The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (72 page)

Killian glared at me before he crossed his arms over his chest and decided to act like a five-year-old by giving me the silent treatment. There wasn’t a single fuck for me to give though; I enjoyed the silence all the way up to when Chally came back with Mr. Blond Hair.

The kid sat down with a sullen and forlorn look on his face.

I glanced up at the guy. “Well?”

The man nodded. “He’ll do, Bill’s shop is closed now. Give me until day break to sell a few things and I’ll give you the rest of the money.”

I wanted to leave an hour before dawn, but if I could ditch the kid this easily I would stay later. “Day break, no later. One hundred bucks.”

“Can I have him for the night?”

“No.”

After he left Killian slunk further in his seat and Chally just stared into the shot of whisky the bar man had brought him. So since this party had died and I hadn’t heard any mention of the Legion from any of the sunken-eyed fucks around me, we made our way back to the hotel room.

It was chilly and dark, I was happy for the heaters that were in our hotel room though we were paying out the nose for the luxury. This was the first hotel room I had ever stayed in and so far it wasn’t that bad. The armed guards had been a nice touch that was for sure.

“Reaver...” Killian’s voice whined when I was digging the remote phone out from under the blankets, I was pleased to see it was charged. “Chally doesn’t like him.”

“I don’t care,” I replied and sat on the bed with the charged Ieon beside me. I unplugged the remote phone but frowned as I pulled off a little device that was supposed to be secured under the antenna. I fiddled with it to try and put it back on.

My heart gave a bit of a jolt when I saw the signal got stronger without the device, not overly strong but instead of no signal it was giving me one bar. Perhaps I would get lucky and actually get that blond fucker on the phone.

I started scrolling through the numbers until I found Elish’s. I pressed it and held it up to my ear.

I could hear the echo in the remote phone but a moment later there was static and a pissed off beeping noise. I sighed but tried again, lighting another cigarette.

I leaned against the window as I kept trying the phone, ignoring Killian talking to Chally as he wrote his responses on whatever scraps of paper those two could find. His new master would have to fucking find him a Magna Doodle or something.

After a couple hours of me trying to call out on the phone Killian came over and put his arm around me.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “You are already doing a lot for him and I got caught up in it.”

I put my arm around him and offered him the last drag of my cigarette. “If this was all happening in Aras, I would have given him to Reno or something... but we don’t have control over our own lives anymore... and I can’t handle another kid to look after. You’re all that’s important.” I stroked his hair back and he leaned his head on my shoulder.

“You’re the most important... you being safe,” Killian said quietly. I had to smile at that comment.

“I’m immortal, I’ll always be safe.”

But he shook his head. “We need to keep you from Asher...”

Even calling him that made my blood start to simmer. He wasn’t Asher and he never was Asher. Asher didn’t exist. All of the drinking times, the time with the ravers... everything was fake, a put on, a fucking show...

Killian found my hand and squeezed it. “You’re the most important person in the world... you’re going to kill him and make us safe again.”

“Yeah,” I whispered turning away from the window. “Apparently that’s the only reason I was born.”

I glanced over at Chally sleeping on one of our two beds. I got an idea; one that I thought might make him happy.

“How about this? A middle ground... the blond guy seems okay, not kinky-freaky or anything. Why don’t we let him buy Chally and once Elish picks us up... we’ll double back and slit the guy’s throat and take back Chally.”

Killian looked at me before his mouth dropped open, sensing the cry machine was revving up I pressed on. “Elish can probably find him a job as a slave or a cook or something in Skyfall, where he will be safe.”

My boyfriend’s face dissolved. I caught him as he leapt into my arms sniffing and crying. “You mean it? Thank you, baby. I love you.”

I let out a breath through my nose and rolled my eyes. “Still with the tears? You’re too old to cry.” I patted his back. “You’ll be eighteen soon right? I’ll make this your birthday present.”

Killian pulled away and gave me a long, drawn-out kiss. I took him in and smiled at him when we broke away.

“You have so much power over me, Mr. Massey. I hope you appreciate just how much you’ve wormed yourself into my heart.” I kissed him back. “I love you; just don’t use my love against me.”

The boy blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’d never use my power over you to promote my own agenda.” He gave me a crooked smile.

Well, he might cry too much, but he was a crafty little shit.

We sat together for an hour before I finally resigned that I could use some sleep. I yawned and stretched and decided to make his day even more.

“I’d like to catch two hours. Why don’t you keep watch?” I took off my M16 and handed it to him.

Killian’s face brightened like he was his own little solar system. “Really?” he squealed and held my gun like I had just presented him with a new puppy. “Okay, go to sleep! I’ll take care of this.”

He let me sleep three hours and I gave him a good glare because of it but I didn’t pitch too much of a fuss. After he went to sleep I leaned the M16 up against the windowsill and took my usual place on a chair. Tonight we were warm though, comfortable and guarded so it wasn’t as stressful as it had been the previous night.

I sat back with an opiate cigarette and relaxed. I got out the remote phone to occupy myself and kept trying to dial Elish but it still gave me that long pissed off tone whenever I would try. Like everywhere it seemed the cell phone reception was non-existent, but why would it be? Why the fuck would there be reception in the middle of nowhere hundreds of miles away from Skyfall? I bet me, Jade, and Perish were the only chimeras for miles.

With the lamps off in the room I was able to see below me a bit clearer, but the windows looked painted shut so I couldn’t hear worth a damn. It was quiet though, just the occasional grey-faced waster milling around or taking someone home. This place seemed quiet and sleepy, it didn’t seem like much happened here.

I wonder if a place like this would be where Killian and I would eventually settle down. If it ever came to that, before, you know, I decided to take back Aras.

