Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (81 page)

When Sanguine’s shirt was off he gently led him to the mattress, trying to hide the wrinkle in his nose as the smell became more pungent. He knew his nose would get used to it and the least of his concerns should be what the mattress smelled like.

“Lay down,” Jack whispered.

Sanguine hesitated. “I don’t think we should…” His words trailed away as he saw Jack shake his head.

“We’re not, we’re going to sleep that’s all, Sanguine,” Jack said to him in a low but soothing voice. “Lay down with me.” He walked over to the two halogen lights and turned them off. When he turned back around Sanguine was laying in bed, staring almost blankly at the ceiling.

Jack took off his own tattered shirt and laid down on his side, and when he didn’t tense up, Jack pulled Sanguine into his arms and held his burning body against his own. The skin-on-skin contact making Jack feel more connected to Sanguine than what had happening in the abandoned building.

“Sanguine?” Jack whispered. He closed his eyes and felt Sanguine’s hair on his cheek.

“Yeah?” Sanguine said back.

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

Jack’s pulse quickened at the same time Sanguine’s did. He felt Sanguine shift until he was on his side facing Jack.

“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” Sanguine said, then he paused. “Actually… you do. Why then?”

Jack’s stomach prickled like he had just swallowed a thousand small needles. For a moment his mouth felt glued shut, but as the seconds passed the anxiety turned into a solemn determination. One that told him now was the time to tell him how he felt.

“Because I think I love you.”

Sanguine’s heart jumped. Jack slid his hand, which had been laying against Sanguine’s side, over to his chest and felt his heart pound against his palm.

“You love me?” Sanguine sounded confused. It made a small smile creep to Jack’s face, and when he opened his eyes to see the Sanguine’s perplexed look, it only widened.

Jack nodded. “I do. I love you. I want to help you. I want to be near you, beside you. I want us to – to spend the rest of our lives side by side, facing this… crazy family together.”

Sanguine’s eyes looked into Jack’s before they diverted away. “I have nothing to offer you but pain, drama, and possibly physical injury.”

“I don’t care, stop being so… self-deprecating,” Jack said lowly. “Just… just say yes so I can start taking care of you. So I can start…” Jack smiled again. “So I can start having a say when I make you do things for your own good.”

Jack’s heart soared when Sanguine returned the smile. “That’s really it, isn’t it? You want to be my boyfriend so you can start bossing me around?”

Jack’s eyes raised to the ceiling. “I assure you I have no idea what you’re–” Jack gasped when Sanguine reached up and pinched his cheek hard. In retaliation he smacked Sanguine’s chest, and when Sanguine laughter filled the room Jack put his arm around his neck and drew him in for a kiss.

Their lips locked together, and Jack felt Sanguine’s hand gently slip down the small of his back. They stayed together, their mouths slowly moving to take each other in, before breaking apart.

Jack could feel Sanguine’s warm breath on his lips; he slowly opened his eyes to see his chimera brother staring back at him. He looked almost lost, but at the same time he looked as if he had found something he had been searching for for years.

“I think I love you too…” Sanguine whispered. “I think… that’s what I’m feeling.”

“What does it feel like?”

Sanguine was quiet for a moment, but his brow furrowed suggesting he was trying to decipher what was going on inside of him.

“Warm, electric, kinda fuzzy and… incredibly scary, nauseas, and I keep having to remind myself that… you do know I’m completely out of my mind half the time,” Sanguine responded after several moments. “You do know… you do know this lucidity isn’t going to last? The next stressor that triggers it…”

“You have me now to help calm you down,” Jack said. He leaned in and kissed Sanguine’s lips gently. “Elish and Mantis will handle Silas, and soon everyone will get the help they need and we can all be a happy family. I promise.”

“It won’t be that simple…” Sanguine said with a sigh. “If I agree to be your boyfriend, you need to promise me something. And you must promise you won’t promise me unless you plan on doing it.”

Jack didn’t like the sound of this, but he nodded anyways and gently started stroking Sanguine’s prickly cheek, his face just as burning hot as the rest of his body. The chimera seemed to radiate heat, which was a stark contrast to the cold skin that most of his brothers had, himself included.

“Promise me that when I go into that state… you’ll leave,” Sanguine said slowly. “Swear on my life, Jack. I’m not in control. I almost raped you in that building and you saw what I did to Ludo. Promise me if you see that come out of me – you’ll get as far away from me as you can.”

