Society Of The Gods - Book One

3. Escape Time Babey!

"Ma'am, uh, I can- I can explain."

Xavier stuffed the artifacts under his jacket and turned so his face couldn't be seen by the guard. She was approaching quick, and so was an anxiety attack.

From the entry way they had come in through, Marisol was looking for a distraction to get Xavi out of there. The combined strength of her three braincells provided her with a simple, potentially stupid, plan.

Xavi stayed quiet as he was bombarded with questions. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bat flew straight into the woman's face. The guard yelped and swatted at the creature to no avail, giving Xavier an opportunity to book it. Once he was out of sight, Marisol flew off. Things were back on track.

Fuckin sike.

Elías was having a mild argument with the screen in front of him as he tried to lock the front doors. Turns out the building's security was better than they originally thought. "Marisol, Xavier, get the fuck out now please. I can't lock the doors and the other guards will be coming any moment now."

"Fucking what?!"

Xavier was running for his life down the halls, Marisol clinging to his shoulder.

"Guys, I don't know what to do. I think Marisol is stuck in bat form because she isn't changing back and the walls are screaming that the police are on their way and I feel dizzy and the necklaces are-"

"Xavier. I need you to get yourself under control, okay? We're going to be fine." The soothing voice of Martín managed to shut the boy up, and he checked their blueprint of the museum.

"I need you to continue straight, then take the first right. There will a door at the end of the hall, and we'll be waiting, alright?"

"...alright."

Xavier followed Martín's instructions and promptly found himself outside. Salome had the van door open and was ready to pull him inside once he got close enough. Xavi landed with a soft "oof" on the woman's stomach.

"You okay honey?"

Xavi shook his head as he held the artifacts away from him. Martín snatched them and moved to the far back of the van, away from the others. Running a thumb over the silver howler monkey around his neck, the man whispered a quiet invitation to Hun-Batz.

A familiar burning sensation moved down through his ears, then his eyes, nose, mouth, and throat. The sensation overtook his body and his hands glowed orange. Martín held a necklace in each hand and set them down only a moment later. The glow dimmed, the feeling left his body the same way it came, and he slumped against the floor, exhausted.

While this was going on, Salome and Xavier were still trying to coax Marisol back into her usual self. Turning into an animal had different side effects for all of them, and Mari's most common was not being able to turn back right away. This time, luckily, it only took a couple minutes in the calm environment to come back.

She blinked, squinted, and looked to Gael in the driver's seat.

"Is this the Ratatouille soundtrack?" She asked.

"I remember you telling me it's your favorite Pixar movie." Gael shrugged.

Marisol simply nodded and laid down.

There was a tense silence in the air for the rest of the drive. They had never had a close call like that before, and now that the adrenaline was dying down the gang was exhausted.

Except for Gael, he seemed alright.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, Gael and Elías were the last ones awake and therefore tasked with getting the rest of the team inside. Martín took the most work, and they ended up just taking an end each and hauling him in like a corpse. Salome, Xavier, and Marisol followed without any issues, and soon enough everyone was inside and asleep.

Martín and Marisol were on one bed with Salome and Xavier were on the other. Gael and Elías could sleep on the floor.

"Goodnight, asshole." Gael whispered sweetly to the man, forming a heart with his hands.

"Night, bitch." Elías muttered back, not bothering to look at him as he laid down.

Gael snorted and took one last look at them all before sneaking into the bathroom to sleep in the tub.