Thank you for the Venom 02-01 (Unedited)

Chapter 2 Part 1

Brazos and Jones approached the lingering flames of the campsite. The laying shadow was a misnomer now that Brazos could see the campfire was creating shadows on nearby rocks. The light flame had drawn Brazos to this location. Sheriff Jones was oblivious to the light though. In Sheriff Jones' eyes, the campfire was doused and abandoned for at least a week.

"I don't know how you saw this Brazos. To pick it out of the darkness, you musta got eyes like a hawk."

"The flame is still lingering."

A voice spoke to him in his head, no lower, it was coming from his chest. At the time he couldn't interpret what the voice was saying. A third person was standing in the circle around the campfire. Brazos was startled only for a moment until he got a glimpse of the woman's face. She was bright, glowing almost. Her face cast no shadows, even in the dark of the night. He could see her as clear as day. Brazos blinked a few times and looked over to Jones who was kicking dirt around.

"I don't know Brazos, maybe we should head back. If he's already got to Bird's Fort, he could be anywhere by tomorrow morning," Sheriff Jones spoke and looked around, scanning past the woman in white. Her presence wasn't available to Jones, and Brazos was baffled as to why.

The woman didn't speak. Her pale beautiful face smiled and platinum blonde hair shifted as her head tilted. Her blue eyes squinted when she smiled. She was motioning past Sheriff Jones and in the distance Brazos could see a single tree creating a black fractal in the dark navy sky. Her arm raised slowly and Brazos immediately knew what to do.

Brazos whistled for his horse, mounted and road. He rushed towards where the woman, if you could call her that, had been pointing. Sheriff Jones was startled and stumbled to the floor from the alacrity.

"What in tarnation?"

Brazos ignored him and closed the distance between him and the tree. There was a woman there, he could see her in the darkness, swaying back and forth. At Brazos' hip was a sheathed fixed blade bowie knife with a leather handle. Pulling the blade from its sheath he swiped past the rope as his horse road past the hanged woman.

Her body collapsed next to the tree. Once Brazos turned to see the woman on the floor. The glowing blonde woman was there, somehow. He noticed now that she was barefoot. In no way did she run the distance but at this point, he figured the woman was something more than she appeared. She was leaning over the collapsed woman. A glowing bright pale hand touched the hanged woman's face and illuminated it. It was Christina Freeman; Brazos was certain of it.

Brazos's dismounted and hitched his horse.

The glowing woman stood and in a blink of an eye, she was a foot from Brazos. Her height was on par with his six foot plus frame. She had high cheekbones and smelled of irises. She leaned over towards him. A part of Brazos wanted to step back to avoid the closeness but he trusted her. He didn't know why he trusted her. He breathed in quietly when she kissed his forehead.

Something inside Brazos changed.

As soon as the glowing woman had arrived she disappeared in a mystery he couldn't share with anyone else. Sheriff Jones hadn't seen her, he was certain of that. She hadn't said a word that he could remember and yet she left a lasting effect on Brazos.

Sheriff Jones pull a lantern that had been hooked to the saddle of his horse. He raised the globe with a lever, lit a match, and pushed it towards the wick of a lantern.

"Holy Mary and Joseph. That's Chris Freeman," Sheriff Jones said carrying the lantern with his horse up to the tree.

Once Brazos' eyes fixated on Sheriff Jones something happened. At first, he thought maybe his vision was going bad but everything seemed still. Jones wasn't moving, he was a still as a painting. He found himself likewise unable to move.

Brazos could see details of Sheriff Jones wherever he looked on him. Details that would perplex him for the vocabulary he was unfamiliar with. Also as to why the words were even displaying wherever his eyes looked. Muscle percentage, blood pressure, fat ratio, nervous system damage, cancerous skin chance, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The list was endless and the more his eyes focused on a singular point on Sheriff Jones the more details showed up.

"This must have been the work of that..." Brazos couldn't come up with the word in his mind to describe the woman until fixated on the only word that described her. "...that angel."

He moved his eyes away from Sheriff Jones wanting this experience to end. The ability ended as soon as his mind came across those thoughts.

Time resumed.

"How did you know she'd be over here?" Sheriff Jones said dismounting his horse to check on Christina "Chris" Freeman. His fingers touched her bloody rope-burned neck, felt for a pulse, then listened to her chest. "She's still breathing, it's shallow"

Brazos didn't speak, his mind still raced with the thoughts of the power he had recently activated. His body moved without his thoughts to connect them. Pulling out a cantine from a satchel on his horse and uncorked it. He tossed it to the sheriff.

"Good thinking."

Squatting and forcing Ms. Freeman to drink. She woke instantly and coughed up some water, having had some go down her windpipe. Chris pushed herself up to sitting in a hurry. Seeing Sheriff Jones' scruffy unshaven face first wasn't ideal in her teenage mind.

