Page 14 of Seductive Architect (Grunts of Vanguard #2)

I choked at the compliment. Thankfully, the server appeared in her black-and-white checkered shirt with a neon green apron.

She set the large pepperoni pizza on the table, and my mouth watered at the abundance of cheese.

The restaurant was only separated from the video games by a half-wall, but it was enough to quiet the shouting kids.

If they didn’t make the best pizza in the city, I’m not sure I could have handled the noise.

“Can I get you two anything else?”

I eyed my soda. “I’m good.”

“It looks delicious,” Hudson said, towering over the pizza.

“Hope you two are having a great date night.” Her eyebrows waggled as she spoke. “Let me know if you need anything.”

We had spent the last two hours playing video games.

Hudson proved to be a good sport, as he lost almost every game.

Driving simulator? He crashed. First-person shooters.

Zombies ate him. Even air hockey. He sent the puck flying two rows over.

Even playing with my hands and not talking to the games, I crushed him over and over again.

Losing that much, I wondered if I had been wrong all along?

Hudson slid a slice of pizza onto his paper plate. “What else do you like to do for fun? Other than destroy me at Dance Dance Revolution.” I did have sick moves on the dance floor.

“You wouldn’t want to hear that. My hobbies are?—”

“Tell me!” He grabbed plastic utensils, and I stared in disbelief as he cut the tip of his pizza before devouring it. “Ohmygodsogood,” he mumbled.

“I cann ot let this happen.” I took a piece from the tray, waving my hand under it as if I were putting on a demonstration.

Folding it in half, I took a giant bite.

He hadn’t been wrong. They had perfected the cheese-to-sauce ratio.

Their pepperoni had been carefully placed, making for the perfect bite. “I think I’m in love.”

“That’s all it takes, huh?”

I hid the burning in my face behind a folded piece of cheesy goodness.

My research mission had turned into a date…

one of the best. If I kept a little black book filled with firsts, this would be the first time I put aside my theories in pursuit of genuine connection.

I could hear Kiki’s voice cheering me forward.

“I like tracking life’s unsolvable mysteries.”

He raised an eyebrow while he chewed. “Like Bigfoot? ”

If he only knew. Bigfoot was nothing more than a Canadian superhero roaming the woods looking for poachers. That had been one of my earliest discoveries. Not quite worthy of the board, but it had opened my eyes to the difference between reality and perception.

“Like…” Deep breath. I needed to rip the Band-Aid off slowly. “The cult of Vanguard’s elite trying to summon literal hell.”

“Lizard people?”

I nodded.

“Illuminati.”

“Don’t get me started.”

“Shapeshifting aliens replacing government officials?”

Wait. What?

“Artificial intelligence curating our personal data?”

Hudson continued eating as if he hadn’t stumbled his way from the shadows into enlightenment. Had he been reading Vanguard’s trash rag? Most considered it sensational news and made-up stories. They weren’t entirely wrong, but each one had a kernel of truth.

“Or about Vanguard’s politicians endorsing a super-soldier program.”

I stared, hoping for a physical response. Not only did he ignore the comment, he devoured pizza as if he had never eaten before. Since we were on the topic, I wanted to dance around the real reason I asked him out… or at least one of the reasons .

“I think Synergy is involved,” I said before finishing my slice.

Hudson grew quiet while he chewed. His eyes were fixed on the remaining pizza as if he were trapped in a memory.

The humming from him was almost inaudible over all the video games in the arcade.

Unlike them, I still couldn’t speak directly with his code.

It could be encrypted, or processed faster than my powers could handle.

I wanted to growl and push my way through.

I could trade jokes with the most sophisticated computers in the world, but Hudson? My abilities didn’t compete.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said.

That caught my attention. He didn’t deflect or sidestep the possibility. “Why do you say that?” If I were him, I’d be throwing out red herrings, hoping to lead me away from the trail.

“They’re working on tons of projects to explain superhero abilities. Not all the scientists working there are… nice people. They’re smart, but not nice. I’m shocked more of them haven’t experimented on themselves.”

“Who wouldn’t want superpowers?” The conversation got dangerously close to home. If Arthur heard, he’d chew his nails in fear of me spilling the beans. “I’m more worried that they’re developing soldiers with powers. Not everybody loves Vanguard’s heroes.”

“Too bad for them. They’re kind of awesome.” Holding the pizza in one hand, his other dipped under the table. When he produced his phone, he clicked open the HeroApp? and scrolled through his hero gallery. “And I think I found a new one.”

He spun the phone around. When I picked it up, I could hear the electronics inside. “I see your texts. You two are adorable.” Great, even his phone had an opinion on our relationship.

I zoomed in on the photo to see a man in armor, not unlike mine.

Clunkier. A bit primitive. But the weapon’s arsenal attached to his back…

I’d have to make some modifications to my suit.

I flipped to the next photo, and the hero wrestled Serpentine in front of an armored truck. With one more flip, I gasped.

“Hudson!” The photo of him in a jockstrap left my jaw agape.

“Oh!” He dropped his pizza before snatching his phone with greasy fingers. Before he could pull it from my hand, I got a good view of his bulge, and damn, did all of that look delicious. “Sorry. I meant to delete that.”

