Tekgrrl Read online

  TEKGRRL

  A. J. Menden

  LEISURE BOOKS NEW YORK CITY

  Unearthing The Past

  “I won’t lie,” Fantazia remarked. “This is going to hurt like hell. And I can’t guarantee what you’ll be like when we’re done. Are you sure you want to do it?”

  You’ll go insane from what they did to you, my mother had warned. I wanted to scream no, that I could just wait until the blocks broke down naturally or something else happened, but I knew in my heart that I had to go through with this.

  As I couldn’t find my voice, I nodded my acceptance.

  Fantazia patted my head like a small child, which I guess to her I was. “It’ll all be over soon, one way or the other…” She looked up at Cyrus. “Ready?”

  He nodded, eyes glistening. “Oh, hell yeah.”

  Fantazia grinned. “Let’s do it.”

  To Jeremy, for seeing what I didn’t.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Unearthing The Past

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Acknowledgements

  Praise

  Other Books By

  Copyright

  PROLOGUE

  At first glance they almost looked human, but the longer I studied the silent forms waiting in front of me, the more differences I noticed. Like, how their heads were just a little too big for their bodies. How their skin’s golden hue was just a little too reminiscent of actual metal. How their eyes almost seemed to glow when I looked at them in a certain way. And their fingers were just too long.

  “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Mindy,” my mother was saying. “Most people spend their exchange-student time in other countries; you’re going to spend a year on another planet. You’ll be the first human to live among the Kalybri if you take them up on their offer.”

  “You’ll learn so much more with them than you would at any school or with any tutor we could have provided,” my father promised.

  My tone was soft but sliding toward petulant. “But you said I could attend The School.” I kept my gaze locked to the floor in front of me.

  My mother sighed. “That place is no more than a public school for those born with superhuman abilities, of which you have none. You’ll stand out just as much there as you would if you went ahead and attended regular college at your age.”

  I winced at the reminder that, no matter where I went, I was a freak. “You said your contacts in the EHJ could probably get me into The School.”

  My father sighed. “They probably could. But really, Mindy, do you want to be something as pedestrian as a hero?”

  “Yes,” I said, casting hopeful eyes up at him. The world had more people with super powers than ever, but my parents had never understood my love of heroes, those colorful men and women who were devoted to Good, to helping others through acts of bravery. These were the men and women to whom everyone turned to save the world when a villain threatened to blow up the planet, or when some musty old book warned of an apocalypse. My parents didn’t understand why I avidly kept newspaper clippings and paid attention to these heroes’ celebrity photos, but that didn’t change anything. I felt a kinship, and I wanted to believe I had a purpose in the world. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the reason. Well, not exactly.

  The truth was, I had always been bored when my scientist parents dragged me from one meeting to another because they felt they were the best instructors for me, just because I was a “highly intelligent child.” I’d been bored until the day they took me to meet the heroes of the Elite Hands of Justice—and one hero in particular. A hero just barely out of high school, himself.

  “You’re twelve, Mindy, you don’t know what you want,” my mother said, giving the waiting aliens an apologetic look. “A year or two with the Kalybri will give you perspective.”

  It was only my life, and I had no say in the matter. By her tone, it sounded like all was decided. I ground my teeth in frustration but kept silent. I had a sense of wanting to rebel, but I had no friends my age—or of any age, for that matter. If I alienated my family, I had no one.

  “We are your parents, and we have a responsibility to give you the best possible education we can,” my father said. “You’re a child prodigy, Mindy, and the Kalybri are very interested in learning as much as they can about humans in general. But their minds are further advanced than ours. A regular human would be overwhelmed. From all our tests, you are the best suited person we know for the experience. And the Kalybri have agreed to teach you just like they would any of their children, so you will be learning about their superior technology and can bring it back to us! That is much more heroic than using your fists to fight some mentally unstable person.” My father shook his head. “Plus, the Elite Hands of Justice are starting to branch out and help other worlds. An experience like this would definitely impress them…should you still want to be one of their number when you return.”

  It was one bright spot in the situation, and I snatched at it. If working with the aliens could be my parent-approved ticket into the EHJ, so be it.

  The severe-looking alien who seemed to be in charge stepped forward. “We would be pleased to teach you, child,” he said in the halting tones of someone unfamiliar with English.

  I took a deep breath and did what my parents wanted. As always.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Sixteen years later

  “If I ever decide to get married, I’m not having a traditional wedding with the white dress and the bridesmaids and all that garbage,” I said. “Vegas is looking better and better.”

  “What’s your problem with weddings?” my teammate and best friend Toby Latimer asked.

  “Nothing like one to remind you what a loser you are,” I grumbled.

  “The wedding was months ago, remember? It was that ceremony we attended before kiddo here was born.” Toby motioned to the infant I was bouncing on my lap. “This is the reception-slash-Wesley’s birthday party celebration giving you a case of the sour grapes.”

