“So I’m a killer now and Cho’s worth saving?”
“I didn’t call you a killer.”
“But that’s what you think. I’m just trying to survive when none of the rules make sense anymore. Cho, if given the chance, would hurt me and use me and kill me just like any of the others. Unless I hurt him first.”
“Wait, what—”
“People don’t change, Andre.” Danny took a deliberate step toward his friend and, unlike the other night, this time Andre flinched as a fizzle of electricity traveled up Danny’s arm. “They just reveal who they always were.”
As Andre stared back at him with palpable disappointment and…fear, Danny didn’t know if he meant Cho, Thanatos, or himself.
He started to back away.
“Danny,” Andre stood up after him, knowing too well the telltale signs of when Danny was about to use his powers, but he wasn’t fast enough to change Danny’s mind.
Danny lightning jumped out of the morgue and stood in the alley outside the precinct to gather his thoughts. Pulling out his phone, which he’d thankfully kept in his pocket, he hit ignore when Andre tried to call him and pulled up Cho’s number instead.
He did hate Cho. Andre didn’t know what he was talking about. Dannyhatedhim. And he was going to prove it.
You home?
At the moment.
Stay there.
Oh? And why should I?
I’ll be there in two minutes. I’m going to take you apart, Ice Man. Slowly.
Chapter8
Mal blinked at the most recent message on his phone. Standing by the door dressed to leave, he’d been intent on going to the safe house to work on the schematics he neglected last night. This turn of events had him quickly reconsidering.
Promptly removing his jacket, he replaced it in the closet. Pushing up his plans with Danny a night early sounded like a marvelous idea, especially with a promise likethat.
I’m going to take you apart, Ice Man. Slowly.
Looking forward to it,Mal texted back.
Unexpected nerves fluttered through his stomach. Damn Dom for making him second guess this. Mal could worry about the heist later. He could worry about everything elselater.
Knock. Knock.Two minutes indeed. Danny must have lightning jumped to reach him.
Mal opened the door with a smug grin. “Impatient as always I s—”
A flicker of lightning was his only warning as Danny rushed him, and Mal had barely enough time to note that the younger man had on a T-shirt and no jacket before the door slammed shut. His mind went blank at the sudden presence of Danny’s intruding tongue, hands around his back, one already up the back of his sweater.
Mal’s breath caught, swallowing down his heightened sense of fight or flight and shaking off the urge to summon ice over his skin like a shield. Sudden touch, harsh, demanding like this,being held in place—it always had him on alert for somethingelse.
But no violence followed. No pain. Danny kissed him and kneaded the small of his back with long, powerful fingers. He would never hurt Mal outside a fight between hero and villain. He was just starved for touch, and Mal could accommodate.
“Where’s the bedroom?” Danny spoke against his lips, still pulling at them with sharp nips.
Mal got over his shock and reached for Danny, squeezing the other man’s hips possessively. “Upstairs.”
Vertigo seized Mal, as well as the sensation of freefalling, of his stomach plummeting. Then his back hit his comforter, the view of Olympus City out his window glittering down at him. Danny had lightning jumpedagain. Mal knew firsthand that he couldn’t keep that up for long. Hovering over Mal as he straddled him, he looked wild and windblown andhungry.
He kissed Mal, the dull edge of fingernails scraping along Mal’s stomach, pushing his sweater up,up, where it was easier to see his scars.
