It’s not a dark and stormy night, but it’s a night in Midas and that can be a hell of a lot worse. At least if it’s dark and stormy a silver spark can look a lot more intimidating. When it’s a nice night, barely a cloud in the sky, and the wind is only full of good smells, people let their guard down. There’s no night worse than a good night gone awry.

Well, I guess a bad night that only gets worse isn’t much better.

Sylvia wants some gas, but I don’t have time to indulge her. I have more than enough to swing by Jade’s before fueling up on the way home, even if I get into a chase of some sort, but a part of me tenses up whenever she hits half a tank. Patina had a run-in with an empty tank. That was less than fun.

No one is there. Jade is not exactly hurting for cash, so she can afford a home in the nicer part of Midas City – the part I almost never have to protect. When you have an Olympic class archer living in your neighborhood, especially one who used to be fairly regular about protecting the streets herself, I guess you don’t make the most appealing target. It’s nice to know that sometimes the threat of being shot in the shoulder by a markswoman can be a deterrent.

Killing the engine, I hop away and start to slowly look around. Sneaking up on someone with a motorcycle is like sneaking around wearing sandpaper shoes on a wood floor. I don’t see anyone I need to sneak up on, but I’ve only started looking.

Who would The Lady send to take out Jade if she wanted a little bit of payback? She sent Pink after me. Would she have sent me after Jade? It was the a combination of Jade and I that took down Chronos.

Silhouette is thankfully still on the road last that I heard. I can only imagine how she would react to The Lady showing up in town. I don’t know how willing she was to follow Quillspawn to get closer to me, but it seemed too willing from the looks she kept giving me afterwards. Besides, her nifty shadow play might help her at a distance with Jade, but I can’t imagine she would make the perfect candidate.

Who would she send? Maybe Jade is safe and my worries are just stupid. Jesse was only going to shoot me because I was posing a threat to her right there. Maybe she didn’t murder nearly as often as some think. Maybe Jade has already been taken care of and I’m far too late.

If I’d been smart enough to bring my cell with me, I could call and check on her. Alas, it’s still in my belt back at home. All of my smart ideas are back at home.

Looking from the gate, I can see there are lights on in her home. That doesn’t mean a lot, but it means that, well, maybe I should just leave. Short of breaking and entering, or stalking around her property more than I already have, there’s nothing I can do. If she did, sending someone here was the one thing The Lady managed to do without being sloppy.

“Hello, Sarah. No good deed goes unpunished, and I had a few that I thought you hadn’t been adequately punished for.” A shard of something solid and green slams across my face, knocking me hard onto the grass.

It’s a voice I’ve only heard once or twice, and the shining rock that no doubt left a bruise is a sensation I definitely can’t place. Groaning, I try to rise up from the grass before a boot comes down hard on the center of my chest, making my whole body shake. Ow. There is only one good thing about a position like this: the perfect view I get of my assailant.

“Heya Emerald . . . I see you’ve done a lot of reforming since the last time we met. Nice to know the justice system did you a service!” Her short green hair would give her away, if nothing else Even dressed in what looks like a white latex suit with thigh-high boots, she manages to look professional.

She moves her foot to kick my jaw, but I grab her first, pushing her back with all of the force I can muster. Sure enough, she topples onto her back and I smirk down at her sprawled rather indignantly.

There’s nothing in the world quite like instant turnabout.

Sighing, I hold a finger down towards her with the tip brightly shining. “I already had you arrested once. This time I have the feeling there could be a way or two to make it stick. Just give up, please? Can’t just, anyone stay gone? Is it so much to ask for just one of you stupid little evil bitches to stay gone when you have the chance? Is there some kind of goodness magnet that draws you back into the fray, or is it an allergy to me being happy?”

“You know what they say about super villains needing to not be so self-satisfied and prattling on about their plans?” Emerald’s voice is oddly neutral in a way that makes me blink and stare at her in confusion.

“Yeah?”

“Goes the same for you naive and moralistic self-absorbed heroines.” I don’t know how she does it, I don’t really know what her power is all that much, but another of those chunks of what must be emeralds hits into my hand, knocking it away from her before she rolls back, jumping to her feet. She snaps her fingers before holding her open palm towards me; more quickly than I can blink a sphere of shining green gemstone facets surrounds me completely.

This is just beautiful. Until now, today was going to end as a day where I did a small number of stupid things. Now things aren’t looking quite as pretty.

Her painted green lips are twisted into a grin that a painting would envy as she traces her fingertips along the facets closest to her. “Swell . . . Who knows where that double-crossing bitch The Domina Argenti is? Who needs to? If I take my revenge on you, it’s double. I get both Patina, and The Domina, don’t I? I even get Silver Girl as an added third. There are a lot of people who will be happy to see you fall.”

