The Enki

Chapter 49

I wake up in a daze, unaware of my surroundings at first. There is a dull pain in my left arm. I look down, and there is a drip feeding some chemical into my body.

I look to my right and see Tharn at my side.

"Good evening, Taqeph. You've been asleep for quite some time."

I try to struggle, but my whole body is paralysed. I call to the Mother.

"I wouldn't try anything if I was you."

I follow Tharn's gaze to the corner of the room. I see my father strapped to a table a similar drip in his arm, too.

"Your father is on a lower dose of the drug you are on. One wrong move and one click of a button, and he is dead. Lucky for you, one click of a button only temporarily puts you to sleep."

I look at him with horror in my eyes. I think back to my last moment with Christophe, craving to be back with him. Safe. He had warned me, but I was too arrogant to listen. I took my anger out on him for only ever trying to do what was right. What I would give to go back to that moment.

I had to be resilient. It wouldn't serve me to give up. There was always hope.

"Father, please, let him go. He is innocent in all of this."

"Oh, I beg to differ. He is the only thing preventing you from accessing the power of The Mother."

So my secret was out. The only card I had to play.

"I have to admit when Magnus told me in the field that day, I didn't believe him. How could our Mother choose you to carry out her will. So very human and weak. Makes sense now that she would want someone who sympathised more with the humans than her own kind. You know Tapeqh, when you were born, it was the greatest moment of my life. All of my dreams come to fruition. I had finally created a way for us, a future. Then your mother had to intervene. Makes sense now. She was on a mission from the Mother. That, at least, I can respect."

"You forced her, your own wife, to have sex with other men. How could you justify rape, father? The woman you chose to be sealed to."

For a moment, I see the human in him. Regret crossing his face and quickly replaced with anger.

"May I remind you that if you choose to continue your crusade against me, your "innocent" father will die."

I look at the man who raised me. I wish that he had never been involved in this. I had to come up with a plan. My mother had survived my father, and so would I.

"I want to see Magnus, I want to see my husband."

The last person I wanted to see was the man who betrayed me again, but he was the key to my survival. I knew he would never...procreate...with me in this state. If my father wanted his wish, he would have to extend trust to me. My only hope was to gain that trust.

Tharn looks at me as if he didn't believe me but nodded.

"It's in your best interest to bend to your husbands will. I wouldn't wish to repeat your mother's experience. I am not above it, though. Remember that Tapeqh. If you choose to disobey me, your womb will be my property to be used by whom I wish."

With that, he leaves, and I breathe a sigh of relief. My head was still fuzzy, but I had to focus. I watch as the drip feeds me more of the poison and my eyes close, exhausted.

When I open them, Magnus is sitting by my side. He starts to get up but stops himself.

"Rose...I...how are you feeling."

How was I feeling? Betrayed. Angered. Confused. Hurt.

"I'm doing okay. Everything is a bit fuzzy."

Relieved by my placated attitude, Magnus moves to my side, holding my hand gently.

"Rose, you have to know that I only ever had your interests in mind. I know you want the same things as me. I had thought, perhaps, we would naturally come together and avoid any ugliness. I love you, Rose. Bond or not. I want us to put everything behind us and start fresh."

The fact that my heart still skipped a beat when he said that he loved me was annoying. I couldn't help but have this attraction to him. The more reason to get rid of the bond. I had to think of how I could manipulate the moment.

"I want this too. I wish you had been honest with me from the start. I love you too, and I also want to start again. Away from all of this."

The seed was planted. It wasn't going to be that easy, though.

"You know that we can not leave here until Tharn gets what he wants."

To have sex and make babies. Even in this moment of absolute hopelessness, I could see us as parents, Magnus would love our child unlike Tharn.

"How does he expect to get what he wants when he drugs me like this!"

Magnus frowns. Maybe I had gone too far.

"It is a...challenge...he doesn't trust you. Rose, if we are being honest with each other, I don't trust you either. Every inch of me was burned when you escaped last time. Part of me will always fear you and the power you hold."

I had deliberately disassociated that moment, but now it came back in full HD. I tried to blink away the vision I had of Magnus burning, reaching out for me despite the pain.

"I'll never be free of her Magnus, not until she has filled her purpose."

"We have to make her see that Enki have to survive. That we are here for good."

I release my body and call her. I feel her in me but she is also very faint. What was it that Tharn was giving me? I needed to sober up at the very least.

"I want the Enki to continue as you do. I'll do what it takes but you have to see. I... I've never, been that way with anyone."

Magnus draws closer to me and kisses me deeply. The sensation from his lips lights my body on fire. It was almost as it I had control over my body again. I reach for him, wanting to keep the power flowing through me. Magnus grips on to me.

"Rose, you cannot know how much I crave you."

"Then let me be free. Let me be fully conscious, when we make love."

It was a risky move. Magnus was intelligent. Spending hundreds of years on Earth will do that to you. What I had on my side was the truth. I wanted him as much as he wanted me.

"My love. Its what I want but there isn't just me to convince of your loyalty. Without our powers we cannot assume intention. You'll need to convince Tharn of your loyalty."

I had won the battle but the war would be harder.

"What must I do?"

"You must prove that you are loyal to Enki and Enki only."

"How am I supposed to do that, in this state?"

Magnus looks across at my unconscious father and then I know the price that I must pay.