Chapter VI

**Chapter VI**

Weeks pass, in an isolated area, deep in the Canadian forest as Bren sits alone a campsite he has constructed. A small two person tent sits by a cooler with a lantern turned off not far from it and a radio playing music. A dwindled fire smokes lightly in the day time as Bren sits idly by, shirtless in only militant green jeans, smoking a rolled up joint and finishing a beer he sits with next to a series of other bottles telekinetically. He looks at his necklace with him and his wife's wedding rings and things of various happy times with his family before all the chaos, to which a small tear passes down his cheek. Wiping the tear away Bren stands up in a focus, and takes a deep breath as upbeat music starts to play. When his eyes opens he lets loose a variety of marital art moves while flipping and mixing super speed at the same time jumping and kicking while throwing fire, ice, sonic screams, using telekinesis, teleporting in flames, hydrokinesis, heat vision, and even uses the beer bottles for target practice of his electrokinesis. As the song ends, Bren catches his breath by drinking some water when he is all of a sudden contacted by Victoria telepathically.

Victoria: "Good to see you're keeping in shape, looking good by the way."

Bren: "Dude, the point of a sabbatical is to be left alone...wait did you just hit on me? Doesn't sound like you?"

Victoria: "The... entity inside me is powered down or sleeping or something... she didn't say why."

Bren: "So she just... let you borrow her telepathy?"

Victoria: "It's difficult to explain... we are… one I guess? Whatever she has I have and vice versa, but not without the others consent."

Bren: "I see...so what reason for this invasion of privacy and interruption?"

Victoria: "The news... local news... been buzzing a lot the last few days. We need your help looking into it."

Bren: "Then get Lacy on it... or one of the others... again I’m on a leave."

Victoria: "I would... but it's locally... by you actually; you see people are going missing and only a few reports of traces of blood, possibly from the victims, but whatever creature it is... no one has seen it. The survivors don't even recall what it is if they are found. The subhuman police has been investigating which means..."

Bren: "Fuck.... means only a matter of time before they find me or whatever it is... or both.... great.

Victoria: "Or worse... think that what it is, is actually you."

Bren: "Where is it?"

Victoria: "Sending you the coordinates now." She says as a phone appears into his hand and Bren looks, puts a shirt and jacket on with shoes and flies off to the location.

Miles away in New Jersey, Lilith sits in her bedroom staring at her large television with multiple channels displayed on mute before she is joined by Siro who hands her a file.

Siro: "We received our first shipment of classifieds from our new eyes in the department of defense mistress, and we have a team of our best psychics combing through it. I came across this and found it probably the most intriguing, figured you'd want to see it immediately." Siro says as Lilith looks through the thick file.

Lilith: "You did right, my friend," she says as she continues to comb through the file. "They have it listed that their human trials are to start soon..."

Siro: "Yes, mistress. The seers are foreseeing that it is possible they will attempt to move the base where this experiment is to take place in the next two or so weeks."

Lilith: "Of course, to keep their enemies out of the loop... any idea where?" She continues to ponder as she walks with the file in hand looking through it.

Siro: "No Mistress..."

Lilith: "Put a team on this, our best offensive... and tell our...eyes to keep us posted of any changes. Let’s let the humans think they are getting somewhere in this war… then we will slam the door on their dicks."

Siro: "Already on it mistress." Siro says with a grin as they turn around and leave the room.

Lilith: "Hmph... Project United Soldier huh? Well... can't knock them for trying." She says as she looks out her large balcony window into the day light sky.

Back in Canada, Bren makes his way to the GPS coordinates of Victoria sent him. He looks around with nothing but forest around him and a bike path in the distance. He sees a jogger running down the path alone, but once he blinks the jogger is gone. Bren looks around suspiciously and then uses his X-ray vision to scan the forest to see someone struggling with another in the distance, as if they are pulling away. Bren super speeds to the location to find the same man struggling, with a young Asian woman, attempting to get free. Bren pulls them apart as the man runs away in fear and Bren turns his attention to the woman. She wears a rugged black coat and brown winter ski-cap under her long dark brown hair. Ripped and tattered jeans, with steel toe boots. She has pale skin and fierce violet eyes shine from the shadows of the forest around them as she snarls and hisses a Bren as she jumps on him like a wild feral animal with incredible strength. Bren pushes back with his own strength and thrust her off of him and into a spot of sun light several feet away. Once her skin touches it, it burns and she runs off into the shadows.

