“Which is why it would benefit everyone if we caught these deviants sooner rather than later,” Samantha Virgil’s sharp voice interrupted them as she entered from a side door.
Dressed primly in a dark jacket and pencil skirt, not a hair or spot of makeup out of place, the presence of the Virgil Labs CEO made Danny instinctively straighten. “Dr. Virgil,” he said with a nod.
“Detective Grant. Detective…Grant. No offense to you gentlemen, but I’m not very happy to see you at the moment.” She looked at the sparse room with a pinched brow. At a glance, the state of the labs didn’t scream break-in, since nothing was knocked over and not a single pane of glass on the door or cabinets had been broken, but nothing much of anything rested on the counters or inside the cabinets either. “This one is going to hurt us.”
Danny looked around the room in sympathy before turning back to her. “We’ll find whoever did this, Dr. Virgil. Something’s bound to turn up.”
“One would certainly hope so,” she said.
“I’ll join you in your office in a moment,” John gestured her toward the main door, “so we can finalize anything we haven’t covered yet and get out of your hair.”
“Anything on surveillance?” Danny asked once she had left.
“We’ll bring it all back to the station to watch there. I’ll let you know once we have the recordings.” John tapped his pen against his notepad. “See what else you can find here, huh? No one leaves no evidence behind. Maybe your partner in crime can catch something you missed.” He nodded over Danny’s shoulder.
Danny turned to see Andre entering with his CSI kit. “Hey,” he greeted him. “You know my report from last night. Gonna have to think outside the box on this one.”
“My specialty,” Andre grinned. “Grant and Grant on the case, huh? Whoever hit this place doesn’t stand a chance.” He patted Danny’s arm and smiled wide at John before moving into the next room.
Responding with barely suppressed lethargy, Danny unintentionally prompted his father to linger at his side. John often tried to initiate conversation outside of work, to get Danny to open up, to steer things back toward normal between them, but it always fell flat. Danny Awakening, becoming Zeus, facing Thanatos, was the reason his mother—John’s wife—was gone. There was no more normal, not after how much darker Danny had allowed things to get in the aftermath.
A stiff silence stretched between them before John finally reached over and squeezed Danny’s shoulder. “Hey, I know that Camouflage guy was a tough one the other night, but you seem more relaxed. Other than having to deal with this mess,” he chuckled.
Danny wasn’t about to tell his dad the specifics on why he was more relaxed. “Yeah, I was trying to enjoy some time off before the call came in last night.”
“Sorry, kiddo. No rest for the righteous, huh?”
Danny was fairly certain that wasn’t how the quote went. But he sensed his window closing to confess to his dad that he really did need a break, that he needed to talk, that he was floundering and hurting and didn’t know how to explain what was wrong.
Doing that would only worry John though, when he was still going through his own grieving process. Besides, Danny was handling it. A few weeks with Cho would be all the ‘rest’ he needed.
Letting his father pat his shoulder once more, Danny watched him walk away without either of them saying another word.
Chapter 7
“Hey, Danny. Think you can get away for lunch?”
Danny looked up from his desk to see his sister standing in the doorway to his office. “Stella, hey. Uhh…” He eyed the work surrounding him skeptically. Even though the Elemental Task Force didn’t technically exist anymore, not with Zeus running around to pick up the slack, Danny still had use of a private office where Rick’s empty desk sat across from him.
Stella pulled her hands out from behind her back to reveal three greasy and bursting paper bags from Atlas Burger. “Just kidding. I brought lunch to you.”
Entering fully, the curls of her rich, brown hair bounced around her shoulders. Her eyes were a deep, emerald green, glittering in contrast to her dark skin. She was Air leaning, and Danny swore that’s how she was such a ninja about sneaking up on him. She could breeze in with barely a sound.
