The storm rattled the windows in the building, which was an old reformed warehouse. It wasn’t as quiet as Scott’s old building. However, Mike had put soundproofing runes on the walls. Even with those, he thought he could hear babies crying.
Which was impossible. He knew what the triplets sounded like when they cried – he babysat for Knight and Mal for four hours. The crying would start first one, then the other, then all three, and it was cacophony of screams; until he calmed them down, one at a time.
Tonight, it wasn’t the imaginary babies that were keeping him up, and it really wasn’t the storm. He got up and went to the window, looking out at the city, at the wind bending the plants in the balcony gardens, tossing around the water in the hot tub on the balcony, the rain pelting the window, the lightning blazing the sky in a bright instant. One, two, three, four – boom! The thunder followed the light.
He looked out at the storm, a symbol of what was going on in his heart, at the roiling in his gut. Scott had met the man, the CEO of Texitron. At his apartment. Already that didn’t sound good.
Scott tried out the guns, and then was seduced. That’s not what bothered Mike. Scott could sleep with whoever he wanted, he had gotten used to that now. What bothered him the most was the danger Scott was putting himself in with a Technomancer.
Before he had met Scott, Mike was in charge of a group of heroes in Paragon City called Safe Havens. It was a place that heroes that didn’t fit anywhere could go and become members of a group, of a family. It was fine, until the Technomancers came.
Highly secretive, full of magic that Mike didn’t understand and couldn’t wrap his head around, Jack LeBeauregard was a junior member of this order. He fell in love with Raina, who was married to Jack, who was Mike’s best friend. LeBeau was a homewrecker in Mike’s opinion, and Mike did everything he could to thwart LeBeau in all his dealings.
They doubled back on him. Saying that he threatened the sanctity and the mission of Safe Havens, the Technomancers, with LeBeau in the lead, got the entire group to turn against Mike, to blacklist him and kick him out of the group. Even Jack turned his back on him. And Kalius, his own lover. Tossed to the curb like so much trash.
His hands were curled into fists, as the thunder boomed soon after lighting lit up the room. One – boom!
When Clint kicked him out of the Insurrection, he had the same kicked-in-the-gut feeling. He was not going to let those bastards get their claws in his life again.
He couldn’t go up against the Technomancer on his own, because he didn’t know what he was up against. He glanced back at the bed, at his husband sleeping soundly. Did Scott understand the danger he was putting himself in?
One two – rumble.
The storm was abating, along with Mike’s fury. He would have to do what he could to protect his husband; and the first thing to do was to gather spells.
Time for a new grimoire, he thought, heading to the library.