The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (22 page)

“It’s none of your-”

He dropped me. I felt the cold tile hit the side of my face, smelling like bleach and dirt. I coughed and watched it become dusted with red, the world around me started to spin.

My face grimaced in pain as he kicked me for the sheer hell of it. I felt the first blow but the following volley was only pressure and the sickening thunk of heavy impact. My brain had shut it down. It was just a thudding rain of blows now on an already damaged and recovering body.

Then a window closed and I was alone in the bathroom, bleeding. I tried to sit up but I was stuck crumpled up on my side. Streaks of blood and boot prints were on the white tiled floor and my smeared hand prints from trying to right myself.

It took me many attempts and several minutes before I managed to stand. Blood was dripping down my nose like snot, leaking onto my prickly face and onto the floor. My mouth was full of it too from my bitten tongue.

I staggered out the door and took a shaky step before I collapsed against the wall. I panted for a second trying to regain my breath before I took another step, this one into the main area of the bar.

The entire bar fell silent.

Only the faded sound of music in the background, everything else was a hushed whisper, the eyes burrowed into me with shock and confusion.

I tried to take another step.

“Oh god, Saul! Saul!” I heard Garrett exclaim, his voice a high octave of fear. The moment I heard him I felt my knees give out, no longer feeling like they had to hold me steady since I was safe. I dropped and went to fall forward when I felt Saul grab me.

“Get the fuck out of the way. You there, help me with him. Garrett run and get the car, you right there, go with him do not let him out of your sight. Now!” The tone that Saul barked those orders left no room for discussion.

I felt his rough strong hands keep me up right and a new set on my other side. “It was that red-haired shit, I saw him go into the bathroom with the blond one. Gio, get the thiens down here, get Ellis to call Garrett in the morning. He’s going to want to talk to her.”

The next few minutes passed in a daze, I just knew I was being dragged and that I couldn’t move my feet.

Finally I think Saul got tired of dragging my ass and he hoisted me up into his burly gorilla arms. Then the cold feeling of winter outdoors and with the slam of a car door I was inside the vehicle.

Something soft was up against my nose, I tried to focus my eyes and I saw it was Garrett’s jacket trying to stem the flow. I moved my mouth to tell him to not ruin his fancy jacket with my blood but it came out mostly garbled.

“I want them found, Saul. I don’t care if Ellis needs to send out every thien, I want them found.” He sounded unlike himself, his voice was unnaturally harsh and the more he talked the darker it got. I heard the car quickly drive to the skyscraper. The driver, I could hear, was on his phone, I heard Lyle’s name mentioned. Everyone was so busy, talking rapidly around me in angry voices. All because of me; I was so special.

Oh, the things you think of after you’ve gotten your head knocked around.

“Jade...” I murmured. I shut my eyes as a wave of pain shot up from my still healing abdomen, ripping up my back and ending in a burst of agony in my head.

I gasped, clenching my eyes even tighter. “And Elish.”

“What?” Garrett’s voice went down several tones. “Re... Otter, what did you say?”

I coughed into the jacket and sharply inhaled, it doubled me over into a coughing fit which seemed to rip my stomach apart with every desperate wheeze. I couldn’t talk after that, the colour around my eyes swirling in spectrums that seemed to take my memory elsewhere. I fell into them and passed out, the last feeling I had was Garrett’s arms holding me up.

I woke with the muddled warm feeling that only good opiates could give you. I opened my eyes but everything was a twisted blur around me, fuzzy motes of browns and reds that seemed to swirl every time I blinked my eyes.

My body shifted out of instinct and I felt the soft new sheets against my skin, which told me I was in Garrett’s bed. I squinted and looked around.

I saw the back end of Lyle as he left the bedroom, just moments later Garrett walked in.

I could tell he was faking looking composed, his hands had a slight tremble and from the thin jaw line I knew his teeth were clenched. But in the steel only reserved for chimeras he carried himself with an air of confidence and control, even if he was a tornado of emotions on the inside.

The more I hung around chimeras the more I understood Reaver. Whether my best buddy knew it or not he was definitely cut from the same cloth.

To go from having no family to having like a billion brothers varying from nice to insane.

Lucky guy.

My suave chimera gave me a kind and reassured smile and sat down in a fabric chair beside the bed. “How are you feeling?” He rested a hand on my damp forehead and brushed my silver hair back in a soft soothing motion.

With every ounce of strength I tried to pull my mouth into a smile but a pain rippled through my lips. Of course since my body is stupid, the
Ow
I uttered made my lips stretch more; I felt them split back open.

Garrett sucked in a pity breath for me and dabbed my lips with a paper towel. “You’re okay, just a bit tender. Lyle checked your bullet wound and nothing was re-opened or punctured.”

“Did you find them?” I croaked. The hoarseness in my voice made him turn and offer me something brown, I drank it and realized it was cold apple juice. It made my face pucker.

His expressive eyes told me no, but his lips wouldn’t give me any absolutions. “My sister is searching high and low for them. We will find them, I promise,
lutra dulcis.
Those two have no idea who they just danced with.” I felt a small shudder as I heard the malice in his voice, a very interesting side of my suave chimera. Especially with that funny chimera lingo they spoke when they were feeling emotional. I hated that in my pain and muggy misery I felt almost flattered and giddy that I had made him feel that strongly.

“The red-haired one, I think he thought I replaced Jade. He was pissed off and demanding where Jade and Elish were. He knew you guys.”

A look of concern crossed his face, he thought for a second. “I know. I realized who he was soon after. He’s Jade’s ex-boyfriend. We had a lot –” Garrett stopped himself, after furrowing his brow for a moment he shook his head as if dismissing whatever thoughts were running through his mind. “I’ve requested a meeting with my sister Ellis tomorrow. I’m going to bring you along if you’re well enough...” He sighed, before stroking my hair back and kissing my forehead. “I shouldn’t have let you lure me to that pit. From now on we’ll be frequenting better establishments.

