by Quil Carter
It had been over a year now, and he was no longer dressed in his greywaster clothes but his yellow eyes were as good as a neon sign pointing to his identity. Hopefully if Greyson did breakdown and tell Reaver, he would explain the real identity of the two travelling partners that visited them long ago.
Elish didn’t answer.
Jade grabbed his loose chain and twisted it around his knuckles as he fidgeted around. He knew better than to expect his master to reveal to him his inner thoughts. Though it had happened, it was expelled in brief moments of pillow talk when he had Elish all to himself. As soon as they left the apartment they shared though, Elish was closed for comment. Authoritarian Elish emerged and getting a personal answer out of his Adonis was like squeezing water from a rock.
“You won’t let him kill me… will you?”
Still Elish didn’t answer. This made a bitter taste flood into Jade’s mouth. Once Elish had told him he would never let Silas hurt him again but even after that promise, Jade had almost been killed by the king’s hand. Maybe Elish didn’t want to make promises he could no longer keep.
But it had been years now and he was still alive… and they were more bound together than they had been before the chaos started.
For years they had been intertwined in this life. Had Elish gotten bored of him? Was the chase better than the reward he had for catching him? This insecurity ravaged Jade in the middle of the night; he would pace the halls of Elish’s skyscraper worrying about it. The slums had taught him only one thing: be prepared for the worst, because it will happen. Though since hiding in that study that night in Skyland, Elish had, in some way or another, protected him from the worst.
But, whatever substance their relationship boiled down to, Elish couldn’t protect Jade from the only man he bowed to.
No, I thought that many times but in the end, Elish always had an upper hand in whatever sinister ways Silas had played his game. I doubted him so many times and was proven false. Why would this be different?
But Silas had stopped playing games with them; he had moved onto new prey. To Reaver of Aras, the lost chimera Elish had been hiding. This man who was like them. The man who had made King Silas lose his usual calm voided aura, replacing it with an inferno not even Elish’s coldness could extinguish. The anger at Lycos’s deception, that he hadn’t died in the explosion, that he had taken the infant and disappeared into the wasteland. But Silas didn’t know that Elish had orchestrated the whole thing.
Jade had heard the stories, late at night in bed, when Elish was his, and he remembered when Elish finally trusted him enough to tell him just who this feral greywaster was and why Lycos was hiding him. It was a plan set on the back-burner, a seed planted that he had been eagerly awaiting the sowing of. Jade couldn’t wait, because it would mean the destruction of the Mad King.
It meant the Ghost would finally be taken by the Darkness.
The dark chimera the feral greywaster, the black-eyed demon that Jade had met twice. Though he wasn’t a normal chimera like all of them, he was more than that.
He was engineered for King Silas, to be his.
King Silas wanted to create his perfect partner, his lover to rule the greywastes. Someone like him in every way, with features moulded to his most intimate likings. Like Michelangelo with a scalpel, he had carved himself a perfect prince.
Only to be stolen from him, and claimed dead. Baby after baby had died in the artificial wombs and after years of trying the project had been scrapped. Elish had said it was impossible and the project should be abandoned.
But no, it had all been a lie, another seed Elish had been planting, after finally growing tired of answering to this insane king.
Reaver was then born, a dark raven behind the marbling grey of the wasteland. With beautiful black hair and eyes, a sculpted face and eyebrows thin and slightly arched. A beautiful horror to behold even when he was younger. There was no question why this demigod had been taken and hidden; he was a force to be reckoned with, an evil soul that had the potential to destroy the world again. Elish knew it, and from this knowledge he formed his plans.
But then everything changed.
Silas had found out that Reaver was alive.
And King Silas wanted Reaver back.
Jade felt a tug on his chain, and realized in his day-dreaming Elish had headed towards the door. His master knew even the slightest hint of reassurance would mean the world to him, but Elish’s face held nothing but the usual cold calm. He had been shut off and angry ever since the night he found out Silas knew; he had taken his anger out on Jade and on his own sengil Luca to the point where they had both fled.
