The Venator (The Mindbender series Book 2)

by C. S Luis

  “And I can’t be sure why I haven’t...”

  She looked surprised. The current grew stronger. Something I said had clicked and made her trust me a little bit more.

  “I can’t do it,” I admitted, taking a seat beside her on the edge of the bed. I could hear her heart. Besides being fast and strong, I had great hearing, a predator’s senses, and today they were all keen and at alert by her presence. She made me stronger in ways I had never felt before.

  “You haven’t told him about me?” she asked surprised.

  “No,” I said, coming closer.

  She gazed at me, it made my heart bounce as I felt my eyes dancing, from the flowing current and circuit electrifying my being. Did she know what she was doing? It didn’t seem like it.

  I reached a hand to touch her cheek. A strange, yet not entirely unpleasant sensation suddenly raced up my arm. I believe she felt it as well, but not as powerful as I had. The watch was again moving calmly. I had lowered the frequency, so I could feel her and allow her to feel me in return. The lower frequency would also keep the watch from malfunctioning if her power increased unexpectedly.

  I beamed. I could sense her power flowing through me, down into my fingertips. She smiled, too. It assured me that I wasn’t alone in whatever this was. I took a deep breath; it was enticing beyond words.

  “I’ve never known anyone quite like you, Claudia. I was curious at first. Now, I can’t begin to understand my need to be around you. Close to you. This feeling, this connection...I feel the circuit. It can’t be broken. I can’t pull away. I don’t want to, even when I know it’s getting stronger. Don’t you feel it?” I asked as I gazed deep into her eyes.

  She slowly nodded.

  “I used to fear it. Now I know I have nothing to fear.” I cupped her cheek. She didn’t pull away. It delighted me. We could come together. We could complete the connection that was driving us together. What would happen if we connected in different ways?

  My lips neared hers, but she pulled away, rising and moving to the center of the room. The pull urged me to follow, but I hesitated instead so I could watch her. I knew she felt it and, yet she resisted it. I felt her distrust, her concern.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  Had I given her an alternative motive? She looked confused about her feelings.

  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist…I can’t. Every time I’m near you, something pulls me closer. Don’t you feel it?”

  I watched her consider my words. I felt my eyes dancing to the energies of her flowing current. She knew it was there, but she was holding back, resisting. Did she still not trust me?

  “Forgive me for frightening you in the hall earlier today.”

  “You didn’t frighten me,” she challenged.

  I grinned at her. I hoped that I could convince her that I meant what I said. I was going to be honest with her and it was something I wanted to do, because I was growing closer to her. It wasn’t that she had me under her control and I had to obey, but that I was perhaps falling in love. It was like a bee discovering the sweetest nectar of a brand-new flower, or like the insect discovering a flame could burn, but it was such a beautiful way to go.

  “I didn’t mean to be so fierce, but you surprised me when you ran. It triggered my hunter instincts, and the only thing I could do was run after you. Your energy opened this other…force inside me.”

  She looked perplexed. She was still not convinced.

  “You pull at me, just like you pull at me now. You tug, and you tug so hard. It’s not easy to resist or to fight this desire to go to you. The watch makes it easier not to lose myself in your energy.”

  She looked confused.

  “I have never lost control like that before. You were all I wanted. I had to be close to you, to protect you. I knew it as fiercely then as I know right now that you are so very special…to me.”

  She turned her head slightly away, the tug and pull resurfaced once more. The watch moved rapidly in one direction then back to the right. It hadn’t stopped since I had come to know her.

  “Your actions reflect denial, but your emotions reveal the truth of what you really feel. Your energy tells me exactly what you want.”

  She spun her head back. “You don’t know anything about me,” she angrily spat.

  “Your’re right. I don’t.” I admitted, and rose taking a step toward her. “I want to.”

  I felt her heart lighten up, but she was afraid. Recalling what we both had seen. A shadowy form emerged from the corner and stalked over to us. Before I tore its tentacle arms off one at a time to protect her. I wanted her to understand how much it meant to me that she be kept away from any danger – from The Company, or elsewhere. I would do anything for her. I tried to convey all of that emotion into the look I shot her way.

  “If you’re not here for me, then why did you come to Milton?”

  The tugging continued, my pupils were moving again.

  “You hunt things for these people in the lab coats?”

  I grinned back at her. Of course, she knew that after all she had seen it in our shared visions.

  “I feel you wanting to push me away…”

  She fell quiet.

  “But you can’t. Just like I can’t resist your pull on me.”

  I began to pace, could I do this? Could I reveal this to her? She had already seen most of it in my mind. I had revealed it unwilling. Now, I was questioning whether I should tell her something she already knew.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to reveal this to you…I’ve never told anyone else this.” I looked over at her and moved over to the bed again, now looking back at her I patted a hand on a spot beside me, inviting her to join me.

  “Come sit beside me. Please?”

  She slowly came over and took the spot next to me. Her presence stirred the circuit that connected us almost immediately.

