Shattered Skies: Beginning's End (11 page)

There was no reason to stall. I had thought about maybe just going over and getting my wallet; that was more than enough reason to be there. Once I got him alone, I could grill him about the roses. Then my common sense returned and I realized that if it was a trick and he did know what I really was, a blocked phone call would be a much smarter move. Even though I knew somewhere deep down inside that a personal visit would be much more fun, I reached for the phone.

The phone rang about six times before he answered a little breathlessly, “Hello?” 

My heart fluttered again. I really should think about getting myself checked out. “You’re Majesty, what the hell is wrong with you? What part of breaking into my apartment seemed like a good idea? I have come to the conclusion that you are completely unhinged.” I sounded as pissed as I felt. Good for me. 

“You actually called me?” Akia sounded almost as shocked as I had felt when I opened my door, and then there was silence. He wasn’t saying anything else. I thought about sitting there not encouraging him with conversation, but after about 30 seconds the silence was deafening

“Akia are you even listening to me?” 

“I didn’t think you would call. I figured I blew it, and you would never give me the time of day again.” He was really starting to try my patience. What did he mean; I wouldn’t give him the time of day? He was the King; why did he care if someone as nonexistent as me ever talked to him again? 

“This isn’t a courtesy call, and stop acting like I am that
important to you. You are the King for crying out loud. Stop acting like you care whether or not I called. I want to know who the goons that brought the flowers were, and who you think you are to have sent them? You can’t just invade someone’s home because you feel like it. That has to be breaking the law somehow.” I realized as soon as I said it how stupid it was, there was no law but you when you were the King.

“This is where I must disagree with you kitten, I am the Regent. I can do whatever I please.” 

Wow! This man could go from shocked to smug in no time at all. I have been called egotistical a time or two in my day, but this guy was over the top. “Which brings me back to my previous
point, you are the King. Can’t you find something more important to do with your time then stalk me? I am of no royal bloodline and way, way below your class. I didn’t think you were allowed to spend time with low class losers.” 

“You are right Cat. You are a beggar, a peasant compared to me. Under normal circumstances, I would not give a Dominus of your social standing a second glance, but there is something so different about you. You fascinate me. I can’t put it into words. Kind of the way a cat is fascinated with a mouse. They want to watch it and play with it for a while to see what it is going to do before they finally eat it.” Akia sounded somewhat distant and trance like; in simple terms, incredibly creepy. His was the voice that nightmares
were made of. 

“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you are going to kill me? Is this some sort of sick game to you?” This time I wasn’t able to keep my voice monotone. If he was looking for a fight, I could handle that better than I could handle the fact that he was interested in me. If that was the case, if I was so tough and I could handle him wanting me dead instead of just wanting me, then why did my heart shatter as I said it?

“No Kitten. Let’s not be ridiculous. I do not wish to harm you. I just want to hunt you to win your heart. I don’t know what it is about you, but I have never been this taken by a woman before. I want to find out why you are able to turn me into a fumbling heartsick fool.” 

“I told you never to call me kitten again. Your sick infatuation with me is no reason to break into my apartment and allow your thugs to snoop around in all my personal things.” Ok, good, I sounded pissed again, even if my heart was doing summersaults of relief. 

“Amazing! You are quite dramatic. I have to admit that makes this game of cat and mouse even more of a turn on. Before you hurt yourself trying to think of a way to take care of your break-in, there were no thugs, just three little old human women who operate that flower shop on East Main. I told them if there proved to be anything disturbed, I would have their heads. Believe me; they assured me that everything would remain untouched. They have a cushy job and know that as soon as they mess up their use to me will be over and they will be dealt with like every other aging human.” 

The way that he said ‘dealt with’ made me shiver. It was comments like that that reminded me why it was us versus them, why I needed to listen to my head which was telling me to straighten up and shut up the part of me that wanted nothing more than to run to him, if even just to see him for a brief second before he
killed me. Yeah, I know, sick, right? I needed to remember why I needed to hate him. I thought of the first disturbing truth that came to my mind. The Dominus had no grasp on human life at all. It had gotten so bad that the monsters were now forcing the caged humans in the food class to breed and have babies that would be used for future food supplies. Yes that was a good one; that is why I spent my entire life being training to kill them. That was why they were monsters. 

