Guild of Truth 02 - Shield from the Heart

by Mary K. Norris

  It was closed, the electronic lock engaged.

  Joel pulled his backpack off and rummaged through it.

  A shadow shifted in the corner.

  Merrick took a step forward to warn them but it was too late.

  “Stop right there.” Regina cocked a gun right at Joel’s chest.

  Joel froze, the device Merrick had seen Sydney using clutched in his hand.

  Regina motioned with her gun. “Drop it.”

  Joel carefully set his equipment back in his pack and placed it at his feet.

  “Push it away from you,” instructed Regina. Another shadow detached itself from the wall. Dennis. Again, no last name given.

  The young man in their group shivered as Dennis walked forward to relieve Joel of his belongings.

  Regina smiled at them. “I knew I smelled intruders.” She tapped her nose with her free hand.

  Joel and Sydney exchanged confused glances. But Merrick realized what they didn’t with a sinking sensation: Regina had a power. He recalled all those visits from her, some of her words making more sense to him now. The off-hand comments about his scent and how it drove her wild, how she couldn’t get the smell of him out of her nose. She must be some type of blood hound with the olfactory ability to track others by their scents.

  He scanned Dennis but found no weapons on him, concealed or otherwise.

  If he could figure out some way to disarm Regina they’d have a chance. Dennis’s abilities required physical contact. As long as he was in contact with another he could take away a person’s sight. They’d done it enough to Merrick in the past. It was a scare tactic: blind the captive so they wouldn’t know when the pain was coming. It was a sick sort of amusement that left the captive in constant anticipation.

  Dennis started to shift through Joel’s bag.

  “Hands up,” Regina commanded.

  Merrick found his gaze drawn to Sydney. She was watching him.

  Have to protect her …

  He couldn’t stand the thought of Sydney going through what he had for the past however many months of his life.

  He tore his eyes away. “You’re not going to stop us from leaving,” he told Regina.

  Dennis paused in his ransacking. Regina’s lips curled further. “Is that so?” She aimed the gun at him.

  Merrick could feel the group around him tense. He braced himself for the pain he was about to unleash upon himself. His leg muscles bunched. He readied his hands. He sprang — “No!”

  Movement on his left.

  A shot fired.

  Merrick slapped at his chest. No wound. He lunged for Regina.

  Cries erupted from all over.

  He caught Regina’s wrists and forced them up. Another shot rang out. Plaster sprinkled down on them.

  “You know there’s no escape,” Regina whispered to him as she fought his hold. “Wherever you go, I’ll find you.”

  Before he could break his rule of not hitting women, Joel was at his side. He dropped to the ground and covered Regina’s feet with his hands. “Leave her,” said Joel. “We don’t have much time — I heard someone mention reinforcements.”

  Merrick tore the gun from Regina and threw it down the hall. He stepped away from her. She went to follow and tipped forward.

  “What the fuck is this?” she shrieked. She clasped her ankles and heaved. They didn’t move from the floor.

  The others were huddled around the front door. Merrick scanned Sydney for injury but it was the young man with blue eyes and a cleft in his chin that took the shot. The sleeve of his scrubs was wet with blood.

  “Joel,” Sydney cried. “We need the code.”

  Joel reversed direction back to Dennis who must’ve been knocked out during the chaos. He was starting to stir, Joel’s pack tucked between his feet.

  “No time.” Merrick forced his way through. He inhaled deeply and put his palm flat over the keypad.

  The back of his neck tingled. He shut his eyes as he was bombarded with visions. Different people, tons of emotions, but they all typed in the same code.

  He pulled his hand back and punched in the five digit password. The lock clicked free. He threw the door open and held it. The others stared at him. “Out,” he ordered.

  Sydney hustled the injured man out.

  Joel clapped him on the shoulder. “Nice.”

  They ran out into the parking lot.

  “Where’s your van?” asked Juliet.

  Joel ran to the gate. “Don’t have one.”

  “You don’t have a van?”