Bren: "Really?! A freaking vampire?! Victoria you asshole!" Bren screams out loud to himself.

The vampire woman returns moments later and Bren can see her moving swiftly through the shadows staying out of direct sunlight. Bren attempts to find her using his x-ray vision but she moves too fast for him to focus it and punches him into the nearest large patch of shadows in the woods and pounces as she goes in for another bite, but Bren shocks her with a jolt of electricity from his hands, knocking her out cold. Bren calls Victoria on his phone seconds later.

Bren: "You're such an asshole, you sent me after a vampire! It almost killed me!"

Victoria: "I figured you could handle yourself. I had suspicions of what was out there but I wasn't sure until you said so... hence the investigation. And watch your tone when speaking to me, Mr. Turtle."

Bren: "Ah.... so you're back.... the...you I guess. You self-righteous prick"

Victoria: "Again I remind you, Mr. Turtle... your tone. Were you able to acquire it without killing it?” Bren stays silent on the other side of the phone as he looks at the vampire still knocked out in the shadows and lets out a deep sigh. "I will take that as a yes," Victoria continues, "return her here if you don't mind, alive, then you may continue on your...little break."

Bren: "Gonna be a while...fighting a vamp is a little exhausting."

Victoria: "Do what you need, just get her hear.... oh and Mr. Turtle.... good job." She says as she hangs up the phone.

Bren: "Great..." Bren says as he puts the phone away, super speeds to his camp, grabs his sleeping bag, speeds back, wraps the vampire woman into it and flies off towards Michigan hundreds of miles away. Landing in Michigan he is immediately met with warm welcomes from everyone, except Victoria, who stands cold and firm.

Victoria: "I would say a warm welcome is needed but pressing matters are a must first," she says as Bren stands with the vampire girl in his arms, in fatigue, as Victoria exams the girl's teeth, and eyes. "We have reconfigured a couple the rooms, since your time away, for such...individuals. Take her to the first room on the right on the top floor, you will find chains for you to subdue her."

Bren: "Seems a bit barbaric and cold even for you, why don't we just put her in a room with reinforced steel doors....minus the chain?"

Victoria: "We do have such rooms but they are more suited for those of more hostility with equaled strength...in the basement. But if you insist... down stairs, basement...and chains." She says as Bren gives her a disgusted look and takes her to the room down stairs. Bren opens the steel doors to a small ten by ten room with small crawl space like window. "It was once a storage closet, a few of the others fixed it up to be a...detainment cell for young werewolves or for those with newly manifested abilities. I thought the window was a nice touch. The sun doesn't come directly in but you can see it shine. Once you are done here you're welcome to go back to your little...vacation, I will provide around the clock watch of her."

Bren: "Why does this sound like one of your recruitments? Techahn, Piper...Gaia...the others... why is this one so important to you?"

Victoria: "A message in the cards has brought great important for comings...and this creature is at the helm of what I have seen. Just like the others... Gaia is alright so you know. She asked about you for a few days but eventually it stopped with...new realizations for her."

Bren: "Always with the damn riddles, why not a simple answer for once?"

Victoria: "Your mortal mind is too complex to understand. Just know I seek more into this creature than you realize and I need it here to discover more for what is to come." She says as Bren looks down at the chained up girl lying unconscious on a bed cot.

Bren: "I got her... I will look after her until she comes to at the least... make sure she is ok, but after this I'm going back on my leave...for an extended period."

Victoria: "Fine with me, just don't get too close to her." She says as she leaves the room.

