The Suicide King Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 3)

by Quil Carter

  And he was.

  With my eyes fixed on those drops of crystal, I walked down the hallway towards him. And to prove just how in sync we were, the moment I was close enough Elish put a hand to the side of my neck, and directed my lips to his.

  As our mouths joined and our lips locked, I felt the blood rush to my head, filling me with a dizziness that made me feel drunk. I closed my eyes and felt him open up his lips, and in tandem to his movements, I did as well. Not just my chest was throbbing, but my head too. The blood that pooled was pressing against my brain, increasing the intoxicated bliss that threatened to spill me onto the floor. I wrapped my arms around his neck, just to keep myself from falling, but the more I tasted him, the more our lips moved and took in each other deeper and deeper, the more I felt like I was going to pass out.

  When our lips separated, I stood there for a moment, my mouth open and my eyes closed. I could feel his hot minty breath against my nose, and then his forehead lean against mine.

  Then a kiss, a slow kiss on the corner of my mouth, and like I was Sleeping Beauty, I opened my eyes and took in a deep breath.

  “You look quite thin,” Elish murmured. “And you’re wrong, those bite marks look severe.” He closed the door behind me and grabbed a single backpack, stained and covered in greywaste ash. “I won’t be liking the story of how you escaped that fire, to when you came to me, will I?”

  I shook my head as we walked down the concrete steps. “No, but you might like some parts,” I said, thinking of Kerres and how his story had ended. “But I don’t think I’ll like yours either, huh?”

  “No, you most likely won’t,” he replied simply. He led the two of us to the rancher next door and opened it. But when I followed behind him, he held out a hand and I stopped in my tracks.

  I thought he was going to check it for hidden occupants or something, but he rested the dirty backpack against the wall and turned to me.

  I yelped from surprise and laughed when Elish picked me up and carried me inside. I grinned from ear to ear, and when I saw that he was smiling too, I slid an arm around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Is this our starter home, Mr. Dekker?” I teased through laughter that had been reduced to giggles. I felt like an idiot, an absolute giddy idiot, but I couldn’t help it. No one was here to see us but ourselves, and I was going to soak in and treasure seeing my master this happy.

  “A starter home? Don’t sell me short, maritus. This is our starter town. A prince of Skyfall would not just give his husband a mere rancher,” Elish said. And when I let out a squeal, he actually laughed. “You’re such the idiot. Did those filthy ravers tell you what this town is now named?”

  I shook my head and looked around as Elish started walking us around our new house. It was the exact same layout as the old rancher, except, of course, much cleaner. There was still the belongings of the previous residents, since the ambush was apparently quick. But that was a boon as Elish had said, everything was already laid out for us.

  “I named it for them,” Elish said. “Shadowtown. After you.”

  “I love it.” I beamed. He walked us to the window and nodded towards it. I knew what he wanted, and reached out and drew the blinds up, squinting as the bright sun flooded the living room. He walked me to every window and I did the same, each blind getting drawn making this place seem all the more like home.

  Finally we reached the bedroom. I gasped and let out a surprised cry when he tossed me up into the air and onto the bed. I bounced up high, my arms flailing to keep myself from falling off and grinned when I settled down.

  Elish kneeled down onto the bed, and when he lifted up my chin, I bit the bottom of my lip. He leaned in and we shared another kiss, and like the previous one, my head was overcome with heat.

  Then Elish pulled away and stroked my neck. I shivered from his touch. “Yes, your collar did burn,” he murmured, and when I opened my eyes I saw him looking down at my neck.

  I touched his arm and felt my old collar still fastened around it. I remember seeing it on him during my lucid moments. That collar had been our bind since the very beginning, and I couldn’t put into words how I felt knowing he kept it near him. “We can use this one for now,” I said to him.

  Elish shook his head. “No. I believe I have outgrown it.”

  I opened my mouth to protest that I hadn’t outgrown it, when I realized just what he had said. “You…?”

