Lovesick Titans Read online

  Lovesick Titans

  Lovesick Series - Part 2

  Copyright © 2018 - Amanda Meuwissen

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Editor - Kaila Corrington

  Cover design - Veronika Dolnikova

  Book layout - Mario Hernandez

  Author Photo - Kyle Olson

  ISBN-13: 978-1-943619-37-5

  ISBN-10: 1-943619-37-9

  First U. S. Edition: May 2018

  Printed in the United States of America

  To my family of ice and lightning.

  Without you, none of this would be possible.

  Lovesick

  TITANS

  by

  Amanda

  Meuwissen

  Chapter 1

  Danny stared at a bag of evidence with a tiny fiber inside of it. Work was work and had a sort of comforting monotony that made it hard to believe everything with Cassidy Ludgate—with Hades—had happened only last night.

  One of the drawbacks to being a detective by day and the superhero Zeus after sundown was that he already had a pile of evidence on his desk to go through from the museum heist—the heist he’d been present for. He’d initially worried that the fiber snagged from inside the Winterheart Diamond’s case would be from Malcolm Cho, his nemesis Prometheus and more recently his lover, but at a glance, the fiber appeared to be silver, from Ludgate’s suit instead.

  Good. That was who needed to go down for the theft, even if Cho had originally been there to steal the diamond himself. Playing nice with Cho’s thieving ways to keep their affair going had been one thing, but now there was a bigger threat to focus on—Ludgate, like Thanatos all over again, a nightmare to terrorize the city and Danny.

  The thought of being pushed to the brink again, of becoming something he never wanted to be—a killer, a monster—made him tremble imagining the next time Ludgate might show his face.

  R

  After leaving Cho’s apartment, Danny had gone straight home. He’d plastered on a wary smile, prepared for the third degree from his father, only to find John nonchalantly pleased to see him.

  “Hey, kiddo,” John said, rising from the breakfast table where Joey sat eating cereal in prep for school that day. “Sorry this whole Ludgate mess had to escalate with the death of that guard, but I’m glad you’re okay. Didn’t get much out of Andre other than you crashing at his place afterward.”

  Andre was a good friend. The best friend. He’d covered for Danny, only telling John that Ludgate was at fault and explaining Danny’s absence, but not giving the specifics that he’d spent the night with a supervillain.

  Even though Danny’s accelerated healing meant he hardly had any bruises or cuts left from Ludgate’s beating in the mirror world, he felt the aches deep in his bones and moved slowly into the dining room. “Yeah, I’ll have to work double-time to pin it all on Ludgate the legal way, but we’ll get him. The last thing this city needs is another dangerous Elemental on the loose.”

  Like him, though he didn’t want to say that, he just thought it, felt it, especially as his eyes landed on Joey. He hadn’t really talked to him since his outburst the other night, revealing to the young boy that he was Zeus when he lightning jumped away in his anger over not being in the loop about his father adopting the young teen. Even though the initial apology was out of the way, work, late nights, and staying over with Cho had made it easy to avoid talking in depth. Seeing Joey and his hero-worshiping stare now was a splash of ice water down Danny’s back.

  “Keep me in the loop, okay?” John said. “It’s my case too.”

  “I will, Dad. I just need to take a shower before work. I’ll meet you there. Joey…” he knew he couldn’t ignore the boy, he just didn’t know what to say when he was hardly an inspiring role model right now, no matter what Joey might think, “…have a good day at school.”

  Joey lit up at being addressed directly, like Danny was something worthy of amazement rather than the fear or discomfort he’d shown before now, all because Danny was supposed to be a hero, but lately, that was the last thing he felt like.

  R

  Shaking his head to clear away the recent memory, Danny tried to focus on the evidence. He couldn’t rely on his Elemental powers to catch Ludgate; being a detective had its place too, but his insides felt like a cavernous pit, causing him to glance down at his messenger bag by his feet where the pills Lynn had given him to help with his mood swings were pushed to the very bottom as if to hide them.

  It all used to be so much easier when all that mattered was catching bad guys. When it was just Danny and Rick, two normal Lightning leaning cops. Even after Thanatos killed Rick, and Danny Awakened, it had been easier, because he had a goal, a routine of catching lesser criminals and hoping to one day end Thanatos’s reign for good. He never imagined back then that putting a stop to Thanatos would be its own nightmare and, in some ways, he’d ended up worse off.

  Now, he still had to catch the bad guys and there was a new terror in town, but he felt like he had a handicap he couldn’t control wrapped up in those pills and his need of them, and he was dragging everyone down with him.

  Even Cho.

  Seeing Cho again would be difficult, though maybe not as difficult as facing Andre and Lynn had been.

  R

  The first words out of Danny’s mouth when he caught up with his team in the precinct’s old morgue had been an apology for disappearing after the heist and making them worry. He was fine. He was safe. Cho had taken care of him. Which of course led to Lynn frowning and furrowing her brow. Andre hadn’t told her anything, but now Danny had to.

