Free Super Bad (a Superlovin' novella) by Vivi Andrews

Darla’s until she can meet us there and
fly us somewhere safe.”
    “And if they find you
before Darla gets back? Or if they track her flight?”
    “We’ll come up with
Plan B.”
    “And if Mirage has
another break and vanishes on you? What then? How can you be sure you’ll be the
one to find her again? She could be in Area Nine before you even know she’s
gone.”
    “Do you have a better
idea?” Lucien snapped, squaring off aggressively.
    It was Mirage who
answered. “Maybe we should let them arrest me.”
    Both men spun to stare
at her. “You can’t be serious.” That from Lucien, though the words might as
well have been pulled from Julian’s thoughts.
    “Maybe Area Nine is the
best place for me. At least there we know I won’t do anything else to bring
about some unspecified apocalypse.”
    “Hell fucking no,”
Lucien snarled. “You are not going back there. There are no appeals for people
held in Area Nine, Belle. Once you’re in, you’re in for good. I can’t be sure I
would be able to break you out again. If they’ve upgraded their security…”
    “I hate to say it, but
your brother is right,” Julian agreed reluctantly. “You need help to figure
this out—and yeah, some bars to keep you contained while we do that wouldn’t
hurt, but no one has ever been released from Area Nine. We can’t risk sending
you there.” But she couldn’t go with Lucien. Her brother was too easily tricked
by her illusions. That left… “I’ll take you. I know a safe house we can use.” When
Lucien started to protest, Julian tugged his gaze away from Mirage’s wide eyes
and met the force of her brother’s without flinching. “I’ll keep her safe. We
both know you can’t contain her, but I can. And I think I can help her get back
under control.”
    “That wasn’t how it
looked when she was tossing you across the room with her mind.”
    “I didn’t say it would
be easy. Wroth, we both know I’m the only one she can’t escape from. This is
our only play.”
    Lucien’s black
expression hardened. “What do you need?”
    Julian blinked, a bit
startled by the sudden capitulation. He was used to dealing with heroes who
dithered and wrangled to the bitter end in power plays and politics. It was
oddly refreshing to deal with the snap decisions of the villain class. “Can you
get me her complete file? Everything you know about her activities in the last
year?”
    Lucien nodded sharply. “I’ll
meet you at the east side door in three minutes.” He was gone almost before the
last word hit Julian’s ears, his superspeed leaving a breeze in the room.
    Julian turned to
Mirage. “Ready?”
    “You don’t have to—”
    “You can question my
sudden lack of legal obedience later. I certainly plan to. But right now we
have to get you the hell out of here or we lose all options that don’t end in
Area Nine.”
    “Okay,” she agreed, but
her eyes still held doubts. He couldn’t blame her. He had doubts of his own. Foremost
among them the concern that he was about to take the first step toward losing
his place as the Defender of Justice. But, like he’d told her, he could worry
about the ethics later. Right now, they didn’t have time for morality debates.
    “I need you to turn off
the cameras and cloak us.”
    Mirage’s eyes widened,
her mouth dropping open. “You want me to pull an illusion on purpose?”
    Her shock struck him
and Julian realized he must be the first person to ask her to use her
powers, rather than suppress them, in months. All these weeks, everyone trying
to help her, trying to heal her, and they’d been doing everything they could to
contain her, shove her abilities in a box. Her power capacity had been growing
and she’d had no outlet for it. No wonder the dam kept bursting and she went
into frenzies of uncontrolled use. They’d practically forced her to it.
    “Can you do it?” It was
possible she didn’t have the focus for the controlled use of her powers when
she wasn’t