The Supremacy (13 page)

Muted light from table lamps illuminated the lavish room just enough for any occupant to see, but maybe that was because one of them had been asleep just a few minutes previous.
Dark hardwoods ran across spacious floors that led to towering walls where enormous portraits hung next to intimidating paintings of glorious nature scenes, scenes that only the privileged were able to witness firsthand, the Supreme.
“Where am I?” I croaked, trying and failing to remember how I managed to leave the bath.
“You’re in my home,” Smiling, he wrapped my hand in his, “Safe and under
my
protection.”
“
Your
protection?” I scoffed, jerking my hand from his hold, “You are the one I need
protection
from. You are the one that poisoned me, shackled me…”
“You are absolutely right,” He swiftly cut me off. “I did. If it wasn’t for my venom pumping through your veins, threatening to kill you, you would still be at the Farm.”
“
Your
venom?” I repeated, stunned and cold.
“Our kind are poisonous.” He shrugged as if this news should have been obvious, “A neurotoxin when injected into a victim. We have no real need in using it anymore but
originally
that is how we fed, Erin.”
“
Spiders
.” I breathed, remembering what he had told me before and trying to absorb the enormity of the realization.
“Spider-like,” He corrected, standing from the sofa, “It was the only comparison I had to give you. We don’t have eight legs or spin webs.”
“You don’t need to spin a web when you rule the population that you feed on.” I whispered when he walked into the other room.
“No, you don’t.” He replied, the sound of glass as it clinked together echoed through the room, “But you would be surprised by the number of humans that were once willing to let us feed, of course,” He chuckled, strolling back through the room, holding a glass of water, “We usually fed on their enemies.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Centuries ago, I use
we
metaphorically. We as my species, not
we
as in me specifically.” He placed the glass in front of me, laying down a small tube beside it, “Drink both.” He said, pointing to the table, “What’s in the vial first. The water is just to help you swallow.”
“No.” I wanted nothing he offered me. His motives made little sense to me. To trust him would have been foolish.
“You will want them both. I need you healthy and you are far from that right now.”
Looking skeptically at the contents of the tube, I noted that there wasn’t anything special about it at all,
maybe
two milligrams of clear liquid at best. Picking it up, I examined it closer, turning it over in my hand, “What is it?” I asked his back, “Something else that will knock me out?”
“No.” He laughed, a sound that seemed foreign coming from his lips. In fact, the ‘man’ standing before me was nothing like the sinister cloaked Keeper that took me away from John…
John
. The pain that came from remembering rushed through me, but now it was not just John that haunted me, but Faith too. Innocent, tiny,
Faith.
All because of this Keeper.
“Nothing you have done has made sense.” I pressed. “Why keep me hidden in your house. Why bring me out now?”
“I told you.” His breath rushed from his lips, “I needed you
safe
and they needed to see you suffering to believe you needed out of the Farm.”
“Who?”
“Drink the vial.” He ordered curtly before he pulled to his feet, “If you must know, it is my anti-venom. You
need
to take it.” He then disappeared down a dimly lit hallway, leaving me with the most dangerous thing imaginable, my own thoughts.
Closing my eyes, I tried my best to crawl back into the hollow pit my mind had once created for me, but it was gone, my mind too full to continue blocking reality.
“Please take the anti-venom,” Declan’s voice, smooth and nonthreatening, sounded near my ear.
“Why?” I sobbed into a pillow, “What’s the point?”
“Because you are needed, that’s why.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled through snivels, “to feed you.”
“To kill us.”
I raised my head from the pillow, wiping at my wet cheeks, “
What
?”
“Not all of us,” He corrected as he sat cross-legged at my feet, “Just the ones that wish to harvest humans like cattle.”
“But what will
you
eat, if not for humans?”
“Like I said before, Erin, you would be surprised to know how many humans are willing to be fed on. Our kind…”He paused to look over my resting form, “they are easy to love.” A wry smile played on his lips, “Besides, we don’t need to kill to eat.”
To love a member of The Supremacy, I could not see how that would ever be possible, “‘
This is the beginning to an end,
’” I repeated his words.
“Exactly, but first things first.” He pointed to the vial resting on the table, “Drink that. I’d rather not give it to you intravenously anymore.”
The pricks I felt in his cell,
he had been dosing me.
Picking up the tube, weighing it in my hand, I reluctantly lifted it to my lips, tilting it just enough so the contents would slip easily down my throat.
“
Blahh!
” I screeched once it hit my tongue. Reaching for the glass of water, I chugged it.
“Doesn’t taste too good, does it?” He laughed.
