Untouched The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,18
with Zack, several of them scowled. After we had collected our food, I let Zack lead me to a table by the windows, in the corner.
Others were here, a half dozen people scattered throughout the cafeteria. One caught my eye; a young man who I’d had words with in the past, here in this room. He’d been the only one in this place with enough guts to confront me after the first incident where I’d gotten agents killed. Everyone else had just gossiped behind my back. He had a rounded nose and his dark hair was curly and cut short. He hadn’t caught sight of me yet, and was focused on the doll he was sitting across from.
When I thought of her as a doll, I shuddered. Damn Wolfe. She was tanned, with blond hair that fell below her shoulders, and green eyes that seemed very alight. Her smile was wide and genuine, and left me with the feeling that she had too many teeth, or they were too big for her mouth, or something. I wasn’t jealous of her good looks, really. Well, not much anyway.
“Scott,” Zack called out, stirring the young man out of his conversation. He turned and saw Zack and broke into a wide grin as he stood. Zack put his tray down and they did one of those manly greetings where they gripped hands and bumped shoulders.
The man he called Scott shook his head, his smile still wide. “When did you get back?” I wondered how well they knew each other.
“Just now.” He nodded to me. “Have you met Sienna Nealon yet?”
Scott’s features tensed and he looked me over. “Briefly.”
I felt a flash of annoyance as I remembered what I probably looked like. “Have we met?” I kept a straight face. “I don’t recall.”
“My God,” the girl next to Scott breathed. “What happened to you?”
“I got into a fight with a guy who thought he was the Black Knight,” I quipped. “It turns out he didn’t get so much as a flesh wound, but maybe next time things will be different.”
“Sienna, this is Scott Byerly,” Zack said. “He might be in training with the agents soon.” Zack nodded back at me. “You better watch out, Sienna’s pretty powerful. If she decided to go into training I think she’d give you a run for your money.”
“Is that so?” Scott’s reply was cool, far cooler than I would have given him credit for. He seemed like a hothead based on our first meeting. “I heard she might have some power, but there was a rumor she didn’t have the...” He paused, as if searching for the right word, “...motivation to use it.”
Courage, he means. Wolfe was so helpful. I was seeing red, and he was encouraging me to wrap this guy’s head around the nearest table edge. I had to restrain myself to keep from showing Scotty Byerly exactly how motivated I was to use my power by throwing his limp and battered body through the nearest window. I wondered if I punted him how far he’d fly before landing headfirst in the snow like a lawn dart.
“Oh, she’s motivated,” Zack said before I could answer. “She killed that maniac Wolfe, you know.”
“I heard about that!” Scott’s companion bubbled with the enthusiasm he was lacking. “It’s all everyone talks about since I got here, how this crazy meta killed dozens of agents and how she,” she nodded at me, oh-so-helpfully, “went into a basement with him and was the only one to come out alive.” Her eyes were as glowing as they had been when talking to him.
“This is Kat Forrest,” Scott looked pained as he introduced her to us. “She just got here from our Arizona campus a few days ago.”
Arizona Campus? I made a mental note to ask Zack about it later. Kat seemed to vibrate as she stuck out her hand for me to shake. I did, feeling the pressure of her grasp through the leather of my glove. “So glad to meet you,” she squealed, and I could tell she meant it. “I don’t know that I could have done what you did, facing off with that monster.”
I pulled away as soon as I could, not wanting to find out if I could drain her soul through my gloves. “Thanks,” I said, with as much sincerity as I possessed. “I’m surprised that everyone’s talking about me in pleasant terms. It was my understanding that I wasn’t very popular around here.”