  He nodded, and I saw a solidarity come to his face. “I have seen many flaws in myself over the past year,” he admitted quietly. “Weaknesses that were drawn up and put on display right in front of my face and my family’s. You know me well, maritus, I am not a man who wants to have weaknesses. And when I do see them…” I froze when his purple eyes shot up to mine. I could see the coldness in him, the flickers of my old master shining through. “…I extinguish them.”

  I stared, my body trapped within that frigid gaze and unable to move. Elish ran a finger along my neck, and his eyebrows, still slightly pink from him grooming them, met. “I realized that a man who needs a collar and a leash on his pet, is a man who doesn’t trust his property not to flee from him. You stopped needing that collar last year but I still bound you for my own personal need. I am not a weak chimera who needs reassurance of his dominance by beating on smaller creatures, or smaller chimeras. I am not some fool with issues of his own self-worth that needs to derive power from being a bully.”

  “I… I never thought of you like that,” I stammered, shocked by his words.

  But Elish raised a hand and I said nothing more. “I realized that I had been embarrassing myself by having to beat a fifteen-year-old boy, then a sixteen-year-old, then a seventeen-year-old. When I told you on our wedding day that I had learned more from you in those two years, than I had in my previous eighty-seven, I meant it, but I didn’t realize I was still learning.” He looked back at me, those cold eyes drawing a tremble from my body. They were eyes of a powerful man, who might’ve just exterminated his last weakness with nothing more than a chimera like Elish’s greatest fear: complete self-awareness.

  “Jade.” He trailed his hand up and grasped my chin. “I no longer want you as my pet. I have no need for one. I have no need to embarrass myself further in front of you, or my family, by denying my feelings for you. I have been broken down to nothing, I have been humbled, and now I wish to return a thousand times better than the chimera I was previously.” Elish rose from the bed, leaving me still sitting, entrapped within his powerful gaze.

  He got down on one knee.

  I swayed, my head pulsing and my face burning, when I saw him reach into the breast pocket of his shirt… and pull out my wedding ring.

  “Marry me,” he said. Those two words, unlike the ones gilded in steel previous, were softly spoken. “Let me make you immortal, and together we will become unstoppable. A force the world, living and dead, has never seen. And let me deliver to you, that very world, Jade Shadow Dekker.”

  I looked down at the ring, then back at him. My mouth was open, ready to speak, but all I could do was stare at him. I thought for a moment he was rubbing my hand, but when I glanced back down I realized I was shaking with such intensity my hand was tapping against his.

  “Y-y…” I started to stammer.

  But then, a cold calmness overtook me, coating me completely within its frigid hold, and extinguishing the dizzying heat. I felt myself rise above the raging emotions, making me stammer and shake, and with a deep breath, I centered myself and stood up straighter.

  “I will marry you,” I whispered to him in a calmed and level voice. I saw a look of pride flicker across Elish’s face. I know he noticed. “But I will always worship you,” I continued. “I will always look up to you. You’re my keeper, my master, my entire world. You will always hold dominance over me.” I smiled and let him take my hand into his.

  I felt him slip the ring back onto my finger, then our lips joined again. We kissed deeply, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that I was surrounded by those opal hue
s, that crystally aura that was brighter than ever.

  But there was something else. I saw purple and black ribbons swirling and twisting along the opaque auroras like chinese dragons, and it was then I realized I wasn’t just seeing his aura. I was seeing colours that had used to be solely my own.

  I pulled away and looked into Elish’s eyes, and the expression on his face changed again. I knew he saw what I saw.

  “They’re no different,” Elish whispered. He took my chin, his eyes fixed on mine as he saw our auras flicker in my eyes. “Remarkable.”

  “There’s no denying it now, magnus maritus,” I said to him with a smirk. “You’re stuck with me until time ceases to go forward.”

  Elish looked down at our joined hands, our matching wedding rings shining in the sunlight.

  “I’ll live,” he said simply.

  Chapter 35

  Reaver

  “Amazing, huh?” I heard Nero call over the sound of the rusty iron gate closing shut. “It’s completely enclosed and they have everything here.”

