A Study of Poisons

TWENTY SEVEN

Over the phone, I could hear the steady commotion of court in the background. Surano was getting tired of it all. "Any update on court?" I commented as his sighing was only getting louder by the second.

I expected something a little wild, but instead I was met by his boredom. "It's been quiet over here since the top threat about the black thorns." I thought about the dead Maggie, who held onto darker secrets that I had known. A Soviet witch with nothing but hatred and a plan to curse the Prince.

"Yeah it's been pretty silent over her since the Sabien problem." I motioned it knock on wood as my heart battled on. I didn't want to think about anything matching or getting worse to what happened that day.

Then Surano opened his big mouth to speak, starling the downfall of our friendship. "You want my thoughts?" He asked me like I had a choice to listen or not in the end. "I think this is all a ploy to bring attention to their courts." My lip curled against my teeth as I bit down on it.

I shook my head, "Surano. I don't think that's right. I mean, these guys are really scared." I thought about Alex and Nat who have been hiding their fear everyday. Afraid one of them will either go Lost or die. Or worst.

"Please, they're all powerful immortals. They don't need humans watching their every step." He spat on our creed as he spoke, stepping on my hesitation too as I was quick to reply to him.

"They aren't all power. They still bleed and get hurt."

Even my explanation seemed to not reach him, like taking to a stubborn brick wall. "Don't humanize them Delia." The avoidance, his voice almost filled with agony. I wondered how long he had been holding these feelings in.

Out came an excuse, "I am not humanizing them, I am telling you they aren't monsters."

"Yet, but they always go Lost. Even when you think they're safe." He broke off another piece of his mismatched puzzle. One that was put together with memories from our time as friends, now being destroyed by his very hands. I don't know why he was reaching this far with me today.

Again, I was quick to defend the Vampires. "They can't help it."

"Bullshit. I handle my emotions every single day." He said as if their emotions weren't upscaled three times the amount of a teenager. As if they weren't fighting bloodlust and the pain of their hunger everyday.

I could feel my words escape my mouth as I lost my train of thought. "It's not like normal emotions, they're fighting a curse. A wicked and horrible curse that feeds of their fear." I was forgetting myself as I spoke, for right now I wasn't talking like a Keeper. I was talking like a traitor. I should watch my words, but that doesn't matter to me anymore. Since my life was nearly over anyway.

"Fear of what? Humans?" Annoyance bubbled from the pit of my gut as he spoke.

I cursed under my breath as I began my tangent, my hand cupping my phone as I watched myself in my mirror. Throwing my hands around as if he were right in front of me. "Us. Surano they fear us. Do you ever think that maybe they aren't the bad guys. Maybe are the villains." My lungs burned as I spoke, poison dripping from my lips.

"I don't see how, they kill people."

Again, I went on and on in my head. To only say half of what I felt. "And we kill them. We separate them from their families, we tear them apart as beings. To us they are animals." As savages. We sounded no better than every white colonizer to an innocent civilization. We were the monsters, we were the killers.

"We do what we do to protect the innocent." He told me.

I added back, "Maybe some of them are the innocent."