Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London

by Robin Renee Ray,

  Bloodbreeders:

  Lies Beneath London

  By: Robin Renee Ray

  ©RobinReneeRay2014

  other works by this author:

  Bloodbreeders: Living in Darkness Book 1

  Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Book 2

  Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Book 3

  Arrival of the Prophecy

  Uncertain Meanings

  On a Cold Winter’s Night

  Dedicated to my Bloodbreeder ‘Fans’!

  My fang babies and I… am grateful to them all~

  Just to name a few:

  Carol Fortin Michaniw

  Jennifer Smith

  Andrew Liebling

  Lisa Kay Argo

  Jordan Ray

  Crystal Parks

  Dale Morgan

  DJ Ray

  Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London

  By: Robin Renee Ray

  Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London is a work of fiction. Characters, names, place, incidents, organizations are a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  By Robin Renee Ray

  ©Copyright Robin Renee Ray February 2014

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  “Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.”

  Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events or locales is coincidental. These characters are purely of the authors imagination and used fictitiously.

  This e-book contains material not suitable for readers 17 and under.

  Licensing note: This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be resold, or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published By: Robin Renee Ray

  Edited By: Jeanette Ratajczyk

  Copy Edited By: Jennifer Smith

  Cover Art Work By: Rebel Angel Designs

  Prologue:

  It seemed time had stood still for me since the moment that I was taken from the farm that dark, dreary night; even though miles have passed under my feet and many lives have fallen due to my rage. Two years had gone by and yet it seemed like only yesterday when I last smelled my mother’s bread cooking in the oven. I remember passing faces that I called my own, coming into my so called new life, and leaving just as fast by the hand of another. All of which left me feeling like that of a drifting dream that lies on the edge of a waking nightmare. The woman I once was is long dead and nothing like the beast that I have now become. Some say it’s the blood that I have taken into my body that drives my hatred for what my kind does to their own and my pity for those who are enslaved knowing nothing about what they are, giving them a deeper fear into their already horrified state of mind. I say it was inside me from the time my mother gave birth and it has intensified by the bloodbreeder that I now happen to be.

  Those that follow me give their lives to stop the madness that has gone on since before the elders themselves, who for several thousand years have used the power of submission to control by way of domination. We are a small group that fights for the freedom of those being tortured and enslaved by breeders with a higher power, greed of money, and a sicker side of perversion. I have witnessed things that I could never have imagined and have walked among those who have taken life as if it were simply another daily chore. I have learned from them all as my own power grows inside the body that I finally claimed to be my natural state, and I have accepted the fate that had befallen me back in that little town of Burkett, Texas. I knew that even if my prayers were heard by only my own ears, that I had a purpose; to do everything in my power to stop the elders and all who gave support to them. If they choose not to take heed to our warning then, they too, would suffer the same fate as Mistress Yvette, and the horrid, infant killing Cortez.

  We no longer came under the cover of secrecy, for the word of our most elaborated travels had been heard around the bloodbreeder world. We still hid for the hunt, though. We now watch our backs as much as we seek out wrong doers. Our journey has taken us into the heart of England, the home of the vilest and most outrageous prisons that our plight had carried us to, to date. I was just hearing about some of the lands true horror when we found ourselves running in darkness under the earth in the tunnels of London in search of one of our own. Tanda, whose echoing screams took the beat from our fearful hearts, had lost her way.

  Chapter One

  It felt like I had hit another stone wall, knocking out what little breath I had left in me. It was the shock of his glowing torch that took the words right out of my mouth. I sat there, staring up at the man who had created me, changing me from a lover of life to a woman who had more hate than she could carry. I saw Tanda’s smile turn to a frown when she saw the look on my face. She dropped Martin’s hand and kneeled down beside me. She was about to ask me something when the others came running towards us. Jacob was in the lead, but Derek pushed past him, pulling his blade and going right for Martin.

  “No, he found me. He is her maker,” Tanda said, holding up her hands warning him not the swing.

  “Are you alright?” Jacob asked, reaching out to help me up.

  I nodded once, taking his hand, doing everything but looking at the one thing that I had craved seeing for as long as I could remember. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream out at him for causing me the loss of my family, blame him for all of the hardship that we had been through, or just rush into his arms. If he spoke kindly to me, the latter would be my first response. Derek’s glare spoke volumes and I could see his knuckles turn white as his grip tightened on the hilt of his blade. He was feeling both of our pain and I still wasn’t sure what he would do. It was Garvin that was the first to step up to Martin, pausing at first, and then took him in an embrace much like brothers.

  “You look well my friend,” Martin said, causing a lump to form in my throat.

  “We told you she would come back for us,” Tanda added, hugging him around the waist.

  “She freed us, Martin…she is a good leader,” Garvin stepped back, gripping his shoulder.

  “I can only imagine,” he replied, glancing over at me. “I have been searching for her for a long time.”

