by Quil Carter
“He’s not on a first name basis with them, Elish,” Sacario said casually as he flicked something out of the inside of his nails. “Who needs to know names when all you’re going to say to them is ‘Oh, baby, fuck me faster’” The feminine way Sacario said those last words had Nero and Garrett bursting out laughing.
Todd tore off his aviator sunglasses, fire and brimstone bubbling behind his eyes. “I’d watch your mouth, slumrat. Or I’ll be making you scream from it tonight. I know where you live, it’s about two feet away from where I take a piss during lunch break.”
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Anyone reading this in the present year would be quite surprised at the attitude Todd was giving us. He was surrounded by three teenage chimeras in a dark alleyway, with their caretaker long gone and no one watching over them. If this had happened today, the Skylander would be groveling at our feet and begging for his life as the chimera in question dragged them into an abandoned building. One he, most likely, would never emerge from… and if he did, he would be unable to sit for a week.
But this wasn’t today, it was almost eighty years ago and Skyfall was only beginning to get an idea just what a chimera was capable of, and the lovely fact that every person with the last name Dekker is above the law and free to treat you how they please. Skyfall now knows that you run from chimeras, you don’t egg them on.
And Todd was going to realize this too.
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“Sacario’s living with me now,” I said acidically. I walked to Todd until I was nose to nose with him. I glared him down, my gaze not wavering in the least. “He’s mine. Anything I want is mine. Sacario’s mine, Skyland is mine, this city is mine. What yours is mine, asshole.”
Todd smirked and crossed his arms. “You talk pretty high and mighty when your brother is here, just like with Tiberius. The moment he’s gone though…”
Oh, he was going to play that game, was he?
“Nero, Garrett, Sacario… wait on the sidewalk for me,” I said, still glaring down the pretty-faced little shitsnake. “I don’t fear the bite of military trash.”
I heard Nero sigh with disappointment, but he didn’t try and dissuade me from my orders. Nero, Garrett, and Sacario left the alleyway, and their echoing steps became fainter before disappearing altogether.
And it was just me and Todd. My old crush, and my now enemy.
“Now it’s just the two of us, asshole,” I said to him. “My orders are simple: Leave Professor Britain the fuck alone. He’s mine now and you will not speak to him outside of school. Got it?”
And there it was. Yes, there it was. There was that look I was going for. That slight widening of his eyes, the pupils retracting, then milliseconds later a pull to his lip as his feet shifted back and forth.
But the crescendo I’d been waiting for… was when his heart jumped and his blood pressure rose.
It was those visceral reactions that always put a smile onto my face.
While Todd stared at me, not knowing what to make of my mention of our dear teacher, I leaned into him. “Your heart is racing,” I whispered. “You’re so tense. Why are you so tense, Todd?”
“Stay the fuck away from Ryan,” Todd said, edges now appearing in his tone. He was so tightened up. My oh my… he really did like Professor Britain, didn’t he? I bet he was the one that started this rumor. He must have a fucking hard-on for his english teacher.
Too bad. Call it wanting something the moment you saw someone else’s desire for it. Or perhaps I just really enjoyed how the professor had treated me… but I felt a swell of possessiveness towards Britain, like… I wanted to be special to him.
And I wanted to exterminate every other piece of competition.
“No,” I hissed. I leaned closer and smiled. “He’s coming over to Alegria, and there isn’t a fucking thing you can do about it.”
Then Todd took a step back, his movements robotic. “For someone who was screaming like a girl beside his dead sengil five years ago, you sure do act like you have a pair of balls.”
I recoiled away from Todd, my heart dropping.
His face was dark and his eyes full of cruel hatred, and urged on by the look of horror on my face, he struck again. “Everyone at school remembers, and everyone at school thinks you’re a weak, pampered little bitch. Except me, I know from the party that you’re a naïve priss too.” He turned around, leaving me, stunned where his words had left me. “See ya tomorrow, prince.”