  “It was a dumb idea. I know that. I ran into Cho at Pronto a few weeks ago and overheard him and his sister talking about his crush on Zeus. Taking advantage of that to lose myself in something sounded better than staying miserable.” He left out that it had all been a lie for his own twisted pleasure to win Cho’s love only to crush him, but he still felt nauseous. The last thing he wanted was to see that disgust echoed in his friends. “After everything I’ve done, the things I’ve said, how I’ve acted, it’s no wonder I saw Thanatos’s eyes in Ludgate’s mirrors.”

  “Dude, you are not like Thanatos just because you’ve been a little off lately,” Andre said. “You’re depressed, not psychotic.”

  “Andre,” Lynn snapped, but Danny gave a broken laugh because he didn’t want to correct them and admit that sometimes he felt like he was both.

  Holding up his hands to appease Lynn, Andre switched gears and confessed he’d known Danny was safe with Cho because he called the thief during the night. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “I didn’t give him the chance to,” Danny said. “I can’t believe you talked to him. He wasn’t upset you got his number from Lucy?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Andre cringed, “but he didn’t swear vengeance on all my friends and family. He’s not Thanatos either.”

  Bile polluted the taste in Danny’s mouth. How had he ever believed Cho could be like Thanatos?

  “Danny…” Lynn said, ready with a lecture about sleeping with the enemy, no doubt, which was part of why Danny had hoped she’d never find out.

  “I know, okay? I get it. It was reckless and stupid and a bad idea all around. That’s why I’m going to end it. You guys don’t have to worry anymore. I thought he was making things easier, but he’s just been a crutch. That isn’t fair to him. Or me. Or anyone. I’ll end it. It’s better for everyone, especially with Ludgate involved.”

  Nodding in sympathy, Lynn didn’t judge him for what he’d been doing with Cho, though she still said, “You’re probably right, Danny. It’s for the best.”

  After she checked Danny over for any lasting injuries, Andre pulled him aside with a disapproving frown.

  “Are you sure about this? About Prometheus? Last night…man, I hate to say it, but he may be less of a douchebag than I thought. Is ending things really what you want? I mean, besides him being a notorious criminal and all, what am I missing? Coz it seems like he really cares about you.”

  That should have been sweet to hear, but it churned Danny’s stomach all the more. “It’s too complicated, Andre. Too hard. A bad idea, like I said. For me. But don’t take my example. I think Gaia could be worth the gamble.” Danny tried to smile again, tried to be supportive of Andre’s newfound connection with Cho’s sister as he gripped his friend’s arm and squeezed, but it was getting harder and harder to fake being okay. He wanted to finally be okay, to be back to a place in his life where he could be open with everyone instead of wearing so many masks.

  Andre’s frown deepened. “Just be sure you’re right about Cho before you do something you’ll regret.”

  Danny regretted everything, but he knew he was making the right call this time.

  Andre told him about The Invisible Man suit, that it had been gone when he and Lynn reached the alley last night. Danny didn’t want to think about what the suit’s disappearance might mean, especially considering the way Ludgate had been able to manipulate the tiny mirror
s across its surface. Even just on its own, the suit was a powerful weapon since it could render someone completely invisible.

  When Andre mentioned that they had, however, retrieved Prometheus’s goggles, Danny told him to hang onto them. Next time he saw Cho, he’d give them back.

  “It’s creepy though, that Hades could be eavesdropping or watching us from reflective surfaces at any time.” Andre said. “We’ll think up some precautions, maybe something to project onto reflections to keep him out. I’ll work on it… In the meantime, try not to talk shop too vocally next to any mirrors,” he grinned and gave Danny’s back a firm pat.

  Danny knew Andre wasn’t trying to underplay the danger, just hoping to make him smile and feel a little better about an impossible situation. No one could escape their reflection.

  While leaving the morgue, Danny had come upon his bottle of pills and stared at it with a thin film of numbness coating the anxiety he had over everything.

  Facing Cho to break things off and finally confess the truth. Facing Ludgate again when he had no idea how to defeat him. Facing his own image in the mirror the next time he passed one, wondering if and when his eyes would change black like Thanatos. Facing the photographs and evidence of the dead guard, mutilated because Danny hadn’t been able to stop Ludgate sooner.

  Before the safety of that numb feeling tore open and spilled forth everything else, Danny had taken two pills straight away. Never more than two a day, Lynn had said, but she hadn’t said he couldn’t take two at once.

  That taste of bile didn’t leave him when he reached his office upstairs and remembered that Ludgate could very well have sent footage of Prometheus and Zeus making out in the museum to the authorities or the papers, maybe even footage of Cho and Danny or proof that Danny was Zeus—who knew what evidence the madman had—but nothing surfaced. Danny went through his morning, his afternoon, his day, without any sign that Ludgate planned to out his secrets. Not yet anyway.

  R

  His phone buzzing beside him pulled Danny back to the present and the evidence on his desk. The fiber was indeed silver, but he wouldn’t know more until he sent it to Andre and got some results back.

  Checking his new text message, he saw that it was another from Cho. He’d texted Danny earlier, right after he left the man’s apartment.

  It’s Mal, Sparky. Not Cho. Don’t forget it.

  Danny always made that mistake, and he’d done it when he left too—“I’ll see ya around, Cho.”

