Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (71 page)

But he still sighed, and he still hesitated under Nero’s gaze, but he managed a nod.

“Always, Nero. Always.”

Then a throat cleared behind them.

Nero and Ceph both turned around and at the same time their mouths dropped open.

King Silas was standing in the hallway outside of the apartment with his arms crossed over his chest, Garrett behind him looking just as shocked as Nero and Ceph.

“K-kingy!” Nero said happily, though there was a nervous catch to his voice. He plastered on a fake smile before deliberately stepping in Silas’s view of the dead and mutilated Elish who was laying just several feet behind him. “You’re up! I missed you bunches.”

Nero took a step towards Silas and held out his arms to give him a hug, but the stone-cold expression on Silas’s face stopped him dead in his tracks.

King Silas’s emerald green eyes flickered past Nero to the dead Elish lying on his back on the floor, a pool of red soaking the carpet around him, making his hair strawberry blond. Without a word the king walked past Nero, his movements gliding and his shoes making no sound as they approached his first born.

Silas kneeled down, the silver cape he had clasped around his neck getting blood on the clean trim. He put a hand to the red welt on Elish’s grey face, before slowly brushing the tips of his fingers against the carved knife-marks Nero had just made.

“You murdered your brother, and you macerated his flesh to prolong his resurrection?” The cold, sharp tones of Silas’s voice made Ceph swallow, but Nero only stood there frozen.

He had no expression on his face, but every chimera could hear his heart. It was like a giant knocking on a hollow door, two deep brass tones that echoed in the living room and showed everyone listening that Nero knew he was in dire trouble.

Though as the Imperial Commander stood behind Silas, he seemed to realize that there were two paths in front of him. And though many of his younger brothers would choose the path of pleading for King Silas’s forgiveness, Nero knew his king enough to know that he was not one to soften his heart to grovelling. No, the king knew only reason, and justification – this was no time to plead.

So with this in his head Nero walked towards Silas and Elish, leaving Ceph and Garrett with their nervous looks.

“Sanguine has been gone for two months,” Nero said standing tall. “Elish has only sent Jack, Rio, Artemis, and Felix to try and find him and they don't even know Sanguine is a chimera so I doubt they’re searching that hard. And I just learned from Elish he is disbanding the search saying Sanguine will come home when he feels like it.”

Nero felt a flicker of hope when Silas retracted his hand which had been brushing against Elish’s neck.

“Garrett has briefed me on what happened with Sanguine,” Silas said, rising to his feet and taking a towel from Kinny who had wandered in during their exchange. “Two months he has been gone and no word?”

Nero nodded, feeling that it was safe he put a hand on Silas’s back and gently led him towards the couch. They all sat down but a moment later a shrill scream of Nero’s name came from the bedroom.

Silas and Garrett both looked towards the bedroom before Nero’s mouth twisted to the side. “Kinny, let Loren out and tell him to shut the fuck up because Silas is here. Get Silas some food and some drugs. Okay, Kingy?”

Silas glared at him before pushing the towel into
Nero’s
hand. “You think you’re off the hook, Nero? You murdered Elish in cold blood, and you think I will let that go?”

Once again everyone froze in their places, Nero included. He was hoping he was off the hook but the burning anger in his king’s eyes told him he wasn’t going to be that lucky.

“You would rather me let him disband the search for Sanguine?” Nero asked, his own eyes narrowed. “I did what I thought you would want, which is to put in every effort we have to find him. Elish was only fucking doing this because he’s jealous of–”

“Enough.” Silas’s raised voice broke the heavy tension in the room like a rock to a window. “Even if he was about to make that mistake that does not give you the right to kill him. If I let my chimeras kill their brothers whenever they disagree with him I will have my entire family wiped out within the month.”

Nero’s teeth ground together and he felt his temperature start to rise. “That’s fucking bullshit!” Nero snapped. “Sanguine could be fucking dead and once again you don’t give a shit?”

