Blakesley
Blakesley watched the video he had been supplied with, rubbing his thumb over his upper lip slowly.
How interesting. And Taylor hadn't gone for a quick, clean kill either. No. He'd held the werewolf trapped in silver, letting the metal burn into the red furred canine's skin, sending smoke up as skin and muscle burned. Before he'd killed him with a silver knife.
Left the girl unharmed though. Even if she was in a mental institution now...
He picked up the phone and rang Taylor's mobile.
Taylor
Taylor murmured drowsily as he rolled over in bed. His eyes slid open only slightly as he barely managed to reach for his phone.
After patting the dresser for a moment trying to find it, Mya nudged it toward him and he finally managed to grab it.
He answered the call and groggily put the phone to his ear.
"Yeah?" he yawned.
Blakesley
"Good morning, Taylor," Blakesley said.
"Sleeping in this morning? I'm hardly surprised...you had quite a busy night."
Taylor
Taylor frowned, then grabbed his watch and looked at the time.
"It's 7am," he half groaned, not yet registering who he was talking to, "it's inhuman to be up this early."
Blakesley
"Taylor, Taylor, Taylor..." Blakesley sighed.
"Maybe if you hadn't been out at all hours of the night, you wouldn't be this tired. I've already been awake since five and spent the last hour most producively viewing the tapes from last night's surveillance. Well, the most interesting and relevant parts."
Taylor
Taylor hesitated for a moment, scratching his eyebrow with his thumb.
Finally, he sat up.
"What do you want?" he demanded.
Blakesley
"Just a small congratulations," Blakesley said smoothly.
"I should be annoyed you disposed of one of my former experimental subjects...but I'm no longer experimenting with lycanthropes."
Taylor
"I... what?"
Apart from not being awake yet, Taylor had no idea what he was talking about.
Blakesley
"The torture was mostly rudimentary, any person could use silver as restraints for a werewolf," Blakesley said.
"But the way you used his protectiveness for his mate to trap him...masterful. You show definite promise."
Taylor
Taylor frowned, beginning to wonder what exactly he'd gotten up to the night before.
At the moment he was thinking he didn't want to know.
"What are you talking about?" he asked carefully, eyes darting between the window and the door.
Blakesley
"You don't remember? How interesting...you must enter some sort of fugue state..." Blakesley mused, distracted for a few moments.
"Well, to be short. You killed, butchered rather, a werewolf last night. You almost killed his mate as well, but stopped...for reasons I don't understand. And you knew them...Ewan MacCloud and Natalia Rayner."
Taylor
Taylor cringed as he spoke, then sat back against the wall against his bed.
"You're... you're bullshitting me, right?" he asked weakly, feeling faint.
Blakesley
"Ask the owl," Blakesley said softly.
"You killed the werewolf for hunting to feed his mate and their unborn child. Of course, she's now in a psychiatric ward because there is no possible way that Taylor Hanson could have butchered a transient, dipped his hands and feet in acid, dripped acid across his stomach and chest then cut pieces from him and taken them away."
Taylor
"Oh God Gloria..." Taylor whispered, holding his stomach.
He felt like he was going to be sick.
"Nat... Nat told people?"
Blakesley
"Of course, they don't believe her," Blakesley said.
"They're now touting the Scot as one of the most promising photographers of the last ten years...based on a book he was trying to get published. It will get published now...people love a gory ending to their heros. It will help sell the books, not that he's not good, he was very, very good," the scientist continued softly, flipping through a proof book Ewan had sent to a publishing house.
"Natalia features as his main model, of course. She's sedated in the physciatric ward of a hospital in Tulsa. She was unconscious before you killed him, but...you did leave a lump you cut out of Ewan in front of her face for her to wake up to."
Taylor
"Stop it you'll make me sick," Taylor pleaded softly, putting a hand over his mouth.
He closed his eyes and prayed silently.
Blakesley
"You didn't kill her...because she was pregnant with Ewan's child," Blakesley continued remorsely.
"You made a comment to the effect that you'd already lost one child to her, you wouldn't let it happen to him. And then you slid the knife up through his stomach into his heart. He was canid shaped at the time and he bit you hard on the wrist. I'd be surprised to find out he didn't break it, before he died. Werewolves revert to their human form at death, did you know that?"
