The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (7 page)

Finally the kid, after shooting up his last dose of heroin, put the empty ChiCola bottle down and shifted around on the couch. “I’m going to go to bed... where’s Reaver?”

Perish shot up quickly, which made the kid flinch but the scientist didn’t notice. “I put him in the freezer. I’ll get him.”

I watched the kid for the obvious reaction of shock over where we had put his boyfriend. The freezer seemed like an odd place to put a recovering corpse, but it was really the fastest way for him to heal.

“Why... why is he in a freezer? I thought he was in one of the bedrooms?” Killian said quietly. He looked behind him and I saw his fingers grip the sides of the robes. I swear that kid was going to snap at any moment, even with the tar candy in his veins.

Perish clapped his hands together and nodded his head. He walked in front of Killian towards the lower level of the apartment where all the supplies were being kept, including the freezer.

“Well, Killian,” Perish explained in a happy tone, “during immortal healing the body heats up for several hours and then cools down. During this period of time, if you put them in cold temperatures it speeds up the recovery process.”

I had learned this years ago with Elish, I knew all the tricks of the trade for immortal healing. I guess now that Killian was a part of the ‘partners of immortals’ club he had to start learning the ropes.

“Oh, alright...” Killian’s small mousy voice said. “How... how long until he’s back?”

“Let’s see! I’ll be right back, stay right there,” Perish said excitedly. He disappeared into the side door that led down to the basement; his quick feet thumping up against the metal grating.

Killian stood there with the permanent worried look on his face. I hadn’t seen him without that look since I had met him in Tamerlan.

He was so different back then, a small little soul with an aura like marshmallow fluff and bubblegum. I remember it had been yellow and white, and so happy I had been jealous the first time I had seen it. Mine back then had been this cesspool of black misery and self-loathing, confused about my feelings towards Elish and under constant threat because of Elish’s own confused feelings towards me.

I didn’t know what Killian’s aura was like now. I hadn’t checked. And until Elish told me I could I wouldn’t. The last time hadn’t gone too well, I had been overwhelmed by the thirst to corrupt him, poison him, make what was crystal clear dirty and polluted. I had put my own aura against his and I was jealous as to how he looked compared to me.

I had wanted that... I had never been innocent, not even when I was a child.

Though Killian had nothing to worry about with me now, I had grown a lot since then. He was safe with me, and safe with Elish... it was only getting him to believe that that would be the issue.

“When –”

I snapped out of my thinking and looked over at the boy. Still standing beside the couch, looking troubled at the couch cushions like it was them who had wronged him.

“– when is Elish coming back?”

I put down my teacup as I heard the footsteps of Perish start to go up the stairs. “Sometime tomorrow morning I think. Since Silas is dead right now he is supposed to be running Skyfall, but Garrett and Joaquin will be more than happy to be head honchos.”

The kid kept staring at me, and I think he wanted to trust me. I didn’t know if he could though.

“What’s going to happen to us?”

Now that was the million dollar question... I didn’t know what was supposed to happen to him and Reaver. Elish had never told me. I just knew he was hiding him in the greywastes and that only Reaver could kill King Silas. All of this was unexpected.

“I don’t know but Elish always has a plan,” I said to him. “He’s too invested in this to stop. He’ll make sure you and Reaver are safe.”

The boy nodded and after that our attention was turned towards the basement door.

Perish was carrying Reaver slung over his shoulder, his usually shifty eyes bright to compliment the big smile on his face. I don’t know what he was so happy about, he had been starved, beaten to shit, and just straight-out tortured by Lycos and Greyson. Maybe it was because the blond kid was near him again; Elish had told me he was quite enamored with him.

“Okay, come here, sweety. Come look.” I saw a pull on Killian’s mouth at Perish calling him sweety, but perhaps that was just his thing. Either way, Killian shuffled on his mousy feet over to Perish as the scientist took Reaver into one of our spare bedrooms.

I walked in after the two, to see the dark chimera laying in all his glory on top of a brown comforter. There were faint wisps of steam rising up from his body like smoke; his corpse still adjusting to this new warm environment.

I heard a choke and watched Killian’s pale face blanch further. He raised a trembling hand and put it on his boyfriend’s cheek before I saw the first signs of him starting to break down.

I thought it was rather pathetic, Reaver was going to come back, but I knew this kid had been through a lot. I had been in this mentally fragile state many times with Elish, and I would’ve loved to have someone who understood what I was going through.

Anyways, Elish would want me to make nice.

I walked over to where Reaver’s head was and cringed at the large gaping hole in his throat. I could see a hint of white from what I believed was his spine, and more shredded tendons than I could count.

I leaned down and went to pull his shirt down but I heard Killian’s heart speed up as I did. I don’t think Killian wanted me touching him.

“He doesn’t have any other injuries...” Killian sniffed. His blue eyes were already glassy with unshed tears. “The deacon just got his throat.”

And Elish shot the deacon after he did that; then he picked up Reaver and threw him into the plane, all of this under the thick cloak of dust and gunfire. It had been my job to grab Killian but Elish had to help me with that. The kid shrieked and squirmed more than a piglet.

Perish rolled back and forth on his heels. “Well, from what I’ve seen, Killian, Reaver will be back in four days, maybe less I am not sure. Each immortal chimera heals at different rates. Silas is a bit slow, Elish has always been fast, for me, I’m a bit in the middle. Every time Lycos killed me I tried to see how long it had been. Once they cut open my head and that was three days.” The scientist gave Killian a smile, but it faded when he saw the distraught look on Killian’s face.

