooked the tracks.

She was greeted at the front door by a handsome man in a bowtie, and after she confirmed who she was there to see, the man led her to a table in the back corner that provided views of the tracks and the sober red-brick exterior of the station.

“I’m glad you could join me, Nadine,” the woman sitting at the table said. She had a powdered face and shiny black hair, her makeup elaborate yet done in a way that looked good when paired with her designer pantsuit.

“Lydia,” Nadine said as she took a seat in front of the woman.

Lydia was at least five years younger than Nadine, maybe even more. The woman had clearly moved through the ranks.

“We have a lot of things to discuss,” Lydia said as the waiter refilled her cup of tea. He filled Nadine’s cup as well, not sticking around to ask if she would like a different flavor or a food menu.

“Yes, yes we do.”

Nadine had dealt with new handlers before, enough times now that she was of a mind to get all the bullshit out of the way as quickly as possible with the hopes of solidifying any power dynamics in her favor.

“I am under the impression that you are not happy in your new assignment at the border as Diana Turn, Project Coordinator for the Department of the Interior. Does that sound about right?”

Nadine bit her lip. “I don’t know what gave you that impression.”

“Everything I’m going to go over with you is based on the nightly notes Oscar sent in. So that is how I have come to this impression.”

“I’ve gotten used to it,” Nadine finally said, realizing that in doing so she’d just played her hand.

“I have a solution for that,” Lydia said. “But I will get to that in a moment. I have been told to congratulate you on killing off some of the border rebels. While our government supports the rebel group from time to time, they can overstep their boundaries. What they did while you were at the border was an example of the rebels overstepping their boundaries, and that sort of behavior makes it difficult for agents on both sides to come up with solutions for our border problem.”

“I see.”

“But I have more important things to discuss,” Lydia said, smiling at Nadine. “Were you aware there were explosives placed in key structural points in Oscar’s home?”

“Come again?” Nadine asked, setting her tea down.

“Yes, it has come to our attention that perhaps someone was hoping to attack his residence. We found evidence of explosives placed in several rooms, in spots along the outer wall that would affect the building support beams.”

Nadine didn’t say anything. Lydia continued.

“It appears that the release of Eli’s power not only did its own damage, but it triggered these explosives. Did Oscar ever mention anything to you about explosives in the home?”

Nadine shook her head. “He never said anything about that, but maybe he had a detonator somewhere. Maybe it was a contingency plan for if exemplars ever attacked the safe house.”

“Personally,” Lydia said, smiling at Nadine, “I find that hard to believe. Oscar meticulously recounted everything he and the people under him did through his daily transmissions back to headquarters. So I am very skeptical he would have placed explosives in his home without reporting it.”

Nadine shrugged. “Have you checked any of the armories? Perhaps it was one of our agents.”

“I have, and no one has checked out explosives recently, at least ones that would be capable of this type of destruction. But for now, let’s put this little mystery on the back burner while we take on a bigger task, which will be locating Eli and Lisa.”

“I thought they died in the fire. At least that’s what I wrote in the report.”

“While your report has been officially filed, which any of the other groups within our agency will take at face value, I am not convinced. Forensics tests didn’t tell us much, mostly due to the intensity of the flames, but I would like to operate under the assumption that both of them somehow escaped.”

“Then they could be anywhere by now,” Nadine said.

“True, they could, which is why I am tasking you to find Eli and Lisa and bring them back into our custody.” Lydia locked eyes with Nadine. “If you do this, I will personally see about having you reassigned. I will also make sure that this top-tier information regarding explosives placed in the home is buried for good. As it stands right now, our government is looking the other way. But that may not always be the case.”

“I understand,” Nadine said, not breaking eye contact with Lydia. “I will see what I can do.”

“Good. I have been told several times now that you are one of our best agents, which is why I think you are perfect for this task. Do not let your emotions get in the way. I figured that was something Oscar would tell you.”

Nadine tried not to glare at Lydia. “I won’t. If Eli and Lisa are out there and it is within my power to find them, I will do so.”

“Good. Now, run along,” Lydia said, waving her away. “I have other people I need to meet, and I prefer to not have my agents cross paths in the hallway.”

Chapter Twenty-One: Big Mouth, Little Doll

It took Roman a moment to find Ava in the fancy restaurant, the place packed with patrons dressed in crisp suits and sparkling dresses. His former teacher already had a bottle of wine on the table, chilled, and she smiled when she saw him approach.

“You’ve been quite productive today,” she said, motioning the waiter over.

Roman sat and the waiter approached, quickly uncorking the bottle of wine and pouring two glasses.

“We got lucky,” Roman said.

They really had.

If it wasn’t for Devil’s sexual deviancy and Chap happening to be a day drinker, they would have never uncovered the information about Kevin’s upcoming party. And even though they had initially kept what they were doing away from Ava, she was now impressed with what Miranda had discovered in Chap’s mind.

“By the time we get back to our command…” Ava started to say.

“Is that what we’re calling it?” Roman asked. “Command?”

“Would you rather I call it our apartment?”

He smiled. “That seems more appropriate.”

“Did Miranda or Jess say what they were getting into tonight?”

Roman shook his head. “No. Celia was cooking dinner for them when I left. Thanks for giving us the afternoon off, by the way. It was nice to just hang out and get to know them a little bit better. They are warming up to me, you know. Especially Jess. I can’t figure the telepath out and I’m not going to try.”

“Telepaths. Can’t live with them…”

“Can’t live without them.”

“It wasn’t by choice.” Ava took a sip of her wine, savoring it. “We have the information we need, and as I was saying, by the time we get back to our apartment, we should have a schematic of the restaurant they’ve rented out to host the party. It’s in the Brownlock District, which was one of the districts most affected by the Western Plague, in case you don’t know.”

“Is being here bringing back memories for you? I keep meaning to ask you that.”

Ava nodded. “It really is. You know, it’s weird when you visit a place you’ve been before, even if it was a decade ago. Memories come flooding back in this weird way. Being here has also reminded me of the power of a government cover-up.”

“A government cover-up?”

“Yes,” Ava said, her eyes darting left and right. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now if I tell you. You’re part of the Centralian Intelligence Agency, after all.”

“As long as I complete this mission.”

“Were you planning on abandoning it?”

Roman shook his head. “Not unless I can get a better deal working for the Western Province government.”

“You shouldn’t kid about things like that.”

“I’m not.”

Ava rolled her eyes at Roman. “Trust me, you don’t want to stay here.”

“You’re right, I’d rather go back home and live in my basement apartment.”

“Is that so?” Ava asked, sensing the sarcasm in Roman’s voice.

“Or whatever hotel the government has arranged for me to stay in. You don’t still need a roommate, do you?”

Ava’s smile hardened. “Anyway, as I was about to tell you…”

“Right, the cover-up.”

“I’m sure you’re familiar with the common narrative in Centralia, that we swooped in and helped the Western Province eradicate all the vampires.”

“Yes, I’m familiar. I only wish I had a cut of all the money that’s been made off fantasy vampire stories revolving around Centralia coming in at the last minute. That’s what you were doing, right?”

She blew a curl of red hair off her forehead. “Hardly. The truth is that there were two members of the Protectorate who were infected. Remember me telling you about them?”

“Orange, Margo, and two others, right?”

“Destry and Amethyst. Amethyst was the first to get infected, and she infected Destry. They used their powers to infiltrate the vampire ranks, and just when it was looking like the plague was truly going to spread, they pounced, killing the leader of the infection, who happened to be a former classmate of theirs. They then proceeded to hunt all other vampires. Those two single-handedly stopped the spread, if you can imagine that…”

“And did they survive?”

Ava finished her glass of wine. As if the waiter had been watching her, he approached immediately, refilling it.

“Does that answer your question?”

Roman nodded. “I always figured there was more to the story.”

“There always is. Now, before we finish this bottle and get another, shall we order?”

Roman nodded. “Are they going to give us menus?”

“This isn’t that type of restaurant,” Ava said as she waved the waiter over again. “We’re ready to begin,” she told him.

“At once, madame,” the waiter said, then turned to the kitchen after a curt bow of his head.

“What kind of restaurant is this again?”

“One where the chef is an exemplar with an enhanced understanding of bodily senses. I hope you’re ready for an interesting experience.”

“I always am,” Roman told her.

“I figured we would celebrate. We’re going to make this happen tomorrow. No doubt about it. They aren’t going to be expecting us, and our goal will be to not only neutralize Kevin, but all the former employees of the security company. Then we find where he’s been holed up. We can’t forget that last part. Prepare to act quickly and with extreme prejudice.”

“Judge, jury, and executioner, huh?”

“Streamlined removal,” she said with a shrug. “That’s why this mission is classified. It’s also why it’s not something you should discuss with your friends.”

“Friends?” Roman almost laughed, a voice appearing at the back of his head as a message came in from Jasmine, his former coworker.

Roman, a friend of yours is here at the bodega looking for you. White hair, red streak.

Roman shook his head.

He knew exactly who it was; it was something he would have to deal with once he returned to Centralia. Catherine was going to continue to be a thorn in his side until he basically paid her off and convinced her to go home. He didn’t want to do this in a mean way, but he knew it was time.

Roman wasn’t going to be able to maintain a relationship with her any longer.

“Are you telling me you don’t have any friends in Centralia?” Ava asked.

“Aside from my dolls…”

She rolled her eyes. “That sounds so pathetic.”

“Sometimes the truth hurts.”

Dishes started coming out from the kitchen, two at a time. Most of them were small affairs, on plates no larger than four inches in diameter. Roman and Ava finished their bottle of wine, his former teacher ordering another bottle as the waiter continued to bring more food.

“This really is something else,” Roman said as they had more wine.

“I thought you would enjoy it.”

“We never talked about what happened,” he said suddenly, the alcohol loosening his tongue.

“I’m close to getting over it,” Ava finally said. “Is that what you would like to hear?”

“Wait, are we talking about the same thing?”

“Do you mean my sister or what happened between us?”

“Us,” Roman said quickly. “And I’m sorry about your sister. I hope they let me go after Margo next. I’d like actual approval to go after her.”

Ava merely finished her glass of wine and waited for the waiter to pour another.

“I just want you to know why I did what I did. And that I wasn’t trying to ruin your good name, or anything like that. I just wanted to say that second part, that I wasn’t trying to betray you.”

“You really don’t understand how deep some things go,” she said, the tone of her voice changing.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Roman…”

“Just say it.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did with you,” Ava said, her eyes suddenly glossy. “You were my student; I was your teacher.”

“We are both adults. I enjoyed it.”

She wiped her lip with a napkin. “So I shouldn’t have done that, but I want you to know that I never stopped…”

“Never stopped what?”

“I never stopped caring for you,” Ava admitted. “And just so you know, it was me who advocated for you to have your power returned.”

“Then you must have been surprised when it appeared on its own,” he said. “I sure as hell was. I definitely wasn’t expecting anything like that.”

Ava hesitated. The waiter set down a new dish featuring a clear gelatin garnished with fried scallion.

“What does that look mean?” Roman asked.

“I guess it doesn’t matter now. You’re on the team, and you have your power back.” Ava cleared her throat. “Your power didn’t come back to you on its own. Surely you understand this by now.”

“What are you saying?”

“My sister was behind the two-way glass. They wanted to see how you would react. I thought it was a bad idea, especially if you lashed out, but Rafner agreed, and as soon as Miranda started up, Moira returned your power to you, or better, she amplified your power back to its exemplar state.”

“That’s impossible…” Roman said, trying to remember the interrogation room, if there had been a two-way glass wall or not. He couldn’t recall it now; all he could remember was breaking his way out of it, the wall melting away.

“I just thought you should know that,” Ava said. “I don’t think it’s something you should dwell on, and it’s something only Rafner and I know. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. You have your power now.”

“Does Miranda know?”

“No, nor do any of the others who were in the room at the time.” Ava finished her glass of wine. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. You have your power back, so don’t dwell on how it came to you. You are an integral part of what we are doing here, and what the Centralian Intelligence Agency plans to do in the future. Just don’t get cocky.”

“You sure have a way of building me up only to drag me back down,” Roman finally said.

“You know that wasn’t my intention. I just want…” She smiled at Roman. “I just want to be honest with you. I want things to…”

Roman gulped. “Go back to the way they were?”

“No, that’s not possible,” Ava said, but he could tell by the way her voice wavered that she herself didn’t believe that. “I just want things to work out. That’s all.”

“Look who shows up drunk,” Miranda said, flashing a smile at Ava and Roman.

“We’re not drunk,” Ava told her as soon as the teleporter was gone.

The telepath with blue hair sat on the couch, her knees curled up to her chest. Jess was near her. Celia was busy in the kitchen, the doll calling out to Roman as soon as they arrived. Coma was in the apartment as well, in Roman’s bedroom, deactivated for the time being.

Figuring it would be funny, Roman ran his hand over his jacket pocket to make Casper come alive.

The tiny doll peeked out of his pocket, sharpening her gaze on Roman’s associates.

“You have to be kidding me,” Jess said with a crooked smile.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me,” Casper told her.

The tiny doll climbed out of Roman’s pocket and scaled down the front of his jacket. She held on to the ends of his jacket for a moment, her leg swinging before she dropped to the ground.

She ran to the couch, climbed her way up, and then stood on the armrest with her hands on her hips, breathing heavily. “Just kidding,” she said as she took her seat, crossing one leg over the other and staring at the telepath.

“Did you have to activate her?” Miranda groaned.

“Does she make you that uncomfortable?” Roman came around and sat on the chair across from Miranda, ignoring the way Ava brushed her hand against his sleeve.

“All of your dolls make me uncomfortable, but Celia is starting to grow on me.”

“Why?” Roman asked. “Because you aren’t in control?”

Miranda shrugged away his statement. “That about sums it up. But hey, there are more important things to discuss. Did you guys bring us a bottle of wine?”

“No,” Ava said, returning from the kitchen, “but there’s one right here. Chilled, too.”

“Should we really be getting drunk tonight?” Jess asked, and Casper laughed at the question.

“Come on—of all people, you should be the one that wants to let your hair down a little bit.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Casper shrugged. “Well, you’re clearly the youngest of the group, and by the looks of it…”

“That’s enough, Casper,” Roman told the tiny doll as Ava returned with wine glasses.

“I didn’t say anything. Yet.” Casper shot Roman a pouty face. She kicked her heels against the armrest, much to Miranda’s chagrin.

“Roman…” Ava started to say.

“Last chance,” he told Casper.

