Claimed (21 page)

In the starry serene night, t
here were only the familiar nocturnal calls of the animals, subduing all his tensions. He felt remarkably comfortable sitting all on his own on that tree branch, leaning against its trunk as he listened to the sounds of the night creatures. It was always the woods that would give him peace when he was stressed. The woods- and now, Ellie.

He noticed she had switched her lights out and he supposed she must have turned into bed. He sat there, biting his lower lip, deliberating on whether he should visit her. She had certainly worried him when that protestor picked up that stone to
hurl it at her. He was angry at first when he had seen her racing towards the sentinels.
“What in the heck is she doing?!
” he had thought. But then he had seen the protestor with the stone long before Dr Langford notified them on their earpieces. He had dove down onto the ground without a flinch and sprinted over to her before he had known it, acting solely on instinct. He was resolute on protecting her at all costs. For that brief moment, the riot or the revolution suddenly didn’t matter to him. He loved her and he knew nothing would ever shake him off that, no matter how desperately he pretended that he didn’t care for her any longer.

He had stormed back home after his meeting with the Woodsmen, demanding to know why Tara hadn’t followed strict instructions. But when she mentioned Ellie’s intent
on breaking her engagement with Edmund, he had fallen into another of his melancholic phases of slow, intensive deliberations.
Could there be a possibility for him to be with her after all?

But the thoughts of her rejecting him as a mutant still stabbed severely into his heart. The thought of her being overcome with the horror of being made love to by a chimera, terrified him. Like any man who occupied him
self with thinking things through several times over before acting on them, he couldn’t help but be afraid of a rejection. Sometimes, he wished he could simply be one of those crazy fools who would dive into a pool of water without bothering to calculate its depth. It would kill him, yes it might. But there was always the possibility that she would love him back- chimera, mutant and all.

He straightened up
with defiance filling his veins. He was going to see her tonight. He had to make sure she was okay. But first he’d give her a little more time to fall deeply into sleep and then he’d simply have a peek. She was never even going to know he was there.

He landed gently onto her balcony. The room was pitch-dark. But he didn’t need any light to see her sleeping form on her bed. He walked in softly through her balcony doors, treading up to her as quietly as he could. But as he drew closer, the sheets rustled. He could see her shape sliding to the other side of the bed beneath the sheets. He stopped, wondering if she was awake. The sheets were drawn to her face and he couldn’t tell if she was asleep or if she were simply rolling in her sleep.

He leaned forward to slither
the sheet down her to get a better peek of her face. But she leapt out of bed, her back against the wall. She stared at him, clearly startled by his green eyes. He tugged his hood down lower so she wouldn’t have to see them. In the dark though, there was very little he could do from controlling the glow in his eyes.

She raced towards the door and he bounded after her, catching her and twirling her back in his arms.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he growled, hoping she wouldn’t recognize his voice.

“What do you want from me?!” she screamed and he immediately covered her mouth
with his palm, muffling her shrieks.

He let her writhe and
hit his torso until she slowly began to realize she wasn’t winning. She quieted and he spoke again with a low raspy drawl; in his utmost best to disguise his voice.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said.

“Then why are you here?!” she threw back, anger replacing her fear.

He didn’t answer for a long time, unsure
of what he was supposed to say to her. That he had come to check on whether she was okay?
She looked fine. But who was he to worry about her? As far as the woman knew, he was some winged hooded mutant on a mission to revolt against the government and their laws, and presently, on the run from the sentinels. Now, he was also a perverted stranger creeping into a young woman’s bedroom and most possibly being suspected for stalking her.

As Jared however
…- he stopped. The last time as Jared, he had brushed her aside like another woman playing hard to get and leapt onto her easier-to-please sister. He remembered how she had shifted away from him in the car when he had leant into her window to speak to Edmund. Her despise for him was evident that day and it scorched him every time he remembered it. He was almost sure now she would care much less for the Jared who had hurt her.

He let his arms drop to his side, releasing her from him. She stumbled backwards in surprise, her eyes darting towards the door as i
f she was assessing her chances of making a successful escape from him.

He took a step back and turned away, heading back towards the balcony.

“Who are you?” she said.

He stopped with his back still facing her. If he couldn’t allow her to see him, perhaps he could be content with her voice.

“What are you?” she asked again. “You have wings and you can fly. And you have cat’s eyes that actually see in the dark. What are you supposed to be?”

He didn’t respond, his heart racing with an eagerness to shout out the answers to her.

