Allied: A Superhero Reverse Harem Romance (The PTB Alliance Book 3), стр. 23
I paused, waiting for him to say something. I was absolutely certain that he felt the road I was walking down was one well-traveled. Finally, he waved me on.
"I had been in control of her medications for years at that point. I knew what could be mixed with what and the simple excuse that I had forgotten or fucked it up never sat right with me." I shrugged. "I'm as human as the rest of us. I'm fallible. But for all those years, I kept that medication straight; and through countless changes. Only to screw it up suddenly at the end? No. Someone interfered."
Nishelle stared at me. "You think you were Allison's first victim?"
"I think I'm one of Allison's victims. So were you," I said. Then I began to point around the room at every single one of them. "And you, and you, and you. Even you, sir. We've been thrown over a barrel and fucked raw by her, and I think Scribe's just lucky enough to be her current vector for madness; this time from beyond the grave."
Logan tapped his finger on his desk. "What you're saying matches with what our laboratories are considering to be the truth. Though we don't have proof of it. Is there anything that you can give us that makes it certain? Because if there is, you're likely leading your own legacy to the slaughterhouse."
"I'm a Blitzer, not a Psychic, no matter what my parents say," I said. "I always have been, I always will be. But the point still remains; maybe instead of banning Zaps, you idiots should have banned Psychics."
My lips pressed shut at the end of it. His face slowly turned from gold to crimson and then back again. Nishelle stepped up beside me, taking my hand in hers. Edwin was next and, person by person, we united in a chain in front of him. One, wholly allied against a threat that intended to take everything from us.
And he saw it.
"If you're all going to back her, I have little reason to doubt it. You've been there. You've seen it. And we wouldn't be an Alliance if we didn't throw in to help all of you. I hate to get rid of Lamar. He's been a good man, you've all known it." Logan said. There was a solid round of nods and he continued. "But this is out of hand. You'll have ten of our best; it's what we can spare and keep peace on the streets. And we'll do what we can to send support and medical out for you, to help you with those back in Yarborough that may need some help to arm up for a fight."
"It's better than nothing," I told him. "And it's more than we had when we got here. We appreciate it."
He waved a hand at me. "Stick around another day. We'll take that long to get things prepared. There is a guest suite that sleeps twenty on the top floor. You're welcome to it. Cafeteria's in the same place yours is. Go get some food and get as much rest as you can. It's going to be a long couple of days ahead."
Adam's eyes lit up at the mention of food and I couldn't deny him. We split up and went to the cafeteria in pairs or trios, leaving only Nishelle and I at last. I glanced at her and tilted my head. Was she blushing? Or was it just me?
She stiffened when she saw me, turned on her heel, and walked straight out after everyone else. I felt like an animal stalking its prey as I followed, sneaking up behind her to wrap my arms around her shoulders. Nate got between us, but I wasn't angry about it; just frustrated.
And didn't that say everything it needed to about my relationship with my boys? It'd literally gotten in between Nishelle and I, stopping whatever I'd hoped we'd rekindle when we got together again. I grumbled under my breath and nestled against him instead, bound for chow and the sort of fellowship you needed before a big, violent fight.
Logan had been right. The cafeteria was just like ours, down to the colors that had been chosen and the shitty linoleum under our feet. We split to go order but took over a long table, my men gathering around me like a protective wall. Nishelle watched from outside it, poking at her peas and eating what she could. Edwin insisted on feeding me bites of his steak, which was outrageously overdone.
But it tasted like home, just like the lousy steaks we had often had as a little group of trainees, all of us too stupid to know which way was up. I wondered if the kids currently at the Yarborough building were still allowed to talk, or if food trays were being delivered directly to their rooms. I couldn't help but picture their doors bolted from the outside.
It had happened to us, too, a few times. Mostly Scribe had allowed them to do it to us when we'd been stupid enough to try to follow a professional superhero out into the city. In those cases, we were just one more civilian that could get smashed or blown up, ripped apart or otherwise destroyed.
Though I had to admit there were better ways of approaching our incredibly stupid moves, locking us in our rooms had been very useful.
Until I'd figured out how to break the bars off our windows without setting off the alarms. Then Nishelle and I, sometimes with others but especially the two of us, had gone on all-night benders. We'd followed the police scanner, listening for trouble and racing off to watch the heroes