Lovesick Gods

by Amanda Meuwissen

  “I think you’re…overestimating my...s-stamina right now.”

  Cho didn’t respond with words. He massaged into Danny’s thigh with his thumb until Danny could feel the peak approaching and was so ready to plummet over the edge.

  “Ch-Cho…I’m…”

  But Cho didn’t listen, didn’t care, rode through Danny’s release with him, and stayed there between his legs until Danny’s hips finished stuttering upwards. Huffing out a long, drawn-out breath, Danny felt boneless as he sank into the sofa.

  Cho looked at him with sinfully flushed cheeks. Danny wanted to kiss the taste of himself right out of that smug mouth. Grabbing him by the front of his shirt, he hauled Cho up, kissed him deep, then let the thief tumble back to the floor as he snatched his phone from his jacket pocket.

  “What?”

  Settling onto his knees with a satisfied leer, Cho ran his hand up the inside of Danny’s thigh.

  “Interrupt something?” Danny nearly choked as he tried to laugh off how over-sensitive he was right now, but he was already hard again, which Cho took note of with a curious tilt of his head—accelerated healing had more than one side effect. “Almost,” Danny admitted, “so this better be an emergency.” He listened. And groaned. At least Andre was apologetic. “You can’t be serious, really? Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there. Two minutes.”

  Cho’s hand pulled away, his expression turning more neutral as he stared at Danny expectantly. Danny didn’t try to hide how disappointed he was by the interruption.

  “No, Andre, it’s fine. I’ll just blow some steam off another night. See ya soon.” He tossed his phone onto the cushion beside him. Cho had never met Andre or Lynn in person, but he’d learned their names listening in on Danny during past encounters and had even taunted him about having so easily given up his team’s identities. Danny had scolded himself back then for being so careless; he didn’t doubt that Cho knew much more than their names by now.

  “Rain check, I take it?” Cho said.

  “Virgil Labs was robbed. An assistant went in late to grab a file she forgot and found the place cleaned out. No evidence left behind, not even a shred, at least not that the officers on the scene can find. Andre said if there were any reports of ice residue he’d think it was you.”

  That prompted a return of Cho’s smirk. “I’m flattered.”

  Sitting up, Danny reached for his shorts and jeans. “Look, uhh…”

  “Go,” Cho said as he rose, the bulge in his slacks making Danny pause as he zipped up, because that was impressive and he hadn’t even gotten a look at it yet. “You can pay me back another time. I’m looking forward to the offer you made in Pronto. Now I know you weren’t just yanking my chain.”

  Slipping on his jacket, Danny grabbed his phone and stood to follow Cho as he walked ahead of him to the door. “I can yank it all you want tomorrow night. Shit, no…” he remembered his date with Andre, “not tomorrow. Has to be the next night. But I’ll text you?”

  “You have the number.” Cho stood by the door, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, hiding any frustration he might be feeling, though the bulge was still present.

  Once Danny had his shoes on, a wicked idea struck him. He hadn’t thought about a goodbye kiss exactly, but the whole point was to leave Cho wanting more, to make him want Danny so badly that it would break his heart when he finally left him. Maybe this interruption worked in Danny’s favor.

  He stepped up close to Cho and crowded his space as the man stood there acting all unmoved and cold. As Danny leaned in just shy of pressing their lips together, he reached forward to grab hold of the tented line of Cho’s slacks. Impressive indeed.

  Cho quaked ever so slightly at his touch, especially when Danny let a few sparks jump through his palm.

  “Thanks, Ice Man,” Danny whispered. “It was fun.” Then he leaned in that last little bit only to pull back, release his grip, and reach for the door to show himself out.

  Chapter 6

  Mal had another early day planned. He almost considered stopping at Pronto for coffee, but it wasn’t near the history museum where he was headed to meet Dom for recon. Even with the off chance of running into Danny again, he would only be reminded of what hadn’t happened the night before.