“Are you human?” she asked, but then laughed out awkwardly at her question, her voice carrying undertones of frustration in trying to resolve her curiosity about the man standing in her room. “How stupid of me? Of course, you are. You must be, because there are no aliens, right? You can’t be from another planet.”

He could tell she was moving closer to him and he instantly started walking towards the doors.

“Wait! Wait!” she cried out.

He stopped again.

“Thank you for helping me at the riot today. I’m glad that you came tonight because I was wondering all this while how I was ever to thank you. When you came in, you just caught me by surprise and I forgot… I shouldn’t have but I did…” She paused. “I’ve just never seen anyone like you so there was that fear. And then there is the fact that you are a stranger and you just crept into a woman’s bedroom.” She took in a deep breath, trying to align her thoughts. “I know I’m not making any sense. What I’m desperately trying to say is I’m sorry I reacted like a fool earlier. I should have known you never meant to harm me. If you wanted to, you could have done it then, during the riots. If it hadn’t been for you, I mightn’t be here- alive at all.”

He clenched his fists
, his pulse thrashing wildly in his temples.
Screw all rationality!
he screamed inside him.

He swiveled around and grabbed her by her arms, pulling her into him.
He fisted his hands into her hair; roughly tilting her head back so she was facing directly up to him, immediately capturing her mouth with his lips.

She pulled away instinctively, but in his arms, she was powerless. After her earlier struggle with him, she barely could rummage enough strength to fight him again.
He relished in that fact, his tongue weaving its way into her mouth, taking pleasure in the senses her mouth was evoking inside him.

Suddenly, she was leaning into him. Her hands which were once separating his chest from her breast
s, were now winding around his nape. He groaned, kissing her even more deeply as he felt the soft mounds of her breasts crush against him. He let go of her hair, his hands moving silkily down her body, cupping her buttocks tugging them as further as he could into him.

He grew achingly hard and he tugged her up to him so he could rub against her sex to ease some of that pleasurable pain. She moaned and it only encouraged him to want more from her. He was losing all control to her and if he relented to his passion now, he would be far too weak to stop himself
from taking her.

He re
luctantly pulled away from her, nipping her lower lip softly as he did. He laid a soft kiss at the end of her nose and then withdrew backwards towards the door. His wings expanded as he reversed into the balcony, his eyes still capturing every emotion on her shocked face.

By the time she realized what he was doing and had run up to the balcony doors to stop
him; he had flown out again into the night sky, disappearing into the darkness where he belonged.

Her hands grasped tightly onto the wheels of her car as she dodged
yet another pothole in the road.

Julian Henley had called her yesterday
, taking her by complete surprise. So he did keep her call card after all. Apparently, he had heard of that Central Monologue protestor chucking that giant rock at her and apologized on behalf of entire Central for the man’s poor conduct. But that was not all why school teacher Henley wanted to see her. He was in fact reconsidering her offer to help out with the school teaching. She had jumped at the possibility of being involved in the school in that way. This would help her reach out to the parents even better via her young students. Not to mention, that all her years of university study would be paying off as teaching others to learn as well.

She had never imagined though she would ever consider
teaching in an underprivileged school such as the little country town of Sector 8 Central. It would have been the last place where she’d have considered a career. She had never wanted to teach either. Not at the Capitol, not at the more affluent suburbs of Sector 8 and certainly not in Central.

But then again, there were a lot of things she had never imagined considerin
g in all her life. Particularly, falling for one of Central’s own sons, Jared Ryder.

Her tongue licked her lower lip as if trying to relive those kisses from two nights ago. At first, she had truly been fearful of this man with green glowing cat-like eyes. But as she recalled how he had saved her from being injured by that stone and protecting
her from every other sentinel and angry protestor, she knew she would never be safer with another man.

When he
had kissed her, she had resisted instinctively. She had refused herself to be kissed like that by any man. Not since Jared. Her heart and her soul were now solely reserved for him alone.

But the more the s
tranger delved into her mouth, sparking irresistible passion and heat in her core, the more she gave in to him. There was something familiar about the way he kissed which put her at ease almost immediately. The way he wielded his tongue against hers, the way he dove in deeper into the corners of her mouth, and the way he simply caressed her waist and her buttocks, seemed all too familiar. And then she had leaned into him, feeling his firm chest against her, his broad shoulders and the stubble of his chin grazing in sweet achiness against her face. Her body had suspected him long before she did, But when he laid that last kiss on the end of her nose, she was almost sure it had to be Jared.