Taylor
"No," Taylor cried, as his eyes filled with tears.
"Please, don't..."
Blakesley
"They were starving, did you know that? At the time, you didn't care," Blakesley said softly.
"He killed an owl, after nothing, nothing at all passed by he could catch as a human. And then you came, and threatened him. You told him you would kill him if he killed anything else. And that the Pack outside Tulsa were, and I qoute 'horny bastards'. Tsk. He attacked you at that, understandable considering what you implied for his mate. Forced abortion of his child and then repeated rape until she concieved to one of the males inside the Pack."
Taylor
"It must have been in the sanctuary zone," Taylor breathed, barely beginning to get a handle on what had happened.
He caught his breath after a moment, staring at the door. He didn't need anyone walking in.
Blakesley
"I believe you made statement to that fact," Blakesley said.
"But the werewolf was hungry and desperate enough not to care. He then killed a rabbit...one owl isn't nearly enough for two lycanthropes, especially when one of them is a pregnant female and the other hasn't eaten properly since they fled Canada. She'll probably be shot tonight, or tomorrow night now her protecter is dead. White werewolves, especially females are very rare...and the pelt is highly prized by members of the occult community."
Taylor
"I know already! People keep thinking they have to f**king remind me!" Taylor hissed, before biting into his fist.
He took another look at his hand, and gulped.
Dried blood.
And it wasn't his.
Blakesley
"The things people do for love..." Blakesley sighed.
"She almost grew her little pretty violets through your heart too. Trying to save her mate. But you killed him anyway...and it wasn't even you that made sure she wasn't watching. It was some dog."
Taylor
"I don't need to know, alright?" Taylor's voice shook.
He got off the bed and grabbed a towel to try and rub the red off his hand.
He stopped after a moment and closed his eyes. This was going way too far.
Blakesley
"But you do," Blakesley said.
"Or you would have hung up by now."
Blakesley put the video back on and rewound, before hitting play, volume loud enough to be heard by Taylor. Ewan's voice fast and desperate, accent choking his words.
"Nae, I meant ye had no idea what it would do to my bonny what ye said. We have to eat. We have no money, we're not exactly employable since we're both legally dead. Ye expect us to starve then? Nae, that I canna allow."
Taylor
Taylor hung up.
He stood stock still for a moment, realizing who he'd just hung up on, before collapsing to his knees.
"Leave me alone," he practically whimpered.
Blakesley
Blakesley hit the redial button and let his phone ring.
Greatly enjoying the game.
Taylor
Taylor almost jumped out of his skin as the phone rang again, before the tears in his eyes actually started falling.
He answered the call and put the phone to his ear.
Blakesley
"Got cut off, did we, Taylor?" Blakesley nearly purred into the phone.
"I wouldn't like to think you'd hung up on me."
Ewan's near anguished growlings at Taylor continued in the background.
"...Go back and suck at yer mumma's tit, come back to see me when you've grown up, you self righteous arsehole."
"I hope she doesn't mind being f**ked on a regular basis again. You know the pack outside of Tulsa are real horny bastards..." Taylor's voice came back smoothly, followed by an outraged snarl.
Taylor
Taylor cringed and hung up again.
Perhaps he'd think the battery was dying or something - as long as he didn't have a video camera installed in his room.
He felt sick at the thought.
Blakesley
Blakesley chuckled slightly and rang the house phone.
Taylor
Taylor's eyes widened as he heard the phone ringing, and immediately bolted from his room and down the stairs.
He saw his father about to reach for the phone.
"Dad! Wait!"
He snatched it from Walker's hands.
"Taylor?"
"Ah... don't worry. It's for me," he managed a short smile, before taking the cordless back up to his room and closing - and locking - the door.
He answered the call.
"What do you want you sick son of a bitch?"
Blakesley
Blakesley smiled.
"What do you think?"
He listened to Natalia sniping at Taylor, before the dog leapt out of the shadows and knocked her down. Taylor's cursing at the dog that he could handle it and Ewan's howling rage as he totally lost his humanity and went wolf.
