Out of the Box 7 - Sea Change Read Online Free PDF Page B

pavement—
    And passed right through it like it wasn’t even there.
    Kat rolled and spun back to her feet, not nearly as gracefully as Sienna would have, but enough to get the job done. The redhead looked up in surprise at her fast motion, blinking away his surprise with dark eyes.
    A concentrated spray of water hit him in the side of the face, stunning him for a second. Then his washed-out features suddenly took on an even more washed-out look, like smoke dissipating in the wind as Scott’s attack went right through his face, a stream of liquid that tapered off quickly.
    Kat shot a look at Scott, his finger extended, the water blast he’d directed at the redhead dropping off to the intensity of a water pistol. “Why are you stopping?” she asked.
    “There’s a drought,” Scott said. “I can’t pull water out of the air when there’s no water in the air—”
    “You’re all scheming against me!” The redhead erupted, causing Kat to take a few more steps back. His hair fell in front of his eyes, still ragged and disheveled, though now a little damp from the squirting Scott had given him.
    “Dude, I don’t even know who you are,” Scott said.
    “Neither do I,” Kat said, holding up both her hands, her Fiji water bottle still clenched tightly in one of them. “I’ve never even seen you before in my life—”
    “Of course you don’t know me,” he said, his face twitching. “You don’t even notice the little people as you step on them, do you? You’re just like the others—”
    “Other whats?” Scott asked, holding his own hands up now, matching her non-offensive posture. “Metahuman reality TV stars? Because there are very, very few of those, pretty much just the one right now—”
    “Leeches,” the redhead pronounced, brushing shaggy, stray hairs out of his eyes with a hand. He blew out of his lips, stirring the wild mustache on his upper lip. “That’s what you are.”
    “Listen, Red Lebowski,” Scott said, “I don’t know what she’s done to offend you, but I’m sure it was really bad—”
    “I didn’t do anything—” Kat protested.
    “You just tried to frame me as your stalker,” Scott said, glancing sideways. Kat followed his gaze. The cameraman was there, filming, Mike the sound guy had his boom mic extended toward them, catching the whole exchange.
    This was going to be great TV. Ratings gold.
    If she survived.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, shrugging at the camera since she’d already broken the fourth wall without thinking about it. It was a crisis; these things were understandable. She’d just had some crazy man jump out and assault her, after all.
    “You know what, angry ginger homeless guy?” Scott said, exasperated. “Whatever she’s done to you, you can’t have her.”
    “That’s really not very nice,” Kat said.
    “Which part?” Scott snapped. “Angry, ginger or homeless?”
    “The part where you just act like you can decide what I get to do, like I’m property or some kind of gift you’d deign to hand out—”
    “You’re the worst gift I could imagine giving, like a whoopee cushion filled with nerve gas or—”
    “SHUT UP!” the redhead screamed. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” He shook in the middle of the street like he was about to explode. He extended a finger right at Kat. “I’m telling you this now—you live your life in the spotlight, sucking dry every dramatic bone you can get your grubby hands on—”
    Scott frowned at her. “Is this metaphorical or is he talking about—”
    “I’M SPEAKING NOW!” the redhead exploded again, jabbing his finger in her direction again. “You live in the spotlight, you’ll die in the spotlight—and no one—not your manager,” he gestured to Taggert, who was trying his hardest to blend into the crowd of paparazzi next to the SUV, “not your little friend with his little squirtgun action—” He waved at Scott.
    “Usually it’s a powerful torrent, okay?”