“This isn’t about Sanguine,” Silas said coldly. He walked up to Nero until they were almost nose to nose and glared into Nero’s indigo eyes. “This is about you thinking you can kill anyone who disagrees with you. Just like when you murdered me after my decision to leave Sanguine in the greywastes. This has been an ongoing problem with you Nero Sebastian and it seems even being in concrete for several months hasn’t taught you obedience.”

“I’m doing what’s right! Because you don’t give a fuck about him. No one does!” Nero yelled. He threw the bloody towel against the wall in anger, a visible vein bulging in his forehead. “I’m the only one who fucking cares about him. The only one who loves him.”

“This – is – not – about – Sanguine!” Silas’s tone dropped. It was a known fact amongst the chimeras that when Silas got angry, he didn’t raise his voice, on the contrary it dropped to frigid dark tones, ones that made even the bravest of them quake in their boots. “I will find him in the ways I see fit. You need to understand that you are not in control, you are not king, you don’t get to kill your brothers when they do something you don’t like. Whether it be disagreeing about military orders or Sanguine. Obviously my methods of discipline mean nothing on you.”

Then Silas looked past Nero, to Ceph who was standing beside Garrett, his face pale and his hands nervously kneading together.

Nero’s fiancé wasn’t stupid, as soon as Silas’s eyes fell on him his own widened. Immediately he looked away and ran a hand nervously over his short auburn hair before going back to squeezing and kneading his hands.

“Garrett, Ceph will be held in the pool until Elish wakes up,” Silas said lowly. As soon as those words left his lips Nero yelled his name, but without even flinching Silas continued. “When Elish wakes up, you may take him out. Twice a day, morning and after dinner you will bring him out of the water while Nero is there, and he may gaze upon him.”

“YOU FUCK!” Ceph suddenly yelled, though his green eyes were on Nero not Silas. “You motherfucker! I told you you were making a fucking mistake! You fucking asshole, thanks a lot! Fucking thanks a lot, you fucking shit! Fuck you!”

“It wasn’t his fucking fault!” Nero bellowed. He tried to hold back his temper, knowing that was what got him in this situation in the first place, but he could practically feel the anger bursting through his skin. “He didn’t do shit! Fucking come on, Silas! Please!”

But like Nero had deduced before, his pleading fell on deaf ears. Silas looked at Garrett and nodded, before turning back to Nero.

Over the swearing and yelling from Ceph, Silas put a hand on Nero’s muscular shoulder and gave it a pat. “I didn’t just give him to you from the goodness of my own heart, Nero. He will be used as I see fit when I feel you need a reminder of your place. Now, are you going to sit with me so we can discuss Sanguine? Or do you want to watch Garrett tie the weights to his chest?”

Nero watched helplessly as Ceph turned away from him, his shoulders already shaking. Within the hour he would have hundred pound weights tied to his body and then he would be submerged in cold water with only a thin breathing tube in his mouth. A tube that would only allow enough air to keep him from dying, and just barely.

The chasm, as it was called, was originally created by Silas and Elish to train the chimeras to control their own heartbeat. It was done by making the breathing tube not only small, but it was designed to contract if one was trying to suck too much air out of it. The person could only get a sufficient amount of air in his lungs if he remained calm and gradually drew the air into his chest.

Though this was easier said than done, especially once the darkness set in and the mania. It was a struggle to remain calm when you were surrounded by dark cold water with only your thoughts to keep you company. Usually when one was locked up and the madness set in they were free to yell and scream as they see fit, but not in the chasm. You were forced to remain still, remain in a state of suspended animation, with your mind constantly demanding for you to take a deep breath.

It was maddening… so maddening. I would rather be encased in concrete than put in the chasm. And now I just condemned my fiancé to days and days of this.

“Cephy…” Nero choked. “I’m sorry.”

Ceph didn’t turn around, but in a small act of pride he squared his shoulders and walked out of the apartment, his head held high but his hands still trembling under the reality of what he was about to endure.