The blood that was rushing behind my eyes filled my head with an intense and deafening roar. As Todd walked down that night-draped alleyway, red dripped down my vision like a curtain, and my body became flaming hot, so hot I realized once it was too late that I was taking deep breaths through my nose.
And then the snap.
I don’t remember how the next several seconds went; I only remember sensations. I remember running and my feet feeling like they were airless. I remember jumping and the feeling of falling onto the ground with Todd underneath me…
I remember biting and punching.
And screaming. Lots of screaming.
But most of all… I remember tasting his blood.
All at once my senses came to me, so many of them at once it felt like a full-blown assault. A deafening scream, warmth and copper in my mouth with bits of skin stuck in between my teeth, and something hot and thrashing underneath me that was squealing like a pig.
“Get em, Elish! Fucking get em!”
I was pulled back by three sets of hands. I was screaming things I didn’t remember wanting to say, and my spit and blood was hitting the thrashing creature who’d been unfortunate enough to enrage me. It wasn’t until I was completely off of him being held back, did I remember who he was, and what I’d done to him.
Todd had blood all over his face, dripping off of his cheekbone and neck like rain from a gutter. The contrast was making his eyes gleam white, as well as the teeth I could see during each scream.
I’d gone for the face, and I’d done him damage, so much damage the meat I’d bitten off was resting in my mouth.
“Fucking psycho!” Todd shrieked. He held out his blood-covered hands and a desperate whine was released “Someone… call… call an ambu–” Todd fell over onto the dirty ground, still alive but passed out.
“He screamed loud and there’s thiens near…” That was Nero but I could barely hear him. I myself was breathing too hard, I couldn’t catch my breath. I was so angry; I was so fucking angry. I wanted to kill him. I had to kill him.
“Let me go…” I breathed. “Let me finish it.”
“Finish it? What the fuck?” Nero was dragging me towards the end of the alleyway. I kept stumbling but he wouldn’t stop. “We need to get the fuck out of here or Silas is going to find out about this.”
I heard Sacario say something quietly but I couldn’t hear it from the roaring in my head, the anger sweeping me free of all other emotions.
“Shit… I don’t know, they obey Silas… they’d have to tell him what happened.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Sacario? He was closer to me now.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. That was him.
“He’ll be fine… he’s just turning into a chimera, that’s all.”
CHAPTER 18
I kept looking at the clock, and when I wasn’t looking at the clock, I was pacing around the apartment making sure everything was still sparkling clean and there wasn’t anything I was forgetting. This would be Professor Britain’s first time in the king’s apartment, and I was sure there’d be expectations. At least the sengils I summoned up here knew their jobs well, even the windows had been freshly cleaned. Everything looked perfect, even the cats had been brushed and Squish was locked in Nero’s room.
It was Saturday, the next Saturday since Professor Britain had been absent from his classes for the rest of that week and the week that followed. I wasn’t happy about that, but I’d tried to be patient. Every day I came to class expecting Professor Britain to be there… but every day I had been
disappointed.
I’d lasted until yesterday, the last school day of the week. When the substitute teacher was still there, I’d pulled the prince card and went to the front office. I’d asked for Britain’s address and his home phone number too. Only people working for the royal family got access to remote phones, but in Skyland it wasn’t uncommon for people to have landline phones.
So I called him… and he seemed surprised to hear from me. Of course he didn’t know what had happened between me and Todd, and he didn’t know that he was now free of that possessive little cocksucker. I wasn’t planning on telling him any of this, I didn’t want to scare the nice professor off… so I happily asked him if he was still coming over, and was content when he said (hesitantly) that he was.
And now today was the day. I’d missed Professor Britain a lot, and school had become quite boring and routine without Britain lighting it up. It was also a bit more boring since Todd had taken a week off of classes. His boyfriend had given me more than a few nasty looks, but all I had for him was a kind smile on my face.
