Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (95 page)

The corner of my mouth rose in a half-smile. “Don’t get all dirty on me now, boyfriend – the kittens are watching.”

Jack burst out laughing, his ears going red. I let out a yelp as he pinched my nipple as punishment for breaking the seductive mood he had been trying so hard to cultivate. I grinned at him before drawing him in for another kiss. I really was starting to fall for this boy of mine.

Then a loud knock on the door. Jack and I both scrambled to our feet.

“It’ll be nice when we can get a sengil to answer the door for us,” I commented, walking across the plush grey carpet towards the door to the outside hallway. “Just think of how easier life will be.”

I opened the door fully expecting it to be a sengil or a thien with the UFM, only to see a flash of black before I was snapped up and constricted in a tight almost bone-breaking embrace, like a deer who just got attacked by an anaconda.

It took me a moment before I recognized those burly arms. I snorted a laugh as Nero spun me around with a gruff bellow, the world around me becoming a dizzy blur. I always forgot how much I missed having Nero around until he barrelled himself back into my life.

“My immortal boy!” Nero exclaimed. He dropped me but as soon as he saw my grinning face he took me into his arms again and crushed me against him. “My fucking immortal little bitch! Oh, fuck me, Sangy. It’s been a long fucking two months but I don’t give a shit… look at you!” Nero grabbed my nylon jacket and literally pulled it off of me, a black t-shirt on underneath. He then snatched my arms and shook them before yanking my shirt up so he could see my stomach. Then he kept raising my shirt until I gave up and took it off.

“Fuck, just new… fucking new, every inch of you. Fuck me, I can’t believe it.” He shook his head before clapping me hard on the back and pushing me to his side. I looked towards Jack in a half-serious attempt to garner some help from him but he was too busy beaming at the two of us.

“I’m so happy you two are immortal. I just hope he does my Cephy next. If he makes Ceph immortal my entire life will be perfect, fucking perfect.” Nero let out a loud sigh before sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. Then he reached down and started trying to grab the front of my jeans. My reflexes had me quickly jumping back though with a laugh.

“Come on, bitch! You gotta show me the goods! It’s no fair I only get to see your junk when it was all skinned and horrific. Jacky-whacks, you break in this beauty yet?” Nero said as I continued to hop away from his busy hand.

Jack blushed. “No, not since he’s been immortal.”

“That’s right,” Nero said with a nod. “You fucked him after you diced up Ludo, right? How was your first cum? Pretty nice, eh?”

“F-first cum?” I groaned as Jack said this in a stammering shocked voice. “You… Sanguine?! What’s he saying?”

“Watch…” Nero whispered to Jack. “Watch how red his ears get.”

I sat down on the couch and put a throw pillow over my face. “I hate the both of you.”

“He never… you never?” Jack stuttered, still not believing what Nero was implying. “Really?”

“When you hate your body, and your body belongs to someone else… you don’t really want to explore it too much, Jack. On the contrary, you want to cut it, abuse it, and feel as much pain as you can because you hate yourself inside and out,” I said in a low tone. “Can we just not humiliate me with it?”

An awkward silence fell all around me. I knew I had brought their giggle-fest to a dark place but the reality was what it was. My body had belonged to Jasper and I had hated that very body. I had the scars to prove it.

I felt weight on both ends of me and Nero’s burly arms reach around me. “Sorry, peaches. I got caught up. I’m just hyper to see you again, you know I love you bunches. I’m sorry I brought up that shit.”

I sighed and pulled the pillow away. I gave Nero a half-smile. “It’s alright, I understand. It’s good that you’re here. We just had something interesting happen at the VanCouver’s a few blocks away.”

To my surprise Nero reached into his jacket and pulled out what looked like the bulletin but it was printed on regular paper. It was only two pieces of paper with print on both sides and it was held together by a single staple.

“Ellis sent me over since this is pretty sensitive information. I wasn’t doing anything and Ceph is taking care of the rebel shit. I wanted to see you anyways.” Nero handed me the paper and I felt Jack shift closer to me. “They’re pissed… and they have every right to be pissed. We invaded their home and bombed quite a few buildings. Unfortunately a lot of them escaped into the sewers below but we have no fucking clue where they went. We think they went underground or are hiding in one of the pre-Fallocaust barricade buildings were we wouldn’t see their lights and shit,” Nero explained. “We found ammo, weapons, a couple greywasters they were keeping prisoner for food and sexcapades, but not nearly enough to justify their huge presence over the past several years. We’re picking apart Irontowers and the surrounding location but we’re sure they have another base we don't know about.”

