“Oh thank god,” came the voice on the other end. It was Vaughn. “Dude, I know it’s the middle of the night, but I was going out of my mind. What took you so long?”
“How did you get this number?”
“Lucy.”
“Lucy—”
“It’s a long story, okay? She sounded pretty freaked when I told her about what happened. Or as much as I knew anyway.”
“You told her…” If Mal had Ludgate’s powers in that moment, he would have reached through the phone to throttle the CSI. That was going to be a fun fallout, but at least Lucy hadn’t stormed right over to the apartment. “Zeus is safe and fine. Where things concern me, I’d prefer you stay out of it.”
“He’s fine how exactly?”
Mal pinched the bridge of his nose. “Physically fine. Just messed up over Ludgate.”
“What happened?”
“Not my place to say.”
“Cho.”
“You’ll find I’m not as easily convinced to divulge other people’s secrets as my sister.”
Vaughn huffed. His voice sounded hoarse as if he’d been up all night, but when he spoke again, he was plaintive more than frustrated. “Please, Cho. Just tell me something. Danny…he hasn’t been himself.”
The rawness of that statement made Mal’s resolve to blow Vaughn off waver. Glancing at Danny asleep on the sofa, all the shields he’d usually throw up to protect himself seemed less important than protecting Danny.
“Ludgate had a plan to kill us,” he said, leaning back against his desk, “get us to kill each other, whatever, but now he wants something else.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. But there are worse things than dying.”
Vaughn went quiet save the sound of his breathing. Finally, he said, “Look, man, I…I hate to ask, and I promise I’ll only ask once, but…did you kill the guard at the museum?”
Mal sat up straighter. “He was gassed. Knocked out.”
“Not when the police found him.”
Vaughn explained how the guard had been discovered with his throat slit by a piece of broken glass. The case wasn’t just a robbery anymore, it was homicide.
“Ludgate…” Mal growled.
“Evidence doesn’t point at anyone yet, but the assumption is it’s him again, given the other robberies, so for now you’re in the clear. Though you were there to rob the place, right?”
“Ludgate got the diamond.”
“Hey, man, I’m not judging.”
Mal rolled his eyes. Team Zeus was an odd bunch.
“Seriously, not judging at all,” Vaughn went on, “especially since I…know you’re how Danny’s been blowing off steam lately.”
“He told you.”
“No. Heard part of one of your rendezvous over the comms. He knows I know.”
Mal didn’t answer.
“Just don’t hit him while he’s low, okay? He’s been having a rough time. Rough even before this mess with Ludgate, and the dead guard isn’t going to help.”
“I know. Ended up a little roughed up myself tonight.”
“You okay?” Vaughn asked without hesitation.
A smile tugged at the edge of Mal’s mouth, reminding him of his still healing lip. He stared down at his lightning bolt sleep pants. Do-gooders. “I’m fine.”
“So, he’s...talked to you about things?”
This was a whole new level of dangerous. Whatever Mal and Danny were, that was one thing; allowing Vaughn into that confidence opened up Mal’s small circle wider than he was usually comfortable with. He didn’t even know Vaughn, but for once, he didn’t want to lie or dismiss what was being asked of him.
“Yeah. He has.”
“Good,” Vaughn said, like there was relief in having someone else be a part of his small circle. “I don’t know much about this whole thing between you two. I only just found out. But you better not do anything to make me track your phone and come over there to kick your ass.”
“Now that would be a sight to see,” Mal chuckled. “Might have to think up something to rile you just for the show.”
“Dude, come on, don’t be a dick,” Vaughn said with equal humor. Then more seriously, “Please.”
Just as quickly as it had formed, Mal’s smile faltered. From his desk, he could see the full form of Danny sprawled out on the sofa, taking up every bit of available space, while his hand reached out as if still seeking the loss of Mal’s warmth.
Dangerous was how Mal had lived his entire life. He wasn’t about to change that now. He knew what he wanted, what he was and wasn’t willing to give up, even if everything else about his life changed forever.
“He’s safe with me.”
“Yeah, I know,” Vaughn said with a stunted laugh. “How messed up is that?”
ß
Danny woke to the smell of breakfast. It made him smile in his half-dozing state, because this time his brain remembered he was with Cho, and he loved the thief’s cooking. Loved how Cho cooked for him at all. How he took care of him. But when Danny’s eyes opened to find the living room ceiling, he remembered why they’d ended up on the sofa again.
Despite the grumble of Danny’s empty stomach, the food didn’t smell as appetizing anymore.
He sat up slowly. The coffee table had been cleared of any traces of last night. When he looked behind him, Cho had already showered and dressed for the day, wearing that bright teal button down Danny loved as he busied himself in the kitchen. His cuts were healing nicely, less angry, but his bruises were bright and colorful to remind Danny of everything he’d allowed to happen.
