Blaze of Glory Read Online Free

would you do that?” I glanced at the set, stealing more of the sheets away from him with a twist of my body. “It’s always fixed.”
    His cool blue eyes caught mine, grabbed them and held them. “Never take any of this for granted. Me, you, this…it could all change in an instant.”
    “Yeah. Right.” I waved him away. “Ace’ll take this one, you watch.”
    I had been right and he had been right. For all the good it did.
    The morning traffic had started along King Street, the red streetcars rumbling along the rails set in the concrete and delivering their pedestrian loads all over the city. There was a coffee shop on the corner of Roncesvalles and King just as I remembered, and I was in desperate need of a coffee and a newspaper along with a few dozen painkillers. Stripping off my gloves, I jammed them into the back pockets of my jeans. It would seem pretty conspicuous if I were the only one walking around with gloves on, given the warm weather, and the last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to myself. Sure, I could have worn a mask, but the Agency liked to put a personal face on each of their heroes and villains, and a mask would have screwed that up. So the best I could do was try to blend in and hope that I came across as maybe a fangirl at best, a psychotic fan at worst. And I had plenty of both. If nothing else, superheroes fighting supervillains made for good reality television.
    Leaving a wet trail of steps behind me, I strode into the café, tugging my fingers through my ragged ponytail to give it at least an air of respectability. At least I hadn’t landed so far into the water that I smelled like a drunk.
    The shop had a handful of customers inside, two lovebirds cooing to each other over lattes and a senior citizen dissecting the daily paper while pontificating to no one in general about what was wrong with the economy. Another young man, probably a university student, was hunched over his laptop doing a two-finger tap dance on the keyboard.
    I looked up at the menu as I dug in my pocket, wondering if I had enough for a coffee. We’d never worried about taking money or identification out of the suite; we just didn’t. After all, we were superheroes.
    “What can I get you?” The blonde waitress smiled from behind the counter.
    “Ah…” A five dollar bill appeared in my hand from where it had been hidden in the deepest darkest recesses of my front pockets. “Just a small coffee, please.” I glanced at the television set mounted behind her. “Anything big happening?”
    She didn’t look up, pouring the coffee into a ceramic mug. “Other than the alien invasion, you mean?”
    “Yeah, that.” I grabbed the sugar dispenser and dumped an obscene amount into the mug. “Cream, please.”
    “Sure.” The waitress shoved a small metal pitcher towards me, gesturing at the television set. “Word is that they set off a bomb in New York. Killed a hundred people.”
    I choked on the coffee. She spun around. “You okay, sweetie?”
    “Yeah.” I coughed. “Down the wrong windpipe.” My free hand waved in the air. “Did they kill the alien?”
    “Not a chance.” She shook her head. “Bruiser came out on top, floating there like he hadn’t a care in the world. Flew back into the ship and now they’re just sitting there. Got another one over Washington. The President’s evacuated to some bunker somewhere, and she’s giving a news conference later on this morning. Up in Ottawa they’re hiding out somewhere waiting for someone to save them.” Her forehead furrowed as she looked at me. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
    “I’m always getting that. Got one of those familiar faces.” I smiled, ignoring the jagged pain shooting through my heart. Mike hadn’t done anything but make the situation worse, if that were possible.
    The woman tapped the button on the remote. “CNN’s got the best coverage right now.” She let out a sigh. “Not looking good.”
    The bleary-eyed reporter