“Because I knew you needed to hear cold-hard facts, not an emotional plea from friend or family. Thought I’d do what I could to prevent you from making the same mistake I made.”
“I appreciate it,” Jordan said with a nod. Years ago, Strong had let his relationship crash and burn in favor living life alone as a superhero. Jordan had always assumed that would be his life too. He was beyond glad that it wasn’t.
“Do you guys have a name for the team?”
“Not yet,” Caleb answered. “If you have any suggestions, let us know.”
Jordan snorted a laugh. “I’m a foot solider. I’ll leave the planning and naming up to the two brains of the operation.” He stood, preparing to leave. “And my answer is yes, I’m officially on board.”
“Excellent.” Caleb grinned and tossed him the white box. “Take this and I’ll get started on everything else.”
Jordan caught the box and waved goodbye. He’d taken care of his concerns regarding Danny’s safety. Now there was only one thing left to do before he could go and claim his man.
***
The sun was sinking over the horizon when Jordan drove up to Whispering Pines Cemetery. He pulled into a parking lot that was empty save for one dark green pickup truck with the cemetery’s logo on the side. A man he assumed was the groundskeeper was closing the gates. Jordan got out of the car and walked over to the entrance anyway.
“I’m closing up. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
Jordan didn’t want to wait until tomorrow. He needed to do this now. Taking out his wallet, he pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and held it up. “Fifty dollars to let me inside for twenty minutes.”
The man started to reach through the black iron bars for the bill, then he pulled his hand back.
“You’re not going to do anything nasty in there are you?”
“No. I want to pay my respects to someone important to me.”
“Okay, then.” The man took the money. “Twenty minutes.”
“Thank you, sir.” Jordan could have waited until the groundskeeper was gone and easily jumped the eight-foot fence. But he wanted to do this as his regular self, without using any of Blaze’s superpowers. The man held open the gate to let him pass through. Jordan thanked him again, then set off on the winding path through freshly mown grass. By the time he reached his cousin’s plot there was just enough of dusk’s light remaining for him to read the headstone.
Travis Morgan. Beloved Son and Brother. And beneath that, two dates with a span of time between them that was far too short.
“Hey, man. I wanted to come and talk to you, and get some things off my chest.” Jordan huffed a laugh and looked up at the steadily darkening sky. “Unburden my soul I guess.” He stared at the sky for a long time, gathering his thoughts and his courage for what he wanted to say before he looked back down at the headstone.
“I’m sorry, Travis. For every decision I made that night. I wish I could take them all back. I wish I’d been a different person and that we’d never been in that situation in the first place. But wishing won’t make it happen, so all I can do is stand here at your grave and sincerely apologize for my mistakes. I won’t know if you forgive me until we see each other again. But it’s time for me to forgive myself.” He placed a hand on the headstone and closed his eyes. The gray stone was cool and smooth under his palm.
“I will always be sorry for the part I played in your death. I will continue to work on being a better man than I was back then, and continue helping people who need it. But from now on, I’m going to do it without the constant self-punishment. I met someone and I love him. He made me see that if I want to truly live this life I’m lucky enough to have, I have to let go of the guilt I carry. Your sister has been telling me the same thing for years. But you know me, it took a cute guy to make me sit up and pay attention.”
He paused to laugh softly, remembering their school days when Travis, two years behind, but smart enough to help Jordan with his classwork, teased him that the only way he’d crack a book to study was if there were pictures of hot twinks pasted inside. Then he’d printed off pictures from the internet and did exactly that with Jordan’s science book. Shaking his head at the memory, Jordan got back on track.
“So, that’s what I’m doing, what I came here to say. I won’t let go of your memory but I’m putting down the guilt.”
As he said the words, the tightness he’d carried between his shoulder blades for so long it had become a part of him, loosened and eased away. Jordan drew in a deep, cleansing breath. A breeze blew, rustling the leaves overhead as he released it.
“My twenty minutes are up. I’d better go before I get locked in, like that time we hid in here to look for Old Man Feenburg’s ghost.” As Jordan smiled at the memory, he realized tonight was the first time he’d smiled while thinking of Travis since he’d died. “I miss you, man.” He lightly tapped his fist against the smooth stone in goodbye. Then he went back the way he’d come, away from his past, and toward his future.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
D
amnit. This outlet should work,” Danny muttered to himself in irritation. Kneeling down in front of the floor outlet, he wiggled the cord plugged into it in hopes that would make it work. He didn’t want to have to go through the hassle of tracking down convention staff to verify he paid for electricity at his table.
“Can I help?”
Danny froze for a second. That sounded like Jordan. He popped up from behind the table to see if it was him. It was. Jordan stood there, dressed casually in a dark gray t-shirt and jeans, a one-day pass wristband around his right wrist. Danny was surprised to see him. He hadn’t heard from him since their confrontation in the alley almost two weeks ago. He wondered why he was there but realized he hadn’t answered Jordan’s question. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
Jordan came around the table and squatted down next to him.
