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Chapter -6- The French Job

June 19, 1999, 10:45 local time Lyon, France ...

"We need to fit in and look like we're from the eighties." Karla held binoculars up to her eyes, gazing through the window of their fourth floor hotel room. "Why would anyone want to set up an eighties bar here? Ah well."

"What, uh ... what're we going to wear?" asked Chance.

"Leave that to me."

"So what were you like in the eighties, anyhow?"

She lifted her head away from the binoculars and looked back at Chance with a smile. "God ... well, I do my best to fit in so that when I cause a ruckus I can slip out the back door unnoticed afterwards. That's why I live in California. It's full of blond girls in skirts."

"Don't avoid the question," he said with a grin. "What were you like in the eighties?"

"Well ... I seem to remember those nights blurring together. In the back of a nightclub, with my thigh-high stockings. We called them leggings back then. I chewed Fruit Stripe Gum while acting ditzy. I wore a DARE t-shirt, getting plowed in the corner by a bouncer, and screaming, 'Radical!' over the ambient music, with a ton of slap-bracelets on my wrists. And what were you like in the eighties, Chance?"

"I still don't remember much, but I do seem to remember someone complaining about the national debt, and ... I'm pretty sure I didn't care because I was just a little kid." He shrugged his shoulders and asked, "How's your rib?"

"My rib hurts. If you get your memory back and your name turns out to be Adam, I'll just steal yours. God, though. That club is killing me worse than the dichotomy between science and mysticism." She peered back into the binoculars. "Good God."

Chance blinked at her awkward and seemingly random use of a large word. He had no idea what it meant or why she used it. "The overboard 80s fashion, huh?"

Karla chuckled. "Well, that and the catamites they're sneaking in through the side door." She turned away from the binoculars again, adding, "Young teen boys brought in to pleasure rich old lecherous creeps who frequent the establishment."

Chance grimaced. He felt like he was anything but telepathic - he never saw _that_coming. "So, why are we going there again?"

"Because, the man in charge of security for the mirror is the head bouncer at this nightclub. We're going to find out where it's kept by interrogating the guy. If I need to, I'll seduce him. Let's just see how everything works out."

Chance frowned. "Oh. Okay."

She tilted her head and looked back at him again. "What?"

"Nothing, it's cool."

A smile crept across her face. "You don't want me to seduce him because you don't like the thought of me sleeping with him?"

"It's what you do for a living. I'm not going to judge you for who you are, Karla. I just don't want to watch, or be in the room as a look out, if and when it has to happen that way."

"Oh, sweetheart. You silly boy, you." She offered him a gentle, empathetic expression.

He bit his lower lip again, melting inside at the way she said, 'silly boy' to him. He cleared his throat and pushed his hands into his pockets. "It's my mental barrier. I promise I'll break it down. I honestly don't judge you. I'm not like that one guy."

"Ethan isn't really like himself anymore, either. Thanks to you clobbering his ass and saving my bacon." Her pink pouty lips tilted up at the corners. "Mmm ... bacon. How freaking delicious is bacon, right?"

"Uh, yeah, it's pretty good for sure." He smiled back. Once her eyes were back in the binoculars, he took a moment to look her over. As he became absorbed in her figure, he released his lower lip from his teeth and relaxed somewhat, letting his gaze dance over her frame.

The curvature of her hips, the smoothness of her legs beneath the skirt - he loved looking at her.

Chance's eyes lifted again, slowly drinking it all back in a second time.

He remembered having his hands on her back, earlier, and smiled at the memory.

"Chance?"

"Pardon?" He blinked away the mental image, summoned away from his reverie by the sound of her voice.

Karla eyed him for a moment then said, "You have a lovely smile. This is the first time I've seen you with a happy smile like that. What's on your mind?"

"Oh, nothing. Just enjoying the quiet."

A grin found its way to the corner of her mouth. "Don't even try it. You get to figure out my thoughts. It's unfair. So, be a sport and return the courtesy of unbridled honesty."

"Un...bridled?"

She flashed a brilliant smile. "Sorry. Too many romance novels, I guess."

"Now who's the one with the beautiful smile? Definitely you."

"You're a sweet boy. I'm smiling because of you being so cute. So what had you smiling, huh?"

"I ... uhm." He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "I was thinking about earlier. Before we left California."

