Brenda had been following the two men since they had blown up her stepfather and his minions, secretly she had always wanted to do just that to the cruel powerful old man, but being a weak and nearly powerless witch Brenda couldn’t do much of anything to harm anyone or anything to protect herself from anyone magical and non-magical alike. Although she knew they had to be dangerously powerful men who had killed her stepfather they were obviously enemies of the very man who had done so much harm to her so many times in her past. The way she saw it at that moment was that the enemy of her enemy was her friend. After witnessing the explosion and the destruction that had ensued from it at a safe distance she began following the men on her own motorcycle keeping herself at a good distance from their vehicle so they would not see her as she pursued them through the desert. She had noticed not only that the two men were vampires, but that they could use magic themselves with no one else seemingly in the vehicle with them, and how well they used it to protect themselves from such a powerful wizard as she knew her stepfather to be. Not to mention the scores of his powerful minions she knew she had picked powerful friends when she caught up to these two safely. I just hope that they will take me on as a friend and allow me to join whatever their agenda may be, even if I was that mans step daughter… They look like a trustworthy pair, especially the one with the brown hair and his kind looking eyes.
Ty was oblivious to the person pursuing them but Valentine was not so easily fooled by their evasive maneuvers, he had seen the motorcyclist following them since they left the shed where Ty had used his magic to protect Valentine and himself from the suns deadly rays. Whoever it might be was following at a distance but always kept them in sight, and they did not make any obvious attempts to catch up. Also Valentine had noticed that the motorcyclist was not making any movements that someone would if they were staying in contact with someone else by phone or headset. He surmised that whoever they were, that they were on their own and possibly didn’t know exactly what or who they would be facing if they caught up to the two young men who would soon be stopping for some rest.
The men decided to rest that night in a cheap motel somewhere on the eastern outskirts of some small town, in a rundown outdated motel. As they entered room 15 after paying with cash she quickly and quietly stalked over to their door to listen quietly to what they might say hoping to gain some more information about them before revealing herself to them. Just as she placed her ear to the door it swung open and the young man with the obsidian black hair grabbed her by her shirt and dragged her in shutting the door as quickly and quietly as it had opened the whole time he scowled at her with pure hatred and anger in his eyes. He held her to the wall with his magic, where her arms and legs become paralyzed by some unspoken spell he had cast on her, he then said in a quiet dark voice that seethed with anger “Who are you witch and who sent you to follow us here?”
It took her several moments that seemed to go on forever as her fear sunk in before she was able to collect her thoughts, her mind seemed to be lagging behind because it was still telling her that she was outside their door listening in on them in hopes of gathering some sort of information. She saw the brown haired man who was sitting on the bed closest to the door. He had a look on his face that bordered between pity, and anxiety. “Brenda,” she said as quickly as she could “my name is Brenda, and I wanted to thank you for killing my insidious stepfather back there in the desert.”
Though Valentine lessened his grip on her magically he kept his paralyzing and containment spells on her not allowing her to move at all “Why would you follow us all the way here just to thank us for killing your stepfather? If he was your stepfather wouldn’t you be angry with us for killing him? Your story doesn’t add up to me little girl, and I absolutely detest being lied to, unless the liar is on my table waiting for me to end their miserable useless lives as a meal I have no further use for them.” He then flashed Brenda his sparkling white fangs to emphasize his words.
Terrified now at her folly in thinking she could join two powerful magic wielding vampires so easily she looked at the brown haired man with scared pleading eyes that were now starting to fill with tears “I am honestly thankful for his death,” she tried to scream out to him but it came out instead as a weak plea “He would beat me, and used me in ways you could not begin to understand! Ways that are too…” She paused trying to spit out the words between tears and horrified memories “dreadful to say aloud…” she couldn’t speak coherently any more due to the sobbing.
Ty stood up and walked over to her, he crouched down just enough so that he could look her directly in her eyes “Hello Brenda, my name is Ty and I am sorry for what your uncle did to you in the past, but you really should not have followed us here. As long as you tell us the truth, and do as we say, no harm will come to you, I guaranty you that much at the very least. But…” He stood up straight, more than a foot taller than her if she were standing herself and looked down at her with pity still in his eyes “But if for any reason I or Valentine think you’re lying to us or you don’t do what we say I will be forced to allow my friend to do with you what he sees fit, and he in his own special way is cruel and can harm you in unspeakable ways that could make your stepfathers transgressions seem like kind gestures.” He paused a second taking a step back “So if you would please, for your own sake and the sake of my conscious tell us the whole truth, and don’t leave out any of the details no matter how painful they may be to you. I do believe that you’re telling us the truth but we need to better understand your situation in order to help you should we see that it will be beneficial for all of us.”