“There’s no power in the outlet but there should be. I paid for electricity.”
Jordan held a hand over it. “It’s not getting any juice.” His hand sparked blue for a quick moment and a small bolt zapped the outlet. “It is now.”
Danny looked up at his table. The electronic card reader he’d plugged in blinked green for ready.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
They were so close kneeling together on the floor. Danny needed breathing room. He stood up, but that didn’t help much once Jordan stood too. There was little space behind the table, and most of it was taken up by a chair and his merch tubs. The most Danny could manage was to put half an arm’s length of space between them.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you. But I know you have to work, so I thought I’d help out first. If you don’t mind.”
Talk. Talk about what? He doubted Jordan would show up here to tell him he’d thought about it and didn’t want them to be together. A tiny spark of hope started to burn in his heart. “I don’t mind. That’d be great actually.”
“Tell me what you need me to do.”
Danny gave him a run-down of everything at the booth and how to handle transactions with customers. As the artist, he’d do most of the interacting but if he needed a break or the booth got super busy, Jordan’s assistance would be appreciated.
Throughout the day, Jordan worked hard. He minded the booth when Danny needed a break and went on a snack run for him and the people at the tables on either side of him. He even put on one of the t-shirts with Danny’s art printed on the front. The shirt was too small for him and his muscles, but it worked perfectly to get people to stop and check him, and subsequently Danny’s merch, out.
Danny was having a great day with sales and he’d met some cool fans of his work. At noon, there was a lull in visitors to his table. Most people had gone to hit up the food court for lunch. He was about to take a quick look at his current sales tally when a scream pierced the din of noise in the convention center.
; “What was that?”
Jordan eyed the crowd, looking for the source of the scream. “Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.”
The cause of the problem was revealed when a woman jumped up on a table at the end of their aisle, kicking all the merch to the floor. A group of people wearing all white, from their fitted skullie caps to their shoes, and armed with what looked like prop stun guns from a popular TV show, lined up in front of her, blocking anyone from getting to the table she’d taken over. The woman held up a megaphone and started shouting into it.
“This entire building is filled to the brim with filth! Lewd renderings and worship of problematic characters. You all must be stopped. You must be shown the way to art that is pure and good and serves society in a positive manner. We will not allow you to poison the minds of the people any longer. Pack up your filth and leave, because we are closing this show down.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Oh, great. One of those.”
“Who are they?”
“The Purity Alliance. They talk big and cause a ruckus online but they don’t do any real harm.”
“Those stun guns they’re carrying look real enough.”
“They’re prop guns,” Danny said with another eye roll.
A security guard walked up to the group, demanding the woman get down from her grandstanding. She lowered her megaphone but didn’t move to leave the table. Instead, she nodded at one of her foot soldiers. At her signal, the man grinned and took aim with his stun gun. A red blast shot out from the gun, striking the security guard square in the chest. The guard fell to the ground on his back, his arm frozen in the raised position he’d had it in when he was hit.
Danny’s mouth dropped open with shock. “Uh... Maybe they’re not props.”
People started screaming and running. More security guards rushed over, but they too were frozen stiff by the not prop stun guns before they could do any good. Jordan shoved Danny to the floor.
“Get down!”
“At least it’s not me they’re after this time.” Danny mumbled as he crouched behind the table.
Jordan kneeled down next to him and started undressing, whipping his shirt over his head and shucking off his jeans.
Danny looked at him with his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Jordan hadn’t brought his gear so why the hell was he undressing? Then he put the belt back on. Once it was closed around his waist, Jordan pressed a hand to the buckle. Liquid black material spread out from the buckle, covering him all the way down to his feet and up to his head. Danny reached out to touch it. It was even tighter than his leathers, but otherwise appeared the same as his usual Blaze gear.
“What the...?” He trailed off when Jordan pressed a hand to his ear and started speaking.
“Caleb, we’ve got a disturbance at the Geek Fest. Send Sonica since she can pop in fast.”
Danny’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re working with a team?”
“Yep. It was the best way to keep you safe. Stay down. I’ll be right back.” He pressed a kiss to Danny’s still open mouth then disappeared to fight.
Danny peeked his head up over the table. Blaze ran up to the group, taking out one of the Purity Alliance members before he even knew what hit him. The rest of the group spun around to take Blaze on, but at that moment, a woman dressed in a red costume popped in behind them.
Danny immediately clapped his hands over his ears. That was Sonica, her scream could knock a person unconscious. She let loose with a volley, directing it at the PC guys in front of her. The blast was loud enough to ring in Danny’s ears and affect those unlucky enough to still be near the fight.
Some of the soldiers turned to face Sonica. They fired their stun guns, trying to hit her, but she easily disappeared and reappeared in a new place each time, remaining untouched. Even though the bad guys had both a numbers advantage and those huge stun guns, Blaze and Sonica took them down in no time.
Once the Purity Alliance members were all subdued and restrained, Blaze jolted the security guards back from being stunned, then disappeared into the crowd.
