The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (86 page)

“Hey... isn’t that Mikey?” Chomper suddenly called.

Mikey? Most of them still called Jade that name even though they all knew our real names since the legionary incident. I looked towards where Chomper was carving up the raver just as he let out a barking laugh.

My eyes fell to the ridge, above the road we had travelled down to get here. On top of the sharp, snow-covered incline I saw Jade, dressed in black.

Sledding down the hill.

I rolled my eyes but smiled as Jade hooted and hollered, two large rooster tails of snow trailing behind him as he picked up speed and raced down the ridge. He was getting some good speed on him, I guess he must’ve found a highway sign or something to use as a sled.

Jade put a hand up in the air as if he was trying to perform a trick. Sure enough, I gasped from nerves as he raised another hand and stood on top of his sled. He stood up as the slavers hollered and cheered, egging him on and obviously loving every moment of this.

Then I started to get nervous. He was approaching at an extreme speed and the trees got thicker past the resort and he could easily hit one, and that was if he didn’t accidently hit one of the concrete barriers hidden like pitfalls underneath the snow.

But he had it under control. As Jade skidded onto the parking lot he jumped off of the sled and easily landed on his feet. He then quickly turned around as the sled careened into one of the concrete walls that surrounded the lobby.

Then a sickening crunch. I brought my hand up to my mouth in sheer shock as the sled slammed into the barrier and exploded, or the top did anyways... no, not the top... the head.

Jade had slid down on a corpse! I ran up to the make-shift sled and couldn’t help the laugh on my lips. It was a raver; he must have found another stray one. My god it had crashed headfirst into the barrier. Its skull was a ruin now and the skin of its back was all sheared off from the sharp rocks Jade had sledded over.

“Elish would ring my neck if he saw that!” Jade jogged up to me out of breath; he had a smile on his face a mile wide. “Did you see me? We need to find some fucking sleds, man.”

I laughed. How could Perish think this guy was dangerous? He just seemed like a normal guy to me. “I saw. You almost gave me a heart attack but I saw.”

“Well, I see you’re starting to make up for all the people you’ve murdered.” I just paused and stared forward as I heard Perish say that very icly behind us. Jade paused too and I saw his jaw lock into place. He turned around, seemingly more than willing to ignore Perish’s quip.

But Perish pressed on, “I suppose since we’re stuck here we should all be sleeping with one eye –”

“Perish!” I said to him sharply. “Stop fucking picking a fight, you don’t know Jade did that, no one does.”

“It’s obvious he –”

Jade wordlessly turned around and started walking to the slavers; his happy mood now gone. I looked angrily at Perish; he stared back at me, his cold, blue eyes firm but distant.

“Stop upsetting him,” I snapped, before shoving Perish in the chest. “I’m fucking sick of always having to worry about you two. Just get along, alright? Jade’s homesick and sad, if you want him to stop doing crazy shit stop making him worse.”

A hard look crossed Perish’s face, immediately making me stop shoving him. I swallowed a bit as I remembered myself and remembered the state Perish could easily slip into. The crazy and unpredictable state of mind that made him murder the rest of his splices and the captured arians.

Shit, Killian, the moment you get comfortable with him you forget this.

“You... you’re not afraid of Jade? After everything I told you he tried to do with me? After we think he’s killing people?” Perish blinked as if not able to comprehend what I was saying.

“I understand chimeras. I see past their actions and their quirks... like I did with you, Perry.” I sighed and glanced behind my back. “I understand Jade and he’s my friend. I’m not scared of him; I have no reason to be. Whatever he may be doing it’s because he’s going through a lot. He is in a strange land with strange people away from his soul mate. Cut him some slack. He won’t hurt me or you, I know this.”

The scientist’s brow knitted but he didn’t make eye contact with me, instead they looked up at the snowy clouds then he shook his head. “You should be afraid of him, Killian. Just you see, he’s dangerous.”

I wasn’t going to win with him, and I didn’t have the mental energy to try and convince him he was wrong. My heart and my mind were with Reaver, at all times. Jade and Perish, Hopper’s caravan, even going to Falkland to find the piece of Perish that would make him whole, our whole entire mission was insignificant all that mattered was getting Reaver away from Silas.

And back home to me.

Chapter 32

Reno

Garrett put his arms around me and blew a raspberry on my cheek. I scrunched my face and giggled like an idiot before pushing him away. For the past several weeks he had been doing such stupid things to make me laugh, and when I did he saw it as a victory and was happy the entire day.

Sure enough, Garrett hissed his win and gave me a playful slap on the butt. I retaliated aiming a kick at his, which he dodged.

He was sucking on a lollipop which he offered me. I popped it in my mouth. For me he had been making an effort to cut down on the cigars but because he always seemed to be having to do something with his hands he had taken up to sucking on lollipops or chewing gum.

My fiancé had been so supportive since I had come back to his skyscraper. He had been cuddly and kind, loving and attentive, exactly what I needed to thaw out the ice that had formed on my heart.

I had been feeling better. Not just pretending to feel better because I didn’t want to hurt him. The past few weeks have been the therapy I needed to start recovering from my ordeal.

And I was recovering; I was a resilient greywaster. Recovering from shitty experiences was a part of our life and I had surprised myself with how quickly I had been bouncing back. The large cloud of depression over my head had been breaking and it was all thanks to my little sunbeam.

Garrett circled back after my missed kick and kissed me on the lips. Then he weaved his fingers inbetween mine and brought them up to his lips. Our matching engagement rings shining in the lamp light.

“I love you, I’m so happy you’ve been feeling better,” Garrett said with a smile. “Waking up next to you... every morning I think it is just a dream and you’re still gone.”

I kissed him, a quick peck but as was my nature one small kiss wasn’t enough. So I took him for another one. A long drawn-out one this time, one that made my knees weaken.

