Once the two reached a seemingly condemned building, they walked inside and headed up a flight of stairs.
"I keep seeing these hallucinations." Blake said.
"They're memories, not hallucinations. Lena bit you, therefore her memories have passed to you. A side effect of being bitten." Chris said as he led her several floors up. "This is one of our interrogation rooms. It's safe." He told her. After opening the blinds, he walked to a refrigerator and pulled out a blood bag and handed it to her.
"Ziodex Industries?" She read.
"A company we own. It was synthetic plasma at first, now this. It should be out newest cash crop once approved." He explained.
"Cloned blood." She then noticed the gold bullets and shurikens. "What's with these?"
"Gold is deadly to Phoenixes. They die on us during questioning if we don't get the bullets out quick enough."
"And after they die?"
"We discard the bodies and the bullets."
After a while, Blake sat in the chair in the room while Chris stood by the window.
"What makes you hate them so much?" She asked him.
"We're at war. I already told you that." He said.
"But for you, it's personal. I can tell. Otherwise, you'd just be following orders like any other soldier."
He glanced at her before looking out the window again.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's fine."
"Something was tearing our horses to pieces in the stables. It wasn't until their screams woke me that I knew I couldn't have saved my mother or my brother and his wife. I found out my father died fighting them off outside. I was about to run to my niece and nephew in their room from mine when..." He stopped briefly, hearing a pair of young children screaming. "Twins. Not even six years old. Slaughtered like lambs." He said, his voice wavering a bit.
"Jesus..."
"Being in her arms was the next thing I knew. My house got caught in the war. She drove off the Phoenixes she was tracking for days and saved me."
"Who?"
"Vera, the first of our kind. She made me a Dragon that night, and gave me strength to avenge my family. I've never looked back since then. And I can imagine I'm not the only one of the two of us that knows the pain of that kind of loss."
"What do you mean?"
He turned to her. "I saw your pictures when I was in your apartment. You seemed happy with her."
She nodded. "We were happy. I proposed a week before she died."
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to...but may I ask what happened?"
"We were driving down the road when this shitbird came up behind us really fast. I tried to swerve, but he still sent us into the oncoming lane. I passed out briefly but when I came to, she was pinned six inches from me in a horrible position thanks to the engine. She must've been in shock because she kept asking if I was okay."
He looked down briefly before looking back to her.
"Put the knowledge I have now in me back then and I could've saved her. No two ways about it. She instead died right there a minute before the ambulance arrived."
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head. "I didn't see a reason to stick around after that. My parents didn't approve of their only child being bisexual, but I spent a summer here when I was a kid, so I took off after getting my degree and came here to try to move on and forget. Seemed like the best idea at that time."
"And have you moved on?"
"Have you?"
He instead looked back out the window.
She rolled her eyes.
"...There are times where I feel like I have. But every time I get to that point, the events of that night play again in my nightmares, along with a voice laughing at me as I weep for my family as if taunting me. And suddenly, I'm filled with rage again."
She looked down. After a few minutes, she looked at him. "What started the war?"
"An action of theirs is what we were told. We're forbidden to dig into the past." He said then sighed. "I should get back." He moved to leave.
"And me?"
"Vera will have a plan for what to do. I'll be back tomorrow."
"I won't stay here alone."
"If you want to live, you will."
"Take me with you."
The two shared a softly kiss...but Chris used it as a distraction to cuff Blake.
"What are you doing?"
"In two days under the sun, you'll change, kill, and feed. And because it's unavoidable, you can't roam free. I'm sorry." He said then ejected the clip of his gun and showed her the bullets. "One alone won't kill you, but the gold will stop the transformation for a few hours. Do yourself a favor and use it if I don't make it back tomorrow night in time." He said then left the room for his car. He drove back to the mansion, unaware of a truck following him.
When he walked into the mansion, he ignored the stares and headed straight for the throne room...only for Kyra to pull him aside.
"How could you embarrass me like this? The clan is aware of my plans for us." She said.
"There's no us, you delusional fool!" He snapped.
"Tell Vera that from now on, you are mine! Is that clear?!"
He responded by backhanding her and bolting for the throne room. He made it in and the doors quickly closed behind him. He then walked to the woman who saved her.
That's chapter five
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