The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (37 page)

Jack glanced behind him to see Sanguine standing in the doorway, though his face held no cheshire smile, it was cold and void of any emotion. His eyes though were staring intently at the both of them.

“I’ll step up my search for Reaver and Perish now. Though we are immune to the radiation, Killian is not. I care little for those savages, but I will be quite upset if Killian dies. If he dies I will hold no leverage against my beloved
bona mea
. Killian must not die,” Silas said draining his glass. “I am disbanding our search for the remaining Crimstones and that red-haired bitch of an ex Jade had. All of our forces will be on hand, and I want the Legion on the lookout for radiation spikes.” Silas’s eyes lit up when Drake patted into the room holding a ball in his teeth. The king put a hand on Drake’s head and petted it. “Wouldn’t you love that, my beautiful fox? Would you like Reaver to come live with us?”

Drake grinned and nodded, unaware or uncaring of the tense atmosphere in the room. “He’ll throw my ball for me, I bet.”

“Of course, and when he’s bad you can rip him apart with your teeth.”

Drake did a small shuffle-like dance at this, like a tailless dog trying to wag his backside. “I’m happy, and happy Jade will come back, and Elish. I miss Elish. Remember the time he gave me those chocolates that were supposed to be for Jade? And Jade accidently tripped me but Elish knew it was on purpose and he slapped Jade on the back of the head, and Jade swore and him and then Elish –”

Silas smiled and raised his hand. Drake stopped talking but he was still jittering on the spot. The Ghost King showed no other chimera the patience and love he showed his cicaro. Though mentally stunted and a bit weird, the orange-eyed cicaro held a tender spot in almost all of his brothers’ hearts. It was difficult not to love the idiot.

Jack looked behind them to see when Sanguine was going to make himself known, but oddly the sengil had disappeared. The large wooden frames with the still open oak doors sat vacant; a painting of all four of the first generation as children hanging in the hallway behind where Sanguine had stood. Jack had painted it himself from a photo.

“M-master?” Garrett, who had been quiet in a corner said, his voice stuttering and stumbling. “Please, can I have my leave? I… I have told you everything…”

Silas held up a hand and nodded. “You have pleased me with your honesty, Garrett, Reno too. It seems Reno will eventually join our side. I will –”

“Silas!” Sanguine suddenly burst into the room, remote phone in hand. “You need to leave now.”

Silas turned around and so did Jack. Sanguine’s face was pale and his jaw tight. There was an apprehension in his eyes that threw the careful milieu of the room off balance. Jack felt an unease clutch his chest.

“Why?” Silas said lowly.

Sanguine swallowed and put his hands behind his back, before they disappeared Jack was shocked to see they were trembling.

“I just got off the remote phone with Caligula. He says Nero caught Reaver.”

Silas’s jaw dropped, but Sanguine continued, “Caligula saw him chained to Nero’s bed. He doesn’t know how long he’s had him but Reaver is in horrible shape. Nero threatened Caligula’s life and the life of his partner.”

The king stared at Sanguine, dumbfounded, and for a few tense moments no one spoke.

Though the atmosphere spoke, and it was making the hair on the back of Jack’s neck creep up. There was something about how Sanguine was listening in by the doorway, only to disappear once again, that made Jack wary.

“Nero…” Silas whispered. “Nero has my Reaver?”

Sanguine nodded. “Caligula has only been able to get a hold of a remote phone now. He’s locked himself inside his quarters. He says he saw Reaver last week. King Silas… Caligula said he was naked, there was blood on the sheets –”

Jack grabbed Garrett out of the line of fire and pulled him into the corner of the room. He stood back and watched the king’s head lower, his shoulders tightened.

“You are telling me… Sanguine… you are telling me my third born, is hiding Reaver from me?” Silas’s voice dropped to a dark whisper. Jack’s mouth was dry, full of needles, and tight to the point where his chest was starting to ache. “You’re telling me… that Caligula is implying that Nero has been raping him?”

