The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (36 page)

I stared at Perish in shock. “Perish? What’s happening to you? Are you okay?”

His eyes shot to me as I said those words. He looked horror-stricken, I had never seen him look so scared. He gave me a slight nod before he turned away from me.

“Perish, you don’t have to listen to him. You don’t have to do what Sky says,” I whimpered.

Perish shook his head and took a step away from me. “I’m… sit… I need to sit outside I can’t see you… just relax, get warm… I’m - I’m sorry, okay? I have to do what he says.”

“I have to do what he says, Killian.”

“I’m sorry, just a little longer”

“Just a little longer.”

Chapter 50

Jack

The ride in the elevator was one of the longest ones Jack had ever experienced. It seemed that seconds quickly turned into hours as the red lights showing the floor numbers slowly climbed.

Floor six, floor seven…

“So did he see us on the cameras?” Garrett asked. “Or did he just know?”

“You know he knows everything that goes on here,” Jack murmured back and as suspected this brought a shudder to Garrett’s chest. “I hope you have a good excuse for sneaking into that room. You know that it is locked off to everyone. Above all,
your
generation knows that.”

The elevator stopped with a lurch that matched the one inside of Garrett’s heart. The second oldest chimera was starting to sweat; he had never been one to hide his emotions.

Though this display of anxiety was curious to Jack. What were those two doing in that room anyways? And why did Silas demand so quickly that Garrett to come to Alegria?

Well, it’s a common thing for one of our brothers to get into trouble. Garrett was such a well-behaved man though.

Maybe that was why Silas wanted to speak with him so quickly.

Dressed in his usual red bowtie and black blazer, Sanguine was waiting for them as they approached the open doors. His arms crossed and a smile on his face. Without exchanging a single word Jack pushed past him and walked into the apartment of King Silas, an apartment painted in dark colours and trimmed with carved wood that boasted hand-crafted detail. It was a beautiful piece of architecture, and Jack knew this because he had renovated it himself. He had always enjoyed staying here.

But there was no space in Jack’s head to appreciate his own creative talents. The Grim walked into the living room and saw the king looking out of his skyscraper window. A cup of bloodwine in his hand and a cigarette in the other.

“I have him, Master.” Jack bowed before taking a step back and giving Garrett a hard shove towards King Silas. “He commanded the greywaster boy to leave; I had no authority to stop him.” And he didn’t. Silas had said to bring Garrett not Garrett and Reno, perhaps a small slip of the tongue but orders were orders and Jack did his job.

King Silas slowly turned around, his blond hair brushed back today, a golden backdrop to pale milky skin and ears adorned with emeralds to match his eyes. His face was soft though, which confused Jack.

No, it doesn’t confuse me… it makes me uncomfortable. His own chimera snuck into his private quarters, he should be livid.

The king put down his glass of bloodwine and slowly walked up to Garrett; his eyes fixed on his second born.

The sound of Garrett swallowing hard reached all of their ears. “Silas… I know this is suspicious to you but I had my reasons. I had to be sure before I told you, because I knew it would… it would…”

Silas shushed him. He smiled kindly at Garrett and raised a hand to his cheek.

“My beloved, my smart, beautiful little man. You are so full of anxiety and stress. Tell me, why did you send Reno away? Are you scared of your king?” Silas whispered, his hand lightly caressing Garrett’s clammy skin.

Garrett’s face tensed; his prominent light green eyes wide. There was no move to hide his fear like his brothers would automatically do. No move to try and sway the mood or brush it off as mere nerves. Garrett was an open book, even when Jack was young he remembered his older brother being as such. In the beginning, before he found his place in Skytech, he didn’t have an easy time with this ruthless family.

“Reno still loves Reaver, Master,” Garrett said quietly and at the mention of his betrothed he showed the first signs of calm. “He would… he would hate me for what I must tell you.”

