Free Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) by Niall Teasdale Page A

said, ‘there is a girl?’
    ‘You’ve met her, remember,’ Penny supplied. ‘Lena Tonaldo.’
    ‘She’s my information source inside the family,’ Andrea went on. ‘As far as she and her father know, Andrea Morgan makes some extra money working as a prostitute. Her father doesn’t want it known that his daughter’s a lesbian…’
    ‘Yeah, she kind of mentioned that when we were talking,’ June said. ‘I hadn’t thought that kind of attitude still existed.’
    ‘It does. Believe me, he’d lose face if it became widely known. Whatever, it was a useful way of getting into their apartments and the pillow talk kept me up to date on what was going on in there, but… David Tonaldo isn’t going to let his daughter sleep with an obvious Ultra.’ She looked down. ‘It’ll break her heart. I didn’t want her finding out like this. Then again, it was getting harder since I hooked up with Jacob. What’s his condition anyway?’
    ‘He was suffering from severe hypothermia,’ Penny told her. ‘I haven’t had an update since early this morning.’
    ‘I’m going to see him,’ Andrea stated, turning back toward her room. Then she stopped. ‘Um… does anyone have any dark glasses I can borrow?’
    ~~~
    They found Heather standing in front of the window of a room which seemed to have a lot of electronics in it as well as a bed. Generally, things which went ‘bleep’ a lot in a hospital room were not good signs.
    ‘How is he?’ Andrea asked.
    Heather looked around and frowned. ‘Twilight?’
    ‘That’s me.’
    ‘We figured civilian clothes were a good idea,’ Cygnus pointed out.
    ‘Yeah, but why the dark glasses?’
    ‘I’m having some trouble with my eyes. Jacob?’
    ‘He’s… improving, but they’re having some trouble getting his body temperature back up. They don’t think there’s going to be any permanent damage.’
    ‘But he’s not awake.’
    ‘No,’ Bryant shook her head. ‘They’re keeping him sedated until they get him back to normal temperature. Current theory is that the drug did something to his metabolism.’
    ‘We seriously need to get that shit off the streets,’ Cygnus muttered.
    ‘No arguments from us,’ Bryant replied. ‘It’s just a question of how? Are you two up for it?’
    ‘She is,’ Andrea said, her tone sullen. ‘I’m… I have a few things I need to take care of and I’m not fully recovered from freezing to death.’
    ‘Almost. Almost freezing to death.’
    ‘Yeah… that.’
    26 th March.
    Roger looked up from the Brightstar comic he was reading and frowned. He generally liked the girls who worked in his shop to dress in a manner that geeks and nerds had trouble ignoring, and Andrea generally obliged. Today she was standing in front of him in dark glasses and a hoodie. Then again, she had been sick over the weekend and he had not been sure she would be in at all.
    ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked. ‘You over your cold?’
    ‘Kind of,’ Andrea replied, ‘and I got cold, but not a cold. I need to talk, Boss. Privately.’
    Frown deepening, the aging hippy got to his feet. ‘Zoe, keep an eye on things for a few minutes,’ he called out.
    The blonde girl currently in the stacks looked around, saw no one to keep an eye on and called back, ‘Sure, Roger.’
    He led Andrea into the back room and then turned around, one eyebrow raised. ‘Okay, kid, what’s the problem?’ Andrea took her glasses off and pushed back her hood and he added, ‘Oh.’
    ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I’ll come clean. I’ve been sneaking around at night since I came to New Millennium. I’m Twilight. This… this is new. Something happened and… Well, I can’t exactly keep a secret identity with jet-black eyes. I’d understand if you don’t want me to work here anymore.’
    ‘You are joking, right?’ Roger drawled. ‘I run a comic shop. You think I’d pass up having a real, live heroine working here?’
    ‘It might not be entirely safe,’ Andrea replied.