by Quil Carter
I turned off the light, exhausted but weightless. I was dizzy with euphoria and fatigue, a strength found deep inside of me that I never knew I had.
As cliché as it sounds, I felt like I’d become a man that night. Not because it was my first time taking someone, but because something had awoken inside of me, a feeling of power, a feeling that I wasn’t as pathetic and useless as I thought I was. Not only did I kill someone who had insulted me, but just several days ago in Kreig… I’d got my first taste of revenge on the Mad King.
Finn eventually wiggled to me, and I relented with a sigh and allowed him into my arms. “You know I have a boyfriend, right, sengil?” I murmured, sleep beginning to take me. “I’m just fulfilling my duties as your master.”
I felt Finn’s nose nuzzle into the crook of my arm, and his own arm rest across my chest. I expected him to say his usual Finn’ish response, but instead I sensed hesitation. “Do you… love him, Master Elish?”
My eyes opened. I pulled away from Finn and watched his silver-tinged face turn troubled. “You… do understand that, Finn? I won’t have a problem with you, will I?” If I had to deal with his jealousy on top of Julian’s…
“It’s not that,” Finn said hastily. “I understand. Never worry about me not understanding, I do. It’s just… does he make you happy, Master?”
I continued my confused stare. He couldn’t see me, only a shadow, but every expression on his face was highlighted perfectly in a cold silvery hue.
“Yes,” I said. “Immensely.”
Finn head tilted in the slightest of nods. “I noticed how much… happier you are,” he said quietly. “And if you’re happy. I’m happy.” He laid back down, then put a hand on my arm to encourage me to lie down as well.
The comment, the entire interaction, confused me. I laid down anyway and allowed him back into my arms. But still I was confused over his strange words.
I didn’t let it faze me however. I drifted off to sleep with an electricity inside of my chest that banished all dark thoughts, and somehow I knew, there would be no bad dreams.
But even if the bad dreams didn’t infiltrate my deep sleep, there was nothing stopping them from testing the fence until they found a way to breach my reality. This was unfortunately what happened, because sometime, hours after I’d fallen asleep with the boy in my arms, there was a knock on my door.
CHAPTER 40
My eyes opened, and at the same time, Finn’s opened as well. The boy looked around dazed, and when I sat up in bed, he lifted his head off of my arm and I heard a nervous noise in his throat.
Another knock. Or perhaps that was just how harsh our hearts were both beating. Knocks in the middle of the night were never good things, and I feared that Silas had heard the two of us and was coming to my door drunk. “What is it?” I said, glancing towards the closet door. I contemplated hiding Finn there.
But there was no need.
“Ah… Elish…” It was Garrett. Was there a problem with the children? No. Kirrel and Tyler had them tonight, Garrett had meetings this morning.
Then what was it?
Garrett cleared his throat behind my door. “I just, um…” Just say it Garrett. “There’s a bunch of people in front of Alegria and they’re demanding to speak to the king.”
I looked at my digital clock. It was two-thirty in the morning. Earlier than I’d assumed, but we had gone to the pharmacy around nine or ten in the evening.
“Then let them!” I said irritated. I turned on the lamp beside my bed, the brightness temporarily burning my eyes. “I’m not the king. Silas is home… go bother…” My voice trailed and my throat tightened.
“Are they… immigrant greywasters?” Shit. It looks like this was all about to bite me in the ass.
Garrett’s throat cleared a second time, then he said in a submissive, higher-toned voice: “Yes… they’re here because you, um, just killed someone? There’s a young man out there who’s… riling them all up. They’re threatening the thiens and Silas says it is you who will deal with it.”
Silas said that?
What does Silas know?
The panic of this set into my bones and there it remained. There was so many worries I had knowing that Silas was aware of this situation, I didn’t know what one to worry about first. Was he going to punish me for killing that idiotic parasite? No. That wasn’t like him at all… but that being said, it would be in his nature to use it as an excuse to discipline me.
