Her Insatiable Dark Heroes Read online

  ,” she cursed and blinked one eye open. “What I wouldn’t give for one day of sunlight.” With her ‘normal’ hand, Wendra shoved herself up to a sitting position, leaning back against her mound of pillows.

  “At least I can heat up my fake lousy coffee without paying those energy company bastards one red blazing cent.” Grimly, she smiled at her own stupid joke, even if it was only a few moments of relief from the scalding pain.

  Wendra watched the sparks emerge as she lifted her hand higher. Tiny drops of fiery liquid shot out like bright bullets, dancing in the grimy air, then fizzling and disappearing.

  “Oh no.”

  Even though she hadn’t concentrated by deliberately summoning her power, her entire hand flared and became engulfed in flame. She perched on the edge of the bed, utterly mesmerized, her breath hitching. Larger sparks hissed, showering upwards.

  “Come on, stop,” she pleaded. “No-o-o-o-o...”

  Awed and afraid as her entire hand glowed with the transparency of fire, Wendra straightened, readying herself to run outside onto the rooftop of her small apartment building.

  “Damn! I might as well be turning into hellfire.”

  The blaze arced higher while teardrops of fire sprayed, a fireworks display in the grayish gloom of her small room.

  Wendra attempted to mentally quench the flame that wanted to erupt and streak toward a target.

  Not responding to her mind commands, or the freezing scenarios she imagined—and she imaged them all—the glistening flames speared upwards, almost striking her dingy ceiling. Completely uncontrollable, the sparks crackled out faster.

  “Oh rotten hell, I don’t want to scorch the place again.” Wendra launched off her bed, striding rapidly for her rickety door. She jerked on the handle and it opened like cardboard on hinges.

  Heedless of her bare feet and the flap of her thin worn shirt around her legs, Wendra ran toward the short flight of stairs leading up to the roof. She kept it in good repair with her own meager funds just for this reason. Racing upwards, she shoved through the swinging door and swept her gaze around, seeing no one. Relief zinged through her. Often, the rooftop was her only haven. She couldn’t burn anything here that mattered. And for a reason she didn’t understand, the pain from her superpower would cease outside, as it did now.

  Halting abruptly, Wendra glanced around again, and then stared up at the sky, searching for any lurking Super Villains. If they saw her like this, they might try kidnapping her for their foul sexual use and their nefarious purposes. “Hellfire, the way I’m sizzling inside, I could blaze them into a worse inferno-blasting hell than here.” She scowled. “Rid the world of one more bad guy.”

  Barely noticing the coal-like stench of the oppressive air, Wendra studied the sky for any sign of hope, and saw nothing to encourage her. She hissed a ragged sigh. Even though it neared midday, the sun still hid behind a thick shroud of ash and dust. Forest fires raged all over the world, and constant cyclonic dust storms moved like monsters over enormous areas of land previously destroyed by droughts.

  The one spot of color in the grayish sky shone dimly above the southern horizon, appearing like blue mist. The Harbinger, as it was called now, had arrived as a blue-looking star. With its appearance came the sudden evolutionary leap to superpowers for about ten percent of Xaqthera’s remaining population. So it was spoken. And believed by most, including a few scientists still able to broadcast, despite the Black Force Elite’s clamp down.

  Watching her hand scintillate and become a deeper orange color, then emit a torch-like flame, Wendra clenched her jaw with determination. What if she could fly as flame now? She’d been wondering about that for a long while. She walked toward the edge of the roof.

  In the beginning she’d only managed to flare short bursts of her orange-yellow flame from the tips of her fingers and from her palm. Now she could flow the fire around her body whenever she danced at the club, soft and silky as a diaphanous material.

  What would it matter if she simply dived from the roof, consumed within a blaze of her own fire?

  If she flowed skyward and flew, well, fantastic as free ice cream, still frozen. If she fell and died, hurtling down to land on the jutting pieces of pavement, well, no more torturing misery and pain. She would join her parents in the OtherRealm

  .

  Perched on the edge of the roof, Wendra focused, willing her flame to completely surround her body. Once the painless burn seeped through her skin, she scanned the area below. Before she decided to leap or not, she wanted to make certain no one would be accidentally hit if she plummeted to the ground instead of rising and flaming upwards in wingless flight.

