Page 26 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

Danny felt a much needed lightness infuse his limbs as he returned home after a quick stop at the precinct.

The week had ended strained and unfulfilling, with case work and Zeus work alike, but none of that mattered today.

In a few hours he’d be able to ignore everything that made him feel fractured and empty because with Cho, all the power that eluded him in the rest of his life came back under his control.

He had to applaud himself for earlier, for lightning jumping into Cho’s apartment and leaving dinner.

He’d wanted to look around so badly, especially in the bedroom, which he hadn’t seen much of during their last romp.

Anything more personal or sensitive had to be up there.

But Danny knew better than to give the game away.

Cho would know. Cho would be watching. Clever criminal that he was, there was no doubt in Danny’s mind that Cho had his home under heavy surveillance.

So Danny had put on a good show to make sure the man had no reason to doubt his intentions.

Planning to relax at home for a while before he headed out again, it was rare that Danny simply allowed himself to exist within the walls of his family house anymore.

Often he sequestered himself in his bedroom or never came home at all.

The morgue had a few places where Danny could crash, and he did so more often than not.

But today, having something to look forward to later, the house didn’t feel as suffocating.

“Hey, John, are you—?” Joey’s voice called out just as Danny turned the corner for a clear view into the dining room. The boy cut off when he saw Danny. He sat at the table with his backpack and several open books spread out, along with a notepad and the local newspaper. “Oh. Hey.”

“Hey,” Danny said, slowing his walk but feeling compelled to continue into the dining room now that he’d been spotted. Sometimes he still forgot that it wasn’t just him and his father who lived here. “Dad was at the precinct when I stopped in. He’s probably on his way home.”

“Sure.” Joey nodded, black eyes darting down to his books. He wore another T-shirt with a lightning bolt on it today. Where did he find them all? Though it seemed as if they put lightning bolts on everything lately in this city.

“Homework?” Danny asked the obvious, smiling and trying not to seem too forced or like he was merely looking for an excuse to move through the dining room into the kitchen.

“Yeah.” One word answers were par for the course with Joey, but Danny was trying at the moment, couldn’t he see that?

Reaching the edge of the table, Danny glanced at the organized mess Joey had created, but it was the newspaper that drew his attention, since the front page sported a photo of him —of Zeus during one of his many standoffs with Thanatos.

Danny’s good humor threatened to drain out of him and he had to fight to keep his smile.

“That doesn’t look like homework,” he said, picking up the paper to read the headline—SIX MONTHS OF SAFETY, it said. Right.

“Idle reading between AP US History chapters,” Joey shrugged.

The story was about the anniversary of Thanatos’s disappearance. About the likelihood of his death even though a body had never been found.

No, there wouldn’t be a body. There couldn’t be.

“You sure you want to be reading this?” Danny gestured with the paper before letting it drop back to the table. The general rule around the house was to not talk about that night, just like Andre and Lynn made an effort to never bring up how the events of six months ago had gone down.

Joey’s head raised slightly, enough for his eyes, so black Danny couldn’t see the irises, to center on him and hold him captive.

Not that Joey was trying to stare him down; his gaze always did that to Danny.

“It’s okay,” Joey said. “It’s about how much safer the city’s been since Zeus chased Thanatos off.

Fewer Elemental attacks. Less crime in general.

All over the city. Even the mob families have been quiet. ”

Danny huffed before he could stop himself. “What do you know about mob families?”

Joey frowned. “I know Zeus stopped one from taking an armored car once.”

“Yeah, that Prometheus and the Titans got away with instead.” Damn it.

Why couldn’t Danny say things without mocking in his voice?

He didn’t mean to, the words just came out of him that way when Joey was around, like every ounce of resentment and guilt he felt was reflected back at him from those dark eyes.

“What do you got against Zeus anyway?” Joey challenged.

They’d had this discussion. Danny had said a few too many times that Zeus hadn’t done enough that night at the power station. He couldn’t help it. He knew Zeus didn’t deserve Joey’s devotion.

Joey’s eyes stayed trained on Danny, hooded despite looking up at him from his seat at the table. “He’s a hero. He tried . Good guys can’t save everybody. No one else even stood up to Thanatos. Why can’t you get that? The city gets that,” he jutted his chin at the paper.

