by Sarah Biglow
“I guess I was hoping you were less annoying when you weren’t trying to get my attention all the time,” I said with a half-smile.
“Oh, I’m still annoying. But in a more endearing way,” he answered.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I said as our waiter returned with food.
The ambient noise of the restaurant took over as we ate. I caught him watching me a few times, but he looked away before saying anything. Even I could tell there was something he wanted to say to me.
“Whatever you want to say, you should just say it,” I finally said, setting my fork and knife down on my now-empty plate.
“It’s nothing,” he said.
“That’s a lie. I can make you tell me,” I said, flexing my right arm for emphasis.
“It’s work-related and I promised myself I’d leave that stuff outside.”
“Well, it is something we have in common,” I pointed out.
“I just wonder if you think we’re actually making a difference,” he answered with a drawn-out sigh.
I considered his statement for a minute. Making a difference and helping people had been the goal when Tina, Spencer and I had started out years ago. I liked to think we’d done our share to keep our town safe. Sure, things had gotten more dangerous in the last few months, but we couldn’t expect to just deal with muggers and half-assed kidnappers who barely put up a fight. “I think we are. I mean, we saved all those people a couple days ago and that bank didn’t lose a dime.”
“At a price,” he reminded me.
“Going out and choosing to protect people always comes with risk. If you think about it, we’re not that different from the cops. We’ve just got added firepower they don’t,” I answered.
“When the internship ends, what are you going to do?”
I hadn’t thought about it. To be honest, I hadn’t paid much attention to when this supposed internship ended. “You don’t have to keep calling it that.”
“Well it has a more pleasant sound to it than contractual requirement of an agreement our parents entered into on our behalf before we were born.”
I laughed. “When you put it like that, I guess it does sound better. And, I don’t know what I’ll do after. I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”
“These powers aren’t all we are. Don’t forget that.” He downed the rest of the water in his glass. I half-expected our waiter to materialize and refill it, but he was nowhere to be seen. “Before all the powers, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
“I don’t remember. I was a little kid. It probably changed every week.”
“I bet no matter what it was, it was always going to be to help people. You chose to do that with your powers. It didn’t just spontaneously pop into your head. That notion to do good was there before.”
“Okay, Mr. Philosopher, what did you want to be when you were a kid?”
“A doctor.”
“For real?”
“I had a cousin who had a heart condition. For a while I wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon so I could fix people’s broken hearts.” Again, he looked like he wanted to say more, but stayed quiet.
“God, you were sappy even as a little kid,” I snorted.
“Some things never change.” The waiter chose that moment to reappear and hand Henry the bill. He slid a credit card into the slot and passed it back.
“Damn, look at you. Credit card and everything,” I teased.
“Don’t get too excited. I share it with my parents so they see all my charges. Really puts a dent in all that porn watching.” That easy, flirty smile was back and he seemed more at ease.
“Too much information,” I said.
Within ten minutes we were sitting back in Henry’s truck in the parking lot. It was still early and I wasn’t ready to go home. “Can I show you something?” I finally broke the silence.
“Sure.”
“Head back to town, I’ll tell you where to go.”
The clearing was a pretty well-hidden place. I only knew one other person who came here regularly and we’d reached a mutual agreement long ago to share it. Besides, it wouldn’t be as comfortable as it was without my help.
“This is nice. How’d you find it?” Henry asked and sat on the single bench overlooking the end of the clearing and the ravine below.
“Believe it or not, Spencer found it. Helped him cart that bench here to make it more comfortable. I guess it’s far enough away from people it keeps his head quiet.”
“Does he know you come here, too?”
“We’ve got an arrangement. One we don’t really talk about but yeah, he knows.” I hesitated before sitting beside him.
“I think his friendship means more to you than you want to admit.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
We sat there in the quiet stillness of the clearing and I let it calm me. I had survived dinner and it was even sort of fun. But here, in this secluded place, I worried Henry would expect certain things to happen. I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
“Something serious is going on inside that head of yours. Care to share?” he commented.
“I just …. I don’t want you to think because I brought you here that it means stuff’s gonna happen.”
He leaned back and held his hands up. “Whoah. I don’t know what you do with your dates after a first date but I’m not about hooking up.” His tone carried a joking quality.
Relief washed over me and I sunk back against the bench, tension melting out of my shoulders. “Good.”
“I mean, I’m not above a little making out but yeah, all the way just cheapens things too much.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for that either,” I mumbled.
He reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’m down for whatever.”
A part of me wanted to pull out of his grasp. But that was the same part that wanted to shove me back into the closet. Or wherever it was I’d been hiding. If this was who I was, I needed to embrace it. So, I let him sit there with his hand wrapped around mine as the edges of the sky finally shifted from deep purple to blue.
“I hate to ruin the moment, but I actually need to get home,” Henry said abruptly.
“You have a curfew?” I snickered.
