by Kim Petersen
Arella wriggled her arm. ‘Let go of me!’ she hissed, her eyes darting toward the growing number of police cars pulling up down the street.
Regan yanked her toward the shadows. ‘Come with me if you want to live.’
Her eyes narrowed as he pulled her within his full grasp. She instantly recoiled. ‘Are you serious? This isn’t the terminator!’
He gestured across the street. ‘You’re still in danger. He wants the seed and he won’t stop until you give it to him.’
Arella screwed up her face. Her long wild hair bounced across her shoulders as she shook her head. ‘What seed? You people are completely mad,’ she said, turning to follow Regan’s gesture.
A wave of dread flushed through her. Zane was standing under a street light. His hands were buried deep into his jean pockets and he was rocking back and forth while looking toward the commotion at the end of the street. The dark hood of his sweat shirt cloaked and shadowed most of his face like a mask, yet even before he turned her way, she knew his identity.
Zane’s chin dropped. His eyes were veiled in darkness, and his thick lips were clearly defined under the glowing street light. They curled into a twisted grin, sending a shiver down Arella’s spine like an electric current. Her heart pounded as her eyes were caught in his gaze. The severity of his intentions began to dawn on her. She could feel his venomous eyes between the road that separated them, as well as the squeeze of Regan’s fingers and his stare boring into the back of her head. She knew she had to do something.
‘Do you think Zane Crais will let you live after tonight? The police won’t believe you. Do you really think they can help you?’ Regan murmured, pulling her gently. ‘You saw what he can become.’
Arella swallowed. What the hell is going on here? Her throbbing headache returned with a vengeance.
She stared back at Regan. ‘I saw you too,’ she hissed, searching for his eyes under the glasses. ‘You didn’t even flinch when you first saw him! And why were you even there? Never mind, don’t answer that!’ She snapped her arm away, pivoted her feet and dashed from the shadows. She paused and looked at him. ‘I’ll take my chances with them, thanks.’
She dashed toward her house and threw a glance back toward him as she ran. However, by this time he had disappeared from the camouflage of the trees. When she dared look back to the other side of the street, she found no sign of Zane Crais either.
Her pace slowed as she approached her house, and she was suddenly overcome with the enormity of her ordeal. Tears and rotating blue lights blinded her eyes in a vivid blurry sea while each footstep became heavier as she neared her front fence. Logan is dead! No! No! Not my Logan! She struggled to contain her emotions as she knew it was vital to contain the light-force threatening to overcome her.
A tall sturdy police woman blocked her way. ‘Excuse me ma’am, you can’t be here. Do you live nearby? I advise you go back inside your home and lock your doors. We’ll be questioning all residents in due course.’
Arella leveled her eyes at the officer. Tears rolled silently and fell from her chin in a constant drizzle. ‘I am home.’ Her voice broke.
The woman frowned down at her. ‘This is your home?’
‘Yes. I was here when it happened.’
The officer’s eyes widened, her jaw dropped slightly. ‘You were here, ma’am? What is your name?’
‘Arella Anderson,’ she whispered, before her eyes fell to the ground.
The officer placed an arm around her shoulder. ‘Come with me,’ she said.
She steered Arella toward the front porch and instructed another police officer to stay with her while she fetched the lieutenant. Arella’s legs buckled as she collapsed to the floor in a tangled heap. She brushed away the hands of the police officer trying to help her and pulled her body as close as possible while burying her head into her knees. More people surrounded her, calling softly to her and stroking her back. She felt as if they crushed all around her and invaded her space. She felt as if every part of her life had been violated.
In the space of a few hours, her life had become gnarled and tainted with images and events that would scar her forever, and she knew nothing would ever be the same again. She realized her life mirrored a nightmare and it had just begun.
Regan tossed his keys on the kitchen bench top and immediately set about pouring himself a whiskey. He straddled one of the stools and drained the warm liquid in one gulp before splashing more into the glass. Tiredness nagged behind his eyes and drifted through his head with a thousand thoughts. Suddenly the quest for the Serenity Seed just became a lot more complicated, and he was as puzzled about the latest revelations as he was about the feelings driving him.
