King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (19 page)

“Ah. I do feel
an unusual charm about him.”

She rose from her chair and turned toward them for
the first time. Her eyes were coated with a thick milky white substance. She
was blind.

Jeff sucked in
his breath.

Mystic had no
reaction.

“
Señora
, Blaze has a few unusual abilities. I believe you’d
be happy to add him to your student population.”

Señora
Valdez nodded. “His power is his conflict. I feel
weighted and weightless, warmth and coolness, brightness and darkness within
him.”

She moved
toward them so gracefully it seemed she floated. “What is this light you have
within you? I have never felt such a thing before.”

“I’m not sure
to which ability you refer, Senora,” Jeff said.

“Electric, blue, alive.”
Her chin lifted as if she watched
the ability dancing through the air.

“Oh, you mean
the blue flame.” Jeff gathered a small amount of magnesium into his hand and
ignited it.

Señora
Valdez seemed to look directly at it through the
milky film. “It is so alive. Your abilities are so much a part of you. Do you
tire quickly?”

“Sometimes,”
Jeff admitted. He knew this academy didn’t have Source. He was almost ready to
leave. “
Señora
, you mentioned darkness. I have not
discovered
an ability
for darkness.”

“I suspect you
will continue to have a difficult time finding it. It is deep within you and
you avoid exploring your depths.”
Señora
Valdez
turned away and floated back toward the fire. “We do not have what you are
looking for here.”

Mystic bowed
her head. “We thank you for your consideration,
Señora
.”

Jeff and
Señora
Valdez turned to stare at Mystic.

Mystic’s mouth
fell open when she realized what she’d just done. Frustration and fear clouded
her eyes as she stared accusingly at Jeff.

Señora
shifted her cloudy gaze toward Jeff. “You are
powerful, young man. But until you explore your depths you will be volatile.”

Mystic spun on
her heel and marched to the door.

Jeff wanted to
ask what the woman meant, but he needed to stay with Mystic. He jogged out of
the room after her. When he caught up with her, tears balanced on the rims of
her eyes. Jeff stumbled at the sight of them.

“Are you okay?”
he asked.

“Don’t talk to
me.”

“Look, I really
appreciate what you’ve done to help me.”

“Stop talking!”

“Mystic, I’m
trying to say I’m sorry.”

Mystic skidded
to a halt. “Polar, you’ve got to stop talking. Every time you talk my heart
aches more and more. Just shut up.”

Jeff stood
there flapping his mouth like a fish out of water. Finally he nodded.

He remained
silent all the way home.

Chapter 24

Frank
Tohler
looked anything but Chill. Face flushed and pacing,
he spun on Jeff as soon as they walked through the door. “Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry if
you were worried,
Chill
,” Mystic said. Tears sprang to
her eyes. She growled in frustration and stormed out of the lobby.

“What the hell
was that?” Frank’s mouth hung agape.

Jeff sighed.
“It seems my abilities project onto people the longer they’re around me. Mystic
is thanking and apologizing to everyone she sees.”

Frank raised
his eyebrows. “You can make villains nice?”

“Apparently.”

Frank laughed.
“That’s a good one. We’ll have to figure out how to develop that one.”

Jeff gawked at
his dad. “You think that’s good?”

“Heck yeah!
Nothing like stopping a
competing villain in his tracks by making him
care
about the
consequences of what he does.
It’s classic.” Disdain dripped from the
word “care”.

“But, Dad, I do
care.”

Frank cocked
his head. “I don’t understand.”

Jeff ran his
hands through his hair. “I’ve got an ever increasing good side to me that I’m
having a hard time controlling. So now I care if I hurt someone’s feelings.”

Frank’s brow
scrunched and he looked up at the ceiling.

“Dad, I can’t
intentionally hurt someone.”

Frank leapt
back as though he’d been struck. “You mean you’ve turned into a white hat?”

Jeff shrugged
helplessly.

“No, no, no.
I’m sure you’re mistaken. You just need more direct training. We’ll help you
control it.” Frank had a casual smile on his face.