“Great, now your teacher hates me too.”

“I don’t hate you,” Ava said as she poured a glass of wine and handed it to Miranda. The telepath took it readily; Jess, not so much. After handing a glass to Roman, Ava finally poured one for herself.

“I don’t get a wine glass?” Casper asked. “Can’t you conjure a tiny cute one for me?”

“I hope this is okay,” Celia said as she came from the kitchen with a plate of cheese arranged in the shape of a heart and lined with pretzels.

“You made it that fast?” Jess asked.

“No,” Celia told her, “I made it earlier, for whenever Roman came back home. I figured it would be appreciated, just in case all of you decided to spend some time together. I’m also the one that chilled the bottles of wine.”

“Thank you, Celia,” Ava told her.

“No problem,” Celia said as she turned back to the kitchen.

“My God.” Casper brought her hand up to the side of her face. “Talk about a brainwashed housewife, am I right, ladies?”

“She’s more useful than you are,” Miranda said.

“I’m useful. I’ve done things before that helped Roman. Like the time in the Eastern Province…”

“Go on,” Miranda said, turning to Casper and smiling.

“That’s enough.” Roman was just about to take the tiny doll’s power away when Ava told him to let her finish.

“I wasn’t saying anything,” Casper said with a smile. She clearly liked to be the center of attention, all four of them now watching her.

Miranda focused on Casper as if she could read her mind. “You were saying something about the Eastern Province.”

“Which Province? We’re in the Eastern Province right now, right?” Casper asked innocently.

“I thought you were the smartest of the three dolls.”

“I am,” Casper told Miranda. “That should be abundantly clear by now. One of them is a glorified housewife and the other is a coldhearted killer, which is a good thing to have in a fight, so I’m not knocking her by saying this. Me? I’m the one with the personality.”

“That’s enough,” Roman told her again.

“No, it’s not,” said Ava, the fire user now sitting on the edge of the coffee table, focused on Casper. “Tell us about what happened in the East. Roman can only remember so much.”

“Casper, I could use your help in the kitchen,” Celia said, startling Roman.

The redheaded doll was standing to his left. She had approached him without making any sound.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Casper told Roman. “It’s not like it should be that big of a secret. We went to the East to find a healer named Eli. And you traded…”

“Casper!” The doll fell forward into Miranda’s lap, lifeless.

For a moment, Miranda just sat there with Casper on her thigh, her hands in the air as she judged what to do about the doll. Eventually, she picked Casper up with three fingers and set her on the armrest, where Casper fell again.

“Roman, please let Casper finish what she was telling us,” Ava said firmly. “I don’t want you to intervene this time; we need to know what happened.”

Roman looked at Ava. “Even I don’t know what happened. And honestly, I don’t want to know.”

“We need to know what happened,” Ava said. “Please reactivate Casper.”

“I…”

“Roman.”

He finally nodded his head, instantly regretting what he was about to do.

Casper came to life in Miranda’s lap. She looked up at the woman and smirked. “Your tits look way perkier from down here,” she told the telepath. “You might say this is your best angle.”

Rather than flick her away, Miranda merely smiled. “Thank you, Casper,” she said as she offered the doll her hand.

Casper hopped into her palm, Miranda returning her to the armrest.

“Where was I?”

“You were talking about your trip to the Eastern Province,” Miranda told her.

Roman gritted his teeth as he looked from Jess to Miranda to Ava.

This was happening.

Roman was about to find out what he’d done that was so important he’d needed to actually have his memories erased, and he definitely wasn’t feeling good about it.

“Yes, we went there looking for a healer named Eli. Whom we found and brought back here.” Casper looked around. “Well, not here, but to Centralia.”

Roman knew that part; he was aware of who Eli was and had recently forged documents for the boy. This part had never come up in any of the interrogations, which was why he’d never said anything about it.

He nodded, figuring that was the main point of their trip.

But then Casper continued speaking.

“We also went there because of a woman named Lisa. She can separate her soul from her body, or something like that, and for some reason, she was in a ghost form when I first met her.”

“A ghost form?” Jess asked.

“Soul Speed,” Ava said. “I’ve encountered ones with this power before.”

Casper nodded. “Yes, so we were going to the East to look for this healer, and to have some of their techs put the ghost woman back together or something.”

“You had her real body as well?” Miranda asked.

“Yes, it was creepy. Once we arrived in some city, we went off searching for the healer boy, whom we found in a destroyed village. Eli can heal, but he holds all the damage he takes in and has no way to control when he releases it. It’s pretty fucked up when Eli does his thing. On our way back to the city, Nadine, the spy Roman wants to bone, went ahead of us and was taken by Eastern Province soldiers. This left us in the woods with Eli.”

“Bone?” Roman asked.

“Us?” Miranda asked.

“Roman, me and the other dolls.” Casper turned at Roman and smiled.

All he could do was shake his head, not able to exhibit on his face the disappointment he was feeling for being ratted out. It only made matters worse that he was also learning through Casper’s confession what had happened. Roman had a feeling there was much more to the story.

“Anyway, Roman decided to rescue Nadine and Lisa. The soldiers had Lisa as well, I think. I don’t know if I mentioned that part, but it should be clear. Roman fought a ton of soldiers, and eventually came to the Eastern Province military base. An exchange was made.”

“An exchange?” Ava asked, the color draining from her face.

Casper nodded. “Nadine, Lisa, and Eli were to be set free, but in exchange, the Eastern Province wanted to do some experiments on Roman regarding his power. They also wanted to do something with Eli’s power. Lisa got her body back, and all of us came back to Centralia on a train together. End of story.”

“You gave away your power to the Eastern Province?” Ava asked Roman.

“I…” He swallowed hard.

“He had to,” Casper said.

“You had to?” Miranda asked.

Roman felt the tendrils of a telepath creeping at the back of his mind. “Cut that shit out!”

“What do you mean he had to?”

“Get off your high horse, telepath!” Casper said haughtily. “You weren’t there. And would you have just let the people you care for die?”

“You weren’t there…” Roman repeated, but he found it hard to argue for his cause.

All the information he had now of what had happened in the East had come from Casper. Worse, it was secondhand. Hearing these things only brought back a few fleeting images to him. Even though Roman knew she was likely telling the truth, he still wasn’t able to verify after having his memory wiped.

“Clearly,” Miranda told him.

“Dammit, Roman,” Ava said, her eyes lighting up. “Don’t you realize what could happen if the East is able to reverse engineer your power?”

“I…”

“They would be able to create an army of people who can animate inanimate objects. Just imagine that for a moment. Imagine someone with a wrist guard, or some type of jewelry, that allows them to use your power. Imagine a hundred people with this power. Your actions have consequences. Do you even think of anyone but yourself? Fuck!”

Ava poured another glass of wine, shaking her head with disdain. She threw it back, growing even more irritable.

“How would you like us to report this to Rafner?” Miranda asked.

“I don’t want either of you to report it,” Ava said, the ends of her hair starting to turn to flames. “I will be the one that tells him, and it will be after the successful completion of this mission. Roman, what you have done is essentially a federal crime, and…”

“Relax, everyone. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” Casper said, panic in her voice. “None of you were there. None of you saw the East, or heard Nadine speak about how they would treat Eli if they took him into their custody. And rather than get angry at Roman, has anyone thought about just how miraculous it was that he single-handedly took on an entire military base? I mean, how many of you could take on an entire military base? Not you, lady-who-turns-into-a-trashcan.”

Jess cut an icy glare over to Casper.

“That part doesn’t matter,” Ava said, clearly trying to control her tone. “It’s treason.”

“What part about it is treason?” Casper asked.

“How about the part where you allowed a hostile country to have access to one of the most powerful abilities an exemplar can have? How about that part? Or what about hiding a healer, which definitely goes against our national interest? How about that part? Do you even know where he is now?”

“No idea,” Roman said.

“Centralians were there in the East as well,” Casper chimed in. “They were looking for the healer too.”

“And did you come across any of them?”

“Not that I recall,” Casper told Ava. “But my point remains. Everyone was looking for this healer. He’s just a boy. A little stupid and definitely from the countryside, if you get my drift, but he’s sweet. There’s no reason he should be a rat in someone’s lab for the rest of his life. And as for Nadine, I think someone may have had a bit of a crush on her and wanted to save her. But I can’t confirm that last bit.”

“Fuckin’ hell, Casper,” Roman grumbled.

“Every time,” Ava said, shaking her head at Roman. “Every time I try to give you another chance…”

“I didn’t…” Rowan felt Celia lightly place her hand on his shoulder, the doll trying to calm him. “I didn’t realize at the time what I was doing, and I have since had my memory wiped, not that that’s any excuse.”

“It isn’t,” Miranda said.

Roman was going to tell her to fuck off but ultimately decided against that, realizing it would only exacerbate an already terrible situation.

That, and he was still pissed at Casper.

“I’m going to bed,” Ava announced after downing the rest of her wine. “We can deal with this in the morning. Jess, Miranda, I will be the one that files a report with Rafner, and it will be up to him to send this up the chain of command. Understand?”

Both women nodded.

“Good. Roman…”

“Yes?” he asked, looking at his former teacher.

She turned to her bedroom, mumbling something under her breath as she walked away.

Casper fell, dead to the world.

Roman had the notion of melting her into a little ball of plastic and throwing her out the window, but he ultimately decided against it, keenly aware that it was part of him who had done this, that all of his dolls had borrowed pieces of his personality.

But whatever part Casper had borrowed…

After the tiny doll was in his pocket, Roman also turned to his bedroom, his fists clenched at his sides.

Things were only going to get worse from here.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Plummet

Orange stood on his balcony overlooking the cityscape of Centralia. There weren’t many buildings taller than his penthouse, and being so close to the top floor really was about the only good thing his government had ever done for him.

And he still didn’t know why.

Orange had simply put in the request for the location, and they had opted for this. If he had made a similar request ten years ago, they would have laughed in his face.

But times had changed, the end of the Western Plague nearly tripling the size of their economy. Sure, the border was still war-ravaged, but the rest of the country, especially some of the elite cities on the coast, had really profited over the last decade.

Money flowed into the government and they wasted it.

As he stared down at the streets below, streets he could barely see from his high-rise apartment, Orange couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread.

His time was coming.

He had always known this—everyone’s time was always coming—but he’d had a dream the previous night, one that foretold a coming death, and Orange knew there would be little he could do to stop it.

He took a sip from his glass of wine, noticing something twinkly on the horizon. Probably an exemplar, or perhaps they were working on a new building toward the west. Centralia was always erecting new buildings, the skyline filled with cranes as the space on the ground became increasingly limited.

Orange wished he could see Centralia in a hundred years from now, two hundred even. He imagined it would only move higher, press closer to the heavens, new districts cut out of the sky.

It would be a glorious thing, indeed.

“Enjoying the view?”

Orange didn’t recognize the voice, yet he knew exactly who had spoken to him. Rather than turn, he merely took another sip of his wine, finishing the glass.

“Margo,” he said with his back to the woman.

“I didn’t kill your guards this time,” she said.

“Then what did you do with them?”

“My counterpart is entertaining them for the time being.”

“Counterpart?” Orange asked, finally turning to see a young woman with white hair standing before him. She was petite, wearing a ruffled dress and a red leather jacket that matched the red streak in her hair.

“You didn’t,” Orange started to say.

“How did you know it was a real body?” she asked, taking a step closer to him.

Margo pressed her lips together and looked down at her body for a moment, satisfied with her work.

“A hunch. Margo, what are you doing?”

“You haven’t been very forthcoming with information, and you have yet to supply me with any power amplifiers, which has left me to handle things myself. I started with a trip to the Lottery Council, which I didn’t think was going to be helpful in the end, not until the woman I was interrogating finally gave me the location of Roman’s home. You would have been surprised at how tough she was, and I don’t even know if she actually told me the information at that point or if she passed it on to me subconsciously.”

“Whose body is that?” Orange asked carefully.

“This body? It was the body of an exemplar whore that Roman was fucking. Her name was Catherine. From what I could tell, she was a desperate, horny cunt, but a good lay in the end. Why? Are you interested in borrowing it? I could let that happen.”

Orange shook his head as he heard the howl of a southerly wind tear through the corridor created by the buildings all around him. “Margo, why are you here?”

“Is that an existential question?”

Orange smirked at her.

Of all the people in the world, he was perhaps the closest to Margo, or at least he once had been. While she was generally pretty quiet, Margo always had a strange sense of humor that revealed itself from time to time.

And looking at her in the corpse of some young exemplar made Orange wonder if this was all part of some elaborate joke, if Margo had just wanted to see how far she could take it.

But he knew that wasn’t the case. Orange knew once he noticed her power take partial control of his heart.

“I’ve given you a month,” Margo said, her voice softening. “And you haven’t given me anything.”

“These things take time.”

“Where is Roman?”

“If I knew, I would tell you,” Orange said, glad she wasn’t a telepath.

“You’re lying to me.”

Orange felt a twitch inside his arms as his muscles started to spasm.

“This is how you want to do it? After all we’ve been through…”

“You should know by now that this particular line of reasoning will not work against me,” she said. His knees buckled and snapped, the bones pressing out of his skin.

Orange dropped his glass, holding himself up by the balcony’s railing using his armpit. He winced at the excruciating pain, but his gaze did not falter.

The former member of the Protectorate stared hard into what was left of Margo’s soul, Orange so focused on her that the pain of his split legs became almost secondary.

“Margo, I have known you since we were children…”

“I don’t care,” she said.

“There are other things I need to tell you…”

“Are these your final last words?”

Orange nodded.

He bit his lip, the pain starting to push through, Orange swallowing it down as he continued to focus on Margo.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything with her lungs because she had possessed a corpse. He also was aware that what he was about to tell her may not mean anything to her anyway.

Still, it was important that she knew.

“Roman is your half-brother,” he managed to say.

“What?” Margo asked, taking a step back as a strange sensation moved through Orange.

The petite zombie looked at her feet, as if the answer was somewhere below her.

“Malus…”

Orange felt an intensity in his chest.

“Don’t do it,” he pleaded with her, “not yet.”

“How did you know?”

“About which part?”

“Malus was my dad…” Margo said, trying to choke back a sob. “How did you know?”

“I found out when I discovered this information about Roman. How did you find out?”

“Cedric told me.”

Orange nodded.

Cedric would have been perhaps the world’s strongest telepath, if the world actually knew of his existence.

