Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (55 page)

I sat down with my binder and tried to clear a spot, but it looked like we had enough food to feed the entire Legion. I heard Jack laugh behind me and he sat down too. A warm electric feeling rushed through my blood at him sitting right beside me.

“He sure does, we all do. We love dogs too but there is just something about cats.” Jack picked up Jett and made him sit on his lap like a person. Jett flattened his ears for a second but as soon as Jack started massaging his shoulder blades with his thumbs he started to settle in and purr. “We have ten cats in the skyscraper right now; they go to whomever they feel like though some stay with their original owners. Elish has an old grey cat named Dave, can you believe it? Dave!”

I snored at the thought of Elish calling a cat Dave. I had never met that cat before. “Why Dave?”

Jack reached over and picked up a piece of cheese for Jett and held it as my cat started to sniff it with his nose. “He would never admit it but Garrett says it’s because he would feel stupid yelling at something with a name like Whiskers or Fluffy. So he gives them people names. I’ve heard him call him David when he was cross with him. I had to leave the room to keep from laughing. It was kind of cute.”

Something amusing occurred to me. “So you have arian humans with names like Artemis, Apollo, Cepherus… but you name your cats Dave? Interesting.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose like this had only just occurred to him. “Well, I lucked out, though I’m not sure who I was named after. Some of us have names of roman gods or rulers; others are named after pets Silas owned before the Fallocaust, or just names he likes. How about you, how did you get the name Sami? It’s short for Samuel, right?”

In truth it wasn’t, or if it was my adoptive mother didn’t mention it in the note, but Elish says my name on the records was Samuel Landon Fallon so I guess it was now. So I nodded and started making myself a sandwich out of the crackers and cheese. “I was orphaned young,” I replied. “But it’s supposed to be short for Samuel; everyone has always just called me Sami though.” I popped it into my mouth, the entire thing, and started flipping through our textbook, assuming Jack would want to get started.

School work seemed to be the last thing on his mind though. Jack leaned back on the couch with Jett, a piece of cured meat and cheese in his hand. “What was it like?” he asked quizzically, then immediately he backtracked. “You don’t need to talk about it if… you know, if it’s difficult or anything. I know I’m a chimera but you don’t have to hesitate when telling me to shut up and stop being nosey.” I saw his grip on the cat get harder like he was tense. “Honestly, just forget I’m a chimera. I’m – ah… I just Jack.”

His entire face went beet red as I burst out laughing. Jack pursed his lips together and hit me hard on the shoulder. “Don’t you dare even…”

“I just Jack,” I said, mimicking the voice of Tarzan. “You Sami, I Jack.”

“Shut up!” Jack hit me again, his smile filling my heart up with joy. Jett jumped off of him, and that freed his other hand enough to continue his assault. “I’m a chimera now, never mind what I said. And as a chimera I am ordering you to never mention that again! My tongue tied up for a second!”

“Okay, okay! I bow to you, chimera.” I grinned and Jack lowered his hands. The way he was looking at me, this shy, half-smile on his face, and the glow of red on his cheeks… it made my heart skip.

For a moment I just stared at him, my chest was like a vacuum, sucking the air out of the room and pooling it inside of me to the point of bursting. He was something else, like a divine god that took in, and kept for himself, all the light in the room.

I looked at him, with his silver hair gleaming against the lights, his ivory face without a single blemish, his soft jaw line, and pink lips, and committed it to memory.

Then I realized to my embarrassment, I was staring right at him, for longer than was polite. I coughed and looked away, realizing as I did that Jack had been staring at me in the same way.

He – he had been staring at me the same way.

I tucked my hair behind my ear and glanced up at Jack. He was now staring at the cat, the blush on his cheeks all the brighter as the silence entered the room. Jack had said before that he never minded silence between two people but I had a feeling this wasn’t one of those times.

