Dashing devil 4 shadowed.., p.35
Dashing Devil 4: Shadowed Savior, page 35
Boyd decided that they would be renaming that later as a chagrined chuckle escaped him as he smiled at the still-cheering group of hospital staff. He guessed he should have trusted Hope’s notably good judgment of people more when she’d selected her guest list.
“Seriously,” he joked with a chuckle, “you’re going to make me blush if you keep it up. And I hate blushing… I’m much too pale for it.”
“Awww, shy Darling is so cute,” Silvie played off his joke, floating up to kiss his cheek before disengaging from Boys and whispering, “Stay on his arm, Hope.”
Silvie then floated forward and addressed the group, “Hi everyone! I’m Silver and we are The Devoted. We want to say thank you for taking care of Hopewing. I doubt you know how much your friendship has meant to her over the last six months, but I sure do.”
The silver-haired hero nodded emphatically, gesturing with wide movements as she floated in front of the group. “We only got to talk once a week or so, but you all brightened her day every single day and I can’t express how thankful I am for that,” she added with sweet gravitas. “She talks about you often. I even know some of your names, like… oh, you have to be Morgan, right?”
“Um, yes that’s me,” a thirty-something brunette with pinched though still pretty features replied with uncertain delight. She had one blue and one green eye which lent her a certain exoticness that Silvie had likely used to identify her.
“And you’re Jake and Kevin, but I know most of you more by deed than what you look like, unfortunately, so I don’t want to risk guessing wrong if I keep going so let’s not turn it into a game.” She ended with a giggle.
“Instead, just know that as thankful as you might be to us for saving New Haven and your homes, we are doubly thankful for your making Hopewing’s time here bearable. To us, you are the Heroes, and I’m not just saying that.”
“Yes,” Boyd guided Hope forward, wrapping his wing up around her and covering her hand on his arm with his right hand. “I’m afraid I’ve been kept out of the loop for reasons we can’t go into. But Hopewing means a lot to me, and I understand she’s been going through a rough time here in New Eden. Thank you—each of you—for helping her.”
He gave Hope’s arm a gentle squeeze to encourage her to talk. While he was expressing her wishes for the event on her behalf, he could only speak for her so much.
“Yes,” Hope nodded with a pleased smile on her gorgeous face, “please, at least for today let’s just be the friends I view you as.”
There was a general round of laughter from the crowd.
“When have we ever not been friends?” one of the younger women called out.
“Of course, we’re friends!” another shouted.
“You bring us little treats almost every day,” another added.
Hope’s wings shivered in excitement at the words, and her feathers brushing against the sensitive inner folds of his wings sent shivers down his spine.
“You listen to me complain about my boyfriend at least once a week,” another struggled to get out over her laughter.
“We invited you to our wedding,” one of the men called out.
“Although we totally understand why you couldn’t come,” the woman beside him added quickly. “It would have been amazing if you had come, but you’re a Hero and Heroes can’t just make public appearances like that. We get it.” She didn’t really sound like she was thrilled about it, but she wasn’t holding a grudge, either.
“I really would have loved to go,” Hope said sadly, her wings drooping under his own. “You two are so sweet.”
“No, we really do get it,” the man replied. “What we really want to know, is why you didn’t tell us that Archpriss was such a dick?”
Boyd couldn’t suppress a chuckle at the new nickname.
“Crap!” a different woman spoke up. “You let me say all those things about how dreamy he seemed. Awww, that must have been awful. You should have said something.”
“Yeah,” A middle-aged woman said, “I’m sorry I said you were lucky to have a man like him.”
“Speaking of lucky, though,” a younger woman spoke up, “what I want to know is where you were hiding this hunk?”
“Um… well, we really aren’t supposed to disparage other Heroes,” Hope said shyly, “and Boyd’s… er, Dashing Devil’s whole existence was classified until just recently, so I couldn’t talk about him.”
