Super Villain Academy 2: Polar Opposites (27 page)

Her gaze penetrated so deeply he felt it stir the butterflies in his stomach. She wasn’t right though. There wasn’t an opposite for everything in Jeff. Was there? “No.”

“We’ll see.” She stood up, dragging his arm with her. He thought about resisting, but knew it would just postpone the inevitable. Eventually, he’d have to go inside and see what surprises Mystic had for him if he ever wanted to collect Oceanus.

She refused to let go of his hand, so eyebrows were raised when the two of them approached the guttering cactus like a love-struck couple.

“Mysty.” Sarah dipped her chin in acknowledgement.

“Mrs. Mean.” Mystic dug the toe of her boot into the ground. “Mr. Mean.”

Frank glared at Mystic. When he finally replied, his voice was the coldest Jeff had ever heard. “Your mother is worried about you.”

Mystic closed her eyes and nodded.

“I’m going in,” Jeff said. He wanted to yank his hand out of Mystic’s grasp, but she wrapped both hands tight around his when Frank gave her the cold shoulder.

Sandra sputtered. “You’re what?”

“Do you think that’s wise?” Source asked.

Jeff shrugged. “I need to see Oceanus. She’ll let me.” He swung his head in Mystic’s direction.

“What were all those hoops we jumped through to get here?” Set asked, squinting between Jeff and Mystic. “Why would she bother to booby trap miles of desert and then throw open the doors?”

Jeff turned his gaze to Mystic.

She pulled his hand and stepped closer so that she was pressed tight against his arm and the hand she clasped. “Most of those were in place before I brought her here. Um, turns out I didn’t need them.”

Set frowned.

“Whoever wants to go can join me,” Jeff said, turning toward the elevator. He shook loose of Mystic as he forged ahead, and thought he caught a look of annoyance, or maybe anger, cross her face.

Chapter 41

The underground portion of the complex was full, so Mystic had the visitors settled into the house above ground. Jeff waited nervously in a bedroom for Oceanus. The room he was in was so drab that it actually annoyed him. He’d feel better surrounded by color and warmth, but instead, the eggshell walls and ecru quilt made him feel institutionalized. Nothing hung on the walls. Only a lamp, with an off-white shade, sat on the bedside table.

A soft knock made his stomach drop. He gulped before pulling the door open. Oceanus looked up at him with wide eyes, her hands balled up inside the pockets of her shorts. He drank in her dramatic coloring; black hair, turquoise eyes, ruby lips, as if it could quench the thirst left by the stark room. Relief flooded through him making his knees weak. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. He luxuriated in his senses filling with her scent and the feel of her pressed against him.

“Oci,” he whispered into her silken hair. “I’ve been so worried.”

He drew her closer, her face buried in his chest. He loved that his arms could wrap all the way around her and halfway around himself. He liked to clasp his hands on her arms as they encircled his waist, but finding nothing to hold, he hooked his fingers through his own belt loops.

“Uh.” Oceanus’ voice was muffled against his shirt.

He felt the vibration in his chest and quirked a satisfied smile, leaning his cheek against her head, though he had to hunch awkwardly to get low enough to do so. Why hadn’t she tipped her mouth up for a kiss? He couldn’t wait to taste her sweet lips.

“I can’t breathe,” she said.

“Oops,” Jeff chuckled. He hadn’t realized how tightly he held her against him. He’d trapped her hands between them so that she couldn’t hug him, and of course she couldn’t tilt her head when she was plastered to him. He loosened his grip enough to release her hands.

Instead of wrapping her arms around him, she pressed them against his chest until she pushed free of his embrace entirely. She sprang away from him and looked at the door like she was considering making a run for it.

“Um.” Jeff scanned her hunched posture, the hands twirling her watch around her wrist until it seemed to leave a red welt. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head and looked somewhere in the region of his knee. Still turned halfway toward the door, she just continued shaking her head.

Jeff frowned. He’d never seen Oceanus look so nervous and timid. Dread kickstarted his heart in the rapid beat of a prey animal. “I don’t understand.”

Oceanus closed her eyes and whispered, “Polar, I’m sorry.”

