Page 44 of Lovesick Titan

The tall, broad woman cracked her neck, clenched her fists, and started to back up. She fit her mask back over her face and ignited flames from her palms.

“Okay, Spark Plug. Back to the real fight.”

R

Dom was taking too long. She was supposed to give Zeus the runaround, then join Mal outside with the rest of the paintings. Mal didn’t like leaving Dom alone with the kid, but someone had to get the car ready. They’d entered from the other side of the museum but had parked the getaway car by where they’d exit. This wasn’t their first rodeo.

Having timed things just right to catch the guard so he wouldn’t trip any alarms early, they knew the perfect alarms to set off later to bring Zeus running. Only Danny was already there, so Mal didn’t care about bringing the police anymore. He’d frozen the sensors on his way out the door. Maybe this would be better despite Lucy’s meddling, with no fuzz to get in the way when he lured Danny to the edge of town.

Finally, Dom burst out of the exit door, carrying the paintings beneath her arm as she turned and fired back inside the building. Mal had the trunk open. Once Dom deposited the paintings, he closed it tight and they went to their respective doors. Dom would drive—she always drove—but the engine was already running. She tore her mask off and shifted gears just as Danny darted out the door after them through a cloud of smoke.

“Go!”

Dom gunned it, not that speed mattered against Zeus. Outrunning him was never an option, but Mal wanted Danny to follow, needed him to. The best thing about hitting the museum was how close it was to their destination. They still had a drive ahead of them, ten minutes out of town, but when being pursued by Zeus, that might as well have been an hour.

Danny didn’t risk jumping inside the car; a moving target was too tricky. Instead, he jumped close enough to grab onto the side of Mal’s door. Mal had purposely lowered the window, but he knew Danny wouldn’t pull him from the car, not yet. He wanted totalk. Wanted to plead more of his case and wrap Mal around his finger again. No dice.

“Mal!” Danny called. The way the yellow of his lightning surrounded his white and gold suit was a beautiful sight as they sped off down street after street, expertly weaving through the few other vehicles on the road.

“Sorry, Zeus, but since you were early to the party, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to even us out.” Mal blasted ice out the window, sending Danny careening back at high speed from the sudden tumble. He crashedinto a parked car hard enough that Mal cringed. That would have seriously injured anyone else. But not Danny—he’d be up and on their tail again sooner than they could afford.

Touching his wrist to dial the cold field up, Mal watched through his glasses until the radius surrounded the car. That would keep Danny from getting too close before they were ready for him. It might be a risk relying on a reflective surface with Ludgate still around, but Mal had to be certain he knew the distance of the amplifier’s expanse.

As Dom turned off onto the last road that would take them out of town and into the woods, Mal could make out Danny’s lightning trail behind them, sparking every so often when he jumped forward and then vanishing when he hit the edge of the cold field.

A glance at Dom after watching Danny for so long made Mal frown. “Dom…”

She wore a prominent scowl, but that wasn’t the problem. When she glanced aside to see what Mal wanted, he made a point to nod at the seatbelt currently not buckled in. “We’re almost there!” She gestured out the windshield.

Mal kept his stare firmly focused.

With a huff and exaggerated motion to pull on her seatbelt, Dom complied.

Relaxing as he turned to stare forward again, Mal glanced in the rearview mirror every so often to make sure Danny was still following. He wasn’t being reckless. He wasneverreckless. He knew exactly what he was doing.

They reached the spot he’d picked out and slowed to a stop to park. Even with the cold field up, they didn’t have long before Danny would be on them. Once they were in position, Mal turned the cold field off. And Dom turned the heat fieldon.

Hidden behind the same large tree as they waited for Danny, Mal’s anger simmered to a cold calm. He felt nothing toward Danny now, playing out the same old game of cat and mouse. Danny wouldn’t give this up. He wouldn’t accept defeat or failure. Mal just wanted to hear him say that, hear him lose control and admit how much he’d hated Mal all along.

“You sure you don’t want me to fry him?” Dom grumbled, welder’s mask on again but tilted up to reveal her face.

“We stick to the plan,” Mal said. “I want him brought low, not dead. Understand?”

“Yeah, yeah. But if he’s worth all this, maybe he deserves it.”

“No. We don’t kill anyone unless we have to.”

“Wasn’t all that playin’ nice bullshithisidea?” Dom scoffed. “And yer still bowin’ to it?”

“I don’t bow to anyone, least of all Zeus. But I’d have to be an idiot if I couldn’t admit when my enemy was right. We don’t kill,” he said again, sharper, to drive the point home. “We don’t need to.”

“Mal!” came Danny’s voice as he finally entered the clearing.

Mal and Dom both straightened, and Dom pulled down her mask. They could hear the crinkle of sticks and leaves on the ground as Danny moved slowly into the heat field, looking for them, obviously seeing the car parked out in the open, but not yet having spotted them. Mal nodded to Dom to expand the field in case Danny tried to back out of it, just as they heard him give a faint, gasping cough.

“Wh-What…?” Danny gasped again. The air outside the safety of the eye was superheated like the inside of an oven. There was another harsh intake of breath that no doubt seared Danny’s lungs, then a thud indicating he had dropped.

“You didn’t think I was the only one with new tricks, did you?” Mal called as he and Dom took their cue and parted ways around the tree, only to come together again on the other side, facing Danny as a unified front.

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