A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts

She is enchantingly beautiful. Sunlight drips across her body. It dances lightly in her hair. You want to caress her with soothing warmth, and loving comfort. But you dare not degrade a beautiful image by intruding. God be blessed for allowing you to share the same chronology as her. At least, that’s what Drakx was hallucinating at the moment.

He kept hearing two things. One he could recognize, the other was foreign. He kept hearing his mind assault him with the same involuntary thought. Bring them back. Restore balance. The request wasn’t making any sense to him, and strangely, it made perfect sense. The other sound was more tangible to his comprehension, but was more confusing. He faintly heard a slow, rhythmic beep. He thought the pattern was familiar in some way, he just couldn’t place it.

One big reason this was all so surreal was that Drakx wasn’t fully conscious. He had no answers of when, where, what, why, or how. His mind wasn’t capable of analytical thought then. All he knew was warmth. The image of the beautiful woman felt amazing. He was in esoteric bliss as he recognized her as Kimi. Her elegance calmed him. He didn’t care about the questions that couldn’t be asked. He didn’t care about that involuntary mental request, and the beeping became background music to his ethereal experience with Kimi. He was happy.

Gazing at Kimi in his mind was effortless. Her soft hair. Her butterscotch flesh. Her tiny, elegant hands. He wanted her to stay with him. The way she smiled. The way she held his wrist. The way she picked up that large syringe.

“So, you are awake finally,” Kimi said to a groggy, confused Drakx. “Thank you for surviving.”

She got clearer to him quickly. She wasn’t wearing that beautifully flowing dress she was in a second ago. She had on pants, and a shirt, but none the less, she was still beautiful in his eyes. The musical beep became more familiar also. It revealed itself to him as the digital representation of his heartbeat. He was listening to a monitor. Consciousness was quickly assassinating his surrealist situation. That was when the questions became very important. They were waiting like rabid pit bulls behind a gate. Waiting for conscious to arrive, and unlock them.

“Where are we?” was the first hound to attack. “How did I get here?”

As Kimi inserted the syringe in his I.V. she answered. “Slow down, Drakx, You are fine. After that war with your brother, you passed out. You were barely alive when I got back to you. It took me a bit longer to override your voice print security. I placed you in the car, and it sped us to this location. I believe it was the secret one you programmed in initially. I have been taking care of you ever since.”

Drakx had to take all of that information in. His mind started slowly, so it took a few minutes. Then it all came crashing back. He had been in the worst night of his life. He thought it was the worst night of anyone’s life, since he started by dying multiple times. His brother teased him by coming back from the dead, threatening to kill him, and dying for good this time.

The only thing being a glimmer of positivity was meeting Kimi. He felt slightly guilty for that feeling, because that meeting resulted in his brother’s demise. The weight of contemplation was too heavy for his mind at this time. He wanted to escape back into the surreal. He wanted to go back to his Kimi with her smile, and alluring grace. He wanted to sink back into the comfort of ambiguity, and not to let the fingers of cognizance dangle across his mind, to scratch him back.

“Rest you,” Kimi whispered to him as she put her hand on his brow. “You are not ready to come back yet.”

He was happy to oblige her, and slip back into the serene warmth again. He was going back to his beauty, his Kimi. Darkness filled him once more, and he was happy to go on the journey. Drakx rested.

He didn’t know how long he was out before those fingers came scratching at him again, but they came calling.

His vision was blurry as he woke. It took a bit to focus. When he did, he finally saw his surroundings. He was lying in a bed, hooked to what seemed like every medical monitor made. They were telling all of his most private, and intimate secrets to the woman sitting next to the bed. She was typing something into a tablet, and ignoring the tattle tales at the time. She was so immersed in her typing, she didn’t realize he was awake. He decided to let her in on that important tidbit.

“That must be an exciting piece of work to get you to ignore me all together,” he said as he sat up slowly.

Kimi sprang her gaze towards Drakx. “You are awake? Thank God! How are you feeling?”

“Like you care,” he said jokingly. “You’re too interested in writing that amazing tale of yours. What is it?”

She began to smile slightly at his consciousness as she said, “I was reconfiguring the quantum mechanics of your vehicle’s voice security system to make it more efficient.”

Drakx kept the whimsical look on his face as he said, “Like I said, riveting!”

Kimi’s eyes widened with a happy startle. She playfully threw a notepad at him, and said, “Well, at least you believing you have a sense of humor is a good sign.”

