“If I don’t do this now, I won’t get around to it. It was a problem last night. I don’t want it to be a problem again. It’s too glaring a weak point, and if my sister’s out there, it might come up. You need to know what she’s capable of.”

“She changed you,” Chris said.

So blunt, so crass. I was annoyed and that annoyance could’ve made it so very easy for me to take all of the feelings that were stewing inside and lash out at him.

I glanced at Sveta.

“It’s more than that, Chris,” Sveta said.

“Easier to show than tell,” I said. I indicated the door.

It took them time to get outside. Raincoats, an umbrella. It took more time because Rain and Ashley were locked into position for whatever reason. Kenzie left last, one camera under each arm, while Byron held up one umbrella. Sveta just let the rain soak her.

When they’d all found the fire escape, I was by the ground. I walked by the trash, and snatched up three two-by-fours. Planks too warped for use in construction or repair, weather-worn from being left beneath the fire escape.

I took to the air, holding out the two-by-fours. I let the Wretch out.

Hands took the two-by-fours from me, holding them out and ready. One creaked with the hold on it. The other twisted as two different hands gripped it and threatened to snap it.

My hands no longer held the beams of wood, while they floated near me.

And as the rain came down, droplets ran down and wicked off, momentarily tracing the Wretch in its entirety. The arms, the heads, the faces, the hair. A tangled flowing of nude flesh, parts repeated over and over again, with me in the center of the mass. I didn’t look at it, keeping my head down, my hood down where it covered most of my face.

“She can do this,” my voice didn’t sound like me. “Change powers by changing the host’s physiology. She made the Class-S threat that took control of everyone, bringing them to the battlefield. That’s who’s going to be at the meeting today.”

I swiped my arm down and at an angle. The Wretch threw the planks down toward the foot of the fire escape.

Gleaming 9.2

I cast off the Wretch as I reached the fire escape. Water didn’t stick to my forcefield, and a lot of it wicked off naturally, but there were enough crevices and folds that did hold water that the rainwater came down all at once. It splattered against my hood and back, and against the slats of the fire escape.