Page 37 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

The real morgue at the downtown Olympus City police department was in the basement just like Danny’s hideout, but instead of heading right when he got down the stairs, he turned left through several doors and a connecting corridor that led to another building.

Lynn had messaged him earlier in the day to stop down when he got the chance.

It only seemed as though she and Andre lived in the old morgue at Danny’s every beck and call; they did have day jobs.

The weekend had almost been normal for Danny. Even after he left Cho’s apartment, he’d managed to keep his spirits up, despite no further progress on Ludgate.

Friday night patrol had been another bust, but Danny held onto the hope that Saturday would be different.

It wasn’t. Then he held out for Sunday, when he normally wouldn’t have even bothered patrolling.

Still nothing. The only saving grace was that he hadn’t gotten in trouble for ditching work Friday.

No one had noticed he left early. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want something new to offer Captain Shan come Monday.

So, that morning, he’d mapped out all of the recent Ludgate sightings, along with his heist locations and any areas that had reported incidents of theft with similarities to the cases at Virgil Labs and the glassworks.

Despite the randomness of most of the locations around the city, there was a definite grouping near a particular street west of downtown.

Danny had shown the findings to Shan when the captain appeared looking for some sort of breakthrough in the case, and while it wasn’t evidence to help put Ludgate away, Danny had significantly narrowed their search area.

“Good work, Grant,” Shan had said.

Danny could count on one hand the number of times he’d received praise from the captain.

One of the forensics technicians passed by as Danny neared the autopsy room, jarring him from his thoughts. The man always seemed to have this resigned look about him that Danny used to associate with dealing with dead bodies all day, but Lynn never carried the same countenance.

“Got a fresh one in there, Grant,” he said as he headed down the hallway, “just to forewarn you.”

“Thanks, Reggie,” Danny nodded. It was usually the smell that got to newbies, but Danny had never quite gotten used to seeing dead bodies either. Identifying his mother’s body hadn’t helped. Neither had any of the bodies he’d seen that night.

A uniformed officer fled from out of the final door leading into the autopsy room just as Danny reached it, holding the back of his hand to his mouth and looking far too green to make it to the bathroom in time. Danny sympathized. He didn’t recognize the young man—probably fresh out of the academy.

“Are you torturing the children again, Dr. Rivers?” Danny summoned a smile as he pushed inside the room. If he made it too obvious that he was as uncomfortable as everyone else, Lynn would read into it and want to talk.

As it was, she barely looked up from her work, using forceps to push the skin aside to examine what Danny assumed was the cause of death, since the man’s neck was half-split open. “Severed carotid artery. Barely any blood left. No idea what made Hadley so squeamish.”

She wore a face mask, clear goggles, and what looked like a paper disposable apron, with her hands gloved in latex as she worked. After peeling a tiny piece of fiber from the wound, she placed it on a waiting slide to be examined later before she set aside her forceps and turned to Danny.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, pulling her face mask down. “I can take a break. I wanted to show you something.”

“Not about our friend here, I assume.” Danny didn’t recognize the man from any of his current cases. He tried not to let his eyes linger on the way the wound gaped, spread open by metal instruments with clotted blood shining in deep red and black.

“No. That’s just a mugging gone wrong. Very wrong for Mr. Wayne, unfortunately. Just give me a moment.”

Danny moved to the back of the room where he could lean against the counter without disturbing anything while Lynn got the sample she’d extracted ready for processing and removed her protective gear to wash up.

“Good news or bad?” Danny tried to make light of things since she wasn’t sharing yet.

He remembered feeling small around her before they became friends, like a student with a particularly sharp and intimidating teacher.

That seemed so silly now. Lynn was one of the most intelligent people Danny knew, but she was also one of the kindest.

“Good news,” she said, opening the end cabinet in the wall behind Danny, where she kept more personal items and experiments. Danny wasn’t sure what he expected her to show him, but the small, unlabeled bottle of pills she produced seemed somehow anticlimactic.

“Antidepressants?” he asked with a drop in his smile, which seemed counterintuitive, but he couldn’t help it.

“In a way, but these won’t work like traditional medication.” She handed Danny the bottle. It was heavy, filled with more pills than he was used to for such a small container.

