Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (107 page)

“Who? Sky?” I cried back. Quickly I rose to my feet, just in time to dodge another crack of the whip. My own skin and blood raining down on me as the long strip of leather snapped the air.

Silas’s eyes, wide and holding in their emerald oculars black flames, stared at me. His face speckled with blood and meat, and his blue shirt stained purple. He looked like a serial killer in the throes of his finale, though in all respects perhaps he was.

Something was wrong with my king – something that went further than Ceph. I was realizing as I stared at this mad immortal that Ceph was perhaps a victim of Silas’s state, not the cause.

“What does this have to do with Sky?” I held out my hands in a pleading posture, trying to remember what I used to do when Silas was angry. It had been so long since he had been this out of control. This was always handled by Elish out of sight, but Elish was in Kreig – he was supposed to have been with Perish trying to create…

I looked over at Perish who was dying, only his remaining eye showing a colour besides red. He was staring at me as he held his neck, his throat gurgling while the blood filled his lungs.

“What happened in the lab?” Of course, it was always something to do with Sky. Every time I had seen my king in this state of insanity it had to do with that damn boyfriend; the man that the entire family despised, even if we’d never met him.

“Get out of here!” Silas screamed, clenching the whip hard in his hand. He choked and his face tightened. “All of you… all of you just leave me. Every one of you have been nothing but a disappointment from the start. Insane, damaged creatures. No more, no more chimeras.” The whip slipped out of his hand. “I almost had it… I almost cracked the code, Sanguine. But it’s gone – we only have three more pieces left, three more pieces of Sky’s matter until it’s done. I’ll never have him again.”

I watched him, analysing him. He had started showing the first hairline crack in this insanity but I could never know if that would make it safe to approach. Silas was my friend, my master, and I loved him – but I didn’t have the same pull on him as Elish did. Silas, whether he admitted it or not, saw Elish as a rock that even he could lean on. I was not that rock.

“You still have three though, Master,” I said cautiously. “What about young Lycos? In several years time he will be old enough to start working on the chimera code, just as you created him for.” The little boy was seven years old now and living with Silas’s top non-chimera scientist and his husband. He had been made to be the best scientist there was, specifically to create chimeras and, as those closest to Silas knew, to create Sky’s clone.

I ducked as Silas picked up a nearby statue and flung it at me. I heard it smash into a credenza behind me, near where Perish had been hiding.

“So he can fail again with my last three pieces?” Silas snarled. “It would’ve been four. I would’ve had four if one of them wasn’t wasted on fucking Ceph. I would’ve had five if that pink-eyed little defect didn’t drop one! If he wasn’t dead I would make him immortal just to fucking kill him all over again!”

My teeth locked, not only at the mention of Ceph but at him bringing up Valen. Valen had been my boyfriend for two years before he died. I had temporarily left Jack to take care of him when I had learned Valen was going to die from his empath abilities, to give my neglected, depressed sengil and friend the best years of his life before he passed on.

And I had done just that.

But I had to swallow down Silas’s hateful comment. This wasn’t about my dead boyfriend, this was about saving Ceph. Though the prospect of reaching Silas and calming him down enough to free Nero’s husband seemed impossible at this point.

“But because of Valen we were able to retrieve the remaining seven,” I said calmly to Silas. “If it wasn’t for Valen we would’ve assumed the suitcase was–”

I ducked as another statue flew past my head.

“Get out of here,” Silas yelled. “Get all your damn brothers and that bitch failure of a daughter and get the fuck out of my city.” Then his jaw clenched and he paused. “And bring their partners here. Every one of them, and I want Ellis’s failure kids as well. Bring them here.”

My eyes widened, there was no questioning why Silas wanted the chimera partners here – he was going to fucking kill them. There was no question in my mind of that fact.

Because if Silas couldn’t have Sky – why should they have their life partners?

I had to do something, but what? Yes, Silas was insane with rage but he would eventually calm down, wouldn’t he? The only issue with this was who would lay dead in his wake before he regained his usual confident nature.

