Page 41 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

He knew he was being childish, foolish. He knew catching one criminal after failing with Ludgate wouldn’t fix anything, couldn’t fix that he was broken even when he had a few good days under his belt.

On a dime, the pain and anger and emptiness reared its head and reminded him that he failed more than he won, and was it really worth it? Was any of it worth it?

Answers that should have come easily to Danny eluded him.

If he couldn’t escape the pain, then he wanted to inflict it on someone else.

That’s what Cho was for, he told himself; that was the whole point of leading Cho on.

But right now he wanted to deliver pain with his fists and not care about the consequences, and for that he needed a face he didn’t know.

“Danny, I think you should come back to the precinct,” Lynn said, calm and deliberate. Andre remained quiet.

“I’m at 7 th ,” Danny ignored her. “Which building?”

Lynn sighed.

Eventually, Andre responded, “302. The smoke shop.”

Danny spotted it, and not seeing any activity in the front, he dashed around to the back.

There hadn’t been many people on the street, and the alley behind the smoke shop was utterly dead—save the man trying to get the deadbolt off the door that he’d already picked open and had propped.

He had his hand shoved up inside the opening, fiddling with a screwdriver as he tried to take the deadbolt off completely.

He didn’t see Danny.

The usual banter Danny would have used to startle the man stayed still on his tongue.

He rushed him, hauling him up by the shoulders and spinning him around to press him into the wall beside the door.

The screwdriver clattered to the ground, the man’s eyes wide in surprise.

His hair was chin length and greasy, face unshaven, eyes clouded probably from drugs. Danny instantly loathed him—perfect.

“Hey, man, uhh…it’s not what it looks like!”

“Danny, there’s a cruiser only a block down,” Lynn said. “They’re headed your way. Just—”

“Ah!” the thief cried out, grimacing as he looked at each of his forearms that Danny had pinned to the wall with his superior strength.

Danny knew he was strong even without using his lightning. His constantly regenerating cells made it easier to push his body beyond normal human limits. He wondered how easy it would be to break the man’s arms when he could feel the delicateness of the bones beneath his fingers…

“Zeus, man, come on,” the thief said, head lolling back against the wall as he continued to grit his teeth in pain. “It hurts, man. I’m just jonesing for a smoke, ya know. Don’t mean anybody no harm.”

Danny tightened his grip.

“Shit, shit, stop !” the man cried louder. “I’m sorry, okay, I’m sorry! Gimme to the cops already!”

“Danny, what are you doing?” Lynn demanded. “The police are almost there.”

It was like a warning, like a threat— you better stop or the police will catch you .

Catch you doing something bad, something wrong.

Danny was the good guy. Danny was the hero.

Danny was the one who always had to be on the right side of the law, be as near perfect as possible, or people ended up dead.

He just wanted the opposite to be true for once .

He didn’t want to kill the man in front of him, but would it really be so wrong to hurt him enough to make sure he never hurt anybody else? When did breaking and entering escalate? What would this man have done if someone else had caught him tonight instead of Zeus?

Squeezing the man’s arms tighter, Danny felt the bones beneath his grasp begin to creak.

The man screamed and it should have made Danny want to stop, but as his anger waned, the awful numbness that was so much worse replaced it. Where had all those happy feelings gone in so short a time? And all because Ludgate got away when Danny had told himself, convinced himself it didn’t matter.

But it did matter. It always mattered. He always had to be better .

“Danny!” Andre shouted so loudly over the comms that Danny flinched. “ Stop .”

All at once, Danny released the man’s wrists, who immediately whimpered and clutched at his arms, bowled over with tears in his eyes.

“What is wrong with you, man?! You’re fucking crazy! Crazy! It’s just a damn smoke shop, man! I didn’t hurt nobody!”

But Danny had. Danny had almost…

He felt sick, like he might throw up. I’m not like him, I’m not like him, I’m not like—

“Who, Danny?” Andre finished, startling Danny that he’d muttered that out loud.