The door closed. Nero stood there until Silas’s presence could be felt beside him. He looked down and saw the king smiling at him.

“Now that that’s taken care of, come sit and do some drugs with me, love. We need to make ourselves a plan on how we’re going to find Sanguine.” The light and deceptively tender touch on Nero’s shoulder made his skin tighten, and though it lit his fuse once again the dynamite it could detonate had already been reduced to a black burn mark on the floor.

“Okay…” Nero whispered, watching the last place he had seen Ceph. He made himself a familiar promise to control his temper next time, but this time something felt different.

He finally found my Achilles’ heel…
Nero said to himself.
I’m such a fucking idiot…

“I have a meeting with Zhou at six,” Nero said to Silas, sitting down and grabbing the sniffer that Kinny had already laid out. Without waiting for Silas to give him the okay he iced three lines and rolled it to Silas. “I want the entire legion looking for him.”

Silas shook his head no. “No legion. We need them to bomb those fucking rebels. Thiens and the family only. I’ll be telling Jack who Sanguine is tomorrow. Whisper not a word of it when he comes to collect Elish.” Silas glanced at his watch. “The second generation can go looking and some thiens as well.”

Nero stiffened; his muscles started tensing one by one.

Caringly Silas brushed a hand over Nero’s short black hair, and smiled kindly at him. “You try hard, love, and I dislike punishing you so. Do control that temper for your master, yes? I see you already getting angry again.”

“We need as many people as possible…”

“We need the media and the rebels not knowing about this, and having hundreds of people looking for him will only frighten him,” Silas countered. “This is a family matter and it will be kept as such.”

A family matter which would’ve never had to be dealt with if you didn’t lie to Sanguine and try to convince him you weren’t a maniac,
Nero thought bitterly to himself, but he decided to keep the vinegar away from the raw wound, so he only nodded.

“Smile, Nero,” Silas said. “You’ve received your punishment now everything is as it should be. I’ve been dead for four months – smile.”

Nero stared at the finished lines of powder, now just dusty remains like a road in the greywastes half covered in ash.

“SMILE, NERO!” Silas suddenly screamed. His tone holding such an uncharacteristic tone to it the Imperial Commander actually jumped from the surprise.

Nero forced his lips up and looked at the king to show him he was smiling. The king glared back, before picking up the blue sniffer. Wordlessly he leaned down and took the four lines Kinny had laid out on the marble coffee table.

“Everything is just fine,” Silas said under his breath. “It’ll be fine.”

Nero stared at his king, the fine hairs on the back of his neck rising. A sudden unease washed over him that made him shift away from Silas. He had been too distracted by the simultaneous events of the last hour to notice anything unusual with his king.

But now that Nero watched him…

Silas wiped his nose and gently placed the sniffer down. “We’ll just be happy, that’s all. We didn’t need… I didn’t need…”

Nero stared at him, wishing that Elish wasn’t dead behind the couch they were both sitting on. He would’ve been able to handle this, even Garrett was better at this than he was.

“Are – you okay?” Nero asked, forcing his voice to a light more supportive level.

The king didn’t look up. He only sat on the couch with his elbows on his knees, his nostril flexing as he sniffed the drugs up to his septum. Eventually though, after a solid minute had passed, he nodded.

“Just be happy, Nero. Perhaps I just–” Silas’s eyes flickered up to Nero’s and the king himself smiled. “Perhaps just seeing my family happy will be enough for now. I just want my family happy.”

Nero couldn’t understand his odd response. “Did something happen while you were at the lab with Perish?”

Even in his inner turmoil the king’s movements were graceful, a silk ribbon being drawn over smooth marble. Even if the act itself was only Silas brushing his strands of golden hair over dark-circled eyes.

“A lot happened, love,” Silas said in a deceptively calm tone. “And I had four months trapped inside my own crystal fire to think about it.”

“Kingy…” Nero said pushing back the terror that was braiding up his spine. He felt like he was in a horror movie, trapped in the murder house with the main character. “What happened?”