“Oh, I’m funny dear,” he answered in his defense. “I would have been a comedian if I didn’t have the job of killing criminals.”

Kimi sat down the tablet, and stood beside his bed. She placed her hand on his brow, and asked, “Seriously, how do you feel?”

“I’m a little sore, but none the worse for wear. How long have I been out?”

“You have bed sores from being out for two months. You had me scared, but I knew you were a warrior,” Kimi told him.

He was shocked at how long he was incapacitated. He wanted to know all of his immediate concerns. He wanted to know if he missed anything poignant.

“Two months?! Damn, what happened to my brother?”

Kimi had a wave of seriousness come over her. “Your brother was jettisoned into space. He had no essence chip, therefore, no one knew who he was. They jettisoned him anonymously.”

Drakx was irritated at his brother’s final resting place. “What about Braniff? He knew him. Why didn’t he give him at least a little respect?”

“So, he told you about Braniff. You know about him then,” she said with a slight depression in her voice. “He does not even know that your brother is dead. No one does but you, me, and him.”

His brother’s request came back to him, “I have to get to Braniff.”

Kimi was surprised at this statement. “Why, what do you have to do with him?”

“I have to make sure he will not come back after us again. It was my brother’s last request. I must honor it.”

Kimi looked down. “I will leave as soon as you can function on your own. Do not worry, once I am out of the picture, Braniff will never cross your path, and your brother can rest in peace knowing you will be out of danger.”

Drakx cocked his head in confusion. He was wondering why she didn’t understand this being as smart as she was. “The request that I have to honor from my brother was directed towards you. He wanted for me to protect you. So that is what I will do,” he tried to clarify.

He just confused her more. “Why did the man who would have killed me without a second thought, want me protected, when I shot him?”

“He thought you would be good for me,” Drakx confessed to her. “He was thinking of me.”

Kimi was silent at this revelation. It never crossed her mind. He was a strong protector, but she deduced that was his nature for anyone. Besides, she saved his life twice. Even though she never would’ve asked, she knew he thought he owed her. That was another reason for his loyalty. That was as far as it went for her. Now, she began to expand her mind for deeper possibilities. She acknowledged his situation, and wanted to help him once more.

“I was his secretary. I know his idiosyncrasies. Calamari is one of his weaknesses. I know the restaurant he frequents for his ‘squid fix’. I can find him for you, although, that is not important now. Your recovery is.”

Drakx began to feel as if he was avoiding his purpose, even though it wasn’t presenting itself in any clarity. All he had was the perpetually repeating phrase that drove his every waking moment. He knew he had to honor his brother, and also protect the woman who protected him. He also knew it wasn’t why he was put back on this rock. Since he didn’t understand his purpose yet, he decided to do what was right. Until ‘purpose’ guided him to his absolution, he was going to map his own course.

“Well, first, you can help me stand,” he told her. “I’ve been ‘resting’ for too long”

“Yes you have,” Kimi agreed, walking to him, and helping him to his feet. “Your leg muscles have atrophied by twelve point six percent. Standing will feel a little unstable.”

Drakx began to remember, she was made by Sonext. A smart creation. One that was pirated from an original idea that should have never been created in the first place. Abominations who killed their creators for no reason. That was her origin. He knew all of this intimately. He had been through blood, sweat, and tears with her predecessors. As much as he admired her, he knew if she showed a hint of her ‘relatives’ traits just once, he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy her.

Everything started rushing back to him. His mind caught up with his consciousness. The DNAccidents were alive again. It should not have been possible to bring them back from the dead, but their sister was an unnatural entity. A woman who destroyed him many times. She was maliciously evil to her core. At least that’s what he thought of her. He wasn’t going to let them roam free. It was a reason he killed them. It was more than just the bounties he was awarded. All of them were just wrong, and ungodly. He had to correct this. He had always honored his contracts. Anyone with the money to hire him knew that. This time he had to renege on her contract to App only. He was going to kill her, along with her brothers again. He wasn’t going to let her live so she could bring them back again.

He got to his feet, with the help of Kimi. The thought he had of killing her if she acted like a DNAccident was filed in a dark sector of his mind, and locked away until it was needed. He had forgotten it for now. His arm was around her shoulder, as he tried to stand.

“Damn, this hurts,” he said, as he added weight to his legs. The pain of weakness shot through his muscles. The glaring fact they were underused, and overworked at that second was apparent. They screamed in protest.

“Easy, Drakx,” Kimi began. “You are not ready to go running off to save the worlds, let alone walk off. Standing must be excruciating right now. I will help you lay back down.”

