Page 47 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

The others hadn’t retreated, but Mal held out his hand and shook his head when Dom made to move toward him.

It was better if Ludgate focused on him.

Then the bastard was back, still looking like Danny as he materialized out of the window to the med room.

He stared Dom and Lucy down while keeping the amplifier aimed at Mal’s head.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he said. “Try anything and I’ll ice him. Even he’s susceptible to the cold when it’s not under his control. Unless you really think you’re faster.”

Calling for Oz was a gamble even if one of them managed to say his name.

Ludgate could attack from almost any angle before Vaughn’s program was up and running, and he was so strong.

He didn’t need Danny’s powers to be a threat; he could disappear into any reflection and turn invisible on the spot. Mal had to improvise.

“Hermes…” he said quietly while Ludgate’s eyes were on the others.

“Shit, Cho, is it now or never?” Oz asked.

“Center of the room, not the computer. Be ready to jump away again as soon as you see him.”

“The higher settings of an amplifier can be rather lethal, can’t they?” Ludgate said as he increased the output for the ice. “It’ll use the last of the reserves, but well worth it.”

Mal wouldn’t survive a hit like that; he’d be fully covered and dead in seconds. But Oz could avoid getting hit at all.

“Cho?”

“Now!”

Ludgate’s attention whipped to the computer terminal, but Oz appeared as instructed in the center of the room.

As soon as Ludgate turned the amplifier toward him, Oz jumped again, behind Ludgate to the far corner of the room.

While Ludgate followed Oz’s movements, skipping about at an ever-increasing frequency, Mal made his move.

Darting to Vaughn’s computer, he followed the instructions to pull up the Miasma Maker. Fifteen seconds. He just needed fifteen seconds. They had to find Danny, but first they had to make sure Ludgate wasn’t going anywhere.

Mal flicked his eyes up only briefly as Ludgate snarled and readied to blast Oz with either fire or ice, but he was always gone before his location could be zeroed in on. Oz was a good man, a healer more than a criminal, never appearing somewhere that a stray shot might hit one of the others.

Ten seconds. Mal was in the right folder, he just needed to find the program, bring it up, and—

Five—

“I don’t think so,” Danny’s voice spoke beside Mal’s ear, then the tip of a finger pressed to his temple like the barrel of a gun. Ludgate hadn’t been fooled, hadn’t wasted the charges, and Mal had a window at his back. Two more keystrokes and all he needed to do was press ENTER.

He met eyes with Lucy, Dom, and a distressed Oz who poofed into existence in front of him, before Mal took a breath he believed to be his last and resigned himself to finishing those keystrokes anyway .

“Say goodbye, Prometheus.”

Two.

Such a familiar chill…

One .

A shock of lightning made the hair on Mal’s arms stand on end and Ludgate was gone.

Jerking his head to the left, Mal saw Danny in the clothes he’d been wearing yesterday, having bowled Ludgate over onto the floor. He straddled him and glared down at the man wearing his face as he trembled and continued to spark like he could barely keep his powers in check.

When Mal slammed his hand down on the ENTER button, a shockwave rippled over every surface in the morgue as though they had been painted opaque. Danny froze where he sat atop Ludgate, gaping at how the Miasma Maker was affecting their enemy.

Mal was right—Ludgate was wearing the dark Zeus suit—but now it was impossible to see all the tiny mirrors, because Vaughn’s program made the suit transform into a dull, muted grey.

That was how Ludgate had been doing this, projecting a perfect replica of Danny and augmenting his strength because he had a thousand mirrors at his disposal in the shape of a man.

Danny leaned off Ludgate past the belt to the suit, looking dirty and pale and weak, like he’d barely had the strength to reach them.

But as everyone began to cry out and race toward him, he snapped to his senses and lunged forward like he might rip Ludgate’s head from his shoulders. Instead, he tore off the mask.

“It’s not me…” Danny said, more amazed than angry, as if part of him had believed this other Danny was the real him.

Mal’s attention was drawn to Ludgate’s eyes, because they should have been teal, a Light Elemental, they’d been sure of it, but one of them looked…grey.

Ludgate wore a sneer for all of ten seconds before he grinned. He still had the amplifiers!

“Danny!” Mal called, but the other man didn’t fire. He slammed the amplifier across Danny’s face, and because of how weak he was, how sluggish from whatever Ludgate had done to him, Danny toppled with a groan, and Ludgate scrambled to his feet .

“Don’t even think about it!” he yelled, aiming both amplifiers at Danny—who wasn’t wearing a suit to protect him and already looked so beaten. Mal felt the others close at his back, but in that moment, all of them froze.

“You think you’re faster than a blast of ice,” Ludgate looked behind Mal, at Oz, he presumed, “or Helios’s fire?

Go ahead and try it.” Sneering down at Danny, who was still shaking his head from the blow, he addressed him, “Oh, Zeus. You always have to ruin everything, don’t you?

I thought you’d learned your lesson by now, but no, no… you just keep asking to be hurt.

“I owe you. For my powers. My sorrow . It’s your fault he’ll never know what we’ve made of each other.”

What?

