The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (19 page)

“I was about to push it back to clean under it,” Luca said politely.

I sighed and slid off of the couch like I was suddenly made out of liquid and landed on the floor with a thunk. I splayed my arms out. “Drag me.”

Luca closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I had been taking advantage of his sengil status. I had to shake up his little world somehow. He never left the skyscraper, and on top of that he had to deal with Ice Man all the time or his snippy little pet that I now called Biter in my head. I was adding colour to Luca’s otherwise dreary dreary life.

In all respects I was doing him a huge favour.

Luca grabbed on to my hand and started dragging me off to the kitchen floor, his cat ears going wonky on his head. I
whee’d
just because.

“Since you seem bored, Master Nevada, would you like me to find a movie for you?” Luca asked kindly. I had been here for weeks now and never once did I get a single lost temper with him. It was infuriating, Reaver would have smacked the shit out of me if I playfully tormented him half as much as I did my servant (or petpet as I called him since that’s what he was, a pet’s pet).

“No, it’s alright, Master Luca. Perhaps a cigar on the patio with some Cognac with a bowl of sour candies, yes?” I tried my best to mimic Garrett’s voice. “But first hang up my pot pie hat. Be careful though it’s an
artifact
.”

Luca chewed his mouth, which in my books meant he was laughing in his head. He rolled his eyes and picked up the remote control. One day, one day I would make that little mother fucker laugh.

I heard a rattle, and looked up just in time to see none other than Garrett Dekker walk into the suite. Just like he had walked out of my last joke he was dressed in a grey suit and a fancy hat with shiny black shoes I could see my face in. The suavey chimera had a cigar in his mouth, underneath a trimmed pencil moustache and sunglasses.

“Reno, my little otter, what are you doing on the floor? Lose something?” Garrett tilted his head to the side towards Luca’s hands waiting to receive his hat and slipped off his shoes. He took a drag from his cigar as I got up and straightened out my pants.

“Just being a dick, that’s all.” I stretched and gave him a haughty bow. “How was work? Poison any school kid’s milk today?”

Garrett laughed and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

The moment he laughed at my joke, only a few minutes after meeting him I knew why Elish thought of me to get this job done. “If you want that, I’ll do it a thousand times over. Come. Sit with me on the patio. Luca? Some rye and some sweets, and perhaps today’s bulletin? I left mine at work.”

I shot Luca a
see?
look and followed Garrett out to the patio. Luca gave me another eye roll but his cheek was suctioned in like he was biting it.

Garrett sat down on his stuffed patio bench and I took a seat beside him in my favourite chair. The balcony was bloody incredible; it had heater things and a clear plastic cover to keep the heat in if we wanted. It got cold being so high up in the air.

The city stretched out as far as the eye could see, until the grey buildings were nothing but haze; some with lights that twinkled at night but a lot swallowed by the darkness. This city was like nothing I had ever seen, even in movies.

The farthest away I had ever been was Anvil visiting my brothers and sisters. The biggest city I had ever scavenged was Sognir with Reaver. I didn’t know how big it was compared to Skyfall because we never had a death wish big enough to climb a skyscraper to the top; those were death traps, the floors were too sketchy.

I pulled the blanket resting on the chair over myself. It was chilly outside. Though in Aras we always dressed for the weather in Skyland sometimes I went all day with out touching the ground. I dressed in usual pet garb, leather, tight mesh, and not much else. Today I had on looser leather pants and a slashed mesh shirt, my collar snuggly under my chin and my leather cuffs on each wrist. I looked hot as shit but I couldn’t help feeling my soul get sucked away every time I looked in the mirror.

Oh, would Reaver ever have a laugh at me when he saw me. My silver hair all washed and fancy, only my eyebrows were still black. I didn’t really look like good ol’ Reno anymore. I looked like the person Garrett referred to me as when he led me around on the leash: Otter.

It was his idea, he said when he first saw me the smile I gave him reminded him of a little sea otter. I looked it up to see what they looked like and I approved. At least my name wasn’t cockroach or donkey or some other ugly animal.

Luca brought us our drinks and with a bow Garrett relieved him for today and he went back home to Biff and an empty house. I felt fortunate to stay here with Garrett. I was really starting to like the guy.

“You seem deep in thought?” Garrett said through thick grey smoke. He was reading over today’s bulletin. Skytech crap as usual, he lived for his work and didn’t have a big social life besides parties to increase his image or bar hopping when he was particularly lonely. “Would you like to plan another day in the outlands?”

What a nice guy...
we had gone last week after I seemed down to him. The outlands were just that, the outskirts of Skyfall where it was grey and rock, basically the greywastes. His way of helping me combat my homesickness was to have a date in my old home environment. I didn’t miss the rocks and radiation though, I missed my friends and I missed my town.

And there was the lump in my throat. It was the town I knew I would never see again. Reaver would raze it to the ground if he ever went back there, and I would go where he went. So that chapter in my life was gone.

Aras wasn’t supposed to be a chapter though; my family had been guarding Aras for generations. I was proud to have the job as field sentry passed down to me. Now it was on Vegas Jr’s shoulders.

He better not touch my stuff.

“Nah, it’s not that...” Well, it was that; it was always that. I took a drink of the rye and pursed my mouth; I wasn’t used to liquor like this. That had been proven the very first night I was here. I still didn’t remember what had happened, we had woken up with our clothes on though.

I picked up a few candies and turned them around in my hands. These were soft candies; not two hundred-year-old ones, it was so different. Everything tasted like what it should taste like, not old tin cans and stale sugar. “Probably just tired from the day, it’s tough work teasing Luca.”

The suave chimera smiled before he motioned me over and I sat beside him, then he pulled me over until I was resting my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me and petted my new silvery hair back and I gave him some mock purrs, it made him smile.

