The air in the private dining room of the Rusty Pelican was light with the sea breeze, smelling of expensive, seared prime rib and the tension between the two teenagers that felt like a pressurized cabin ready to implode.
Erasmus didn't look up at the furious girl across from him. He kept his eyes lowered, smoothly sliding his steak knife through the tender, bloody meat.
"Cate, try to be reasonable," Erasmus started. Across the table, Cate glared at him. She was fully awake now, and her mind was a locked house. Controlling a telepath was a daunting task under the best conditions, let alone someone with far more raw potency and experience than his own.
His only real advantage was that his powers didn't require physical contact, giving him a constant head start. But repeatedly forcing his way into her mind was extremely inefficient and uncivilized among telepaths.
"Don't 'Cate' me," she retorted, her voice a mix of rage and disbelief. "You're a fucking alien." She stared at him, still struggling to process the reality of the word. An alien. And a bloody one, at that.
"I come in peace," Erasmus said as he held out his hands, trying to calm her down and open a room for negotiation.
"You're the fucking Leviathan. You killed so many people."
"Oh, come on. My total kill count is less than three hundred. Do you know how many people die to mosquitoes every year?" Erasmus deflected the accusation, sharing instead an interesting piece of trivia he learned.
"Listen, you saw my memories and I saw yours. I didn't choose to come to this backward planet. No, my dad, my real dad, put me in a rocket and launched me here. I was stranded before I learned how to speak. I just need to get enough power to get out of here. I'm going to level with you: I'm going to kill a few more supes while I'm here. I'm not going to say no to a free meal, but that's it."
"A free meal," she repeated amazed. "You're talking about human beings. You're talking about my kind."
"Humans kill humans all the time. You're apex predators. I'm just higher on the food chain. If a lion eats a wolf, the forest doesn't get sad. And don't act like we didn't just go through each other's minds. I saw what you were doing before Stan brought you to me." Erasmus retorted, effortlessly stripping away the fragile moral high ground humans desperately cling to.
"You ate a fucking baby! You're going to eat me. That's what you are. This is what scares me, there is no negotiating with you. You're thinking about eating me," Cate exploded, still unable to believe she was having this conversation with a fucking supe-eating alien right now.
Her only saving grace was that Erasmus was reluctant to kill her. Doing so now would immediately raise Edgar's suspicions, and besides, Erasmus was saving her for later.
"Oh, Cate, of course I can't eat you," Erasmus said smoothly. "I need you to keep Edgar blind and away from me. That old man is very paranoid and persistent. Every time I send him away, he comes back running the next day. So look, the Leviathan just killed like one hundred people fifty kilometers away from here. It would be very sad and suspicious, if he came here and killed you. Besides, even if you tell them, would they believe you? And even if they did, what are they going to do to me? Who can defeat me?"
"Cate, all I'm asking for is that we reach an understanding today," Erasmus said. He picked up his wine glass, swirling the dark crimson liquid for a moment before taking a slow, appreciative sip.
Across the table, Cate looked away. Her mind was a locked door, entirely refusing to accept the suffocating reality she was trapped in.
"But if we can't, and you really push me..." Erasmus set the glass down and picked up his fork, pinning a thick, juicy cube of the prime rib. He sliced through it effortlessly with his steak knife. "...well, why would I need to be subtle about it? Charles gave me a very... compatible gift."
He placed the tender, bloody piece of meat into his mouth. He chewed slowly. He swallowed, then locked his cold eyes onto hers.
"Can your hands really bear what will happen if you push just a bit too hard? Instead of the few supes I'm interested in, and the family I'm enjoying, I will kill every single being my eyes land on. I will keep going until there is nothing left in this world but me, you, and your God, if He exists."
Erasmus reached for his napkin, gently dabbing the corners of his mouth.
"And after killing even Him, I will leave you alone on this planet with the carcass. Would you prefer that instead? It would take an extraordinarily amount of time, but I can be extraordinarily petty if you want to be stubborn."