“But if you think this was the extent of how much I can make you suffer, just you wait.” He laughed, all the while inching closer around the desk to the computer, keeping his hands aimed at Danny, then at Mal, then Danny again.

“You don’t know suffering,” Mal said, cold and deadly, “but you will. That’s a promise.”

“Careful, Prometheus. You’re giving me chills ,” Ludgate taunted, then jammed down the ENTER button to turn the Miasma Maker off.

“Hermes!” Mal called, and as soon as Ludgate turned to dive into the window’s reflection, Oz was on him.

Oz appeared behind the bastard before Mal had even finished saying his name, grasping after him, but he only managed to snag the amplifiers from his wrists. Ludgate vanished into the glass, and without having to be told, Oz twisted around and struck the ENTER button again to cut off his return.

Mal dropped to his knees without another thought. “ Danny ,” he said, reaching to gather the kid to him from where he’d fallen.

Danny stirred with another groan, allowing Mal to manhandle him into his arms, but only when he looked up and met Mal’s gaze did he cling like his life depended on it.

He still had the greyed out mask clutched knuckle-white in his grip.

Mal reached for it, touching Danny’s hand gently, and tried to coax his fingers open.

It took a moment for Danny to understand, but once he did, he threw the mask away and reached for Mal with renewed fervor, twisting his fingers into his duster and burying himself against his chest.

“ Mal . It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me…”

“Of course not,” Mal said. He felt the others crowd around them like a cocoon of shadows over their huddled forms, but if they spoke, he didn’t hear them. He didn’t look up. He merely held Danny as tightly as he could. “It was never you.”

“The black eyes…”

“It was Ludgate, Sparky. Only Ludgate.”

Danny nodded, and when Mal closed his eyes and hugged him tighter, it was easy to pretend they were alone.

“I’m sorry,” Danny whimpered, his voice tired and small. “I’m so sorry .”

He kept saying it until Mal shushed him.

Mal could feel in the way Danny leaned against him, all his weight sagging, that he couldn’t hold himself up.

Only then did Mal glance at those above them, oozing concern.

He caught the doctor’s stare, and even with her arm in a sling, she grabbed Vaughn to drag him off and begin getting the med room ready.

“He was here because of me,” Danny said, drawing Mal’s attention back to him. “He said and…and did all those awful things…because of me.”

“Danny…”

“I make everything worse for everyone.”

“ No . You don’t believe that anymore. You know better.

You never need to say it or think it again.

Look at me.” Pulling his arms from being wrapped around Danny’s body, Mal took his face in hand instead with all the reverent affection he felt for him.

“You make my life better. Make me better. Even when all you did was give me a worthy challenge.”

Danny sniffled and laughed , such a sweet, wholly unique sound from how Ludgate had imitated it. Despite the weariness creeping into Danny’s bones with the great relief of finally being home, tears filled his eyes and he smiled at Mal so beautifully.

“We can be better, Sparky,” Mal said, brushing away the tears that escaped like he’d done so many times before, too many times, yet he’d do it again, as often as it took. “We will be better. We just need to start over. ”

“No.” Danny shook his head, but his smile didn’t waver. “Not over. Again . We can start again?” The phrase came out a shaky, hopeful question, and Mal knew better than to let it linger unanswered.

“Yes,” he huffed like a relieved laugh. “We can.”

Danny snuggled Mal’s chest, but while he hid his face a moment, he soon looked up again. “Mal, can you, please, just tell me…”

If Danny needed to hear ‘I love you’, as much as the thought made Mal’s insides twist with so many onlookers, he’d comply in a heartbeat. But that wasn’t what Danny asked.

“What color are my eyes?”

Mal ached from the depths of his chest to the base of his spine. “Yellow. They’ve always been yellow.” Ludgate was the one whose eyes didn’t match.

“I’m not like him…” Danny said, eyelids drooping in exhaustion.

“Never.”

“I’m…” then he went limp, all remaining weight falling against Mal.

“Danny? Danny ?” Mal’s voice rang with a note of panic, but helping hands reached down to take Danny from him. Half of him wanted to fight their intrusion, but he saw Rivers and Vaughn and knew Danny needed them to get better.

Ludgate had left Danny starved, dehydrated, and soul-weary.

Danny needed more than Mal, just like Mal needed more than thieving and a place to rest his head, more than a single dear friend, a sister he couldn’t live without, and a handful of others he kept at arm’s length—and it was Danny who’d taught him that.

Stella and her young brother helped Mal stand, while Dom was the one who finally hefted Danny into her arms in a bridal carry and followed Rivers and Vaughn into the med room.

Priestly and Captain Shan asked questions over the comms that Lucy fielded so Mal wouldn’t have to. Stella smiled at Oz and thanked him, which made the tension creeping up Oz’s shoulders ease away despite being in a police station.

Then there was Grant, who moved toward Mal with watery eyes and too much emotion on his face. He gripped Mal’s arm, not to fight, but to offer gratitude Mal wasn’t sure he deserved.

Danny and Oz had saved the day, both far more than he had, yet Grant met Mal’s eyes and said “Thank you” in a way that made Mal feel like maybe their merry band of misfits wasn’t so impossible a team up after all.