The Venator (The Mindbender series Book 2)

by C. S Luis

  “She’s not your type.” He said very rudely.

  “And just what do you think my type is, Joseph?” I hissed, catching sight of Claudia outside the room waiting on us both. Joseph came around me, his breath neared my ear again.

  “Not her…Don’t get her hopes up…”

  “Hopes? What the fuck does that mean?” I glared at him.

  “You need Michael on your side; don’t make him an enemy by breaking her heart. That’s what I mean.”

  “That’s enough,” I whispered, pushing him away. I walked out to Claudia.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked me.

  I came to stand beside her outside the room.

  “It’s nothing. He’s just being Joseph.” I grabbed her hand. As far as I knew, she was mine. I hadn’t officially asked her to be with me, but I knew I would. I felt a warm response from her. She liked my attention as much as I liked giving it to her.

  “I’m going to ask you something. I want you to consider it first before you dismiss it or answer,” I told her as we neared the steps.

  She tried to read my mind, but I had already dialed the watch back. She couldn’t see what I was cooking up.

  “Ask me what?” she nervously asked.

  I smiled and moved toward the steps. “You’ll see.” She followed only to nearly crash into Joseph. Asshole seemed to be giving her a hard time.

  “Please,” he said to her, “After you, Miss Belle.”

  I reached for her hand and pulled her to me, flashing him a look.

  We all came down and into the dining room. I immediately pulled out a chair for Claudia. Joseph, again, tried to come between us by grabbing at the same seat. I directed him away with a look and motioned Claudia over to me. She took the seat reluctantly. Joseph wouldn’t stop glaring over at us. When I motioned for him to back off, he looked in the other direction.

  The table had been decorated and set, four spots to seat all of us. I was amazed by the meal Michael had presented us, chicken casserole with buttered bread, green beans, corn, and mashed potatoes with gravy. I couldn’t remember the last time I had ever eaten something that looked so good. It was about as far from the military food they gave us as one could get. Dr. Nicholson would say the food in The Academy had all the important ingredients and proteins required to grow and function.

  Joseph opened the wine and poured himself and Michael a glass. I grabbed the pitcher of lemonade and did the same for myself and Claudia.

  Dinner was quiet. Joseph and Michael seemed to be talking about school affairs. Claudia was strangely silent, but I felt peace radiating from her, so I knew she wasn’t frightened or worried. I wondered what she was thinking about. Joseph and Michael’s discussion got in depth. Of course, it was Michael that was trying to get Joseph to assist him in the repairs of Milton.

  Claudia seemed a million away. I wound the dial back then, put my hand over hers. A sensation raced up my fingers from her. She spun her head over to me. I felt her connecting to me. She wouldn’t be able to read me, of course, but our emotions and feelings would be flowing back and forth.

  “I can feel you, but I can’t hear you. How does that watch work, exactly?” she asked regarding the abilities of the watch.

  I looked across the dining table to make sure Joseph wasn’t looking. He seemed to be quite into the conversation. Michael was quite devoted to getting Milton back up and running. That assured he would be occupied and give me the moment I wanted with Claudia. I didn’t want the night to end.

  Under the table, I pulled the jacket sleeve slightly up to show her the watch’s capabilities. I allowed her to examine it. She grabbed my wrist to bring the device closer. The watch was an old technology developed by Dr. Nicholson. There was nothing that man didn’t have his hands on.

  “The dials have different frequencies,” I explained, “They each perform a different function.” I pulled back the watch a little, and adjusted the dial a little more.

  “I don’t want to break it,” she said.

  I grinned. She looked embarrassed.

  “You won’t. I just lowered the frequency. It should be all right.”

  She reached over again. The dials moved again, but slowly. Whatever direction she moved her fingers, the hands of the watch followed. She was making the hands move with her energy. She wasn’t forcing the handles to move, it was just reading the current from her.

  “You’re amazing,” I said.

  The hands of the watch moved when she swept a slim finger across the watch. She smiled.

  “Why does it do that?” she asked.

  “Your energies are off the scales. It’s designed to read surges, circuits, and sources of energy. All kinds…”

  I thought about what I had said, surges and sources…it read sources. I had never thought about that until I was telling her this.

  I glanced at the watch. It usually revealed what different energies it was reading, and whether or not I was looking at a surge in fluctuation of energy. Surges were all over the place, energies were currents that flowed consistently. Sources were energies that were stronger, always there and gave off large amounts of power, that had no limits. I was speechless for a moment considering my discovery.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked when she realized I was distracted by my own thoughts and findings.

  “Nothing,” I lied. I gazed back at her, she consumed my worried mind.

  Claudia put her hand on the fork on the table. She carefully looked over at Michael and Joseph then, proceeded. The fork started to rise on its own. She was showing me a trick. And I knew she felt comfortable around me at last. I had won her.

  “My father used to do this for me when I was a kid,” she confessed. The fork was now dancing on the table with the napkin.

  We started laughing until Michael and Joseph turned. Claudia grabbed the fork and I grabbed at the napkin pretending to wipe at my mouth. Claudia was pretending to be picking at her meal with the fork.