With a suppressed sigh Jade obediently followed Elish, his eyes tracing the walls as if taking them in for perhaps the last time.
He felt a growl in his throat when he saw Tim on the plane. The young chimera was fourteen years old, a gangly spiral-haired little fuck who never resisted the urge to berate Jade. Jade had spent many nights planning what he was going to do to him in a dark alley the eve he turned fifteen. The snivelling little future cocksucker was in for a rude awakening as soon as he became Silas’s required age.
But for now he was as Jade had just thought: a little cocksucker.
When he climbed into the pilot’s seat of the Falconer, Jade bristled. Elish noticed but paid him nothing more than a passing glance of berating amusement. The words exchanged between the master and pet’s body language told of an argument that had lasted quite a while. Jade loved flying the Falconer, and Elish loved denying him the opportunity. It had come about during the first year of their master/pet relationship, Elish had let him fly the plane once, but had grown annoyed when he had kept asking. So as quickly as the privilege came it was rescinded, and Elish seemed to enjoy denying Jade what he loved most. If only to cheer himself up.
“Get in the back, Jade the maid,” Tim said with his usual arrogance. He flicked back his tight auburn curls and gave Jade a cocky smirk and a knowing look. His huge tabby eyes never ceased to rub Jade the wrong way.
I wonder what those clustered eyes will look like when Silas shoves his cock up his ass that first night. Images like those made Jade obedient. In time it would happen. Apparently Caligula had been the same way before his first night with Silas, and now he was an obedient little pit bull whenever his master had orders for him.
Elish gave Jade back his chain, and took his seat in the co-pilot’s chair. Behind him on the bench sat Nero, Ares, and Siris. The three biggest muscles, the brute side of the chimeras, and Jade’s most hated brothers. Silas was smart to have them with him; Reaver had always been a maniac, and with Killian beside him, he would be a devil. They had all the protection they needed now.
Then why am I here? Am I bait? Jade wanted to catch his master’s eye. Even if he knew nothing would be revealed in those shards of violet ice, he could at least put forth the anxiety he was feeling, in hopes Elish might show him some sympathy.
But it was hopeless. Jade resigned himself to whatever fate Silas had thought up for him. He was a slave, and his life was no longer his own. He had surrendered it to Elish long ago.
When Tim quietly let them out inside of Aras, Jade felt his chain tighten. He looked over and saw Elish wrapping it around his hands, barely leaving him enough room to follow behind.
They were in a park it seemed. Jade looked down and kicked the dirt from his boots. He had his arms over his chest to keep warm. Elish never allowed him much in the way of clothes, but Skyfall’s climate was tepid. This place was freezing cold.
Jade blew air from his mouth and made a plume, before tucking his fingers up to his armpits. All he had on were his leather pants and a tight black shirt with slashed sleeves. Even his boots, also black leather, were unsuited for this weather and this terrain.
With a jingle he felt his leash tighten. He followed behind his master, the three brutes in the front, and Tim left in the plane ready for their take off.
As they turned a corner, Jade saw two figures in th
e darkness, sitting side by side on the roof of a car, sharing a cigarette.
One of the figures turned towards their group, before he handed the cigarette back to the first. He jumped down and walked towards them.
Greyson Merrik had a look on him that told a thousand stories. He had dark brown hair though his hairline was receding, and deep eyes full of expression. Though lined, his face held onto a youthfulness that told Jade that in his prime he had been quite handsome. A tempered toughness that only a lifetime in the greywastes could give. His aura was that of a steeled fortress, but with a determination so tangible Jade felt the weight of it on his body.
“Is he still alive?” Greyson turned to Elish, his grey eyes begging. Jade wasn’t surprised that at the mere mention of his husband the fortress weakened. He had met both of them and knew that to kill one without the other would be the greatest of tragedies.
A waster fell in love with a chimera. I wonder how many times this love story had played out? At one time he thought his own story was unique but perhaps not.
