The Hidden

by C C Sommerly

  “That’s good to know. Okay, so those were the initial burning questions I had. I also wanted to ask about Merritt. I know it’s a sore subject for many of you because of Mason, but what happens now?”

  “I don’t know Teagan,” she said suddenly serious, all humor from earlier gone. “I don’t think any of us, especially Dr. Mendel expected the cure to not work. It seemed to do wonders for all those soldiers — soldiers that we are gonna have to train as they explore their powers. But, why didn’t it work for Merritt, is something only God knows.”

  “You still believe in God after all this?”

  “Sure, my parents read to me from the bible every night. I’m very much a believer.”

  “But we are part demon now thanks to the experiment. Doesn’t that make us damned?”

  She stopped again and grabbed my hands. “I don’t think anyone, or anything is automatically damned. What happened to us was done without our knowledge or willingness. It’s what we do with what we have that shows our value as a person. And, whether we are good or bad. I choose to believe that God is still watching over us and protects us. There are angels and not seeing them or God doesn’t make them any less real. If there are demons, then there must be angels. They are just behind the scenes.”

  “I wish I could have your faith. I was raised a Catholic, but after everything that I’ve heard and seen since coming here, I can’t seem to pray or even believe that God is watching over me — over all of us.”

  “Teagan, I will pray for you. I know it’s difficult. We all struggle, especially in the beginning. It will get easier. It’s hard to imagine that know, but it will. Let’s get you some food and sleep. It’ll all seem better once you have food and can recuperate.”

  We stopped by the pub and Ginger grabbed sandwiches from a fridge behind the bar. The bar tender greeted us and continued serving the customers.

  Heading into the quad, we found the Boss bloodied and passed out on the floor. Ginger checked him.

  “What happened to him? How does someone knock out a fire mage?”

  “That’s what we will find out. Let’s see if I can find the smelling salts. Can you grab the first aid kit from the bathroom cabinet Teagan?”

  I ran to the bathroom and rushed back with the first aid kit. The Boss was still out. Ginger opened the vial of smelling salts and waved them under his nose. He groaned but blinked his eyes open. Ginger held a bandage on his bleeding head.

  “Can you tell us what happened,” asked Ginger.

  “It was Merritt.”

  “Merritt did this,” said Ginger.

  “He’s not himself anymore. While you left to go training, I helped him unpack and as we finished putting everything away, he got that glossy look we see in Demented and created the shadow void, so he still has his powers. The cure didn’t work and he’s dementing or semi-demented. He broke through the window in his room and ran away.”

  “We have to find him,” I said.

  “It’s too late,” said Ginger.

  “How can it be too late? He can’t have gotten that much of a lead on us.”

  The Boss put his hand on my arm. The unexpected contact made me flinch. “Teagan, I wish we could. It’s too late. The cure failed and he’s becoming a Demented. We saw the same thing — well not the same thing, but something similar occur with Mason. The new demon didn’t fix him.”

  “And you all are just quitting. What if he just needs more of that demon’s blood? It’s what I needed. And, weren’t you going to take him to the lab to get more blood? If we can find him, we can give him more blood. It helped the Super Soldiers. Why can’t it help him?”

  “Because it’s not the way it works. I might seem cold to you, but losing Merritt breaks my heart. I considered him a younger brother,” said The Boss.

  “The longer he is out there, the worse he will get. Even if we caught him, it’s still too late. He would have needed more of the demon blood within the hour, assuming it even worked.”

  “You aren’t even trying. We don’t leave anyone behind. That’s what the Marines taught me and it’s the right thing to do. You’re wrong to leave him out there. What if the cure he got just slowed down the process? We might still be able to save him.”

  “Teagan, my final answer is no. You don’t have to agree with me or like it, but I’m in charge and I’m ordering you to stay here.”

  “This is crap and you know it,” I said as Ginger left and stopped to her quad. I sat on the bed to take my shoes off and change but managed to drop off to sleep due to sheer exhaustion.

