Chapter 19 #3
Screw it. I launched forward, flying as fast as I could, arm drawn back, ready to slam my knuckles under his chin. A pillar of smoke slammed into my torso as I tried to reach him, launching me toward the dome.
My feet barely touched the ceiling before I spun around.
Smoke had met me as a novice, and now I had a few more tricks to put on display.
I’d revel in the moment my fist connected, bruising flesh and cracking bone.
I wouldn’t win by luck. But with ferocity, I was unmatched, and right now I was in a mood and needed to pound something with my fist.
He attempted the same maneuver. A roll to the side and he missed, and even the massive hand of smoke reaching missed as I put on the brakes. This idiot truly believed he was dealing with a rookie. Even the spears of black he hurled disintegrated as they struck a shield of fire.
“Somebody has been practicing. But you forget who you’re dealing with.”
The fire gathered in my palms as I mocked this schmuck.
Neon had been more of a challenge. He couldn’t do more than manifested smoke and…
crap. I had been so intent on snapping his neck I forgot about the madness in the emergency room.
Smoke might be nothing impressive on his own, but whatever gift he had that let him control innocent victims, that was dangerous.
“Get off me,” Aiden shouted. I spun about to see him tossing a woman over the bar. He clubbed a server in the gut, forcing him to double over before driving an elbow into his back. Aiden wasn’t a shabby fighter, but with two dozen more people stalking him, he’d never be able to come out on top.
“Back up,” I yelled. He jumped backward, falling on his butt as I poured a line of fire between him and Smoke’s minions. I could easily burn them to a crisp, but Hellcat’s insistence on me riding the narrow path of a superhero echoed in the back of my head. I could do this… I could do—
“Shit.”
Smoke had vanished within his own aura of blackness. By the time I found those glowing eyes, they had manifested behind Aiden. There were too many battles on too many fronts. I couldn’t stop the madhouse and the villain causing them. I prayed the wall of fire held so I could reach the source.
“I told you I’d find him, medic.”
Hellcat’s voice screamed in my ear. The exact thing she warned me about was coming true. Smoke didn’t want to fight me. He wanted to cause me pain. If he couldn’t beat me man to man, he’d go after the one thing I cared about.
So he thought.
With one hand, I grew the wall of fire. With the other, I pointed a single finger, creating a narrow shot of searing flame. It was too far to do anything other than make Smoke dodge, but it gave me time to fly at him like a bat out of hell.
“Duck!”
Aiden curled into a ball as I slammed both fists into Smoke’s chest. I drew back a fist, hammering his face, my knuckles cracking against something in the darkness. His hands caught my fist, and I resorted to slamming my forehead against the space between his eyes.
“You…” Another crack as something wet smattered my face. “Won’t…” I shook free, wrapping one hand around his neck while I punched with the other. “Win.”
Each blow knocked away the darkness, and for a second I could see the outline of a human face. With one more strike, the black revealed skin tones. He was losing, and with a couple more blows, I could end Smoke’s reign of terror.
Lifting him off the ground, I slammed his skull against the cement. He thought he could come in here, threaten Aiden, and walk away unscathed. I had won. I had bested him and when I revealed his identity to Aiden, it’d all make sense.
Smoke laughed as the black struggled to cover his skin.
“You,” —he spat blood— “think you won?”
His face turned. The darkness consumed his face, and I followed his eye-line. Aiden was staring at us as he pulled himself to his feet. We hadn’t started the night on the best footing, but as the horror played out across his face, I found myself the victim of a trap.
“Foolish man.”
Smoke hadn’t come here to kill me or even harm Aiden. He had found the one thing that would strike the heart. The man I had fallen for had all the evidence he needed. He had slept with a monster.
Smoke had won.
High above Vanguard, I must have looked like a flickering star.
Any higher and the atmosphere would become too thin to maintain the waves of fire holding me adrift.
Hours ago, when I fled the gala… fled. I couldn’t believe, even as I pinned Smoke to the floor, seconds away from crushing the villain, I had lost.
Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the look of horror on Aiden’s face.
It was bad enough that he believed Blaze was a killer, but I had played right into Smoke’s plan.
That jerk had set me up, laying a carefully executed scheme in Aiden’s head.
He probably killed Dozer to set me up, and then I played right into his hands.
“He’s not wrong,” I whispered.
I had been prepared to kill. I could lie to myself and say it was to save Aiden.
Hell, I could hide behind the immediacy of the situation, but if I was honest with myself, the truth would escape.
Xander Bennett was prepared to become a killer.
