Here's Chapter One of a book I'm planning on self-publishing later this summer, involving superheroes titled POISONED TOUCH. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter
One
Arachnia
watched Jade Man battle her nameless minions, which she’d sent out to stop him.
Well, perhaps not stop him necessarily. Frankly, she was becoming bored of this
existence and couldn’t figure out why Jade Man was here. She had been quiet for
months. Still, as she watched him from behind her mask, her blood heated, her
body quivering with desire, lust and the unquenchable need to be possessed. To
be fucked. All Arachnia wanted to do was to reach out and touch him.
But
she couldn’t.
She
let out a heavy sigh, fidgeting on her perch. I’m so tired of being alone.
It
was her curse, her lot in life. It was why she took on the name she did, why
she hid behind a shadow of black. Midnight latex covered her from head to toe,
keeping her skin from coming into contact with others—for like a black widow’s
bite, her touch would kill.
She
had slaughtered many a Super before with just a simple press of her lips or
brush of flesh against flesh, but the first time she’d laid eyes on Jade Man,
her lonely, fatal existence became all the more bitter.
At
night she’d fantasize about him. Naked. Aroused. All vestiges of their façade
peeled away so nothing was between them except his ebony skin pressed against her pale white body.
She
longed for human touch, for warm flesh. Any time she came close to another
person she only experienced the briefest sensation of warmth, before she
siphoned the heat and life from them.
Arachnia
shook her head, dispelling the screams of those who’d died from her touch, as
the last of her henchman crumpled against the floor, right at the toe of her
stiletto heel. Remembering Jade Man’s presence, she kicked the lackey to the
side, sending his unconscious body tumbling down the steps, which led to her
chamber in her hideout. Jade Man had no right to be here. She’d been compliant
lately—quiet, even. It was the first time in a long time she’d not been up to
her usual exploits.
She
was trying to disappear into anonymity.
So
the question remained…why was he here?
“Jade,
this is not a pleasant surprise. Why are you disturbing me?”
Jade
Man’s eyes narrowed the green mask obscuring his face. “Arachnia, you know why
I’ve come.”
“I
don’t know what you’re talking about.” She sauntered down the steps toward her
arch nemesis, all the while fighting the urge to reach out and press his
muscle-honed body against hers.
An
image of him pistoning in and out of her made her heart skip a beat, her
stomach stir with butterflies and her panties wet.
Focus.
Jade
Man’s emerald eyes, hidden under his mask, tracked her movements as she circled
him in a wide birth, the clicks of her heels against the cold cement of her
surroundings keeping in time with the erratic beat of her pulse.
She
never wanted him more than in this moment.
“Come
now. Don’t play coy. Only you would stoop so low as to send out a virus which
is infecting Supers. Only you have the power to suck the very life out of another
human.”
Virus? A
tingle of dread traveled down her spine. A virus like her affliction? It was
too horrible to contemplate. She may be a heartless Villain, but to eradicate
Supers with a virus that mimicked her poisoned touch was just not
sportsmanlike. Besides, she never intentionally tried to kill the Supers; they
were what kept her going. She enjoyed making them jump through hoops and
watching them try to foil her evil schemes. Only when she had to did she remove
her gloves and touch someone.
She
cleared her throat and then smiled. “I confess, though it sounds like a
brilliant idea, I’m not the instigator of the crime.”
He
snorted. “I find that hard to believe, Arachnia. Or, should I say, Miss Winters.”
“So,
you finally figured out who I really am. I’m impressed.”
“It
was easy to deduce.” He crossed his arms. “You are a brilliant biochemist,
although the world thinks you’re dead from a freak accident, but I knew better.
Only Kelli Winters had the know-how to create a virulent plague to wipe out the
Supers. But your plan failed. Not only are you killing the Supers, you’re
killing off your own allies.”
Arachnia
froze. A plague? She may have been a
biochemist, but she would’ve never created a plague. Not then and not now.
“What are you talking about?”
“Why
don’t you admit it?”
“Admit
what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You…”
Jade Man’s knees trembled and he put his hand against the wall to steady
himself.
Arachnia
watched in disbelief as he began to shake, and it was then she noticed sweat
seeping through his light green disguise. The man looked absolutely feverish.
In all her years in bio chem she’d never seen a fever take hold like what was
currently inflicting her arch nemesis. Jade Man began to convulse, his mouth
frothing as his legs gave out.