  “Look,” said Joel. “We had no idea how many of you we were going to find, if any. Not to mention finding parking would have been a bitch.”

  “We’re in a parking lot,” countered Juliet. “You could have parked here!”

  Joel grumbled under his breath.

  “So, what?” Juliet continued. “You thought you’d get us out nice and smoothly, no problems whatsoever, and we could just walk away?” Juliet laughed humorlessly. “You guys overestimated your skills.”

  “You know, you’re about as optimistic as Niella,” Joel mumbled.

  Sydney shared a secretive smile with him.

  “So how’d you get here?” asked Juliet.

  “The BART.”

  BART. Bay Area Rapid Transit. Merrick inhaled, catching the faint sea breeze. If he had to guess he’d bet his money on them being in San Francisco. Shit. He was over three hundred miles from home.

  “The what?” cried Juliet.

  Joel ignored her to address Merrick. “Can you open this gate like you did the front door?”

  Merrick put his hand on the metal box. “This isn’t the same. There’s no password.”

  Joel cursed.

  “Isn’t there some way to overload the system with a jolt or a kick or something?” asked Sydney.

  Hazel perked up from where she hovered at the injured man’s side. Without a word she ran to the box and put both hands over it. She took a deep breath and held it. Her whole body shook. Electricity surged from her hands into the box. Smoke rose, the system blown. The gate rattled.

  There was no time to stare. Joel raced over and manually opened the gate. Merrick went to help.

  “Now where?” asked Juliet.

  Two cars came speeding around the bend of a nearby corner.

  “Backup,” said Sydney.

  They all huddled behind a bus stop poster board.

  “Should we make a run for it?” Sydney said to Joel.

  “No need.” Merrick peered out around their hideout. A bus pulled up and stopped.

  “Everyone on,” commanded Joel.

  They packed in. It was deserted, which was good. Joel ran to the front to pay their fare while the rest circled around their injured comrade to hide the blood.

  Joel returned a second later to claim a seat behind Sydney and the injured one. He leaned over the seat to take a look and cursed. “How’re you holding up, Luke?”

  Luke.

  Merrick filed the name away.

  “I’ll be fine.” The sweat beading on Luke’s forehead indicated otherwise. “I’d rather die than go back there.”

  “Well, you didn’t have to get so close to dying to prove your point,” said Joel dryly.

  Luke tried to grin but it looked more like a grimace. “I’ll try to remember that next time.”

  “Hopefully there won’t be a next time.” Sydney tried to take a look at the wound but he kept shifting away from her. “Don’t worry, I’m a doctor,” she said when Luke continued to evade her advances.

  He quit squirming. “Really?”

  Sydney scrunched up her nose. “Well … I’m a vet. And we’re going to need supplies.”

  Luke shook his head. “No you don’t. I told you, I’ll be fine.”

  “You were shot,” Merrick reminded him, wondering if Luke was going into shock.

  Hazel squeezed in at Merrick’s side. He stepped aside to give her room. “You were really brave back there,” she told Luke.
>
  Luke ducked his head, his neck growing red.

  Juliet leaned in around Hazel. “You know, whoever saw us get on this bus is going to be able to track us. Shouldn’t we have a destination in mind?”

  “Why don’t you and Hazel check the routes up on the wall and find us a way back to the BART station?” said Joel.

  Juliet’s chest puffed up at being given an important task. “Come on, Hazel,” she said warmly and led the other girl to the middle of the bus.

  Sydney worked at Luke’s sleeve and pulled it up to reveal his wound.

  Merrick stood in front of Luke to block the bus driver’s view. “That’s not too bad. I thought it was a lot worse from the amount of blood.”

  “It was a lot worse,” said Luke. “But I told you I’d be fine. I heal rapidly. That’s my power.”

  “That’s why you took the shot,” Sydney mused out loud.

  Luke nodded. “I saw you,” he jerked his head at Merrick, “get ready to jump the woman with the gun but I lunged for her first so she’d take me down, giving you time to tackle her.”

