Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (38 page)

‘Bite! Bite!
’ Crow’s own raspy voice demanded in my head. His painful commands had switched to a dry hiss. A slippery demand that was almost taunting. ‘
Bite! Bite him! We’ll kill him!’

Then an electric percussion tore through me. I gasped, my teeth automatically unhinging, and screamed as I was electrocuted on top of the blond chimera. Ripping current after ripping current slicing my veins like my blood had turned into electricity.

I rolled off of him with a groan but though my mind was still writhing on the floor my body was already righting itself. I went back in for a second bite but instead Elish smacked me across the face, and soon after another pair of arms, ones that belonged to Silas, grabbed me.

I screamed my rage and tried to yank my limbs away from Silas. Thrashing and screaming, kicking my feet up in the air, trying everything I could to get loose. Crow demanded more blood, he wanted me to kill him. He wanted me to pay him back for hurting that young boy.

‘Revenge for fucking you, pay him back for tricking you into coming to the farm. Rip him, tear him. Why should he be in the Dead Islands still alive? We have to get him! We have to pay him back for everything he did to us!’

The caustic demands of Crow ravaged my mind, making a burning come to my face that threatened to spill every emotion I had onto the carpeted floor below me. Inside I felt a new insanity, an insanity in the forms of demand after demand to do something to this blond man, pay him back for things I knew he hadn’t done to me.

I tried to tell Crow this but he wouldn’t listen. He was trying with every force of energy he could to get me closer to Elish. Everything in his mental power to unleash himself, on not only the tall blond chimera, but the entire world.

“Sanguine…” Silas suddenly whispered into my ear. “Why are you so upset?”

“He hit the little boy… he hit the little boy!” I snarled. “He was just a fucking kid!”

Silas continued to make soothing noises, though the only thing calm about him was his voice. His hands still held my own in an iron-like grip. He was strong, incredibly strong.

“You’re angry because Elish hit Drake?” Silas said quietly to me. “You don’t like seeing him hurt, do you?”

I nodded. I saw the images of Jasper get drawn up inside the theatres of my mind. Video images of him hitting me when I was outside with the crows. When he had let me out to look for video cameras in their mouths.

“Drake’s fine,” Silas said calmly. “Elish loves Drake. He takes him for months sometimes. Drake isn’t being hurt.”

“He’s crying!” I yelled, and I realized that the little boy was. I turned my head and my eyes focused on source of the noise.

Drake was on the couch hiding under my red blanket; soft, scared crying coming out from underneath the fabric. He sounded terrified.

“That’s because you scared him,” Silas said in a calm voice. “He’s only scared because you’re being scary.”

And at this admission, Crow took a step back. I could feel a caution inside of him though, but, feeling a bravery I had only recently acquired, I pushed down this psychosis I had fallen into and tried to get my mind back.

Silas loosened his grip. I ignored the look of ice from Elish and pulled my arms away from Silas. I looked towards the bundle underneath the red blankets and took a step towards it, but felt Silas put a hand on my shoulder.

“I want to show you something…” Silas said slowly. “The surprise I told you about earlier. Would you like to see it?”

I took a step away from him and crossed my arms tightly over my chest. Suddenly I felt cold inside, like Crow’s presence was an iceberg imbedded between my ribs. I sniffed, hearing Drake still whimpering under the blanket, and nodded.

“Where do you think he’s taking us?” I asked Crow as Silas led me by the shoulder towards the edge of the living room.

Crow, now beside the tall archway leading to the kitchen, gave Silas a skeptical look. He still had some of Elish’s blood on his lips.

“I’m not sure but I suppose we can let him lead us,” Crow replied in a low voice full of mistrust. “You trust this one, yes?”

“Yeah,” I replied quietly.

My nerves were lost when I realized Silas was leading me to the sliding door. It was light outside; I could see the sun underneath the curtains. I didn’t want to be outside.

“No…” I stammered. “I don’t want to go out.” I tried to stiffen my legs but with a light pull I stumbled forward, my breath catching in my throat as I did.

Silas let go of my hand but I was too petrified to run back to the den. Instead I watched as he drew the curtain and peaked outside, a stream of light piercing the dark room, making my eyes automatically squint.

I shielded them and turned away as more light flooded the room. My heart hammered in my chest, two continuous thumps like the muscle was trying to escape out of my rib cage.

Unable to stand it any longer, I closed my eyes and started walking towards my cave. Needing the shelter of darkness, and the security of an enclosed space. Somewhere where there were no people, no one but me and Crow. I had to get away from this – this was too much.

“Hello, Sanguine.”

My consciousness seemed to shoot out of me as those words reached my ears. Suddenly the apartment melted away from me, the sounds, smells, the tension. Everything dripped down to the floor like melting plastic and pooled underneath my feet.

I must be back at Jasper’s – how can I be hearing…

“Come here, crow.”

I opened my eyes and slowly turned around. I forced my eyes to remain open under the stinging sunlight and I covered the short distance to the sliding glass door.

They were watching me. Silas was only several steps from my body, but I saw nothing of him or Elish, or their presence. My focus was on the door and the blurs starting to take shape in the glaring, brilliant sunlight.

I opened the sliding glass door, and felt the stinging of air on my face, but it was pleasant and warm. It seemed to caress my face in its heat, and in that warmth I was reminded of the sunny days of Sunshine House. Or my summers in the shanty town. When I would run around, free and untamed, enjoying the sun on my face and the air in my lungs.

Yes, fresh air. Air that seemed to coat my lungs in cold water. I didn’t feel scared as I breathed in and out, and that urged me into taking my first step outside.

