Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (36 page)

“Are you sure?” Silas asked.

“What does it matter?” Sanguine murmured. He took a nibble of a chip and weighed the flavour, before grabbing the bag like it had suddenly become the most important thing on earth. Though as he made the motion to duck back under the bed, oddly, he thought better of it and re-crossed his legs. Though that didn’t stop him from starting to shovel the chips into his mouth.

“Because if it is… I would rather you use that than a knife,” Silas replied.

Sanguine looked at him and swallowed the chips in his mouth. “I like the wire better because it hurts more without so much mess.”

This sparked curiosity inside Silas. He decided to press him, if only to peek inside of that tormented mind. It may be fruitless but perhaps there was a method to this madness.

“So… you enjoy the pain not necessarily the gore?” Silas asked.

Sanguine nodded and Silas felt his heart jump. He slowed it and held out his hand to Sanguine.

After a pause, which Silas was sure was an inner debate going on inside of Sanguine’s head, the red-eyed chimera reached into the bag and laid a chip onto Silas’s hand. With a nod of appreciation and a small thank you Silas ate it.

Silas slid a hand under the pillow and grabbed the piece of wire and held out his hand. He traced the sharpened point over his pale, flawless skin – before digging the wire into it and, with a fair deal of pressure, dragged it across his skin.

The crunching of potato chips stopped. Silas looked up and saw Sanguine staring at Silas’s hand with his red eyes wide with surprise and shock, the chip bag forgotten in his left hand.

Silas looked down at the inch long cut, before moving to the top of his wrist. With Sanguine watching, he dragged it across his skin, with a little less pressure but still enough to draw a red line.

Though as he dragged the wire, the line started to weave and curve, until Silas had made a beautiful design complete with a spiral. It looked like a long twisted string of ivy, the little ruby blood droplets gathering in the wound making it look like little roses.

Silas handed Sanguine the wire. “Even in the clutches of the most destructive agony… you can find beauty,” Silas said, watching as Sanguine moved the bloodied wire around his hand. “Start with that. Make me a beautiful picture, Sanguine. Make me something out of that pain. Will you do that for me?”

Sanguine looked down at the wire, a perplexed but curious look in his eyes. Without a word he put the wire to his already scarred hands and arms and started pulling the thin piece of metal over his rough skin.

“I liked to draw crows,” Sanguine said in a subdued voice. “I drew them on the concrete walls. I drew them over and over… I think I got good at it.”

He drew crows…
Silas watched as Sanguine started to draw what he realized was the head of the bird before he started to draw the curved body.

“Why crows?” Silas asked lightly. He weighed the emotion inside of the room, and deduced that it was calm and quiet enough for him to start trying to press Sanguine for information. He seemed to have succeeded in making Sanguine feel safe, at least tonight.

There is an odd feeling in the air… he does seem calmer. I wonder if the masochism is the key? Unfortunate but if I can make them non-fatal injuries we can make his skin perfect once I make him immortal.

“Outside the basement he had crows as pets,” Sanguine explained. “Big crows with red eyes like mine. They spoke too. The few times I was allowed outside when I was younger they would surround me and speak.
Hello, Sanguine. Go on get!
Come here, crow.
They spoke with me and I spoke back.”

Red-eyed crows that speak? Silas tried to hide the surprise on his face. He knew what crows Sanguine was speaking of. They were genetically created crows that Perish had made, though more ravens than crows to be honest. They were an attempt to add more birds to the city. They had released several breeding pairs years ago but they were never seen again.

That man must’ve bought some of them from a merchant in one of the harbours. Where they had found Sanguine was literally on the other end of the greywastes, it would take months of travel for a merchant.

“And they were your friends?” Silas asked.

Sanguine nodded. “My only friends until Cooper… though Cooper is dead. Please don’t ask about him.”

“I won’t,” Silas whispered. He lightly traced his fingers over the bleeding arm seeing the image of the crow starting to take shape. It was standing like the hieroglyphs that the Egyptians used to draw, wings folded and stick-like legs steady. Silas thought Sanguine would stop after but instead he started to make little incisions that Silas realized were his bird feathers.

“Do you miss them?” Silas asked. He took in a small breath and started to focus his mind on the chaotic hive that was Sanguine’s brain.

The young chimera nodded again and his jaw locked. He showed no sign that he was aware of what Silas was doing to him which made the king happy. Elish could tell now when he was trying to calm his mind and Garrett was starting to become aware also.

“They’re going to die without him there to feed them, but birds aren’t stupid. Perhaps they will go to Melchai,” Sanguine said.

Perhaps…
Silas thought to himself. He looked at his fingers, tipped with Sanguine’s blood, and brought them up to his lips.

“No, he won’t,” Sanguine suddenly said. Silas looked at him, tasting the silky, copper blood as it taunted his mind. Every one of his creations had what tasted like the blood of gods inside of their veins. Silas could never get enough of that taste and Sanguine’s blood was no different.

Then something fascinating happened. Sanguine looked up from his masochism and looked to his side, towards one of the purple painted walls. He fixed his eyes on the wall and to Silas’s further surprise, his pupils actually dilated at the invisible thing he was seeing.

He really does see him… his brain really does see Crow.

“He’s been kind so far,” Sanguine said slowly. “I think he knows what not to ask about. He has respected that so far.”

Well, he may be talking to a demon who only exists inside of his mind, but at least he’s saying good things about me…

Sanguine’s brow knitted and he turned away from the wall, though a moment later he viciously dug the wire into his arm and started to roughly pull and rip at his skin.

Silas cringed, debating whether to stop him. “Sanguine… you don’t need to… be that rough.”