He had grown up with them, but he had been trouble from the start, and it was Cedric’s power in particular that had led to the spread of vampirism in the city of Ravja. Cedric had become the leader of the vampires, only to be killed later by Destry and Amethyst, two exemplars Margo and Orange had also grown up with.

“There is a briefcase in my closet,” Orange told her. “It has all the documentation. You’re ten years older than Roman, but you share the same father. Different mothers, obviously.”

“It doesn’t change anything…”

“Why not? What is the point in all this, Margo? What is your end goal? You have already died, and I’m not talking about a month ago—you were dead twenty years ago. Is your new goal to be immortal and wreak havoc on the civilizations of this world for the rest of eternity?”

“I…”

He swallowed hard, the pain now spreading up to his thighs, to his pelvis. Still, Orange held himself up, knowing this would be the only way. “Really, Margo, between you and me, what is your end goal?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” she said, and as Orange felt his heart constrict, he used what was left of his upper body strength to pull himself over the railing.

He knew Margo wouldn’t be fast enough with her power to actually stop him from falling, that this final act would prevent her from exploiting his body and his powers.

No one would be able to see the look on Orange’s face as he plummeted to the pavement below, but if they had, if there had perhaps been an observer, they would have seen a smile.

A cracked smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Snap

Kevin Blackbook had never felt more in control than he did the morning of his company party.

Gone was the bumbling slob of a man who’d never stood up for himself, whose wife had been cheating on him with an exemplar.

Now he was more or less a god, men and women bending over backward for him.

At least that was how he felt after fluttering his eyes open.

Kevin rolled out of bed and patted Obsidian on the ass.

The cat girl yawned and tucked her head between two pillows. Turquoise was next to her, their backs pressed together, the quieter cat girl also sleeping.

Figuring he would check on Sandy the telepath, Kevin put a robe on and stepped out of the room, coming into his office to find her asleep on the couch.

He approached the redhead with the front of his robe parted, his erection starting to solidify.

Kevin grunted, Sandy quickly waking up.

She saw him standing there with his robe parted and started to move away.

But then she stopped, Kevin merely taking a step closer to her.

“What do you want from me?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Kevin lied. “You’re a telepath—what do you think I want?”

“Obsidian won’t be happy.”

“That doesn’t concern me, and it shouldn’t concern you.”

Sandy placed a hand on his proof of manhood and slowly started to jerk him off.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked. “It seems like she cared the last time you tried something with the help…”

“You’re stronger than she is mentally, are you not?” Kevin asked, trying not to make a satisfied groan as she began moving her hand faster.

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Is this really where you want to do this?” Sandy asked, looking around at his office. A bit of sun was coming in through the darkened blinds, dust visible in the air. The couch and the carpet had been replaced, the wall painted over, the scent still lingering.

Kevin smiled. “It’s as good a place as any.”

“And how do you know I want to do this?”

“Your hand is on my cock,” he told her softly.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” she said.

“You’re the one that started it, not me. I was merely coming in here to…”

“Get something to drink?” She nodded at the opposite door. “The kitchen is that way.”

“To look at you,” Kevin admitted as her hand slowed to a rhythmic pace.

He felt the telepathic creep at the back of his mind, and he was just about to say something about it when he looked down at Sandy and noticed she was grinning at him.

“You really want it?”

Kevin nodded, and as he did so, Sandy twisted her hand to the right. A snapping sound met Kevin’s ears.

He was on the floor in a matter of seconds, silently screaming, his knees tucked together, Sandy able to fully assault his mind.

Images of his dead brother came to him, Kevin overwhelmed with anguish. The floor started to stretch away from him as he clawing at the wood, watching in horror as everything went vertical.

Then his environment flickered back to normal, Sandy seated on the couch glaring down at him, and Kevin was finally able to activate his Zero Ring.

He pulled himself to his feet, wincing at the pain in his groin as he covered himself with his robes.

“You fucking…!” Kevin came forward and backhanded Sandy, the woman letting out a yelp as she dropped to the other side of the couch.

He raised his hand again and stopped, looking from his hand to the telepath, finally able to get control over his breath. “Why the hell would you do something like that?” he whisper-screamed.

“I’m not your little fuck toy,” Sandy said, her eyes filling with anger as they locked on to Kevin. She placed her hand on the side of her cheek, where Kevin had slapped her. It was cherry-red now. “I’m not like that.”

“Fine, but…”

“But what?”

“You were the one that…”

“Are you really blaming me for this?”

“You could have…” Kevin shook his head, not able to really come up with a good argument for what she could have done.

All he knew was that he was both embarrassed and furious.

“I am in control here,” he stammered.

“Then be in control, Kevin. But that’s not how things are going to work out, not when I’m in my right mind.”

Kevin realized at that moment that she hadn’t taken any of the toxin this morning, that Sandy was much less docile than she normally was. She continued, “I might work for you, but I don’t want to work for you in that way. Not like this.”

“You don’t…” Kevin found himself shaking his head.

For a second, he thought it was some telepathic trickery, but then he realized that no, these really were his thoughts. Kevin had pushed the envelope too far, to the point where he had forced himself onto someone he held power over.

“Goddammit,” he said as he started to turn away from her, deactivating his ring.

“You know, you can still be a criminal mastermind, or whatever the hell it is you’re trying to become, and not be a low-level thug. Why don’t you take some of those organizational skills you learned in working a desk job, some of that humbleness, and apply it here?” she suggested. “You’ve already turned a profit at the pleasure house, and now you’ve taken over a security company. Of course, there will be paperwork we have to forge, but…”

Kevin looked at her. “No, you’re right. You’re right.”

Sandy slowly moved to the side, giving Kevin a place to sit. “Please,” she said, patting the cushion.

He hesitated, then decided to go along with it, to hear her out.

As he sat, Kevin reminded himself to pay close attention to whether she was trying to do something to his head or not, to always be on guard around the telepath.

“We could do this together,” she said suddenly, her eyes lighting up. “With Obsidian and Turquoise as our enforcers, we could do…”

“There is no we in this equation,” Kevin told her firmly, “but, if you continue working for me and you keep doing well, maybe there is a point where you could become my second-in-command. Not when it comes to enforcing. That isn’t a role for you. But perhaps the business…”

Sandy nodded. “I am well aware of the stuff the girls release, this toxin, and what it does to me, but I am levelheaded right now and…”

“Yes, the toxin is strong,” Kevin said. “I get it right from the source.”

“We should both be careful with it,” she said softly.

Kevin looked down at the front of his robes and saw that he had an erection again. He stared at it with disdain for a moment, Sandy’s eyes also falling onto it.

“It’s enormous,” she finally said, a smirk coming across her face.

“Which only made it hurt more when you snapped it.”

Sandy shrugged.

“I don’t know what to say about any of this,” he finally told her.

“You feel deflated?”

“This really has gone to a place I would have never predicted. You see that, right?” he asked, looking at her. “In my head. You must have seen it.”

She nodded. “If ever there was a victim of circumstance, one who came out on top, it is you. You are in a new country now, and you are creating a new identity. Just like…”

“You?”

“How did you know?”

“I had a hunch. It was only a few days ago that you were incredibly meek—now look at you,” Kevin said, placing a hand on her thigh. “Sorry,” he said as he took the hand away.

“No, maybe you’re right. Maybe I also need to reinterpret how I take on this role, especially with the power you may soon have,” she said, the redness of her cheek starting to fade away. “Now I’m regretting what I did…”

“No, you were right to do that,” Kevin told her. “I mean… You know what? Never mind.”

He felt the reach of the telepath come over his mind for a moment.

Sandy laughed. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, before you snapped it, that would have been nice.”

“Can’t you go to the restroom and do that yourself?”

“Actually, I kind of need to go to the restroom now. I think that’s why this is happening,” he said, nodding at his erection. “The damn thing.”

“Let’s continue working on this,” Sandy finally said, “whatever this is. Let’s see where it goes, privately. In public or around the employees, be whoever you want. Just…”

“I won’t do anything to you in front of someone else. That’s not right of me.”

She licked her lips. “Yes, but the threat of being able to do something should inspire, or at least instill fear in, the people under you. So, maybe work on that. Maybe work on making that threat visceral. I’ll help you.” Sandy glanced around the room. “I feel like you and this environment have somehow unlocked a hidden part of my power. I would like to explore this part of me, to see how far it will go.”

“I know the feeling. And as long as you don’t try to control me, I’m fine with it,” Kevin told her. “Because at that point, I would have to act.”

“I don’t want to be in control like that.”

“A puppet master behind the scenes?”

“If you’ll have me.” Sandy placed her hand on Kevin’s thigh. She scooted her fingers just a few inches closer to his erection and pinched the tip. “And maybe one day, I’ll have you.”

Nadine got off at the trolley stop near North Lake.

From there she transferred to a smaller line, one that ran directly to the limited amount of countryside Centralia had in the north, an area mostly dedicated to vineyards.

As she sat on the train, she thought about what her new handler, Lydia, had hinted at. Lydia knew Nadine had placed the explosives, even if she couldn’t prove it, and was now dangling it over her head.

It was weird to be taking orders from someone younger than her. It made Nadine feel like she had made a mistake somewhere, which she clearly had, and that she was being punished for it, which she clearly was.

The trolley came to a stop and she got off last. She waited at the station until a new trolley came, the 2B Line. She got on this one, watching to see if anyone followed her. Aside from an older man in a scarf that sort of reminded her of Oscar and a thin woman with jet-black hair, the trolley was empty.

She changed trolleys at the next station, returning to the station she had just been at, where she immediately headed to the bathroom on the second floor, one that had less traffic.

Nadine got on the toilet seat and removed an air vent, where she found a small brown backpack. She took off her dress, replacing it with a pair of slacks and a long-sleeved flannel shirt. Once she’d let her hair down, she removed her high heels, slipping into a pair of flats with thick soles. After everything was in the backpack again, she dusted it off for the second time and then put it on.

Nadine made her way to the exit, constantly maintaining awareness of her surroundings. She passed near the ticket booth, sensing something behind her.

When she turned to look, she didn’t see much aside from a young man heading to the trolley with a bag of fruit slung over his shoulder.

Nadine nodded and continued.

The exit she took cut through an old orchard that had been preserved by the Centralian government.

It was a beautiful walk, the trees hanging over the path, a crispness to the air that made Nadine feel like she was back home. She continued along this path for some time, heading up a hill, and then down a narrow lane that featured a small residential area to the left, the start of a vineyard to the right.

It was very strange seeing Centralia this way, and both its accessibility and remoteness were reasons Nadine had selected this place. Even now, with her vantage point on the hill, she could see the endless skyline of the city; it was almost as if she could reach out and touch it, the buildings glistening in the light of the setting sun.

It was unfortunate she couldn’t live here—only those who worked at vineyards were allowed to purchase or rent homes in the nearby residential area. With North Lake not too far away, this area would be a perfect retirement village or perhaps an artist’s retreat, a place where those seeking a little peace and tranquility would be able to flourish.

Yet through federal regulations and the country’s great dependence on alcohol to make it through the evenings, the area was pretty much untouched.

As she walked, Nadine looked for a fence post with a heart carved into it.

Eventually, she found it, then glanced around yet again to make sure no one was following her as she slipped under the fence. She started down the hill, extra careful now as she came to a well.

A noise startled her.

Nadine turned to her left to see a rabbit running through some of the leaves, and she would have thought nothing of this had she not also watched a fox come out of its borough, snag the rabbit by its throat, and bring it down.

For a moment, Nadine thought about shooing the fox away, but then she became fascinated with the way it quickly shook its prey to death, dragging it off into a patch of tall grass.

Nadine sensed someone was there again and took a look around.

Nothing.

She knew she was alone, that she was being paranoid, so after adjusting her backpack, she continued onward, down another slope until she came to the back of a vineyard.

There were several barns at the back, debris scattered about, proof the family who ran this farm were a bunch of hoarders.

Nadine stepped around a wheelbarrow and over a rake, eventually coming to the back door of the last barn. She slid the door open and stepped inside, instantly covering her face when she noticed the stench in the air.

There was a dead animal in the barn somewhere, and she wasn’t planning to stick around long enough to locate it.

Nadine moved to the far end of the space, past an overturned pail, a stool, and a stack of hay that had never made it out of the barn for some reason.

She took her backpack off and carefully removed a thick cotton tarp with mold on one end. Once she had done that, Nadine examined the floorboards and found the groove she had cut into on about a year ago.

The floorboard came up; Nadine reached inside for a leather bag.

She pulled it out and zipped it open to find stacks of cash that had been wrapped and sealed, as well as forged papers and an additional pair of passports. Her contingency plan. Nadine was just about to place the floorboard back down when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Movement.

An invisible force tackled her.

Nadine instinctively rolled over and kicked the force off.

She triggered her Zero Ring, gasping when she saw a man wearing all black, a mask over his face, the same black that…

The man pointed a wrist guard at her. Nadine jumped out of the way, his blast cutting into the wood.

By chance, the man tripped on a shovel and fell backward, Nadine immediately going for him.

He punched her in the shoulder as she slammed his wrist guard into the ground, breaking it, now able to focus fully on her assailant.

The man easily had forty or fifty kilograms on her, able to overpower Nadine almost instantly.

He pulled her to the ground and straddled her, slamming the back of her head against the wooden floor.

Everything flashed black for a moment.

Nadine kicked her knee up, not quite landing it in the man’s groin, but grazing it.

She punched him once in the face, then came in for another punch only for the man to slam her down again, bringing both hands around her throat.

Glaring at the masked man, Nadine clapped him on the side of the head and caught his ear.

Her masked assailant let up just enough for her to get out from under him, her first reaction being to go for a weapon.

Nadine grabbed the board she had pulled up from the ground and smashed it over his back.

She stumbled away, and as she did the man got to his feet and took a running charge at her. He caught Nadine and slammed her into one of the barn’s support beams.

His strike knocked the wind out of her, and as she tried to push him away, the man sank a fist in her side. Pain shot through Nadine’s body.

“You… motherfucker…” she whispered through gritted teeth, the taste of blood at the back of her mouth.

The masked man tried to punch her in the side again. Nadine just barely managed to squeeze out of his way, the man’s fist connecting with the support beam.

He stumbled away holding his hand, a distraught look on his face as Nadine tried to catch her breath. She knew she needed to stay within his radius to nullify his invisibility power, so she crawled toward him, dragging her body across the ground, keeping him in her sight.

The man shook his hand out and turned to Nadine, and her next reaction was completely natural.

She started to scoot backward, to press herself back to her feet in preparation for the man’s next attack.

