The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (53 page)

Was I?

When it was late and the movie was over, I took off my shirt, leaving my cloth pants on and got into bed with him. A warm double bed with soft blankets and thick sheets that wrapped me in a cocoon of warmth. I had come to love this bed, I could spend days in here and not be bored in the least.

Perish left his table light on which he did sometimes. He liked to watch me sleep and I didn’t mind that either. If something was going to happen tomorrow maybe this would be the last night he had with me.

I closed my eyes and got comfortable, hearing Perish’s steady breathing beside me. I felt the bed shift underneath me, then to my surprise his hand on my side. I opened my eyes and let him run his hand up and down the curve of my side, a catch in his eye that made the drowsiness drain out of me.

Our eyes locked and I saw his chest quickly rise like his breath had caught. He rubbed my side gently before leaning in and kissing me. The hand then travelled to my cheek like it had on the couch and he drew me in deeper.

His minty smelling breath was hot against my face; rapid breathing that brought a heat to my head. He kissed me again and this time his hand slipped to the small of my back.

I felt a burning inside of my throat that quickly made its way up to my head and down to my groin. I pulled away with a gasp only to have him pull his lips back to mine.

We kissed again and the hand slipped down my pants. My face flushed as he traced a finger down my backside before gently grabbing it, pulling me so close to him our bodies were now touching.

“Let me have you,” Perish whispered as our lips broke, only to join once again. “One night, our last night together. Let me have you just once.”

I pulled away but all I could do as my mind turned over what he had just said was stare at him. He kissed me again and lightly dragged his roaming fingers back over my side, down between my legs.

I pulled away and felt my body flinch and tense under his touch.

Perish let out a long, heavy sigh.

“I’m sorry for everything I had to do to you,” he whispered, his voice tight as his eyes swept my broken and bruised chest. Red, rough patches of skin, huge black and purple bruises, and still hidden underneath the blankets, feet tightly bound with white gauze. “I would’ve only hurt you unless it was necessary. Sky would only give me information if I let him take command... unfortunately he saw you as Silas and it confused him.”

Then he smiled sadly. “I suppose it shows how lost I am to speak of Sky like his O.L.S was actually him. I know it was just his crazed memories, though those memories were still smart enough to use me as a puppet.”

“You didn’t need to listen to him,” I whispered back, his body shifted until it pressed against mine. I was uncomfortable with him being so close but I didn’t want to be rude.

“Yes, I do. I have to listen to everything he tells me to do… I have no choice but… it’s okay,” Perish said with another smile. He leaned down and started kissing my neck. I felt a hand trace the rim of my pants before slipping down. “It’s… just perfect now.”

I whimpered when I felt his hand stroke my penis. I closed my eyes, and just like when we were on the surface, I let him do what he wanted to do.

But he stopped.

After a few moments of silence I opened my eyes and saw Perish looking at me. An odd look was on his face... one I hadn’t seen before.

Then he removed his hand and instead he stroked my remaining hair back. “I would die happy if I could only have you once, Killian, but I would die miserable if I ever had to force myself inside of you. I won’t go any further than light touch... will you let me?”

I hesitated. “You’re not going to make me?”

Perish shook his head. “In your state... it would break my heart to do it. I think it would’ve broken me even more if you agreed now that I think of it. If I was ever to make love to you, I would want it to be with the Killian who cut off my head... not this poor boy on his last legs.”

He drew me in and I heard him sniff. “Perhaps just let me hold you tonight. All night. I think... I think I would like that even more than... than that.”

The hesitation dissipated as Perish said those words to me. Knowing that he wasn’t going to force things to escalate I shifted into his arms and let him hold me tight against him.

“Thank you for stopping me,” Perish whispered in my ear. I felt his hands start to gently stroke my sides and his touch further relaxed me. “I love you.”

I closed my eyes and further melted into his arms as he lightly stroked my skin.

“I love you too, Perry.”

I woke up once, a night terror laying its claim on my damaged mind, but as soon as I let out my first whimper he was there to hold me and reassure me. I clung to him tightly.

But when day came Perish wasn’t in bed, and I was happy to feel a little bit more on this planet.

With a yawn I walked into the living room to find him. The smell of breakfast was heavy in the air and my stomach was growling.

“Killian.”

I turned towards the living room and saw him sitting on the couch. He was dressed in his lab coat and his eyes were red and swollen like he had been crying.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered. I walked towards him as he motioned me over.

“Come here,” he whispered back, patting his lap. I walked over to him and sat down on his lap. He shifted me until he was almost cradling me and kissed my head.

“You know I love you?” Perish whispered.

“What’s wrong?” I said in alarm. I looked around and glanced up at the ceiling. “Is someone here? What’s wrong, Perish?”

Perish shushed me and took a deep breath. “I need to say something to you. Please, listen and don’t forget my words, okay?”

I looked at him in surprise before slowly nodding.

“Everything I have done to you… I did it to help you,” he said to me. “The love that you showed me so long ago in Donnely. I never forgot that and I… never will forget it. You showed me patience and love, and in the end you showed me mercy. Because you saw how much I was suffering and you didn’t want me to hurt anymore.”

I looked at Perish as if looking at him would explain why he was talking like this, but my mind only blanked under his words.

He continued, “Sky… Sky brought with him a lot of memories. Memories of things that happened between him and Silas when they were in the throes of ending the world. I apologize that it had to be the way it was, but Sky told me I had no choice. I had to let him do what the O.L.S wanted to do and in return... I would be able to protect you. I would be able to give you a gift that... that will change your life.”

