The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (45 page)

I ran my tongue along my teeth, some of them my own, some porcelain implants and some, like my canines up and down, were steel sharpened to a point. When I had been kidnapped by the Crimstones and my ex-boyfriend almost two years ago, Milos, the old leader, had ripped out my implants; ones that had been pressed in over my original teeth, taking my teeth with them. They also beat me so bad that quite a few of them broke.

My family had repaired me, not only giving me new teeth but doing the surgery on my brain to keep my abilities from overloading and causing seizures, aneurisms, and eventual death.

It was a dark time in my life. I had gotten my head cut open and screwed up, that and being nothing but a broken shell I would’ve seen myself useless to my family. But Silas had repaired me, and the doctor chimera Sid, and Perish as well, had fixed me up until I was past brand new.

One of the first family type things the other chimeras had done for me, my loyalty towards this crazy family had strengthened after that. I felt like I was a part of them.

Silas had left Elish and me alone after that too, everything was calm and I was enjoying being reunited with my master.

Until we got that call from Greyson.

Nothing was the same after that; Elish wasn’t the same.

The next morning I woke up to the sounds of pots and pans and voices coming from the living room and kitchen. When I decided to open up my eyes I saw Perish putting on a black t-shirt, his hair damp from the shower and sticking up. I said a mumbled good morning to him and found the shower myself, hearing Killian’s high pitch greeting for Perish as I turned on the hot water.

When I emerged and did my ritualistic belting of my wrist and ankle cuffs and my leather collar, I put on my greywaster clothing and went into the living room.

Killian was washing the dishes and Reaver and Perish could be heard down the hallway, I assumed they were looking at the metal door that led into Lycos’s office.

The blond boy gave me a smile and took me out some leftover spaghetti from the microwave. “I started heating it up when I heard the water shut off. I assume Perish left you alone since he doesn’t have any bite marks on him.”

I bit off a piece of toasted tact bread and ripped it off with my teeth. “I would have enjoyed a bit of chimera blood. Have they figured out how to break into that room yet?”

Killian handed me some tea and shook his head. “No, but Perish thinks he knows how. I hope you don’t mind but he has Elish’s laptop. He says he owned if first so he kind of pulled rank on all of us. He’s going to hack into it.”

I took my plate and quickly walked down the white hallways and towards the voices. Elish had everything on that laptop, and though everything was password protected most of it inaccessible to even me, I still didn’t want Perish to crash it or destroy it.

I walked in on Perish sitting down on the linoleum with Elish’s black laptop on his lap. Reaver was standing behind him with his arms crossed, asking computer questions. To my surprise Reaver was dressed in cloth pants and a zippered hoody but when I tuned my ears I heard the washer going on in the background. Killian and Luca would’ve gotten along great.

The chimera greywaster looked up at me, his black eyes sparkling with mischief, a look that only broadened when he read the concerned look on my face. “We didn’t look for you and Elish’s sex videos, don’t worry.”

I gave him a flat look, ignoring Perish’s giggling from around our feet. “Did you find yours and Killian's? After you killed Redmond and Hollis? Because that’s one I know exists.”

My chest rose as I enjoyed the fleeting moment of annoyance sweep Reaver’s face, but before I could fully capture it in my mind he tapped Perish with his foot. “Find it and delete it.”

“Oh, I’ll find it, bro, I’ll find it and make copies of it and watch it again and again…”

Perish squawked as Reaver dug his foot into the tender part of his side, though Mr. Maniac was laughing while he did it. He seemed in good spirits which surprised me greatly. He must’ve dug in the opiate bag, that or he was just feeling more in his element. Being in the apartment in the greyrifts, inside and unable to shed the blood he thirsted for so much, it was kind of like watching an evil flower wilt.

“I will accept that as my payment…” Perish did an embellished twirl with his finger before he dove it down onto Elish’s keyboard. A second later there was a hiss and a snap before another loud metallic click sounded, and to my joy, a door handle popped out.