  I couldn’t stop laughing even after Joseph and Michael returned to their discussion. I grabbed Claudia’s hand and the current was electrifying when we touched. My pupils were dancing again, bouncing like two balls in the center of my eyes. The current raced into them, filling me with raw electricity. At least, it felt that way. I took a breath hoping to contain it and not bring unwanted attention in our direction again.

  “I don’t want this night to end,” I whispered. There was still resistance in her. It was fear; it always seemed to lurk just beneath the surface. She had been hurt before, her trust broken. I had to convince her that I wouldn’t do the same.

  “Why are you scared, Claudia?” I asked her, hoping I could find a reason to ease her unsureness of me.

  “Don’t you trust me? I’ve been nothing but honest with you. I can’t hide anything from you, and I don’t want to. I want you to trust me. I’m not going to hurt you. Let me prove it to you.”

  “Why?” she challenged.

  It was an honest question. What did I want from her? Her resistance and trust in others had her questioning everything and everyone. I could understand the fear of trusting someone so completely. I’ve done it so easily because I had never had anyone to betray me, or leave me on my own. She had lost people she cared for.

  I cupped her cheek. “I want to be close to you. I’m falling for you,” I admitted.

  She was surprised and closed her eyes. She was trying to feel the connection between us, words were words but feeling and energies were something entirely different. And that was the only way for her to understand the truth.

  I took my hand away from her cheek turning my attention to Michael.

  “Mr. McClellan, I wanted to ask, sir.”

  “Please, John, call me Michael,” he said.

  Claudia had opened her eyes and was tapping a foot against my leg. She was trying to get my attention. She knew I was up to something, she had to have felt my nerves.

  I grinned over at her. Immediately, I took her hand into mine and squeezed
it. It increased the current of her glow and made her blush slightly. If Joseph had been wearing his thermal glasses he would have been blinded.

  “Michael, with your permission, I wanted to ask if I could take Claudia to prom?” I said.

  She spun her head back over to me, but I didn’t meet her eyes. I was busy observing the detailed features of the older man to see if his reaction would be real.

  Joseph, on the other hand, was not so pleased by the news. He wanted to object, and I could see we would be having a discussion in the car about it. I had no idea why he didn’t want me to date Claudia, but he’d given me all the signals that he didn’t like the idea. Joseph cleared his throat, I think he might have spilled his drink composing himself after the news.

  “Excuse me,” he muttered what was misconstrued as an apology but it wasn’t meant to excuse his carelessness. It was a remark of disbelief for what he had heard. He forced a smile on his face after wiping at his lip, but the glare in his eye was all for me.

  “Well, that would be up to Claudia, John. Of course, I would have no problem at all with you asking her or, for that matter, actually taking her…”

  I didn’t want to put Claudia on the spot, but it seemed I had done so without intending to. Michael glanced right over at her, and Joseph seemed to be doing the same from the rim of his glass.

  My watch was showing EPE levels rising, energies were out of control. First, as a surge; then, as a large force. I noticed Joseph glancing down at his watch, I lowered the dial on my watch, without him noticing, so it wouldn’t malfunction. I feared he would bring it up later and I had to come up with an excuse to convince him it was nothing.

  Claudia rose, surprising me completely. She looked troubled, panicky and frightened. Looking over at her, I tried to get her to talk to me. She wouldn’t even look in my direction. What had I said? What had I done?

  “I’m sorry, I’m going to bed. I’m tired and…I’m not feeling well today. Excuse me. Nice meeting you,” she simply said.

  After what we had talked about, after all I had revealed, I wanted to race after her. My hunter instincts urged me to do it, but I couldn’t. I stirred in my seat, instead.

  She ran from the dining room, Michael and I looked surprised.

  Joseph simply said, “I hope she’s okay.”

  “I should go after her, maybe it’s something I said, Michael,” I told him.

  He shook his head. “No, let her go, John. She needs time to be alone. I don’t think she was ready for all this. She’s still mourning her grandfather. Let’s give her some time. I’m sure she will love to go to prom. I don’t think she knows how to react to all these changes.”

  “It’s understandable,” Joseph said stuffing his face with chicken.

  “It’s hard to get over a loss like that. It’ll take some time.” He winked at me. I brushed off his mock smile. It’s what he wanted.

  He drank heavily from his glass and grinned at me when Michael rose to take the plates off the table.

  “It’ll be okay, John,” Michael said to me. “I’ll talk to her.”

  I nodded, I was worried. Her emotions were racing all over the place. Even from this distance, her emotions were off the charts. She was frightened and confused.

  The evening continued for a little longer, with me sitting at the other side of the table listening to Michael and Joseph talking about sports, politics, and anything else an adult found entertaining. I kept trying to focus on my feelings in hopes I could discern if Claudia was well, but all I picked up on was: unsureness, confusion, longing. She’d wanted to be with me, but something had scared her, and I worried if it was something to do with Joseph. After all, she had said, his; watch had been malfunctioning and it was one of the ways she had known of our boss Dr. Nicholson.

  Our evening ended. I helped Michael clean up a little as Joseph poured himself another glass of wine. With Michael in the kitchen, I took his glass away before he had time to drink more.