“Te-he-he-he,” Silvie giggled her bell-like giggle as she waved Hope forward. “Come here, Hun. This conversation is likely to involve a lot of griping about Archangel, which I might find fun, but will just make Darling grumpy. Oh… and everyone? Please just call Dashing Devil Boyd—it’s his real name and he prefers it, unless he’s working.”
Silvie twirled in the air, her arms spread wide as her namesake hair floated around her like a halo. “Anyway, gossipers over here! We’ll get all the juicy details out of the way so we can enjoy the rest of the party while Boyd fills everyone else in on the important parts.”
Boyd might have expected some hesitance in the crowd to admit to being a gossip, based on Silvie’s word choice, but that didn’t stop about a dozen of the women and both men from gathering with her and Hope off to the side of the buffet.
Raev sauntered forward toward the buffet while purring, “Don’t mind me, I had a light breakfast, and this spread looks divine.”
This earned a few chuckles from the crowd as they parted to let her through. It didn’t look like discomfort drove the behavior, just a general sense of getting out of the way of someone important who was passing by. Boyd assumed it was, in part, due to their profession—likely something picked up in crowded hospital halls.
Mindy and Laura stepped up on his left and right respectively, and a glance over his shoulder revealed Tinker, who was trying to hide in his shadow. She seemed comfortable there, so he decided to let her stay there, for now. Once the initial response to their arrival was over, he would find her a better comfort zone.
“Nurses are a bunch of jackals when it comes to gossip.” Laura chuckled. “They’ll all hate Archangel by the time this is over. I give the rest of the staff in their hospitals till the end of the week. I doubt it was intentional on Hope’s part, but inviting them was a stroke of genius.”
The remaining twenty or so hospital staff watched them, mostly him, expectantly.
Boyd was about to speak, intending to urge them to relax and just mingle, as there wasn’t really a plan for anything more than that.
One of the older women present, likely in her late forties, cut him off with a gasped, “Laura?!”
“Laura Grant, that is you, isn’t it?” she continued, peering at Laura as if not believing it was really her. “What the heck are you doing here?”
Chapter 36
“Yes, it’s me,” Laura smiled and waved, “I took an assignment as the Devoted’s trauma specialist. I’m afraid I’ll be missing this year’s nurse’s summit, but I’m sure Glorith will be well represented.”
“What happened to little miss ‘never get involved with Heroes’ from last year's summit?” another woman asked, this one likely in her late thirties.
It reminded Boyd that Laura was young for the job she had apparently earned by her own skills and merit. Her peers would not have responded to her so favorably if she hadn’t earned her position or had been a nepotism hire.
About five of them made their way forward toward Laura, including the two that had spoken, while the others broke back off into clumps with some rearranging. At least that was taken care of.
Mindy slid her arm around his and leaned into his shoulder while a small group gathered around them. When Boyd felt Tinker reach up and take a handful of his still folded wing on that side so didn’t wrap it up around Mindy.
“What can I say,” Laura chuckled, “they floated this big lug into my ER a couple of times too many. Got me to feeling he’d get himself killed without a good nurse to put him back together when he gets himself all torn up.”
“Ha!” one of the younger women in the group let out with a laugh and then eyed Boyd up and down, “I’m sure that’s all he got you feeling. Damn, they sure grow them big where you come from.”
Boyd chuckled along with the laughing women as Laura said, “That’s all I’ll admit to—at least publicly.”
After the laughter died down, the forty-something nurse asked, “On a more serious note, what does this mean for the distribution of those, ahem,” she glanced around and frowned at Boyd cautiously before finishing cryptically with, “materials?”
“I actually have something for you to replace that,” Laura assured her, “and you don’t have to worry about discretion here. The room is known for its security and this team in particular can be trusted. I’m sure you saw the broadcast.”
The woman’s dark eyes moved to his but didn’t stay there long. They shifted subtly up to his brow line, but at least she pretended to meet his gaze. “That was… Well, I’m sorry for being so blunt, it but it was stupid.” She scowled, “I’ve known people who have disappeared for less.”
