Ink

Chapter 24

"What do you mean, company?" Klaus says with narrowed eyes.

"My-"

"If you say friends I am going to-"

"Rip my head off of my shoulders?" Caleb says mocking Klaus. "Yeah I get it Klausy."

"Alliana? Could you please remove these chains  so I can kill him?" Klaus turns to me. His eyes glow slightly as if he's trying to coax me into setting him free.

"Not going to work Klaus." I say.

"It was worth a shot." He responds and shakes around in his chains."Looks like I have to do all of the work myself."

"Caleb, how much time do we have?"

"Ten minutes at most. They closed in fast."

"What do you suppose we do?" I ask.

"I think we should go with them." He begins."They're not going to hurt you unless you lash out. Plus, you're valuable. The king wants you. They can't risk hurting you because they'd be risking a chance at killing blue eyes."

As he speaks about killing Mephistor, a sudden anger flares inside of me.

"He's not a bad man, Caleb." I say."It's the virus, it's making him-"

"Was it the virus that made him put his signature on the papers that would okay the mass extermination of the remainder of the human race?"

That news shocks me.

"Caleb-"

"Was it the virus that made him take control of my mind to tell you god knows what?"

"I don't-"

"The virus doesn't make you a bad person, Alliana. The virus only amplifies who you really are on the inside." Caleb runs a hand through his hair before looking up at me through thick eyelashes.

"How do you know that?"

He stills for a moment as if he is trying to figure out the right thing to say.

"Al, I'm going to need you to stay calm for this." He begins slowly.

"I am calm, Caleb. Please tell me what you know if it'll help us understand-"

"That's the thing, Alliana, this might be something that you don't want to hear."

I tilt my head to the side and wait for him to continue.

He clears his throat.

"Al, I know how the virus works because it was created by the Resistance."

The room goes silent and I look over at Klaus to see that he has stopped struggling and is now sitting still on the floor listening intently.

"The virus was originally created to cause blue eyes to go crazy." Caleb continues."It affects the brain in such a way that causes all humanity to shut down over time and become completely monster. We have a way to tell when a vampire is gifted. Whenever a gifted vampire uses their power, a powerful energy begins to radiate from them. We are trained to pick up on this signal. The virus was designed to only infect him. We had no knowledge that there were other gifted vampires until, well, you two." He points to Klaus and I."We knew that blue eyes was already bad, so the virus was designed to make it worse."