A New Alternative

[realworldweirdo]

"I told you, don\'t assume you know everything. You know very little about vampires, and nothing at all about my kind. Can the other vampires you\'ve met control fire? I doubt it. I\'m not taking you back for sustenance, I\'m taking you back as a test subject. Now, I thought I told you to shut up or make yourself valuable."

The sign for the exit that would take him back to Dante\'s flashed overhead, indicating the off ramp was only a minute away. He moved over to the right side of the road and slowed slightly in preparation.

[Black Philip]

Test subject? Oh fuck that, Bryant thought.

His eyes widened and his lips went dry. He imagined himself being tied up with tubes in his body, draining his blood and making him crazy. Bryant was a survivor. This vampire was no different than a high school bully. Expose them for what they truly were, and they were nothing more than a pin cushion.

The car had slowed as the took the exit ramp. The quick pace of sixty had slowed to a mere twenty-five. Bryant looked to the door of the car. He\'d left it unlocked. Without saying a word Bryant leaned back in his chair. This only had once chance of working. Luckily, Bryant had done this very thing he was about to do on the dirt roads of Leon Valley.

He opened the door of the car, and rolled out on to the street. He heard a rib crack, and felt the pain as his right shoulder dislocated. But still he was free. The car couldn\'t come to such a sudden stop. As a result, Bryant got a bit of a head start. He raised himself up to standing and began screaming for someone to help him. If another mortal, or vampire, came along then the psycho behind the wheel of the car would probably cut his losses and drive on.

"Help me," was Bryant\'s blood curtailing scream. He only hoped someone heard it. He suddenly felt like the baby he\'d heard crying earlier in the social work office. He hoped the person who heard his scream wouldn\'t tune him out.

[realworldweirdo]

The door opened, and Conner didn\'t respond to the bluff. The human rolled; Conner rolled his eyes.

Then the human actually did throw himself out the door of a moving car, and by that point he was out of Conner\'s reach. A quick grab with telekinesis only served to help slow the fall and soften the impact of the human before he passed out of Conner\'s range.

Now it was personal. Conner had decided to do something, and this human was trying to make sure it didn\'t happen. Failure was not an option, more as a point of pride than anything else.

The car\'s weight shifted alarmingly as Conner\'s vampire reflexes came into play, whipping the car around with precision that nearly lifted two of the wheels off the ground and came careening back towards the fleeing human, and never mind the fact he was going backwards on the ramp.

You have no idea who you\'re messing with, he grumbled to himself in his head.

When he was within range, he hoisted the human about a foot off the ground with telekinesis and carried him back to the car.

[Black Philip]

"Oh my fucking God," Bryant yelled.

He was pissed. As his hovering body neared the car, he shot the vampire behind the wheel the finger. Who the fuck did this asshole think he was? Bryant was placed back in the same seat, only this time the doors were locked. It was difficult to breath because of the broken rib, and his shoulder was in large amounts of pain. All in vain, as he\'d already been recaptured.

"Bet you never thought I\'d try..." In mid sentence he coughed up blood all over the vampire\'s seats.

"I\'d say I\'m sorry but I\'m not," was his only excuse. He then coughed up more blood, and shot another bird just when he was sure the driver was looking. If he was going down, it would be spitefully.

[realworldweirdo]

"Shut up and hold still, and buckle your fucking seatbelt before you hurt yourself worse," Conner ordered, this time backing up the command with psychic force. "You\'re a goddamn moron. Throwing yourself out of a moving car to get away from a vampire after you\'ve shown your fucking Risk tattoo? You\'re slow even for a human."

They\'d already turned around and started back down the ramp in the correct direction by this point. Dante\'s was almost in view.

"I can\'t get away with shit in this city, and fuck you for believing that I can. Oh, you\'re not going to remember this, but working for an Oligarch is definitely no cake walk. Seems to think I can take on fucking packs of goddamn pissy demons," he rambled, relighting his cigarette with a snap of his lighter. The window opened a crack at the touch of a button, sucking the smoke out into the chilly night air. "I study how humans generate the energy I use, I need less blood to do what I do. Maybe find a way we all need less blood in general. So I need research subjects, and before you get all upset and start crying or something, you\'ll be fine, other than a slight hangover. You may speak now," he tacked onto the end, releasing the command restraining the human\'s speech.

[Black Philip]

"Hahahahaha," Bryant chuckled. "Your like a good vampire."

Bryant\'s injuries were beginning to get to him. His speech was becoming slurred as a result of internal bleeding. He let out a cry of pain. The seat belt was pushing against the broken rib, and as a result was causing massive pain.

"You could have asked. I like vampires. If I had known you weren\'t going to drain me, I would have gone willingly. You need to work on your people skills."