“Way to go!” I stood behind Reaver as he pulled the door open, but as a plume of dust greeted us that had been stuck to the other end of the door I started to cough.

To my surprise though Reaver closed the door again, a passing furrow of his brow that was gone before I could even blink. He then raised his head and nodded towards the two of us, his face hardening. “Well, we got it open, take five, Perish. Killian, are my pants done yet?”

I turned around and gave his back a confused look. Perish rose with the laptop which I quickly took from him. “You’re not going in now?”

I followed him as he went into the living room, sauntering around like we hadn’t just had a major breakthrough. “Where are you going?”

Reaver grabbed his gun and slung it over his shoulder, I noticed then he was still wearing his thick army boots. “My dog is out there, the lab can wait we have a long time to search through that shit.”

I looked behind me at the door, my curiosity burning my brain. “Seriously? Come on, let’s at least start bringing out the computers. I can do that without you anyways.”

Surprisingly I saw Reaver’s shoulders tense, before he whirled around and gave me a glaring look. There was something in that look, an emotion past those onyx black eyes that he wasn’t giving voice to. “Stay the fuck out of that room, that’s an order, Cicaro.”

“Are you kidding?” I took a step towards him but Perish grabbed onto my shoulder, I jerked him away and stalked up to Reaver. “My master is putting a lot at risk for us to get those files and the hard drives, who knows what might happen even today. For all we know we could get raided, or those lizards could find a way in. I want them now to be safe.”

My body jumped back as Reaver turned back around; it further tensed up as I saw his expression of blazing anger.

“I am your fucking master now, pet, and I told you to stay the fuck away from it. If you put a toe in that room I’ll be delivering you back to Elish in pieces, got it?”

And just like that his happy attitude was gone, but as it plummeted into the brimstones of hell mine was quickly following behind it. As my ears went hot and all my previous bad experiences with Reaver rose to the surface I pushed him with my hands. I felt the confidence flow through me. I wasn’t the little teenager he dangled over the deacons’ pen anymore, I was Elish’s cicaro. I was a chimera and a fucking tough one.

“Fuck off, you’re not my master. Go find the dog, I’m getting those files.” As soon as the last words left me lips Reaver went to grab my collar. I expected it though, Elish had handled me the same, instead I shifted off to the side away from his outstretched hand and grabbed his hoody.

The dark chimera twisted around and raised his fists to punch me in the face when Killian grabbed him. I took a stumbled step back and felt Perish grab me.

“Go, just go, hun, it’s okay… he’ll stay out of the room.” I let Perish hold onto my shoulder as Killian whispered into Reaver’s ear. Like an owner calming down a junkyard dog, his voice was low and soothing.

I saw the wild chimera’s lip disappear inside his pursed mouth before he pushed Killian away and went down the hallway, a few tense moments later and the door to the sewers clicked shut.

When the door closed Killian’s shoulders slumped with a sigh. “This is going to be hard for him, Jade… let’s just start going through files. I want as much of this done as we can before he comes back.”

Oh? The little greywaster twinky was going above his boyfriend’s head? I picked up my mug of tea and held onto Elish’s laptop. “Why is it going to be hard on him? Are you trying to tell me that spaz attack meant something else?”

Killian opened the metal door, making a stream of light break up the dust motes inside, when he spoke it echoed into the room like he had just entered a dark cave. “Leo and Greyson are on that video; he hasn’t really said anything about them since they died. I think… it’s going to be hard for him to see them.”

I had forgotten about that, well, not forgotten but I had been so busy just getting here intact I hadn’t thought about it. Reaver had never wavered in his strength or power; he remained every bit a stone-faced bad ass. I assumed, I don’t know, that the guy was alright.

Since I had the laptop I followed behind Killian, sweeping my eyes across the old office, though a moment later Killian flicked the light switch on.

