The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (45 page)

My eyes widened before suddenly I jumped. I hadn’t even realized the cigarette I was holding had burned down to the filter. I flicked it into the ashtray before lighting another one. “Could he like… save the world that way? Like reverse Fallocaust?”

Garrett shook his head. “No, it’s easier to release than it is to absorb. Which is why I’m sure he must have had Sky and Perish’s aid when he was clearing away Skyfall.”

“Which brings me to my other question.” I tried to read the spread sheets and Word documents that Garrett was looking over but I still wasn’t having much luck. “I can understand having one genetically-fucked born immortal, but how did he manage to find two more?”

Garrett pressed the buttons on the phone again; in the distance I could hear Chally in the kitchen putting dishes in the dishwasher. “That I do not know. Unfortunately there are secrets the king insists on keeping to himself. We were forbidden from speaking of Perish as a born immortal. When he brought Perish back and put him into the family we had to keep up the belief that he was just another chimera. No one who knew the truth spoke of it and no one asked questions.”

“Oh shit!” Garrett suddenly exclaimed, about the same time my jaw dropped to the floor.

It was fucking ringing!

Then there was a clicking and a rustling of movement. I gawked at the phone, my mouth open and my pulse racing like I had just done an eight ball.

Garrett put the phone up to his ear. “Elish? Elish?”

“What is it, Garrett?”
Elish’s voice could be heard. Garrett’s face was paled; I took his cigarette from him so he wouldn’t burn himself.

“Elish, do you have them?” Garrett’s asked.

The silence seemed like it was going to last forever. I was holding my breath and so was Garrett, even Chally behind us had gone silent.

“We have Jade… Perish is taking Killian to the plaguelands. We do not know why. Jade is sick but I am managing him until I can take him to Sidonius.”

I had to put a hand over my mouth to stifle the groan. I couldn’t believe he was taking Killian to the plaguelands. Nothing was there but horror and death, Killian would die from radiation poisoning. Though the lethal radiation barrier was slowly receding the greywastes only grew by like fifteen feet a year.

Garrett swore and wiped his hands over his face once again. “Elish, I must say this before the call disconnects. It’s… it’s worse than it looks. Perish is not implanted with his own O.L.S, he has Sky’s inside of his brain. I found a confession by Lycos in his bunker. He thought he could just plant it into Perish’s brain and he would suddenly become Sky. He was going to give Perish to Silas in hopes that would solve our problems with Silas’s jealousy. Elish, Perish has his sestic abilities back. He… he could destroy the entire northern greywastes, Killian with it.”

The silence descended on us like a thick blanket, bringing in its awkward darkness, a weighted unease that made me feel like I had just gotten punched in the gut. I didn’t know what was going to happen, what Elish was going to do, or if Reaver was listening to this entire conversation.

“You’re sure?”
Elish’s voice broke through the almost solid tension around us. His cold voice sounded like a thunder crack in the middle of a deserted city.

“Yes, brother… I am sure. I saw the video myself,” Garrett said back. This time I did grab his hand, in response he clamped down on it like a metal trap. “What do you want me to do?”

“There is little you can do –”
I swallowed hard at that comment.
“ – Reaver has been unstable. He is tapping into his own sestic abilities. No one was hurt but I had to dispatch him. I am not looking forward to telling him this news.”

Reaver could do this shit too? I guess that was obvious since he was a clone, but god damn why didn’t they remove his abilities? Reaver was the most crazy and psycho out of all of them.

Without realizing it my mind brought me back to the conversation I had had with Silas on the balcony. When he had told me that Reaver was a danger to Killian, that only Silas could control him and teach him what he needed to know. What if he was right?

Perish was a sestic radiation machine and so was Reaver… Perish was extremely unstable but fuck, I had seen Reaver after Nero had raped him. Reaver had been really fucking unstable and this was proving it.

A chorus of swear words filled the room as the dead tone sounded from the remote phone. Garrett slammed it down on the coffee table and pinched the inner corners of his eyes with his fingers.

