The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (43 page)

I felt a small jolt of protectiveness towards Perish, though I knew it would bring forth the scorn of Reaver so I tried to downplay it. “What job? You’re not going to interrogate him or anything right?”

The cicaro shook his head no. “Nah, nothing like that, just an aura reading trick, like my matchmaking. Don’t sweat it.” Then he got up and took Reaver’s plate, which surprised both of us, but I guess he was Reaver’s pet.

“Get me some of those mariachi cherries,” Reaver called after him, I assumed he meant maraschino. “And tea, Elish’s fancy tea except put some vodka in it.”

Jade shot him a look but kept his mouth shut, which made a smile appear on my boyfriend’s face. He leaned over and said out of the corner of his mouth. “We’re getting one of these once I’m king.”

A couple hours later, we shared some opiate cigarettes and opiate pills. That was only the second hit today so we were doing good with our cutting down. Jade ended up having some as well since his master had allowed it. I pointed out that there were some perks to Reaver being his temporary guardian.

Then we retired to our bedrooms. There were two from what we could find. I fell asleep beside Reaver with the help of the opiates lulling me into a deep sleep. I didn’t even ask when Reaver was going to take that pill but I explained them to him before I fell asleep.

I just hoped I wouldn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night next to a corpse, immortal or not, it still set me on edge to have him do it.

Chapter 15

Garrett and Elish

Luca opened the sliding glass door, tucking his fingers into the thick wool blanket. He spotted Garrett leaning up against the railing, blue-embered cigarette in one hand and a glass of whisky and ice in the other.

The sengil pattered over on slippered feet and draped the blanket over Garrett’s shoulders.

The president of Skytech took a drink of his whisky and let out a breath, a cold plume shrouding the twinkling lights of Skyland below him before dissipating into the cold night air.

“I wonder if he’s cold,” Garrett whispered. He turned around to face his brother who had trailed silently behind Luca, only his heartbeat giving him away.

“Do you think he’s cold, Elish?”

Elish rested a supportive hand on his brother’s shoulder. “The colder he is now the more he will appreciate when he is warm.”

“What if he dies cold? In the dark? Thinking I... that I left him to be tortured by them?” The filter squished underneath his tightened grip. “It’s been so long...”

Garrett flicked the cigarette and watched as it was swallowed up by the darkness. He turned and closed his eyes. “Why is this happening again, Elish?”

The blond-haired chimera stood with the warm apartment lit behind him, holding a glass of bloodwine in his right hand. He looked at his brother with an expression on his face that held no emotion.

“This will be the last time this happens,” he replied, his own words holding a weight that suggested he had just spoken a volume instead of only eight words.

The same words hit Garrett and as they sunk in the man frowned. Then with a shake of his head he walked past his brother into the apartment.

Garrett stopped as if trying to decide whether he wanted to peruse where the conversation was heading. But, whether it was from the whisky or just a need to talk about it, his own desires outweighed his past experiences and he pressed on. “Elish, you can’t kill him... even if you do figure out how. He’s our creator and he may have his issues but his family loves him. He has his moments but we’ve learned how to cope.”

Luca trailed behind the two of them, closing the sliding glass door before pattering off towards his new cat.

“I refuse to cope, I refuse to bow...”

“He gave us the gift of immortality.”

“And I shall take his as thanks.”

Garrett let out a long breath before a clinking of bottles could be heard as he refilled his cup. “Once Jade is immortal I bet you will abandon this silly rebellion you’re planning. This has always been about that boy.”

“No, this is about someone in this genetically enhanced family of ours finally growing a pair of testicles about that Mad King. I know there is a way and it’s right under my damn nose.”

Garrett snorted, one of the few people in the world who could act as such in front of his dominant and prideful brother.

“Yes, we all know about Sky. I’m telling you it’s bullshit. My theory is he was not an immortal. There’s no way to kill us, brother, as much as you would like it. We’re stuck with our little king.” Garrett leaned up against the couch, completely ignoring the dangerous atmosphere that Garrett had managed to stir up around him. It wasn’t like he was immune or not afraid of his brother’s occasional violent moods, it was that the whisky was doing its work and making him quite loose of tongue.

“It’s in Perish’s head, somewhere, though where it is I do not know. I am counting on Jade to figure that out for me. I hold no faith that those hard drives will give us anything of use,” Elish said bitterly, his cold purple eyes narrowed with thought. “Though I told them that was their goal, in truth this all depends on Jade’s abilities to see into our heads.”

Absentmindedly he reached into his pocket and pulled out Jade’s remote. A small device that held the tracking chip buried inside of his pet’s head. Though not only did this device tell Elish his location, it also showed him Jade’s health, radiation level, heartbeat, and overall physical health.

It was silent though, silent and offline... his cicaro was far in the greywastes and far out of range of the signal.

“You really think he will be able to access Perish’s memories? Like he did yours last year?” Garrett asked.

Elish nodded before tucking the remote back into his breast pocket, beside Jade’s old collar which he always kept wrapped around his upper arm, underneath his shirt and hidden from view.

“Do you really think Perish knows how to kill an immortal?”

“I have reason to believe it was Perish who helped Sky kill himself.”

There was a tinkle of a breaking glass as it slipped out of Garrett’s hand. The chimera with the gelled back hair stared at Elish, the hand that had been holding the glass still shaking back and forth.

“Elish... you... you’re not serious? Please tell me you’re not serious.”

“Not a silly plan now, hm?” Elish smirked sparing an upturn of his cold gaze.

