Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (41 page)

Right now my family’s biggest problems were the rebels and how to switch public opinion without making the chimeras and the king look bad. If I was king I would just bomb Irontowers and be done with it, but I guess if Silas had been around since before the war… he knew more about this than me. That fascinated me in a way. That King Silas was so smart he knew that public opinion was important. Like he said he had to keep the public happy, but also slightly uneasy and cautious so they would be obedient.

There were two news sources SNN and the UFM, both they controlled.

As Silas and Nero continued talking I thought this over. Staring mostly at the marble table as my mind mulled it over. Sometime during the conversations I saw Nero’s boyfriend Ceph who gave me a clap on the shoulder, but I was inside of my head trying to help my family.

Though my mind was constantly being interrupted by the sticky tendrils of my own past thoughts. As I tried to think of things I kept going back to Jasper. I kept seeing his face in front of mine. I could never shake him…

How could those assholes say my family was like him? Even if it was just an inflammatory article it made my blood boil over. Jasper was a pervert, not them. Jasper was the fucking greywaster asshole who kidnapped kids and forced them to…

“I got it,” I suddenly said, looking up.

All eyes turned to me and but this time I didn’t shrink under their gaze. I looked at Nero, Ceph, Silas, and Elish’s inquisitive faces and looked right back at them.

“I know what you should do,” I said again. “How… how you can sway the public.”

Elish didn’t seem interested but the other three were watching me with intense eyes.

“Tell us, love.” Silas urged me forward with just a slight push of his words. “What is it?”

I took in a deep breath, as quickly as it came my bravery disappeared, but I forced my mental self forward and with a push, I shoved him into the front of my mind.

Melchai townspeople didn’t care, they wanted their meth supply. But normal people, the city people –

“You need the public opinion to shift, right?” I said, and swallowed. “And you have people in Irontowers that work for you, right?”

Silas nodded. “We have people in the Underground Media and people in Irontowers.”

“Have Rich take some orphans…” I said slowly. “Hide them for awhile, so no one can see them, and have one or more of the kids turn up in Irontowers. Make our informant give them ratty clothes, and photograph them looking injured or even tied up… but… but don’t actually hurt them just make it a set up. Send that to the UFM and tell them the rebels have half a dozen children in their possession, both as sex slaves or even child soldiers. You could even twist it that these were children previously adopted that were found in Irontowers. The article was just them covering for their misdeeds and we can have proof. We have insiders so we can get more proof on them than they could on us.”

Silas’s eyes widened and Nero whistled. Elish was less than amused though.

“They would never print that,” he said acerbically.

“Then get Oniks to wear a wire, or a camera, like on TV,” I said quickly. “Because that would discredit the UFM in the process. Free media means free media right? Not anti-chimera, pro-rebel media. If they don’t print it, we have it documented that they refused to print it even with thorough documentation, and we can either expose them to the public or blackmail them into printing it. If you want to support the rebels you’re now supporting child molesters, simple as that.” I took in another deep breath.

Silas looked at me and I saw his head nod slightly. “He’s right. People are stupid, we know this. They don’t understand us explaining how our policies benefit them or why we have such strict rules. They’re idiots and all they understand is less money and less free will. What they do understand is the basic human emotion of empathy, especially empathy over children. I already have the Law of Fifteen and that is one policy I have never been criticized for.” Silas looked at Elish, the blond-haired man still didn’t look happy, but Silas obviously didn’t care. “We can pin it that this is one of the policies that the rebels want to change and our proof would be in the Underground Media, and once it starts to leak… the SNN can pretend to pick it up. Elish, this is genius. The plan needs some fine tuning but… this is perfect.”

Nero made an impressed noise and shook his head. Then he turned to Silas and pointed a finger at me. “You better give this nucky a present. He knows the human mind. He might be a bit batty but I would watch out, kingly, he’s smart as fuck.”

My heart almost burst inside of my chest as Silas looked at me with a proud expression on his face. There was so much pride inside of me I thought I would explode. This was another feeling I had never felt before and I literally felt like I was floating.

I had made King Silas, and Nero, proud. I had never made anyone proud before. I was included, I was helping my family.

“He is. He’s really going to fit in well with this family.” Silas seemed to be radiating pride and Nero was too. I dropped my gaze, too embarrassed to keep it, or maybe I just didn’t want them to see how happy I was.

“Elish says your novelty will wear off,” Crow murmured beside me. “So don’t get too smug, mihi.”

I glanced over at Crow; he was leaning against the wall with a smile on his face.