“This is a mess, Reno,” Garrett whispered. I lit him a cigarette and put a rolled up fifty dollar bill into his hand. “We have two sestic bombs of radiation walking the greywastes and the plaguelands? Why would he be taking Killian to the plaguelands? This doesn’t make sense.”

When he didn’t immediately go for the drugs I obliged myself and leaned back against the couch with him. I put a hand on his knee and shifted myself close to him.

“I don’t know…” I said honestly. “But if it’s Sky’s memories… what if no one knows because only Sky knows? His memories would be from like… when did he die?”

Garrett thought for a second before leaning over and tapping around on the laptop some more, the smoke dangling from his lips adding to our already hazy apartment.

“I think he died about a fifty years after the Fallocaust. I am unsure. Silas just never spoke to us about this.” Garrett thought for a second before seemingly dismissing the idea. “No, I wouldn’t have files on him myself. Skytech was in its infancy when Sky died and their record keeping was shoddy at best back then.” He nodded slowly. “But I believe you’re right. No one knows because no one was alive back then, except Silas.”

“So we’re fucked then? No one has any way of finding out why Perish is taking Killian to the plaguelands?” I wiped my nose and sniffed the drugs up into my brain. I hated that I was here sitting on my ass doing drugs while Reaver was in the greywastes miserable. I wanted to be with my bud, but I knew there was nothing I could do but slow them down.

“No one except Silas,” Garrett said quietly. “Perhaps now that he knows it’s Sky’s O.L.S… he knows why? I do not –”

There was a knock on the door.

We both froze in place, immediately Garrett grabbed the remote phone and turned it off before putting it into one of the side table drawers. The two of us both rose to our feet as Chally came walking out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a hand towel.

I didn’t think much of it; we were expecting Luca, and Teaguae had been wanting to discuss work stuff. Well, I hope whoever it was didn’t mind all the drugs out. Chally hadn’t…

As the door opened we were greeted by King Silas beaming at the two of us. Sanguine and Drake were both behind him with their hands behind their backs. All three were staring at us with the same smiles and the same looks, though I knew each one held smiles for different reasons.

“Garrett, my love.” Like a hot knife over an ice block he glided into the apartment, his sengil and cicaro behind him. Chally closed the door and gave us both paled; fearful looks before he disappeared back into the kitchen.

I tried to swallow the lump inside of my throat but it ended up getting caught halfway down. I coughed instead and plastered a smile on my face.

Garrett, I could tell, was just as nervous. “Silas, I thought you were in… in Cardinalhall.” I saw Garrett looking at something on Silas’s sleeve. I looked too and saw that his sleeves were covered in a grey chalk and his hands had bits of what looked like hardened concrete on it.

“Oh… shit,” Garrett moaned. He put a hand on his head and shook it, before turning him away. “How long?”

I looked at my fiancé confused; I saw his eyebrow twitch over his tense face. He suddenly looked like he was in physical pain. I didn’t understand why.

“Until I miss him, so quite a while.” Silas’s tone dropped. He held up his sleeve and smiled at it, before his eyes flickered up to mine. “Do you know what this is from, Reno?”

I shook my head like an idiot, my feet firmly planted on the floor. Even though he was rather nice to me the last time I saw him... he still scared the fuck outta me.

On silent feet that knew no noise, Silas walked up to me and held his sleeve up for me to see. A crisp purple dress shirt with silver buttons and black cuffs; the entire cuff and his hand holding the thin hardened concrete.

“Just so you don’t think I have no retaliation against my immortal chimeras,” Silas whispered. He leaned into me and kissed my neck; my heart clenched. “When they displease me, I encase them in concrete for as long as I see fit. Tell me, Reno, my second born’s fiancé and my dear dear friend, can you imagine what it would be like for an immortal to be covered from head to toe in concrete? I put in air holes for their nose so they can breathe, and sometimes I even put in a hole for their mouth so I can be lulled to sleep by their screaming.”

