Grey IV - Chains

Chapter 11 - It Follows

Malachi's plan to quietly leave the Vault half-worked. But sneaking away from Ailech proved problematic, as whatever connection they shared could only stretch so far so early, like an elastic band. Only instead of snapping when pulled too far, it slingshotted Ailech to Malachi's side - which is exactly what happened about a mile after our swift exit from the Vault.

"Seriously? You think you can leave me behind? Did you forget so quickly that I'm your parasitic shadow for the foreseeable future? Dumbass."

Ailech's swollen lips and mussed hair made his tone seem more about what he had been pulled away from than the fact we had tried to leave without him. And Malachi's smirk said as much as he glanced to the backseat with an eyebrow raised.

"Sorry, I figured you'd have finished by now." He smirked at his innuendo.

"Asshole," Ailech muttered, staring out the window, sulking.

The car fell into silence once more until Malachi turned on music. I was grateful. I hated the silence almost as much as I hated the inaction, the waiting. It left me alone with my mind, the images of James, the color of his blood as it poured, his eyes as they emptied, his body as it collapsed. Then the dark storm in me would awaken, trying to tear me down, yearning to burn down the world along with me. It was a cycle of self-destruction and gritted self-control, pain and the subsequent pressure painted in revenge, over and over again endlessly. It was exhausting. But even with a hurricane of flames living within me, every time I held it down I was left frozen and shivering in the aftermath. I had been cold often since waking, but it was a near constant ever since we left my kiln of a room at the Vault, and that cold followed me to the car, even after I turned up the heat.

A half-hour later, well after my muscles had locked from trying to hold in both my shivers and my fire, Ailech's curiosity got the better of him. When he spoke, I let out an inaudible sigh of relief, feeling my whole body relax into the seat minutely as if I had been winding tighter and tighter with each second we all drove with nothing but a few musical notes to chase away the deafening silence.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"Hunting," Malachi replied cheerily, the glint in his eye mismatching his tone.

"And what, perchance, are we hunting?"

Malachi's smirk grew wolffish and Ailech rolled his mossy eyes.

"Okay fine - who - are we hunting?"

"My mother."

"The mother who is a Fallen, an Irin, the 'Watcher of the Unseen'? Basically the original oracle? She was able to stay one step ahead of Bara for months, but yeah, we'll totally be able to sneak up on her. Sure. Brilliant plan. Do you really think you should be the brains of the group?"

Ailech was clearly still in a sour mood. But Malachi fully turned around in his seat to grin at him, ignoring the fact that he was the one driving.

"Oh don't worry, I'm just the brawn, and the beauty, and the sex appeal, of course, but Jordan's the brains. I know my mother will see us coming, I'm actually counting on it-" he waved at the sky out the window irreverently, "because that means she will also see that Jordan is my leader, my master, and surely won't let me kill our dear mother. So mommy has no reason to elude us. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she comes to us now that she sees me outside of the confines of the Vault and unbound from Baraqiel. I'm sure she wants to see her silver and gold again."