by Quil Carter
Once again, I was right. Silas whirled around, and I saw the twins’ faces both drop.
But just as he began to run towards them, I was leaping to my feet. I grabbed Silas and held him back, knowing full well I was going to pay dearly for it.
Silas whirled around and began hitting me, the strength behind his blows throwing me to the ground. For the next several moments my consciousness came and went, my senses picking up only children crying, Silas screaming, and my own lungs choking on blood.
Once he finally left, I couldn’t move. All I could do was try and breath, my body carpeted by a continuous painful throb.
When I felt a small hand on my head, I open my eyes. I saw Jack above me, strangely he was holding little coloured rectangles, paper I believe… and he was placing them on my face and neck.
No, those weren’t paper rectangles… they were coloured bandages that we had in the bathroom cabinet for when the children got minor injuries. The boy was attempting to give me medical aid, as best as a six-year-old could do.
“Thank you, Jack,” I said, my voice ragged. My chest felt as if it was crushed, it was difficult to breath. “Press the elevator door.” Jack nodded and did as he was asked. I managed to crawl my beaten body to the elevator, and Jack obediently followed.
“Fetch Finn for me,” I said to him when the elevator stopped. I was too dizzy to even attempt walking on my own. Jack nodded again and ran off, and several seconds later the doors swung open and Finn shot out of there like a bat out of hell.
“What happened!?” Finn cried. I wonder why he still asks that. Silas happened, it’s always Silas. Though I was suppose to only take the children to the Dek’ko skyscraper; I wasn’t even planning on seeing Silas that day.
“Just get me inside,” I said as Finn helped me stand. “I need pain killers and a shot of liquor.”
“I can pour liquor. I pour for Nero all the time.” Jack ran off after declaring this, and I limped inside with Finn.
I sat down on the couch, and if I wasn’t in so much pain I would’ve been amused at the fact that Jack presented me with a shot glass full of whisky and a cigarette. Once I put the cigarette in my mouth, Jack lit it with a Zippo lighter I kept on the coffee table. Of course Nero would teach him things like that.
“Thank you,” I said to Jack. I glanced at Finn who was carrying the medical supplies into the living room. I took the two opiate pain killers from him and downed them with the shot of whisky.
While Finn tended to my injuries, I told him about what had happened. My sengil went through every emotion as I bitterly told him the story. I empathised how much this was my fault, and how Silas had every right to discipline me as such. I shouldn’t have let Ceph take the others to run ahead. As it had been demonstrated, it only took seconds for someone to lure a child away.
It was my fault. I was stupid. I deserved worse. If anything, Silas had taken it easy on me.
Strangely, even though I was expecting Finn to be horrified at me defending Silas, he said nothing, he only stared forward with a knitted brow.
“Someone shot a potential kidnapper in the head…” Finn whispered. He was wiping the blood that had dripped down my neck. “And just several days previous… someone shot deacons off of you.”
I shook my head. “They’re not connected. There’s just no way. It must’ve been a legionary or a thien. They’ll come forward tomorrow to get their praise from Silas.” I was saying this with foundation under my words, but I didn’t believe them myself. This happening twice in one week… was someone following me?
Perhaps I did have myself an admirer. Well, if this was their way of standing out, they’d gotten my attention. Unfortunately, I’d become quite jaded when it came to men, and if this person was looking for anything besides praise from the king and a handshake… he in for a world of disappointment.
But it didn’t matter because that wasn’t the case, and any thoughts regarding it were irrelevant. Someone in Irontowers saw I was in peril and decided to help me out. Actually, I probably helped them by luring three deacon dogs to one area so he or she could pick them off like fish in a barrel. I was useful bait so they decided to let me live. And the park incident… the person who’d shot that man will come forward soon and the matter would be laid to rest.
“I would be cautious none the less,” Finn said. He wiped off the last of my blood and tossed the white towel, now stained various shades of pink and red, onto the top of the first aid kit.
