Free Darkest Day (StrikeForce #3) by Colleen Vanderlinden

situation like this.”
    “I remember that little girl from a couple months back,” she said. I nodded. Darla was an eleven-year-old girl who’d set her house on fire by mistake. We’d gotten her out of the blaze and given her methods for managing her powers, and now she was living in the house I’d bought and had restored for Mama. In all the mess over losing her, that was a bright spot at least, that her house was helping someone. It was fitting.
    “She’s a good kid. I think fire is a fairly common power.” I wanted to keep talking. I wanted her to calm down before I brought up the subject of the dampener. She had to have one on before we tried to put her on a plane. I glanced at Ryan and he gave me a little nod. He could tell what I was doing and agreed that it was the best way to handle this. “But you seem to have a power combo going. That’s pretty rare.”
    “You can fly and have super strength,” she pointed out, and I smiled behind my mask. She was loosening up. This was good.
    “Yeah. But most of us have a single power. We can fly or have super strength or super senses or whatever. I have a combo, so does Caine here, and a few others.”
    She kept her hands over her ears, but she looked a little more calm and hopeful. “You really think you can help me?”
    I nodded. “We can. We can take you to our headquarters and our people can work with you. We need a little help from you first, though.”
    She looked unsure. “What do you need?“
    I dug in my belt pouch and pulled out a dampener. It was nothing more than a small metal band. Very thin, silver in color. “This is a dampener. If you want to come back with us, you’ll need to let me put it on you. It holds your powers back so you don’t set the plane on fire or anything. And it will give you a little break from the super hearing thing.”
    “Yes, please,” she practically begged. I nodded and put the dampener around her throat, clasping it tightly, which activated it. A couple of seconds later, Vivian removed her hands from her ears and glanced around.
    “Oh, thank God,” she breathed. Then she looked at Ryan. “You’ve been through this?”
    He nodded. “You’ll be okay.”
    I saw the police nearby and blew out an annoyed breath before I started to head over to deal with them.
    “Want me to do it?” Ryan asked.
    “You don’t have to. Neither of us love this part.”
    He laughed. “If I say that you talking to the police doesn’t seem like a good idea today, are you going to want to kick my ass?”
    I tilted my head at him. “I’m not going to argue with you. If you don’t mind, I’ll take it.”
    “Okay. Get her on the jet, I’ll meet you in a few.”
    “I owe you one,” I called after him as he started walking away.
    “Yes, you do.”
    I shook my head and turned to Vivian. “So can I fly you there, or are we going to have to walk with everyone staring at us?”
    “Fly, please,” she said.
    “Good answer.”
    I put my hands under her arms and hoisted her into the air, well aware of the cameras and phones lifted to catch us on the move. We didn’t say anything as I flew, keeping an eye out, always, for any nonsense. We got to the mini jet and I got Vivian settled into the seat beside mine.
    “Um. Thanks for everything,” she said. “And for not tossing me in jail.”
    I shrugged. “We don’t have any reason to do that. Unless you give us one,” I added. “We’re assuming it was a response to your powers coming on and surprising you, triggered by the added stress you just told us about.”
    She nodded.
    “If you ever use your powers against innocent people, or any of my teammates, for that matter, it’ll be a different story. Right?“
    She nodded again. “Honestly, if I could just wear this thing forever, that would be great.” She gently traced her fingertips along the thin metal band at her neck, and I fought back a shudder. That thing had been my worst nightmare back when Alpha had forced me to wear