Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (18 page)

“Let go of me,” she yelled as she dug her nails into his hand.

“You little bitch,” he said as he tried to backhand her. Making it look accidental, she lifted her hands up, deflecting his shot over her head. Samuel noticed the weird shimmering affect surround Blythe expand as she dropped her hands back down, slapping the man on the the chest. The impact nearly knocked him to the ground as he stumbled back a few steps. Regaining his balance, he charged back at her while rearing his right hand back.

“That’s enough.”

The words slid out of Samuel’s mouth like they’d been cast in iron. The razor edge in the tone he used caused the man to involuntarily stumble back a step as he’d spun toward him, giving Blythe an opening to slip past. The guy reached out, trying to grab her again, but Samuel flowed like mercury around Blythe, letting her get further up the stairs while he barred the way. As Samuel came to a stop in front of the man, he reached up and grabbed the other man’s outstretched hand, locking it in a viselike grip.

“I said that’s enough.”

The words hissed out of his mouth like steel sliding across steel.

“Who the hell are you! This is between me and her, so get the hell outta my face.”

“It would appear that she would rather not talk to you, so I’d suggest leaving before something unfortunate happens.”

“Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?” the man growled.

Blythe shouted from the safety of the stairs.

“Get out of here Chris! I don’t ever want to see you again.”

“You couldn’t wait to shack up with someone else, could you, you little sl—”

Samuel increased the pressure on Chris’s wrist, causing him to gasp in sudden pain.

“Let go of me you sonofa,” he said before suddenly throwing a haymaker at Samuel’s head with his other hand.

Without loosening his grip, he pivoted to the left while catching the strike on his forearm. Releasing his grip, he used his elbow to direct the strike over his head as he pivoted back to the right. Chris tried to take another swing at him with his suddenly freed hand, but Samuel blocked it with his left hand while grabbing the front of his clothes with his right hand. Lifting him up one handed, he charged across the landing with Chris before slamming him into the wall, crumpling a metal access panel in the process as the air whooshed out of the other man’s lungs. Chris struggled weakly against Samuels grip as his feet dangled a foot of the ground.

“Are you about finished?”

“Don’t kill him!” Blythe screamed, “he’s not worth it.”

Samuel turned sideways to look at her, shaking Chris slightly as he did.

“Don’t worry, I’m just trying to provide some friendly persuasion to convince this gentleman to not darken your doorstep again.”

Blythe started to smile, but the smile quickly changed to a look of horror. Time slowed down as her hand sluggishly started to extend toward him, her other hand covering her mouth to muffle a scream. The air popped as Samuel spun back to face the man he had pinned. His eyes widened as he was suddenly confronted by the barrel of a pistol aimed at his face.

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His left hand swung up, the displaced air creating an audible pop. Time slowed to a crawl as the hammer started to drop in slow motion. He felt a slight tingling sensation crawl across the palm of his hand as he got it in front of the barrel before time snapped back to normal speed. The boom of the gun discharging echoed around the room before fading away. He distantly heard Blythe screaming behind him, but all of his focus was on the man in front of him. He watched as the anger drained out of the other man’s face, like wax melting under a flame, as he realized Samuel was still staring directly at him, the smoke curling out from between the barrel and Samuel’s hand.

“Ow…” he said quietly, slowly lowering the other man to the ground. As the man’s feet touched the floor, his legs started to buckle. Samuel caught him, propping him up before shaking his head at him before he slowly released him. In a very deliberate manner, he reached over to grab the top of the pistol with his right hand, gently taking it out of the other man’s now limp hand.

Samuel’s muscles swelled slight as he slowly bent the gun in half, the hardened barrel popping with a loud crack as it snapped in two. Sticking the broken gun in the waistline of the other man’s pants, Samuel stared deep into the other man’s eyes. Instinctively, he changed the tone of his voice, causing the other man to wet himself as Samuel talked.

“I think we’re done here… Don’t you?” he said, nodding his head up and down.