There was no need to threaten him too. I dare that ginger-haired fuck to step a toe out of line. I wasn’t afraid of him; I wasn’t fucking afraid of anyone. Hell, I was still daydreaming about tasting Todd’s blood that night. It made certain parts of me feel tight though.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, one that ripped my reminiscing right out of my head and replaced it with excitement. I tried my best not to run to answer it, but jolts of electricity were ripping through my body with every step.
I took in a deep breath and told myself to look calm and put together, then I straightened out my shoulders and answered the door.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t just Professor Britain, he was several feet away from a huge thien with a bush master assault rifle over one shoulder. The man, with bulging muscles and a menacing bearded face, stared down at me like it was I who had disturbed him. “This man says he’s here to take lessons from you?” His voice was so deep I thought I could feel the floor beneath my feet move.
But I collected myself, I nodded and said in a calm yet authorative voice, “Yes, I’m teaching him a new language he wished to learn. He’s allowed here today and for future visits as well. I don’t want anyone giving him trouble.”
The towering thien looked down his nose at Professor Britain. I saw the professor’s neck move as he swallowed hard, before forcing a smile. The poor guy looked terrified, and he also looked like he was having second thoughts about coming here.
“Very well,” the thien said. “First Sacario and now him? The little mice are taking advantage of the cat being away.” He turned, and with slow and confident steps, he began making his way back to the elevator. “Have a good evening, young prince.”
Professor Britain didn’t move. He stared at me for a second before looking over his shoulder with a spooked look. It wasn’t until the thien was behind the closing elevator doors did he walk towards the entrance to the apartment.
“That man sure knows how to threaten,” Professor Britain said. He rubbed the back of his neck which I realized had a red patch on it. “At least I’m on time. It wouldn’t look good for a teacher to be late.”
“Sorry about him,” I said. I stood back as he removed his shoes. “Our bodyguards know Silas is out of Skyfall and they’ve called in extra thien protection to keep us safe.” I walked to the living room where I’d laid out my books and notes I’d copied from Silas’s teachings. “Do you want something to drink?”
When I turned around, I saw Professor Britain looking around the apartment with a shocked look on his face. It was a nice apartment, I’d give it that, Silas had it filled with pre-Fallocaust artifacts. We had famous paintings and statues here, real plants and flowers, and the wall-to-ceiling windows that covered the entire east and west walls that bathed everything in light. It was an impressive and large space, literally fit for a king, and that was just the first floor. However, the chimera cave wasn’t nearly as glamorous, but we did have an entertainment room that teenagers would kill for.
“S-sure,” the professor said, still looking around. Then his eyes widened. “This is a god damn… that’s Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens. Holy shit… you’ve got to be kidding me. You keep ancient paintings in your damn living room, Elish Dekker?”
I laughed and looked at the painting I’d been seeing since my earliest memories of coming to Alegria. “Perish found it in the Toronto museum and he gave it to Silas. You know I have a Rembrandt hanging in my bedroom? We have a chunk of the Sistine Chapel in storage too. I think Ellis might have the Van Gogh, also found in that Toronto museum.” I put my hand over my mouth to stifle the laugh when Professor Britain smacked his palm to his face and shook his head in exasperation.
“At least we have them here and they’re safe, yes?” I said. I walked to the kitchen to get him some ChiCola, and a bottle for myself as well. “They’re not left out with whatever horrible radanimals are walking the dead world.”
“I know you’re right… I think perhaps it’s jealousy. What I would give to have something like that on my walls. You know what I have on my walls, Elish?” I walked out and handed him the cold bottle of ChiCola. “Some cheap printed prints of flowers in frames bought from a greywaste scavenger. How’s that for pathetic?” When he looked up at me, his hand outstretched, I saw something flicker in his eyes. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before.”
I flushed, then quickly turned around so he wouldn’t see the redness I was worried was coming to my cheeks. “You have so. Don’t be stupid.”
