Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (123 page)

“Get in the back, Jade the maid,” Tim or Feenie as they called him behind his back said in his usual arrogance, he flicked back his tight auburn curls and gave him a cocky smirk and a knowing look. His huge tabby eyes never ceased to rub him the wrong way.

I wonder what those clustered eyes will look like when Silas shoves his cock up his ass that first night.
Images like those made Jade obedient. In time it would happen. Apparently Caligula had been the same way before his first night with Silas, and now he was an obedient little pit bull whenever his master had orders for him.

Elish gave Jade back his chain, and took his seat in the co-pilot’s chair. Behind him on the bench sat Nero, Ares and Siris. The three biggest muscles, the brute side of the chimeras and Jade’s most hated brothers. Silas was smart to have them with him, Reaver was a maniac when he met him and with Killian beside him now he would be a devil. They had all the protection they needed now.

Then why am I here? Am I bait?
Jade wanted to catch his master’s eye, even if he knew nothing could be revealed in those shards of violet ice, he could at least put forth the anxiety he was feeling; in hopes Elish might show him some sympathy.

But it was hopeless, Jade resigned himself to whatever fate Silas had thought up for him. He was a slave, and his life was no longer his own. He had surrendered it to Elish long ago.

When Tim let them out quietly inside of Aras, Jade felt  his chain tighten. He looked over and saw Elish wrapping it around his hands, barely leaving him enough room to follow behind.

They were in a park it seemed. Jade looked down and kicked the dirt from his boots. He had his arms over his chest to keep warm, Elish never allowed him much in the way of clothes, but Skyfall’s climate was tepid. This place was freezing cold.

Jade blew air from his mouth and made a plume, before tucking his fingers up to his armpits. All he had on were his leather pants and a tight black shirt with slashed sleeves. Even his boots, also black leather were unsuited for this weather and this terrain.

With a jingle he felt his leash tighten, he followed behind his master, the three brutes in the front and Tim in the plane ready for their take off.

As they turned a corner, Jade saw two figures in the darkness. Both sitting side by side, sharing a cigarette between the two of them.

One of the figures turned towards their group, before he handed the cigarette back to the first. He jumped down off of the car they were sitting on and walked towards them.

Greyson Merrik had a look on him that told a thousand stories. He had dark brown hair though his hairline was receding, and deep eyes full of expression. Though lined his face held onto a youthfulness that told Jade in his prime he had been very handsome. A tempered toughness that only a life time in the greywastes could give. His aura was that of a steeled fortress, but with a determination so tangible Jade felt the weight of it on his body.

“Is he still alive?” Greyson turned to Elish, his dark eyes were begging. Jade wasn’t surprised that at the mere mention of his husband the fortress weakened,  he had met both of them and knew to kill one without the other, he realized, would be the greatest of tragedies.

A waster fell in love with a chimera, I wonder how many times this love story had played out? At one time he thought his story was unique but perhaps not.

“I want to meet Reaver.” Elish’s voice was as cold as the air around them, Greyson knew his choice of words, to everyone besides the three they had never met and it had to be that way. Behind him the brutes stood, their arms crossed and their expressions intimidating. They paid Jade no notice as he stared at them, passively making sure they were ready for conflict.

“He just found out... he’s not ready to talk to you.”

“It matters not.”

Jade was surprised, his master didn’t seem uneasy during this very tense time. He thought he would perhaps feel something off with him, even if just a hint; but he was nothing but calm and collected.

“Bring him to me, Greyson.” Elish turned around and looked towards Nero, Ares and Siris. “I will ask you step far enough back that you cannot hear what will transpire between Reaver and myself.”

Wordlessly the three stepped back, Jade waited with butterflies in his stomach for him to request the same, but he held his chain firm.

When he turned back, Greyson was heading back to the car where he first figure was.

After a brief exchange, he raised himself and walked down the street towards them.

The aura Reaver gave off immediately drew in a sense of anxiety, he had forgotten the tight woven black strings that gripped every inch of flesh on his body. The colourless void that sucked everything into it’s darkness like it was a black hole resting between bright stars, a succubus, a monster, something that edged the corners of your vision like oil tainting water.

