Rehab for SuperVillains (18+)-Chapter 190: glass

Tila exhaled, shadows coiling faintly at her feet.

It was like her blood knew before her brain did—the moment the collar came off, something cold and electric surged through her veins.

Not violent. Not explosive.

Controlled.

But hungry.

"Your leg," Kael said, still crouched beside her, chest heaving. "You’re bleeding."

Tila looked down, and for the first time noticed the long red streak down her thigh.

A bullet—grazing wound.

Deep enough to hurt.

Not deep enough to stop her.

She wiped the blood away with her hand and snarled. "I’m fine."

"You’re not fine," Kael said. "You need to heal. Go to your room—"

"I need to get to Lila," she snapped.

Kael paused. Her tone wasn’t just urgency. It was protective. Fierce.

He nodded.

"Alright. I’ll get her collar off. Make me a wall."

Tila didn’t hesitate.

A pulse of shadow exploded at her feet, rising in a jagged wave like liquid obsidian.

Within seconds, the kitchen was sealed off from the living room.

A solid wall of shadow-black curved between them, rippling like velvet in a thunderstorm.

On the other side, the raiders shouted in alarm.

"Where’d they go?"

"Lights! Use your lights—!"

"Why don’t these work. What are these shadows?"

Kael crouched low, slipping through a crack between two counters, through the broken dining table and dashing to where Lila was crouched behind the toppled sofa.

She flinched when he reached her.

"It’s me," he said. "Stay still."

She nodded, breath trembling, eyes wide behind her cracked glasses.

He reached behind her neck.

Click.

The collar dropped.

Lila gasped—her pupils dilating instantly as the full weight of her suppressed ability surged back into her body.

Her fingers trembled.

Her breath hitched.

Her mouth parted slightly as her power surged back again.

Behind the wall of shadows, the raiders grew louder.

"Blow that wall down!"

"Kitty!"

The green-haired girl hesitated.

"Kitty!" Radric barked again, more forceful.

She swallowed, then opened her mouth and screamed.

"!!!!!!!!"

The sonic burst hit the shadow wall like a battering ram.

The ripple became a quake.

The wall trembled, convulsed, and shattered—shards of black flaring like glass and melting back into nothing.

The room exploded with noise.

Radric raised his pistol again. "Light ’em up!"

Too late.

Tila stepped out from the shadows, now fully powered, her silhouette barely visible in the dimming light.

Her lips curled.

Her voice dropped into a whisper.

"Let’s play."

The shadows answered her call with vengeance.

Tendrils of black burst from the floor, the ceiling, the walls—everywhere.

The Haven went dark, plunged into a void that devoured all color and warmth.

The lights shattered overhead.

Screams echoed as the raiders stumbled back, losing their bearings in the sudden pitch.

"What the fuck?!" one shouted.

"Where’s the exit?! I can’t see—!"

Lila rose beside her sister, her hands calm, her breath steady.

The shadows didn’t rage around her like Tila’s—they moved with her.

Quiet. Controlled.

Her fingers danced in the dark, and long, fluid tendrils slid between objects, curling around ankles, wrists, throats.

The raiders panicked.

"Retreat!"

Radric cursed loudly, firing blindly into the shadows.

Bullets vanished into the dark.

"RUN! RUN! AHAHAHA!" Tila laughed—a menacing, joyful laugh that echoed through the room like a scream from hell.

"RUN!" she shouted again. "Run, you fucking cowards!"

Two raiders turned and sprinted for the exit.

Lila’s tendrils didn’t stop them.

Tila’s did.

A whip of shadow slammed the door shut in front of them and dragged one back into the void.

His scream was short. Sharp. Then nothing.

Radric bolted.

The green-haired girl hesitated, backing up beside him.

Her hands were shaking now.

Kael, still hidden behind the half-crushed kitchen counter, watched through the blur of motion.

His side was bleeding—he could feel the warmth seeping down his ribs—but he didn’t move.

He was watching something else now.

Tila.

The way her body moved through the dark—part of it.

The way she let out a snarl and flung another raider into a wall so hard the wood cracked.

The way she laughed.

Outside, car doors slammed.

"!!!!!!!" They green haired girl screamed again, making a way out though the shadows.

"Go, go, GO!" Radric shouted, grabbing Kitty’s arm and yanking her out the broken doorway.

The retreat had begun.

"Let’s see how far you go!" Tila screamed, throwing a wave of shadow across the threshold.

It slithered into the parking lot like black oil—catching the back wheels of the raiders’ van just as it reversed.

The tires spun in place, shadows crawling up the sides like vines.

Bullets shot through the air, but they didn’t stop the tendrils.

Panic rose.

"Use your powers!" one raider screamed. "They’re bluffing! The shadows are illusions!"

"Are they?" another shouted as something dragged his leg out from under him.

"ABORT MISSION. Repeat, abort! We’ve got an A-class inside!" Radric yelled to everyone.

"Who?" someone yelled back.

"I DON’T KNOW—SOME BITCH WITH SHADOWS—"

Tila’s voice cut through the chaos, shrill and furious.

"BITCH? I’ll show you bitch!"

She stepped outside into full light, face covered in soot and blood.

The sun blazed above—but her power didn’t falter.

Her shadow stretched long behind her, snapping like a banner in a silent war.

"Where the fuck are you going, motherfucker?" she howled, tendrils surging from her arms.

The shadow whip slammed the hood of the getaway car, denting it in half.

Another tendril grabbed a raider midair and cracked him against the pavement.

Lila walked slowly behind her, hands weaving new shadows that moved like snakes across the gravel, slithering beneath the cars.

Kael was still inside, crouched low, watching through the shattered window.

Blood was dripping from his shoulder.

He winced but didn’t call out. His job here was done—for now.

This was their moment.

And they weren’t holding back.

The raiders tried to fight.

One with kinetic gloves launched a burst of force toward Lila—but it vanished into the dark.

Another with speed-enhanced boots tried to rush Tila, only to trip as her shadow caught his ankle mid-stride and ripped him across the asphalt.

Kitty stepped forward, tears in her eyes, lips trembling.

"Radric," she said weakly. "They’re too strong."

Radric screamed at her.

"Then scream louder!"