Oh hell, like that asshole needed an excuse.
Either way… this was something I had to take care of.
“I’ll be out in a moment…” I wiped a hand down my face and swung my legs off of the side of the bed. “Go back to sleep.”
Finn didn’t look pleased, but he was the obedient sengil he was so he nodded and laid back down. “Wake me if you need anything, Master.” He smiled coyly at me. “Including relief of any stress.”
I reached over and yanked the covers over his face. Finn giggled but said nothing more.
After changing into a freshly pressed suit and tie, I opened the door, and was faced with my nervous-looking brother.
Or Garrett had a look of nervousness. He glanced behind me as soon as the door opened and his eyes filled with giddy glee.
I should’ve hid Finn in the closet anyway.
“I smell sex! And…” Garrett’s nose twitched as I stepped out of the door way with a soured look. “Lotion! We need to get you proper lubricant. I have some amazing stuff that cools when you apply it. I find I always burn up when I’m intimate with Tyler. And Nero! Oh, I’m surprised we haven’t started a fire. Oh, brother, please please will you let us join? Or even just me?”
My teeth ground as he danced around me like a poodle when its owner returned home. “Please, Elish! I wouldn’t tell anyone; it could just be us with no others.”
“Garrett…” I said, warning bells affixed to my tone. “You really believe it’s a wise idea to say such things when I’ve just been disturbed from sleep and now have to deal with the barrel scrapings of society?” I began walking up the stairs, my brother following behind.
“It’s exciting that you’re finally doing it,” Garrett responded back, pouty and defensive now. “It’s… you know, made me feel a lot closer to Nero and Silas. And… you’re always so distant with us, you act like you hate us most of the time. Being intimate with you… it would mean a lot to me.”
I sighed irritably. “Now is not the time for this discussion. This was the first night I’ve done such things and the only reason it happened was because I’d just murdered a disrespectful greywaster.”
Garrett jumped ahead of me, we were in the hallway now. There was shock on his face, dumbfounded surprise to be more specific. “You… killed again?”
“Indeed,” I mumbled. I saw Tyler sitting on the daybed with Artemis in his arms. The sengil appeared to be stressed out, but whether it was because of the events happening below our feet or another issue, I didn’t know.
I decided to quickly fill Garrett in on what had happened at the pharmacy
“That makes sense…” Garrett said slowly when I’d finished. “From what I’ve been hearing from the organizers of the immigration… the greywasters don’t really know to fear us as much as they should. In this situation, all the riling seems to be coming from one man. You left one alive, you say?”
“I did,” I said. “A man and a woman. How many are down there and why haven’t the thiens taken care of it?”
“There are thiens down there maintaining order. That was all Silas instructed them to do,” Garrett said. I looked around the apartment but there was no Silas. It seemed like the king was making orders behind the scenes but was nowhere to be found. His bedroom door was closed however, but it often was. “But you’re the one who needs to make the final decision on what we do, according to Master Silas. Just say the word and Talbot will execute them one by one. All I know is you have to decide quickly, if this goes on it’s going to attract attention and pe
ople are already pissed off about all of these immigrants. We need to disperse this crowd quickly; it may already be too late to stop SNN.”
“We control SNN,” I said bitterly. As I walked through the living room of the top floor of Alegria, I grabbed a decanter Silas always had near his bar and took a shot of the whisky inside of it. I offered the crystal decanter to Garrett and walked to the double doors leading to the outside hallway and the elevator.
As I walked to them, the double doors opened and Silas, with a wide-awake Ceph in his arms, appeared. To my own disappointment, my feet became weighted and I found myself freezing on the spot. I surprised myself however, as soon as I saw Silas my brain seemed to gain a control over itself, and not only was I able to unweld my feet, but in the milliseconds that passed, I succeeded in stopping my heart from jumping and my pulse from increasing.
I maintained steadfast this time, and although I burned with pride, deep down inside I was shocked that I’d actually controlled myself around him.
