Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (54 page)

Jack suddenly looked up from his tea mug, and I saw the tips of his ears turn red. “I’m… I’m sorry, that was completely uncalled for. Valen and I… ah, sorry. That was rude of me.”

“I had the pleasure of meeting Valen…” I said slowly and I found myself scowling at the thought. “He isn’t really that nice of a person…”

“You met him?” Jack asked surprised.

I nodded slowly and took another drink, before telling him about my literal run-in with Valentine Dekker. And as I told the story my temperature started to rise again. The fact that that little shithead was just a cluster of rudeness just made me angry.

“He has issues…” Jack said darkly, before he smiled. His smile immediately dismissed my own negative mood. “We don’t have to talk about that asshole. He’s just mad that Silas doesn’t want him. The king rarely ever summons him to his bed, whereas he has me at least once every two weeks.”

Now it was my turn to go red. I busied myself by drumming my fingers on the fabric of the couch to get Jett to pounce on them. “Oh yeah…” I mumbled.

“Ah, sorry…” Jack sighed. “It’s kind of… we all want King Silas to like us, especially since there are so many in the second generation and the first gen loves flaunting how special they are. It must be weird hearing about those types of things… do you have a… boyfriend or girlfriend?”

Girlfriend? I shuddered at the thought. “No, I don’t have a
boyfriend
, and I’ve never had one.” I put emphasis on boyfriend. “I’m such a mess I don’t think I could handle something like that. I’m just kinda getting used to being out in public. I spent quite a few months just staying inside and a lot of that time hiding under the bed.”

Jack laughed lightly; his laugh was so pure and just… undiluted. It seemed like I should be paying him to hear it.

“You’re funny,” he said with a smile, but as he looked at me his smile faded and I think he realized that I wasn’t joking about hiding under the bed.

I coughed into my hand and busied myself taking a drink of tea. I wracked my brains to try and think of some conversation but my mind was stalling. The silence quickly started to eat me alive though, so I grabbed the remote and turned on the television.

Cartoons were on and that was good. I curled up with my tea and Jett made himself comfortable on the blankets. We didn’t talk much after, not very much at all. At first it made me uncomfortable and I felt like a bad host… but Jack didn’t seem to mind.

Though two hours into us watching television again, I was starting to feel uncomfortable and antsy. I got up once to use the bathroom and then again to make tea.

When I got up a third time to get some pop, then offered him chips for the fourth time I think Jack had enough.

“Do you want me to leave?” Jack asked.

I paused, my hand outstretched to grab a glass for the pop. I retracted my hand and nervously itched my prickly skin. “N-no…”

“You just seem really uncomfortable…” Jack said. “If you want me to go home just tell me, it’s okay. I just kind of like hanging out with you.”

He was liking this? “But… we’re not really talking,” I said slowly. “I was sure you must think I’m boring or something…”

I scowled at him as he laughed. Though I still liked his laugh I didn’t like it as much when it was directed at me.

“Why do you think we need to talk to hangout? Why can’t we just enjoy each other’s company and presence? I never understand why people think we have to sit around shooting the shit and making small talk for it to be a fun time,” Jack said with a smile. “My brothers are all the same way. It’s always so noisy at home. They have to talk and drink and be loud. I usually hide in my room to escape them, though they usually drag me out at some point in time. Isn’t it nice to just… I mean, isn’t this nice?”

His statement caught me completely off-guard. I was just trying to do what I thought you were supposed to do when you had company. Whenever Silas had a chimera over they were always talking about work or their personal lives, they were always chatting and having a good time. Then once I went into my bedroom and Silas thought I was asleep they would move to Silas’s bedroom. And even though it was supposed to be soundproof I always heard a few groans.

In truth… I agreed with everything that Jack said, and I liked his idea of hanging out. It helped my anxiety to have that pressure off of me. He was my first real guest after all, well except Kass and he was different, Nero was different too he made himself at home everywhere.

“You’re right…” I said.

I wished I could explain better that I would be more comfortable in silence too. I grabbed the ChiCola and turned around, but suddenly an assaulting jolt of pain went up my arm and I dropped the can onto the ground. I swore and tried to pull my sweater away from my sleeve but another painful jab shot through my arm as I did.

My cut arm, the blood had dried and fused itself to my clothing and moving it had ripped the fabric from the wound. I swore again and grabbed a towel as a fresh trickle of blood started dripping onto the floor.

“Oh my god.” Jack shot to his feet. “I forgot about your arm. Oh fuck, I’m so sorry. I’m such a forgetful prick. I’m so sorry, you’ve been fucking sitting there with your arm split open for hours. What’s wrong with you?”