He had forgotten the feeling but he had never forgotten how identical it was to Silas’s

But no...

Jade’s eyes narrowed, something was different, something had changed since he saw him last. There were differences in the veneer, subtle but it was there. He had silver strands in that dark overbearing void. Small whispers of light, of the sun, though in its entirety it was but a small sunburst compared to a universe of colourless abyss.

So Elish had been right, Killian had been good for him.

And as Reaver stepped into the light, Jade took another step back, suppressing a growl in his throat that seemed to come forth unbidden whenever he felt threatened. He remembered the last time he saw him, and inside he wished for that same man, for the one in front of him had changed. The blond boy’s influence had only gone so far, the demon had  grown into his own and had become the devil of his own realm.

The king of the greywastes stepped forward, his boots silent against the ground and his movements as fluid as oil on wax. His black hair, longer, fell over his obsidian eyes, and the unemotional look on his face was only broken by the subtle menace that creased his perfect features.

He was fucking gorgeous.

Reaver stopped in front of them, his arms folded defiantly over a bullet proof vest. He had a thin joint clenched between his teeth and a very large gun on his back. Like every part of him but his marble skin he was clad in black. He looked at Elish and then at me, and with that his eyes narrowed, I knew then that he knew who we were, and who we always had been. We had been no travelling partners the two times we had visited Aras, and we never had been.

“Please put away your cigarette,” Elish said.

Jade’s eyes widened, he had been talked to in that tone before by Elish. He swallowed nervously, feeling his hands tense around themselves. Reaver hadn’t even opened his mouth and Jade knew they were in trouble. The darkness around him hadn’t come from him being a pampered brat of a mayor. He was an unbridled beast, as arrogant and cavalier as they come. Reaver knew nothing of their family and he would be punished for his disobedience.

To Jade’s horror, Reaver took a drag from his cigarette and blew it right in Elish’s face.

“I will only negotiate with Silas, not his dolled up whore.”

Jade bellowed with rage and tackled Reaver, he slammed him on the ground before with cat like reflexes Reaver threw him off of him.

At the same time Elish pulled on his chain. Jade felt the air get yanked from his chest, he landed on his back his throat a vicious burn.

Jade coughed like a chained dog as he struggled to his feet, but he felt a blow on his back that kicked him to his knees. He felt Siris’s boot on his back, forcing his torso forward in an obedient stance.

He looked up and saw the piercing gaze of Reaver, his black eyes seemed to radiate hatred.

He was caliginosity in a solid form, even without his heightened senses Jade could sense that.

“You need to keep better control of your animals, James,” Reaver growled, calling Elish the name he had given him in the greywastes, as if driving in the point that he knew who they had been. When they had met him under disguise Reaver hadn’t even known what a chimera was.

It might have been the bred in hot headedness of being a slum rat, or perhaps a teenage ignorance he still hadn’t out grown, but he lunged at Reaver again, unable to contain the rage of him disrespecting his master.

Reaver was waiting for him though, in the split second Jade was in the air, Reaver recoiled his arm and punched him right in the jaw.

Then a gun shot, Jade felt a burning pain in his arm that felt like a red hot poker. He groaned and rolled onto his side.

The activity around him exploded like a bomb. Jade could hear Nero shouting orders to Ares and Siris, before a series of screams and yells.

Jade felt himself get pulled to his feet, he looked up and saw Ares bringing out a kicking and screaming boy out of an abandoned home behind them.

“No!” Jade looked behind him in shock. The once derisive gaze of Reaver was wide and full of fear, his voice brimmed with emotion unfitting for his dark demeanor. He sounded shaken.

Nero held the boy up by his jacket, so his feet were dangling off of the ground.

No it was no boy, he was his age if not a year or so younger. His small appearance was deceptive at first, even though he looked their height his small frame gave him a boyish appearance. Even his screams sounded higher than normal.

It was Killian, the boy from Tamerlan who had ended up in Aras.

Jade yelped as he felt cold arms wrap around his neck, and with a vicious tug his chain was pulled from Elish’s grasp. Moments later he felt the cold links wrap around his neck.