  “That’s enough of that.” I said.

  He didn’t object, but wasn’t happy. I took the glass into the kitchen and set the dishes on the counter near the sink.

  “John, that was nice of you helping me clear the table. Thank you.”

  I was about to say something when he interrupted.

  “Don’t worry about Claudia, okay? I’ll talk to her. I should have listened to her. I should have known better. She wasn’t ready for this, but I honestly thought it might help.”

  “I’m sure it did some, sir. We talked. She seemed quite happy. Maybe she wasn’t feeling good, as she said,” I offered, but I knew something else had bothered her. It wasn’t me, but I didn’t know what it was. Had she heard something I hadn’t?

  I glared toward the dining area and caught sight of Joseph picking up the bottle of wine. He was disappointed it was empty.

  We dismissed ourselves from Michael after he walked us to the door.

  “Thank you for coming,” he said.

  “We appreciate the invitation, Michael,” Joseph said. “By the way, you make an excellent casserole. I hope the young lady is okay. See you tomorrow.”

  “Again, don’t worry,” Michael said to me, patting a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll talk to her.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  We were in the car, and it was surprisingly silent. I was expecting Joseph to say something, but he didn’t. He didn’t say anything about what had occurred, not even about the fact that I had asked Claudia to the prom. I didn’t know whether I should bring it up myself or leave it be, but the silence was so thick, it would need a sharp edge to slice through.

  “So, you’re not going to say anything?” I wondered out loud.

  “About?” he prompted.

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” he answered glancing from the road over at me.

  “If you’re worried about the tux, I got that covered. That’s my job.” I didn’t say anything else. If he wasn’t going to mention it, I didn’t have the strength to fight about it.

  We drove home in the same silence. I thought of Claudia and how I would approach her the next day. She was a fragile and delicate thing. I was curious to know what had frightened her.

  16

  My Shadow

  The day started the same way; I got up, showered, and dressed. I was down before 6 am. I wanted to start early. I wanted to find Claudia and find out what had scared her away the night before. I wanted to know if it had anything to do with Joseph, which I suspected had been the case.

  Joseph was already up. I often wondered if he even slept.

  When I came down, he was in the kitchen checking in. The laptop was open to the ADA website and he was typing something. I figured he was reporting as he always did. I didn’t know what his reports were about until I was called in and interrogated on manners regarding the mission. So, I knew some of those reports were his interactions and observations. He said being watched and reported on made me a better hunter.

  As soon as he saw me, he finished up and closed the laptop. “Where are you off to so early?”

  “Seriously?” I asked him. “I should be there early. I do have work before I pretend to be just a regular new guy.”

  He grinned. “This has nothing to do with the Belle girl? Does it?

  “Her name is Claudia. Well it might, but does it matter?”

  He raised his brows slightly tucking back a lip.

  “Not really. Do I have to worry?”

  “Worry about what? I just want to apologize. I think I might have said something to offend her.” I wrinkled my nose.

  “And that bothers you?”

  “Yeah,” I answered immediately.

  “Why? I don’t recall it ever bothering you before.”

  I didn’t say anything. I grabbed my keys from off the counter.

  “So, we’re not riding together today?” Joseph asked. He was poking fun at me. He knew I was dying to get into my car. I could only be John Müller, the son of a wealthy man
, if I had my own car.

  “Seriously? I doubt I look cool riding with my uncle. No offense, but no thanks. If I’m gonna play the role of the cool new guy, I need my own space and car. And I need to stop spending so much time with my uncle, who is a school principal. Now, that’s not cool.”

  “Ouch! That hurts, Nephew.” He took a drink from his black mug.

  “Fine, smart ass; I’ll see you in school.”

  I caught him messing with the watch on his wrist.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Not sure. The watch is acting strange. Yours doing anything strange lately?”

  “Strange, how?”

  “Don’t know. It was going crazy just the other night. But the thing seems to be working fine, now. I swear I thought I felt it surge the first day we got here; and then, last night at the McClellan house it was doing it again.”

  “A surge?” I swallowed hard.

  “Didn’t you have the same problem?” he asked.

  I answered immediately, “Nope. Are you sure you didn’t switch frequencies by mistake? High pitches mess with it.”

  “No, it’s not that. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been at this longer than you.”

  I smirked. He gave a look, then shooed me away.

  “Go on, I’ll see you at school. If you’re alone, you should give the school a run.”

  “What for?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”

  I narrowed my eyes back at him.

  “Later,” I uttered, throwing my backpack over my shoulder.

  I walked to the garage. My silver jag was parked right next to Joseph’s fancy blue Mercedes SUV. I opened the door, threw the backpack inside, and climbed in. As soon as I pulled out, I saw Joseph stepping out with his briefcase in hand. He looked so professional, not the kind of man you would find taking down dangerous supernatural creatures or half-alien products like Mindbenders. He climbed into his car as well. It was time to get to work, and time to find Miss Belle.

  I arrived at school as the buses were starting to drive in. It was time to head inside. I caught Joseph’s Mercedes take the space up front with the labeled ‘PRINCIPAL PARKING.’