The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (19 page)

But Perish always had to press them, like in Donnely he seemed to get pleasure from bullying those under his control. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah,” the three of them murmured.

Then the scientist put a hand on my shoulder and patted it. “See? It’s all on you, Killian. You are in control and you decide who lives and who dies. All up to Killian. If they make it to the border maybe I might let them live. Do you want that, slaves? If you make it alive to the border, I let you live. It’s all up to –”

I put my hand over my mouth as the tears sprung to my eyes. I turned from the slavers and kept walking towards the town. My shoulders shaking and my throat tightening around the boulder of guilt that was growing with each passing minute.

This was all up to me…

But I could do it. I wiped my eyes with my sleeve and tightened my lips, forcing the guilt and sorrow down. I was Reaver Merrik’s boyfriend. I had killed King Silas and I had killed Perish. I was strong; I could get everyone out of this okay. I had already failed Jade, and I wouldn’t fail these slaves. I would get them all out of this alive.

I would get out alive too. I might get radiation poisoning but if Elish was with Reaver I could get detoxed in Skyfall – I could still make it out of this alive.

Or maybe, since it would be weeks to months, Reaver would find me? If I wanted him to find me… I was scared of what Perish had in his head. The entire reason we were out here was because the O.L.S held the secret of how to kill immortals.

The O.L.S that Perish was implanted with.

I glanced up at the sky and focused my ears to any noise that might be a Falconer. Right now I might even prefer the Legion to find us, because at least Elish would then know I was here. But there was nothing above me but sky and a sun hidden behind hazy grey.

We were alone, just the five of us.

And no one knew where we were.

Perish put his arm around me but I ignored him. I knew if I opened my mouth to say anything I would start to cry again.

“I know why you’re looking at the sky, Killian,” Perish whispered into my ear. “And I guarantee you – he’s in Skyfall right now with Silas. They’re making love every night, getting to know each other in intimate ways you never dreamed of. He’s not coming for you, Killian. No one is coming for you.”

I started to cry but he continued to dig into me. “You’re mine.” He wiped the tears from my eyes. “And it would be in your own best interest to just accept that, the slaves’ best interest too.”

“He isn’t with Silas,” I said wiping my eyes. “And… I’m not…”

I stopped myself before I went too far but I saw his eyes narrow.

“Where do you think he is, Killian? He isn’t here, is he?” Perish chuckled. His eyes shone with a darkness that had been a part of his face since the resort. “I wonder if Elish knows I murdered his little pet. I wonder if I’ll get to see him cry like a fucking child.”

Deep inside of me something happened. It wasn’t the flicking of a switch, or the snapping of my sanity. It was the burning anger inside of me I had been keeping caged in a glass bottle. The one I refused to let out because I knew the punishment.

But I was only human. I was just one man with emotions already a wildfire inside of my chest. I didn’t have steeled restraint. I didn’t have control over myself and most of all: I didn’t have the armor needed to fend off Perish’s words.

And with that inside my head… I ripped my shoulder away from Perish’s arm and punched him right in the mouth.

Perish stumbled back and fell on his backside onto the greywastes’ floor. I glared at him, my chest heaving up and down to accommodate the adrenaline ripping through my body.

“Reaver isn’t in Skyfall and he isn’t with Silas,” I screamed. I kicked him in the ribs at that point, tears blurring my vision and stinging my eyes. “He isn’t with Silas! He’ll find me and fucking kill you! And Elish will make you pay for killing Jade.” My voice broke. I raised my leg to kick him again but to my surprise Perish raised his own leg and kicked mine out from under me.

I fell to the ground hard; my head cracking against the ashy dirt. Automatically Perish was on top of me. I kicked and screamed as he straddled me before wrapping a hand around my neck.

Perish’s face was a blank expression but his eyes held ice and fire. He stared down at me, before raising his free hand and backhanding me several times across the face.

In retaliation I spat blood at him, and tried to hit him again but the next blow he dealt threw my senses out of me. I could only cough and gasp for breath as the blood pooled in the back of my throat.

Then he got up. I quickly scrambled to my feet and went to face him, when to my horror I saw him walk up to the slaves. All of them huddled together, staring at him like scared children.

Then screaming, more screaming, echoing inside of my head as he started bludgeoning them with the handle of his combat knife.

I grabbed onto Perish’s shirt and pulled him back, crying and begging for him to stop. Promising him everything in the world as he rained blow after blow on whatever slave was closest to him.

I did the only thing I could think of, the last desperate act of a man who had lost everything. I grabbed onto the belt of his pants and pulled him towards me.

“Drop it… drop… drop the knife and come here,” I whimpered, taking advantage of his brief pause I slipped my hand down his pants and grabbed him. “Come here.”

Perish was still, though his eyes were a blaze of anger. I unbuttoned his pants with trembling hands, and when he didn’t make a move to push me away, I unzipped his fly.

I took out his penis, and with the tears running down my face I kneeled down and put my mouth over it.

I started to suck on the head. In full view of the slaves, out in the open, I did what I knew would save my friends.

And another piece of me falls away.

I didn’t have many pieces left.

Chapter 43

Reno

And what a sorry fucking sight I was. I had been a sorry sight since I had gotten shot in Aras, constantly nursing injury after injury. I was either being shot, beat, yelled at, raped or beat some more.

Now I was on the floor groaning; the root of my back molar on the ground pinched between a set of pliers. I was drooling blood, or bleeding drool… either way, I was in a fucking lot of pain.

This was my life right now. Fiancé less, friendless, and hated by everyone in this damn town.

