The Supremacy (16 page)

“No.” He exhaled in a rush as his fingers brushed down the sides of my face. His right hand moved to the small of my back, his eyes never leaving mine as he pulled me into him. His fingers lightly traced the outline of my bottom lip, causing my breath to hitch as his fingers curled into my back. Holding me tight against his chest, his soft lips caressed in feather light strokes over mine, coaxing me to open up to him, and against all my better judgment, I did. I melted into his hold as his tongue explored my mouth, moaning when he deepened the kiss.
All too soon he pulled away panting, “I’m doing this because I have loved you for longer than you could ever imagine.”
Startled by his admission, I backed away from his hold, “
No
”
The bell rang, signaling that his guest had arrived, “Yes.” He smiled; leaning down to lightly kissed my forehead before he left me frozen at the entry of his bedroom.
My stomach was in knots as I watched him walk down the hall. Unable to process his words, I padded to the closet, grabbing the first item I saw. It was hard to imagine a supreme loving a human, but my mother had done it. I remembered my parents and the way they fell over each other. They adored one another, loved with the passion of the gods. But neither had killed. Neither had murdered innocent people, not as Declan had. Both my mother and my father’s hands were clean, leaving only an untainted love to consume them. Declan’s hands were saturated in the blood of his victims. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of loving
anyone
unconditionally the way my parents loved one another. I wasn’t sure if I could look past everything Declan had done.
There was still too much I didn’t know. Too much I still had to process. I couldn’t deny that I was starting to feel for the Keeper that claimed he saved me, but those feelings were still in their infancy. The wounds he had created remained too raw. I feared my mind so desperately wanted to hold on to Declan, because if I had him, if he loved me, than I wasn’t left to face the world alone. Whatever I felt in the end, I wanted it to be
real
.
I dressed like a zombie; my thoughts too clouded to concentrate on the mundane task.
Tiptoeing down the hall, I heard the sound of laughter of familiar friends echoing through the great room. Glasses
tinked
together as the two talked boisterously. My eyes caught on the unmistakable flowing black cloak of the Keeper that stood in the middle of Declan’s living room. His eyes twinkled in delight once he spotted me standing in the shadows of the hall, “Is this her?” The six-foot tall gorilla of a Keeper asked as he stepped closer to me.
Declan turned to me and with his eyes sparkling, a smile of his own playing on his lips, “That’s her,” He answered, stretching his hand out to me, “Come, Erin, there’s someone I would like you to meet.”
I found myself unable to deny him. As I stopped in front of him, he wrapped his arms around my waist and in the most feather like touch, he lightly brushed his lips over mine, “Kellan,” He motioned to the Keeper that stood next to the couch, his mouth gaping as he watched us, “This is Erin.”
“I’ve heard so much about you.” He beamed and made his way toward us, “It’s an honor to finally meet you.” He gushed, taking my hand in his, he kissing the top.
“It’s a pleasure.” I lied.
“Kellan is the chemist I told you about.” Declan clarified as he pulled me free of Kellan’s hold and led the way to the dining table, “The one that has been studying your cells.”
“And they are remarkable!” He announced, taking a seat next to me, “Unique in every way.”
“
Erin
is unique in every way.”
“It seems she shares much with us, yet has her own genetic make-up that differs both as a supreme
and
human.”
I watched, stunned, as the cloaked Keeper scratched his head and then turned to meet Declan’s confused eyes head-on, “We have all been told that mating with a human would taint our species. That has never been farther from the truth.”  Kellan’s eyes flashed to me, his gaze moving from my head down to my toes, “She is actually
stronger
than we are. Her cells are resistant to every known illness humans face, resistant to
our
venom; she even has antibodies that fight
our
weaknesses.” He shook his head as if to clear it, “It’s remarkable.” He breathed out in a rush and grabbed Declan’s hand, “She is the most toxic creature I have ever studied. Her cells fight and
destroy
any invader.”
“I know.” Declan laughed before he stood from the table, “It took ten times the venom to affect her, and even then it didn’t do more than give her some tremors and a little burn.”
“
What?
” I spat as he turned for the kitchen, “It was more than a ‘little burn’, and if that’s true, why have you been force feeding me your ‘anti-venom’?”