“Before you do, send me a copy.”

With a couple of swipes, my phone dinged. I’d be saving that picture for some alone time tonight. It didn’t stop me from wanting to know about a hero I had yet to see register with the app.

“Who’s the hero?”

His eyes widened. “Oh, that’s the best part! He didn’t have a listing, so I got to name him.” I always dreaded what civilians named heroes. Though it couldn’t be any worse than being known as Failsafe, Vanguard’s failure.

“What did you name him?”

“Machinist!”

Considering the silver armor he wore, it wasn’t the worst name.

Though now I wondered how he developed his suit?

Did he have abilities like mine? Or was our new hero one of the super wealthy people who could buy their way into the world of heroes?

I’m not saying they didn’t do good, but the superhero community didn’t need playboys with deep pockets.

“If you had powers, what would they be?”

Even if I weren’t sitting across from a walking computer, it’d have been a normal question in Vanguard.

The HeroApp? had a questionnaire that would spit out a series of powers based on the user’s personality.

I tried to argue with Arthur, claiming it bloated out the software.

He had the last laugh when it became one of the most-used features.

Hell, even superheroes were using it. Yet another instance where I didn’t understand people.

He yelled at me when I suggested we use it to preemptively discover if people might someday become supervillains.

“Something with my hands,” he said. Having seen him slug Prism’s goons, I could— “Maybe healing? I like helping people. Imagine if I could stitch up cuts or fix broken bones.”

Not at all what I expected. “A superpowered doctor? ”

“What can I say? I like people. What did you expect?”

I went on a fishing expedition. “Super strength? Maybe lightning-fast reflexes?”

He shook his head. “I’d be one of those doctors who goes to the children’s ward and dresses up.” After seeing his victory dance, I could imagine it. “If I could choose my powers, that is.”

The last line hung in the air. I assumed everybody participating had been a volunteer.

Did Ricardo have a roaming band of scientists kidnapping people?

Had they manufactured Hudson as a super soldier and forgotten to ask him if that was what he wanted?

I had stared at the wall for so long, I never thought somebody on the web might be innocent.

“How about you?”

I couldn’t ask without offering to answer. In the power lottery, I had gotten lucky. I loved my powers and what they allowed me to do. If given the chance, I’m not sure there was anything out there I’d trade in its place.

“I can see the gears turning.”

Strength? Nah. Speed? I’d be bored with the rest of the world. Flight? I catalogued the power of every hero and villain in Vanguard. I knew every power and most of their weaknesses. There wasn’t?—

“Empath.”

Hudson leaned back in his chair. His eyes were wide with disbelief. “Not what I expected. ”

After hearing Hudson’s answer, I dropped the guise of research. I complained humans were complicated and didn’t say what they meant. I owed him that. Honesty deserved honesty.

“If you haven’t noticed…” I folded my arms over my chest, growing more uncomfortable by the moment. “I’m not great with people.”

“You’re great with me.”

I avoided saying, “But you’re a machine.” At this point, I didn’t know if Hudson understood his own origins. If he rallied against his creators, it’d explain why they stuck him in the mailroom instead of dedicating an entire lab to studying him.

“As a kid, I loved video games. They had rules. You could do this or not. As I got older, I fell in love with coding.” I neglected to include the late-night conversations and furious debates with our family computer.

“I get machines. They have parameters. People don’t follow rules.

It makes them… difficult to read.” Had I confessed enough?

I glanced over my shoulder, measuring the time it’d take me to bolt for the door.

“So, you’d go the other extreme?”

It sounded like a form of torture. Feelings. This stir of physical reactions based on chemical interactions would drive me insane. And yet, I’d finally be able to understand the most complicated machines on the planet.

“It’d be nice to know what people are feeling. ”

Hudson pulled his chair closer before sliding his hand across the table. When I didn’t respond, his fingers made a grabbing motion. Oh. This would have been one of those moments when being an empath would be helpful.

I laid my hand on his. “Feelings.” He cleared his throat. “I feel like pizza might be the best food on earth.” No lies detected. “I feel like I’m bad at video games.” Yup, still telling the truth. “But I’ll keep playing if it’s with you.”

His middle finger moved between our hands, rubbing a straight line back and forth against my palm.

The metal chair had a dent in the seat, making it uneven.

A video game known for slaughtering its players screamed victory as it decimated a group of teenagers.

I let my mind wander, anywhere but the tightening of the muscles across my chest. If I let my mind focus on the here and now, I might very well tear up.

My phone dinged with a dozen text messages, interrupting the moment.

I fished it out of my pocket, flashing the screen at Hudson.

“It’s a work emergency. I need to run.” I got to my feet.

“We should do this again.” Throwing down enough money, I left enough for a tip three times the bill. “I’m so sorry.”

I bolted toward the door. As soon as I got outside, I ducked into an alley, hyperventilating.

I stared at the empty text messages, thanking my phone for providing an escape.

It earned a thorough cleaning when I got home.

I’d need time to process, to make sense of the overwhelming heaving inside my chest.

I hadn’t felt this since I fell for a man disguised as a dwarf. Something about that terrified me. Not to mention, I could feel myself developing emotions for Hudson—a machine—and my mark.