“But I made them happy,” I said to him. “I like making them happy.”

Crow’s black eyes jutted over to where the three were standing. “Your novelty is going to wear off and you’ll see they’ll be just like the others. You’re still a monster, you’re still bad. You will always be worthless. You don’t deserve this life, you don’t deserve pride. You’re nothing but Jasper’s slut; you’re a whore, a damaged, insane whore.”

‘WHORE!’

‘YOU’RE A WHORE, SANGUINE!’

‘FUCKING DEMON-EYED, WHORE.’

Not even Nana wanted you.

Daddy Cory hated you.

Even Barry killed himself.

“Shut the fuck up!” I suddenly screamed. Crow laughed and pushed himself away from the wall with his hands. He stepped towards me and tried to glare me down but I turned away and looked at the carpet.

“Daisy, Daisy… give me your heart to fuck. You’re such a little bitch, you’re Jasper’s little slut.”

“Not here. I’m not that here,” I said through my clenched teeth. “I’m better here.”

“You’ll always be a demon, you’re best on your back and screamin’… Oh Sanguine, so full of sin, with Jasper’s cum in you.”

“Shut up!” I shrieked.

“Love?”

I jumped and as I jumped I screamed from fright as Silas touched my shoulder. I looked at Silas, my mouth open and gasping, beads of sweat running down my face.

“Sanguine…” Silas said his forehead creased in concern. “What’s Crow telling you?”

It took a moment for my mind to start trickling back. I stared at the floor for a few more moments trying to catch my breath, before I looked up at Silas.

“I can’t say,” I panted. “Nothing good…”

Silas’s eyes narrowed. He looked to the wall, where Crow had been before saying slowly, “You say he’s your friend and he protects you. Why does he torment you sometimes?”

I shrugged, when I realized everyone was staring at me I shrunk down feeling embarrassed. “Friends torment friends sometimes.” I wiped my nose and pushed my sunglasses further onto my face.

“Friends don’t…” Silas paused when I got down on my knees and got under the large marble table. I shifted some chairs back and immediately felt relief some place closed in.

“Well, alright…” Silas said. I could hear Nero and Ceph chuckle by the laptop and the projector. “We’ll let him be then. Okay, let’s look at the other articles in the UFM and see if there is anything else we should be monitoring…”

The white door opened, and a sliver of light appeared that got larger and larger until it illuminated the filthy bed that I had been sitting on for almost half of my life.

I recoiled from the light and moved my body until my back was pressed up against the wall. Chains rattled around, and the anchor behind me dug its frozen fingers into my back. Those senses meant nothing to me though; I was too scared to pay attention to physical stimulus. My eyes were fixed on that door waiting for Jasper’s face to appear.

“You know what I like about this?” I jumped and let out a startled yelp as Jasper’s all-too-familiar voice hissed in my ear. So close to me I could smell his breath, rancid from years and years of smoking meth.

A dark chuckle before I felt him grab my ass and clench it. I tried to scream but I realized my entire body was paralyzed. I couldn’t move and I realized that he knew I was locked in place.

“What I like most about this… is that now that you’ve had a break from me… you will be even tighter. Now that you’re back, you have a fresh energy about you. You’ll fight more; you won’t just go inside of your head and escape. Perhaps I’ll let you go back to Skyfall more often. Though it’s too bad you’re older, I wish you were still seven like Drake… I really do.”

Despair trickled down my body, starting at my head and raining down like someone had poured a bucket of acid on top of my head. I felt my shoulders shake, my head drop as the realization came over me that I was still in that basement. I had never been rescued; I had never been to Skyfall. I wasn’t a chimera, of course I wasn’t, I was just a demon-monkey and I deserved to be caged. Just like Crow had said to me last week at the base.

I was a whore, just Jasper’s whore.

I deserved to be caged. I couldn’t be trusted around people. That’s why the people in Melchai wanted to get rid of me, that’s why they let Jasper take me. Even though I had heard… I had heard the man at the hotel tell Jasper to leave when he had tried to sneak into my bedroom. And the bartender had known as well. He had acted like they’d known.

All of Melchai had known, but their meth supply was more important.

The Skyfallers might care about children being used in such a way, but the greywasters didn’t. They were just a bunch of selfish savages.

Then, like there had been a snap of electricity, my entire body jolted. Darkness filled my vision and the only sounds I could hear was the pounding of my own heart. Alarmed, I shot up in bed and looked around, the tinges of blue starting to form as my night vision kicked in.

