Influx (Book Four)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Stirring slightly, there is something by my feet and my one hand is restrained. Prying my eyes open I see my hand braced and Click at my feet and Alexander passed out in a chair next to me. A wretched smell invades my nostril as I breathe in the stench of smoke, singed bodies, and body order.

"That's foul," I whisper to myself as I slowly sit up. My body aches in ways only being a superhero can cause. Dr. Hayes trails into the room and makes a face at the smell.

"Every time I come back in, I get smacked in the face with the stench," he whispers to me before gently taking my bad hand. I cringe at the pain as he unwraps it and presses on it slightly.

"Akeno did a decent job of healing your hand, it will probably feel better within a few days rather than taking two months," he says reassuringly before helping me rewrap the water-resistant ace bandage.

"Shower, I need a shower," I say, and he helps me up and stabilizes me before we walk into the next room. I rummage around for clothes and find some of Alexander's and quickly hop into the scolding hot water. It burns my skin and some of the surface burns I have from running around in the flames, but I just relax and let it sting.

Patting myself dry, I use a hair tie to make the oversized t-shirt into something that fits, and I tighten the drawstring on the sweatpants before walking into the quiet living room. Grabbing the detached keyboard, I start writing a report while scrubbing through hours of footage we have from Times Square. I answer emails and texts from the Circa City team.

"You seem to be feeling better," my favorite voice says, and I tilt my head back to see a freshly showered and shaved Alexander leaning right by me.

"My hand is still sore, but I feel rested," I say, and he walks around and sits next to me.

"Everyone but Aviva is showering right now, and Aviva is being seen personally by Dr. Hayes to check her lungs," he says softly, and I nod and finish my report.

"How did you hurt your hand?" He asks me and I flex my sore hand.

"When I knocked Cathleen out of the way of that bomb, I wrapped my left hand around the back of her head, so it didn't smash into the cement," I say, and Alexander looks surprised.

"I didn't know you did that," Lena's voice says from across the room I sigh.

"I wasn't expecting a thank you or anything. I would rather have a broken hand then you have a broken skull," I say, and she tentatively takes a seat on my other side.

"You always protected me even though I was supposed to be the one protecting you," Cathleen muses sadly.

"What do you mean?" Aviva's voice asks and she walks into the room and joins us.

"I was the only one who truly ever understood that Cathleen's power wasn't that strange or different from the rest of our families. It functions in the same way that we constantly absorb the shadows or electricity around us and can manipulate it accordingly. She just has the opposite of light, dark," I say as I push my report up and send things to the lead investigator we are working with.

"I never knew that," Aviva says, and Cathleen grabs her hand.

"That's because I always was slightly embarrassed that my drastically younger sister had to be the one to cheer me on and push me to be stronger," Cathleen admits, and I chuckle.

"I was the golden child because I got mom's powers and I took a liking to archery and Benjamin was over the moon about that. But I always looked up to Lena for how brave she was and how hard she worked," I say, and I feel three surprised gazes on me.