by A and E Kirk
The woman rolled her eyes. “I might take that as a compliment if you hadn’t said the same thing to the other three nurses you’ve already asked for permission to see Heather.”
Sitting at a desk filling out paperwork, a man in his forties smiled and waved at Blake. “I’m still taking it as a compliment. Thanks again.”
Blake offered a wink and a nod. “Kevin, right? You’re welcome, dude. I meant every word. Do you moisturize? Your skin is amazing.”
“Funny you should ask. I just bought this new lotion.”
“Gentlemen, please,” the brunette interrupted with growing irritation. “I am under siege at the moment. Chaos reigns. Wristbands are banned. I have to use one of these.” She picked up a walkie-talkie radio. “Which I’m not even sure how to use. Or why exactly. In the meantime, we’re on lockdown, except for all these new people coming in who apparently will have unprecedented access, so I do not have time for your nonsense. Moisturizers or otherwise.”
“It’s probably just some drill,” Kevin said. Then, with an apologetic look and a nothing-I-can-do shrug toward Blake, he returned his attention to his work.
Blake turned back to the brunette. He felt his frustration rise. “Heather will want to see me. Just ask her.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re not on the list.”
“Then let me see the list. Maybe they have me under one of my aliases.”
“Why would you have an alias?”
“I’m a demon hunter, duh. We go undercover all the time.”
“That’s true enough,” Kevin said.
The woman gave Kevin a “shut up” look then turned a suspicious eye on Blake. “Okay, why don’t you give me a list of your aliases and I’ll check to see if one of them is on Heather’s visitors list.”
“Oh,” Blake said. “Uhhhh.”
“Thought so. The answer is no.”
“But, see…” Blake gripped the edge of the counter. “I would, but it’s against protocol for me to reveal my aliases.”
“Good,” she said. “Then you can understand that my protocol doesn’t allow me to let you see Heather.”
Blake closed his eyes. His grip on the countertop tightened. Beneath his fingers, the rock-solid material began to soften and warp like putty.
“Hello folks,” came a woman’s voice, pleasant and chipper.
“Hello, Doctor Buttefield,” the brunette and several other nurses replied.
Blake opened his eyes to see a short female approaching. She wore a white lab coat and had a kind face.
“I’m going to see how Jane’s doing after yesterday’s fiasco,” Dr. Buttefield said. “How has she been today?”
“Quiet,” Kevin said.
“Good to hear.” Dr. Buttefield nodded. “How are you all doing? Crazy around here, right?”
“You have no idea,” the brunette said tiredly.
“Still exciting though.” Buttefield smiled like a child with a new toy. “I mean, when have we ever been on lockdown? I even called my grandpa when I heard the rumors about demons.”
“Demons?” The brunette’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“Ah, don’t worry,” Buttefield said with a dismissive gesture. “Grandpa said that was probably all a bunch of hooey. Maybe some exercise to check security.”
“Told you,” Kevin said without looking up from his work.
“Yeah,” Buttefield said. “But still, I can’t wait to find out what is really going on. By the way, Kevin, that moisturizer you recommended is awesome. Thanks.”
The brunette rolled her eyes. “Oh for the love of God.”
Kevin pointed a finger at Blake. “I’ll write it down for you. You won’t believe the difference it makes.”
Dr. Buttefield noticed Blake and smiled as she swatted his arm. “Aren’t you a big fella. Hello to you too. You all have a good day!”
Blake nodded and watched the doctor move down the hallway. As she passed each door, she waved through the glass window and greeted the patient by name. Blake didn’t take much notice, too busy trying to remember his calming deep-breathing exercises and not rip apart the counter. Then he heard her say, “Hello, Heather.”
His breathing stopped. The brunette nurse gave him an odd look.
“Sorry to have bothered you,” Blake said and strode down the hall.
Dr. Buttefield unlocked a door and entered, pulling out two pairs of headphones from her pocket. “Hi, Jane. I thought we might try a new therapy to encourage some verbal interaction.” She shut the door behind her.
