Haunt (Regenerate #5)

Chapter 9

Mantis goes into the conference room and takes a seat. He starts poring over Jess's notes as I lean over the back of his chair, trying to get a good look too. After a few minutes, Mantis says, "I don't think it's anything we can't handle. Though the leader sounds like he might be tricky."

I nod. "Yeah. I hate psychic powers."

"Me too," Mantis says. "We can start by taking out his crew, though. Take this one step at a time."

"Right," I say. "His cronies seem like easy pickings."

"I'm going to think through some strategy tonight," Mantis says. "We'll discuss it with the team tomorrow. For now, I think we should call it a night. Unless you want to go back to the party?"

"No thanks," I say. "Lorna texted me saying she was talking to a sexy redhead, and I think I'd just be in the way."

"And I take it you're not interested in talking to Mark again," Mantis says, voice hard.

"Definitely not," I say. "Why? Would you be terribly jealous if I did?"

Now would be a great time for him to say "Of course not, because I am Mark." Instead he just stares at me.

Then he says, "Why? Are you planning to flirt with him to make me jealous? Because that would be petty and manipulative."

He has the nerve to talk to me about being manipulative.

I glare at him. "Take me home."

I follow him out to his car. As soon as we start driving, I realize that I should have taken a taxi back to Lorna's. That would be vastly preferable to being stuck in a car with Mantis.

"Where are you going?" I ask. Because he's not driving in the direction of Lorna's house. We're somewhere in a factory district.

"I'm going to keep driving until you tell me why you're so mad at me," he says.

"No," I say.

"I can't make amends if I don't know what I did," he says. "Would you please just tell me?"

"You can't bully me into telling you why I'm mad at you," I say.

"I'm not bullying," he says. "Just persuading."

"Turn around," I say.

He keeps driving.

Quickly, so that he doesn't try to stop me, I unbuckle my seatbelt, open the door, and jump out of the car.

That'll teach him to try and boss me around.

I start walking in the opposite direction as he stops the car and gets out.

He starts following me. "Why can't you just tell me why you're mad at me?"

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"I'm trying to fix this!" he says. "Fine. Fight me for it. If you beat me, I'll drop the matter and never mention it again."

"No way! You're only proposing that because you know you'll win."

He stops walking. "Three minutes. If I can't pin you in three minutes, you win. I won't use the suit even. Besides, you kind of look like you want to punch me."

Well he's right about that.

He's manipulating me. He knows I don't want to back down from a challenge. And even though I know exactly what his tactic is, I fall for the trick.

"Fine," I say. "Three minutes."

I take my phone out of my pocket and set it on the hood of the car. I set a timer for three minutes.

He lets me take the first swing, probably relying on the fact that I'm mad and more likely to take a wild swing. I don't take a wild swing, though, and he barely manages to dodge the first attack. That puts him on the defensive.

I'm off to a good start. I can definitely make it three minutes.

I even manage to knock him to the ground. I feel pretty good about it until I realize that was exactly what he wanted. He swings his leg and knocks my feet out from under me. The he's on top of me and he pins me to the ground, about two seconds before the timer on my phone goes off.

"You've got to be kidding me," I groan.

"A deal's a deal, Thalia. Why are you mad at me?"

"Because you told Danny your identity and not me."

"I didn't tell Danny my identity," he says.

I try to shove him off of me. "Stop lying to me! I know you did."

He rolls off of me, and when I sit up I see that he's retracted the mask part of his suit. Right now he's just Mark Hall.

"Well don't expect me to be impressed," I say. "If you wanted me to be impressed, maybe you should have told me like forever ago."

He frowns. "I didn't expect you to be impressed. But maybe a little surprised."

Then realization crosses his face. "You already knew."

"Bravo, super genius."

"Lorna?"

"She didn't tell me," I say. "I figured it out on my own."

He blinks. "How?"

"Your mannerisms," I say. "Also I'm not an idiot."

I don't think I've ever seen him look so uncomfortable. And I have to say, it's sort of satisfying.

"I should have told you sooner," he says.

"That's kind of the point I've been making."

He stares at the ground. "I'm sorry."

I shake my head. "Too little, too late."

Then I stand and take my phone. As I walk away, I call a taxi to take me home.