My Vigilante Valentine

Chapter 25

25

not a superhero

The moment I was outside, I let loose. The world blurred around me as I ran faster than I ever had before, pushing my abilities to their limits.

The location Chris sent was for an industrial area near the docks. The factory loomed ahead, and I aimed right for it.

“I’m here,” I murmured into my comms, crouching in the shadows of a rusted shipping container. “Anything?”

“Thermal imaging shows two people inside. One stationary, one moving. Third floor, west side. And Jax? The stationary one’s heart rate is elevated but stable. S0, she’s scared, but she’s alive.”

Leave it to Chris to know exactly what I needed to hear without me having to ask.

I circled the building like a predator, noting entry points and potential threats. No obvious guards, but that didn’t mean anything.

He knew what I could do.

He’d be prepared.

“Wait,” Chris said in my ear. “There’s something weird about the thermal readings inside. Like patches of cold spots that shouldn’t be there.”

Not sure what to make of that, I grabbed the first of my throwing knives.

This was obviously some kind of trap—I was stupid-in-love, but not stupid in general.

I studied the building again. The layout reminded me of the facility where everything had changed—where the accident had given me these abilities.

“He’s using my speed against me,” I realized, random pieces clicking into place. “The cold spots you’re seeing? Probably gas dispensers. Triggers set up throughout the building. Tripwires. Pressure plates. Things I’d hit at full speed before I could stop.”

“So don’t use your speed.” Chris’s voice had that tone—the one that meant he was about to suggest something logical that I wouldn’t like.

“That’s what he’s counting on.” A plan started forming—the kind that would either work brilliantly or get me killed. Probably both. “But what if...”

I explained my idea quickly, and Chris let out a low whistle that made my comms crackle.

“That’s either brilliant or suicidal. Luna’s going to kill you if you survive.”

“Let’s hope for brilliant.” I moved toward the building, every sense on high alert. “Stay on comms.”

“Always.” Then, because he was still Chris: “Try not to die. Pretty sure Luna would kill me if that happened.”

The first floor was exactly what I expected—a maze of traps, all designed to slow me down. To force me to move carefully, methodically. The kind of setup that would make a normal person stop and think.

To make them vulnerable.

Instead, I blurred right through, no thinking at all.

Full speed, pushing myself harder than ever before, I navigated the traps. My enhanced reflexes let me adjust mid-stride, changing direction faster than human limits should allow.

Some of the trips triggered anyway—I heard the hiss of gas being released, felt the displacement of air as invisible weapons deployed—but I was already past them before their effects could reach me.

Or, at least, that was what I was hoping for.

“Second floor’s different,” Chris warned. “The thermal imaging is... weird. Like the whole floor is?—”

“Alive,” I finished, taking in the scene before me. Motion sensors covered every surface, their red lights blinking like stars.

One wrong move, one burst of speed...

So I didn’t move at all.

I held perfectly still, letting my enhanced senses map the room. The sensors had to have blind spots. Had to have...

There .

I moved in micro-bursts of speed, freezing between movements. To anyone watching, it would look like I was teleporting across the room. The sensors couldn’t track what they couldn’t process.

“Okay, that’s new,” Chris muttered. “And slightly terrifying. Since when can you do that?”

“Since about five seconds ago.”

“Show-off.”

That jab only served to remind me of Luna, and the gut-punch feeling that came with it?

It was a good thing.

Motivation .

The light at the end of a very dark tunnel, just like she always was.

“Third floor,” he reported after a moment, serious again. “They’re still there. Luna’s vitals are steady. Actually...” A hint of pride crept into his voice. “Her heart rate dropped. She’s calming down. Knowing her, calm means she’s probably planning something.”

Relief flooded through me, followed quickly by determination. She was alive. She was fighting. She was still our Luna, and I was almost there.

The door to the third floor was heavy steel, probably reinforced. A normal person would need explosives or heavy equipment to breach it. It was the kind of door meant to keep normal people out.

But I wasn’t normal.

The steel crumpled for me like it was made of aluminum foil. The sound echoed through the building—a thunderous crash that announced my arrival in a way that probably ruined any element of surprise.

But stealth wasn’t the point anymore.

I burst into the room… and there they were.

Luna, tied to a chair but alert, mouth dropping slightly as she saw me. No obvious injuries, and even like this, a hint of that trademark sparkle remained in her eyes.

And then there was him —The Valentine Villain.

Just… that same average man? The one from the restaurant? It made as much sense as it also didn’t, and that lack of clarity bugged me.

“Right on time,” he said, his voice cultured and calm—like we were meeting for coffee instead of a hostage situation. “Though I must say, you handled those traps better than anticipated. The serum really did enhance you beyond normal limits, didn’t it?”