“I appreciate the concern, but I cannot be disappeared, as you put it, for what I said today. Not legally. I am familiar with the risks I took and my rights as a Hero.” He kept his tone polite and friendly but let just a little growl through as he continued, “If they try to illegally disappear my team or I, we will stop them and expose their criminal behavior. It’s a win-win, really.”
“On a happier note,” Laura cut in, holding out a dozen small data cards that could be slotted into pretty much any viewscreen device. “Tinker made these for me, I planned to mail them out while I was in the city, but since you’re here I trust you will get them into the right hands.”
The older nurse arched an eyebrow as she took the data cards. “They’ll discreetly give you access to Glorith’s medical network, which has all the newest information on Changed, including the new methods Boyd announced to the city today. Not much has changed since last year's update, but there are a few papers worth reading.”
Boyd blinked and ran through his list of rules and bylaws to confirm that he was not required by law to report the flagrantly illegal—at least in New Eden—activity. It was a civil matter he wasn’t required to get involved with, but should probably report. Today had been such a big day that he would probably forget to, though. It sounded like work, and he had already more than pulled his weight for the day.
“Kuh-he,” Mindy laughed and pulled his arm more firmly into her.
Her suit might look amazing, but he was disappointed that it reduced the softness of her chest.
“So, that’s how it is,” his goth love said. “It certainly explains the warmer-than-expected reception. But, as this is clearly a work conversation and Boyd is meant to be unwinding after three days of intense training and an eventful day, we’ll excuse ourselves.”
As Mindy guided him away Boyd rumbled, “It was a pleasure meeting you.” The group all replied with one pleasantry or another before they huddled around Laura and discussed the data cards while Tinker shuffled forward behind Boyd.
Kayla stepped up to his right and looked up at him. When he glanced at her, she raised a rather expressive brow that clearly asked what she had just witnessed had been about.
“I didn’t see a thing,” Boyd shrugged with a smirk that drew forth that easy smile from Kayla.
Mindy had been leading him towards the delectable buffet, but they were intercepted by seven of the younger women with questions burning in their eyes.
“Hi! Um… so it’s Boyd, right?” one of them asked holding up a small notebook and a pen. “Could I get your autograph? But… as Dashing Devil?”
Boyd smiled at the blushing woman and carefully unlaced his hand from Mindy’s to take the proffered notebook. Mindy held up a larger pen she extracted from… somewhere. He froze for a moment because he could only think of one place that would serve as a pocket on her suit, but he hadn’t seen her reach there.
While he had learned to use a standard sized pen, his penmanship suffered, and he had overlooked practicing his signature with his new name. He had to make a decision on the spot but after picturing how he wanted it to come out.
Mindy murmured, ‘I’m glad you’re more or less merged for this decision. I like that a lot.’
Satisfied, he asked for her name and put pen to paper, writing a short message thanking her for being Hope’s friend and signing with his new signature. While he hadn’t practiced his new name, penmanship had been drilled into him early and often. He aimed for a bold start with the Ds, but kept the rest sleek, the letters flowing into each other. With a grin, he added slight curves to the top of the v that could arguably be horns, to give it a dramatic flair.
It might seem like a small thing, but he was sure that it would be publicly analyzed at some point. And it certainly wouldn’t be the last time he was asked. It wasn’t unheard of for some of the public’s opinion to be swayed one way or the other by the way a Hero signed their name. Boyd only hoped it wasn’t determined that he had the signature of a serial killer or something.
“Thanks so much!” the young woman bubbled as she accepted the notebook back and beamed up at him after reading the message. She asked, “Did you really grow up with Hopewing?”
“I did,” Boyd replied with a grin. “She was always an angel, but I knew her before she got the wings.”