  I didn’t answer him back. I was standing on a rock twenty feet above him, staring out onto a valley that had more shades of green than I knew could exist.

  There were trees with so many leaves on them you couldn’t even see the brown branches, and some of them held bits of colour that I knew were fruit. In between these belts of trees were emerald fields that shimmered from the light breeze that was sweeping across it. I saw three cabins as well, and vineyards behind them, then more trees until you hit the sharp, impossible to climb, rocky ridges that cradled this oasis like two cupped hands.

  “How did they do this?” I said. I was saying it more to myself but Nero heard me.

  “Just like Silas cleared away Melchai’s sestic radiation, Adler did the same to this place. It’s free of radiation just like Skyfall,” he called up to me. “I think it’s past time for you to learn how to do the same. Don’t you think?”

  I turned and started climbing down the ridge I had scaled to get a better look at where Nero was taking me. He had a hunting rifle in his hand, and I had my M16. We had a reason for going down into this valley.

  Some chimera negotiating was about to take place.

  When I jumped back onto level ground, Nero and I started walking down a well-worn dirt path, grass that smelled good enough to eat was on both sides, mixed in with green bushes bursting with flowers. I even spotted a bee which I tried to swat with my hands.

  “I did it once,” I said to Nero, “the radiation thing. But only once, and I have no idea how to clear it. I never tried though.” I walked towards a bush full of berries and picked a couple of them. But when I turned around, one halfway to my mouth, and saw a look of smirking anticipation on Nero’s face, I lowered it. I didn’t trust that look, that look meant I was about to make an ass out of myself.

  “They’re raspberries, you dipshit, but you puckered like a nickel hooker from just marmalade, so I know it’s going to be funny,” Nero chuckled. “You gotta get used to real food sooner or later, so have at it.”

  I popped one into my mouth and although my mouth twitched from the sourness, I worked past it; they were pretty good. “Killian is going to be in heaven with this place,” I said. I looked around and saw a bird fly overhead. I could hear them too, tweeting and all of that. I’d only heard birds on television, we didn’t have any in Aras. “I’m surprised he hasn’t killed Adler and Spike yet with how Cujo he’s gotten.”

  “It won’t be long,” Nero said. We got to a bridge with a river trickling underneath. I looked down to see if I could see any fish. The smells here were amazing, the water smelled fresh and the mud did as well. I could see bugs that weren’t flies, and hear noises in the grass. There was no negotiating it, this place would be mine. “We have our plan and if it doesn’t work, we’ll up our game. The fucks can’t stay down there forever, and Adler is naïve and stupid enough not to think long term.” Then Nero raised his rifle and I saw him look into the forest.

  I did too and spotted a little fuzzy thing with a long tail start to run up a tree. A second later, there was a crack of the rifle, and the little fuzzy thing flew off of the tree like we’d smacked it out of there.

  “Yes!” Nero hissed. I’d never seen an animal like that, so I ran into the woods to get it, taking a moment to run my hand up and down the thick brown bark of a pine tree. This place was unreal.

  As I walked in, I could smell blood. I followed my nose which brought me right to the creature. I picked it up and examined it. It was a squirrel! However, it was now missing most of its head. It was massive though, but not enough for us to eat.

  “What we’re looking for are their horses,” Nero said to me. He took out a machete he had on his belt and started twirling it. I had one as well. “They have four of them. We have irradiated ones you might’ve seen in the plaguelands, and they have them in the blacksands too, but the real ones are only here and the Dead Islands. They treasure them.”

  “At least they did have them here,” I said with a smirk. Nero returned my ominous smirk and opened the sack he was carrying for the squirrel. “Have you ever eaten horse?”

  Nero nodded. “Whenever exotic animals die we usually get to eat them. Kind of tastes like… I don’t know, kind of like bosen. I don’t feel like spending all night here gutting it. I just want the head and we can take as much as we can carry and leave the rest for the carracats, the wolves, and the lions.”

