My Angels Have Demons (Users #1) (10 page)

"Come in," she said beckoning him to come forward.

But Carter couldn't get his legs to so much as budge.

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Chapter 8

Many moments passed before Carter, having gone completely numb, was able to take his first steps into the spacious penthouse.

"What...what are you doing here?" Carter asked stumbling over his words.

"Waiting for you," Fox said.

Carter could have blown over by a desk fan at that moment. He wasn't sure what was going on. He had just torched four men alive to get into the building and at the Vampire. Instead he found Fox, sitting casually behind a table.

"Waiting for me, but why?" he asked thoroughly confused. "Where's the Vampire? This is supposed to be his penthouse."

The room was dimly lit, but he could still make out the look on her face, that look that told him she was, as always, the smartest person in the room.

"Oh, Carter," she said getting to her feet.

She wasn't wearing her typical skin tight black jumpsuit with all the toys attached to her belt and wrists. No, she was wearing a silky low cut V-neck shirt with a long skirt that had a high cut slip up one leg, exposing her shapely calf and thigh as she stepped out from behind the table.

"You always were the simple one. You always looked for the simple pleasures," she said and as she passed in front of him, lightly cupping his crotch for the most brief of moments as she brushed her hand across his jeans.

Carter had to force himself to keep from snatching her wrist, snapping her around, and embracing her in a passionate kiss. He wanted her bad, and she knew it.

"So you're behind the drugs?" he asked.

Carter hated confrontation and it took all the gusto he could muster to come right out and say it.

"Well you were able to put that much together." She clapped in a mock congratulations as she spoke.

"But why?"

"Money," she answered plainly. "What other reason is there?" she asked, but Carter was shaking his head in denial.

"No. No, I know you better than this."

"You know nothing about me!" she shouted.

Fox turned on him and got right in his face, but he held his ground.

"You know nothing about what it's like to watch someone with powers like yours just squander them. No, I needed the money for all my little trinkets and toys to keep up with the users like you."

"I don't believe it," he said.

"Believe it, because that's the reality." She propped both hands against the table and lifted herself up to a sitting position.

Fox looked at him seductively and using one finger beckoned him to come closer.

"You know I still have feelings for you."

He fought the urge to go to her. His heart soared at the thought of being with her again, but his head ached, something was wrong with this picture. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his anxiety level spiked, his adrenaline pumped, and his blood flowed hot like magma. Carter almost took off right then, his fight or flight mechanism telling him he needed to run.

"Think about it...all the drugs and money you could ever want. Just join me, and it's all yours," she cooed.

"Wait, where's the Vampire? Is Alaric the Vampire?" he asked.

Fox burst out into maniacal laughter.

"Really Carter?! Don't be so simple," she said. "That fool the Vampire? He's nothing more than a muscle bound moron. No, the Vampire is not a he, the Vampire is a she." She smiled wryly at him.

Carter's mouth hung agape as the reality of her words set in.

"You, you're the Vampire?" Carter took a step back toward the door.

"Join me Carter," she said preying on his weak willed side. She knew damn well the tight rope he walked every second of everyday between good and bad, between sobriety and using.

"Tell me one thing. Why? Why go through all this trouble to get on the good side of the All Americans? Why build such a name for yourself in the powered community? Why not come out and just tell everyone about your power?"

"You think Users would let me get anywhere near them if they knew I could suck their powers dry? Not a chance, but now, now I'm in with them. I'm close to them. Now I can suck them dry one by one, absorbing all their powers for my own." Her eyes were wild with excitement as she spoke.

"And if I don't join you?" he asked past the lump in his throat.

"Then you'll just be another of the many Users whose powers I drain dry. What do you think? I've never sucked the powers from a scorcher before. I think I'd look good in fire red."

"These powers aren't a blessing. These powers are a curse."

"Says you!" she shouted and lunged at him in unison.