"There she is," he said.

Speaking hurt, her voice came out in a sharp pained whisper, "Y-you saved me?"

"Not me, it was Brazos. He spotted you out here in the darkness."

Chris looked over to Brazos and for a long time, she stared at him. He tipped his brown hat to her. Her emotions were a swirl of anger, gratitude, relief, pain, and sorrow. So much had happened to her in the past four or five hours she guessed.

"Thank you," she finally said, though the way she said it suggested it might be the only time anyone ever hears her say those words.

Sheriff Jones moved a hand to the back of his neck where the sun had turned it to a leathery brown. "A thousand pardons miss, but who did this to you?"

Chris Freeman's brows furrowed and her eyes widened. She swallowed hard and pursed her lips. It was clear to the two men she was reluctant to say. Her thoughts focused, she coughed and with eerie clarity she spoke, "I think it'd be best if everyone thought I was dead."

"But your father."

The immediate reaction of Chris, head tilt and stern look said everything to Sheriff Jones who interpreted it and stood fully from his crouch. His eyes peered out into the ever-growing darkness of the night. "Brazos, where is the ranch from here? You have better eyes than me."

Brazos went to speak but was interrupted by the struggling woman. "You know, you could ask me. I'm not all meek as you might think."

"You're half dead and will probably have a scar on your throat for the rest of your life."

She cleared her throat and ignored the sheriff, "My ranch is over there. I cannot keep it." she turned to Brazos. "You, you'll sell it for me. Brazos right? You do things for people. I never understood why, but can you do this for me. I already owe you my life. I want to pay you back, but for now, you'll have to settle for half of my ranch."

Chris was so level-headed, it was as if the hanging had started a fire in her. She was determined and the two men knew exactly what she was planning to do with that money. Sheriff Jones looked to Brazos and the two men spoke with their eyes. The sheriff nodded.

Brazos had been quiet up until this point. His mind had switched over from thoughts of his new power to what this woman was planning to do. In his eyes, she was planning on getting vengeance for her father and revenge on those who hanged her. She was fully within the laws right to kill the man who had killed her father, but neither of the two men knew she had already accomplished that.

"I have a condition," Brazos said his hands moving to rest on his belt and holster. He looked down for a moment and then back to her. His mind thought for a brief moment that he wondered if his power would work on her.

Everything paused.

His eyes fixated on her throat first. Details started to form about white and red blood cell count, the width of the abrasion and rope burns. The details started to flood his vision. He mentally shook his head as the act of doing so would be impossible with his power on. He looked to her face and up to her forehead. Details started to form about her mental state, most of the details were much too advanced for him to understand. His vision caught a glimpse of a blue and white phrase "Physical attraction." He paused on that, out of curiosity. The other words flew to the background as details started to come forth about that. Names of men she had seen in her life started to appear. Sheriff Jones was at thirty-four percent and compared to his own seventy-nine a part of him wanted to smile.

"What am I doing? This is a waste of time," he thought at first and then: "Wait I can use this to figure out who she's going after."

His mind shook away the thought about physical attraction and he searched for anger. The list of names appeared in a quick burst in front of his eyes. The name Frankie was in black and beneath was two names. Cliff McFarlane, and Lucas. Frankie and Lucas had no last names. He figured this meant she didn't know their last names. Underneath the three was a name that he recognized Vance Barb. This wasn't good.

He resumed time.

"What's your condition, cowboy?" she said in a snappy tone but to Brazos, it almost sounded flirtatious now that he knew she was attracted to him. Oblivious and lacking the empathy to understand how Brazos might take that statement.

Brazos looked to Sheriff Jones. He immediately excused himself. Sheriff Jones was smart enough to excuse himself from talk that would color his opinion of Brazos. The term plausible deniability hadn't come around yet but Sheriff Jones knew it well. With his back turned to the two, he strolled off out of earshot.

Chris' eyes followed Sheriff Jones in bewilderment that these two could hold a dialogue without speaking. Her eyes found Brazos, dilated twice. Her mouth parted to speak but Brazos chose to speak.

"You'll need protection."

"I can handle myself," her response was quick and she immediately regretted the words. He didn't need to activate his new power to know this. He wasn't necessarily good at reading people but then again she wore a bandana of emotions on her face.

"Are-"

"Nevermind. You want to protect me? I accept whatever pay you demand," her cheeks grew flush from her mind going through what she had just said. She was a creature of an immediate reply. She couldn't hold secrets and her choice of words hinted at her underlying, though known, feelings. She looked over towards Sheriff Jones who's back had not turned. Desperately trying to hide he expression.

Brazos eyed her choice of words but held the power in the conversation. He affirmed her decision although proactively moving on her motive, "You going to need to learn how to shoot."