Sanguine didn’t move, with his hands behind his back and his shoulders square he stood tall as the Ghost King circled him like a predator sizing up prey.

“Yes, Master,” Sanguine said slowly back. “Nero has Reaver tied to his bed. We’ve never known Caligula to be dishonest. Perhaps it’s revenge over Timothy’s death? Kiki, ah, I mean Kincade was in Tim’s generation.”

Silas turned away from Sanguine, and at one glance of the king’s face, Jack stepped further back with Garrett. The two of them, all of them actually, old enough to know it was an intelligent move to stay out of the king’s sight when he was upset.

But Silas only stared out the window; his lips tightly pressed together, his entire body tensed and radiating anger. This was the look that Jack was sure had started the Fallocaust, a look of pure hatred and madness. He was surprised his Geigerchip wasn’t vibrating its protest, though Silas had trained himself long ago not to release radiation when he was upset.

“If I find out he took what is mine…” Silas whispered. “Nero will never see daylight.”

Jack believed every word of that, he had seen it happen before. He had seen the back rooms of Alegria where no chimera or human ever wanted to go.

Back rooms where several immortal chimeras never came back from. They were still there to this day, encased in concrete tombs to spend their punishments in darkness.

“Drake… we’re going to the Falconer; we’re going to the Cardinalhall mansion,” Silas whispered, before he seemed to snap himself out of his trance. “Garrett follow me. Sanguine stay behind.”

Sanguine nodded stiffly and stepped aside to let Silas pass. There were no goodbyes or fleeting threats, Silas, Garrett, and Drake left in heavy silence.

When all was clear and Jack could hear the elevator leave its platform, he gave a sigh of relief.

Then something caught his eye. As Sanguine was shutting the double oak doors Jack could see… he was smiling.

Sanguine turned around and when he noticed Jack’s eyes on him he chuckled and bowed. “I wish they still had Oscars.”

Jack’s mouth dropped open. “What are you saying…?”

Sanguine smirked and brought out a cigarette. After taking one out he threw the pack over to Jack. “Have a smoke with me, Jack.”

The cigarette pack fell to the floor in front of Jack’s feet, the silver-haired chimera not making even the slightest of movements to catch it. He continued to stare dumbfounded at his brother. “That was a lie? All of it was a lie?”

Sanguine shook his head and lit the cigarette with his fingers, a blue ember bursting from the orange flame. With a nonchalant sway and that same cocky grin he strolled over to Jack and kissed his cheek. “You’re adorable when you’re confused,
diligo
. At least it got him from sending out all those legionaries to hunt down our dark brother, hm?”

Jack choked and realized he had been holding his breath. A heat that held an overwhelming dizziness swept him; he felt like he was going to vomit on the floor.

“What have you done? You’ve lied to our king? He’ll never trust you again, Sami.”

Sanguine didn’t even flinch at being called his birth name, the name his own adoptive mother had given him before she died. Jack had a habit of using it on him when he was feeling scared or unsure. Sanguine knew this but still he didn’t waver under its use.

“I didn’t lie.” Sanguine picked up the pack of cigarettes and took out another one. He lit it and handed it to Jack. “Nero did capture Reaver, and he held him for weeks viciously raping him. The difference is: I know Reaver escaped over a month ago. Though who will Silas believe? Caligula can mask his heartbeat; Nero never developed that control over himself.”

“Caligula knew this?”

“Caligula rescued him.”

Jack took the cigarette and leaned against the back wall of the apartment.

“Reaver killed Timothy…”

“And Caligula always hated his little brother. What’s new?” Sanguine took another inhale and encouraged Jack to do the same. “No, Jack, my love. You have no idea what you’ve been blind to. Though the question remains… do you want to know? Can you be trusted to know?” Sanguine put a soft hand to Jack’s cheek and stroke it. He smirked through the cigarette being softly bit through his pointed teeth.

