Page 57
“I’m telling you, it was an accident!”
“You turned into me, asshole!”
“For like three seconds.”
“Three seconds too fucking long.”
Two men appear, shoulder-checking each other as they come in, and I’m still trying to work out what the hell they’re arguing about when the one on the left laughs and his entire face starts to move.
My coffee stops halfway to my mouth as his jaw widens beneath his skin first, followed by his cheekbones and nose. His hair darkens, shoulders pulling broader beneath his shirt, and within seconds I’m staring at an exact copy of the man walking beside him.
Same face, same build, same irritated crease between his eyebrows.
The original stops dead when he sees him. “Flux!”
His double grins back using his own fucking mouth. “What?”
“Knock it off, man!”
“I’m just saying this is what you look like when you’re pissed.”
“I know what I fucking look like!”
“Do you, though?”
The original shoves Flux in the shoulder, and he laughs as the borrowed features begin shifting again, his face sliding back into place until I’m looking at the man who walked through the door in the first place.
Shapeshifter. That’s a new one.
The other man catches me staring as they reach the table and flashes me an easy grin. “New person.”
I lower my mug. “Very observant.”
His laugh comes easily as he drops into the open chair across from me. “Hey, I’m Calder.”
Flux takes the seat beside him. “Flux.”
“Yeah, I caught that part.”
He grins. “Hard to forget me.”
Calder snorts. “He fucking wishes.”
I point between them with my coffee mug. “So, which one of you was stupid enough to start whatever that was?”
“Him,” they answer together.
They turn toward each other at exactly the same time.
“Fuck you!” Same timing again.
Ruckus starts laughing so hard farther down the table he nearly loses whatever is on his fork. “Jesus Christ. They’re becoming one person. We don’t need another Carnage and Sentinel situation.”
Flux immediately shifts back into Calder.
Calder closes his eyes, his head dropping forward. “I fucking hate you.”
Wearing Calder’s exact face, Flux reaches over and steals a piece of bacon from his plate. “No, you don’t.”
