The first thought I had after seeing her was to look for a window, see if I’d missed the whole rendezvous with Ice’s contact about my sister. As there were no windows, I tried to stand, to go find one and see what time of day it was.

  “Relax,” Professor Lamb said, and eyed two men in dark blue super suits by the door. Guards.

  Catching on in spite of my grogginess, I remembered why we’d come back, turned to her as Laurel started to recover, and said, “We saw them.”

  “Them?” Professor Lamb asked.

  “Whoever attacked the school,” I went on. “We found them, followed them and—”

  “There was only one attack,” another voice said, and I turned to see Professor Zilch there. To nullify our powers, I assumed. Not that it’d be necessary.

  “What he means,” Professor Lamb said, lowering her voice, “is the only attack we’re aware of was the girl, Reina. The scene that you ran from.”

  “And the supers outside?” Laurel mumbled, regaining consciousness and joining in though still lying down, not quite with us yet.

  “They were pursuing you,” Professor Zilch said.

  “Ask them,” Laurel countered, finally pushing herself up. “Ask if they encountered another group, one that attacked them. See for yourself.”

  The two professors shared a look, but neither said a word. They clearly each already knew about this.

  “Is she okay?” I asked, focusing back on the girl. “I mean, were they able to heal her?”

  “That’s not your conc—” Professor Zilch started, but Lamb held up a hand and nodded.

  “She’ll survive, after a night to recover. Even when the body is healed, the soul takes time.” Lamb stood tall, her gaze taking us in, then said, “Where?”

  “What?” Zilch turned to her, confused and frustrated.

  Instead of answering, Lamb waited for an answer from us.

  “A cliff face,” Laurel said, and then described the directions, along with how to find the right point.

  “I’ll send out a team,” Lamb said, and then, as she went for the door, another person in professor robes entered, speaking softly to Lamb by the exit. Even with Zilch’s powers cancelling ours, my enhanced hearing was working. My ears could pick up a lot of sound, and at the moment the unknown professor was speaking about an attack on the dungeons below the east wing of the campus.

  I glanced over at Laurel to see if she was catching any of this, but she simply watched me, curiously. She probably knew I could hear, and was looking forward to me filling her in.

  “Right,” Lamb finally said, taking the professor by the shoulder as they went for the door. “Find the headmistress, let her know. I have my duty to attend to, and then we reconvene.”

  “Professor Lamb,” Zilch said, frowning after her.

  “Ah, right.” She turned back to us, waved her hand, and said, “We’re investigating. They aren’t guilty or innocent yet, so they’ll be confined to their rooms. Lockdown for all students until we know what is going on here.”

  My heart sank at that. Apparently, I’d have to wait to fill Laurel in, and I had no idea what this would mean for the meeting regarding my sister. No, fuck that—I was going to attend, it just meant doing so was going to be more of a hassle.

  But that wouldn’t stop me.

  19

  Sitting in my room staring at the wall was the worst. We had our holo screens and tablets for research, I discovered when tinkering with the desk in the corner. While I had nothing better to do than pass the time, I figured I could try and make good use of it. My first thought was to look up what other groups were on Junos, but it was mostly the schools, along with several small cities that were mostly there to support the schools—places where professors lived in their off time, entertainment and whatnot for when the students were allowed free time. Whoever was attacking was either affiliated with one of the schools, or outsiders.

  A thought hit me, although in truth it had been gnawing at me for a while. My sister was likely somehow affiliated with this group. If she was still on Junos. Considering the fact that she wasn’t easily found in Supralines or Rocadium, it was either this or… the dungeons? Shit. I changed my research to see what I could learn about the dungeons, but it seemed that was mostly kept under wraps.

  I managed to find some information on several high-level supervillains who had been kept here, for the purposes of research. That didn’t sound right, though. A superhero academy like Supralines, conducting research on live supers?

