“Kill them you foul beast.” He pushed one back. “Do you do nothing that you are told?”
“They are dead. What do you expect, Lord Cheree?” Jacob called out and the large man froze.
“He’s almost as big as that man we killed in Cuba, isn’t he Renee? I wonder what kind of a mess he would make?” Derek laughed.
“Tell you what Derek, why don’t you and Fala find out. We have some twins to go find. “Do me a favor…find out who created these dead things before you kill that sick bastard. I’d really like to know.”
“Mind if I stay and help?” Tammy asked.
“Not at all,” I half grinned. We all knew that Tammy had been through hell and it was time for her to get a little payback.
“Tell Bernard I’ll be waiting to have a little chat with him too,” Tammy winked, then got up on her tiptoes and kissed Cates on the mouth. “Now, be a good man and go help your mistress kick some bad breeder backside.”
“As My Lady asks.”
“I wonder where everyone went. None of them jumped in to fight?” Garvin inquired.
“Looks like the rest of their people have followed them to their safe area,” Cates surmised.
“They will have an advantage. It will be much harder to penetrate Angelica’s fortress than it was Yvette’s,” Jacob spoke as he jumped up on the stage. “They could have already left this place and fled to another.”
A cloaked figured dropped down and kicked Jacob in the back, knocking him into the far left throne, sending both crashing to the floor. The figure threw the cloak and showed himself to be, none other than, one of the assassins. Together, we stormed the stage as the sword was rising in the air to come down at Jacob who was pushing the chair away and trying to get up.
“Jacob move,” I called out, seeing the sword of the assassin come down. The second assassin ran onto the stage with his sword in the air, yelling out his battle cry, and at that very moment I saw Jacob’s death and my heart fell from my chest. The one running slid and slammed his blade into the others and the fight was on. Jacob got to his feet with both of his black blades in hand, as he watched the two fight. Sparks flew as their metal met as they swung with precise measure. I would have never thought that I would have seen such shock on Jacob’s face as I did at that very moment. But it was priceless. You could tell that he wanted nothing more than to join the battle but he didn’t know where to begin or who to fight.
Blood sprayed across the stage as one of the black wearing assassins dropped to his knees. Several of us took in sharp breaths. Who was who, we couldn’t tell. Not until one finally spoke.
“I warned you to leave him alone but you refused to listen and now you will die.”
“The elders will make you pay for your treason, Monroe. You will not get away with this.” Then the breeder fell back, turning to a fine ash before his body could hit the ground.
“They can try,” he whispered and dropped to his knees.
Jacob took a step forward, and the assassin spun with his blade up so fast, it was almost too fast to witness. “Who are you?” Jacob had his right arm extended with the tip of his black blade at the breeder’s face.
“My name is Monroe and we were sent to find and take as many of you out as we could, all but her,” he turned his head and looked out at me, then slowly back at Jacob. “But…”
“But, what?” Jacob took a step closer putting the tip of his blade under the man’s chin.
“But, I know you from a past that you would have no memory of.”
“That is impossible.”
The man began taking the black wrap off of his head as he continued to speak. “I was nine when they came to our farm. Mother was with child when they took her and killed my father. I never knew what became of the child she carried, until now.” He took the last of his mask off and stood. His braided hair fell well past his butt and was as jet black as Jacob’s own. He was taller than Jacob and what I could see from where I was, looked very much like him.
“You have our mother’s eyes.”
“As you have the eyes of my twin sister,” Jacob replied. “I would argue, but I cannot. Looking at you is like looking into her soul.”
“I have seen her. She is very beautiful.” Jacob grabbed his arm.
“I kept Reed in the city. We never went back to the coast’s edge. No harm came to her or the others. Not that my eyes have seen.”
Jacob slowly released his arm. “If you are here then you know what is about to happen. Are you with us, or were you here to just save my life…brother?”
A grunt and then a cloud of ash that filled the air had us turning to look back at Derek, who was wiping his face. The large man was no more. “He tried to hit me!” Fala grabbed the two walking dead by their heads and smashed them together so hard, that his hands came close enough to make contact, as the creatures dropped like the dead they should have been. “All done,” Derek smiled through an ash covered face. “Just thought we would hurry and join ya.”
“Thought I was supposed to help find out answers?” Tammy snapped.
“He tried to hit me…really,” Derek snapped back.
“With what? One of those little men,” Tammy bumped her breasts into Derek’s chest.
“Get your woman, big man,” Derek looked over at Cates who just put his hand and nub in the air and went back to watching Jacob and Monroe.
“Please, I can handle myself, little boy.”
“It’s fine, Tammy. They could have been here forever.”
The man named Monroe turned his attention once again my way. Only this time he elegantly leaped off the stage and caused everyone around me to bring their weapons up. His eyes never left mine. I laid my hand on the back of Derek’s and brought his blade down and stepped up to meet Jacob’s older brother and get away from the family squabble. I extended my hand and he dropped down to one knee.
