Robert Crane: Untouched

He was quiet for a split second, and a thought floated to the surface of my mind. 3586 Curie Way, Bloomington, Minnesota.

I blinked, and Ariadne caught it. “Tired?”

“No.” My mind was racing. “Just remembering something. Wolfe mentioned an address—3586 Curie Way in Bloomington. Is that close?” It wasn’t a lie; I didn’t say when he had mentioned it.

Zack, Ariadne and Old Man Winter were the only ones remaining on the helipad. Zack was the one who answered. “It’s about forty minutes away. Ten minutes south of your house.”

“Wolfe gave you this address?” Ariadne looked skeptical. Old Man Winter looked blank, as always.

“He did.”

“Why would he give you an address?” Her eyes were narrowed, and you could see her crunching the odds in her head—wondering if it was some sort of trap. Leave it to Ariadne to ask the tough questions I wanted to avoid. I guess it could have been a trap, but if it was, it seemed counterproductive for Wolfe to kill me, since he lived in my head. I had this feeling that even after thousands of years of life, he was clinging to even this little half-life in my skull like lint clings to a sweater.

I chose my words carefully so as to avoid a flat-out lie. “I don’t think he intended for me to survive our final encounter.” True enough. “So anything he mentioned wouldn’t have mattered, would it?”

I looked from her to Old Man Winter then Zack. All three of them were studying me with varying degrees of suspicion, which worried me. Even though what I was saying was technically true, I was leaving a lot out—lying by omission. Based on my experience with Mom, who could always tell when I was being false, I was a bad liar. Ariadne shot a look at Old Man Winter, who had a cocked eyebrow and very little else to tell me what was going through his mind. Zack was looking at the snow.

“Zack,” Old Man Winter spoke. “You and Kurt will take Sienna to the address she provided.” He turned, gracefully for a man with such a tall frame, and lumbered down the path to Headquarters.

The worry was evident on Ariadne’s face. “Be careful,” she said to Zack and me before following Old Man Winter.

Zack had his cell phone out and was already talking on it. I could tell it was Kurt by the way he was speaking. His cheeks were red and he shivered as he ended the conversation; I realized for the first time he wasn’t wearing a coat. “You’re cold,” I said, feeling a blush for being so stupid as to state the obvious.

“Yeah, I should have grabbed a coat at the airport before we got on the chopper, but for some reason it slipped my mind. Was in a hurry to get back here, I guess.” He cast a sidelong look at the retreating backs of Ariadne and Old Man Winter. “I get the feeling that you’re not telling us everything you know about that address.”

“Oh, no,” I said, “I’ve told you all I know about the address; it’s as much of a mystery to me as it is to you.”

“And Wolfe just…gave it to you?” His brow was furrowed and one eye seemed to be more closed than the other.

Now I had to be even more careful if I was going to avoid outright lying. “He hurt me pretty bad during the last fight, slammed me through a concrete wall.” I tried to recall the final battle. “I don’t know; maybe he was talking to someone else. I think I lost consciousness for a few minutes at that point.” That was true.

“I see,” he said. Doubt flowed through his words, and he wasn’t looking at me. I felt a drop in my stomach. I hated lying to him, but I had to know what was at Wolfe’s address. “Kurt’s meeting us in the garage in five minutes.”

I needed to know where Mom was, and I was sure that Wolfe knew something he wasn’t telling me. I doubted she was there, but I also didn’t think he’d give me the address if there wasn’t some hint as to her whereabouts. Damn him; he was dead and he was still toying with me. I had to wonder if I’d ever be free of him.

I fell into step beside Zack, feeling the wind play through my hair, hoping it was blowing it in a sexy way. I self-consciously ran my fingers through it and found it to be tangled instead. I yanked my hand down as he turned to look at me, and I swore I could hear Wolfe’s cackle ring through my head. In that moment I regretted he no longer had a physical body because I wanted more than anything to kick him in the balls.

“I have to ask,” Zack started, and he looked at me, those brown eyes shining in the light of the helipad’s spotlights, “Did you know you could beat Wolfe when you went after him?”

“What?” I was caught off guard by the question. I hoped it showed on my face. “No, I didn’t think I had a chance against him. That afternoon I watched him wipe out a SWAT team and a half-dozen police officers without taking so much as a scratch. I didn’t think anything could kill him.” I lowered my head, and felt a tingle of fear at the memory. “That’s why I went. Only I could stop him.”

“That’s pretty damn brave,” Zack said with a shake of his head. “I don’t know too many people who’d throw themselves into the fire like that.”

“It didn’t feel brave.” I felt a cold unrelated to the weather, something much deeper inside. “Someone who was brave would have confronted their problem long before I did, long before all those people died. What I did felt inevitable—and I just wanted it over.”

“Most people,” he said, “Wouldn’t have forced a confrontation with that maniac after their first encounter with him. You did.” He shook his head, I think in amazement. “How many eighteen-year-olds—”

“I’m still seventeen.”

“How many seventeen-year-olds do you think would get choked out by some lunatic and then willingly go back for another round?” He laughed. “You’re brave, Sienna. Maybe the bravest person I’ve ever met.”

I felt a thrill at his words, then felt it go as I recalled the cold facts of the situation. “Yeah, but that second round cost you guys eight people. All so I could try and fight him.”

“You didn’t know that was going to happen.”

“But I should have!” I felt hot, like something under my sweater was causing my skin to catch fire. “I was so focused on myself, trying to get what I wanted that I didn’t worry about anyone else.” I thought about that day, and suddenly it felt a little too close to what was happening now. Wolfe played his game and he did it his way; it was not unreasonable to think he might have allies left behind at the address he gave me, or a trap, or worse. I looked back at Zack, watched the mist from my breath blow in the air. “I need you to take me to the address and then wait in the car.”

“Are you kidding?” His reaction was immediate dismissal. He didn’t get angry, he scoffed. “I’m not letting you go in alone.”

“I have to.” I stopped walking, and he took another couple steps before he realized I wasn’t alongside him and stopped too. “Wolfe doesn’t play nice.”

“I’m not helpless,” Zack still stayed away from anger, but I could see the beginnings of annoyance in the way his eyes were wrinkling at the sides and how his mouth had moved from a smile to a flat line. “I can hold my own in a fight. Just because I’m not a meta—”

“It’s not that you’re not a meta.” I aimed for gentle, soothing words. “If Wolfe set a claymore mine as a trap and it blows off my foot, it grows back.” I gestured at him. “You’d never walk again.”

I could see the wheels spinning as he struggled to put together an effective response. He started to say something, then stopped short, frustration pinching his handsome features. “I can’t let you go in by yourself.” His words came out mangled, as if he was at war internally. “But you have a point. Wolfe’s not known for being subtle with his violence, so…” he took on the air of a man proposing a bitter compromise, “I’d be willing to let you lead the way while Kurt and I follow at a safe distance.”