“God, no!” I choked out after I finished the water in one gulp.
“I could have given it to you intravenously, but,” He paused on a shrug, “I figured you have had enough needles stuck in your arm for a while.”
He was right. “Tell me how you plan to kill off your own species and why?”
“Demanding little thing, aren’t you.” He took a deep breath. I waited for an answer. “We are not going to be
killing
off my species.” He clarified, downing a glass of brown liquid, “Just the ones that have become too powerful. We don’t need to kill to survive. What they are doing is pointless and cruel.”
“
‘They’?
”
“The heads of The Supremacy, Tarant and others like him.”
“Aren’t
you
Tarant’s Head Keeper?”
“Yes,” He answered curtly, “I am actually second in command over the entire regime. Another reason why you are completely safe here.”
“
You are double crossing him
.” I whispered in disbelief, not knowing whether or not to trust the Keeper sitting in front of me, but not seeing any other option. I had no one else.
“To overthrow power you must first dip your hand into the pot.” He smiled absentmindedly into space, “I have worked many years to get where I am.”
“And have killed many.” I said flatly.
“For the greater good, Erin. Without doing what I have done there would be no end to this,
none
. The killing would continue until the entire human race became extinct due to demand, overconsumption and greed.”
“Where do I fit into all this?”
“The very center of it all.” He beamed, “Tarant is the only one able to consume your essence in its purest form. Poison the food, he falls.”
“And with Tarant gone,” I breathed as realization hit me. “
You
become the head supreme.”
“Exactly,” He nodded, “But there are a few obstacles to overcome before that can all happen.”
“And those would be?”
“So many questions!” He laughed and pulled to his feet in front of me, “You need your rest, we will talk about everything in due time.”
In time. Everything happened in its own time. I could not argue with that. We had a plan, and that was more than I had a few hours previous. However, was it possible for my blood and tissue to kill the most ruthless creature that possibly ever walked the planet, a creature so heinous that he found a way to justify the genocide of an entire species just to fill his gut? I was not sure, but even if we failed, it would not be without trying. Maybe
then
, if we did succeed, Faith and John’s deaths would not be in vain.
I had to try, for no other reason but for
them
, where they, too, had a place in history for overthrowing The Supremacy. 
 

Chapter Fourteen
Declan left me alone in his spacious home. To anyone else the act of leaving a prisoner to their own devices would have been foolish. If he were a lone human, weak and spineless, he would have secured his captive, but a Keeper did not have those concerns to worry about. Declan knew if I escaped I would not have made it far.
In that world, no one was free, even the Keepers that thought they held the power. Everywhere you went you were watched. Every step you took a camera followed, but those cameras were not your biggest obstacle or something that should have been feared, no, not even close. The robot drones that filled the skies were your number one enemy. Built for only one purpose, to locate and kill.
Declan had no fear of me leaving. I would not have survived an hour outside of his towering walls. I hated to admit it, but his home, for the time being, was the only safe place that existed for me.
In Declan’s home, I had no boundaries. He left with the only words spoken being,
“Get comfortable. You’ll be here for a while
.” So I did just that.
Rising from the couch, I was stunned to find that I was not weak, nor was I starved. I noted the black silken robe that covered my body, another luxury only a supreme had the privilege to know.
I began to explore his home. His house was open and airy. The expansive living room fed into the large dinning and kitchen. A kitchen that any cook would have killed to work in, but most of all, it was intimidating and served only to prove what The Supremacy had taken from us. No commoner lived as he lived. We were all forced into poverty and held there, all our worldly objects the sole property of the regime. We were only given what we needed for survival while the Keepers lived like kings.
Walking down the hall, I stopped at the first room I saw. It was a room fit for the royalty that was a Keeper. A towering four-poster bed dominated the space, blanketed in golden sheets and dozens of pillows while the dark wood accents continued the theme from the rest of the house.
The riches Declan lived in were sickening.
As I shut the bedroom door behind me and walked toward the towering floor to ceiling window, the sound of a door closing echoed from down the hall, followed by determined footfalls.
Declan was searching for me.
I waited in the middle of the room, knowing it would not take him long to find me. I stood silently as I heard his steps falter outside of the bedroom, and smiled toward the door that slowly pushed open to an unwavering Declan.
“Afraid I ran?” I asked, raising my brow to him.
“I figured you wouldn’t have been that thoughtless.” He breathed, taking the sight of me in, “Making yourself at home I see.”
I shrugged, “There wasn’t much else to do.” I waved at my robe as he stepped closer to me, “Is there anything else I can wear?” 