The casual mention of the serum sent ice through my veins. “How do you know about that?”

“Because he was there,” Luna said, and something in her voice made my blood run cold. She had that tone—the one she used when she’d figured something out before anyone else. “Weren’t you? At the facility where it happened.”

He smiled, but the expression never reached those dead eyes. “Very good. I was wondering if you’d figure it out. Your girlfriend is quite clever, Jax. I can see why you’re drawn to her... even if it will be your downfall.”

“You worked there,” I said, the pieces clicking into place like the worst kind of puzzle. “You were part of the team that...”

“That created you? No.” He moved to stand behind Luna’s chair, and every muscle in my body tensed. One wrong move and... “Where your serum was physical, I was working on a sister serum, studying the effects of chemical enhancement on human emotion. Fascinating work, really.”

“Enhancement on human emotion…” Luna gazed at him, tilting her head.

What was she doing?

“Anything to do with love?” she asked quietly, causing him to look down at her. When he didn’t answer, she nodded, almost to herself. “Yeah… that tracks.”

“So, so clever.” His fingers brushed Luna’s shoulder, and I had to physically stop myself from blurring across the room.

“Don’t touch her.” It came out as more of a growl than words, and I tipped forward, ready to?—

But the look in her eyes told me to wait.

To trust her.

His smile widened. “Or what? You’ll kill me? Come now, Jax. We both know you don’t do that. It’s one of your more... disappointing traits. All that power, all that potential... and you waste it on mercy.”

Luna caught my eye, and something passed between us. Trust. Understanding. The kind that only comes from building something real.

She was ready.

I could see it in the set of her shoulders, already knowing she’d been working on her restraints as best as she could. All of that training, all of those moments of her complaining about me being bossy while still doing exactly what I asked—it was all leading to this.

I shifted my weight in the way that always made Luna roll her eyes. Something about it being my look out for the takedown pose, and as funny as she thought she was, it was also true.

And then, I moved—fast, but not at full speed.

Let him think the traps had worn me down. Let him believe his plan was working. The kind of arrogance that came with thinking you had all the answers?

That was a weakness I could use.

He was ready, of course, and a remote materialized in his hand like he was some kind of freaky magician.

The air filled with a sickly sweet gas that made my enhanced senses scream in protest.

“Designed especially for you,” he said, sounding entirely too pleased with himself as I staggered. “A neurotoxin that targets enhanced nervous systems. Slows you down. Makes you... normal. Hence your inability to take me out during our first meeting.”

My vision blurred, the edges going soft like a photo filter. But I forced myself to focus, to remember my training, and even to imagine what Luna would say if I let some weird science experiment take me down.

Probably something about me brooding too hard to be affected by normal weapons.

“Why?” I ground out, partly to keep him talking, partly to buy time for my system to fight back. “Why target couples? Why not just come after me?”

“Because love is a weakness!” The calm facade cracked like cheap pottery, revealing something jagged and broken underneath. “I lost everything because of love. My wife, my daughter... I’d taken the counterpart to your serum a week before you blew the whole place up, and it made me weak that day. Made me hesitate when I should have been strong.”

“During the accident?” Luna asked softly, and I recognized that tone. It was the same one she used when talking down angry customers who hadn’t had their morning coffee yet. Gentle. Understanding. Dangerous. “At the facility?”

“They were visiting.” His voice shook with the kind of pain that turns men into monsters. “Bringing me lunch. They weren’t supposed to be there when...”

“When it all went wrong,” Luna finished.

As I still struggled to fight through what he’d done to me in the present, memories of that day flashed through my mind.

“Yes.” His eyes hardened into something empty and cold. “I cowered in the corner, no emotions breaking through other than my love for them. And when you blew it up and wound up getting the physical enhancements? Well, everyone else died, but at least we got that out of the deal, right?”

I chewed on that new information, but I didn’t have long to process it before he spoke again.

“But their deaths taught me something. Love makes us vulnerable. Makes us stupid. Makes us weak. Now, I’m strong where you aren’t. At first, I tracked you down just so I could kill you for what you took from me. But when I arrived in Slate Harbor and watched you sit in that cafe? Mooning over her day after day? The Valentine Villain was born.”

I gulped, nodding. “Okay, well, point made. But this ends here?—”

“You’re right, Jax. It does. It ends with you losing what you cost me.”

He raised his hand, another device glinting in the dim light like the world’s most depressing disco ball.

But he’d made one crucial mistake.

He’d forgotten about Luna.

While he’d been focused on me, lost in his supervillain movie monologue—which Luna would definitely mock with me later if we survived this—she’d been getting ready for her close-up.