  With a shake of my head, I grew frustrated with this and moved on to reading more about kitsune. One story in particular was about a hero one who had formed her own team of men and gone around saving her city. A bit out there, silly really, but I liked that. It was like me and Laurel, except with only one of Laurel. I laughed at myself, pulling up some images of the story, and bit my lip at the sight of one of the men in a kilt. Skirts on guys had never really been my thing, and hadn’t carried over from Earth when the colonization took place, but this man had chiseled abs with that kind of nerdy innocent look going on.

  I found my hand moving along the inside of my thigh, considering the image, and then was starting to caress myself when an image of Laurel interrupted. Not in a bad way. I closed my eyes, imagining both of them there with me, when a tapping interrupted me.

  My eyes burst open and I glanced around, looking for the source of the sound—there in the window was Ice, grinning at me and stifling a laugh.

  Oh, fuck. She’d seen what I was doing, I knew it.

  My feet dragged as I went to the window. Throwing it open, she immediately jumped in, and started laughing.

  “Shut up, they’ll hear you,” I said, gesturing toward the door.

  “Hey, if they didn’t hear you moaning to this guy,” she indicated the guy in the kilt, still on my holo display, “they aren’t going to hear me.”

  I turned off the display and glared. “So I like touching myself, who the fuck cares? You got no sex drive, that’s your problem.”

  “I get my fuck on,” she replied, losing her smile. “But with Trance, and with his cock. Not my fingers.”

  “Well you aren’t going to shame me for wanting to have some fun.” I shrugged, jamming my hand down my pants. “Try and stop me.”

  “Agh, eww, less funny this way.” At least she smiled again, shaking her head. “You’re nutso, you know that?”

  I considered as I took my hand back out of my pants, then nodded. “Pretty much. Wait, you’re here—meaning you have an update?”

  She grinned, nodding. “Not about all that other shit, but it’s time to meet our boy. Trance and Silencer will be there too. Hey, maybe I’ll give you a demonstration of how this sex thing is supposed to really work.”

  I rolled my eyes. “No thank you.”

  “Either way, we’ll see how you feel at the time. Got a small one, but knows how to work it—shit, don’t bother me none.”

  “I… Yeah, I really don’t need that information.”

  “But it’s fun to hear anyway, don’t you think?” She chuckled, moving back to the window. “I mean, a guy like him, all chiseled and buff as hell, kinda like your little skirt-wearing fantasy there… and a little worm to show for it.”

  “Might be why he bothered to get all buff to begin with,” I pointed out.

  Her eyes went wide. “Huh…”

  “You’ve seriously never considered that?” I laughed. “Compensating, right?”

  She shook her head, totally awestruck. “I never even put the two together. My thoughts went like this—manly man, should have manly package. That’s it. I was confused.”

  “But it doesn’t bother you.”

  “Nope.” She held up two fingers, counting down on them as she said, “For one, means I can get the whole thing in my mouth, which is fun for him. Two, means it doesn’t hurt and make me walk all bowlegged for a week like my last lay—you can forget that. Ever see a donkey dick on a man, run the other way fast.”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Again, you and anyone… especially ‘donkey dick guy,’ not what I want in my head.”

  “Especially right after I caught you touching yourself.” She winked and hopped out of the window.

  I stared, baffled. True, she’d come in, but I’d expected she’d climbed or something. We were a couple floors up, and she didn’t have flight or the ability to fall, that I knew of. Finally breaking myself from my stupor, I went to the window and nearly fell back when she popped up in front of me.

  “Coming?”

  “I…”

  “I gave you enough time just now, no?” She winked. “No, not cumming, I mean are you coming. Coming?”

  “You’re annoying,” I said, and climbed up on the window to see that she was riding some metal she’d clearly made into a sort in impromptu hover board, in a sense. Like a silver surf board. “And… if we get caught?”

  “Fuck if we care. We’re here to find your sister.”

  As much as it pained me to admit she was right, that was the actual purpose of this trip. Dammit, I wanted to punch myself for not just staying put and taking advantage of the fact that I was, at least temporarily, a Supralines student.