The dust was thick over everything, and it was obvious that whoever had been here had had to leave quickly. There were papers on the floors, half-open filing cabinets, what looked like text books stacked on top of one another and behind that a computer monitor, grey under the dust but maintaining their distinct shape. They looked like corpses slowly rising out of their graves, all of it set me on edge.

I coughed into my sleeve, every step we made into this small area made the dust rise up like smoke. I permanently put my hand over my mouth and started to wipe off the computer monitor, Killian was already in front of the desk wiping off the tower.

It took some tinkering from Perish but eventually his face was bathed in the blue computer glow; he then flicked open Elish’s laptop and started clicking things with his mouse. Killian and I continued to wipe off surfaces, the boy even going as far as to put some text books aside, for reading material I guess.

“Okay, I’m just going to back up all these files, once done I’ll take the hard drive and –” Perish paused for a second, so abruptly in the middle of his sentence it made Killian and I both look.

Perish knitted his brow together before his eyes shot up from the screen, to Killian’s face, and then back to the screen. “Lycos… why does Lycos have…” I moved to the back of the dusty chair Perish was sitting in, and saw the mouse hovered over a single media file, labeled: Greg/Sky.

But that wasn’t what got my interest. I looked to the side of the folder he had opened and saw a trail of over a dozen other folders opened and clicked. The first ones looked like they had been hidden in the program files, well away from prying eyes. No way Perish would’ve looked there first.

“Perish, how did you know where to go?” I asked.

The tension radiating off Perish was filling the room with his fractured aura, soaking into the dusty corners and creeping up the stained walls. As I tuned into it I saw it fluctuating and pulsing, branching off before snapping back like someone had put their finger into glue. It was brighter than I had ever seen it; I could see each crack so perfectly I could take them into my hands if I wanted to.

“Greg…” Perish’s voice whispered, a hushed sound that carried on it tones of melancholy and longing. As I held my breath and tried to keep up his aura, my mind could practically hear the grinding sound of his brain trying to work. “Greg… Lenard.”

That realization hit me like a Mac truck. His brain was trying to click out of its monotonous rhythm. I glanced up at Killian and saw he was standing completely still, being as quiet as a mouse. I slowly put my hand on Perish and said to him slowly.

“Perish, what are you seeing in your head?”

The mouse still hovered over the media file. My mind filled with my own compulsive thoughts… to grab the mouse and click it, or tell him straight-out that Silas had been lying to him.

But instead… as Elish had taught me – I shut up and I listened.

The scientist didn’t move; he stared at the screen until he clicked the video.

It took a moment to load, and in that time Killian managed to sneak to the back of the computer so he could watch too.

The first image I saw was of a young brown-haired boy, with a round face and glasses on. He wasn’t a chimera; he was standing beside a slab-like metal table, in a well-lit room surrounded by windows. He was holding a voice recorder in his hand and he was talking slowly into it.

“Greg Lenard… I am here with Sky Fallon –”

I jumped a mile high and Killian gave out a startled yell as Perish jumped to his feet and with an angry bellow he pushed the computer monitor, letting it fall to the ground with a deafening crash, still connected to the tower below it.

“Perry!” Killian held out his hands at Perish, a pleading look on his face. “It’s okay, you’re fine.”

The scientist let out another cry before he whirled around, his pale eyes two slabs of blue ice. “No, there isn’t… I can’t say! I can’t say! Don’t let him say!”

“I know, I know you can’t, Perry, you’re fine.” Killian’s voice went low and soothing but I knew the kid was in the danger zones. This wasn’t Reaver, a wild animal who could be calmed by a soothed voice of his boyfriend. Perish was unpredictable and crazy. If Killian had forgotten that since his little lab excursion in Donnely, he was soon going to be reminded.

Sure enough, Perish glared at him, lowered his head and took a threatening step towards him.

At this point I knew I needed to jump in, with his aura fractured and glaring around me, I reached out my hand to deliver the electric shock I knew would stun him.