  What had happened was motivating, to say the least. Danny, all swagger and determination, voicing what he wanted without a single stutter, and then taking it, while Mal was only too happy to oblige. Getting him that vulnerable, that wanton—what was Danny thinking? But Mal didn’t care, as long as it meant frequent amorous encounters for the foreseeable future.

  He still stopped for coffee on his way to the museum, but at a place he liked well enough when he was in a hurry. Needing the caffeine, he got a coffee for Dom too—extra hot—and headed for the rendezvous point.

  The Olympus City History Museum was small but still located in a bustling neighborhood far from Mal’s sphere of influence, which meant he had to keep a low profile. The last thing he needed was for someone to catch sight of him and call in an anonymous tip less than three weeks before the theft.

  Ball cap drawn down tight on his brow, glasses in place, today Mal wore jeans, a T-shirt, zip-up hoodie, and canvas jacket. He blended in without anyone giving him a wayward glance as he headed for a building a couple blocks from the museum and nonchalantly turned down an alley to make his way up the fire escape.

  He waited on the rooftop only five minutes before Dom showed up.

  “That mine?” she said without greeting.

  Mal nudged the extra coffee closer to his friend. “If you want.” He was already half-finished with his own.

  Dom claimed the cup from beside him with a grunt, which was as much a thank you as she ever offered, and sat in the unoccupied space. The output for the building’s heating system made a nice bench, the fans ensuring that cool air wafted up on Mal’s side and heated air on Dom’s. Mal knew all the best ways to keep him and his friend in good spirits.

  With a hoodie on as well, Dom hummed at the offered warmth from the coffee as she pulled her hood back, revealing the prominent burn scars on the side of her face. They skimmed the line of her cheekbone and went up into her hairline, making it impossible for anything more than peach fuzz to grow there.

  Fire people were generally resistant to hot temperatures, but not even an Elemental was completely immune to burns. Dom was susceptible to her own fire as soon as it spread beyond her palms.

  She’d taken her scars in stride when she first got them as a reckless teenager. Shaving that side of her head from then on, she let the top and left side grow long, almost as dark as Mal and Lucy’s but rigidly straight, with a streak of firetruck red to match her eyes.

  She was broad-shouldered, as tall as Mal, and far more muscled. Some assumed it came from the excess fire in her veins, but Mal couldn’t imagine her any other way, even if she hadn’t been an Elemental. She’d been twice his size when they met in Juvi before either of them Awakened.

  When they first formed the Titans, they’d played around with various names for each other, not caring if the gods they chose were Titans in mythology—Hephaestus and Hermes weren’t after all. But when Mal suggested that Dom go by ‘Icarus’, she’d laughed and said, “Flew too close to the sun? Pal, I am the sun.”

  She’d been Helios ever since.

  Their view was a straight shot to the museum and the surrounding alleyways, streets, and neighboring buildings. While Mal had schematics already, physical recon was a must in the weeks leading up to a heist in case anything like a new traffic light or sudden sale of property threw everything into chaos. Something as simple as a shop being unexpectedly open or closed could mean a botched getaway.

  Mal and Dom would do this same surveillance next week, then the day right before the heist. It was a peaceful sort of monotony Mal shared with her only, never Lucy. Lucy would have gotten bored. Talked to
o much. Distracted him. With Dom, they might make a change of plans after watching for a while, especially if they saw anything out of the ordinary, but small talk was rare. They’d known each other too long to ever ask how the other was ‘doing’, at least not in blatant terms. That only came up if something seemed off.

  Today, the tell came from Mal. He really should have noticed it himself before it became obvious—the tap of his finger on the side of his coffee cup, his other hand drawing patterns on the vent beneath him. He had the view so committed to memory he might have been able to walk right in through the front door of the museum from his current location blindfolded. So he let his mind wander. To Danny. To last night. To tomorrow night and what wonders it might bring…

  “What’s got yer panties twisted?”

  Mal pulled his stray hand up to join the other around his coffee cup. “Don’t know what you mean.”

  Dom huffed. “That’s not yer nerves before a heist kinda twitchin’, Frosty. That’s yer sorry case ‘a blue balls face, up in yer head thinkin’ about some hot piece ‘a ass that got away.”