Then as Ty turned away from her he gave Valentine an angry look and gestured to a chair next to a small breakfast table then gestured back to the girl, getting the hint and becoming annoyed at his friends compassion and pity for the girl Valentine undid the paralyzation and containment spells just long enough for Brenda to get comfortable in the chair then he placed the paralyzation spell on her yet again so she would be unable to try anything. Once she was more comfortable, and her sobbing had subsided enough for her to speak clearly she told them her own tale.
“When I was twelve my father died, he was killed by a vampire while he was out hunting it. Hunting vampires is the duty of all the High ranked and powerful Council members. He’d managed to kill it before it cost him his own life, setting it ablaze with a fire spell as it went to rip out his throat with its bare hands. Four months later my mom was married to my late stepfather. My stepfathers name was Alucard VanCroft, he was a member of the High Council in Germany, and I believe he hired the vampire to kill my father because he coveted my mother and me. Alucard had attended a ball thrown by my parents roughly two months before my father’s demise, the whole while he was in attendance his eyes never left my mother except to look at me.” Her voice was getting rough and her tongue began to feel like sandpaper in her mouth. Seeing her discomfort Ty gave her a drink of water to his companions disapproval; once her throat was no longer dry she continued her tale of sorrow “Alucard quickly used his connections to become a powerful member of the US Council, and as soon as he was as well established here in the US as he had been in Germany, he took over Nevada as its head Council member. That’s when he started the physical and magical abuse,” she looked away as if reliving some form of the abuse, then she looked from Valentine to Ty with a pitiful stare “it got worse the older I got, at first he would just steal magic from me, using my power however he saw fit until I had little of my own to use for even the smallest spells.”
Ty got a shiver at the thought of someone stealing magic from another person and didn’t understand why it had such a strong painful affect on him so much so that it caused him to physically shudder “It’s ok now Brenda” He gently reassured her with a hand on her shoulder that caused her to flinch at first then relax a bit “If you need to stop for a few minutes then you can. I will not rush you into something that hurts you this much.” informing her with sympathy oozing from his ever
y word and pity welling in his eyes.
“No,” she said after a moment of thinking as the tears continued to stream down her face which was still slightly contorted in anguish “You asked me to tell you the truth in detail and that’s what you will get.” She took a deep breath then resumed her tale “When I turned sixteen he had my mother killed, making it look like a car accident, though anyone who knew her knew that she was a powerful witch and would never have so easily perished in any accident no matter the situation. No one would come forward though, they all feared Alucard and the powers he would wield against anyone who opposed him, and so he went unpunished and unnoticed by the other Council members who were distracted by the war of our two races. Since she died three years ago he has been using me in…” She paused again to let out a small sob before collecting herself and continuing “In other ways and though you asked for all the details” again she let out a small sob tears freely flowing down her face in torrents now “I cannot bring myself to explain it any further. All I can say is that I was powerless against him, and I was forced to do his bidding every time he decided to use me, and to do anything he commanded no matter how much it hurt or horrified me.”
Tears were cascading down her porcelain cheeks and it seemed like it may never end, Ty could do nothing but look at her in shock and empathy at her losses, and the cruelties she must have endured at the hands of her detestable stepfather. He looked at her now as if seeing her for the first time, her mouse brown shoulder length hair, to her fierce sad muddy brown eyes. She was wearing a red and black leather motorcycle jacket and black skin tight leather pants, with matching black leather boots. Plush red lips quivered as she cried quietly attempting to bite back the onslaught of sobs; she was trying her hardest not to break down any further in front of these two strangers she had just confessed her dark secrets to. Ty decided that he had heard enough and grabbed the tissue box on the night stand next to the bed and wiped away her tears as she stared at him through blurry tear filled eyes.
At first she flinched, as if he might strike her, but when he gently cleared away the tears and lifted her chin with a sad smile on his face she relaxed looking deeply into his purple eyes “It’s alright now, Alucard cannot hurt you anymore, and I won’t let anyone hurt you like that ever again Brenda I promise.”
For some strange reason she believed this stranger and nodded her head knowing that he would die before letting something like that happen to her again. Something about this man told her that the words he spoke were honest, and that she could trust him with her life if such a need should arise in the future. Then she looked at Valentine, the man who had just released his paralyzation spell allowing her to wipe away her own tears and the one who had so fiercely threatened her not so long ago. His threatening eyes no longer held any form of threat or anger but instead held a glossy stern look to them as he noticed her looking at him he looked away from her as if unable to look her in the eyes in return. She could not read the look on his face or in his eyes, but she knew that he had seen the truth in her story and would not harm her now.