Bryant began rambling. "Vampires think their so superior. There not. Just cause your old and strong doesn\'t make you wise. Just cause you can throw fire doesn\'t make you better than someone who doesn\'t. I want to look at all vampires and say stop being such Narcissists. But vampires need humans way worse than humans need vampires. If vampires are so fucking amazing then why don\'t you come out to the world. Because you can\'t. Because humans would rise up and dust all of you into the ground. So you hide and pretend to be better than us. The truth is, your just different, just part of the fucking system!"

Bryant was sure the vampire had heard him and been listening.

[realworldweirdo]

"I could have asked, and I could have let you get away and cause god knows what kinds of problems."

Which was not precisely accurate. He could have just completely dominated Bryant\'s mind and forced him to do his bidding from the start, but it hadn\'t occurred to him. Besides which, Bryant was injured now; not good for a whole lot, really, when it came to research.

"People skills have never been my strong suit, anyway. Point is I need a lot of blood to do what I do, and I need to make that more efficient. Since you\'re being so... cooperative now, you can probably see how that beneficial that could be. To humans, too. If we didn\'t need to feed so much. Since we\'re part of, as you put it, the fucking system."

[Black Philip]

"I know what will seal up these wounds," Bryant hinted. "Give me a drop or two of your blood, and I will submit to your research. Otherwise I\'ll just die of internal bleeding in your car."

Bryant let out a moan. He wasn\'t trying to get head hot, just survive.

[realworldweirdo]

"You\'ll be fine," Conner told his captive. "We\'re almost to my lab. You probably feel like hell because you hit your head during that stupid stunt you just pulled."

He could hear Bryant\'s pulse and breathing - he had a cracked rib, from what he could tell, but his pulse was steady.

"I\'ll heal you when I\'ve got you properly monitored, so I can see exactly what your system does with it. Will you cooperate, then?"

[Black Philip]

Bryant wanted to remember these tests. He knew the vampire would attempt to wipe his memory. He came up with an idea. If he pitched it just right, he might be able to get the vampire to agree.

"I\'ll agree if you promise not to wipe my memory," Bryant poised. "I want to remember this. It could be helpful in my work."

In his confusion, Bryant had forgotten that the vampire didn\'t know his profession.

[realworldweirdo]

"Your work? How could this possibly help with a human\'s work? My research is private, and I don\'t need you rattling off whatever you remember to another vampire who would neither understand nor appreciate it."

Or, worse yet, who might actually understand it and use it.

"All I need are research subjects, and a broad spectrum of them."

[Black Philip]

Bryant coughed. He was very unhappy with the night\'s events. He leaned back, and tried to resist the urge to go to sleep. Then for no apparent reason, he began to explain what his work was.

"I\'m a grad student in social work," Bryant began. "I work for a charity called Progressive Outreach. We do intense case management for homeless LGBT youth. These kids need help, and your research could prevent many kids from being bite junkies. If I could refer kids to you, maybe you could cure them."

The truth was that Bryant himself was a bite junkie. His Risk tattoo proved that.

[realworldweirdo]

"Bite junkies have their uses," Conner said boredly. "Besides, cure them of what? The bite is a psychological addiction. Any vampire with the slightest psychic ability could just command them to avoid getting bitten."

The thought intrigued him, though.

"Healthy people? Who just need shelter for a day or two?"

[Black Philip]

Bryant looked up. Was he really asking about the charity\'s work? Bryant in his daze of confusion, thought perhaps he could get a grant from the same vampire who\'d just kidnapped him.

"Some just a day or two," Bryant began. "Others need a lot more help. I help kids with their GED\'s, high school diplomas, drug treatment. These kids need more than just a bed. They need people who care."

[realworldweirdo]

Something lurched in Conner, and he flicked his cigarette out the window. Well, fucking fuck. He had a soft spot for people in that particular situation. Unbidden, a memory that had been forced back to prominence in his mind two years ago resurfaced again.

Kurt\'s body, bobbing down the bloodstained waters of the Ohio River... Miles, looking forlornly for his friend and mentor... The uncontrollable need to drink that had resulted in Conner draining the life out of the young man when all he had needed was a friend...

Scott liked humans. Hell, Scott had been a police officer when he\'d been human, and that had only been a few years ago now. If anyone would be good for - and be able to control - a stream of human  adolescents, it would be him.

"If you\'re looking for people who care, you\'re barking up the wrong fucking tree," he growled gruffly. "My boyfriend, on the other hand... we\'ll talk. The three of us. After you\'re patched up. He\'d throw a fit if he knew I let you stay in this condition."

Dante\'s was looming up in front of them now, and Conner was reaching out the window to punch in the code on the pad to open the gate. Fortunately, he still had the command on Bryant to stay still and seatbelted.