  Damn Dom for knowing Mal so well. He could deny it, and they’d volley back and forth a while longer, but that would only aggravate them both and accomplish nothing; once Dom had her mind set on something, she wouldn’t let it drop. “Fine, you got me. Think I feel like doing kiss and tell about an almost, Dom? Had the start of a good time last night, got interrupted, and likely won’t see him ‘til tomorrow.”

  “So there’s a next time planned, huh? That’s new. Who with?”

  It never failed to amaze Mal how much Dom and Lucy could have in common despite their varied personalities—like nosing into his love life. He weighed his options, but he didn’t see a point in hiding this development from his friend like he planned to avoid it with his sister.

  “Zeus,” he said and took another sip from his coffee, wishing it was the same drink Danny had ordered him yesterday, which had tasted almost as delicious as the man himself.

  “Bullshit,” Dom said, causing Mal to tilt his head at her.

  “His idea.”

  “Fuck. You don’t think that’s gonna bite you in the ass?”

  “If I’m lucky.”

  Dom snorted. She sipped her own coffee as she turned back to the museum. “You have yer fun, pal, but once we pull this heist, he’s gonna be pissed.”

  “More than likely. But it’ll be a fun ride along the way.”

  “You been wantin’ some ‘a that since he showed up last year. He as good as you hoped?” She raised an eyebrow, nudging for details.

  Mal didn’t do details, but he couldn’t resist admitting, “Better.”

  “Nice. You be careful though.”

  “Worried he’ll turn me soft?”

  “Worried ya already are. Least for him. Not like anyone else you been with. Knows what you do, who ya are, doesn’t agree with it, but willin’ to fall to his knees anyway, huh?”

  Mal refrained from saying that he was the one who fell to his knees last night. “Your point?”

  “Nothin’. Better make sure it stays just fuckin’, is all. You tend to get…fixated.”

  “That’s rich coming from you.” Dom’s true love was and always would be the flames, often to an unhealthy degree, more like a pyromaniac than an Elemental. “I thought someone told me once that if I wanted to fuck Zeus so badly, I should drag him into a dark corner and have at it already.”

  Dom shot him a pointed look with a knowing, manic grin. “Didn’t think ol’ Spark Plug would actually go for it. Yer in trouble, pal, and you know it.”

  Downing the last of his coffee, Mal considered then resisted icing it into crumpled dust. “Only thing on my mind is what he’ll look like flushed and begging on my bed. That all goes to hell come the heist, fine by me.”

  “Right.”

  Mal bristled at how little faith his friend had in him to mean that. “You got any other pearls of wisdom for my sex life?”

  Dom shrugged. “Give it to him good, Frosty. Zeus is wound way too tight. No wonder he wants some ‘a you. Yer wound tight too.”

  It was no use talking to Dom about these things. “Focus on business for now. Plenty of days left for something to go wrong. I need you at your best.”

  “’M I ever not?”

  Mal knew better than to comment on that.

  “We seein’ the kid later?”

  Mind going straight to Danny again, Mal had to remind himself that Dom didn’t know Danny’s identity or how young he was beneath that cowl. She meant their youngest crew member. “Soon. Hart’s working on amplifiers for both of us, as requested. Planning to add an order for a new comm system while I’m at it.”

  “Comms?” Dom said with a twist of her lips.

  “If we get separated during the job, I need to know where you are. Need to be able to give orders, make snap decisions. It’s just an earpiece.”

  The sneer didn’t waver. “All this tech junk…”

  “You mean like the amplifier you asked for?”

  “That’s different.”

  Mal kept his eyes focused on Dom to avoid rolling them. “Plus we needed that delivery system for the gas Lucy picked up. Priestly is an invaluable member of the team.”

  “Not sayin’ he isn’t. Just think it’d be more efficient if we brought the kid into the field once in a while, instead of keepin’ him as second string.”

  “Working from the sidelines isn’t second string, just means he’s more useful where he is. He isn’t an Elemental, remember?” He also had no interest in armed robbery unless his hand was forced, which Mal had no intention of doing.

