Page 50 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

Danny felt a dull ache in his stomach as if his food had solidified, a sense of urgency to find Mal now that he’d finished getting ready.

He’d looked for Mal on his way to the bathroom with an armful of clothes from his stash at the morgue, but John said he’d headed off to catch up with Joey and his ‘tour group’.

Now that Danny was clean and refreshed, he wanted to find him.

They deserved some time alone, however brief it might last. Mal was probably upset with him for not listening about staying out of the fight.

Danny would have preferred to keep Mal out of the fight too, but he knew better than to think that would ever happen.

It was hard to get used to the entire morgue and its hallways being painted in matte finishes, the lack of reflective surfaces making Danny self-conscious about how much his hair might be sticking up, even washed with some of his gel combed through it.

Not that he was complaining; mirrors were overrated.

But he still ran his fingers through his hair in a nervous tick.

“Danny!” Michael called from down the hallway.

Looking up with a flush of excitement, Danny expected to see Mal too—only to see just Joey, Stella, Carla holding baby Mai, and Michael barreling toward him.

Danny fought to not let his disappointment show as Michael dove into a hug he had to crouch down to accept, laughing as he held the boy to him. “Wow, that’s quite a welcome. Get a good tour, Michael?”

“Yeah!” he smiled widely as the others caught up to him. “Your brother’s really cool. He knows all about this place. ”

“He does, huh?” Danny raised an eyebrow at Joey, who shrugged.

“Your sister’s cool too, but I already knew her.”

“Wait, what?” Danny blinked before turning his surprised expression to Stella.

As his sister shared a smile with Carla, it dawned on Danny why a social worker might know this family.

“It wasn’t my case,” she said, “but I handled some of the paperwork and met these two several times down at the office. Even saw them at the shelter once in that neighborhood they live in, which I’m guessing is an area you are intimately familiar with these days. ”

Danny had to laugh, but at least the cosmic joke being played on him wasn’t all sinister.

A gentle tug on his shirt drew his attention down again. “Zeus?” Michael said, then frowned. “I can call you Zeus when we’re in your hideout, right?” he dropped his voice to a whisper.

Danny smiled at Carla’s fond eye-roll. “Yeah, buddy, you can. Everyone here knows my secret. You’re part of a very exclusive club now.”

“Slightly less exclusive than it was a few weeks ago,” Joey muttered, just as baby Mai stirred and started to fuss.

“Hey now,” Carla said, hoisting the baby up on her shoulder, “did we dare stop moving, your highness?”

“ Zeus ,” Michael tugged on Danny again. “Mom made me a doll like you. Wanna see?”

“Sure,” Danny said, watching Carla bob her way to an open doorway, and when he peeked in, he saw it had been filled with what he assumed were Carla’s actual possessions, crib and all.

Hermes—Oz—had been busy. Danny didn’t even remember what the room had been before as Michael dashed in past him to retrieve his toy.

“You okay?” Stella rested a hand on his arm with the same gentleness as Michael’s tugs.

Danny flashed her and Joey a smile, then reminded himself they didn’t need to be coddled for his sake. “Better being out of the mirror world. I thought Mal was with you.”

“He was,” Joey said. “For a while. But just to check in. Went down to help with the mirror trap, I think.”

“Down? ”

“Captain Shan closed off more of the basement,” Stella said, “so we could use part of the garage to make the trap.”

“We have tons of space down there,” Joey jumped in. “And actually…I was gonna…” He gestured down the hallway with a hopeful bite of his lip.

“Go,” Carla called, easily overhearing as she rocked Mai. “I got this. Feeding time anyway. Thanks for showing us around, Joey.”

“My pleasure. See you soon, big man!” he called to Michael.

“You’re not going too, are you, Zeus?” Michael pouted as he came forward with his Prometheus doll in one hand and a similar yarn replica of Zeus in the other.

“I can stay,” Danny said, nodding for Joey and Stella to go on without him.

“Michael, I’m sure Danny has places to be,” Carla said, sitting in a cushy chair and positioning Mai to feed her.

“It’s okay. I can play for a few minutes.”

There was something very surreal about playing with a doll of himself while his young companion played with a figure of Danny’s…well, nemesis no longer seemed adequate to sum up what they were to each other. Danny thought of what Lucy had said—maybe boyfriends wouldn’t be so bad.

Danny gave Michael twenty minutes of undivided attention and even got to hold Mai for a bit after she’d been fed and was contentedly sleepy. She didn’t have her brother’s big blue eyes, but green—like Oz. Then Danny said farewell—“Just for now, I promise”—and continued his mission to find Mal.