  Chapter 42

  I woke up feeling disoriented. Where was I? Glancing around, I realized I made it to my room, but couldn’t remember much from once we left the training arena last night.

  I heard noises coming from the common area of the quad, so the other hybrids must be up. I hoped they had some answers about Merritt. Maybe I could persuade them to come with me to find him. Just because the Boss wouldn’t go after him, it didn’t mean that the other agreed with him.

  I wasn’t completely energized, but I did feel somewhat refreshed after sleeping. Despite my exhaustion, I still woke up throughout the night in discomfort. My wings were uncomfortable to sleep on. It was like resting on an ironing board, soft, but hard enough that you notice it. No matter which way I turned, I was laying on some part of my wing. At one point, an attempted to lay on my stomach and the weight of them nearly smothered me in my pillow.

  I quickly got dressed and went into the common area. Once the hybrids spotted me, Ginger hurried over and flung her arm around my shoulders, which was a surprisingly comforting gesture “How are you feeling Teagan?”

  That was a good question. I wasn’t sure how I was feeling. My thoughts were scattering around like ping pong balls going every which way, but never hitting the mark. I was screwed. There was no way I could go back to the Elite Guard like some freaky monster. The only thing left was getting Merritt back. Just because I couldn’t return to my old life didn’t mean he should still miss out on his chance.

  “Still a bit tired and my wings are hard to sleep on. But enough about me. When are we going after Merritt?”

  “Come sit down Teagan. You missed a lot over the past couple of days,” said Ginger.

  “What do you mean days?”

  “I don’t want to sit. I want to get my weapons and head out. I’m well enough. Who is going with me?” I said.

  “Just wait. We can’t go running out there with guns blazing,” said Reese.

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “Well, for one, your wings are a dead giveaway that you aren’t human. We need to disguise them or figure out if you can put them away,” said Reese.

  I hated when people were rational, and it proved me wrong. How I forgot about my changed appearance is beyond me, but Reese was right. I didn’t like it, but I needed to plan this out before I rushed out to find Merritt. He deserved a chance and there was a small chance he could still be saved, so I was going to make sure he got that chance. Leaving him out there would be a death sentence. Why did he have to go?

  “The suits left but assured us they would be returning in short order to see how the Super Soldiers were doing. They seemed pretty happy with the results despite your adverse reaction,” said Ginger.

  “Just how normal was that? I thought we were an undercover group. How could so many of them know about us? That makes it riskier. The more people that know, the harder it is to keep secret,” I said.

  “We might not always have to remain secret. Remember what Manny was saying about not always wanting to hide. Some of the others feel that way too,” said Ginger.

  “We also filled in the Boss about our encounter with the Demon Delegate’s assistant and your run-in with The Delegate.”

  “And, don’t forget the soldiers.”

  “How could I forget? When we brought food to them since they can’t leave the lab yet, Ginger here got all googly-eyed at one of the soldiers. He was cute, I’ll give her th
at,” said Hunter.

  “Cute? He looked like the statue of David brought to life! He makes most male models look homely…and that Southern accent,” Ginger sighed.

  “That’s some serious fan girl stuff, Ginger.”

  She threw the couch pillow at him in response.

  How could I have missed so much in such a short period of time? This is crazy. Although, it hasn’t made me change my mind about wanting to go after Merritt.

  “Did you ever consider that he left because he was trying to protect us,” I said.

  “He wasn’t thinking. He was panicking and looking forward to getting his life back and then started hearing voices. Merritt probably just panicked.”

  “We’ve known Merritt for years. Whatever you think you know about him is wrong in this case. He wouldn’t want to risk turning us demented or hurting us.”

  “We have to at least try. Maybe we can bring the vials of demon blood with us or even bring the demon, so we can get it fresh from the source. Didn’t Dr. Mendel say it lost potency within a short while,” I said.