Jack ran over towards me, the quick movements making my heart palpitate in my chest. Jack grabbed the towel and tried to squeeze the split open wound back together but after realizing it was going to split right back open he gave up and instead started routing through his backpack.

I held my arm. “It’s… it’s okay. I can stitch it up somehow.”

“No, I’m taking you to Kirrel so he can stitch it. He’s our chimera doctor and he’ll have antibiotics so it doesn’t get infected,” Jack said hastily. Horror ripped through me when I realized he had a remote phone in his hand.

Shit, he was going to call Kirrel… did Kirrel know that I was in disguise? The horror started turning into outright terror, and my head started to go light. I stumbled back feeling absolutely sick and tried to mumble an excuse. I couldn’t blow my cover, Silas would kill me and Jack would hate me for lying to him.

“Hey, Nero?” I heard Jack say.

My mouth dropped open; the dizzying heat that had started at my ears quickly dropped down my face and started pooling behind my eyes. As Jack’s mouth moved up and down as he talked to Nero, his eyes wide and his free hand moving while he talked, the world started to spin.

I groaned and put a hand on my head, my chest lurched and I gagged from the stress alone. Then I made the mistake of trying to take a step away from the wall I was using to support myself… and with a single gasp I fell to the floor.

When I woke up I was on my bed, the heat was cranked up and the kitten was stretched out beside me on the red blanket. I listened and tried to pick up any sounds in the living room but to my surprise it was quiet.

Though I felt bad for disturbing the kitten, I got up off of the bed and made my way to the living room.

It was empty… but immediately my eyes fell to a note written on the back of a piece of paper.

Kirrel came and bandaged your arm. You were in and out of it and Nero insisted we leave you be. Sorry if I stressed you out. See you in school. Jack

Sorry if he stressed me out? It was because Silas wanted me to stay hidden from this family that was stressing me out. And he said see me in school? I didn’t want to go back to school.

I knew I would have to though.

With a groan I put the note down and flopped down onto the couch. I reached to grab the remote when, to my shock… the toilet flushed.

My instincts immediately brought me to my feet and even though I knew it was silly my eyes drew to the bushmaster resting on its pegs inside of the wooden cabinet. But as the door opened and Nero walked out wiping his hands on his cargo pants my anxiety dissipated and my heartbeat started to calm. Maybe I had watched Pulp Fiction one too many times.

“Hey, I thought I heard you rummaging around. Sorry I probably gave your toilet nightmares, the sengils made enough pot roasts last night to feed an army, I ate an entire roast. I brought you some and put it in your fridge,” Nero said with a long stretch. Then he walked over and put a hand on my forehead. “How are you feeling? I never knew someone could stress themselves out that much. Threw up in Mantis’s shoes, eh?”

I flushed and nodded, then grabbed him and myself a ChiCola. The cracking of soda cans sounded and I sat down on the couch.

“It was going well until I realized the man I was sitting next to was my brother,” I said grimly. “I wish you guys would’ve at least showed me pictures or something.”

Nero, of course, thought this was hilarious. He clapped his hands together and shook his head. “Nah, where would the fun be in that? I wanted to see the expression on your face. What do you think of our Jacky? He’s a complete oddball but he’s one of the nicer chimeras in the family. He must get that from Garrett. Dresses like a girl though. I don’t know what’s with chimeras and skinny jeans. All of the second generation are little fashion icons right now. I’m glad Kingy is starting to have more control over the media, it’s starting to get out of hand.”

Nero flopped down on my couch and started scratching himself, before holding out a hand for the ChiCola I was handing him.

“He thinks I’m crazy…” I said slowly. I looked down at the can of pop and flushed. “I had a bad breakdown in a janitor’s closet… I told Crow to get lost because I was tired of him making me feel bad. I don’t know how much Jack heard but I know he heard me fighting with him.”

Nero was in the middle of drinking from his pop can but I saw his purply-blue eyes widen. When the can broke away from his mouth he grinned. “You really told the head demon to shove it?”

I nodded grimly, and at this he let out a loud holler before thrusting his can into mine to make cheers. “That’s amazing, puppy. Look at you! I’m so proud of you I could give you a hand job.”

I groaned and at this I felt him ruffle my hair. “You’re fine, Sangy. You’re doing more than fine, you’re doing amazing. Silas is going to be thrilled when he wakes back up. Though you seem pretty interested in what Jack thinks of you… do you like him? You know we have an attraction for each other, right? It’s in our blood so don’t feel weird about it. Especially since you two are so close in the genetics, you’re probably meant to be together.”

