by Quil Carter
There are many unforeseen problems with being immortal, and one of them is that you get to deal with children and grandchildren of the men and women who you had associations with, both good and bad. If the family in question has a grudge against us, it can get passed down through generations, and decades after, they can crop up like cockroaches and cause a lot of problems.
But I didn’t know that at the time. I walked towards the Ford 5150 with the child in my arms, my only thoughts on just what I was going to do with it, and a small flicker of hope that I had secured a valuable ally for my family.
~
I sighed when I saw the looks my two brothers were giving me as I walked towards the parked truck. I had a baby in one arm and a bag full of what supplies Oniks had bought for him in another.
Their expressions were similar, enough to be brothers themselves. Imagine a look of confusion and awe, like when someone did a magic trick in front of you, and now imagine those looks belonging to two thirty-three-year-old chimeras.
There was dead silence when I opened the cab of the truck, but that silence didn’t last.
“I KNEW IT!” Nero declared. He pointed an accusing finger at me, his eyes enlarged with shock but also brimming with excited glee, as if he’d just figured out a long unsolved puzzle, and with what he said next, I was indeed right.
“I fucking knew it, Gare. I fucking knew it. This is the reason why he hates sleeping with us. This is the reason why he hides in his room. This! This! ELISH IS FUCKING STRAIGHT!” I stared at him, myself now shocked, and as Garrett said a heartbreaking Oh my god! Nero outstretched his hand towards the baby. “Let me see. I wanna see the little bastard love child! Is it a girl? I hope it’s a girl.” He seemed excited, but whether it was because he solved a puzzle I didn’t even know needed solving, or because I was carrying a baby and my strange brute chimera brother loved babies, I didn’t know.
I groaned and wiped a hand down my face when I heard Garrett sniff and hic. “Is it true?” he said in a voice of pure despair. “Silas is going to be so upset.”
“For fuck sakes!” I said. “I’m not straight and this is not my god damn child!” I ground my teeth as Nero let out a disappointing noise, and Garrett himself swore with relief. “He’s our insurance policy,” I said flatly. “Take us back to Alegria. Did you call Silas to arrange the meeting I requested?” I felt like I needed to take a shower after Nero’s absurd conclusion. Was I that much of a black sheep that he would think such things of me? I shuddered at the thought and glanced down at the dark-haired baby. He stared back up at me, calm and collected with not a care in the world.
Nero snorted, then began to laugh. “Can you imagine, Gare?” he said through his laughter. “Wouldn’t it just be hilarious? All this time, and in the end, Elish turns out to be straight and had a secret love child in Skyland. Oh my god, can you imagine what Silas would’ve done? He would’ve euthanized him.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Garrett said behind us. I saw a hand appear and he smacked Nero’s shoulder as Nero started the truck. “It would’ve been horrible. It’s not even funny to joke about.” Then he turned to me. “Really though… why do you have a baby?”
“I’ll explain it once we get home. I don’t want to tell the story twice,” I said. The truck began to move. “It’s going to help us raze to the ground the rebels who killed Finn.” I pushed down the lump in my throat that came from mentioning him. “I have an informant now, one on the inside.”
“And you stole her baby? Harsh, but I like it.”
“Just fucking drive,” I said exasperated, and with my brothers rolling laughter filling the cab, we continued to Alegria.
The child remained quiet the entire drive which was a relief. I did end up making Garrett run into one of the grocery stores for baby formula however, Oniks bag had diapers in it, a pacifier, and assorted clothing and blankets, but nothing the boy could eat, and chimeras were ill-equip to provide such a thing. Skytech did have special formula for chimeras though, but since Drake had been off of formula for quite a while, we had none in stock.
“Elish?” Nero asked when we were in the elevator. I put a blanket over the child’s face as we had walked into Alegria, a half-hearted attempt to try and hide him just because I didn’t feel like dealing with the staring.
“Yes?” I said. I pulled the blanket off of the boy, who was still being quiet thankfully.
“Do you love me?”