Sonica stayed a few minutes longer, keeping watch as the newly arriving security guards escorted the Purity Coalition members from the hall. She waved at the crowd, cell phone camera flashes going off all around her. “Get back to your con, everybody. Have fun!” Then she popped out.
A minute later, Jordan snuck back into Danny’s booth. Danny stood up, needlessly rearranging things on his table, acting as if he didn’t have a superhero redressing himself at his feet so no one would notice anything going on. But once Jordan stood back up, fully dressed, Danny spun around to face him.
“I know we said we’d talk later. But I have to know what’s going on. You’ve got new toys and a team and... What is happening?”
Jordan scrubbed a hand over his head and took a deep breath. “You were right. I was letting my past dictate too much of my present. With the guilt I carried for the way Travis died, I assumed you would be hurt too if you stayed with me. And since I didn’t want that to happen. I pushed you away. Luckily for me, you called me on my bullshit and made me see that I was making the biggest mistake of my life.”
Danny choked on a laugh. “I’m sorry I yelled at you that night.”
“Don’t be. You were braver than me and it was everything I needed to hear. Now, I hope that the fire that burned within you to fight for our relationship is still lit because I have something to offer you and another gift for you later.”
He pulled a slim silver watch from his pocket.
“A watch,” Danny asked, confused. He’d never asked Jordan to get him a watch.
“It’s more than that. If you press the black button, it sends a message to me and headquarters that you’re in trouble. And it’s chipped with a tracking device. It’s one of the security measures Caleb came up with to keep the loved ones of the Arch City Guardians safe.”
“Arch City Guardians.”
“That’s the team name.”
“And you’re on it.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry. I’m surprised. I never thought-.” Danny stopped and shook his head. “Okay. You’re on the team and you want to give me a watch with a chip in it.”
“I didn’t plan on giving it to you right after a fight in the middle of a convention hall.” He took another deep breath. “I’m sorry for hurting you, angel. If you can forgive me, and if you still want me, I want to be with you. I always have. So, I’m asking you. Will you accept this watch and be with me?”
Danny’s heart pounded. This was happening. And maybe they weren’t in the best place to speak of love, but he needed to hear those words from the man in front of him. “Is there anything else you want to say?”
Jordan’s brow creased in question for a moment before it cleared and a slow mile curled his lips.
“I love you, Danny.”
Danny smiled, taking a step to close the gap between them. “I love you, too. And I accept your watch.”
“Yeah?”
Danny nodded and raised his arm. “Yeah.”
Jordan’s smile was tinged with relief, as if he’d worried that Danny would say no.
“Okay.”
Jordan clasped the watch around his wrist. It fit him perfectly, the silver metal band and shiny face glinting under the bright lights. He hadn’t expected a high-tech gadget like this when he’d told Jordan to find a way for them to be together. But if this is what it took, he’d wear the watch every day. Then he remembered that Jordan had said he had two gifts for him.
“What about the other gift?”
“That one has to be given in private,” Jordan softly said.
When Jordan brushed his finger down Danny’s throat, he knew immediately what he meant. “Oh!” Danny reached out and pressed his hands to Jordan’s chest, leaning in and melting against him. “I’m so glad you came back to me,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry I let you go,” Jordan whispered back. “But you can believe it won’t ever happen
again.”
“I do believe it. I believe you.”
Jordan leaned down and brought their lips together to seal his promise in the softest kiss. As Danny kissed him back, he thought that couldn’t wait for this day to end so that they could go home, and he could finally have what he’d been dreaming of for so long.
***
Danny unlocked the front door and walked into the house, Jordan behind him. “I’m exhausted,” he said as he tossed his keys on the entryway table.
Sales at his booth had exploded after Blaze and Sonica’s appearance. He didn’t have much Sonica art, but what he did have sold out in minutes. And of course, his Blaze merch had sold so fast his card reader had practically been smoking by the end of the day. A few customers had looked at Jordan with questions in their eyes, one even commenting that he was big enough to be Blaze. Jordan had simply shrugged and handed them their receipt.
Danny tiredly slumped into the living room, kicked off his shoes, and flopped down onto the couch.
Jordan walked over to stand in front of him. “You want to go to bed?”
“Yeah, I -. Wait.” He sat up straight, suddenly wide awake. “You have another gift for me, right?”
“I do. But I can wait until tomorrow if you’re too tired.”
Danny vehemently shook his head. “I don’t want to go to bed until I have it.” He went up on his knees on the couch, waiting.
Jordan pulled a black satin pouch from his pocket before he sat down next to him. “I had this made for you. I wanted you to have something special, just like you.” He reached into the bag. When he pulled his hand out, a submissive’s collar lay on his big palm.
The collar was a slim black leather band, with a tiny metallic blue J pendant hanging from the center. Jordan flipped it over so Danny could see the inside. Lightning bolts and angel wings were tooled into the leather.
“Do you like it?”
“I love it.”
“Then, Daniel Griffin, will you accept my collar and be my submissive?”
Blaze Page 31
