“Agreed, I have no interest in you. All I want is your power. So, let’s do this.” Yet nobody moved. “Did I miss your surrender or will you be stopping me at some point?” We still did not move, and he realized something. “You two are stalling, aren’t you?”
"My bad!" Bad Mother’s voice carried to us from somewhere near the kitchen. “If you think navigating different time zones is bad, try accounting for planetary alignments.”
Well, the calvary arrived. I looked to Orion and he nodded.Let the games begin.
Orion and I sprang apart even as we directed our power to the same place. A knife sailed forward towards Lex. He flung the coffee table up to shield himself. Orion kicked it out of the way. Lex was gone.
The cuffs were on the ground. We’d formed a protective field around them. Lex hadn’t had enough time to disable it and dodge the knife from Bad Mother.
Lex was still here lurking somewhere, waiting for his next opportunity.
Bad Mother went down his own path to search while Orion and I also split off. Sort of.
The two of us weren’t separating this time. We learned our lesson and were staying the fuck together, in spirit. We sent images to each other using the same trick I used with my robin friend, which made it easy for us to coordinate, search rooms, and eliminate hiding spots quickly.
But the bad thing about Orion being crazy rich was that it meant there were plenty of rooms to choose from for a demon biding his time to hide in.
Orion and I soon hovered outside a spare bedroom. We were pretty sure Lex hid in there. My magic flowed out to Orion and all around him. He’d taken a gentle hold of it, afraid to bring it closer.
“You trust me, right?” I asked.
"Absolutely." His silver eyes stared into mine with determination.
“I trust you too.” I clapped him on the shoulder and winked. “Let’s do this.”
Our magic surged together. I felt him tug on the connection between us as my energy poured into him. I knew he wouldn’t take too much this time. He could do this. We could. Sometimes there was just no other choice but to finally get things right.
We burst into the room. The window was open. The bastard went out the fire escape.
Doubling back, we rushed to the living room and called for Bad Mother. When we arrived, Lex was there fiddling with the cuffs. He tossed me a smile. “You know, Rob—”
This time I didn’t even let the bastard talk. I felt Orion backing me up and wanted to send the nastiest curse we could conjure Lex’s way.
But then I thought about Tommy. I was afraid to dwell on my cousin’s memory before, afraid I’d freeze up and let the pain distract me. There was no escaping it though. This bastard took away the person I loved most in the world. For a long time after that, I was alone.
It took so long to crawl out of that darkness. I went deeper and deeper until I’d screwed up in just about every way possible, but I managed to find my way free. I told myself this time would be the charm, that I wouldn’t stop until I finally got it right and refused to let this monster or anything else drag me back down.
Nobody was more surprised than me when it worked. But I wasn’t finished yet.
And Tommy wasn’t a weakness. He wasn’t one of the weights dragging me down. He was a strength. He’d be rooting for me. And he’d probably like Orion.
So, I just screamed and blasted the crap out of Lex. He liked magic. I’d shove it down his throat. See how he liked it like this.
Lex wavered on his feet, struggling but managing to stay standing. “Y-You won’t stop me.”
I kept throwing everything at him. When my power waned, Orion backed me up.
“You won’t win,” Orion promised. He spoke through gritted teeth and his fists were clenched together tightly, but I saw the determination on his face. He was doing it, interacting with my magic and backing me up without draining me dry. The first time was always the hardest, but we only needed to last a little longer.
Lex consumed magic, but he was still an incubus. Hit ‘em with too much too fast and they overloaded. His limits had expanded beyond the norm, but he still had limits, so I aimed to overwhelm his new ones.
Lex dropped to his knees and I stood over him. “This is for Tommy, you son of a bitch.”
My right fist soared towards his face, but he caught it and grinned.
“Nice try.” He laughed. “It’s gonna take more than that to stun me. You aren’t the only ones who can stall.”
Uh-oh. He’d only been playing when he acted weakened and fell to his knees. When his gaze fell to the not-cuffs, I saw why he’d been stalling and diverting our attention. The supposed relicglowedand emitted a faint humming noise. He’d done something to the cuffs and just needed to distract us long enough while they powered up.