The room fell back into silence, though the emotions racing through Jack’s body seemed to have their own voice. They were telling Jack that there was no way he could leave Sanguine alone when he was in the crazed state he had discovered him in, but at the same time – he also knew what Sanguine needed to hear.

“I promise,” Jack said with a nod. “I will, but I know what gets you into those states – all we have to do is keep you calm and feeling safe, and you’ll be fine.”

Sanguine let out a sigh of relief, and for a brief moment, he closed his eyes. “I’m just happy that I know what’s going on with me. That I’m aware enough to know that this is happening. At first I thought it was the drugs I was smoking with Mouse and Julia but now I know – this is a deeper issue inside of my brain. The meth had only amplified it, added fuel to the delusions. You’re right in saying… we just need to keep me calm.”

Meth?
Jack bit his lip to keep him from shouting that out loud. Meth made even the most level-headed of people paranoid. It would ravage someone like Sanguine.

But that wasn’t the time or place to chastise him about it. Instead Jack kept stroking Sanguine’s cheek, trying to cool it with his own cold touch. “Accepting it is a big thing. I know Mantis will be happy you have awareness.” Then he gently pinched Sanguine’s cheek and shook it. “Now make it official… come on, I want to hear you say it.”

Sanguine drew him in for another kiss, this one parting Jack’s lips gently. They kissed deeply, each taste of Sanguine’s mouth lighting a small flame inside of his chest.

“We can be boyfriends,” Sanguine whispered after their lips separated. “Until madness do we part.”

Silas reached his hand out of the open car door and Elish took it gently. He helped the king out of the black car before sweeping the area with his purple eyes, making sure he could spot the three thiens they had accompanying them as they walked around the slum district of Moros.

Behind him Nero stood with his fiancé Ceph, and their younger brother Felix who had a white bandage covering the side of his head. All three of them stern of face and firm of stance, but dressed entirely in casual clothes. The only indication there was that they were of higher status than the Morosians around them were the assault rifles strapped to their backs.

Even Silas and Elish were dressed in normal arian attire. Elish in a black trench coat and a brimmed hat, and King Silas in a black leather jacket and blue jeans. There was no mistaking that they were trying to blend in, though with how the Morosians were stopping to stare at who they knew was their king, it was obvious that anyone paying attention would see that they were amongst royalty.

“We’re sticking out like sore thumbs,” Elish mumbled. He put a hand on the small of Silas’s back and directed Silas towards the slanted, garbage-strewn sidewalk. “We should’ve just summoned the boys and made up an excuse.”

Silas shook his head, and as he glanced up at the cloudless blue sky above them it was obvious that the king was in mental turmoil. His large green eyes were rimmed with black bags, his face was gaunt and paler than usual. Even his stance told a story of sleepless nights and mental baggage. King Silas was not in a good state.

“I want to see how they live. I want to see how they’re fairing,” Silas whispered. He allowed Elish’s hand to stay on his back and the two of them walked down the dirty streets of Moros, Nero in front of them and Ceph and Felix guarding them from behind.

“You care about how Ares and Siris are doing and yet you haven’t said a word about Valen and Ludo both missing,” Felix suddenly said coldly. A moment later there was a heavy thud as Ceph smacked him upside the head.

“Not another word, subordinate,” Ceph growled, and at the same time Elish whirled around to give the dark-haired brute chimera a searing gaze. A gaze that no doubt would have been a physical blow if they weren’t in public where appearances had to be kept.

Felix’s eyes narrowed; he looked away with a soured look on his face, though no more words slipped from his mouth.

And to only accentuate the uncharacteristically defeated mood that King Silas was in, he only kept walking. No scathing remarks, no verbal beat downs, no mind destroying punishment like what would be expected from the king. It seemed like all he was able to do in that moment was put one foot in front of the other.

“Moros is a lot safer than the greywastes, Silas,” Elish reassured. “Perhaps Moros would be a fairer place to drop off chimeras we wish to grow up with a harder nose.”

“Perhaps…” Silas whispered. They turned a corner and were greeted with a single lane road with abandoned cars, stripped of everything but their frames, half on the sidewalk. The buildings on this road were in particularly worse shape, even for Moros. Most had their roofs caved in and several had been completely gutted, only charred skeleton roofs remaining and metal beams that stuck out of the wreckage like the dead trees of the greywastes.