  Why not try it?

  After all, the four Dark Valorous Brothers soared the skies as the Super Saviors of Chrontropolis. Why not her?

  Boil the freakin’ day. Wendra frowned, recalling. Before the planet-wide weather wars, the Dark Brothers had been normal like everyone else. She knew. They had been her neighbors and her teenage friends. Never mind that she’d had a crush on each one of them at various times.

  Currently, even though two of them came to watch her performances at the club regularly, and flirted with her, Wendra kept her emotional distance. Their electric intensity and their extraordinary powers not only fascinated her, but also frightened her. And, well, double damn the donkey’s balls, the rumors continued—unbelievable, strange rumors—about how their sexuality had altered.

  Feeling the airy silkiness of her flames lick up her body and embrace her completely, like a cocoon, Wendra closed her eyes. All she had to do was take one more step, then flex her knees and lean forward. All she had to do was spring heavenward, take the plunge to find out if she would fly or die.

  Why not? Most days in the city of Chrontropolis were depressing, a forever desperate gray. Just as the ash-soot never seemed to wash off her skin, the gray that coated her soul never seemed to leave. It was always a struggle to simply eat and survive. Even the city’s bay looked dispirited, the sparkle of water minimal. Not so long ago, Wendy had loved gazing out over the spectacular bay, always enchanted by the gem flashes of moving light. Since the dust shroud’s arrival, she only saw tiny floating glints of charcoal gray, not silver, and never a dazzling white flotilla of diamonds that rivaled the small bright sailboats. Once, the bay had been filled with boaters on sunny breezy days.

  Wendra increased her fire, raised her arms and pointed her hands to where the sun would be, if the endless gray didn’t hide it. Everything seemed so natural now. So easy. She could flame into flight.

  “Wendy!” The man’s voice commanded her to stop, despite its underlying tone of desperation.

  She paid no attention. Her flames spiraled more fiercely, whirling around her like a strong wind.

  “Damn it, Wendy. Let’s talk. Just stay where you are. We’ll talk.”

  Too late, she thought. So utterly nice somebody seemed to care. It had to be somebody who knew her personally. Few called her by her nickname. Few...

  “Wendy, I’ve summoned the others. Just stay where you are. Listen to my voice and stay where you are.”

  Others? Who...what others?

  Intoxicating, so intoxicating, the blaze consuming her now, yet not consuming her flesh. Not burning her flesh hideously, but dancing sinuously around her.

  “Wendy, listen to me. I’m going to approach you slowly.”

  Approach? Why? Did she recognize his voice?

  She heard his careful footsteps behind her. “You know me, Wendy. You know me.”

  She considered turning around to find out if she did know him. However, the fires, her fires, urged her to fly, to know how the emptiness of the sky felt around her. Opening her eyes, she saw her blaze, a wavering orange and yellow transparency, much stronger than the sheer veil of flame surrounding her as she danced. Fascinating, she thought, and wondered if it would look the same way when she flew.

  Should she soar above the thick haze, look for the sun?

  “Surround
her.” She heard the voice as a distant snatch of conversation. “Whoever is closest, go after her. We’ll all fly support. Pass her back and forth if we need to—”

  “Why not use our super-speed? Grab her?” At the sound of another voice a flicker of recognition wanted to grip her.

  “We don’t know how the powers will interact. We can’t chance it.” The third voice was one she should recognize, but didn’t. Her confusion was stupidly annoying.

  Fly, I want to fly. The words felt beautifully hypnotic.

  “Wendy, don’t! Stay where you are.”

  No, I want to fly.

  She jumped.

  Her flames unfurled, leaping higher. Ferociously, fire streaked up her body, and for a moment of sheer elation, she hovered. In another instant, her weightless body danced in the air. Wendra smiled, immersed in the inferno-sweet sensations. Free, she felt so utterly free.

  A moment later, she dropped downward, her fire disappearing with a slight sizzling hiss. Death, she thought. I’m going to get to die. Just as she plunged faster, and she wondered if she would feel the crunch of her bones or if she would feel her body go splat, strong arms caught her, incredible arms with super-strength.