I chuckled dryly at this. “Cautious? Whoever it was has been doing me a favour. If anything, I should be more reckless to try to lure the person out.” I got quite the look for that. Finn was overprotective to a fault, but then again, I’d given him a lot to worry about over the years.
“Please just be careful, okay?” Finn said, worry flickering in his aqua blue eyes.
“I’ll be working with Perish inside of the Skytech lab for the next several weeks,” I pointed out. “There’s no place safer than there. I’ll be seeing Silas as much as I can too.” Finn’s expression turned sorrowful at this. “I have to regain his trust over what happened. I… I can’t stand having him disappointed in me.”
Finn sighed and his eyes slowly closed. I thought he was going to say more, but he only put his arms around me and hugged me.
“I’m fine,” I said to him, confused by this gesture. “What’s wrong?”
Finn sniffed and tightened his hold on me. “I just…” I felt a tear drip down my shoulder blade. “Nothing, Master.” He pulled away and stood up, then wiped his eyes. “I’ll just clean up. Then perhaps we can play a video game. Would you like that, Jack?”
I stared puzzled at Finn, just as Jack jumped to his feet cheering. “I’m going to play Spyro!” he announced, and then he sped off towards his room.
CHAPTER 48
I had my eyes shut tight and my lip was being bitten by my upper and lower teeth with such strength I was waiting to feel them make contact with each other.
I wanted to cry out, but my pain receptors and my will were controlling two different parts of my brain and my will wouldn’t allow me to let him know how much he was hurting me. It was my duty to give my body to him, I belonged to him, all parts of me, and Silas could do whatever he wanted, when he wanted.
And right now, he was on top of me, thrusting himself into my body with a relentless force. His body was pressed against mine, his head over my shoulder and his fingers digging into my legs. The smell of sex was heavy in this room, and the sounds of grunting and skin smacking against skin seemingly amplified by the stifling heat.
It wasn’t just me and Silas in this room. With my eyes closed I could hear Garrett moaning in conjunction with Nero’s own grunts, my brothers only several inches from me. This was what Silas called our personal family time, when the four of us got together… and did this.
Silas’s moans deepened, each low groan being expelled through heavy breathing. At the sign that Silas was about to cum, the noises from Garrett and Nero slowed down. They always liked watching each other reach orgasm, and if their cocks weren’t buried hilt-deep into someone else, their cum was fought for like starved dogs to meat.
I myself was never that outgoing when it came to sex. I let them use my body in whatever fashion they needed me for, and once they fell asleep I got dressed and went for a walk. My walks weren’t always peaceful however, sometimes my phone went off while I was walking, usually Silas or one of my brothers whining about me leaving since they weren’t done with me yet. I then doubled back and return, but usually they were down for the count and I was free to enjoy the rest of my night. Or at least until I took my evening pills, then I was out like a light and slept until morning.
Thus was my routine. I fuck when they want me to fuck. I suck cock when they want me to suck cock. And whatever position, partner, roleplaying or blood play they wanted me to do… I did it.
Silas’s body tightened up. He released a gasping moan and delivered me several sharp thrusts. As Nero and Garrett
watched this, their noises picked up again with an increase, and while Silas pulled himself out of me, the two of them reached climax.
Silas crawled over to Garrett, and while the opaque pearls shot out of my brother’s cock, he kissed him, and encouraged the release with several strokes. Nero pulled out then, sweat shining on all of their bodies, and after Garrett was through, they all laid down.
It was over then? I was relieved at that. Even though it was my duty to fulfill my master in all ways possible, I had always found it difficult to enjoy intimacy with them. They knew this; they knew this enough to drug me with ressin regularly so I would have that thirst on me, but for the most part they didn’t bring light to the fact.
The side table lamp flicked off. I shifted over to the edge of the bed and felt Garrett lay down beside me. I remained silent, my ears trained on their heartbeats so I’d know when each of them fell asleep, and waited.