Nero never cared about embarrassing me; I think he thrived on it. I knew my brother and best friend’s humour though and I appreciated him trying to lighten the mood, even if I was in emotional agony.

“Do you like him?”

I shrugged.

“Do you like him?” Nero asked again. I could hear the glee in his words as he pushed them forward.

“Kinda.”

Nero squealed. My brute chimera, probably two hundred and fifty pound, all muscle brother squealed and ruffled my hair again.

“Sangy loves Jacky! Oh, please, please tell me how your first night grinding goes. Oh, promise me! That’s completely unfair though, I wanted to be the first one to make you cum. I always had something for being guys’ firsts.”

Halfway through saying this I couldn’t take it anymore. I picked up a red throw pillow and covered my face with it, knowing there was no under-the-bed for me to flee to. Not that Nero would let me get far, and even if I managed to hide he had a rather booming voice.

Though as he laughed at my misery, I decided to take advantage of the fact that he was here and that he knew Jack. Fighting my greater instincts to hide behind anything I could, I lowered the pillow and looked at Nero.

“Can you give me advice? How do I make him… not think I’m crazy? And… what do I do next?” I asked, then added, “Seriously… can we be serious?”

The corners of Nero’s eyes pinched as he gave me a beaming smile. “Yeah, I guess I can be serious. Jack probably thinks you’re a bit batty –”

My heart sunk.

“– but chimeras are batty, unfortunately you can’t even fondle the idea of telling Jack until Kingly comes back. I think you should seriously just be yourself.”

Be myself? “I don’t really like myself that much,” I said flatly. “I was more hoping you would tell me how to not be myself.”

Nero laughed. “He’ll figure out who you are sooner or later. Jack is weird. He loves art, he loves poetry, emotional music, and he loves animals. Why don’t you ask him to draw pictures with you or some shit? You know, be sappy and stupid together.”

I mulled this over and I was happy with that advice. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll invite him over to draw things.”

“
There you go!” Nero praised. “You’re going to college tomorrow, right? Take some Xanax and sit by him in class.”

The last thing I wanted to do was go to college, but I would do it.

So I nodded and with a long sigh I leaned over to get a pack of cigarettes Nero had thrown onto the coffee table. I took one out and lit it with my fingers, and tried to figure out something special I could do to impress my new crush.

I peeked my head through the door and quickly swept the occupied hallway. I thought I would be lucky in the fact that I would only have to look for a silver head but to my dismay what Nero said was true: the chimeras were fashion icons and more than several roaming students had silver hair styled almost exactly like Jack's.

And pink hair too. I sighed and called myself an idiot for being so hell-bent on sneaking to my English class without Jack seeing me, and Valen too. It wasn't like I wasn't going to see him when I got to English with Professor Elish. I would just feel more comfortable if I saw him while I was already sitting down and settled. So at least I could give him the option of not having to sit beside me.

I knew I was overthinking all of this, but I just had to do things my way. Crow had been silent since our fight in the janitor's closet so I didn't have him to offer me advice. Though it wasn't like he had been giving me good advice lately.

Probably looking like an idiot I sprinted towards the classroom across from Elish's office and ducked inside. I was a full five minutes early and I was thankful that Jack had a bad habit of being late for class.

Quickly I ran in and gave a sigh of relief. I eyed the back row where I knew I would be sitting and started walking towards my new seat.

“Early, are we?”

Like a cat getting tapped on the back when it was stalking something, I sprung up into the air. I turned around and felt my heart jump to my throat as I saw Elish sitting behind his desk with a red pen in his hand and a stack of papers in front of him.

“Y-yes…” I said, before my mood started to edge towards foul. I still believed Elish had purposely told the rebels in Irontowers about the king being on the plane. Just to get Silas and me away from each other.

“Take your seat then,” Elish said. “Since you are entering college in the middle of the school year I am going to be assigning you a tutor.”

A tutor? As was my nature I immediately felt hesitant over this idea. Elish seemed to have sensed it.

“You will find your tutor to be quite understanding and patient.” I saw a glint in his eye that made my own narrow. And what he said next told me why.

“I was thinking since you’ve already made friends with Jack… that he would be a wonderful tutor for you.”

Jack? My narrowed eyes widened, but then I felt the familiar sting of humiliation. “So he told you what happened yesterday?”

“He comes over for chess every few days, and regales me with tales of his life at college while we play,” Elish responded. “He had quite the story to tell. Of course, he has no idea why you were yelling at things in that custodial closet, but he did say you were quite the interesting, though disturbed, person.”