"Well look at that, she really is pregnant. I lost a child to her you know. I don't think I'll let the same happen to you," Taylor's recorded voice said over Ewan's snarls.
"Stay away from my Mate! I'll kill you if you touch her! F*ck off! Go away! Leave us be! Haven't you hurt us enough?!" Ewan bayed in wolf, unintelligble to Blakesley.
"She needs to eat. God, just go away! Get your silver away from me! AIEEEEEEE! HURTS! GET OFF! AIIIEEEEEE! Oh bonny, bonny, I'm so sorry, so sorry, I love you..."
Taylor
Taylor let out a sound of hoplessness before sliding down the door and letting his tears fall.
He covered his eyes with his hand as he cried.
"Why..." he began, his voice cracking
"Why is this God f**king with me? Is it just to get to Mouse? Because we're over."
Blakesley
"It wasn't always about Jane, you know," Blakesley said as Ewan continued to rave in agony in the background before he died, one final whimper coming through loud and clear.
"More often then not, it's simply about you. I haven't contacted her in oh...a few months, at least. The children appear well. Although, she really isn't."
Natalia's screams as she woke up began.
Taylor
"Why do you enjoy destroying what I have left of a life?" Taylor asked softly, barely able to form the words.
"Why is this God punishing me? I can't... I can't take this much longer."
Blakesley
"Because I want to break you," Blakesley said.
"Although, you've gone much closer to breaking Natalia again with one thrust of a knifeblade then I could in a week of her in my labs again."
Taylor
"I've called you Master and practically offered myself to you, what more do you want?!" Taylor cried.
Mya and Flavian were making their way from the bed to the floor to try and comfort him.
Blakesley
"I will let you know," Blakesley said softly.
"I want to watch you shatter. Beyond redemption. A fitting artwork."
Taylor
Taylor finally broke down as the fuzzles scampered over to his feet. Xanthe and Mya climbed up his pants to his knees, and sat there for a moment watching him.
"Bad man," Mya shook her head.
"Bad, bad, meanie, big meanie man," Xanthe agreed.
"Why me?" Taylor finally managed to ask, "why did it always have to be me? What did I do to piss you off so much?"
Blakesley
Blakesley chuckled, voice smooth and poisonous as arsenic laced white icing.
"It's not just you. It's anyone. You. Jane. Natalia. Christian. Your brothers. Christina...though I think she is broken completely again, now."
Taylor
"You lay a hand on my brothers..." Taylor began, cutting himself off mid-threat.
He sat back against the door again and closed his eyes.
"Forgive me for having th opinion that I've been getting the most sh*t lately."
Blakesley
"Maybe...your Achilles tendons haven't been hamstrung so you cant run though, have they? You've been outside not hmm...five hours ago. And you're not carrying a science experiment of mine," Blakesley said thoughtfully.
"Sabretooth is crude, but his methods do work to keep Christina contained and continue her use as a living incubator."
He reached out and took out the finished video, sliding a different one in.
"Damn, damn, damn...ok. Out. Let's see. I know what out is like, I need to get back there...and I know I'm going insane, since only crazy people talk to themselves...no one else to talk to. Except for the large stinking rapist and his sick little freak of a daughter. What's up with this shit? Swear to God, I'm going to punch that goddamned whitecoat's teeth down his throat. Oh god. God oh god..." Christina's voice rambled, broken with small sobbing gasps.
Taylor
Taylor was quiet as he listened, eyes growing suddenly cold.
"At least you're not killing her," he said finally.
Blakesley
"I will be. Eventually," Blakesley said, eyes narrowing in speculation.
"Once my work is done."
Taylor
Taylor hesitated again, then stroked Flavian's fur.
"I don't want to die yet," he said softly, barely even audible.
Shaking himself out of it, he tried to regain focus.
"You'd know we're leaving soon, right?"
Blakesley
"Yes, of course," Blakesley said.
He rolled the piece of infomation he had around in his mind, knowing Clarissa had not been able to convince Jane to contact the Hanson brothers. Either of them. Yes. Perfect timing, really.
"You do know Jane's pregnant, don't you?"
Taylor
Taylor froze, then frowned.
"You know the triplets were born at New Years."
Blakesley
"Of course," Blakesley said softly.