Bren watches the girl sleeping and soon doses off himself. He wakes up at night time, not by instinct, but a type of faint energy pulse from the girl. He checks to see if she is ok by looking at her eyes only for her to wake up suddenly biting and hissing at him. Using his ability to manipulate emotions he calms her down to listen to him. She only looks at him with caution and distrust, but more calmly than before.

Bren: "It's ok, you're okay. So you're a vampire? Sorry if I seem skittish, never encountered one of you face to face before...more so indirectly I guess," he says as she looks at him with caution still. "So you... you were hunting people in the woods in broad daylight? I thought vampires daylight endeavors were kind of...not a thing? Are you a new born or just suicidal?" She stays quiet but continues to look at Bren in a stare. "Here," he says as he hands her a pint of blood, "its pigs blood... something one of werewolves picked up early from the local butcher, we have a guy on the inside. It's ok, you can take it... all we can get for now." She takes the glass and throws it at Bren, shattering behind his head. "Fine, I'll leave ya alone, give ya some time," He says as he leaves and closes the door. Moments later he hears rustling from the chains and the girl snarling to lick the blood of the wall, savagely.

Over the next day Bren attempts to get the girl to talk. He even tells her his frustrations of being Victoria's blunt instrument and procurer of S.P.E.C.S and how he sometimes feels like another weapon to her, the vampire girl eventually turns more curious than caution with Bren, "Sometimes I just miss being myself," he finishes, as he hands her another pint of blood and she begins to drink it calmly.

Vampire Girl: "Rabbit..." She says in response.

Bren: "What was that?" He responds curiously.

Vampire Girl: "I would appreciate it if you brought rabbit's blood... pig is so bland. Nourishing but bland," she responds, as Bren nods with a grin and begins to walk out the room.

Bren: "I'll.... see what I can do about the rabbit," he finishes as he leaves before smiling and nodding at her.

Bren returns to the girl’s cell the next day with a dead and skinned rabbit in a plastic bag, just before night fall to find her sleeping but in a frantic cold sweat, shaking. He tries to wake her but she doesn't respond. "Hey, wake up... you're freezing." He yells but doesn't get a response from her as she continues to shake. "Victoria will kill me if you die..." Bren then closes his eyes and warms up his entire body using thermo energy from one of his powers and holds her close; she soon calms down and stops shivering. In that moment another wave of energy passes between the two of them like goose bumps in cold air and this time Bren sees the girl’s life as if she was sharing it telepathically, it plays like movie clips are in front of his eyes. In the vision he sees her working at a nightclub and bar where she talks to a young vampire, who took a liking to her, as her. The vision skips to her getting into her car with her a cash box; only to be attacked by humans and saved by the vampire. Unfortunately it was before dawn which caused her to help him in return. He sees the two fell in love, and he turns her but on the night of her siring they were both taken in by vampires which he is executed at sunrise. He sees the subhuman police and her escape moments later. He then sees her on the run and making her way into the Canadian woods. She feeds on animals during the day then began to hunt humans during the day for longer nourishment. She would feed and compel; erasing their memory, as he lover showed her before turning her, but eventually living as an animal made her live as one. She suddenly awakes and attacks Bren to bite him, but out of defense his body temperature turns up burning her bite to where it feels as if she drinking the sun and she begins to burn from the inside slowly crying out in pain. Acting quickly Bren cools her body using his ice creation ability, she looks at Bren and starts to cry as he holds her close, with blood dripping from a shallow neck wound. After a few moments she falls back to asleep; and moments later Victoria enters the room to confront Bren.

Victoria: "May I have a word with you?" She says as Bren puts the girl down and leaves the room with Victoria. "I had one request of you.... and that was not to get close to that girl."

Bren: "It's called compassion... maybe you have heard of it in your day or know of it from the woman you're possessing.... look she's scared and I think..."

Victoria: "You will think nothing, but what you will do is leave, attend your neck wound and go back on to your vacation; I will put one of the others on security detail."

Bren: "Just listen to me for once damn it!" Bren exclaims. "Don't you find it a little strange a vampire was hiding in the Canadian woods feeding off passerby in broad daylight?"

