Bloodbreeders: The Revenge

by Robin Renee Ray,

  My heart filled with fear every passing second. Getting even one yard closer to the place that put me through so much torment was now making me physically ill. We had been holding off from having a meal every night, to every third night, so that we would be prepared for the trip. My hands were shaking and I couldn’t do anything to calm the thoughts that kept running through my mind. I had to gain my composure before they came back down, or I had to go up.

  “You have to give into them if you’re going to be able to get your friends out,” Sydney said stepping up behind me.

  “Give into what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I want to kill those bastards too for what they’ve done, but you have to let it get you angry again. Fear is only going to get you killed.”

  “How much have you seen?”

  “Enough to know that you won’t let them take you alive again,” he replied looking away from me. “No woman should have that taken from her.”

  “Please, don’t say anything else, Sydney,” I said, placing my hand over my mouth.

  “I feel like I’m apart of you, Renee. I don’t know what you did to me, but I think I belong to you. No one will ever hear those words from me.”

  “I did want to use you for this boat, but I never wanted you to read my mind. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to have to witness something like that,” I explained, walking closer to the front of the deck.

  “This is the first time since my dad died, that I’ve had friends on board.”

  “Didn’t you say he died five years ago?” I asked turning to look at him.

  “Yeah. So you see, I’m glad you guys came along. I don’t understand a thing about what you are, or why it is that you have to do things like drink blood, but you’re just good people to me. Don’t get me wrong,” he said holding up his hands. “I couldn’t live without my sunny days, and root beer floats. I’ll be staying just like I am, if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week.” Then we both started laughing, because he already knew that I was relieved hearing him say that he didn’t want to be one of us.

  I told him to go tell the others that we were going to feed. It didn’t take very long for everyone, including Sydney, to come down. When I asked who was steering the boat, he told me that he lowered the speed and put a straight stick on the wheel to keep it stable. I hadn’t been up there so I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but everyone else was nodding their heads in agreement.

  Bo carried over a small white pig that was squealing loudly. On the open ocean it sounded like it was echoing as if we were in a large black dome. It was then that Ashley came out of the kitchen with a good size bowl, handed it to Brandon then turned around and went right back inside. I watched Sydney as he watched their every move.

  Bo sliced its throat while Brandon caught the warm stream of blood. “I am so hungry.” Brandon licked his lips.

  “Are you going to try it? I did that once before I…you know, became like this,” Derek asked Sydney, with a bit more information then he needed to share.

  “No silly, but I’m going to cut me up some of that meat. It’ll make great jerky for one thing, and it’ll give me a darn good supper tonight for another,” Sydney replied licking his lips.

  “I bet I could chew on some jerky,” Derek added.

  “No!” Was what he got in unison from everyone except, Sydney.

  Now it was Derek that followed Sydney’s every move. I sat back watching in awe, as the young boy who not more than twenty four hours ago wanted to beat the tar out our new friend, was now acting like he could do no wrong. Sydney carved the gutted carcass, hanging thin strips of meat across the rope that held the tarp in place. Derek sat crouched down next to him as if in a trance watching intently, leaning over, mocking Sydney’s move when he bent down to remove another piece for making jerky. The rest of my little crew explored the beauty of the night on the black water. Bo eventually left the others and went up and took the wheel, with few instructions from Sydney.

  “Once you finish washing that off don’t you think you better get some sleep?” I asked Sydney, as he threw the last of the remains overboard.

  “I suppose I should,” he replied, pouring a bucket of ocean water on the deck. “Derek, I can get that.”

  “Nope,” Derek said getting to his knees. “My arm needs the work out.” Then he reached over and picked up a brown brush and started scrubbing the floor.

  “Mind if I sit here?” Sydney asked as he looked back in amazement at Derek’s hard work.

  “No, not at all. I find it a bit strange myself,” I snickered. “But my pa always said to never look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  “You have four great kids here with you, Renee.”

  “Yeah, but what am I doing with them?”

  “It looks like you’re creating a family unit.”

  “Family doesn’t bring those that they love into the presence of hell itself, Sydney. If I had made them stay behind they would have found a way to follow me, then they would have surely gotten themselves killed.”

  “I don’t mean to sound like a total ass, but what makes you think that being with them will change that?” he asked leaning into me.

  “It won’t, but at least I’ll die with them,” I turned staring him right in the eyes. “I’m sorry that I got you messed up in this. We should’ve just taken your boat.”

  “And what? Just leave me all alone on a part of the earth that I can’t stand…that would have been so sweet of you,” he replied then put his hand on my shoulder. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “You can see what’s in my mind. So, I know that you realize that it was the bite on your neck that made you want to help us,” I added, hanging my head just a little lower.

  “As long as you keep thinking like that you’ll never see what’s really in my mind. I also know that I have a certain form of free will. That will fell head over heels for Ashley the moment I laid eyes on her. You can think that I’m doing all this because you want me too, but I would do anything to be around her, therefore I may be doing this on my own,” he maturely explained while putting me in my place.