Jack stared at him; his eyes narrowed. Though as he stared deeply into his brother’s blood-red eyes, black and red like Sanguine’s colour combinations, the pieces started to knit themselves together.

“I don’t want to know,” Jack whispered. He stepped around Sanguine and started heading for the doors. “The last game I played cost me… cost me…”

“Me?” Sanguine said behind him.

Jack stopped. He raised the cigarette to his lips and took a long drag to buy himself some time.

“You left me.”

“And now I’m back.”

“And I’m not a fucking doormat!” Jack suddenly snapped.

Soft boot steps could be heard as Sanguine walked over to Jack. “No, you’re not. Which is why I wanted to wait until I pulled you close to me.”

A shock wave rushed through Jack as Sanguine kissed his neck. Immediately like the chimera was lighting a small flame, Jack’s skin became hot. He opened his mouth and let out a small breath.

“What are you saying?”

Another kiss, this one at the nape of his neck. “I am saying I grow tired of only having you as a fling every now and again. I miss you, and I miss what we used to be.”

“You ended us, cruelly and without care,” Jack said with a jerk of his shoulder. “You proved to me just how broken you were. That you were Silas’s little slave with no will of his own. You’re shattered, we know this.”

“And what if someone put me back together?” Sanguine said. Jack could taste the smirk in his voice.

“Mantis?”

“Mantis is in the greywastes.”

Jack whirled around, his patience failing him. “Who? Who then? Elish? Elish breaks toys he doesn’t fix them. We all know that, I know that.”

“Elish knows just what to promise. He knows my price.”

“So what? What does it matter? So Lycos hid Reaver from us, big deal. It means nothing to me and nothing to you. What does any of this have to do with Elish? He didn’t know either, Lycos hid that boy from all of us,” Jack snapped, throwing the doors open.

“And who do you think helped hide Reaver all this time? Who do you think watered this seed, this clone of Silas? Really, lovely, it was right in front of you the whole time. Elish has been finding ways to gather us to his side. He promised me what I so dearly need… and once I have gotten what is promised, I will win you back. I will show you the same love and patience you showed me all those years ago.”

Every degree of warm air in the room seemed to leave as those words spilled from Sanguine’s mouth. Frozen on the spot, his hands outstretched, Jack was still.

More bootsteps, and as they approached the seemingly frozen solid Grim, he heard Sanguine chuckle.

Jack could only stare before he sunk to his knees. Feeling like he was either about to throw up or attack Sanguine, he wasn’t sure which. His own emotions, the primal rage and instincts that all chimeras had, starting to outweigh this tempered calm he had been honing since he had first reached his own personal enlightenment.

Sanguine rested a hand on Jack’s side and rubbed it in a caring fashion. When Jack let him he took his hand and kissed it slowly, before saying in a purring voice, “Come, my little silver devil… my
diligo
… it’s time we have a long smoke on the patio.”

Chapter 51

Reaver

It was coming to the point in my life where I was aware when I was resurrecting. The white flame that used to just be a dream inside of my head was taking shape, showing me as I became more aware, it knit my body back together. It always started with my brain and worked its way down to mend my flesh. Fingers grew back, blood vessels fused, and in the last final hours, my heart started to pump new blood through my repaired veins.

And in that time I counted every beat of my heart, thumping its rhythm inside of my brain, telling me I was fully aware though still trapped inside this motionless body. It was maddening at first; I remembered it frustrating me when I had been imprisoned by Nero. But now I was anxious to open my eyes and see where I was. I wanted to see how much time had gone by and how quickly I could resolve this situation.

The Reaper was done being nice about this.

Red started to seep through my vision and a thousand and twenty heartbeats later I felt my chest burn. I opened my mouth and took a long gasp and, to my surprise, I fell to the ground.

The greywastes met my face, snapping my eyes open as I inhaled quick sharp breaths to try and quench the flames that had taken hold of my chest. I tried to blink the blur away from my eyes as I rolled onto my back; my nose suddenly being attacked by the rank smell of long rotten flesh.