And the moment his attention shifted, she moved.

The chair came up with her as she stood, and she swung it hard—using the momentum just like I’d taught her. It caught him in the side with a satisfying crack that suggested at least one rib would need attention.

He stumbled, the device flying from his hand, and the look of absolute shock on his face was almost worth everything we’d been through.

Almost .

The toxin made my limbs feel like they were moving through molasses, each step a battle against my own enhanced biology. But I pushed through it, forcing my body to blur forward even as my vision swam.

It was a good thing she’d gotten herself free. If I only had a fraction of my speed or strength, I needed it to take him out.

Chris’s voice crackled through the comms in my ear. “Your vitals are all over the place. Whatever that gas is, it’s?—“

“Not helping,” I ground out, ducking under a wild swing from The Villain.

He recovered faster than someone with broken ribs should, producing a wicked-looking knife from somewhere. But Luna was already flowing through the defensive maneuvers we’d practiced, proving once again that she really was a quick study.

With me at half-power and him fully loaded, having a partner was a big advantage in this fight.

She stayed just out of his reach, keeping him off balance with the kind of grace that made my chest tight with pride.

“You’re proving my point,” he snarled, alternating between slashing at me and at her with increasingly desperate strikes. His cultured voice had devolved into something raw and broken. “You came for her. Put yourself in danger. Let your emotions control you even after I’d taken away what made you special. Just like I knew you would.”

Luna and I worked together, still fighting for our lives and ignoring his incessant chatter. It was much worse than the cousin commentary in my ear through the comms. In fact, if we made it out of here alive, I’d happily listen to Luna and Chris’s bickering during any and all future fights.

“You’re both fighting me even though you won’t win,” he went on, “meaning you’re dumb enough to die together instead of saving yourselves. Love makes you?—”

Luna ducked under his swing, rolled, and drove her elbow into his solar plexus with perfect form. “Makes us stronger,” she finished.

Her move had him backing right into me, where I was waiting, bent over at the waist so he’d go over me and fall. The fierce pride in her voice burned through me as I flipped him, pinning him just long enough to use a pressure point to knock him out cold.

And I’d done it without anything special flowing through my veins. Without my abilities, her help was enough.

More than enough. It was all I needed.

After that, it was a simple matter to secure him—with extra zip ties, put on extra tight.

“It’s over,” I said, making sure for the third time that the restraints were secure. No chances. Not with him.

“We didn’t prove his point,” Luna said, staring down at him. Her voice was steady and sure as she came closer. “You came because that’s what partners do. What teams do. And I stayed for the same reason.”

I stared up at her.

She knelt down, meeting my gaze with fierce determination. “And love? Love isn’t weakness. It’s what made us fight harder tonight. Made us better.”

I couldn’t look away from her. She was dirty, disheveled, but gloriously unbroken—and my heart swelled with an emotion too big to name.

She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

She was right. Every word. And even though I felt it, too, she was the one with the thing for words.

So, I did the only thing I could to let her know I felt the same. I reached up, slid my hand into her hair, and brought her forehead to mine.

She’d get it… because she got me.

“Hate to interrupt,” Chris said in my ear. “But the police are on the way, along with a hazmat team, for that gas. SWAT, too, but I’m guessing you lovebirds don’t plan to stick around to chat with them?”

“We’ll meet you back at the shop,” I told him. “Unless you want to leave? That way, I might forget to chat with you about letting her run off alone?”

It was mostly to mess with them, and the look Luna gave me was totally worth it.

As was the silence on the other end of the comms.

I pulled back to look at Luna. “You okay?”

She smiled—that bright, impossible smile that had drawn me in from the start and hadn’t let go since. “Better than okay. Although...” She glanced down at The Valentine Villain, who was still out cold. “Next year, maybe we just do dinner and a movie?”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed.

The sound echoed through the dusty room, and it felt good. Right. Like maybe she was onto something when she’d once told me we’d have fun doing this together.

“Deal.” I stood, pulling her with me. “Though knowing you, you’ll find us some trouble to get into anyway.”

“Probably,” she agreed cheerfully. “Good thing I’ll have a superhero handy.”

“Not a superhero.”

“Keep telling yourself that, honey.”

The sirens grew louder. Time to go.

But… I lifted a hand, flexing to test my abilities. The Villain’s last shot of gas had faded enough that I was about seventy-five percent back to… not -normal.

It would have to be enough.

I scooped Luna into my arms, cradling her against my chest. “Hold on.”

“Yes, please,” she whispered, and I could feel her wry smile against my neck.

Then we were gone, leaving The Valentine Villain to face justice while we disappeared into the night.

Together.

As a team.