Free The Gifted Ones: A Reader by Maria Elizabeth Romana Page A

captured.
    Ellie shook her head again. “How did…I mean, how could…”
    Angel just gave her a quick wink and inclined her head toward the door of the room. After they left the studio, Angel led Ellie up the creaky stairs of the old farmhouse and to a small bedroom with antique-looking furnishings, frilly curtains, and the requisite flowered quilts. Unlike the glass-roofed studio, it was pretty much what Ellie expected to see in an old farm house.
    Angel motioned toward a door near the back of her room. “They’re putting you in the next room over. It connects to mine through the bath there, so I’m never far away, okay?” Angel started to peel off her leather jacket. “Granny dug up some clothes and things for you to use until your stuff arrives. Should be here tomorrow or the next day.”
    “Wait, my stuff? Like from our house in Atlanta? Someone went there and got it?”
    “Oh yeah, don’t worry. I’m sure they got everything that would’ve meant anything to you—clothes, books, photos, all that stuff.”
    Ellie sunk into the bed, confused. “But why—”
    By now, Angel had moved to her closet. “I would’ve loaned you something of mine, ya know, but we’re nowhere near the same size, and…” She threw open the closet doors. “Not much the same taste.”
    Ellie forgot her question and looked over. She had to smile. There wasn’t a spot of color in Angel’s closet. It was jam-packed full of black leather pants, jackets, and boots, as well as an assortment of t-shirts, blouses, and sweaters—again, all black.
    Angel shrugged. “Makes it easy to get dressed in the morning.” She grabbed the bottom edge of her t-shirt and yanked it over her head.
    As Angel turned toward the closet to pick a clean shirt, Ellie acknowledged that she was right—they were nowhere near the same size. Angel’s shoulders, back, and arms were broad and rippling with well-defined muscle, and her lacy black bra had some serious work to do, while Ellie’s lightweight camisole struggled not to sag on her barely-there boobs, nor to slide down her pencil-thin arms. And that was beside the fact that Angel stood a good six or seven inches taller than Ellie. Of course, she was older than Ellie, too. Maybe Ellie would catch up.
    As Angel began buttoning up a black satin blouse, Ellie shifted her view to the bedside table. She picked up a decorative photo frame and looked at it closely. The picture inside was aged and torn on the corner. It showed an attractive Hispanic woman, thirty-ish, with an adolescent girl by her side and a toddler in her arms. “Is this your mom?”
    Angel walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder. Her voice was soft, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s my mom. And that’s me and my baby brother, Enrique.” She reached past Ellie and touched the edge of the frame. “She passed a long time ago. Like your mom.” Angel sat down on the bed next to Ellie and started trading out her thigh-high boots for a pair of ankle-high ones.
    Ellie was sorry she’d asked about the photograph. Dead parents weren’t exactly the topic of choice for a budding friendship. She bit her lip and tried to think of a cheerier subject to bring up. Fortunately, she didn’t have to, as they were interrupted by a low rumbling noise and a vibration in the floor, followed by a loud boom, a little screaming, and possibly some breaking glass. “Omigod! What was that?” Ellie dropped to her knees on the floor and covered her head.
    Angel was moving swiftly toward the door of the room, but threw back, “Relax, I got this. Just get dressed and meet me downstairs.” And then she was gone.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five: Biology 101
     
    Ellie wasn’t sure from Angel’s tone if she really needed to be worried about that explosion noise or not. She stayed in her tucked position for a minute or two, listening for signs that all was well and that the house wasn’t about to blow up. Finally, she got up and stuck her head