Read Online Embers & Ice (Rouge) by Isabella Modra - Free Book Online

Wolfe.”
    Zac’s
eyes went wide. “Ooo. Creepy guy, isn’t he?”
    “That’s
an understatement.”
    Chantal
sat down beside Zac, her blond hair pulled up high in a twisted knot. She
looked exhausted.
    “What
happened to you?” asked Zac.
    “Show
and tell,” she grumbled.
    “What’d
they make you do?”
    “Convince
a trained hypnotist to take off his clothes and dance the Macarena with a sheet
of glass between us.”
    Hunter’s
mouth dropped open. “That’s your power?”
    “Yeah,”
she said.
    “How
did you know you could do… that?” She scooped food onto her fork with no
intention of eating it. Her stomach growled against her will.
    “I
told my ex-boyfriend to go jump off the Eiffel tower. And…”
    Hunter
felt suddenly queasy. “He did?”
    Her
jaw ticked. “The Agents caught me soon after I started stealing cars and
clothes and going off the rails, but I really wish it was the police instead.”
    “The
Agents would get you even if you were in prison, Chantal,” said Zac. “That’s
how Marcus got here. He was arrested for stealing computers he wanted to use
for a gaming competition, because he’s a Technopath and he’s pretty much a
legend in the geek world, or so I’m told. The Agents came to him in prison and
offered him a ticket out of his sentence.”
    “Yeah,
and he practically signed the consent form,” said Chantal.
    “I
know,” Zac chuckled. “What an idiot.”
    Zac
then proceeded to showed her the bruise that was forming from when one of the
guards caught him mucking around and slugged him in the ribcage.
    Hunter
stared at the other poor kids surrounding her and wondered how long it would
take before she looked like them – colorless and sick and drained. Years in
this place would be enough to drive anyone mad, and Hunter had only been there
a day. They have so much potential and they’re stuck here, in the best years
of their lives .
    Suddenly
something occurred to her. “Hey, guys, why are there no adults here with
powers?”
    The
grin on Zac and Chantal’s faces disappeared instantly. Neither of them looked
like they wanted to answer.
    “They
uh… it all depends on the situation.” Zac stared at his plate as he spoke and
his oily curls covered her view of his eyes. “Some of them survive for a while,
but others…”
    “Just
tell her Zac. She’s gonna find out sooner or later.”
    “Fine.”
There was no humor in his gaze anymore. “There’s no adults because no one gets
to live past their twenties. Their bodies start to die.”
    “But…
how?”
    “How
do you think? All of the testing, the constant chemicals jammed into our skin,
the filth in some parts of this place… it’s not good for kids in such a weak
state. There’s no sunlight or good food, there’s just… sickness and gloom and
death. We don’t have any fun here Hunter. Even if you’re the happiest, most
optimistic person in the world, the cold eventually sinks into your soul.”
    “Speaking
of,” said Chantal. “Did you hear about Ted and Elena?”
    “Of
course I did,” he muttered, averting his gaze. “Ryo said the scientists took
them deep into Death Cave, and they never came back out.”
    “Let
me guess,” said Hunter, “they were old and deteriorated too?”
    Zac
shrugged. “Elena was completely fine, physically. But about three months ago,
she stopped speaking. Nothing could make her move from her cell – the guards
had to drag her everywhere she went. Eventually, Dr. Wolfe gave up on her. Ted…
he couldn’t handle seeing Elena so lifeless. They were brother and sister; they
grew up in this place. He went crazy. He managed to kill one of the guards with
a plastic fork. It was seriously messy.”
    Hunter’s
stomach turned over inside her.
    “The
other day, they were taken down for testing and… I guess they went wherever all
the others go when they get too old or too loopy to be of any use to the
scientists.”
    If
Hunter thought her day couldn’t get any worse –