Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (94 page)

“Kinda,” I remarked. I got a scathing look for that, he tossed me an oven mitt and I used it to carry the hot plate into the dining room.

“Just promise me… I’ll always be your number one, right?” Jack asked behind me. “I’m… I’m more important that Silas? I mean… I know he’s our master but…but… you know what I mean.”

I did know what he meant. Though I loved Silas and I would do anything for my king. My boyfriend was my boyfriend; he was my partner and the man I would wake up to every morning.

“I do, and you will be. Don’t worry,” I said smiling. “You’ll always have my heart.”

“Did you get the chicken nuggets?” I hissed as Jack sat down with a paper bag full of food. I looked over my shoulder and scanned the busy restaurant around us. We were in a converted fast-food restaurant, a chain made by Dek’ko called VanCouvers. It served hamburgers, fries, and all the food you would expect in the pre-Fallocaust fast food restaurants and it tasted great too.

“I did,” Jack said with a giggle. He scanned the occupied red metal chairs most of them situated around tan tables and sat down beside me. He immediately grabbed a plastic container from the aromatic bag and opened it up. The restaurant was full of the low murmurs of conversations, occasionally interrupted by the beeping machines that made the salty yet delicious food. It seemed that everyone was preoccupied.

Immediately my mouth salivated over the salty smell of meat. I popped one in my mouth but as the hot food burned my tongue I spat it back out and started to blow on it. Playing hot potato with the chunk of food to keep the oil from singeing my fingers.

Jack grabbed a nugget too and bit it in half. He picked out a small piece of breaded meat from his mouth and reached for my jacket.

“Blow on it first,” I said under my breath.

“I made my touch cold, it’s already cooled down. Come on, I want to see!” Jack kept giggling like a kid, it was adorable. “
Pss, pss!
Are you hungry?”

A little pink nose poked out of my jacket, and her small nostrils flexed as she smelled the nugget. Jack
aww’d
as the little tabby female’s face started moving towards the piece of nugget, her green eyes vivid and staring intently at the food.

Then another nose, this one grey, quickly followed by a solid grey face with a single wisp of white on his muzzle. Yes, we got two. We couldn’t help ourselves, there were only two kittens left and we both agreed without much resistance that we couldn’t let one of them stay behind all alone. They would’ve been lonely!

I laughed and felt my heart fill as Jack let out a squeal. He looked around the busy restaurant again before breaking off another piece of nugget for them. No one had noticed the kittens yet but we had a few looks from people who either recognized Jack, or noticed my red eyes. I wasn’t sure which.

We got our food to go, and were waiting for a car to pick us up and take us back to Alegria. We had decided to walk to the pet store on our own since it was such a beautiful spring day and I wanted to see my crows, but, true to our personalities, we didn’t think it through that we might not want to walk the entire six blocks back home with kittens in tow. Especially since the Skyland cars would freak them out.

“They’re purring!” I said gleefully. I scratched the little grey one on the head with one finger but he was more interested in the food than his new owner. “Their personalities are wonderful.” I tried to discourage the kittens from coming out of my jacket by putting them closer to the food, they had been sleeping and we probably should’ve let them continue to sleep, but we just had to look at them.

“Excuse me…”

Jack and I both looked up to see a lady with brown skin standing over us. She had a fake smile on her face and a rolled up paper in one of her hands. She was dressed in a blue skirt and a red top, and was obviously an elite from not only her clothing but the fancy leather purse she was carrying.

“What?” Jack said. He pushed on the tabby girl’s head until she ducked back inside my jacket and I started zipping my jacket closed.

“I was wondering… when King Silas was going to make the official announcement over… our new prince,” the lady said in a cheerful voice. I didn’t like it though, it seemed fake, but that being said everyone gave us fake smiles, mostly because they were scared of us.

Jack grabbed our paper bag of food and glanced towards the windows, most likely looking to see if our ride was there.

“What new prince?” Jack’s eyes narrowed.