"I keep tabs on my property. I meant that Jane is pregnant, again."
Taylor
Taylor bit his lip for a moment, looking around his room slowly.
"Why do I get the feeling that this particular conversation isn't going to have a happy ending?"
Blakesley
"Well, there's two possibilites for the father," Blakesley said slowly.
"YOu or your brother. There are a few possible fates for the child. One of which is research material in my labratory. Children are...pliant. Obedient."
Taylor
Taylor gulped slightly, then got onto one knee - let the fuzzles slide off - and stood.
"If that kid is either mine or Zac's, rest assured you won't be getting your hands on it."
Blakesley
"I doubt you could do anything to stop me," Blakesley said.
"ANd at the moment, Jane is more afraid of you then she is of me."
Taylor
"I didn't mean me," Taylor shook his head.
"And she has no reason to be. She doesn't know about the murders."
Blakesley
"No, she's afraid you'll take her child away by force once it's born," Blakesley said.
"She's having childish hysterics on an almost dailly basis about it. The telepath/empath is trying to talk into getting a paternity test...which leads to another fit of shaking and crying. Because she knows you won't come back, and she loves you oh so very desperately...pathetic."
Taylor
"I wouldn't! I wouldn't," Taylor exclaimed.
He shook his head, then sat down on his bed again.
"F**k."
Blakesley
"But she thinks you would..." Blakesley said softly.
"She believes you've become so very different from the man she fell in love with that you would. Hurt her again, so very badly. And she hates herself for being that twisted up and broken inside that she still loves you. Despite being left. Despite everything you did. And said. And what she did."
Taylor
"And what's she gonna think when I tell her what you've told me, huh?" Taylor demanded.
"That some God's f**king around with us and that it's no one's fault."
Blakesley
"I like to think of myself as a studier of the human mind, and the way it works," Blakesley said.
"She won't believe you. Can't, you see. It's her fault. Always, it's her fault."
He chuckled suddenly.
"You have managed to turn a survivor into a shivering, crying wreck, just by loving her."
Taylor
"Don't you think that if she loves me, she'd believe me?" Taylor replied coolly.
"And I can't choose who I fall in love with, ok? You can't make me feel guilty for that."
Blakesley
"But you told her you'd never leave her...and you did," Blakesley pointed out.
" And that you'd never hurt her... I think your promises may be starting to wear a bit thin."
Taylor
"I never told her I'd never hurt her," Taylor raised his eyebrows.
"My excuse to move out was that I didn't want to, and as you can see I freaking would have. She could have been dead by now... and the same goes for your little experiments."
Blakesley
"I think you would have found that you might be the one that came off at a disadvantage," Blakesley said.
"You still can't cope with a telepathic touch, can you?"
Taylor
Taylor froze, mouth opening and closing for a moment.
"How did you know about that?" he frowned.
Blakesley
Blakesley smiled to himself, a true cat caught the canary smile.
"Not everyone in your family has a telepathic block. And some of them think very loud...at least so I've been told. I know many, many things, Taylor, through my sources. They haven't led me astray yet."
Taylor
Taylor covered his mouth, then cursed.
"Look, Blakesley, I don't care what you do or whatever to me, ok?" he began softly, "but stay away from my family."
Blakesley
"I know about the claustrophobia as well," Blakesley said softly.
"A relic of your three days buried in the earth?"
Taylor
"SH*T!" Taylor cursed, grabbing onto his hair with his other hand as he stood up and paced a little.
After calming slightly, he took a deep breath.
"No, actually. And I'm not telling you what it is from."
Blakesley
"Hmm...yes, I think entombment is definetely something I will try again," Blakesley said.
"When it is time for you to enter my labs again."
Taylor
Taylor ground his teeth, his mind racing.
"If you do I won't be staying there for long," he said finally.
Blakesley
"I am very, very good at keeping subjects alive, who no longer wish to be," Blakesley said silkily.
"Neither will anyone be searching for you via telepathic means, in case they set off a seizure."
Taylor
"Through your surveillance on me I think you'd know that I've been randomly excersizing my atom manipulation."
Taylor made his way to the window and carely looked outside.
Blakesley
Blakesley chuckled.
