Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (93 page)

Jack and I both nodded, and I know we were thinking the same thing. We were already immortal so if King Silas was going to become harder on the future generations of chimeras… well, he could go right ahead.

After some back-and-forths and a few more laughs Silas got up and gave us both hugs as he got ready to leave.

“You two be good. I won’t be gone for long and I will be back in time for Sanguine’s party. Garrett is planning it of course, and he is king until I return. Nero will be busy cleaning up the last remnants of the rebels, Sanguine, but I’m sure he will make time to see you. He missed you as well, and in a few months he and Ceph will be married too.”

“Is there anything you would like us to do while you’re gone, King Silas?” Jack asked, holding the door open for him.

“Keep him relaxed and content, that’s what you must do, Jack,” Silas said sternly. “Tell me if he goes into psychosis. Sanguine, if you start seeing any hallucinations you are to tell Perish immediately. Remember what we talked about before. This is an order from your king, am I understood?”

I nodded. With Elish gone the only other sciencey-smart chimera that was of proper age was Perish. I think Garrett was just intelligence. So I guess it would make sense that he would want to know if I started to slip again.

“Good.” Silas gave me a kiss and then kissed Jack. “Have lots of sex and enjoy yourselves. If you feel the need you can kill whomever you wish but stay away from your remaining brothers. We wouldn’t want to cull too many of them. Chimeras are a complete pain to raise. Goodbye, babies. Behave now.”

“Goodbye, King Silas, have a nice trip,” I said, and after Jack said goodbye as well the door closed and we were alone.

Jack almost knocked me off of my feet when he threw his arms around me once again. He held me tight in his grip to the point where I could feel my rib cage creaking inside of my chest. I didn’t voice my displeasure though. Though I had missed Jack too, I had been lost in the white flames of resurrection and had only occasionally been conscious. Jack had been awake and waiting for me to wake up as well for almost two months.

So I squeezed him back and slowly rocked him back and forth when I started to hear the whimpering come back. From what I knew of him Jack rarely cried; he just seemed to edge the cusp of tears through whimpering and glistening eyes.

When Jack pulled away he framed my face with his hands and looked at me. I could see my reflection in those onyx gems, so full of love and relief. He stared at me, like he was searching my eyes for someone or something.

“You really are my Sanguine?” Jack whimpered. Then he nodded as if he was confirming it to himself. “You are, I see you are. I was just so worried – I was afraid that your brain would heal to the point where you weren’t my baby anymore. But you are, you’re my Sami.”

I wanted to correct him again but out of everyone in my family he had got to know me on a personal level, more than even King Silas did. He got to know Sami before he even knew I was Sanguine, so perhaps I would let him call me it… sometimes.

“I am me, of course I am,” I said with a shake of my head. I was amused he would be worried about something so stupid. “I’ve never felt better. I feel like a new man; I fucking am a new man, look at me.” My red shirt was long sleeve so I pushed back the cuffs and showed him my arms. “Inside and out.”

Jack nodded and gently touched my arms. “I know, Silas told me what they did to your skin and… inside of you. You were resurrecting for longer than I thought you would… you were kept in Perish’s operating floor for quite awhile.” He frowned at this but he shook it off and walked to the kitchen. “I have lots of food… and I talked to Jiro. He’s Apollo’s boyfriend and also is in charge of what TV shows and movies are on our channels. He’s playing your favourite movies on channel thirteen. He also says if we give him a list he can start working on our own special channel! Only the top chimeras have gotten that privilege.”

I put Barry on the windowsill so he could look outside and started walking back towards the couch. Then I spotted someone unexpected napping on a tall black and grey cat tree.

“Jett!” I exclaimed. I picked up Jett who was hot from the sun beaming down on his black fur and held him in my arms. He looked around sleepily but after a pet on the head he settled in and started to purr. “You’ve been taking care of the little bastard? Thank you. He’s huge now!”

Jack beamed and walked over to us. He scratched Jett behind the ears, and the cat squinted his eyes and raised his head. Jett was in cat heaven.