Though in a way I wished it would stay quiet, because the moment that had past between me and Jack had taken my breath away and had left me desperate for more. It was like I had sipped ambrosia from the golden chalice, a sweet taste that awakened every drop of dopamine in my brain.

In the back of my mind, as the warmth swept through me, I wondered if this crush was developing into something more. And I also wondered if I would be fortunate enough for Jack to be feeling the same.

“Do… do you want a drink or something?” Jack suddenly asked. I looked up and saw that the shyness on Jack’s face had amplified since our gaze had broken.

I considered this and nodded slightly. “Yeah, that would be great.”

The quickness of Jack jumping up from the chair made me flinch. I once again tried to flip the textbook to the pages we were supposed to read to each other.

Jack came back holding a bottle of rum and poured generous amounts into the ChiCola I had made us previous. The both of us downed half of our glasses in one gulp. I think that act spoke more to our mutual need to loosen up than words ever could.

I put the textbook on my lap, and when Jack didn’t raise any objections or change the subject I brought out my highlighter and started reading off the pages we were supposed to cover. It was still about the baby monkeys though we were taking extra notes since this was supposed to be our group project.

We both settled in, thanks to the alcohol, and together we took turns reading as the other one made notes. We discussed together the moral conflicts we had with such a study and how differently we would do the studies now. Jack had even told me that before the Fallocaust studies like this were banned due to the cruelty, but now after the Fallocaust Silas had allowed certain studies like this to take place, citing that the scientific benefit outweighed screwing up a couple rats here or there.

“Do you have monkeys still alive?” I asked before draining my glass. I was on my third drink but I thought that was pretty good for it being three hours into our studying. I was feeling warm between the ears and my tongue was loose but I was enjoying it.

Jack shook his head; he was half a glass ahead of me and had become even more chatty and open since the alcohol had started to flow. “No, no monkeys, we experiment on convicts or rats. But we have quite a few pre-Fallocaust animals still alive! Mostly on the Dead Islands or the outlands, the rest of Skyfall Island that is inaccessible to the greywasters or Skyfallers.”

I cringed when he said Dead Islands, for obvious reasons… Jasper was there. “Why doesn’t he release them?”

Jack smiled, the same smile he gave me whenever I asked a stupid question. “They would die; even if they were Geigerchiped the radanimals are just too strong. So we release some of them on the islands so they cannot escape and others we keep in institutions, kind of like… zoos. We have Skyfallers tour there to help pay for their upkeep too. The animals we do think can survive we have released but for the most part we just keep them so we have them around. The animals we haven’t brought back yet we have the DNA for too. One day Silas says he’s going to bring back tigers, can you imagine? We have lions, cougars, bobcats, servals, ocelots, but we don't have tigers, cheetahs, or leopards. We have their genetic material though.”

I leaned my head back on the couch; I was half-laying on it with one foot on the cushions and the other on the carpet. I held out my glass and nodded at Jack to refill it with some more rum. “Well, I’m glad you don’t have monkeys, I never liked them,” I said with a smirk.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

My lips loosened further under the alcohol. “I had a friend once who used to call me demon-monkey in the greywastes. So maybe I’m a bit bias to not liking them.”

Jack frowned; he pulled back the bottle before pouring himself some. “That’s horrible. I’ll kick him in the groin if I ever see him.”

“He’s dead,” I said before I could stop himself. “He killed himself when we were both locked up and–”

As much as the drink was lubing my lips I still stopped myself before I jumped right into the pit I had so eagerly been digging myself. I mumbled an apology before distracting myself further with the alcohol.

Another silence fell on the both of us. I swirled the ice cubes around, my fingers leaving a trail of see-through on the foggy, dew-covered glass. I took yet another drink.

“Why… did Silas bring you… here?” Jack asked slowly, he was nudging his words towards me with such a caution it was like he was pushing a baby bird out of the nest for the first time.

“Sometimes I wonder that myself…” I said back. “He found me – he found me locked in the basement of a meth head, and he took pity on me.”