He thought about Zane Crais and his newly acquired hybrid embodiment. Zane had always been a dangerous opponent. The Knowles family were always meticulous in their business transactions with the Crais family for this reason. Zane was the wild card. He trekked into the underworld with a deep shovel, carelessly dipping his hands into the shadier side of shady. His extracurricular activities included organ trafficking, people smuggling and nuclear trading. And his dark ventures lacked the consideration they would bring to his father, Alexander Crais, who was more mindful of the affairs he chose to partake, and more predictable than his son.
How Zane was able to make a physical shift such as the one Regan witnessed tonight was beyond him, but he knew the stakes were raised. And raised stakes required elevated thinking. When they met at Arella’s house earlier, he saw the hideous conviction in Zane’s eyes. One thing he knew for sure was that Zane’s thirst to find the seed superseded everything else in his life; enough to result in a murdered wife and slaughtered children. Regan knew the maddened man had no intention of stopping until he had the woman and the seed.
He stood up, pulled off his jacket and stretched, rotating his broad shoulders and swinging his blond head back. He yawned widely, and his watery gaze caught sight of the painting he had brought home from the restaurant basement. He had propped the canvas against a bare wall on the floor and had forgotten about it. He thought about the woman as he neared the painting. How odd that the same woman he had briefly met at the club turned out to be the woman with the seed. Arella Anderson. Had he known she was within his grasp, he would have seized the opportunity and had the situation and the whereabouts of the seed under control by now. Yet, as he sat before the canvas and allowed his eyes to casually sweep across the contours and blends of the paint, he knew he was kidding himself.
‘Damn it!’ he cursed, annoyed by the course his life seemed to be taking and even more miffed with the feelings he was experiencing lately.
His long fingers combed through his hair. He held the weight of his head in his hands and closed his eyes. All was quiet, and the rhythmic draw of his breath captured his attention. He felt a sense of truce flutter through him as he breathed in and became aware of a slight tingle at the nape of his neck. He cracked a lid open and steadily eyed the painting. It seemed to evoke an inexplicable sense of peace he had never known. Both eyes were open now as he leaned closer to examine the artist’s signature scrawled in the bottom right corner of the canvas. He chuckled with the irony of it as he read the name. Amelia Anderson. It couldn’t be, could it? He vaguely recalled a well-known local artist by that name. Could they be related?
He sat back in contemplation before rising to his feet and quietly leaving the room. The unity drained from him as fatigue crept up on him and impaired his thoughts. They spun and churned through his head like a whirlpool as he entered his bedroom. He was never one to believe in coincidences. Perhaps the artist’s name is just by chance. Anderson is a common name, he shrugged. Still, it’s a correlation that made him uneasy.
He flopped into bed to answer the call of the exhausted. He smiled as he realized he would sleep in the knowledge of the next best place to search for Arella, and he was certain it would take Zane a little more time to discover the information. Sometimes, coincidences have their upsides, and he had
already secured her friend, Jacque’s details from Shagga. But for now, he needed sleep.
Zane crashed into the room and staggered a little. Peering through the dawn glow, he spotted her figure moving under the blankets of the bed. He took a wobbly step. He paused at the sudden searing pain in his head and reached for the wall for support.
‘Argh! Fuck!’ He gritted his teeth which felt like chalk in his mouth. He had an overwhelming urge to grind them together or rip them out. He couldn’t quite figure out which of the two he wanted to do most.
‘Keira, help me out here will ya! Get the fuck up.’
Keira moaned, puffed back her hair with a gushing breath and screwed up her face. ‘It’s like 5.30 in the morning. What are you doing here?’
Zane let go of the wall and stumbled toward the foot of the bed. ‘Thanks a lot. I’ll remember that, I swear I will,’ he grumbled, collapsing at the end of the bed and sighing with relief.
