by Quil Carter
Killian eyed me nervously as I put on my sentry uniform. With good reason, I would be locking him in my bedroom. His stunt shooting Elish’s pet had only proved that I couldn’t rely on him staying in the basement. I wouldn’t point it out now, even though I wanted to. But if he hadn’t followed and eavesdropped on my conversation with Greyson, my meeting with Elish might have gone well and Greyson wouldn’t have gotten taken.
I remembered blowing smoke in Elish’s face, the man who had been introduced to me as James many years ago, along with his travelling partner who I had always known was a slave. I had thought he was dead, but in a cold voice Greyson had told me otherwise and had warned me to act like we had never met. This information had sunk into the other thousand troubled realizations raping my brain. Perhaps I had doomed the meeting from the start.
Either way, Killian shouldn’t have followed me.
What had Elish wanted anyway? He had requested to see me, as Elish Dekker this time, as my older brother and the man who had known my origins along with my fathers. But why me? And why did they wait this long to tell me?
Well, either way, it had ended with Greyson getting kidnapped right along with Leo. At least they were together now. I hoped they had been allowed to see each other.
“Okay, get up.” I grabbed the handcuffs and motioned towards my bedroom. I wasn’t going to trust Perish alone with him. One was getting locked in the bedroom and one was getting handcuffed to the couch.
I got on the radio and contacted Reno. He met me outside my shed, his assault rifle in tow. I told him my plans, and without another word, we walked off into Aras.
When we were done, there were only a few hours until dawn. We had talked the whole time, more than we ever had in our years of friendship. Maybe it was my unease about tomorrow, or maybe I had just needed something to distract me from my own mind. Either way we bonded more during that time than we ever had.
I was humiliated, however, to discover that Reno also knew about my chimera status, and that he had also been told by Killian. I should have known the hens would stick together. At least it confirmed Killian’s story about Leo threatening him. It wasn’t like I didn’t believe him, but well – he had been seeing a lot of things in his head lately.
When we returned to the backyard, we stopped inside the shed and shared the rest of our cigarette.
“You know what the most awesome thing about all of this is, man?” Reno puffed out the cigarette smoke and handed it to me. “I fucked the king. I fucked the king, Reaver. I got blown by him too. I got my dick polished, stroked, and deep throated by the king.”
I tried to suppress it, but a laugh burst through my lips. “Leave it to you to find the happy side. Did he squeal and cry?”
“Nah, he’s probably used to genetically enhanced chimera dick, he just growled and moaned.” Reno crossed his arms as I took a hit. His right eyebrow rose as he eyed me with a lust I had seen many times. “You know, I always hated you for your pretty dick. I guess it wasn’t just a god’s love. I find it rather unfair you get to be genetically perfect.”
I felt my teeth grind together, my good mood fading. Every fucking part of me was fake, a carbon copy of the body parts of every other chimera, I bet.
“Hey!” Reno interrupted my self-loathing, his voice sharp. “Hey, fuckface, listen to me. Don’t you dare get all angsty about being a chimera. It’s a fucking gift. But if you let yourself get caught up in the ‘Ohh Silas is bad, I’m bad too’ bullshit it’s a curse. You’re smarter than that. Use it as the fucking gift it is. You were never moral about duct taping toddlers as legion bait, or killing innocent people, don’t fucking get moral on me now. I’ll beat your fucking brains in if you ever get pissy about being some genetically enhanced Superman.”
I ground my teeth even harder, not because I was still mad, but because I had just realized that he was right.
“Hey, Superman, with your super eyesight, your super Sonic the Hedgehog speed, and your super hearing. Sorry you got such a bum deal about being a demigod. I know there must be some downside to being a supreme being. Like having to be friends with peasants.”
I pursed my lips to hide the smile threatening to hook the corners of my mouth.
“At least I can say I got given blow jobs by two deities.”