“You said you were working on something to trick my healing factor,” he stared at the orange plastic devoid of any markings, “and I trust your skills, Lynn, okay, I know you were like two credits shy from doubling as a pharmaceutical chemist, but these won’t suppress my powers, right?”

“Don’t worry, that was my first priority,” she said earnestly.

“This should be the right formula to bypass your metabolism without disrupting the rest of your abilities. It isn’t a cure-all, but it might help.

When you reach a low point, take one. The effects should kick in within a few minutes.

But never more than two in a twenty-four-hour period. ”

“Sure. Of course,” Danny nodded. Standard antidepressants needed time to build up their effects before they started to work. The idea that these pills could just help him—feel bad, take a pill, feel better five minutes later—seemed too good to be true. “What about dependency?”

“That’s why only one or two a day,” Lynn said. “That should be the right dose to keep your body from adapting. Keep me informed of your habits and how you feel after taking them, especially if you notice any odd side effects.”

“In case of nausea, increased appetite, dry mouth…” Danny listed off with a grin.

“I’m serious, Danny. The usual side effects likely won’t apply, but anything else, tell me immediately.”

“I will.” Steeling his expression, Danny was grateful for how much Lynn had obviously put into this even if it left him wary. “Thank you. I’m having a really good day actually, so maybe I won’t even need to take these.”

The knit to Lynn’s brow smoothed out as she smiled. “That’s great, Danny. I’m glad to hear it. And if you don’t feel like taking any, don’t. But if you do, it’s okay to need something to help you feel better.”

“I know.” He did finally understand that. He was sick of feeling like he’d earned his misery. “Thanks, Lynn. Really.”

“Any time, Danny.”

Pocketing the pills, Danny kept his eyes on the door rather than let them stray to Mr. Wayne’s body as he left. He was getting better. He was . He appreciated everything Lynn had done for him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that resorting to pills would only make him weaker.

As he headed back upstairs to his office, he decided he’d only take one if he absolutely needed it.

?

“Power down, Danny!” Andre called from the other room.

Danny reined in his lightning until it dwindled completely. What had been the sparking, obvious silhouette of Zeus returned to being The Invisible Man. If Andre couldn’t keep the name for Ludgate then he wanted to use it for something , and thus he had dubbed Danny’s new stealth suit.

Or at least it would have been a stealth suit—if Danny never used his powers.

One of the storerooms next to the main room in the old morgue had been specially insulated for him to practice various uses of his abilities. While Andre could hear Danny over the comms and watch footage of him on his tablet, Danny only had the sound of Andre’s voice.

The mask of the new suit covered his entire face like he was used to, but the diamond-shaped lenses for his eyes were larger.

Overall, the suit should have felt stiffer with the reflectors built in, but one of the benefits of the ‘tiny little mirrors’, as Andre called them, was that the individual pieces had more fluidity than his Zeus suit.

If only the stealth portion would work as intended.

“What’s up, Andre? We’ve been testing for almost an hour and nothing’s changed. If I can’t use the suit with my powers, what’s the point?”

“Dude, can you shut down the suit when you talk to me?” Andre disregarded his concerns. “It’s creepy watching an empty room.”

A flare of annoyance spiked through Danny at having his question ignored, but the chance to be devious banished his frustration. Being careful not to spark with any lightning, he exited into the hallway to slip into the main room.

Andre remained fixated on the tablet near his desk, but after a moment, as Danny snuck closer to him, his eyes darted from side to side in suspicion. “Danny?” he said, since Danny hadn’t answered him over the comms. “Daniel Allen Grant, I swear, if you jump scare me right now—”

“You’ll what?” Danny whispered from only a foot away.

“Ah!” Andre flailed spectacularly as he turned to face the disembodied voice of his friend.

He pointed an accusing finger in the general direction of Danny’s face.

“I will karate chop every inch of space in front of me!” Making a few full-hearted but sloppy chopping motions at the air, he failed to strike anywhere near Danny.

To save his friend from further embarrassment, Danny pressed the button on top of his hand between his thumb and index finger. Andre also had a kill switch for the suit on the tablet and his computer, but he hadn’t thought to use it.