“Silas,” I said calmly. My mind cleared itself of the unimportant clutter and I stepped into my role as prince. Yes, I was apprehensive about what Silas’s reaction to this would be, especially if he knew I’d killed that greywaster, but what I was feeling inside and what I would show Silas would be two different things. “You wish for me to handle those parasites?”
If Silas was surprised at my calmed reaction, like me, he wasn’t going to show it. The king had his masks, and it looked like I myself had one now.
The king stepped into the apartment with Ceph and handed the baby to Kirrel as he approached. “You murdered one of them, did you?”
There would be no dancing around the subject. I decided to be straight with him. “He was being disrespectful,” I explained. “He thought I was an elite when I questioned him and–”
Silas raised a hand. “No need to explain yourself, love,” he said. I hid the shock his words brought and my face remained still. “If you had a reason to kill him then that’s good enough for me. But as a Dekker, you will clean up your own messes, won’t you?”
I nodded. “Yes, Master. I’ll take care of it right away.”
The king’s pupils dilated. He liked what he’d heard from me, and I would be lying if I said this didn’t fill me with pride. I may hate Silas; he may have crippled me, forced himself on me… he may have snapped the bones in my wings one at a time, but no matter what torture he inflicted upon my body… I would always feel pride when I’d pleased him.
Silas stepped towards me, and his hand raised to stroke my cheek. “Sex does calm my little beast, doesn’t it?” he murmured. My breath caught in my throat, and unfortunately that was something I was unable to stop. I… still had a lot of work ahead of me when it came to controlling these visceral reactions. “Wipe the semen off of your body next time, lovely boy. I could smell Finn’s seed the moment I walked into here.”
My jaw tightened, but I swallowed my pride. It slid down my throat like it was covered in small needles however. “Sorry, Master,” I replied. “We fell asleep after, and since Garrett’s arrival was rather sudden, I forgot to properly clean myself.”
And it was that comment that finally delivered to me a fleeting look of shock. I think he was expecting me to lash out or something.
Admittedly, I liked drawing out that reaction from him. Catching my king off-guard… what a sweet delicacy to sample. “Yes, my love probably tired that poor boy out. I always enjoyed watching two virgins be intimate for the first time. They have no idea what they’re doing… but those primal instincts…” Silas slid a hand up my shirt and ran his fingers along my stomach. I felt him graze the dried semen, and he rubbed it. “They’ll guide you, won’t they love?” His hand travelled down to my pubic hair; the dried bits were stuck to the hair, and he played with that as well.
“Yes, Master,” I replied through a dry throat.
Silas withdrew his hand and his lips turned up to form a smile. I always found it eerie how different his eyes could look when he smiled. Sometimes his eyes didn’t smile at all, and other times… they seemed to shine with insanity. This time… this time was the latter.
“Do you know why you took your sengil tonight, love?” Silas asked sweetly. He brought his fingers up to his mouth and sucked on them. Lust filled his eyes, and those eyes drew themselves to mine. I could practically see the lurid thoughts behind his gaze. He wanted me, this I knew. I was walking alone inside of a twisted forest, and though I knew danger lurked all around me, there was a beast behind me that would attack the moment I ran.
Keep remaining calm. You can do this. You are powerful, you are dominant. You are not worthless.
I can match wits with him; I already sabotaged his Sky clone. I can get through this without snapping, without lashing out at him.
Fifteen years have taught me that every time I pushed back, every time I defended myself against his twisted advances, his guileful pokes and prods like a child to a bear in a cage… I was punished. I was disciplined and humiliated.
The true sign of insanity… is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.
I needed a different approach… and this was it.
“Yes, Master, I actually believe I do,” I replied. “Every time I’ve taken a life; I find myself getting sexually excited to the point of bloodlust… is that a chimera trait?”