What had been me pleading for Ceph’s release was quickly turning into me talking the king out of kicking us out of Skyfall and murdering our partners.

“And you can bring Jack here too.”

My mouth went dry, my gaze turned from the door to Silas’s face.

He glared back at me, the blood of me, Perish, and the dead sengil staining his pale skin. Why it hadn’t started boiling on his face from the sheer anger that was radiating off of him I didn’t know.

“Silas…” I whispered. I took a cautious step towards him. “Love, I know you feel betrayed by Nero; I know you’re upset about the brain matter running low…” Another cautious step, Silas’s body tightening with my approach. “But sending us away and killing our partners isn’t the solution. Let us help–”

In a flash another strike was dealt across my face.

“ENOUGH!” I suddenly yelled. I don’t know if it was just me tired of being abused by him, the blood loss from the gouges on my back or that I had reached the end of my rope, but no matter the consequences I was tired of being his punching bag. “You’re being unreasonable and you’re being a fucking tyrant, Silas Dekker. Calm the fuck down and act like a king and not a fucking dictator!” I whirled around to face Perish. “Get to Kinny and make sure Drake’s okay.”

Perish stared at me, his pupil a small pinpricks against his icy blue eye. His gaze shifted behind me to Silas. Then he nodded hastily before rising and fleeing towards the double doors.

When they shut behind me I turned to Silas, who was staring blankly at the spot where Perish had been.

“It’s just us,” I said to him. I took another step closer and, without him noticing, I kicked the dropped whip away from his reach. “Talk to me.”

“Get away from me,” Silas whispered, his eyes still focused yet they looked like they were seeing things not in this world. “All of you – get the fuck out of my city. I never want to see you failures again. I will rape and murder your damn partners and I will spit on their graves.”

I shook my head and lightly put a hand on his shoulder. Taking this brief moment of calmness in his insane rage, I gently directed him into my arms. “I know you will, love.”

“I hate you,” Silas said, though he didn’t move away from me as I put my arms around him and held him to my chest. “I hate you so much.”

“I know.” I started to rock him. “But we love you anyways.”

“Do you know how close Elish and Perish were?” Silas whispered. “I held him in my arms, Sanguine. His name was Adler and I held him in my arms. I fed him a bottle.”

Because he couldn’t see me I closed my eyes in relief. I think the worst of it was over. My brothers would never know how close their partners had come to being executed one by one, or suffering the same fate as Nero’s husband right underneath my feet.

“What happened to him, love?” I asked.

Silas was silent for a moment. “I wanted to know for sure he was a born immortal – so I smothered him. I woke up the next morning to Elish telling me he was cold and stiff. I saw his little body in a black body bag.” Silas’s arms tightened around my waist, though his touch was like fire against my whip and razor wounds. “I had to know though.”

I patted his back. “But why couldn’t you just create a non-immortal clone of Sky and make him immortal yourself, love?”

Silas shook his head. “I don’t want someone who looks like Sky. I want Sky. And a chimera with Sky’s features is not my Sky. My Sky was powerful, a demon to be feared. A man who held more powers than all of you and me combined. He was evil, an emotionless sociopath but in the same thread… funny, charismatic, intelligent, loving when it was just us.”

Silas pulled away and I saw wetness in the corners of his eyes. “I want a born immortal of my Sky – why is that so much to ask? Why…” Silas’s face suddenly crumbled. “Why haven’t I gotten over him, Sanguine?”

Oh my god, he was confiding in me. This prospect both intrigued and horrified me. I was dancing with the devil right now, and I knew I had to tread carefully.

“I have over a dozen chimeras…” Silas whispered. “And yet I’ve never felt more alone. I can have any of you in my bed, in my arms… and here I am feeling like I’m in an empty room, screaming at the top of my lungs for someone to… hear me.”