The genuineness of her smile returned. She put the binoculars down and turned to him. "Chance, you're a really good guy. I like you. I like myself when you're around. You keep me honest and that feels good."

His left hand began to mirror his right one, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, with the rest tucked into his palm. "I..." he swallowed down his nervousness somewhat. "Thanks. I like hearing you say that. I just ... I don't bore you?"

She placed her palms on either side of his arms. "This is where you reciprocate. I won't judge your feelings - quite the opposite. I like hearing sweet things, too."

Chance felt his heart start to race. His pupils dilated. He felt like he was starting to perspire.

"Come on, you can do it, babe,"

Chance bit his lower lip briefly. "I like you, too, Karla. I ... I might be shy of your playful side, but you also know h-how to make me feel more at ease. You're just ... you're just so beautiful and I'm so plain, and..."

She brought her right index to his lips. "Shh. Don't put yourself down. Everything else you said ... that was perfect. I appreciate hearing it. But don't put yourself down."

He spoke, slightly muffled, against her finger. "Why not? It's true."

"Because I don't want anyone to put down the cute boy living at my house. He brings me breakfast in bed, fetches my robe, and makes me feel taken care of."

"And I would take someone's life for you," he murmured.

Karla grimaced, eyes down. "I don't usually have that. It's nice to feel like someone cares. You don't see me the way other men see me."

"How do they see you?" he whispered, his lips dry against her fingertip.

"I imagine they see me as a place to relieve themselves."

His eyes widened. Chance felt offended by the notion. "Not me! I see you as the pretty girl with the soft skin and smooth shoulders. I see you as the girl who knows more about computers than I do. I see you as Karla."

A devious smile returned to her glossy lips. "Okay, then," she said, reaching for her metaphorical fishing pole. "And who is 'Karla the succubus' to you?" she asked, fishing for compliments.

Chance took the bait. "You're ... Karla. You're a freaking firecracker. There're several sides to you. You're complex. The kind of girl to do keg stands, go skydiving naked, play GoldenEye with a bunch of gamer guys, drive a Kawasaki Ninja in leather, and get in bar fights just to kill a Wednesday afternoon."

Karla burst into bright laughter, completely amused.

Chance bit his lower lip. "But I also see you as sophisticated, and resourceful, and caring, and graceful, and shrewd. You've got a classy side you don't show others, but you've shown it to me."

She became quiet and listened with a gentle smile.

He continued. "You come to help others like 'the cool big sister' and you took care of me first. I saw that side of you the day we met, when you helped me get dressed and," he trailed off briefly. Chance licked his lips. "And then you used your Star Wars force-thing to help me walk out of that hospital. And you use it to help me exercise when I start to ache, so I can get my body back."

"You don't think I'm part of the bad girls club, huh?"

He shook his head. "No, Karla. Not at all. You're not part of the bad girls club - you're a good person to the core. You kick ass and chew bubble gum at the same time. And you look really good doing it."

Karla's eyes danced from left to right, as if studying his face, while listening to him. This time, she drew her lower lip between her teeth. After a brief silence, she placed her palms on either side of his face and leaned forward.

Their lips met; they both held their breath.

At the back of Chance's mind, beneath the layer of shyness and his blanket of nervousness, he remembered what she told him, before. He recalled what she said she wanted to feel from a man, and how to be firm.

He heard her words, jumbled about at the back of his skull. And, for some reason, he felt like they were both suddenly on the same level.

He felt as though she let her defenses down to make them even. It's what he needed - to feel as though he wasn't so far beneath her as a person.

He brought his hands up, trying not to think about what to do next.

A foreign sense of confidence came from somewhere within him. Chance cupped the side of her face, beneath her ear. His other hand moved over her shoulder and he captured her hair.

Karla's head tilted in an expectant manner. Her plush mouth slanted over his and it felt so damn good. She parted her soft lips, prompting him to do the same.

She used her thumb against his jawline, to keep him from opening his mouth too much. Her touch was gentle and feminine.

He enjoyed the skillful guidance of her fingertips on his jaw. He loved how she made him feel in control of the kiss. He felt her tongue brush against his own. For the first time since the kiss started, he drew in a deep breath through his nose.

His left hand eased from her face, just the way she'd told him earlier. He grazed his fingertips against her cheek, tucking an errant lock of blond behind her ear. His left hand lowered, and came to her hip.