“Su..su.. Sure… Wha… whatever you say…”

“And you’re never going to come anywhere near Blythe again, right?” he said, continuing to nod.

“Never, on my mother’s grave. I swear!”

“Good, because as of right now, you’ve slightly… annoyed me. If I ever hear of you even buying your groceries from the same place Blythe does, then I’m going to become pissed off. If that happens, I’m going to come visit you. It won’t be a nice visit. Any questions,” he asked quietly, shaking his head from side to side.

The other man shook as Samuel continued to stare at him.

“Good,” he said as he grabbed Chris’s hand, forcing it open with his right while he placed something in the other man’s hand with his left. As the man glanced down at the contents of his hand, Samuel spoke again quietly.

“Now get out of here before I regret this decision.”

The man’s eyes flared open, glancing between Samuel and his hand several times before he took off running, the object in his hand hitting the floor and rolling to a stop against the wall as Chris ran out the exit.

“OH! MY! GOD! HE SHOT YOU!” Blythe screamed, rushing over to him.

She grabbed his hand, turning it over as she rapidly talked.

“We need to get this wrapped fast so you don’t go into shock, and we need to call the ambulance, and…”

She trailed off as she stared at his palm.

The gun had left a raggedly shaped star wound on his palm from the discharged gasses being forced under the skin and rupturing it from the underside. As she stared at it, she could see the muscles moving, rapidly knitting themselves back together. The blood flowing from the wound slowed to a trickle, then stopped as it continued to heal. Samuel stared at his hand, shocked to see the skin now starting to pull itself closed. He glanced at Blythe, who looked up at him with a stunned look on her face before they both went back to staring at his hand. By then, it had healed enough to look like an old scar that was rapidly fading. Flexing his fingers, he noticed that there wasn’t any pain.

Blythe dropped his hand and backed away from him a few steps. She looked around dazedly before her eyes locked onto something laying on the floor. Hesitantly walking over, she squatted down, picking up the bullet that he’d dropped in Chris’s hand.

“How…” she started, trailing off into silence.

“I wish I knew… What the hell am I?” he asked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Everything he’d done was pure instinct. Catching the bullet, changing the tone of his voice, all of it, like he’d done it hundreds of times before.

He noticed a quick flash of fear cross her face. He put his hands up, trying to placate her.

“Don’t worry, I’m leaving. There’s no reason to be afraid of me. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.”

He slowly turned to the exit, walking away dejectedly.

“Are you nuts? We need to get back up to the apartment before the cops arrive,” she said, roughly grabbed his sleeve as she tugged him toward the staircase.

He looked at her with a confused look.

She yanked at his sleeve harder as she tried to lead him up the stairs.

“Come on! They’ll be here any minute!”

After opening the door to her apartment, she motioned him in before poking her head back out, looking both ways before closing the door.

“I’m sorry I scar—”

“That was freaking amazing!”

“Wha?”

“It’s like you’re straight out of a comic book or something,” she said, leaping into his arms.

Before he could react, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. As their lips broke apart, she studied his face.

“That was for rescuing me. My very own knight in shining armor…” she said, trailing off as she stared into his eyes.

“You’re, uh, welcome,” he said, returning the gaze, “for a moment there, I thought you were scared of me…”

“No silly,” she said, playfully swatting his check, “I was afraid of what the cops would do when they arrived. They kinda have a ‘lock ‘em up, then ask questions later’ mindset for this part of town. I doubt you’ve noticed, being Mr. Badass an all, but it’s a pretty dangerous area. My neighbor got mugged a week ago just around the corner from here.”

“So, uh, is it safe to assume that tool I just dealt with was the ex you were talking about before?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking at the ceiling, “he one of the reasons I’m still living in this rat-hole.”

Samuel raised an eyebrow as she continued.

