Hearts of Darkness by Andrea Speed

Author:Andrea Speed [Speed, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-63477-549-6
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

6

BY THE time Kaede woke up, he found breakfast waiting for him as Ash had finally figured out how to order in from a local cafe that delivered to the building.

Over croissants and mini quiches, Kaede discovered the bodies were front-page news. Apparently Whiplash and Paladin had survived, along with Mastermind, but Crusher, Dagger, and Nighthawk were definitely dead, and it seemed the paper had no idea what killed Nighthawk. Not only was the neurotoxin super lethal, but after an hour, it was gone from the system. It was his dad’s fuck you to toxicologists everywhere.

The newspaper made it a mystery, why they were at the warehouse, why they were dead, where the rest of the Dark Legion was. There was lots of speculation about who could have possibly killed a monstrosity like Crusher, and that speculation fell on other supersteroid victims, such as Grudge, and mad-scientist-created mutants of different yet similar stripes, such as Black Wolf or Smash. There was some conjecture that there was a “new menace” in town, but they didn’t offer any guesses or theories.

New menace. Kaede tasted the words, rolled them over in his mind, and wasn’t sure they were apt. He didn’t feel new or like a menace. “Think that’d do as my nickname?” Kaede asked Ash. “Menace?”

Ash seemed to think it over as he tore pieces off his croissant and ate them in tiny bites. This was how he ate all bread products, and Kaede wondered if he really was new to these types of bakery items. These kinds of foods were universal now, but he had no idea if they’d ever gotten to rural Laos, or if the Hans had exposed Ash to that kind of diet. Maybe he just preferred eating in this fussy, weirdly dainty manner.

“You could do worse,” Ash finally said.

Well, he couldn’t argue with that. “Have you thought of a nickname for yourself?”

“I’m Ash.”

“That’s your name.”

“Yes.”

Kaede stared at him over the table, wondering where the disconnect was. “Your nickname and your name can’t be the same thing. It defeats the entire purpose of a nickname.”

“Oh.” He chewed on another bit of croissant before replying. “What would you call me?”

That was a good question. Several ideas came to mind, but none he felt he could share. Finally he thought of something. “What about Kintaro?”

“The Japanese hero?” At Kaede’s nod, he appeared to weigh the idea while chewing thoughtfully. “Am I especially heroic?”

“You’re strong. Kintaro was strong.”

“True.”

Kaede considered their names side by side. “But Kintaro and the Menace sounds like a really bad sitcom.”

“What’s a sitcom?” Ash asked.

“A comedy on television that usually isn’t very funny.” Kaede folded up the paper and set it aside. “At least Moreau will be furious.”

Ash popped the last piece of croissant in his mouth. “Why? The Dark Legion were his enemies.”

“Yes, but his name is Dark Justice. Only he gets to mete out the punishment, at least as far as he’s concerned.” Kaede wondered if he was going to make an appearance today. He might.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.