  I didn’t know where to begin, so I just started at the beginning. “I work for a secret corporation only known as The Company. This organization is divided into several parts operating different divisions. Military, space, science, and most importantly, pharmaceuticals. But what I do takes place within an academy.”

  She seemed completely absorbed in what I was saying. I felt I was betraying Joseph by revealing the truth, but I knew she wasn’t a threat to us. If anything, we were a threat to her. And that was another thing that was paining me by revealing such valuable information to her.

  “The academy?” she asked, gazing over at me.

  “It’s a school were recruits like me are trained…” How can I explain something like this to someone who’s never been there? There was more to it than a school, or even a military training facility. It was complicated. It was home.

  “Wait. There are others like you?” The question made me smile. There was amazement in her voice. Maybe she thought there were more like me that could connect with her. No one would connect with her like I did. The idea made me slightly jealous.

  “Not exactly like me.”

  She wrinkled her lip.

  “I’m the only one…like this. They call me an anomaly.”

  At least, that’s what Dr. Nicholson called me, I thought.

  “Who’s Dr. Nicholson?” She asked suddenly. How did she know of Dr. Nicholson? But of course, that was a stupid question. I’d almost forgotten she would be able to hear such a thought.

  I blinked trying to hide my surprise. It was a bit embarrassing.

  “Is he real?” She asked, looking at the expression on my face, knowing we had both seen him in our shared vision. At least, I knew I had seen him blocking my path to her. I never understood what that meant. I still didn’t. I’d like to chuck it up to nothing but a bad nightmare after several simulations.

  I nodded in regard to her question.

  “So who is he?” she asked.

  “How do you know of him?” I asked her curiously. I hadn’t thought of him by name before that errant thought I hadn’t expected her to r
ead, but her second question revealed she had heard his name before.

  “I heard the name in your uncle—I mean in Joseph’s thoughts.”

  “You hear Joseph’s thoughts?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  But how? I wondered. Joseph was always careful to use his watch. I remember him having it on his wrist. It was a tool we were required to always wear because no one ever knew when a Mindbender would be around. In our line of work, you always had to be prepared.

  “I think there was something wrong with his watch when I heard it,” she volunteered. “It was making a lot of weird sounds that day. Who is he?”

  That would explain it.

  I hesitated. She waited, looking over at me. I couldn’t lie to her. I loved her even though I hadn’t revealed what I was beginning to feel for her. I did love her, and I knew it.

  “He’s sort of my boss. He’s the one who sent me here…”

  “Should I be afraid of him?” she asked.

  I looked over at her and suddenly went to her. She looked frightened and I held her hand tightly in mine. I felt her ease up a bit.

  “No. You don’t have to be afraid. You have nothing to worry about. He’s looking for some creature with a strong force. I was sent to find it and bring it to Dr. Nicholson. And that will be the end of it.”

  “Then what happens to you and Joseph?”

  She blinked. I knew what she was asking, and I hadn’t even considered that.

  “Are you going to leave?” she asked point blank.

  I froze unable to say a word.

  “After everything’s finished? Yes.”

  She fell silent; her feelings were a mixture of sadness and disappointment. That delighted me and surprised me.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in. I have abilities that others don’t have. I move faster. I’m stronger. I was born with these abilities, and that’s why he sent me.” I said trying to break the silence, but began to ramble instead.

  “The academy is all I know.”

  She gazed at me.

  “You grew up there?”

  “Ive been there all my life,” she frowned.

  “What about your parents? Family?”

  “I have none…” My answer made her sad, and only when I felt that, did I realize that it was, in fact, kind of sad. My only father figure was Dr. Nicholson.

  “What’s it like?” she asked. “The academy, I mean.”

  “It’s a military base,” I said. I hoped that alone would give her an idea of what a sort of place it was. When she didn’t respond, I felt the need to go on.

  “We train, exercise, eat in groups, sleep in a barracks, wake up every day at dawn. Repeat.”

  “Do you have school?” she asked.

  “Of course. Except my studies are a little different than what you might learn in Milton. Alchemy, chemistry, biology and medical training, and a variety of languages. One of the first things we learn is the proper use, assembly, and disassembly of firearms. Then we have target practice and run simulations…”

  “What?” She wrinkled her nose at me.

  I smiled. “Training games. Both computer and life simulations where I hunt my targets. Sometimes I go in with a team, sometimes I’m on my own.”

  She stared a me for a moment. I wondered if she was confused. Then said, “Do you get to go out?”

  I looked over at her curiously. I smiled; she had so many questions and it was nice talking to someone else about the real me.

  “Go out?” I asked not understanding what she meant by those words.

  “You know, have fun. Time for yourself?”

  “Yeah, of course. We get leisure. I end up at target practice anyway, or I pass the time reading the medical textbooks I haven’t fully finished yet. Sometimes it’s language studies on my own.”

  “That’s not fun,” she said smiling.

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed. For a moment I just observed her, she was lovely, glowing in that gold that only I could see, a warmth that covered her and me, a thread that connected us.

  “It is for me.”

  I believe she was trying to imagine that world I had just described. I felt the dance in my pupils again.

  “And you hunt others like me?” she asked.