  She struggled, desperate to continue falling. And desperate, too, because what if she’d been captured by a lurking Super Villain? Great God, no! Frantically, she fought against the arms trapping her against an immense, shield-hard chest. Realizing she was helpless, she shrieked at the top of her lungs with frustration and her terrible fear.

  “Wendy, stop. It’s okay.”

  The man’s voice, gruff with concern, calmed her. And she recognized it. Zavier. One of the Dark Valorous Brothers. He was the oldest. Damn the strange luck, how often had she gone ‘dreamy steamy’ inside whenever she’d heard his voice as a teenager.

  Wendra stilled, like one of the cowed kittens she tossed crumbs too, and popped one eye open. His chin, gorgeous lines of strength, and slightly darkened with stubble just the way she always fantasized when...she gulped, her mouth was suddenly dry as the all-pervasive dust.

  “Just put me on the roof,” she squeaked, glancing downward. They flew along the alleyway at a slow, almost floating pace. Breezes sluiced around her, especially her face. And his cradling arms felt way too fantastically wonderful. Certainly way too sexy.

  Wendra wanted to squirm and feel every superbly muscled inch of his body that she could. She wanted to remember exactly how he felt holding her this way, so when she daydreamed about him and what he did to her...

  What the blazes! And not hers. Breezes whipped around her suddenly. They weren’t altering course toward the roof. Instead, his speed increased as they sailed higher. “Where?” She aimed her voice at his ear.

  No answer. Dread shivered through her and ice seemed to nip at her toes.

  She’d heard it wasn’t just the Super Villains who grabbed women like her, ones with growing superpowers, and used them for their insatiable sexual needs. Holy righteous crap!

  “What are you doing?” she called to him, then resisted the urge to quiver like a virgin. Fantasizing was one thing, actually being captured, and a whole other thing.

  Oh no, why did she have to remember now? The drinking game with Riselda, where she’d revealed her sexual fantasies, burst to the forefront of her mind. Every single detail of what they’d confided to each other surfaced and an unbidden tide of raw excitement coursed up her middle. Wendy tried to ignore it.

  “Saving you from yourself.”

  “I promise, blood’s honor, I won’t jump off again.”

  “You remember. Blood’s honor, our old pact.” His voice sounded pleased, yet not at all compromising.

  “Take me back...” Her words faltered when he abruptly slowed, righted himself, and easily kept her snug against his chest. They hovered beside a tall mirror-paneled building, one that had been occupied by commercial businesses. Seeing the reflections of the three other Dark Brothers on the sooty panels, Wendra gaped and couldn’t help wondering if her deepest darkest fantasy was about to come true. “Oh no! Donkey’s balls!”Arousal and trepidation seared her insides as she whipped her head around, watching them surround her and Zavier. Hovering in a semi-circle, they all looked at her as if she were prey instead of the woman they knew. Their green eyes glinted oddly, white fire leaping in their depths. Their handsome faces, different yet still similar, could have been carved out of stone, like the nearby mountain’s pale bronze cliffs.

  None of them spoke. They looked at her, their gazes fastened as if they’d never look away again. Her heart beat fast with a jolting rhythm. Eerily, she recognized them as the men she knew, and at the same time, Wendra realized she didn’t know them, not what they had become as supermen.

  “No,” she uttered. Her protest against losing her freedom might as well have been part of the breeze that caressed her face and departed.

  “Is it decided?” Zavier asked.

  Wendra swore she felt the rumble of his voice rise up from his loins.

  “We all want her,” Zent, the second oldest, answered after an instant. His gaze hadn’t wavered and white blazes of light spiraled inside his emerald-green eyes.

  Icy shards of panic raced through Wendra’s veins. “No,” she tried again, louder. “I want my freedom.”

  “All of us have wanted her.” Zion, the third oldest, spoke, his voice soft but so intense Wendra shivered. She quaked as his gaze devoured her. He’d always reminded her of sleek loner lion.

  “No, you can’t. I said I want my freedom.” A shred of pride left, she refused to grip Zavier’s arms, appearing even more helpless in front of them.