I heard Jack swear under his breath, and his pulse start to speed up. I only looked into my glass, counting the carbonated bubbles as they shifted around the brown liquid.

“Are – are you okay now?” Jack stammered. “You seem…”

“Messed up?” I said with a dry laugh. “Fucked in the head?”

“No!” Jack said. I was surprised that he sounded almost angry at my own self-derisive comments. “Not at all. You seem… I don’t know what you seem. I just… I’m happy he brought you to Skyfall.” Then silence.

“I like you, you know?” His voice was barely audible, even with my enhanced hearing.

I looked up, and at the same time Jack’s already ivory face paled. I don’t think he had expected me to hear that.

I searched inside of myself and felt the faint vein of bravery I had been calling upon for the last several months, without breaking eye contact I pursed my lips before saying quietly, “Me too.”

Our eyes didn’t break from the gaze they had both fallen into, a peaceful, comfortable silence that was a far cry from the awkward tension I was used to feeling when I stumbled into the deep black oceans that were his eyes. Together we stayed in each other’s sights, until my eyes broke as I felt his hand slip into mine.

I stared down at it, and relying on that same vessel of bravery, I took it and squeezed it. “So… I’m not the only one feeling it, huh?” I said, wondering just what was in that liquor to make me speak so freely. Maybe I was just comfortable around him.

“No…” Jack said quietly. “The first time I saw you, I knew you were different. I don’t know how… maybe it’s because you’re from the greywastes, or maybe it’s because I know you’ve lived a different life than anyone else I’ve ever met. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel drawn to you.” He laughed lightly, the nervousness clinging to every octave. “I heard of this happening between chimeras, this attraction, but not greywasters…” He squeezed my hand back.

But then Jack pulled his hand back, like a door to the cold winter had opened, all of the warmth got sucked out of the room.

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” he stammered. “I’m being creepy. I’m being really creepy…”

Jack rose to his feet; he reached for his jacket but stumbled, forgetting his sore knee.

I quickly jumped to my feet and helped steady him. His pulse was racing and his heart was hammering like twin drum beats. He took his jacket from me and started limping towards the door.

Unable to help myself, or perhaps I was just tired of dancing around the feelings I could feel growing inside of me, I grabbed Jack’s shoulder and pulled him back.

“I’m not letting you do this,” I said. “You’re not creepy… I’m not letting you ruin this by being… by being…” I didn’t know what he was being, so I said to the first thing that came to my head. “By being stupid.”

Jack flushed and stared at the ground, he had a white-knuckle grip on his jacket. “I’ve only known you for a couple days…”

“So? It’s not like we’re going to get married tomorrow,” I said flatly. “Stop making this a bigger deal than it is.” It sounded like I was saying this to the old me, not Jack.

I saw his full, pink lips disappear into his mouth, before his tongue nervously licked them. “You’re right… I’m sorry. I tend to overthink everything. Even so… I should speak with Elish about this.”

It wasn’t like Elish was going to care, but I had to pretend I didn’t know how they worked. I would do that, I would tell as many little white lies as I could. I just wanted to…

I just wanted to…

Did I even know what I was trying to do? I had just been annoyed at Jack backtracking and pulling himself back, what was I trying to do? Did I want to date him?

My mind took me back to the conversation between me and Nero. He had wanted me to go for it, and he was second-in-command with Elish being king. Nero knew a lot of things I didn’t and he knew Jack better than I did. Nero had wanted me to go for it and I was going to use my best friend’s wisdom to be the chimera I was supposed to be.

“Ask permission then, but don’t make it into something it’s not,” I said. “We can take it slow like I said. I just…” The edges of my heart melted when I saw just how small Jack looked in that moment. He seemed so innocent, meek, and tiny in my own shadow. Even with his sharp teeth and onyx black eyes he was a bird in my hands. I never realized it but… if we did have a relationship eventually, I was going to be the dominant partner, not him.