  “I think we should just kill everything,” I said, my eyes now sweeping the trees as we carried on down the path. “I want to eat a carracat.”

  “Nah, we love kitties.”

  “Yeah, but Adler will squirm like a bitch if we threaten one of those bat cats in front of the cam. It’d be worth it.”

  “No. We love kitties.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Them loving cats just means it would get a reaction out of them.” I narrowed my eyes and nodded ahead. “I think we’re getting to one of the fields we saw. Any idea where the horses are?”

  Nero shook his head. “No, but they’ll probably be happy to see people. They haven’t been fed in three days.”

  And I haven’t seen Killian in two days. I’d been done playing Adler’s game a long time ago and now I just wanted those assholes off of my land.

  We hadn’t turned the webcam back on and they hadn’t tried to contact us either. We’d debated shutting the generators off, but for all we knew they had backup power for the laboratories so we didn’t bother.

  “Eventually Mantis needs to wake up and he’ll do something about this,” Nero said. I started sprinting ahead and he followed me. I wanted to get to the clearing. “But, then again, Adler could’ve shot him in the head knowing Mantis would tell him to stop acting like an idiot.”

  “Most likely. He’s a real immature thirty-year-old.” I shook my head and we both ran into the clearing.

  “Hah!” Nero stopped and pointed a finger. I looked in the direction and on a bed of emerald grass and further on, stakes with vines propped up, I saw the horse.

  “Wow,” I said under my breath. I took my M16 out and stepped off of the trail. As soon as I started walking through the green grass I saw hoppers jumping around in all directions. “It’s so big! What a majestic, beautiful, stunning creature, surely created by God.” I raised my M16, clicked it to automatic, and pressed down on the trigger.

  I could hear Nero’s laughter over the sharp cracks of gunfire. The horse jumped, explosions erupting on its brown body with small craters being left behind. It reared back and started running away from us, but it only got four meters away before its back legs gave out. I started sprinting towards it with a grin on my face as it fell to the ground in a heap of thrashing limbs, a loud squeal coming out of it.

  “You got the first shot. Lemme finish it off!” Nero called behind me.

  “Yeah, fuck you!” I called back, and when I heard Nero run faster, no doubt trying to catch up to me. I poured on the speed as well, and before I even slowed down, I
pointed the gun at the horse’s head. Its eyes wide and rolling around in its head, the whites exposed from fear.

  I shot it in the eye, but just as my finger pressed on the trigger, Nero barrelled into me and I flew off my feet. I landed on my back, the M16 in one hand, and as I got to my feet with a grin, a loud thunderclap sounded, and echoed off of the ridges.

  “Bitch was already dead. You fuck!” Nero unsheathed a long machete, but when he turned to me I saw his eyes widen.

  “Okay, Duck, you cut off its head,” he said, and as he ran past me, he gave me a wink.

  I turned around suspiciously. I looked past the running idiot and saw what he’d seen… another horse. This one was brown with white splotches and was nervously sprinting away from us.

  I ran after him, no way was I going to let him have this one all to himself. I knew I could run faster than him, I was bred for it, so I drew up every stamina reserve I had and caught up with him.

  Then I remembered I was a sentry, a sniper. I fell back and brought the scope up to my eye and got the horse into the crosshairs – just as Nero raised his hunting rifle.

  I swore loudly when I heard the gunshot go off, and more expletives spilled from my mouth when the horse went down like a sack of bricks. I gritted my teeth, and because he was Nero, he held both hands up in the air, the rifle still in one of them, and whooped.

  I aimed, not at the horse, but several feet from him. I let a single shot rip, and a chunk of grass flew up in the air, right behind the showboating brute chimera.

  Nero flipped me off with a shit-eater grin, but when I brought my scope up to my eye and pulled the trigger again, he lowered it just in time.

  “Hey, I felt the heat of that one, assfuck!” Nero called, and then he reached into his belt and pulled out the machete he’d been carrying. He waved it around in his free hand. “I got this one. You get the other one. We’ll Godfather the fuck out of them. Get some meat too.”