Halo: Awake and Alive (Book 2, Arbiter x Female human series.)

Trust comes with a cost

Bria spent the next two weeks with Kyle. And she noticed a difference after every experiment he did on her powers. She now feels more fatigued than usual and nauseous. She couldn't sleep a lot at night. And Kyle seemed... Different than the first time she met him.

She rubbed her sleep-deprived eyes and attempted to stretch out her muscles. Kyle then came into her room. His face looking grim.

"Come with me." He said.

Bria nodded once and got up from her bed. She thought it was a terrible idea to agree with him. But who knows what he's capable of.

She followed him outside. She found it spacious that he has not taught her anything about controlling her power, but he's made her improve it. Her heart told her to leave him and call off the deal, but her mind made her follow him.

Almost like he was controlling her.

He led her to a shack near his home. When he opened the door, Bria peeked in and her heart dropped.

"Please..." A man was tied up and blindfolded on the floor. He was shivering and crying.

"What is this?!" She asked Kyle.

"I need to test the strength of your power." He replied.

"I thought we did that with the soda cans?"

"Yeah but a soda can isn't going to tell me what your power can do to human flesh." He said.

"You want me to hurt him?" She asked.

"I just want to see how powerful you are." He replied.

She looked at the man. "I can't do it. What has he done to us?"

"Nothing really..." He went up to Bria and grabbed her head. "I thought we had a deal."

"Yeah well, it seems like I'm the only one who's paying up." She replied. He jerked her head to where she was just staring at the man.

"Think of it this way, love." He grabbed her hand and pointed it to the man. She saw the purple flame. "He's a terrible man. He's killed so many people and caused harm to many more. Don't you want this monster out of this world?"

Bria glared as the fire grew stronger. It surrounded the man as he began to choke. Seconds later, he stopped breathing. Bria quickly realized what just happened.

"W-what have I done?" She looked at her hand. She then looked behind her, but Kyle was gone.

She walked to the dead man and noticed something falling out of his shirt pocket.

She took it out. It was his wallet. She opened it and discovered many pictures of children. His children.

Bria started to cry. She placed her hand over her mouth as she tried to silence her gasp.

He used me?

Her blood started to boil as the purple fire started to swirl around her fingers again. She marched right out the door.

"How dare you!" She yelled.

He turned around and jumped when he saw her glowing purple eyes.

"You made me kill an innocent man!"

"I didn't make you do anything." He replied calmly.

"You used me! What is wrong with you?!" She yelled again. She started to cry.

He took a step closer to her. "Did we not have a deal, love?"

"Deal?" She repeated. "I've been with you for two weeks Kyle! And all you've done is take my blood, inject me with useless medicine, and make me more exhausted every single day! You've done nothing to help me!"

Suddenly he grabbed her around the neck and slammed her against the wall of the shack. He squeezed her neck to where she could barely breathe.

"You belong to me! Do you want to control your gift? You stay here or I will find you and make you suffer!" He let go of her. She landed on her knees and choked.

"Obey me, love. And everything will be fine." He said and walked away.

Bria stared at the ground. She felt like her sanity was going away. It was just her luck to have someone who could help her, actually end up using her and making her miserable.

I need to leave before things become worse. She thought.

But there was only one way to do that.

She had to get rid of him.