Page 14 of Dark Reign

Long, dark waves hung to his neckline where broad shoulders stretched the material of a black sweater. Low, manicured facial hair brought my focus to his lips—a perfect shade of pale pink, full. He, like the other three, shared that same silver stare and I forced my gaze away from him, realizing my thoughts had gotten sidetracked.

In the bottom left corner was Levi, the most outspoken of the four—a loud mouth in my opinion.

Typically, I found it hard to believe so many flung themselves at him. That is, until moments like this, when the full effect of his attractiveness was so freakin’ apparent. It was hard to admit, but I could see why the fact that he was a major dick ninety-nine-percent of the time wasn’t a deterrent. Even with his perfectly imperfect smile, slight gap between his two front teeth and all. In fact, it made him evenmoreattractive in my opinion. Perhaps because, even with what some would consider a flaw, he was still insanely confident, bordering on arrogant.

His chosen photo was another I remembered. It was one from the cover of a fashion magazine Liv swiped while on a supply run. She and I sat up that night, scowling as we read the feature written about him. We became more cynical and condescending with every line, but there was a reason we went over the article three times. Ithad nothing to do with our interest in Levi’s newly-debuted, men’s accessory line, and everything to do with the full spread from the accompanying photoshoot.

As I stared at the image now, I noted how the contrast of dark stubble against his pale skin highlighted his cheekbones and broad jawline. I breathed deep, imagining the melodic lilt of the thick, English accent rolling off his tongue. Just like I observed during several interviews he’d given.

I’d done it again, had gotten distracted from the newscast.

‘The next twelve months will be quite the whirlwind for our princes, Natalie.’

‘I’ll say. They’ll be assigned their very own team of experts tasked with the job of grooming them for their upcoming roles. There will also be a frenzy of social events and travel engagements to better acquaint themselves with foreign dignitaries. Hopefully, we’ll get a small glimpse of Julian’s political prowess during tonight’s Address.’

The pair flashed one another loaded glances.‘Well, it sounds like the Lydian Dynasty’s most eligible bachelors just upped the ante, ladies.’

“Ugh … can we turn it off now?” Alex begged. “How can the dead be considered the most eligibleanything?” Shameless, he laughed at his own joke.

“Technically,” Liv chimed in after him. “They’re not dead. Can’t be dead if you have a heartbeat—even a slow, infrequent one like theirs. And let’s not forget the whole reproduction thing. By definition, a biologically dead specimen shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Whoa, Liv! Zip up your pants!” I added with a laugh. “Your genius is hanging out.”

“They’re freezing to the touch,” Alex cut in again, continuing his argument with one word. “Dead.”

For this answer, Liv donned a menacing smile. “That’s because of the afore mentioned slow heartrate. Besides, that whole … always-freezing-to-the-touch thing isn’t completely true, my dear friend. It’s common knowledge among those of us who don’t walk with our knuckles dragging the ground, that when Ianites are stimulated to extremes—emotional …physical,”she added with a suggestive bounce to her brow, “they’re warm. So, try again, lame.”

She grinned, having knocked down another of Alex’s theories.

He stood, a habit of his when he thought he was about to make a good point. “If you don’t eat, don’t need sleep, I don’t care what anyone says … you’re dead. A corpse walking.”

“And I’ll have to correct you again,” Liv said with a smile. “Theydoeat. You know this. In fact, there areseveralmarkets popping up all over, and I assure you, they aren’t there to feed any of us.”

“Scarfing down human food as a gluttonous delicacy doesn’t count,” Alex argued. “The bottom line is they wouldn’t die if they didn’t get their cookie fix or a slice of sweet Aunt Margaret’s homemade, blueberry pie. They would, however, become little more than fertilizer in snazzy clothes if they didn’t get blood. So, I rest my case. They’re dead,” he reiterated.

When he proceeded to dance in Liv’s face, she gave up, muttering a frustrated, “Why do I even bother?”

“Shh, shh, shh!” The frantic sound came from Shay, and as she moved toward the screen to increase the volume, we all quieted down.

‘The commonality between those affected by the latest outbreak of the sickness has been narrowed down to one particular blood source. Unlike the other cases, which typically involve human males who have willingly injected themselves with contaminated blood, authorities have gone on record stating that this new case stems from blood drawn on lot number 001, from the offspring of a sow identified as HIN-190487.’

We all glanced around, meeting one another’s gazes as we processed the reporter’s update. She was right. All cases before this were linked back to human men who’d willingly sacrificed their lives, infecting themselves with an illness fatal to both humansandIanites. To date, tens of thousands had been affected, killed by what Ianite officials had deemed an act of biological terrorism.

However, if you ask me, this thinking was incredibly flawed. Therealterrorists were the ones being targeted, not those hoping to even the playing field for future generations of humans by taking out a chunk of the Ianite population.

But now … to hear that this latest case didn’t seem to line up with the others, we were all intrigued.

I wasn’t surprised to see Liv’s pencil just about starting a fire on that notepad again.

‘Nine Ianite deaths have already been confirmed just in the last forty-eight-hours, with a staggering thirty receiving medical treatment as we speak,”Catherine added.‘The donor is the first offspring of HIN-190487 and it’s been reported that, upon this discovery, both subjects were immediately rushed to the Simon Tine Facility for testing and further investigation.’

Felix and Liv turned my way at the same time.

“We have to get on this,” Felix spoke first, probably only beating Liv to the punch by a narrow margin. “We … I’ve never heard anything like it before. If it’s true that this woman and her kid are infected, and still living after having passed the sickness on to Ianites … that means they’ve done it. Whoever’s behind this has figured out a way to sneak the illness into the Ianite blood supply without killing the host.”

He could hardly get the words out as he rushed around in search of his laptop. Finding it beneath a pile of papers and soda cans, he plopped down into a seat, and as he booted it up, the pale-gray glow illuminated his face.

“We need to know how HIN-190487’s tainted lot made it past quality control, how long it took the blood to affect the ones who consumed it.” Liv was pacing, raking her fingers through her cropped hair.

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