Then a flutter of wings, and the sounds of nails against a metal railing. As my eyes adjusted I looked around and was greeted by well over a dozen crows. All of them perched on either the railing or the patio furniture, watching me with ruffled feathers and bobbing heads.

I took another step forward, my mouth open in shock and my heart pounding. They were here… my friends were here. How did they get here?

I held out my hand, and to my inner joy one of the crows jumped onto my wrist. Then, like they were taking their cues from the leader, other ones started hopping over. Soon another one jumped onto my arm, and then one on my shoulder. With a flutter of feathers and a few caws, six of the crows landed on my body and perched on me with a casual comfort that told me they knew who I was.

And that they had missed me.

“Hello, Sanguine.”

“Do you want food?”

Then something strange happened. Something that hadn’t happened to me in a long time.

I smiled, my mouth open and everything. It had been so long since I had smiled I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. I was so happy, so giddy inside I thought I was going to explode. During the eleven years of my captivity, the only permanent, flesh and blood friends I had ever had had been the crows. They’d never left me unlike my family; they’d always been there to keep me company.

“Hello, Sanguine!”
one of them said.

“Hello, friends,” I said to them, still smiling. “You came a long way… would you like some food?”

“Do you want food?”

My smile widened and I looked behind me. “Did you bring them?”

In the doorway Silas stood, his face holding a smile like mine and a content glint in his eyes that told me everything he was feeling was genuine. He stepped onto the balcony, making the crows around me bob up and down and caw at him.

Silas nodded. “Yes, I did. They’re yours now, Sanguine. We’ll let them live a spoiled life here and we can let them multiply and in time… all of Skyfall will be full of them.”

He had done this? Never in my life had I felt appreciation for another human being. No one had ever done something nice for me to make me experience that emotion. I knew the basics of it but had never felt that pull towards someone.

But I was feeling it now. I was feeling it towards King Silas. A man who had created me, and when I had returned home… had shown me more patience and kindness than I had ever experienced in my nineteen years.

“Thank you,” I said to him and to make him happy I smiled again, my eyes squinting like Crow’s did whenever he smiled. “My king.”

Silas beamed at this and walked over to me. I flinched as he raised a hand and put it to my cheek, but I didn’t back away.

“The smile I see on your face is something I will remember until time ceases to go forward,” Silas said to me. There was that sparkle in his brilliant forest-green eyes, a lightness to them that attracted my own vision immediately. “Thank you, for letting me see it.”

He stroked my cheek with a touch that was like that of a feather. Softly stroking and feeling my prickly beard. It wasn’t bad and I no longer felt the need to get away from it. I felt calmed by it almost.

“Can I come and look, please?”

Our gazes broke. We both turned around as the sound of a little boy’s pleas reached our ears. Sure enough, Drake was standing in the door frame of the window, Elish in the background with his arms crossed and a cold expression on his face.

Silas turned back to me. “They’re your crows, love.”

I knelt down and motioned Drake to come over. I was happy to see that he had stopped crying, though his eyes were red and I could see the tear stains on his rosy cheeks.

“Yes, come here.” I bent my elbow, so my hand was resting beside my heart, the leader crow perched on my forearm, watching the boy as he slowly walked towards us. The birds seemed content with him being close to them. They cocked their heads back and forth and hopped around me. The ones on the railing continuing to scratch their claws on the metal.

Drake smiled and walked over to the lead crow with a bravery only a child could have. The little boy, with curly blond hair and big orange eyes, smiled and outstretched a hand.

One of the crows hopped off of my shoulder, walked down my arm and then jumped onto Drake’s outstretched hand. He flapped his wings and at this Drake’s face broke into an even wider smile.

“I love birdies!” he giggled and held up his hand. “Like the kittens and puppies…” Drake turned around and looked at Elish and I realized he was speaking to him. “We are gentle to animals. Right, Master Elish?”

Elish, still inside the apartment looking at us, nodded stiffly. “That’s correct.”

Drake turned back to me, and made the motion to say more, when one of the crows pecked at one of his spiral curls and tugged on it. The boy burst into giggles and shook his head, his head of curls shaking back and forth, encouraging the bird to do it again.

But as he did this, my smile faded and soon my lips disappeared into my mouth.

He was so young… look at this boy. He was – fuck, he was my age.

I was on my own at this age. Nan made me leave Sunshine House when I was this small? I didn’t even realize how young I was at the time. I just did what I had to do to survive. No wonder Cory and the others were so shocked that I was an orphan rogue.

Jasper…

Jasper must’ve thought he had won the lottery.

My lips pursed, and my face tensed.

“Why are you sad?” Drake suddenly said, noticing the expression on my face. “You have so many bird friends.”

I held up a hand and touched the side of Drake’s face gently, the area behind my eyes started to burn. Before I could stop myself or think better of it, I found myself saying:
“You’re so… little.”

I pulled my hand back immediately but the damage inside of me had already been done. Crow started stirring inside of me, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye. Though he said nothing his presence brought with it a new wave of suspicious. Ones that I knew were unfounded but what had happened to me at Jasper’s farm left me no room for assumptions. My trust of strangers had been shattered over and over again, and my experiences with people had made me suspicious of everyone.

There was no default trust. That trust had been bled out of me.

Children were honest. Children didn’t know deception outside of white lies. Though Silas had treated me well, I had seen Elish hit Drake and –
I didn’t want to think of my family in this way – but as I looked at that small boy, this fragile creature, this empty vessel. I had to have that confirmation that this royal family I belonged to weren’t hiding any caustic beliefs behind their crowns.

“I’m little!?” Drake said aghast. “I’m eight soon! I’m not little. Master Silas says I’ll be taller than him.”