‘Jasper’s in your bedroom,’
Crow warned. His voice was a low growl, he sounded threatened and I immediately became even more on edge. ‘
He’s in your bedroom.’

‘He’s in your bedroom!
’ Crow said in a more forceful tone. Like his words were sharp barbs I could feel them digging into my skin. I knew by now if I didn’t do something he would keep yelling at me until I did.

I leapt off of my bed, and jumped away from it in case he was hiding under it. My hands shaking from fear and my chest so tight my breathing was laboured. I was gasping for air like a fish but my chest was so constricted I couldn’t take in a full inhale.

My hand rested against my lungs. I ignored the shortness of breath, my panicked and anxiety-filled mind urging me to check every dark corner of the bedroom. My physical health didn’t matter; I had to find where Jasper was hiding.

With the sounds of my quickened breathing filling the room I looked under the bed, then I looked in the closet and even behind the curtains still shielding my window. I looked twice before I started to pace my bedroom, still trying to catch my breath.

I was too anxious though; my mind was two speeding trains, each trying to determine who was going to crash first. They barrelled along with no regard for my mental state, sending dark thought after dark thought to torment me, all in quick succession.

One after another.

Of Jasper fucking me, both as an adult and a child.

Of when he killed Lyle – and when I killed Cooper.

That basement. That basement… I could smell it. Why can I smell it?

I looked around desperately and a whine escaped my lips. I had to get out of this room, it smelled like my basement. That meant Jasper had to be here, I knew it.

I walked out of my bedroom and started pacing the dark living room. It was completely dark save for a few lights that belonged to Silas’s electronics. I walked up and down the halls and through the kitchen before I started checking the closets and spare bedrooms for any sign of Jasper.

Wave after wave of panic, and they weren’t stopping. Every time I checked a new location and found he wasn’t there, the warnings in my head only grew louder. Telling me with grim certainty that this only meant that Jasper was getting smarter. That not only did he know how to get inside, but he was also going to hide until I let my guard down.

He always did that… he used to come when I was sleeping. He used to stand over my bed and watch me, even if I woke up he was there. I could smell him. I could smell him so I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep even though as the other senses left me I could hear his pounding heart.

Sometimes it sped up… sometimes I heard his ragged breathing… sometimes I even felt stuff drip onto me. Though when that happened I was thankful, because he would leave after.

Where are you hiding…
Another whine escaped my clenching teeth, barely audible over my breathing. I looked in the bathroom and drew back the black shower curtain, before walking back down the grey-carpeted floors and going back into the living room.

Then the sound of a door unlatching.

“Sanguine, love?” Silas’s voice broke my lucid turmoil like a lamp lit in an abandoned building. “What’s wrong?”

Like my body was a tightened rubber band I snapped towards him and shrunk back. Suddenly Crow was whispering to me that Jasper was in his room.

He’s in Silas’s room… he’s in Silas’s room…

I started walking towards Silas’s room and towards Silas. There was nothing else inside of this disturbed hive of thoughts but to check his room and find Jasper.

“Sanguine?” Silas said confused. I pushed the door open and walked inside.

The bed was empty…

I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed but there was nothing there. I got up and tried to pull the closet open but then Silas’s hand grasped mine. “Sanguine… what are you doing?”

I looked down at his hand and though I had been talking inside of my head and talking to Crow I realized I had said nothing to King Silas.

Slowly my hands travelled to my face. The silver discs on my palms and on my left hand: the spiral scars of the stove element. Jasper hadn’t done that to me… but he had done worse.

“Jasper…” I mumbled. I pushed his hands away and opened the closet. Inside were suites and clothing, stacked boxes, and sex toys which my mind ignored.

“Jasper?” Silas said under his breath. He gently closed the closet door and took my hand. “You think Jasper is inside this apartment? No, love, the thiens guard our doors and we’re at the very top apartment of a rather large skyscraper. It’s impossible. Jasper is miles of land and ocean away; he’s on the islands.”

I shook my head and started clawing and pressing my nails into my skin. I walked out of Silas’s room and decided to walk towards the balcony. Silas followed behind me and when he realized I wanted to go outside he stopped.

Confused, I glanced back to see what I had caught myself on, not realizing he had still held my hand.

I pulled it but Silas shook his head, his tussled blond hair shifting back and forth. “No, you’re not going outside in a half-asleep state.”

“I have too!” I said sharply. I sucked in a breath, saying those words left my lungs empty and I started wheezing, my shoulders shaking. “I have to look!”

