Today’s power fell into that last category.Since awaking, Vic had been able to speed-read. Nothing all thatgreat, really; nothing that would show up in a comic book any timesoon. But he was scanning signs all along the road as he drove thecity bus, reading the words in a blur. Actually, it wasn’t evenreally reading—he just looked at a block of text and knew instantlywhat it said. The sports section of the paper was section D, and hereached that page in the time it took him to eat less than half hissandwich. In the time it took the jerk outside his bus to knocktwice…
The knock came a third time. ::Goaway!:: Vic shouted mentally.
It would’ve scared off even the toughestpunk. Visually Vic was a daunting specimen of a man, buff andbrawny and covered with tattoos. Piercings in his eyebrow and bothears. Bald head above angry eyes. A devilish goatee that justlooked wicked. He could intimidate most anyone just byglaring at them. When he told someone to go away, peoplelistened.
Except the asshole outside his bus.
The next knock was punctuated with a woman’svoice. “Vic! I know you’re in there!”
Taking another bite of his sandwich, Vicgroaned. He recognized the voice, all right. Kendra Jones was anofficer with the Richmond Police, and the only person Vic had evertold about his powers. In the time they’d known each other, they’dsort of become friends, and Kendra’s cell number was the onlycontact in Vic’s phone that didn’t belong to Matt or the busservice. Many times, Vic had had to ask for Kendra’s help, and viceversa.
But that didn’t mean he was glad to see her.Lately she’d taken it upon herself to convince him to join thepolice force. And as much as Vic might use his powers for good,that wasn’t about to happen.
Still, he couldn’t just ignore her. If hedidn’t open the door, it wouldn’t take her long to call his cell,and then what would he say? He couldn’t quite see her fromwhere he sat behind the driver’s seat, but she must’ve seen himcrossing the street, so she knew he was inside.
With a disgruntled grunt, he pushed himselfup off the seat and grabbed the handle to open the doors. As theyfolded open, Kendra grinned up at him from beneath the brim of hercap. “Howdy, stranger.”
“What do you want?” Vic groused.
“Hello to you, too.” Kendra began to climb upthe steps leading into the bus.
Almost immediately, a handful of peoplebehind her surged forward. Vic’s hand tightened on the door handle.“Out of service,” he hollered.
In one fluid motion, Kendra turned anddisplayed her badge. “Official police business, people. Move along,please. Another bus will be here shortly.”
Vic heard some moans and curses, but slammedthe doors shut as Kendra came inside. He sat down again, and shestretched out on the seat across the aisle. Taking off her cap, shescratched her head without dislodging any of the hair pulled backinto a loose ponytail at her nape and sighed. “Happy New Year, bythe way,” she said. “How was your holiday?”
With a grunt, Vic shrugged and concentratedon finishing his sandwich. “Fine. Busy. Matt’s parents had us downChristmas Eve.” Kendra’s brows shot up in interest, but Vic shookhis head. “It was a nightmare. His sister has so many damnkids…”
“Kids like you,” Kendra pointed out.
“Kids annoy me,” Vic corrected.
Kendra laughed. “Oh, please. We both knowyou’re just a soft teddy bear inside that grizzly facade. Howis Matt doing, by the way?”
“Fine,” Vic said again. Thinking of his lovermade him glance at the ring on his left hand, the ring Matt hadgiven him as a promise.
Kendra saw the glance and grinned. “So when’sthe date?”
Vic considered playing dumb—whatdate?—but Kendra had been at the jewelry store when Matt gavethe ring to Vic. Leave it to his lover to pick a store targeted forburglary. Luckily Vic had been nearby, and with the police’s help,had put an end to what might have been a potentially disastroushostage situation. Sometimes his super powers really didcome in handy.
Now he just shrugged. He had his man; Mattyhad wanted rings, so they got rings, too. But the date was still upin the air.
“Don’t be one of those couples engaged forten years,” Kendra warned. “I want an invite, you know.”
“We can’t marry here,” Vic reminded her.Virginia was not one of the states to embrace same-sex marriage,and given the politics on Capitol Hill, it’d probably be the lastone to legalize it, if ever.
But Kendra shrugged. Crossing her legs, sheset her cap on her knee. “Then go to D.C. That’s an hour and a halfup the interstate. I want to see you in white.”
“I’m not wearing white,” Vic growled. “Not tobe rude, but are you here? Ruining my lunch break…”
“Ruining? Please.” Kendra waved a hand in theair to brush him off. “Can’t a friend stop by and say hi every nowand then?”
Vic narrowed his eyes. Kendra never just‘stopped by.’ She always had something up her sleeve. He could’veread her mind and been done with it, but he respected her too muchto do something so invasive. Part of learning to deal with histelepathic ability had been drawing boundaries—both for himself andfor others. The only person he had no boundaries with was Matt.
Still, he didn’t need to be a mind-reader toguess why she had ‘stopped by.’ “If this is about joining theforce,” he started.
She didn’t even try to deny it. “There are afew spots opening up next month. One of our officers is moving upto detective, and they’re posting more rank and file positions,too.”
“You make it sound so glamorous,” Vic saidwith a smirk.
“I think you’d be a great cop,” Kendrainsisted. “We could really use someone like you on the force. Withyour powers—”
“You know I can’t control them,” Vicinterrupted. “It’s luck of the draw, or Russian roulette. Not allof them can be used to fight crime. Hell, I’m not a damnsuperhero.”
Kendra shook her head. “But you
