Read Online Strength by Angela B. Macala-Guajardo - Free Book Online Page A

Roxie had a feeling he’d backed off out of sport. “What do you want with me?”
    “I’m not sure yet,” he said. “My master isn’t sure what to make of you either. I could kill you right now and save us a lot of trouble, but my curiosity has gotten the best of me.”
    “Why would you need to kill me? I haven’t done anything.”
    “It’s what you can do,” he said.
    “Yeah, save lives! What’s wrong with that?”
    “A conflict of interests, kid. One that won’t be resolved with civil talk. But don’t worry just yet. I want to stick around for a little while and see if I can learn something from Aerigo.”
    “I thought you two don’t like each other.”
    Daio laughed and looked ahead. Roxie wasn’t sure, but it looked like his smile had turned into a frown.
    She then realized something: she needed to stop heading for the bus station and shake this guy so he couldn’t follow them all the way to New York. Roxie reached a crosswalk and stopped, even though the sign shone green.
    “Why are we stopping?” Daio asked, unconcerned.
    Roxie mouthed a choice curse and backed away. He’d been standing right next to her with his face mere inches from hers. Stopping was turning out to be a stupid idea. At least running would’ve helped her catch up with Aerigo and let him take care of things. All her joints still ached with stiffness.
    “You think you can outrun me?” he said and lunged so they were face-to-face again.
    He’d covered the gap faster than Roxie’s eyes could follow and she backed away again. She was fast, now, but was Daio still faster? “I can try,” she said, trying to sound brave. With all the people and cars to pose as obstacles, all she had to do was time ducking out of sight just right, and then stay out of sight until she was certain she’d lost him. Of course everything that could pose as an obstacle to Daio could hinder her as well, but that was a moot point.
    Running to the bus station was out of the question. So was her grandmother’s house. She didn’t want Daio using Grandma as collateral. That narrowed it to bolting either left, into the intersection, or right along the sidewalk. Before she could decide, something clamped onto her wrist. Daio squeezed, sending her wrist afire.
    “Let go!” She tried pulling her arm out of his vice-like grip. To her dismay, he proved to be stronger than her new superhuman strength.
    His grin stretched wider. “You need to act before you think, girlie.”
    Girlie ? Roxie narrowed her eyes. She put her whole body into a lunge away from Daio and managed to force him to shuffle a couple of steps with her. “My name is Roxie! Don’t ever call me ‘girlie’ again.” She twisted her arm to the side.
    “If you wish,” he said, maintaining his grip. “And I see no harm in letting you know my name is Daio.”
    “Whatever.” Roxie made a fist with her free hand. “Now let me go!”
    Faster than a cobra, Daio seized her other wrist. Roxie struggled to pull free as her forearms were forcibly raised level with her face.
    “Ha ha ha— ow !”
    The moment Roxie felt Daio’s grip slacken she yanked her wrists free. Daio dropped his hands over his groin and sank to his knees, his face contorted with agony.
    “Dat was low,” he said through clenched teeth, then flopped to one side and scowled at her.
    Roxie started running along the sidewalk, intent on finding Aerigo and the bus station. She ran three blocks to the right before turning left onto another busy street. This time she ran as fast as she could and discovered that dodging and darting around people wasn’t too difficult. She ran along the road until she reached the bus station road. She took one final left and sped down it. By now she was getting sweaty and starting to suck wind, but she pressed on.
    When the chain link fence surrounding a multitude of buses came into view, Roxie banged into someone. “Sorry!” She grabbed a man by the shoulders and he did the same to