“He has such a great personality. I was thinking we could get another one to keep him company. I thought we would get Dave for awhile but Elish took him too. The tell-tale sign that he’s planning on being gone for a long time.” Jack said. “It would have to be another kitten. Old tame cats are so hard to find, quite the opposite before the Fallocaust Silas says. Maybe we could get a specific breed? Though I do love black ones.”

“That would be nice, let’s do that,” I said. I had missed a lot of Jett growing up when I had run away from the family, it would be wonderful to add another kitten to the apartment. “How long do you think Elish will be gone for?”

“Sometimes he’s gone for months and months,” Jack said, letting Jett go back onto his perch. “I think he’s solely working on cloning right now.” Jack shrugged at this and I followed him back into the kitchen. “There is this secret project they call Chimera X that Perish and Elish take turns trying to figure out. A side project when the family isn’t creating new chimeras. Silas never tells us much about it, it’s really personal. But I’m guessing if Elish succeeds he would get into Silas’s good books and well…”

“Elish is in love with Silas so that’s what he wants,” I mumbled. I grabbed a plate of white cookies that were half-covered in tin foil and took a bite out of one. “I don’t know why Elish doesn’t go out and say he wants to be partners with Silas.”

Jack laughed at this, hard. I gave him a quizzical look as my boyfriend started taking the lids off of various containers full of delicious-looking food.

“Elish admit he has feelings for someone? Never. I don’t think it’s physically possible for Elish to admit he loves someone, even King Silas. I don’t even know if he should… Silas has never had a boyfriend before, he’s always just had us… every one of us are kind of his boyfriend in a way. I mean he treats us all like boyfriends,” Jack said. He got a knife and started cutting out pieces of lasagna, my mouth started to water at this.

“That’s true,” I replied, “but you would think Silas would eventually want someone just for him, right?” I shifted. “I thought it was going to be me for awhile. I think Elish did too which is why he hated me so much. He even told me Silas would eventually destroy me when he caught Silas cuddling up to me in bed.” I paused. “I guess he was right.”

Jack looked up, I saw him frown. “Elish thought Silas was going to choose you?”

I nodded. “I was flattered. I like being special to him. I really love our king. I think I understand him differently than the others and he talks to me on a different level than the others too. Maybe that’s why Elish felt so threatened.”

“Huh,” Jack sniffed, before he roughly stabbed the lasagna with the knife, a little harder than necessary. “Interesting.”

All I could do was watch as Jack mangled the poor pan of lasagna. He roughly sliced it down the middle, filling the kitchen with the
tink tink tink
sound of the knife tip hitting the metal pan.

“Are you… okay?” I asked slowly. “Silas and I just have a special bond that’s all. He really did a lot for me when I first came here. And you should be happy we’ve patched things up. It’ll make our lives easier if the king is happy with us, right?”

“I’m fine,” Jack said crisply. “And yes, you’re right, it will.”

One of my eyebrows raised. I had watched enough romance movies to know that when someone says they’re fine, it means you’re about to get your head bitten off.

Then I thought of it further and realized I had seen this reaction before, pretty much every single one of the chimeras got jealous when they saw how patient and kind King Silas had been towards me. It took me seeing how King Silas usually was to understand why it ruffled their feathers so much. Silas and I had a close bond though, maybe I was able to nurture that bond between us because I didn’t have any pre-conceived concepts of him. He had treated me well when I was at my worst, scared, terrorized, and too afraid to even come out from under the bed, and we had forged a tight bond between us. One that still continued to this day.

And to my surprise I found a spark of annoyance that Jack was going to be yet another chimera to be jealous and angry over my bond with the king. He was my boyfriend now, and he and the entire family were constantly telling me how our love for the king was different than our love for our partners.

I let out an irritated sigh. “Maybe if all of you didn’t walk around Silas like you’re walking on egg shells and treat him like a person you guys would get along better with him.”