“I want to meet Reaver.” Elish’s voice was as cold as the air around them. Jade knew his choice of words, to everyone besides the three they had never met and it had to be that way.
Behind him the brutes stood, their arms crossed and their expressions intimidating. They paid Jade no notice as he stared at them, passively making sure they were ready for conflict.
“He just found out… he’s not ready to talk to you.”
“It matters not.”
Jade was surprised his master didn’t seem uneasy during this tense time. He thought he would perhaps feel something off with him, even if just a hint, but Elish was calm and collected.
“Bring him to me, Greyson.” Elish turned around and looked towards Nero, Ares, and Siris. “I will ask you step far enough back that you cannot hear what will transpire between Reaver and myself.”
Wordlessly the three stepped back. Jade waited with butterflies in his stomach for Elish to request the same from him, but his master held his chain firm.
When Jade turned back, Greyson was heading back to the other figure.
After a brief exchange, the man walked down the street towards them.
The aura Reaver gave off immediately drew in a sense of anxiety; Jade had forgotten the tight woven black strings that gripped every inch of flesh on his body, the colourless void that sucked everything into its darkness like it was a black hole resting between bright stars, a succubus, a monster, something that edged the corners of your vision like oil tainting water.
He had forgotten the feeling but he had never forgotten how identical it was to Silas’s.
And as Reaver stepped into the light, Jade took another step back, suppressing a growl in his throat that seemed to come forth unbidden whenever he felt threatened. He remembered the last time he saw Reaver, and inside he wished for that same man, for the one in front of him had changed. The blond boy’s influence had only gone so far; the demon had grown into his own and had become the devil of his own realm.
The king of the greywastes stepped forward, his boots silent against the ground and his movements as fluid as oil on wax. His black hair, longer now, fell over his obsidian eyes, and the unemotional look on his face was only broken by the subtle menace that creased his perfect features.
He was fucking gorgeous.
Reaver stopped in front of them, his arms folded defiantly over a bulletproof vest. He had a thin joint clenched between his teeth, and a large gun on his back. Like every part of him, save his marble skin, he was clad in black.
He looked at Elish and then at Jade, and with that his eyes narrowed. Jade knew then that Reaver knew who they were, and who they always had been.
We were not travelling partners, those times we visited Aras. And we never had been.
“Please put away your cigarette,” Elish said.
Jade’s eyes widened; he had been talked to in that tone before by Elish. He swallowed nervously, feeling his hands tense. Reaver hadn’t even opened his mouth and Jade knew they were in trouble. The darkness around him hadn’t come from him being the pampered brat of a mayor. He was an unbridled beast, as arrogant and cavalier as they came. Reaver knew nothing of their family and he would be punished for his disobedience.
To Jade’s horror, Reaver took a drag from his cigarette and blew smoke right in Elish’s face.
“I will only negotiate with Silas, not his dolled up whore.”
Jade bellowed with rage and tackled Reaver. But as soon as Reaver hit the ground he threw Jade off of him.
Elish viciously pulled on Jade’s chain. Jade felt the air yanked from his chest. He landed on his back, his throat burning viciously.
Jade coughed like a chained dog as he struggled to his feet, but he felt a blow on his back that kicked him to his knees. He felt Siris’s boot forcing his torso forward in an obedient stance.
He looked up and saw the piercing gaze of Reaver, his black eyes radiating hatred.
He was caliginosity in a solid form, even without his heightened senses, Jade could sense that.
“You need to keep better control of your animals, James,” Reaver growled, calling him the name Elish had given him in the greywastes. When they had met Reaver under disguise, when he hadn’t even known what a chimera was.
It might have been the bred-in hot headedness of being a slum rat, or perhaps a teenage arrogance he still hadn’t out grown, but Jade lunged at Reaver again, unable to contain his rage.
Reaver was waiting for him though. In the split second Jade was in the air, Reaver drew back his arm and punched Jade right in the jaw.
Then a gunshot. Jade felt a burning pain in his arm that felt like a red hot poker. He groaned and rolled onto his side.
