Ch 10

“Feeling better?” Hydie asks as Zadie sets down the empty bag of blood.

Zadie timidly wipes her mouth with a napkin, erasing any traces of blood that remain. “Yes, thank you.”

The bite mark healed completely, leaving only a small scar behind. Hydie smiles looking down at the tablet in her hand checking an email that was just sent. Zadie throws the bag in the biohazard box.

“Looks like we will need to take some more blood from you so we can test something.” Hydie looks up with an apologetic look on her oval shaped face.

“That’s okay, I think I’ve gotten used to it at this point.” Zadie sits down at the small table in the room laying an arm on the table.

Hydie goes to the cupboard grabbing the supplies needed.

“After this we will begin doing some recording on your telepathy ability, is that alright?” Hydie sits down across from Zadie beginning the process of taking some of her blood.

“No problem.” Zadie looks around the room as the needle goes into her arm.

“So you're a Hunter and a Scientist?” Zadie asks.

“Yep, I mostly stay in the lab running it while my dad is away.” Hydie doesn’t look her in the eyes, instead carefully watching as the vail fills with blood.

“Do you enjoy it?”

Hydie meets her eyes taken back by the question, no one had ever asked that before. “I’ve never really thought about it to be honest.”

Zadie stays still as a statue as Hydie removes the vial, putting another in its place.

“I guess you could say I do. Like when we discover and create new things to better our world. I feel as if I can help make a difference here. I find it more appealing than doing boring old slayer jobs.” A light smile crosses Hydie's face as she speaks.

“Well it sounds like you love it.” They both smile at one another.

A few minutes later Zadie is now hooked to Electroencephalography also known as an EEG.

A hair net like thing lays on her head that reads her brainwaves and records them on another machine.

“Okay just do your thing.” Hydie tells her once everything's set up.

Zadie relaxes, feeling a bit tense since the last time she was attached to a machine it sent horrible electric shocks to her brain giving her a headache even after drinking two bags of blood.

Zadie reaches out with her mind connecting to Hydie, every time she does this with a new person it feels as if a cord is being plugged in making a clicking sound.

“Hello Hydie.”

Hyde's dirty blond hair bounces around her shoulders as she turns away from the recording monitor to look at Zadie with her eyes wide and her mouth wide open.

Zadie smiles with amusement at her reaction.

“That look never gets old no matter how many times I see it.”

Hydie turns back to the monitor seeing in a couple of spots it goes abnormal then goes back to normal.

“Try doing it again but on someone further away.” Hydie looks around the room then gestures to a man with glasses and dark red hair, “Try speaking to him.” Hydie then returns her eyes to the screen.

Zadie stares at the stranger for a moment, pushing with her mind to connect to him but she can’t seem to find it even though she’s staring right at the man. “I can’t for some reason,” Zadie looks at Hydie puzzled.

“Hmm,” Hydie turns back to Zadie, putting a hand to her chin in thought. Zadie slightly moves positions in the chair getting in a more comfortable pose. “Try speaking to Blade, he should still be in the building somewhere.”

Zadie barely even has to push with her mind when she feels Blade's mind.

“Sorry about running off so quickly before.”

There’s a short hesitation before Blade response.

“That’s alright. Is everything okay? You haven’t spoken to me this way since we left your house.”

“Keep going, this is great!” Hydie says barely able to contain her excitement.

“I’m fine, Hydie is just having me do some exercise so I’m hooked to this strange machine that reads my brain waves.”

“Ah okay.” Blade replies, sounding skeptical about it.

“Where are you?” Zadie crosses her legs.

“Actually I was on my way to the lab when you spoke to me.”

The elevator lights up, the doors open, Blade steps out a moment later. Happiness fills Zadie as she sees him walking towards her.

“What happened?” The wavelengths have all gone back to normal now, Hydie looks at Zadie who is staring straight ahead, she follows her gaze to see Blade.