  Instead, I hopped out that window and landed on the crazy surfboard thing, clinging to Ice for balance, and then we high-tailed it out of there.

  “Won’t their alarms stop us?” I asked, freaking the fuck out as I watched the ground zoom past us below, the school disappearing behind. “Won’t the guards see us?”

  “Hacked that shit,” Ice said turning to give me a wink. “And the guards… Yeah, fuck.”

  “Fuck?”

  Her response was to turn and point—sure enough, two flying figures had appeared atop the school, coming toward us. They were too far away to see well, but were likely guards I wouldn’t have known well anyway.

  “SHIT!” I said, my grip on her now less about holding tight and more about squeezing the fuck out of her until she popped. How dare she not figure out something better than this? If we were supposed to get back into the school, they’d definitely recognize me, they’d… Wait… I looked down, then yelped.

  Ice glanced back, startled, and even began to stop mid-flight. She couldn’t see me. In that moment of panic, I’d managed to cloak.

  “Keep going!” I shouted. “I’m still here, in case you can’t tell by my arms squeezing the hell out of you.”

  “Holy Oram,” she said, putting speed back into her surfboard. “I thought you’d fallen off or something, that the feeling of you grabbing me was like a ghost sensation or something. Didn’t know you had it in you!”

  “Me neither. Or not really anyway.”

  “Maybe that school taught you something after all.” She laughed, looking down. “Once you master this, you can totally fuck with people. Get up in a castle and make them think it’s haunted.”

  “I’ll be sure to spend my time doing that.”

  “Shit!” She veered right, forcing me to clutch on extra tight to keep from falling. One of the supers had activated some sort of energy shield ahead of us, and now we were swerving around it, back on track, almost to the hills to the left of where I’d been earlier that day with Laurel.

  Laurel… With a glance back, I ignored the sight of the incoming guards, focused on how the school was all lit up at night, glowing with its blues and purples. If nothing else, I needed to return for her. After what we’d shared, I sure as hell wasn’t about to up and vanish without so much as a goodbye.

  Fuck that, I wasn’t going to vanish at all. Well, literally I already had. Vanished—but not in the figurative sense.

  “Have a plan?” I asked, noticing another guard now, energy swelling around him as he prepared some maneuver to stop us.

  Ice frowned, glancing back, and then sighed. “I hadn’t wanted to do this, but…” With a flick of her wrist, part of the surfboard flew away, forming into a metal ball that moved almost too fast to see.

  With a thwunk, it hit. The guard wavered, energy vanishing like a dying flame, and then he fell. Another thud sounded a moment later, but I couldn’t watch.

  “Dammit, Ice,” I said, letting my claws dig into her as I held tight.

  “Kinky, I like it.” She shuddered, and I wondered if she actually did enjoy the pain… so I stopped. “He’s not dead. Not likely, anyway. You really think they’d put a super on guard who can’t even handle a little metal ball?”

  I hoped she was right, but didn’t give her the satisfaction of an answer. If she was wrong, this was getting increasingly fucked.

  20

  We flew just above the ground as Ice maneuvered us through the trees and around to the other side of a large hill, constantly checking her surroundings against her holo screen. Apparently she’d put the location in there for the meeting. The night air sent a chill though my bones, and Ice’s body pressed up against me wasn’t helping. It wasn’t that she was particularly cold, and that wasn’t at all where she got her name. But she wasn’t warm either.

  “And… barrier back up,” Ice said, noting a countdown timer on her screen. “See, we made it with plenty of time to spare.”

  “Exactly what I was worried about,” I replied, not trying to hide the sarcasm. “Getting out of that place.”

  She shook her head, flying on. “You’re a rogue, Charm. Get that through your thick skull. Not some superhero, definitely not a student at fucking Supralines.”

  The spite that rolled off of her tongue with the name of the school filled me with more cold than the wind. I was relieved when she lowered the metal to the ground and said we’d arrived, because I didn’t want to get into it with her. On the one hand, it was everything I’d dreamed of, but on the other, saying so to anyone with the guild could point to me as being treasonous.