At the room just before the one Buttefield entered, Blake had to lean over to see through the glass window on the door. Heather sat on her bed, arms folded across her belly as she rocked back and forth. Her expression remained slack. Until she glanced up and saw Blake through the window.
Her eyes became huge, full of shock, then hope flooded in. Her sudden smile absolutely beamed.
“Blake!” Her shout of glee nearly shook the walls. She ran to the door and threw herself against it with a thump. “I knew you’d come for me! I knew it!” She slapped her hand on the door several times. “Get me out! Now! They’re going to hurt me again. You’re the only one who can save me.”
“Shhh,” Blake said, glancing around.
“Okay, okay,” she whispered.
She flattened her palm against the glass. Blake pressed his hand on the glass too, his huge one making hers seem to disappear.
“But I can’t stay here,” she said, her eyes wild and desperate. “You’re the only one I can trust. They’re coming for me. I can feel it. They’ll hurt me.”
The halls were packed but no one seemed to notice him, so he took a deep breath and made a choice.
Heather’s door unlocked and popped open.
Her smile widened. She pushed the door open and jumped into Blake’s arms. “Thank you!” she squealed. “You’re my hero!”
Now people noticed them. In particular, the brunette nurse who yelled, “Stop!” and brought her wrist up toward her mouth. Then, realizing she no longer wore the piece of equipment, she swore loudly and grabbed the radio, frantically pushing buttons. “Hello? Someone? Security? I need security!”
Someone grabbed the radio from her hand. She scowled. “What the hell? Who are you?”
Ayden smiled at her. “Just one of the new guys here to deal with the crisis. Full access, remember?”
“What crisis?” She looked at Blake. “He’s a crisis? I knew something was up. What’s going on?”
“Need to know only, ma’am. Sorry.” Ayden pushed a button on the radio. “False alarm. Everything’s fine. We’ve got it covered.”
Security personnel came around the far corner at the other end of the hallway.
Ayden sighed. “Aw, crap.”
Blake had a deer-in-the-headlights look. His head swiveled back and forth, his arms firmly around Heather who hung onto him like a leech.
Logan and Tristan stood next to Ayden. Matthias and Jayden came up behind the guards who were behind Blake and Heather, but the guards didn’t notice the Boys. Too busy sizing up Blake and the level of threat he posed.
A look passed between Ayden and Matthias. Ayden gave an almost imperceptible nod, then said, “Logan, you get first dibs. Any ideas?”
“Save Blake, whatever it takes, and to hell with the rest of them.”
Despite the drama unfolding, Ayden almost smiled. “Okay, got anything a little more detailed?”
“I haven’t seen him this far gone in a long time,” Logan said. “It’s not his fault.”
“I get that,” Ayden said. “But right now we need to understand the best way to bring him out of it and back to reality.”
Logan gritted his teeth. “He just wants to save her. Whatever the cost to himself.”
For a brief moment, Ayden indulged himself in understanding the frustration the guys had been having about his own behavior regarding Aurora. But self-actualization coul
d wait. Blake was in trouble.
The guards still hadn’t made a move, confused about what was happening. If Blake had on a wristband, they might have taken him down then and there. At least none of them had gone for their guns.
“What’s going on?” one of the guards asked.
“Tristan,” Ayden said quietly. “Calm everyone down. Get them to back off so we have some time to get this settled.”
“No,” Tristan said.
Ayden and Logan turned to him in surprise.
“What?” Ayden said.
Tristan’s eyes flickered nervously. “I’m not sure I can. They’ve all been trained against Hallucinators. Using my powers could just make things worse.”
The brunette nurse glanced at Ayden, then shouted to the security guards, “The big kid. He’s trying to kidnap—” The woman suddenly gasped. Grabbed at her throat with one hand and slapped the other on a desk to steady herself. She choked and wheezed, seemingly unable to breathe as she dropped to her knees. The other nurses rushed to her aid.
