The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (39 page)

I grabbed onto his jacket and started pulling him towards the road. Jade screamed and wrenched himself away. “I said no! I don’t know what you are, or why you’re suddenly not dead but… I don’t care about my previous life. I’m not leaving them and I’m not leaving him.”

The half-raver apparently named Big Shot looked on at the scene, a sad look in his eyes.

I grabbed Jade again. The feral continued to twist and thrash until I gave up and pointed the M16 to his head.

“Now.”

“I don’t care, he saved me!” Jade yelled. “He can’t whistle like we can. What if as soon as he becomes human they attack him!? I’m not leaving!”

Like a toddler throwing a fucking tantrum. No wonder Elish beat this kid – I wanted to beat this kid.

“I don’t fucking care, Jade,” I said back. “I need to know what happened to Killian and Perish, and you need to get your fucking mind back so you can tell me. After, you can come back if you love being a raver. I don’t give two shits. You’ll be Elish’s problem then.”

“No!” Jade continued to throw a fit. I was about done so I put him into the same sleeper-hold I had used to knock out Killian.

Though he fought back more, but oddly his raver friend didn’t attack me. Instead he turned around and walked back into the old coffee shop palace. Nice friend.

Jade’s thrashing eventually died down. I let out an annoyed breath and slung him over my back.

I looked into the coffee shop and saw two shadows. Big Shot and a giant black one were standing beside the wing chair, watching me intently.

I let them be. The guerilla ravers got off easy this time. They can take the twenty I killed and use that as a warning. I really didn’t give an ever-loving fuck what they did with this town; a part of me hoped they took over more towns just because it would be amusing to see.

With Jade over my back I walked into the coffee shop and spotted the bags Elish and I had been carrying, they were all resting unmolested against Jade’s throne. I picked them up and a bag that I think had been Jade’s and walked out of the glass doors.

I gave a whistle just to warn the ravers I was leaving. I saw over a dozen of them watching me from the shadows, flinching as soon as I whistled. They let me be and I let them be, mentally daring one of them to fucking shoot at me.

I walked towards the crops of corpses, and adjusted Jade on my shoulder. He might be a light, stealthy chimera but he was a ton of bricks against my wounds.

But as I walked down the road, half-covered in grey ash, I heard scraping behind me.

I whirled around and couldn’t believe my eyes.

Big Shot was trailing behind; a blank expression on his face like this was just a Sunday morning stroll. When he saw I was watching him he stopped, but didn’t move.

“Go home!” I snapped. I pointed towards the town behind us. “Come on, I heard you fucking talk, asshole. I know you can understand me. Go back to your raver clan I got nothing for you here.”

I kept walking and the scraping continued. I ground my molars and turned around again.

“I’ll shoot you right where you stand,” I threatened. “I will drop this little prick onto the ground and –”

“Jade,” Big Shot said. He pointed to Jade. “I am his guard.”

“I don’t care if you’re his pet dog, fuck off!” I was quickly losing my patience with talking ravers.

Big Shot continued to walk towards me. “I am King’s guard. King Jade’s guard. I go where he goes.”

I stared at him. I closed my eyes for a second and said slowly, “I have more important things to care about. Do whatever you want to, buddy.” I turned back around and started heading towards where I had left Elish.

The scraping continued behind me.

As I approached Elish I saw he was sitting up, looking half-conscious with Deek sitting beside him. Elish glanced up at me then did a double take.

Elish rose to his feet quickly; his heartbeat gave a thump. “Give him to me.”

Gladly. I handed Jade off to him and started taking off my jacket. “I put him in a sleeper-hold; he’ll be back in about five minutes. He still has no idea who the fuck we are, but I got him and the ravers are going to let us be.”

“How badly are you injured?” Elish held his cicaro caringly in his arms, the boy limp with his eyes half-open and glassy.

“I can stave off death until tonight,” I said. I put on my knapsack and carried Elish and Jade’s. My shoulder was screaming its painful protest and my back was scratched and bit to hell but I had a high threshold for pain. One of Elish’s death pills should have me healed by the morning.

Then Elish’s eyes narrowed; he looked past me. “And why are you still alive?”

“He’s your problem now,” I said darkly, looking behind my shoulder at Big Shot. “He says he’s Jade’s guard and he won’t leave him. Just shoot the idiot and let’s go. I want good distance between us and those fuckers if I’m going to be dying tonight.”

