Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(2)
Author: Gena Showalter

No, Tanner was an empath. A human lie detector. He could sense emotions, which was why he was the perfect partner for me. He let me know when my feelings – and thereby the world – were about to explode so that I could calm myself down.

"Call your boss, whatshisname," Sherridan suggested. "Bob…or Jim. John!" She clapped, clearly proud of herself. "Yes. Call John. He’ll know where Rome is."

"I’ve already spoken to John. I had my mandatory testing twice this week, and he was there to watch the poking and the prodding." Because of the chemical I’d ingested and its lingering effects, John liked to monitor me. To our mutual consternation, his tests were totally screwing with my restraint. Every time he had his vampire – you think I’m kidding? – withdraw a vial of my blood, I lost a little more control and my powers went a little wonky. Yesterday I’d turned a potted plant into a treecicle simply by glancing at it.

Or maybe the problem was this distance from Rome. I needed my man. He kept me grounded, centered. He was also able to filter out the worst of my emotions. Yeah, it was probably this temporary separation that was screwing with me. It was screwing with everything else. My peace of mind, my hormones, my appetite.

Was such dependence dangerous? And did I care?

Where the hell was he? My shoulders slumped. "John wouldn’t tell me a damn thing about Rome. Even when I threatened to quit."

Sherridan rolled her eyes. "You threaten to quit every day, so that’s no big deal. I told you that if you didn’t save the big gun for a big battle, you’d have no ammunition when the big battle finally arrived.

Didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you that? You’re like the boy who cried wolf – or jaguar in this case – and I told you not to do it. I told you."

I kicked into motion, pacing over to frown down at her. "Do you want to be deep-fried?"

"Please. I’m the only person brave enough to be the maid of honor at a wedding guaranteed to be a Who’s Who of Superheroes and Supervillains, so you need me. We both know I’m not in any danger from your fury-fire."

No, she wasn’t. She was more likely to drown in my tears or freeze from my touch. I was depressed and scared, and my fear always summoned ice, my sadness rain. My anger summoned fire, of course, and my jealousy summoned earth. Yes, I could make dirt pies. Calling the wind required an emotional cocktail of both negative and positive, so it was the hardest to manipulate. It was hard to be happy and sad, loving and hateful at the same time.

Once, for a short window of time, I’d been able to use my powers without relying on my emotions. No longer. For whatever reason – cough John’s tests and Rome’s absence cough – that was now nothing more than a pipe dream.

"What if he’s…" I couldn’t say it. I just couldn’t finish that sentence. Suddenly my chin was trembling too badly. God, I was a wreck lately! And no, I wasn’t pregnant. (I’d already taken a test.)

"He’s not. Who was Rome battling, anyway? And why didn’t you go with him?"

"Run-of-the-mill armed guards, most likely, and I’m an idiot. Besides, Cody went with him." Cody could manipulate electricity, so he was a good partner to have. Better than me, for sure. "I’ve been planning a wedding, babysitting yo – uh, Tanner, researching Desert Gall and – "

"Desert Gal, huh." Sherridan sat up straighter. "You mean the psycho-bitch who drains the water out of everything she touches?"

"Yes. That’s her." Unfortunately – or fortunately? – I hadn’t had a face-to-face with the sadistic woman yet. One, she’d managed to elude me and two, I’d been too busy getting nailed by other scrims who’d started coming after me the moment I joined PSI. Their mission: recruit me to OASS – Observation and Application of Supernatural Studies, a nongovernment agency whose methods sometimes bordered on criminal and sometimes straight up were criminal. Or, if they couldn’t recruit me, plan B was to kill me.

Eight had tried so far, and I’d managed to beat them all. Okay, okay, Rome had ensured victory most of the time. I was still new at the whole shadow-game thing.

"What’s she look like?" Sherridan asked.

That was the kicker. No one had a picture of her. Well, not that they’d shown me. Secret agents were so…secretive. But still. I’d already proven I was trustworthy, and why not share something that would help me? "I don’t know, but I’m envisioning a dried-up prune with teeth."

"Okay. I’ve got a visual on her now. Continue."

"One of Rome’s contacts intercepted a communication between her and some as yet unknown man and learned some stuff we didn’t know. Like how Pretty Boy, her former boss – you know, the evil guy Rome and I had to kill during our courtship – had several warehouses filled with people he’d locked up and experimented on. Desert Gall moved them to a central location to test them and weed out the weaklings, and Rome went to save them. But knowing Pretty Boy, and having studied Desert Gal, there were a few booby traps along the way." Just saying those two words – Pretty Boy – caused me to shudder. And I’d said them twice. Double shudder.

He’d been the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, lushly sensual, darkly erotic, yet he’d possessed a black, monstrous heart. He’d tried to experiment on me, too, as well as attempting to kill Rome. He had experimented on others – the ones we’d known about before his death – replacing their skin with impenetrable metal, adding animal glands to their brains so they’d have beastlike instincts. He’d done other stuff, too. Stuff I couldn’t even consider without gagging. All to build an army. An army that would bring him money and (more) power.

Tres cliche if you asked me.

Sherridan leaned forward, clearly intrigued. The book fell to her feet, a warrior’s bright eyes staring up at me. "There were survivors?" she asked. "I thought all the people Pretty Boy tampered with ended up dying. Even the ones you guys rescued from those cages."

"They did. Well, those did. Like I said, he had other warehouses, more people. Apparently these groups not only survived, they’ve begun to thrive. Rome was to bring them to PSI for questioning and testing.

John wants to do a little recruiting of his own, I’m sure."

"Wow, experiments that actually worked," she said reverently, her blue eyes glazing over. Then her features softened, and her mouth parted on a dreamy sigh.

Her mind was wandering.

What, she wanted to be experimented on? I shook my head and had to hook several strands of my honey-colored hair behind my ears to keep them from slapping my cheeks. "Sherridan." No response.

I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes for a moment. If I knew my friend, and I think I did, since we’d been friends for years, she’d just entered her Happy Place. She would be there for half an hour, at least. Trying to engage her now would be pointless.