  “If we don’t, you’ll harm yourself.” Zotorro’s gaze pierced her. The white fires inside his jade eyes licked hungrily. “Or one of the Super Villains will claim you. Is that what you want, Wendy?” Gone was the youngest Dark Brother’s usual gallant attitude toward her.

  “No, absolutely not.” Wendra clenched her jaw, and glared mutinously. From one hellfire she’d fallen into a hellfire pit. She tried to glower. “This isn’t right.”

  “Yes, it is now.” Protectively, Zavier embraced her, his chest like a sculpted wall of muscle. “The rules have changed in our world, Wendy.”

  Her breath deserted her lungs.

  “Since you’re one of us, we have the right of claim.” Zent spoke in his most professional voice, even though his gaze lasered over her face and down her body, his lust as obvious as the furious pounding of her heart.

  “Oh hell’s blazes, it’s true! The rumors.” She clutched at the shadow-black slick fabric conforming to Zavier’s chest. “How can I belong to all of you?”

  “Wendy, we’ll take care of you. We’ll take turns protecting you. You’ll never be alone again.” Zion roved his dark emerald eyes over her, eager, and way too stud-eager.

  “No. I can’t, can’t belong to all of you. Oh God,” she moaned. “I can’t be with all of you. No! It doesn’t feel right. Please.”

  Reaching out, Zent gently stroked her hair, and then freed her ponytail. “I’ve wanted to touch you this way forever, Wendy.” He wound the long length of her flaming red hair around his hand. “Now, we’ll all have what we want from you.”

  “Sex,” she blurted out. “Is that what you all want from me? Just sex?”

  Zotorro whirled around suddenly. “The Buzzard Brothers,” he warned. “I hear them. They’re headed straight for us.”

  Wendra stiffened in alarm. Bald and gangly in appearance, the Buzzard Brothers often terrorized the back streets of Chrontropolis, swooping down on the helpless and stealing whatever valuables they could. Or they would harass people just for the sheer unholy fun of it. She’d even heard reports that they’d dropped a few people after carrying them to the top of a building. Those people died, of course.

  And everyone knew from watching sporadic news shows that they often trapped other supermen with their magnetic powers, keeping them helpless long enough to soar over the bay. With apparent glee the three brothe
rs released the magnetic field, letting their victim fall into the grime-coated water. Most supermen, if they had the ability to fly, couldn’t lift away or use their powers fast enough against the cackling, fleeing Buzzard Brothers.

  “Protect her.” Zion spoke as he spun alongside Zotorro. Zent joined them in a fighting formation. Despite her distress, it was an impressive sight and her heart thumped with appreciation. Three of the Dark Brothers in their matching aero dynamic costumes, black as the darkest shadow, ready to do super battle. Impressive, even though they only wanted to fornicate with her.

  God, please help me. I can’t do this. I can’t be with all of them. Yes, you can, her innermost self whispered. Before her mind’s eye her entire fantasy of being a pleasured captive to several men played out in a series of flashes.

  Clutching her tightly, Zavier shot straight upwards, so rapidly Wendra’s head sloshed dizzily. Within moments they stopped, an odd sensation of hovering and stability. Once the crazy spinning of her brain subsided, she opened her eyes and saw two yellowish beams emanating from his eyes. Staggered by the sight, she jerked, then tried to grab onto the slick material of his suit, unsuccessfully. Statue-still, he didn’t react, continuing to beam his gaze. Feeling like a crazy woman, she glanced around. They were on top of a building she didn’t recognize, where no action of any kind occurred.

  Well, scorch the balls of hell. Here she was with actual superheroes and she wasn’t getting to witness anything except Zavier’s strange eye beams. Suddenly, her palm and fingertips itched, her flame wanting to erupt, to target something or someone.

  “Unholy crap!” She shook her hand to keep it from lighting to fire and to relieve the fierce itch. How dearly she cared for all the Dark Brothers came flooding back. She prayed and hoped nothing bad happened to the three other Dark Brothers.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Zavier’s eye beams ceased, his voice booming through her, as if it came from the inside of her.

  “Why don’t I get to flame the super bad guys?” she complained, and shook her hand again.