The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (17 page)

I nodded, and as I withdrew the knife he let out a gasp and clutched his bleeding groin with his hands. I lowered the blade and took a step back.

“We have been more than kind to you, considering everything you did to us. I suggest you don’t take my kindness for weakness, Perish.”

“I won’t.”

I nodded and placed the knife on the side table beside me, the scientist rubbing his groin which now had a spot of blood forming on it. A part of me was tempted to cut it off anyways. If he had no reason to use it, why did he need it?

Instead I went back to my bread, enjoying the racing heartbeat and the nervous movements coming from him. “Why are you here anyways? I thought you wanted to go be with your master.”

Cautiously Perish got up and walked past me, though he made sure to keep his distance. He made himself a cup of coffee and sat down on one of the chairs in the living room.

“I had to protect Killian, and when they were leaving Elish told me to come. I’ve been here ever since. Elish says they think I am with you two in the blacksands,” the scientist replied. “I am going to go with you when we leave.”

Leave? Couldn’t be soon enough, but where it was I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to ask him. I wanted it right from the source.

“I saw you with your arms shielding him, if you hadn’t gone groping him afterwards you might’ve gained some brownie points with me,” I replied, lighting a cigarette. “But I meant what I said, Perish... if you dare go near him again –”

Perish paled. He gripped his coffee cup harder and gave me a slight nod. “I won’t, I won’t.”

I nodded back and blew the smoke out of the corner of my mouth.

A half an hour later Jade emerged, and behind him came Killian out of the shower. The pet started banging around in the kitchen, so I sat on the couch with Killian on my lap.

“You slept so quietly, not a single twitch.” I handed him my coffee cup, smelling the shampoo in his hair. He seemed to look healthier; he had been eating well at least.

“Elish gave me medication to stop my night terrors, Jade is on it too; he has them as well,” Killian whispered, though I saw Jade out of the corner of my eye watching him. I assumed he also had super chimera hearing.

“Well, you’re not clawing my face off, that’s a nice change,” I murmured, taking a drink for myself. “When does Elish usually get up? I want to know just what is supposed to happen.”

“I am already awake.” I looked behind me and saw the chimera with the long blond hair, emerging from the doorway where his bedroom was. He was putting on his white gloves, his fancy chimera cape slung over his back.

He looked at me, and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re looking better, or at least the crazed glint has faded from your eyes.” His voice was always so cold and imposing like woven ribbons of ice that set off a foreboding presage in my brain. I didn’t trust this creature; his purple eyes had not even the flicker of emotion, and even worse his heartbeat was a steady drum. Not a single beat out of sync. This man’s body language was a language I couldn’t read and it was frustrating. On the same note though, every part of him that made me on edge and uncomfortable only meant he would be a formidable ally. I would rather join him than have to beat him.

“I’m feeling better, now that I have some caffeine and drugs in me,” I said keeping my voice a level tone. “Impressive place you have here.”

Elish looked at me for a moment, the cold temperance steeling every feature on his face. A moment later he gave me a nod and said to Jade in the kitchen. “Keep breakfast warm for us, Cicaro. Reaver it is time we speak in private.”

I nodded back and let him walk past me towards the second hallway further on. He was wearing a high collared black button-down trimmed with a single strip of gold, and a flowing cape of the same colours. I could smell a fragrant almost spice smell to him and his clothing. It looked like this guy jumped out of one of the books Killian was always forcing me to read. If this guy had marched into Aras I would have thought someone had spiked my water with acid.

Elish flicked open a keypad that was attached to his bedroom door, and pressed in several numbers. I heard a hiss and a mechanical whine before he reached a white gloved hand and opened the door.

I followed the blonde chimera down the carpeted flight before it led me to a large open room.

In front of us was a den combined with an office, and standing side by side a door leading to a second bathroom and further on their bedroom and the one I had woken up in.

The office had a large wooden desk at the far end which had papers, books, and pens all pandemically organized with labels, colours, and small wooden bins. Behind the desk a very tall and comfortable looking computer chair and further still three filing cabinets. All of which were framed by four gyprock walls painted a silver white, all adorning different pieces of art.

I walked onto an embroidered rug which centered the room and tried to take it all in. The shelves on the far end caught my eye the most. They were full of books and objects I had never seen before but looked pre-Fallocaust. I could even spot several metal appliances with the sheen and smell that only new or well-preserved machines had. The kid in me wanted to run towards them and start taking them apart to see how they worked but I refrained, even though I thought I saw an espresso maker.

My gaze turned when I saw Elish take a seat on the office chair; he motioned for me to pull up a seat as well. I glanced to a row of several fabric chairs resting beside an empty fish tank and pulled one up.

I thought Elish was organizing a black folder, but when he opened it up and pressed a button I realized it was a laptop.

I had never seen one of those before, I stared at it almost feeling enchanted by the flickering screen as it booted. Computers were almost impossible to fix, laptops especially. This was probably the first and most likely last one I would ever see.

I sat there with my legs crossed, not moving and not talking as Elish clicked away on the laptop. A thousand burning questions in my mind, but not a single one I was willing to offer up to break the cold silence between us. I would not speak first; he had called me down here to talk to me. I couldn’t put into words why, all I knew is I couldn’t blow this first real meeting between the two of us.

It was ten minutes of him tapping on the keyboard before he closed it with a small click. In that time I made myself used to his presence and the presence of the room. Though Elish had an air about him that made me feel like I was walking a razor’s edge, I recover quickly. I would not make the same mistake twice. Meeting this chimera face-to-face had appealed to my reason and I knew what cards I had. Acting like a petulant teenager wasn’t going to bring me anything but embarrassment. My fathers didn’t die for me to spit in the face of the only man who could save me and my boyfriend.