Victoria: "You… you saw something in her mind... telepathically... interesting." She says with a curious look.

Bren: " Stay out of my…wait why is that interesting?"

Victoria: "Vampires are not susceptible to telepathic intrusion by any species or race.... but you seem to have broken a barrier telepaths have not gotten through...ever." Victor says curiously. "Aside from drinking the blood of a vampire, one cannot see their memories… and even the most powerful can hinder what you see when you drink from them; yet you have done both of these things. I am not able to see into this girls future but I have seen her; I believe your connection to her may open the big mystery behind her that I am not able to see into," She says as she looks at Bren and the sleeping vampire girl before walking off silently.

Bren leaves the girl to sleep and returns the next night to find her awake and eating the rabbit he left for her. “Good to see you’re eating” he saying with a smile on his face but the girl who only looks back at him with caution. “I mean you need your strength…. Heard vampires melt or something if they don’t eat,” He continues jokingly with the girl, but she continues to eat without a word. “Um… you can thank the butcher for that…. Turns out he had a few rabbits he skinned and drained that no one ever picked up… got them and the blood at a decent price.” The girl still sits silently while eating but looking at Bren. “Look…. I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just… I saw you freezing and shaking and…. I just wanted to help…help you through whatever it was. You startled me is all?” He continuous as the girl stops chewing on the rabbit to stare at Bren blankly. “Well…I’ll see if I can get you more rabbit, difficult in this part of the country,” Bren says as he begins to leave and close the door.

Vampire Girl: “Wait!” She says as she struggles to standup and catching Bren’s attention he stops leaving. “I…I also like deer…. If there…you know if there are no rabbits.”

Bren: “Oh…ok…um will see what I can do. It is Michigan...tons of deer,” Bren says sadly as he is about to leave.

Vampire Girl: “I’m sorry!” She shouts nervously, catching Bren in his steps.

Bren: “Wh… why?”

Vampire Girl: “That I hurt you…I’m sorry.”

Bren: “It’s ok…I’ve got tough skin” he says pointing to small bandage on his neck chuckling “It’ll heal in a few hours. Bullets hurt a lot but vampire bites are very much like an annoying bee sting.”

Vampire Girl: “Well…. still I’m sorry.” She says with a sad look.

Bren: “If you don’t mind…may I ask what you were dreaming about?”

Vampire Girl: “You…you wouldn’t understand.”

Bren: “Try me…” He says as he closes the door, “you’d be surprised what a man can understand when he himself suffers from bad dreams.”

Vampire Girl: “You do?”

Bren: “Every night…I haven’t slept in months… I sleep enough to function but not enough to rest…. There is a fine line.”

Vampire Girl: “I guess…I guess I have been on my own for so long I forgot what it was like to talk to people about what goes on in my head… even more so now that I am what I am.”

Bren: “You…haven’t been a…vampire for long have you?” He ask as she shakes her head no and looks up at the basement window.

Vampire Girl: “It doesn’t take long to lose yourself when you turn…. Or miss the sun… I do miss it…I spent so little time in it as a human I didn’t realize what I missed…”

Bren: “Until it was gone… yea…yea I know that feeling too much.”

Vampire Girl: “Your eyes…they tell of such things… there’s a sadness to them. You look how I feel.”

Bren: “Been through so much it’s surprising I feel anything half the time.”

Vampire Girl: “But you do, and that’s good. Being humans is good because as a human…. Or evolved human… your years are still short… So your path will end with time and you’ll sleep… time to which I have too much of.

Bren: “Maybe… but even as a vampire you could end your time… cut it short, despite the being immortal thing.” He says as she replies with a nod of yes. “So why don’t you?”

Vampire Girl: “I don't know... I just don't know,” She says with a tremble in her voice as she looks out the basement window as Bren stands next to her.

Bren: "I'm Bren, by the way," he says as he looks out the window with her.

Vampire Girl: "I'm... Ces...Cessika," she says with a relief in her tone.