The lady looked over at me, still keeping the plastic smile. “Well, there has been quite a few articles written about a Sanguine Dekker. And several photos too, and as our royal family must know the UFM has been writing about it as well…”

Jack got up and grabbed my arm, by now half the restaurant was watching this exchange, and I could see out of the corner of my eye several people quickly leaving the restaurant. Probably afraid that shit was about to go down.

“And how would you know what the Underground Free Media has been reporting?” Jack asked coolly. He extended his arm and twitched his hand, requesting the rolled up paper that the lady was holding. The lady handed it over without hesitation, though Jack’s words made her heartbeat rise.

“It’s rather easy to get…” she said hastily, her red lips moved to the side of her mouth. “My apologies. We are all rather excited to meet the newest members of the family. King Silas is usually eager to reveal new chimeras to his subjects.”

“Indeed…” Jack mumbled. He glanced down at the paper and his brow furrowed. “Silas will release the information when he sees fit. If you value your life I would steer away from the lies that the UFM spreads. Especially since their sympathies regarding Imperial Commander Nero invading Irontowers are an obvious window into their bias reporting. The UFM is nothing but anti-chimera propaganda by a few pathetic and unappreciative fools who apparently see nothing wrong with pimping out children. Remember that King Silas saved your ancestors from the wars and gave you shelter from the sestic radiation.”

The lady bowed her head. “I meant no disrespect, Prince Jack. I only bring it up as an encouragement to clear up any misconceptions the UFM may be reporting. You and Prince Sanguine have a wonderful day. And congratulations on the new little kittens. They’re lucky beyond words.”

Jack, still with his hand on my arm, directed me outside.

“She had a video camera in her purse,” Jack mumbled as the warm sun hit our faces. He glanced behind him and took me to an awning that was shading the front of an electronics store. “Or else I would’ve wiped that smile off of her face.” Jack pulled me into an alleyway before bringing out his remote phone. He put it to his ear, his eyes still darting around, mine were too. Why would she be recording us?

“Most likely she’s a reporter,” Jack said under his breath when I asked him that very question, “or she’s working for the UFM, either way Ellis needs to know. And I’m going to get her to drop us off a copy of this month’s UFM newspaper just so we can see what they’re saying about you. It’s the start of a new month now, I think a new copy might be out already or out soon.”

I was quiet as he spoke on the phone, my arms around my stomach to hold the kittens up, but they were being still. I peeked down my jacket and saw that they were falling asleep all intertwined into each other.

Then my attention was diverted to the sound of a car. Sure enough, a black car with tinted windows pulled up, making my crows hop around and several of them take flight. I tapped Jack’s shoulder and we both got inside, Jack still speaking to our sister on the remote phone.

“Alegria,” I told the driver. I was eager to get the kittens home but I was more eager to see what Ellis had to say about this nosey reporter. Why would she be recording us? Perhaps it wasn’t common knowledge that chimeras could hear the humming whine of electronics if we focused our hearing, or maybe she thought the noise of the restaurant would block it out.

He was on the telephone for the entire drive. Giving Ellis a detailed description of the brown-skinned woman including her outfit, and a play-by-play of her questions and enquiries. By the time he put the remote phone down we were walking down our grey hallway towards the double doors leading to our new apartment.

“Ellis says she’s not a rebel; she thinks she’s just a nosey reporter for the bulletin wanting a bonus on getting some stills of you,” Jack said finally. I opened the doors and walked in, still cupping the warm and fuzzy little bodies napping inside of my jacket. “But Ellis has dispatched thiens to bring her into the precinct for questioning either way. But with Nero destroying the rebels while you were resurrecting, and the fallout from that, she’s calling King Silas right now to see if he wants to allow her to run the story. Jack and Sanguine adopting fuzzy kittens would actually make a wonderful story right now,” my boyfriend explained. “If we can be an adorable new couple and get media attention for it, it might be beneficial to the family and it’s not like we care, right?”