A grin took over his expression, and his eyes traveled up my body. “I have exactly that.”
“The way you live.” I paused looking around the room, “It’s…”
“It’s a part of the job.” He shrugged before coming to stand mere inches before me, looking down on me as if to show the sincerity in his eyes, “Wouldn’t it be obvious if I refused to live like a Keeper?”
Sighing, I nodded. He was right. To be different would have been too much of an indicator, making others suspicious of his intentions.
“Your clothes are in the bag,” He pointed to a large brown paper gift-bag that sat on one of the end tables, “I’ll give you a minute to get dressed.”
I let my fingers glide along the silken bedspread as I slowly made my way to the table that promised clean clothing; no doubt a commoner’s issued uniform, the same as we had all been forced to wear for years. Letting the silk robe slide off my body, caressing my skin with its fine threading, I reached into the bag.
My breath hitched when I pulled out the first garment. A uniform was not awaiting me, but a knee length blue dress. To most, that would not have meant much, but to a commoner like myself, it represented freedom. None like me had seen an article of clothing unique unto itself in years, and wearing any such garment was a punishable offence.
I emptied the bag onto the bed, scoffing when I saw the underwear and bra tumble out. Absentmindedly, I wondered how he could have possibly known my size but soon pushed the thought aside and dressed.
Turning once I pulled the blue dress over my head, the image in the floor-length mirror caught my eye. The beauty in the mirror’s reflection was no one I recognized. She was clean, pampered, and dressed like a queen, but in her eyes was where the truth lay. You could scrub clean the skin of the tormented, but no amount of riches could clean the soul.
The memories of those that had fallen, been murdered at the hands of the wicked, crushed me. Even though it hurt to remember, I never wanted to forget.
I slowly padded down the hall, back to the living room. On the outside, I felt refreshed, a feeling I hadn’t known in a very long time. I no longer feared for my safety or waited with one eye open for a Keeper to take me away. And my Keeper stopped me dead in my tracks the moment I saw him for the first time, dressed in a white button up long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. His back was to me, but I knew he felt me staring. He stood silently in the middle of the great-room, still as a statue, allowing me to take him in for the first time. He did not look like the sinister man that had taken me away so many times, the ‘
man
’ that drugged me and stole from my body. He looked serene. His long black robe that labeled him as a Keeper was nowhere in sight. It was a single article of clothing, but it served its purpose, to strike fear into the masses. It was gone and Declan looked…
human
.
Finally, he turned and faced me with a lopsided grin that soon turned into a gaping mouth as his eyes danced from my face to my toes, “You look,” He let out a shuttering breath and closed the distance between us, “beautiful.”
“And you look,” I paused, still taking him in. His short black hair, piercing blue eyes, chiseled jaw line, if I were anyone else, and he wasn’t a Keeper, a monster, I might have said he was breathtaking, but he was who he was, rebel or not. He had killed, for the greater good or not. He was a Keeper. “Normal.” I finally choked out.
“What removing a cloak can do for a person’s appearance,” He joked.
And it made a world of difference. That black cloak did more than just identify one as a Keeper, but solidified a commoner’s fate, their place in the world. To see a Keeper meant you were ruled. It meant you had no free will. Nothing was available to you unless granted by the ruling power. A Keeper’s cloak was a reminder of the Dark Times that The Supremacy saved us from, reminding us that without their take-over, we all would have died.
“You have another vial to take,” He smiled, then turned to point toward the table that sat in front of his large leather sofa.
I crinkled my nose, remembering the
awful
taste, “How many more of those will I have to take?”
“A few.” He chuckled, “But you’ll get use to the taste. Would you like something to eat?” He asked before he turned for the kitchen. “You must be starving.”
“Surprisingly, not nearly as much as I should be.” I yelled to him as I reached for the tube that waited for me on the table. I downed it as quickly as possible. I tried plugging my nose to mask the taste but it didn’t work. Cutting out my taste buds would have done nothing to save the abysmal flavor.
The sound of glass breaking thundered through the kitchen, causing my heart to lodge itself in my throat. The vision of a cloaked Keeper as he smashed his crystal baton across the stomach of a fighting Tester, raining down shards of gleaming glass around a bloody, limp, body, rushed through my mind.
“Are you okay?” I yelled, rushing into the kitchen only to find Declan slumped against the stone floor.
“Fine.” He panted as he tried and failed to pull himself up.
“
No
,” I warned him, placing my hand on his shoulder, “sit down for a second. What happened?”
I looked around the room, trying to find what could have possibly caused a stealthy Keeper to fall.