  “It’s not really,” I said, nodding to the happy couple, two of our EHJ team members, as they greeted guests, friends, and global dignitaries with equal enthusiasm. Well, they received enthusiasm from Lainey and thinly disguised boredom from Wesley. “I’m happy for them. Honestly. If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s Lainey.”

  “Wesley not so much?”

  “He rode my case the whole time I trained with him,” I grumbled.

  Before any of us in the current squad became full members of the Elite Hands of Justice, we underwent two years of training with the Reincarnist, an immortal magician who didn’t die but instead was reincarnated into a new man of twenty each time, usually retaining only partial memories of his past lives. It had been Robert Elliot, a reclusive and rigid forty-something, who had broken me in. How Lainey had ever fallen in love with him was beyo
nd me, and though their relationship had been strained by his death in combat and subsequent rebirth as Wesley Charles, he was now her husband and the father of the squirming kid on my lap. She truly put the phenomenal in Phenomenal Girl five, which was her alias.

  “Lainey’s the sweetest person I know,” I remarked. “If being with him makes her happy, I’m all for it. It’s just seeing her so genuinely happy with him that…”

  “Makes you remember how desperately alone you are?”

  “Thanks, Toby.”

  “Hey, I was referring to myself there, too. It’s been over a year since I’ve had a serious relationship, and at least three months since I’ve even had a date. The pickings, they be slim.” He shook his head.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Don’t even!” he growled. “You could have your pick of men, if only you’d get your head out of your butt and notice someone other than Luke.”

  I shot him a nasty look. “I date on occasion.”

  Toby snorted. “Yeah, guys who bear a striking resemblance to Luke.”

  “So I have a type, so what? You date skinny string-bean guys. You don’t see me dissing you about it.” I pointed out a waiter who kept walking past. “Speaking of, since that guy’s too busy leering at you to do any work, you might as well ask him to dance.”

  “I’m not dating a waiter,” Toby said.

  “Now who’s being picky?”

  “I’m holding out for Mr. Right.”

  “Well, so am I.”

  “No, you’re holding out for Mr. Harmon.”

  I thought about smacking Toby, but knew it wouldn’t do any good. His powers made him super strong and fast—and more resistant to damage than the average human. He could take a shotgun blast at point-blank range and come away with a mere scratch. My girly punch would feel like a tickle.

  Jealousy reared its ugly head, and not just at my friend Lainey’s blissful happiness. I had no powers. I was a child prodigy who’d gotten her crazy intelligence boosted by aliens. I could do things with technology now that not even the smartest members of NASA could; in fact, they had gotten a lot of their patents off me when I was sixteen. But I wasn’t superhuman.

  Luke Harmon was more like me, a “normal” human fighting the good fight. He had an athlete’s body and a photographic memory, something that came in handy while studying with many martial arts experts. That body was one of the most delicious and powerful things I’d ever seen.

  “Make a deal with you,” Toby was saying, interrupting my daydream.

  “What?”

  “I’ll go ask the waiter to dance if you’ll ask Luke.”

  “Can’t,” I said too quickly. “I’m on babysitting duty, remember?” Emily let out a happy gurgle and grinned as if in assist.

  “Lainey will definitely not mind taking her kid back for one dance so you can make progress with Luke.”

  “He’s probably already back in his room training or something,” I said, giving a glance around.

  “No, he’s over there talking to one of the government agency heads.” Toby stood up and pointed, causing Luke to look over at us.

  “Quit it!” I said, yanking his arm down. “Be more obvious.”

  Toby shrugged and waved Lainey over.

  “Hey, guys, how’s my monster behaving?” Lainey asked, looking radiant in her ivory and gold cocktail dress. I’d helped her pick it out. I know with my magenta-streaked hair and black clothes I project a very punk image, but I have it in me to be the classy girl my parents wanted. I just fight it.

  Emily acted as if God himself had walked over, the way her eyes lit up and she squealed, reaching for her mother and practically climbing over me to get to her. I sighed. I never thought I’d ever want a child until my friend had one. Now I was starting to see the appeal of a toothless baby grin.

  Turning, I frowned. A couple of paparazzi had managed to work their way into our headquarters, where Lainey and Wesley had chosen to have their event. This wedding reception would make a hot news item. The photographers snapped off a couple of quick pictures and disappeared again, probably before the Reincarnist could magically transport them to some dark realm full of demons or other nasties. He was very protective of his daughter.

  “Mindy’s going to ask Luke to dance,” Toby announced.

  Lainey settled Emily on her hip and stared at me. “Really?”

  “Not really. Toby’s trying to get out of asking this waiter to dance by using me as an excuse. I’m babysitting Em,” I said, reaching for the baby again. She immediately shrieked. Oh yeah, I’d be a stellar mom.

  “She wants to see Mommy and Daddy for a while,” Lainey said. “And I think Wes has used up his allotment of social grace for the day with all of these people. Some things never change.” She grinned at me. “So go have fun.”