Jesus fucking christ…

“I keep them in there, for years sometimes, listening to them slowly starve to death, only to resurrect right back where they were. Trapped in their own tombs, unable to move, unable to see, unable to do anything but breathe and scream.” Silas pulled away from me and I saw a burning glint in his eyes. “If I am feeling generous I let their former partners visit them, though there is never that much catching up… just endless pleading.” He narrowed his eyes and reached a hand up to touch my face. I was frozen to the fucking floor so I made no move to get away from him. Every word that came from his mouth stunned me like it was a poisoned barb.

“Remember that, yes? Remember that…” Silas turned around and I looked behind him towards Garrett. My body got another shockwave of anxiety when I saw the look of terror on his face.

Silas noticed it and glided up to Garrett. He patted his cheek before taking his chin into his hands. He gave Garrett’s trembling lips a quick kiss.

“So… Nero’s gone then?” Garrett said through a raspy voice. “He… he really raped Reaver?”

Silas pulled his hand away from Garrett’s chin like it had suddenly became hot. “Yes,” the king replied. “Nero had my Reaver and not only did he rape him, beat on him, and humiliate his future King… he let him escape.”

I looked past Silas to where Sanguine was. The blood-eyed chimera was watching his king with that squinty smile on his face, his hands still held behind his back in his usual prim and proper position. He had no reassurances to offer me; I just hoped he would do something if this was Silas’s way of putting Garrett in concrete.

“Did he?” Garrett said quietly. “I am sorry that happened, Master. I know you wanted to take Reaver for yourself first.”

“Indeed, I did,” King Silas murmured. He turned around and I saw his face tense and angry, but in a flash, like someone had switched discs on a Discman, he suddenly smiled. The king walked towards Sanguine and oddly he pet his hair back. Sanguine smiled at him and tilted his head towards his touch, not unlike what Biff used to do.

“Garrett, I need to speak to you in private, where this greywaster cannot hear us. It so happens that at the same time I have been rather busy, too busy to satisfy the needs of my sengil and cicaro. Sanguine, Drake… show Reno a good time while your king speaks with his second born.”

I was certain that I had just suffered a stroke. No way in hell could Silas be insinuating what I think he was. I looked at Garrett but he just stared at me, sweat glistening on top of his forehead.

Sanguine then took my arm and started pulling me towards the bedroom. I stumbled forward and looked around confused.

“W-what?” was all I managed to say.

Garrett watched me go. Silas looked rather pleased with himself.

“It’s… it’s okay, lovely. Have a good time with them. Do-do not feel badly, this is… normal for our family. Enjoy yourself, lutra.” Garrett’s mouth moved, he was saying those words but it looked like he had turned into a robot in front of me. He was gaping at me, seemingly shocked by this entire situation, just as shocked as I was.

Sanguine pulled me into the bedroom and shut the door, Drake behind him who was turning on the lamp beside the bed.

“Sanguine… what the fuck is… what do we do… I –” I pulled away as he tried to kiss me and shook my head. “No. What’s Silas going…” I gasped as Sanguine put his hands down my pants, before his lips started lightly pecking my neck.

“Sanguine!” I gasped and pulled away. My face flushed red, all of this was happening way too fast and I had no idea what I was suppose to do. I looked behind me and got another shock as I saw Drake stepping out of his tight leather pants, a visible bulge showing through a black thong. As the pet walked towards me I tried to pull away from Sanguine again. The demon-chimera growled at this and let out a low chuckle.

Sanguine grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me towards him. As he continued to kiss my neck Drake appeared by my other shoulder and started kissing me too.

I flushed even harder, my heart racing and my pulse rising higher and higher. I didn’t know what the fuck I was suppose to do. In all respects having two hot guys all over me was a dream, but this was confusing the fuck out of me. What did Silas want with Garrett?

“Mmm… Drakonius, it seems our little Otter needs to relax,” Sanguine murmured. He rubbed his palm against my dick and started playing with it. It felt good, fuck, of course it did.