“We’re hoping that this means they’ve disbanded,” Jack said, then when Nero snorted he added. “Nero doesn’t think so, neither does King Silas but who knows? Perish is planning on releasing some of his new radanimals into Irontowers as well. We have young carracats in need of new homes and urson and deacons, plus a whole island full of big deer, biigo, long horses, and wild bosen for them to eat.”

Nero nodded. I scanned over the UFM article he had in his hand and immediately felt angry at some of the articles I was seeing. Everything from claiming Silas was the father of Ellis’s son Knight (ew), Silas purposely eliminating the straight population and skewing the number of female births (which was also bullshit, that was happening in the greywastes too where it was pretty much lawless and untouched by the monarchy), to Silas poisoning the Morosians and Cypressians and even – my lips pursed – an article claiming Silas was the one keeping child sex slaves. Retribution for my idea so many months ago.

“That topic gets written about regularly,” Nero said when he noticed the look on my face. “No one believes it, not after those staged photos. Those kids had a ball doing it. We even let Juni keep the whip we planted near them.”

“I still don’t like it…” I mumbled folding up the UFM and handing it to Jack. I didn’t want to read any more of that garbage. “If we have an insider on the UFM why don’t we just crush it once and for all?”

“Actually Silas is starting to agree with you,” Nero said. “He used to be adamant about not controlling the media too much because of what happened before the Fallocaust. Apparently that was when things really started going to shit. But he’s starting to lean more towards your opinion recently. With those buildings in Cypress being bombed and the amount of money that’s going to cost the crown, plus this long drawn-out battle with the rebels and needing public opinion – I think Silas is going to snap soon and start going dictator again.”

“Dictator?” I asked, and Nero nodded.

“When we were teenagers we had a huge problem with rebels and uprisings. Silas had been trying to rule with the people in mind, giving them what they wanted, caring and shit. Then one day he was just done and he went fucking iron fist on Skyfall. Every rebel was killed, the up risers were killed, half of the men Silas had running Skyfall were killed. It got easier once the first gen was old enough to take some of the burden off of his shoulders and since then, with our help, Silas has relaxed a bit. But with his stress over the second generation, you, plus the rebels, I wouldn’t be surprised if he snaps again. He kinda goes crazy every few decades and I was hoping we could avoid this decade’s snap. Doubt it now though, but maybe with you and Jack okay, the rebels taken care of for now, Valen assumed dead and Ludo and Felix dead – he’ll relax a bit more.”

“He seemed okay; he seemed really happy when I saw him,” I said. I was surprised at Nero’s words, but I guess I only knew Silas as Silas, not so much the king of Skyfall and the greywastes. I knew he had to be a different person as soon as he left Alegria.

“Silas is about a billion people in one, peachy,” Nero said. He leaned down and scooped up the grey kitten and sat him down on his lap facing him. Then he started making his paws swing around like he was dancing. “He might make sweet sweet love to you, then he leaves Alegria and tortures informants for hours, poking out eyes, ripping off fingernails and raping their grown sons in front of them. Then he’ll come back to have a Transformers tea party with Drake. He’s kinda nuts like that, Silas isn’t just one person.”

“No, he’s one person, he’s just complex,” I said in his defence. “He’s the oldest man in the world, of course he’s going to be a bit… more extreme in some parts.”

Nero chuckled at this; he continued to make the kitten’s paws wave around, all by gently controlling the kitten’s paws via its underarms with his fingers. The kitten was perplexed but he wasn’t making a move to get off of Nero’s lap. “Yep, totally see why Elish hates you and Jack’s heart is racing right now. So did Silas sink his little claws into you? Have you bounced around with just Jack or did Silas break in that brand-spanking new backside?”

I turned my hearing and, sure enough, Jack’s heart was a motor. I let out a long sigh at Nero’s wonderful timing. This was the worst possible time for me to tell Nero that Silas and I had indeed had sex, not too long after I had woken up – and I had been the one on top.

Jack wasn’t going to like this.

“Yeah… Silas and I have… already slept together, during the two days in between when I woke up and when I moved down here,” I said slowly.