“I had saved up a little nest egg I was planning to use as first and last month’s rent at another apartment that was closer to school and work. I’d written a check for the apartment only to find out a few days later that it’d bounced. When I went down to the bank to figure out what’d happened, I’d learned he’d forged my signature and had cleared the account out. He probably came back today to try and get more money out of me. I didn’t have any proof of what he’d done, or I would have tried to press charges, but since the money was probably already gone, it wouldn’t have accomplished much.”

“As long as I’m around, you’ll never have to go through that again. I promise.”

Before she had a chance to say anything else, they heard a knock at the door.

“Hello? Miss Townsend? This is the police, can you open the door for a minute? We’d like to ask you some questions about a disturbance that just happened. We have some witnesses stating you were involved.”

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“Just a minute!”

She looked at Samuel, a look of terror spreading across her face. Samuel looked at her with a calm expression, holding his finger up to his lips. Glancing around, he quickly headed toward the kitchen window, grabbing a bottle of vegetable oil as he passed through the kitchenette. Squirting some of it on the slides, he softly opened it. Poking his head out, he quickly looked around before climbing out onto the fire escape.

“I’ll try to be back later. If I can’t, I’ll meet up with everyone at the warehouse. Just tell the police that a good samaritan helped you. That should be enough to satisfy them.”

“Okay,” she said hesitantly, glancing back toward the door as the knock came again, “oh, I almost forgot. John got back to me. Said he found something. He should be at their store, The Shining Path bookstore.”

She started to lean toward him, but the cops started knocking on the door more insistently, causing her to look back over her shoulder before looking back at him. Samuel climbed up on the edge of the railing, before looking down.

I dropped five stories without an issue, this should be nothing. At the least, it should be nothing. On the bright side, if I do break my legs, I’ll just heal right back up.

He turned back to look at her one more time before he jumped off the edge, rapidly dropping down three floors before hitting the pavement silently. He looked back up and saw her leaning out the window, staring at him with her mouth open. He shooed her back in before turning around, jogging to the edge of the alleyway.

Peeking around the corner, he was surprised to see several cop cars lined up in front of the complex. Based of how Blythe described the neighborhood, it seemed to be an excessive show of force. He ducked back when several cops turned and started heading in his direction.

“We need to cover the alley and fire escape in case he tries to make a run for it.”

He couldn’t be positive, but Samuel suspected they were looking for him specifically, especially with the close call he had with the couple in black earlier. Glancing around one more time, he spun around and sprinted off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the shadows.

Frank banged forcefully on the door, drawing his gun out at the same time with his opposite hand.

“Ma’am, I need you to open the door right now or we’ll be forced to break it down.”

Cora drew her gun as well, preparing to follow her partner in. As Frank started to step back to kick the door, they heard the deadbolt slide back. The door opened a couple inches before stopping when the chain went taut. A young girl peered out from around the corner of the door.

“Yes, how can I help you officers?” she asked, glancing back and forth between them.

“Miss, you need to open the door right now. Otherwise, we’re going to have to break it down.”

The girl sighed, closing the door slightly to unhook the chain before opening the door the rest of the way. As the door started to open, Frank forcefully shouldered it open the rest of the way and strode in.

“Hey!”

Cora followed smoothly behind him, her eyes glancing at the surprised look on the woman’s face before sliding past. Her partner moved right as she went left, each covering their quadrant of the room with their firearm as they split up, rapidly clearing the apartment before they holstered their weapons.

“What the hell are you doing! You can’t just barge in here like that without a warrant!”

“Ma’am,” Frank said, glancing around the room again, “we had reason to believe that a dangerous fugitive was hiding in this apartment, so we couldn’t take any chances with our safety, or yours.”

Cora gave the other woman a closer look, recognition dawning on her face.

“Hey, you work down at the shelter, don’t you?”

“Yes…” she said hesitantly.

Cora vaguely tilted her head to the side as her brows narrowed slightly.

“I didn’t get a chance to speak with you then, but you seemed awfully familiar when I saw you there. Don’t I know you from somewhere else as well?” Cora asked.

The other woman stared at her for a moment before a light of recognition lit up her face.