Elish adjusted his hold on the boy, still staring coldly at the half-raver. “How did he become your king?”

Big Shot stood there like an idiot, then to my surprise he actually answered. “We come to eat Jade. We take him back to den.”

“Why?” Elish demanded.

“He was controlling them through that dog whistle Perish taught me,” I explained. We all started walking away from the town, Big Shot still trailing. “I guess they were too afraid to kill him.”

“How did you come to take over the town?” Elish said. The cicaro made a whimpering noise but remained still in his master’s arms.

“Jade taught us to shoot and cut out skin for chip,” Big Shot said. “Jade came with dog. He is family, my family. He said this to me in truth.”

“When are you going to kill him?” I said to Elish.

I groaned when he kept on walking with Jade.

“We’re not killing him. The more guards the better. If he can keep up we’re taking him with us.”

“Why!” I demanded, throwing my hands up in the air.

“Because the more people to protect my pet the better. You obviously failed at the task,” Elish replied crisply.

“You’re the idiot who decided to kiss a raver,” I shot back. When Elish didn’t respond I decided to get to the real issue here. “Do you have any idea how to get his memories back? We don’t even know if we’re heading in the right direction.”

“Yes, I do.”

Well, I wasn’t expecting that answer. To my surprise and confusion Elish tried to make Jade stand on his feet, but since the cicaro was still half-dazed he was limp and couldn’t stand on his own.

Elish motioned for me to grab Jade and I held him up. I gave Elish a skeptical look.

“I realized this while I was resurrecting,” Elish said noticing the look I was giving him. “The blow was to the back of Jade’s head…” He carefully put his hand to the back of Jade’s skull and started feeling around. “Jade has several chips inside of his head. All but two are currently de-activated since I needed his abilities. I think one of them malfunctioned. It’s placed near where his long-term memories are stored, conveniently right by his tracking chip as well.”

Elish slowly felt around the cicaro’s skull as Jade started to writhe under my hold. From the times I had done this move, on Reno mostly when he wouldn’t stop trying to touch me, he would be awake in under a minute.

But he wouldn’t even get a minute. As Elish found the right spot I felt a sharp tingling in my hands and at the same moment Jade yelped and went rigid. I braced myself as he tried to flop to his side and kept him upright.

The cicaro’s eyes closed tight, his entire face creasing like he was in pain. I hoisted him up and tried to get him to stand on his own.

“Elish?” Jade suddenly whimpered.

Elish’s pulse jumped, and until his cold countenance hid it, I saw a look of intense relief.

He took Jade from me and lowered him to the ground.

Jade stared at the ground and blinked slowly. To my surprise Elish suddenly took a step back from his pet.

I knew why a moment later when the cicaro’s chest gave a lurch and he proceeded to throw up onto the ground.

Jade

I took in a sharp breath and threw up again. The next thing I knew Elish was holding me upright as I slumped over, my entire body trembling and my head pounding.

“Elish?” I tried to say it again. I was confused; my skull seemed to be ripping itself in half and I barely knew where I was. I wasn’t even sure if that really was my master, he looked so different.

But he felt the same; his embrace was the same…

His hair though, it was so short and he had a beard. My Elish would never look like that, he kept himself pandemically clean. He only wore crisp, clean robes, or when we were at home, a button-down and trousers. He didn’t even wear the same socks two days in a row…

I threw up again, and saw his duster, now dingy grey, wipe my mouth gently.

“You know who I am now I see.” His voice was gentle, though it held those smirking tones I had come to love – and miss.

I sniffed and tried to force air into my sore chest. I tried to get up and felt Elish steady me.

I turned around so I was looking at him, and felt my heart give a painful throb. To my own embarrassment and humiliation I dissolved into tears.

I heard Reaver give an incredulous snort, but Elish didn’t care and neither did I. When my master took me into his arms I melted and let him squeeze me tight against him. He held me so tight I thought my ribs were going to break; he had never held me this hard.

“I love you, I’m sorry,” I whimpered.

He shushed me. “What could you possibly be sorry about? Are you sorry you got your head smashed in without my permission? Or are you sorry for ripping out my throat, and murdering me while consuming my blood?”

