Damsel[ed]: Some Rescue Required (#2 of the Damsel[ed] series)

Chapter Three: Plan in Action

The Fibbs had left hours ago to see their precious superhero.

Poison stands on their balcony, sipping a root beer through a cheap plastic straw. He knows they'll be back soon. The sky is dark and a chilly wind blows through the city, marking nightfall. They'll recollect their little prize and plop her back in the neighboring apartment, hoping they'll keep her safe. A stupid thought. Poison's father could rip them apart if he wanted, storm their places with big guns and destroy everything they have. But Fallout isn't like that. He's a shadow of a man, a hanging threat. People cow at the thought of him, but he hasn't killed in years.

Poison tries to smile at the view, but he can't. He can only think about Heaven and his plans to catch her. He feels his anger grow. He doesn't want to hurt her, besides, he shouldn't have to. She should like him.

He had her! And yet she slipped away, because of Catboy and Lucifer.

Poison kicks a flower pot. Pitiful. The way Fallout's eyes light up at the mention of Luce's name, you'd think he's the damned chosen one, but no. He's a whiny crybaby who deserves to have his face smashed into the nearest lampost.

And Poison's no idiot. He knows how disappointing siren-powers are to Fallout. He knows how much his father values Luce over him. That if Luce ever willfully cooperated, Fallout wouldn't just keep him in a basement as the occasional weapon. No, he would be the heir to all of Snare and Poison would be out. Booted off.

"I care about my boy, don't get me wrong," Fallout once said at a late night party when he thought Poison was asleep, "but I can't see him running my organization. He'll be eaten alive before he's eighteen. His only use would be to seduce information out of people, but by God! Jacob, it's embarrassing. My son, a seductor. But that's all he'll ever be."

The Fibbs' front door creaks open. "What do you mean, you promised me to Snare?" Heaven asks, her voice clear to Poison's sharpened senses. He sets his root beer on the dainty little glass table, his heart beating that much faster. There's something so entrancing about hearing her speak, even when she sounds like she wants to strangle small animals.

"It was for the drugs that kept you alive! If it weren't for Snare, you'd be dead!" her brother shouts.

"They experiment on children! I'd rather be dead than work with them!"

Stubborn thing. Poison smiles to himself. "Go ahead, make this hard on yourself," he whispers. She won't get away this time. Whether she loves him standing or on her knees is up to her, and he's okay with either.

The one girl who fought his powers. The one girl who's a siren like him. She's the one girl Poison can't have, and she's the only one he wants.

"Could you be any more ungrateful?" Cat asks. Traitor. Soon Cat'll be very, very sorry for what she did.

"Look, I'm glad to be alive. Thank you, Toby. But I can't join their cause, no matter what deal you struck."

Luce titters. "Why don't we talk about this over Monopoly?" he asks his stupid, metal singer voice. 

"Why would Snare would want a superhero in their ranks?" Juniper asks. Her footsteps clip back and forth, back and forth. "Heaven could destroy the organization. For Fallout to take such a risk, something big has to be on the horizon."

"You should've told us you needed SEs," her husband, Rain something or other, says. "We could've helped you."

"What can we do now?" Catboy asks.

"I think I'll get the board out..." Luce says, and Poison slips a loop of cord out of his pocket. This will be easy. He steps up on the balcony and throws himself over the rails, his wings snapping out. Catboy's never-locked window isn't very far. Poison clicks it open and slips through it, listening for Luce. This can't fail. For his plan to work, he has to get the guy before the rest of Snare or Syndicate does. How can he drain Luce of his powers otherwise?