was dangerous.”
His face turned serious. “She was right, you know. She kept you quiet all these years; now it’s a rush to get ahold of you. Wolfe and whoever he works for – they’re rounding up every meta they can lay hands on – and if Sierra Nealon’s daughter is in play, it was going to be a mad dash to get to you first.”
“What about the guy who saved me from you?” I looked at him as I asked the question, trying to see if he was as bad a liar as Ariadne. “His name was Reed. Do you know him?”
He shook his head with perfect sincerity. “I hadn’t seen him before, but this isn’t just a two-sided game. There’s a lot of factions out there trying to get metas on their side.”
“How did you know where to find me?” I eyed him and gave him a little smile. So this is what it’s like to play a man. Kinda easy.
“I just go where I’m told.” His smile was knowing. Damn. Maybe it’s not so easy. “So, are you going to let Ariadne run her tests?” His voice quavered a little bit and I knew that it wasn’t him asking this question.
I sighed, mostly for effect. Maybe it was because I’d never had the company of a man anytime in memory, but I was enjoying myself so much I almost forgot that I didn’t have any friends, just a suspicious number of desirous and questionable “allies.” “Maybe,” I replied. “I’m still thinking about it.”
“Tough choice, I guess.” He sounded sincere. Maybe he was. “Your whole world gets turned upside down and you’re left without anyone to rely on. Gotta figure out who’s telling the truth.”
I flashed him a tight smile, and I felt my heart beat faster than it should have after such a short walk. “Or figure out if nobody’s telling the truth. You all have fantastic stories of meta-humans with amazing abilities, but so far the closest thing I’ve seen to the truth of that is a grubby mountain of a man that looks like he could have stumbled out of a pack of wolves.”
Zack grinned. “It does sound kind of crazy.”
“You’re all saying that there are people with superpowers, and that I have one but no one can tell me what it is unless you ‘test me.’“ I rolled my eyes. “Forgive me for not jumping to sign up for that medical experiment.”
His smile faded. “But…you realize how strong you are compared to a normal human, right?” He stopped as we neared the entrance to the gymnasium. “You realize how much more powerful you are?”
I started to suppress my instinctive reply but I was a half second too slow. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know where to go. And I have no idea who to trust.” And I don’t have idea why I told him that.
He kept his distance and his hands slid into his pockets. I almost felt like he was doing it to avoid patting me on the shoulder or something. He took a step back to the concrete bench sitting in the shadow of the entry and did a double take as he looked down at it. “I can’t help you fix all those problems. But maybe I can give you one answer.” He pointed to the bench. “See this?”
“I may be meta-human, but I’m not blind.”
His face twisted with a touch of condescension. “Nobody but Ariadne and Old Man Winter call them meta-humans. M-Squad just says ‘metas’ and it’s kinda stuck for everybody.” He leaned down and tried to push the bench. “It’s a few hundred pounds, easy.” His eyes glimmered with mischief. “Why don’t you try lifting it?”
My stomach made a noise and I hoped only I could hear it. I walked over to him and studied the bench. It was concrete, with a nice pattern around the legs to give it some aesthetics. And Zack was right: it looked like it weighed quite a bit.
I reached down and grabbed hold by the edges. I cringed and counted down from three in my head and lifted with everything I had.
It flew off the ground and swung up, almost popping me in the mouth before I stopped it. I could feel the weight of it, but it wasn’t that significant. I swung it around and hoisted it over my shoulder, holding it with one hand. “Wow.”
“You never lifted anything like this before? Never tested your strength?” Zack kept his