He shook his head from side to side as if he were trying to clear it, “Nothing.”
I knew he was lying. In all my years of watching the ‘Supreme’ walk around like gods, I never once saw them fall, or even falter in their step, “I’m not stupid, Declan, want to try that answer one more time?”
“No.” He chuckled in exasperation, “You’re not, and my guess is that you will not give up until I tell you the truth.”
“You’ve guessed right.” I smiled enigmatically at him and waited impatiently for his answer.
“Fine,” He panted before throwing his head back against the side of the counter, “To heal you I have to keep creating more venom.”
“And that is somehow draining you?” I asked skeptically. It did not make sense. If he were venomous then it should come naturally.
“We no longer
need
to use our venom to feed. With the advancement of technology and our ability to create our own food, that aspect of our nature has slowly become irrelevant to our existence. If you don’t use something, you lose it.”
“And you have to secrete more and more venom to create anti-venom for me?” I mumbled distractedly as I watched him lie on the floor, looking weak and vulnerable. A sight that was alien coming from a Keeper that just screamed ‘
power
’, “And that is what you were just doing, making more?”
“
Yes
.”
“Where do you keep your syringes?” I asked him, pulling myself to my feet, “I know there must be some around here seeing as how you just
love
using those damn things.”
He raised his brow as he watched me fumbling around his kitchen, “Why?”
“
Because
fuck you, that’s why. Where are they?”
“I’m not telling you until you give me a reason.”
I laughed looking over him, pale, sickly and slumped on the tile floor, “Doesn’t look like you’re in much of a position to demand anything.”
He drew in a shaky breath, his teeth clinching together audibly, “
Why
, Erin?”
“So that
I
can help
you
. It’s give and take, Declan. A symbiotic relationship.”
“
NO!
” He yelled, causing me to jump. He tried to pull himself up again, only to fail like he had before.
“Look at you! You can’t even stand. You
need
me. Just admit it.”
He gritted his teeth as he stared furiously at me, “I won’t take from you.”
“You’re not
taking
.” I clarified, kneeling so our eyes could meet, “For once, I am giving. Tell me where they are.”
“You don’t know what you are offering. If I start feeding on you, I will
always
crave you. It’s just your flavor, “He panted while licking his dry lips, “It’s a lure, a delicacy”
“I can’t do anything without you.” I pressed, “Stop Tarant or save
anyone
. I need you, and you need to be healthy. Give and take.” I repeated, looking into his clear blue eyes and waiting for some form of agreement, “You will be healing me while I’m healing you.”
“Yes you are.” He whispered, his limp fingers tracing from my temple to my lips. I pulled away, rejecting his touch.
“Inside the island,” He admitted as his hand fell limp at his side. “First drawer,” He pointed to the center counter that divided the kitchen.
Opening the drawer, dozens of syringes rolled to me, “
Wooah
, How many of these things does one Keeper need?”
“You’d be surprised.” He chuckled without humor.
Without another thought to what he could possibly mean, I grabbed one, popped the top off that concealed the needle and jabbed it into my side.
“
Easy
” He warned when a pained shriek left my parted lips, “You don’t need to impale yourself with that thing.”
Wincing, I shot him a side-glance, “Like you have ever been gentle with me.” I chided.
“That’s not because I didn’t want to be.” He answered quietly, pain lacing his voice.
“I know.” A smile played on my own when I noticed him salivating, watching intently as the tube filled, “How many of these will you need?” I asked once I finished filling the second.
“One is too much.”
Removing the syringe with a wince, I popped the cap in place and tossed it in the nearby trash. Sitting next to him, I grabbed his hand, placing the two vials in his palm and closing it tightly around them, “Give- take.” I whispered, watching him carefully.
I tore my eyes away from his penetrating stare when I saw the raw emotion that shined through. Clearing my throat, I stood, giving me the much-needed distance, “Where’s
my
food. Didn’t your mom ever tell you that it’s rude to eat in front of others?”
“In a white bag inside the fridge.” He answered kindly, his voice laced with an unnamed emotion I tried my best to ignore.
I quickly grabbed the bag from the fridge and left him alone in the kitchen, not knowing if I could stomach watching him drink from those vials.
Sitting at the dining table, I placed the bag in front of me. I would have been lying if I said that whatever was in the bag didn’t have my mouth watering just smelling it. Digging in, I pulled out three clear-wrapped trays, one held green looking wrap bread, the other a non-intimidating looking salad and some pasta. Without a care in the world, I dug in, and it tasted like a rainbow, dipped in honey, baked by leprechauns.