Page 17 of Apollo

He didn’t hide a millimeter of his newly bunched brows. “Herc was mooning at Lois Lance?” He stopped himself. “Kind of think of it, maybe—”

“You mean Natasha Korra.”

“What?”

“You mean he was mooning at Natasha Korra,” she snipped.

“No, I really mean that woman’s name is Lois. And she’s really Natasha’s assistant—and, yes, a doppelgänger—who apparently fooled even you.”

He didn’t want to compare her pout to something as sweet as a plushie kitten but sexier than an anime figurine. But there was the mashup that was going to stick no matter what mental bleach he used, especially as she dropped back into her seat with a darker scowl.

“Well, crap.”

And here he was, not needing the brain bleach, after all. Not when both her syllables shook with the heavy meaning in her welling eyes.

“Hey.”

Fuck. No-no-no: she wasn’t going to cry on this drop of the proverbial hat, not on his watch.

“Monst—Irowen. Aren’t you listening?” He commanded her to tilt forward again with a small but stiff jerk of his hand. “This is where the better part comes in, all right?”

After a pause to glower at the smirking demon gigolo that approached the table, apparently as her next speed dating suitor, he stabbed the same stare into the female who refused to let go of her despair.

“So turn that shit off.” He circled a finger in the general direction of her eyes, which were harder to forget than her breasts, in their current watery state. “We’re going to do this. All of it. But only if we work together. Got it?”

Her features twisted. “Do all of what?” she demanded.

He flared his nostrils on a frustrated drag of air. “Get your sister back. Reclaim my string. Turn Reks Byrd back into a scumbag demigod. Make the mortal world safe for rock and roll again.”

His intention was only half-derogatory, but her new spurt of laughter made him yearn for a similar one-liner. Instead, the woman beat him to the punch.

“I guess that can be a thing. As long as there are no disco remixes and requests for Stairway to Heaven, right?”

He flashed his own teasing frown. “What’s wrong with Stairway to Heaven?” Or disco, for that matter, but he chose the more important hill to die on right now.

Regrettably, she’d already reset her expression to sober determination. “Can we talk about getting my sister back, instead?” But also returned to her shaky liquid stare. “Do you have any leads about where we can find the actual Natasha Korra?”

“We will soon. I mean it.” He soaked up all the verbal ink this time, making sure she absorbed every drop of his vow by grabbing her hands between his. Her fingers, as chilled and shivery as her eyes, had him holding tighter. “Lois is still with Hercules, and I’m sure they’ll get some new clues soon. But Lois needs a little rest first. It’s nearly three a.m. Los Angeles time.”

As he half-expected, the woman in his grip heeded none of the implication in his tone. Why did mortals insist on ignoring sustenance that would help them the most?

“Don’t worry,” he stressed. “I’m deploying my own elite team to help them.”

“Elite team?” She pulled free from him and lurched all the way to her feet. “All right. Now that sounds good. Hook me up with some gear. I want in.”

He rose, as well. “That could be complicated.”

Inside three seconds, she flipped a new switch. Her eager interest redlined into open hostility. “Could be compli—are you kidding? Why? Because it’s three a.m. for me too? Your weak little mortal stray?”

He cocked his head along with an eyebrow. “If you think I actually think that, maybe you need a nap too.”

“I’ll nap when I’m dead,” she snapped. “Right now, I’m only focused on getting Genny out of Ito’s clutches.”

“I know. And I really get it—”

“No, you really don’t.” She reared back, hands smoothing the air, though her fingertips still visibly trembled. “Look, I’m . . . I’m sorry. I overheard you and your brother back at the mansion, and I know you could have damn well chosen to leave me for dead there. And I’m really grateful you didn’t. I’m also aware that makes me indebted to you and not the other way around. But there are things about Genny that nobody knows. Important things. And in a situation like this, where she might feel trapped or out of control, her stress . . . it’ll get the better of her, to serious degrees. Then she’ll need attention. And, likely, medication.” Her gaze veered down then away. The move only aided the effect of her new tone, quiet yet pleading, as she offered, “Please, Apollo. I—we—really have to find her. Now that I don’t have Korra to turn over to Ito or a single viable lead about where to look in LA or Tokyo, I’m out of gadgets in the toolbox. So if I can help by jumping into yours—”

“An offer I appreciate,” he soothed. “Which, believe me, I’ll keep in mind. It’s just that my team does things a little differently. At least at first.”