* * * *

Lying on the nondescript quilt in the bland room, Jeff replayed those five minutes in his head again and again, remembering how she’d only looked directly at him when he’d first opened the door, recalling her stiff posture when he’d pulled her into him, and agonizing over her initial look of fear and her final look of pity and relief. Why he was torturing himself, he didn’t know; it wasn’t going to change the outcome, and rehashing the tiniest details broke his heart into splintery, small shards.

A quick knock on the door was followed by, “Lovebirds, time to eat.”

“Go away,” Jeff growled.

The door swung open, and a grinning Sandra poked her head in. “That doesn’t sound like a happily reunited couple to me.”

Her voice trailed off. She and Source stepped into the room. “Where’s Oci?”

Hot, bitter anger surged up Jeff’s throat like bile. “She dumped me.”

Sandra blinked.

Source blurted, “What?”

Suddenly, the urge to set the room on fire consumed Jeff. He eyed the light gray curtains and conjured a ball of fire in his palm.

Source sprang forward and placed a hand on Jeff’s arm. “Polar, what happened?”

“Did you not hear me the first time?” Jeff spat. He tossed the fireball into the air and caught it again. “She dumped me. Said it just wasn’t working out. Changed her mind. Some other generic bull like that.”

Sarah stopped in the doorway. “Are you kids coming to dinner?”

Frank peeked into the room over her shoulder.

“Where’s Oci?” Sarah’s gaze scanned the room and settled on the blazing ball in Jeff’s hand. “What’s that for? Jeff, what happened?”

For some reason, having to admit his failed love life to Mother made things a thousand times worse. Whether she gave him a pep talk about how things would be all right in the end or if she chose the tough love approach telling him to suck it up and stop acting like a baby, he was going to feel small and worthless. Very, very worthless.

Sandra whispered the answer, as if saying it louder would make it truer. “Oceanus broke up with him”

Sarah’s eyes sparked with anger. “What?”

Jeff almost dropped his fireball.

“After crossing a minefield and fending off a stampede for her, she dumped you?” Sarah’s fists clenched. “That ungrateful little bitch.”

She twirled on her heel and stalked to the door. Frank caught her by the shoulders and held her back. “Whoa there, mama bear. This isn’t something you can fight with super powers.”

Sarah glared at her husband and fought against his grip. “I can slap her!”

Jeff chuckled, then laughed. His fire absorbed back into his hand, and his laughter grew until finally, he doubled over clutching his side. When he could stand straight, he walked over to his mother and hugged her. Still laughing, he hugged her until she finally hugged him back. “Thanks, Mother.”

“Isn’t this a touching scene?” Mystic said.

Jeff let go of his mom and heaved a sigh. “Go away.”

“Your dinner is getting cold. I just came to make sure you knew.”

“We won’t be eating,” Jeff said. “We’ve decided to leave.”

Frank slapped Jeff on the back. “Don’t be hasty, son. It’s late, dark and cold out there. Let’s take advantage of the hospitality and leave in the morning.”

Jeff glared at him and groaned when he saw his mom and Source nodding agreement. “Fine.”

The rest of the group joined them in the hallway, and they all followed Mystic downstairs to the dining hall. It was a long, narrow room with a table down the middle. There were already a couple dozen people seated around it. Those at the far end had already been served and were eating and chatting. Jeff saw an empty chair at the end of the table on the other side of the room that he headed for.

“Set!”

Jeff’s head whipped around at the sound of Oci’s voice. She pushed away from the table, her chair toppling over behind her. She ran the length of the room with her arms flung open and her hair streaming behind her like ribbons on a present. Jeff’s splintered heart ground to dust as Oceanus jumped up and wrapped herself around Set and pressed her lips to his.

Chapter 42

“Oh my god, you’re here,” Oceanus breathed against Set’s lips. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

Set gingerly placed Oceanus on the floor and stole a look over his shoulder at Jeff.

The guilt on Set’s face was all Jeff needed to connect the rest of the dots, and he wasn’t too happy with the final picture.

“You bastard!” Jeff said.

Mystic’s face lit up like she’d been handed the key to eternal life; she was positively glowing with joy.