The activity around him exploded like a bomb. Jade could hear Nero shouting orders to Ares and Siris, before a series of screams and yells.
Jade felt himself pulled to his feet. He looked up and saw Ares bring a kicking and screaming boy out of an abandoned home behind them.
“No!”
Jade looked behind him in shock. The once derisive gaze of Reaver was wide and full of fear, his voice brimming with an emotion unfitting his dark demeanor. He sounded shaken.
Nero held the boy up by his jacket, so his feet were dangling off the ground.
No, it was no boy, he was Jade’s age if not a year or so younger. His small appearance was deceptive at first, even though he looked their height, his small frame gave him a boyish appearance. Even his screams sounded higher than normal.
It was Killian, the boy from Tamerlan who had ended up in Aras.
Jade yelped as he felt cold arms wrap around his neck, and with a vicious tug his chain was pulled from Elish’s grasp. Moments later he felt the cold links wrap around his neck.
Jade ground his teeth together as the chains constricted his throat. He felt his head throbbing as he thrashed in Reaver’s grasp. The grip was steel though; Jade felt like a scaver caught in the jaws of a deacon.
“Let him go!” Reaver’s voice was a booming echo in Jade’s mind. He inhaled a gasping wheeze, but not enough to satiate his pounding head.
“Oh, Reaver… Reaver… you really think the life of one slum whore pet is worth the life of your precious Killian?”
That voice… it was King Silas. I was doomed, I was doomed.
Then an ear-shattering scream, higher pitched, it must’ve been the boy’s. Jade felt his head get yanked back with vicious fervour, his mouth filling with copper. He could see red sprinkles spray from his mouth with his desperate gasps for breath. In the background Greyson was yelling.
As the fight faded from Jade’s limbs, he felt himself go limp. The next thing he heard was a scream of rage from Reaver, and his body was dropped.
With half-conscious eyes he watched Reaver lunge at Nero, who had Killian over his head, his hand clenched in a death grip around the boy’s neck.
With a flash of steel Reaver brought out his combat knife. A fraction of a second befo
re he could plunge it into Nero’s heart the brute dropped Killian, and grabbed Reaver’s arm in midair. With his now free hand, Nero punched Reaver in the stomach, and threw him hard onto the ground.
Killian dropped and as he did a grey blur jumped in front of him. Jade was shocked to see it was a deacon dog. The dog bit down on Nero’s shoulder before Siris grabbed it by the neck and tried to yank it off.
The dog snarled and kicked Siris with his back legs, before thrashing his head back and forth ripping flesh from Nero’s shoulder.
“Deek, stand down,” Reaver gasped. He was already half on his feet before Ares grabbed him. He yanked his arms back and kicked the man down to his knees.
Then Greyson joined in. He grabbed Reaver by his collar, and, with strength Jade had only seen in Nero, threw Reaver towards Killian. The boy drew his gun and pulled Reaver to an alleyway a few feet away from the scene.
At this moment Jade became aware of a presence behind him. He realized Elish was kneeling over him, talking in small, short sentences, but Jade’s attention seemed transfixed as everything played out in front of him.
“Jade? Look at me.”
Silas’s fluid movements brought him in front of Greyson, who was now being held by Nero. The brute grabbed onto his head and pulled his hair back.
“Reaver, take Killian and go,” Greyson gasped. “I’ll be okay. Please, take him and go. I want to be with Leo.”
Silas chuckled. Jade saw him kneel down in front of Greyson; he traced his hand over his chin and smiled. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”
Silas looked past Jade, to the two men behind him. Jade’s hearing tuned away from Silas and he could hear the boy still screaming and begging for Greyson’s life.
Jade felt Elish help him to his feet, but when he couldn’t stand, he was lifted up and almost cradled. He always ended up in Elish’s arms somehow, where he felt the most safe. It was a small oasis of comfort from the burning pain around his neck and chest.
Killian Massey was hysterical, he was being held back by Reaver whose eyes blazed with such unchained fury Jade could swear he saw them glow.