The boy put the towel that had been wrapped around Reaver’s neck back onto the wound, before kissing his fingers and laying it on his dead boyfriend’s cheek. “I’m sorry, Perish. For what I did to you in Donnely and for what Leo did to you.”

“Reaver said you did it because you felt badly for leaving me. No one has ever cared about how I felt. I should be thanking you for caring about me that much. I care about you too.” Perish looked up shyly before he reached down to the side of the bed and picked something up.

It was a stuffed Pokémon, a charmander to be exact. He handed it to Killian and rolled back and forth on his feet. “You can borrow him until Reaver wakes up.”

Killian took the stuffed animal with a whimper. “Thanks, Perry. I hopefully won’t have to borrow him for long.”

What an odd friendship those two had going on. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall over what had gone on in Donnely. I’d have to get Killian drunk one day and ask him if they fucked. I didn’t think so considering how attached Killian was to Reaver but who knows; they seemed to like being unstable together.

After making sure Reaver was healing and recovering we left Killian alone so he could sleep. I would be sleeping alone tonight, something that I had always hated. Hopefully by tomorrow I would have my master back to curl up beside. Even though he hadn’t been away from me for long, it always seemed like the time just dragged on.

I just hoped that he was safe... and that everything was going according to whatever new plan he had in his mind.

Chapter 3

Killian

I heard the scraping of his body being moved along the metal floor of the plane. Leaving a streak of blood that ended at the cuffs of his pants. He was partially decapitated, the loose tendons and blood vessels hanging down, not a drip of blood wetting their shredded ends.

I stood over his body. I was in my bedroom and he was crumpled up on my bed. The same position he had frozen into when he died, with the deacon pressing down on his chest and the remains of his neck in the dog’s jaws.

With milky eyes and a blood-soaked muzzle the deacon licked his stained teeth. His lips rose in a snarl.

Reaver’s eyes snapped open. He was lying in bed; I was standing over him, those black spheres glistened like the eyes of a devil.

Then Reaver rose to the sitting position, staring forward without a flicker of life in his eyes. His chest was still and cold, his skin the grey of an overcast sky.

He was still dead.

I shook my head, trying to shake away the growing feeling of unease.

No, no, he’s immortal. He’s alive.

I heard him mumble, but his throat was an open pit of red flesh lined with sinew and ropey veins. He couldn’t speak properly. I could only hear rasping, hissing groans.

I felt myself frozen in place, my feet welded to the spot. I had no choice but to watch him rise to standing and look around the room. A glint of hostility in those obsidian eyes, polished clean but without reflection or even a hint of white.

It wasn’t him... it wasn’t Reaver. It was his body; he was walking and he was moving, but this wasn’t my boyfriend. A different person was in him now.

Was this what it was like? Did the real person not come back?

I felt a bubbling cry form in my throat. I choked on saliva and felt my chest clench and shutter under the sudden gasp of air. I tried to swallow but my mouth was a dried lake.

Reaver was still there; I could smell him near me. His scent, gunpowder and burnt ash combined. The monster was here. My Reaver was dead.

But then I saw light.

I finally saw light.

His touch was so warm... like his hands had been resting over the fireplace; they were so soothing, so gentle. Oh, I had missed him so much. It hadn’t even been that long but it seemed like forever.

So long since we had been in bed together; so long since he had been mine and mine alone. I had to share Reaver with Asher before I killed him, and after that we had been so distracted with the aftermath.

But Reaver was mine... and in my dreams I wrapped my arms around him and let him hold me with every ounce of his strength.

Then I felt lips on me, soft warm lips that pressed up against mine with an urgency I didn’t understand. I accepted them though and opened my mouth for him, feeling his tongue start to find mine inside my mouth.

His hands drew up my sides, before they slid down my pants.

It was then my reality started to slowly creep back to me, and like a cold chunk of ice had landed in my stomach I realized that what was happening to me wasn’t a dream.

With a start my eyes snapped open, and I felt the man continue to kiss me, his hand behind my head drawing me closer and his other one massaging and pulling my dick. It was dark, I couldn’t see a thing, but I knew that smell and I knew that mouth.

I pulled away from Perish with a gasp and a cry, and as soon as I heard his stumbled apology I completely and totally lost my mind.

Then there was screaming from me and apologies from Perish, then a moment later the flick of a light switch to illuminate the transgressions that had just gone on.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I screamed. I picked up the table lamp beside us and threw it at him. It shattered against the wall only half a foot away from his head, showering him with blue ceramic pieces that fell soundlessly onto the floor.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry... you were having a bad dream! I’m sorry!” Perish cried. He was only wearing cloth pant bottoms. The rest of him was bare. “I don’t know why, okay? I just... I just –”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Jade was in the corner of my eye, his yellow eyes travelling first to me and then to Perish. He looked at the scientist and stalked up to him.

“What the fuck are you doing in here? Are you fucking kidding? Get the fuck out, you fucking psycho!” Jade roared. He grabbed Perish by the nape of the neck and started shoving him towards the door.

My mind couldn’t catch up to my thoughts. I was stunned; I was more than stunned I was terrified. I wasn’t safe here; I wasn’t safe with Perish and I wasn’t safe with Jade. I was miles and miles away from home, with no one to protect me.

I had to get away from these people but how? Reaver was dead... I had no one. I was alone with the scientist who had kept us captive; who had on many occasions came close to raping me... and Elish’s chimera pet who I didn’t trust at all.

Where was Reno? Greyson and Leo? My friends, the men I considered my family.

I was alone.

My breath choked in my throat, and with it I felt the anxiety reach a crippling point. A volcano that had been on the fringes of exploding finally shot out its first stream of magma. I was terrified, tired, shell-shocked... and done.