I rolled onto my stomach and drooled on the floor for a few more minutes before I got my pathetic ass up. Then I took another big drink of whisky and sat on the bed. I was wearing nothing but my tighty-whiteys because whatever, I had stopped caring a few days ago.

I almost gagged as the whiskey got into my open tooth wound but I managed to swallow it down with a shudder. Then I laid back in bed with my mouth stuffed with a washcloth and felt sorry for myself some more.

Since I had gotten the snot beat out of me I hadn’t really felt like leaving the hotel room. So I had been sending off Trixie and Mitzie or whatever those little girls’ names were. They didn’t hate me like the rest of their family so they were more than happy to deliver me food for chocolate bars. It was a nice arrangement and I could probably take them if they tried to beat me up like everyone else seemed to want to.

Probably being the optimum word.

But even though I had food to eat, I couldn’t eat properly right now anyways. I just tore off pieces of sandwich and nibbled on the ratchips with my front teeth. My back molar was just a crater and the one beside it felt like it had a crack in it or something. Too bad I no longer had Skyfall to help me with my teeth, greywaste medical care consisted of exactly what I had right now: whisky and pliers.

I spat another mouthful of blood into a plastic bucket and lay in bed until the crater started to clot. Then, with my stomach full of whisky and self-pity, I got up and went down the hotel stairs to wander around outside for a bit.

It was dark out and considering no one liked me I probably should stay inside, but I was bored and my social meter was low. I needed to talk to people. I wasn’t like Reaver… I needed to talk and mingle or else I just went crazy.

The dusty, paved streets had several people milling around but it wasn’t full. Most of them were carrying flashlights to see their way until they got to a more populated area of the town.

All the lights in the direction I was heading were turned off. It was behind me that was more lit up. That’s where the restaurant and pubs were but I don’t think I was welcome there so I branched off to explore a bit.

I had an old flashlight so I clicked it on to light my way, shining it down alleyways but all that greeted me back were glowing eyes of stray and wandering cats. I missed our cats in Aras, most of them were wild and a bit dickish but the tame ones were awesome. Like good ol’ Biff, who was probably sporting his own sengil outfit now.

I wish I was a cat.

The whisky bottle found its way to my lips again. My movements were already stumbly but I wasn’t drunk, just a tad buzzed.

I felt my pockets for my remote phone. I was tempted to try and get a hold of Elish but I knew if they had found out anything they would ring me and tell me. So chances are if I called those guys all I would get was yelled at. If the phone was even…

I scowled. I turned around thinking I had heard someone beside me. I raised the flashlight and swept the area, I was walking past another alleyway, but all I saw were trash cans.

Odd.

I shrugged it off and branched off in a different direction. This area was just greywaster homes and some park land. I didn’t think I would find many people but maybe I would luck out and find someone getting drunk in the park.

Well, it wasn’t much of a park. There was no green grass, just a stretch of greywaste dirt and rock and the occasional twiggy bush or tuff of yellowy grass. In Skyfall…

“Gah!” I said out loud and put my hands on my head. I shook my head back and forth and sighed. “You need to stop thinking about that place, Reno Nevada. It won’t do you any good at all.”

With an angry sigh, full of self-disappointment, self-derision, and a lot of other selfs, I walked on with my flashlight lighting my way. I strolled through the dusty park and sat my ass on an old spinny-go-around thing and lit myself a cigarette. I took a moment to enjoy the smoke killing my lungs and absentmindedly chipped a few loose pieces of red paint from the metal bars.

This shit would only be temporarily at least. I would be reunited with Reaver. I just had to keep healing and stop getting myself more and more hurt. Reaver needed a friend right now; he would probably be going bananarama in the head worrying about Tink, and Elish too worrying about Biter. I had to be mediator; they must be ripping each other to shreds both physically and verbally by now. I couldn’t imagine them getting along.

And Reaver was also in a bad space mentally over what had happened with Nero. I would hope Elish would know how to handle that but Elish was a bit of an asshole when it came to being empathetic. I think Garrett had sucked up all the empathy genes in the first generation.

I shone my flashlight on a black tree as I worked through my cigarette. My bored mind was pleased to see a black cat in a thick branch, peering down at me with reflective eyes.

“Hey, Buddy,” I said to it. I decided in that moment he would be my new friend. I held out my hand and rubbed my fingers together to try and coax him over but he only glared at me. “Where are you from? Me? I’m from a town far away.”

The cat, of course, didn’t answer me back. I gave up with a sigh and shone the flashlight elsewhere. Trees, more trees, an old swing set that looked like something out of a horror movie, and a rusted slide with blue spray paint.

This was boring. I took another drink and got up and went to find another bar I could sulk in.

I decided to cut through a few alleyways on my way back to the more populated parts of Tintown. So with a flashlight in one hand, my whisky in another, and a cigarette dangling from my mouth, I left the park and crossed the street.

Once again I jumped as I heard a noise, this time a crashing sound above me. Like someone had accidently hit an air vent or something. I glanced up and shone the flashlight to investigate but still there was nothing.

This was getting weird… I glared at the flashlight beam as I slowly trailed it along the edge of an old industrial building. Though I saw nothing but grey, aged wood and some loose tar paper.

But I didn’t move. I stayed still, my tipsy mind trying to mull over this strange occurrence I was experiencing. It seemed like right after I arrived here odd things had been happening. First with Jesse deciding I was the scum of the earth all of a sudden, then getting beat up, and now with these noises.

I had liked that kid. He was a normal non-chimera who wasn’t completely fuck-nut insane. I had missed normal; I hadn’t been around anyone normal in a really long time. He was supposed to be sane-of-mind, easygoing, and just… normal! But nope, he ended up being a bigger fucking douchebag than the douchebags I had –