“That’s simple,” He answered with a smile, “I wanted you to build up a tolerance, I didn’t know if you were venomous or not, and...”
“Oh, she’s venomous all right.” Kellan cut him off midsentence, draining the glass Declan had handed him, “Even to us.”
“
Really
.” Declan’s hand went to his chin, his fingers taping his lips.
“It seems there is more to the
Erin
mystery than I ever thought.”
His admission broke me out of my reverie, “But I’ve never poisoned anyone, and from what I’ve been told.” I rested my hands on the table, “I was a biter as a kid.”
I watched, stunned as they both leaned away from the table and began to laugh. “It doesn’t work quite like that, Erin.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as he continued to laugh at me, “Then how does it work?”
“Oh, no.” His head shook, his hand still resting on mine, “After he just tells me that you are toxic to me? Not a chance will I tell you how to secrete venom.”
I smiled a toothy grin, “Scared?”
“
Very
.”
“It may be beneficial to our plans to teach her.” Kellan added with a wink, “One dose of her venom would drop Tarant where he stands.”
“Too detectable.” Declan shook his head dismissively, “We want his death slow, as to no one becoming the wiser. He’s already beginning to show signs. It won’t be long now.”
 

Chapter
Seventeen
I sat at the table, speechless as the two fought back and forth on the best possible way to dispose of their leader. Kellan was hell bent on any means of elimination that would provide instant results. Declan, on the other hand, did not see it quite that black and white, “And how would that help us?
Please
tell me, Kellan. Because all I foresee is an uproar of angry Supremes. My first order of business would have to be to locate and execute Tarant’s assassin.”
“Your point?” Kellan scoffed, “We accuse one of his minions. Two birds, one stone.”
“My point is that I am tired of killing!” Declan’s eyes blazed at the Keeper that slowly pushed away from the table, “We can get others to follow a new way of life without killing off everyone that kneels at Tarant’s feet. We would have to kill off half of our damn species!”
“
Okay
,” Kellan’s hands shot up in surrender, “We’ll do it slowly, but up the poison if you’re administering it through Erin’s cells.”
“
Why
?” Declan sighed, exasperated by his friends provisos.
“Because Erin’s blood has medicinal properties, I
told
you it fights invaders,” He cut his eyes as if annoyed by Declan’s inability to follow simple scientific conjectures. “It also heals. You cannot kill someone if you are healing them at the same time.”
“Double negative.” He breathed out in a rush, “We’ll up the dosage. Tarant will be around soon to pick up his next batch.”
“Make it a triple.”
“Before you leave,” Declan added, “Tell me about the additives.”
“Proving…
effective
.” Slowly walking to the door, Kellan smiled back at Declan, “Genetically modifying the food supply won’t be instantaneously obvious, just like
you
prefer it. The sicknesses will spread slowly, remaining completely undetected.”
“Thank you for all your hard work.” Declan stretched out his hand.
“Pleasure is all mine,” They shook. “I’ve been waiting too long for Tarant to fall.”
“So what do we do now?” I asked Declan once the door closed on Kellan’s retreating cloak.
“We wait.”
I was tired of waiting. I understood Declan’s point of view, but the longer we sat by waiting for my blood to poison Tarant, the more innocent people died. Every day, more and more Testers were strapped to a metal table and drained. I couldn’t justify their deaths for the convenience of plausible deniability. I would rather kill another Supreme, one that may prove themself to be a problem later on.
His fingers brushed the side of my face as he looked into my eyes, “What are you thinking about?”
I shrugged, knowing that the truth might anger him, but not caring either way, “That I agree with Kellan.”
“Of course you do.” Declan laughed and took the open seat on the couch next to me, “You’re just as impatient as he is.”
“
No
,” I exhaled harshly and stood in front of him. With my clenched fists pressed to my sides, I spoke in a rush, “I’m tired of waiting around as innocent Testers die just to save you the headache of finding a ‘scapegoat’.”
“
I
would end up looking like the smoking gun, Erin. The son that was too eager to rule to wait for his father’s natural death. This project will see its fair share of snares. I don’t want to
create
them.”