The temperature
in the room warmed slightly and Jeff caught a subtle scent of sea salt and
heard the faint cry of seagulls. His muscles relaxed. “You’re right, Dad. I
just need some training.”

Back in his
room, the tension returned and Jeff realized that his dad had chilled him. He
mumbled aloud, “Dad, you’re just prolonging the inevitable.”

Discouraged,
Jeff flopped onto his bed and stared up at the shadowed ceiling. He’d had a
reputation for being a bad kid his entire life. This unexpected goodness was as
disconcerting to him as it was to Mystic or his dad. Jeff didn’t really want to
be good. But he didn’t want to be all bad either. What he really wanted was to
find a happy medium. He tried to think of an example of a person he knew that
had a healthy balance of good and bad, but all he could think of were people
who were either bad or good. The two didn’t seem to exist together equally. One
had to rule.

And what about Source?
If he wasn’t at either of the Mexican
academies, where was he?

And what was
the darkness that Senora Valdez referred to? She was right to say Jeff didn’t
explore his depths. He was scared to death to explore his depths. What if all
he found was goodness?

The very
corners of his ceiling were so dark, he couldn’t see into them, but the further
away from the corner to the center of the room he looked, the lighter it got.
Though the bulb of the overhead light wasn’t particularly bright, staring
directly at it made his eyes water.
Like Mystic’s just had?
Was he a bright light to her? There were too many questions that Jeff was
afraid to find answers to. He couldn’t ignore them much longer though. Tomorrow
he’d have to attend classes and more than likely it would become very obvious
that he had an unfortunate and growing good streak in him.

Jeff drifted
off to sleep. In his dreams he swam into his own dark depths under black skies.
Beautiful neon fish lit his way and grotesque sharks with cutting teeth snapped
at him. Suddenly he stood on an unfamiliar shore. Wet, coarse sand stretched
into an immense darkness. Two figures approached from opposite sides. Both
appealed to him though for different reasons. When they got close enough, Jeff
recognized Mystic and Oceanus. Though the sand he stood on felt heavy and thick
under his feet, a cloud of sand swirled and danced through the air around
Mystic, clouding his view of her. Oceanus strode toward him her eyes sparkling
and mischievous. The waters of his depths lapped upon the shore and sprayed a
cool, refreshing mist upon him that smelled like Oceanus, fresh sea breeze and
lavender.

Jeff looked
from Oceanus to Mystic. Mystic blended into the darkness of his depths; Oceanus
appeared to glow, as if backlit from a mysterious source.

All the
darkness began to brighten.

The girls
faded. The depths seemed to lighten and disappear. Jeff felt as if he floated
up and out of the place he now wanted to stay and explore.

He blinked
awake. He pounded the bed and roared in frustration. His dream told him
something, but the wispy thoughts fluttered away before he could make sense of
them. Flipping off the overhead light, he curled onto his side and tried to
recapture what he knew was lost.

* * * *

The next
morning Jeff walked into the cafeteria to grab breakfast. As usual, when he
entered the room, the clanking of silverware, the bustle of kids in line, and
all conversation stopped. Jeff looked around. Hundreds of gazes, mostly hostile,
were trained on him.

Jeff rolled his
eyes and walked to the end of the food line. Still no one moved so Jeff walked
to the front of the line, grabbed a tray, orange juice, and a pack of powdered
doughnuts. He turned on his charm and asked the cook for waffles. She fluttered
and bustled around giddily until she handed him a plate piled high with fresh,
steaming waffles. Jeff winked at her and continued down the line. The people
behind him requested food again and slowly the room gained its previous
momentum. By the time Jeff grabbed his silverware, butter, syrup and milk, the
room was fully active again.

When he turned
to find a table he realized that everybody was talking about him. Some kids
tried to be less obvious with pseudo-covert, sideways glances and
conspicuous
whispers made more obvious
because they were hidden behind
hands.
Others stared or pointed directly at him. Jeff looked around for a nice empty place
to sit and found one in the center of the room. Just as well, he thought.
Perhaps they’d get over him faster if they had the opportunity to gawk and talk
openly.