I wasn’t giving up on my town and I never would... Merrik’s founded Aras and I was a Merrik no matter what my DNA said. I was their kid; I was a Merrik not a Dekker.

This brought a tightness to my chest, which I dimmed down by taking a hit of opiate powder. The alcohol had already made my chest warm but it should be far enough in my system that the Dilaudids wouldn’t interfere. I was missing the heroin already but that brick wasn’t going to last forever and I’d rather be weaned before it ran out.

At about four in the morning I saw something that caught my eye. Not just one embered cigarette moving along the street... it was five of them.

I stood up and tried to open the window but I was reminded that it was painted shut. I crossed my arms and leaned against the window frame and watched the group, or watched the cigarettes anyways; the people to who they belonged to were nothing but shrouded figures. Dark shadows in a backdrop that held no form from where I was standing.

Still though, my eyes never left them. They seemed to be walking down the street slowly, like they hadn’t a care in the world. I wondered if perhaps they were a gang or something like that. A group of street punks like they had in Moros; I suppose that would make sense.

The group disappeared for an hour and I went back to my usual silent vigil, mulling over things in my head that had been plaguing my thoughts for the past several months. Mostly how I ended up here and how much I was pissed off about it.

And also the many ways I was planning on killing King Silas, that I thought of whenever I needed cheering up.

Then the embers appeared again coming up the road, closer this time. I killed my own cigarette and watched them, feeling an uneasy prickle in my gut when I saw that two of them had the blue-embered cigarettes in their mouths.

And what the hell were they wearing anyways? It wasn’t legionary clothing though, it seemed like normal greywaster attire... wasn’t it? I looked closer and was able to make out some of them. They were all male, burly-type men... one of them... I couldn’t see but...

The blood drained from my face as I noticed this one had a cape on.

In that second, as my heart rose to my throat and the extinguished cigarette fell to the floor, the man turned around and as his eyes scanned the hotel room they fell on me.

Eyes that could see me – blue-violet eyes.

Nero Dekker.

No fucking way... how did he...

“Killian!” I suddenly yelled, for the first time in my life I felt an incomprehensible swell of panic. I ran towards Killian and as he screamed from shock I grabbed him and pulled him from the bed.

“Rea... what!” Killian cried out. I started pulling him out the door.

But as I put my hand on the knob I could hear the hotel’s squeaky door, there was only one exit, only one fucking exit...

This couldn’t be happening. How? How did he find us? No one fucking knew we were here.

As the chaos swarmed and destroyed my brain with spasm after spasm of panic I whirled around and pulled Killian towards the window, without thinking I punched it out with my fist and pushed him towards it.

The boy turned around, his eyes full of panic and fear but he didn’t have the time to look at me. I didn’t have the fucking time to tell him Nero was coming for us.

“Get out, get out and run, run!” I screamed at him. I spun around as I heard the sound of a dozen bootsteps hitting the dry boards of the hotel stairs. They were coming slowly... but they were coming.

The kid’s face was pale and stricken with the same fear that I was feeling inside of my gut. I cleared away the rest of the glass with my now bleeding hands and pushed him towards the window.

“Run!”

“Reaver... where do I...” Killian was cut off when a gun blast sounded; I heard it ping off of the hotel roof. There were people down there... ready to fucking shoot all of us. Why wouldn’t they? I was immortal and they wouldn’t give a fuck about Killian.

“Chally, get up!” Killian cried. He tried to move away from my hand but I clenched him hard. My mind going like a thousand cylinders, unable to form a proper plan, unable to know what to do. I was cornered in here, they couldn’t... fuck, they couldn’t...

They were coming closer.

My eyes fell on Chally who was on his feet, holding up a knife in his hand; his owl eyes wide and looking at both Killian and I in horror. He wasn’t moving, he was standing steady; the cowering nature seemingly disappearing in our new reality.

Chally...

Blond-haired, grey-eyed, small Chally.

I turned to Killian; his eyes looked back at me with such agony I could feel it press up against my heart. Immediately and swiftly the fear drained from my body, replaced with a grim understanding and a reality as to what I had to do. No more did I feel scared, no more did I feel my mind slip into the fractured insanity that only pure panic brought.

It was all replaced by black... though it had no colour.

“I love you... I love you so much,” I whispered to him as I heard a door slam; they were searching the rooms for us. “Get into the closet and don’t make a sound.”

He stared at me; my beautiful boy stared at me. “We’ll shoot them... we can take them I...”

“Killian...”

The boy shook his head, tears streaming down his pale cheeks. “No, don’t you dare, Reaver. Don’t you fucking dare make me hide. I’ll –”

I spun around so he was in front of me, his back against my chest, then I wrapped my arm around his neck and held his arms down. I wedged his neck between the crook of my arm and squeezed.

I cut off the oxygen going to his brain, and as he started to gasp and struggle I closed my eyes, feeling them burn.

The light that only he fueled inside of me dimmed as I whispered into his ear, “No matter what happens, I will come back. I will find my way to you. Never forget that; never forget that, no matter what. I belong to you... and I love you. Go find Jade and Perish.” I felt his pulse start to race, and I counted each heartbeat as they started to slow.

Killian managed to free one of his arms, it immediately went to the one wrapped around his neck. He clawed it and started thrashing. I walked backwards with him and opened the partially-ajar closet door with my foot and walked inside with him.

His breathing started to slow and I knew it would be over soon. I had done this sleeper move on Bridley; I had done it on Reno... I had even done it on ravers I wanted to keep alive.

Just slow down little heart, slow down and go to sleep. When you wake up, it’ll be quiet again.