He was right. There were so many complex issues at hand. Something was bound to go wrong, eventually. But were we ready, prepared enough for something to pop-up. I knew relatively nothing about his plan other than the role I was to play. It felt like he was purposely keeping me in the dark, drop feeding me information only when it was prudent for me to know, or when I actually saw it with my own eyes, like Corina, like my mom, and even the most shocking, what
I
was. He openly admitted he was not going to tell me anything, not yet.
“Why are you keeping me in the dark?”
“The less you know, the safer you’ll be.”
“
No
, the safer
you
will be.” I spat, walking away from him before I did something that I might have regretted.
Once I reached the bedroom, I flopped on the bed, too exhausted to fight. For someone that had slept twelve hours straight, my body was ready to collapse.
I felt Declan enter the room before I saw or even heard him. His presence was palpable, demanding and unrelenting in its pull.
“Everything I have done has been to protect you.” He whispered, climbing onto the bed next to me, his arms wrapped like a serpent around my tense torso.
“Knowing would make me a liability.”
“Do you
really
think anyone could harm you with me around?” He nuzzled his nose into my neck, causing chills to run up my spine. 
“I really don’t know what to think anymore.” I answered him truthfully.
“How about this,” He smiled as he pulled me onto his chest. “How about we forget about all this, just for one night.” His eyes twinkled with mischief, causing my stomach to tighten as I watched his face light up. As much as my body
wanted
to feel his touch, I wasn’t ready. There was still too much I needed to know. Too much my exhausted mind had to sort through, “All men,” I giggled, rubbing my nose against his, “are the same.”
With his arms tightening around me he pulled me to his chest, his lips covered mine in a soft, reassuring caress. “Can you blame me for wanting you?”  No, but I blamed myself for wanting
him
.
“One day you will love me as much as I do you. And I am prepared to wait as long as it takes.”
“How do you know so much about me?” I asked him, trying to push his words as far back in my mind as they could possibly go. I was not ready to face my feelings for him, not yet.
“Speaking of
that
.” He beamed as he leapt off the bed and out the door, leaving me reeling.
The sound of cabinets opening and closing echoed from the other room, accompanied by a flickering light glowing from the hall, “What are you doing?” I shouted as the lights in the hall dimmed, followed by the bedroom going dark.
Declan’s shining face appeared in the doorway, illuminated by a lone flickering candle, “Happy birthday, Erin!” He smiled as he walked toward me singing, holding a pink cupcake in his outstretched hand.
My heart stopped as I watched him make his way to me.  I hadn’t celebrated my birthday since I was five. The last birthday I had with my mother was the last birthday I wanted to remember. The rest became forgettable, just another day in time. I hated thinking about it, and so did my father. Five days after we celebrated in the meadow, watched the clouds dance over our heads as we named them; she was gone. I told my dad I no longer wanted another birthday, not without her. He never pressed the issue. On that day every year, we would take a walk in the meadow. We never said a word, we watched the clouds roll by, felt the warmth the springtime air brought to our cold bodies, and smelled the daisies as the wind blew their scent over us. It was perfect.
That was, until he was gone too.
“Thank you.” I choked out, taking the cupcake from his hand.
“I know you don’t like celebrating your birthday, but…”
“How do you know?” I sighed, throwing my head onto the pillow, “How do you
always
know.”
A smile took over his gentle expression as he leaned forward and pulled a tiny white box from his back pocket, “Because I made a wish on a star for the heavens to bring me an angel.” He slowly cracked the box open, “And they brought me you.”
Through the flicker of the candle, a gleam escaped the tiny box. My heart lodged itself in my throat and a lone sob escaped my lips. Unable to hold myself back, I jumped from the bed when he opened the box with a grin, “H-h-how do you have that?” I cried, my fingers brushing over the silver star that laid tucked in velvet.
My wishing star
. The day I lost it was the saddest day of my life. It felt as though I had lost my parents all over again.
Whenever I wanted to talk to them, I would hold it in my hands and wish they could hear me. After it was gone…I never spoke out to them again.
“A friend of mine gave it to me.” He whispered into my ear once he fastened the chain around my neck.