Chance reached around to the small of her back and pulled her close to him, possessively. It felt right to be pressed up against her.

She let him take the lead in the kiss - their tongues dancing together in a delightful duel of desire.

His heart raced, pounding wildly in his chest.

After a moment, with her hands still cupping his cheeks, she eased her head back, breaking the lip-lock. She whispered in a semi-coy tone. "You're a natural."

Chance's face was flushed. His chest rose and fell from deep breathing. He swallowed and licked his lips. "Wow."

She looked so beautiful. A bit of her hair slid forward, covering her left eye.

It gave her a coquettish appearance that made his heart flutter - a brief reprieved from the hammering of excitement in his chest. He swallowed again.

Chance brought his hand up and captured one of hers. He brought Karla's palm to his chest so she could feel his heart racing. "That's ... that's what you do to me."

Karla's thoughts became a mishmash of marbles rolling about in her head. She felt taken by his words. She tried to clear her mind, knowing he had an advantage as a telepath.

Instead, she focused on the feel of the pitter-patter of his heart against her palm.

A genuine smile returned to her lips. "I'm supposed to be this sultry, confident, seductive creature of passion and lust..."

"You're beautiful is what you are," he said in a soft whisper.

Karla continued. "...Yet here I am, feeling undone by a virgin boy with a good heart and adorable big brown eyes."

"But, I mean..." he took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds to calm himself. "W-what could I ever offer?"

She grinned, seeing that he was the one now holding the figurative fishing pole. "You're telepathic. You may have to learn how to use it, and that's fine ... but you are empathic, and empathetic to my wants and needs. And that..." Her grin broadened into a smile. "...That's one hell of an offer. That makes you what women want."

He felt breathless. "I ... I don't see how. I thought women like their secrets."

"Some do. I have some, but you've not been invasive." Karla shook her head and rubbed her face. "God." She eased back from him and sank onto the hotel sofa with a hard exhale. "I have a friend in the movie business. I should email her and tell her this would make a good romantic comedy - a guy who can read women's minds and know what women want."

"Heh."

A flirty expression started at the corner of her lips and slowly spread across her face. "Oh, and hey - you know the best parts about romantic comedies, don't you?"

"I..." he shrugged, unable to think of any. "No, what?"

Her seductive expression made her appear that much more desirable to him. She licked those pouty, glistening pink lips and his heart fluttered again.

She patted the cushion adjacent to herself. "The good guy gets the girl ... every time."

Chance settled on the sofa next to her. He fidgeted for a moment. He closed his hand to keep still. "Isn't it against some sort of law to mention unnatural abilities to the public?"

Karla placed a hand on his knee. "Not in artistic depictions for the sake of entertainment. Makes you wonder how many movies, shows, comics, books, and plays are based on real knowledge of our existence, hmm?"

He replied with a blank expression. After a moment, he nodded.

"Chance, the last few weeks have been something I expected to hate. I was told I would have to 'babysit.' But you've saved my life. You've run errands with me; you've done nice things for me - not because you felt obligated, but because you wanted to be nice."

He fidgeted again.

She smiled softly. "You've made my life a lot less lonely. I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell you that I appreciate you."

"I..." Nothing came to mind, so he spoke from the heart instead. "Thank you. But, Karla, I'm_the one who is grateful. I appreciate _you."

"Oh?"

Chance nodded firmly. "You've been generous with your home, and getting me clothes, and being patient with me. I know it can't be easy to put up with how shy I've been. I don't know how to talk to people. Sometimes, my throat closes up. My head starts racing in circles and I can't think straight. I always get frustrated with myself. I think I'm socially retarded, or emotionally broken or..."

Her finger returned to his lips. "No, you're not, baby-boy. I think you just have so much passion and emotion pent in your heart, you don't know how to let it out." She paused then laughed in spite of herself. "See? Even I say things before I think them through first. Life isn't a romance novel. That's now how people talk in real life. And for me to say things like that ... well..."

He smiled. "It's cliché?"

She grinned. "That's exactly what I was going to say. It's cliché and silly."

His heart melted just a little bit at the way she said the word 'silly' again.

"I believe you're really telepathic. You're not sure what you're perceiving because it's a lot like sensory overload, so you're tuning out what you don't understand. But maybe you're not actually shy."

"How do you mean?"

