Close Enough to Touch: Anti-Heroes, #3

By Megan Derr

Leland has always lived a life apart, never willing to get too close to anyone for fear of what might happen should the wrong people learn just how powerful he really is. Then his own reputation led to a friend paying the price, and he'll do anything to get her back.

 

Even if it means breaking all his rules to align himself with exactly the kind of troublemakers he's always avoided as strenuously as he's avoided the G.O.D. Even if it means sharing space with Byron Valentine, the beautiful, mysterious leader of the group fighting to destroy the G.O.D., a man who makes Leland wish he could have the normal life his own abilities have always denied him.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Megan Derr
• Release date: Apr 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393515609

Megan Derr

Megan is a long-time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.meganderr.compatreon.com/meganderrmeganderr.blogspot.comfacebook.com/[e-mail]@meganaderr

Book preview

CLOSE

ENOUGH

TO

TOUCH

ANTI-HEROES | Book Three

MEGAN DERR

Leland has always lived a life apart, never willing to get too close to anyone for fear of what might happen should the wrong people learn just how powerful he really is. Then his own reputation led to a friend paying the price, and he'll do anything to get her back.

Even if it means breaking all his rules to align himself with exactly the kind of troublemakers he's always avoided as strenuously as he's avoided the G.O.D. Even if it means sharing space with Byron Valentine, the beautiful, mysterious leader of the group fighting to destroy the G.O.D., a man who makes Leland wish he could have the normal life his own abilities have always denied him.

Close Enough to Touch

Anti-Heroes 3

By Megan Derr

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Samantha M. Derr

Cover designed by Natasha Snow

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

First Edition April 2020

Copyright © 2020 by Megan Derr

Printed in the United States of America

Close Enough to Touch

Leland watched silently, tucked out of the way in a corner, as Byron and Dixie worked while Greg tried not to fuss.

After two months of recuperation and another two and a half months of work, this should be the last session needed to have Dixie back up and running. Leland thought he'd seen everything when it came to supers, but a living computer was a whole new level. Seeing a living computer nearly destroyed, and then slowly rebuilt, was something else again.

Dixie settled into the large, long leather seat that reminded Leland of going to the dentist, but much, much fancier. Bands came up to secure his arms, and Byron went to work peeling back fake skin to attached tubes to his forearms and wire to the back of his neck.

So what's this again? Greg asked. As ever, he couldn't seem to hold still or be quiet. Super weird behavior given that when he was working, he made less noise than a ghost. It was the hands that really gave him away: those long, slender fingers that never failed to move with deft, easy elegance. They moved like spider legs on a web. There was no better thief alive.

Smiling fondly, Dixie said, This is replacing my nano-structure. My wiring, basically. It runs along my skeleton and hooks into the rest of me, so my bio parts power my computer parts. It'll take most of today, and tomorrow we'll run diagnostics on everything and fix any lingering issues. Shouldn't be much, but there's always something needing tweaking.

Byron approached and swiftly got Dixie hooked up to some medical equipment. When all was finished, he picked up a syringe. Ready?

As ever, Dixie drawled.

Greg ducked through the mess of tubes and wiring and gave Dixie a brief kiss. We'll be here when you wake up.

Don't jinx it. Dixie nodded to Byron, who fed the syringe into a tube.

Seconds later, Dixie was out cold. Byron went over to the black glass table and touched several glowing buttons on the projected screens.

The lights on a set of nearby cannisters, small and made of some gleaming metal, turned blue, and something poured from them into the tubes that connected to Dixie's arms.

I would have thought nano machines would be… Leland shrugged, less?

Most of this isn't actually the nano machines, Byron said with one of his beautiful smiles. Leland hated that he noticed Byron's smiles. At least the man had stopped flushing and squeaking around him. That had been… Well, it was a relief he'd stopped. It was. Part of it is the delivery system—if you simply dumped the nanos in there, they'd clump, kind of like just dumping grits into hot water and not stirring them.

What in the world are grits? Leland asked.

Greg laughed. You're lucky Dixie is already out. He'd be highly offended by your ignorance. It's cornmeal, kind of like eating cream of wheat.

Ah. Leland hated cream of wheat; it tasted like paste.

Anyway, most of this is to keep the nanos from clumping and also deliver them exactly where they need to go, and ensure they attach properly when they get there. Like a bandage that covers a wound for a few days until it's healed enough to not need the extra safeguard. Byron looked over the monitors that were tracking the anesthesia. The last bit of it is an additional painkiller that will start releasing an hour or so after he wakes up, so that he's not in pain while the process finishes up.

How painful is it? Leland asked.

Byron grimaced. Imagine someone tattooing every inch of your body all at once, then quadruple that. Some of the earliest experiments didn't anticipate the pain levels properly, and people died from it. That's part of the reason we weren't sure he'd live when we went after the Mason System: sheer overload of pain. After a point, even drugs can't help. The body simply can't take it. But Dixie was literally born and raised for this; he's been modified for it in terms of endurance, as well as his tolerance and threshold. He still obviously needs painkillers, but not as much as an un-altered person would, and if something fails, he stands a chance of enduring long enough to get help. He's one of a kind.

Yeah, Greg said fiercely, curling his fingers into one of Dixie's quiescent hands. He is.

Leland ached watching the three of them. He'd never had such close friends, not until Ariadne and later Greg, and even them he'd kept at a certain distance, afraid they'd eventually just wind up like his family. He'd lived through that once; he didn't want to do it a second time.

It was the Prince who'd killed them, so intent on slaying Devastater that he hadn't cared who died in the crossfire. Leland had been eight when he'd come home from getting ice cream to find his house a pile of rubble, press everywhere, and three black bags containing what little remained of his parents and sister. She'd only been three. His parents had been young too, though he hadn't appreciated that until he was older. When his mother had gotten pregnant at seventeen, his parents had married, buckled down, and by the time Leland was five they had a good house in a shiny new suburb and a second child on the way.

Three years later, Leland had lost everything. The state had thrown him into the foster system and Leland had started a living nightmare that wouldn't end until puberty brought his powers in a terrible, horrific way. After that, he'd lived on the streets, working under the table jobs until he'd been able to buy a new identity, far too terrified to go back to his old one.

He'd been Leland ever since—and Minder, determined to do right what most so-called heroes did wrong. Then he'd meet Ariadne, and the children she took care of, and it started to feel dangerously like he'd had a family again. Greg had only added to the sensation.

Now, standing here in their midst for going on four months, all he felt was