Chapter 6
SIX
ALEX
My head pounded as I blinked away the stars in my vision.
Hot cement burned my bare thighs, and I tried to sit up with a yelp, but was held down by a heavy arm.
Beside me, a massive man had me pinned. Leo lay there, his eyes starting to flutter as ash blond hair fell over his pale lashes.
He was dressed in his Hero suit—the same one from a few nights before, with that heavy mask hanging around his neck.
I tried to push him off, but he curled his arm around my waist, tugging me in as my skin slid over the ground. I hissed before slapping his face—hard.
“Wake up, you fucking elephant,” I seethed.
Leo opened his eyes; dark brown, with a soft, red glow behind them.
When he used his ability, they would flare like a wildfire, as if he was burning inside.
He blinked once before scrunching his nose at me, then let his gaze trail over my body.
The look was too slow, and I couldn’t decide if he was drinking me in or picking me apart.
Judgy bastard.
“Morning,” he grumbled, and shoved me away.
I rolled onto my knees and tried to pull down the shirt around my thighs, barely covering my ass.
What underwear was I wearing today? I couldn’t remember.
Apparently, that happened after going on a drinking binge for three days.
The fear of the VIA rejecting my leave, mixed with the anniversary of Joon’s death, had been too much. I wanted to be numb.
But now two Heroes had come to collect me, and reality was crashing in.
I couldn’t run forever, couldn’t stay under the VIA’s radar.
Life continued, and I was being sucked back into the sludge of Hero work, whether I liked it or not.
If I were lucky, the VIA would claim that I broke some rule, that my three year leave had been too much and they considered me AWOL.
They’d put me in a cell, and it would be uncomfortable, but I could wallow by myself for the rest of my life.
My daydreams would make it easy—I’d never come out of them. Strangely, the idea of being put in a Variant prison was much more palatable than being a Hero again.
“Not to be that guy,” a light voice chuckled beside me, “but this is probably the best thing I’ve seen in my life. Did you used to take him out like this? Can you do it again? Can I get a picture?”
I snapped my head to the side and barely recognized the face.
He’d chased me down the street, too, but it was Leo who I was fleeing from.
He seemed a bit younger than us, a baby face with pale skin and mesmerizing eyes.
One green, one blue, framed by shaggy red hair that I had definitely attempted to achieve through box-dye before. It didn’t pan out well for me.
“Is that natural?” I mused, reaching to get a closer look.
He grinned back with a nod. “One hundred percent. My eyes are, too. I’m pretty, right? Nice to meet you, I’m Reed. But you can call me WildGuard on the field—get it, WildGuard, like Wild Card.” He snickered to himself, as if his Hero name was the best thing that had ever happened to Nightmyre.
I chuckled back, my shoulders relaxing. “Very pretty. I’m Alex.”
Reed didn’t come off as harsh, or worn down.
Some Heroes were strict, others filled with hubris, but he had a hint of sarcasm to his voice, and it reminded me of Joon.
He’d been the ‘perfect’ Hero, but he never took himself too seriously.
There had always been a side to him that only I knew, that was shielded from the press and VIA.
A hand lashed out and snatched my wrist. Leo pulled me back and snarled at Reed; he was always grumpy when my ability wore off.
I was never sure if it was from frustration, or if that’s always how he woke up from a deep sleep.
It wouldn’t have surprised me; Leo was permanently angry. No wonder that flames were his forte.
“Awe, he’s mad that you think I’m pretty,” Reed sighed. “I think he’s jealous.”
“I’ll burn you alive,” Leo snapped before standing up, pulling me along with him. “Did you get lost or something? We don’t have time to play around.”
The red-haired Hero held out his palms as his shoulders rose to his ears. “She locked the door before she left, I had to break it down. Honestly, my ankles hurt, you should bring me to the hospital.”