He came toward her and she started kicking at him, the man swiping her feet away.

When he got tired of trying to grab on to her feet, the man brought his own foot back and kicked the hell out of her thigh. Nadine swiveled around and latched on to his legs, elbowing him in the back of the knee.

He fell forward and she moved to his back, her arm going around his neck.

Nadine sank a fist into the side of his head. The man reared back and flipped Nadine over him, her calf cracking against the stool. He tried to drop an elbow onto her face; she moved away just in time, scrambling to her knees.

Nadine looked up at him, her hair now stained with blood.

For a moment, the two just stared at each other, both trying to catch their breath.

As she glared at him, Nadine convinced herself that she would win this fight, that she would crawl out of this goddamn barn no matter what it took. She would get the money she’d saved over the last several years to Eli and Lisa, and then she would find a hospital, one of the no-questions-asked places.

The scar on the side of her body radiated with warmth, a reminder of what she had already survived. A man who could turn himself invisible was nothing like the one who could turn his arms into sharp blades, who had nearly killed her.

And on top of all that, this guy wasn’t even a very good assassin.

Encouraged by her own inner monologue, Nadine pulled herself to her feet and brought her fists to the ready.

The man stood as well. He yanked his mask up and revealed the bottom part of his face, his teeth covered in blood. He spat some of the blood onto the hay and brought his fists up as well.

The two slowly approached each other, and as they did Nadine kicked the overturned pail at the man, taking him off guard. She charged forward, jumping into the air and delivering a fist straight into his face that felt like it cracked her knuckles.

The man hit the ground, kicking up dust.

Nadine landed next to him on her knees, her next response being to grab the pail and start smashing it against his face, screaming as she did so, each strike taking more energy out of her as she poured all the strength she’d ever possessed into finishing the man.

Eventually, his body went limp.

Nadine wasn’t done yet.

She stumbled back to her feet and found the shovel he had tripped on earlier. A dark look on her face, she walked toward the man and placed the spade just above his throat.

With a quick breath out, Nadine lifted her heel and stomped down, the shovel cutting into his throat but not breaking through his neck. She stomped on it again and again.

A gasp emitted from the man’s open neck wound, his fingers twitching as his hand finally fell to the side.

Nadine scooted away from him, her back now against the support beam he had slammed her into just moments ago.

She stared at him, the shovel still near her, Nadine ready in case he somehow awoke from that last blow.

Once she was sure he was dead and she had caught her breath, she went back over to him and searched his person.

There were no identifying markers on him, nor did he have any sort of ID or dog tags.

But Nadine knew what he was.

The man was a Centralian assassin, and the only agency that was legally able to put out a hit was the Centralian Intelligence Agency.

Apparently, Nadine had made a new enemy, one that would be able to trace her every step.

She turned away from the body and found her backpack. She then went for the leather bag filled with money. It wasn’t safe to go back to the trolley station now, especially not in her battered and bruised condition.

She needed to call a private teleporter.

But Nadine knew better than to do it here in the barn.

After making sure no one was outside, and still carrying the shovel just in case someone ambushed her, Nadine limped out of the barn and back up the hill toward the orchard, momentarily forgetting the terrible experience as she made her escape.

Chapter Twenty-Four: MindLenz

“We can stay here longer if you’d like,” Coma told Roman.

His combat doll was straddling him, topless, looking down at Roman with her mask still covering her face. Celia was lifeless next to him and Casper was on the dresser, her legs splayed out, her head at an uncomfortable crook.

“It’s not going to be a great day,” Roman told Coma, his hands on her hips as he looked up at her.

“Let’s just stay in.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, “but today is the day—well, tonight is the night.”

Roman felt Coma grind against the front of his boxers. “And you’re sure I can’t cut her in half?”

Roman shook his head. “I’m mad at her too, believe me.”

“If she hadn’t opened her big mouth, you wouldn’t be in this situation. There really is no point in keeping her around.”

“I should have deactivated her long ago,” he finally admitted.

“You should have activated me, and I would’ve taken care of her right then and there,” Coma said with disdain. “This is ridiculous, you know?”

“I know. And I was a little drunk, which is no excuse. Like I said earlier, I tried to deactivate her—I did deactivate her—but Ava told me to give her life again. I think the wine here is stronger than in Centralia, not that it’s an excuse,” Roman said almost as an afterthought.

Coma shrugged, and her breasts bounced as she did.

Roman lifted his hands and cupped them for a moment, running his fingers along her skin. He noticed a slight difference in her weight now that she had a partially metal skeleton.

It almost didn’t match her fragile body.

“You could be in serious trouble.”

“It was bound to come out at some point,” Roman muttered. “It was only a matter of when.”

A message came in from Nadine, and as Coma slowly gyrated her hips, Roman let it play out in the back of his head.

Roman, I hope you are well. I was attacked last night, but I’m okay. Please meet with me as soon as you can.

Are you sure you’re all right? he thought back to her immediately.

I’m fine. I just need a day or two to rest.

And the others, Eli and Lisa?

They’ll be okay. I have one more thing I’d like to give them, and then they’ll disappear.

Roman bit his lip.

“What is it?”

“Nadine was attacked.”

“By who?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Did you ask?”

Who attacked you? Roman thought to Nadine.

It doesn’t matter. Please get in touch with me as soon as you can meet.

“She won’t tell me.”

“Typical spy,” Coma said with a shrug.

His combat doll started to lower herself, arching her back until their faces were just a few inches apart. He reached his hand out to take her mask off, and she let him. Roman set it on the nightstand. He brought his hand behind her skull and grabbed a bit of her black hair.

Coma bared her teeth, her nostrils flaring as her red eyes drank Roman in.

“This is interesting,” he told her.

“It seems as if you’ve had a change of heart about me over the last month,” she said as Roman felt the urge to kiss her.

A knock at the door startled him.

Coma sat up, covering her breasts with her arm as her other hand slowly morphed into a blade.

“Let’s not kill them,” Roman said with a chuckle.

“But if you asked me to, you know I would do it, right?” she whispered to him. “The telepath wouldn’t know, and there is nothing they would be able to do to stop me. I would be swift about it.”

“Let’s not speak about things like that,” he finally said as the person knocked again. “Give me a minute,” he called out.

Roman was just about to help Coma off him when he brought her in, kissing her passionately. Coma tensed at first, then relaxed into it.

“Later,” he told her as she let him up.

Roman quickly got dressed in the clothing they had provided him as Coma slipped into her Loli dress. He woke Celia as well, who yawned as life came into her. “What did I miss?”

“Someone wants to talk to me,” Roman informed her.

“I hope you aren’t in trouble.”

Roman smirked. “I most definitely am.”

“I’ll see what they want for breakfast,” Celia said as she started to put her clothes on. “Maybe if I make them a nice breakfast, they’ll go easy on you.”

“I really wish it was that easy,” he told her as he started to open the bedroom door. He felt Coma’s hand squeeze his arm. He turned to her, the doll now in her mask again.

“Call for me if they try anything,” she said quietly enough that Celia could not hear her.

Roman nodded. As he stepped into the hallway, he turned left to see Ava leaning against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest.

“My room, now,” she said.

Roman followed her down the hall to the room at the very end.

He stepped inside, noticing immediately that her space was about twice the size of his room. There was a relatively large workstation, a couch against the wall, and her own personal kitchenette.

Ava waited for him to shut the door, and once he did, a fire started to crackle up her arms.

“What are you doing?” he asked her, not yet ready to take control of her internal organs.

There was no way she was about to attack him, but even though he knew this, Roman couldn’t help but focus, knowing that she would hit him first but it wouldn’t end well for either of them.

The fire crackling off her hands subsided, Ava’s features now visible in the window’s reflection. Her eyes were molten, his former teacher breathing heavily, barely able to contain herself.

“You have humiliated me again,” she said, each word sharp, dagger-like.

“That wasn’t my intention…”

“Goddammit, Roman, every time—every fucking time I try to do something for you or I get closer to you, I end up getting burned in the end!”

Her hair flared up and settled again as if to make a point, Ava not yet able to turn to Roman and look him in the face.

“I had to help her,” Roman said. “She asked for my help, and I had to help her.”

“The Eastern Province spy?”

“Yes. She helped me before, and she helped me again, back at…”

“The fight against Margo,” Ava said, her voice still on edge, the fire user enunciating each word carefully.

“I wasn’t trying to…”

“You weren’t trying to what?” she asked, turning to him, her eyes igniting.

“I wasn’t trying to betray you or do anything that would put you in a situation. You have to understand that. I wouldn’t do anything to harm you, or humiliate you, or…”

“But you have, Roman. It’s like you don’t even understand the meaning of treason or the complications that could arise from a foreign government having access to your power, especially a foreign government that specializes in reverse engineering superpowers. You were an asset to us, your ability was given to you…”

“My power was random.”

“Have you not been paying attention this entire time?” she yelled at him. “Your power wasn’t random. My sister, my fucking dead sister, fucking Moira…”

“It was random,” Roman said, his voice rising. “And you know exactly what I mean. None of you knew this was the power that was going to come out of me. This is all random. Everything is random. I wouldn’t even have gone to the Council had it not been for Kevin attempting suicide, and the lottery ticket I found in his desk after I was attacked by Hazrat. It would have never even crossed my mind. I wasn’t a gambler. It was all random. All of this is random. You couldn’t have planned this. Not even the most cunning government ever in existence could have planned something like this.”

“But once your power…” Ava shook her head. “What you did is treason. Once you were given that power, you should have served the State. You…” Her fists tensed at her sides as a vein pulsed near her temple. “You are serving the State, but you should be doing so without all these preconditions we have now. And this? Now this? Now we find out you went to the Eastern Province and traded your power for the safe passage of a fucking spy? Now we find out that there is another healer, somebody our government was actually looking for, and you’ve known about it the entire time? And you brought him to our country illegally? Do you realize the situation you’ve put me in here?”

“I…”

“What do you have to say for yourself?” she practically barked.

“I don’t have shit to say! The details are murky, but I know that I wouldn’t do something like that if it wasn’t the right thing to do…”

“You have right and wrong all mixed up.”

Roman threw his hands into the air. “Says the woman leading a streamlined removal operation in another country. We are no better than assassins. We’re no better than the motherfuckers from the Southern Alliance and all the shady shit they do.”

“Don’t compare us to them!”

“We’re here to kill someone in another country. He’s not being given a trial; he’s not being judged by a jury of his peers. He is being murdered by our government, and we are the people who are supposed to kill him. Tell me that’s not all sorts of fucked up.”

Ava started to say something and just ended up shaking her head. She tried to calm her breathing, clearly unable to at the moment, her hair firing up every now and then. “There are more pieces to this puzzle than you know about,” she finally muttered.

“What about another option?” Roman asked.

“Another option for what?”

“Regarding what Casper revealed last night. There must be some way we can prevent the information from reaching…”

“I already told Rafner,” she said. “And I’ve been given my instructions.”

“I’m not having my power taken away from me again.”

Ava almost smiled at Roman. “No one can take your power away anymore. The only person who could was my sister, Moira. She was the only person able to activate someone’s power and take it away. At least…” His former teacher looked out the window for a moment. “Perhaps there is someone else out there that can do it. If there is, they aren’t in touch with the Centralian government. But the point is: no one can take away your power. Not now, thanks to your goddamn half-sister.”

Her last statement cut deep, and it was a good minute before Roman finally spoke again. “Then what?”

“It really is amazing how things have turned out for you,” she said, biting her lip. “And to be honest with you, I actually believe you.”

“Believe me about what?”

“I believe that you wouldn’t go to the East if not for a virtuous reason. Well, maybe virtuous isn’t the right word. Maybe you just wanted to get into Nadine’s pants and an option for you to do so presented itself.”

“I don’t think that was it.”

“Yet for some reason, I agree with you. I don’t think that was it either.” Ava started pacing. “But now, we have to resort to this.”

“Resort to what?” Roman asked.

“Just…” Ava sighed.

A vertical beam appeared in the center of the room, and as it started to swell, two forms took shape. One was a woman Roman had seen before, MindLenz, the telepath on Ava’s exemplar team who also happened to be part of an advertisement campaign back at the bodega Roman worked at. The other was a thin female teleporter wearing Centralian Intelligence Agency clothing.

MindLenz wore all black, and there was a white circle on the mask over her face. The pillar of energy started to form again, the female teleporter disappearing with it.

“What’s this about?” Roman asked, focusing now on his own skull, waiting to feel the creep of a telepath.

“Step aside, Roman,” Ava said.

He did as instructed, and MindLenz headed to the door.

Ava joined her. Once she opened it, she looked over her shoulder and motioned for Roman to follow. They came into the hallway to find Coma standing there, a pink and silver material swirling around her arms as she reformed her hands.

Ava looked at her; Coma stared the fire user down.

“I wouldn’t go there,” Ava said curtly.

“I wouldn’t either,” Coma told her.

“Not now,” Roman said, stepping between the two.

Ava moved past him, MindLenz following close behind her as they made their way to the living room area.

Celia was the first to see the telepath in all black, and a concerned look came across her face.

But the look on Celia’s face was nothing like the look on Miranda’s face, the blue-haired telepath’s mouth agape as MindLenz came into focus.

“No…” she started to say.

And then she paused, as if frozen.

Jess, who had been sitting on the couch next to Miranda and eating a pastry, was also frozen, a bit of cherry filling dripping from her lip to her lap.

They will wake up in two minutes, a voice said at the back of Roman’s head.

Roman immediately assumed the voice belonged to MindLenz. He had met telepaths like this before, who’d simply quit speaking because it was easier for them to communicate mentally.

He’d always found it to be a little unnecessary.

“Thank you,” Ava said as she turned back to the bedroom.

“Wait, what did you do?” Roman asked.

“What do you think? I did what Rafner instructed me to do,” Ava told him.

“So you’re erasing their memories of what happened? Am I understanding this correctly?”

His former teacher nodded. “Do you have an objection to this?”

“But why? Am I…” Roman shook his head.

Yes, you are still in trouble, MindLenz thought aloud.

Ava exhaled audibly. “If you haven’t figured it out already, this isn’t over yet. But Rafner is not yet ready to turn you over to the proper authorities. That doesn’t mean he won’t; it’s just that he wants to see what you’re capable of.”

“Okay…”

Ava took a step closer to Roman, poking her finger against his chest. “And since I’m in charge, maybe I’ll make you look bad in all this—maybe I’ll make it so you fail epically. What then? What would Rafner think then?”