"You haven't spoken to your clone lately, have you?"
Taylor
"I told you he was underground," Taylor attempted to remind him.
'Learning how to kick your sorry ass no doubt."
Blakesley
"I know how to block an alien's, or mutant's, abilities completely," Blakesley said.
"I doubt with one of my new collars on your neck that you would be going anywhere."
Taylor
"By electrocuting me?" Taylor frowned, moving the blinds a little so he could see out better.
He couldn't see anyone.
He turned back into the room, hoping to find a bug.
Blakesley
"The electric shocks are a detterent, nothing more," Blakesley said.
"I wonder...would you be able to understand anything with your power disabled?"
Taylor
Taylor hesitated.
"You can't do that," he said finally.
Blakesley
"I believe I could," Blakesley said.
"How interesting to find out what would happen..."
Taylor
"You can't do that!" Taylor exclaimed.
He remembered all too well the way his power had betrayed him when he'd first started getting those telepathic headaches...
Blakesley
Blakesley smiled slightly.
"Why not?"
Taylor
"You just... can't," Taylor insisted.
"It's... it'd be... it'd be worse than Mouse being isolated years on end. It would."
Blakesley
"I'm a scientist, researching items of possible interest is what I do," Blakesley said.
"This...interests me."
Taylor
"It'd interest you and no one else!" Taylor exclaimed.
"This... and the only reason you're interested in it is because it might break me!"
Blakesley
"Not only that," Blakesley said.
"It does help humans, as a whole, learn more about alien powers. Especially the inherent ones that don't require a focused effort of will to operate."
Taylor
"We're not ANIMALS!" Taylor voice loudened substancially.
"We are getting our own rights, and there is nothing you can possibly do to stop the proceedings. And once everything is final and they find out what you've been doing your ass is gonna be splattered against a wall."
Blakesley
Blakesley outright laughed.
"If they can find me...which they won't. If they would put me up for trial...which they also won't. I know too many dirty little secrets and have evidence to back it up about too many powerful men for them to let the law touch me. And that's not even addressing who my employer is and the power they wield."
Taylor
Taylor used the growl of a large cat to show his frustration.
"You piss me off, and you're gonna get hurt. I don't doubt that for a second," he fumed.
Blakesley
"Again, I highly doubt it," Blakesley said.
"You're really not a very effective person."
Taylor
"And you're an ignoranus and a very aggravating person to talk to if you didn't know it yet."
Taylor sat on the bed again and grabbed the remote for his TV, turning it on in the hopes of catching the news.
"And you don't know what I'm capable of. I'm only just finding out for myself."
Blakesley
"Well, you're capable of forcing your fiancee into sexual intercourse," Blakesley said.
"I did not see that occuring."
Taylor
"Well I didn't doubt that," Taylor replied, almost conversationally.
"I did however doubt that I could freaking butcher someone."
He squinted at the TV as a news update came on.
Blakesley
"Yes, very nicely done work on the werewolf and the girl," Blakesley said.
"And then you went and fed the werewolf to some of the predators the park shelters..."
Taylor
"They were probably hungry," Taylor murmured.
"And after all, why shouldn't they get the chance to prey on their predator?"
Blakesley
"Rather out of character for you..." Blakesley said softly.
"Seeing as how you had such a problem with watching what happened to Natalia the first time you entered my custody."
Taylor
"Yeah well I've changed a lot since then," Taylor murmured as he caught a mention on the television about a breaking murder story in Tulsa that would be shown that night.
"For instance, I'm a lot less squeamish. Probably thanks to you in some round a bout way."
Blakesley
"I have influenced you?" Blakesley said, then chuckled.
"Interesting. A continued manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome...?" he mused to himself.
Taylor
"Did it ever occur to you, even slightly, to get a real job?" Taylor asked suddenly.
"You know... one that doesn't involve hiding away like some kind of ogre or big evil guy, and actually does the public some kind of immediate service?"
Blakesley
"My research is highly important to the state of American defense and armament...or it was. I am now a private individual working for a private employer, rather then a citizen of the state," Blakesley said.
"Know thy enemy, Taylor. We know very little about both mutants and aliens. In the long run, all research is beneficial to society, no matter the short term detrimental effects to individuals."
