Bat Country

"Sit here." Brian whispered to Alexis, planting a kiss on her forehead. "I mean it." He looked at Nikki. "Keep her here. She'll know if I need her."

Nikki shrugged slightly and nodded. "I'll do my best, but controlling her has never really been my forte."

"Nikki! Keep her here. I'll be back." Brian grabbed his coat and turned to leave. Alexis jumped up and grabbed his hand.

"Where are you going?" She asked worriedly, pulling him back to her.

"I have to talk to him." Brian replied as soothingly as he could, lightly brushing a piece of Alexis's hair behind her ear.

"He wants to fucking kill you. Who knows what he could do if you got him alone? I don't want to live a life without you."

Brian smiled and shook his head. "I have to do something. I can't leave it all to you. I'll do my part."

"Bri--"

Brian pushed his index finger to her lips and chuckled at her displeased look. "I'm not as old as him, but I'm not that young. I'll hold my own until you get there. I love you. Let me try something."

Alexis pursed her lips and stepped back, putting a hand on her forehead and sighed heavily. "Fine. But don't go far." She warned. Brian smiled and put his coat on and turned away, gesturing for Matt, who was staring at him so hard, he may have been able to set Brian on fire with his eyes alone, to follow him.

Brian ran for awhile, before he found a good place to stop.

"May I ask why you're dragging my ass all this way?" Matt said harshly, cracking his knuckles.

"Does it really bother you that bad that you don't have Alexis anymore?" Brian asked over his shoulder, his back still to Matt. They were not far away from civilization, just enough to provide silence. The freeway hummed in the distance.

"She was mine. She was mine, and you took her!" Matt shouted.

"No!" Brian said, turning around. "She was MINE," he said pointing at his chest. "And you took her! You knew how bad I wanted her and you used her to get to me because you can't stand that you can't control me!"

"I mated to her! Even if I wanted to fuck her raw to hurt your fucking feelings, our blood mated! She is mine!" Leaning into his screaming, Brian could almost feel Matt's breath. "So you don't get to tell me that she's yours! She's not yours, and she should be home with me. She should be in our fucking bed, and none of those fucking..." Matt closed his eyes "abominations..." he opened them again. "Should even exist. But this is what I have to do to get back what belongs to me."

"Go on about all that stupid bullshit until you're blue in the face, but the only reason her blood mated to yours was because your blood made my blood, it's so similar it was a false positive! And she has a home where she wants to be. A home where she feels relatively safe. Where she doesn't feel like her nestmates are going to kill her. Doesn't feel like her fucking maker is going to rape her either." Brian said defiantly, raising his eyebrows.

Matt's mouth tightened into a firm line and he was quiet, the only sound being his angry ragged breathing. After about 15 seconds he flew forward and punched Brian to the ground.

"You of all people know how our species is when we are unperfected! You have killed so many fucking people because you don't even have the fucking aptitude to feed yourself correctly, so I don't want to hear shit from you about this! You are fucking nothing, Brian! You never have been!" Matt said, raising his leg to kick Brian who rolled out of the way and onto his feet, using his forearm to slam Matt to the ground.

"I never wanted what you wanted for me! You were fucking lonely! I couldn't fill that hole for you! You expected too much from me! But I fucking love her, Matt! And this is the only thing I have ever asked of you, to let me have her. You took everything else from me. I just want her."

Matt quickly flipped up from the ground and paced around Brian, loud growls emanating from his chest. "She wasn't yours to have. And unfortunately for you, I made you. I know you hate that I made you, but I did. I never asked much of you either, but to trust me to guide you. All you ever did was resent me!"

"How could I trust you? You killed me on the beach! Had I known I would have straightened up some loose ends! I would have...prepared. Said some goodbyes. How Alexis trusts me, I don't know. I did the same thing to her, and I'm lucky enough that she loves me back, and she forgave me for what I did and trusts me despite it. I don't want to keep fighting. I finally am proud of what I am. She makes me so happy for what you gave me. For once I'm happy you made me who I am." Brian ended softly, standing up straight from his now defensive stance.

Matt's posture straightened too and his expression softened. "You were my favorite of all of them. I loved them all, I love Alexis. But of anyone I've ever known, you've been my favorite. You have so many gifts, and you wasted them on resentment and bitterness. You were a complete disappointment to me, Brian."