“So Kitten did you enjoy the beautiful roses I sent? I didn’t know what color was your favorite so I had them send all the different colo
rs that they could think of.” OK, I had had enough of this man’s ability to change the conversation to benefit himself. 

“Your majesty, you are not forgiven for breaking into my apartment, you are not forgiven for your cocky actions, and you are also not forgiven for using whatever power it is that you were blessed with to invade my head with that kiss. And most importantly, stop calling me Kitten!” I was so close to hanging up the phone. I couldn’t listen to him anymore. He was the worst one of all
of them and I was falling for him. I made up my mind that I would end the call, leave my wallet, and never think about him again. I didn’t need his extra drama in my life. I needed simple. I needed good old Darien and a stupid old movie. My ear was away from the phone and I was in mid motion to hang up when his now timid voice broke through my anger. 

“Kit- Catalina, I swear to you that I have used no mental powers on you. While I am powerful in other ways, I do not have the mind bending abilities to do what happened to us. To be a hundred percent honest, I thought it was you that was bewitching me. You said so yourself, you are beneath me and I shouldn’t be interested. I really thought that it was your way of teaching me a lesson for looking down upon people in lower standings. Believe me, if that is what it was, a sick lesson, then I got it. I can’t stop thinking about you.” 

“I don’t believe that you can tell the truth even if your life depended on it.” Yay, the monotone I needed earlier had finally returned and I hung up the phone without giving him a chance to retort. He couldn’t be serious. He had to have found out who I was somehow. This was all a game. I mean, he said so himself; it was a game of cat and mouse. I wasn’t about to let him be the cat though. I had to take care of this problem before someone I loved got hurt.

We were never trained to deal with things like this. There
were never supposed to be any feelings involved. There was definitely never to be any head monsters involved. I had to figure out what to do and because of my little fit, I had to figure out how to do it alone. Dr. Walker lived in the scientific world. Maybe if I could find something in this whole mess that could prove to be valuable, Dr. Walker would forgive me for being stupid. I had to be able to figure this out, without falling victim to those stupid visions that that dead guy had had. I didn’t know much about the world before I was born; there wasn’t much to know. However, I did know that crazy people were just that; crazy. 

There were billions of people in the world, and I was supposed to believe that I was the savior that this nut dreamt about? It wasn’t possible. I was no more powerful than the others. The fact that I looked like the monsters was just luck. I mean, Dr. Walker of all people had to realize that there are only so many genetic outcomes that can occur in nature. After all, the Vampires bred with the humans. Common sense says that of course there would be humans that could pass. There had to be something that I could do to debunk his theory. The only other thing I could do was hope that the Doc dropped it. He had promised that he would and he had never given me a reason to doubt him yet. 

Darien, on the other hand; I had never seen him act that way. He was usually caring and comforting. He was the rock that had saved me many times. My life was unnerving enough. How much worse would it be if I never got Darien back? I didn’t want to think about that; not yet. It was just one more thing that I was sure I couldn’t live through. I had a monster that wanted to eat me and a best friend that hated me; scarier than that, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be the same if I had to live without either of them. 

If I could convince the Doc that spending the time that I had with Akia was a good thing, then I could fix it. Maybe I could convince him to let me pretend to be interested in
Akia. Yeah, pretend was a good word; I could almost believe it myself. If Akia thought that I cared about him, he would talk to me. Anything that he told me would be something new that we didn’t know. It would be like really having a source on the inside. If I could get close enough to Akia to learn his weaknesses and his fears, it would help the Doctor’s big plans. I could maybe even gain enough trust that he would explain to me how their weapons worked. Maybe if I was good enough, he would explain the invasion step by step. If we knew how everything happened, it would be easier for us to regain control of the planet. There might never be a chance like this again. It was definitely worth trying. I mean worth trying, if I didn’t have to lose my best friend along the way. Why can’t you have your cake and eat it too, damn it?