“You’re so damn dramatic,” Leo glanced down at me, his eyes hesitating on my bare legs. “And so are you. We’re getting you changed, and you’re coming with us. Make me run after you again, and I won’t go easy this time.”
My irritation flared. “Excuse me? First of all, you broke down my door? Do you know how much that’s gonna cost me?! And you can’t kidnap people off the streets, I’m a person with a choice, the VIA can kiss my ass if they think—”
Leo deadpanned before unzipping the top of his suit, ignoring my rambling as he shouldered himself out of it, leaving only a black tank top underneath.
Endless small scars littered his muscled arms, trailing all the way up to his neck and across his collarbones.
There were a few along his forearms that were bright red, spots of blood dried on his skin.
Joon told me at the academy that Leo’s coolant had to be injected—I never thought about it too much, but the sight made me flinch.
Ouch.
He tied the arms of the top around my waist, the length of it running down to my knees.
My muscles went rigid, nervous about the needles that were likely hidden within the fabric, attached to those orange tubes.
Even the jacket was cool to the touch — a special material for temperature regulation, no doubt.
I opened my mouth to ask, but Leo scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder without warning.
“Hey!” I shouted as I began to pound on his back. “Put me down!”
“You can keep talking,” he drawled as he began to walk back toward my apartment. “But we gotta get moving. I’m tired, and you’re annoying.”
The moment I started to kick my legs, he latched a strong arm around them and pinned me down. Reed trailed behind us and held up a hand in front of his mouth, stifling a laugh.
“Relax, take a nap or something,” Leo huffed. “But if you kick like that again, all of Nightmyre is going to see those striped panties of yours. Not into the sexy lace stuff, are you?”
My face heated, and I went still, embarrassment crawling through me. “Panties? Gross, they’re underwear. Grow up. I hate you with an intensity I can’t even explain. You’re a child, a big fucking man-child that doesn’t—”
His skin started to heat underneath me, and I nearly yelped again from the steam that started to rise. “Alex, do me a favor, and shut up. And stop squirming; it’s distracting.”
My mouth gaped, and Reed nearly danced with joy behind us.
“Oh, this is fun,” he chirped. “Glad to have you on the team, Alex. You’re doing great.”
I’m in hell. A personal, specific, Alex-tailored hell that I will never escape.
“Any questions?” Dahlia, the VIA coordinator Leo had dragged me to, asked.
We sat in a pristine office, with dark wooden furniture and white walls with flashes of green and gold to decorate the space.
I’d been forced to dress, but put in minimal effort with a pair of dark joggers and a crop top—just to really drive home the disrespect in a corporate setting, you know?
—and had guzzled down about a gallon of water before Leo let me leave my apartment.
Now that I sat across from Dahlia, insecurity snuck in.
I’d brushed my teeth and thrown my hair up into a messy ponytail before calling it good, but my reflection in the mirror stuck in my mind.
My skin was more sick-pale than porcelain-pale, and the bags under my eyes had turned a harsh purple.
This woman had been carved from marble by a Greek artist. Perfect graying hair pulled into a tight bun where flyaways didn’t exist, and a tailored blue suit that hugged her curves in the professional-sexy way.
She was put together, not a hair or piece of lint out of place.
Even her glasses were completely transparent, not a single smudge to be seen.
I was a gutter monster. Which, considering my hangover, was fair.
I didn’t want the VIA to see me as functional, didn’t want to give them a reason to drag me back.
But they could do as they pleased, or lock me in a cell for disobedience.
I just wanted to remain unimportant. Was that too much to ask?
“Yeah, uh…” I glanced over to Leo and Reed, who sat with straight backs, trying their best to behave. “Can’t you get, like, literally anyone else to do this job? I’ve been out of work for three years.”
Dahlia opened a large binder, every detail of my history in the file. “You’ve done contract work through the hospitals and police departments, with glowing reviews. You’re far from incompetent.”
Okay, rude.