Elish’s nose curled as they walked by a man sitting beside a dirty cart. He was selling half-rotten vegetables and what looked like newspaper wrapped leftovers he must’ve scavenged from the dumpsters of the local pubs and restaurants.

The man looked up at the party and his gaunt eyes widened. Immediately he got down on his knees and bowed as Silas walked past. Silas gave him a nod and kept on walking.

“I wonder if they buy their food from him?” Silas said out loud when the man was behind them. “How long have they been out of Edgeview?”

“They wander in when they get hungry, and we’ve instructed the house nurses to give them food if they ask nicely. But they do not make them stay,” Elish replied as he started looking more closely at the buildings, no doubt trying to spot the twin boys they were seeking. “They’re eleven years old now.”

Silas let out a small sigh and nodded. “They’ll be men soon… though with how my other brute chimeras have grown they probably already weigh more than me.” The king looked around and when he spotted a shadow in a broken window, he smiled for the first time in days. “I think I see one. Go ahead, Nero.”

Nero took off a backpack he was wearing and placed it with a thunk on top of a stripped Ford truck, covered in spray-paint and regular house paint, with a nest of cloth and fur inside that suggested it was some animal’s nest. He opened up the bag and took out several tin cans of food.

Then, almost methodically he handed a can opener to Ceph and one of the cans, before picking up the other one and tapping the top of the tin with his fingernails.

“Kitties!” Nero sang, making Elish put a hand to his head and groan. Unable to witness the scene, Elish walked away and distracted himself with staring through the shattered windows of an old movie store.

But when he heard Silas laugh he turned around and shook his head at the king, a smirk appearing on his cold, stoic face. “You know he makes a mockery out of years of chimera research by calling them like cats?” Elish said, though his unimpressed expression lightened when he saw the first hints of his old king come back.

“They come to it, don’t they?” Nero responded as he walked around the middle of the empty street, still tapping the can. He gave out a loud whistle before turning to Silas. “I started doing it when they were just little guys, five I think, and it’s just kinda our thing now.”

“No one else is around to hear us anyways,” Silas said, his eyes were looking intently where he had last seen one of the twins. “I hear them coming down the stairs…”

Sure enough, as all five pairs of eyes turned towards an open door leading into a wooden building, a boy with short black hair poked his head through the door.

“Nero!” the boy exclaimed. He stuck his tongue out like a happy dog and started running towards the group. Several seconds later an identical boy burst out of the same doorway and also started running towards them.

They were unique-looking children, as all brute children were. Though they were only eleven years old they were only a head shorter than Silas, and didn’t have the normal willowy build that most young boys did. They were thick and burly, with muscles already visible through their torn shirts.

Both the boys skidded to a stop as soon as they got close to Nero, but as soon as they stopped running they started bouncing around instead.

“Did you bring us Chef Boyardee!?” one of them asked excitedly. At the mention of what was most likely their favourite food the other one let out a squeal, and started doing a strange half-wiggle, half-bouncing dance.

Elish stared at them before once again putting his hand to his face, groaning, and turning away from the scene.

Though like when Nero was calling the twins like cats Silas smiled and even laughed when the two boys started hollering and whooping when Nero handed them both cans of ravioli.

“Siris – Siris – Siris –” the boy who had to have been Ares said as he patted his brother on the shoulder. When Siris, who now had his face in the ravioli can, looked over at him Ares raised his can and grinned.

Siris, knowing what his brother wanted, grinned back. Then at the exact same time they raised their cans and clinked them against one another while saying, quite enthusiastically, “Cheers!” Before tipping their heads back, mouths wide open like baby birds, letting several of the little raviolis fall into their mouths.

Silas was smiling, Nero and Ceph laughing at the two boys’ antics. They let the twins eat their food in peace and Silas watched both Nero and Ceph start bringing out cans of food, vitamins, ChiCola, and movies for the boys to bring back to the apartment they both lived alone in.

“Okay you little shits, you’ve had some food. You need to say hello to King Silas and Master Elish,” Nero said after the kids had downed half of their food. They had orange sauce streaked all over their faces and their hands, Ares even had a bit of pasta on his chin. “Do it like I taught you.”

The twins put their cans down on top of the Ford truck and saluted King Silas, their grinning faces turning stern, though both of their lips were twitching to keep from smiling. “Nice to meet your acquaintance, King Silas and Master Elish,” they both said in unison.