“Well I guess that's enough for one day anyway.” Hydie turns the machine off, then takes the cap off Zadie’s head.

“I’m not sure if you saw the email my father sent but we have a little girl coming here tomorrow for you to take her blood and whatnot.” Blade looks at Hydie seriously.

Hydie puts the cap down on the machine, meeting his eyes.

“Yes, she was rabid and isn’t anymore. That’s why I also took some more of Zadie blood a few minutes ago. I’ll be taking some from the other girl and comparing the two so on and so forth.”

Zadie stands up watching as Hydie goes from professionalism to girly suddenly.

“Well the girl, Luna will be accompanied by an alpha werewolf. Zadie and I will both be here to make sure it all goes smoothly but for precautions you may want to set up a private room with limited staff, the alpha isn’t too fond about this.” Blade puts a hand on the back of his neck, Hydie touches his arm caringly.

“Don’t worry, It’ll all go fine. Especially with you here to protect me.” Hydie winks at him. Blade stares at Hydie with a blank face, his gaze slides to Zadie who is watching them feeling awkward.

“Anyway,” he puts his hand down, shaking hers away, “Just be sure to only have people here who can do their job without complaint.” Blade turns around walking back towards the elevator.

Hydie rolls her eyes but watches his back side as he walks away.

“Well I’ll be going now too, see you tomorrow.” Zadie waves goodbye then follows after Blade.

Blade is silent in the elevator not sure what to say to Zadie after she just witnessed that flirtation from Hydie.

“So uh….are you two dating?” Zadie breaks the silence needing to know, recalling the first time she saw Hydie when she helped rescue Blade.

Hydie had called him babe, which is a meaningful word used between lovers at least that's what Zadie has gathered from reading.

“No we aren’t together.” He doesn’t meet her eyes.

Zadie can tell that they have history between them at least. A strange weight has lifted off Zadie, one she didn't even know was there. An unfamiliar warmth comes over her.

The elevator door opens, they both step out as two other people wearing lab coats get on.

“You think my blood has something to do with Luna getting better?” Zadie changes the subject.

“It’s a theory, we’ll know for sure once all the proper tests are done.” Blade explains

Zadie nods in understanding, “So any other jobs for the day?” Zadie asks curiously.

“No, I need to go pick up a new phone though.”

“Can I come?” Zadie moves closer out of excitement.

Blade takes a step back, Zadie doesn’t notice.

“Where have you been?” A girl with long wavy, chocolate brown hair walks up to Blade.

Blade turns his attention to the girl, “What do you mean? I’ve been where I’ve always been, here?”

Zadie recognizes the girl instantly with the nekomimi headphones around her neck.

“Don’t give me that crap, I haven’t seen you in over a week. Last I heard from you, you were on a job and once you were finished with the job we were supposed to go see a movie but you never showed.” Kat crosses her arms in irritation.

Blade scratches his head confused. His eyes widen suddenly remembering he had promised to take her to the movies right after he captured the vampire but he’d got taken instead. “I’m so sorry I really am. Lots of stuff has been going on so I totally forgot.”

Kat looks away not wanting to hear his excuses. She notices Zadie, her face turning bright red with embarrassment.

“Hi Kat.” Zadie waves at her with a smile. “Wait, you know my sister?” Blade looks at Zadie then back at Kat wondering how and when this happened.

“Yeah we met a few days ago in the cafeteria, I had no idea she was your sister.” Zadie looks between the two now seeing some similarities in the eyes and nose.

“Why do you smell like you haven’t taken a shower in days and have been sleeping outside?” Kat holds a hand to her nose. “Come on, it can’t be that bad.” Blade sniffs his shirt. “Okay maybe it is. How about I go take a shower at home then I'll let you pick a movie and I’ll even buy you some food, sound good?” He negotiates trying to make up to her.

“Deal but it better be all you can eat.”

Zadie has discovered a new side of Blade that he’s never shown before, leaving her quite taken. Blade glances back at Zadie unsure how to turn down her previous question.