I frowned. “I bet you liked hearing that.”

Elish tented his hands. “It was interesting hearing how those who do not know your origins perceive you. Though that is irrelevant. Jack will be your new tutor, though do try and stop yourself and your demon shadow from murdering him. King Silas wouldn’t be happy once he wakes.”

“And how is he?” I had to ask. I didn’t know anything about how immortals recovered. I wish I could see him. “Is he healing okay?”

Elish nodded and handed me a folder that was tied off with a piece of red thread. “Yes, three and a half months would be my guess. It’s hard to tell what internal organs the resurrection will decide can be kept and which will be expelled. There are so many different factors in immortal healing it is always hard to pinpoint.”

“Jack said he was going to become immortal…” I said taking the folder from him, and as I said that a new thought entered my head. “Is Silas going to make me immortal?”

“Most likely,” Elish said, and though I knew he was trying to hide it I could catch the derisive tone. Though I ignored it in favour of the realization that this brought.

I was going to be made immortal? Meaning I would live forever in this family? Thousands of years? I swallowed at the thought; the prospect that I wasn’t going to die was rather daunting.

“I would try not to think about it,” Elish said, obviously reading my mind. “It’s an overwhelming thought, but you must understand that Silas has deep issues with loss. Seeing other people, his friends before the Fallocaust and a partner he had, die in front of him… deeply wounded Silas. It would be in Silas’s best interest that you just let him do what he wants. It’s easier that way.”

It was strange to see Elish showing a caring, more empathetic side, but I guess if he was in love with King Silas, maybe it was harder for him to be the cold and dead inside chimera I knew that he was. Or perhaps he was just trying to trick me again.

Or maybe all of this was in my head and I was well on my way to driving myself crazy with these conspiracy theories.

A tone coming from the loudspeaker suddenly sounded, telling me and all of the other students that class was going to start soon. So I tucked my folders underneath my arm and with a polite goodbye I took my seat in the back of the class.

People started filing in soon after, none of them sitting beside me which I had come to expect. It didn’t wound me internally as much as it did during Psychology because I wanted the space open so Jack could choose to sit beside me if he wanted.

I eagerly watched the door, feeling jolt after jolt of anticipation rock my chest as the timer on the television ticked down to zero. He had two minutes to get here… then one…

My insides exploded when I saw the feathery silver hair of Jack, but in an instant the feeling of adrenaline was replaced by shock when I saw that my chimera brother was sporting a nasty bruise on his right cheek.

Jack’s eyes immediately travelled to the back of the room, and he smiled shyly when he saw me. More fireworks went off inside of me as he walked past the other desks and took a seat right where I was hoping he would. I looked over and gave him an equally shy smile back.

“Are you okay?” I asked, motioning to my face.

Jack flushed and nodded, rubbing his cheek where the sore wound was. “I’m fine, just had a disagreement with a road sign. I didn’t quite see it coming.”

I smirked at the thought. “Poor guy, I hope you’ll be more careful,” I said, before adding. “Elish talked to me just now about you tutoring me.”

Thankfully Jack nodded like he had already been briefed on this idea. “Elish has already given me all the work you’re supposed to catch up on. I’m busy with my chimera duties tonight but how about tomorrow after school?”

“Sure,” I said. Then with a cleared throat our attention was directed to Elish standing beside a projector.

Elish was a good professor, even though I was still extremely suspicious of him. He was teaching us the works of Hemmingway, Poe, and even the unfinished works of Rowling. I was hoping he would assign us a book to read but maybe that would come later. I would be a lucky chimera if he assigned one of the books I had read dozens of times in Jasper’s basement. Now that would be a treat, I would be the one tutoring Jack then.

Though as I paid attention to the inner message of ‘The Raven’ I noticed that Jack was doodling on his paper again. A part of me wanted to nudge him and tell him he should be paying attention but instead I turned the page and started to draw my own doodle on a clean, lined piece of paper. I drew one of the only things I knew how to draw: a celldweller.

This time when Jack started looking at me I looked back. I saw him raise one of his silver eyebrows at me. “That’s one fucked up-looking creature.”

I opened my mouth to start the story about me and Nero’s adventure but clamped it realizing that was an incredibly dumb idea. Instead I decided to tell one of many white lies.

“When I was little I found a city full of them…” I said and searched Jack’s face. I would think he would know what his, I mean
our
, family was depositing into the bigger cities. “Long limbs, baked-brown skin. They tore their victims in half–”

I watched in amusement as his mouth dropped open. “You were in a city with celldwellers? And you survived?”