“C-change my life?”

Perish nodded slowly, tracing a finger down one of the healing radiation rashes on my face. “I promised you, Killian. I promised you that I would make it so you’ll never be hurt by another man again and I am going to keep that promise. I am going to give you the tools you need to conquer every single one of them if you so desire. Do you want to be strong, Killian?”

Do I want to be strong? Of course I did.

“Do you want to take your control back?”

“Yes,” I whispered, suddenly my throat started to burn it was getting difficult to breath. “I don’t want to be a victim anymore.”

He nodded again; his eyes fixed on me. All the desires in the world seemed to be encapsulated in those eyes. “Me too, Killian, me too.”

I felt his arm move; I looked down and saw that he was holding two small smooth objects. The first was a small plastic device the size of a pebble, the second seemed to be just a pin-sized metal tube with dozens of long thin wires sticking out of it.

“What are those ?” I whispered.

“The first one is my O.L.S, it has my brain matter in it. The second is something I found for you in Kreig. I perfected it for you,” Perish said quietly, turning the devices over in his fingers before putting them back into his pocket. He leaned in and kissed me. “Something special I had been working on for years. Having this lab… gave me the chance to complete it. It’s yours.” He held it up but when I tried to take it he smiled and pulled away with a shake of his head.

“No, not like that.” He slipped them back into his pocket and put his arms around me. He held me tight to him though his free arm was rummaging through his lab coat again.

“Close your eyes for a moment, love.”

I didn’t think anything of it. I was still tired and sore from my journey here and my mind was only starting to come back to me. I closed my eyes until an odd noise filled my head, a snap of a cap or something.

I opened my eyes.

“No, Killian… close your eyes.”

Suddenly I felt a sharp jab go into my arm. I jumped up from fright but as soon as I did he grabbed me and started shushing me. I let out an anxious cry as he dug the needle into my arm, and slowly started pushing on the plunger.

“Perish… no, no, please don’t…” I stammered, anxiety ripping through me like a lightning storm. “Perish, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.”

“I know, I know, sweety, shush.” Perish tightened his hold on me, the entire needle now sticking into my arm. My body started filling with a sickening nausea; my mind started to fade. “It’s okay, Killian.”

“You’re safe now.”

“No one will ever hurt you again, you won’t let them.”

“I love you, Killian.”

“I love you so much.”

Chapter 59

Reaver

I had run the quad until I had died on it. I’d just been able to regain enough of my body to turn the vehicle off before I rolled off of it, dead.

The white fire came and slew the darkness trying to pull me to oblivion, and as it sewed my body back together my thoughts were only with Killian. I saw the boy’s flawless face in those flames, so clearly I was sure if I came close enough I could smell his fragrant soapy scent.

I was close, and I knew I was close.

Drawing up all remaining stores of energy I had managed to ride the quad into the morning. The first slivers of grey sun had just started peaking out over the east when the blood loss had overwhelmed my body, blood loss and what I think was a shot up liver but I didn’t know. In the end everything would come back as good as new, with the bullets laying forgotten on the greywastes floor. That was my gift, the gift of immortality.

A gift my boyfriend did not have.

I was back on the quad now, riding it as fast as I could down a stretch of broken pavement half-consumed by ash and dirt. The wind was blasting my face and the bits of dirt kept getting into my eyes. But that was the least of my worries, every hour I spent on this thing was half a morning of walking. I was going to use this quad until the gas ran out.

Elish would be in Skyfall by now with Jade, though whether the pet would make it or not I wasn’t sure. I had bled out of the ears once, another time that I had died. Though instead of using my brain to kill people I had gotten strangled by my dad.

Jade’s brain was already overloaded. It looked like that even though the Dekker’s could create talented chimeras, their technology had reached past the abilities of an organic human brain. The kid’s mind was failing.

Elish was doing what had to be done for his cicaro and I was now doing what had to be done to find my boyfriend, though that was easier said than done.

I wasn’t expecting a big sign announcing the plaguelands but I was hoping for some sort of signal when I crossed the borders. Elish had told me to watch out for yellow signs but so far I was just riding down an empty highway dodging rusted out cars and medians stacked in preparation of the war long dead. The road was the one Elish had told me about though so unless he had gotten it wrong this road was going to lead me into the plaguelands.

My mind refused me to acknowledge it but as I sped down the highway my eyes kept checking behind all of the medians, and when a car was intact, inside of the car as well. Killian wasn’t as strong as us, he was just a normal greywaster and it looked like he had travelled an incredibly long distance with Perish and those slaves. Killian wasn’t used to travelling on foot this much, and I was worried that Perish wanting to go to the plaguelands might outweigh wanting Killian to come with him.

Or Sky, whoever the fuck was controlling Perish’s mind, I didn’t know how the fuck it worked. I just knew it wasn’t good. I just knew that this O.L.S was making Perish crazy and that meant I could no longer rely on his love for Killian to keep my boyfriend alive.

I spotted several structures in the distance and decided to take a risk and check them out. There weren’t many buildings in this area of the greywastes and the ones that were here had collapsed. It was rare now for me to spot a standing structure and I knew if Killian had seen it, and he was alone, that was where I would find him.

Though in the same string of thought it also pumped my heart with anxiety. It brought me back to the house with the dirty curtains and carpet, when I had found the blood and semen.