Jack’s lips disappeared into his mouth. I took a step back since he was still holding the knife in his hand.

“You don’t need to be all jealous and weird over how nice he treats me,” I said annoyed. “You’re just like Elish.”

And slam went the knife, down on the marble counter with a loud clack.

“I’m not jealous that Silas treats you nicely,” Jack snapped, his black eyes a blaze and his body tensed. “I’m jealous because you… I’m jealous of Silas, okay?” He turned away from me slammed one of the plates of food into the microwave, the kitchen filling with the sounds of crashing plates. I stood there, surprised as he flung the door shut and started pushing buttons.

Then his shoulders slumped. “You talk about him and your eyes brighten, your heartbeat picks up…” Jack’s hand dropped from the buttons as the microwave turned on. “I’m just feeling insecure because… I feel like I’m your runner-up prize. Your spare because… because Silas doesn’t want you as his partner.”

I smiled and shook my head, though his back was to me. I walked up behind him and put my arms around him and squeezed his back to my stomach. “You’re so stupid,” I said with a smile. “Are you serious? I just woke up a few days ago, I’ve only seen you for an hour, and you’re already feeling insecure and jealous?”

“I can tell you love him,” Jack said quietly. “And it really hit me when you commented that Elish could tell as well. It’s obvious to the entire family that you two have a strong connection that none of us do. And though they’re all jealous of you – I’m jealous of Silas. I want that with you. I want you to look at me like I saw you look at him earlier.”

I kissed his neck, and heard a small sigh escape his lips. “Well, I won’t start off our relationship by bullshitting you, Jack.” When Jack tried to pull away I only pulled him closer. “Do you want me to be honest or do you want me to just tell you what you want to hear?”

Another sigh before, he nodded. “Okay… go ahead.”

“Silas was with me constantly when I first came here. And yeah, he was patient, caring, loving, and attentive. He helped me with homework and defended me against Elish. Of course I love him for that. He was the first man to show me some genuine compassion. I didn’t know he didn’t do that for you guys. So I would be lying if I said I wasn’t welded to that man. I love him because he’s Silas, not because he’s some scary master-king.” Then I kissed him again. “But you said yourself, he isn’t looking for a partner and he has given me permission to date you, and I want you.” Another kiss on his neck, I started to feel him relax. “You’re my boyfriend and he’s my master, and the same goes for you too.” I nipped the area I had kissed and started stroking his stomach. “You can’t expect my feelings for you to develop that quickly, we just started dating and for most of our relationship I was in psychosis. I know you want things to move fast, with the
I love yous
and all of that but… come on, Jack-love, it’ll take time. We’re pretty much starting our life together today.”

Jack was silent until eventually the microwave beeped. He pushed the microwave door open and I withdrew my hands, then smiled as he turned around. Though he was frowning at me.

“You’re right…” he said, and let out a long sad sigh. “I guess I just want you to love me as much as I love you. But I know that’s unreasonable, you’ve been mentally sick for most of the time I’ve known you, and I feel protective when it comes to you. I guess I’m just pathetic and I need reassurance. Maybe I’m still scared being immortal might’ve changed you. I’m scared that now that you’re not the Sami I stayed with down in that abandoned building’s basement, your feelings towards me might change. You know… since you don’t need me anymore.”

The lines on Jack’s head deepened as he frowned as I clucked and shook my head. I was so amused and enchanted with this new needy side of my boyfriend. I found it endearing though. I loved seeing his shortcomings and his need for reassurance. I didn’t mind giving it to him, he had done the same for me many times. “You have such stupid worries,” I said playfully. “I’m still Sami. I’m just better than anything Sami could’ve ever been. Unless you want me to be sad and miserable so you can take care of me, we’ll be just fine.”

He smiled at this and nodded. “I know… I just needed to hear it.” He took the hot plate of food out with his bare hands and put it on the kitchen island. “It’s a lot of emotions for one day, I know I’m acting like a teenage girl with all these worries.”