Everything slowly was beginning to fall into place. His late night disappearance from the cottage in the forest, Tara’s flimsy reasons for Jared’s illness…
They were all beginning to make sense.

She swerved into the rugged driveway of the school, her mind still pre-occupied with the thoughts of Jared as The Winged Archer. Was that why he had pushed her away? He was trying to
protect his secret? He thought she would betray him. But perhaps if she was in his place, she would not trust her too. She
was
the governor’s daughter, wasn’t she?

Julian Henley stood waiting for her by the same door he had once ignored her at. He smiled at her and gave her a small nod as she walked towards him.

“I hope you didn’t have much trouble on the way,” he said.

She smiled back, shaking her head. “You were here, weren’t you?”

He grinned. “Are you saying I’m the one who’s creating all the trouble in these parts?”

She shrugged. “I’m saying that’s how it’s been looking these days.”

He looked at her with his eyebrow raise
d and then let out a chuckle. “Okay, I deserved that. Especially after throwing you out the last time. But you do understand why I did that?”

“Yes. I’m Ellie
Callum, Governor Aaron Callum’s daughter.”

He nodded, growing quiet. He walked into the class room, silently indicating for her to follow him. “I heard
about what you’re doing for the people of Central. We don’t often get to witness such kindness.”

“I’m born into a wealthy, affluent family. It’s only right I pay a little back to society,” she replied, her eyes studying the little classroom with age old desks and chairs. “How many children do attend school?”

“Not many as I would like. Parents can’t afford to send them. And I do try to provide all that they need with the funding I get from the government, but it isn’t enough as you can see. Families need proper wages to survive. For the present, that is their priority and I don’t blame them. Besides, these attendances aren’t going to increase either if they think it’s not gonna give them any opportunities for progress. The elite only allow the elite into their colleges and universities. It’s been the rare case where an impoverished student has been given the scholarship to attend them.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “Who knew the most progress the world would get was in the early twenty-first century? Actually, both the rise and the fall of the world were determined in the twenty-first century.”

Ellie watched the man sit tiredly into a chair. Despite the decrepit conditions of his workplace, she admired his endeavor to
arrive in school in presentable attire, his blond hair neatly gelled and parted to the side and mostly with hope which evoked from every part of his being as he spoke.

“I heard you’re leading the Central Monologues in their protests,” she said, trying to find out more about this mysterious man.

He raised his brow, looking at her curiously. “I
used
to. I gave up leadership on the night of the protest when they arrested me. They only promised to let me off if I disassembled the party and swore to never lead a protest against the government again.” He pointed to a small bruise on the left of his eye. “Of course, I couldn’t help come away with a few souvenirs from the station.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. The bruise was a nasty one but he managed to give it a small make-up cover to prevent his students from worrying about him.
“You care a lot for your students.”

He chuckled. “It’s why I’ve stuck around as long as this.”

Ellie narrowed her eyes, processing everything he told her. “I cannot believe though you would give up leading Central Monologue. At least not as easily as a night in the cell.”

He frowned.
“According to them, if I didn’t terminate my affiliation with Central Monologue, they would chuck my wages out the window and end all funding for the school unless I left it. And if I do go, who is going to run the school?”

“Or pretend to end all affiliation with Central Monologue,”
Ellie assumed quietly. She could imagine an intelligent man like Julian Henley would resort to the pretense of disassociating himself from the party, while conducting covert operations to win the justice he was seeking for in his protests.

Her hands ran over the history books on his shelves. He was knowledgeable enough for such ploys. This was
a man well-read and far too cognizant in recognizing that history was a great way of predicting future actions.

Her hand grazed
over an old, faded but once colorful cover of a comic. “I’ve heard of this man,” she said, admiring the red and blue webbed design costume of the character.

“Spiderman,” Julian said, glancing up at her. “He’s an ancient mythic hero who spun we
bs out of his hands and rescued the people of his city from the strangest villains.”

“Mythic?” Ellie repeated, pondering on the word. “He sounds so much like our very own Archer. He could have been real?”