Stella dressed like the head of a fashion magazine but was actually a child social worker. She was so much like Danny’s mother in that way—equal parts grace and humility. Ellen Grant had been a school teacher, but she’d devoted most of her spare time to charity and helping the community. Stella had wanted to emulate that when she chose social work so she could help people like she had been helped.
“Dad said you were the type of frazzled this morning that would likely lead to forgetting lunch,” she said, dropping the bags of food on the end of Danny’s desk. She’d never changed her name—she was still Stella Hernandez—but she’d called Danny’s parents Mom and Dad since the first year they adopted her.
“How did he…?” Danny shook his head as Stella sat in the empty chair in front of his desk. Her knowing smile said it all. “Thank you.”
The pleasant aroma from the burgers hit Danny’s senses in a rush, and he felt his stomach rumble eagerly. Stella always knew to bring extra to appease his Zeus-sized appetite. He did not deserve this woman as his sister and best friend. He didn’t deserve his father either.
“Everything okay?” she asked, eyes dropping downward in concern. “I know I’ve been busy lately, and you’ve been running your own kind of ragged. You didn’t make it to family dinner last week. Join us tomorrow?”
Tomorrow. Danny had already postponed on Cho once. Playing hard to get was one thing; blowing him off again and again could ruin the whole affair. “Sorry, I have plans tomorrow night. Next week for sure. Just give me a head’s up on the day, okay? Besides, you guys don’t need me around for family dinner.”
Stella frowned as she paused in unpacking the various stacks of burgers and fries. “Danny, you’re family. It’s not the same without you. Don’t worry about Joey. He’s been doing a lot better lately. And he likes you. It’s just a lot to take in still. You know what Mom would say? Every stumble is just another chance to get to know each other better.”
Danny’s mouth twitched at the common phrase, bittersweet as it was to hear it from Stella now instead. She knew better than anyone what it was like to lose a mother—twice now. And Joey was right there with them.
“He’s still adjusting, is all,” she said. “New dad. Sister. Brother.”
“I’m not his brother,” Danny said on reflex but deflated when Stella’s head jerked up at his harsh retort. “I just mean…it’s foster care right now, nothing set in stone. Joey doesn’t see me as a brother. And I know he’s trying to be understanding of the whole weird family dynamic we have going—”
“It’s not weird, Danny, it’s our family—”
“I know that,” he cut her short, “but most people’s brothers aren’t the reason their mother died.” Shit. Now Stella looked like she pitied him. “It’s not fair to him when he doesn’t know I’m Zeus. He deserves you guys without the added complication.”
“You mean without you,” she said.
“Maybe.”
“Danny, that isn’t how this works. You can’t keep hiding from us by running around the city.”
The pang in Danny’s chest grew tighter and he felt the urge to throw everything off his desk, including the bags of food, and scream at Stella to stop psychoanalyzing him like one of her cases. But he shouldn’t need to do that. He was better than that.
Taking a breath, he stood from his chair to avoid the temptation. “It’s not patrol. I have plans tomorrow night, okay? I can’t cancel them. I’ll join you guys next week, I promise. I haven’t been good company lately anyway. I need a break.”
“From me?” Stella tilted her head with a crook to her mouth that betrayed how
hurt she was by his words.
“From me,” Danny said honestly. “From a lot of things. I can’t exactly take a break from being Zeus, so I need something to distract me for a while.”
“And what something is that?”
“Just something. Look, can we eat?” He moved in front of the desk to join her and started pawing at a burger wrapper. “I’m close to passing out, and I need to get back to finishing this work before Dad comes in with the surveillance footage we’re waiting on. I appreciate the food. I love you for the food. And I would love nothing more than to enjoy lunch with you. Tell me about your life lately. I’d much rather hear about that than talk about being a little fried lately.”
Stella watched him unwrap the burger and take a large, healthy bite. “If you’re sure that’s all it is?”
“Of course,” Danny said around his chewing. “I’ve had a tough few weeks since Vanessa left. It’s nothing.” Maybe if he called it ‘nothing’ enough times, it finally would be.