  “If we need to keep you here by restraint, we will. The Boss already said he denied your request to go after Merritt and ordered you to stay.”

  Of course, he did. He wanted to make sure the other hybrids were keeping an eye on me and making sure I didn’t go anywhere.

  Chapter 43

  “Now what? We still haven’t found that demon and now there are a bunch of Super Soldiers to train and I still need to figure out what my powers are. And we need to go after Merritt,” I said.

  “Baby steps Teagan. It’s a lot and I know you are worried about Merritt, but we need to have you checked out by Dr. Mendel,” said Ginger.

  That sounded about as fun as a bullet to the brain. I really didn’t want him anywhere near me. I’d been poked, prodded and played with enough by the Frankenstein doctor. I would be talking to the Boss about how I could stop having to see the doctor as soon as I solved the mystery about the hybrids.

  “We need to bring more food down for the soldiers, so you can go with us,” said Ginger added.

  “How can I go like this?” I asked gesturing to my wings. “Do the other hybrids know I have wings? What about the Super Soldiers, did any of them see me like this?”

  “No, as soon as you started having a reaction, Wiley helped you. He can help you again by glamouring you. As long as you are touching, he can glamour it so no one can see you have wings. You just have to be touching,” said Ginger.

  Oh lovely, the Love Doctor was going be in constant contact with me. I seriously needed to consider whether the lab visit was worth that.

  “Come on Teagan, I don’t bite, and I do understand the word no,” said Wiley.

  “Fine,” I said as I grabbed his hand. “Might as well make this look natural. You grope me and I’m gonna kick you in the balls.”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior, scout’s honor,” he said.

  We stopped by the dinning room for the Super Soldiers’ food. More sandwiches. At the lab, no one greeted us. We could hear raised voices and what sounded suspiciously like cheering. I exchanged looks with Ginger.

  “Should we go see what all the excitement is for? I doubt it’s for these sandwiches,” said Ginger.

  We followed the noise to one of the lab rooms. The soldiers formed a ring around another soldier in what looked suspiciously like a fight. Reese pushes soldiers aside to get into the middle of the room. Once he pushed through, I caught a glimpse of that weird demon and the soldier who was panting with exertion as he kicked and punched the bloodied demon.

  “Oh, come on. Why’d you have to break up the fun?” teased a soldier.

  “Fun? You are beating an unarmed creature, who can’t defend himself,” Reese said.

  “It’s just a walking blood bag. Doc knows what we’re doing. He said to not make too much of a mess and leave enough to be used later,” said the same solider.

  Seriously? Maybe the cure’s side effect was permanent stupid. These guys disgusted me.

  “Will you help me now?” said the demon in my head.

  I shook my head no, but I could already feel a small part of me caving. Nothing deserved this. Even when we killed demons, we did it as humanely as possible. Death was quick and relatively painless. It was never something we enjoyed, just something that had to be done with the more dangerous rogue demons. These soldiers were enjoying causing the pain in this demon. He must be in misery from the beating they gave him. His one eye was already swollen shut. His lip was split, and angry welts and bruises cross crossed every inch of visible skin. With his torn clothing, there was a lot of skin showing. I’m sure there were a few broken bones and untold internal injuries.

  “Where’s Dr. Mendel?” asked Reese.

  “Not here, obviously,” said a particularly bulky and tall black man.

  “Well, we brought you food. Apparently, you all worked up an appetite with your little ‘fight club’ here,” I said.

  “I suggest eating it before we let the demon have it and get his demon germs all over it,” said Ginger sarcastically.

  Reese dug around in the drawers and pulled out a towel. He threw it at the demon, “Here, clean yourself up.”

  The demon grimaced as he caught the towel and proceeded to blot the worst of his bloody wounds.

  “Does he heal faster with full demon blood?” I asked.

  “Thinking about playing nursemaid, Teagan? He’ll probably snap your neck if you get near him in his present condition,” said Reese.