“Sanguine!” Silas said sharply but I pulled my hand away and glared at him.

I took a threatening step towards him, feeling real, undiluted anger in my blood that, in my state, drew the growl to my throat. “I HAVE too!”

Silas grabbed my hand, but there was no Crow inside to advise me or tell me to attack him. I wasn’t sure why, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was going outside to see if Jasper was there.

Before I knew it Silas led me to the couch, he sat down and pulled my hand until I sat down too.

Then as I jerked away from him I felt his hand on my head – and all of a sudden a biting, electric pain that ripped through my chest, pooling inside of my head before spreading like oil, throughout my body.

I gasped and let out a cry, and as it dissipated my chest loosened… and suddenly I could breath.

“There… now, close your eyes,” Silas whispered, and running on the adrenaline caused by the jolt of pain, I closed my eyes.

Another percussion, like his fingertips were small hypodermic needles filled with an electric, burning current. I opened my mouth and groaned again, before the centralized pain started moving across my skin.

It was… I liked it. It was like I was tasting a drug, a beautiful agonizing drug that carried on its heels an intense release of pressure. It made my head light, my shoulders light; it was like what happened when I cut myself.

When he retracted his hand my breathing slowed and, like when he was cutting me, I relaxed and sunk into the comfort. Feeling the paranoia that Jasper was in my apartment start to trickle down the gutters of my brain, leaving only reality in its wake.

“Pain brings your mind back… I bet if we measured those endorphins they would be off the charts,” Silas said in a low but soothing tone. “My little masochist. My little
crucio
.”

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Crucio?”

His lips spread in a smile and he lightly ran his burning, electrified touch over my cheek. “Latin, lovely. It means my tormented, my tortured soul.
Cruciantur animae
. All my loves are born with certain words in their heads. It’s…” he smiled thinly. “I was trying to plant language, like I plant enhancements but the technology isn’t quite there. But I realized as the first generation started learning to speak they held onto an understanding of some words.”

I stared at him, still in a half-dreamy state. The pain was even stronger than the Xanax; I don’t believe I had ever felt so relaxed. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to lose this feeling. So as time continued on forward, an hour possibly more, I spent the time in his vision and he spent his time in mine.

“You’re so… beautiful,” Silas whispered after more than an hour had passed. “Do you like it here?”

I nodded in my dazed state, holding dear to my chest these fleeting moments of contentment. I had felt this odd comfort before; it seemed to happen whenever Silas was near me.

It made me… it… it drew me to him. I wanted to get closer to him but I didn’t understand why. It was like he had a warm hand around my head, stroking and petting the blistered, rotting emotions festering inside of me.

“Can I kiss you, Sanguine?”

My eyes focused back on him, and immediately my heart started to speed up.

Kiss me? He wanted to kiss me? I had never kissed someone before… ever. I had only seen it on the television, I didn’t even know how. Or if it was a good idea.

But Silas had been so kind to me… so patient.

I had made him proud with my suggestion back at the Legion Base. I had liked him even more after that.

Butterflies and nervousness flooded me, a tight clench inside of me that felt like hands made of iron wrapping themselves around my heart. But in the same breath, in the same inhale of warm air and calming thoughts, a curiosity inside of me spiked. A want that rested in the small area of my being where my curiosity still lived.

I nodded and, without hesitating, he gently slipped his hand behind my head and leaned down.

Our lips locked and I felt him try to ease my own lips open. I closed my eyes and took his direction and let him take me in.

He broke away but he hovered his face only an inch away from mine. With my eyes still closed I felt his warm breath against my cheek, until his lips pressed against mine once again. This time with a bit more force and eagerness. He put a slight amount of pressure on the back of my head, and before I realized what he was doing, he tried to slip his tongue into my mouth.

I let him, my head starting to go light to the point where I felt dizzy. The warmth inside of my head intensified, and quickly it spread over my body.

Acting on impulse I met my tongue with his, and this only intensified the feeling that was starting to permeate my body. It was like pure alcohol sinking into meat, it soaked and pooled inside of my bones, inside of my gut…

No, it was pooling lower.

Our lips were locked together, our tongues joined and slipping into each other’s mouths. I found myself starting to breathe heavier again as my mouth became preoccupied, riding every wave of tension as it seared me like a white hot brand.

Then I made the mistake of shifting my body. As soon as I moved I realized that the tight burning I had been feeling had been solely focused to my groin. I was hard; it was throbbing and rigid, pulsing inside of my underwear to an uncomfortable level.