Chasing Ghosts

A Months Passing

Most days were the same, she was taken from the cell, escorted to a lab, sedated heavily and placed on an operating table, and from there things got extremely hazy. She wasn’t aware of missing any organs or having too many scars leftover from whatever it was they did to her, her healing factor managed to heal whatever cuts or scars they made on her body. She would always feel significantly weaker after being thrown back into her cell, but after about 3 days, she would be right as rain. She found out later that she wasn’t the only one that was captured either, she found out near the end of the second weak that Marcus was in the cell that next to hers. It brought a bit of ease to her mind, knowing that there was someone there that she could talk to, but what he had to say didn’t make her feel much better. If what Marcus was saying was true, then what was going on was worse than she thought. 

Apparently their blood was being drawn and being refined and used to try to make some drug that was going to be used by the humans to make them stronger. He said that he heard some men talking about how the first batch was unsuccessful, and that they had used it on some homeless people. The drug had killed them or made them go mad, which eventually led to them being gunned down by police. 

It wasn’t long after that that things really took a turn for the worst. Apparently the guards were taking bets and stuff on who they thought was stronger between a female and male of their species. Soon, the two were forced to fight each other. They were drug from their cells, beaten, and taken to a makeshift arena. There they were forced to fight until the guards told them to stop, under armed watch they were forced to go at one another seriously. While their wounds would heal, it was a much longer healing process, which the staff in the lab didn’t mind, since it made dealing with them more manageable. It had been about month now from what she could recall of time, and she hadn’t heard a lot from Marcus recently. He had certainly taken a heavier beating in their last bout, but it shouldn’t have been anything that he couldn’t recover from. The following night she was forced to listen to his story, the things that led him to make the decisions that he made, and everything that had led up to his capture. He apologized and said his peace, Val simply choosing to listen and remain silent. 

At the end of the following day, after the blood draws and injections, she was forced to fight Marcus again. However, he refused to fight her. In wolf-form, she snarled and snipped at him, trying to get a response from him. They had been warned of the unrelenting beating they would receive if they didn't fight it out, and up until now they had been compliant, knowing that the guards had an obligation to keep them alive. The guards yelled and warned the two of them to fight. Val tackled Marcus to the ground, and Marcus simply lie there beneath her, a defeated look in his eyes. She knew that he had suffered at their hands for much longer than she had, and it appeared that he had finally broken. A dog whistle sounded, forcing Val to attempt to flinch away from the sound, as guards descended into the arena. They angrily began to berate the two wolves, kicking and beating on a limp bodied Marcus. Val let out a low growl of disapproval, which earned her her own round of beatings. 

She didn't recall passing out, but when she woke, she was in human form and laying on an operating table, strapped in at her wrists, legs and around her neck. She turned her head to the left and she could see a defeated Marcus strapped into a chair behind a pane of glass. She sensed a presence in the room with her and turned her head to the right to see an old man. She attempted to staring against the restraints, but she hardly had enough energy to make it look threatening at all. She gritted her teeth and thrashed a few times before she tired her sore body out. She was huffing and out of breath, turning her head to look back at Marcus, who was refusing to meet her gaze. She had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen, and the knot in her stomach slowly got tighter. 

"Marcus! Marcus, look at me! Pick your head up, goddammit!" She shouted at him, using reserves of energy she wasn't even aware she had. 

"I wouldn't bother," came a smooth voice from the old man to her right, "He has lost his fighting spirit. It's sad really. I had expected much more from him. Apparently, the combinations of the guards games the abuse, and the experiments finally exhausted him to such a state." He spoke matter-of-factly, as if it wasn't his fault at all, and that this outcome was to be expected. 

Val yelled in frustration. She was unable to do anything for herself or Marcus. She turned and looked at the old man. "So what now! You going to try to break me too!" Her eyes burned with rage as she snapped at the man. 
The old man smiled as he walked closer to her, smiling down at her as he reached out and stroked the side of her face. Smirking as she tried to move her face to avoid her touch. "Of course not. You are a bargaining chip, after all." He walked over to the glass, facing Marcus. "You two were simply test subjects for a test run for another project that I have nearly completed. However, the blood of you two is no good. I need a more pure sample. A purebred sample," he looked over his shoulder at Val, "I plan to hold you as ransom. When your sad little pack comes for you, I plan to bargain for your freedom. 1 pint of blood from a Purebred, and you're free to go. I have a feeling that your comrades will unwillingly comply...if they don't want you to end up like poor Marcus here."
With a wave of his hand, a man entered the room that Marcus was in and stood behind him, and another hand gesture later, the man brought a gun from inside his suit jacket and pointed it at the back of Marcus' head. Val flipped out, thrashing against her restraints to no avail. Truly pulling from reserves she didn't have, she was creating quite the rash on her wrists and ankles and even around her neck. "Don't you dare! Don't you fucking d-," the old man interrupted her.
"I'll spare his life under one condition. You get him to look at you and tell you he's okay, and I'll have him taken back to his cell. If you can get him to do that, then this will be the end. If you can't get him to do that in the next five minutes, then I'm afraid we're going to have to dispose of him, as he will no longer be a viable candidate moving forward." The old man was standing over Val at this point, a pompous grin on his face. 
Val frantically yelled to Marcus, tears welling in her eyes. His bruised and bloody appearance didn't help her tears any either. She was forced to recall all that they had been through before this and during this, and she had thought for certain that they would make it out of this. two and a half minutes in, the old man was letting her know the time, and she was no closer to getting him to so much as look at her. She had cursed at him and tried everything she could to get his attention, but nothing worked. 
"Just so you know, I'm with Shane now," she barked out, nearly exhausted from the effort of talking to him, "I had held on to the hope that you might come back to us, but you never did." She had been looking at the ceiling when she said that, and turned her head toward him to see him finally lifting his head to look at her. She couldn't read the expression on his face, but she was glad that something finally got him to look at her.
"Sixty-seconds." The old man's voice sounded from the other side of the room. 
"Marcus, listen," she said, her voice becoming raspy from all the cursing and yelling, "I need you tot tell me that you're okay, okay?"
Marcus simply stared silently at her. 
"This isn't a fucking game! Open your mouth and tell me that you're fine." She screamed, her throat now beginning to throb in pain when she spoke. "You can't do this to me," her eyes were locked on his, "You can't leave me here like this. Don't you dare leave me here alone! Marcus!!".
"10".
"Say it!"
"8"
"Come on!"
"6"
"Motherfu-, ugh! Say it, please!"
"3, 2..."
Marcus mouthed something to Val as a small smile crossed his face.
"1"
Val strained harder than she had previously against her restraints, forced to watch in horror as a shot rang out, blood and brain splattering the glass between them. She screamed as loud and hard as she could, but nothing came out. She had made herself hoarse from all the previous yelling. She had exhausted herself passed her limits, and the last thing she saw before the darkness took her was the old man looking down at her. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Erin was still recovering from his run-in with Ulric. His sides were still bruised and tender, but he managed to start moving around a lot better. He was in the kitchen when the scent caught his nose, he snarled. He made his way to the door, flung it open, wincing in pain, and glared at the old vampire. "You've got a lot of nerve showing up here," he said as he stepped outside, "You better have a good reason for showing your face around here."