“And how did you like it?” Nero said eagerly. “Was he gentle? I would’ve been. Sucks though since you promised me I’d get to top you first.”

The speed of Jack’s heart picked up. I was glad he didn’t have the lasagna knife in his hand. I decided to try and stem the flow of hurt on Jack’s end but I wasn’t sure if this news would make things worse or better. “I was on top,” I said. “I haven’t… taken it, yet.” Jack and I hadn’t even gone past making out since I moved in here, though we were sleeping in the same bed.

Nero whistled. I looked over at Jack to give him a submissive smile and saw that my boyfriend’s eyes were fixed forward. He had picked up the female kitten and was petting her so hard her eyes kept stretching back to the whites. I took the kitten away from him.

“So I still have a shot, huh?” Nero grinned. “But I know Mr. About-to-fucking-kill over there won’t let me.”

Jack’s eyes seemed to snap out of their trance, he looked at Nero and shook his head. “I’m sorry… Nero can I get you something to drink? We have Dilaudid powder too.” Jack got up quickly and started walking towards the kitchen.

“Sure, pup,” Nero said. He looked amused by Jack’s reaction and I knew my brother enough to know he would show no mercy. “Root beer and I’ll indulge in some dilly powder. I’ve been working around the clock, I’ll hang with you two for a few hours.” Nero scratched my head affectionately. “I missed my little ankle-biter.”

The next five days passed by quickly and not once did I leave the apartment for anything. I just hung out with my boyfriend, watched television, tried out some of our new video games, and watched the new kittens prance around and play with their big brother.

Though Jett had been alarmed at the little fuzz balls invading his territory as soon as he realized he could play with them they became best friends. Luckily Jett was just over a year old so he still was playful and not as set in his ways as older cats seemed to be. We had even caught all three of them napping just yesterday.

Jett ran past me as I used the lint roller over my black leather vest, behind him Lydia the tabby female followed with her little tail straight up in the air. Yes, I named the female kitten after my adoptive mother, there wasn’t any female names I could think of and Jack had wanted to name her Jenny which I thought wasn’t a suitable name for a cat. We just called her Lydi though.

The male we had been calling Mouse, an homage to my friend in Cypress that I had killed in my psychosis. I thought it would also fit since, well, he was a cat and that added a bit of humour to it. Plus he was grey, so Mouse fit.

Jack appeared behind me with a coy smile. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him when I noticed he was holding a small black gift box in his hand.

“I thought you would look cute in this.” Jack handed me the box and took the lint roller from me. He was dressed in a silver vest with real sterling silver buttons, underneath was a black silk shirt, then black dress pants and shoes polished to shining. I was dressed in the same outfit but with my leather vest and a black silk shirt with wine-red cuffs. We could fit into each other’s clothes, though I could use an extra inch on the pants, but it was good enough for us to get away with it. One of the big pluses of having a chimera brother as a boyfriend.

I opened the top off of the box and grinned. Inside was a red bowtie. I had never worn a bowtie before.

“Thank you, sweet heart, I think I’ll look nice in it,” I said.

Jack took the bow out and started tying it to my neck. I glanced at myself into the mirror as he tied it and nodded to myself. I did look rather dapper now. I was going to make a great first impression to the chimeras I hadn’t formerly met yet.

“You look so handsome,” Jack gushed. He took my hand and we started heading out the door. The floor we were going to was number eleven. I had never been to this floor in Alegria but apparently it was just a big room with several private rooms off to the side. It was specifically for our parties and get-togethers. We had family dinners every Sunday apparently and I guessed that since tonight was my introduction to the family Jack and I would be attending them now.

“You do too,” I said back squeezing his hand. He still had his obsessive handholding issue, but like him cuddling me to death in bed and always needing to have me in his line of sight, I was getting used to it.

My insides were churning with excitement over this party. I wasn’t nervous even though I knew there was going to be a lot of people there. My social anxiety had dissipated over the last year and now I didn’t even get nervous in large crowds. One by one my quirks and hang-ups had been eliminated, and though I should be modest about it, in truth – I was fucking proud of myself.

The elevator opened to the sounds of faint rock music and light conversation. Jack and I walked, hand-in-hand, down a decorated hallway, complete with painted pictures and statues and a persian rug on the floor and walked towards the open doors.