  Merrick’s admiration for the kid grew. “I have to agree with Hazel, that was really brave. Thank you.”

  “We’re still going to need to stop,” said Sydney. “He’s going to need another shirt. He’ll draw too much attention with all this blood. All of you are going to draw enough attention as it is in those scrubs.”

  Merrick looked down at his feet. They were all barefoot too. Luckily the bus driver didn’t give them shit about that.

  Joel leaned back in his seat. “I don’t think anything’s open this late, Syd. It’s late and dark out — as long as we keep Skywalker here in the shadows we should be fine.”

  Luke turned around in his seat to face Joel. “Skywalker?”

  Joel shrugged. “You have to admit, you’re a striking resemblance of him.”

  “I guess.” Luke hunched down in his seat to rest his head back.

  “Any idea what Juliet can do?” Joel asked Luke.

  Luke opened his eyes. “No idea.”

  “Juliet said she didn’t have any powers.” Sydney dug around in her pockets and pulled out a small tissue that she used to push against Luke’s wound. He hissed in pain.

  Joel made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. “I have to say I was a little surprised to find Static Shock on our team.”

  Merrick frowned. “Who?”

  Joel pointed to the girls. “I’m talking about Hazel and her electrokinesis ability. Out of the two of them I would have thought she was the one that didn’t have powers.”

  “Electrokinesis,” Merrick repeated, still unable to believe what his life had turned into. “And I thought my clairsentience was odd.”

  “Clairsentience, is that what you call your power?” asked Joel.

  “I looked it up on the internet one day.”

  “Well.” Joel leaned forward and put a hand on Sydney’s shoulder. She jumped. “Let me tell you, if you join our group back home we’ll find you a much better title.”

  Merrick wondered if Joel’s offer would still stand if he knew Merrick was secretly lusting after his girlfriend.

  Juliet cleared her throat, announcing her and Hazel’s return. “We’re going in the wrong direction. We need to get off this bus as soon as possible. At the next stop we’ll have to walk about a mile, if I estimated correctly, to another pickup. That new bus will then arrive close enough for us to walk to the Montgomery station.”

  “Luke?” Sydney asked tentatively.

  He opened his eyes. The poor kid looked absolutely exhausted. Merrick knew the feeling but he had to keep it together. He’d be able to rest when they were all well and truly free.

  “Are you going to be able to walk all that?” Sydney relayed Juliet’s instructions in case he had dozed off.

  “Think so,” Luke mumbled.

  “We’re about to find out.” Joel got to his feet. “Because here comes our stop.”

  • • •

  Luke ended up making it. His injury slowed the entire group down but no one said anything about it. It was because of him that they were able to get away at all and Merrick wasn’t going to knock the kid when he took a bullet for him.

  However, Merrick could feel their head start slipping away as they wove through the tight streets. Once they were back on the bus it wasn’t too bad, but he kept himself on high alert. There was no telling how far Regina would be able to track them. The whole group might already be watching all the stations. He sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case.

  He took a seat across from Sydney. “It was a good thing you guys didn’t stay at a nearby hotel.”

  She kept her expression carefully guarded. “We figured that would be the first place anyone would start looking.”

  “Smart.”

  By the time they arrived on Market Street the young ones were fading fast.

  Luke had rolled his shirt sleeve up to cover the blood. His wound still bled, but they figured it was better to have a small amount of blood instead of a large stain that drew the unwanted eye.

  “Come on,” Joel tried to rally them. “We have to make the last train.”

  Joel took the down escalator at a run. Merrick waited for the others to go before he followed. Brown hair caught his eye but when he turned there was no one there.

  Was he imagining things?

  He scanned the street one last time before heading below ground.

  Stale air greeted him. It was mixed with the scent of machinery and unwashed bodies. He could hear the approaching transport. The platform was nearly empty. Juliet, Hazel, and Luke all stood near the bright yellow marker at the edge of the platform, eager to board. Joel and Sydney were not far behind them.