He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t think it.

“Danny, please, answer us,” Lynn begged.

“I just thought that if you let out some steam,” Andre said, “you’d feel better, but you can’t—”

“I’m fine,” Danny said on reflex, even though he knew it wasn’t what they wanted to hear, and it definitely wasn’t the truth. “I stopped. I’m…I’m getting out of here.”

Danny grabbed the man and jumped with him around to the front of the building where the police had just pulled up. Leaving the thief on the sidewalk, he jumped again, not knowing where he wanted to go but feeling the fatigue of overusing his powers creep up on him like cloying shadows.

Shadows …

“Danny, please come back to the precinct,” Lynn said.

Sparking out of his lightning somewhere unfamiliar, Danny leaned against a building to catch his breath.

He was getting disoriented, jumping randomly as his powers drained.

“I can’t. I need to call it a night. I need to go…

” Home , he thought, but that wasn’t where he wanted to go either. “I just need to go.”

He should have taken the pills. Why hadn’t he taken the pills ? He wished he had them with him now.

“Danny,” Andre tried, “we’ve been over this. We’re here for you. You don’t have to deal with this alone.”

“I know,” Danny said, and in that moment he knew there was only one place he wanted to be. “I won’t.”

Reaching up to shut off his comms, he risked jumping one last time—to Cho’s apartment.

?

Hades had been so very upset when he first saw Zeus stick his head into the alley he’d been walking down, certain for a moment that his true power had been uncovered. But no…no. Zeus didn’t know nearly as much as he thought he did.

Detective work, he’d said. Hades knew Zeus’s day job well now thanks to Prometheus, but keeping tabs on Danny Grant was difficult. He used his powers all the time, jumping across the city in seconds, making it impossible to know where he hung his hat or where he had his headquarters as Zeus.

Hades would find out soon enough, but while he’d been distracted tailing Prometheus, he wouldn’t allow Zeus to get the jump on him again.

One day Zeus would know what Hades was really capable of; how he moved, how he worked, and how, with his powers, he was the only person alive who could do what he did and survive.

Finally, he was a villain worthy of Thanatos’s legacy.

Soon, Zeus , he thought. Especially with Prometheus’s heist on the horizon. Claiming the Winterheart Diamond first was going to be ever so much fun.

?

Before digging for his keys to head into his apartment, Mal rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

It was late. Later than he liked. Staying up after midnight was always a pain leading up to a heist, but if he didn’t work a few late nights, even adrenaline wouldn’t be enough to keep him alert come the real thing.

Most heists didn’t happen in the middle of the day; this one was going to be well after closing.

He’d been at the safe house ever since leaving Priestly at the shop. Right now, Mal just wanted to sleep.

Pushing inside, despite how exhausted he was, he instantly knew he wasn’t alone. Someone was in his apartment.

Right arm shooting out in front of him, Mal iced over in defense as he aimed outward from the dark entryway. The door clicked softly shut behind him. Nothing stirred, but within the otherwise quiet, there was the faint sound of even breathing.

Dropping his hand, Mal let the ice recede as he took further stock of the room. In front of the coat closet door was a pair of very recognizable gold boots.

He relaxed, locked the door behind him, and reached for the light switch.

Then he stopped. Even breathing. Lights still off.

He considered calling out but thought better of that too.

Slowly, after toeing off his shoes, he stepped into the living room, moving toward the sound of those indistinct breaths.

Even in the dark, Mal could make out the figure on his sofa. Sprawled out, cowl drawn back to reveal a mess of ginger hair, suit unzipped, Danny laid there fast asleep.

Mal should have been annoyed to find his hero having once again broken into his home, in full Zeus costume, no less, but he couldn’t stop the smile from tugging at his lips as he watched the slow rise and fall of Danny’s chest. The tousle of his hair.

The subtle part to his lips as he slept.

Damn if Mal wasn’t smitten, seeing the kid so undone.

For now he’d let him sleep. Any fallout could wait until tomorrow.