My heart fell; I had forgotten about that. Everything that had happened with the ravers seemed so far away now. Elish banished all other thoughts from my head.

I pulled away from him and looked at the greywaste ground. My ears went hot as the shame started to creep into my muddled senses.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to… I, ah…” I looked over at Reaver as if magically hoping he was going to help me, but he had his arms crossed over his chest and he was giving me a death glare.

“It doesn’t matter, maritus. I’ll punish you soundly when we get home,” Elish said in a kind voice.

My heart jumped. “We’re going home?”

“No, not yet… we have to –” Elish was promptly cut off when Reaver stalked towards me and put a hand on my shoulder. He jerked it back.

“Enough, you got your loving moment and now it’s down to business. Where’s Perish taking Killian?” Reaver demanded.

I stared at him for a moment. Then, as my past memories of long before I had met the ravers came into my head, I felt my knees become weak.

“Oh shit…” I whispered.

Elish held me steady but I felt like I was going to throw up again. I felt like my blood was slowly turning into ice water and yet my skin felt flushed and hot.

The last thing I saw before my mind had left me. I had to say it before anything else, knowing that was what Reaver was waiting for. “Perish does have him. Killian was unharmed when we were attacked, when the slavers were killed.”

Sure enough, the relief could be seen on the man we had called the dark chimera. He looked at me and let me continue to find my words.

“Master, he said he was taking Killian north east, that was the last thing I heard before I passed out,” I said. “What’s north east from the resort? Were you there? I left your laptop in a safe spot. I didn’t let them take it.”

Elish looked at me for a moment before he turned to Reaver. “Perish… is taking him to the plaguelands.”

Reaver, who was in the middle of putting on one of the knapsacks, stopped and stared at the two of us. “Why? Why would he be taking him there? The radiation will kill him, it will kill Perish too.”

Elish stepped away from me and I used that opportunity to spit the rest of the puke out of my mouth. I was a dirty, greasy wreck and my head was pounding.

“Perish won’t. Born immortals are immune to the sestic radiation and all chimeras hold the same trait inside of their DNA. All three of us will be fine.” He looked past Reaver. “If Perish has him in the plaguelands the boy will not have long. Even if he has a dozen Geigerchips inside of him the radiation will eventually win.”

Reaver looked to the north. I could see the demon that he was just crawling underneath the surface. The time away from Killian was apparent on the dark chimera, and that was without even looking into his aura.

That I didn’t want to see.

“Why, Elish? Why is he taking Killian there?” Reaver asked. He started walking north, towards where the highways were.

After Elish made sure I could walk properly, we started to follow behind Reaver. I got a shock when I saw Big Shot trailing behind us, but I just gave him a smile and a quiet
kah
. I knew if I asked why he was coming along, interrupting Reaver and Elish’s conversation, I would have my head bitten off.

“I don’t know. I haven’t the slightest idea why he would be bringing the boy there,” Elish said calmly. “If he wanted to kill Killian there are much simpler ways of doing it. No, Perish has something planned for that boy – but at this point, I do not know what that is.”

Reaver turned around. His face was tense and his black hair only making his shining onyx eyes look even more menacing. “If he starts slowing us down, I’m leaving you two behind.”

I shot a glare at Reaver and felt a vibration in my throat, but I swallowed the words creeping to my lips. I knew right now saving my pride was the least of my worries, Reaver looked like he was about to kill all of us right now.

“He will not slow us down,” Elish replied, still keeping his calm voice. I started picking up the pace absentmindedly. “If he falls into illness, he can do what you mused about earlier: he can ride the dog.”

I blinked and turned around to where Deek and Big Shot were walking behind. The giant half deacon, half dog was getting big now. His head came up to my chest and his paws were huge.

“I could ride you, right, boy? I could get you a saddle?” I smiled and petted the dogs head, but not a moment later I felt my stomach lurch and a nausea boil. I turned around and started gagging again.

Reaver kept walking but Elish stayed with me. He even helped steady me when I felt the dizziness start to send a heat to my face.

I let out an unimpressed groan as Elish picked me up and started carrying me. Another wave of heat sunk into my face but this one was from embarrassment. Just a couple hours ago I had been King of the Ravers, now I was back to being a sickly chimera in his master’s arms.

“You’ve lost more weight,” Elish murmured. “Do you think you will be able to keep up?”