Three pairs of eyes shot to Garrett: dark green, black, and red. At their glaring looks Garrett swallowed again, before trying to stand himself up straight.

Silas’s face didn’t change but his hand dropped. “This is about Reaver? What did Reno say to you? Why did this omission from Reno drive you two to break into my private apartment?”

Garrett took a deep breath. “Master Silas… Lycos stole Sky’s O.L.S.”

A silence fell onto the room, but as Sanguine’s jaw clenched and Jack’s eyes widened, Silas only stared at Garrett.

“How?”

“I believe that secret died with him but it was many years ago,” Garrett said calmly. “Reno was staying in the Aras bunker after we had a fight and briefly separated. Reno saw the tools for surgery and once I analyzed the scene I found a confession by Lycos. Silas, the confession states that… Perish was implanted with the O.L.S. They knew who Perish was and were trying to… give him to you in hopes Reaver could live a normal life.”

Silas took a step back. Jack felt a slight spark of unease as those piercing green eyes seemed to slay the room a thousand times over. Jack was glad he had left Juni at home.

“Perish… is implanted with my Sky’s O.L.S?” Silas whispered. He put the glass of bloodwine down, and rested his hand on the table. Jack could feel his heartbeat speed up, and a slight tremble reach the tips of his hands. An odd display of emotion but not out of character for when his former boyfriend was mentioned.

Only a small handful of us knew who Sky even was, and all of us were banned from telling Perish he wasn’t a chimera. Never a word to leave our lips or the consequences would be extreme.

Jack was still as Silas absorbed this, knowing that just under the surface Silas’s mind was racing. Solutions and problems that seemed to twist into a snare of twine, though if there was anyone to sort it out…

Jack jumped back as Silas suddenly picked up the glass of bloodwine and threw it against the window of the skyscraper. The glass shattered, showering the four of them in crystal shards, leaving a large, dripping stain of red that ran in torrents down the picture window.

“I need Elish!” Silas suddenly demanded. He looked past Garrett to where Sanguine was standing. “Sanguine, no excuses, no more taking care of that pathetic cicaro. I need Elish in Skyfall and I need him here by tonight.”

Sanguine bowed and smiled kindly at the king. “He may be out of reach –”

To Jack’s surprise Silas stalked up to Sanguine and smacked him right across the face.

Sanguine’s lips tightened.

“I didn’t fucking ask for excuses, Sanguine,” Silas hissed. “You have no idea how much danger Lycos has put us all in, but you wouldn’t would you, sengil?” Silas turned around and looked at Jack. “I must find out if there’s been any unusual radiation activity….” Silas clenched his fist. It wasn’t often the king got angry. He was a controlled person, one who rarely showed an emotion outside of his smirking grace.

This immediately made the Grim nervous, which was an emotion he himself rarely showed.

Everything seemed different today,
Jack’s own voice mused inside of his head. Though in the middle of this thick situation Jack didn’t appreciate his own masochistic quips.

“What do you mean, Silas?” Jack narrowed his eyes. “Sestic radiation you mean? Didn’t making the O.L.S disable Perish’s abilities?” As he said this Jack felt foolish, though he knew the answer Silas didn’t hesitate to shove the obviousness of it in his face.

“And the O.L.S Perish and Greg removed had Sky’s abilities in it too. Which means he now has Sky’s,” Silas said, his words dripped acid; behind him Garrett’s mouth fell open. “I need Elish here and I need Jade here, now. We need to find Perish and get Sky back before things turn catastrophic.”

Jack nodded and took in a deep breath. He looked at Sanguine who now had a rosy patch on his cheek. Though the sengil-chimera never flinched or made a move to rub what Jack knew was a stinging wound. He always stood there and took it, though it was his job.

They all had their jobs…

And Sanguine knew this. Jack’s red-eyed brother slipped out of the room without a sound or a word, his remote phone in his hand. Garrett stood there still as a statue; his chin held high but his hands shaking at his sides.

