Chaos Lives in Everything - 27. Chapter 27

Gihanni looked up from the microscope, eyes wide.

Skold tensed up frowning, ready for bad news. “What is it? Something bad?”

“No. Just fascinating. The plague...Come look.”

Skold hesitated. “I know nothing of science. I wouldn’t understand what I’m looking at.”

“Look anyway. It does not take a genius to see what is happening.”

Skold approached the microscope cautiously and peeked through the view finder. At first it made him dizzy to see all of the little red round blood cells floating around; it was hard to believe that these little things were part of the building blocks that made an organism. They themselves were alive. In the center of the mass of floating blood cells was a black mass that could only be the Black Death. It writhed, a living creature like the blood cells, but otherwise remained very still. It’s like a predator, Skold thought. Calculating. It’s waiting for the right moment to strike, like a snake. It is indeed fascinating.

The blood cells swerved around the black mass as if senseing its dangerous nature but it was no use. Tendrils shot from the mass and wrapped around the blood cells pulling them into the mass. With each blood cell that disappeared into the black mass, the black mass grew in size.

“It’s feeding off of them and growing bigger,” Skold said.

Gihanni nodded. “It’s not just a plague. It’s an organism. A parasite. A truly dangerous weapon.”

“What blood did you use?”

“Cow blood. I got it from the butcher.” Gihanni drummed his fingers against the side of the table. His eyes were wide.

“Are you self medicating?” Skold asked.

“What?” Gihanni looked at him as if Skold had just insulted his mother’s name.

“Are you self medicating? You are all twitchy.”

“On coffee and energy drinks, yes. This is how I work, no worries. This is very fascinating work. You must understand that you have given me the apothesis of opportunities. I know many people who would kill for a moment like this.”

“Make sure you get some sleep,” Skold said. “I need you at your best.”

Gihanni saluted him. “No worries. I am always at my best. There is something that would help me with testing the plague however? If you wouldn’t mind finding some way to fetch for me that would be great.”

“Of course, anything.”

“A human test subject.”

Skold raised an eyebrow. “A human test subject?”

“Yes. Preferably one that is alive, someone that no one will miss.”

“What you’re suggesting sounds illegal?”

“Do you care?”

“Of course not.”

“Because I think that you and I can agree that with our current situation we must go beyond the boundaries of morality into the abyss of amorality.”

Skold smiled. “Apparently you and I have more in common than I thought we did. I will have your test subject to you by this evening.”

Later that evening, just as the sun was setting, Skold and the others; instead of meeting at Skold’s apartment they convened at Candestine’s apartment.

Sitting on the new Christopher Guy furniture that had been delivered not two days ago. Candestine could not help but feel pride in her new home. After centuries of living with the bare minimum she owned a place that looked suitable for visitors-not that she would be having any visitors in the near future.

“Gihanni needs a human test subject,” Skold said. “Someone that we can make disappear without anyone noticing.”

“When you say disappear you mean kill,” Rebecca said.

“Esentially, yes, so that we can test the affects of the plague and hopefully synthesize a cure that will destroy it.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I don’t either,” Dom rumbled.

Skold clenched his jaw, annoyed. “It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not.”

“So basically we are going to pluck a random human being off the streets and force him into being our guinea pig?” Rebecca said, disgusted.

“You and Candestine will.”

“Oh really? And what will you and Dom be doing if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Patrolling the city in search of for the necromancer.”

“And why must we get the test subject?” Rebecca demanded. “Why can’t you just do it?”

Skold rolled his eyes; it was clear that his patience was growing thin. “Because, put rather simply and bluntly, you both have certain physical attributes that we do not.”

“That’s bullshit,” Rebecca blurted. “Not to mention it’s totally sexist...”

The look Skold gave her cut her off in mid sentence. “The necromancer is out there moving on with whatever plan he has set in motion while you grovel over moralistic nonsense. What is one soul compared to that of billions of souls? Find a murderer if you must, a monster. Someone that would kill an innocent soul for the hell of it, if it makes you feel better. But time is running short, do you understand me?”

Rebecca nodded, feeling both angry and wounded, as though he had struck her across the face. I thought you’d changed, she thought. For a moment I thought I was wrong in assuming that you had no heart. Turns out I wasn’t wrong. What an idiot I turned out to be.

“When you have the test subject of your choice call me and we will reconvene at Gihanni’s lab,” Skold said.

Rebecca followed Candestine into the parking lot. They climbed into Candestine’s van. Candestine kept looking over at her, frowning thoughtfully.