We walked in and I smiled at the scene. About twenty or so chimeras and a handful of sengils were all mingling around round tables draped with white tablecloths. The lighting was dim and welcoming and the aroma of food as intoxicating as the liquor I could see being served by a sengil. The atmosphere was pleasant but electric, with the rock music I had heard earlier coming from a sound system that was placed beside two large tables of covered food. It looked like this room was supposed to be much bigger though, there were two black curtains covering the front and off to the left. The one at the front was partially open though, I saw what looked like a makeshift stage hiding behind it.

“Not here! No!”

I blinked as Garrett came out of nowhere and grabbed my arm, quickly he pulled me into a dark corner of the party room and then through a door I hadn’t even seen. I blinked from confusion, Jack trailing behind me.

“Didn’t you get my message? You can’t just waltz in, how is that an entrance?” Garrett chastised as we walked through a room that was full of spare chairs, tables, and lots of boxes. “You need to stay in here, silly boy. Silas is going to call on you as soon as he speaks with our brothers, then you’re going to strut out there and show our family just who this new favourite is.”

“We didn’t get a memo…” Jack said defensively, he still had my hand even though Garrett’s tugging of my arm was making it hard for him to keep hold.

Garrett’s brow knitted. “I was sure I had called… well, I may have been drunk and imagined it. No worries, no one saw you.” Garrett pulled me through another set of doors and from this room I could see a portion of the stage. “You can watch Silas speak from here. Jack, come with me. Sanguine, it won’t be long Silas just gave me his five minute warning. Stay, and don’t let anyone see you! I want this to be perfect.”

I watched helplessly as Jack was dragged away, my boyfriend giving me a look that made it obvious that he wanted to stay. Though when he disappeared and I was left alone in this storage room I remembered that Garrett had been the one to plan my party. He had probably obsessed over every detail and he seemed like the type to go into crazy-mode if things didn’t go as planned.

King Silas ruled the world, Garrett ruled party planning.

I chuckled at my own joke, then pulled up one of the spare chairs and watched the stage.

Not long after I heard a change in the buzzing of voices, which I knew were the chimeras greeting King Silas. The nervous flutter in my gut grew and soon I was pacing the back room I had been ushered to, unable to sit still or settle down. I wasn’t afraid of anything but in the same hand – I really didn’t know what the fuck to expect.

“Lovely!” Silas’s voice rang out like a ringing bell. I turned around and saw my king beaming at me with Garrett beside him. Silas was dressed nicely in a dark blue dress shirt, black pants and a black robe that was clasped under his neck with a silver ornament that shone in the dim lighting. His wavy hair was parted to the side and his ears adorned with beautiful gems of red, green, and blue.

“Hello, Master,” I said giving him a bow. We embraced.

“Did you miss me? Don’t you look handsome today. I saw Jack skulking by the door to this room. He really doesn’t like to leave you alone, does he?” Silas chuckled. “No matter. Let’s get the boring stuff over with so we can have some fun, hm?” Silas gave me a wink, though there was a certain glint in his eye that I found alluring. “Alright, Garrett. Make my introduction, they’re going to start without us if we make them wait longer.”

“Nothing wrong with that!” Garrett said cheerfully. He seemed to skip towards the door to the stage, everyone seemed happy and excited. Tonight was going well so far.

Silas’s hand rested on my shoulder; he patted it affectionately. “I have a surprise for you, love. A wonderful surprise that just came off of the plane with me.”

A surprise? I looked at him unable to hide the intrigue and confusion. “What is it?”

Silas smiled, his hand still rubbing my shoulder. “You’ll love it. I think… it is a long time coming.”

I stared at him, the excitement going off like fireworks in my gut was quickly being replaced by apprehension. But I trusted my king, and I knew he would never do anything to hurt me. So I brought no voice to my unease and instead directed my attention towards Garrett. As the curtains drew the lights of the room shone down on him like the sun itself had found its way into this building.

“Gentlemen, let’s get this started, yes?” Garrett said, his words were met with cheering. I could specifically hear Nero and Ceph’s cheers in the crowd. “Good. As you know tonight’s family gathering is for a specific reason. We’re gathered here today to welcome our newest brother into the family. One who has already gotten into enough trouble to be made immortal. Our brother, oldest stealth chimera, and fifth-in-command, and, of course, King Silas’s newest little favourite which pisses me off but whatever…” The crowd laughed, and Silas and I did as well. Garrett grinned at this. That man sure seemed to love attention.