  “Guys, maybe I’m over Luke,” I suggested—and didn’t like the incredulous looks they gave me in return. “Seriously, I’m pushing thirty, and that’s way too old to be harboring a crush I had when I was twelve. For God’s sake, Lainey, you’re only a bit younger than me and you’re married with a kid! And Wesley…he’s only twenty-one!”

  “Wesley so doesn’t count in this scenario. He’s physically twenty-one but actually older than civilization,” Lainey said with a laugh.

  “You know what I mean. It’s time for me to grow up,” I resolved, motioning to my hair. “I mean, seriously, what am I rebelling against? I’m not a teenager anymore. Luke and I are friends, and that’s all we’re ever going to be. I need to have the maturity to accept that.”

  Lainey shot a worried glance at Toby. “We’re not saying you’re acting immature, Mindy, we just want you to take a chance and acknowledge your feelings. There’s a chance Luke might feel the same.”

  I knew they meant well, but seeing Lainey in a mature, healthy relationship had only served as a reminder of how immature I was acting, regardless of what they said. I wasn’t getting any younger, and if I ever wanted what she had—a husband and kids, as well as my career fighting crime and evil—I was going to have to grow up. And soon. But Lainey and Toby were right about one thing: I did need to acknowledge my feelings. So I could move on.

  “Fine,” I said, standing up and smoothing down my black dress. “I’ll go ask my friend Luke to dance.”

  Squaring my shoulders, I walked forward to put this crush behind me once and for all.

  CHAPTER TWO

  He excused himself from the conversation he was having as I walked up. “What’s going on, Mindy? Something wrong?” He glanced around the room, looking for trouble.

  “What, Luke, I can’t talk to you unless there’s something wrong?” I spoke in a light tone, cursing Toby for drawing attention earlier. How was I supposed to act nonchalant now?

  Luke’s posture visibly relaxed. “I guess it says something about me that my first thought whenever anyone approaches is that trouble’s brewing.”

  I shrugged. “Occupational hazard.”

  “I suppose.”

  There was an awkward silence between us as we stood there, the sounds of murmured conversation and the band’s music filling the void.

  “So, was there something specific you wanted to talk about, or did you just want out of babysitting?” Luke finally asked.

  I spoke before I could stop myself. “Do you want to dance?”

  Luke blinked. “What?”

  “I’m tired of sitting around,” I continued, forcing myself to study the way his forehead wrinkled with astonishment just so that my eyes wouldn’t go straight to the floor. I had to at least appear like I was facing him head-on. “I want to dance.”

  “Oh.”

  “Toby’s too busy trying to work up the courage to ask this waiter, Lainey said Wesley’s done being social for the night, and Paul’s, well…”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to dance with Paul, either.” Luke laughed, referring to our field leader, the man who led the team during missions, and general stick-in-the-mud. “If Kate can get him un
latched from that chemist up for the Nobel Prize, it’ll be a minor miracle, anyway; they’ve been talking in the corner all night.” He nodded to where Paul stood holding a mostly full glass of champagne and having an intense conversation with an equally stuffy-looking man.

  Kate, our teammate and Paul’s lover, had totally given up on him and was flirting with the bartender. He probably wouldn’t hold it against her, though. Flirting was as natural as breathing to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Yes, Kate was an actual immortal, and could control all aspects of love. Many of the gods and goddesses of myth existed; though, aside from the occasional decades-long trips to Olympus and their immortality, they were pretty much like any other person of the powered persuasion.

  “So, yeah, I thought I’d ask you,” I said, as if he wouldn’t be my first choice. “I mean, come on. You didn’t learn dancing somewhere along the way? You’ve compared martial arts to dancing…”

  “Yeah, dancing that can end with bodily injury!” Luke shook his head with a smile and looked at the couples already out on the dance floor. “Though I don’t think it takes much time to learn how to sway back and forth like that.”

  “That sounds like a yes to me,” I said, holding out a hand and willing it not to shake. I couldn’t act like this was important to me and scare him off. This had to be a friendly dance.

  He looked like he was going to say something but changed his mind. “Okay, sure,” he said, and took my arm. “Just don’t expect a waltz.”

  “Like I know how.”

  I winked at Lainey as Luke and I passed where she and Toby were sitting. Your turn, I mouthed to him, and Toby rolled his eyes but got up and went over to the waiter.

  And then I no longer cared what Toby did as Luke took me into his arms. For all of my tough bad-girl talk, for all of my “I’m over him,” professions, he still affected me. It was sad that someone who had never acknowledged me as anything more than a coworker, let alone a woman, could make my heart race and my stomach feel fluttery.

  Even with my four-inch heels, I only came to just above his shoulder, which is where I kept my eyes as we danced. I was afraid if I looked into his gaze I would do something stupid like try to kiss him. I had come this far, after all.