I smiled proudly and Jack gave me an impressed nod. “You sound like a real badass for surviving out there. I’d love to hear stories one day.”

“I’d love to tell them,” I said back, feeling almost giddy. I think he liked me back. Maybe I would have my first boyfriend soon? The thought alone made me almost want to throw up, but it was kind of an excited throw up. Silas would be so impressed with me.

The rest of the lesson passed by quickly, and the next class I had which was Science taught by my brother Perish. He was supposed to be in our generation but like Jack had mentioned he looked older, around Ceph’s age. He was incredible smart but a bit quirky. I liked that though, I was rather quirky myself.

Or that was a nice way of putting it.

The next night had me waiting at home to see Jack for my first tutoring lesson. Though I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen him in Psychology today but I assumed he had some chimera duties to take care of.

I had everything already laid out on my coffee table for him to arrive. I even had the pens arranged by colour and the assignments I was supposed to complete put into individual folders that were neatly labelled and also colour coded. Then I made us both glasses of ChiCola, no ice in Jack’s, and also laid out an assortment of chocolate and cured meats and cheeses in case he got hungry. I had to shoo Jett away from the food more than once, and finally distracted my cat with a can of
Alex’s Choice
rat meat by Dek’ko.

When it was almost time for Jack to arrive I sat down on my couch and watched the clock, but soon that became frustratingly boring so I got up and started pacing. My heart was picking up its pace and pattering inside of my chest every time I thought about the time we were about to spend together.

I grinned a mile wide when there was a small knock on the door. I forced it down to a small smile to try and not give off the impression I was completely insane, and walked towards the door.

Jack looked absolutely beautiful.

He was dressed in a black button-down that seemed to shine under the hallway lights, and had a silver chain around his neck. When he smiled I saw that he was wearing crystal black earrings and those black framed glasses that I knew he didn’t need.

“You’re here,” I said shyly. I took a step back smelling the faint aroma of shampoo mixed in with a slight hint of cologne. He smelled so good; it made me want to be even closer to him.

Jack laughed lightly, his laughter still sounding like a ringing bell. As he stepped in I saw he was holding something, food from the smell of it, and he had his satchel slung over his left shoulder.

“I’m really sorry I’m late,” Jack said. To my dismay I noticed as he walked to the kitchen to put the bag of food on the table that he was limping.

I frowned but he didn’t notice, he kept talking as he dug out some plastic containers out of his bag. “I got some food from the sengils and my brothers Nero and Ceph just brought several large boxes of packaged food back from the greywastes. They found an untouched food bank, can you believe it?” Jack turned around looking happy, but when he saw the expression on my face it faded.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, though he was shifting from one foot to another so I knew he knew what was wrong.

“You’re limping…” I said slowly, “and that bruise from yesterday… are you okay?”

Jack laughed nervously and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. “I’m a klutz, alright? I just tripped last night and didn’t feel it until this morning. I just made it worse with all the running around I was doing last night. I had to go into the greywastes and bring back Nero’s body, from the same food bank I just mentioned.”

I frowned as his words sunk in. Jack, as always, noticed and gave me an animated groan. The comical look on his face as he did that made me smile slightly. Grabbing onto it like it was his hook Jack did it again, and topped it off with a goofy face. I laughed and shook my head.

“Stop being so caring. I live with uncaring chimeras, you should be telling me to walk it off like Elish, or shut the hell up and walk it off like Nero,” Jack said sticking his tongue out at me. “I’m just fine. I’ve had a lot worse.”

I grabbed the food and brought it to the coffee table to join all of the other food I had laid out. “Okay, I just… I want to make sure everyone is being nice to you, that’s all,” I said with a half shoulder shrug. When Jack grunted his dismissal of my caring words I smiled wider, I didn’t want to voice it out loud for fear of making him regress but I was enjoying him being so relaxed when it was just us. It was like underneath that layer of meek, polite chimera he was really funny and animated.

“Jett! No!” I said with a hiss as I walked towards the coffee table. My black cat had been taking full advantage of my turned back and had been eating a piece of my cured meats.

“He’s a smart one,” Jack laughed. “You got him from King Silas didn’t you? We had been fostering street kittens to teach my little brother Drake about caring for animals. A black one vanished a few months ago, is that him?”

“It sure is,” I said cheerfully. I decided to pick my white lies; it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Silas to give me a kitten. He had already given me a scholarship and housing as far as Jack was concerned. “He was a housewarming present. King Silas sure does love his cats.”