She mumbled something under her breath and regarded him while he lay clutching his face.
‘What?’ He said through his fingers.
‘Huh?’
‘You said something just now.’
Keira shook her head. ‘Nah, I’m still sleepy is all. You know I talk in my sleep,’ she drawled, reaching for him. She touched the top of his head lightly. ‘You’re covered in blood. What did you do, eat an animal or something?’
Zane dropped his hands and looked up at her. She appeared like a blurry vision burning into his eyes and seeping through his mind. She can read my mind! His thoughts scattered with the clattering of his teeth. He noticed the excitement flash across her face. His eyes darted from her. He hated coming down from Shabu; its descent was tough going every time.
‘Or something … I found your friend, Arella Anderson.’
‘Huh? How do you know her name? I never told you that,’ she said.
He laughed. ‘You didn’t have to, sweetheart. Papa Zane can find out anything. Besides, she has you plastered all over her living room. That’s when it occurred to me, she and the fella are the ones looking for you around town, the ones I had my boys sort out … some coincidence huh?’ He propped himself on an elbow and squinted at her. Argh! Note to self – laughing hurts the head.
‘Why were you at her house? I thought you were sending your boys to talk to them, and that’s it,’ Keira said quietly, moving to an upright position on her knees.
He smiled. ‘Well as it turns out, meeting you was meant to be, sweetheart.’ He leaned toward her and cupped his hand under her chin to squeeze her lips together.
He moved his head in wonderment. ‘I knew I murdered my family for a higher purpose tonight. I just didn’t know it at the time … but I now know … you. You are the key to the seed and you were by my side the whole time!’ He crushed his mouth over hers, tracing his tongue along her lips until she opened to him.
She squirmed and pulled away with a frown. ‘You murdered your family? What the hell Zane! Are you fucking crazy? What seed? What are you talking about?’
‘Never mind. Hush, hush. We have more important things to worry about, like the seed and your friend. You know her, and I want to know her just like you.’
Keira shifted slightly, circling her hair behind her ears and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. ‘Why? What’s your sudden interest in my friend? And what’s all this seed shit,’ she muttered.
She inspected the skin on her hand, her face darkening before looking back at him. ‘Why does your mouth taste like blood?’
He sighed. Questions, questions! You would think she would have learned to be more subdued given he paid for her to live in this inner-city apartment and supported her fierce drug habit, both which cost him a small fortune. He reached for his bag, took out his soft leather-bound needle kit and stroked it gently while looking at her. He felt a wave of satisfaction ripple through him as he noticed her eyes gleam through the hazy light of the room. The promise to feed her murky appetite worked like a charm every time.
‘Why don’t you let papa ask the questions,’ he said, eyeing the swell of her breasts through her flimsy nightshirt.
Her demeanor immediately changed. She licked her lips and leaned suggestively toward him, pushing her chest against the delicate buttons of her top. Her eyes dropped to the leather casing and she lightly touched his hand before entwining her fingers with his.
‘Oh yes please, papa,’ she winked. Her face became solemn, yet her eyes didn’t leave the needle kit. ‘Did you finally give into the urge without me?’
‘Another question my dear? Do you ever learn?’
Her dark sallow eyes flicked toward him. She appeared perplexed for a fleeting second, then she furiously shook her head. ‘I … I’m sorry it’s just, I’ve been waiting for you for so long. I’ve been dry all night; I can barely take it. I really need a hit.’
Zane studied her closely, noting her flutter under his stare. He grunted. ‘You know the deal, sweetheart. The sun is coming up; you can have a hit of the regular stuff.’
He pulled out a vile of clear liquid and a syringe, ignoring the pout crossing over her lips. When he had perfected the transformable strain of crystal-meth, he knew its existence would have to be kept private until he was ready to conquer the world. The need to keep their mutated condition secret meant they were on a strict night-time Shabu regimen only. Hence Keira and keeping her in this apartment. When he was done using her as his guinea pig to test out his evolving strains of Shabu, he had entertained the idea of disposal as it certainly would save him a pretty penny. However, he was smart enough to realize her uses. Scientists were much like mothers – their work was never done. Besides, she had other more womanly values too and she wasn’t shy in using them.