Roman looked from Ava to Coma, who was standing behind both the telepath and the fire user, her arm slowly starting to morph into a blade.

“I think a reset is what we need,” Roman said, looking away from his combat doll. “I would prefer that you don’t make me look worse than I already do, but if that is your prerogative, I really don’t have a lot of options.”

“Don’t forget that,” Ava told him sternly. “They will be awake soon, and once they are, I’m assuming you’ll act as if nothing has happened. It goes without saying that this isn’t over yet, but we have a mission to accomplish, and for the time being, I would like all of us to focus on that. I will go over our plans after breakfast, and then I want everyone to rest while I visit command. So yes, a reset. For now. Let’s not make this any worse than it already is. Let’s just focus on the mission.”

Roman nodded. “I intend to do just that.”

“I know you do. In the meantime, thank your lucky stars.”

Ava turned back to her bedroom, MindLenz joining her.

Once they were down the hall, Coma approached Roman, an intense look on her face. “Remember, just say the word. I’m ready.”

“Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that,” Roman finally told her.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Send in the Dolls

“I still don’t know why she put you out here with me,” Miranda said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Roman told the telepath.

It was evening now, and the two of them stood near a newsstand across the street from a nice restaurant in the Garden Edge District. It was a bit cool outside, but there was no wind like there was in Centralia.

The streets were crowded at the moment. There were still a few people out walking their dogs and couples going on evening strolls, which Miranda was tasked with clearing once the time came.

Roman could actually see Ava, Coma, and Jess crouched on top of the restaurant, Jess preparing to disguise them.

It seemed incredibly stupid to station him away from the action, but Ava had ordered it, and Roman knew better than to say anything about it.

It had also been strange interacting with Miranda and Jess, Roman constantly assuming they were going to say something about the information that had been revealed the previous night.

With their minds wiped, it was up to him now to pay attention to any telepathic creep at the back of his mind. Roman was certain Ava wasn’t going to give anything away.

That just wasn’t her style.

“It’s going to be a while,” Miranda said. “And we’re supposed to act as casual as possible while we wait.”

“Standing around a newsstand isn’t casual?”

The telepath looped her arm in his. “Play along,” she said as they made their way to a small café with outdoor seating.

They sat at a table, Miranda positioning herself so she had a perfect view of the restaurant in question. They were far enough away that anyone entering the place wouldn’t notice them. Be that as it may, Roman wore a hat, his white hair jutting out the back of it.

“Our first date,” Miranda said once the waiter came and told them he would be bringing waters. “How incredibly adorable.”

“Is that what this is?”

Roman semi-hated telepaths.

They were tricksters at heart even if they’d never admit it to your face, and aside from Emelia, there hadn’t been many he’d met that he liked. Roman had actively avoided dealing with immigration paperwork for telepaths. Even though they knew better, they had on numerous occasions tried to expedite the standard processing timeline using telepathic means.

This was one reason Roman and his coworkers had been trained to deal with telepaths, some of them, like Kevin, taking all the training modules multiple times. As Roman stared at the blue-haired woman, he began to notice a tingling sensation at the back of his skull.

“What have I told you about that…”

“Play along, dear. I just want to get to know you better.”

“Then ask me questions.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Roman smirked. “Is that really a question you care to know the answer to?”

“It’s a conversation starter.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t have time for a boyfriend,” Miranda said shortly. “I do have a few men I may call upon…”

Roman nodded, aware that many of the stronger telepaths found it difficult to have long-term relationships. From what he’d read, one of the trends was to find a person they were sexually attracted to, then just take over that person’s brain and have the person fuck them while under their control.

Otherwise known as fucking themselves.

“I can’t argue with you there,” Roman said as the waiter came back with their waters. Miranda ordered a pot of tea and some scones.

She made a face like she was about to say something snarky but then switched gears, placing her hand on Roman’s as a man and woman passed, both of them with huge frames and muscled shoulders.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she said, blowing Roman a kiss, and for a moment it took him off guard until he realized she was acting, that there was something about the two passing by that had caught her attention.

“Are they going to the restaurant?” Roman whispered, Miranda’s hand still on his.

“They are, dear,” she said, offering him a toothy smile.

Roman shook his head. “I really wish we could’ve gotten more information on Kevin’s whereabouts and the pleasure house he took over.”

“If Chap had been to the place, we could have gotten the info from him. But from what I saw inside his head, Chap only came to this restaurant with Kevin to book the location for the ceremony. Either Kevin is covering his tracks, or all of this is chance. Regardless, that will be one of the items we get tonight. No matter what, we need to keep someone alive who’s been to Kevin’s little whorehouse.”

“What about one of them?” Roman asked as a trio of women walked by, all of them wearing tight exemplar clothing. Two of them were shorter, with dark hair and long legs. The third was a bit frumpy but cute, with colorfully painted fingernails.

“That’s exactly what we need,” Miranda said, instantly checking their minds.

One of the women stopped to tell the others to go ahead, saying she’d seen an old friend at the café and she would catch up with them.

The other women didn’t even look back at her. They simply continued toward the restaurant, oblivious that their friend was no longer with them.

The frumpy prostitute approached the table. Roman animated a chair nearby and had it scuttle over to them.

“Do you work for Kevin?” Miranda asked, even though it was clear she already knew the answer to this question.

“Yes,” the woman said. “I’ve worked for him for almost a month now.”

The woman was around Roman’s age, but her makeup had been done in a way that made her look just a bit younger. Oddly enough, she wore a similar suit to the one Celia had worn when Roman had first purchased her, a tight exemplar-inspired piece that showed plenty of cleavage. Her hair was up and clipped at the side, and she had a tattoo of a heart on her collarbone.

“Where is the pleasure house?” Miranda asked.

Roman realized she was doing this solely for his understanding, that all of this could have happened mentally.

The woman slowly told Miranda the location of Kevin’s pleasure house. Roman didn’t know the address, but he recognized that it was in the Brownlock District.

Miranda nodded. “And do you know what is being planned for tonight?”

“Mr. Kevin has a new company, and he’s invited the top employees to this party to kick everything off,” she explained. “He will be coming with more of the serum, enough for everyone to have plenty. Our job is to provide our services for those who want it, free of charge.”

“Serum?” Roman asked.

He recalled Ava mentioning something about Kevin having some sort of narcotic with him, but she hadn’t gone into much detail about it. He also remembered her saying he had received the stuff from a Centralian man, a doctor of sorts.

“Don’t worry about that,” Miranda told Roman. She returned her focus to the prostitute. “I want you to go to the party now, and I don’t want you to remember any of this. If your friends ask who you met, which they won’t, say it was an old schoolmate, one named Miranda. Tell them she was on a date with a guy who was clearly below her standards,” Miranda said, winking at Roman.

“Goddamn telepaths,” Roman whispered under his breath as the prostitute stood, smiling at Miranda.

She left just as more of Kevin’s employees showed up outside the restaurant, three of them coming via a teleporter. From their current vantage point, Roman could no longer see Ava, Coma, and Jess on the rooftop, but he knew they were there. If they were following the plan Ava had devised, Jess had already turned herself into a rooftop storage unit with Ava and Coma crouched inside.

The waiter came around with their tea and scones, quickly leaving them.

Roman slipped his hand into his pocket again, feeling for Casper. He hadn’t activated her since her big reveal last night, and he figured now was as good a time as any.

But not around Miranda.

“I need to use the restroom.”

“But you haven’t even had a sip of your tea yet.”

“You can join me if you’d like,” Roman said, figuring he would play her game and see how far she went with it.

She scoffed at his remark. “If something ever does happen between us, it will be on my terms.”

“And here I thought you’d be interested in hooking up in the restroom of a crappy café in the Western Province. From the color of your hair, I always thought you were more the adventurous type.”

“You wish,” she said, the telepath not clear how she should respond. “Care has nothing to do with it.”

That was another thing Roman had learned about dealing with telepaths.

Sometimes the best way to throw them off guard was to get ahead of them, to say something they didn’t see coming. There was a pleasure to be had in watching them short-circuit.

“I’ll be right back,” Roman told her.

Before she could come up with a clever quip, he made his way into the café, their waiter smiling at him again. He located the restroom, and once he was inside, Roman brought Casper out of his pocket. The tiny doll came to life in his hand.

“Please don’t flush me down the toilet,” she said as he set her on the stone countertop. “And if you do, don’t take a shit on me before you flush!”

“You really screwed me over back there,” Roman told her. “Look, I like you, and I want to keep you around, but the amount of bullshit you just shoveled in my way…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Casper started to say, a frown forming on her face. “Please don’t spank me, Daddy.”

“Are you serious?” Roman asked.

“Yes, please don’t spank me. Your hands are too big. It would hurt. Maybe you could do it with your finger.” She bent over and looked at Roman over her shoulder.

“I really do need to get rid of you,” he mumbled to himself.

“Come on, you like me. You like my sense of humor.”

“Stop it, and listen closely. Ava has had Jess’s and Miranda’s minds wiped.”

Casper nodded, clearly impressed. “Wow, she really is going to bat for you. Next time you go down on her…”

“Shut up,” Roman said, flicking her.

“Hey!” she said as she stumbled backward and nearly slipped into the sink. “That’s called abuse!”

“I still don’t know what’s going to happen after what you told them. Going forward, if there really is a ‘forward’ from here and they actually let me go there, I don’t care if you tease people or cause general trouble, but don’t go around revealing secrets. Especially secrets that could get me in trouble—because if I’m in trouble, they’ll take you away from me.”

“It’s that bad?” Casper asked, and by the tone of her voice Roman could tell she actually meant it this time.

“Yes. But they want us to focus on the mission first, and they’re going to deal with me afterward. So I have to do well. And Ava, in her infinite pissy wisdom, has decided to keep me out of the fight, almost in an effort to sabotage my actions here. Although she is letting Coma fight with her. I don’t know exactly how this is supposed to work, but the point is: I’ve basically been sidelined.”

“What if you just bring the building down with all of them inside?”

“Coma said something similar.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Casper said with a laugh.

Roman glanced up, seeing himself in the mirror’s reflection. There was no time for retrospection, but if there had been, Roman would have to shake his head at the oddity of seeing himself standing in a smelly bathroom scolding a tiny doll for essentially betraying him.

“I don’t know exactly how this is going to happen, but I may need you,” Roman told her.

“You actually need me for once?”

“Yes, Casper, I need you.”

“That is the most flattering thing you’ve said to me all year!”

“Here’s what I want you to do…”

Roman took a deep breath in and told Casper his plan. He knew there were a lot of variables in how it could actually play out, but if it gave them an edge, it would be better than nothing.

“Okay,” she said after he’d finished. “I get the idea. I’m ready to actually be useful for once.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you, Daddy. Now, do you still want to spank me?”

Roman shook his head. “This is serious.”

“Sorry…”

Kevin Blackbook wanted to make a grand entrance, but after his little interaction with Sandy, he also wanted to keep things somewhat humble.

He would never be the Kevin he once was, the meek administrator who was easily pushed around and taken for granted. But he also didn’t want to become like the assholes he’d hated in his former life; the bullies, the jocks, the people who’d treated Kevin like he was a second-class citizen.

No, he couldn’t be that either.

The best way forward would be some kind of amalgamation of both, a Kevin that was ruthless but also with administrative savvy, one who knew how to both stay under the radar and break the radar over someone’s head if they overstepped their boundaries.

It was a wild, wild world Kevin had found himself in, and now with his cat girls, his telepath, and his Zero Ring, Kevin would become king of that world.

“I’m so glad you could make it.” Kevin raised a silver chalice filled with wine the restaurant had arranged for him.

The new members of his fledging operation were seated at a U-shaped table before him. He could see his scantily clad employees at the back of the room, none of them invited to the dinner that had just happened. Their job was forthcoming, one in which sin and pleasure intermingled.

Each of them had been dosed up with the toxin, and Kevin was now having Sandy hand out samples to the exemplars at the table. There was the strongman and his equally strong sister, the woman who could animate her hair and turn it into a weapon, blond-haired Chap and his electric powers, a sinewy man with enhanced speed, a woman who could spit acid, a duplicator, a man who morphed into a beast covered in bony spikes, and their new company teleporter.

A couple of them had an uncertain look on their face, but most seemed content, both with the raise they had just received, the incoming drugs, and for those that cared to partake, the whores.

Kevin kept his chalice raised in the air. “As all of you know, things have been moving rather quickly with my operations here in the Western Province. I have recently acquired your company, and we will continue to expand into the other districts of Ravja. Now, the way we have expanded thus far has been by brute force, and we won’t always be able to move in this direction. This is why Sandy and I have been in talks discussing how we can further legitimize our operation. There will always be a side of it that politicians and local activists frown upon, and it will be our job to make sure their frowns don’t go far beyond their graves,” Kevin said firmly.

He had prepared the speech and asked Sandy to read it to him, ingraining it in his psyche.

Now it felt natural, fluid even.

“But that’s not what tonight is about,” he said. “Tonight is about celebrating our unique gifts, our contributions to this company, which doesn’t have a name yet but will soon. I don’t want this to be like some of the other operations happening in the Brownlock District or Overtone Heights. I want there to be some structure to this, some meaning. I want this to be groundbreaking.”

Kevin took a sip from the chalice. He then handed it to Sandy, who walked all the way to the end of the table and took a sip of it before passing it to the next exemplar, who happened to be Chap.

“Yes, pass it around. Let us all drink together from the same chalice.” Kevin smiled down at Obsidian, who was looking up at him fondly, one of her ears erect. He could see her prayer beads wrapped around her arm, a few of them between her fingers as she whispered a quick prayer.

He then turned to look at Turquoise, who also had a smile on her face. For a moment, it seemed as if she was actually impressed with him, a smile Kevin gladly returned.

Even now, after knowing her for a good amount of time, he never could get a read on Turquoise. Sure, she would have sex with him, but she never seemed to have the same type of affection for Kevin that Obsidian had, affection that could turn to jealousy rather quickly unless it involved Turquoise.

He was fine with that.

Adding Sandy to the mix gave him somewhat of a triple-edged sword, Kevin covered on most fronts.

After this morning’s interaction with Sandy, Kevin wanted nothing more than to fuck the living hell out of the telepath, but he knew that time would come, and he knew he would have to earn it.

He also knew he would have to be careful with Obsidian around. He didn’t want something to happen to Sandy.

The chalice came to Turquoise. She took a sip from it and handed it to Obsidian, who also drank some before handing it off to her left, to the woman who could spit acid.

