“Jesus…” muttered Malcolm.
“She could still feel my emotions while I was in there,” said Melt. “She’d talk to me. Mess with my head. Do whatever she could to get an emotional response out of me. It was like a… sexual thing for her, I think.”
Melt scratched the side of his neck and blinked a few times in quick succession.
“That’s… heavy,” said Malcolm.
“Two months is a long time…” said Melt. “She fucked me up. Boy, did that bitch fuck me up.”
He slapped the steering wheel and then gripped it tight enough to make his fingers turn white.
“She had me thinking…” Melt shook his head. “Fuck, I don’t even know what she had me thinking.”
“What happened, in the end?” asked Malcolm.
“Greenthumb found where she’d been keeping me,” he said. “Ben’s a good guy, but not a good killer. He managed to get me free, but the bitch got away.”
Melt turned to stare at Malcolm, again ignoring the road as though crashing the truck was only a minor concern for him.
“How many innocent people do you think are out there, right now, being held or tortured?” asked Melt. “Greenthumb knew I’d been captured, and still, it took him two months to find me. And he had the power of the Champion Authority helping him look…”
Malcolm frowned and gave a small shake of his head.
“That must have been pretty awful,” he said.
“You’re damn fucking right it was.”
Malcolm didn’t know what else to say. Melt was volatile, and it felt like any words he could offer would only risk setting the other man off. He endured the rest of the trip in silence.
CHAPTER 30
The church looked different from when he’d first seen it. The stain glass window that Malcom had shattered was covered by a large tarp. The effect was that the church blended in to the more decrepit buildings surrounding it.
The other difference was that there were few people heading in or out. It looked abandoned, at least currently. Malcolm frowned, watching it from the dilapidated storefront across the street alongside Melt.
“This is a waste of time,” muttered Melt.
Malcolm shook his head.
“I disagree,” he said. “Odds are, they’ve taken precautions since I escaped, but they wouldn’t just abandon this place completely.
“You said that this wasn’t their base,” said Melt. “You said it was just a front for recruitment.”
“I didn’t use those words, exactly,” said Malcolm. “It’s a church. And they do have a flock of true believers. To them, this building is sacred.”
“Bah,” muttered Melt. “Waste of time.”
Malcolm watched the church, feeling like something was off about the situation. Between Rain Dancer’s brashness and Shield Maiden’s intelligence, he was almost sure that they would have destroyed the church if they weren’t planning on coming back to it.
I don’t think they’d want to leave any clues, even if it was just the hair and fingerprints of their followers.
“This is taking too long!” snapped Melt.
“Relax,” said Malcolm. “The plan is solid. We just need to be patient.”
“Fuck patient,” said Melt. “We’re going inside.”
He took a step toward the open doorway of the storefront. Malcolm grabbed Melt by the arm. Melt scowled, dissolving his shoulder and reforming it as soon as he was loose again.
“Melt!” hissed Malcolm.
Melt was already sprinting across the street. He didn’t stop at the church’s door, immediately transforming into dark red goo and sliding under the crack.
Malcolm followed him, swearing under his breath every step of the way. Rain Dancer and Shield Maiden would have been stupid to not leave someone watching the church, and by heading inside first, Malcolm and Melt had given their opponents exactly what they wanted.
He reached the church’s door and, deciding to forgo stealth, knocked it open with a wind assisted kick. Light streamed into an otherwise pitch black room, perfectly illuminating the center aisle between the pews.
Malcolm walked forward slowly, frowning as he noticed that tarps had been hung in front of all the windows, not just the one he’d broken. Melt reformed a short distance away from him. The hairs on the back of Malcolm’s neck stood up as he connected the dots.
“No…” he muttered.
Shadow tendrils appeared from underneath benches and within dark corners, seizing both Malcolm and Melt. Melt immediately slid free using his power. Malcolm was paralyzed, not by the bonds, but his own despair.
“Monster!” shouted Melt. “Die!”
Rose appeared from behind a bench, a dark expression on her face. Melt charged toward her, slamming his foot forward into a front kick. Rose used her shadow tendrils to deflect the attack, spinning past him and attacking his face with claws made of darkness. Melt dissolved as the blow landed.
Malcolm just stared, paralyzed by indecision. He couldn’t help Rose without attacking Melt. He couldn’t fight Rose without… fighting Rose. His heart pounded with concern and the weight of impending loss. There was no good ending to the encounter, not this time.
You knew this would happen, eventually. From the first moment you brought her back to your apartment.
“Wind Runner!” shouted Melt. “Don’t just stand there, you fool!”
Malcolm twisted free of the shadow tendrils, noticing that they were loose and weak. It was as though Rose hadn’t intended to hold him for more than just show. Did she expect him to come to her defense? To save her in her time of need, a gallant knight fighting for the sake of a dark, sultry princess?
“”Don’t…” said Malcolm, forcing the words out. “We can’t win, Melt.”
Already, the fight looked like a computer generated scene in an action movie. Rose was attacked by Melt from a dozen different angles, and each time, the champion dissolved his way past each strike, reforming his body with surreal ease.
It was an over the top display of their powers, and Malcolm knew that it couldn’t go on forever. The body load of using a super ability at this intensity would make it hard for at least one of them, if not both, to keep focus. Malcolm could already see the signs of it in Rose. The frenzied darkness wrapped tighter around her body, and her eyes had turned into spheres of onyx in their sockets.
“Fight her, you coward!” screamed Melt. He twisted, dodging a shadow tendril in the shape of grappling hook and reached into his coat. His hand came out holding a gun.
Malcolm was there in an instant, throwing himself between Melt and Rose with the wind. A single shot rang out, the bullet going wide into the ceiling. The sound of it brought the fight to a pause for a moment, with both Melt and Rose staring at Malcolm in disbelief.
“No,” said Malcolm. “Fight’s over…”
“Malcolm…” whispered Rose.
“What is wrong with you?” screamed Melt. “Kill her!”
“No!” said Malcolm. “She… isn’t evil. It’s not right, Melt.”
Malcolm knew that he’d said too much. Melt stared at him as though he’d just admitted to murder. The gun came back up in Melt’s hand. Malcolm rushed to push Rose out of the way, but Melt pulled the trigger faster than he could.
Rose let out a high-pitched scream as the bullet struck her. She grasped her shoulder, falling down onto one knee. Malcolm took a step toward her and was slapped back by a massive shadow tendril. When Rose looked back up at him, her eyes were jet black, and black lines were spreading across the skin of her face like a spider web.
“Monster!” Melt took aim a third time, but a shadow tendril seized his arm before he could fire. He let out a scream of pain as the tendril twisted, breaking his arm before he could dissolve.