Catalyst (29 page)

             
But all those thoughts flew away as one of my brothers went to the door behind me. The two Keepers were ready, I knew, but still I panicked. And that moment of human panic cost me a jab to my newly healed side. I caught my breath and finished the last brother remaining.
When
I turned back around, the one that got away was already inside the bunker door.

Well ain't that something

Chapter 23
-
Merrick

             
"Will you
bloody
go
already! I'm tired of looking at your arse," Miguel yelled and pushed whoever was in front of him. I heard Josh 'oomph' so that answered that question.

             
"Watch it, Aussie," he growled back. "I can't go if the person in front of me won't go."

             
We'd been slowly squeezing and crawling through th
at
vent for almost twenty minutes now. Kay was right, I fit, but it was really tight. And I wasn't the only one.
Every two minutes Miguel was banging his head or shoulders and muttering all kinds of interesting words. Some I understood, so I did not.
Some I would have punched him for saying had Sherry been here.

             
"Here's the end!" Kay yelled and the echo carried it to me.

             
"Finally," Miguel grumbled. "If I had to spend one more minute down here, I was going to have to shoot someone."
             

             
We inched our way until Kay got up. I heard her in my mind. Trouble.

             
Guys with guns, Merrick. They're making us come out.

             
Got it.

             
I stiffened myself for a fight. I let Miguel go and then blurred to the surface only to find
Miguel in the clutches of a red
head. Her hair was in big curls down to her backside and her green shorts were Celeste short. She was
what the humans called a firecracker, I could tell that right off, as she held a knife to Miguel's neck so easily
while she gripped a fistful of his hair
. She even smiled as she did it.

             
But it wasn't her, nor the other guy
standing around waiting for us
, that I really saw
. No
,
there was only one who had my
full
attention.

             
"Pastor?"

             
He glanced at
me sharply, pointed and shook his finger
like he was trying to figure me out.

             
"I remember you. I can't place your name
, but you're that
Keeper. I married you and that little gal a while back."

             
"Yes, sir."

             
"Well, I'll be," he replied and smiled. "Let him go, Rylee," he said to the redhead holding Miguel without looking at her. "Let him go," he said a little louder like he knew that she hadn't already just from knowing her.

             
She growled - actually growled - and threw her knife back into its sheath on her hip, her precision and speed that of someone who'd done it way too many times already.

             
"Pastor Berns, r
ight?" I hedged.

             
"Just call me Pastor Bob, e
verybody does."

             
"Ok, Pastor Bob
, w
hat are you doing?"

             
"
Correction. What are
you
doing? You're on my turf now, son."

             
"
I beg your pardon?"

             
"This is my house, so to speak. You came crawling out of that vent, which means you were inside, which means it was you who destroyed the joint. Am I right in my assumptions?"

             
Leave
it
to Josh to be completely inappropriate.

             
"Well you know what they say about assumptions-"

             
"Josh," I barked, "not now. Pastor
Bob
, we ha
d
a run in with Lighters here, that's what happened to the place. It was… unfortunate
,
but unavoidable."

             
"Funny, we haven't had any problems with Lighters until you came," the redhead said sarcastically. "I smell a rat."

             
"Leave it to the redhead to be irrational," Miguel said and she
glared at him. He grinned and winked at her which made her eyes round and her breaths through her nostrils were loud and aggravated. I decided to diffuse the bomb.

             
I stepped in front of Miguel and hope
d
he got the message to
shut up.

             
"Listen. We're sorry about the place. We didn't mean to cause trouble. We came here looking for others. We were trying to warn anyone we could find the Malachi is starting a
reward program. You'll be hunted. This isn't just about hiding anymore."

             
"We are well aware of the rewards. We have a man on the inside."

             
"So do we. Several, in fact." Or at least I still hoped Daniel was on our side. And that Cain and Billings were alright.

             
"So," he mused, "
y
ou're just out here to warn us. That's it? You didn't come looking for supplies or food or shelter. Or
wom
e
n?"

             
"Wome
n?" Miguel asked.

             
"This is my daughter, Rylee," he said and pulled her to his side. "I've had several people try to buy her from me. Don't act like you're all so innocent
that
you don't know what I'm talking about."

             
"That's disgusting," Celeste muttered. "We don't have people like that in our group."

             
"And just how many are in your group?" he asked me.

             
"A lot," I told him. "More than anyone else
I'm sure. We've kind of got a
little collection going. We take strays, Specials and Keepers, and recently, enforcers too."

