Paragon

⊰❉⊱ 39 ⊰❉⊱

"Christ–Fletcher?!" She shouted, weapon raised high.

I eyed it with the corner of my lips cracking towards a smirk.

"You disappear on me–then stand there–in the middle of the night?" She demanded, exasperated.

"That's a very good sketch." I answered instead, looking at what once was my eyes before her hand had sharply scraped across it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She muttered, dropping it and pressing her palm into her face.

I took a careful seat beside her at the low table and watched her closely. She looked tired but alert. Like my presence was an expectation but at any second.

"I'm so sorry." I told her blatantly. It made her draw out of her hand slowly. "I didn't leave you with any idea of what was happening–to me. Or when I would..." I sighed and looked back at the dark reflection of my eyes.

"You looked so different." She noted, without fear lacing her words. It was just a fact. "Whatever you became–wasn't anything compared to what I'd seen before."

"I know." I answered hollow. "It's what I've been keeping so far from you."

"And now... Are you..?" She trailed off, scanning my face.

I met her eyes and her heart picked up between us. Was I still that monster? It was almost a bitter joke. I always was beneath a guarded surface. One she wanted to bring to light so badly.

"I found him. He's gone."

Her eyes darted between my own as she realised what the words meant. What the simple sentence meant of an immortal.

"You killed him–William?"

I nodded.

"What does that mean now?"

"It means we have a bigger problem. One that I need to deal with when we're out of the country–"

"Fletcher, I don't understand. You killed him and now we're on the run again?" She breathed.

Of course she was rightfully hesitant. Why on earth would it make sense for us to be constantly looking over our shoulder once the threat was removed. I hadn't even explained the intricacies of immortal life to her yet and I was still dragging her deeper into it.

"Quinn, you deserve so much more than what I'm giving to you." I stated as plain as day, dropping my stare. It could never be more true.

"That's not an answer either."

"But it's the truth." I pressed, glaring at the table. "All of it. My world is tangling with you more and you did not ask for this–"

"I asked to be a part of your life, Fletcher. You tried to dissuade me once before."

I levelled her and took the side of her jaw in my palm.

"Yet you could never have imagined what that meant."

"Just tell me." She said simply. "Give me the facts on where we stand right now."

I brushed my thumb along her jawline and felt her pulse increase. Then I met those bright green irises and nodded.

"The oldest immortals. The elite group that have such a tight grip on all of us. Paragon." I stated, watching her reaction as she stilled under my palm. "–they want me. They want to detail what happened to William. His actions and my own. Then they will know everything else that has occurred in my existence over the last few years... In excruciating detail." I added.

"And I'm a problem in that detail?" She summarised with a casual expression.

"Quinn I don't think you understand–"

She smiled briefly and caught my hand with a head shake. "Actually I think you need to understand, Tara Fletcher."

I flinched and frowned.

"It's practically a shake down."

"A–what?" I asked, losing all sense of the meaning.

That slow smile returned and she propped her head on her hand looking at me. "In my line of work it's a much bigger entity using known power to intimidate a smaller client. In your case its already working."

I was at a total loss.

"You're suggesting I feel threatened by an organisation that has existed for thousands of years–yes you are correct!" I hissed, darkening my eyes at her easy nature. This was hardly another law case to be taken with a pinch of salt.

"Fletcher, they only know I am your weakness if you give them that."

"Adams, if you could make sense–"

She drew her hand over my lips and made me lose my focus and words in the move. Why was she so damned relaxed?

"Stop thinking of me like I mean something to you." She deadpanned.

"But you mean everything–"

"Exactly!" She laughed, shaking her head like I was missing the most key ingredient to all of this, "–I need to become nothing to you. Another mortal that is forgotten as easily as remembered. That's how you hide your weakness with someone in power."

"Quinn I am not about to gamble your life just to keep them at bay!" I growled.

She moved her fingers until they went through my hair on both sides of my head and it made everything hard to keep in focus. She tipped her face closer and made sure my sole attention was on her–as if it were anywhere else.

"For someone that's been on this earth for a hundred years you are adorably innocent."

A low sound left my throat and she grinned before me.

"I'll put it more simply. If you really are as important to them as I think you are... You're going to need to make them believe I mean absolutely nothing to you, Fletcher. Or we may as well keep running forever. Because if there's one thing I've learnt about the powerful... it's that they do not like to share what's theirs." She finished slowly.

Just like that. As simple as breathing she had summarised what it was to be a member of Paragon. Without even truly knowing what they were. Or how they worked. Quinn Adams with less than a century of life knew more of the rules than I even fully considered. 

But not just that. She knew how to beat them.