Silas smiled and nodded at the two twins. “They bring so much humour and joy with them, even though they have been raised in such desolation. How can these two boys be so happy–” Silas looked over at Felix who was scowling at the scene in front of him. “And the ones we have raised underfoot, with every privilege in the world, turn into such unappreciative pieces of shit.”

Felix’s lips pursed but he said nothing back.

“It’s not all bad, Kingy,” Nero said reassuringly. “Jack’s doing a turn around, Apollo and Artemis are like your perfect little prodigies, and Sangy will be fine eventually. It’s just… the remainders we need to work on.”

“Say our names if you’re going to insult us,” Felix said. “Me, Valen, Rio, and Ludo. Two of which are missing and I’m sure Rio will go missing soon as well.”

“Watch your fucking mouth, Felix,” Nero barked. “If you want to get respect, earn it. You don’t default get respect just because you’re a fucking chimera. No matter how many arians and greywasters you bully into fearing you.”

“Chimeras are so awesome,” Ares’s could be heard whispering to his brother.

“I know!” Siris whispered back.

“I would be more willing to earn it if two of my best friends weren’t missing with the family giving not a single shit,” Felix snapped. His dark green eyes shot to Silas, and when the king made direct eye contact with him they narrowed in such a hostile manner Nero’s teeth grated against one another.

“You better do something about this, asshole,” Felix threatened. “Or else–”

There was an angry bellow and the swing of a fist. It connected hard against Felix’s head, throwing the brute chimera off balance and making him tumble towards the ground.

Ceph stood over him, his chest heaving, behind him Silas stared forward, his eyes an inferno and his face void of all expression. The look he was giving Felix was so caustic, everyone but Ceph took a step back.

But to all of their surprise Silas said nothing. The distant, depressed look on his face came back, sending away the jovial contentment the twins had brought.

“Wait in the car, Felix,” Silas said in a dead tone. “We’ll be leaving soon.”

The shock was apparent on all of their faces, but it was most prominent on Elish’s. The blond chimera looked absolutely taken aback at Silas’s nulled emotions. Silas seemed to have extinguished the fuse that Felix had lit on him, snuffing out the flame with nothing but a disinterested look. He didn’t seem to care anymore, or have the energy and drive to discipline something that, in most cases, would’ve led to the chimera in question being beaten within an inch of his life. This alarmed Elish to extent, and made a chill come to his chest.

Felix must’ve picked up on this vulnerability, like any chimera, brute especially, they could sniff out weakness in anyone chimera or arian. It was in the brute makeup to take advantage of frailty and exploit it to their own advantage. Felix was young, hotheaded, and still testing his teeth on the authority figures of the family. This was typical for a chimera teenager but unlike when the others tried to assert their dominance – Silas didn’t seem to have it in him lately to rain the hammer of Thor down on the rebellious.

He had been too defeated since the incident regarding Sanguine coming home. Silas had been quiet and distant since the event several days ago, and it was only getting worse. The first smile Silas had had since the chaos had been this very visit with the twins Ares and Siris.

“That one’s a big fuck,” Ares suddenly piped up. “You should send him to Stadium. If you do can we watch?”

Though in normal circumstances everyone would have at least cracked a smile at the young boy’s comment, the mood had quickly turned toxic.

Silas put a hand on the boy’s head and patted it. His eyes seemingly unfocused and his gaze distant. “Yes, love.”

“How long until we can join the army?” Siris asked. He had his entire hand wedged inside of the can now; he turned it back and forth like a corkscrew until it was covered with sauce, then proceeded to lick it.

“That’s… what you told them?” Silas asked Nero in a quiet voice. Nero nodded.

Silas stepped onto the sidewalk and looked ahead at Felix’s turned back as he headed back to the vehicle. “When you’re fifteen, loves. Only three and a half more years.”

“That’s too bad. I wanna kick that big fuck’s ass,” Siris remarked with an orange mouthed smile. “Thank you for the food and toys, King Silas, and Master Elish, and Imperial Commander Nero, and Commander Ceph, and big fuckface whatever-his-name-is. Will you come say hi on Skyday like last year?”

“So well-behaved,” Silas murmured. “Elish these boys are faring well. Look at them.”

Elish knew why Silas spoke those words and he knew what was going on inside of his king’s head. The two snarling dogs, one called denial and one called reality. Silas was a stubborn man, but Elish also knew he was intelligent and reasonable. He knew King Silas would accept what Jasper had done to Sanguine – but it would be when his mind was ready to handle the guilt.