It never took them long. They wouldn’t stop until they were physically exhausted. These trysts between us took hours. I knew these times were important to us, family bonding and all, but I’d rather be doing work or learning something new.
It took five minutes for me to hear the last of them snore. I waited another five, then slowly crawled out of bed. It wasn’t often I used my chimera stealth abilities, and I found it almost comical that I was using them to sneak out of Silas’s bedroom.
I grabbed my clothes and slunk out of the room. I got dressed quickly, found my shoes, and allowed myself a sigh of relief the moment the elevator doors closed. Now I could have some much needed time to myself. My nighttime walks were one of the only times I got to be alone with my own thoughts. I loved Finn, I enjoyed having him around, plus I actually enjoyed sleeping with him when the whim took me, but I rarely got time by myself… and dearly did I miss it.
It was a perfect night too. It was dark out, the permanent haze above the sky thicker, blocking out the stars and any hints of a moon. The air was crisp and biting as well, not cold enough for me to be able to see my breath, but close.
I walked down the steps and buttoned up my black overcoat. Skyland was so quiet in the dead of night, there were no cars on the roads, no distant voices, the only sounds I could hear were the hoppers chirping and the distinct hum of electricity that I could only hear when I turned my chimera hearing.
By this time, at the age of twenty-six, I must’ve walked these sidewalks a thousand times. The only thing that had changed in the past eleven years, was that I allowed myself a cigarette or two while I was walking. Opiate ones as well; the new BlueLeaf blue-embered cigarettes had an opiate line now, and they’d become my personal favourite. I hid just how many of them I smoked in a day from Finn since he always gave me that look when I did. I myself wasn’t even sure, but I knew during evenings such as this I burned through six of them before sleep finally took me.
I lit the cigarette with a lighter tucked into an inside pocket and filled my lungs with the silvery smoke. I held it, enjoying the head rush of dizzying warmth, and exhaled. Almost immediately after, I took another drag, and then another, and another.
There was no reason for me to feel uneasy, or whatever it was that was making me burn through this cigarette at an alarming rate. Perhaps it was just from the events of last week. I still had bruises on my face from Silas’s attack on me, ones that took Finn an hour to cover up with makeup. It would be humiliating for me to go outside with such injuries, especially since my council job had me meeting with different people all throughout the day.
Well, I deserved it. Maybe I should just let myself be seen battered and bruised, I was nothing, I didn’t deserve to have my disciplinary marks hidden. Let Skyfall see how much I’d disappointed King Silas, perhaps the shame would prevent me from doing it again.
There was a clanging noise to my left. I paused and looked down the shadowed alleyway to see if I could spot what it was. It sounded like something had been dropped from a great distance, possibly the roof.
“Hey… can you throw that back up to me?”
I looked up and saw a silhouette leaning over the railing of a fire exit, an open window leading to darkness behind him. When he saw me looking, he pointed to the ground. I followed his finger and saw that he’d dropped some sort of container.
“Sure,” I called back. I put the cigarette in my mouth and walked down the alley towards the small metal container, red brick walls on both sides of me and a faint LED street lamp shining light on the far distant road. The dropped canister was about twenty feet from the sidewalk, surrounded by trash bins and what appeared to be an old bicycle.
When I got to it I leaned down and picked it up. “It looks a bit dented but…”
My mouth stopped moving, and the cigarette I’d had pinched between my teeth slipped from my mouth and fell to the ground.
The tin…
It was purple, about the size of a cigarette pack, with red and blue swirling patterns.
Julian.
Suddenly I was grabbed, and at the same time a bag of some sort was pulled over my head. I bellowed at whoever was restraining me to stay back and began to fight the hands attempting to subdue me. I managed to grab one of them and threw them to the ground, but seconds later I felt a prickle of pain inside of my upper arm, then a cold nausea that rapidly swept my body.