I nodded. “My head is just a bit rattled…” I decided in that moment not to tell him about the intense migraines I had been getting. There was no way around it, I was going with Reaver and the group, so there wasn’t much of a point in telling them. “I’ll get some rest tonight. We have enough in our group we can trade off and all get some rest.”

My master’s eyes scanned my face, still looking so different than what I was used to. Though I found him just as powerful and strong, maybe even more so – I kind of like that rugged look.

I looked back at him, wondering if he was looking for weakness, or just that he missed me. I decided to give him a smile before reaching up and tugging on his beard.

“James,” I said with a smirk.

My heart soared as he smiled back at me, before leaning down and kissing me.

“Raver.”

I smiled wider but I didn’t laugh; I knew Reaver wouldn’t appreciate that laugh. His boy was still out there and was still in danger. Even though right now I wanted to just cling to Elish and make him hold me tight to his chest, I knew we had to wait. Reaver seemed like a ticking time bomb, and he wouldn’t take kindly to Elish and I showing affection to each other right now.

Killian was out there with Perish, with the man who had taken a metal rod to the back of my head.

At this mental omission I looked up at Elish. “He got his O.L.S. I don’t know how but he did.”

Elish nodded as he stepped over a fallen telephone pole. “We know. Reno found out for us. He is safely back home with Garrett. Perish has his mind back but what he is planning on doing with that greywaster boy I don’t know. We’ll find out though.”

“Does Silas have any idea we’re out here?” I asked.

Elish shook his head. “No, and I’ll have to come up with some rather creative excuses as to why we’ve been gone for so long, but I’ll do it. Or perhaps luck will be on my side and I can get that secret tucked so nicely inside of that O.L.S.”

My eyes brought me to my friend Big Shot, walking with his green eyes fixed forward, obediently following beside me. “You let Big Shot come?”

A curious look swept Elish’s face which, as usual, turned into a smirk. “Big Shot? You named him? Interesting. He insisted on coming along, I suppose you always made friends easily with the infirm. The half-raver will be your extra protection. You’re still in the company of immortals and I would rather you have a guard.”

I was happy he was coming along, though I would miss my ravers. My place was with my master though and there was no other place I would rather be.

“I think I can walk,” I said to him after we had been silent for over an hour. I was starting to feel guilty that Elish was carrying me over this rough terrain. We were walking through the ruins of a small town, stepping over telephone poles and street lamps and making our way over dunes of greywaste ash. My master hadn’t complained once but I could feel and hear it in his heartbeat that he was starting to get tired.

Elish let me slip from his hold and steadied me as I tested out my legs. I nodded that I was okay and he took his hand off of my shoulder before handing me several pills. I took them and popped them into my mouth before taking a bottle of water from him.

“Any blood?” Elish asked. Though it may seem like a vague question I knew exactly what he was talking about. My empath abilities were slowly killing me. My brain, and the brain of any mortal, chimera or not, wasn’t able to handle the stress of making my abilities work. A major reason why Elish wanted to make me immortal as soon as possible.

I shook my head, once again deciding to leave out my migraines. “No, but I have a nasty gash on the back of my head but it’s mostly all healed. So is a carracat slash I got on my arm.” I rolled up my jacket sleeve so I could show him.

Elish ran a finger up and down the thick and ugly scar. “You even look like a raver with these scars. Once we get home I will just move that scar removal machine into the apartment and treat you myself. What am I to do with a husband with such a disfigured body now?”

I didn’t know whether to get mad at him for calling me disfigured or be happy that he called me his husband. Unfortunately my brain was still jamming on itself so I just scowled and let out a huff.

Elish put a hand on my chin and rubbed it. “You look so adult now too. That beard on your face has aged you at least five years. Tonight while you tell me just what happened while I was away, I’ll be shaving it off of you.”

I scratched it absentmindedly. “As long as I can shave yours off. I don’t think anyone would recognise us now. We’re real greywasters.”

“Walk faster!” The anger behind Reaver’s voice made my heart clench. I looked ahead to see just what was going on with him, but the moment I saw the look on his face I took a step behind Elish.

The dark chimera was glaring at us, his shoulders hunched and his fists clenched tightly to his sides. He was standing at the top of a light pole and he was giving us all the look of death.