  “I hunt extraterrestrials. What The Company calls ET product. I’ve never come across anyone like you before.” I said trying to assure her it wasn’t her I was here for.

  “I had a vision of the girl you took captive. She could read minds like me.” Her words surprised me. Of course she had seen that, it was one of the visions we had shared.

  “You saw all that?”

  She nodded.

  I lowered my head, it was the visions that had confused her about who I was, what I did. How could I explain something like this to her? The girl was in a sense like her, but also nothing like her. Would she see the difference?

  I took a chance.

  “They’re called Mindsifters. Or Mindbenders,” I began. She listened attentively.

  “And she was one of a few that escaped the Company thirty years ago.”

  “Escaped?” she wrinkled her nose over at me.

  “They were products created by The Company. There was a fire and a lot of equipment and research was lost. As well as quite a few company products. The Company dabbles in creating new lifeforms to help the human race develop possible cures for diseases like cancer or HIV. They’ve successfully created suitable solutions for lost limbs, body replacements and organ transplants. Dr. Nicholson is one of the top research scientists in that department.”

  “So he’s definitely important,” she said.

  I grinned. “Yeah, he is.The Company has achieved a lot of successful accomplishments because of him. And they continue to progress.” The man was smart but had no personality, he was cold and feared.

  “The girl you saw. She was the only one left of her kind. And now there’s you. But you are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. You’re different. Extraordinary.” I must have appeared strange to her.

  “I can’t believe I’m telling you all this,” I continued, “But you’re nothing like her.”

  I reached over hoping to touch her and connect with her through contact.

  “It sounds like I’m a lot like her. She can read minds. So can I?”

  “No, she was created in a lab, just like the rest of her kind. I was trained to bring them to the men in the lab coasts, as you put it. That’s what I do. Now you know.”

  I was pinned to the spot, unable to look away, unable to pull away from her. My fingers touched her cheek.

  “I can’t deny what I feel when I look into your eyes or when I’m close to you. You give me strength and make me weak at the same time, and still, I just want to be near you. ” I laughed, it must sound childish to say it out loud. “I know how that must sound. But it’s what I feel. I don’t understand what this is or what’s happening to me, but I know I don’t want it to stop.”

  I took a deep breath feeling the sensation of the circuit cutting into my skin. Then, I felt something else… fear, confusion, resistance.

  “You’re afraid?” I lowered my hand gazing into her eyes hoping I was wrong. “If I scare you, I won’t say any more. As hard as it will be to stay away from you, I will, if that is what you wish. Is that what you want?”

  I waited.

  “No.” she said, delighting me, but she looked embarrassed to have spoken so boldly.

  “I think I’m only afraid because I feel the same way. I don’t understand it. I’ve never met anyone like you before. I feel safe with you. I just met you, but you make me feel…protected. It’s strange.”

  “No, it’s not,” I responded.

  “I’m glad you were honest.”

  I kissed her. I took a risk and I kissed her unable to hold off any longer. I had resisted for far too long. I devoured her warm mouth, feeling the force of her connection to me, sending my own emotions into a frenzy. An electrical current ran up my bo
dy. An image of us together flashed in my mind, I held her in my arms, protecting her…So the hunter has now become the protector, a voice I didn’t recognize hissed inside my head.

  “Dinner!” Joseph’s voice startled us both, Claudia pulled away and rose to stand a safe distance from the bed where we had both been. Joseph poked his head through the opening, narrowing his curious eyes right at me. He knew we had been doing far more than talking.

  I leaped from the bed to counter him before he saw how I must have appeared- weak, intoxicated, and lost. An uncomfortable sensation ran up my spine as I ran a hand over my neck.

  “What are you two up to?” Joseph comically asked, a smile spread over his face. I wanted to slug him on the jaw for making Claudia feel uncomfortable. I was embarrassed for the both of us.

  “Claudia was showing me her artwork.”

  Joseph came into the bedroom and walked around us to the art table. The palms of my hands were beginning to sweat. I had never been caught in this manner, because no one had ever made me feel so vulnerable the way Claudia did, and I didn’t want Joseph to notice.

  “Wow. I’m impressed, Miss Belle,” he said.

  He was doing this on purpose, standing around making us feel well guilty about what we had been doing. I wasn’t ashamed, but it looked like Claudia was embarrassed that Joseph knew. She looked uncomfortable. But it was because she didn’t know him like I did. He was just trying to get to me.

  I tried to ignore him, hoping he wouldn’t say anything else to make Claudia regret being alone with me. He would if he knew he could get a reaction. I felt I already had gotten her trust.

  “Uh…did you say dinner was ready?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

  Joseph glared over at me from the back of the room and walked up to the front. He put a hand on my shoulder.

  “Yes.”

  I pushed him off and moved to the door allowing Claudia to exit the room first.

  When she exited, Joseph gripped a hold of my shoulder again. I felt his breath on my ear when he leaned forward to whisper.

  “Vulnerability is a bad shade of color. It doesn’t look good on you, Nephew.” That was enough to make me aware of what he was getting at.