Souljacker Read Online Free Page B

night light. “And
Luce?”
    “Hm?”
    “If you see that boy again, you should talk
to him. You deserve to be happy.”
    I see him in my mind’s eye, that
grin-and-wink combo, and my heart flutters again. “Night,
Sync.”
    A pause, and then: “Night, Luce.”
     
    ***
     
    The days go by in a blur as I fall into
routine. Walk to school, spend all freaking day in school,
go to Cosmo, walk home. Repeat. On the walks to and from, most days
my cyberhound accompanies me, his massive body ambling along at my
side. His shoulders nearly come up to my waist and he’s thick,
ripcord muscle and brindled midnight fur. The cyborg leg gleams in
the sunlight. His gait is smooth and it’s like he was born with it,
even though that’s insane. Robots are created, not born.
    It’s strange how safe I feel with him. He’s
like my own personal bodyguard. I’ve seen two Wraiths since,
lurking in the shadows, watching me with those empty eyes, but they
never come close enough to touch me. I wonder if they know he’s
attacked their kind before. I wonder why he saved me in the first
place.
    We reach the school and my hound butts his
head up against my thigh, rubbing like a big cat might. His tail
wags and then he steps back, watching me. His ears swivel forwards
and back, picking up sounds.
    I gently touch his head. “See ya, Freak,” I
say with a smile, taking the steps two at a time. I make it into
the school and look back around, but the hound is already gone.
    I make a pit stop in the bathroom before the
bell rings. As I’m washing my hands, I see the girl from a few days
ago come out of a stall. Her hair is poofy, tamed back into a
ponytail at the back of her head. It’s all natural: No extensions,
no dyes. She has a spatter of freckles across her nose, making her
look younger than her boobs say she is. I offer a tentative
smile.
    “Hi.”
    “Lucy, right?” She sidles up beside me,
washing her hands as I dry mine. I stuff them into my pockets. I
remember her watching me as Sync pulled debris from my wounded
hands, hands that have pretty much healed up. Even now, she doesn’t
seem at all scared of me. I know she has to have heard the rumors.
She just doesn’t seem to care and I’m not sure if that makes me
excited or nervous.
    “Yeah.”
    She dries her hands under the airflow, then
sticks one out. I stare at it for a moment. Her brow arches.
    “Oh.” I feel heat rush to my face and I shake
it quickly.
    She laughs. “I’m Caddie. I’m in your Earth
Science class. I sit two seats behind you.”
    I look at her, but the name doesn’t ring a
bell. That class is a little more exciting than the rest of them,
but still, pretty boring in my book. When I don’t say anything, she
adds, “I’m the girl Mr. Hoopes always calls on.”
    “Sorry,” I say with a shake of my head. We
kind of just stand there in an awkward silence as it stretches
around us, enveloping me in a cocoon. “I’m not that social.”
    “I don’t blame you.”
    Outside, the bell rings shrill and we both
jerk to attention. “We’d better get to class.” How can one simple
girl make me feel so on edge? It would be easier if she was being a
jerk. I’m not sure how to handle nice.
    “Agreed.” She turns to open the door, then
pauses mid-swing. She looks at me. “Hey. Um. Sorry if I’m out of
bounds or something, but would you wanna hang out sometime? I know
you don’t really seem to do the whole ‘friends’ scene, but I
figured…”
    Fear spreads like a virus through my blood,
setting me on fire and freezing me solid at the same time. I think
of Sophia, her red hair streaming into her face like ribbons of
blood as she flopped lifelessly to the ground. I think of the agony
in my heart as I sat by her bedside and when she woke up, she woke
up screaming, her eyes wide with terror. I told myself never
again.
    But I haven’t had a surge in three years. I’m
more careful now, who I take from and when I take it. Experience
has made me cautious. I