“But he is our brother and we will love him all the same. Shame we can’t kill him for taking our king’s attention, but
cest la vie
, eh?” More laughter. “Though before we bring out Sanguine our king has some words, and a few announcements to make. So without further adieu – your king, master, and our saviour of the world, King Silas Dekker.”

Silas gave my shoulder one last pat before he walked out onto the stage, his robe flowing behind him and his golden hair flashing in the light. The entire crowd was clapping and whooping as soon as he made his appearance on stage, and I was clapping as well.

“Hello, lovelies,” Silas said happily, a large smile on his face. “Before we get to the fun things, and yes, we will get to that, I do have some announcements to make. It looks like we have everyone of age in this room, which is wonderful.”

Silas cleared his throat, and immediately the entire room fell silent. I walked up to the doorway and leaned against it, not enough for my family to see me but enough that I could watch everything that was going on.

“As some of you may have heard we have lost several family members in the recent months,” Silas started, his tone dropped and as quickly as it came the light atmosphere in the room seemed to shift as well. “The first one I would like to bring attention to is the death of Felix Region Dekker. It has been told to the family that Felix died during an unfortunate accident in the Dead Islands and nothing more.”

Silas’s face darkened; he clasped his hands behind his back and I saw his emerald eyes sweep the room. “This is false,” he said. “I killed him.”

My mouth dropped open, but besides my own quickened heart I heard nothing from the audience, just a stone-cold, dead silence.

“I fed him to our lions as he screamed for mercy,” Silas continued in the same cold tone. “I watched his limbs get pulled off one-by-one and then I turned my back on him.” Silas started to slowly pace the stage, his eyes hardened granite. “Elish also sent Valentine on a fool’s mission to kill my Sanguine while Sanguine was ill and living in Cypress, knowing full well it would result in his death. He was acting on my own disappointment with a few of our second generations of chimeras. He did well and I praised him for it. And on top of that, my lovely Sanguine killed Ludo, which indeed saved me the inconvenience of killing him myself, which I would have done. The last one, Valen, hasn’t been seen in months and tonight I am declaring him dead. That is three of my failed chimeras who have been put to death, and a forth.” Silas’s eyes flickered to a spot where I knew Rio must be. “That has only been spared by my own mercy, though he will never be given the gift of immortality.”

Silas’s words seemed to hang in the heavy air, but a moment later it was broken up by a small voice.

“T-thank you for your mercy, King Silas,” I heard Rio say weakly.

“I have been more than patient with my second generation of chimeras, but this golden age has now ended,” Silas said as he paced back and forth. “From now on, and with future generations of chimeras, I will tolerate no disobedience, no relentless bullying. I will tolerate absolutely nothing but loyalty from my creations. Because let it be known –” Silas stopped and faced the audience again. The hairs on the back of my neck started to creep up. “– you are replaceable. Every single one of you. Even the immortal chimeras, so do not think the first generation and Jack and Sanguine are spared. There will be punishment for my disobedient immortals, a punishment as some of you already know – days, months, and even years encased in concrete, with nothing but a hole for air and if it fancies me in that moment – a hole so I can hear your screaming. If you disobey me, if you
piss me off
– you will be condemned to live inside this concrete tomb until your body dies from dehydration, only to resurrect in the same black coffin. If you betray me and I wish to not lay eyes on you ever again – I will create a clone of you, and replace you without so much of a thought, am I understood, lovelies?”

Silence – a dead, heavy silence like Silas’s words had sucked the life giving air out of the room.

Then a low murmur, almost entirely said at once.

“Yes, King Silas,” they said, and I found myself murmuring it too.

Silas smiled at this and clasped his hands together. “Though my remaining creations are so obedient. Apollo and Artemis, you make me proud every day, Cepherus, you’re turning out to be quite the success, and my Jack has made exceptional strides towards reaching his potential – and my Sanguine–” My chest tightened with nerves as Silas looked at me, his eyes fixing on mine. “My beautiful Sanguine, you have made me the most proud. Sanguine Sasha Dekker, come out and meet the family.”

After you just threatened to kill or entrap the entire family in concrete?
I swallowed down the boulder in my throat and walked towards the stage. My legs felt like jelly but also like I was floating at the same time. If Silas was listening to my heart he would hear it attempting to rip out of my chest. I swear I could hear my ribs creak under the pressure.