“Nothing like that. I am a happily self-sufficient twenty-one-year-old thank you. Just remembered I have some things I need to do and they have to be done tonight.” That odd look came over his face again, but I didn’t have time to question it— it was gone in an instant.
“Oh, yeah. Okay.”
“I’ll drop you at the other end of the street,” he offered as we started back to the truck.
Before he could round the hood to the driver side, I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to me. Our lips met and I swear there were actual sparks. It could have been my imagination or Henry’s powers, but I chose to believe they were a reaction to finally giving in to feeling something for him. I could feel the barest bit of stubble on his chin rubbing against my lip as he slowly pulled away. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
“And here I thought you weren’t into making out on first dates,” he said.
“It was a goodnight kiss,” I corrected him. “Besides, I had to get it in before we got back to civilization.”
He grinned back at me. “Okay. I get you. Come on, let’s get you home before you turn into a pumpkin.”
“You’re the one with some weird ass non-curfew,” I quipped as we climbed into the vehicle.
We pulled up to the end of my street and Henry put the truck in park. I slid the seatbelt off and reached for the door when he leaned over and kissed me. That spark was still there, all but confirming I was definitely attracted to him. “Now you have something to remember me by,” he whispered with a wink.
“See you around, Pyro,” I said and left him sitting there with a dopey grin on his face.
Chapter Six
Henry
The night had gone far better than I’d expected, at least on the
romance front. I’d expected Declan to put up walls, but he’d started to lower them, even if it was just a little. But, the rate at which he was healing worried me. Not that I didn’t want him mended sooner rather than later, but because of what it meant about his powers. It appeared, in addition to increased strength and hands of steel, his body could recover from injury faster than most people. A fact Lena would be eager to learn and one I wasn’t keen to tell her about just yet.
I was halfway up the back steps to my apartment—I was lucky to make enough from working with Lena to pay for a small studio apartment—when an icy chill danced up and down my spine. I closed my eyes before the image of my parents burning alive could materialize.
“Want to tone it down, Felipe?” I called out, still refusing to open my eyes.
A lithe tan-skinned guy my height materialized from the shadows and gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry. I didn’t know if you were alone.” On the power spectrum, Felipe fell on the creepy end. He could show a person their worst fear, like he’d done to Marisol a few months ago.
“Right, because I was going to bring my date home tonight,” I muttered and unlocked the door to my apartment. He followed me inside.
“How’d it go?” he probed.
“Better than I thought it would. Even got a goodnight kiss,” I answered and flipped on the light in the room that doubled as my bedroom and living room.
“Love is in the air,” he said with an over the top eyelash flutter.
“Fuck off.” I settled on the futon, leaving Felipe to grab one of the two chairs around my small kitchen table or take up residence on the floor. “I thought I was supposed to be checking in with our mutual friend by email today,” I added when he finally decided on a chair.
“Oh, this is a social call. Checking up on my friend. I really was worried about how your date went,” he said, tipping the chair onto the back two legs.
“And I told you it went well. Nothing more to share.” He didn’t need to know the intimate details. Besides, I didn’t want to jinx things. My dating history wasn’t exactly spotless. Fire couldn’t hurt me, but I’d burned more than a few exes—quite literally. I wouldn’t admit it to Declan, but part of why I’d been shamelessly flirting from a distance had everything to do with the fear I’d hurt him if we got too close.
“You sure you didn’t get a little handsy?” he teased.
“You are such a pervert,” I said and threw a pillow at his head.
He batted it away with a laugh. “Seriously, dude. I hope you know what you’re doing, Henry. This comes from a place of wanting you to be happy, but you know, mixing work and pleasure usually ends badly.”
“I’m well aware. But I’ve got things under control. Now, if you don’t mind, I do have some work to take care of. Alone.”
“Right. ‘Work’,” he said with air quotes for emphasis.
I flipped him off as he righted the chair and left me alone. I appreciated his support, but a part of me didn’t believe this had been just two friends catching up. He’d been fishing for information that I needed to provide straight to the source, to our mutual friend. I took several breaths to regain my resolve before retrieving my laptop and logging into my email. I opened a new message and composed a short note with the subject, ‘New Development’.
Henry St. Pierre: There’s been a new development. Super strength comes with rapid healing. Not sure to what extent the body can bounce back or if there is a point at which there is too much damage to rebound.
My hand shook as I hovered the mouse over the ‘Send’ button. Once this information went out onto the net, there was no taking it back. I had a job to do, no matter what I felt for Declan. I’d let him in and give him someone he could confide in. I just had to hope he’d understand if he found out his secrets weren’t entirely safe with me.
Like many nights lately, I barely slept. I tossed and turned, waking up covered in sticky sweat and slightly singed sheets. I kicked the blankets off and staggered to the shower, letting the water wash away the anxiety of what I’d done. If I was lucky, things would blow over before I saw Declan again.
