Inferno [Alternate Book Three in the Fire and Lightning Series]

Chapter Two- Family Dinner

July 28, 16:59.

Detroit.

~~Willow~~

"I'm ready to leave, Doctor Stone. Do you need me for anything else?" I stood hesitantly in the doorway.

He mumbled something into his coffee, immediately turning back to his work. It was nice that Silas Stone kept a strictly professional relationship. There were some things I preferred to leave behind when I entered the workplace.

I sighed, glancing up at the meta-human failsafe device that stood in the middle of the lab. After the Justice League cleared it, it was brought here, to STAR Labs Detroit, where the leading researcher of alien technology was based. And for the past year, I had been his assistant, and in the past year, there was nothing new to discover about it. It simply sat quietly in the middle of the laboratory, the scarab imagery mocking me and my haunting memories.

"Shall I say hello to Serene and Victor for you?" I asked.

"If you think it best." He was eating his cereal at his desk now, glancing back and forth between his computer screen and the silent alien device. Now that I was leaving, he barely seemed to register me. It was probably best, working with a scientist that glanced me over, instead of one who asked too many questions.

I sighed again, and left, taking care that though the glass door slammed behind me, it didn't shatter.

"I take it the old hermit's still allergic to sunlight?" Dale, one of my two favorite security guards, asked as he scanned my ID badge for checkout. I exchanged my labcoat with his partner, Casey, for my purse and phone.

"Still as much of a vampire as ever." I smiled, reading the text from Serene, and waved them good-bye.

"How's the lasagna looking?" I asked, sliding in shotgun of the silver Nissan idling in the parking lot.

"Should be ready to pop out by the time we get home. I told Vic to keep an eye on it, but he's watching ST 3016, so there's no telling what'll happen." She grinned.

Some people would say it's weird, dating the boss's daughter, but it never felt like that. For one thing, you'd never guess at first look that Doctor Silas Stone had two children: a daughter in graduate school studying geology, and an all-star football player about to start his senior year of high school. I myself didn't know until about two weeks into my internship, when Serene burst into the laboratory with Casey on her heels protesting, grilling her father for not showing up to Victor's homecoming game. On her way out, she introduced herself to me, apologized for her outburst, and I somehow got her number by asking for the date of Victor's next game.

Two months later, we were dating, and Serene invited me to move into her family's house to fill the empty space that Silas left behind every day.

Detroit was smoggy, Vic's school mascot was "The Steelworkers", after all, but our suburban corner of the city was peaceful and picturesque. Instead of planting a garden, Serene had replaced the grass in the front yard with red pumice rocks, and last summer, I'd helped her tear up the backyard to replace it all with patio made of crystalline tiles. There were some decorations, like a birdbath and some angellic statues, but all of us were just relieved that we didn't have to mow the lawn every two weeks, especially in a summer like this.

Victor was just pulling out the lasagna as we came in, Space Trek 3016 blaring from his phone, which was propped up against the breadbox.

"Told ya I could handle it," He teased Serene.

"And I'm so proud," Serene mocked, kissing his cheek

The voice of sixteen-year-old twins Rachel and Garfield Logan called out me, and I found myself staring at the screen for a good minute as their Martian Ensigns attacked the vicious Porg army from deep space.