Taylor
Taylor started flipping through the TV channels.
"So... explain to me how finding out if an alien hybrid can give birth to three demons benefits society," he said absently.
Blakesley
"Anything that works in the field of genetic technology, particularily the hybrids like Jane's children, Varian and a few others you have not come into contact with, represent great leaps in research theory and practice," Blakesley explained.
"By learning how to do this, we can apply the theory to other things. Such as manufacturing a human that could live on Mars, or even perhaps Venus."
Taylor
"So to you we're basically guinea pigs or feeder rats, without our own rights, there only to be used to benefit the human species when we shouldn't have even been here in the first place?"
Mya leapt from the floor to grab hold of a bed sheet and climb up to where Taylor was.
Blakesley
"By landing on the planet, you became a resource to be exploited," Blakesley said.
"Mutants and humans do the same thing by being born. Animals are under much the same category, but they're only good for preimary research."
Taylor
"So we just conveniently crashed here for you, is that it?" Taylor frowned.
"Know how everyone says it was a 'crash'? It wasn't a landing. We weren't supposed to be here."
Blakesley
"So?" Blakesley said.
"You're here now. You're available. You're a resource. Otherworldly genetic material is priceless in genetic comparasion, whether alien or demon."
Taylor
"And you just happened to choose me as your little test subject for the Dathrian species. Why the hell am I still talking to you anyway?" he asked suddenly.
Blakesley
"No, you're a reprentative of the Tongue power," Blakesley said.
"Originally, you were just taken in with Jane, as a sort of...bonus. And then you acquaired even more value as a test subject due to Christian's existence..."
Taylor
"Well at the time you took Jane in I didn't even know he existed. Well I knew of him, he kidnapped me, but I didn't know the extent of it."
He turned the TV off and settled to petting Mya and any other fuzzle that made it onto the bed instead.
"And I don't know why you wanna find out so much about my power. You might not ever see another alien with it."
Blakesley
"That is not the point," Blakesley said.
"It is merely seeking out knowledge for the sake of knowledge."
Taylor
"Just so you can make the human race jealous that they can't talk to animals?" Taylor smirked.
"Or just for your own personal satisfaction?"
Blakesley
Blakesley shook his head slightly.
"Any knowledge, may be useful at a later time. We may discover how to replicate the power in a technological manner...or in some other way, such as the Babel fish featured in the work of fiction the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You'd be surprised how many things first ventured in fiction later became a reality."
Taylor
"You can't harness this power like you can others, that's why it's so rare," Taylor squinted slightly.
He glanced up at the door as he heard someone walk by.
Blakesley
"The potential is always there," Blakesley said serenely.
"I believe we will have to find a way to use it through a bioengineered technology."
Taylor
"Well it won't have anything to do with me," Taylor insisted, leaning back against the wall.
"There's nothing in my brain that has to click and say 'you're talking this language now', it just happens."
Blakesley
"We may be able to discover differently," Blakesley said.
"Your EKG scans, for example, show a most unusual waveform."
Taylor
"That's probably just when I consciously choose what language to talk in, it has nothing to do with the transition," Taylor shrugged.
Blakesley
"Which means, to discover more of what you do, more tests are required," Blakesley said.
"At least, from our point of view."
Taylor
"Well from my point of view, all you have to do is look down my throat," Taylor said, almost cockily.
"It's basically... my voicebox changes shape to accomodate the type of sound I'm trying to make. That doesn't mean that I'm gonna have a huge lump there if I'm trying to talk whale - it stays the same size - but the properties change. That's basically all there is to it. Did I save you some time there?"
Blakesley
Blakesley smiled a predatory grin.
"You've suggested another line of research."
Taylor
"And what the hell is that?" Taylor demanded.
Flavian fell off the bed, so he quickly reached down to grab him and see if he was alright.
Blakesley
"You will most assuredly find out," Blakesley chuckled.
"And on that note, good bye, Taylor."
Taylor
"Wait!" Taylor exclaimed, before the engaged signal came on.
He cursed and threw the phone across the room, before running his fingers through his hair.
He bit into his fist for a moment, before suddenly grabbing his cell phone.
He needed to tell Mouse.