“You are different now than the snarling monster who awoken last night.” Elish’s eyes flickered from a beige file folder he was holding up to my own eyes. “Did your boyfriend calm you?”

“I am not the crazy beast you met those years in Aras, the one who attacked your boyfriend,” I said soberly. I fixed my eyes on his and controlled every last twitch in my body. “I need no one to keep me calm, any normal person waking up to a chimera looming over him would react the same way. I am just more skilled to inflict harm than most.”

A small smile raised the corner of his lips, though his eyes were still cold. “Indeed you are. You are an immortal chimera, with more enhancements and abilities than all of our brothers. You are indeed a ruthless killer, aren’t you, Reaver?”

I realized in this moment I was talking to Elish for the first time, not James the traveller, or the blonde chimera with Ares and Siris behind him. Real Elish, who had hidden me in the greywastes with Lycos; who had raised me with a goal in mind.

Silas’s assassin.

“I am a killer, but I am no ones pawn, Elish. Silas’s clone or not.”

A sardonic smile spread across his lips. I had once thought he could never smile and now I wished he still didn’t.

“Let us clear one thing up while we are alone, Reaver,” Elish said in a casual way that made my eyes narrow.

“You are not just Silas’s clone. We made you better than just a mere copy of an insane man.”

I stared at him and raised an eyebrow. “You mean the chimera enhancements and all of that?”

Elish nodded. “Not just that though. You have a lot of the same characteristics and even physical features of a man who was King Silas’s beloved. A man named Sky Fallon. Your hands, ears, nose, and
other places
were derived from what strands of his DNA we could recover from his O.L.S. You are subsequently a hybrid of the two of them. Silas’s makeup but with a nice dusting of Sky’s traits... enough to drive King Silas into insanity over not having you as his very own.”

I stared at him for a moment. I didn’t know how I felt about this. I didn’t know who the hell Sky was. I had only heard mention of a boyfriend during my drinking nights with Asher. I didn’t know who the fuck this guy was or even why he offed himself.

“So I am Silas’s clone but you decided to be mean and create me as –”

“– As Silas’s perfect partner. That is the reason Silas wanted to make you, to be his and only his for all eternity.”

“Why not just create a clone of Sky then if you had some of his juice?” I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

Elish tented his hands; I saw a smile edge up to his lips. “Silas has been trying to create a clone of Sky for years.” Elish reached into a drawer he had open and oddly placed a small electronic device, about the size of a small pebble, onto the table. “And every attempt failed. On top of that, with every attempt Silas ate through the only brain matter we had left of Sky Fallon. Eventually it ran out and the only bits we had left were secure inside of a small device we called an O.L.S. Which stands for Occipital Lobe Storage. This device keeps the brain matter alive and whatever neurons and synapses inside. Silas banned anyone from touching it, wanting to wait until the technology was there to know for sure we would succeed. I created you with help from strands of that O.L.S. Not just a clone of Silas, but a perfectly engineered boyfriend for our wonderful king. I succeeded, as you can now see.”

My face darkened. “That will never happen.”

Elish was still giving me that eerie smile. “Obviously not, and he will be dead before he can find out just what I have been creating under his nose.”

“And that’s my job isn’t it? You want me to kill him?”

Elish nodded. “Yes, Reaver. You will kill him.”

“I slashed his throat; I did kill him. Why didn’t that work?” Finally this question could be answered; it had been eating the back of my brain since last night.

The smile disappeared from Elish’s face, the tips of his gloved fingers tapped together. “Because we do not know
how
you are supposed to kill him.”

“What?” My voice became unnaturally hoarse. I gritted my teeth together, more upset by that news than the news of my makeup. “How can you not know?”

Not even a tightness in his jaw, not a single glint of emotion on that face. “Sky died long before the first generation came to be. Silas, of course, never told us. It is a mystery. One I intend for
you
to unravel.”

“Me? Why me?” I dropped my voice and wiped my face with my hands. It wasn’t like I was expecting killing Silas to be this easy, but I had hoped.

“Why you?” The thin smile returned. He leaned over and drew towards him a small black plastic device; it had buttons on it and a speaker. “Why not you?”

He pressed on the button and spoke into it. “Jade, send down Mr. Massey.”

When his finger lifted off of the buzzer, I put my hand out as if stopping him. “All this bullshit aside and before we both have to lie to keep Killian calm. I need to know... are we safe here?”

The chimera gave me a single nod, a lock of golden blonde hair falling over his flawless face. “You could be no place safer.”

“Besides this shitty legionary party you have in the blacksands. Is there anyone else looking for us?” I leaned forward, almost rising from my chair. I had so many more questions to ask him, most I did not want to fall on Killian’s ears.

Elish looked upon my advancement with cold indifference. He put up a hand and turned his violet eyes towards the sound of the door opening. “No one, not until he awakens.”

I looked towards the staircase, and heard footsteps, so light they could have belonged to a child. I saw Killian’s cowering little frame peek through the staircases recess, his eyes glanced over at us nervously, his hands clenching his sides. He looked terrified, like a child being called in by a ticked off parent.

“Sit,” Elish’s placid tone said.

Killian lowered his head in a submissive posture and grabbed one of the cloth chairs; he set it beside mine and sat down. I hadn’t noticed how close he had sat on the chair until our shoulders rubbed together.

I opened my mouth to say more, when Elish’s phone rang. He drew it out of his robes and held up a finger for us to give him a moment. His courtesies amused me, if I have a magic phone I wouldn’t give a fuck who I answered it in front of.

“Hello Garrett?”