“Well, haven’t you heard? We don’t do that around here. We just say ‘howdy’ and get on with it,” I smiled keeping my hand out until he took it and got up. That just drove me crazy and all I wanted was to never see it again. “I’m Renee, the one everyone either wants to kill, or do whatever your elder folks want done with. How ya doin?”
“You’ll have to excuse her tongue. Renee’s slang deepens when the excitement rises.”
“Ya think, Jacob?” I smirked, shaking Monroe’s hand with him giving me the oddest look. “You should hear your brother try to talk like me and my boys.”
“Do we, or do we not, have a few breeders to find? The sun will not stay hidden all day.”
“Do I not need to make allegiance with my new mistress? I wish to not return…surely you know this?” Monroe’s eyes bore a hole into Jacob.
“Monroe, you shook my hand. That’s all you needed to do to show me you’re with us. More importantly, you saved one of us against one of your own.”
“You do not carry their blood in your body?”
I gave Jacob and the rest one of my ‘kiss my ass’ looks. “Not at first, but we had a situation and it kind of had to be done. But not because they had to.”
“Would you be offended if I said I would feel better if you made me one of you? I do not ever wish to go back, ever. I have finally found out what happened to the unborn child and I will never let him go, you see.”
“Jacob?” I needed help. I couldn’t make this one understand.
“I’m sorry, Renee, I agree with him. He is my blood from a time when we had a mother and father. He is no different than Jessica; only she has felt secure with me since our birth. Only Monroe knows what he has endured and I, too, would want to be marked. They will not be able to track him otherwise.”
“Can we at least do it after we find those sisters? This night really isn’t going to get any younger,” Garvin spoke up.
“Yeah, I completely agree,” I nodded and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Garvin.
“Then you will?” Monroe asked again.
“You are mine and I will bite the crap out
of you once we take care of this and I am not so full I could puke. Welcome home! Now let’s go take care of some sick cows.”
“Excuse me?”
“Welcome home big brother, welcome home indeed,” Jacob snorted as he walked by Monroe.
***
Cates went through the door at the back of the stage first, with Jacob, Monroe, Derek, and Garvin following. Tammy and I stayed back a bit, with Fala taking care of our back. Jacob wanted there to be room in the small space of the stone hall if anything should happen.
“I can’t get over how much they look like each other.”
“If Monroe didn’t have hair almost as long as mine, it would be hard to tell them apart,” I whispered.
“The oldest is taller,” Fala added. “But if they were sitting?”
Tammy and I both had to hold in our desire to laugh out loud. Fala was on the uneducated side when it came to the civilized world and spoke in the ways of a person who learned life in the wilderness. Most of us hadn’t gone to conventional school, but most had learned a great deal from their own personal existence around those who had lived in, what they would call, a more sophisticated world.
“I hope if they did go back to Martin’s they didn’t try to go into the lower levels,” Tammy spoke low and her words knocked every thought but Martin and Tanda right out of my mind.
“You would have to say that, wouldn’t you?”
“It just hit my mind.”
“Your maker set the locks from the inside, so you both worry for no reason,” Fala snorted as softly as he could in his beast form.
I was pulling the hair pins out of my hair when I felt a hand on my chest. “What the hell.” Fala growled and yanked on the arm that had touched me and pulled Bernard free from his hiding spot. He screamed once and then fell silent when Fala’s huge hand clamped down over his mouth then he passed smooth out.
“He is a weak one, isn’t he?”
“Lane, is that you?” I asked as he stepped out from the same dark area.
“Yes, that one released me and my brother and hid with us here in the little room. He said we would be freed after all was clear. I do not think he knew you would be coming after the others went by.”
I could hear several footsteps coming our way and see the light of the torch. Derek held it as high as he could until he saw Luther stepping out. He slowed down and walked the rest of the way, smiling like he had swallowed the yellow canary. It was then that I saw Sydney running up behind him. “You pick them up all over the place, don’t you, Renee?”
“You’d be one of the first to know, huh Derek?” I laughed.
“He wakes,” Fala said, getting our attention.
Tammy was the first to get in front of Bernard. “Where did they go, Bernard?”
“What? What happened?”
“You touch my chest and our wolf friend here almost ate you for supper, that’s what happened. Now, answer her question.”
“Where did who go?”
“Pick him up, Fala. We’ll take him with us. Let’s move.” I gave the order and turned, heading down the hall-like tunnel to find the rest of my people. I could hear Bernard begging to be put down, saying that he could walk on his own. He rambled on about knowing where they had gone and would show us the way if we swore not to harm him or his beloved, Alex. I think Fala must have bumped Bernard’s head on the wall to shut him up, because it became very quiet all of the sudden.
Derek put the torch on the floor and stomped it out, telling us that the others were waiting just around the next turn. It hadn’t been an extremely noticeable slant in the hall, but with the way we walked, it was easy to tell that we had been going down at a slight angle the whole way. The turn opened into a small room with stone benches where the rest were waiting on us.
“You do not know how pleased I am to see that you found the key,” Jacob stood and was smiling so big I could see his fangs in full.
“The key?” I laughed at the look on his face. “We found a few things alright, but I didn’t see any keys.”
