“He doesn’t want me to get hurt,” Vic said.“They’re his powers, and he thinks if anything happened to mebecause of them, it’d be his fault.”
“But you can’t not use them!” Kendraargued. “I’ve seen you—you can’t turn your back on someone whoneeds help, anyone. What about Sadie?”
“What about Sadie?” Vic countered, buthe knew what she meant. Vic had found the dog that had taken overhis and Matt’s lives so completely one afternoon while driving towork. A bunch of kids were teasing the stray, throwing rocks andtrying to hurt the dog, or worse. If Vic couldn’t stand seeinganyone hurt, that went doubly so for animals, and he’d stepped in.When he called Kendra to press charges against the boys, she’d toldhim the truth of the matter was that the dog would probably be putdown. Matt had been angling for a pet, and one look into Sadie’schocolate eyes melted the hardest of hearts. Vic had no choice butto bring her home.
Vic shook his head. “No, okay? Just no.”Kendra opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off. “Look, evenif I could convince Matty I wanted to be a cop—which Idon’t—most of the time my powers wouldn’t be of any use to youguys. Today I can speed-read. Big deal. That doesn’t mean I’m goingto quit my job and take up copyediting. Tomorrow it’ll be somethingelse…and I don’t know what yet. It could be mundane or it could bedestructive. It might even be something that is too hard to hidefrom everyone else, so I’ll have to call in and miss my shift. I’mnot reliable, Kendra. The powers aren’t reliable.”
For a long moment, she studied him, lipspressed tight together, eyes large and wide beneath her blondebangs. Finally she sighed. “But the telepathy is always there,right?”
Vic shrugged a little and nodded grudgingly.“I can tune it out now but yeah, it’s there. Like a radio playingsoftly in the next room.”
“And the strength,” Kendra pointed out.“You’re the strongest man I’ve ever met. How much can youbench?”
Vic felt a proud grin stretch across hisface. “Before the powers, I could do three-fifty, no problem. Now?The gym doesn’t have enough weights for me to find out.”
“See?” Kendra crowed in triumph. “That rightthere makes you a more likely candidate for the force than anyoneelse in the whole city. Even without any other power, the telepathyand the strength combined will make you unstoppable. You’d—”
“Stop.” Vic held up a hand and shook his headagain. “Just stop, okay? I said no.”
“But why—”
“I don’t mind helping out when I can,” Victold her. “If I see something going down, you know I’ll step in.But I couldn’t do it every day. I won’t. I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t just Matty’s feelings on thematter; Vic didn’t want to see the underbelly of the city on adaily basis. It was bad enough he caught glimpses of it now andthen—muggers and rapists and thieves. Accidents on the interstatethat left cars and people mangled beyond repair. House fires andstolen vehicles and shattered lives. He’d had his fair share of theworst the city had to offer, and each time he’d been called to helpout, he had stepped up to the plate. But Vic didn’t think he had itin him to face crime day in and day out. Worse, to get paidto combat it. He didn’t want to profit off the misery of others,even if he were the one in the right.
No, his bus route held all the excitement hewanted out of work. If Kendra asked him to help out on a case—andshe had in the past, so Vic was sure she would again—then of coursehe’d say yes. But he wouldn’t go out looking for crime to fight. Nomatter what she might think he wasn’t a superhero.
He was simply Vic, a man whose strange superpowers came from making love to his boyfriend. No, hisfiancé. The ring on his finger was proof of that.
* * * *
Later that evening, Matt diLorenzo leanedover the stove stirring a huge pot of homemade spaghetti sauce. Heglanced at the clock—it was a hair after 8:30, which meant Vic wason the way home. Noodles were boiling in water on a back burner,and the sizzling sound of boneless country spare ribs in a thirdpan had drawn Sadie to Matt’s side. She sat on her haunches andlooked up at him with large eyes perfected by dogs everywhere.Whenever he glanced her way, she whimpered and thumped her tail onthe floor, or licked her lips and yipped. The vet had said tablescraps were bad for Sadie’s health, but what Dr. Gonzalez didn’tknow…
Stealthily, Matt pinched off an end of onerib and set it on the spoon rest. “Let it cool first,” he told thedog, who watched his every move with wide eyes. She knew he wasgoing to give her something—if it had been Vic at the stove, thedog wouldn’t have been in the kitchen. She knew which one of themwould sneak her something to eat.
The thought of Vic at the stove made Mattgrin. Yeah, right. The most Vic managed to cook were scrambledeggs, and he made them in a stoneware pot that fit into themicrowave. Matt had bought it specifically for that purpose. Viccould do toast, too, and coffee if Matt forgot to turn on themachine before he left for work in the morning, but that was theextent of Vic’s culinary knowledge. He loved to eat—and, moreimportantly, Matt loved to watch him eat—but before Matt had movedinto his life, most of Vic’s meals were take-out.
Speaking of…
Matt glanced at the clock again and clearedhis mind. He tried to focus his thoughts, though he wasn’ttelepathic like his lover. Unfortunately the powers he gave Vicduring sex didn’t actually manifest themselves in him—the most hecould claim was the ability to link his mind with his lover’s whenthey were in close proximity. At home, in the apartment theyshared, that meant the post box a few blocks away. The moment Vicdrove past
