27. Midnight Hotels (Patreon)

Levi knocked on the door, glancing left and right. “Hey! Firaaaa! You home—”

The door opened. A hand grabbed him by the collar and yanked him inside, and the door slammed shut again.

“Wow! I haven’t been invited in like this in a long time,” Levi said, hands up, his eyes wide in surprise and excitement.

Fira glared at him. “Fuck off! They’re going to kill me! You—”

“Whoa, whoa. Who’s going to kill you?” Levi asked, startled.

Fira gestured wildly, exasperated. “The—the supers! The ones at the Gate! They’re going to kill us for what you…”

She paused. Her brows furrowed. Her eyes flicked up and down. “You’re alive?”

“I’ve got regeneration, remember? I’m fine. And so are you. The guys at the Gate were just trying to scare us. They aren’t actually going to hunt us down,” Levi said, waving his hand dismissively.

Flabbergasted, Fira waved her hands at him. “They killed you! Tried…tried to—you were dead!”

“Badly injured. I—”

“The upper half of your body was gone!” Fira whisper-screamed, borderline hysterical.

Levi opened his mouth, then shut it. He shrugged. “It’s a powerful healing factor.”

“That powerful? You’re basically immortal, if you can just regenerate half your body!” Fira shrieked.

In an instant, Levi closed the distance between them. His hand covered her mouth, cutting off any further sound, other arm wrapping around her head from behind to pin her in place. Fira struggled, but his hands tightened, firm as iron around her head. Her eyes widened, and her chest heaved.

Eyes narrowed, Levi stared her directly in the eyes. “Never say that. Never. Don’t even think it. I am not immortal, you got it? I’m not even that strong of a regenerator. Understand?”

Fira nodded, tears glimmering in her eyes.

At that, Levi softened. He released her and stepped back, putting his hands up. His eyes fell, unable to meet Fira’s. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Look, I-I’ve had bad experiences before, when people, people, misunderstood my skill. I overreacted. I’m sorry.”

For a moment, Fira stood there, gasping for air. Abruptly, her eyes flashed. “Get out.”

“Fira, I’m sorry, please—”

“Get out, or I recreate what that super did to you.” Fire burned in her palm. She pointed it toward him, face twisting in fury.

Levi backed away. His shoulders hit the door. He groped for the doorknob and turned it, still not looking away. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But don’t get scared, and don’t run, okay, Fira? Everything is okay. No one’s coming to kill you. You can trust me—”

He backed through the door, and Fira immediately slammed the door in his face.

Levi sighed. He looked at the door and sighed again, then put a hand on his forehead and slowly dragged it down to his chin. “Fuck. I fucked up bigtime. Fuck!”

He looked at the door, then shook his head and sighed. “No shower for me tonight, then.”

Abruptly, he crouched, thinking. His brows furrowed. Do I leave? Or do I call it here and cut Fira off? I don’t want to scare her brother off, but more than that, I can’t afford for anyone I don’t completely trust to know the truth. True, it’s not as if she’s sure, but she’s guessing it. That’s high risk. I either decide to trust her, go dark, or kill her.

Wait, that’s three things. I can’t use ‘either!’

Whatever. Not important.

Trust her. She has no reason to trust Alpha, either. He’s as much a threat to her brother as he is to me. Plus, am I really going to ditch the precog game here? If I raise a hand against her—no, even considering it means there’s a possibility her brother has already foreseen the future where I do exactly that. It’s not certain that his powers even work like that. For all I know, he’s a limited precog, or a true precog without the requisite comprehension skills, or that he only sees the future that DOES happen, instead of the futures that COULD happen. All possible. Precog is a wide, wide range of skills. I don’t want Alpha to have any of them, but that’s not the point. The point is, just thinking about killing Fira isn’t necessarily a problem.

Doing it, though? No good. The precog will know. That’s the point of no return.

But…killing her. It’s the one way to keep my secret, for sure. What says she doesn’t decide to use me as a bargaining chip, if her brother’s life is threatened?

Right, but it means trashing all my hard work so far. Killing her means I’m as much on the precog’s shit list as Alpha. It means hunting him becomes infinitely harder. I mean, yes, there is a possibility that the precog can’t see what happens to his sister. A chance. A small chance. If I kill Fira, I’m betting on that chance. And if I’m wrong, I’m fucked.

Okay. Third option. What was it?

Oh, right. Go dark.

Fuck, man. I’m too old for this shit. Or rather, Maury is. I go dark again, she isn’t kidding. She’s either dead or in a retirement home. She’s indispensable to me. I lose here, we’re talking decades before I can pose a serious threat to Alpha, if I ever can again. Maury isn’t wrong. This is it. This is the last shot. After this, I lose Maury, and everything gets that much harder.

The door opened. Fira stared down at Levi. Levi stared up at her from where he crouched on the floor.

Levi grinned. “Hi.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. Gesturing him in, she backed away at the same pace, one hand held back, pointing at his face, the other hand outstretched to guard her throat. “Come back in. Tell me about the threat.”

“Smart, smart,” Levi said, nodding. He tensed.

The point of no return. Kill. Vanish. Trust.

Can I?

Can I trust someone else?

Can I afford to not trust her?

Levi closed his eyes.