“What?” Rebecca snapped, annoyed.

“I do not understand your reluctance in this matter,” Candestine said.

“Yeah ‘cause you’re just as fucked up as your brother,” she murmered.

“Is not saving the world more important?”

“Of course. But do we have to deprave our souls to deprave our souls in order to do it.”

“A long time ago I might of felt as you have,” Candestine replied. “But in all of the centuries that I’ve been alive I can no longer remember. All I care about is survival. And in the end that is all that matters. Trust me when I say that is all that really matters. Not morals. Not what is right and wrong.”

“Save your breath,” Rebecca said. “I could never see the world the way that you see it no matter how right you might be.”

Candestine sneered, her lips stretching from ear to ear. “Really? Alright. There is something that I want to show you. We will see how you feel by the end of the night.”

Skold strolled down the streets, eyes scanning the faces and cars that passed him by. In a city as big as this it would be hard to find the whereabouts of the necromancer but it was not impossible; and it was better than just sitting around, waiting for something to happen.

Dom was keeping pace, but Skold could feel his anger. Dom had not said a word to him since they’d left Candestine’s apartment. For the past half an hour Skold had been doing his best to ignore Dom’s silent anger but the more he tried to pretend that it wasn’t there the more that it bothered him. The question was: Why did it matter why Dom was mad at him? But the truth was it did matter, a truth that Skold could not ignore.

Without looking at Dom, Skold said, “What is on your mind? Tell me now or stop skulking for fuck’s sake.”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Dom asked. “Do you even care?”

“Do you think I would ask if I did not? That and the fact that I find it to be very distracting.”

“Alright then.” Dom grabbed Skold’s arm and forced him to make eye contact. Had anyone else grabbed them in such a way Skold would have struck them but Skold did no such thing.

“I do not like how you talked to Rebecca,” Dom growled.

Skold snorted. “So you’re taking her side, is that it?”

“Only because she’s right.”

“And so I’m wrong?”

“You’re right about most things but not this. The idea of using a test subject that is alive and able to make a concious decision be it human or fae makes me sick. The fact that you would make such a decision disturbs me.”

“So I take it that you haven’t been paying attention?” Skold snarled. “Do you not know who it is who stands before you? I have done much worse.”

Dom’s face softened. He took Skold’s face in both of his hands. He stooped down until their foreheads were touching. “Aye, I’m sure you have. But the other night when you declared your love for me you said that you wanted me to lead you down the path of salvation. And I told you that I would, just as I told you that I would walk whatever path you would. And I will keep that promise. Even if you go down a path that I am reluctant to follow. But I am begging you: Do not let Rebecca and Candestine go through with this. It is not the right way. And you are better than this, I know it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Skold said. He did not pull away from Dom’s grasp but found wishing that Dom would never let him go.

“I have seen it, like slivers of diamond, trying to come out. It’s there, inside of you, it just needs to be brought to the surface. Trust me, Skold. I spoke the truth when I told you that I would not steer you wrong. Call Rebecca and Candestine. Tell them that we will find another way.”

Skold nodded. “I will call her.”

He pulled out his cell phone and called her number.

The line rung four times but she did not answer.

He called her a second time but again, no answer. Looking at Dom he said, “Rebecca, listen to me. I’m sorry. You were right. We will find another way...”

Rebecca watched as her phone continued to vibrate. She looked up at Candestine. “This is the second time that he has tried to call me. I’m answering.”

“No,” Candestine answered. “Let it ring. Just trust me for a moment.”

Rebecca had to bite her tongue to keep from reminding Candestine that just days ago they’d been bitter enemies; that there was no way in hell that she was going to trust her-not for anything. But her curiosity was starting to get the better of her. She wanted to know what Candestine had in mind. She probably wants to lead you into a dark alley and cut your throat when you’re not looking.

Rebecca shoved the thought out of her head. They were fighting for the same things. For now, at least, they were fighting for the same thing. They got out of the van and approached the mouth of an alley. Candestine pressed a finger to her lips, her cat-like green eyes gleaming in the dark. She glided through the dark like a ghost. Rebecca followed her, listening. She could hear the sound of laughing floating from the alley. Men’s laughter. Rebecca recognized the laughter, Malicious laughter, cruel laughter.

The laughter of evil.

And under that a much smaller voice, a woman’s voice. She was begging them to let her go. In the dark there was just enough moonlight that Rebecca could see there were four men and a woman. The woman was sprawled on the ground, her back pressed up against the wall. Rebecca was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of deja vu. On a night such as this the same thing had happened to her. Four men had ganged up on her, tried to rape her.