That was it for me. The laugh came out more like a muddled snort, but it was enough for him to clench his fists and hiss a victory. “Come here, I want a hug.” I groaned as he wrapped his arms around me. I indulged him and hugged him back. Killian had trained me to stop cringing.
“Don’t let those fucks take you man, you promise?”
“I won’t,” I said, pulling away. I lit us another cigarette. “The only way I would let them take me is if they got you or Killian. And you two will be together with guns, so it shouldn’t happen.”
Reno nodded and took the cigarette I offered him. “You sure you don’t want us to hide in the basement?”
I had thought of that, but Asher knew where the basement was. This place was safe, but all in all that safety made it quite the death trap. It wouldn’t take much to douse my home in diesel and torch it. With Killian in it. I felt the same fear for Reno’s house – Asher knew its location too.
“Hiding in one of the buildings would be the safest, there are hundreds here. They won’t find you two, but I don’t expect Silas to look.”
Reno nodded. Fear and apprehension looked odd on his friendly features. Reno made jokes, he made me laugh and want to spend time with him. He was the first guy to ever make me burst out laughing, one dusty day many, many years ago. That had made me stick to him and my offing Bridley had only cemented our friendship. I trusted Reno with my life, and with everything precious in my life.
“Reno?” I said.
My friend glanced up at me from under his eyebrows, taking note of my suddenly subdued tone. “Yeah?”
I shifted around and inhaled a deep breath. “If something happens to me…”
“Nah, Reav-” I put my hand up, a cigarette dangling between the pointer and middle finger. Reno shut his mouth and just stared at me.
“Take care of him.”
Reno’s eyes immediately brimmed, he looked like Killian as he gazed up at me.
He averted his gaze and quickly wiped his eyes with a gloved hand. “Of course I will, man.”
I nodded and took one more drag from the cigarette. I motioned him inside. “Let’s go. I have a handcuffed scientist on my couch. If you can stand him, you can have him.”
Reno laughed. He stood back as I opened the tank.
“I have a tendency to enjoy the company of mad men, so who knows.”
And with that, we both went into the basement.
Chapter 53
Reaver
I had my hand firmly on Perish’s shoulder as we walked to the north gate. Not because I felt he was going to run away, more to show my own authority over him and the situation I was about to go into. I couldn’t show my townspeople or the chimeras that Perish and I were on friendlier terms. Especially Silas, who would indeed punish him for it.
In front of the gate were Redmond and Hollis, and behind them the enforcers blocking off the north entrance and the only street within our block leading to occupied houses. I didn’t want townspeople to witness this, there were too many idiots.
I glanced quickly up to the north wall and saw my sentries in place, in the exact position I had told them to be in last night. I had made it clear to them, in a voice that held no room for debate, that I didn’t want any of them to move.
“I want everyone to stand back,” I said when we approached Redmond and Hollis. “No one talks, no one touches their guns. I want this clean and quick.”
Hollis was already sweating and from the disturbed dust around him I could tell he had been pacing for a while. Without a word he turned from our small gathering and started walking the north road towards the square where the enforcers were standing.
“Reaver, you better know what you’re doi
ng.”
I looked over at Redmond, surprised. There was a tone in his voice that rubbed me the wrong way, like I was to blame for all of this. I hoped Greyson knocked some sense into his fucking head once we had him back.
“I’m the only fuck here who does.” I threw his own tone back to him and, without another word, he turned and followed Hollis towards the road blockers. I shot him a barbed look as he turned his back to me, hoping he could feel the heat on his neck.
It was just the two of us in front of the gate now.
I still held onto Perish’s shoulder but it wasn’t long before he started getting restless. I eventually let him wander off to look at the deacons. I followed closely behind.
“They’re so big. I’ve never seen a white one before,” Perish said his tones hitting an octave I had only heard when he was talking to Biff or Killian. I gazed upwards, waiting for the plane to appear. The overcast sky revealed nothing but snow white clouds and the threat of more rain.
I heard Perish grab onto the chain-link fence and rattle it.
“Hey, come here! Pup, pup!” Perish sang.