“Don’t worry about me, you two go have fun.” Zadie tells him not wanting to ruin their sibling bonding time. “Thanks.”

Blade and Kat say their goodbyes before walking out the doors of the organization.

Zadie heads to her room.

Seeing Blade and Kat behave so closely reviles an emptiness in Zadie's heart she didn’t know was there.

Memories float to the surface of when she at one time called Cree her brother at a young age. He was always kind and caring towards her like an older brother would. Soon after her father found out, warning her to never call him that again.

Zadie lays on her bed, damp hair sprawled out from her shower biting her bottom lip debating whether or not she should try to reach out to Cree.

She quickly sits up, making up her mind.

“Can you hear me Cree?” Zadie asks unsure if it’ll even work seems they are, who knows how many miles apart.

“Zadie, I’m so happy to hear your voice. I’ve been so worried about you. How are they treating you? Are you getting all your protein?” Cree response.

“I’m fine so don’t worry.” Zadie stands beginning to pace, feeling mixed emotions she’s not sure what to do with.

“That’s good to hear.” He lets out a sigh of relief. “Is it true you killed two people, Cree?” Zadie bursts out not able to hold it back any longer.

Ever since Hydie had told her about his crimes Zadie wasn’t sure how to perceive it.

There’s a long silence so long Zadie wasn’t sure he would answer.

“Yes, I did.” He says shamefully.

“I don’t understand why you would do that Cree? That’s not like you at all.” Zadie blinks away tears, refusing to let her voice quiver.

“It happened a long time ago before I met you, Zadie. Feels like a lifetime ago now. The human was a pure accident. I was a newly reborn vampire, I got carried away while feeding, I know that’s no excuse.” Another pause, Zadie sits down on her bed waiting for him to continue.

“The outer worlder was a complicated situation, I only did it out of deference. If I hadn’t done it I wouldn’t be alive.” Cree finishes explaining his actions hoping she will understand even if it’s only a little.

Zadie stays quiet, contemplating it over trying to decide if she believes him.

“If that’s the case, why haven’t you told anyone?”

“I’ve told the Slayer organization, they have someone investigating the incident but that still doesn’t rule out the fact that I killed a human. That’s one of the highest laws to break. I will surely be punished no matter what they find out during the investigation.” Cree sits down on the small bed in his cell. “Enough about me. Anything new going on with you?” Cree switches subjects, not wanting her to worry.

Not wanting to push him further Zadie moves on, “Well we went to visit father's old Witch associate to see if she had any leads on where he might be, she has no clue of course. After we left, a pack of werewolves showed up out of nowhere, the Alpha wanted to talk to us so we went to their place, just to find out one of them had gone rabid,” Zadie takes a breath then continues explaining the rest to Cree.

“Are you sure you're alright, I know the bite has no effect on vampires but you are also human too.” He asks worried yet manages to stay calm at the same time.

“After I drank some blood it healed the bite the rest of the way so I feel fine now.” She guarantees with a smile in her voice.

“That's good to know. Listen I’m so happy we got to talk again but I gotta get going. They are about to serve us our blood rations for the day. They also have a warlock coming to put wards up around the prison in case your father tries to break me out so I’m not sure if we'll be able to talk like this again. I don’t want them finding out about our conversations.” Cree peers outside his cell bars hearing more than one set of footsteps coming his way.

“I want you to know that I don’t hate you for what you did Cree.”

If Cree's heart wasn’t unresponsive he’s positive he would’ve felt it skip a beat from hearing those words.

“I’ll try and talk to you again one way or another. I love you, big brother.” Zadie tells him not caring anymore what her father told her before.

He isn’t here to tell her what to do anymore.

A single blood stained tear rolls down Cree's face, he quickly whips it away standing up as the footsteps approach his cell. “I love you too Zadie.”

The connection linking their minds together breaks leaving Zadie alone once more.