Antidote?

Chapter 11

Vivian’s POV

"What do you mean by antidote? Do you mean he has been poisoned? How? When?"

I held up my hand, making sure that I didn’t touch the silver bars in order not to burn my flesh. All of that doesn’t matter right now, the most important thing is saving his life. What is going through his system is actually a newly concocted poison that is supposed to be strong enough to take down an elephant or, in this case, a Lycan Alpha.

He looked at me, his eyes laced deep with suspicion, then he backed away, shaking his head. "I can’t believe I almost let you deceive me. Did you think that you would be able to sneak out of here if I allowed you to make the antidote?"

"You won’t need me to come out of here," I responded to him. "I can give the instructions from inside here, if that’s what you’re worried about."

He raised an eyebrow. "The instructions? You intend to command me and my people? A forsaken werewolf Luna? Do you even hear yourself right now? Perhaps you have really lost all of that intelligence you were known for. Perhaps you’re just a rambling madwoman now."

I started again, running my fingers through my hair. I had been driving like crazy to make it all the way to their territory, and now it was all going to be a waste if he died. I was sure that his death was going to be blamed on me, my demise would follow not shortly after. But if I was able to save him, then we would both survive.

"I know you have no reason to trust me. You would be foolish to believe everything I said after all."

"At least you are aware of that," he said. He wasn’t as openly aggressive as his youngest brother was, but you could taste the acidity with every word that dropped from his mouth, even as he laid it down with elegance and class.

"Didn't you see the state that he was in when I brought him here? He has clearly been poisoned. The drug in his system..."

He waved his hand around as if I was a bug he was trying to get rid of. "Don't bother pouring out your lies. We are royalty of pure Lycan blood. The worst that the deadliest poison can do on Earth is weaken or slightly put us under the weather. I'm sure that he'll bounce right back like nothing happened. You're making all of this up so that you can take the credit for when he eventually recovers. Too bad I'm not stupid enough to fall for it."

I sighed deeply, running my fingers over my face until they reached my hair and came down. He watched me, his eyes still bearing the same intensity as his brother's, but his felt different. It felt almost clinical, as if I was being cut apart with a scalpel under a surgeon's attention. Time was of the essence, and every moment we spent with this pointless back-and-forth, we were wasting it.

"What can I do to make you believe me?" I said.

And without even wasting his breath, he replied, "There is absolutely nothing you can do. I don't trust you and I have no reason to. I only want to wait for my brother to recover so that we can collectively decide what we are going to do with you. That's the only reason why you're still breathing right now, so don't start getting any ideas."

"What I'm trying to tell you right now is that your brother will not recover without my help, but you're not letting me help him by ignoring me."

"Has anybody ever told you that you have a lot of nerve?" I could see that I was getting to the edge of his patience, but I couldn't back away now, even if it meant that I would lose my head just from incurring his temper alone.

"Maybe I do have a lot of nerve, but I'm not what you should be worried about right now. Your brother, he's not going to recover unless he takes the antidote. Are you really going to put your pride above his safety?"

He was quiet for the longest time, and I was afraid that he would just turn around and storm out. Instead, he lowered his voice, bringing it down to something that almost sounded like a whisper.

"I'm going to give you a chance. Just a single one. And if along the line I decide to change my mind, or you give me any reason to, whichever one happens first, just consider that your unfortunate end."

"You and your brother really like to threaten people, don't you?" I didn't allow him enough time to be properly taken aback before I continued. "All right then. I'll need to make a list of all the things that I need. It should be easy for you to get."

"Out of courtesy, I should just give you a warning ahead that whatever antidote you make for him, you'll have to take it first," he said. "Of course, you'll have no problem with it, right?"

I nodded in quick agreement. This surprised him briefly, then he snapped his fingers and told me to get on with the list. And so I told him everything I needed, from random flowers to common herbs. I could see the doubt beginning to cloud his eyes again, however, he still kept everything to mind, and by the time I was done, he looked at me as if his eyes could possibly pierce through my flesh. Then he said, with his eyebrows briefly knotting.

"Viper, I don't know why you're doing this, but I feel the need to remind you once again that if this all turns out to be another one of your schemes, it will be your last. I could promise you that."

I could sense the fierce sincerity in his words, and they continued to spin through my mind until he was gone.