Villains Don't Save Heroes! (Night Terror Book 2)

by Mia Archer

“I’m Night Terror.”

Maybe I was letting anger get the best of me, but I was a villain after all. Maybe an antihero at best, but I’d never admit that to Fialux. Which I figured meant I had some leeway to deal with my enemies in an unconventional manner.

Why did so many people have trouble remembering they were dealing with a villain? Did I get “hero” tattooed on my forehead or something in special ink that everyone but me could see?

“Why won’t you die?” I screamed.

I didn’t bother to try and puzzle out how she was able to say that considering her lungs were cut halfway off and cauterized shut. Maybe there was just enough air left in them for her to say her last words.

I set my jaw. If I opened my mouth then I was going to say something we might both regret. Something that was the truth, but there was nothing that said the truth couldn’t be regrettable.

“I don’t have my powers and I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have tried to get in the middle of a fight when I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

We’d both made some pretty big fucking mistakes, but instead of crying I was just angry. Angry at her. Angry at myself.

I’m dealing with a depressed former goddess who wasn’t all that happy about the former part of that word, and I was at my wit’s end.

I guess she’d skipped a couple of her seven stages of grief. From the readouts it looked like she’d gone from denial straight to depression, and I was trying to figure out a way to get her out of her funk.

Okay, so now that I thought about it maybe she’d had a gone through little bit of the anger stage too. She just took it out on the robots in the lab rather than on me for some reason.

Though there was the occasional moment when a belly rub turned into a vicious mauling. That was a risk every cat owner had to take from time to time, though, and it was totally worth the visit to the medbay in my opinion because purr cuddles were irresistible. I don’t care who you are.

Poor little thing. It never had a chance.

“What part of get away don’t you understand?” she growled. “The part where I love you and I’m going to make you better no matter what it takes. No matter how much it hurts me or how many times I have to fight an archnemesis I’m not sure I can beat. That’s the part you don’t understand, and I’m going to make you understand it even if it kills me damn it!”

She appeared for the first time. Her head popped out from under the covers. She looked like the proverbial groundhog popping out of its burrow. Her nose wrinkled.

Fialux hit me with a sardonic smile that said she didn’t believe I was actually going to do it. I was getting sick and tired of people underestimating me because I’d saved the city one damn time. So I started blasting.

Either way, it was time to stop with all of this touchy-feely bullshit. I was going to fix this the only way I knew how.

“I’m not crazy,” I said. “I’m just a villain. People keep forgetting that lately.” She screamed. I fired.

“I’m going to get my powers back someday, and on that day I’m going to pay you back for that. I want you to know this,” she said. “And on that day I’ll be so happy you have your powers back that I won’t be all that worried about you paying me back.”

She was pulling herself into her underwear now. The show was over. At least the good part of the show.

But there was way more to it now. It was way too fucking complicated.

It’d been awhile since I saw her wearing practically nothing. I was like a starving person wandering the desert who suddenly discovered an oasis. So sue me.

“How long have you had your memories back?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“Rest and relaxation,” I said. “I should’ve thought of that! I’m going to kill the medical computer for not pointing this out to me.” “What?” she asked.

I enjoyed the hell out of feeling her in nothing but that underwear thank you very much. Hey, this might be a serious moment but I was only human and it’d been awhile.

“You’d really do that for me?” she asked. “I’d do anything for you,” I said. “Including faking a reservation in the Skyhigh computer system so we can celebrate!”

her. “Terrare? Where’d you come up with that ridiculous name?”

“Let’s just say I picked it up from a friend at the university. I figure you of all people should appreciate the value of a good secret identity.” “So is your real name even Natalie?” she asked.

There were so many buildings constantly being repaired in this city. The city was a construction company’s wet dream.

She looked at me and there was a sparkle to her eyes. I couldn’t tell if that sparkle was because she was taking what I said to heart or if it was because she was on the verge of tears. Again.

I stared at her. I found myself wondering if I was absolutely right in my suspicion that she was actually a beautiful creature from another world.

“Huh. I think I kind of like it,” she said. “Of course you do,” I replied. “You’d have to have no soul not to like this stuff, even if it is a little old timey these days.”

“It’s actually sort of appropriate they’re playing something like that here. The dance floor at the Skyhigh got its start back in the days when the biggest villains threatening the world were Hitler and Tojo.”

We hadn’t danced the last time we were here. Mostly because the weather had been pretty nasty, rain caused by some wannabe villain who thought they could control the city by controlling the weather. At least they’d thought that until I flew up and blew up their weather machine hovering over the city because I was so pissed off that it ruined my chance to dance with my best girl.

Though apparently they had that universal waiter superpower of showing up at the worst possible moment and interrupting a moment.

The fact that this place catered to the rich hoi polloi of Starlight City also meant they were accustomed to tastefully ignoring eccentricity in their clientele.

I was always generous with the tips considering I was spending other people’s money.

His face grew darker and darker with my every word, and it turned from annoyance to panic when I started to threaten his tip.

“You serve soda here, right?” Steve blinked. “Well, yes?” “Right. Go and get me whatever glass you put your soda in, and bring two of them.”

Did we get looks from all the other snooty fine diners as they realized I was pouring a generous portion of a very expensive wine into giant glasses? Maybe, but I’d long ago stopped giving a fuck about what other people thought about me.

“Damn,” she said. Then she leaned in closer. “You know I’m actually a few months shy of being able to legally drink?”

“My dear,” I said, trying not to relish this moment too much and having a difficult time of it. “It would appear that you are suffering the effects of alcohol for the first time in your life.”

She hit me with an irritated glare. There was a flash of something there. Something that went beyond irritation. Something that said she still very much blamed me for everything that happened and was going to continue blaming me for everything that had happened.

We had a lot of lost time to make up for if you catch my meaning. Wink and a nudge and all that.

She looked at me with a funny little half smile, and as always she looked beautiful. “What?” I asked. “Nothing,” she said.

It was weird. It didn’t look like they were actually trying to destroy anything. Just really fuck shit up. As though whoever had programmed the things wanted them to cause the appearance of damage without actually causing real damage.

“I’m wrong?” I asked. “Of course you’re wrong,” she said. “You avoid hurting people. You want to take over the world because you think you can do a better job of running it than the asshole politicians in charge of things now. You might not think you’re a hero, but you have a heroic streak running through you about a mile wide.”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” I said. “I avoid hurting people because it’s not good business to have the public turning against me.” “Because you don’t want the public turning against you,” she said, her voice flat.

“Those idiots wouldn’t be able to hit the broad side of a barn if it came up and mooned them.” I snorted. I couldn’t help myself. The image was so ridiculous.

There might’ve been a chance at me ending my dry spell, but then these stupid things had to come along and ruin all the fun. Assholes. I’d call them a cockblock if I had the right equipment. Which I didn’t.