Garden of Spiders Volume 2: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 3

by Quil Carter

  Then he chuckled.

  “Not fun, is it? Knowing you were responsible for getting someone you loved killed?” he said, his voice, as was his gaze, defying the weak state he was in. “You deserved it, you fucking piece of shit.” He chuckled again as I raised the gun. “I only wish I could live long enough for you to see who the real traitor was all along.”

  I hesitated, his admission, if only briefly, stalling me. “What are you talking about?” I said.

  Then, with a cold horror, I remembered who was right behind me.

  Silas.

  One word from Ivan’s mouth… just one fucking word.

  But I had to know.

  Another rolling chuckle fell from his burnt lips. “You filthy fucking chimeras… how easily you get duped by greywasters. You’re amongst spiders, Elish Dekker. Just like King Silas is living amongst a trait-”

  I pulled the trigger on the assault rifle, and as the series of thundercracks deafened the room, a row of explosions shook Ivan’s body. The first one hit his stomach, then the gunshots crawled up like foot prints on a map, the crescendo being Ivan’s jaw blown off of his face, leaving only a mass of blood, flesh, and bone behind… and an interesting splatter on the brick wall.

  The leader of the Jackson family, a man who I first met in a dark building, spasmed once, then he died quickly, without another sound to be heard.

  No, there was sound.

  I turned around and saw Silas in the hallway, his eyes once again black. As I dashed to him, I heard a squealed scream, and saw two men on the floor twitching and writhing as trails of thick blood ran from their mouths, eyes, ears, and nose.

  Silas looked over at me, a trickle of red dripping down his nose. Our eyes locked and the king walked towards me, the blood resting on his lips for a brief moment, before making a ribbon of red down to his chin.

  The hot aroma of blood and gun powder saturated the room, sinking into, not just the four walls, but deep inside of my chest. It was pooling with the bloodlust that had been controlling me, and that mixture was creating a concoction, a sensation, that I knew all too well.

  Not only were my pants tight, but my breathing had become heavy.

  And Silas knew this – because his body was responding in tandem with my own.

  Then, in a sweeping rush of what could only be described as pure blood-thirst-induced insanity, Ivan’s parting words were temporarily tossed aside, and that hypnotising heat took me and wiped clean my self-control.

  And I embraced madness.

  I grabbed his chin and I kissed him. Yes, that is exactly what I did, and no, I don’t know just how I let myself lose control in such an extreme sense. But it was going to get worse, much worse, because as we kissed passionately, Silas grabbed my fatigues and began to unbuckle the belt.

  Right in the middle of this warzone, with Ivan a splattered ruin and my brothers outside fending off rebels, I found myself sitting on one of the spare beds, hard and ready, with Silas looming over me.

  It was madness, pure madness, but at the time, I wanted him badly. To the point where I couldn’t, wouldn’t, stop, even if he begged me. Never before had such an urge taken me, and if I thought that Silas had such talents inside of his head to mentally seduce me in such a way, I would’ve blamed it on him.

  But he didn’t. This was all me; this was all him.

  I licked the blood away from his face, his pants and boxer briefs down to his ankles and his left boot against the metal bedframe. I was sitting, he was standing over me, the two of us fighting for control though we both wanted the same thing.

  Silas climbed on top of me, his dick hard and his eyes pouring lust. He kissed me, his mouth open, and as our tongues met, then he grasped my cock and began to stroke the shaft.

  “How kinky are you, golden boy?” he growled in my ear, his hot breath made my body shiver. I didn’t have time to answer him. Silas got up off of me, naked from the waist down with his pale body a contrast to the dark colours around us, and he walked to Ivan’s corpse.

  Silas ran his hand up the rebel greywaster’s blood-soaked neck and gathered a good amount of blood onto his hand. Then he walked back to me with a devious grin that had my body surge with a passionate heat.