Garrett took a step back as Luca appeared with a damp cloth and a spray bottle. He stared down at the sengil as he cleaned up the broken glass before the sengil ran off to get Garrett another glass of liquor.

“Please Elish...”

“Do you want Reno with you forever?”

“Of course... I...” His face turned from stammering and flustered all the way back to annoyed. “You know what? I’m not answering that and I’m done with your damn mind games, Eli. I refuse to even discuss it while Reno is out there; all that matters right now is him.”

Elish spread his hands. “I said nothing on the subject; you were the one to bring it up, dear brother.”

Garrett took a fresh glass from Luca; he brought the liquid up to his lips but the moment they touched Elish’s phone rang.

The president of Skytech watched with a lump in his throat as Elish immediately took the call outside. Perhaps it was Jade? He didn’t know, it could very well have been, Elish had outfitted the young cicaro’s phone with a blocker so the Legion wouldn’t be able to track the phone signal. A call from a remote phone deep in the greywastes would immediately bring the Legion. It meant it was either stolen or a chimera was out there somewhere becoming lost.

When Elish came back inside after ten minutes Garrett tried to read his face, but even though he knew his brother’s every movement, every eyebrow twitch, and every shifting body language... he saw nothing.

“What is it?”

Elish looked at the phone and rested it on top of a console table. “That was Kessler. The signal from the broadcast was a dead end, we still do not know where Reno or the others –”

“No! No!” Garrett threw down his half-empty whisky glass where it shattered against the wall, broken for the second time that night.

The black-haired chimera put his hands behind his neck and gritted his teeth. “Nothing? Fucking nothing then? We’re back at square one?”

“I am afraid so.”

Garrett sunk to his knees, feeling his eyes start to burn and sting. He shook his head and sniffed before backing himself up against the back of the couch.

Like a scared child Garrett brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Garrett rested his chin on his knees and looked at the grey carpeted floor.

“I want to be out there... why am I not out there looking?” he said after a few silent minutes had passed.

To Garrett’s shock Elish sat down beside him on the floor and offered him his glass of wine. A rare show of caring from his closest brother, who would usually just loom over Garrett and snip at him when he was at his weakest. Elish was not a man who directly cut Garrett down; his veiled words were more like death by a thousand paper cuts.

Garrett took a drink and Elish gently took the glass back. “When the same men kidnapped Jade, and I shared the same frustrations with you, you told me I was more useful here than another man on the field. We are smarter than the average man... or well,
I am
anyways.”

There was a slight tug on the side of Garrett’s face at his brother’s attempt at a joke.

Elish went on, “We are most useful up here planning and making sure no building is left unchecked.”

“Silas has half the thiens looking for Reaver, Killian, and Perish...”

“But we have half our family looking for Reno and the others, and I would put more stock in them. They are enchanted with Reno’s odd manner, they actually would like finding him... unlike my cicaro who I am sure they wished had stayed missing.”

Garrett smiled this time, appreciative of Elish’s attempts to lighten his sullen, frustrated mood.

“I suppose, yes.”

“Even King Silas likes him, perhaps not as you would like... but he is amused by Reno. Really, I would think Reno has more help than Jade did and perhaps Silas will not kill him right away when he returns,” Elish replied casually, and as Garrett opened his mouth in aghast horror at the inappropriate mention of this fact, the cold chimera added. “And if I am king... you can have him for eternity, unharmed and happy with his chimera husband.”

Garrett closed his open mouth and whimpered. “Hold me, I miss him so much.”

Elish sighed and let Garrett lean against him. Elish put his arm around his brother and let Garrett shuffle into his arms. “I told my almost eighteen-year-old cicaro he was too old to be held, but how I can forbid him when my ninety-year-old brother needs the same?”

Garrett sniffed. “You’re a lot of peoples’ support system.”

“I know, which is why I do not begrudge you the comfort. I will not forget your aid while I was making my own decisions about Jade,” Elish replied.

“You were a wreck.”

Garrett looked up over his brows with a smirk; Elish spared him a half eye roll. “Perhaps for a day or so.”

“Months.”

Elish let out a breath but said nothing more on the subject. The two of them sat, side by side, watching Luca in the kitchen chopping meat for the greywaster cat.

“I really love him,” Garrett replied in a small voice. His eyes looking lost, like he was witnessing the saddest of plays get acted out in front of him. He always had large prominent eyes, ones which could break the heart of even the most steeled of men; large and full of expression and emotion, a trait that only he had carried when the first generation had been created. The other three, Elish especially, had struggled with emotions in general. Seeing them as weakness as they got older and something that held you back; a fault in their engineering.

But Garrett had always embraced his emotions; the soft-hearted chimera had made them his strength in a way, because not even Elish had the heart to be cruel to him anymore.

And with this thought in the cold chimera’s mind he gave his little brother’s head a pat as it leaned against his shoulder.

“I know, brother.”

“He’s different than the others... he’s so... different.” Garrett took another drink of the blood wine before leaning his head on Elish’s shoulder once again. “You know I didn’t even sleep with him when I could have? If that isn’t a testament...”

“Considering you bedded a sixteen-year-old dish-washer walking home from work once that is saying a lot.”

Garrett lifted his head and scowled at him. “Don’t tell him about that. He doesn’t even know about us, or Luca, or that one time when you and Jade got drunk and...”

“Alright, it’s time for bed.” Elish started to rise. “And I have no idea what you’re speaking of.”

Garrett smiled and also rose. He looked down at his wine glass and twirled it until the wine started to swirl in a little whirlpool. “I won’t do it until I marry him, just to show everyone how serious I am this time. I’ll prove it to all of you.”