Brian tried to process what Matt had told him and he looked down and nodded. "You're ri--" Brian said before crashing to the ground face first, his mouth filling with dirt. When he looked up, he immediately rolled to his right to avoid Matt's foot coming down. Matt quickly compensated by grabbing the collar of Brian's shirt and picking him up quickly and slamming him into a tree and then elbowing him in his back to the ground.

"A complete fucking waste of my blood. A sorry motherfucker." Matt hissed, standing Brian up so his back was to him. Matt held both of Brian's arms behind his back and twisted them further and further. "250 years that I wasted trying to fucking protect you. My favorite. Now I'm wondering why the fuck I ever thought you were worth it." Matt's large foot came up and kicked Brian, who was groaning and struggling to free himself, in the back, snapping his arms out of place.

"Matt, stop it!" Brian pleaded. "There's nothing I can do now. I'm willing to do whatever I can."

"It's far too late for that." Matt said, elbowing Brian on the top of the shoulder before kneeing him between the shoulder blades. When Brian fell forward, he grabbed Brian's ankles and slammed him face first into a tree. "You betrayed me!" He repeated the action. "I finally found someone to replace you!" Matt slammed Brian into the tree again. "And you took her!" Matt dropped Brian on the ground.

Brian hadn't expected that Matt would actually be so violent and he groaned on the cold ground, the pine needles pricking his raw skin.

"You might have succeeded here if it weren't for that stunt you two pulled back there. She ended you. Ironic considering you ended her." Matt slid a hand under Brian's neck and pulled him up to his knees, one hand slinking around and resting on his shoulders the other on the side of Brian's head. "Anything you want me to tell her before you go? No? Okay." Matt began pulling at Brian's head, making him scream as Matt used the other hand to push Brian's shoulders down. His neck cracked and split and bled. Brian panicked and tried to stop Matt, furiously trying to pry his hands off. When Brian was about to give up, it suddenly stop. He was facing the opposite direction, staring at Alexis in front of Matt.

"You son of a bitch!" She screamed at him violently, her entire body shaking with fury. She raised her arm and slapped him as hard as possible with the back of her hand, hard enough to actually stun him into staring at her. "I fucking hate you!"

Nikki and Andy were quickly behind Brian, lifting him by his shoulders to a place out of the way, but he couldn't stop watching.

"Fuck him, Alexis. I'll finish that eventually." Matt spat.

Alexis jumped on top of Matt again, causing him to crash into the ground. She got her hands around his throat and began to squeeze, wrapping her legs tightly around his so he couldn't kick or shake her off easily. She kept squeezing his throat hard.

"Release him!" She growled, her luminescent eyes boring into him. But since he was her maker, he could still resist her, and if he felt himself getting ready to give in, he looked away from her. "FUCKING LOOK AT ME!" She bellowed into his face. "FUCKING. RELEASE HIM."

"Never!" Matt hissed back.

Alexis was still shaking, and everyone furrowed their brow as her shoulders changed shape, tearing the fabric of her clothing. They became almost hunched, her skin becoming thin and leathery. She was screaming the entire time, her face morphing into some horrible monster, the nostrils turning into almost folds and flaps, all of her teeth becoming sharp as razors. She curled inwards, her hands becoming claws. She was practically unperfected, but surprisingly scarier.

"What the fuck..." Andy muttered quietly.

Alexis's new shape kept Matt pinned down securely, her mouth of sharp teeth growling at Matt, and her deformed and monstrous face terrified him. She looked like she would very easily rip his face off of him.

"DO IT!" The creature screamed at Matt deeply.

Legitimate fear glazed Matt's eyes and he shrunk back. "Brian Elwin Haner Jr., As your maker I hearby release you from our bond. I reject our affinity and relinquish my dominion over you."

The creature leaned up and quickly shifted back into Alexis in shredded clothes.

"Fuck." She groaned and quickly unstraddled Matt, collapsing flat to the ground beside him.

Brian broke down crying, his weighted limbs becoming weightless, as if a weight were untied from a sinking person. He didn't know how to feel, it was exhilarating, orgasmic and soul crushing.

He was finally free.