The city loved Zeus. The city was filled with gullible people who wanted something to believe in to make them feel safer. The city got to separate the man from the superhero and go about their lives in ignorance.

It was easy to love a hero. Men were harder.

“You’re right,” Danny said even if he didn’t believe it. He would not be brought down today, not today, not even by his own hang-ups. He pulled on a smile. “Need help with anything? I took APUSH in high school too, ya know. Might even remember a few things.”

Joey sat there like a five-foot-six huddled ball of tension.

“I’m home!” John called from the entryway.

Danny couldn’t miss the look of relief on Joey’s face or the release of stiffness from his shoulders.

“I’m good,” Joey said with quiet loathing in his words. “Da—” He practically bit down on his tongue. “John’s home,” he corrected.

Wondering how often Joey called John ‘Dad’ when he wasn’t around, Danny’s gut twisted.

Stella often encouraged it. She said it helped kids adjust to being part of a family again, even if the situation was temporary.

It wasn’t as if saying ‘Dad’ was forbidden.

Danny should tell Joey that. He should say… something .

But he didn’t.

“Hey,” John smiled as he came into the room. “What’s everybody up to?”

Refusing to let his good mood dwindle, Danny didn’t want to be in the dining room anymore. “Just grabbing a drink, Dad. You want anything?” he offered, then quickly made scarce to escape into the kitchen. His time with Cho couldn’t come fast enough.

?

It didn’t come fast enough, which was why Danny found himself walking into Cho’s apartment building almost twenty minutes early.

“Whoa! Careful, little guy,” Danny said as he was nearly plowed into by a young boy charging down the stairs from the second floor.

He looked about ten, dark skin, closely cropped hair, and striking blue eyes—Water leaning.

A pregnant woman who had to be his mother hurried down after him, looking frazzled.

She had the same complexion but her eyes were brown.

“Sorry,” she smiled at Danny before hurrying on. “Michael, slow down!”

“No problem!” Danny called after them. He hadn’t seen anyone the last couple of times he’d been to Cho’s building.

Considering some of the neighborhood, with Haven not too far away, Danny had expected a rougher crowd for Cho’s neighbors, but then his apartment was actually really nice for such an old building in a bad part of town.

Danny hoped the woman knew what she was doing living in a place like this, with no idea that a supervillain lived a few doors down from her.

He knocked when he reached Cho’s apartment. This time they’d have dinner, and Danny would lay the groundwork for the rest of his plan. As long as things always veered to sex, Cho would be suitably distracted from guessing his true intentions.

Danny was distracted too, admittedly, because he did want the man—that body, that smirk, those eyes —but once Danny got this out of his system, he knew he’d be able to move on to someone better.

Maybe then he’d be ready for something real.

Maybe someday, the danger would be lessened enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about a girlfriend or boyfriend being bait for his enemies.

As Cho opened the door, Danny mustered the smile that had started to slip. The unimpressed eyebrow raise and the way Cho didn’t open the door completely to invite him in told Danny that he wasn’t pleased by the earlier home invasion. Or maybe he was. There was a hint of that smirk again.

“I only left the food and the note.” Danny held up his hands. “No peeping. I had some time to kill this afternoon and thought you’d think it was…cute.”

“Cute,” Cho repeated with his lilting voice. “Breaking into my house is cute?”

“You break into places all the time,” Danny said.

He had Cho there, and the man’s amusement betrayed itself, but he didn’t gesture Danny inside just yet.

“Plus, you steal things,” Danny pointed at him accusingly, “whereas I left something for you. I think that should earn me some brownie points.”

“Points?”

“Yeah. How about we keep score as long as points can be traded for lewd acts in the bedroom?”

Cho’s paltry front dissolved in lieu of a grin. Stepping back finally, he opened the door the rest of the way. “You’re lucky you chose dinner from somewhere I like because believe me, Sparky, the points are in my favor at the moment, and I plan to cash in all of them later.”

Glancing down Cho’s body appreciatively, the last traces of the tension Danny had been carrying were forgotten. He slipped inside the apartment past Cho, feeling accomplished and more confident each moment he sparred with the man for verbal dominance. Hate him or not, he did enjoy their scuffles.