  “Yvette made us lie,” Tanda said, lowering her head.

  “But the bitch paid, didn’t she?” I smiled, dusting off my pants, as I continued down a tunnel that I had no clue where it led. I was, without a doubt, in a situation that I could not handle.

  Derek snickered, walked past Martin like he wasn’t even there, and followed me deeper into nothing. Jacob caught up with his torch, and took the lead. “Are you going to say nothing to him?” Jacob asked in a low voice as I stepped in behind him. I glanced up and thought before I spoke, for a change.

  “We need to find a safe place before dawn, right? So, can you just let me think and you lead the way?”

  He smiled so big his fangs glowed in the light of the torch, seeming pleased that I had stayed strong while seeing my maker for the first time since he created me, or very shortly after. I couldn’t control my head from turning to see whether my maker followed, noticing he had a limp on his right leg. Little else had changed. His long black hair was still smoothed behind his ears, and the sharp curve of his jaw, which led to those beautiful lips, was absolutely perfect. I acted as if I was letting Tammy catch up and slid in behind Derek and Tanda, but I really wanted a better look at Martin. I was hoping, with me talking to Tammy, he wouldn’t notice me glancing. My thoughts came
to a halt when I looked up and saw him looking directly at me, causing me to stumble into the back of Tanda, who was right behind Derek.

  “How about you get back up behind, Jacob,” Derek said, slowing down and pushing his way in behind me with Tanda keeping up with his step.

  My moan probably sounded like a growl but I didn’t care, I just made my way back up to Jacob. “What the hell am I supposed to say to him?” I asked in a soft whisper, putting my hand on Jacob’s back.

  “I would start with what happened that night? That way it will finally be cleared from your mind.”

  “I feel like I’m gonna be sick,” I replied, holding my stomach.

  “We don’t have that much further; this next turn will take us to a place that Chin once showed me. I think many of the old ones knew of places like these, it’s why they survived for so long.” Then, he slowly looked back at me. “Until you came along.”

  After going down what seemed like a mile or more, Jacob took a right, then a sharp left, taking us into a small chamber filled with bones all the way to the ceiling. He waited until we were all inside, then, moved several skulls away from the back wall that was lined in nothing but skulls. He reached his hand in, elbow deep, and turned a lever, which made it easier to slide the partially stone, partially bone wall to the side.

  “I can’t believe it doesn’t smell worse down here than it does,” Tammy said, going through the opening sideways, followed by Cates, who then waited for the rest of us so that he and Jacob could slide the wall closed.

  “Count your blessings woman,” Cates laughed. “It could be like ole Cortez’s, or that place with the walking dead.”

  “Then, it’s true,” Martin interrupted, looking right at me.

  “Is what true?” I asked, knowing what he meant.

  The area that we were in was small enough that, no matter what short burial chamber we walked into, everyone was going to hear what we had to say. The main room was dome shaped and much bigger than any part of the tunnels that I had seen so far and had four smaller tunnels leading just a few feet in, each just long enough to lay bodies in. He walked up to me so fast that I stumbled backwards, putting up my left hand and going for my blade with my right. I glanced over seeing Derek trying to make a move to step in, but Jacob and Cates both closed in around him.

  “This is between her and her maker,” Jacob said, gripping Derek’s arm.

  “All this time and you act like you do not even know who I am,” Martin hissed, slapping my hand out of the way. “Is it true?” he yelled, reaching for the front of my shirt.

  “How can I answer your question, if I don’t know what you want to know? It is true about the others being dead?…yes…did we kill them?…yes…make your question clear and I’ll give you an answer!” I yelled back as he lifted me off the floor.

  I swung my blade around, stopping it at the base of his throat. “I am no longer yours to push around, so put me down,” I hissed, much like he had, into his face as the tip of my blade dug into his flesh. He lowered me to where my feet were firmly back on the ground, but did not let go of my shirt. Instead, with his eyes close, he leaned into my blade, cutting himself. I gave up the pressure that I held as I watched the red liquid run down his chest, soaking the white lace of his shirt.

  “Exact your pound of flesh. I know too well what I have done to you, and I have wished against it every waking moment since,” he softly replied, slowly opening his pale blue eyes and melting my heart more than I would have ever admitted to anyone at that time.

  “They killed my family, Martin…you weren’t there,” I said with a fine tremble in my voice, knowing what he had already been through, but needing to hear it from him.

  “I tried…” he paused, swallowing. “I was at the disadvantage of Rebecca’s men. I could stand here and explain everything to you, but, it will change nothing of what has happened. All that matters to me is that you are alive and standing right here, right now,” he proclaimed releasing my shirt, running his hand down my arm and bringing my hand to his lips.