Carter put up his hands to defend himself and snatched her from the air. Using her momentum, he spun and tossed her. The drywall cracked as she slammed into the wall, slumped to the floor, but bounced right back onto her feet.

"Please, don't do this," he begged.

"Shut up!" she growled. "It's already done. You're just too stupid to realize it."

She charged him, but Carter unleashed a ball of fire like throwing a baseball, but she ducked and knocked his legs out from under him with a sweeping kick. Carter was staring up at the ceiling as he fell flat on his back with a thud, knocking the wind from his lungs. Then she was there, her legs wrapped around his throat. Carter twisted in a vain attempt to loosen her grip on his neck, but her legs were too strong, her hold was like a vice around his throat.

Her bare hand was creeping toward his face, and seeing no other choice, he lit her up. Fire burst forth from his chest just above his heart, and quickly spread like a wildfire up to his head, and down to his waist until his entire torso was aflame. She screamed as the fires bit at her legs, and she rolled out and around putting out the flames that had ignited on her skirt. From the knee down, the cloth hung in burnt tatters.

"You can't take what you can't touch," he told her.

His entire upper body was now completely covered in red glowing fire.

"Fires can be put out," she said reaching into her boot and producing a knife. She approached, but cautiously this time, holding the knife backwards in her hand so the blade was against her wrist. Thinking on his feet, Carter threw down a wall of fire between them, something he had never done before, blinding her to his movements.

"You can't hide from me," she said menacingly. "There's no where to ru-." She was cut off by the front door slamming shut as Carter made a run for it.

The hallway, that had seemed so short before, now appeared impossibly long, as he ran for the elevator at the opposite end. He let the fires on his torso burn out as he pushed the down button frantically, and waited for the elevator door to open. He looked back continually at the penthouse door to see if she was coming. The ding announcing the elevator's arrival chimed and the doors crept open, parting in the middle. As Carter began to shimmy through the tight opening for his escape, the door to Fox's penthouse swung wide, and she rushed through the open portal in his direction.

Carter fell into the elevator, scrambling to hit the button for the first floor. Nothing, the doors stayed open. As he righted himself, he hit the button again, and again, and again; repeatedly until finally the doors began to creep to a close. Fox was barreling down the hallway at full speed. The doors were about to slide shut, taking Carter on a ride to safety, when Fox leapt. She spun to her side, making herself as thin as possible, and slid through the door's opening like a thread through the hole of a needle.

"There is nowhere to run that I cannot find you," she said as she hit the floor on her side.

"Damn you for making me do this." And Carter kicked the prone woman in the gut.

She coughed, gasping for air, but Carter didn't stop; he kicked her repeatedly.

"Damn you!" he shouted at her, more in regards to his own anguish than her villainous reveal.

The elevator's bell dinged again, letting him know they had reached the bottom floor, and he kicked her one more time for good measure before entering the lobby. He contemplated exiting through the hole he had come in, but decided he might as well just walk out the front door like he owned the joint. His gut wrenched as he passed the blackened remains of the four men, their corpses still smoldering. Their mouths were spread wide, frozen in silent, terror filled screams.

"We finish this now." He heard from over his shoulder.

Carter turned to find Fox, one hand on her stomach, slowly getting to her feet.

"The only thing that's finished is you. I'm going to Alaric and I'm going to tell him the truth; all of it."

"No, don't please. Just wait a minute," she pleaded. "I can change. I can be what you want me to be. I just need you."

"Yeah, I'm not falling for the doe eyed routine." He turned for the front door, and an explosion of pain ripped through his back.

Reaching over his shoulder, Carter pawed at his back, and felt the handle of a knife protruding from just below his shoulder blade. She had thrown the knife with typical Fox precision, stabbing him right in an especially painful nerve. Carter growled as he tugged on the knife's hilt, but it was lodged in too deep, and he nearly swooned from the pain.

