Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (97 page)

I laughed.

I laughed because I never realized how small and pathetic he was. A man who had once been so scary, this big imposing person who brought terror and misery on his heels, was now… was now…

Human.

Jasper’s hazel eyes widened when he saw me, his face gaunt and grey but from imprisonment rather than meth. His half-open mouth showed me no teeth, and from the scars he had on his face and arms I could only imagine what they had done to him.

I walked up to him, my eyes fixed on him and the closed-mouth smile on my face. He didn’t move or shrink down, but his heart was banging like the drum-like thuds of my brothers’ fists.

The first thing I did, with the dark cloak masking and hiding all of my anxiety and fear, was backhand him. Then, as his head snapped back, a stream of blood shooting from his nose, I hit him again; the crowd behind me cheering and banging harder.

Then I held up a hand, and the crowd became silent, all but a slight thrum of their hands against the tables.

“Hello, Jasper,” I said to him, my eyes squinting from the same smile I had learned from watching Crow.

“Sami,” Jasper said simply. He looked at me so intently, like he couldn’t believe who was standing in front of him. “Or is it Sanguine now? What are you calling yourself today?”

“No,” I said casually, the banging and hollering in front of me starting to becoming drowned out as I spoke to Jasper. “It has always been Sanguine. They implant our names into our brains when they’re creating us. Did you know that?” I asked. “Did you ever stop and think that perhaps – you were keeping a chimera prisoner?”

“I didn’t care what you were,” Jasper replied with a bravery that defied his racing heart. “You were young and stupid. You could’ve had three heads and scales and I would’ve still fucked you. All I cared about was a tight little ass and a small cock for me to look at.”

Chairs scraped in front of me, brothers enraged by his words, but I held up a hand again and didn’t let the smile disappear from my face. Indeed I didn’t mind this bravery; he knew he was going to die tonight, and that no amount of begging would spare him from his fate.

“Yes, we both thought I was nothing but a mutation, a side effect of the sestic radiation that made me look like this,” I murmured with a shake of my head. “What did you think when they told you I was a chimera? That I was royalty?”

“I was proud of myself for being able to fuck a prince.” Jasper smirked. “I destroyed a prince and made him nothing but an insane nutcase. What’s there not to be proud of? Sure, you’ll kill me tonight… but it is what it is. I left scars on you that immortality will never heal. Do you think of me when they fuck you?” Jasper jerked his head towards the audience. “Or the king? Do I flash through your vision?” He chuckled. “You’re still just a pathetic little eight-year-old boy, eager to make a friend, just waiting for the next man to control you, whether it be me… or that blond fuck in the corner. The only thing you’re good for is sucking cock and going crazy.”

The audience was angry, fast talking and more chairs scraping. The pounding had stopped but I hadn’t even realized it, the entire room had turned from electric with anticipation to caustic anger.

I brought my hand up and patted Jasper’s shoulder. Then I turned to King Silas who was standing at the opposite end of the stage.

The king had no expression on his face, but I did notice he was standing beside a table. One I hadn’t noticed before. As I turned from Jasper and walked towards the table I saw that a spread of weapons had been laid out on it. Hunting knives, scalpels, forceps, guns, bottles of liquids with labels anywhere from gasoline, acid, and mercury, and even a chainsaw.

“Choose your poison, amor,” Silas said to me, and when he looked at me he smiled. “Whatever you want.”

I picked up a few bottles, and ran my fingers over several of the daggers. “Actually, Silas. I would like you to do something for me…” I leaned in and whispered something into Silas’s ear, and with a smile, the king hopped off of the stage, and with everyone looking on in surprise, he walked out of the room.

I turned around with a bottle in one hand and a long narrow dagger in the other. The room so quiet that my boots echoed off of the ceiling,
click clack click clack
. I walked up to Jasper who was glaring at me, though I saw the hints of apprehension in his eyes.

“Nero,” I called. “Come up here and help Kessler.”