  We stepped off our makeshift surfboard and I quickly moved away from her. Whatever I’d shared with Laurel—the passion, the desire for proximity—it couldn’t be further away from how I felt with Ice. Especially in that moment where, yes we might have been one step closer to my sister, but one step further away from Supralines.

  She checked her screen again, nodded, and started pacing, eyes darting about.

  I, however, wanted to process what had just happened, what we were really doing here. Needing a moment alone, I walked to the edge of the clearing and found a tree with tall roots rising from the ground, roots I could sit on and lean against the tree.

  My mind went to Lamb and what she’d been teaching us in her class. What I wouldn’t give to stay with her, to learn more from her. I focused on my inner self, my core, as she’d described it, and tried to think about how else my powers might be able to manifest. Back there, as we’d been escaping, I’d managed to cloak. If I could master when that happened, it could be incredibly useful.

  And what if I could do more with my charm powers than I currently was aware of? I concentrated on calm, peace, and looking for that spot inside of me where my mind could shut off. I wasn’t sure what I was going for, but I’d take anything.

  Instead, what I got was a pinecone upside the head. One of Juno’s strange variety. At least the glowing edges were rounded, but it still hurt.

  “What the fuck?!” I snapped, suddenly up and cracking Ice across the jaw.

  She stumbled back, confused, and then her metal surfboard thingy was flying and slamming into the back of my legs to knock me off balance so that she could grab me and pin me to the ground. Only, she must’ve forgotten how much stronger than her I was, because I was able to easily flip her back over and was ready for more when a voice interrupted our stare down.

  “Ladies, you don’t have to fight over me,” a young man, probably a year younger than myself, stepped into the clearing, tossing another pinecone in his hand. He wore green war-paint on his face, but otherwise had the black and orange outfit customary for Rocadium students.

  “You threw that thing?” I growled, glaring at him.

  Ice put it together, and shoved me back as she spun on the guy, letting her metal fly at him and clip him hard on the shoulder.

  “Damn,” he said, grabbing the spot. Then he laughed. “Teaching you all to be feisty over at Supralines, huh?”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t have it cut off your tiny fucking head,” Ice said, glaring from him to me, so that neither knew who she was talking to.

  “A fun little prank,” he said, tossing the pinecone behind him. “One to see what sort of ladies I was dealing with. Now I know—you’re definitely her sister.” He was right, except he was staring at Ice.

  “Not her, me,” I countered.

  “Oh?” He turned to me, eyeing my ears and tail. “You’re… sure?”

  “Shut the fuck up and tell us where she is.”

  “Which is i—”

  “Just tell us.” Ice took a menacing step toward him, metal board circling his head with speed.

  “Hey, hey, we’re on the same side.” He glanced around, then pointed. “Here come your pals now.”

  Sure enough, Trance and Silencer were emerging from our left, looking annoyed.

  “Don’t leave us next time, Prancer,” Trance said. “

  “Prancer?” I asked, glancing at the guy with the green war paint.

  He shrugged. “I like the sound of it.”

  “Right…” I stifled a laugh. What a weird name.

  Glancing from me to Ice, Silencer arched an eyebrow. “Let me guess, Prancer tested you?”

  “Lucky guess?” I asked.

  “Kind of his thing, apparently.”

  Prancer ran his tongue across his teeth, then nodded toward the hill to my left. “You all have a purpose here, no? Let’s get to it.”

  “Sure, maybe we kick your ass later.” I extracted my claws.

  “Don’t threaten the one person offering to show you where your supposed sister is, or said showing might not happen.”

  A tense beat followed, and then I nodded, pulling my claws back. “Threat retracted.”

  “Miss us?” Trance said, and I had to admit, he looked damn good in that outfit with the orange trim highlighting his pecs. Judging from what Ice had told me, the crotch area had to be formed with part of the uniform, because that bulge couldn’t be his.