“So you’ve had your dinner, and now you will have your fun. You’ll start work tomorrow afternoon,” Kevin said, a few of the exemplars chuckling. “I wouldn’t be cruel enough to ask you to get started in the morning. The restaurant staff should be in shortly to clear out the tables and chairs. There are private rooms attached to the space, along the wall,” Kevin said, motioning toward the rooms in question. “These have all been outfitted with bedding as per our request. I really don’t care what you do or where you do it, and the staff here also turn a blind eye, just in case you were worried. Whatever happens here stays here. Don’t forget that.”

The back door swung open, and a woman with red hair stepped out pushing a cart. For a moment, Kevin felt like he recognized her, but as she started collecting dishes, he quickly assumed it was a coincidence.

“So have fun, and let’s make this a night none of us will ever forget.”

The back door swung open again, a dark-haired woman in a mask entering.

It was the last thing Kevin remembered seeing before all hell broke loose.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Last Supper

Roman now sat on the sidewalk, his back against a lamppost, his eyes squeezed shut. He could see what was happening inside the restaurant in his mind, Ava, Coma, and Jess in the kitchen. The staff members had been forced out the back door, only to be ensnared in Miranda’s telepathic trap.

Through Coma’s eyes, Roman watched as Jess morphed into a cart, Ava quickly locating an extra set of kitchen clothing.

Roman had to smile as she initially smelled one of the aprons and then considered it before placing it on.

After she was dressed, Ava got behind Jess and began wheeling her cart into the main room of the restaurant.

Roman was anxious all of a sudden, and he didn’t know if his plan for Casper would work or not. The tiny doll was long gone; he knew better than to try to check her perspective as well, assuming it would be best to remain focused on Coma, who would be doing much of the fighting.

“They’re about to move in,” Roman announced without opening his eyes.

He watched Ava turn to Coma and give her the thumbs up, Roman’s combat doll a few steps behind her, arms morphing into long blades.

Ava went in first, Coma pausing at the door and taking a brief look through the glass.

“It’s him,” Roman said as Coma watched Kevin give a toast.

It was going to be a bloodbath.

And while he wished he could be part of the action, there was a piece of Roman that was happy to be outside looking in, even if he wouldn’t admit that to Ava. Sure, what was about to go down would ultimately be on him, but at least he didn’t have to witness it firsthand with most of the killing handled by Coma.

It was odd to think of it in this way, but Coma wasn’t human, nor did she value human life the way Roman did. And as much as he hoped some of the innocents would be able to get out, he knew the odds of this were low.

Coma pressed through the kitchen door, Kevin not yet paying attention to her.

She almost made it to the end of the table before Roman’s former coworker looked up and saw that her arms had morphed into two enormous blades.

The first to react was the cat girl seated next to Kevin, the one with black ears and a black tail. She hopped onto the table and took off toward Coma, leaping into the air and meeting her doom almost immediately.

Roman didn’t know what she was thinking.

Perhaps the cat girl thought she would be faster than Coma and her blades; perhaps she was inebriated in some way.

It didn’t matter now.

Coma’s blade pressed out of the cat girl’s back, and while she tried to claw Roman’s combat doll, Coma only dug in deeper, finishing up with her other blade arm, which she also sent straight through the woman’s torso.

Coma then pulled her arms wide, both of her blades cutting out of the cat girl’s body, severing an arm and cutting away half her torso, if not more.

Roman saw the bloodied body hit the floor, and he also heard Kevin screaming, a vein about to burst on the side of the fat man’s head.

Ava lit someone up at the back of the room, a man who had been coming to help Kevin. And as the man’s body caught fire, Jess quickly morphed into a replica of Coma, also growing blade arms.

This was something they had tested out earlier. Jess wasn’t able to actually take a human’s form, but she could easily take Coma’s doll body after Roman deactivated her. It was weird, but she wasn’t that kind of shapeshifter. The object couldn’t be alive.

But now Coma’s body was ingrained in Jess’s psyche, the morpher narrowly avoiding acidic spit from one of Kevin’s exemplars. Ava roasted this woman in a matter of seconds, fire erupting into green and yellow plumes as the woman died.

The real Coma focused on trying to get to the back of the room, to Kevin, but the two muscle exemplars were about to present quite the obstacle.

Rather than go through them, Coma took control of the floor beneath the muscled woman, swallowing her up until all that was left was her head. Coma sliced the woman’s head off in a matter of seconds, the head bouncing and leaving blood splatters on the ground.

She spun just in time for her blade to go through the chest of the exemplar with enhanced speed.

Blood spritzed into the air, dozens of men filling the room as Kevin’s duplicator started creating additional combatants, engaging Coma and Jess-as-Coma.

They were devious, grabbing the prostitutes and holding them hostage, Coma trying to both fend them off and stop them from killing innocents. Kevin shouted panicked orders at the back of the room as it filled with more duplicators.

“She’s trying not to kill innocent people,” he mumbled.

It was like Roman was in a trance.

He could barely feel himself sitting on the ground across the street from the restaurant, his entire focus now on what Coma was witnessing. He was so focused that he couldn’t even hear the commotion of the otherwise silent streets due to the way Miranda had cleared them. There could have been a trolley heading right at him and he wouldn’t have noticed.

A bolt of electricity struck Coma, tossing her into the wall, where she brought down a large portrait of a silver moon.

Roman nodded as Jess jumped off the ground and turned into a giant metal ball, crushing the man named Chap and thwarting his electric attack.

Ava burst forward, an inferno raging around her as she met the other strongman, who cried out in pain yet still defended himself, throwing huge fists in the air in an attempt to stop her.

“Just get him…” Roman grumbled, Miranda crouching next to him. “Come on…”

“Do you mind?” Miranda asked, lightly placing her hand on his arm.

“No, go ahead,” he told the telepath, who quickly tapped into what he was seeing.

She ended up sitting next to Roman, her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed as well.

Roman tuned back in to the fight as a wave of hair launched in Coma’s direction.

Roman had never seen anything like it. Coma’s immediate response was to form her blades into scissors, slicing and cutting her way through the hair that just kept on coming.

One of the duplicates punched Coma in the side while another one came in on her right, his fist connecting with her jaw. She spun, their bodies cut in half and disappearing into a burst of mist. She brought down a portion of the ceiling onto another pair of duplicates and skewered one with a modified chair leg.

As more hair continued to try to pull her legs out from under her, one of the duplicators ran toward Coma using the prostitutes as cover.

Still dealing with the exemplar who could control her hair, Coma lifted a wall from the ground, the duplicator and the prostitutes smacking right into it. Miranda let out a little gasp.

The action inside continued as Ava proceeded to address the woman with the ability to manipulate her hair. She had now erected a wall of thick hair between them in the back of the room, shielding Kevin, the cat girl, and another woman with red hair from the action.

And Ava may have burned through the hair, which had already started to fill the place with a cloud of thick smog, had it not been for the man who could morph into a beast twice his size, bone spikes pressed out of his skin.

Even as she turned her fiery hands toward him, the beast-man ignored her attack, tackling Ava.

They rolled around for a moment, the man overpowering Ava and driving her shoulders to the ground. She tried to send a fireball through his stomach and he merely roared out, slamming her again. Ava’s flaming hair suddenly flickered out.

“I have to get in there,” Roman said suddenly, Miranda’s hand coming to his wrist.

“No, we’re supposed to stay here.”

“I can’t let Ava get hurt,” Roman told her.

The telepath tried to stop him, but by this point, Roman was already crossing the street, the pavement starting to form a thick armor around his arms.

The walls of the restaurant parted ways. The duplicates, Ava, Coma, the beast morpher and Jess all turned to Roman, a smile on his combat doll’s face.

The beast man threw his head back, crying out in pain as he brought his hands to his chest and fell to the side. Roman then turned his focus on all the duplicates, pinpointing the one with an actual heartbeat and rupturing a vein in his brain.

From there he went to the woman with the powerful hair, strangling her with her own ability. The woman reached out, tendrils of her hair twisting in the air toward Roman and ultimately failing.

She hit the ground as her wall of hair returned to her body.

Roman saw that Kevin was gone.

“You weren’t supposed to…” Ava started to tell him as the unnecessary armor he had created started to fall off his arms.

“We need to get back to Kevin’s pleasure house,” Roman said. “We have the location.”

After giving him a look that told Roman she would deal with his insubordination later, Ava quickly surveyed the carnage, the fire user still catching her breath.

“I tried to stop him,” Miranda said after she made it across the street.

“And now Kevin got away,” Ava said, clearly agitated.

“Not necessarily,” Roman told her.

“What do you mean?”

“Casper,” Roman called aloud. “Casper…” He waited for her to respond, and when she didn’t, Roman turned to Ava and smiled. “Just as I suspected.”

“You didn’t,” she said, her face going from shock to disgruntled admiration.

“Casper is with him now, or at least she should be. That should help some. How else can we track them down? Miranda?”

“According to the information we got from Chap, Kevin had a telepath with him. Maybe I’ll be able to get some more information about her back at the pleasure house. I don’t know if his other cat girl will have information I can pick up on, but that’s worth a shot as well. Either way, the longer we’re here, the more daylight we’re burning.”

“It’s really too bad you can’t communicate with your doll,” Jess said. The morpher was back to her normal form now, her dirty-blonde hair a mess. Out of the three that had been in the battle, only Jess looked like she had gotten by without a scratch. “Then you could just get a location from her.”

Roman closed his eyes, focusing for a moment and failing to see what Casper was seeing. “No. It’s… it’s not like my bond with Coma. Perhaps if it were Coma that was with Kevin, I’d be able to tap in. I mean, I could try again in a quieter place. Maybe that’s a better idea.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Ava said.

“Right,” Roman said. He shook his head at some of the damage in the room.

It was strange being in the space after having witnessed it all through Coma’s eyes.

Now it was suddenly more visceral, the smells, the colors, even the sounds of fire crackling in the corner and a few of the exemplars wheezing as their last breaths left them.

“Let’s go there now,” Ava said. “Our Western Province counterparts are already on their way here. I don’t know if Kevin is stupid enough to go back to the brothel, but if he is, we can get him there.”

Jess and Miranda nodded.

“I’ll arrange transport,” the telepath said.

“Good job,” Roman said as Coma approached him. He placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at all the blood that was splattered across her face and dress. “We’re going to need to get you new clothing.”

She smirked at him. “It looks like it.”

Roman resisted the urge to bring her into his arms to make sure she was okay.

She wasn’t human; of course she was okay.

Nor did she need any type of reassurance that there was someone there for her. Roman had no idea what Coma truly wanted, but he did know when she was in her element.

And the scattered bodies across the ground, the destruction, the severed head, all of it—that was her element.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Pleasure House

Their forms dropped from about a foot above the ground before Roman, Coma, Ava, Jess, and Miranda quickly fanned out. The teleporter jumped back into the air and hovered for a moment, energy oscillating around his ankles before he blasted off.

Jess and Ava headed to the back of the pleasure house; Roman, Miranda, and Coma moved to the front.

The pleasure house was several stories tall, and unlike the buildings around it, it wasn’t built into the block, almost as if the locals had wanted the building to be separate from the rest of their homes and establishments.

While the block was poorly lit in some corners, the place didn’t seem that dangerous, not like some of the areas Roman had been to in southern Centralia. Then again, Roman was in a different country, so dangerous could very well look different here. Maybe the man watching them from the safety of his window was reporting to Kevin what he was seeing. Or maybe the woman walking out of the bodega a couple doors down from the pleasure house was the mole.

Either way, they needed to move quickly.

With a flick of Roman’s wrist, the front door opened, making a creaking sound as it did so.

“Have you ever figured out a way you can’t use your power?” Miranda asked as they closed the door behind them, Roman re-locking it.

“That’s a weird way to phrase it. But yes. I can’t control the air.”

Roman threw some of the doors open, and Coma went forward to investigate. He didn’t like the vibe of the pleasure house with its dimly lit hallways, walls painted black, and a floral scent to the air.

It wasn’t messy or anything, but he knew what went on here. He knew what the waiting room was for, and he could only imagine what went on in some of the rooms.

Then again, Roman had animated sex dolls to be his companions, so maybe it was best that he avoid throwing rocks in glass houses.

Coma came out of one of the rooms with an emaciated brunette whose hair was in pigtails, a bladed hand at the woman’s throat.

“Don’t kill her,” Miranda said, instantly checking the woman’s mind. “She’s just one of his employees.”

“Why weren’t you at the party?” Coma asked, still not letting the woman go.

“I just wanted to rest. I’ve been working so much that I figured it would be a good time to catch a little sleep. Who are you guys anyway? Where’s Kevin and the others?”

It was the last thing she said.

A glazed look rolled over the brunette’s eyes as she pulled away from Coma. The prostitute immediately turned to the exit, shutting the door behind her after she left.

“And she won’t remember anything?” Roman asked.

“Nope,” Miranda said, tapping on her temple. “That’s why I’m useful; I get to the core of most problems.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Roman said as he heard some activity upstairs.

“Second floor is clear,” Jess called down from above.

Roman, Miranda, and Coma joined her on the second floor, Ava already up at the top.

“I think this may be his office,” Roman’s former teacher said, noticing there was only one room on the third floor.

“I will go in,” Coma said before anyone could stop her.

Roman’s combat doll opened the only door on the third floor and stepped inside, coming into a rather large room with bookshelves on one side, a couch, and a wooden desk, along with additional rooms at the back. The carpet before the couch was brand new, a price tag still affixed to one of the far corners.

Jess was the last to step in, and as she did she moved toward the bookshelf on the left, making room for the others.

Ava took a quick look at Kevin’s desk. “We have to find it…”

Jess was slammed to the floor by a cat girl with turquoise ears.

The cat girl flipped her over and drove her teeth into Jess’s neck.

A vein pulsed on the side of Miranda’s head; the cat girl stopped dead in her tracks and fell to the side, a dazed look painting across her face as the telepath took over her mind.

“Fuck!” Jess said, her hand at the wound on her neck. “She fucking bit me!”

“Just relax,” Roman said, coming to her.

“Why am I starting to feel funny?” Jess asked as her pupils started to twitch.

“Get over to that couch,” Ava said, the tone of her voice indicating she didn’t want to be distracted at the moment

Roman helped Jess over to the couch as Coma went to check the other rooms. Ava continued to look through Kevin’s desk, not at all concerned with Jess’s well-being.

“It has to be around here somewhere…” she mumbled.

“What do I do with her?” Miranda asked, nodding toward the cat girl.

