The Girl in the Box Series, Books 1-3: Alone, Untouched and Soulless

by Robert J. Crane

  Chapter 4

  “How did you get this?” I mumbled the words, but I knew Kurt and Zack could hear them. I just hoped they assumed I misspoke or was talking rhetorically to Wolfe, who, as far as they knew, was not there.

  Many, many stories I could tell you...but I have my price. The words were taunting, teasing. I killed him and he was still an absolute shit to me. At least he wasn’t around to physically abuse me anymore.

  “You think he got your mom?” Zack’s voice was laden with concern, and it sounded genuine.

  Kurt was more analytical. “No way to tell without more evidence.” He pointed. “The strap’s broken; he could have just ripped it off of her. The I.D. has her address on it, “ he nodded to me. “This explains how he found her.”

  I wondered if I could chance another interrogatory toward Wolfe without attracting the curiosity of Zack and Kurt, but I decided against it. He’d wanted me to find this, to get curious, so I would do what he wanted. Maybe he knew more, maybe he didn’t. All I was certain of was that he wanted Aleksandr Gavrikov out of that containment cell, and that scared me.

  “Anything else in here?” It was Zack who asked the question, but Kurt who started shining his light around. The warehouse looked empty, abandoned.

  “I don’t see anything.” I shone my flashlight to the corners, but all I saw were metal walls, through and through. I turned and started to say something but stopped and froze in fear as Kurt Hannegan got slapped down hard. The big man hit his knees and an arm wrapped around his neck. I watched his face turn red as he was dragged back to his feet, his portly body interposed between us and his assailant.

  “Hi, Sienna,” came a mild voice, a familiar one.

  I shone the flashlight at the man who held Kurt. “Reed, what are you doing?”

  I hadn’t seen him since the day I killed Wolfe; he had fled from the basement before the Directorate arrived. He was muscular and it showed, even through his leather jacket. His dark skin stood out in contrast to Hannegan’s face, which was turning red. His long brown hair was in a ponytail and he held a gun pointed at me then Zack, in turn.

  “Well, well,” Zack said, his own gun out and pointed at Reed. “If it isn’t your old friend.”

  “Friend, enemy,” I said, wary, “when they’re pointing a gun at you, what’s the difference?”

  “A friend doesn’t pull the trigger.” Reed clubbed Kurt on the head, and I watched the big man’s eyes roll up as he went unconscious. Zack tensed, as though he were about to shoot, but Reed held the gun up in surrender as he let Hannegan sink to the ground, letting him slide to the floor gently. “I have to talk to Sienna.” He looked at me. “I don’t want your boyfriend listening in either, but I’m willing to let him walk away instead of sending him off into the clouds.”

  “You can try—” Zack snapped.

  “I can do it,” Reed said. “You eager to cross me? I’m a meta, you’re a Directorate agent. Do you want to find out what my power is just so you can try to keep her from having a conversation?”

  Zack did not flinch nor lower his weapon. “You want to talk to her? Talk. She’s right there.”

  “If I wanted the entire Directorate leadership to hear what I have to say to her, I’d visit your campus.” Reed’s lip curled at the end.

  “You should come visit. I’d love to see you out there; it’d be fun to watch M-Squad beat you down and throw you in a holding cell for interrogation.” Zack’s eyes were narrowed, the gun still pointed at Reed. “I’m not letting her out of my sight.”

  “I’ll go over to the corner with him, we’ll talk,” I said to Zack, who looked sidelong at me, mutinous. “It’ll be fine. “ I worried when he didn’t blink, but he finally gave me a subtle nod of the head. He kept the gun pointed, following Reed, who joined me in a corner. “All right,” I said when we were out of Zack’s earshot, “what’s so damned important that you had to crack Hannegan over the head?”

  “That?” Reed chucked a thumb over his shoulder where Zack was nudging Kurt with his foot, trying to rouse him without taking the gun off Reed. “That was for him driving you back to your house when you went after Wolfe the last time.” Reed’s expression darkened. “It was only because you discovered your power that you even survived.” He glanced back to Hannegan, who had yet to stir. “But you’re still hanging around with him—with them.”

  “I haven’t been presented with any other options,” I said, bitterness inflecting my tone. “In case you forgot, right after I killed Wolfe, you freaked out on me and bailed.”

  “I didn’t bail on you,” he said. “I got the hell out of there before the Directorate decided to make me a test subject.”

  “You yelled at me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said with sincerity, “ but I didn’t want to get my soul drained. Besides,” he looked wary, “I suspect your head is full enough now without me adding another voice to the chorus.”

  My eyes widened and I felt my jaw drop in shock. “You know?”