Keira looked up at him. ‘But Shabu is so much better. When can we use it through the day? Screw everyone and what they would make of us. I say we just become our hybrid selves and embrace it. Let’s give in to the urges; let’s satisfy the cravings. You did tonight, didn’t you? What was it like? Did you take an animal?’
His eyes lit up despite the throbbing in his head as he thought about feasting on his victim’s internal organs. The experience was better than he had anticipated, leaving him with a delightfully euphoric buzz. So much so, he had almost forgotten why he had come to the house in the first place, until he had heard Arella’s fleeing footsteps in the hallway.
‘I didn’t take an animal. I took a man,’ he grinned.
Keira’s jaw dropped before curving into a sly smile. ‘What man? How did he taste?’
‘Your friend’s man. He tasted better than the finest drop of wine – full-bodied, moist and mellow yet at the same time rich and luscious.’
Her expression muddled. ‘Logan? Whoa! That’s too bad. He wasn’t a bad fella.’ Keira shrugged and shimmied closer to him, offering her arm before she squealed. ‘Tell me more.’
Zane chuckled while drawing the liquid drug into the syringe. ‘That’s what I like about you, sweetheart. I tell you I killed my family and you barely blink an eyelid. I tell you I feasted on a man, and you get all excited.’
He reached for a leather strap and wrapped it around her upper arm, pulling it tight as he watched her closely. ‘I tell you what. I’m gonna tell you a little story about a seed, then you’re gonna tell me a little story about your friend.’
Keira’s eyes closed with the rush of narcotics joining her bloodstream. A smile lingered over her lips and she allowed her body to slump back onto the mattress.
‘I tell you what,’ she giggled softly, toying with his bald head with her fingers. ‘You can tell me all about your little seedy-peedy and I’ll tell you everything about Arella Anderson when I get back from shopping.’
‘Shopping?’
‘Yes, shopping. You look absolutely rank. You need a long shower and some rest. And you also need to give me some cash. I need a new dress and some boots – you know, the knee-high PVC style boots with the stiletto heels I told you about? I just know they’ll look killer
-hot with the dress I’ve had my eye on.’ She leaned over him and brushed her lips against the top of his head. ‘And I know you’ll love them, baby. I can even wear them with that black lace teddy you like so much.’
Zane rolled his eyes. His face creased at the pain broiling through his head. She was right, of course. He could barely function now, much less put up with her prancing around the joint in her high-as-kite state. He should have known better than to give her a hit so early in the morning when he was coming down from his, and he knew his body wouldn’t cope with a hit now.
‘Okay,’ he mumbled, pulling out his wallet and handing her a wad of bills.
Keira gave another squeal. ‘Thanks baby-waby! Did I ever tell you how much I love your hairless head?’
He grunted and watched as she rolled off the bed and floated toward the bathroom. ‘Hey,’ he called.
She spun around and looked at him.
‘Breathe a word to anyone of my whereabouts and I’ll kill you, you understand?’
A smile dazzled her features like a bright sunny day. ‘Of course, Captain Sunshine,’ she gushed, then disappeared through the door.
He smiled inwardly. The woman was growing on him, and now she was all he really had left in the world. ‘Good girl, good girl,’ he mumbled under his breath while clutching his temples. He closed his eyes, willing the tension to leave his aching muscles as his mind lingered on her. If he were really being honest with himself, his reasons for keeping her in this flashy apartment was more than just for science purposes or to keep her quiet about Shabu. He had grown quite fond of the woman, giving in to most of her whims more and more. If she played her cards right, he might even learn to trust her enough to keep her by his side when he found the seed and his power rose with its world-altering influence. He would need a suitable queen by his side now that he was a widower.