It was a moment in her life that she would never heal from; it would leave her scarred forever. The same thing would happen to the woman. When they were finished toying with her they might even kill her. In a moment of clarity, like a revelation falling from the sky into her head, Rebecca understood the point that Candestine was trying to make. Skold had tried to tell her the samething and her brain hadn’t registered it. Maybe because it was something that only another woman could help you understand; because whether human or fae, women were always at the bottom of the barrel. When a man wanted to blow their wad, when they were bored and angry, they took it out on women.

As the men started to tear at the women’s clothes Rebcca walked back to the van She tore the door open and grabbed the large wrench lying on the floor. It was a big fucking wrench, big enough to break some bones and cave in some skulls. Rebecca’s blood was boiling, filled with bloodlust. Deep down inside she knew that she’d always hated men but she’d never felt that hate as strongly as she did now.

Candestine did not try to stop her, which was a good thing because if she had, Rebecca might have whacked her with the wrench just to prove a point. But at the moment Rebecca had forgotten that Candestine was even standing there. She was on autopilot. Or was it kill mode?

The men did not see her coming; they were too focused on violating the woman before them.

Coming up behind the one closest to her, Rebecca hefted the wrench and swung it as hard as she could. The sound of bone cracking and the man’s blood curdling howl as he fell to the ground brought her a joy unlike anything she knew. It was like music to her ears.

Just as two men turned around, she thacked a second one across the jaw, her teeth gritted. Before she could strike again a hand backhanded across the face. She staggered back, too shocked to feel much pain. Another blow to the face knocked her butt to the ground. While one man was straddling the other woman too occupied to see what was going on. He was thrusting relentlessly into the woman, grunting like an animal; his hand covered her mouth, muffling the sounds of her screams. The third loomed above Rebecca, his moustache quivering as he cursed.

“Dumb cunt,” he growled. “I’m going to show you.”

“Fuck you,” Rebecca snarled.

The man advanced on her. “We’ll see about that.”

Suddenly Candestine was behind him drawing the blade of her knife across his throat. Dark crimson sprayed from his throat, splattering the ground at Rebecca’s feet. In the blink of an eye Candestine pulled the final man off the woman, about to do the same that she had done to the last man.

“No,” Rebecca said, getting to her feet.

Candestine stopped and glanced at Rebecca over her shoulder. “What should we do with him then?”

“He can be the test subject,” Rebecca said as the man started to beg for his life.

The man’s name was Drew Marshell; Gihanni had read the name off of his driver’s liscense after pumping the man full of a drug that put him into a drug induced coma. Before then Drew had begged for his life, begged for them not to hurt him like some pitiful, feeble thing. He had begged the way that a man who is afraid for his life would beg. But Rebecca no longer saw him as a man, only a monster. How could a man still be a man after he’d violated a woman’s body?

“What is the meaning of this?” Skold demanded when he saw the man. Dom and he had just made it down to the lab.

“Your test subject,” Candestine said. “We aquired one for you.”

“Other than the fact that he has an issue with alcohol and chainsmoking he is a perfectly health man,” Gihanni noted. “Well built. I searched through his wallet. He works for a construction company.”

Skold glared at Rebecca. “I tried calling you twice and niether times you answered. Why?”

“Because I told her not to,” Candestine said before Rebecca could answer. “She did very well for a human.”

Rebecca beamed at Candestine, glowing with pride. “He was raping a woman when we found him. Who knows what his friends would have done if we hadn’t gotten there when we did.”

“It does not matter. You should have called the police,” Skold said.

Rebecca snorted. “Call the police? What has happened to you? You would have killed them, O know that you would have. You ripped apart the guys that tried to rip me.”

“Times have changed.”

Rebecca laughed coldly. “Yes, I know. You’re going soft, like a kitten. And it’s all because of you.” She said this last part to Dom who said nothing in his own defense.

“Should I inject the plague into the subject?” Giahanni asked.

“No,” Skold said.

“Yes,” Rebecca retorted.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Fine,” Skold said. “Do what you want with him? I won’t stop you.” Looking sadly at Rebecca, he turned and walked away with Dominyc following him.

“You were the one that told me there is no going back!” Rebecca shouted at Skold’s back.

Candestine and she watched as Gihanni injected the plague into Drew’s bloodstream with the syringe. Gihanni’s face showed no hint of remorse or guilt. It was completely deadpan.