“No,” she said. “It’s okay. Be a good host for her. I’ll wait for you in your bedroom for when the two of you are… finished.”
Malcolm rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” he said. “It’s not like that between us. Besides, weren’t you just complaining about the illusion spryte a minute ago?”
Rose pulled herself up and off Malcolm’s lap, to his disappointment.
“I told you, I only get jealous when it comes to other sprytes,” said Rose. “I don’t consider normal women, even champions, to be much of a threat.”
Malcolm gave a shrug, and Rose licked her lips. She waved her hand, summoning several strands of darkness that formed into a set of feminine hands and a pair of luscious lips. They started rubbing his crotch, the lips poised right in front of his bulge as though preparing smother his erection to climax.
“Point taken,” said Malcolm. “This shouldn’t take long. Are you going to be okay in the meantime, given that, uh, you haven’t had your focus activity today?”
Lamest euphemism for sex ever.
“I’ll manage,” said Rose. “And don’t worry… I’ll leave the lingerie on.”
There was a knock at Malcolm’s door. Rose immediately vanished into the shadows of his room. Malcolm stood up, adjusted his sweatpants to minimize the obviousness of his package, and let Tapestry inside.
She almost ran into his apartment. She had on a leather jacket, jeans, and what looked like cowboy boots. She looked him over and frowned at his state of readiness.
“Are you serious?” asked Tapestry. “Why aren’t you ready?”
“Ready…?” Malcolm frowned at her. “For what?”
“We don’t have time!” she snapped. “Just put shoes on and come as you are.”
“Hold on, just let me-”
“Malcolm!” Tapestry looked at him seriously. “It’s the heat demon! I got a report from one of the Champion Authority’s informants saying that he was heading out of town, toward the old coal mine.”
This could be my chance.
“Let’s go.” Malcolm grabbed the sweatshirt he’d lent to Rose earlier and threw it on. He followed Tapestry downstairs and out to her BMW, barely getting into the passenger seat before she peeled out of her parking spot.
“Here.” She passed the BMW’s aux cord over to him.
“What?”
“Put your music on!” she said. “You’re going to need to be at full strength for this.”
Malcolm shrugged and plugged in his phone.
Nine Inch Nails should work well enough as a chorus to battle, right?
“We’re going to have to play this carefully,” said Tapestry. “Malcolm, my powers haven’t fully recovered yet. I won’t be able to regenerate if I get hit.”
“You’re serious?” He blinked, realizing what that meant. “Tapestry, no offense, but what can you do without your regeneration?”
“Shoot a gun,” she said. “Here, I have an extra for you, too.”
She pulled open the center dash and brought out a pistol, which she passed over to Malcolm. His hand rested on hers as he accepted it, and felt a tingle as he absorbed her power. Malcolm pretended to be examining the weapon as he made a mental note to work on controlling his secondary ability more effectively.
The roads were mostly clear of other cars, and Tapestry only followed the speed limit until they reached the outskirts of town. As soon as they were on the open road, she floored it. It didn’t take long for the handiwork of their quarry to come into view.
Vanderbrook’s coal mine had basically been a massive, dirty hole in the ground not far from town. It’d never achieved all that much output, and the owner had abandoned it long before the coal was completely tapped out.
Malcolm could see it, or what it had once been, in the distance. A massive fire burned in the pit’s center, making the hole look like the site of an asteroid impact. The intensity of it reminded him of staring into the sun, and the car began to heat up as they drew closer.
Of course. Heat demon sets a fire there, absorbs more heat than he could find practically anywhere else.
“We’ll ditch the car here,” said Tapestry. “Our goal is to scout this out, Malcolm. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” he said, reluctantly. “But if I see a chance to get a shot off, I’m taking it. Tapestry, I have to.”
“Don’t be stupid!” she snapped. “I don’t have my powers right now, and your wind manipulation is practically useless against something like this. And as much as having a gun gives me peace of mind, I would be shocked if our bullets made it through that inferno without melting.”
Malcolm nodded. The two of them got out of the car, and he was a little surprised to see Tapestry immediately take off at full sprint. He set the wind on his back and caught up with her easily enough.
“Here!” he shouted. “Lengthen your strides!”
She did, and he extended the range of his ability, carrying her with him as they ran at high speed across the grass field, toward the coal mine inferno. Malcolm squinted and could just barely make out a shape at the center of the fire, arms pulled to the side, chest angled upward.
“Get down!” Tapestry threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him flat to the ground. The heat demon had just moved slightly. He let his arms fall and slowly turned in a circle, scanning the lip of the hole. If he saw them, he made no sign of it.
Malcolm’s forehead was slick with sweat from the heat of the flames. He wiped it away, frowning as he thought about what they were supposed to do to counter their opponent.
“His weakness has to be water, right?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said Tapestry. “Maybe water, maybe cold. Those might only be functional weaknesses to him. We have no way of knowing.”
The heat demon turned suddenly, looking right at them. Tapestry froze.
“He can see us,” said Malcolm.
“No, I don’t think he can,” she replied.
The heat demon pulled his hand back. Both Malcolm and Tapestry stood up and tried to back out of the way, but it was too late. The demon releases a massive blast of flame in their direction, a fireball the size of a small car.
“Tapestry!” Malcolm saw the path of the blast and knew where it was headed. She was looking away from it, and it was too late for her to react.
Malcolm did the only thing he could do. Hitting himself hard from the side with a blast of wind, he threw himself into her, pushing her clear of fireball. It hit him instead, and felt every inch of his skin erupt with nerve searing pain before it became too much, and he blacked out.
CHAPTER 30
“Mom!” shouted Malcolm. “Danny!”
The house had been burning for a while. The only shards of smoldering wood that weren’t black and white with char and ash were the ones blown loose into the street. Even as a young teenager, he’d known that no mere fire had caused the destruction before him.
“Danny!” he shouted. “Mom!”
His throat was already hoarse from calling to them. The remnants of the family home were still giving off heat, even if the core fire had long since burned out. The ash hid hot coals underneath. Malcolm dug through it anyway, burning his hands.
He thought that if he could yell a little louder, or dig through in just the right spot, he could find them. He’d find them, and they’d be fine. Or alternatively, he’d find them, and then wake up. They couldn’t be dead, regardless of what lay in front of him.
Police cars and emergency vehicles flew down the street, making a mockery of his situation by passing right by him. He wanted to believe that it was a good sign, that maybe they knew something that he didn’t. He was crying, but there was too much ash caked on his hands for him to trust wiping the tears away.