“Oh, you mean that ‘I’m outsmarting my teacher’ shiteater smirk? No, I was talking about a real one.” I sat down on the couch and he sat beside me, I felt a little excited at that. He was sitting pretty much next to me.
I was crushing on my teacher, wasn’t I? Well, I’ll go with it… because I know just how much it will infuriate Todd. I think I wanted to make that asshole stick a gun into his mouth.
“See? Like that,” Professor Britain said, smiling too. He was dressed rather nicely this evening, a light blue dress shirt and black trousers, and he smelled wonderful.
There was that feeling again, that weird buzzing excitement that I got whenever I was around someone I liked. It made me feel… happy. It was a strange sensation to be this positive about something.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said airily. I slid some of the photocopied notes over to him and looked down at my copy. “I smile all the time. I’m quite a cheerful person, professor.”
My eyes rose as the professor laughed at me and I tried to hide my smile. See, I could joke around if I wanted. I could be funny.
I did like making him laugh… usually I didn’t like being funny because it made me worry that people wouldn’t take me seriously. That… and the fact that I wasn’t funny at all, funny was Nero’s game.
Professor Britain began looking at my photocopied notes. He seemed fascinated with them. “I recognize a lot of these letter patterns just from the movies. Is this the alphabet, prince?”
I smiled. “Yes, and you can really just call me Elish…”
“And I told you to call me Ryan. It looks like we’re both not interested in using casual names, hm?” The professor looked up at me and winked. “Maybe I should be calling you professor though? You are the one teaching me this time.”
The way he spoke… it was a different than the teaching voice he used in the classroom. I could tell that he was relaxed and at ease, his guard down and the professional attitude I was familiar with back in the classroom.
Professor Britain was relaxed. He wasn’t a teacher in my house. Hell, he wasn’t even a student. Ryan was a friend coming over so I could give him some extra lessons.
“Okay, Ryan. You win.” I shifted closer to him, thankful he couldn’t hear my heart. What would he say if he knew it was thumping madly in my chest? I really was crushing on him hard. Sacario was wrong about him… all of thes
e rumors had been started by Todd, I knew it.
Oh, right, that. I didn’t want to get to that question yet. I just wanted to enjoy having him over, having him to myself.
I decided to get down to work. I didn’t want to think about what had happened between me and Todd. Prof… I mean Ryan, wouldn’t reduce himself to accepting anything sexual from Todd. He was smart enough to see past that assholes alternative motives.
No, idiot, stop thinking about those things. He’ll notice! “Okay, so like you guessed… this is the alphabet.” I pointed to the sheet of paper he’d been holding. “It’s called the tengwar and it’s used for writing with pen. This is what we’ll be learning. Later on, if you want, we can also learn how to write what’s called cirth. Which is usually scratched into things like rocks, since I suppose writing those swirly letters would prove difficult.”
Ryan’s dark eyebrows met as he looked over the letters. “These are the ones they put on the One Ring?”
“That’s right,” I said. “That’ll be the first thing we’ll be picking apart. I was so excited the first time I realized I could read the inscription.” I turned the page he was holding which was filled with Silas’s notes. “So the first thing we’re going to learn… is how the vowels and consonants work…”
The next two hours were filled with lessons and teaching. I knew I was going to enjoy teaching Ryan, but I didn’t figure on how much. I’d taught my brothers and sister before, but they weren’t the best students and usually got distracted within an hour. That would earn them a first class ticket out of my bedroom.
But Ryan was different. He listened to me, asked questions, and not only that, he was actually intelligent enough to understand a lot of what I was teaching and he proved it. By the time we were sitting down for dinner, I had him reading simple words. He needed my notes to help him through it, but I was still really impressed.
I think I liked teaching people things. I had all of his knowledge in my head, years of endless studying and seeking out new information for me to absorb, and no one else around me I could pass all of this along to.