I stared at him, and I didn’t like the shiteater grin of mischief I got back.
“I will not tell Silas this is my child.”
“Can I tell Silas she’s my love child?”
“No, and he’s a boy.”
“Can Garrett?”
“No.”
Nero and Garrett both sighed with disappointment, and declared how unfun I was until the elevator doors opened and we stepped into the hallway.
I braced myself for the looks and walked through the double doors and into the apartment. I saw Silas and Ellis both talking at the dining room table. Their heads both turned to me. “Hello, lovely boy,” said Silas in a cheerful voice. He rose and glided towards me. “How’s…”
He stopped, and as Nero and Garrett both began choking back laughter, Silas stared down at the newborn, looked up at me, then back down at the boy, then up at me again.
“Elish is straight. That’s his love child.”
“For fuck sakes, Nero!” I roared. Both my brothers burst into laughter, but unfortunately my exclamation wasn’t appreciated by the baby. His face scrunched and became red, then he let out a whining cry. “Now look what you did,” I snapped at Nero as the child continued his loud complaint. I stalked over to my brother and tried to hand him the child, but Nero was on his knees, his face just as scrunched up and crimson as the baby’s, but this was because of his laughter, which seemed in the process of killing him through asphyxiation.
My stress level was quickly being reached. I grabbed a pacifier from the bag and stuck it into the child’s mouth. He quieted down immediately and began to suck on it, his eyes full of tears and his expression quite confused. “Ellis, will you make him a bottle,” I asked her. Then I turned again, and let out a breath when I saw that Silas hadn’t moved, he was staring off into nothing, the same shocked expression on his face.
“He’s not my child and I am not straight,” I said to him. “Thirty-three years hasn’t taught you not to believe Nero?”
Silas’s lips pursed tight, then he turned around, stalked up to Nero, and kicked my brother in the side as he continued to literally die with laughter. “That wasn’t funny, you fucking idiot,” he snapped. Then turned to me. “Why do you have a baby, Elias?” he said curtly. I could tell he was relieved, but that relief had given way to annoyance over being allowed to suffer for those several moments.
“Let us sit around the dining room table,” I suggested to him. Nero had begun to compose himself, and was attempting to stand. Ellis was in the kitchen and Garrett seemed to be helping her. “I called this meeting for an important reason. I have news that will…” I swallowed again, that familiar tug taking hold. “That will help us… get some revenge.”
Silas’s anger faded, and the empathy I had seen him express over me losing Finn replaced it. “You… you found out?”
I nodded stiffly. “Vlad,” I said. “The Skyfall Rebels betrayed us.”
Silas sighed and walked over to me. “Yes, love,” he said quietly. “They did… but the thiens are scouring Skyfall to search for every one. My lovely will… my lovely will get to watch them be killed in Stadium.” His voice broke over the last several words and once again I was surprised at just how much compassion he was showing me. It was so unlike him… it was strange.
“Hey, guys. Sorry if I’m late…” I looked over my shoulder when I heard Julian. He walked through the double doors and smiled when he saw me. “Hey, Elish,” he said softly, his face turning from its usual smile, to a sad look of worry. “How are you–” He paused for a mo
ment, his eyes going to the bundle I was holding. “Aw, the little nugget got born. Does he have a name yet?”
I hadn’t seen much of Julian since Finn had died. It was both a mixture of him giving me space, and me drowning myself in work and anything I could keep myself busy with. Julian seemed to know that he wasn’t someone I wanted to see.
Silas had told me that he’d darted off after quickly figuring out where the gunfire had come from, but the sniper already shot Finn by the time Julian arrived, my brothers and sister mere seconds behind him.
Silas had also told me Julian felt guilt over Finn’s death. I didn’t know if I believed Silas, and I don’t think I’d ever be ready to ask Julian myself.
“No, he doesn’t have a name,” I answered Julian. “He doesn’t even have a home.” I took my place at the dining room table and Julian sat down beside me. “Julian was aware of what was going on,” I explained to Silas as we all took our seats. “He’s been important to what has been going on during the past several weeks.”