Stella gave him a gauging, unconvinced look, because she knew Danny hadn’t ever been serious about Vanessa and wasn’t all that sorry to see her go. Eventually, she took pity on the pleading in his eyes and tore into the wrapper of her own burger. “Well…”
It was forty-five minutes of almost normal bliss. Listening to Stella, eating lunch, laughing together, Danny could pretend for a while that he was happy. He could almost believe he was happy, if it weren’t for the ache that lingered, that rose up strong as ever as soon as Stella hugged him and headed out of the precinct.
Aiming the rolled up wad of paper from his last burger at his farthest wastebasket by the corkboard, he missed what should have been a flawless hook shot. His eyes drifted from the paper to the corkboard…and finally to Rick’s desk.
The office was only large enough to fit the two desks, the corkboard between them against the back wall, and a few extra chairs. Rick hadn’t had any family, so no one was around to claim his belongings other than Danny. Any case work had been cleared away, but the personal items remained untouched.
Danny knew he should take it all home—the fish bowl by the window that had never had any fish but that Rick had joked about putting electric eels in for years, the deck of playing cards for slow days, the green lamp he’d gotten at a garage sale that looked like something out of a film noir flick, the photograph of Danny and Rick sharing a drink after Captain Shan finally approved the creation of the Elemental Task Force.
Between all of that and the dust that had accumulated over the months, it was no wonder the other officers called this place The Tomb. It was a tomb, for Rick and Danny both.
Rick had been Lightning leaning too. Maybe that’s why they got along so well. Maybe if Rick had been the one to Awaken instead of Danny, both of them would be alive right now.
Lightning jumping to the wad of paper to throw it away properly, Danny was back at his desk in under a second. He really shouldn’t do that—waste his powers on mundane tasks. Using his lightning jump drained him. He’d only ever been able to use it a handful of times in a row during a fight before he fatigued, something he’d found out the hard way.
ß
Danny could admit almost two months after he’d Awakened and donned the alter ego of Zeus that he enjoyed having a nemesis. Especially since his dedicated supervillain, unlike Thanatos who continued to elude him, had strict principles he followed and a certain flare for dramatics that Danny enjoyed far more than he’d ever say out loud to the leader of the Titans.
If a heist led to Danny defeating Cho, he would inexplicably manage to get away before being taken into custody, though a few times he’d stick around, let himself be truly and fully caught only to break out of custody later. And if Cho won, he was careful with just how much of Danny he iced with his powers, trading banter and taunts more than actual blows.
Honestly, it was like an occasional vacation day in his otherwise hectic life as a detective by day and superhero by night. Too often he had real threats to deal with: Thanatos and others like him who wanted to destroy the city, kidnap or murder someone, or cause the type of trouble that could get a lot of people hurt. Even the other Titans weren’t as easygoing as Cho. They followed their leader’s rules, but they weren’t as nice to Danny with mere glancing blows.
But Prometheus… Danny always looked forward to facing him, staring him down with a grin, drawing the fights out, meeting every pun Cho threw at him with one of his own—when he could; the man was notorious for winning that game—and just simply having fun. They had an understanding, a rhythm, a powerful respect for each other that made being at odds seem more like a game than a threat.
“What happens when he decides to take advantage of you going easy on him all the time?” his father once asked when Cho made a daring escape.
Danny had dismissed the concerns. He couldn’t imagine Cho ever having reason to do that. He’d turn a situation to his advantage whenever he could, but there was no future Danny could imagine where losing the unspoken truce between them would ever be beneficial to Cho. He enjoyed the chase more than any of the things he stole.
So no, Danny didn’t expect an ambush or betrayal to be the downfall of their common dance. He saw opportunity. He saw all the good in Cho that proved he could be so much more than a crook.