“Silas… about Elish, I don’t think you will be able to reach him. He’s –” Garrett’s mouth dissolved into mush as King Silas glared at him.

“Is there anything else Reno knows?” Silas asked sharply.

Garrett shook his head. “No, just what Lycos did with Perish when he recovered his body from Donnely. He… he told me right away, love.”

“I need Elish here,” Silas said again. The king standing tall in front of the bloodwine-coated window behind him, the moon in its grey glory framing him in its cold light. He looked almost ethereal in that moment.

I should paint that – I do love painting our king.

Jack pressed his sharp teeth into his lips and wished today had been an easy, relaxing day. But with the clone and the fractured scientist roaming the greywastes that seemed impossible. Two pieces of someone long dead were now walking the earth and Silas would undoubtedly be even more vicious in his search for them.

I hope this will be over soon. Reaver can be found and our lives can return to what was once normal for us. I hate chaos; I hate this disruption.

Silas was on his own remote phone now, waving Garrett towards his personal bar to make him another glass of wine. Garrett’s hands were shaking; he seemed to know how high the tensions were right now.

Jack took in a deep breath and put his hands behind his back. Thankful that telepathy was never an ability King Silas developed. If he knew just a fraction of what was going on between most of his chimeras’ ears he would have an aneurism.

“I’m getting nothing on my phone…” Silas snipped. He got the wine glass from Garrett and took a long drink. “You don’t understand how dangerous this is. If Perish is within a hundred miles of Skyfall he could kill a lot of people.”

Garrett turned, bloodwine clasped in his own. “What do you mean?”

“He’s an atomic bomb right now with his unstable mind – any trigger could set him off.”

Jack’s eyes flicked up to Silas. “What?”

Silas’s usual grace was lost; he was stressed and his grasp was firm on that wine glass. Jack watched him in an almost morbid fascination as his king stripped down his own ghostly armor.

“I don’t know how Sky did it… and I don’t know where Perish’s own O.L.S is, which I think was always Sky, Perish, and Greg’s plan. What I do know is implanting Sky into Perish… I tried it before.” His grip tightened. “I tried it before; I tried everything to get him back. What I got back was a monster, an unstable hybrid of both Perish and Sky’s worst qualities. On top of that… we came very close to starting a small Fallocaust with the amount of radiation that poured from him.”

Silas looked to the door, where Sanguine had left. And as a concerned expression slipped onto his face, Jack saw another piece of armor fall to the floor.

“That is why I specifically made my chimeras unable to produce sestic radiation as soon as we knew how. We removed the gene so that when stressed out – my beauties would not burn their towers down,” Silas explained. “All of my chimeras have an immunity to the sestic radiation but no means of being able to create it themselves.”

Jack raised an eyebrow and turned to Garrett who was nodding to himself. “Our first generation had the abilities but it got removed when we were made immortal… Perish on the other hand…”

“Is dangerous,” Silas whispered. “Extremely dangerous right now.”

Fascinating indeed. I’m sure enjoying this rare glimpse into humanity. I knew it was there but my king had been so cold as of late. So concerned with finding Reaver and, of course, it has been taxing running Skyfall with Elish gone and Garrett lovesick.

“So Lycos… didn’t know what he was doing?” Jack replied calmly, his black eyes never leaving Silas’s face. “He created a bomb instead of your new partner?”

The king shook his head. “No, Lycos didn’t know what he was doing, and I don’t believe he ever did. But in other ways he did succeed. I have my clone with all the qualities I had loved about Sky. Though the secret to how he did it died with him. Sometimes I regret shooting that man.” Silas’s face got dark. “Then I remember seeing the expression on Reaver’s face and that regret goes away.”

Yes, just as quickly as his fleeting compassion comes it disappears and our lovely Ghost King returns. He is never far, like the shadow that follows you around in the evenings, he is a part of Silas. Always stalking his steps, always whispering into his ear.