“Of course, Julian is such a crafty little thing,” Silas praised and Julian gussied up at the compliment like the brown noser he was. Silas sat on the opposite end of me, a smile now on his face. Thankfully, the annoyance over Nero’s unfunny joke was gone and he seemed to be in a good mood. “I’m sure you have a good explanation for bringing a child home, Elish. You don’t expect us to keep him, right? We have the Sky clone coming soon, and Drake is still a handful.”
“No, Master Silas,” I said. The hairs on the back of my neck began to prickle, and when I glanced over my shoulder I saw that Kessler was an inch away from the baby, who was still hanging over my shoulder, and he was making faces at him. “This child is a favour for someone who is going to become important to my newest campaign.”
“Just shut the fuck up Garrett!”
Every person at the table turned towards the kitchen when we heard Nero’s anguished voice.
“What’s going on?” I said confused. “He was fine a moment ago…” Nero had been in a grand mood. Nero wasn’t like Silas at all, his moods were slow to shift and long to stay. Nero wasn’t the type of person to explode like that.
Silas and I both jumped to our feet.
“No, stay where you are,” Silas said to me, before walking off towards the kitchen.
“What the hell was that?” I asked as Julian sat back down. He looked paler. “You look like you know more than I do. What’s happening?”
Julian sighed. “I wouldn’t borrow trouble, my lion,” he said. “They’ve been fighting a lot about you. They’re worried about you. Garrett probably made a suggestion about how to help you that Nero didn’t like. Nero’s been extremely overprotective of his oldest brother.”
If that were true, I wonder what it was. I had been working since… the incident at the carnival and hadn’t seen much of my family. It was a sweet thought that they wanted to help me so badly.
But the only thing that would truly help me… would be to kill every last remaining Jackson, and Bratva too.
Bloodshed was my salve. This was so for every person with the last name Dekker.
Several minutes later, with only the sounds of murmurs coming from the kitchen, even with my chimera hearing, Silas appeared. He was followed by the rest of them, including Ellis who was holding a bottle.
When she handed me the bottle I shook my head and gave her the child instead. She rolled her eyes but said nothing and sat down with the baby.
When everyone was sitting around the dining room table, their eyes on me, I tented my fingers and gathered my thoughts. I knew what I was going to say, and had plugged any holes in my story that I had found. My explanation was going to free me of any wrongdoing, and would have my family chomping at the bit to kill the rebels who had been annoying us for the last six years.
“I uncovered vital information about what has been really happening between these rebels, the Bratva and what we called the Skyfall Rebels.”
This raised the eyebrows of everyone at the table but Julian, but I continued, “What I uncovered was this: These greywaster rebels were never on our side, the two families, the Bratva and the Jacksons were at war in the greywastes. There had been casualties on both sides and they were constantly fighting over control of land and resources. When some of these Bratvas immigrated into Skyfall, they claimed Skyfall as their own and the Jackson family didn’t like that. These Skyfall Rebels were never fighting to turn our opinions on the greywaster immigrants, Skyfall was merely a battlefield for them.”
I glanced at Nero, and looked him right in the eye. He was going to know I was lying about this, and he was going to have to keep quiet. “The Bratva are now dead, and it seems Nero’s legion patrol either caught them off-guard, or they sought them out for whatever reason. Needless to say though, the Legion made short work of them… or so I thought.” I made myself steel over the next part I was going to have to say; the raw wound that throbbed in my heart, and beat across my body, the pain I felt over losing Finn. “The leader’s son Vlad escaped, and he sought revenge on our family. My… sengil, who you all knew was my partner before I did, was killed, I was injured, the family was put at risk.”
Silas’s eyes widened, and I saw a hand that was resting on the table clench. I attempted to throw myself back into the usual routine of manipulating Silas. He was angry, which was good. I had to have him fully believe that the family was, and still is, in danger.