I was excited now. There was a chance that I could take this very, very bad thing and make it good. Any trust that I could gain would get us all one step closer to the information that we needed. I picked up the phone and called the vault. After ringing three or four times, Jewel picked up.

“Hello.” 

“Hey Jewel, how bad is it there? Are there flames shooting out of the Doc’s ears?”

“Oh Cat, are you OK? You left so upset, I didn’t have the chance to tell you that I believed you. That man was crazy and it isn’t fair that everyone thinks he was talking about you. I went to Dr. Walker and told him that he needed to find you and set things straight.”

I was shocked. I mean, I knew Jewel loved me; she loved everyone. But I had never known her to stand up to anyone before, especially not one of the men. I didn’t think it was possible to love her any more than I already did, but at that moment, I realized that I was wrong 

“Jewel, you have no idea how much that means to me. You didn’t have to do it though. Please do not stress yourself out with my problems.” I really needed to hear that someone was on my side. I felt alone without Darien, but at least Jewel would be there if my world came crashing down around me. 

“It is OK; you had every right to be mad. The guys walk all over you. Once Dr. Walker gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him, and you do not have to constantly be the one that has to deal with it. As far as Darien is concerned, he was just worried about you. I am sure he didn’t mean anything that he said. He thought that it was his fault that you had disappeared. He was crushed Cat; he really was. I know it wasn’t his fault and I tried to calm him down and I couldn’t. I am sorry.”

Jewel had the power to make you feel better. When she talked about everything that had went on earlier, it was like it was no big deal. I don’t think that she realized just how wonderful she was. In a world where we were free, I knew in the bottom of my heart that she would have changed the world. I was going to find a way to thank her. I don’t think she realized just how much she had helped me with her words. 

“Thank you, Jewel. You have no idea how much I needed to hear that I’m not crazy. Is Dr. Walker around? I would like to try to smooth things over a little bit.”

“I will get him for you. Cat, just remember that he is older and set in his ways. Do not let him get to you.” 

With that, Jewel was gone and there was nothing but silence. If I was ever allowed to go back to the vault, I would see what I could do about putting some music on the hold button. Silence bothered me to say the least. I like a little noise; it lets you know that you are alive.

“Hello, Cat. Before you yell, I must apologize for my assumptions earlier.” He sounded really sincere; maybe he really did feel bad. Point one for me. 

“It is alright Doc; that isn’t what I am calling about anyway. I want to talk to you about this Akia mess.” 

“Cat, you are going to have to let me sit down for this one. I am not so sure that the old ticker can handle any more surprises from you tonight.” Good old Dr. Walker always knew the wrong thing to say. He had managed within one second to take away every ounce of confidence that Jewel had just given me.  For a moment, I thought about hanging up and hiding. If I was hiding, then I wouldn’t have to face what I had done and I wouldn’t have to face Darien. But then, I would be no better off than I was when I left the first time. 

“It isn’t that bad, I promise. Just let me get through this before you disagree. It is important that you hear me out.” I waited and when he didn’t protest I hurried along before he could reconsider. “I know that I have put us all in danger. I never meant to end up in that room with Akia that night. I definitely didn’t mean to share blood with him, but maybe it all happened for a reason.” He hadn’t interrupted yet and that was either a good sign, meaning he was willing to listen, or it was a really bad one, and he was right; his heart couldn’t take any more stress from me tonight. Either way, it wasn’t very often that the Doc just sat backed and listened, so I decided to continue on. “Now I have an inside track. How much easier would it be for you to make your plans, if there was someone on the inside feeding you information? I know that it is r
isky, but I also know that the King of monsters is intrigued with me. I am sure it is just a temporary thing. Once he gets to know me a little bit better, he will be able to move on. I think that you should let me do this. I have to do it now though, before he moves on to someone better.”