Ayden’s gazed rolled over to Logan whose eyes swirled with a pale light as he shrugged. “She’ll be fine. Just needed to shut her up.”
The crowd in the hallways went completely silent and stood watching the drama unfold. As Ayden ran options in his head, nothing seemed to gel into anything coherent enough to keep them all out of trouble. He studied the situation.
Matthias geared up to use his whips. Ayden wasn’t quite sure what the Aussie had planned, but the offensive stance was obvious. Jayden would follow suit shortly with his ice knives. Logan was already suffocating innocent bystanders. Tristan refused to use his powers which could actually de-escalate the problem. And Blake seemed ready to go ballistic at any moment. Disaster appeared imminent.
Then Ayden noticed something else.
One of the security guards, a guy with light brown hair, nudged one of his colleagues and whispered in his ear. That guard then nudged another guard and spoke in his ear, and another guard nudged another and whispered in the next one’s ear, almost like the children’s game of telephone. But in this case, as the “game” moved along, every guard ended up eyeing Tristan closely.
With fear, terror. Or worse.
Several guards slipped a hand to their weapons.
Ayden didn’t understand at first, but then he recognized the first guard, the one who had spoken in his buddy’s ear.
“I’ve got an idea,” Ayden said, giving Matthias a subtle gesture that told him to wait. “Tristan, I need you to—”
“No,” Tristan said, adamant. “It’s too risky to use my powers.”
Ayden said, “I’m not asking you to, but do you trust me?”
After a pause, which, although short, cracked a fissure of sadness in Ayden’s heart, Tristan said, “Of course.”
Ayden moved in just behind Tristan’s shoulder and spoke quickly, since he didn’t know how much time they had before this thing went seriously south, and explained what he wanted Tristan to do.
Tristan listened, then said, “You promise I don’t really have to?”
“Promise,” Ayden said.
Tristan gave him a curt nod. “Okay.”
Then Ayden described to Logan what he wanted him to do.
Logan shook his head. “I can’t.”
“I know it’s hard, but you’re the only one.” Ayden nodded toward the guards. “Unless you want them to take care of things.”
After a few tense moments, Logan said, “No.”
“Okay then. We’re agreed.” Ayden put a hand on Tristan’s shoulder. “You’re up, slugger.”
With one last glance back at Ayden, Tristan stepped forward.
“Hey!” Tristan said in a loud, commanding voice. “He’s with us. No one is in danger. But you need to stand down and let us handle this. That’s an order.”
The guards looked at each other. One of them went for his gun.
Tristan raised his arms. “I’m warning you! Back off now! Or you’ll be sorry!”
The guard that Ayden had recognized shouted, “Stand down!” and smacked the guard who had gone for his gun. “I’m telling you, it’s him. Everybody do as he says.”
After a moment, the rest of the guards raised their hands in gestures of supplication, and they all took a step back.
“What now?” Tristan said quietly over his shoulder to Ayden.
Ayden nudged Logan. “Ready?”
“No.” Logan frowned. “But…” He took a deep breath. “Fine.”
Almost immediately, Blake started to take short breaths. His expression became confused. He glared at the guards for a moment, then he suddenly seemed to understand they were no threat, and his head swiveled. His eyes locked on Logan whose eyes swirled with a pale alabaster tint. Blake’s massive body, full of tension and worry, seemed to deflate as he stared at his friend.
“No,” Blake said, struggling to catch his breath, his look and voice expressing a deep sense of betrayal. “You know I have to save her. I have to.” The last words were a desperate plea.
The paleness in Logan’s eyes faltered. “I know,” he said. “But this isn’t the way. You’ve got to stop. Let us help.”
“No.” Blake shook his head. “I’m the one responsible. I should have protected them.”
Logan’s eyes slowly began turning back to green. “You were too young. We all were.”
Blake’s breathing returned to normal. “You can’t blame yourself.”
Logan said, “Then neither can you. Just listen to me. We can work this out together.”