I leaned against the fence and rubbed my eyes. My heart kept jumping and clenching from the nerves of what was about to take place, and here he was singing to a radiated mutant wolf.
“They’re not fucking dogs, they won’t come to you.” I didn’t even try to hide the annoyance in my voice. He might be decades older than me but I still felt like he was a younger brother; the kind I would’ve loved to kick the shit out of growing up.
“Watch me!” Perish snorted in a rare act of brazenness.
I was about to shove his face hard into the chain-link fence when I heard the strangest noise, a whistling so high-pitched it seemed to tickle the hair inside my ears.
I realized with a curious amusement that it was coming from Perish. His lips pursed as he made the shrill whistle, his eyes focused on a white bitch lying with her back to him. The other deacons laying not far behind.
Sure enough, their ears perked, and they craned their hairless scabby necks towards the scientist before rising to their feet to investigate this curious noise.
Perish’s turned from the cage and shot me the most cockiest smug-fuck grin I had ever seen.
In the same second a black male deacon charged out from a corner hidden by the concrete wall, not but two feet from Perish. With wild bloodshot eyes and rows of yellow, razor-sharp teeth he lunged at the cage and snapped at Perish’s face.
I howled with laughter as Perish shrieked, doing a full body spasm away from the chain-link fence. I laughed so hard I had to lean up against the wall to support myself.
I heard Matt and Sadii at their posts muffling their own laughter. When I managed to compose myself I faced an embarrassed Perish, who had his hands stuffed into his pants and his head down turned.
“Teach me how to do that,” I said. I wanted to be in his good books for when the assholes came to claim him. “Is that how you developed that switch that made the deacon-human go mental?”
He glanced up at me and nodded. “I didn’t think you would be able to hear it, but yes, that’s right. We did try and give you those enhancements.” Perish pursed his lips together slowly and started blowing the air out of his mouth. Too bad I already knew how to whistle, but at least there didn’t seem to be an obvious trick to it. “Just whistle up and make it vibrate your tongue.”
And this guy used to teach?
I tried it though and, to his credit, once I attempted to do it I knew what he meant by whistle up.
“Oh look, the dog got away.” I followed his gaze and saw Deek tilting his head back and forth at me with his tongue hanging out.
“You’re supposed to be guarding Killian,” I said to him. “Oh well, you can have another go at Nero if things get bad.”
I had hidden Killian and Reno in an abandoned office building a few blocks away. I had given them both grenades, knives, and guns, and had also stashed supplies on an awaiting quad. I had a radio on me and so did Reno. If I so much as clicked it on for a few seconds Reno would take Killian and make a break for an abandoned gas station a few miles away.
I pointed towards where Hollis and Redmond had been standing. “Go see Redmond and stay, stay put.”
It always amazed me how he picked up those keywords and put them together in that peanut-sized brain of his. Without a second glance he trotted off towards Hollis and Redmond.
It was then that my ears picked up the sound of the plane in the distance, A low-toned buzzing that made my pulse race and my joints stiffen. I pushed every single ounce of nerves into a bottle in my brain and blew it up. I steeled my face, turned towards the north gate and looked forward.
Even with the plane passing low overhead I did not move. My poker face would be my ace in the hole this time. My emotions would not betray me. If there was one advantage to Silas befriending me and getting to know me personally, he knew I didn’t fuck around.
I remembered Reno’s words. I was a chimera. I was a genetically engineered human, probably created to murder and kill. I was the end result of years of research. I was better than all of them.
My fists clenched, but slowly I forced them to stay relaxed at my side. I took a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it. My hands were as still as a hot July day.
“Sometimes, I pretend I am a dinosaur,” Perish whispered. He was beside me, also staring forward. I looked at him and blinked in confusion. Before I could ask him what he was on, he continued. “When I feel too much, I say… velociraptors don’t feel anything, it’s impossible for them to be scared.” He looked at me, his blue eyes the colour of ice but as warm as fire. They brightened as he gave me an encouraging smile.
