Mystics 3-Book Collection Read Online Free Page A

other man and
appeared to be Asian. Although he was a few inches shorter than the
other man, Zoey saw that he compensated with an over-the-top spiked
black hairdo.
    “You know, Barnes, we should put a tighter
leash on the Duyens,” said Agent Lee. “That’s three this week.
You’d think they’d get the idea and stay in the Nexus. Oh great,
now my coat’s all dirty. I just had it dry cleaned!” He started to
pat down the dust on his trench coat and looked utterly appalled at
his appearance.
    Zoey wasn’t sure whether to laugh or stay
quiet. Who were these people? But she was glad about one thing—they
had given her answers to one of her questions—the Nexus was a place
where the monsters came from.
    “I’m just glad we fried it before it killed
anyone else,” said the man called Barnes. “Hey, anyone in the mood
for fried chicken…?”
    “What about her?” said the teenage boy.
    Zoey began to blush.
    He was tall for his age and athletic, like a
hockey player. He wore a plain white t-shirt under a khaki jacket
and jeans. His thick brown hair framed his perfectly chiseled face.
His olive complexion and high cheekbones implied that his ancestors
could have been native Indian. His dark almond-shaped eyes bore
into hers, and she quickly looked away. There was something
unsettling about his eyes.
    “I’m on it.” Barnes pulled out a cell phone
from his jacket. “I’m calling in the Erasers—”
    “No, wait!” urged the teen. He stood facing
Zoey with a puzzled expression on his face. “She was talking to it
just before we got here. I’m positive that she could see it.”
    Zoey’s heart was in her throat. The rotten
smell still lingered, and every breath was like sucking in toxic
waste. The room began to spin, and she strained to keep still. She
couldn’t faint now, in front of these people, and worse—she didn’t
want anything called Erasers near her either.
    “She did, did she? Well, that’s gotta be a
first,” said Barnes as he dropped his phone in his jacket
pocket.
    The three strangers watched Zoey intensely
without speaking for a moment. A cold sweat dripped down her back.
It was the first time in her life she had met other people who
shared her ability. They could see monsters, too, just like her.
She had waited and prayed for this moment all her life, but it
wasn’t happening quite as she had imagined. They didn’t seem very happy about it. In fact, they seemed a little unnerved that
she could see monsters, too. Was this a mistake? What were they
going to do with her? Should she run?
    Finally, Barnes moved towards her until he
was looming over her like a teacher about to reprimand her. “You
there, kid, what was it that you saw? Did you see anything
unusual?”
    Zoey fidgeted on the spot. “Apart from
seeing you people burn a giant bat to smithereens—I guess nothing
that unusual. Of course I could see it. It was standing
right in front of me. It was about to kill me, and then you three
showed up.”
    The boy gave the other two a told-you-so look. But their shared expressions were grim,
not at all the joyous reception she had imaged. Zoey had been
waiting all her life to meet people like her. She wasn’t alone. But
their third-degree was making her nervous. Maybe they were going to
vaporize her like they did the demon.
    “Well, slap me silly and call me Susan!
We’ve got ourselves a Drifter . I’m Agent Barnes,” he said
and then pointed to the others, “this is Agent Lee, and our young
fellow here is Tristan. We’ve been tracking your so-called giant
bat for two days. It killed three people.”
    Agent Barnes hazel eyes measured her, and
close up Zoey could see a scar on his chin that was surrounded by
days old stubble.
    “So, what’s your name, kid?”
    “Zoey St. John.”
    “Well, Zoey St. John, do you think we could
speak to your parents?” asked Agent Barnes.
    Zoey swallowed hard. “My parents are dead. I
live… lived with a foster mother.”
    “What do you mean by