She shrugged somewhat. "You're feeding off of everything at once. When you talk to someone, you're looking at their expression and their eyes. You're listening to their tone and what they're saying. But you're also perceiving their mood, their thoughts, hidden meanings behind their words ... you're balancing their confidence or their fears with your own."

"So, you think maybe I'm not shy, I'm just overwhelmed, so I shut down emotionally?"

Karla offered a nod, followed by an encouraging smile. "It's a theory. I know people pretty well - it's a gift. I can read people, and it helps me flirt with them."

"And what do you read from me?"

Her smile broadened. "You stumble on your words at first, and there's a humbleness about you that I find endearing. But there is a confidence in your touch, Chance. There is a dormant tiger, waiting to come out."

"You think so? Sometimes I feel socially stunted, you know? I just want to be a better me. I want to be perfect and confident, like you."

Karla reached for his hands and brought them together on her knee. "Chance, nobody is perfect. Sometimes people get lucky and find someone who is perfect for them, but most of us have to work at being the best we can be so we can be happy."

He nodded softly.

"For example, honey, we work to be what our boss wants us to be, what our spouse wants us to be, what our parents, or even what our children want us to be. Nobody is perfect."

"I don't know about that, Karla. You're pretty confident and amazing."

"Hah. I talk too much."

"Yeah? But you say all the right things."

She grinned, loving the positive feedback. "Did you know I was a resentful, jealous, selfish person until I met Nathan in 1906? He told me he knew for a fact I could be more, and that I could be happier with my life. And what else did I have to lose? Mean or nice, I'm lonely. But at least when I'm nice... I feel good about my actions at the end of the day."

"How can you be lonely? Your friends adore you, even if they don't show it. Since meeting you, you haven't seemed alone, unless you hide it really well."

She scoffed. Her expression returned to a playful smile. Her eyes lowered, briefly, and then lifted to meet his gaze.

His head tilted in confusion.

"Chance, for the first time in my life, I feel like I haven't been alone. These last few weeks have been enjoyable. Sex or not, I've had someone with whom I could share my thoughts and jokes, who was more than just a companion to my antics..."

He stayed quiet.

She continued. "For the first time that I can recall, I have someone who will sit with me on quiet nights, take an interest in what I'm going through, and has been standing by my side during each and every ordeal."

"You deserve that much," he told her.

"Also, for the first time in my life, I have someone who looked in my eyes and told me, on more than one occasion, that I'm pretty to him ... and made me believe it."

"I know how to flirt, but I don't know how to be sappy and sentimental. But I'll try, because I appreciate you, Chance."

He tried to clear his mind to relax his nerves. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and leaned towards her lips.

He felt the newly familiar sensation of sticky lip gloss, and the plushness of her lips against his mouth.

His eyes shot open.

Chance shoved his hands forward and pushed her away hard.

Karla blinked in confusion. She looked back at him and saw his eyes wide with fear, his pupils constricted. She swallowed back the awkwardness of the situation "What, honey? What is it; what's wrong?"

Chance turned his head. His eyes landed on a hole in the fabric of the sofa backrest.

He swallowed down his concern, trying to repress his emotions for a moment.

"What babe?" she asked.

Chance's head cleared. He dove towards her. His hands met her shoulders and he shoved her to the floor, between the couch and an ottoman.

Karla heard a sound ... she knew it but couldn't place it at first. Sudden realization kicked in - the cracking of glass.

Another soft thump struck the sofa, causing the ugly hotel upholstery to split. She grunted, pinned beneath his weight. "Are those...?"

"...Gunshots," he breathed.

"Jesus," she muttered under her breath.

Chance clung to her with a brilliant blush tinting his cheeks due to the realization that he was lying atop of her. He swallowed back the emotion building in his heart - worry, fear, concern for her safety. It was clouding his mind. He took a deep breath to clear his head.

"What is it babe?" she asked in a firm, concise tone. "What's the first thing you sense?"

"Can you teleport the sofa between us and the window? We need cover. Uhm ... or use that other power to close the drapes."

Karla winced, lifting her left arm up.

Chance begin to lift from her - he realized that his weight on her was adding pressure to her rib injury.

She used her other hand to pull him back to her, despite the pain. "Stay down," she hissed and waved at the window.

The drapes swished shut. The sofa disappeared. It reappeared vertically, in front of the draped window.

"Karla, are you okay?"