Sadly, she doesn’t even know the half of it I’d imagine The Lady had more than her fair share of business partners who won’t be recouping from her recent failure. “Well, fuck me then. I guess.”

“Oh, I’m not interested in fucking you, Sarah. I’m one of the very few. Not to say you aren’t beautiful and exotic in ways that most women can only dream of, but I’ve laid awake at night just dreaming of the look on your face when the last of your will finally drains away. Just seeing you helpless and beaten will give me a far better release than fucking you ever could. You took away my will twice, Sarah LaSilvas. All is fair in love, war, and enterprise.” Her grin melts into a self-satisfied smile as she again snaps her fingers and the facets begin to . . . pulse.

There’s no better way to describe the way how each facet begins to turn a different shade of green, a different level of light, a different tone . . . all at once. The effect is simultaneously painful and captivating. My eyes feel like they’re pulsing inside of their sockets, and my whole body feels hot and cold, pulsing and shuddering, weak, dizzy . . .

If I use the light now, I’ll pass out, and the orb will still be there. I won’t stand a chance if it can work while I’m asleep. I’ll come to and she’ll do whatever she wants with me until the light finds a way to burn it away, if it ever finds a way. Maybe she’ll find a way to quiet it, to make me quiet it. Gotta stop it, can’t let her do that!

Holding out my hand, I fire a volley of sparks at the sides of the sphere. Each little spark, shining and pulsing with bright silver light, bounces off the sphere one at a time, taking a dark green tone before flying back towards me. I drop as fast as I can, screaming, but they redirect to slam into me much faster than I can move.

They don’t feel like sparks, they feel . . . different. After they hit me, it’s more like light bursts over my vision, over my body making me feel dizzier, like there’s a lightshow melting over my mind. It makes my thighs feel warm and my eyes feel so heavy. Heavy isn’t the word. It’s more like the feeling you get when you try to close your eyes when they want to open and look, only they want to close and look, watch the green, it’ll play through my eyelids if I just let it, just let it wash over me . . .

No, can’t do that . . . I can fight it now, but I have to want to, and why . . .? Each facet takes a different color, so close to each other, might not even be able to tell if they didn’t light up, but a part of me might know, the deep part of me that craves helplessness.

I just want this, this moment of helplessness . . . I try to kick at the facets, but they don’t shatter or buckle at all. Nothing I can do . . . If I try the light I’ll just make it easier for her. Making it easier would be bad, bad isn’t good, bad is really bad, bad isn’t pretty lights sparking to make my body feel like it’s pulsing and glowing, so hot and pretty and nummy . . . cradled in light, washed, pulling me away . . .

Her face smiles, no, grins past the facets. It’s so pretty, like being inside of a gem, like being inside of a ring on someone’s finger . . . Just being a precious little fleck of silver inside of a pretty, yummy dome of emerald perfection . . . no responsibilities, nothing but light.

“Good little Silver Slut . . . Just a little longer, and I’ll start to shrink the emerald around you. Slowly by slowly, it will conform to your body, sending light and stimuli right into your body and mind, and then, it will grow inside of you, surrounding all of you . . . making you my good little gempuppet. Your eyes will turn an eternally glassed-over emerald green . . . Your thoughts will become pure light and obedience . . . and best of all? It’ll trap your own power inside. You’ll be eternally silvering yourself deeper into my clutches! Oh, if The Domina knew she’d taught me this . . .” Emerald laughs, and I smile tiredly.

I always liked making people laugh. Even when they were laughing at me, a part of me liked it. Being humiliated to make someone else smile, embarrassed, used . . . always such a dirty pleasure to be the reason someone else is smiling when they’re using me without a care in the world as to how I feel . . .

The emerald around me is so tight, shrinking to almost skintight around me, and it feels really, really good . . . I can feel the lights over my skin, in my skin, deeper than my skin . . .

So soon now and I’ll be a little gemdoll . . . gempuppet . . . a piece of silver flesh with an emerald gem set in her brain. Oh, it’ll be the bestest little emerald ever, making me all good and obedient, too! Oh it’ll be so peaceful. Finally won’t have to worry, won’t be able to break free . . .

A loud crashing sound surrounds me, everywhere, and I feel the pretty green fall away. Falling back against the hard ground with little pieces of gems strewn everywhere doesn’t feel so nice. I wonder what . . .

“Silver! Now! Spark her!”

Unthinking, I reach both of my hands toward Emerald, sending out each and every last spark I can muster. Maybe it’s too much, but she sounds like she’s really enjoying it! She screams and whimpers and mewls, shuddering in all kinds of hot, pretty ways as her nipples pop against her top through her top. Her knees get all weak and she falls down with a loud, sharp cry. It looks so good, so yummy, so . . .

“Silver! Wow, that was good timing. I took the first shot I had.” Jade smiles down at me before reaching to grab up the arrow on the ground. It’s a pretty arrow, long and graceful, with a flat surface where it would usually be pointy. “Your head all right? Didn’t fall and suck and die without me, did you?”