“Vlad is now dead, but the remaining family, the Jackson family, and the greywaster Bratva, are still in the greywastes, and I know which area we can find them,” I explained. “I know this because I have a valuable informant now… the daughter of the leader of the former Skyfall Rebels, and the sister of Vlad. Her name is Onika, she goes by Oniks… and this is her child.”
“Are there any rebels left in Skyfall?” Silas said, haste in his voice. “I need to know if my family is in danger.” Even the thought quickened Silas’s heartbeat. The more times he saw us in danger, the more desperate he got. Silas’s weakness was his first generation, the thought of losing us drove him into insanity. This was important to remember, but I never did forget it.
“Oniks is going to find out for me,” I said to him.
“How can you trust her?” Silas said sharply. He looked to Ellis who was now feeding the boy. “You stole her child and you think she’ll help you out of duress? She won’t do it for long, Elish. She’ll rally her family and they’ll stand behind her if we have one of their children.”
I shook my head. “No, Master, that isn’t what happened at all,” I said. “Oniks came to me on her own accord, after Ivan beat her. This child is the love child between her and the Bratva leader’s oldest son. Ivan, the leader of the Jackson family, and Vlad, both wanted to kill him. This child is in danger if he goes to the greywastes, in danger if any of the rebels in Skyfall know Oniks has him. She entrusted the boy to me to keep safe, and in exchange she’s going to help us with whatever information she can about her family.”
My words brought silence, and I must admit there was satisfaction at their shocked faces. Even saying it out loud made me proud of what I had accomplished, especially since most of it was the truth. It had been a rather genius plan, and I was quite proud of it.
“It goes without saying…” I went on. “That I want every Bratva and Jackson dead. I don’t know their solid location, but I’m going to find out, and once we know… I want the Legion in there with their guns blazing, and every single member of that family dead. We cannot risk them living, grudges last a long time, and as we’ve learned, it only takes one person with a sniper rifle to kill a chimera. As I was almost killed.”
The jolt in Silas’s heart was as valuable as a casino games blaring trills when you hit triple 7’s. I knew I had him, and I knew he would now do everything I asked him to do. “Killing them will not only guarantee our safety, it’ll… it’ll help me…” I stalled, I fucking stalled.
And to my humiliation, Silas reached across the table and put
his hand on mine.
“It’ll help me get vengeance for Finn,” I managed to finish. “With your permission, Silas… I want to kill every last one of them.”
Silas squeezed my hand and nodded. “Without a doubt, Elish,” he said, with strength in his words that mine had lost. “We will paint the greywastes with their blood.”
“Fuck yeah we will!” Nero said, banging his hand on the table. “We’ll slaughter those bitches. We can publicize it too, get some good P.R.”
“You’re planning on going into the greywastes?” Our eyes turned towards the hallway where Perish emerged. He looked half-asleep, Silas must’ve summoned him for the evening or perhaps he was just catching a nap. “Silas… while they’re mortal? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? They could kill them.”
Nero scoffed. “Lay off, Per. Silas can’t fucking coddle us and Elish is going to make us immortal soon. Right, Eli?” He looked at me hopeful, and I nodded, sure of myself that I would.
“I will,” I said.
Perish sat down, giving the baby a puzzled glance but saying nothing. “Yes, the newest project… I’ll help with that. I can do the surgery and help.” His eyes went back to Silas. “You shouldn’t be risking them, Silas. Elish almost died; Nero almost died not too long after. It’s bad enough you have Nero, Ellis, and Ceph working with the Legion. Why are you risking them?”
“Shut up, Perish!” Nero exclaimed, and I wasn’t happy with what he was saying either. If he managed to convince Silas to put us into veritable bubbles, I’d never get those rebels massacred.
I slid my hand out from under Silas’s and grasped it. I forced a smile when I saw the unsure look on his face. “We’ll be safe,” I said to him. “I must do this… I… I have to, Silas.”
Perish made a noise in his throat, but I ignored him. I let my eyes rest against Silas’s and injected confidence into them.