I shrugged as I sat down on the couch with the kittens. “Whatever is best for the family, I guess. Bring the paper over I want to look at it though. Is Ellis sending over a UFM newspaper?”

Jack nodded. “She’s sending someone over with a paper right now. Just don’t get mad when you read it, they can get quite nasty.”

My stomach started to move so I unzipped my black nylon jacket. I slipped down so I was slouched on my back and revealed the two little balls of fluff on my stomach.

Jack coo’d at the kittens as he sat down beside me. To my joy he laid on his side and nestled into my arms as we watched the kittens look around with half-asleep eyes. They seemed happy on my stomach, the two of them snuggled up next to each other.

I put my arm around Jack and watched as he brought up a folded newspaper, the one that the reporter lady had been carrying with her.

Jack chuckled and pointed to an article at the bottom left-hand corner, right underneath the main article which was something that required a huge picture of Garrett and another business man in front of an impressive-looking building.

“
Mystery Prince Sanguine spotted with Prince Jack outside of Skytech Pharmacy, fuelling speculations of a secret relationship.”
Jack read with a smile. He kissed my cheek and nuzzled my neck with his nose. “Those cameras are everywhere, that was only three days ago that we made that pharmacy trip.”

Indeed it was, my first time being outside since I resurrected. I had been immortal for an entire week now. “Like you said, at least it’s positive stuff. Anything bad about us in there?”

Jack shook his head and started turning the pages. “No, we control this newspaper, or well, the men and women in charge of it are under our control. A lot of this is just what’s new in Skyfall or who’s to be sent to Stadium, boring economy stuff, business stuff, things that only Elish and Garrett would find interesting. Plus they’ve been keeping everyone updated with what happened after Cypress was bombed.”

I was quiet for a moment, and though he couldn’t tell I was wondering if I should give a voice to what was on my mind. I didn’t know if I wanted to go there but… perhaps it was time to ask.

“What did happen after Cypress was bombed?” I asked him. “I don’t remember anything…”

Jack laid his head on my shoulder. “What’s the last thing you remember?” He put a hand up my shirt but it wasn’t to start something; that was clear when he wiggled his fingers underneath the fabric, making the female tabby rear up and pounce on my chest.

“Us being inside the basement… I remember being upset because Barry and the kids were starting to torment me again,” I said. It was hard to remember that day, not only because it was fuzzy but it was hard to remember how sick I was in the head. I was in absolute mental turmoil and thinking about it brought a cold chill up my spine. I never wanted to go back to being that person.

Jack looked relieved at this which made me suspicious. “Why?” I asked slowly, flinching as the grey kitten sunk his sharp little claws into my neck. I tried to blow hair on his face but he had suddenly become enchanted with my almost chin length hair. “What do you remember?”

“That’s about it…” Jack said in a tone that made me skeptical. “That and a lot of flames…
a lo
t of flames.” He frowned and snuggled himself even more into me. “We both almost died. I don’t know what I would do without you. My life seems so boring before you came. Isn’t everything so perfect now, at least? I never want it to change. I just want us to be happy forever.”

“Me too… I could use a mental break,” I said. “I can’t believe the hallucinations and the voices are gone. I thought Crow and Barry were too much a part of me to ever disappear for good. It seems… too good to be true, you know?”

We both watched as the grey kitten got brave and jumped up off of my stomach. His sister followed him and soon they were sniffing around the coffee table exploring their new home.

Jack, with his hand still up my shirt, stroked my stomach gently. “It does, but it is true. Your brain healed and now you can just be Sanguine. We can find out everything about Sanguine together.” He kissed me on the cheek before turning my lips towards his. We both kissed, long and drawn-out until our lips parted. When he broke away Jack brushed a hand over my nipple and slowly started to rub it. “I can paint, and you can try painting too, or learn to play an instrument, or maybe learn to cook…” He stroked my pec with the ball of his finger until it started to become hard. “There’s a lot of things you can learn… a lot of things I can teach you.”