The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (11 page)

The smell was a mixture of blood, sweat and the steel rods they had implanted in my head. Silas had drawn out each one as I screamed, feeling my brain inside of my head go haywire. My entire body was a ruin. I had been beaten, crucified, and the inside of my brain had been sliced and electrocuted to ribbons.

I sighed and felt Killian’s cheek warm against my hand. I had been strong enough to endure the Ghost King. I was a chimera from Moros; I was born and bred to endure.

But Killian was no chimera; he would be put through what I had been put through but worse. This small little waif, as kind and sweet as they come. What a pretty piece of flesh to be passed around a family of rabid monsters just waiting to putrify such innocence. Like a paint brush in a glass of water, a single dip muddles the crystal clear liquid.

Though this feeling I felt from Killian was no single dip of a used paint brush. The transparent water, reflecting sunlight and warmth, was now just a quagmire of mud and rot.

I felt inside my body a well of sadness and sympathy, one that overwhelmed even my advanced receptors. I could take the abuse. I proved I could, but this kid? Fuck. This kid didn’t stand a chance. He would’ve been better off as Garrett’s pet. At least if Silas had decided to grow jealous of the second born chimera’s cicaro, he would be dead by now, just like his parents.

So much misery.

JADE!

I gasped as I felt a cold hand take my forearm and wrench it back, and with the strength of the pull all of my lucid dreams shot out of my body.

I blinked, seeing only blue-tinged darkness around me, the blond kid laying just a foot away.

I was...

What the hell?

I looked down and realized I had been holding a pillow only inches away from Killian’s face.

A moment later the cold hand was joined by another and I was yanked back from the boy.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Elish’s frozen voice hissed. I blinked, looking bewildered at the pillow, not even able to answer his question.

The scene spoke for itself; I was about to try and smother the kid.

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed but a moment later his hand clamped over my mouth. I felt Elish walk me back into our bedroom.

When he closed the door behind us I immediately took advantage of only one arm restraining me and I wrenched myself from his grasp. Anticipating getting the snot beat out of me I walked towards the bathroom to lock myself into it.

Elish had no patience for it; his mind was elsewhere. “I am not angry, Cicaro, and not surprised. Though I expected this to happen differently.”

“I had surgery to prevent this shit from happening!” I whirled around and said loudly. “I haven’t been able to do anything beyond my aura reading since then. What the fuck!?”

Elish, to my surprise, picked up the chains he usually bound me with during our rougher sessions, and chained me to the bed. I knew why, so I didn’t protest.

“Most of the implants Sid and Perish put in your brain were deactivated. I had it done as soon as I heard Silas knew about Reaver,” he replied as he got back into bed.

I looked at him in shock; he hadn’t told me that but maybe he hadn’t wanted to.

“You will be nineteen soon enough. Old enough to become immortal if my hand is forced. The damage you’ll do to your mind will be repaired by your first resurrection,” Elish said. “I want you to start developing it, and your target is going to be Perish.”

“What?” I lay back down on the bed and gave him a confused look. “You want me to keep letting it happen. What if I hurt Killian?”

Elish shook his head. “He will be sleeping beside Reaver and Reaver not let you near him.”

“But why Perish?”

There was a pause, and I wondered if this was information he didn’t want to give me.

“There is something inside his head that I need, this is a task I set out for you years ago, Cicaro, and as these seeds are coming into fruition, you must do as I tell you.”

I looked at him and felt myself scowl in confusion, but I nodded and obeyed. I never had a choice in that. “But I don’t even know how I do it, or what triggers it. How will I even know what to look for?”

“I have faith you will find a way. You’ll know when you find what I need.”

Always so cryptic... I wish I knew what was going on in that mind of his. What his plans were for me, and the other three. Elish couldn’t hide Reaver, Killian, and Perish here forever, and eventually I would have to go back to Skyfall too where I belonged.

But still, in that same thread, my heart filled at finally being able to help Elish with this long cultivated mission. Even though it would be risky on my mortal brain I had a gift that would help him. If I had to do some digging through Perish’s mind to find information for Elish, I would.

I was the only empath chimera, the only one to hold these odd abilities. I couldn’t let my master, my husband, down.

“I’ll do anything I can to help you, you know that.” I twisted a lock of his shiny blond hair in my fingers. “Have we had an empath like me before?”

“You are the second, the first one passed long ago... and without a doubt you will also be the last. They’re too much trouble.”

I scrunched my face, making my nose wrinkle in mock anger and tugged on the lock of his hair. In return he granted me a smile that made my heart melt to my feet. The rare smile, where I could see it in his eyes too.

In response I leaned forward and we kissed. I was glad he wasn’t angry at me; I didn’t want to ruin our first time together in over a month.

“My parvulus maritus, such a docile thing,” Elish’s voice became a low purr, making a shiver go up my spine. “It is enjoyable to be with you here, after such a trying several months.”

I moved closer to him, until my bare skin was rubbing against his. He stroked my back and I rested my cheek against his chest.

“It has. I missed it too,” I sighed and rubbed his collarbone. “I hope Killian feels better once he has Reaver back. Silas destroyed him... his aura, it was like toxic sludge. He had been so bright and colourful before.”

“Yes, all that is crystal clear will eventually be spoiled by the Ghost King, but his brilliant aura would’ve never survived the greywastes anyways. Killian will become stronger, and in time he will be strong enough to complete the tasks laid out for him.”

“You really think that kid is strong?” I had my doubts.

“Yes,” Elish replied back simply. “He is stronger than you would imagine. I did not send him to Aras just because he was pretty.”