Ava took a quick look around the room, pointing to a chair in front of Kevin’s desk. “Make her sit there. It will make this a lot easier.”

The cat girl stood and obediently walked over to the chair in front of Kevin’s desk. She plopped down, still with a blank expression on her face.

“Okay,” Miranda said, already going to work on her mind. “Got it. There’s a switch inside the bottom drawer. You have to pull the drawer out, and the switch is behind that.”

“What are you looking for?” Roman asked Ava as Coma came out of the bedroom in the back, indicating that it was clear.

“Just make sure Jess is okay,” Ava ordered.

Roman looked over to the morpher and noticed there was now drool coming out of the side of her mouth.

“What am I supposed to do with her exactly?”

“She’ll get better over time,” Ava explained. “Remember the narcotic Kevin had? The one he was dosing people with?”

Roman nodded.

“It comes from her, and her counterpart,” she said, nodding at the cat girl. “Who is now dead. Coma killed her rather quickly.”

Roman remembered the cat girl with black ears charging at Coma only to be completely skewered, and how Kevin had freaked out when she’d died.

“I have to get out of her mind for a moment,” Miranda said, shaking her head all of a sudden. “It’s too much…”

Ava found the button she was looking for and pressed it.

A large built-in panel on the wall popped open. “That’s convenient,” she said as she came to a safe that was easily the size of the door.

“Does she know the combination?”

“Let me check…” Miranda started to say.

“I’ve got it,” said Roman as the lock pressed out of the safe and clinked against the wooden floor. The door of the safe swung open, Ava smiling as she took a look at what was inside.

“Jackpot. Let’s secure everything and then get out of here,” she said.

“What about Kevin? Is this what we actually…” The realization struck Roman. “But why?”

“There are two types of serums in here,” Ava said as she started taking crates out of the safe and placing them on Kevin’s desk. “A little help, Coma?”

Roman’s combat doll joined her, also helping gather the crates.

“To answer your question,” Ava said as she carried out another crate, “the whole point in getting Kevin was to get these two different serums. One allows a person to heal; the other is a replica of the toxin running through these cat girls. The thing is, we know the man who created the stuff, Dr. Hamza Grumio, but he hasn’t been very forthcoming with his information. This gives us another option, especially if we can reverse engineer the chemicals.”

“So this was our actual mission then?” Roman asked.

Ava shook her head. “No, we need to kill Kevin as well and any of his associates, but this was a big part of our mission.”

“I understand why we would want the healing serum, but why the toxin?”

Miranda smirked. “It seems to me like the cat girls’ venom would make a good chemical weapon, or something useful for interrogations when telepaths can’t break through. Ask Jess anything right now, see what she says.”

“What?” Jess asked, looking over to Miranda and Roman. “What are you guys talking about?”

Her voice was slurred now; it was clear she wasn’t in her right mind.

“Can we heal her?” Roman asked. “We could at least do that, right?”

Ava considered this is she dropped another crate on Kevin’s desk. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Miranda, find out from the cat girl how to administer this stuff. We’ll do so after we make it back to the apartment.”

“Will do.”

“We still have to go after Kevin,” Roman said, not sure of the line of reasoning he was going with at the moment.

There was a part of him that was angry about what they were doing, especially using the chemical as a weapon, but it also made sense, and he hadn’t forgotten there was a stipulation to all this, even if he didn’t agree with it.

Roman had been tasked with killing Kevin, and now that Rafner knew what Roman had done in the Eastern Province, it was best for him to make sure everything had been handled correctly, especially if he didn’t want to be convicted of treason.

“Just hold on a second,” Roman said when Ava ignored him. “Hear me out: the cat girl probably knows where Kevin is. So let’s get that information first,” he suggested. “My guess is she came back here to get the serums and she’s planning to return to him. I could be wrong, but why else would she be alone?”

“I can confirm that this is why she came back here,” Miranda said quickly. “It was supposed to be a quick mission, which is why there are those bags over there,” she said, nodding at a couple bags in the corner of the room. “But then we came, and she thought someone was breaking in, which is sort of true…”

“All right, then here’s what we should do…” Roman explained his plan, Ava more interested in getting the serum at the moment than hearing him out.

Once he’d finished, his former teacher nodded. Ava told Miranda to go ahead and get the information on the hotel Kevin was staying at, that they were going to do what Roman had suggested.

“I feel so good,” Jess said. “Seriously, you guys should try some of the stuff.”

“Make sure you get the directions on how they’ve used the healing serum in the past too,” Ava reminded Miranda again.

“What are we going to do with her?”

Roman glanced at the cat girl again.

He’d never seen her so still before, never had the chance to actually take a moment to look her over. The woman was petite, currently in a black dress with matching flats. Her arms had been morphed into claws earlier, but now they were back to normal, her turquoise tail limp at her side and both of her ears folded over.

Roman got the appeal.

There was something mysterious about her, forbidden. But even if he understood the appeal, he didn’t quite know how or why Kevin had ended up with her or the other one.

It was just hard to imagine the man that had sat next to him for so long farting his life away in his cubicle would be capable of something like this. Not only had Kevin broken into a high-security facility, he had also escaped to another country and become a mobster.

Roman could only sigh, briefly imagining what Kevin would have been like had they come a month later.

It might have been a lot harder to bring down his operation at that point.

“Where are we?” Jess coughed, a bit of spittle running down her chin.

Roman took a seat next to her and used the blanket on the couch to wipe her face. Jess’s eyes rolled to the back of her head.

“I really don’t know how strong that stuff is,” he said, “but she’s looking pretty bad over here…”

“That’s all of it,” Ava said, her hands on her hips, just as a pair of Centralian teleporters appeared.

“Take all the crates and bring the cat female as well. I will have to talk to Rafner first about her,” Ava instructed the first teleporter, a man with a muscular neck. “Perhaps we can just get the information we need from her here in Ravja and dispose of her.” She shrugged. “Either way, bring her too.”

Roman swallowed hard, turning away from Ava.

Their night wasn’t over yet; they still had one more target.

That didn’t make him feel any better, though; it didn’t make him feel like he was actually doing the right thing. There was a lot of ambiguity in the room at the moment, and Roman would be glad to be done with it soon.

Hopefully, retrieving Kevin would be a relatively straightforward process.

If he was lucky, Casper had already given them the upper hand.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Room Service

Kevin Blackbook took a deep breath in.

Before she left, Turquoise had given him a large enough dose of her poison to calm him down, and Sandy too.

They were in a not-so-swanky hotel room not far from the restaurant, and since there was only one large bed, Kevin assumed the three of them would be sleeping in it together.

He was on that bed now, his hands over his chest, Sandy next to him with her head on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry about Obsidian,” Sandy told him again, for what felt like the twentieth time. “What a terrible, painful way to go.”

“I just hope she didn’t suffer in the end…” he said solemnly.

Kevin closed his eyes, reliving the moment he’d seen the masked woman stab Obsidian in the chest. His teeth started to grind, the feeling of rage rolling over him.

“Relax,” Sandy told him as she lightly ran her fingers over his belly. “There’s nothing we can do now—not yet, anyway.”

The violence they had witnessed had brought them closer together, Kevin feeling comfortable enough to slip his arm down and place it squarely on her ass. It was odd, to go from at each other’s throats less than twenty-four hours ago to this.

Sandy looked up at him and smiled. “I guess with Obsidian gone, there are other things that can now be explored…”

“I just want to get fucked up,” Kevin said almost as an afterthought. “I want to forget tonight; I want to deal with tonight tomorrow.”

A mental message came in from Turquoise, letting Kevin know she would be returning in about ten minutes.

“Good. She has the serums and she’s coming here,” Kevin said.

“How long do we have?”

“Ten minutes, maybe less?”

Sandy brought her hand to Kevin’s cock. “Is that enough time?”

“I believe it is—not that she would care anyway. But…”

Kevin looked at the leather duffel bag across the room, the one with the serums in it. They were supposed to be used at the party; he was lucky Sandy’d had the wherewithal to retrieve the bag before they left.

“Let’s take just a little bit more,” he said.

Kevin rolled out of the bed and made his way over to their stash. He glanced back at Sandy to see her with her head rolled back, slowly starting to slip her hand up her skirt.

A quick smile spreading across his face, Kevin zipped the bag open and stuck his hand in.

He shrieked as something sharp pressed through his palm.

Kevin brought his hand out, the same one with the Zero Ring on it, to find a tiny action-figure-sized woman attached to it.

He started instinctively shaking his hand. He tried to activate his ring, but couldn’t because of where she had stabbed him.

And perhaps if he weren’t inebriated, Kevin would have thought to activate it with his other hand.

Instead, the former administrator swung his arm wide, launching the tiny woman into the wall. She hit the surface and dropped to the ground, then recovered and charged at him again.

“What the fuck!?” Kevin yelled as he tried to kick at her, the woman dodging his foot.

The minuscule woman jumped in the air and stabbed at his leg, quickly climbing up his body using her bladed arms.

A shocked look on her face, Sandy ran over to Kevin and tried to hit the tiny woman off his body. She missed and ended up slapping Kevin instead. The little woman made it up to his belly, where she stabbed her blade in multiple times.

“Fuck you both!” she shouted. Kevin dropped to a knee, the pain in his stomach shooting through his body.

The small woman was just about to reach his throat when Sandy finally ripped her off Kevin, tossing her across the room.

The telepath then went for a lamp and hurtled it at the miniature woman, who had already started running toward Kevin again.

“I’ll deal with you next, bitch!” the tiny woman shouted as she scaled the duvet and used the bed as a springboard.

She flew in the air toward Kevin and landed on his shoulder. Kevin tried to fight her off and failed again as she reached his neck.

The woman sank both of her bladed arms into Kevin’s throat.

He let out a garbled gasp as she did so, Sandy now backing away. The telepath wasn’t sure of how to respond or what to do.

Kevin started to fall forward.

His little assailant got out of the way just in time, riding the crown of his head to the ground. She moved down to the back of his neck and drove both blades in again, a pool of blood starting to form around Kevin’s jowls.

He managed to turn his cheek to the side, blowing bubbles in the blood as she moved to the side of his face. With a satisfied grin, she dropped to both knees and drove her blade into his temple.

“That should do it,” she said, keeping her sword arms deep in Kevin’s temple.

Sandy turned to the door, and she was just about to leave when she remembered the duffel bag full of narcotics on the table.

She looked at the small woman and back to the bag.

The pint-sized killer stood on Kevin’s head now, blood dripping from her blades.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” she asked the telepath.

Sandy made a running leap toward the bag, and she may have made it had she not tripped over her own feet, falling to the ground right beside Kevin.

“You’re making this too easy,” the tiny doll said as she jumped from Kevin’s body to Sandy’s.

Sandy rolled over and tried to throw her off, but the small woman managed to sink a blade right above her clavicle.

Sandy gasped, pain igniting inside her as she wrapped her hand around the tiny woman’s body. The woman swiveled and stabbed her through the palm of her hand.

Sandy threw her hand out, slapping it against Kevin’s back.

Her heels instinctively clicked against the ground as the doll ran up her arm and stabbed both blades into her basilic vein.

“Hold still!” her assailant shouted.

The telepath let out an uncomfortable noise, her sphincter releasing. She tried to get back to her feet, only for the woman to transfer to her stomach and start jabbing her blades in.

By this point, the little doll was completely covered in crimson, which made her slippery as Sandy tried to swipe her away again.

The telepath could feel herself growing weak, and as a tingling sensation spread through her, she fell back to the ground and looked over at Kevin, his throat mangled, no more bubbles in the halo of blood around his face.

It was the last thing Sandy would ever see.

Epilogue: Now or Never

Coma was on top of Roman, her breasts shifting up and down as she slowly moved her hips. She didn’t have her mask on, so her red eyes were on full display every time she glanced down at him.

Celia was lifeless by his side, Casper on the dresser.

In the end, it had been the tiny doll that had killed Kevin Blackbook, which was something Roman was rather thankful for. While he could kill indiscriminately with his power, he was glad he hadn’t seen his former coworker breathe his last breath. Roman felt removed from the violence yet again.

It looked like it had been a pretty painful killing as well. Kevin and the telepath with him had been covered in puncture wounds, with a ton of blood in the room—so much, in fact, that Roman could smell it as soon as their teleporter had brought them there.

Everything that had happened after that was somewhat of a blur, culminating with Roman in the bathroom helping Casper wash herself in the sink, mostly at her request because she clearly could have done it on her own.

Even as Coma fucked him, Roman had to smile at how brazen Casper had been, how she had really proven herself useful in the end.

She had been saying it all along, and she had been right.

Coma dropped her hand to Roman’s chin and tilted it up to her face.

“Come on,” she said, instantly igniting a passion inside him.

He canceled out the other thoughts he had floating around, the iffy feelings about what they had done in Ravja, how coldhearted Ava had seemed in the end, how he felt he had been lied to about their true mission.

It didn’t matter at this point.

The morning sun peeking through the blinds and the city of Ravja coming awake only meant one thing now: Roman’s next moment of reckoning was upon him.

So he fucked like it was.

Reinvigorated, he slapped both hands onto Coma’s hips and started thrusting harder, going in as deep as he could.

She bared her teeth, her predatory nature suddenly on display.

His combat doll started pushing her weight down on the Roman, driving her knees into his side, the bed squeaking and the headboard beating against the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Celia’s lifeless form flopping.

And in that brief moment, Roman didn’t care.

He wanted to get in touch with his savage side, as if that would somehow deliver an answer to him that he had yet to realize on his own. He wanted to do something primal, something different.

Coma stopped for a moment and started to turn around. She crouched over Roman’s penis and spread her ass cheeks, and Roman slipped his member inside her ass.

There was no lubrication necessary, not with his dolls, and it didn’t really feel much different than it had just moments ago, but there was something different about it, something forbidden.

Roman went with it.

It was that kind of morning, and it was going to be that kind of day.

For all he knew, he would be arrested by the afternoon, locked in Centralia South, likely sedated.

So he kept on like it didn’t matter anymore.

“Do you like that?” Coma asked.

Roman didn’t say anything; he merely watched his member move in and out of her ass.

A voice at the back of his head told him that sodomy didn’t matter, that she wasn’t real, that this wasn’t taboo. But his eyes didn’t necessarily vibe with his intellect, and it wasn’t long before he felt the urge to finish.

“I’m about to…”

“Do it inside me,” she said, and Roman obeyed her command.

His orgasm made his arms and legs tingle for a second; then it was over as quickly as it had started.

