Growing Into It
By Purple Lacey
Part 4
Vin began to run down the corridor toward the Guild Hall proper, barely slowing down as his head swung from side to side like a blood hound scenting a trail. His hearing sharpened, reaching out to listen for the one heartbeat he would recognize in a million others. He took off toward Buck’s office, figuring that was the most likely place to start looking for his Guide.
He was passing one of the many sets of elevators that were scattered around the Guild Hall, when he was suddenly sure he could sense Buck’s heartbeat come from above him, echoing down the shaft. He slid to a stop and instantly punched the button to call the elevator, shifting restlessly from foot to foot to until the doors opened and he rushed inside. He pushed the buttons for every floor, then stood impatiently waiting as the doors shut and the elevator car began to rise.
At the first stop, Vin stabbed the button to hold open the doors, leaned out, and listened intently for Buck’s heartbeat, filtering out all other sounds for a moment, before darting back in side and allowing the doors to close and the elevator to rise again. He repeated this on two more floors before he caught the sound of his Guide’s racing heartbeat.
The heightened pulse of his Guide drove Vin’s into a desperate frenzy, needing to get to Buck to protect him and neutralize whatever was threatening his Guide - the fact that his Guide was a full grown man able to take care of himself never even occurring to him.
He fled the elevator, heading down the hall following the pounding of Buck’s heart to a door near the end of the hall. He grabbed onto the doorknob and twisted, throwing his ten year old body against it without affect as the door remained stubbornly closed.
Vin wanted to scream out his frustration at his inability to reach his Guide, but forced himself to back away and try to think of another solution. He paced back and forth along the hall, fists clenching and unclenching and face tight with building rage, trying each door as he came to it.
He was almost past it when the answer to his problems presented itself. He felt the tiny current of air that circulated from the air conditioning vent on the wall of the hallway, and he jerked to a halt. The sound of Buck’s heartbeat could be heard echoing down the air vent by his enhanced hearing, and drew the Sentinel to it like a moth to a flame.
A feral smile began growing on his face as he knelt next to the vent and began unscrewing the knobs holding the grill covering it in place. The grill lifted up on hinges that allowed Vin to crawl inside and then dropped back into place when he crawled forward.
He quickly moved down the duct following the sound of his Guide’s heart. His nose twitched at the layer of dust covering the sides of the metal vent and stirred up from the floor of it at his passage, but he fiercely cranked down his sense of smell so it did not overwhelm him and stop his rescue of his Guide. It took a couple of minutes before Vin found the right apartment, the one where the sound of the beloved heartbeat was the loudest. It only took two well-placed kicks to send the grate flying open on its hinges and allow the hunting Sentinel entrance.
Vin surged out of the vent, violence personified. He leapt toward the hallway in the apartment like a guided missile. He was directed now by Buck’s scent as well as the sound of his heartbeat as he automatically turned his sense of smell back up, needing all his senses sharp in order to better protect his Guide.
He ran down the short hall and threw open the door. He jerked back as he was assaulted by a wall of scents that almost drove him to his knees. The familiar smell that was uniquely Buck’s was mixed with other, sharper smells that Vin could not associate. It distracted him enough that it took a moment for the scene in front of him to make an impact on his visual cortex.
Vin saw his Guide – HIS BUCK—apparently being held down on the bed by a black-masked woman who was straddling him. The woman was dragging her fingernails up and down Buck’s chest, growling low in her throat while Buck writhed underneath her and moaned. His Guide was flushed and sweating, and appeared, to the frozen ten year old, to be struggling to escape the woman but unable to do so. Buck gave another long, loud moan, and that was all it took to launch the young Sentinel into action.
Vin sprinted toward the bed and, with one smooth motion, leapt on it to stand with both feet planted apart for stability. His hands immediately reached for the black hood covering the woman’s head, and he pulled ruthlessly with adrenaline-hyped strength that far exceeded a normal ten year’s.
“Get away from MY GUIDE!” Vin screamed as he continued to wrestle the woman off Buck.
“W...w...what!” the startled Marta tried to yell.