Nero was there before I even finished my sentence. He appeared behind Kessler and held a hand on Jasper’s shoulder.

“Hold open his mouth,” I commanded.

Nero grabbed into Jasper’s jaw and squeezed it, though Jasper was clenching his toothless jaw closed. Kessler held him tight as my former captor struggled, making muffled grunts as he fought with Nero’s strong fingers.

I sighed and shook my head. I batted Nero’s hand away and pushed my fingers into the small gap between Jasper’s gums that Nero had been able to make. I wiggled them in until I was deep enough into his mouth to grab hold of his lower jaw …

… then with all my strength I pulled it forward then yanked it down, hearing bones popping and snapping as I wrenched his jaw from his skull.

Jasper’s muffled screaming filled the room, and the slow thrumming of fists started to pick up. The jaw bone was now loose and flimsy in my hand, so I pulled it down further, watching with satisfaction as the skin started to bulge and pulse from the dislocated jawbone pushing forward like a hinge.

But it worked, his mouth was open!

“Wonderful! Now do you have anything smart to say?” I said with a laugh. I glanced up as I started to unscrew the bottle.

Jasper stared at me, his mouth gaping open and his toothless gums giving off a rank and disgusting smell. I could hear a wheezing sound coming from him and perhaps a gurgling, but no words.

“Nothing?” I said cheerfully. “Nothing at all? How fortunate, because I also have nothing more to say to you.” I nodded at Nero who seemed to get an idea of what I wanted to do. He grabbed Jasper’s head and tilted it back, Jasper’s mouth stretched open like a ghost in a horror movie.

And now he started to struggle. Kessler and Nero held him firmly in their grasp, the excitement of my actions breathing new life into the stunned crowd of brothers in front of me. I waved my hand to encourage them and as I tilted the bottle of gasoline towards Jasper’s mouth their pounding started up again.

The first trickle went into his mouth, filling my nose with the wonderful aroma of gasoline. I tipped the bottle back further and soon a steady stream of yellow liquid started to pour into Jasper’s mouth and down his throat.

Jasper gagged, his eyes rolling around in their sockets. I saw a bubble of gasoline come back up as he tried to throw up, but besides a stream that dribbled down his chin gravity kept the rest down. I winked at Nero as my best friend grinned at me and waved around the long dagger I had picked up.

Then, past Jasper choking and moaning, I saw a figure in the open door way, a man with two smaller figures on either side of him.

“Bring them here, love,” I called to Silas as I doused the dagger with the rest of the gasoline. “No need to be afraid, boys. If you can be brave you can do something you’ll never forget.”

As they walked closer I took a step away from Jasper, the gasoline-soaked dagger in my hand. I watched as the two smaller figures stepped into the dim lighting; my two little friends, Juni and Levi. Both of them at least half a foot taller, dressed in crisp sengil outfits, combed and brushed hair, and rather shocked faces.

Levi nervously clung to Silas’s leg, but Juni’s face brightened. He ran from Silas, jumped onto the stage, and dove into my arms.

“I missed you, why didn’t you come visit me?” Juni said with a smile. He looked up at me with adoring eyes.

I patted his head and looked to Jasper. “I’ll visit you all the time now, mihi. But first, we have something we need to take care of.”

Juni looked at Jasper and I was amazed that the boy showed no fear towards him. Though Levi was still welded to Silas’s leg, the boy, even though he was older than Juni, wasn’t moving, but that was alright, I only needed one of them for what I wanted done. Levi watching was good enough.

“He’s still alive?” Juni said flatly. I heard several chuckles come from the crowd and I laughed too.

I handed Juni the long knife and walked him over to Jasper, red foam was now bubbling from his loose jaw, dripping down his boney chin and trailing down his neck. He was groaning, but the pain I knew he was feeling was keeping him still, his thrashing had been reduced to nothing more than a twitching writhe.

“Not for long, little one,” I said to him. I lifted up Jasper’s shirt and pointed to where I knew his stomach was. “I want you to stab Jasper, right here, right where my finger is.”

