Page 4 of Lovesick Gods

Distantly, Danny heard Lynn and Andre yelling for an update, wondering what was going on, but he wasn’t done yet.

He swung again.

“S-Stop…” Camo sputtered in a rough, broken voice, spitting at the ground after he spoke, “I give up, p-please…”

Danny’s fist tightened. He wanted to scream and nearly did as he pulled his arm back again.

“Danny, answer us!” Andre cried.

His fist connected, but not with Camo’s face. Danny’s knuckles sank into the plaster of the wall. He’d used too much of his lightning to fuel the hit. He’d punched aholein the wall. It sparked and smoked—a fuse box. The damage triggered something in the building’s grid, and suddenly, faint blue emergency lights kicked on above and around Danny.

The breath he took seared his lungs. He’d been holding it since the first punch, but he lost it again when he looked at the man beneath his grasp, illuminated as the building filled with light.

Camo looked like he’d gone three rounds with a prize fighter. Nose busted and bleeding; goggles destroyed with the bone around his eye likely cracked, already swelling; lip split; vision dazed as he struggled to stay awake. Then Danny looked at the hole he’d left in the wall and realized how close he’d come to caving the man’s face in like the plaster.

“Danny!” Lynn and Andre cried together.

“I’m okay. I’m okay. I…I got him.” Slowly, Danny loosened his fist and his hold on Camo. The man slumped against the wall and finally, blessedly passed out.

“Are you sure?” Lynn asked. “Your blood pressure spiked.”

“It just…got a little brutal,” Danny said. But there was nothinglittleabout it. And the worst thing was, he didn’t feel sick from what he’d done—what he’d almost done.

He felt numb.

ß

“You blame Prometheus for your mother’s death?” Lieutenant Liu asked.

Malcolm Cho, the Ice Elemental Prometheus.

“You filed a report stating that you overheard Zeus and Prometheus strike a bargain, that the known criminal had agreed to use his powers to assist Zeus in the fight against Thanatos. But he never showed.”

“He said he’d help,” Danny spat, recalling the conversation he’d had with the man only days before the attack that resulted in his mother’s death and the deaths of countless others. He’d filed the report to protect Cho, to make sure no trigger-happy uniforms interfered. “His powers combined with Zeus might have stopped Thanatos sooner, before anyone had to die.”

“You’ve worked several of Prometheus’s cases. You and Detective Edwards formed the Elemental Task Force. You even helped put Cho away last time, before he broke out of prison again. Why believe he had any intention of helping Zeus?”

“I don’t. Not anymore. But at the time…” Danny’s gaze flickered to the metal surface of the table. “Cho and his Titans are thieves. Most are powerful Elementals, like his sister, but they’re not killers. Thanatos was amonster. Cho recognized that. It was in his best interest to get rid of him. But he was just a coward. Zeus waited, but no help came.” Sitting up straighter, Danny trained his gaze on Liu again. “So if I was some powder keg waiting to erupt, don’t you think I’d be tracking Cho down? That I’d take my anger out on him? I just want to do my job, Lieutenant.”

“Isn’t tracking down an escaped felon part of your job?” she asked.

It was, but Danny couldn’t risk that. Cho knew his secret. He wanted to drag the man into the OCPD by the scruff of his collar, but he couldn’t. If he did, Cho would out him as Zeus.

“There are more important cases than a thief lying low, Lieutenant. When Cho shows his face again, I’ll be ready. Now are we done here?” Danny gestured at the cramped, suffocating room, eager to be free of it. “I have paperwork to do.”

Chapter2

It was late. What Mal really wanted was to curl up with a good book and call it a night, but he had a schedule to keep. The Winterheart Diamond wasn’t going to steal itself. His last task for the evening was to pay a visit to the electronics store at the edge of his neighborhood—the highest point in the city.

Even at ground level, spectacular views of Olympus could be seen, including the remains of the power station Thanatos had blown up during his final fight with Zeus. Like a skeletal reminder, cleared of debris but not yet rebuilt, it remained malformed and stark in the distance, safely far from Mal’s streets.

He hadn’t always thought of these streets as his. He didn’t run things the way the various mob families in Olympus City ran their neighborhoods. Not like the Dunkirks or the Mendozas. Whether a small time family or a larger one, those organizations controlled their spheres of influence with fists and fear. Mal was in the game for a higher calling—the thrill of the chase, the challenge, not for power. A good score. A comfortable way of living whenever he wasn’t in the midst of a heist. But other than that, he didn’t need Mom and Pop stores kowtowing to him.

The fact that the businesses inside his ten block radius home-sweet-home chose to offer things on occasion—information, sending the boys in blue on wild goose chases, food and equipment—just meant Mal was respected. He didn’t need to be feared. Not by these people. That he reserved for those who crossed him.

If someone came into his neighborhood thinking they could oust him, or outdo him, or take him down, Mal retaliated appropriately. Likewise, if someone tried to hustle his businesses, his neighbors, the people who worked at Haven, his favorite bar, or anyone at the abuse shelter, that was the same as knocking on Mal’s door and slighting him to his face. He didn’t tolerate it.

It was symbiotic. Not altruistic.

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