Because that is what you wanted, you always kept us at arm’s length. You made yourself a master and us the pets, the only person you ever confided in was Elish, and Elish…

Elish’s feelings towards Silas had changed over the last twenty years, and not for the better.

“Why don’t you create a chimera to be your partner? If only until Lycos creates your Chimera X,” I suggested, rubbing his shoulders in a loving manner. I was trying my best to be supportive but the blood I could feel dripping down my back was a testament to my deteriorating physical state. I was going to have to dispatch myself tonight, this I knew.

“You’re my slaves not my partners,” Silas said bitterly. “That chimera would only get too big for his place and cause problems. Just like Elish.”

My eyes widened at that remark, but I decided to steer away from that landmine. “Well, you need someone King Silas. You cannot carry the weight of this world on your own shoulders, and if you insist on it not being one of us – at least have someone you can actually confide in, someone who you don’t need to grow concerned of judging you.”

“There is no one,” Silas whispered. “You all can carry on with your perfect fucking lives that I gave to you. With your damn boyfriends and husbands, loving them more than you could ever love me.”

“Don’t say that,” I said sharply. “We love you more than–”

Suddenly there was a loud slam. Both of our attention drew to the oak door that had suddenly swung open, and to my horror Nero, looking absolutely insane, walked through.

“Let him out…” Nero said, his tone low and threatening and his eyes red from crying. “Let him out, Silas.”

Silas stiffened beside me. “I said all I want to say to you, Nero. Get the fuck out of my apartment and get the fuck out of my city. You’re all banned from Skyfall, like the fucking failures you are. Get out.”

Shit. I had been hoping the brief talk I’d had with Silas would quell this insane notion he’d gotten in his head, and perhaps I had but Nero’s presence had destroyed that.

“Nero…” I said slowly. I stood in front of Silas and held out my arms. “You must leave now. You’re not going to do anything to help this.”

Nero, his eyes like that of a crazed bull, remained fixed on the king. “Let him out,” he said again. “Let him out or I will break him out of there with your fucking skull, Silas.”

Silas stepped in front of me, I could see his eyes narrow. “Another word out of you and his encasement will be permanent, Nero. Now get the fuck out–”

Nero let out a roar and charged towards Silas.

I jumped back in front of the king and when Nero put his hands on me to shove me away; I skidded behind him and jumped on his back. I put one arm underneath his neck and pulled it back, and squeezed.

“Stand down, Nero!” I yelled as he tried to throw me off of him. I held onto him tight but he was thrashing and swinging me around like I had just jumped on the back of a wild horse. “I know you’re upset but…” Suddenly Nero’s arm was behind his head. A new jolt of pain ripped through me as Nero grabbed a handful of my hair and viciously yanked me forward. I held on as tight as I could, hearing my scalp start to rip off from my skull, before the pain and pressure temporarily dazed me. As my arm loosened from behind me, Nero threw me over his shoulder and I landed on top of a side table with a crash, the table breaking under my weight.

I groaned and tried to rise.

“HE’S CLAUSTRAPHOBIC!” I could hear Nero scream. “He’ll go fucking crazy in there!” Nero let out a sob. “Put me in there, I did this, it was my idea. Put me in there!”

As I got to my feet I saw Silas walking past him towards the credenza, Perish’s blood still soaked into the carpet.

“I don’t give a shit; he can go mad in there,” Silas said bitterly. “It’s about time for another cleansing, and I’m looking forward to seeing the horror on your faces as I execute your partners one by one. You fucking failures.” He opened up the credenza drawer. “And with Kessler now leading the Legion – I see no reason to have your shadow taint mine.”

“How about we encase you in concrete?” Nero said lowly. “How about we put you away instead? This fucking entire city would run just the same without you. We already do everything for you anyways. You’re the worthless one not us and everyone knows it, from Elish to Drake. You’re just a crazy maniac that everyone hates. Which is why no one wants to be around you, which is why you have to force us to spend–”

Silas turned around, a revolver in his hand; he raised it with no more words and shot Nero in the head.