  I looked back and saw all the others watching us, Tanda now holding Derek’s other arm in a loving manner; Cates and Tammy were holding hands; and Garvin and Sydney with an arm over each other’s shoulder. Jacob and Fala were just smiling. I grabbed the front of Martin’s jacket and pulled him into one of the small coves, giving the others the hint that we needed a bit of privacy. They began moving about making small talk, while I pushed Martin up against the short curved shape wall, and pressed my head into his chest.

  “I never thought seeing you would be this hard,” I whispered into the scent of his flesh.

  “Did you find the letter?”

  “I knew you were looking for me,” I said, raising my eyes to meet his.

  “Until my death,” he whispered back, leaning down and taking my mouth with his.

  He wrapped his arms around my back and lifted me off the floor once more, only this time my arms were around his neck and we were in an embrace of a long awaited reunion. I feared opening my eyes, because I didn’t want this to be a dream. I slid my lips from his and nuzzled my face in beside his ear, burying myself into the fragrance of his hair, then deeper, finding the scent of him. We held each other for a very long time, before I finally pulled back. He slid me down to my feet as our eyes searched each other’s soul.

  “I have a better place to rest than this,” he claimed, smiling down at me.

  “If you know who we are, then you know why we’re here,” I calmly replied, stepping back out with the others.

  “I have a little place at the end of the city. No one will bother you there.”

  “Did you hear what I just said?”

  “We can talk about it tomorrow night. But, if you wish to sleep with soft feathers under your heads, then we must hurry, or do you prefer the dust of the long dead?” He ignored my question a second time.

  “It would be better to keep clear of the scavengers,” Jacob replied, taking the offered hand of Martin. “I am Jacob, you know me from Chin’s head lead. But, I now follow Renee, as my friend.”

  “You cannot say you have forgotten me, old one,” Cates said stepping up. “It has been a long time.”

  “You are still as big as an ox, but you seem to be missing something,” Martin smiled, touching the big man’s elbow.

  “Just a small price in the heat of battle,” Cates laughed, causing Martin to glance back at me. “This is Tammy, and besides our Renee, one of the best females I have ever known.”

  “Heard a lot about you,” Tammy said, shaking Martin’s hand, but smiling back at me.

  “And this is Sydney,” Garvin proudly said, patting Sydney on the back. “He is a part of me, and a good man as well.”

  “We are a family now,” Tanda smiled, taking Martin’s hand like a small child would. “He is not our kind, but Fala is our family as well.”

  “I know what he is, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Fala,” Martin said with a bow to his head.

  “There’s more back with Cornelle…” Tanda began to say.

  “Shouldn’t we be going, or are we staying?” I interrupted, before she could mention my brother’s name.

  “She’s correct. We must go now if we are going to make it home before the dawn calls out for our rest.”

  “Or our burning flesh,” Derek smirked, going to help Jacob slide the wall back.

  “Not likely young one. These tunnels run into the tunnels that go to the basement of my home.”

  “Then we just may end up sleeping on the floor anyway…if we don’t move, right?” Derek asked more sarcastically.

  He didn’t care for the way that Martin got around my question, no more than I had. Derek seemed to have a dislike for him from the moment they first met, when he had his blade ready to take off the man’s head. I knew it was going to be a long night, indeed, if I had to find out what was bothering him. Derek had become like walking death since the loss of his brother. He gave little in the way of emotion and even less wh
en it came to talking to anyone about how he felt.

  We could all feel the pull of dawn when we reached the basement to Martin’s so-called home. The basement carried the very same odor of torturous death that all the lower levels of the demented estates had. Martin kept walking toward the winding steps that led to the comforts above, as we all stood there staring at him, wondering just what his life had truly been about. Or, at least, that was the thoughts going through my mind, questioning if we were actually walking through a part of his personal domain.

  “I’ve had it cleaned time and time again, but the hard crimes that happened cannot merely be washed away with soap and water,” he explained looking back at us as if reading our minds.

  “Whose crimes happened down here?” Derek asked, stepping forward.

  “I will explain everything, but right now, time is not on our side. I have the first floor secure from the coming day with guards to watch our rest.”

  “I think it best if you just answer his question, Martin,” I replied, stepping up next to Derek.

  “I bought it from an old breeder when I first came in search of you. I thought others were lying to me, just as Yvette had, because of the way that I had broken free from their grip.”

  Sydney dropped to his knees, as the pull of day beckoned his daily death. Garvin lifted him under the arm and headed for the steps, with the rest following his lead, all but Derek and myself. Derek’s legs wobbled, and I grabbed his elbow. “I’m going back into the tunnels, Fala will stay with me,” he claimed, nodding once at the werewolf at his side.

  “His rest will be undisturbed. I give you my word,” Fala promised, taking him from my hold.

  “Stay in the tunnels under this estate, we can hope those scavenger things stay clear of here.”

  “And if they do not, several will die, while the others think twice on coming this way again. I have felt no others like myself, nor have I caught any scent, new or old,” Fala nodded, turning back with Derek now limp in his grasp.