“Best you’ll ever have,” Cho said as he flipped the last of a batch of pancakes. Several other stacks and some scrambled eggs awaited Danny on a platter, while an empty plate sat in front of his usual spot at the kitchen island.
The pit in Danny’s stomach deepened. Best you’ll ever have. Cho meant the food, and it was likely true, but all he could think about was his own words to Cho when their affair started.
I’m gonna ruin you for everybody else.
Danny’s reflection was right. He was like Thanatos. He’d put good people in harm’s way. He’d intended to do terrible things to others just because he wanted to. He’d manipulated and hurt people simply because he could. And he was a worse villain for doing it while pretending he was in the right. He couldn’t keep pretending anymore.
“For the record,” Cho said, “I did replace the bed upstairs, but neither of us was in a moving kind of mood last night, and it seemed a shame to wake you.”
“I should go.” Danny stood and kept his eyes trained forward as he moved for the door.
“Go? Without breakfast? What a poor house guest, Sparky. You’re still wearing my clothes.”
“Oh, I…” Looking down at himself, Danny saw that he was. “I’ll get them back to you.”
“Danny—”
“I need to go home, check in at work…” Fuck, work. Danny didn’t want to think about going in today, but it was only Tuesday. He couldn’t call in sick, not after another heist. Captain Shan would be all over him.
“We need to discuss a plan for Ludgate—”
“I know.” Danny flinched at the name and tried not to look at Cho as he came out of the kitchen to intercept him. “I’ll think of something. He wants me more than you. He won’t attack right away.”
“Danny, will you look at me?”
“Thanks for letting me stay here.” Keeping his feet moving, Danny reached for the doorknob.
Cho’s hand closed around his wrist. Danny’s instincts were to wrench it away, but the touch was gentle. A month ago he never would have believed Cho could be gentle. “Ludgate went back for the guard. He’s dead.”
“He…” Danny’s heart skipped. Ludgate had killed a man—because of him.
&nb
sp; “It isn’t your fault,” Cho said, reading Danny’s expression. “If it’s anyone’s other than Ludgate’s, it’s mine. I planned the heist. I knocked the guard out.”
God, now even Cho was taking blame for Danny. He had to get out of there.
“Let me help you sort this. We can do this together.”
Didn’t Cho know Danny was poison? Of course he didn’t. Because Danny had been lying to him from the start.
“Wasn’t there something you wanted to tell me last night?”
Yes. But Danny couldn’t. Not today. Not now. “It’s not important,” he lied—again.
Glancing over his shoulder, all he could see when he looked at the man behind him was the damage he’d caused. Danny needed a day to process, to plan. Then, the next time he saw Cho, he’d tell him the truth. And end things for good.
“I’ll see ya around, Cho.”
“Danny—”
Danny pulled from his grasp, didn’t bother opening the door, but summoned what little strength he had left to lightning jump away before anything could be said to stop him.
ß
Soon, Zeus, Hades thought as he watched from one of the minor reflections in Prometheus’s apartment. It was nearly impossible to cover them all, much as they’d tried. They couldn’t escape him now, not even as Zeus flashed away in a crackle of lightning. The dominoes were already in place, set up so much more intricately and satisfyingly than Hades had originally planned.
Soon, he would make up for the sting of being Awakened too late to show the one person he’d always wanted to see him as powerful.
Soon, he would be the villain this city feared, not Prometheus.
Soon, he would have his revenge against Zeus for Thanatos’s death.
Soon, so soon, Hades would finally make Zeus pay for killing his father.
TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART II
Lovesick
TITANS
Malcom Cho is in over his head, wrapped up in a love affair with his superhero nemesis Zeus, who most people in Olympus City only know as Detective Danny Grant.
Lovesick Titans begins where Lovesick Gods left off, after a heist gone wrong that ended with a museum guard dead and Mal and Danny beaten and exhausted from their fight with the new threat in town, Cassidy Ludgate—Hades.
Unaware that Ludgate’s true motivation is revenge for the death of his father at Zeus’s hands, Mal wants only to keep Danny close, while Danny races to solve the cases surrounding Ludgate to stop him from whatever he has planned for them next.
Mal didn’t expect to fall for his electric hero when their tryst began, whose lightning is the perfect complement to his ice as Prometheus, but he plans to fight for what they’ve found in each other no matter the cost.
What he doesn’t know is that Danny didn’t pursue him with the purest of intentions. Mal promised to be there the night Danny faced Thanatos for the final time, but because he never showed, Danny was pushed to the brink and killed the Dark Elemental in the most brutal way possible. Unable to cope with what he did and the people he’s lost, Danny initially sought to break Mal’s heart in retaliation, but even though he no longer seeks that end, the lies between them loom like a shadow about to descend upon them both.
And Hades has only begun to toy with them…
Lovesick Gods Page 34