  This time the message said: Gonna have to help me celebrate when this lip heals.

  Danny smiled; Cho had also gotten pretty beat up last night. But no. He couldn’t. He couldn’t. He had to end this.

  Cho didn’t even know the truth, that Danny had been lying to him, using him. He’d confessed that he killed Thanatos but not the real reason why, that after killing Danny’s partner and friend, Thanatos had targeted and killed Danny’s mother the night of the power station explosion. Cho had no idea that Danny once blamed him for all of it because he hadn’t been there to help. The last thing Danny wanted now was to hurt Mal by telling him those terrible truths, even though, in the beginning, hurting him was what he’d wanted.

  All he could think to text back was: Sorry. Stay safe.

  Be easier to do that if we had a plan.

  I know. Just give me some time to think.

  Don’t keep me waiting too long.

  “Another piece of evidence from the museum heist last night, Detective Grant,” a uniformed officer said as he entered Danny’s office.

  “Hey, Boyd.” Danny set his phone aside. “Thanks. Just set it in the inbox. I should be able to get to it right away and pass everything to CSI.”

  “Anything to please the captain, right?” Boyd said with a friendly smile, which fell when his eyes darted to the dusty remains of Rick’s desk. He made scarce after that to escape The Tomb. Danny couldn’t blame him. His deceased partner’s old desk might as well have been a headstone and Danny was the crypt keeper.

  It was afternoon now, and while the pills had helped him get through the morning and the initial files and evidence he had, reaching a stalemate with the fiber, reading Cho’s texts, feeling like every turn led him down another dead end with every corner of his life closing in around him like his prison of an office and Rick’s empty desk across from him, had Danny wishing he could take one more. He knew he shouldn’t depend on the pills just because his mood took another dive, but would one really make that much of a difference?

  When he set the fiber aside and reached for the new bag of evidence, he nearly dropped it as it caught in the light. It was Cho’s earpiece. The comms Danny had ripped from his ear when he attacked him, thinking he was working with Ludgate.

  Danny didn’t know where the comms had come from originally, but he’d never seen anything like them. They had to be custom made. Cho probably had a tech guy somewhere with access to good quality equipment. Or Hephaestus, one of Cho’s faithful Titans. Some parts might be untraceable, but Andre was very good at his job as a CSI. He’d likely be able to connect some of the components to the manufacturer and figure out what businesses in Olympus City sold them, which would lead the police right to Cho’s neighborhood.

  This was exactly the type of thing Danny hoped for from a case. But not today. Not when the evidence was Cho’s, and Danny doing his job could put the thief in the line of fire. He was already wanted by the police after breaking out of jail. Things could only get worse if the OCPD started lurking around his neighborhood and found out where he lived.

  Danny fought the urge to throw the earpiece in the trash. Which of course he couldn’t actually do.

  Could he?

  Evidence went missing all the time. Or got misplaced. Mislabeled. Maybe it was for a different case and Boyd had been wrong when he brought it to Danny. Maybe it got stolen. There could be so many reasons for it to disappear…

  And catch the attention of Lieutenant Liu from Internal Affairs.

  No. Danny couldn’t. Cho hadn’t asked him to do anything. This was just him doing his job, running the earpiece through the usual scrutiny and tests.

  But as he held the item in his hand, only separated from his skin by the thick plastic bag it had been catalogued in, Danny couldn’t help thinking that he owed Cho. After all, Cho wasn’t really the culprit this time. Ludgate had the diamond. He was the one who’d killed the guard. Going after Cho would just lead the police in the wrong direction. As long as Danny got the fiber to point at Ludgate or figured out some way as Zeus to prove Ludgate was behind this heist like the others and catch him, it wouldn’t matter if one tiny earpiece went missing.

  Before Danny could lose his nerve, he shoved the bag into his bottom desk drawer and pulled out his pills to take one more. He’d dispose of the comms later.

  R

  Mal frowned again at the slew of stilted text messages from Danny. The younger man wasn’t giving him even an inch. Ludgate had gotten too deep inside his head, driven a wedge between them that treating each other’s wounds and snuggling on the sofa exchanging words filled with raw emotion hadn’t been able to remedy.

  Frowning harder, Mal glanced around his apartment. He’d tried to rest after Danny dashed off. Tried to busy himself with cleaning up his place when he got antsy from sitting around doing nothing. Took more painkillers when his head started to ache. Iced his lip and eye with the touch of his own frosted fingers. Considered one too many times whether or not to just tear away all the coverings Danny had placed over his reflective surfaces.

  Did it even matter? There had to be something Mal was forgetting, something small enough for Ludgate to eavesdrop through, even if he couldn’t physically get to him using a reflection that size. Not that Mal wanted to look in the mirror any time soon anyway. Probably looked like shit.

  Sitting on the armrest of the couch, he started and deleted a dozen more messages to Danny. His nemesis would come around. He would. Mal just had to be patient.

  The sound of a key turning in his locked door lasted for far too long before Mal reacted. He blamed his concussion from the fight with Ludgate as he rushed the door, fists ready just as it started to open.