Vin’s attempt to separate the woman from Buck was suddenly helped when the very confused Marta began scrambling to get away from the child assaulting her. The woman jerked her head away from Vin’s grasp - leaving the black mask behind in his hands - and jumped off the bed, her own embarrassed hands going to cover strategic spots of exposed skin. Vin dropped the mask, and stood facing her with bared fists.
Buck’s voice had a decided squeak in it as he could only gasp, “VIN!” before he began his own confused scramble for concealment.
The on-edge Sentinel took up a guarding stance between his Guide and the cowering woman. The glare he gave her was so hot it could have melted rock.
“You touch my Guide again and I’ll hurt you bad,” Vin threatened in a voice flat with naked intent.
“What!” Marta repeated with shock.
Her eyes flicked to Buck who was trying to make it to his knees while using one hand to hold a corner of the bed sheet over his nakedness. The other hand was reaching out to the protective Sentinel standing over him.
“Vin!” Buck said again, this time with breathy urgency, ‘Calm down, Vin. It’s alright. I’m alright. Just chill out, okay? Vin? Listen to me, Vin.”
If he had been thinking clearly he would have made a better effort to calm himself down first before he tried to calm the boy, but he was still so rattled by the unexpectedness of Vin’s appearance that his training flew right out the window. Besides, he was pretty sure they had never covered what to do when your underage Sentinel catches you In flagrante delicto.
The little Sentinel ignored him, easily evading Buck’s attempt to restrain him as he jumped down from the bed and began to stalk toward the woman who started to back away from him.
“I...I’m a Guide,” she cried, not a little anxious at the ferocity of the Sentinel facing her down. “Y...y...you’re not supposed to hurt me!”
“I don’t care who you are. No one gets away with hurting MY GUIDE,” Vin growled back.
“Vin she wasn’t hurting me!” Buck said while running a hand through his hair, frustration, embarrassment and exasperation vying for dominance. He made another grab for Vin’s arm, just barely reaching it before Vin advanced any further toward his target. Buck pulled his Sentinel back against the edge of the bed and held Vin there awkwardly, off balanced by trying to kneel on the yielding surface of the bed while holding on to Vin and the bed sheet at the same time. “Just settle down now,” he ordered
Vin did not take his eyes off the woman who was reaching into a closet for a robe. She slipped it on and wrapped it around her body, cinching the belt tightly. Vin watched as she suddenly stiffened and spun around. Her hands immediately went to her hips as she glared at Buck.
“You got bonded and didn’t tell me,” she accused hotly as if the fact had just dawned on her. Her escalating fury at this realization completely distracted her from her wariness of the looming little Sentinel.
Buck could see the flash of desolation in her eyes before they darkened with anger. He knew how badly Marta took it when a friend found their Sentinel while she remained unbonded. They had consoled each other many, many times over the last couple of years for just that reason. He should have paid more attention to the ramifications his bonding would have on his friendship with Marta, and less to getting laid. He swallowed hard, realizing he had screwed up badly on two different fronts.
“Look, Marta,” he began but was interrupted.
She screeched, “How could you DO that to me? How could you go and get yourself bonded, and not think it would matter to me. What was this anyway, a pity fu...?”
“Marta!” he snapped, stopping her from the ugly accusation. “It wasn’t like that!”
Buck stepped from the bed. Letting go of Vin, he dragged the sheet around his waist and held it together in a twisted knot with one hand. The other was stretched out placatingly toward the woman staring at him with ire.
“I ought to slap your lying face,” Marta rasped out hotly, and her right hand pulled back as if she were imagining just that.
Needless to say, Vin did not take well to his Guide being threatened in such a manner, and launched himself at the woman again. Wilmington almost lost his hold on the sheet as he wrestled with his struggling Sentinel to keep the child from attacking Marta again.
Completely overwhelmed by the current situation, Buck finally lost it and yelled harshly, “ENOUGH, VIN!”
The response was instantaneous. Vin jerked as if the man had slapped him. His head whipped around to stare at his Guide with eyes that grew wide with wounded surprise.
tbc