She replied with a dazzling smile. "Your first question was for my wellbeing? Boy, you've gone from 'zero' to 'hero' in a few days. I should teach classes on how to turn boys into men."

He replied with a semi-incredulous laugh. "They better sign liability forms, since your classes are taught under fire. C'mon, we've gotta get out of here."

"So you believe in the abilities of Specials now? That sofa didn't move itself and..." She exhaled and dropped her head on her carpet. "God, Chance, dodging that sniper was incredible."

He got to his knees, paused as if unsure, and then he rose to his feet.

"What, babe?"

Chance turned and reached for her hand. "That's a first."

"What?" She took his hand and, gingerly, got to her feet. "What's a first? You've already been shot at several times, now."

"No, being called 'incredible' after a romance scene." He grabbed her purse off a nearby table and said, "The binoculars are over by the window."

Karla reached for them. Her palm incandesced briefly. The binoculars teleported into her hand. "Got'em, let's move ... and what do you mean romance scene? Didn't I just say I have to remind myself that life is not_ _a romance novel? You're encouraging my bad behavior." She opened the door to the hotel and glanced out into the hallway. "It's clear."

"Three weeks with you and I went from being afraid of women to making out with you. I like that you encourage bad behavior." He turned out the lights and followed her into the hallway.

"Do you now?" she said with a grin.

"The least I can do is return the favor. And if my life is a novel, I really wish it wasn't such a page-turner, because I'm scared to death what's going to be around the next turn."

Karla smirked, taking the lead down the hallway. "That's called breaking the fourth wall, sweetheart. I can prove this is real life, baby-boy - characters don't realize their lives are fake. I'm as real as it gets, now let's keep moving before we wind up shot with very real bullets."

"I might not remember my past," he said as they raced up the hallway, "But I'm pretty sure I never dodged bullets before meeting you."

She took his hand and pulled him to follow her. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right, babe. You weren't a target until you woke up."

"How can you be sure?" he huffed between breaths as they made their way through the hotel.

She laughed incredulously. "You'd have been an easy target in a coma."

"True..."

Karla came around a corner at the end of the hall then stopped. "You had to make the metaphor about what's around that next turn, earlier, didn't you?"

Two men at the far end of the next hallway began to approach them. Neither man had a weapon, however both men had their hands held outwards, palms up, as though they were holding invisible objects.

Chance frowned. "Who the hell are...?"

"Move!" Karla shouted. The succubus pivoted on her heel and shoved him back the way they came. "Go, go, go!" Her hands found his back and she pushed.

They broke into a hard sprint, back up the first hallway.

"What are their powers?" he exclaimed.

"You tell me!" she shot back.

They raced past their old hotel room and continued up the hall just as the two pursing men came around the turn.

"Should we fight them?"

"Not in close quarters!" she shouted. "I can deflect bullets," she huffed, "but I don't wanna test it on whatever they're using!"

Chance reached the stairs first and shouldered the push-door open. It swung wide on its hinges.

He glanced up and down the stairwell. He reached back, took her hand and pulled her towards the staircase going upwards.

"Everyone goes up in the movies! It's always a trap!" She hissed as they began their ascension to the next floor.

"You think down is any safer?" he huffed. "They probably have backup and snipers waiting for us in the lobby. I'd rather fight just one guy upstairs."

Karla panted, wincing at the pain in her chest. "What makes you think..." she paused to pant, "...just one?"

"Those two will split up on the stairs," Chance said. His voice lowered. "Here they come, shh."

Chance opened the door to the fifth floor quietly. He gestured her through in silence.

Down below, he heard the two men enter the fourth story stairwell.

Silence.

He didn't hear them speak. Chance imagined that the two men were probably making silent hand gestures to one another, likely to split up. He eased the door shut in silence.

Chance took Karla's hand again and pointed to a nearby door. He whispered, "Can you get us in there?"

Karla looked at him, and then back at the door.

"Can you teleport us?" he asked a second time.

Karla's purse disappeared from Chance's grasp.

The binoculars disappeared from her left hand. With her other, she offered his hand a gentle squeeze. She nodded with a knowing smile.

All at once they appeared inside the empty fifth-floor hotel room, in the dark.

She flipped on the lights briefly and turned them back off. She picked up her purse and the binoculars in the dark, and guided him over by the bed.

Chance remained quiet.