“I’ll help find Reaver and his partner if it will make you smile,” Garrett said, his voice soft like velvet. I had heard this promise before; it only went to show just how little Garrett was involved in his master and some of his brother’s activities. He didn’t know how serious things were; to him there were no problems that couldn’t be fixed with either money or power. Garrett didn’t know how badly Silas wanted Reaver and Killian...

Garrett ran Skytech; he was elbow deep in the smooth runnings of several factories and all the labs in Skyfall and the greywastes. He was out of touch with the other chimeras and they left him alone because no one else wanted that job. It was more fun to cause terror and play games, running a city was boring. So they let him be. Garrett, Joaquin the curly-haired one, some dude named Teaguae and the twin ones who also had silver hair like me, Artemis and Apollo, those guys plus Elish were all on the council which ran Skyfall. Those bunch were the only ones that seemed almost normal, and in some respects nice people though still chimeras. Elish made sure to remind me of that, deep down they were still chimeras and still had their odd quirks.

“No... you’ve already done a lot for me,” I said quietly. My chest rose as I sighed. “How can you read my thoughts so well?”

He ran his fingers through my hair; it was getting longer but still only four or five inches past my scalp. I always kept it short before, but hell I might grow it out. I was kind of liking being silver and cool. “Your eyes always give you away. It doesn’t take an empath to see you worry about them every day.”

I guess I could be rather transparent. Though the guy had just gotten back from work, my problems were my own and a lot of them I couldn’t bring voice to. I was a pet and it was my job to look cute and fulfil all my master’s needs. I decided to change the tone and with a playful nip I kissed his cheek. “I’ll be fine, just normal home sickness, but fuck it, I’m happy here with you.”

I wish that was a lie...

Garrett pulled me closer to him and gently kissed the corners of my mouth, making my heart skip. I wondered if he could hear it. “Are you really?”

Inside my blood started to warm, and as it did whenever he got close to me my head started to feel light like I was suddenly floating. “I am, I told you...” I poked his shoulder again with a shy smile. “I like you.”

Then a smile appeared on that handsome face, making the corners of his eyes crease. “They painted greywasters as vicious insane little animals, but I must say…”

My body froze with shock as he turned his head and kissed me gently on the lips; his trimmed mustache tickling my nose. I pressed back and felt him put a hand on my side, when he pulled back he said in a whisper that made my head fill with even more heat. “I have a diamond in the rough.”

God dammit... god dammit...
I closed my eyes, my chest shuddering.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.

That kiss had been incredible.

Then the guilt came, the deception rearing its ugly head in my gut. My feelings were growing for him; I was starting to feel guilty.

But I wasn’t hurting Garrett, he just didn’t know what Elish was doing. Eventually he would but it was too soon for him to know.

I wasn’t going to hurt Garrett; it was nothing he wouldn’t show Elish if he asked. It would just be weird for him to ask for something and since Reaver, Killian, and Perish were missing it would ignite suspicion. Elish had to be careful right now. Nothing could be out of the ordinary with him.

It was a victimless crime, no need to feel badly...

“I hoped Elish charged you a lot for me.” I looked up at him and felt my face flush. “I know he didn’t give me nearly enough to have to deal with you.”

He laughed his rich gut laugh, not the fake ‘you’re retarded, Reno’ pity laughs I usually got, this guy honestly thought I was the funniest person in the world.

I knew why he did though, everyone else sucked up to him, were cautious around him, he was big boss man Garrett Dekker. No one was real in front of this guy, it was hilarious to see but also sad. Dude was pretty lonely, and even though he was well-known he was completely isolated. It would drive me insane to have no one act relaxed or normal in front of me. Unless it was his high-ranking chimera brothers and they all seemed batshit crazy.

“Elish rarely bribes us with money, he wants favours and information; my brother is fickle like that.” Garrett smiled, running a finger gracefully down my cheek bone until it travelled to my lips. Then he leaned over and kissed me again, this time I felt his mouth part and his tongue meet mine. Another burning started to overtake me, and as my own hands started to stroke his sides I knew I was going to need a cold shower before bed.

When he broke away I felt him chuckle, I opened my eyes and saw him looking back at me. “That empath sure knew what he was doing, am I the only one who is feeling these fireworks in my brain? I told you I wouldn’t sell you short.”

I felt my face flush, and I knew my cheeks were probably going red. “Elish might have made you wait, but I guess when he delivers the goods he makes sure it’s quality stuff.”

We kissed again, and this time, with a gasp I felt him slip a hand down my pants.

I looked around for Luca, before remembering with a relieved sigh that he had been freed for the evening. I gave myself into the sensation of finally being touched by someone who wasn’t drunk or desperate and slipped my own hand underneath his shirt.

“I know it’s no chimera dick but no laughing when you see it, right?” I said before stifling a moan.

To my surprise Garrett let out a laugh before hitting me on the shoulder.

“You blunt little shit, stop ruining the moment, I’ve been waiting for three years, shush!” he laughed. I grinned before we were drawn in for another kiss, now barely masking my moans as he rubbed my hard member in his hands. It wasn’t taking me long to grow to full length; he had some skilled fingers on him.

“So what else happened in this fantasy of yours?” My mouth travelled from his lips to his prickly chin, then down to his neck. I locked my lips around it and started to suck, branding him as my own. I could be my own master if the mood took me.

“Things that would make you blush even more.” I let out my first audible moan as ran his hand up and down the shaft. I opened my mouth to say more when suddenly we both heard a knock on the door inside the apartment.

Garrett retracted his hand and I let out a loud frustrated noise. “Don’t tell me you have to get that!”

My suave chimera laughed and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “If they made it up this far it’s one of my brothers and he will not go away. We have all the time in the world, lutra, patience.”