Kimi helped him back into bed. She lay him gently into the form fitting comfort. He closed his eyes to begin his recuperative rest. She gazed at his person, and scanned his torn, bruised body. She knew it would be a while before he was back to where he was when she met him. She was willing to wait for that time.

As Kimi watched Drakx slip into restful slumber, she recalled what he said to her.

“He thought you would be good for me,” was a bit confusing to her. Did he feel the same way? If so, what does that mean? They had only had one night of companionship. Normally, that wasn’t enough to form any admiration, but that one night was a night of survival of life and death. They had been through more in one night than most have been through all their lives. They truly trusted each other. That was apparent to her as his vulnerable frame slept peacefully. He was still willing to help her. After the ordeal with his brother, she thought he would have hated her. As much as she prepared for a psychotic break when he realized that she killed his brother, it never came. She expected it when he woke up. He talked in his sleep. He had no acrimony towards her. That was as pure a thought he could’ve had, but his sub-conscious didn’t reveal hatred.

She was relieved, but confused. She knew he loved his brother, so being his brother’s murderer should’ve been her death sentence. Then she understood.

Through Drakx’ sleep stupor rumblings, she realized that Teryn’s soul was marked, and corrupted. Granted, it wasn’t his fault, it was fact. He never could’ve been the strong, caring big brother Drakx knew. He had to accept his brother was gone. His body didn’t know that the keeper left years ago. Drakx fought with that. He made the decision to release his brother from the shell that strived with a tainted soul controlling it. From what he said before he passed out was devastatingly sad. He said that as the shell began to die, his real brother was released. Teryn comforted Drakx as he died. He didn’t want his little brother to harbor any false guilt on his account.

It was a hard, but loving thing Drakx had done. She understood the strength in his action. He was a strong man, mentally. She vowed to help him to get back his strength physically.

She had a big question she purposefully avoided. She was only successful for a few minutes before it descended on her like an investigative reporter. She had no defense for it. It was glaring at her like watching the sun from Mercury.

She wondered if she began to feel any affection towards him. That was a very important question for her.

Kimi was created two years ago. She was built for knowledge superiority. The question was hard because she didn’t know how to feel...literally. She never had any experience in a situation like this. She didn’t have time to develop feelings. Her life was full of terrorizing information, and running for her life. Feelings didn’t take priority in her life.

Being one of the most intelligent women in the System didn’t help at all when it came down to the intangible aspect of feelings. She felt crippled for the first time in her short life.

She thought to herself, Experience trumps perfection. I don’t even know if we would be compatible.

It was a new scar on her mind. Not knowing something was a foreign, and fresh screaming wound for her she never experienced before. She realized she hadn’t experienced hardly anything yet. That scared her even more.

She wanted to be strong, but emotions were an enigma to her. She did the only thing she could control. She dismissed it, and walked to the Infa-screen. She had to put her mind in another place, so she clicked it to the news. It didn’t take long for it to put her mind in a different place. It kicked her into that place rather harshly.

As Kimi clicked on the Infa-screen, the story it reported was chaotic. A reporter was broadcasting live from the Consumer Zone. He was reporting on the devastation there. A shopping level on the top of a building had detached, and crashed to the ground below. It fell through the street, and became an inferno for the neighborhood in the sub-level. It was like a jumbo jet crashing in a congested part of the city. When Kimi saw this, her feelings took a back seat. She was amazed at the detestation. The carnage, and death was enormous. Then a mocking slap stung her face, as she saw the reporter interviewing a witness. It was Sensus.

Kimi’s heart jumped as she viewed Sensus talking about the level just falling from nowhere. She knew it was an inside message for Drakx. They wanted to finish this. They knew Drakx wouldn’t sit quietly while they kept killing people. They were screaming for him to come and get them. They would kill more to get their revenge on him.

Unfortunately for them, Drakx was in no way ready, or able to answer them. So more people would die because this was the only way they knew they would make him come.

Kimi turned off the screen. She looked to Drakx, and heard the monitors beeping. He was peacefully sleeping with no worries. She decided he would be ready for them. She would see to that.

After the broadcast of heinous, careless murder, Kimi’s eyes began to blur. She was involuntarily tearing. Her eyes weren’t irritated, so she was crying. She was feeling terrible for every one of those innocent people who lost their lives. She had a real feeling for the first time in her life. It was raw, and true.

As Kimi wiped the tears from her eyes, she thought. Well I am crying, at least, that is an emotional start.