The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (46 page)

But something else happened, instead of the staticy jolt of electricity I was used to feeling, as soon as I touched the bare skin behind Perish’s neck my mind lit up. In an instant a firework-type flare coated Perish’s entire body, and as it enveloped every crease and curve in its fireless flames it spread onto me, and went directly into my head.

Suddenly an influx of pressure rushed through my brain, filling every corner with such a weight I thought my brain was going to explode through my head. It was like a bag being filled with gasoline, it took every ounce of strength in my body not to scream from pain.

But inside that overwhelming pressure were small threads, like flashes of salmon in a river they rushed into my overtaxed mind bringing with it memories that were not my own.

With my body tensed and my eyes closed, I probed it, dove into it, and like an injection of compressed data they shot into my head.

Perish Dekker.

No, Perish Fallon.

He wasn’t a chimera…

With a bellowing cry, the memory got ripped out of my fingers. I let it go, afraid I would damage his mind even more if I hung on, and as it slipped back into the torrent of confusion that was his broken mind, I found a single shuttering image tucked into the back, like a box in a crowded closet it glowed and summoned me.

That image was a part of something, a part of a closed off area of his mind. That area was different than the others, almost… like a different person was inside of him.

The person stared back at me, like he was both surprised and angry that I had met him here. A virus inside of his head that had been caught red-handed sifting and routing through things he had no business seeing.

The man looked like Perish but in the same breath he seemed different. His aura was different shades of blue, whereas Perish’s had just been fractured light.

It was…

Sky Fallon. His brother.

His twin brother.

This was the part of Perish’s mind he didn’t have access to; it was like the memory of his brother was preventing him from accessing it. But no, it went further than that, like Reaver had told Killian and I – Perish’s brain, at least a small section of it –

“Was put into an O.L.S,” Sky said quietly, his icy-blue eye seemingly sweeping my body, analyzing me like I was a strip of data. “Greg and I did it, to prevent Silas from ever finding out how I killed my own body. Perish helped me, and he knew.”

“Perish once knew how you killed yourself?”

Sky nodded. “That information should die; Silas should never have that power. No one should.”

“We want to use it to kill Silas.”

Sky’s pink lips curled in a smirk, a smirk that reminded me of Reaver’s. That dark chimera definitely shared a few strands of DNA with this man.

“Indeed? It will not be easy to find Perish’s O.L.S, but perhaps if you ask nicely…”

A ripping percussion of pain hit me like I had touched an electrified fence. My eyes snapped open and I immediately felt like my lungs were on fire. I took in a gasp, seeing the lab ceiling in front of me.

Then darkness again and hands, several of them holding me down. I knew this feeling, it had happened before, long ago… though the hands had been Elish’s and it had been his mind I had entered.

Elish…?

I let out a shuddering scream as cold water splashed onto me. I looked around wildly, confused and unaware as to where I was. For a moment I thought I was back on Olympus, in Elish’s apartment, back where I belonged and where I was comfortable.

Until I smelled the cigarette, sure enough, I focused on the blue ember and saw Reaver holding an empty blue bucket.

Then Killian’s voice beside me. “It’s okay, Jade. Thank god you woke up; you’ve been in and out of it for hours. Are you okay?”

He put a towel over my head and rubbed it gently. I saw I was lying on the couch, the television flickering in the background. I grimaced and winced as my head gave a throb. I felt like someone was taking an axe to it. “Reaver? Front me some opiate powder, my head is splitting in two.”

A book was put on my lap with half a dozen lines, but as I picked up the sniffer my arm was bumped. I looked over, still half-aware, and saw Deek the deacdog looking at me with our matching yellow eyes. I was happy to see that he was alright. He had done a good job fending off those creatures for us. And from the looks of the dried blood on his muzzle he had had himself a party last night.

I inhaled the beautiful opiate smoke and leaned back onto the couch with a hand on my head. “Where’s Perish?”

Killian and Reaver exchanged glances, then Killian spoke. “He’s locked himself in your bedroom, after that mind trick you did… he kind of lost it. I dragged you out and locked him in Leo’s office and then Reaver put him into the bedroom. He’s kind of shaken up with what you did.”

That triggered the memories in my head. I tried to rise but fell back down as the axe on my head rained down another blow. “I saw Sky in his head. Sky and Perish were twins, identical twins, both born immortals. He’s not a chimera and he isn’t seventy-one like we thought. I think they were both Silas’s age.”

Reaver and Killian both stared at me. I continued, “Greg Lenard and Sky; they removed Perish’s memory of how to kill an immortal. They put it in a device. Reaver, the one Elish showed you, it’s the same type: an O.L.S.”

They both stared at me like I had just became one with crazy, each trying to process the information I hadn’t even made sense of yet. But it was all there, all of it was there and it made sense. This was why Perish was so fucked in the head. They had removed a piece of his damn brain; that was enough to make anyone crazy.

Sky ordered it done to his own brother, and after Perish had helped him kill himself Greg had done it to Perish.

I had to tell this information to Elish. He had to know we could put Perish back together… that he could be the one to figure out how to kill King Silas.

It had been done before. Sky had killed himself and I knew the instructions were in that removed piece of Perish’s memories.

“Perish Fallon,” I said, more to myself than them. “That was his name. Sky Fallon and Perish Fallon.”

This made Reaver’s face change. His inquisitive black eyes suddenly became hard and he said in a quiet but solid voice, “Perish. When he was normal for that brief moment when we were killing those lizards. He said he had a segment of his brain removed, he said it himself. I just…”

Killian’s brow furrowed. “How can he be Sky’s brother? Could they really remove over two hundred years of memories?”

I looked at Reaver, his face still hardened and creased in concentration.