“Jade
Man!” Arachnia threw caution aside and ran to his side catching him as he
collapsed. Carefully as to not brush any of her exposed skin against him, she
laid him gently against the cement floor as he writhed in delirium tremens. She
heard thrashing behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, the pit of her stomach
dropped as she watched her fallen henchmen having violent fits around her. So
this virus obviously had a more devastating effect on a normal human and it
worked fast. Quicker than she’d ever seen.
What’s going on? Why am I not sick?
She
had to find out what was going on, and fast. She wasn’t going to be held
responsible for a deadly superbug when she had no hand in creating it.
She
would never create a virus such as this. In fact, the day poor good-natured,
naïve Kelli Winters had her accident and turned into a living, breathing
venomous creature was the day she gave up biochemistry forever. Besides, it was
no virus that made her poisonous. Her accident altered her DNA and her
condition was not contagious.
Arachnia
stood. Just leave him. He was here to
kill you for something you didn’t do. Just like the State wanted to execute you
for Bruce’s death.
Her
mouth went dry and her body shook. She’d been tried and convicted for murder,
until Dr. Destructor saved her from the electric chair, as the lethal injection
had done nothing to her.
Society
had turned on her then and now blamed her for this virus. Why should she help
this Super?
Help him,
the other part of her screamed, the part of her conscience she’d buried for so
long. Help him, Kelli.
She
shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jade Man.” She turned to walk away, to do as her
mentor Dr. Destructor had taught, but she couldn’t leave him. Her conscience
was winning out. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw him lying there,
unconscious, drenched in sweat.
“Damn,”
she cursed. She ran back to his side and helped him stand. “It goes against the
Villain’s Code, but I can’t let you die this way.” Arachnia bent down and
picked him up. Jade Man mumbled some incoherently, his body vibrating against
hers—and not in the way she wanted. Arachnia thought she heard a mumbled thanks as she led him down the hall to
her small, abandoned laboratory.
The
door to her lab slid open with ease. The fluorescent lights lit up the room
with their gentle click and hum. She guided Jade Man to the gurney off to the
side of the room. Delirious, he protested.
“None
of that,” she chastised, forcing him to lie down. It was the easiest battle she
had ever fought against the man.
Arachnia
slipped on a white lab coat and peeled off her black gloves. Her pitch-colored
nails always made her stomach turn, the testament to what flowed through her
veins.
Poison.
She
found a pair of surgical gloves and slipped them on. One of her minions did the
lab work and tended to the wounded, so the laboratory was always stocked. Her
stomach twisted at the thought of her men in the antechamber. They were likely
all dead by now.
It
was for the best. Better to be dead than end up like her.
A
freak.
And
that posed an interesting question. Why Jade Man still alive?
Opening
a drawer, she found a syringe. She would draw his blood and analyze it. Perhaps
she could identify some of the markers of the virus. What did she have to lose?
The virus wasn’t affecting her…yet. She could still succumb. She’d been exposed
to it.
Arachnia
rolled her shoulders and grabbed a pair of surgical scissors; in the other hand
she held the syringe. With measured steps she approached Jade Man. He was
conscious again, his emerald eyes boring into her as if to ask why? When he saw the glint of metal from
the scissors he flinched. She kneeled beside him.
“If
I wanted you to die, I would’ve left you in the antechamber. I just need a
sample of your blood.”
“What
does it matter?” he whispered, his voice cracking. “You’re the one responsible.
You know how the virus works. You created it.”
“No.”
She shook her head. “I’m not the creator.”
He
snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”
“I’m
not. But I’m going to find out what is causing this virus. May I take a bit of
your blood?”
His
eyes flew open in surprise, as if he was stunned she’d asked him. Well, she may
be a Villain but she had manners. Arachnia waited with bated breath. Weakly
Jade Man nodded, acquiescing to her request. Deftly she cut away his Super
disguise to bare his ebony flesh. Her heart skipped a beat and she swore she
could almost see, almost feel his blood moving through the veins of his
muscular arm.
Was
she really this desperate for the caress of a man’s flesh?
Yes.
She was. It had been far too long.
She
wiped his skin with alcohol swab and then fashioned a tourniquet around his
upper arm. With a few quick taps on his arm she found his vein and gently
pushed the syringe in.
The
moment the blood began to fill the vial, Arachnia’s heart stuttered and the
hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
His
blood was not red. His blood was black.
As
black as hers.