Jade grinded his teeth together as the chains constricted his throat, he felt his head start to throb as he thrashed in Reaver’s grasp. His grip was steel though, he felt like a scaver caught in the jaws of a deacon.

“Let him go!” Reaver’s voice was a booming echo in his mind. He inhaled a gasping wheeze, but not enough to satiate his pounding head.

“Oh, Reaver... Reaver... you really think the life of one slum whore pet is worth the life of your precious Killian?”

That voice... it was King Silas. I was doomed, I was doomed.

Then a ear shattering scream, higher pitched, it must’ve been the boy’s. Jade felt his head get yanked back with vicious fervor, his mouth started to fill with copper. He could see the red sprinkles spray from his mouth with his desperate gasps for breath. In the background Greyson’s voice could be heard yelling.

As the fight faded from Jade’s limbs he felt himself go limp. The next thing he heard was a scream of rage from Reaver, and his body get dropped.

With half conscious eyes he watched Reaver lunge at Nero. Who had Killian over his head, his hand clenched in a death grip around the boy’s neck.

With a flash of steel he brought out his combat knife, a fraction of a second before he could plunge it into Nero’s heart the brute dropped Killian and grabbed Reaver’s arm in midair. With his now free hand he punched Reaver in the stomach and threw him hard onto the ground.

Killian dropped and as he did a grey blur jumped in front of him. Jade was shocked to see it was a deacon dog. The dog bit down on Nero’s shoulder before Siris grabbed him by the neck and tried to yank him off.

The dog snarled and kicked Siris with his back legs, before thrashing his head back and forth ripping flesh from Nero’s shoulder.

“Deek, stand down,” Reaver gasped, he was already half on his feet before Ares grabbed him. He yanked his arms back and kicked him down to his knees.

Then Greyson joined in, the large, burly waster. He grabbed Reaver his collar and with strength Jade had only seen in Nero he threw Reaver towards Killian. The boy drew his gun and pulled Reaver to an alleyway a few feet away from the scene.

At his moment Jade became aware of the presence behind him. He realized Elish was kneeling over him, talking in small short sentences, but Jade’s attention seemed transfixed in this play out in front of  him.

“Jade? Look at me.”

Silas’s fluid movements brought him in front of Greyson, who was now being held by Nero. The brute grabbed onto his head and pulled his hair back.

“Reaver, take Killian and go,” Greyson gasped. “I’ll be okay. Please, take him and go. I want to be with Leo.”

Silas chuckled, Jade saw him kneel down in front of Greyson, he traced his hand over his chin and smiled. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”

Silas looked past Jade, to the two men behind him. Jade’s hearing tuned away from Silas and he could hear the boy still screaming and begging for Greyson’s life.

Jade felt Elish help him to his feet, but when he couldn’t stand, he felt himself be lifted up and almost cradled. He always ended up in Elish’s arms some how, where he felt most safe. It was a small oasis of comfort in the burning pain around his neck and chest.

Killian Massey was hysterical, he was being held back by Reaver whose eyes blazed with such unchained fury Jade could swear he saw them glow.

“Reaver, go.”

“Tomorrow at noon,
bona mea
, do not keep your master waiting.”

“Asher! No!... you... Silas you can’t,” Killian screamed.

Jade heard the callous undaunted cackle of Silas beside him. “I can, cicaro. I can. You will soon see just what I can do.”

Reaver’s expression was that of pure restraint to the point where the pain was showing on his face. He held Killian firmly in his hold and turned his back on the terrible scene before him.

“Put him into the Falconer,” Silas said, then there was a crunching of dirt against pavement as he walked close to them. “Dead is he? Pity, he was starting to grow on me, and after all that trouble you caused to keep him.”

“The bullet hit his upper arm, he’s just stunned,” Elish said, there was just a hint of something caustic on his tongue. Jade felt himself get carried back to the plane.

On the ride home even Tim was quiet, or perhaps the cotton stuffed in Jade’s brain had succeeded in blocking out even the most annoyed of voices. Even when Siris dug the bullet out with his fingers he barely even flinched.