The Good Intentions of a Cyborg Werewolf

Lines We Don't Cross - XXVII

When Luke had collapsed in Erin's arms she honestly thought he was dead. He didn't breathe, he didn't have a pulse, and he was completely motionless. His final words before changing back were the last evidence of life she had to go off of. The shock wore off quickly as sirens and the sound of bystanders, and dead or not she wasn't going to leave him. She had painfully cradled him in her arms, her broken hand throbbing, and after a moment Mahi joined and took the unconscious man from her. Erin instead helped Mercer to walk, all four quickly running behind the apartment building and into the 'mobile lab' parked behind. After all but dumping Luke in the back and piling in, Mahi drove, desperate to escape the prying eyes and possible follow-up attacks. All of them were injured, everything they had was lost, and as Mercer painfully directed Mahi on where to go, one burning question came boiling to the surface:

"How?" Erin muttered from the back seat, her legs tucked up to her chin to give Luke room to lay amongst the cluttered equipment. "How did they find us?"

"I don't know," Mercer said, still holding his side. "We were tracked no doubt, but through what mechanism I can't say."

"Luke could always spot a tail," Erin said, placing her unbroken hand on his head. His mouth hung open slightly, but his eyes were closed. His expression was mild but distraught, a level of vulnerability Erin had never seen Luke reveal. He looked almost sad, yet as she held her hand just off his nose and mouth, she could feel the faintest of breaths. He was alive.

"No way they followed," Mahi added. "If so they wouldn't have waited. Something triggered it. They were alerted." Mahi's speech was slightly off, and Erin looked to him now that Luke wasn't in danger. The merman's face was cut and bruised, one eye shut from the swelling, and the other on the road. Erin tried her best to ignore the searing pain in her hand. Her injury was so minor in comparison. She didn't feel like she deserved to feel the pain.

"What do we do now?" Erin asked. She had almost not meant to, the question far more open-ended in her head, but interpreted literally by Mercer as he leaned back in his seat, wincing.

"You and I need medical attention," he said. "But we can't go to a hospital. The police will detain us for sure."

"Do you have anyone you can trust?" Mahi asked, "there's really no one else in this operation but us?"

"Lucas wanted to limit vulnerable parties to just the two of us," Mercer explained. "It's a difficult thing to ask given what was at stake, and with me being legally dead and him being... what he is, there were few who would be willing to help even if they were capable."

"Joan," Erin remembered, "Joan D'Arc. Luke's 'contact,' she's a vampire in the business district."

"A vampire?" Mahi sounded incredulous, yet not disbelieving.

"You think she could help us?" Mercer asked.

"Do we have any other option?" Erin asked. Her hand had begun to swell, Luke was still unresponsive, Mahi's injuries were not minor, and Mercer could bleed out at any moment. They needed help. Nobody seemed to protest, and so Erin braced herself behind the front seats as she directed them where to go. The last time they took a train, but Erin still knew the district where her building was, that much she was confident in. What she wasn't so sure of was if this was the right plan. If they were being followed they'd be bringing danger right to Miss D'Arc, yet she was clearly a capable and powerful person. Perhaps she could protect them? Yet she had also made it clear she wanted no part of their conflict. Erin didn't mention that detail, hoping she could at least give them temporary aid. Soon they were approaching the building, Erin trying to remember where the entrance was.

"Park on the side road here," Erin pointed to a small single-lane way leading from the street to behind the Coag Commerce building. Mahi pulled the van into the fairly tight lane, Erin hoping nobody was planning to use it anytime soon. She carefully stepped over Luke and opened the back doors, peeking out first to make sure the coast was clear before stepping out. She rather painfully placed her swollen hand in her sweatshirt's front pocket before heading to the driver's side window.