  “I think you’d be surprised,” I said. I smirked as he crawled back onto me, then took his hand and sucked on one of his blood-coated fingers. While I was licking the copper-laced digit, I heard voices, but they were voices I recognized. “I can hear your other chimeras outside,” I said. I felt Silas lube up my penis with the blood, then the familiar, and quite alluring pressure of Silas attempting to draw me into him.

  “Oh? Well, the girl is far away, isn’t she? Let them come,” Silas purred. He gasped and I stifled a grunt when he broke through, then both shared a mutual groan when he slid himself down to my base.

  Our lips locked again, and this time they stayed locked. Silas moved his hips and I moved mine, a slow dance done by two men who had never moved with each other in such a way, but yet it seemed… right. Strangely, this seemed natural for me. There was no drifting away to another planet as Silas used my body against my will, there was no teeth-clenching pain or boiling hatred for this man… On the contrary, as we embraced each other, or lips connected as was our bodies, I found a feeling inside of me that, only in the throes of intense intimacy, I devoured.

  I kissed and nipped his neck, leaving behind red patches that I continued to bite and sink my teeth into. Silas loved this, his neck craned and the hands on my shoulders clenched, and when I broke the skin and blood formed, his rising and falling hips increased in motion, multiplying the pleasure already spreading throughout my body.

  Then he nipped my neck, and like it was a shot of nitro into my veins, I began thrusting my hips. This was greeted by a sharp moan, and they fell freely in tandem with my thrusts, broken up only by his heavy breathing.

  At one point, he pushed me down onto the bed. He fell with me, our bodies still connected, then he positioned himself, one leg on each side of my hips, and began to roughly ride me. The speed of it, added to the already intense passion we were sharing, took my body where it needed to go, and when I felt the threshold start to be reached, I grasped Silas’s cock into my hand, pulled his body down onto mine, and as he slammed himself down onto my cock, I stroked the hard rod rapidly.

  He let out a loud moan, one that cared nothing of our location or our circumstances. I myself was stifling mine with a bit lip, but when the pressure reached its critical point and I felt the release immanent, the tooth pierced my lip and fresh blood matched the drying blood on my face from the initial crash.

  One groan slipped past my stolid countenance, one that escaped my restraint when the pleasurable feeling had me fully drowning in its embrace. But soon the tension left me, the wave that had crashed against the shore was pulled back into sea, and I fell back onto the bed gasping for air.

  Silas fell on top of me also panting. I expected him to roll off of me, to be done with my body and to get up and leave me where I lay… but he didn’t. Instead, Silas nestled himself into my arms, and I, almost shyly, put an arm around his back, his cape now draped over the both of us, and I pulled him to me.

  And it was as I held this king to my chest, this master of mine that I had hated for many years, that I realized something, something that had my eyes snapping open, and the warmth sucked from my body.

  These feelings that I had been experiencing, not just during the past several weeks, but I believe since I’d decided to pretend I tolerated Silas for my own gain, for the protection of those I love. These feelings had slowly been building, to the point where I no longer had to pretend to like him, I think…

  I think I had played myself.

  I was developing feelings for Silas.

  When I walked through the door, covered in blood and absolutely stunned and in a state of catatonia from my realization, I was greeted by Julian and Loren.

  And never more did Julian show how different he was from Finn. Finn would’v
e leapt into my arms crying hysterically, like he did during my supposed kidnapping years before, but Julian…

  Well…

  “You asshole!” Julian cried. He walked to me, his lips twisted in a sneer but his eyes bright with fear. “You gave me a fucking heart attack! The plane crashed? Do you have any fucking idea how worried… how worried…” Julian’s eyes filled, but not wanting me to see him cry, he turned, flipped me off, and stalked to my bedroom.

  Loren just stood there awkwardly, like a package that had gotten delivered to the wrong address. “Is this… typical?” he asked quietly, shifting his weight. “Should I just be… prepared for you almost dying often?” I’d smack him upside the head for that comment, but I realized he was dead serious.

  “We have our good years and our bad ones,” I said simply. I looked at my closed bedroom door and sighed. “Put some clean clothes on the counter top of the bathroom, then make me some bloodwine.” Then I walked to my bedroom and opened the door.

