Chapter 1
Daphne's POV:
"Thomas! Hi!" I smiled as I walked into the federal office, greeting and chatting with people.
"Daphne! Girl, have I got so much to tell you!" he flourished his hand in a sort of greeting way. He was the chief police of New York City and I worked just under him as detective. We were good friends from high school up until now.
I clipped my badge to my uniform, reading 'D.Melgren' as I settled in my chair. "Go on."
"So y'know Hannah, right? Pregnant, big belly, super bossy-"
"Uh huh," I sipped my coffee, half listening as I typed away on my computer. There still were no leads to the blown up fountain in Central Park down the road. Two deceased, 5 injured.
"...cheated on her! Can you believe it? I mean, I always thought the guy was so great and everything, and even carrying his child!" Thomas continued, shaking his head. His ring glinted in the sunlight, catching my eye.
"OMG TOMMY!" I squealed. "You got engaged? And you didn't think to tell me first thing?"
He gave a nervous laugh, inspecting his ring. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Daniel's such a gem, the whole thing was perfect. Except the, y'know, I accidentally bumped into him, he dropped the ring into the lake and a fish ate it..."
I raised an eyebrow. "Okay?"
"Well, we were planning on having fish for dinner anyways! And what doesn't taste better than freshly caught salmon? It still smells a bit fishy though..." he walked away, holding the ring to his nose, muttering to himself.
I sighed, leaning back in my chair. I'd been there first hand, at Central Park. It was Valdis. No one knew his real identity, they'd started calling him that after he set the fires around Brooksvale, charring all the flowers to ashes. I hated him. He was my number one nemesis, always popping up when you least expected it. No one knew my real name when I was fighting him, of course. They'd started calling me 'Rose' after the first incident where he'd blasted me into a pile of blooming roses. Still took me days to get those thorns out of my suit. I sat up straight as a message flashed across my screen. A news reporter, reporting live from Times Square. Christopher was in the background, and I could see several citizens lying on the ground as well as multiple police cars and ambulances.
"Fuck..." I sighed, shutting my laptop. "Tommy, I've got to step out for a bit! There's something going on again!" I called.
"You got it girl! I've just seen the news I'll be right there!"
I headed down towards Times Square, already disguised by the time I got there. "Valdis!"
His eyes, snapped in my direction and he gave a lazy smile. "Rose..."
"Can you consider getting a job? This is tiring!"
"But what would be the fun in that?" he grinned. With a snap of his fingers, the tree right next to me came crashing down. I jumped out of the way, glaring.
"You're so annoying! I'm gonna miss my nail appointment!"
He scoffed. "Nail appointment? You're such a girl."
"Fuck you."
"Later, darling."
"What?" I blushed and then tried to mask it with a glare. "Excuse me?"
"I know you want it... but nevertheless...." he clapped his hands and the fountain exploded. A bit of the concrete hit my face, cutting it.
"What the fuck!" I yelled at him, touching blood.
He tsked. "The princess has a potty mouth."
"Fuck you!"
"As I said, later."
I glared, seething as I wiped my hand on my suit. Narrowing my eyes, a force pushed him backwards as I flung my hands out towards him. He fell back a few steps before regaining his footing.
"You haven't been training, love," He shook his head, feigning disappointment. "You've been blessed with immense power and you're not harnessing it properly."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Frustrated, I pushed at the air in front of me again, the mist gathering at my hands before I shoved it in his direction. He jumped out of the way and flicked his finger in my direction. A surge of black zoomed toward me and I barely managed to duck out of the way before some of it licked my arm. A small burst of pain appeared before leaving.
"Why didn't you use a killing throw?" I asked, panting.
He smiled, tilting his head at me, only his blue eyes and slightly messy hair visible through the mask. He knelt in front me, his hand teasing at the start of my disguise. He could discover who I was right now.
"I would never hurt you, love."
I stared at him, dazed as he winked at me and disappeared.
~A few hours later~
"Stupid Valdis." I muttered to myself. I plopped down on the couch, switching on the TV to the news.
"The city's infamous villain has again wrecked havoc on New York City. Rose appeared on scene shortly after many citizens were injured. The last count: none dead, 2 majorly injured. That's all for today on NYC journals." It blinked off to an ad about protein yoghurt.
I sighed, chomping on my ice cream. I'd been replaying his words in my mind over and over again. Why wouldn't he want to hurt me? After all, we were enemies, I was standing his is way to what he wanted, dominating the city. God knows what he would do with it. Probably make us all into minions. Opening up my contacts list, I swiped call on 'Kiera'. She picked up after the third ring.
"OMG Daphne! It was crazy today! You were there right? I heard the chaos from a mile away when I was getting coffee!"
I smiled at her voice. "I was there. It was... like a normal Valdis day," I paused to take a bite of ice cream. "Honestly, it was quite dangerous. Stay away next time."
We chatted for an hour before I hung up. I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed, the days events finally catching up to me. I fell asleep with dreams of the man I hated.