I frowned but with a sigh I nodded. “It just reminds me of home.”

“Oh...” His green eyes were heavy; he drummed his fingers against his hand. “Of course.”

I tried to think of something funny to say to him, that’s what was needed, a nice quip or joke to quell the heavy air around us. I didn’t like moments like this, silent tension between two people, it made my skin crawl.

“So are you going to give me a kiss or am I too gross for you now?” That was the best I could come up with.

Garrett smiled; he ran his hand to the side of my face and framed it, before he gently kissed my lips with his, opening the soft inlets and taking in my own. I shivered as I felt his tongue slip into my mouth and run along my own.

I lost myself in him, god damn these chimeras had pheromones or something. How else did greywasters and slumrats keep falling for them? I took him in and we broke apart with my chest tightening.

“This won’t happen again,” Garrett said, the hard edge back in his voice. He stood up with a smudge of my blood on his lips and had his remote phone in his hand, clenched in a white knuckle grip. “We will meet with Ellis tomorrow.”

Chapter 8

Reno

During my days of being bedridden, I made it my personal goal to stop Garrett from smoking those awful cigars. I taken an inhale of one but had doubled over in a coughing fit to his amusement. They smelled like someone had compacted ten thousand old, dried-out cigarettes into one and then coated it with cat hair and wood ash.

My cigarettes mixed in the thick greenish smoke, the pale silver of my Skyfall quils lost within moments of it leaving my mouth. I had even tried to blow hard and push the smoke away but it was like soup. It lingered and stunk up the entire apartment. Luca choked this place with so much air freshener I was surprised it didn’t set my Geigerchip off. I think deep down he was looking forward to going full time back to Elish’s. Mr. Obsessively-Organized-Sober-Ice Man.

But that being said, it was nice having him try to come home more often for me. It was a hard thing to juggle being the President of Skytech, a prominent social figure and a good master, but he tried and he did a good job managing all his duties.

Unfortunately I had not been able to go back to his office; he flatly refused to even let me out of the skyscraper. The only time I had ever gotten a direct order from him. Jake, Saul’s son, was stationed right outside the tower at all times on top of the usual thien security guards. I know he saw it as protecting people from coming in but when those combat armor-clad guys stood around there with their bushmasters strapped to their backs I couldn’t help but feel like I was being kept prisoner.

But it was for my own good, though I was going a bit nuts being cooped up inside. Luca was my only companion besides my occasional lunches with Jake, at least until Garrett got home around six or seven.

I still had the key card tucked into my clothes, I had debated calling Elish and telling him I had it but I knew Ice Man was busy and he had told me to give it to Luca anyways. I decided to give it another couple of days before I called him.

Garrett held me closer and kissed underneath my ear lobe. I snorted and scrunched my neck; I was ticklish as hell, something he had discovered to much glee since I had met him. He knew all my soft spots, including ones I hadn’t even realized I had.

We were relaxing on the couch in front of an electric fireplace, we had just finished dinner and Luca was clearing our plates. I was sitting on his lap as he half-laid on the couch, our TV with its Skyfall channels on in the background. We had real TV here though no new shows, just reruns of old pre-Fallocaust shows and news which was just fine with me.

After my show was over though he clicked the TV off. “I have a surprise for you, get dressed.” Garrett shifted and I got up, my wounds now healed enough for me to be mobile. I rose and crossed my arms, raising an eyebrow at him as he casually started walking into the bedroom.

“What surprise?” This tickled my curiosities. Garrett though only gave me a playful shrug before he disappeared into his bathroom.

I narrowed my eyes at my suave chimera and got dressed like he asked. A half an hour later Garrett came out dressed to the nines in a black suit and red tie and even sporting a cane. By this time my excitement had reached another threshold. I knew we were finally going out, it had been a damn week since the pub incident and I was dying to touch the actual ground.

I stayed by the door feeling like a dog about to go for a walk. Garrett’s eyes shone at me with a glint of anticipation and happiness at my excitement. He opened the door and we left.

I bounced up and down not even hiding my glee. Garrett laughed lightheartedly at me and pressed the lit button on the elevator.

Though when he pressed the button for the bottom floor... well, that was just it, he didn’t.

“Floor two?” My brow furrowed. I narrowed my eyes at Garrett who has looking up at the elevator ceiling pretending not to notice me.

The skyscraper was a good twenty-storeys at least, though only about three quarters of them were in use by Garrett and his people. It was loaded with a ton of amenities I was free to use though. Weight room, kitchen, even a swimming pool though I didn’t know how to swim. There were about twenty of Garrett’s people who lived in the skyscraper including Saul, Jake, and other servants and workers.

There was a thunk as the elevator stopped on the second floor, and with that a flutter went through my heart. The doors separated with a hiss revealing Garrett’s surprise in all its glory.

It was a god damn bloody bar right on the second floor.

My mouth dropped open as Garrett grabbed my leash and pulled me in. The room was large and open like most of the floors I had been too. With light blue paint on the walls still fresh and smelling wet, adorned with large paintings and trimmed with crown molding.

I couldn’t help but pause, my breath in my throat as I tried to take it all in. Even the atmosphere was that of a bar, smelling of smoke and booze and giving off that comfortable feeling that a pub did. There was even a bar man wiping glasses behind a brand new wooden bar, with bottles of all sizes behind him stacked with varying levels of liquid.

And the main area, it even had god damn people it in. Everyone was ignoring us like bar patrons do, smoking and drinking with their friends, filling the hazy area with low voices.