He did his best to ignore the fishbowl effect
he felt sitting alone in the middle of a room full of kids watching him and
gossiping about him. He wondered if it would always be like this because his
dad was the big cheese. Maybe the kids would always stay an arms length away.
Maybe Jeff wouldn’t last long enough to find out. He suspected none of the
teachers were going to want to help him squash his good side, especially if
they were spouting “please” and “thank you” while they did it.

Jeff shoveled the last of his waffles into
his mouth and washed it down with the last of the milk. When he stood to leave,
the room temporarily hushed again. Jeff dreaded his first classroom and
prospect of embarrassing himself and his dad when he failed to be bad enough.

Jeff dumped his tray and headed to his dad’s
office.

He knocked on the door to the anteroom as he
opened it. Hans looked annoyed at first, but jumped to his feet and bowed his
head as soon as he recognized Jeff.

“What can I do for you this morning, sir?”

“Sir?”
Jeff scoffed. “I’m no sir.”

Hans didn’t reply, simply stood with his head
down, staring at the floor,
waiting
.

“I want to talk to my dad,” Jeff said as he
strode across the room.

“He’s not in yet, sir.” Hans’ voice quavered
as if he feared the result of having to break such unpleasant news. His hands
shook at his sides.

“When does he usually get in?” Jeff asked.

“9:00 a.m., sir.”

“But I’ll be in class then.” Jeff sighed. He
looked around the little office. A framed picture of his dad shaking hands with
someone Jeff didn’t recognize hung on the wall. A rag rug, like the one in the
entryway of their house, lay on the floor in front of his dad’s office door.
“That’s it!”

“Excuse me?” Hans’ eyes darted up to meet
Jeff’s momentarily.

“I’ll just go home.” Jeff smiled and slapped
Hans on the back. “Thanks for your help, dude.”

The school was a long way from his house.
Jeff wondered how his dad got back and forth. Unfortunately the only way Jeff
could get home was to run. And he had to run fast if he hoped to catch his dad.

The extensive
physical training at S.V.A. had helped Jeff improve his speed and endurance
beyond anything he’d ever imagined. He was able to cover the sixty or so miles
in forty minutes. But as soon as he came to a halt in front of his home, he
knew he’d missed his dad.

Standing on the
front lawn staring at the house he hadn’t seen in just under a year knotted his
stomach in an unexpected way. At once Jeff felt both homesick and glad to be
away. He smirked at the shutter hanging askew that his dad had been promising
to fix for years. He frowned at the strange jittery sensation that churned in
his stomach when he looked at his parents’ bedroom window. He climbed up to his
own window. It slid upward with no hesitation. He climbed into the room,
careful not to knock over the mementos someone, probably Mother, had put on the
footlocker. The room had been cleaned. Jeff gnawed the inside of his cheek,
fighting the instant guilt he felt imagining his mother picking up all the
clothes and broken guitar strings Jeff had flung on his floor. He picked up the
stuffed alligator he’d won at a fair and had always dreamt of giving to Tammy
Jenner and looked around. Here in his room, Jeff felt right. This was always
his safe spot. No one bothered him when he was in here. The jitters faded.

“Freeze, bad guy!”

Startled, Jeff
dropped the stuffed alligator. The alligator disintegrated in a laser blast;
the smell of burnt synthetics filled the room. Jeff looked up and Sandra stood
in the doorway, hands raised menacingly toward him. Their surprised gazes
locked.

“Jeff!”

“Sandra?” they
said at the same time.

“What are you
doing here?” Sandra asked.

It didn’t
escape Jeff’s notice that Sandra had not relaxed her stance. “I live here.
What’s with the laser tag?”

Sandra
chuckled.

Jeff chuckled.

Sandra laughed.
Dropped her hands and leaned against the door jam.

Jeff only
chuckled, still too freaked out to think anything was that funny. The nervous
anxiety was again shaking his stomach like a snow globe.