“Reaver, we are walking at the same speed as always,” Elish replied back. His voice was low and calm, soothing tones like he was talking to an injured wild animal, and in truth he was. “Now that we know where Perish and Killian are heading, we can get there quickly.”

Reaver glared at us, searching our faces but for what I didn’t know. I steered away from making eye contact with him; I didn’t want to provoke him.

But I guess he would be provoked no matter what I did. I heard the shifting of ground as he jumped from his light pole. I kept on walking, staring at the ground.

Then movement in front of me. I looked up and saw Elish with his arm out, shielding me from Reaver who was only a foot away from me.

“Stand aside, I want answers from him,” Reaver said, his voice was starting to become gravely and hoarse. “I want to know what happened while I was gone. How was Perish treating him? Was he being kind to him?”

Oh, that was what he wanted from me. I looked up at him, or up over Elish’s arm anyways. My master was still forming his own physical barrier between me and Reaver.

“He was,” I said honestly. “Perish was manipulating him pretty good, but Killian wasn’t stupid. In the end he knew Perish was playing us. Perish didn’t hurt Killian at all; he was more interested in killing me and killing the slavers and the slaves.”

As Reaver continued to stare at me I could feel the dark feelings that came hand in hand with Reaver start to blur the corners of my visions. Different feelings from before. Unlike when he had killed Timothy back in Kreig these feelings were infested with worry, an intense anxiety and helplessness that seemed to devour him right in front of me.

The clone of the king was being eaten alive right now. I was watching his own thoughts cannibalize all the positive feelings Killian had brought. And I knew that if I looked into that aura I would no longer see the strands of light. It would only give me just as many, if not more, nightmares, just like Killian’s own aura had.

I decided to try and calm the beast. “He loves Killian; he won’t hurt him. When Perish was raping me and drugging me, he was sucking up and protecting Killian. When he was bashing me over the head with a metal rod he was protecting Killian from the ravers. Killian was worried about you. He’s going to be more –”

“Perish did what to you?” Elish’s voice sliced through my words making me stop in my tracks.

“Did he touch Killian?” Reaver barked, but Elish held up a hand for his silence. All eyes suddenly were on me. I felt my ears go hot.

“No, he didn’t touch Killian or act like he wanted to. It…” I swallowed, too many glaring eyes were on me. “It was all on me. He was trying to get information out of me; he was using scopa and sex to make me talk.”

I turned to Elish and shrunk down, feeling the brumal anger start to encase him like a tight glove. My shoulders started to tremble just out of sheer reflex. Usually when he was giving me that look I was ten seconds away from being knocked to the floor.

“What did he want to know?” Elish said coldly, his voice dropping. “What did you tell him, Jade?”

I shook my head back and forth, folding my arms over my chest. I glanced over at my master but I wasn’t able to look at him. The fact that it was Perish making me fuck him made me sick; I didn’t want to admit that to Elish. It made it seem more… more my fault. “It was confusing. He seemed to be pressing me for the passwords to your laptop and about the sestic radiation. He wanted to know the effects of something called prolonged concentrated exposure, I think.”

I saw for a fleeting moment, a flicker so quick it was like a hummingbird’s wings, of shock on Elish’s face, before it quickly disappeared.

“Why would he need to know that?” Reaver asked. “What’s in your laptop? He had access to the Kreig files he was the one who got them.”

Elish shook his head slowly. “My laptop has everything on it which is why I entrusted it to Jade. It has everything from clone research, the profiles of all the chimeras, to…” Elish was silent for a moment. “To everything to do with the sestic radiation.”

“Yeah, but it was password protected, right?” I said.

Elish’s mouth twitched; I could tell he was troubled. “Yes, but I don’t doubt he was able to access it, which is why he might’ve decided to kill you.” He looked ahead. “Well, let’s get moving.”

Reaver didn’t move. He stared at Elish, his black eyes blazing. “What the fuck does Perish want? Tell me. I’m not an idiot, Elish. What did you just figure out?”

I was expecting Elish to verbally cut him down, or do something to stifle Reaver’s attitude, but my master didn’t waver from his usual calm. We both started to walk again, Big Shot and the dog still trailing behind.

“Sestic radiation is a remarkable thing, it can preserve as well as it can destroy,” Elish responded. “I will not worry you with my theory nor will I give you false hope.”