“W-w-who?”
“
Max
.” He breathed, rocking me in his arms.
My dad.
My heart broke, shattered into a thousand pieces, my mind unable to process what Declan just said. He knew my father. Knew him well enough to have been given my necklace, knew him well enough to know about the smallest moments in my life. Betrayal gripped my chest as I thought of him with my dad, as I thought about the days, the
years
that my father had lied to me.
I straightened my spine, trying to hold onto the sliver of sanity I still had, “How did you know him?”
Cold fingers brushed away my falling tears as brilliant blue eyes captivated mine, “He said you wouldn’t fully believe me unless I had proof.” The tips of his fingers tapped on the star that hung from my throat, “He gave me this to give you when the time was right.”
“What’s right?” I sniveled, trying to stop the flow of tears from escaping my eyes.
Nothing
was right. Nothing was ever right, “
How
did you know him?” I repeated through clenched teeth.
“Because, Erin.” Declan sighed as he held me tight to his chest. “Max is the one that leads the rebels, the one that has orchestrated this entire mission.”
“
No.”
I shook my head, trying to dislodge his words. I backed away from him,
“My father is
dead
!”
“No, Erin, Max is very much alive.”
I fell. Clasping to my knees, I sobbed, racked with unfathomable emotions. The excruciating pain of a knife sticking through my chest could not have rivaled the pain that I felt in that moment. “
No
.” I shook on the floor, “He wouldn’t have left me with that woman.” Curling into a ball, I bawled into my hands, hoping that the smaller I made myself, the less pain I would feel.
I felt as Declan wrapped his body around mine, holding me tight to him, but it didn’t matter.
He
didn’t matter, “It wasn’t time for you to join him yet.” He breathed softly, “You had a role to play first.”
I shut him out, shut the world out. Nothing he could say would have lifted the boulder from my chest, or heal my broken heart. My father abandoned me for his own freedom, left me with a woman that not only killed my mother, but had also been plotting my death for
years
. My father was not a hero; he was a traitor.
***
“
Erin
,” My name was whispered from overhead while I watched the clouds dance by in the midday breeze. The sun shined its brilliant rays, lighting up the meadow around me, revealing all its springtime glory.
“
Erin
.” The hypnotic voice sang my name again, “Don’t run.” He pleaded, “I will always protect you.”
“I’m not running,” I smiled into Declan’s sad blue eyes, “I’m dreaming.”
Looking away from him, I stood. Tilting my head to the glorious blue sky that covered me, protected me, I screamed a chilling, blood curling, heart-stopping cry, “
WAKE UP!
”
***
I was catapulted from my dream just to enter an even bigger nightmare. I remained on the bare floor of Declan’s master bedroom, fully clothed in the outfit I wore the day before. Bright light filtered through the floor to ceiling window, telling me of the new day, but Declan was gone.
I jumped to my feet when the sound of glass breaking clashed from the living room, “Where is she!” A furious female voice boomed from the great room. It was a voice I knew too well. Fear gripped my throat as the
tick-tick
of her stilettos echoed off the wood floor. She was coming for me.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I heard Declan deny her.
“
LIES!
” Corina screamed as more glass shattered, “I know Tarant has been drinking from her. I
know
the mutt’s scent. He reeks of it, and so do
you!
”
Declan’s voice came in a soft flow, a cadence, “Does Tarant know you are here?”
“Does it matter? The girl
will
die.” She cackled into the silence of the room. “And so will you if you stand in my way.”
My hand flew over my mouth, a small shriek escaping, “
No!
” He wasn’t going to die because of me. Not another that I cared for would die. 
I ran from the protective walls of Declan’s bedroom, ran right into a scene that ripped my heart right out of my chest.
I staggered to a halt once my eyes caught on Declan’s lifeless body on the floor, covered in blood and glass. My focus soon zeroed in on the dozens of shattered batons that had been scattered around him, shattered over him.
“
Stop!
” I screamed at Corina as I saw her arm rise above her head, a glass baton ready to deliver the deathblow.
“
There she is
.” She crooned. Turning from him, her glowing green irises locked on mine and a sinister smile took over her plump red lips, “You have taken everything from me, you little