Silas stroked my cheek; the king’s smile seeping pleasure. He was the Cheshire cat weaving his body around my legs, a tail high in the air and a purr in his throat. “Yes, my cold beast,” Silas said, his voice gravelly. “We’ve been seeing it in Nero since he hit puberty. As soon as my little monsters become grown they get a thirst inside of their throat.” He ran his index and middle finger along my jaw, and brushed them over my Adam’s apple. “And once they kill… once they take a life, especially one that shows carnage.” Suddenly Silas grasped my genitals through my pants, and I stifled a grunt. “A heat takes them…” He leaned close to me and whispered into my ear, his breathe hot and smelling of cigarettes, “… and the only thing on their mind… is to fuck, and fuck hard.” I felt his lips on my ear, he kissed it slowly.
My restraint was slipping away. But no… I would win this.
I would win this!
“That’s what happened to me, Master,” I replied placidly. “Perhaps once this is finished… you can tell me other chimera traits that would be beneficial for me to know about.”
Silas pulled back, and his wandering hand began to massage my penis and testicles. The second hand then petted back my hair. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying this side of you… so relaxed and calm. Just wait, love.” He released me and glided to the walk-in closet that held our jackets and boots.
And the bomb then dropped.
“If you think fucking your sengil is exhilarating… just wait until I bring myself and your brothers to your bedroom. Oh… we’re going to have quite the time.”
My jaw locked. And though I was still claiming this as a victory, deep down inside I was wondering if perhaps I’d just dug myself a grave.
“Do what you need to do to get those greywasters off of my entry way, lovely man,” Silas said. I glanced at him, my jawbone hurting from the strength of me clenching it. He was rooting through the closet, pulling out a… cape? “If you want to kill them all you may, just clean up your little mess.” Silas then closed the closet door and walked to me, holding a silver cape with a purple carracat embroidered onto the back, and swung it over my shoulders. “You’ll do a great job. I know it.” He did up the clasps and straightened it out, and with a beaming smile that, strangely, showed no hidden contempt or animosity, he stepped back and clasped his hands behind his back.
Alone I left the apartment, and alone I took the elevator down to the lobby of Alegria. While the digital countdown was above me, telling me the floors I was passing, my mind was tackling many different thoughts and feelings. First off, I was confused but also proud that Silas was allowing me to handle this pr
oblem on my own. But on the other hand, my experiences with the Mad King had my hackles permanently raised, and that brought an embedded fear that this could all be a trick of his.
But I was quick to conclude that even if it was a trick, there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn’t like I could flip Silas the middle finger and go back to my room, either way I was going to have to handle this.
The greywasters were going to be educated – and I’d rather use the stick than the carrot.
Above me, the word Lobby flashed on the digital display, then the doors both slid apart showing the vast and elegant lobby of Alegria in front of me. There was a new fountain in the middle of the lobby now, circular with three tiers, and on top of the last one held a carracat carved from granite. It fit well with the luxurious lobby that surrounded it, one with wainscoting on the walls, the top part a blue wallpaper with different designs and dark wood paneling on the bottom. The trim that separated the walls and the ceiling was carved white crown moulding, and the columns white and reminiscent of the ones found in roman times.
One day I would repair the skyscraper Julian lived in, and mine would trump this one ten-fold. Perhaps if I continued to make Silas proud he would allow me to move out on my own sooner rather than later. To have my own space, without having to…
My attention was broken when a gun shot tore through the tranquil milieu that had followed me to this lobby. I looked towards the sound and an ember of anger flared inside of my heart when I saw a group of greywasters seemingly harassing the two thiens that kept guard in front of Alegria.
As my feet took me towards the entrance, two large glass doors in the middle of floor-to-ceiling bullet proof windows, I heard a drawer close behind me. I glanced over my shoulder as I quickened my pace and saw Alegria’s receptionist, a man in his thirties named Jaime, hold up a handgun.
“They’re… Master Silas told the thiens not to kill them,” he said as he began to fast walk towards me, his eyes shooting nervously to the greywasters on the other side of the windows. “They’re armed, Master Elish.”