Sanguine shook his head, his arm shaking under the force of his masochism. He clenched his teeth and made a noise before cutting a rather thick slice in his arm. When the wound was open and bleeding he stopped and let out a relieved breath.

Then something occurred to Silas. The king in that moment realized that Crow had most likely been the one to tell him to do that.

“Why do you listen to him?” Silas asked in the same casual light voice. Seeing a faint opportunity he gently took the wire from Sanguine’s grasp and started rubbing the blood away from his wound with his fingers.

“Because he knows what’s best for me,” Sanguine answered. He held his arm out to Silas as if inviting him to continue to touch his blood. Silas obliged and started bringing his fingers back and forth to his mouth, gathering the small trickle as it spilled over his skin like an overflowing basin.

When Sanguine gave him a curious look Silas smiled.

“We enjoy each other’s taste,” Silas said, holding out his own arm, giving Sanguine an invitation. “You have certain things in your engineering that you cannot escape. I can help you be the best person you can be.”

Sanguine cautiously ran his finger over Silas’s wound and tasted it. Obviously impressed he gathered more. The sound of him sucking his fingers filled the room.

“I like it… I’m glad that’s normal,” Sanguine said. He laid down on the bed and took in a deep breath. Silas was happy to see his eyes were starting to relax, and though he glanced at the wall where Crow was, he didn’t address him. “Is liking pain normal?”

Silas smiled. “Sometimes we do – on certain occasions.”

Sanguine fell silent for a moment, his red eyes not as petrified and his jaw finally becoming loose. To further confirm the young man’s relaxed state he held up his injured arm to Silas and handed him the wire.

Inside Silas breathed a sigh of relief. Usually when he was using the abilities inside of his brain, it was to shut off his chimeras’ minds, calming them into dark oblivion if they became enraged or hostile. He had done it to Sanguine several times.

But today he decided to calm his chimera a different way. A soft flow of static, a relaxing higher octave of sound that would be the kiss of bliss to the troubled chaotic mind of the man in front of him.

“Will you draw that design on my arm?” Sanguine asked quietly.

The king glanced down at the injured arm. The picture of a crow smeared with blood though the lines were still holding those crimson rubies. It looked like a rubbing of a cave painting, light smears of red though the outlines shone through, showing off every scarlet line and every carved feather.

He wants me to touch him?
Though he was over two hundred years old this drew up a restriction in his throat. As it stood Sanguine was the only chimera of age that he hadn’t been intimate with. And though he was the picture of self-control, there was something about touching Sanguine… cutting Sanguine, that brought a tight heat to all the wrong places.

But he couldn’t resist. Silas took the piece of wire and rested Sanguine’s hand on one of his crossed legs. He took a deep breath to try and vanquish the quivering inside of his body and picked up Sanguine’s hand.

Silas traced the rough skin and tried to keep his breath steady. Then he started to slowly cut the young chimera’s skin.

He shuddered as he saw the first droplets of blood start to gather.

But if Silas thought that this was as far as his self-control would have to go he was gravely mistaken. As he cut a beautiful swirling, almost floral design into Sanguine’s skin, the chimera closed his eyes and let out the smallest moan.

He likes it… he really likes it.
Silas’s insides clenched, constricting tightly around his stomach and filling the cavity of his body with a burning tension that was almost painful. In the areas of his mind where he kept his most vile transgressions, he danced with the idea of going further. Of either increasing the pain or trying to switch it to something sexual, but he had to have restraint.

Sanguine moaned softly again; his eyes still closed and his hand relaxed. His heart was pounding though, like he was in the middle of intense foreplay. This did nothing to stop the hardness Silas could feel below, on the contrary, it was driving his mind crazy.

He drew the wire over Sanguine’s skin, making small patterns of vines and swirls like a delicate henna tattoo. In all respects it was a beautiful work of art.

“There…” Silas whispered. “Beauty in pain.”

Sanguine’s eyes opened. Soft discs of the deepest red, like a crimson sea so full of emotions, both good and bad. He was the most relaxed and content that Silas had seen him since his arrival. It filled Silas with hope for his future, though as the purple sheets showed off their blood droplets he had to remind himself just what he had had to do to get Sanguine into this state. Not only just cutting him – but his own mind soothing those open blisters that Sanguine wore on his sleeve.

“I liked that,” Sanguine whispered. He put his arm down and stared at the wall, blinking slowly in a disconnected state, the smell of blood filling the entire bedroom and still sinking itself into Silas’s body.

The king smiled and put the piece of wire down. A small act, a small smile, but underneath his surface his heart was racing, and below his dick was rock hard and throbbing. It was aching to feel the tightness around it, begging for the chance to draw out more noises from this mysterious creation he had finally found.

And I could take him, right now. I am the King of the World I could take him every day if I wanted.

And do I ever want to…

Not soon after he realized his hands were starting to tremble, matching the shaking inside of his chest as his lust desperately tried to convince him to take Sanguine right now. To lean in and kiss him, to stroke that pale skin, to peel off his clothing and see just what he had to offer his king. The desires inside of King Silas boiled him alive and left him with such a want he found himself raising a hand to touch Sanguine’s cheek.

But he pulled back, and to prove to himself that he was in control, he shifted off of the bed.

“I will leave you to rest, love.” Silas’s voice cracked under his dry mouth. He swallowed and forced the smile to remain on his face. “Sleep… sleep well.”

He turned around and started for the door, though when he put his hand on the door knob he heard a faint voice sounding from the bed.

“Thank you,” Sanguine whispered.

Silas closed his eyes and nodded. “You’re… welcome.”

And with that, he quickly left, closing the door behind him. Immediately he spotted Kinny watching television with the kitten on his lap.

“You,” Silas said breathlessly. “Remove your clothing and come with me to the bedroom.”