Julian leant back into his chair, his fingers drumming thoughtfully on the edges of his desk. “It is possible. But there is a greater probability that Spiderman was the product of a very imaginative and intelligent mind. The chances of an evolutionary anomaly such as The Archer, was too advanced for a primitive environment as the twentieth century in which he is accredited to have been created. If Stan Lee, the creator of the comic version of Spiderman, had indeed based him upon a real man, then there has never been any such documentary evidence available to prove that.” He picked up a student’s exercise book and began marking through the answers with a red pen. “Do you know there were cinematic versions of Spiderman? I’d give anything to see one of those. According to history texts, they revolved largely around one concept. The girl he loved always wound herself into trouble, usually suspended in the air by some means or the other and he always found himself trying to catch her before she fell and hit the ground. Apparently, it was a great hook because despite the many different versions of his romantic rescues, people still flocked to movie houses to watch them. This is what makes Spiderman iconic. He’s a beacon of hope for the rest of us mankind, that one day someone will come rescue us like that from our plight.”

“Did his girlfriend ever learn of his true identity?” Ellie asked curiously, nipping at her lower lip as she played with the romantic concept of a man rescuing his love. He must love her
unendingly to disregard his own life for her.

Julian shrugged. “In the movies she did. But it took a trilogy and one final life-threatening dive of rescue to reveal that.” He pulled in a deep breath. “So, do you want the job or not?”

She smiled. “Yes, I’ll take it.”

“You sure?
You’ve seen the conditions you’re going to work in?”

“I know and I accept.”

He shook his head disbelievingly. “You’re completely different from everything I had imagined. I will pay you a small teacher’s wage…”

“That’s not necessary, Julian,” she interrupted. “You could use that money for something in school. I’m sure that at the moment, you need it more than I do.”

“Absolutely not!” he growled. “I truly appreciate your charity in Central. But if you’re going to share the time and space with me in this school, it will be on an equal basis as a colleague. And don’t you dare spend it all on the school either.” He stood up and walked over to her. “We’re the indigent lot of the society, Miss Callum. We’re always going to have problems no matter how much you try to eradicate them. That’s the way it works. That’s how it will always be.  The world has never bothered to alleviate our problems because they need us exactly where we are. At the bottom. But that doesn’t mean we cannot fight for our rights to be valued and viewed as an equal, does it?” He smiled and pointed to the comic in her hands. “You can borrow that so long as you return it. My students can never get enough of Spiderman.”

*****

She sat on her chair, her feet neatly tucked under her as she stared at the red and blue masked vigilante. Her mind grappled at the possibility that like Spiderman, Jared could also possibly be The Winged Archer.

Knocking
s rapped impatiently on her bedroom door. “Ellie, it’s me! Open up.”

Edmund, she rolled her eyes up tiredly. He was the last person she wanted to see today. She was at
the end of her tethers with her patience for his discriminatory opinions on Central and she was slowly losing tolerance on breaking up with him sooner rather than finding the right time to tell him.

She rose up hesitantly and unlocked her door without bothering to open it. The door swung open as she strolled casually back to her chair.

“What’s with the attitude, Ellie?” Edmund growled.

“What do you mean?” she said dismissively, flipping through the Spiderman comic.

“Your fiancé comes to see you and you don’t even bother looking at him,” he minced angrily.

“You’ve never had a problem with not seeing each other before.”

“This is different. You’re constantly visiting Central. Do you have any idea what that does to my image?”

She glanced up sharply at him. “Is that all you’re concerned about?
Your image? I got attacked by a protestor two days ago. Have you once called over to ask me if I was okay?”

“First of all, you expected that. We’ve been reminding you time and time again that you’d get hurt if you continued to visit Central. Those people are… are crazy!” he stammered. “They’re poor, they’re filthy,
they smell! They look like humans but they don’t behave like it. And second of all, your father told me you were fine. I didn’t think there was any need to see you when he confirmed that you weren’t hurt.”

She stared at him with disbelief. “You didn’t think there was any need to see me because my father told you I was fine?”

“You know what I mean,” he threw his hands up in the air with frustration. “But that isn’t why I’m here. I heard you accepted a teaching job with Julian Henley?”

“Yes, I did,” she said standing up to walk past him. She suddenly felt smothered and needed a breath of fresh air to escape him.

He grabbed her elbow and swung her back to him. “Why? Why are you doing this?! Are you trying to ruin me? All I ever did was listen to you, obey your fucking crazy rules and yet you absolutely show no appreciation for how I treat you!”

“Let me go!” she screamed, trying to shake herself off him. “You didn’t listen to me because you loved me! You did it because unconsciously
, I had simply made it too easy for you. You got a fiancée you needed, and you didn’t have to work hard at it to keep her!”