  “If the Directorate had experience with incubi or succubi, they’d know too,” Reed said. “They’re trying to view metas through a scientific lens, and there’s not one big enough yet to explain how metas work. Take this Gavrikov they just caught, for example,” he said with a smile. “Explain to me scientifically how someone can fly without wings or sprout fire from their skin without burning it off?” He shrugged. “Maybe there’s a scientific explanation, but it’s so far outside our grasp right now that we might as well be talking about myth and magic, like the ancients used to describe us.”

  “How did you know about Gavrikov?” I kept my voice hushed.

  “Everyone in the meta world knows about Gavrikov. He’s been a legend and a whisper since he detonated in Russia a hundred plus years ago.”

  I squinted at him, trying to recall. “The Tunguska blast? I read that was a meteor.”

  His smile grew deeper. “There was no meteor; there was Gavrikov.” He shrugged. “Or so the rumor goes.”

  “How goes the rumor about me?” I tightened my jaw.

  He nodded, the smile sticking in place on his face, but no longer sincere. “It goes that your mother, Sierra Nealon, who everyone thought was dead, is a succubus, and has a daughter just like her. Whip smart, stronger than any other ten metas combined, and currently hiding behind the tender mercies of Old Man Winter in Minneapolis.”

  I absorbed his words. People whom I had never met were discussing me, as though I were some commodity waiting to be bartered. “How did you know I was here?”

  “I’ve been watching the place for a few days, waiting for...” he hesitated, “...someone. Wolfe didn’t bother to cover his tracks, so I expect the police will be here in the next day or so.” He cast a look around. “Hope you found what you were looking for, because this is likely your last shot at this place.”

  I held up my mom’s purse and I.D. “Know anything about my mom?”

  Reed was cool when he answered. “A few things. Where she worked, known associates from before she disappeared, that sort of stuff.” He looked back to Kurt, who was sitting up now. “Nothing I can share while you’re still with them.”

  “You got a better deal for me?” I stared him down. “Because as I recall, when Wolfe was hot on my heels, you told me to stay put.”

  He shrugged. “Here in the U.S., I don’t have a quarter of the force the Directorate could use to defend you. In fact, I’m with an organization that’s big overseas, not so much here. The Directorate is king of meta activity on this continent, for now. But if you want to come with me...”

  “Where?”

  “Can’t say until you decide to come along.” He shrugged again. “Sorry for the secrecy, but we’re not on the Directorate’s radar and I’m of a mind to keep it that way.”

  I looked at him pityingly. “You just knocked out one of their agents; I think you’re on their radar now.”

  “Heh, maybe me,” he said, “but not we. They don’t know who I work for. And I
suspect it’ll remain that way for some time.”

  I looked at him, a hard, long look. “Forget the background stuff. Do you know where my mom is?”

  I saw pity flood his face, along with a sincere regret. “I don’t. I’m sorry. If I knew anything that I thought would help, I’d tell you, but I don’t. There are a lot of people looking for her, and not just from the Directorate. All the major players have people in town, but I think she’s gone quiet. Maybe Wolfe got after her, maybe something else spooked her, but if she could disappear for all those years with you, she can hide even better without someone else to slow her down. Not to say you slowed her down.”

  “No, it’s fine,” I said. “I’m sure I did; it’s probably why I was locked away all those years, to keep her profile low.”

  “Or to keep you out of harm’s way.” His voice got softer and his eyes lost their gleam. “These people that are after you now? At least you have the power to fight back. Imagine Wolfe coming after you when you were seven.”

  I shuddered, and deep inside felt Wolfe stir with interest at that idea. A few images floated to the surface of my mind, of places I’d never been, people I’d never met—young girls, all. I could taste bile rising in the back of my mouth and wished for nothing so much as the ability to drive his frightening psyche from my head. “That would have been bad. So what now for you?”

  “I’ll be around,” he said. “I assume you’re not taking me up on my offer?”

  I lowered my voice even more. “Can you get this maniac out of my head?”

  He looked over to where Zack and Kurt were waiting for me. “I don’t think so. Once he’s in, he’s part of you from now on.” He shrugged. “There aren’t many experts on what you’re going through, and I don’t work with any. Counting you, there are three succubi on record. Only a couple of incubi.”

  I rubbed my head. “I’m losing my mind. I don’t know how any of this works.” I snorted in wry amusement. “I don’t even know how my mom had me without killing my father, whoever he was.” I thought about it for a moment. “Hell, maybe she did.” I shook my head. “I know nothing about myself, where I came from, who my mother really is. You can tell me a little more, but I’d have to leave and go somewhere mysterious, somewhere outside the country?” He looked at me and nodded, and I knew he realized my decision was made. “Sorry,” I said. “I think I’m gonna stick it out here a while longer.”

  “I figured. Like I said, I’ll be around.” He smiled, and with a gloved hand he brushed my cheek, sending a tingle through me. “You know how to get in touch with me.” He turned and started away.

  “Bad choice of words,” I said to him with an impish smile. “I think the last thing you want is me touching you.”

  “There are worse ways to go.” He laughed, shook his head, and disappeared out the door.