I looked at him. “Why did you send him to Aras?” My brow furrowed, I actually had thought he had only sent him to Aras because he was cute and innocent. Good flesh for the Darkness to consume, that and to get him away from Garrett.

“Because he and Reaver belong together.”

“Like Silas and Sky?” Reaver was Silas’s clone, and Sky was his boyfriend before he had killed himself. The other born immortal, a man who Elish had told me had been... a bit of a jerk.

“Yes.”

I remembered back to when I had first heard Sky’s name. I was half-conscious during the conversation I had overheard between Elish and Silas. Silas was saying how much he missed him, how much he had loved Sky. He even got Elish to promise they would find out a way to clone him.

“Was Silas normal back then? When he had Sky?”

I pulled away a bit so I could look at him. Elish was on his side tracing a hand along my body. I was happy we got more time together, even though it was only because I had tried to smother Killian.

“I was not born yet, this was a long time ago.”

“He never had anyone else?”

My blonde chimera shook his head slightly. “No, we are his bishops, his pawns, his knights, and rooks... we are not his kings. He said if he was going to replace Sky, the man would have to be like no other.”

And he got this man, only to have Lycos and Elish both steal him before Silas knew he existed.

“Yeah,” I replied, “that’s why he’s pissed off about how things are turning out. His manufactured boyfriend loves someone else, hates him, and has the ability to kill him. I can see why he would be so upset.”

“Mm, you’re smarter than you look.”

I gave him a smile, and kissed his chest before he drew me close to him. “Remember I will be leaving in several hours. Reno is healed enough that I can deliver him to his new master. Though I will not be long, expect me back this evening.”

There was no stifling the yawn, but I managed a nod while I did. Skyfall was about a four hour plane ride from here on the Falconer, and Elish was still technically king while Silas recovered.

I got comfortable and closed my eyes, falling asleep to the feeling of him playing with the strands of my bangs.

And I stayed asleep.

Chapter 5

Reno

The crutches I was getting used to, it was the slippers that weirded me out. I had never owned anything but boots, army boots if I could help it. Miller once wore sandals in the summer time and we beat him up for it. Slippers? They were like fluffy shoes that couldn’t grip anything and when you ran they went
flop flop flop
.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around Skyfaller logic.

I flip-flopped my sorry self into the sitting area of the apartment and sat down with a grimace of pain. The couches were fluffy and comfortable but the bullet hole in my gut wasn’t letting me enjoy the fringe benefits of being Elish Dekker’s prisoner. Walking was alright but once I had to scrunch my stomach to sit down it felt like someone was skewering me with a flaming sword.

“Do you need help, Master Nevada?”

I jumped in my seat, my teeth biting through another wave of dull pain. Luca pursed his lips apologetically though that wouldn’t stop him from doing it again.

Elish’s servant maid, or sengil as we were supposed to call them, was like a little mouse, quiet and small. A mouse that sneaked unnoticed from room to room to see if someone needed him.

The kid had been glued to me since I had been dropped off, half-dead and leaving a trail of blood behind me. He had a patient and docile nature to him and a soft face that told me him and Killian would’ve been best friends.

“Nah, I was just going to turn on Simpsons, want to watch it with me?” There was no hiding my loneliness anymore, I had been here for almost a week now and since then I had only seen Elish twice, and I hadn’t even met my new master.

Yep,
new
master… I was a cicaro now, a chimera’s pet.

I couldn’t recall much, but I remember demanding to know where I was and where my friends were. Had I really heard that Reaver was immortal? What was this place? Everything smelled weird, and the objects around me I couldn’t make sense of. I was in a hospital for only several people. It was small but full of medical equipment and expensive looking machines Doc would’ve smothered babies for.

I remember feeling myself start to panic. The older man in his late forties kept trying to calm me down but I couldn’t settle until I knew what was going on.

I had blacked out after I had rescued the cat. Elish had told me to stay awake but once I saw the shadowed outlines of the skyscrapers and buildings in the distance my mind had started to get fuzzy.

And then he was in the doorway of the hospital room, and the doctor guy was gone.

I stared, my mind temporarily going blank. Elish had looked different in the greywastes but now in his element he was a force to be reckoned with. I found myself gawking at him like a gobsmacked idiot.

I couldn’t help it though. Elish was a towering sight; beside him the sengil’s forehead barely reached his square jaw. He was tall and imposing, with long blond hair halfway down his back and a cold smile on his face. This dude was like a marble statue that seemed to permanently rest on a pedestal.

When Elish’s eyes fell onto me I felt my throat go dry. Even with logic telling me I was safe and he had helped me, I still cowered under those violet eyes. I hoped he was on our side; I did not want to become enemies with this dude.

“So what happens now?” I rasped when I had first saw Elish in the doorway. “Is Reaver awake yet? Have you heard anything?”

“Reaver will wake in the next three days possibly four. As far as I know they are still doing well at my base,” Elish’s cold and imposing voice had said, it seemed to coat the room in ice.

“And the cat’s okay too?” I asked. I felt a needle go into my arm, which I tried to bat away but Lyle the doctor held it firmly. I felt the instinct to thrash but the old doctor’s hand was gentle and his voice soothing, telling me I was getting worked up.

“Luca is taking care of the cat, you’ll join him soon,” Elish explained. “Eventually you’ll also join your friends, but in due time.”

The relief on my face was palatable, his stern but reassuring words loosening the knot in my chest with quick fingers. I missed my friends already and it felt strange being away from them. I wanted to heal up and leave this place so I could help them. Killian was probably having kittens over Reaver being dead.