  “Are you going to take us home with you?” asked Hazel.

  Merrick joined them.

  “Only if you want,” said Joel. “Our main goal was to get you guys back where you belong. But if you don’t have anywhere you’re more than welcome to join our Guild of Truth.”

  Juliet perked up. “You mean there’s more of you?”

  Sydney nodded. “Not too many more, only three.”

  “We’ll tell you more about it on the way to Oakland.” Joel motioned to the oncoming transport.

  Merrick’s stomach clenched.

  Nerves?

  No. He felt an itch at the back of his neck as if he were being watched.

  The BART pulled up, doors opening. The others started to board. Merrick scanned the platform. Nothing. But he knew better than to doubt his instincts. He studied every person whether sitting, standing, or walking.

  Sydney went to board.

  Regina stepped out from behind a scheduling board, something raised in her hand.

  Merrick didn’t think. He reacted.

  He grabbed Sydney by the shoulders and a jolt went through him at the contact. He wrenched her away from the doors. Sydney yelped in surprise.

  Joel jumped to his feet. “What the fuck are you — ”

  A shot pinged off the transport cart.

  Joel ducked inside with a curse.

  The doors shut.

  “Joel!” Sydney cried out.

  Joel banged on the glass but the BART was already moving.

  Chapter 5

  Sydney watched their only chance at escape leaving without them.

  Merrick grabbed her hand. “We need to get out of here.”

  Her heart skipped as his warm hand enveloped hers.

  To emphasize his point another silenced shot went off three feet from where she was standing.

  They booked it for the escalators. Sydney tried to keep up with Merrick’s longer stride. She started to fall behind, her hand tugging him back. He slowed his pace and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Her stomach flipped.

  “How’d they find us so fast?” she huffed.

  “Regina is a tracker.”

  The man they’d knocked out with Propofol stepped out from behind a pillar.

  They skid t
o a stop. Sydney threw her Shield up.

  The man grabbed her, purposely going for skin to skin contact.

  “No,” Merrick roared, unaware that her power would negate whatever the man’s ability would have done to her.

  Merrick’s fist flew. Their attacker flew into another scheduling board. Another shot rang out. Cries of alarm burst into the air. A security guard was racing toward them.

  “Merrick.” Sydney tugged his arm to alert him.

  “I know.” His jaw bulged.

  They sprinted for the escalator and made it top side, shouts ringing out behind them.

  Sydney had to stop and catch her breath. “Now where?”

  Merrick’s black hair whipped out as he looked up and down the streets. “Do you have cash on you?”

  Sydney patted her cargo pockets. “Yeah, why? Where can we go with you in scrubs that won’t draw attention?”

  He hailed a taxi. He held the door open for her. “The obvious choice, of course.” He climbed in after her. “To the hospital,” he told the driver. “Stay low,” he whispered and pushed her head down as the taxi took off.

  She sunk lower into her seat, her heart racing a mile a minute. The taxi smelled like cheap incense. She tried to breathe through her mouth to lessen the smell but it wasn’t helping.

  “A hospital?” she asked to distract herself from her body’s reaction to Merrick’s close proximity.

  He looked out the back windshield for perhaps the third time. “Like you said, scrubs are going to make it a little difficult to blend, but not at a hospital. Not to mention the ER has people there at all hours of the night so no one will think twice of us staying there.”

  The idea of staying in one place all night didn’t sit well with her, but they didn’t really have any other options. They could try a hotel but what if Vander was watching them? She had no idea how far his wealth and power reached.

  Was he even in San Francisco? The location of Vander had eluded her guild for the past three months.

  The hospital wasn’t very far from the BART station. Sydney paid the driver and Merrick led her into the ER. It was about half full, ranging from bed wrangled individuals to snot nosed little children.

  Sydney shivered as she was reminded of all the time she’d spent in the hospital with Aaron, staying by his side as he went through his treatments.