“That the best you got, Sparky? Figured you’d be quicker on your toes,” Cho said, icing the ground in front of Danny, but that was an old trick by now and Danny knew to dash around it and keep his feet on solid ground before he dove into another lightning jump. “Helios and Gaia are already long gone with the haul while you’re wasting time with me.”
They were in the warehouse district where the Titans had interfered with an entirely different heist Danny had been trying to stop. One of the local mafia groups had stolen an armored car. Just as they’d turned onto what appeared to be an abandoned street with Danny ready to jump in and save the day, Prometheus and his team had appeared to intercept. By the time Danny beat down all of the mafia goons, Helios and Gaia were driving off with the truck, while Cho hung back to keep Danny from following.
There was no one around save a few unconscious men almost a full block away now since Danny and Cho had moved to an empty parking lot during the fight. It was late, dark, a handful of street lights illuminating the area in this part of town. They had the whole parking lot and several city blocks to themselves. It was everything Danny would have asked for after a busy work week.
Coming out of his lightning jump behind Cho, he was forced to dart left when the Titan sensed his presence and turned around with a spray of cold.
“Getting nearsighted in your old age,” Danny teased him, panting for breath from the exhaustion he kept dismissing, “because so far you’ve failed to land a single hit.”
Cho scowled from behind his goggles. “Am I keeping you up past your curfew, kid? Just how young are you under that mask? Still living at home?” He blasted a lamp post, and the metal froze solid, creaked and teetered, and eventually toppled, forcing Danny to lightning jump again to stay out of its path.
At least it gave him a moment to hide that Cho had guessed right. Danny wasn’t that young, but he did still live with his parents. It was convenience not immaturity!
“Hurry it up, Danny, you’re letting Helios and Gaia get away!” Andre chided him over the comms.
Danny had nearly forgotten he wasn’t fully alone out here. He couldn’t play tag with Cho all night. He just had to get in a good hit and he could lightning jump after the truck.
“Working on it,” he said and turned to face Cho again. “Sorry to cut this short, Ice Man, but you’re slowing me down.”
“So frigid, Sparky?” Cho scoffed. “And here I thought we had a rapport going.”
“Maybe next time I’ll put you on ice,” Danny grinned.
“Try me,” Cho said with a pleased laugh, hands frosted over and ready for Danny to cha
rge him or send out a shock of lightning.
Danny couldn’t resist going for one more hit, one more pass. He had time to catch up to the others. So he lightning jumped forward and let everything slow. For the split second between here and there, the world moved at half-speed. There was Cho directly ahead of him, decked out in his usual gear—the navy duster, the black bodysuit and boots, the goggles, with a taunting smirk on his lips. Danny felt a thrill facing Cho that could not be reproduced with any other villain—his counterpart, his nemesis.
But just as Danny blinked from being across the parking lot to being right in front of Cho, his strength left him like a drop in blood sugar and he swooned. Falling into Cho, his vision swam around him with a wave of dizziness. He hadn’t realized how tired he was; he’d been having too much fun.
“Danny!” Lynn’s voice called distantly into his ear.
“Not how I imagined getting you in my arms someday, Sparky.”
Shit. Danny was helpless in the clutches of the enemy with Cho’s frigid hands clamping down on his arms. The horizon tilted, the ground coming up fast. He wondered if Cho had dropped him, but when he met the ground it was gentle and Cho’s hands didn’t feel as cold.
“How many times did you use that teleportation trick tonight? A dozen? More? Burnt out your charge, didn’t you?”
Danny couldn’t see clearly, couldn’t focus on anything but the sound of Cho’s voice, and Andre and Lynn louder in his ear desperate to know if he was okay.
Cho’s hands laid him out on the ground and he realized how vulnerable he was. Cho could do anything to him right now, had the perfect opportunity to rid himself of Zeus forever just like John had warned him about.
But as Danny laid there clinging to consciousness, waiting for Cho to do his worst, he didn’t even remove Danny’s mask.
Lovesick Gods Page 8