Releasing a roar that sounded like a wounded ogre, Jeff drove his fist through the wall. Dry wall and dust exploded. His fist sailed all the way through the other side, leaving his arm buried to the bicep. Pain resonated through him, but not from hitting the wall. This pain was so deeply seated, he wasn’t sure where it started. Possibly his heart? His gut? His soul? His body hummed with hurt. Someone touched his shoulder. He felt the vibration of them speaking, but didn’t hear any words over the loud thrumming inside him. He reacted like a trapped animal, thrashing out at whoever dared to come near. He tore the sleeve of his shirt and the skin of his forearm when he yanked his arm out of the wall. His fist connected with soft flesh, but he didn’t bother to see whose. He wanted only one thing.

Set.

A small part of him recognized how out of control he’d become. For the first time, he reveled in it, allowing it to run unrestrained. He barreled straight through the group of supers, flinging them aside like they were standard humans. He was like a missile that had been locked on target.

“Polar, I can explain,” Oceanus sputtered. She stood with her hands in front of her like she hoped to placate him, which only incited more of his anger.

“No need.”

“But Polar, you need to know. It was the balancing…”

Reminding him of the balancing, those few perfect moments in time when Jeff held Oceanus for the first time. When he’d found the love of his life, his depths. It was not the most brilliant tactic, given he was currently having a hard time controlling his fire when he got a hangnail. Suddenly, Jeff’s body stilled in the same eerie way the weather goes calm before a storm. He leveled an evil grin on Oceanus and spoke in a taunting tone. “What about the balancing,
love
? Do you regret your part in it? Do you wish we’d never brought it about? Stick around, because I suspect it will be unraveling all too soon.”

“No, Polar…” Fear tainted Oceanus’s expression as her gaze swept Jeff from head to foot.

Jeff felt thin tendrils of evil snaking their way through him, traveling in his blood stream like parasites. They felt deliciously hot, like they belonged inside him, co-existing with his fire. His trademark crooked grin was accompanied by a piercing glare that soaked in Oceanus’ fear and fed off it.

“Polar, I never had anything to do with the balancing,” Oceanus said. Jeff could see she was afraid to admit it, and at the same time, afraid not to.

“You were there, sweetheart. We ended the world. Twice.” Jeff stalked toward her with slow, confident steps.

Oceanus shook her head, fast. Her hands were still held in front of her, as if that would keep Jeff at an arm’s length.

“Maybe we should do it again and see what happens,” Jeff said.

“Polar, I never had anything to do with it. If I had, then why hasn’t the world ended again and again since each time we kissed?”

Jeff squinted from her and then scowled at Set. He pointed between the two of them. “Then what does the balancing have to do with this?”

Oceanus audibly gulped. Tears flooded her eyes, which still shined with fear, not sorrow. “It balanced Set.”

The long table in the middle of the room started to vibrate, and then lifted a couple inches off the ground. Silverware shimmied and rattled over the edge and clanged to the floor. The people sitting around the table scurried away as it swayed to and fro in random directions.

Oceanus’ face crumpled with pain and regret. She tore her eyes away from the hovering table and looked at Jeff imploringly. “It’s just that, well, Set and I had been together a long time before I met you.”

“Oceanus, don’t,” Set growled.

Jeff swung his attention to the storm villain, whose gaze swept the walls and ceiling of the room. “Afraid I’ll bring the place down on top of us?”

Set snapped his attention to Jeff. “Yes.”

Jeff looked at his rival, taking in his pristine appearance, strong jaw, relaxed, James Dean manner, and he smirked. “That isn’t what you should be worried about.”

Set pushed Oceanus behind him and the protective gesture fueled Jeff’s rage. Concern skittered across Set’s face as he frantically looked around the room. Jeff grinned like a fun house clown. They were underground, probably the only place in this world that would put Set at a disadvantage.

Strands of gravity wrapped around Set’s feet and ankles on Jeff’s command. Set struggled in place and glared at Jeff.

“You played me the entire time,” Jeff growled.

“It’s so easy to do,” Set said through clenched teeth.

Someone grabbed Jeff’s arm from behind. He tried to shake them off, but they stuck like glue. Enraged by the distraction, Jeff sparked the electric blue fire and shot a stunning bolt over his shoulder without even looking. The weight fell away and Jeff again concentrated on Set.

Without warning, he let the binds of gravity fall away and then levitated Set until he crashed head first into the ceiling. The storm villain crumpled forward, but Jeff continued to slam him upward again and again. Finally he left him fall unaided into a pile on the floor, and bound his limbs with gravity.