Dizziness took me and I dropped to my knees. Arms came and steadied me, and I heard a man with a deep voice, a familiar voice, whisper quietly into my ear.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Just let it take you. You’re safe, don’t worry. This is for your own good.” The last parts… the past parts were said with a wobbly voice… a… he… his voice was breaking. “This is for your own good.”
Julian.
No, it – it can’t be.
I wasn’t sure how long I was unconscious for, only aware that I kept fading in and out of a deep sleep. I remember a car door being slammed, hushed voices talking hurriedly around me, and then the sensation of being picked up.
The fact that I was being carried was alarming, or as alarmed as one could be when they’d been drugged into a stupor. I was six-foot-four, and there was no one able to pick me up with such ease besides Nero. Even Silas, Ellis, and Garrett’s advanced strength lent them difficulties, they were just too small to be able to keep me level.
Whoever it was, he was huge, and the man carried me from the cold bite of night to a warm room that had the distinct smell of… apple pie strangely.
Then I was put on a bed and there I stayed. The conversations between men happened around me, and one of those voices I knew I recognized.
It was deeper now. But even if I was turning a thousand today, I would still recognize that voice anywhere.
The darkness took me while I was lying in that bed, and this time I stayed asleep. My dreams were troubling and chaotic. I was floating around in a mosaic of confusing images, and long-buried emotions that were erupting from the ground like an earthquake had ripped through my memories. I felt as if strips of me had been ripped away. No, not strips, protective coverings that I had been wrapping around myself for years now. They were sloughing off of me in ribbons, revealing beneath their protection raw and infected wounds that had been left to rot below the surface.
Eventually, after searching relentlessly, high and low, time finally found me hastily gathering up these protective binds, and pulled me back to reality.
And as such, my eyes opened.
The first thing I saw…
… was him.
He was a man now. His once soft, boyish features had vanished with time. But whereas some young men were doomed to have that baby-faced appearance, no matter how ridiculous they looked once adults, Julian had aged like a fine wine. His goatee was gone, replaced with a trimmed full beard, his ears, that stuck out over jaw-length chestnut hair, were adorned with even more earrings. There was a roughness to his appearance now, a trait he never had during our time together. He had a scar on his jawline, and a silver scar on his neck, as if at one
point, someone had tried to slash it.
And there were more signs that pointed to a rough decade. When he put a hand to my face and gently stroked my cheek, I felt coarse fingers, and his eyes, there was a depth to them, a heaviness that eclipsed the bright navy blue that seemed to stare at me in utter disbelief…
Then I realized just what I was seeing.
Julian was a greywaster.
“My lion,” Julian whispered. “My sweet white lion.” He kissed my cheek, then leaned his face down and rested it on the side of mine. “You’re even more beautiful up close.”
I stared at him, and quickly realized that even though I was conscious, the haze inside of my mind had never been so thick. It was like walking through syrup to even remember to blink, let alone talk to him.
Or do what I knew my mind wanted to do… rip him limb from limb.
Julian seemed to sense this. He stroked my hair back with a sad smile on his face and made a shushing noise. Behind him, I saw a dresser with some kind of assault rifle on top of it, and near the rifle were boxes of ammo, the containers themselves worn and with the cardboard swollen from rain and age. It was scavenged ammunition, not from Dek’ko.
The room we were in also seemed suited for the greywastes, there was no drywall on the walls that surrounded us, only insulation stuffed in between beams and covered with thick see-through plastic. The ceiling was the same, except there were wires, all of them stapled to the beams, and several leading to a single florescent bulb that was shining its bright light onto this room.
“I know you’re confused, hun,” Julian whispered. He brushed my short hair back, seemingly enjoying himself from the tender way he was doing it. “But don’t worry. I’m here to help you. I’m here to…” His lips pursed and his eyes began to swim. “I’m here to fix your head.”
Fix my head?
The… the surgery Silas had performed on me. The corrective surgery because my coding had been wrong. No, no, I didn’t want that. I couldn’t let him do that. It was the only thing that had fixed my depression. The only thing that had prevented me from killing myself after he… after he…