  “Gas,” Dom grumbled, switching to something else to complain about. “Be easier if I just torched the guard.” She snapped her fingers and a tongue of flame hovered above her hand.

  Mal shot out a blast of cold and turned the flame into a block of ice that clattered at her feet. “And bring Zeus and the OCPD down on our heads harder than ever? That’s not the kind of heat you want.”

  Sneering, Dom kicked the newly formed icicle across the roof. “Whatever you say, boss. Wouldn’t wanna upset Zeus.”

  She only called him ‘boss’ when she was being an ass. Dom didn’t mind Mal’s truce with the city’s hero, she saw him as entertainment more than a threat, but that could change on a dime if Zeus got in the way of her fun. Maybe Mal should have weighed his options a bit longer before deciding to confide in his friend.

  “Relax. Just tryin’ to rile you,” she said. “I don’t care who you fuck, just so long as it doesn’t interfere with the job.”

  “It won’t.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  “It won’t,” Mal said with finality. At last, Dom left things alone. Finished her coffee. Lit a cigarette with a flick of flame from her thumb. Sat still and quiet as they continued to watch the museum.

  They lasted the better part of an hour before Dom spoke again. “We gonna get breakfast or what?”

  Snatching Dom’s empty coffee cup before it could get tossed into a corner of the roof, Mal stacked it with his own. He’d find a garbage somewhere along the way. They’d done enough recon for this week. “Fine. But for all the grief you’ve given me this morning, you’re buying.”

  He plucked the cigarette from her hands before she could snuff it out. Making a show of distaste at the habit with a wrinkle of his nose, he froze it until the embers fizzled with a hiss, then dropped the stick of ice into the stacked cups.

  Dom smirked and stole the cups back from him to burn them to ashes. “You’re the boss.”

  ß

  Danny stood in the middle of the main test center at Virgil Labs. He’d arrived late, exhausted after investigating the place the night before as Zeus. He hadn’t slept much. He rarely slept these days, though he supposed he conked out sooner than usual thanks to his success with Cho. H
e’d definitely gotten some relaxation in, even if it had been interrupted.

  “You waiting on something, kiddo?” his dad asked from the doorway, where he’d just finished interviewing the technician who’d discovered the break-in.

  They’d both been assigned to this case—together. Usually, Captain Shan kept them separated, but after Rick died, Danny refused to work with anyone else, and his father’s partner had retired last week.

  It should have been a good thing, an excuse to spend time together, even if it was work, but most days Danny had trouble looking his father in the eyes. John definitely had trouble looking in his.

  Danny took after his mother. Lightning leaning. Red hair. John was blond, fading rapidly to white at his temples, with Light leaning, bright teal eyes. He used to have the sunny disposition to match.

  “There’s nothing to find, Dad. I went over everything last night in my…other work clothes,” Danny said under his breath, even though the closest uniform was in the next room.

  He’d only tried to keep his Elemental status from his family for about a week after he Awakened. He’d wanted to hit the streets right away as Zeus, to avenge Rick and make a real difference. Knowing he couldn’t keep that from his family forever, he’d eventually come clean, confessed the truth, and they welcomed his transformation with open arms.

  Now his mother was dead too.

  “I went through every inch of this place and couldn’t find a single stray hair or fiber,” he said. “Having CSI dust for prints is going to reveal nothing but the people who work here.”

  “But if we don’t get those prints, Shan is going to have our heads for slacking,” John said with what Danny could only interpret as a strained smile. Everything between them was strained lately. They’d lived around each other rather than with each other for the past six months, passing in the hallways at home and at the precinct with minimal conversation.

  Danny forced a smile of his own. “What all is missing anyway?”

  “Anything that would fetch a price.” John consulted his notepad. “Whoever broke in did their research. Nothing stolen could be easily mass produced or accessed elsewhere, only things worth something. And anything that was worth something is gone. The sheer amount is…well, they’re saying it would’ve taken a dozen men to carry out everything in the timeframe we got.”