“Not you, my fearless leader, Fala.”
He was talking about Bernard and I was dying to see the meaning behind his words. Fala let Bernard slide off of his shoulder by pulling down on his arm, and not too gently. Bernard hit the stone floor with a thud. His scream echoed throughout the room as he grabbed his lower leg, falling back and acting more like a female than any man should. Cates stood up, walked over, yanked him up by the back of his leather top and slung him into the far corner.
“Open it you little weasel or I will break every bone in your body.”
“Then I will let you heal and let this beast of a man do it all over again,” I calmly added, crossing my arms over the shirt that Sydney let me use, with tights covering my legs and nothing else on but the slipper type shoes. My hair was hanging off to one side, half rolled up with hair pins sticking out everywhere. I must have looked like a mad woman.
“They split up. Inara took her men and left. She gave word to ready her ship before we came to the gala, in case things did not go her way.”
“And her sister?” Cates said in a deep growl, leaning down over Bernard, who just glanced at the wall then down at the floor. “Then open it before I get busy.”
“I can go to the coastline and stop the ship. I know the way well,” Monroe offered.
“No, we stay together.” Jacob looked at me and I nodded.
We watched Cates reach down and yank Bernard up a second time. “Okay, I will!” he screamed. “Please don’t hurt me anymore.” He broke down sobbing like a small child. He slid back down to the floor and crawled over to the corner to our right, on hands and knees, crying with his head hanging. He got up on his knees, using the wall to support himself, then pulled back one of the inset stones. “The stairs that go up go to Angelica’s private quarters. The ones that go down will take you to three tunnels. There are many places to get lost past the torture…” he paused.
“Why don’t you just open it and show us the way,” Garvin said, shocking me. “We’ll need a guide.”
“Please, I don’t want to go down there. I beg you, I will do anything.” Bernard grabbed the bottom of Garvin’s jacket and pulled as he begged. Garvin slapped him.
Bernard released his grip on Garvin’s jacket and like a wet puppy, scooted back into the corner and stuck his hand into the opening. A loud clank rang out as chains rubbed together and the wall lifted into the unknown.
Chapter Twenty Nine
“Should I go check on him?”
“No, Tanda, he will be fine. Besides, he cannot go anywhere that we cannot go,” Martin smiled at her.
“Do you think they’re okay? I wish I could have gone with them.”
“You are very fond of this Derek, are you not?”
“I love him very much, Martin. To look at us we resemble the same age, but I am so much older in here.” Tanda touched her chest over her heart. “I believe that does not matter, but I often wonder if it will.”
“Love cares not for any of the same things that we do in life, my child. It can only feel; it has no eyes to see age or color or deeds. Love knows only the heart that it touches and that touches it back. For when the two become one, this thing that beats in here,” Martin laid his hand over Tanda’s, “is finally free.”
“Then why, when I look at him, do I feel more hunger than I ever did in Yvette’s hands? Why do I feel like I am in a cage with no door when he walks into a room and I dare not say how I feel when he touches me?” She blushed, lowering her eyes and moving around the desk.
“He is your first love and the first is always an experience that you will never forget. Cherish every moment that you have with young Derek, love him with all that you have, Tanda. You both have my blessing,” Martin leaned back in the desk chair. “But, I fear if you do not try to stop him from doing this crazed madness that your first may well be your last.”
Tanda walked over to the closed entrance to her entrapment and lightly touched it. �
�You are a good mentor and teacher,” she turned and looked at him. “But, and I mean no disrespect, are you as good at being a student?”
“No offence taken, young one.”
“Martin, I smell smoke and this stone is very warm.”
Martin rushed to the stone entrance and got down on his hands and knees putting his face close to the floor. “They’ve set my home on fire. We have to get to the tunnels.”
***
A light wind blew a swirl of dust around our feet as the door lifted into the walls above us. Bernard stood with his back to the rising wall with his hands out toward us, begging to be left in the stone hall. He stepped away the higher the wall went up but couldn’t go far with us pressing in, urging him to move back into dark abyss that only he knew and seemed to fear with great prejudice. Two decaying arms shot out with more speed than I had seen from death, grabbed Bernard and pulled him, screaming and kicking into the darkness. Seconds later his screams were cut off abruptly.
“Monroe left, Cates right,” Jacob commanded as he took the middle. The rest of us stepped in behind them and waited for whatever was going to come out of that blackness. What came out was not what I was expecting. Bernard’s crumpled and bloodied body was thrown at us with great force, knocking us down like twigs before he burst into ash. Cates and Monroe were helping us up, when the thing dragged itself into our torchlight.
I screamed and back peddled on hand and heels toward the hall that we had come in from, now knowing why Bernard was scared to death to go down. It was hideous, whatever it was. It resembled Fala in some ways, with its massive snout full of teeth, only it had no hair and it smelt of pure death. Its arms were dripping gore from bone and tissue that looked as if would pop at any moment. It stomped on backward feet and twisted legs, opening its mouth while it shook its head, slinging Bernard’s blood and gore everywhere.
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London Page 27