“Everything Jade told us is true,” he whispered.

Oddly he raised his hand and looked down at his palm. His eyes shot to Killian. “Remember?” He held his hand, palm up, towards Killian. “Elish told me he used some strains from Sky when they were creating me. He said specifically my hands, nose… some parts of me were taken from Sky as well as anything else that would make me Silas’s perfect partner.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “And you and Perish’s hands, the lines in your palms were identical.”

It seems when an awkward silence descends, it brings a chill into a room, even if it was well heated. I felt that same chill sink into my bones, to the point where I outwardly shivered.

Then another flash of memory came to me. “Wait…” I paused and tried to gather the racing thoughts, hoping to snatch the right one. “Sky, he told me – he knows where Perish’s O.L.S is, but before he could tell me I blacked out.”

Reaver got up and took a step towards the bedroom Perish and I had been sleeping in, but paused when Killian made a nervous noise.

“Don’t fucking coddle him, Killian.” Reaver turned around and gave him a warning look. “He needs to give us some answers and I’m not going to stay here for months holding his hand until Elish returns. He obviously knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Either he can tell me or I’ll send the empath in there to do it.”

Killian rose and crossed his arms, though that was as far as the little guy’s defiance went. “I’m not coddling him; he requires different ways of getting information out of him and bashing the door in and wringing his neck isn’t going to work!” Then he turned to me, I glanced up at him surprised. “Tell him. You know Perish.”

I looked at the pair of blue eyes and then at the black ones and gave a dry laugh. “What so I’m the mediator now?”

Reaver seemed to bristle at the suggestion. I didn’t understand why but it became all too clear a moment later. “Reno used to be our mediator, or Greyson and Leo. We’re running low on mediators.” He looked behind him and I heard him take a weighted breath. “You have one shot Killian; keep the door at least a bit open. No deep discussions, no heart-to-hearts, just ask him if he remembers where that O.L.S is.”

Killian brightened like a bulb; he skipped up to Reaver and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for trusting me, baby.”

I rolled my eyes but deep down it made me miss Elish. Though if I skipped up to my master and kissed his cheek he would probably think he’d shaken me one too many times. That being said there were times when I was like that but it was rare, being around someone like Elish you learned to emulate him. Our soft-hearted moments were saved for the apartment when no one else but Luca was around, and of course… in the bedroom.

I got up, feeling a bit better since the opiates were singing to my aching head and stood in the doorway beside Reaver. The dark chimera was tense; I could feel that even without my aura reading. I knew he was watching every movement of Killian, ready to jump in and save him from the unstable scientist hiding in the dark bedroom.

“He locked me in a fucking four-by-seven room, he molested Killian, attacked him… he kept us prisoner, and Killian still treats him like a kitten with a broken leg,” Reaver growled under his breath. “So before you get on my case with that crazy fuck, sit and have a drink with me and I’ll tell you just who that maniac is. He deserves me to go in there and beat him until he sings.”

I didn’t show it on my face but inside my mouth had dropped open. Perish was a person I had only seen passingly at my and Elish’s shotgun wedding. Besides that he was just the crazy chimera in the greywastes doing science stuff. I had known about what had happened in Donnely, Elish had filled me in with what had gone wrong, but I didn’t know the details.

I had known he had kept Reaver and Killian prisoner, but that was the extent of it.

The dark chimera was doing well then; if that was the history he had with Perish, I had to admire his restraint. That was one quality Silas did not have, and one that Elish had tried to instill in Reaver as he grew up. My master would be happy to hear this, hell
I
was happy to hear this.

I weighed my response as we both heard Killian’s quiet and soothing voice inside my bedroom, when I spoke it was low enough that only my dear greywaster brother could hear.

“You can either force it in and deal with the screaming and the blood or you can be patient and ease it in slowly and carefully. Both get the job done; only one will get you favourable results.”

I kept my face serious as Reaver gave me a confused and somewhat pained look. “Are you comparing Perish to – you’re a fucking weird one.”

“Makes sense doesn’t it?”

Reaver shook his head but I could tell the words had gotten to him.

And with that Killian appeared in the doorway, and the conversation between Reaver and myself was dropped.

“Perish remembered. He says it’s in a place called Falkvalley.”

Both Reaver’s eyes and mine shot to the kid. “Falkvalley. Where the hell is that?” Reaver asked.

Killian looked at the ceiling as if that held all our answers, then he bit down on his cheek. “We’re going to have to make a trip… to the surface.”

“Oh?” Reaver raised an eyebrow. Killian nodded and we all walked back into the living room.

“Falkvalley… I think it’s pre-Fallocaust. And I don’t want to wait for Elish to get back to tell us where it is. Why don’t we check out some areas, libraries or visitor’s centers and find out where it is? I know you’re probably going to get claustrophobic here, love,” Killian said.

A trip to the surface? I’d rather stay down here where the newly named ‘kreigers’ couldn’t find us, I had grown used to being an inside pet. Usually when I went outside and into Skyfall I was leashed. Though if we went during the daylight hours we should be alright, Kreig was empty and desolate before the sun set.

Reaver seemed to agree with Killian. “Alright, but only Perish is coming with me. Non-immortals stay in the lab.”

The kid looked at Reaver stunned, and I knew a fight was going to break out.

“I am not staying in here, I’m going with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Reaver rose from the couch. I thought he was going to the kitchen to grab a drink or something, but he just left the room. This must have been a common occurrence because Killian’s face went red. I could see the angry energy radiating off of him.

“Reaver, for fuck sakes!” Killian called after him. “I am not your pet, you can’t tell me to stay. I’m not the kid back in Aras; I can pull my own weight.”