“In Latin Reaver means raptor.” I saw his eyes glance at the plane above us. Mine did too. “So when you feel too much, remember… raptors don’t feel anything, it’s impossible.”
Give a fucking monkey a typewriter…
Not one but two planes landed, one outside of the north gate and one right in the middle of the north road. They blew grey ash and dirt onto everyone who wasn’t smart enough to take cover.
I wish I had been able to enjoy seeing my first Falconer; in all respects it was a beautiful piece of machinery. It flew like a plane but it took off and landed vertically like a chopper. Only several of them existed, and all of them were, of course, owned by Silas.
There was an uneasy silence as the engines waned and died. The air was thick with apprehension, like an invisible blanket slowly smothering my body with each passing second.
As the doors slid open, its stifling weight only pressed further onto me.
I put the cigarette to my lips and inhaled. I didn’t even taste the sharp tobacco, and I didn’t even pay attention to the exhale. My eyes were fixed on the open doors on either side of me.
I ignored the twin men walking out with Elish, and his slave pet behind him, I turned my gaze to the plane outside the gate hoping to see a glimpse of Leo and Greyson.
My heart hammered with anticipation. I tried to silence it with a mental warning but it defied my orders and kept up its rapid beating.
Then he stepped out.
In full daylight. I saw the king in the glory he had tried so hard to hide from me. His auburn hair was now locks of gold spun silk, his lips even more pink then before. Even the emerald in his eyes seemed to shine brighter against the backdrop of pearly skin. I was surprised he wasn’t wearing a crown.
Though even without a golden wreath his regal standing was obvious. Silas was dressed to show how rich and better he was than us waster rats. No longer garbed in the greasy raticater outfit, he was now clad in a tight red t-shirt and a leather jacket above black leather pants. Nothing was dusty or worn; it was all brand-new and obviously tailored for him. Everything fit him perfectly and hugged every curve. I was beginning to think that dressing like a slut was a Skyfall thing, or at least his thing. Silas’s minions dressed normally, save the chained pet.
“Is this where they rol
l out his fucking carpet?” I growled in the back of my throat.
“Shh!” Perish’s voice was a nervous whine. I didn’t turn my gaze but I saw him wringing his hands in distress.
Silas saw me and immediately his eyes brightened with a cruel, bordering on sadistic, hunger. A cocksure smirk spread over the face I so dearly wanted to slice. I stared forward, not letting the thoughts tearing my mind apart show on my face.
I am a dinosaur.
Fucking hell, Perish…
A machine, not a dinosaur. I am a machine.
I could hear the scientist’s heartbeat quicken as Silas walked towards us. I lifted up one hand and grabbed onto his shoulder to hold him still. He jittered back and forth like a dog being forced to stay when his master was near.
My blood turned to acid in my veins as Silas got closer; smart-ass quips I knew I could never say out loud crawled on my lips like worms. I felt my shoulders tremble as I made out every curve of his face, every sway of his overly exultant walk.
King Silas was Asher alright… I had known that for days now but seeing him with that golden hair, surrounded by his chimeras, made it a reality to me.
I had trusted him, I had killed with him… I had liked being around him.
Even my heart didn’t dare betray my mind as I pushed every single ounce of mental power to control the feeling of betrayal. My wounded pride had no place in this present moment. There was no use in splitting open that wound. That’s what Silas would be looking for. I wouldn’t let myself show him anything. Silas was an abomination from a different part of the world and he was nothing to me.
He created you, his DNA is in you.
I ground my teeth and swallowed the burning ache in the back of my throat.
Silas stopped a few feet in front of me and gave me a bow soaked with derision. When he lifted his head, he opened his arms in a boastful manner. On cue, his family rallied behind him.
“Amor meus, meet some of your family.” Silas smiled, turning his head to the right towards Elish, the pet, and the two identical chimeras, then to the left towards Nero, and a kid my age with eyes like new metal.