Karla gave his hand another squeeze. "Stay put." She moved to the window and eased the drapes shut. "I'm going to have to call Nathan to rescue us."

Chance swallowed and whispered back. "He's in California. We're in France. There's no way he'll get here in time. It's like eight or nine thousand miles."

"Oh ye of little faith," she said in a hushed tone. Karla fumbled for the cellphone in her purse, pulled it out and flipped it open. "It's fifty-five hundred if you go up through Canada in a great-circle path."

"I don't even know what that means."

"It's a geometry thing, babe." She squinted at the bright LCD screen in the darkness. "The Earth is a ball. Go up over the top of the ball instead of going around the widest part of the ball." She dialed a number and waited.

"Oh."

After a moment, she cursed under her breath, snapped the phone shut and shoved it back into her purse. She moved alongside the bed to the nightstand and groped in the dark for the landline phone.

Silence.

The demoness picked up the receiver for the room phone and started dialing. The number routed to the front desk. She sighed in frustration.

In eloquent French, Karla spoke quietly to the person on the other end of the line. She rattled off a sequence of numbers followed by a pause.

Chance opened his mouth to ask a question.

Karla reached back and patted his face in the dark room. "Shh," she whispered.

He remained silent.

A moment later, she spoke in English. "Nathanial, get your ass here now. They were waiting for us. I don't care about your stigma involving telepaths. You get your ass here right now and save us. We're surrounded."

Chance began pacing.

"We're hiding in an empty room, but I don't know how long it's going to last." She grew quiet briefly. After a moment, she said, "Well, no, the call is routed through the front desk. So they don't know what room we're in. Hell, I don't know what room I'm in. My cell apparently hates me, or possibly France. Anyway, these people are hunting for us. We're goddamn trapped in here and..."

She heard a reply over the line. In a soft tone, Karla murmured, "Yes," followed by, "I'm in control of my emotions. Don't raise your goddamn voice at me. I'm doing my best, okay?"

She waited for Nathan's reply.

Karla sighed and said, "Just get here. You're the fastest friend I have, and the only one I can really count on. Please." Another pause. She sighed again, but it was one of relief.

In a tone of appreciation, she said, "Thank you, Nathan." Karla hung up the phone and turned to Chance in the dark.

"Now what?" he asked.

"You haven't seen anything until you've seen that guy in action." She held her left hand up, palm out, and caused it to glow slightly. It was just enough incandescence to make it so they could see one another's face. "But we have to lay low for a few hours. And he's going to be cranky when he shows up."

"I should have known. The nerd never gets to third base. I'm getting tired of being shot at. And I'm trying real hard not to be scared."

"You're not a nerd." Karla smirked, but her expression was hard to see in the dim illumination of her palms. "Hell, babe, you didn't even know about wireless internet."

Chance tilted his head, listening to the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

Karla's palm dimmed and everything became dark again.

The footsteps began to fade.

He put a hand on her elbow, leaned close, and whispered, "You're hotter than a Bunsen burner at full power."

A secret smile found the succubus' lips in the darkness. "Okay, you're right ... that was nerdy ... and you're whispering into my chin."

"Oh. Sorry," he replied with a lame grin in the dark. "I, uh, I guess you're taller than I thought."

"I'm in heels." She grinned again. "You were doing a lot better, earlier, when you were talking about how much you like me."

"They killed the mood. I'll try and get it back."

She snickered and gave him a playful shove. Karla slid off the bed. She moved to the door and put her ear against it.

After a moment of silence, she crept back towards the king-sized bed, dragging her feet slowly so as not to stumble on wherever she left her purse and binoculars.

Her knee met the mattress. She climbed up onto it and crawled over besides him. "My ribs aren't hurting as much. Maybe it's the adrenaline. We might have to stay here in the same bed tonight. You okay with that?"

"I hope I don't snore," he murmured.

"You don't." She reached up and felt around until she found his face. She accidentally shocked him with built up static. "Sorry." She gave his cheek a gentle pat.

"You dragged your feet on the floor," he said, amused. "Anyhow, you're sure I don't snore?"

"I came into your room to check on you the first few nights you were at my place. Not because I'm nice, but because I didn't know you yet. At the time, I wasn't sure if you were harmless or not. Needless to say, hon, you don't snore."

"Oh ... uh, well, okay that's good to know." He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"You were impressive tonight, Chance."