“What I’m saying is I’ve been out of Hero work for three years,” I pleaded. “I don’t think my help is necessary. There're other Heroes—”
“Four years ago, Project Tundra,” Dahlia began reading, as if I’d forgotten the past seven years of working as a Hero.
“Villains started to organize a unit that would decimate their competitors and threaten every branch of the Variant Intelligence Agency. You managed to get their captains to talk, and we were able to locate their training grounds.”
And you guys bombed the place while I was still inside, you bastards.
I remembered escaping that day; it was sheer luck that I’d befriended a teleportation Variant.
He was only nineteen and had a talent for weaving, but was forced into his family’s business.
When we went through the recorded deaths, I’d listed his name.
Hopefully, Mikhail opened that rug shop he always dreamed of.
“Okay, but—”
She turned another page, and I sensed a pattern forming.
“Five years ago, Project Sandman. There were mass disappearances of Variant children being reported, and none of our agents could track down the source. Your ability not only assisted in locating the doctor, but helped rehabilitate the children that were being experimented on.”
I rolled my eyes. “All I needed to do was create an illusion of myself as his perfect victim; he found me, not the other way around.”
Illusions were far more tedious to create and took more brainpower than I could handle anymore.
“What?” Leo snapped his head to the side, eyes blazing red. “Alex, you can’t be serious—”
“Projects Barrier, Anabranch, Ice Cap, Mangrove—” Dahlia went on before I finally held up a hand.
“Alright, I got it,” I sighed. “Yeah, I’ve been around, but so have other Heroes. There’s plenty of third class to choose from.”
Leo was simmering beside me, and as the heat started to grow in the room, Reed lifted a finger. All at once, it dissipated. I glanced to the side and Leo was gasping for air while Reed smirked.
“Sorry, can’t let him overheat. The furniture is too nice, you know?”
I nodded carefully before turning back to Dahlia. “I don’t understand why it has to be me.”
She closed my file and leaned forward on her elbows.
“Because we don’t have anyone else left.
For nearly four years, the VIA has been working on trapping this organization and dismantling it.
Heroes have lost their lives, some have gone AWOL, and we don’t even have a name to call these bastards.
We’ve given you time, and I think it’s been quite generous. ”
“In fact, I’m not even sure how it’s gone on this long—this ‘Minnie Hernandez’ has used every loophole in our policies to get you this far.
But it’s time to come back, Daydream. This organization is growing each day and has been fast tracking their activities since that building collapse three years ago. You were friends with Hopper, yes?”
My heart stopped. “Yes.”
She leaned back as if she’d found her trump card. “Don’t you want to take down the ones who killed him?”
I was sure my body had turned to ice. My eyes went to Leo, who kept his own gaze pinned to the floor.
I hadn’t gone digging for information about the collapse that killed Joon—all I knew was that a mission had gone wrong; that’s all I needed to know.
Hero work was risky, and Joon caught the worst end of it.
I couldn’t stomach the details, no matter how much I wanted them.
Even Minnie had agreed that it would be too much.
Back then, I’d deleted all my social media accounts. I refused to read the papers or turn on the news. I’d isolated myself completely in hopes of remaining ignorant of what had really happened, why we didn’t have a body to bury. I needed to keep him whole in my mind.
“This is your chance,” Dahlia continued, and there was no doubt that manipulation was her go-to tool. “Take your revenge. Help us take them down… for Hopper.”
Something crawled inside my chest, angry and raging and… desperate. I didn’t have a goal, no sense of which way was up, just endless grief. No closure, no way to move forward. I swallowed hard before looking Dahlia in the eye with steel in my back.
“This is my last mission,” I demanded. “After this, I’m done. The VIA will release me.”
She pursed her lips, and I wasn’t sure if she was high enough on the leadership board to even make such a call. “Deal. If you help us take them down, all of them, we’ll wipe your name from our records. You’ll be a regular Variant on the streets. You’ll be free.”
As free as a Variant could be, anyway.