Emerald makes tired, lazy moany sounds just a little bit away from me, and I start laughing. I don’t know why, but I keep laughing more and more loudly. Something about what she said is insanely funny. Is it the words? Naw, they’re familiar, but they’re not that funny. It’s not her tone of voice. Maybe it’s because she’s dressed in a nightgown while holding her bow as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Maybe it’s the white light crying out in a corner of my mind to sear away the green light. Maybe I’m just nuts.

White light? Oh, right! White light! I close my eyes and lay back, spreading my arms and legs outward, trying to focus on the light. It’s hot, like a fire or an electrical charge, but it’s cool like rain or ice cubes trailing down my spine, like snow stroking its way between my lower lips, or . . .

Slowly, the green sears away as I whimper and shake. It feels good to burn away the green, but it’s intense, it’s not as easy as I hoped. It doesn’t feel like before, with the physical exhaustion and being covered with sweat. This time it feels like all the heat is drained out of my body and slicked out over my thighs along with the green. It makes me feel so cold, and I curl up into a ball with my arms around myself to warm up.

“Th-th-thanks Jade! I really . . . R-r-really needed that.” I try to rub my arms along my body, but the cold doesn’t go away. It’s a nice cold, like a cold breeze on a too hot summer day, but it’s too cold. It’s like being covered in snow, that should be warm, but I’m buried in it, filled with it, dripping with it. “I fall and suck all the time, but I have managed to stay al-lllive so far . . .”

She stares down at me with her big, pretty eyes as my teeth start chattering. It’s enough to make me feel a little melty, and the cold goes away the smallest bit. It was a warm night before I had to go need my light. Am I going to keep having different reactions every time I use the light?

This is going to end up becoming more trouble than it’s worth. I’ll never be able to use it in a tight squeeze if I can’t trust it. It’s times like this that I really, really wish Lida were around.

“You okay, Silver . . .? Need to warm up a little? You don’t look so good.” Her words draw attention to how untrue that is for her. That doesn’t make me feel bad or anything, but it does embarrass me. I can never come out on top with her. Either I manage to barely break even, or I embarrass myself. Even when I saved her, I didn’t exactly manage it gracefully.

“Yeah, just fine, great, rr-really . . .” My whole body shakes as I try to stand, and just barely managing not to fall over. “I actually came here to save you, if you’d believe it. The Lady showed up. I took her down. Just incase she sent someone after you, I had to make sure you were okay.”

Jade smiles and I let myself enjoy the way her almond skin looks in the night. She’s beautiful. Even if I ended up with a more beautiful woman, well, it feels nice to feel comfortable around beautiful women that I used to be way too attracted to for my own good. Maybe one day I’ll be responsible with money, and stop having crises of self! I guess then I’ll be almost done having any room for personal growth. Wow. I’ll be one very, very boring Sarah LaSilvas.

The Domina can always make up for it by being a really horrible one.

Leaning against her bow, Jade looks back to her house before looking me right in the eye, smiling even more. “I heard about it on the news. You did really good. Didn’t know you could fly!”

“Yeah! I really wasn’t sure I could do it till I gave it a shot, I g-guess!” Hopping foot to foot is warming me up; making my whole body spark warms me up a little more. Damned unreliable white healing light. It’s not supposed to have random side effects that could do anything from freeze me to a lamp post, or make me feel like I spent a day too long in the sauna.

“Yeah . . . guess so. Were you going to invite yourself in or do you have somewhere to go?” She says it in a polite way, even if it says “go away” as much as “it’s nice seeing you again.”

My head still doesn’t feel great, I still feel a little too cold, but the show must go on. At least now I know that Jade is safe, and I only have one last stop to make before I can go home and call into work sick for a week. Maybe I’ll keep Olivia in bed the whole time. We can bring Aurora’s crib into the bedroom to fawn on her between rounds of crazy- no, okay, that idea sounded better before I actually thought it out very far, but now . . . not so much.

Giving a look down at Emerald makes me smirk just a little. She’s groaning and writhing with little arcs of silver cascading slowly along her body. Serves her right. “I actually have one last stop before I call it a night. Think you can call the cops and get this one tagged and booked?”

“Already called them.” Jade really is better at this, even if she doesn’t do it anymore. She must still keep up the neighborhood watch gig, time to time.

Sighing, I mount Sylvia, wiggling against her as I rev the sweet engine for a little more warmth. “Goody. Thanks a lot for the save, Jade. I guess time to time everyone needs an archer around. Sorry for the whole abandoning you to The Domina thing, even if she didn’t take advantage of it and I already apologized. Take care Jade . . . keep in touch.”

I don’t have time to waste. The administration of my last stop will be unhappy to see me as it is, and the irony is not lost on me.