The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

Rescindant, don’t throw a car at them. There was a perfectly good - and considerably cheaper -street lamp you could’ve torn off and used. As it is, your wages are being garnished for the cost of the repairs to the citizen’s SUV.”
    “Citizen?” Backhand protested, visibly affronted by the word. “He was one of Dr Mockery’s minions! He was trying to get into his car and escape with the isotope last week. Just because I was efficient at ruining his escape method and in thwarting the Doctor from setting off his viral bomb . . . !”
    “We have no concrete evidence that he was indeed a minion, so there’s no way for the League to consider him anything but an innocent bystander.” Oversight planted his silver-gloved palms on the table, facing down the younger man. “You have a very bad habit of overusing your super-strength, Backhand.”
    Backhand grumbled, folding his arms across his chest.
    Oversight swept his gaze over the other young men and women in the briefing room. “The Police Forensics and Public Justice Departments have requested once again that Hindsight visit their evidence lockers to do a scan of all items picked up during the week.”
    “Once again, I’m stuck with the most boring, horrific job on the planet. Please tell me they didn’t pick up any bloody murder-scene weapons this week?” Hindsight, team healer and touch-sensitive clairvoyant, muttered ruefully.
    “Sorry. The City Morgue has an unidentified piece of human bone they want scanned,” Oversight told him.
    “At least you get hazardous duty pay,” Backhand grumbled.
    Oversight continued. “Foresight and Steelhand, obviously you’re on Westside patrol. The League also wants you to stop by the ballpark tonight. The Belle View Batters are playing the Star City Novas. Don’t disrupt the game - the Batters have a chance of getting into the division championship. Don’t enter the stands; just do a couple of circuits of the concourses, meet and greet the citizens shortly after the game starts, then get on with your patrol.”
    Steelhand’s blue-masked face twisted. “Ugh . . . photo-ops. Do I have to?”
    Oversight sighed.
    Steelhand wrinkled his lip. “Little kids are always trying to touch my mask. Why can’t Backhand do it? Or Bomber?”
    “Because you’re partnered with Foresight, and because the two of you are very photogenic together.”
    Carrie heard Valerie’s obvious sigh of disappointment.
    Photogenic, sure . . . but not together, Carrie lamented. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Valerie’s silver hand slide under the table to sympathetically squeeze Steelhand’s blue thigh. She was all over him. It made Carrie sick. She sighed heavily. Then a thought occurred to her. “Oversight... uh ... why don’t Farshot and I switch partners?”
    “Because you’re still mentoring Steelhand,” her supervisor returned dryly.
    “But it’s been a month,” she protested. “Surely he’s got the hang of the city by now. At least enough to be switched to a new partner?”
    “You don’t want to be my partner any more?” Steelhand peered at her.
    The disappointment in his voice made her want to squirm. Carrie didn’t know how to answer without delving into her very personal problems to do with him; in specific, her problem with his lack of interest in her.
    Tightening her arms across her chest, she shrugged uncomfortably. “I’m just saying . . . you know . . . you don’t have to serve out the rest of your probation period with me. That’s all.”
    Oversight studied her. “Foresight, do you have a problem with Steelhand? Is there something we should know, since you’re his mentor?”
    “What? No!” she quickly protested. Lies were firmly and officially discouraged among League members. As Steelhand’s team mentor during his settling-in period, if her team supervisor asked her for an evaluation, she had to give an honest one. “Officially, as his mentor, I’m saying that he’s smart, he’s competent, he’s good at the job and he’s ethical as well as efficient. Overall, he’s a great asset to the team. I’m just saying . . . that . . . you know . . . he’s good enough. He could be paired with someone else ... so why not pair him with someone else?”
    From the way the others stared at her, she didn’t think they were buying it.
    “Foresight, did you foresee something?” the green-masked Hindsight asked her.
    “Or is it ... a personality conflict?” Farshot/Valerie asked. It didn’t