  “I thought you were more of a slasher type, eh Slayer,” said Ruthie

  “Bite me,” I said to the purple princess.

  “Nah, your demon sympathies might be contagious.”

  “As uplifting as some girl fighting would be, yet again, bad timing ladies. Although, feel free to continue working out this aggression back at the quad,” said Wiley.

  “Don’t you have some woman to woe? You certainly wouldn’t be able to handle one of us, let alone both of us,” said Ruthie.

  “Women don’t need to be wooed. They take one look at me and fall at my feet, usually in a pool of their own drool,” he said. “And, I’m more than capable of taking you two on,” he added with a leer.

  No matter how cute you were, and Wiley was all that and more, leering was never attractive and only served to up the creep factor. Gross. He was our resident “pervert” but charismatic enough that most of us overlooked it. He could veer into creep territory, but he was harmless. He had come onto me one night after drinks and I told him no, and he immediately backed off. He never acted angry or reacted negatively to my rejection. He continued as if it never happened. Not many guys took rejection so well.

  “Please set me free,” said the demon in my head.

  It was getting harder to ignore his plea and looking over at his battered body, I winced. He wasn’t like the other demons and even if he was, he didn’t deserve being tormented.

  “What are you doing to my demon?” Asked Dr. Mendel.

  “Dr. Mendel, we didn’t do anything to him. That was the handiwork of your Super Soldiers. They decided to set up a fight club at the demon’s expense,” I said.

  “I don’t appreciate your tone or your accusations. Get away from my demon. Why are you here anyway?”

  “We came to deliver food to your soldiers.”

  “I don’t see any food.”

  “We already gave it to them,” said Ginger.

  “Then you can leave. Your presence here serves no purpose and I won’t have my soldiers upset,” said Dr. Mendel.

  “Why are you being so rude and unwelcoming doc?” asked Reese.

  “I have a lot to do and soldiers to corral and test. Can you please vacate the lab?”

  Chapter 44

  Once back at the quad, I continued to work on persuading the others to join my Rescue Merritt mission.

  “So, can we talk about our plan to go after Merritt now?” I asked.

  “Just drop it, okay? No o
ne is going after him, not you and not any of us,” said Reese.

  “So, none of you will help me?”

  “There’s nothing to find. It’s not a rescue mission and it would hurt you more than him. Let it go Teagan. It’s something we all face if we don’t activate or attempt whatever cure Dr. Mendel has, which obviously isn’t working.”

  “Fine, whatever,” as I stomped back into my room.

  They were wrong, I just knew it. The demon offered to help me. He was the only one.

  Several hours later, Ginger knocked on my door, “Teagan, can we talk?”

  I ignored her. She could think I was sleeping. I didn’t want to talk anyway. What could she say that would make things any better?

  “We are going to take the soldiers out for some training. Doc wants to see what they can do.”

  Perfect. This gave me the opportunity I was waiting for. As I had lain in my bed, I thought through what happened and what everyone told me about Merritt. I couldn’t stand aside if there was even the most minuscule chance he could be saved and brought back.

  I grabbed the stretchy belt Ginger gave me for a night at the bar — it should be able to fit around my wings and bind them closer to my body. I also threw one of Manny’s sweatshirts over me. It was like five sizes too big and managed to cover me and my wings. I added my sword and put my boots on. Tying my hair back into a braid, I was ready.

  Chapter 45

  “They won’t help me. You will though, won’t you” I said. Not sure why I’m trusting a demon’s word, but I was desperate. Time was running out for Merritt I feared.

  The demon looked at me solemnly and nodded. “I vowed to do so if you freed me. Will you help me escape this place,” he spoke into my mind.

  I’m not sure if he could even talk normally. I probably looked crazy talking to myself. Good thing there was no one around to witness my insane “Rescue Merritt” plan. I was not sure the Boss or the other hybrids would understand what I was about to do. I felt the instinctual urge to get Merritt back and something told me it was imperative that he return to us.