"You saved my butt again," he replied with a smile. "The teleportation thing is awesome. Keep practicing - you'll be as good as Ethan in no time. I'm definitely a believer in your abilities, now."

"Yeah, yeah." She grinned, finally able to make out his silhouette. "The day I met you, I did that to get us in the car. I broke a heel. Part of my shoe fused with the bottom of the car. I didn't make a big deal out of it, but ... I liked those kitten heels."

"I feel stupid to have doubted you, especially after seeing you fight Ethan and his sidekick."

Karla shrugged and patted his face again. "You know ... I'm not sure how Ethan could change a target's posture during teleportation. But I do it using telekinesis. I combine my abilities to position your body into a sitting position during teleportation, then I make you show up in the rental car. For the record, that wasn't easy."

"I'm impressed. I'm sorry I thought it might have been a trick that first time we met."

She continued. "My powers take focus and discipline. If I get excited, I lose potency and then nothing happens."

Chance grinned ear-to-ear at a sudden thought. "Yeah, uh, that's probably a good thing. It would be really bad if you got excited and flipped your house over in mid-orgasm." He backed away from her, expecting to be swatted at.

"That was almost clever." She grinned back, despite not being able to see his smile in the darkness. "Almost. Now, let's keep our voices down. Better safe than sorry. Let them think we managed to get away. We'll stay right here and wait it out, since it's probably the last place someone would expect us to hide."

"I doubt I'm going to be able to sleep, knowing they might decide to check rooms. What should we do?"

"Like I said earlier, babe ... I'm glad I have someone around so I'm not doing this stuff alone."

Chance grinned in the darkness. "So what should we do?"

Karla returned the unseen grin. "This is the part where you entertain me so I don't get bored." She chuckled softly, moved across the bed, and pulled the covers back.

"Oh, sure thing."

Karla kicked her shoes off and wiggled down beneath the comforter, fully dressed. "It's kind of cold in here. They've got the AC on."

"Do you want me to turn it off?"

"No. It's electronically controlled on the wall. I don't know if it's connected to a computer of some sort, down in the lobby."

"That's a thing? Hotels can monitor that?"

"I honestly don't know," said Karla. "But if this room isn't rented and the AC suddenly turns off ... it might give us away. Let's not change anything. I'll be fine under the covers. And you're warm. So get your butt under here with me."

"Oh ... right, um, sure." He took his shoes off and felt his way around until he got to the top of the bed. Chance pulled back a corner of the comforter and slid down into it with her. "How long will it take that guy to get here?"

"A few hours at best. Trust me. He knows how to get around."

"Never thought France would be this wild."

Karla chuckled. "I'll call Raymond Barre up and complain for you. How's that?"

"Uh ... who?" He tilted his head.

Karla smiled in silence.

After a moment, Chance asked, "Is that the mayor of Lyon?"

"Yup. You're getting better with that head-thing you do."

"You know, we got attacked a lot less in California."

"Ethan ambushed us."

"Oh, well, true. But it was one time in several weeks. I just felt safer at your place, Karla."

"Uh huh." She rolled onto her side. She gingerly reached back, careful not to hurt her rib from over-extending her arm.

"You okay?"

"Mm-hmm." Karla pulled on him, "C'mere. Don't be shy." She guided him closer until she felt his chest against her back.

Chance inched himself towards her.

She wiggled herself back against him and said, "This is called spooning. It's cute, it's comfortable, and I don't get it nearly enough." She reached for her hair and pulled it forward, over her shoulder. "There, now you won't get a face full."

"Thanks."

Karla reached back for his arm and pulled it around herself. "Hell of a night, huh?"

"Yeah," he said, speaking the word slowly, so as not to stammer. Chance let her draw his arm around her body. It caused his heart to race again. "Yeah ... hell of a night." He hid his face against the nape of her neck and sighed.

"You okay?"

"I don't know if I'm scared or turned on right now. This has got to be the wildest night so far, since I've met you."

"Mm-hmm. Let's keep our voices down, just in case, and pray they don't scan the building using thermal."

"I don't exactly know what that means, or what kind of power it is, but..."

She reached up, behind her head, and put a finger on his lips. "Shh. It's not an ability. It's technology. Just relax and keep breathing on my neck. It's warm."

"Sure, uh ... sure thing."

Karla smiled inwardly. "Good boy."

---

Next chapter: (https://www.sofurry.com/view/560310)