Then she was on him, her hands wrapped around his neck from the backside, and he felt an odd sensation unlike anything he had ever experienced before. A tingling feeling started at his toes, rose up his legs, traveled all the way up his body, and into Fox's hands wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Feel that? That's me draining you, and I'm going to take every last drop," she whispered in his ear.

Carter nearly forgot all about the knife in his back as the tingling turned into an intense burning, but it was unlike the burning he was used too, this was something different. The feeling was akin to having heartburn across his entire body, and his skin prickled as if his body was being flushed of its energy. He struggled. He tried to fight back, kicking wildly and thrashing about to free himself, but she had an iron grip, as if her hands and his neck had become fused. Carter called for his powers, hoping to burn her hands away, but no flame came forth. It was as if his body was trying to protect itself, sending the fires to his core in an attempt to preserve the power within.

Carter could feel the veins in his neck pulsating, while the veins in his head pounded. He was being sucked dry. Finally, he gave up the futile struggle and gave into her fully, letting her take what she wished from him. And not only did he give in, he hastened the process by pushing what he had to her. Carter lifted a weak hand, grabbing her by the wrist, and pumped her full of his power. He let it all go, everything, including all his frustrations, disappointments, anger, and fear. His heart pounded so hard he wondered if it may burst from his chest. Blood scorched its way through his veins on its way to Fox.

Carter screamed in agony as the hellfire within him reached an almost atomic level. Yet still he let it go. Fueled by anger at his girlfriend for leaving him, at his friends for betraying him, at the world for serving him up a pile of shit for a life, but most of all at Fox for making him do this.

"Ow...," she said. "Ouch, what the fuck!" She yelled and tried to pull away, but as she jerked her hand away it only tugged on Carter's neck as if they were one.

It was as if they were attached like conjoined twins.

"Let me go you son of a bitch!"

But Carter didn't relent. Her howls only spurred him on, driving his molten heart to beat faster, and sending more fires through his veins.

Her mouth and eyes went wide and a bright glowing light shot forth from every hole in her body. Her skin glowed orange and red as she was torched from the inside out. No scream came forth, just a gut wrenching wheeze as her lungs were fried. Her skin began to crackle and pop and boiling blood sizzled its way out of her wounds.

Still, Carter did not relent.

Fox burst into flame, but without Carter's adaptation, she was quickly roasted. Her skin blackened and flaked off. Carter caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass door on the front of the building. Her face was frozen in a look of sheer terror. He winced and looked away. The grip on his neck weakened and fell away as her hand crumbled.

Carter rolled to his side, reached behind, and tugged at the knife again. It wouldn't budge. He pulled again and again, and finally, with a loud rip, the blade came free. The blade on the knife glowed red hot from his super heated blood, instantly cauterizing the wound. He let the knife slip from his fingers and the blade clanged against the floor.

Then he saw her. Fox was frozen in place like a gray smoldering statue, forever stuck on her knees with her mouth wide. Taking slow steps, he went to her.

"Why?" he asked her. "Why did you do this?"

He hated her almost as much as he hated himself. He dropped to his knees before her and began to cry. Slowly, he raised a hand to her still smoking face and placed a hand on her cheek. Ash slipped through his grasp as her face crumbled like a house of falling cards, starting with her head and crumbling all the way to her feet.

Carter stared at the pile of ash and let out a blood-curdling scream.

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Epilogue 1

She stared at me blankly and for the first time in the years I had been seeing her, she seemed unable to offer any kind of response.

"I guess she had never had anyone actually not resist her powers before," I said.

"I...Maybe, or maybe she had never used her powers on a scorcher before," she said.

"We'll never know for certain," I said solemnly.

"You did the right thing."

"Did I?" I asked honestly unsure.

"You preserved. That's a natural human reaction." Her normal calm and collected posture of leaning back in her high backed chair was gone, replaced by her sitting on the edge of her seat.

"There was nothing natural about what I did!" I had to check myself to keep from pounding a fist down on her desk as I finished.

She placed her hands palm down on the table and leaned over the desk for emphasis.