  I didn’t go and console Julian however. Julian glared at me as I walked past him, and I entered my bathroom. I took off my combat armour and the bloody, shredded clothes underneath and had myself a long shower. It took about half an hour, but by the time I emerged I was cleaned of every inch of dirt, blood, and whatever else had found itself on me… and I’d also done a lot of thinking.

  A lot of thinking.

  I realized as I showered, that I had to stop these feelings from developing further. This was dangerous, very dangerous, and I couldn’t let my emotions interfere with my controlling of Silas. The past six years, until recent events of course, had been calm, and Silas’s treatment of me had greatly improved.

  I couldn’t wreck that, I had to control myself. And as the man who had spent years learning himself inside and out for exactly that reason…

  Well, I knew what I had to do. It would tear out my heart because Finn’s death was still so new, but I couldn’t.

  I just couldn’t… let myself fall in love with that Mad King.

  So I did one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. I walked out into my bedroom, fully clothed with my hair still wet, and saw Julian with a stormy look on his face sitting on my bed.

  “Are you really still in love with me?” I asked him.

  The air got sucked out of the room. Julian froze, his navy blue eyes travelling up from the floor, to meet my own.

  Two men, one sitting on a bed, the other standing over him. Two men who had a history that spanned half of their lives.

  I’d once been so in love with him I couldn’t see straight. Only to have everything I knew about him be deceptive.

  But now… but now… I was desperate. Elish Dekker was desperate. That’s the only way I could explain it: desperation and being so emotionally compromised, I was willing to make a dire mistake, just so I could prevent myself from making a worse one.

  My heart ached for the man who was but ashes on my mantle, but my own inner fear coated that ache like tar, and stuck to me with no intentions of letting go.

  I didn’t love him. Would I eventually…? Yes. I will admit that, but right now he was my only escape from a fate my younger self would’ve shot himself over.

  Julian only stared at me for what seemed like minutes, then his head tilted slightly to the right. “What…?” he whispered, his voice catching. “You were awake?”

  “Answer my question,” I said back. My shadow encompassing him fully; he seemed so small in front of me.

  Then Julian turned away, his chestnut bangs falling over expressive eyes. He stared forward without blinking, his prickly chin tight and his lips pursed. Julian looked so adult in that moment; he looked… genuine.

  When had we become men? When did this boy with the bright smile and the careless air, become a greywaster with a full beard and a deep yet smooth voice, with scars on his face, dirt under his fingernails, and so many earrings in his ears he sparkled in the sun. It seems like just yesterday we were children playing relationship, sneaking around because I didn’t want to be found out, stealing first kisses and promising each other the world. So in love we were; I do often wonder just how much it was killing him to know it had all been fake. That he had made me fall in love with a man who didn’t exist.

  Now here we were, fate repeating itself even though I knew better as I stood in front of him. I knew I did not love this man anymore, and yet I was looking at him with a desperation, a desperation for him to save me from myself.

  “Yeah,” Julian said, his voice hushed. “I… I’m – I’m sorry. I still love you, and as time goes on, it’s getting worse, not better.”

  I nodded. He wiped his eyes. Then I walked that last step of distance and kneeled in front of him.

  Then I slid my hand to the back of his neck, and directed him to my lips. I kissed him, his body melted under my touch. I heard him inhale a shaky breath, his breathing the spoken lyrics and his heartbeat the base of this song both our bodies were singing.

  I broke away, and he looked deeply into my eyes, no longer a man from the greywastes, I only saw the teenage boy who had once made a grave mistake because he loved a chimera.

  “You can live here from now on,” was all I said to him, then I rose, turned, and left our bedroom.

  There was a light knock on my door. I looked up from the papers I was reading and drew in a deep breath before rising.

