Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 13

  Bright lights, the hum of the generator engine, crinkling pleather, and the antiseptic smell that clings to everything. Ambulances are a terrible place for sentinels. Even this late model,- pride and joy of Bent Valley EMS - was going to put the sentinel they picked up more on edge for one simple reason.

A sentinel with a hurt guide was the most dangerous beast on the planet. Any wrong move and they'd need their own trip to the ICU.

Bess' team was well aware of the dangers, having had their fair share of transports in the sentinel-saturated resort area. This didn't make them any less tense as they carefully prepped the cabin for whatever they'd find on Fate's property.

Quintin was driving, the youngest and strongest of them would stay out of the way unless he was absolutely needed. The kid had a chunk taken out of his ear once on a pickup when the sentinel mistook him as a possible threat. He was a null, he had to be to qualify for sentinel or guide services, but the young sentinel had kicked him with her rhinestone shoes for taking the pulse of her guide with his bare hands. A rookie mistake, underestimating a sentinel based on how they looked. She could have killed him if Bess hadn't managed to diffuse the situation.

And what a situation this would be. She reviewed the paperwork as the ambulance jostled over potholes and took a familiar curve around the mountain path. She made sure that her least threatening nulls were in the back cabin for the hands-on interaction while the orderly team (more big, corn-fed boys like Quintin) followed in the responder vehicle. Her hope was that she didn't have to use them or the tranquilizer rifle in the trunk.

She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding as the ambulance curved onto Fate's property to see Beau bounding up in a rather docile mood. There wasn't a bloodied and hog-tied sentinel at the gate either. Still, she wasn't going to be sure until she saw Fate with her own two eyes.

With a sigh, Bess pulled out the locked box that contained emergency-level dampeners. It was potent and strictly controlled. Only a trained anesthesiologist could administer them and only Bess could open the biometric lock. Even using it under the perfect circumstances could turn Fate into a vegetable. The girl had signed the papers authorizing its use on her first day in town. She'd renewed them without fail, notarized them with a smile on her face even as her time grew nearer.

The locked box had been escorted to Bess' office after Fate's latest dosage increase. If she was in shock despite her daily management, there was nothing else they could do short of forcing her to bond.

Even with all of the papers and notes and numbers telling her that this was what Fate wanted in the end, why did she feel like an executioner with no way out?

"We've got company!" Quintin murmured as he pulled up towards the last curve of the drive. The bright flashes of the ambulance highlighted a massive figure holding Fate in her signature high-vis parka. The sentinel spared a passing glance for the ambulance before focusing all of his attention back on the limp bundle in his arms.

Well, this wasn't what she expected.

Bess knew that look. The sentinel was imprinting on Fate in the middle of the driving snow. At this distance, Bess couldn't tell anything about her state. Was she conscious or had this brute knocked her over the head? He wasn't like most of the civilian sentinels who'd attempted to catch Fate. He was built like a stone castle, even Fate herself looked rather small in his arms.

Bess turned to see Quintin's eyes as wide as dinner plates. The young man was recalculating his life choices as he breathed, "That's Jack Hammond,  super-heavyweight champion mixed martial arts fighter, Jack Hammond."

The lights of the ambulance flashed over his face revealing the start of a shiner, "I'd hate to see the other guy," Bess said as she gave the signal to the two in the back to start prep for intake.

The other sentinel was nowhere in sight. Without the superior tracking abilities of a sentinel in their responder group, they wouldn't be able to locate him in the snow. Their only hope would be to ask the sentinel if they could retain his focus for more than a millisecond.

But that was the least of their problems. The most pressing was separating an obviously bonding sentinel from a guide who was already roughed up. Unscrambling an egg was easier.

"Samantha get that tranq rifle ready," Bess radioed to the responder vehicle, "We're gonna need more backup than what's coming."

"Oh hell-" was all she heard Quintin curse before the sentinel backed up, spinning on his heels and running up the trail towards the house, Beau hot on his tail.

For a moment, Bess was too flabbergasted to act. Through the driving snow, howling wind, humming engine and crackle of the radio, the sentinel had understood her commands loud and clear.

This wasn't what she'd expected at all.