I really hope Dr. Ownit starts seeing patients again soon.
“You just swore. A lot,” I absently mumbled, choosing to focus onthatrandom detail for some inexplicable reason.
“Yeah,” he huffed, driving the knife in deeper byblushing.“I think it’s the company I’ve been keeping.”
As my heart started revving up again, I felt the strangest sensation—like pure energy traveling through my veins, powered both from within and from somewhere outside of me.
From Butch.
“I thought you were dead.” My voice sounded as hollow as I felt, although life was coming back to me again. I was empty of everything that wasn’thim—as if he truly were the sun I needed to survive on this insignificant planet.
I thought I was dead, too.
He gazed up at me with tears in his eyes, looking as perfect as ever on his knees. “I know, and I’m sorry.”
My hand moved of its own accord, gently cupping his cheek. As always, he briefly closed his eyes and leaned into my touch, trusting me completely, despite the dangerous villains surrounding him on all sides.
As we then stared at each other for an endless moment, and I realized I didn’t carewhoButch was. He could be a normie or a supe, a hero or a villain, Captain Masculine, or just someone who played him on TV—it didn’t matter. It didn’t change who he was to me.
Mine.
“I never want to feel that way again,” I said, holding his gaze, wordlessly sharing every ounce of bottomless love I had for him.
“Well, then you won’t enjoy this,” my mother sighed. “Wolfy?”
Before I could react, Wolfgang was standing behind the man I loved, and before I could stop him, he removed his glove and placed his hand on the top of Butch’s unprotected head.
CHAPTER38
XANDER
I woke up screaming, momentarily confused to find myself sprawled on the Suarez living room couch with Wolfgang lounging in the chair across from me.
Killkillkillkill…
“You fucking piece of shit!” I snarled, diving for my brother with both hands aimed for his throat.
He barely had time to leap over the back of the recliner before I collided with it. “Do you have a death wish or something?!” he shouted up at me from where he’d landed on the floor. “Don’t touch me, you imbecile.”
“You. Killed. Him,” I gritted out, glaring down at him and wondering if I could successfully smother The Hand of Death with enough throw pillows between us.
“I did no such thing,” he huffed, standing and indignantly brushing himself off. “I simply incapacitated him somotherwouldn’t put him on ice. The intensity of my powers is affected by my opponent’s strength, so I made sure not to touch him for too long.”
This random intel pulled me out of my blind rage. “You… what?”
How did I not know this?
He sighed, incredibly put out by this entire situation, apparently. “Yes. As you know, when I touch another supe, I’m drainingtheir life force. With someone as strong as Captain Masculine—Butch—I would probably have to maintain contact for a good five to seven minutes to truly kill him. Withyou,”—he sniffed, eyeing me judgmentally—“it would be more like two. Although, you’re probably stronger now that you’ve met Butch.”
Wolfgang tapped a gloved finger against his bottom lip to consider, as if I wasn’t currently murdering him with my eyeballs.
“If Butch is safe, then where is he?” I hissed, near-feral with the need to be close to him.
I’m going to finally kidnap him and leave this goddamn circus behind.
“Mmm, I’m not sure howsafehe is…” Wolfgang hedged, but took one look at my face and quickly elaborated. “He’s in father’s workshop.”
Oh, my god…