Though always being Mr. Restraint, once it started to get heated Garrett pulled away with a light chuckle.

“Come here, love, why don’t you show me how to play Spyro. Come, come, I’ll get you some drugs and we’ll order up some cheesecake with our dinner,” Garrett said happily, walking towards our order-a-sengil phone which was screwed into the wall beside the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes. In my slowly improving mood I had been edging towards... my old ways. With my time under Cypress fading into the distance I was starting to get a bit of a drive again.

I was only human.

“Alright.” I rolled my eyes and gave his butt a pinch just to show him I wasn’t amused. “Make the cheesecake like a fruit I haven’t tried yet though. What about blue raspberry or something?”

Garrett blinked at me, holding the sengil phone in his hand. “Love... there is no real berry called blue raspberry.”

I snorted incredulously; he was a smart ass chimera with all the fruits and vegetables at his disposal, grown in fancy hydro-whatsit-powered greenhouses and he didn’t even know what a blue raspberry was. “Yeah, right. I once found a big cardboard case of Jolly Ranchers and my favourite was blue raspberry. Call Elish and ask him; he’s smarter than you, he’ll know.”

He stared at me for a moment longer before smiling at me. “Well... you certainly do learn something new every day. Okay, well, why don’t we get strawberry this time and I’ll send away for some... blue-coloured raspberries. Just for you.”

Sweet.

When he was done ordering Garrett sat beside me. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close and watched me start to control the little purple dragon as he found his friends.

I kept dying though and no matter how had I tried I couldn’t concentrate. After many failed attempts the food came and we both sat on the couch with the TV on in the background. Garrett carrying on about his day and the phone calls he got from Apollo who had been taking over as Skytech president during his days off.

“King Silas called me as well. He would love to see you since you’ve gotten back. Master is quite happy you survived, everyone does love having you around,” Garrett replied.

I choked on his a bit but managed to swallow my mouth full of food. Garrett sensed my apprehension and continued on. “I told him that would be fine and I think it shall be. He will not hurt you and the longer he is in Skyfall... the less time he is in the greywastes looking for Reaver and the others.”

This didn’t make me feel any better. “Is he close to finding them?”

Garrett shook his head, taking his pickle off of his cheeseburger and giving it to me. In exchange he got my tomato. We had this stupid little routine we went through every single time we got hamburgers. He also got my toothpick that was skewered through the burger so he could double skewer his, since he liked to eat politely, and I kind of just... shoved it all in my face and hoped for the best.

“No, I don’t believe so. We’re doing everything we can to subtly mislead him,” Garrett continued.

We should be doing more than just subtly misleading Silas. I had gotten the key card for Elish, so why isn’t Silas dead yet?

I let out a sad sigh. I wished I wasn’t so in the dark... I might not be able to be with Reaver and Killian just yet, but I wanted to at least know how they were.

“Oh, Otter...” Garrett sighed, reading my face like the open book it was. “Don’t be sad. Come now, lutra.” He reached a hand up and cradled my chin with it, stroking my stubbly chin with his thumb. “Do not worry for Reaver and Killian. Elish has hidden them well.”

“I’m just worried, Garrett. I know Elish is like super computer smart but... man, shit was so easy this time last year.” I let out a long breath and took a bite of my pickle. I had come to find out since being in Skyfall that I fucking loved pickles. “It’s hard trusting him to keep Reaver and Tinky safe. I’m not used to trusting people besides my core group, especially not Elish.”

Garrett nodded, still holding my chin in his hand. He brushed my lips with his thumb and looked at me longingly.

So I brought his hand to my mouth and kissed it, then as he smiled at the gesture I leaned in and kissed him. Kissing was all he allowed, and granted, since I had been seeing the light at the end of this Crimstone Horror Tunnel... it had been getting harder to leave it at just kissing.

I broke away the kiss and smirked at him. “You know... I bit one of their dicks off. Clean- fucking - off.”

Garrett stared at me blankly, like the words I had just spoken were so unexpected that they failed to register in his mind.

“W-what?” He stared. His reaction caused me all sorts of amusements. I chuckled at this and gave him a playful shrug.

“It was the dude who got with me... I snapped a bit while he was doing it and well...” I clipped my teeth together.

I expected Garrett to laugh with me but instead I saw his lower lip quiver.

Aw, man. How can he be a chimera? He was so... emotional. It was just so cute and sad in a way. I think these chimeras had to be hard asses just to survive in this family, but Garrett just wasn’t.

“Aww,” I made a sympathetic noise. “Garebear... my poor boy. I was trying to make you laugh not cry.”

My sweet fiancé stared at me, his eyes full of sadness. He must have swallowed a lot of sadness in his long life. It was amazing that he hadn’t turned stone-cold like Elish.

“I’ll kill him...” he began, but I shook my head and kissed the corner of his mouth.

“Kerres put him out of his misery. He’s dead, hun,” I replied. “I paid him back for what he did and... after that no one touched me. They beat the shit out of me and made me feel like crap but... nothing sexual.”

But the reality had already been brought to what had been a quiet evening. I had successfully ruined the best night we had had in a while. I cursed myself out inside my head and kissed him again. Garrett reciprocated but his hand crept into mine, I knew he would never let me be far from him ever again.

And I was okay with that.

After we ate and enjoyed a couple of drinks together I laid down on a day bed he had beside a window and watched my fiancé’s fingers gently press down on the ivory keys of his grand piano. So soft and delicate, gently coaxing each note out of the keys like he was touching silk. It was beautiful and almost hypnotic to watch.

He was playing Moonlight Sonata even though I had asked him to play me Metallica. He was trying to show me what real music sounded like, though I knew he just wanted to show off his skills.