Coma slowly got off Roman, cupping her hand over her ass as she made her way to the restroom.

Roman stared up at the ceiling, remembering the crack on the ceiling of his bedroom in his garden apartment, back when he worked at the bodega. His situation had changed so much since then; now there was a possibility things were about to get a lot worse.

Figuring he should wash up, Roman also made his way to the restroom, where he found Coma making sure all his semen was out of her.

“It was a lot,” she said with a smile on her face.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” he told her.

“But you enjoyed it, right?”

He turned the shower on, placing his hand under the water.

“Do you mind?” she asked as he waited for the water to get warm.

“No, please.”

They showered together, Coma slowly cleaning Roman’s back, their forms barely visible in the steam from the hot water.

“I’m serious about later,” she said once Roman had turned to her, the water drumming against his back and shoulders.

“I don’t know…”

She began to rub her hands on his stomach and then down to his member, tugging on it and cleaning it as well.

“Just you and I should go in there. We can leave Celia in the hallway, Casper too.”

“How do you know there will be a hallway?”

Coma tilted her head as she looked up at him. “If they wanted to kill you or take you prisoner, they would have done it while you were sleeping. They would do something like drop poison in the room, or send in a high-level telepath, the one that was stronger than Miranda. But they didn’t. I was up all night standing by the door, ready. I know they didn’t do anything. This leads me to believe they’re just going to scold you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Or make you another offer.”

“You don’t know that.”

“And if they do try to do something, and I’m there…”

“Do you really think that’s what we should do?” he asked, moving closer to her.

“If we can get away from them, they can’t stop us. We can get in touch with Nadine, who can get us to the East. There must be other options. That’s just one I can think of off the top of my head.”

Roman watched some of the water splash under her chest, the droplets dripping down into the valley created by her breasts.

“Maybe.”

Coma brought her hand to Roman’s chin, settling his gaze on her. “There is no maybe. I need to know now: either we make a stand when the time comes, or you take the fall.”

Roman felt drenched in shame, even though no one at the Centralian Intelligence Agency knew what he had done. He couldn’t help but hang his head, the shame weighing down upon him.

And for what?

While everything was still fuzzy, he was well aware of the fact that what he did in the Eastern Province had been to help a friend, to aid Nadine. And like his other misdemeanor, the one in which he’d disobeyed a direct order and gone after Margo, Roman knew himself well enough to know he would probably do it again.

Coma was by his side, Ava a few steps in front of him.

Casper and Celia, much to Roman’s dismay, were with Jess and Miranda in the Western Province. Jess was healed now, but they wanted to wrap up a few more things, and Roman had been told to leave his dolls behind.

He had been instructed to leave Coma as well, but he had adamantly refused, and Ava hadn’t pressed the issue.

His former teacher hadn’t said much to him this morning, nor had Roman really spoken to her.

He figured she was still a little pissed that he had disobeyed a direct order last night in coming to the restaurant. What she likely hadn’t picked up was how disappointed Roman was with the part of herself she had displayed the previous night.

He was aware now that going after the serums was important, but the way she had responded to Jess’s injury was unsettling—careless even. If Miranda had noticed, she hadn’t said anything, and Roman couldn’t shake the feeling that he no longer recognized Ava.

The affection he had felt for his teacher for so long wasn’t gone. It had morphed into something else, a terrible thing of sheer nostalgia based on a few nights they’d spent together.

He barely noticed the famous Centralian Intelligence Agency statue in the middle of the courtyard, the arrow pointing downward. Roman didn’t give two shits about the way information was disseminated in his country.

He glanced at Coma. She nodded, her nostrils flaring open for a moment as a breeze picked up, making the ends of her dress dance.

As usual, she was in all black with her matching mask, his combat doll catching the eyes of a few passing agents.

They came to a male receptionist, who nodded to his left.

Rather than go up, they took a stairwell down this time, past an exemplar with purple dots over his eyes and static energy radiating off his shoulders.

Ava, Coma, and Roman came to a new hallway, the walls bare, everything spick-and-span, marble floor recently polished.

Roman followed his former teacher across the carved symbol representing the Centralian Intelligence Agency.

They passed a set of restrooms, turned down another hallway, and finally came to a room with double doors.

Ava opened one of the doors, allowing Roman and Coma to step in.

There was a single table in the room, Rafner seated on the other side.

He motioned toward a gray chair in front of him. Ava took a seat next to Rafner, and Coma stood off to Roman’s left. As usual, the man was dressed in dark clothing, his features even more pronounced this time now that he was clean-shaven, his nose and eye sockets casting shadows over his face.

“Roman Martin,” he said as a thin smile took shape on his face.

“I did what was asked of me.” Roman cut himself off just in time, not wanting to start the meeting off with a rambling soliloquy.

“It has come to my attention that there is now more information about your trip to the East,” Rafner began, offering Coma a tight grin before returning his smile to Roman. “Ava relayed your—or should I say your doll’s?—confession to me. Should we go over what your doll told her? Are there parts of it you would like to object to?”

“No.”

“So in exchange for the freedom of an Eastern spy known as Nadine Under, as well as a boy healer named Eli and an exemplar from the Northern Alliance named Lisa Painstake, you provided access to your ability. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

“And just for my own knowledge here, or should I say, to better understand your knowledge, you are aware that the Eastern Province is known for its ability to reverse engineer superpowers, correct?”

“I am aware.”

Roman could see Coma out of the corner of his eye, his combat doll standing with her fists at her sides, ready to engage.

“Well, Roman?” Rafner asked.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Roman realized he had zoned out for a moment, and in that time he’d also thought about what it would be like to break out of here, the speed at which he would have to move.

“I asked if you understood what this meant for national security, and if you can possibly comprehend what it would be like if the East is actually able to reverse engineer your ability. Well?”

“It would be bad.”

Rafner scoffed. “Bad? Is that all you can say?”

“I did what I did,” Roman started to say, “and while everything that happened in the East isn’t exactly clear to me now, I can tell you I had a reason for it, and that I believed in that reason. I’m aware that this is not enough, but it’s my honest answer.”

“Are you aware of what would happen to you if the knowledge of your actions left this room?” Rafner asked. “From what I’ve seen in the past when it came to this type of treason, you would be eligible for streamlined removal. Since you’re already at our headquarters…”

“I get it,” Roman told him.

“Good, just so you’re aware. And I am assuming that you have some plan as to how you would get out of here, correct? Perhaps you would use your doll here with her blade arms. You would probably be able to kill me, but would you be able to kill her?” he asked, nodding at Ava.

Roman locked eyes with his former teacher. He expected a look of determination, that same fire he always saw behind her eyes. Instead, he saw something he hadn’t expected: a sliver of fear.

“I don’t know,” Roman finally said.

“Perhaps you would be able to kill both of us,” Rafner said with a shrug. “And then you could move through the door, or up through the ceiling. But you don’t know what we have here; you don’t know who is above us, or in the room next to ours, or in the floor below, really. These are all unknown variables to you. You don’t have the power to know those types of things. You’re not a telepath, at least last I checked.”

“No, I’m not.”

“So you may take two people out with you, but you would not get out of here alive. If that idea has crossed your mind, I would suggest forgetting it now. You will not escape if you try, Roman.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I am a forgiving man, and as much as it pains her, Ava cares a lot about you; she has vouched for you since the start of the mission in Ravja. It was clever what you did, really, sending your small doll in to trail Kevin. We would have gotten him eventually, probably through the usage of Turquoise, but that is an unknown variable. So we will consider it speculation. You did what I asked you to do; you accomplished your mission.”

“Thank you,” Roman said, now trying to figure out what Rafner was hinting at, what he was about to say.

He had to be prepared, even if it meant…

Roman glanced at Ava, who was now unable to make eye contact with him.

He swallowed hard.

Even if it meant killing her.

No. He would have to do something else to Ava. Perhaps break her limbs so she couldn’t pursue him. They had access to a healing serum now—he couldn’t kill her. Rafner? Roman didn’t give a flying fuck about the man, but he couldn’t do it to Ava.

And perhaps Rafner was bluffing, perhaps there wasn’t someone waiting for him to rebel. And even if there was, how was the man sitting in front of them so sure Roman would be able to make it through?

Roman had always been a fighter; he had always bitten off more than he could chew. Maybe he would make it out alive.

Maybe.

Roman returned his focus to Rafner.

“I believe there’s only one option here,” Rafner told him firmly. “Well, there’s always more than one option, but only one that will allow us to look past this. Now, you can decline this option, and if you do, you will die here today.”

“Let me go after Margo.”

“Yes, that is one option, but not one I am prepared to offer you, even if I agree that it would benefit the world. She has been searching for you, if you didn’t know already. Margo destroyed the bodega you worked at and killed everyone there.”

Roman felt his muscles tense. “She did?”

“Do you remember the illegal immigrant you were having relations with? The one from the Northern Alliance?”

Roman felt that shame again, as if Ava were staring him down.

“Yes,” was all he could manage to say.

“Margo has killed her and is now using her body.”

“Margo killed Catherine?” Roman asked, recalling the messages he had received.

Rafner nodded.

“But why?”

“Why does Margo kill anyone?”

“Catherine was sending me messages while I was in the West, asking me to meet. Except this time, she was sending them through one of those messaging services.”

“That would have been an interesting meeting for you,” Rafner said. “Anyway, that’s just so you know not to meet with her going forward and maintain vigilance at all times. We’re still contemplating the best way to handle Margo.”

“Why is it so hard to figure out what to do with her?”

“Who says we want to kill her?”

“Come again?” Roman asked.

“I’m sure Ava here has told you that there are things you know and things you don’t need to know.”

“Why won’t you let me go after her?”

“Because we don’t…” Rafner folded his hands together. “Let’s get to what we need you to do. Our motives aren’t what’s important at the moment.”

Roman nodded. “What could you possibly want me to do?”

“You have been to the Eastern Province, and even though you don’t remember it…”

“I get it,” Roman said, cutting him off. “I did something I shouldn’t have done. What do you want me to do?”

Rafner smiled firmly. “We need you to perform another streamlined removal.”

“Shit…” Roman started to say.

“Aren’t you curious who we want you to remove?” Rafner asked.

“Who now?”

“Nadine Under.”

Roman stopped himself from gasping. “Nadine?”

“Your mission has several parts to it. One, we want you to locate Eli the boy healer. If you can locate Lisa as well, that will be helpful, but not necessary. Two, we want you to remove Nadine. We have already attempted this, and we believe it will only get harder from here. But coming from you, a known and trusted source—that should make this assignment relatively easy.”

“Fuck,” Roman said through gritted teeth.

“Fuck, indeed,” Rafner told him. “Handle Nadine, and your transgressions in the East will never leave this room. They will disappear. No record of them, nor will they be used again as leverage. You are the one that is most equipped to kill her, especially considering she trusts you. There is a third component to this: before killing her, we need you to learn what you can about what it is they have done with your power in the East, whether they have been able to reverse engineer it in any way. This may require you going to the East with Nadine. If so, you have clearance to do so. Are there any questions?”

Roman glanced at Coma, trying to hide the frown on his face. Finally, he shook his head.

“Great. You are free to go, Roman. Ava will escort you to temporary housing, where you will find your other dolls. I don’t think this is going to be a very difficult assignment, to be honest. It’s not like you’re going after an exemplar.”

The walls trembled, Roman barely able to stop himself from using his power on Rafner.

“Is there something else you would like to say?” Rafner asked, tilting his head at Roman as the walls stopped shaking.

“No.”

Roman stood, his head still bowed. He walked to the door of the room and tried not to slam it shut behind him.

A message came in from Nadine, and he ignored it.

The end.

Back of the Book Content

Another installment of House of Dolls comes to a close, and there will be one more book after this one.

If you’ve made it this far in the series, please be sure to review the first book.

I’ll wait. Hell, you may even want to go on a review marathon, which I welcome and encourage:

House of Dolls 1 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls

House of Dolls 2 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls2

House of Dolls 3 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls3

House of Dolls 4 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls4

The reason I ask is because the first book is generally how people gauge whether they’ll get into the series or not. Of course, review this book as well, as that is monstrously helpful.

You may have missed it, but I released a prequel to the House of Dolls series that stars Margo, Orange and a few other familiar faces (no spoilers). The House of Dolls prequel is called Child of Chaos.

Child of Chaos takes place ten years before House of Dolls, during the Western Plague (vampire epidemic) in the Western Province. It is available in print, ebook and audiobook:

https://geni.us/ChildofChaos

I encourage you to read Child of Chaos. It will really make some of the hints in this book, as well as some of the reasoning behind Margo and Orange’s actions more apparent. It also is my favorite book that takes place in this world, with House of Dolls 4 as a second in that ranking.

Finally, I do have something in the works that is in the same dark vein of House of Dolls. It is called Pilgrim, and it will be released, I believe, starting in the spring of 2020. Think of it as a John Wick Wuxia trilogy heavy on darkness, action, vengeance and killer scenes.

Be sure to look for that.

Thanks for the love and support and reviews. I couldn’t do this, or write books about a guy animating sex dolls without you.

Yours in sanity,

Harmon Cooper
www.harmoncooper.com

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Other Books by Harmon Cooper

I have written over fifty books. Here are some of the highlights!

A man becomes the grim reaper and introduces game mechanics to the role. DO NOT miss this book.

https://geni.us/DeathsMantle

My first cultivation novel about a monk, a bird and a drifter from Massachusetts karmically fighting their way through a world based on Bhutanese, Mongolian, and Tibetan landscapes and literature.

https://geni.us/Way-of-the-Immortals

My best-selling Superhero Harem Adventure about a sci-fi writer and the superpowered women who are trying to kill him. Fun content, adult read!

https://geni.us/CherryBlossomGirls1

A fantasy harem adventure inspired by Pokemon Go!, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and the Persona family of video games. Check out this Amazon best seller!

https://geni.us/MonsterHuntNYC

What if Ready Player One was a multi-part epic? Gritty LitRPG action, gamer humor, fantastic fantasy worlds, and a killer MC.

(This one is related to Monster Hunt NYC)

https://geni.us/TheLoop

If you love dark fantasy, RPGs, Witcher, Punisher, or Mad Max, you'll love this powerful gamer trilogy about a man and his wolf companion.

https://geni.us/LastWarrior

Tokyo, Japan meets online fantasy gaming and South Park-styled humor. Yakuza, goblins, action, intrigue - add this book to your inventory list!

(This one is related to Monster Hunt NYC)

https://geni.us/FICK