Sky Ghosts: Marco (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1.5) by Alexandra Engellmann Page B

and joined them, his two-meter tall bulk blocking out the moon and most of the light. Quickly, he sized them up with his look and stopped it on Butch, who was the largest of them.
    “Call Michael and take the guy to Doc,” he ordered, “And send the clean-up team. We’ll need them soon in Hunts Point. Chris and Zac, you’re with me: they need reinforcements there.” He switched his piercing gaze to Pain, who was still there and now moved ever so slightly to Butch’s side.
    “I’ll help him carry the big guy, Rob,” she said with an angelic expression, and Rob gave her a flat stare, too tired to be annoyed.
    “It’s Robert,” he muttered and turned away.
    In a heartbeat he shot up into the sky, Chris and Zac close on his heels. Pain watched him go, her expression offended and awed at the same time. Sometimes she really envied strong men like him: they were so much more useful in their trade. They even looked different in gear, walking around all bossy and imposing. No one was afraid of her in the way that they were of Rob, and it didn’t seem to matter that she could do them just as much damage in the training hall.
    She mulled it over for a moment, surrounded only by the silence of the deserted industrial neighborhood. After all, authority wasn’t about size, she concluded, so who said you couldn’t be bossy at sixteen, and only slightly over five feet tall? She decided she would do just that for all the mistreated sixteen-year-olds out there.
    “What are you waiting for?” she snapped at Butch all of a sudden, startling him as he remembered her presence, “Call Michael!”
    “Oh, get out of here!” he exclaimed, sending an awkward kick in her direction. But she was already in the air.
    She darted upward with a devilish grin, leaving him to deal with the task on his own. But Butch didn’t mind. He’d known that she never intended to help him, and was only there to gloat.
    “Pain in the ass,” he muttered as he watched her disappear into the black sky. Then he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed his boss’s number.
     
    *
     
    Pain approached the Headquarters and hovered outside her window. She could see her sister in there, lying on her bunk reading a book. She hesitated for a moment, looking left and right at the darkness around her, as if unsure whether she was ready to come home. But it wasn’t like she had any alternative, so she sighed and climbed inside. The windowsill creaked under her as she sat down to unlace her boots.
    “Look who’s here!” Jane greeted her from her bed, giving her a lazy once-over, “The mighty patrol commander, guardian of the Big Apple!”
    “Shut up,” Pain snorted and jumped off the windowsill.
    “You’re home early. Got in trouble again?”
    “Just saw all I wanted to see,” she answered, discarding her scabbard and jacket on the floor.
    “Oh yeah?” Jane finally dug her head out of her book. Despite her teasing tone, the look on her face was curious. “And what’s that?”
    Pain’s shoulders rose and fell in a dismissive shrug. She looked at her sister sightlessly. Instead, before her eyes was the fighter they had found on the street. There was something familiar about him, and yet she knew for sure she had never met him before. It was like one of those déjà vu moments, when you feel like you’ve already been somewhere or done something, and yet you’re sure it couldn’t have happened in this exact way before.
    She exhaled and pulled off her T-shirt.
    “Some drunk guy put down six Beasts in Port Morris. Butch is bringing him here to interrogate. I wish I could go listen, but I’ve already run into Rob tonight, don’t wanna be seen there, too.”
    Jane nodded, her lips pursed in approval.
    “Wow, that almost sounds like good sense.”
    Pain only shot her a humorous look.
    “You think that guy’s a Beast?” Jane asked.
    “No,” Pain shook her head and picked up the clothes scattered on the floor. “He seemed too good to be one