“No. Look up above the city.”
I could hear a car door slam. She had been working a double, and I had to assume she was working in an ambulance. I could hear Gretchen’s voice, her temporary partner in the background.
“What am I?—”
The fire flared, creating a ball of fire that filled the sky. I needed her attention. She gasped loud enough to be dramatic. At that rate, I was going to melt my phone showing off.
“When are you taking me flying?”
“Fire, remember?”
“Not fair.”
I didn’t have a way to call Hellcat, and I didn’t have time to sit on a roof brooding until she showed up. There weren’t many people in my life I could rely on, but I knew without a doubt that Lei, despite her joking, stood in my corner.
“I need a favor.”
“Superhero asking me?—”
“Lei.” The one word stopped her from launching into another tirade. Aiden’s life was on the line, and I didn’t have time to start our typical banter.
“Anything. You’re taking this hero thing seriously.”
“I’m trying.”
I wanted nothing more than to arrive at the bridge and trade blows with Smoke. That was the anger speaking, and with Aiden’s life on the line, I needed to be smart. He had made a statement the morning after our first sleepover. It would either solve this standoff, or it’d be putting a lot of people in danger.
“Are you still friendly with the dispatcher?”
“Yvonne? Of course I am. Do you know she justdivorced her husband and is dating a stripper from CockWalk?”
Lei. I loved her, but sometimes she made me wonder why we were friends. “Yeah, I need you to get her to do a call.”
“Is somebody in trouble?”
“Aiden.”
“Oh.” For the first time in our friendship, she didn’t have a quip to give. “I like him. He’s given you some heart.”
Heart, it wasn’t a word I ever used to describe myself. But the more I thought about it, I agreed. Aiden had pulled down my walls and worked his way where few had tread.
“Me too.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you to get a call out over dispatch.”
“To who?”
I closed my eyes, debating if this was the right decision. If this was the old Xander, I’d charge in without a plan. It had always been me against the world. But now, with Lei, Aiden, and even Hellcat, I was discovering I couldn’t be an army of one.
“Everyone.”
There was a pause. “Did you just give me a dramatic end of scene pause? Damn, you really have been studying up on your superhero one-liners.”
“Lei!” I barked.
She relented. “Tell me the plan.”