He found Lynn first.

“Hey!” he called, lightning jumping forward to steady the box she’d been about to drop, far too large to attempt to carry with only one arm. She’d almost made it to the elevator leading to the garage by balancing it on her hip but lost it when she reached for the down button.

“Just trying to be useful,” she said with pursed lips as Danny took the box and set it on the floor. “Something Andre said he needed for what they’re working on downstairs. A broken arm is not enough to take me out of commission, thank you.”

Danny felt suddenly nauseous for how she’d been taking care of him all morning—and last night—but no one was taking care of her .

“I’m fine,” she said softly, coaxing him to look at her instead of the space between them. “Really. Almost went thirty-five years without breaking a bone. I was overdue.”

Danny’s eyes felt hot. Here she was again, the girl who never smiled, offering a smile to him and trying to cheer him up when she was hurting too.

He moved toward Lynn’s body rather than retreat into the dark, lonely places inside of him and gently, careful of her arm in the cast, pulled her against him for a hug.

“I’m sorry he did this to you. And that he did it pretending he was me.

It must have been so scary. He made me watch all of it, and I… I heard you scream …”

“ Danny .” She hugged back as best she could.

“I know it’s hard to think of it this way now, when it’s all still so fresh, but I hope you realize how much this proves you are nothing like him or like Thanatos.

Ludgate tried to personify everything you were afraid of becoming, but you never fell to that yourself.

You were angry. And sad. And you did things you regret.

But you fought to be better because…that’s just the way you are.

Against all odds, you always do everything you can to help others. There aren’t many people like that.”

Squeezing him tighter, she said, “I’m sorry that, for a moment, I believed he was you.

But we never believed you’d become that willingly.

We thought he’d brainwashed you. We knew the real you would never act like that.

And Cho, he…he didn’t doubt you for a moment.

When the details didn’t add up, he knew it wasn’t you. ”

Danny smiled against her shoulder before pulling away. “Wouldn’t be a worthy nemesis if he wasn’t clever,” he said, not trying to hide his sorrows, just striving to push past them.

Lynn gave a light chuckle, but her eyes darted past Danny and she startled. Leaning toward him with her eyes trained over his shoulder, she whispered, “Did you know you have a shadow?”

“Huh?” Danny spun around, assuming it was Michael having followed him, which definitely made it more jarring when he caught the outline of Dominique Drake . Dom ducked out of view at having been spotted, but Danny wasn’t fooled.

“What’s with the tail?” he called.

Grudgingly, Dom stepped into the open and continued toward them. Despite Danny being certain she didn’t mean them any harm, she always projected a sense of menace with her large stature and prominent scowl, which could be even scarier when accompanied by a grin.

“Wait,” Danny turned to stand parallel with Lynn, “were you actually following me? For how long? Why?”

“Don’t get trigger happy, Spark Plug, Doc. No ulterior motives. Mal’s just an idiot,” Dom grumbled. “Wanted space, he said, but didn’t like the idea of leavin’ you alone.”

“He…” He’d asked Dom to follow Danny to make sure he was safe?

Dom didn’t wait for Danny to find his tongue but bent to pick up the neglected box. “Ya goin’ down or what?” she said and pushed the button for the elevator.

“Thank you, Ms. Drake,” Lynn said.

Dom acknowledged her with a grunt.

The elevator pinged as it reached them, and they all stepped in. Danny stood as a buffer between Dom and Lynn, not that he felt one was needed.

“Mal’s lucky to have a friend like you,” he said.

Dom grunted again, and they passed a few seconds in silence before she said, “Not apologizin’ for punchin’ you.”

Danny smirked. “I deserved it.”

“Yep. Not givin’ the paintings back neither.”

“You helped save my family. I think we can agree to forget about that.”

Another brief silence passed, then Dom’s voice came across softer, hesitant. “Sorry I torched your face.”

Danny glanced at her, but her vibrant red eyes remained trained on the elevator door. “Thanks.”

Shifting the box in her arms, Dom side-eyed Danny with an appraising once over. “Good thing you get pretty again real fast. Most of us ain’t so lucky,” she said, which even without gesturing to the side of her face, brought Danny’s eyes to the scars he sometimes forgot about.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Lynn’s voice carried over first.

“Scars aren’t inherently unattractive. They can be…distinguishing.”

Dom tilted her head to look at Lynn, and there was a hint of that grin. “Glad ya think so, Doc. ”