As Blake began to relax, even nod and smile back at Logan, Heather suddenly screamed. “No! They’re going to kill me! Blake, you have to save me!”
Ayden swore. Loudly.
He caught Matthias’ eye and knew this could become a literal do-or-die scenario. As far as the Hex Boys were concerned, none of them were going to die. Their lie about how weak their powers were would be exposed, but, at this point, he knew none of them cared.
“Blake!” Heather clutched desperately at the big guy. “You’re the only one!”
Ayden hated this girl more and more. After what she did to Aurora, and now this?
Blake offered Logan, Ayden, and Tristan a sad smile. “Sorry, dudes. I can’t fail again.”
Under the guards’ feet, the ground trembled.
“Logan,” Ayden said. “It’s now or never.”
Logan swallowed hard. “What if he’s stronger than me?”
The building began to shake. The crowd, which had been happy to stand and watch, made startled noises and glanced around in fear.
“You’re just making excuses,” Ayden said. “If we don’t do this now, and do it fast, all is lost.”
Logan’s eyes flashed a stark white. He closed his fist and slashed it viciously through the air. Blake opened his mouth, but before any words formed, his breath caught in a violent wheeze, his eyes closed, and his body dropped to the floor with a heavy thud.
Without Blake to steady her, Heather fell onto her side and rolled toward the guards. One of them grabbed her. Sobbing, she fought against them trying to get back to Blake.
Logan ran forward and knelt at Blake’s side. He told the guards, “Keep her away from him!”
The rest of the Boys rushed forward.
“You did good, mate,” Matthias said, his hand on Logan’s shoulder.
“No I didn’t!” Logan said, his voice cracking. “You know what his dad did. I promised, we all promised, but especially me, I swore I’d never ever do anything like that. This thing that happens to him, it’s not his fault.”
Ayden squatted down. “I know. I’m sorry. You can bring him out of it now.”
Logan’s eyes flashed an angry green at Heather. “Not with her still acting like that.”
It took three guards to hold Heather as she cried and pleaded for Blake to save her.
“And I’m so furious right now, I’m afraid if I try to
make her quiet, I might,” Logan paused, “mess it up.”
Without a word, Jayden rushed over to a cart of medications and searched through the trays.
“Hey,” protested one of the orderlies.
Jayden ignored him, picked out a syringe full of a clear liquid, and strode toward Heather and the guards, who appeared confused and wary. But before any of them could stop him, Jayden jabbed the needle into Heather’s arm and shot the liquid into her system.
So focused on Blake, Heather didn’t see Jayden coming. When she felt the sting, she glared in shock. A look of pure hatred pinched her features into an ugly snarl. Then her eyes closed, and she slumped unconscious into the guards’ arms.
“Return her to her room,” Jayden said.
Surprisingly, the guards obeyed.
Logan fluttered a hand over Blake who sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes. He blinked, smiled, and glanced around. “What’s up, dude?”
OPERATION:
It’s All Your Fault
LOCATION:
Novo Prison Suite
Matthias shook the guard’s hand, shut the door to the suite, and joined the rest of the Boys at the poolside table filled with platters of sandwiches, chips, fruit, and various salads.
Ayden handed him a plate of food. “So, how much trouble are we in?”
“We’re on the edge,” Matthias said. “The message from Director Renard is that while she is extremely grateful for our help in uncovering the demons, if we break the rules or cause any more trouble, we will be quarantined to our quarters, and they may even put trackers on us. So no more stupid stunts.”
“Can I just go see Heather tomorrow and apologize?” Blake said. “I promise I won’t pick a fight or try to break her out. I just wanted to tell her in person that I’m sorry I couldn’t take her home.”
Matthias shook his head. “Not a chance. You are banned from her floor. You can’t go near her for any reason. Got it?”
“But can’t I just tell her about the situation?” Blake asked.
“No,” Matthias said firmly.
Blake’s head hung down. “I hear you.”
“It’s not your fault,” Logan said. “We were already in trouble because of Ayden taking off to save his damsel. You probably wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