Everything I hated about superheroes, every complaint I had ever made to Griffin… I was the problem.
The roar grew in my belly. As it reached my chest, the flames turned a brilliant yellow. As I screamed, the fire shot out in a wide arc, white-hot. The clouds vaporized as I turned into a living flame. My throat burned as I curled into a ball, trying to will myself out of existence.
I failed.
Once I admitted it, I fell from the sky.
The wind whipped past, and as I reached terminal velocity, I wondered if the suit would protect me from an impact at this speed.
Super strength didn’t seem enough as the ground came into focus.
With a splat, I could end the tightness clutching my heart. I could give in and let Smoke win.
Stubbornness summoned the flames. My direction shifted, and I flew forward, weaving between buildings as fast as I had ever managed.
Cutting it too close, I knocked several bricks free from a skyscraper.
It was reckless, but I didn’t care. I had been branded a killer by one of the few people able to cut me where it hurt the most.
Whether because he was occupying my mind like a tenant I couldn’t evict, or because I needed resolution, I soared down Aiden’s street. By now Aiden would have given his statement to the police, ratted out his maybe-not-anymore boyfriend, and returned to his home.
The thought of him confessing to the authorities the real identity of Blaze continued to burn a hole in my chest. I might not be the killer, but it was nearly impossible to blame him.
He had watched every blow as I attempted to slaughter Smoke.
A dead body was one thing, but he had watched as I lost my temper and used my abilities to exorcise my demons. It might actually be worse.
I might not repair the damage, but I had to try. Slowing, I hovered a hundred feet above Aiden’s building. I could stand at his door again. But the moment I knocked, I started a conversation that could end miserably. At least here, it could go either way.
“Stop being a coward,” I growled. I wielded the power of the sun, and yet, the rejection of a man left me feeling weak. I could handle trading blows with a villain. None of them could reach deep enough into my chest to touch where Aiden had access.
The flames diminished until all that remained was a dull glow.
I lowered until I hovered just beyond the fire escape.
A quick flash of fire would be enough to get his attention if he was inside.
It might be creepy to lurk outside a man’s window, but I didn’t dare set foot on the metal grate of the escape in case I needed a hasty exit.
Aiden opened the curtains. He didn’t make any indication that he was going to open the window. The tip of the knife hovered over my heart, ready to plunge to the hilt. I tempted fate and landed on the fire escape.
“Can we talk?”
He opened the window. After a moment, he sat down on the sill.
The first hurdle had been jumped. I half expected him to be too scared to open the window, or worse, police would burst through the door and tell me to put my hands in the air.
Though it didn’t happen, he didn’t make any indication he was going to speak.
“I never wanted you to find out like this.”
Nothing.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. None of this came with a manual. There’s no guide on how to be a hero. The one piece of advice they gave me was to never let the people you care about find out.”
“How long?”
“What do you—”
“How long have you been like this?”
“The day on the bridge when I saved Prometheus. He transferred his abilities—“
“No.” He let out a sigh. The sadness filled his eyes, and I braced for the thrust. “I’ve never seen anybody that… brutal.”
I could hear Alejandro’s voice warning me about my anger issues. It had been a problem for as long as I could remember. I don’t know the source, but there wasn’t a memory that wasn’t tainted with the emotion.
“I’ve always been like this.” It hurt to admit it, especially because it caused Aiden strife. Without powers, I was temperamental, moody, and maybe aggressive. But now that I wielded inhuman abilities, the dial had been turned. None of it left me feeling warm and fuzzy.
A superhero that made the man he cared about… scared. It didn’t matter that I had been set-up by Smoke. I wailed on Dozer with reckless abandon even though I didn't kill him. The truth had become inconsequential. I had nearly slaughtered two men because I could.
“Did you kill Dozer?”
I shook my head. “But I might as well have.”
Aiden mulled over the words, trying to make sense of the complex emotions raging inside my head. I didn’t know how to fix this, how to make it so Aiden saw me as something other than one of the heroes mad with power.
My chest tightened worse than a punch to the sternum. There was one choice left for me. I might not be able to see eye-to-eye with this adorable man, but I could rise above it. I could protect Aiden. The tears evaporated before they could run down my face.
“I haven’t done much right since I assumed the mantle. But I can start.” Bathed in a warm glow, wearing a mask, I refused to sob. I failed. “This is goodbye, Aiden.”
Falling backward, I hit the railing and left the fire escape behind. The flames wrapped around my body and I fought to look ahead as I flew away from Aiden. But with a quick barrel roll, I caught sight of the handsome man sitting in his window.
“Goodbye.”