“Well,” Valentine said looking first from the girl then at Ty with eyes that were still distant and unreadable “Looks like we’re stuck with this stray for the time being.” He stood and looked at her again with his fierce green glowing eyes “But if you hinder us in any way or cause us any problems I will not hesitate to end your life quickly and painlessly. Do you understand me Brenda? I would rather not cause you any further harm because I do believe that you have suffered enough in your short lifespan, but we cannot afford any more trouble then we already have.”
To his complete shock she jumped up and hugged him still sobbing though more from joy then sadness “Thank you, thank you so very much! You won’t regret this, neither of you will. I promise you both that I will not be any trouble!” then as if realizing for the first time what she was doing and who she was hugging she let him go as if his very touch had burned her.
Ty chuckled then pointed to the bathroom “If you need to, you can clean up in there Brenda, Valentine and I have some things to discuss privately, and then I think we all should get some rest. We will be leaving here in a couple hours.”
She took his advice and slipped into the bathroom closing it behind her quietly, Valentine shook his head trying his best not to look to annoyed at Ty “Just what we need, a weak witch to look after on top of trying to evade the magic wielders and vampires alike” he shook his head and gave a weak grin “As if we didn’t have enough problems to deal with. How do we know someone won’t recognize her as we head towards the magic wielders headquarters? She is the step daughter of a now dead prominent Council member after all. Having her around is probably going to get us both killed.”
Facing him with a strong almost demanding stare Ty put a hand on each of Valentines shoulders, looked into his eyes and replied “We don’t really know if she will get us killed or not, but she is a person who needs our help. The way I see it is if these wars were not going on the Council would have had an easier time seeing what was going on with her and her parents and stopped it before it could have gotten so bad. She is a part of this as much as we are, if not more so because she has suffered from the neglect of the Councils’ attention directly and on a personal level. I don’t know about you Valentine but I know there are few people we can trust, and fewer still that will trust us. With her traveling with us, I think that maybe showing her pity and sparing her life, allowing her to join us may help our case and may lead to us having our own lives spared in return at some point. I can’t read the future but for all the harm that is being done on both sides of the war and for everyone who has suffered because of it all we owe her this much at least.”
“I don’t know about that Ty,” Valentine replied removing himself from Ty’s hands “But I do feel empathy for the girl and I also want to help people, mortal, vampire, and yes even magic wielders as well. I just wish we knew for sure if we can trust her or not or even better if she is going to get us killed or not.”
They spoke for several more minutes about how best to handle her and the situations that could possibly come up due to her presence on their journey. They also spoke of the changes to their plans that they would have to make to accommodate everyone’s needs. When she finally came out of the bathroom, they two of them stared at her in surprise, she was no longer wearing the leather outfit but instead wearing a flowing red dress that stopped just below her knees, she was still wearing the black leather boots though. Her hair was at least two inches shorter, black, and had a crimson streak through her bangs on the left side of her face as the rest was pinned up in a very modern look. Giving a spin and a weak little smile to the two men who were just now collectively closing their mouths from the initial shock she said “What do you think? I heard you two talking about people noticing me, though I have to say I was not purposefully trying to eavesdrop on you but you were both being a bit loud, and I figured it would help if you had someone to help with your cover since everyone is probably looking for two men who are alone, so I used a few small spells to change my appearance. Think I can pass as Valentines sister Ty?” She stood next to Valentine not touching him and looking at Ty.
Biting his tongue to hold back a laugh at Valentines further shocked face Ty replied “Close enough just make sure your spells are not ones you have to maintain. I don’t want you drained if someone should see through the disguise and attack you.”
With a smile much like an excited kid though still a little sadness crept into her eyes she said “They are quick spells and don’t take any magic to make them stay in place. Also I have a spell to make my eyes turn red and glow like a vampire if you think it would help with our cover.” At that she muttered a few words under her breath and suddenly her eyes were changed just as she had said. Glowing and crimson red like a vampires eyes would be. Then she muttered another word and they returned to normal “That spell takes magic though to maintain so I will only use it if I absolutely have to.”
&n
bsp; Tired Ty laid down on the old beat up couch in the corner agreeing that it was time to rest when Valentine suggested it as he finally snapped out of his stupor. Ty gave Brenda his bed though she argued against it insisting that she was used to sleeping on such an uncomfortable thing as the lumpy old couch. He would hear nothing of it and insisted that she have his bed at least for the few hours of rest that they would get. Not long after the three of them laid down, each one with new thoughts about the current events in the old condemnable motel room they all quickly fell asleep from sheer emotional exhaustion. All three of them were guessing and contemplating what other surprises might arise with all the stuff that was quickly unfolding around them.
Chapter: 8
Grilled or extra crispy?