             
"Enforcers!" Rylee barked.

             
"What do you mean?" Pastor Bob asked. "You're harboring an enforcer?"

             
"Nope, w
e converted one. No pun intended
, pastor
."

             
To my surprise, he laughed. Rylee looked up at him disgruntled and then glared at Miguel some more who glared right back at her.

             
"Well ain't that something?"

             
I wasn't sure what to say as we all just stood there.
So I asked my most itching question.

             
"You said you wouldn't get involved. I remember you telling me that. What are you doing now?"

             
"
Well, those devils took my Patty from me," he said and him and Rylee shared a look.

             
"I'm sorry," I said and he nodded in acknowledgment.

             
"It was over some
thing that made no sense to me; p
olitics and nonsense.
It was then I knew I could no longer sit on the sidelines, I had to pick a side. I just wish I'd done it when Patty was still alive. Once that happened, I knew the only thing to do was get Rylee here and
go into hiding. So that's what we did.
We met Jethro here on the road.
"

             
"
Not that
I
needed to be protected," she said indignantly and crossed her arms.
I realized then how young she was. She couldn’t be more than early twenties.

             
"Of course not, darling," he said dryly. She gave him a look that said she knew it too. He chuckled at her and then turned back to me. "So…the questions is
…
what do we do with you now?"

             
"You have to
do
something with us?" I asked.

             
"Well, you destroyed our place, intentional or not, and though you said you didn't take anything, I can't imagine that to be true.
Not with what we're packing.
"

             
"We saw your crates," I told him. His eyes focused a little at that. "We left it
all right where we found it
."

             
"How did you find your way to the basement?"

             
"Laundry chute," Josh said blandly. "That was fun."

             
"And the stairs were more fun," Celeste said and cringed into Danny's side.

             
"You used the stairs?" the other man said f
r
o
m behind him. "I'm surprised you even made it out at all. Why didn’t you use the elevator?"

             
I heard Celeste gasp and moved on. What was done was done and there was no point in dwelling so I said, "Ok, let's get back to the
part where you think you have to handle us. We can make it out of here just fine on our own."

             
"
And what about us!" the man roared. "Where are we supposed to live now?"

             
"With us if you like. We have plenty of room."

             
"Where?" Pastor Bob asked cautiously.

             
"Outskirts."

             
"Where?" he asked again.

             
"Outskirts," I repeated. "Deep outskirts. I'll show yo
u if you want to come with us, b
ut I won't just tell you."

             
"No offense," Josh broke in, "preacher man, but we ain't had the best of luck lately."

             
"That applies to us all I think," he replied softly. "Do you understand how hard it is these days to just trust people and know that their intentions are good without any proof?

             
"Yes, sir," I
said,
"I do. You can trust me. If there was a way to prove it I would, but for now, you haven't been hurt by our hands and your stuff is intact downstairs. I think that's as much proof as you can have right now."

             
"True," he answered. "Very true.
Well…" He looked back at Rylee and Jethro. They all shrugged, albeit unhappily. "I gue
ss we can join you. But we're not
going to be grunts in your army, you hear? We can take care of ourselves and carry our own. We give as much as we take."

             
"We are all in this together as far as any of us are concerned. There won't be any ranks."

             
"Good," Rylee said and bumped Miguel's shoulder as she passed him. "Because I ain't taking orders."

             
He made the profound mistake of grabbing her arm. It was all downhill from there. She twisted his arm under and then flipped him over her back. I looked at Pastor Bob
,
but he just watched. It even looked like he was smiling a little. Miguel got up like a shot and went to grab her arm again. She jabbed his shin with a swift
side
kick and 
then swung a kick to his knee back to put him flat on his back, once more.

             
He stopped and just looked at her with awe filled and embarrassed eyes with a side of chagrin and anger. He didn't move as she leaned over him, her hair falling in a
fiery
cascade over her shoulders.

             
"Don't touch me, ever."

             
"I'm a blac
k belt," he growled. "No one has
put me on my back in years."

             
"If there was something more than a black belt, that'd be me. Try to keep up, why don't you." She offered her hand to help him up. He debated, almost too long, on whether to take it or not. Then with a begrudged sigh he took it. When she had him half off the ground, she let go. He fell back to his butt with a thud and glared a new rage at her. She laughed a genuine and happy burst of joy as she walked off.