My luck wasn’t quite that good. I stepped out of the shower to a loud pounding on my door. I should have realized pants were a necessity before greeting unexpected early-morning guests, but the exhaustion that came with a bad night’s sleep hadn’t cleared the fog from my brain yet. So, there I stood in a towel staring at Tina Boudreau, holding a paper bag and a cup of coffee.
“You’re at my apartment. Why are you here?” I mumbled.
“Here’s food. I’m apologizing,” she said and shoved the bag at me before traipsing into my apartment without an invitation. She made a dismissive noise as she surveyed my living space and then glanced at my towel-wrapped waist. “I thought it would be bigger.”
I finally had the sense to realize I was basically naked in front of my boss’ daughter and set the food down in favor of finding clothes. I darted into the bathroom, to re-emerge a minute later fully dressed. “Why are you thinking about my apartment at all?” I commented and peered inside the bag to find another chocolate croissant.
“I don’t know. I just figured you’d live someplace swanky.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I essentially live on a librarian’s salary. News flash, it isn’t all that much.” I took a bite of the pastry and stared at Tina. “Not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, but apologies aren’t really your M.O.”
“A girl can change. Besides I guess, I do sort of owe you. I started looking at all of the powers on file. There are a lot of defensive powers.”
“Yeah. I suppose that’s true,” I said with a small nod, unsure where she was going with this.
“Jeez … I’m trying to give you credit, moron.”
I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the coffee. It was too bitter. “Did you talk to your mother about things?”
Her relatively genial manner melted, replaced by that hard exterior she’d been putting up for years. “No. I tried but she wasn’t interested in talking to me.”
I doubted she was speaking the truth. If Tina could find an excuse not to talk to her mother about anything, she’d take it. To a point, I could understand Tina’s frustration. Her mother had known this secret about her daughter from her birth and yet had left Tina to fend for herself. Puberty was complicated enough without adding in superpowers.
“Look, I know it’s uncomfortable. If you just sat down and told her how you feel about everything, I’m sure she’d listen.”
“You don’t know my mother,” she snapped.
On the contrary, I did. I’d spent the last three years in Lena Boudreau’s employ and in that time, I’d become a trusted member of the inner circle. I’d felt bad lying to Tina and her friends for months. I had to watch as they struggled to do good in town and hunt down their origins when the answers were literally right under their noses.
“I think I know her pretty well. Approach her as a daughter just wanting to get to know her mother. She’ll be receptive to that.”
She pouted at me. “Why do you think she kept all of this secret for so long? If we’re in danger like she says, shouldn’t we have known what was going on from the start?”
“Honestly, I didn’t agree with her stance on keeping things quiet like she did. You were always smart and she had to know you’d go digging. I think maybe like all parents she wanted to protect you from what the world holds,” I said.
“I’m not a little kid. I don’t need protecting.”
“Like I said, talk to her. Lay your cards out on the table and see what she says.”
She started to say something, but her phone buzzed making her entire lower half vibrate. She pulled her phone free from her pocket and studied it in silence. “Declan’s an idiot.”
“What happened?” I failed to hide the concern in my voice.
“He says he’s going back out in the field already. He can’t have gotten the all clear yet. He was really banged up.”
“That
does seem fast,” I agreed. I hoped she didn’t pick up on the lack of surprise in my voice.
Without a word she started for the door. I stopped her before she could leave. “Where are you going?”
“To talk him out of it,” she answered and raced out of my apartment.
I wanted to follow after her. The longer Declan remained on the sidelines, the less chance there was for the wrong people to get wind of his newfound healing ability. But that would also tip my hand showing that I knew more than I should. After all, as far as anyone else knew, we were just work partners. Nothing more.
Chapter Seven
Declan
Marisol was the only one at headquarters when I arrived. I’d texted Spencer and Tina in a group chat to let them know, I was ready to get back to fighting the bad guys.
“Aren’t you worried it’s too soon?” Marisol asked when she spotted me.
“I can’t just sit around doing nothing. I need to be out there. Besides, we’re getting the gang back together.”
She smiled at me. “Be careful Spencer doesn’t pick up on how happy you are. You will never hear the end of it.”
“Noted.” I settled into a chair beside her.
She side-eyed me. “You are in a very good mood. It went well yesterday?”
“It was … good. There was a kiss. Well, actually two.”
She arched a dark brow. “Really? That fast?”
“I figured, if I’m going to see where it goes, I had better give it my all. There was definitely a spark. Not something I’ve felt in a long time.” I’d had that feeling with a girl before but we hadn’t worked out in the end. Maybe this time would be different. “I’m still not ready to tell Spencer and Tina, though.”
She mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. “I will not say or think a word.” After a beat, she said, “So, do you think you will go out again?”
“It’s on him to do the asking this time,” I replied.
Before she could comment, the door behind us opened. Tina and Spencer stumbled through it—trying to see who could get inside first. Spencer won, he’d had a slight advantage.