“Please tell me you’re the boy who would make her brownies when she was sad,” the young woman gushed. “She talks about that boy all the time, but will never say what happened to him.”
Her face fell. “I actually worked in a PAC for a short period as a Caretaker. I couldn’t take it once I found out what it was like, so I hope he didn’t… you know.”
Boyd assumed she meant dropped out of the Hero program but got a queasy feeling that seemed to originate from his other self. Mindy swiped it aside with some of her calming purple mist, so he assumed this wasn’t the time to address whatever it was.
Instead, he chuckled, “That was me. Even without the wings, a sad angel is just about the saddest thing you can imagine. They gave out brownies one day when she was sad, and it made her smile. They didn’t give them out as often as she wanted them, so I figured out the recipe and would bake them for her.”
“Kuh-he,” Mindy laughed before adding, “Mind you, this was when he was like… eight.”
Boyd saw Kayla withdraw a notepad and pen of her own to begin taking notes. She might be able to talk him into sharing that little tidbit, with them wanting the public on the devil and angle romance train.
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” the woman cooed, “now I’m definitely hoping you whoop Archangel’s butt. Sorry for being on the fence until now, his public face was just so good, you know? After seeing the way he was behaving earlier and meeting you… it was all just lies, wasn’t it?”
“I still haven’t seen any of it myself, but…” Boyd began.
“I have and yes, it’s all lies,” Mindy cut in. “Boyd is nothing like he described. Archangel isn’t the Hero he pretends to be, either.”
“Hi, I’m Kayla Bailey,” Kayla introduced herself as she stepped forward with a smile. “As a reporter, I have to take care in the opinions I make public, but I will say that after spending just a little time in Boyd’s company I am certain he isn’t anything like Archangel would like you to believe.”
“That much is clear after just meeting him,” one of the off-duty nurses laughed and turned to Boyd with a wink, “unless the uncontrollable urge to jump into your bed starts later.”
“No,” Boyd chuckled, “there won’t be any of that today. Now, what’s your name, or am I filling this out to someone else?”
“Um, could you do one for me and my little brother?” the woman asked a little shyly.
“Of course,” Boyd smiled, “what’s your brother's name, we’ll start with him.”
From there, Boyd spent some time writing brief encouraging messages and signing autographs with his new name. Raev, being the amazing woman that she was, brought him a large plate covered in various kinds and cuts of meat—most of them on little skewers or toothpicks. She would pop one into his mouth for him to chew and swallow while he was writing, so he would be ready to talk to the text autograph seeker.
“He also had a light breakfast, and all those muscles need their nutrients, or they might start shrinking on us,” Raev explained with a wink after the third time she popped a morsel into Boyd’s mouth, earning a round of laughter from the growing group. As such things went, when they noticed him signing things others began to gather.
‘This is actually really sweet,’ Mindy cooed, ‘and she won’t mind me sharing. She was concerned about you having to sign the name ‘Dashing Devil’… worried that it might upset you… so she thought feeding you might help make you feel better. I’ll admit to being surprised that it hasn’t upset you, at least a little.’
Boyd shrugged as he accepted the next thing to sign, a napkin. He had already gone through those who sought autographs and carried things with them just for that purpose and was signing things for opportunists at that point. He might not be the biggest fan of his Hero name, but that wouldn’t change it. Besides, it had a certain ring to it that was growing on him.
He reached out with his tail and entwined it into his lover's closest fluffy appendage in thanks for the thought.
Soon, he was through the impromptu signing session and able to move Tinker to somewhere a little quieter. She was holding up but needed a break. No one had tried to give her more than polite attention, fortunately—the hospital staff likely recognized her as someone who didn’t want it. Still, it had been a hard day for her; the little introvert’s social battery was well and truly depleted.
Boyd found a table in a corner that would let her see the majority of the room without being on display herself. Mindy and Raev broke off from Boyd at that point to mingle and sign some autographs of their own while he got her settled before getting her a drink and some snacks.