Juni nodded with a grin and stepped forward, but I raised my hand and he stopped.

“Just one more thing,” I said with a smirk. I reached down and touched the long knife. “Now do it quickly before it burns you.” I focused my altered touch on the tip of my finger, and as soon as it became hot the entire blade of the knife erupted into an almost invisible blue flame. I quickly stepped back and nodded at him.

Juni, still grinning, took the knife and without a word he retracted his arm and plunged the knife into Jasper’s stomach.

The explosion knocked us both off of our feet.

I stumbled back but I didn’t fall. I turned my face away from the spray of blood and gasoline and was temporarily dazzled by the sensory overload, both sight, smell, and sound. There were sounds all around me, cheering, Juni’s high-pitched laughter, and the gurgling wheezing of Jasper taking his last breaths.

Then hands on my shoulders. I was steadied, enough for me to look towards where Jasper had been being held.

My former captor was on the floor, a gaping hole in his stomach that was aflame with blue and orange fire, entrails were littered around him, spirals of intestines and organs of various shades of red and pink, all of this on top of an ever growing pool of blood and the rainbow gleam of gasoline.

Juni was keeled over laughing, his small body covered in red blood; he had it coated over his entire face as he jumped up and down in glee. Nero and Kessler were behind Jasper with two matching grins, clapping their hands to the rhythm of the drum beats.

I watched Jasper. I watched the man with his eyes wide and staring, his dislocated jaw open and sucking in his last breaths. I watched him with tense eyes and was there to witness his last breath. I watched him until he was dead.

Jasper was dead.

“Good job, mihi,”
praised Crow, though I knew it was only my own voice praising me. He was no longer a separate person, at Silas’s whim I would become the uncontrollable demon that would undoubtedly respond to his every command. He would control the voices inside of my head, and as such he would control me.

“I didn’t even have to yell at you this time. I will enjoy the times that our master lets us free from our cages,”
Crow mused.
“I did miss you, mihi.”

Silas walked up to me with the remote in his hand. I looked down and saw him flick the switch to off with his thumb. And with that simple act, I felt the odd dark cloak lift from my brain, and with that every single sensation in the room came back.

I gasped and felt my knees weaken, but the arms behind me steadied me. Like I had walked in front of a train the emotions of what had just happened hit me.

“What did you do to me!” I snarled. I tried to yank my arms away from the person holding me but he wouldn’t let me, perhaps he knew I couldn’t stand on my own. “What the fuck did you put into my brain?” In an instant the comfortable acceptance of Silas’s manipulation of my brain was gone, as Sanguine came forth and Crow faded into the darkness I realized just how much my king had betrayed me.

Silas smiled sweetly at me. “Would you prefer to go in and out of your psychosis without warning? With the risk of hurting Jack? Or your mortal brothers? Drake, or even young Juni?”

I was quiet, my lips pursed and the anger igniting the already heated blood in my veins.

“There is no cure for your madness, Sanguine,” Silas explained. Behind him I saw Nero lift up Jasper, Jasper’s smoking guts from the cavity in his stomach and slipping down Nero’s jacket. Sengils were already cleaning up the mess. “I could either leave you as is, or control it for you.”

“By a fucking remote?” I snapped. “So you can have control over my fucking brain from now on? Why not just shut it off for good?”

Silas, still smiling, patted my cheek. “Because you are mine, love, and I have uses for that psychosis. You are my chimera for the rest of eternity, and when I feel it so, you will join my side as my bodyguard. You are my beloved fifth-in-command, my prince. And as your master it is my right to control you.”

I growled at him, but Silas’s hand still tenderly stroked my cheek. “Is it not worth having a peaceful mind, love? Would you rather I take the implant out and you can be taunted by the voices inside of your head? The hallucinations? I have given you a gift, crucio, a wonderful gift. I would appreciate a thank you. Don’t forget everything I have done for you, and the chimera I have given you to love.” Silas looked behind me and I realized the person holding me the entire time had been Jack.