  Even though I knew that Julian and Loren were both vacant from my apartment, my eyes still scanned the room to double and triple check. Then, as I walked past the closed door which led to the set of stairs to Silas’s apartment, I made sure that it was locked and secured. There would be no unexpected visitors, no small children listening in, or wallflower sengils that blended into the scenery, sometimes too well.

  This meeting would be a simple one, but it would also be one of the most important.

  You’re amongst spiders.

  I opened the door and in front of me was Nero, Ellis, and Garrett, all three with matching expressions of both curiosity and sadness. I knew why I was garnering such a look from them, I had never requested all three of them to personally visit me at once. They knew that what I was about to say, was important.

  “Loren is out right now taking Kessler to a movie,” I said. I stepped back and let the three walk into my apartment. “I made tea and coffee. It’s cold out so… I didn’t think you’d want beer, Nero.”

  Nero took off his winter jacket. He was the only one that looked to have come out from the cold winter outside. “Thanks, Eenie,” he said. “It’s fucking freezing out there. I have Ceph ordering us some stew and a loaf of bread. It’s like perfect stew weather.”

  “How are your injuries healing?” I asked both Nero and Garrett. Ellis had been safe in the jet fighter, though emotionally my sister was still rattled from what had happened. She’d cried when we’d stepped off of the Falconer that had recovered us, but after hugging each of us, we’d all gotten hit on the shoulder and arm several times while she swore at us.

  “It’s a good excuse to load up on pain killers,” Nero said, and Garrett laughed at this. They were hovering around the dining table where the hot drinks were. Nero and Ellis had coffee, with a generous amount of Bailey’s but Garrett chose to have tea with me. “What about you? You were a bit banged up too. How’s your chest?”

  “I’m fine, just a bit sore.” I sat down at the dining room table and my siblings did as well. “But I have had a lot on my mind…”

  They all sat down too, their eyes on me.

  Nervous eyes, puzzlingly. They were already full of anxiety and I hadn’t even told them what I had found out, or what I needed them to do.

  “I’m going to need your help,” I said simply. I tried to stifle the deep breath I was taking. “Silas and I have already briefed you on what happened when we both went into that compound…” Thankfully no one had interrupted the stint of intimacy that I’d had with Silas. Nero didn’t know, none of them knew. “But there’s more… something that Silas doesn’t kn
ow about, nor Julian, and I’m going to ask the three of you to keep this secret between the four of us.” Nero and Garrett both opened their mouths to speak, but I raised a hand. “If you don’t think you can keep this a secret from Silas, tell me now so I can dismiss you.”

  The three of them collectively sighed.

  “You can trust us, numb-nuts,” Nero said. Ellis and Garrett both nodded. “No one’s going to be leaving.”

  “I was hoping I could,” I said simply. “There’s something that Ivan said to me before he was killed…” I steadied my heartbeat, just thinking about Ivan’s words had it threatening to race. I didn’t like thinking about the fact that I could be amongst traitors.

  Nor the prospect of it being Julian or Silas.

  “Ivan told me before he died… that I was amongst spiders,” I said, my tone low. “And I have every intention of routing out those spiders and squashing every single one of them.”

  Nero’s brow furrowed at this news, Ellis was shaking her head, it was Garrett who spoke. “Are you sure he wasn’t just trying to fuck with you?” Garrett asked.

  “Or it could be Oniks,” Nero suggested with a half-shoulder shrug. “I mean, she is Ivan’s daughter.”

  I shook my head. I knew Oniks by now, it wasn’t in her nature. On top of everything I had on her, including the child, she wouldn’t have killed an innocent sengil. Not to mention…

  “She’s seriously involved with Meirko, who is one of my most loyal officers,” Ellis said. “If there was anything suspicious, he would’ve told me. They don’t even own a landline phone, I have to page Meirko when I need him.”

  I had never suspected Oniks, but that was still good to hear. The woman dating a thien under Ellis was an unexpected perk. I was glad to be able to cross that name off of my list.

  “Whoever it was, I’m going to find out,” I said, then I tented my fingers and tapped them together. “This is what I’m going to need from you three…”