  “Then thank you for everything. You two are going to have a crazy relationship, ya know.” I smiled winking at him.

  “Tell me about it. Me, being a human or like you guys say a ‘normal’, in love with a bloodbreeder. Does this mean I have your approval?” he paused. “I mean, do I have your permission to court her when this is all over with?”

  “I was all for it from the very beginning, but you may want to talk to the boys. They’ve been her brothers for a long time.”

  “You finally said something that I wasn’t quite expecting,” he nervously replied, following it with a chuckle.

  “Hum. I think I’ll go ask Ashley to show me how to run things up there.”

  Sydney and I told Derek that he needed to talk to them and to stay put. I found Ashley at the front of the boat and told her to come with me, while Sydney went and found Brandon. Ashley and I went up to the control deck. I told Bo to let me and Ashley take the wheel for a little, because I needed to talk to her, and if he wouldn’t mind telling the others to stay down stairs until we came down or called. I knew that once he was down there that Sydney would fill him in, but in no way did I want to let either one know what was going on. First it wasn’t my place, and second, I wanted it to be a surprise all the way around for Ashley.

  Time didn’t even have a chance to pass before Ashley was asking me what was going on. I pretended that I wanted her to show me what she was taught about running the boat, just in case I ever had to do it. Of course, she didn’t fall for it, and kept asking me, pushing every time I closed my mouth. “Ashley, would you just leave it alone.” I blurted out, but she only took that as a definite fact that there was indeed something going on, only now she was thinking that we all wanted to keep it from her and her feelings were slowly becoming hurt.

  “Renee, would yo
u mind if I talk to Ashley for a few minutes?” Sydney said from behind us.

  “Would you, please,” I replied and took off down the steps smiling from ear to ear.

  I walked around the corner, finding the three boys huddled around each other whispering. As soon as they saw me, they started asking if I knew that Sydney was going to talk to them about wanting to get closer to Ashley, and if I knew that he wanted to court her. I told them that he had asked me first, and that I thought it was a great idea.

  “You don’t think that it’s a little weird?” Derek asked.

  “No, she’s still a girl,” I replied shrugging my shoulders.

  “Well, at least if she gets hungry she’ll have a fresh drink close by,” Derek laughed.

  “Derek…” I began.

  “Don’t let either one of them hear you say something stupid like that, joking or not,” Brandon interrupted.

  “We use to joke all the time,” Derek claimed crossing his arms.

  “This is a little different,” Bo said standing up. “She’s in love for the first time. We’ve all changed, but the worlds stayed the same. What’s going to happen if you fall in love with a normal?”

  “Turn her,” Derek quickly answered, stunning us all.

  “You can’t just turn someone, because you choose to,” I added, and then noticed the look on their faces. “You asked me.”

  “It’s not that,” Brandon said sliding around. “What if Ashley and Sydney want to be together forever and he wants to become like her?”

  “Then I think that would be different. It would be his choice,” I explained.

  “So, if my girl is madly in love with me, then everything’s fine?” Derek inquired smiling at me.

  “Yes, Derek. Just don’t go looking for a while, okay?”

  About an hour later, Ashley came running down and jumped into Brandon’s arms, who was relaxing in the hammock, causing it to come dangerously close to swinging out over the passing waves. She was saying “thank you” over and over. When she couldn’t get up, she started waving her arms to Derek, who jumped right in the middle of her and Brandon and all three of them came crashing to the floor. Laughter irrupted as Bo went over to lend a hand and ended up being pulled down on top of the pile.

  “I knew you guys loved me, but I can’t believe that you would give the okay to let me start courting,” Ashley said from the middle of the boys.

  “After we get back from, Cuba…after,” Derek reminded her.

  “Oh you silly little shit,” she replied pulling him into a head lock.

  Bo and Brandon took his arms and legs, and I just couldn’t control myself. I jumped right in and started tickling him. Derek was twisting with the strength of a bull, but he was also being held by four who were just as strong. He was laughing so hard that crimson tears were running down his cheeks. I think it was Brandon who tilted his head toward Ashley, and the attack fell on her. I decided to go and make sure that our sleeping area was ready, before they decided to try and hold me down. I went back and told them that I thought it was time to let Sydney get some sleep, so the boys went up and Ashley and I waited down below.

  “Would you like me to get you something to eat before you lay down?” Ashley asked Sydney as he stepped off the bottom step.

  “No, but you can help me with this meat if you want,” he replied, smiling and holding out his hand.

  “Oh, sure. You might have to show me what to do.” Then the two slowly walked away, gazing into each other’s eyes.

  Chapter Eleven

  The next night we all sat down and discussed what we were going to do the next night as soon as we woke up. The plan was set that when Sydney could see the landscape of the Cuban coast line, he was to turn back and move safely out of site until it got closer to sunset, then start to move back in. I explained that I remembered that the captain of the boat that had brought me over the first time had come to the beach where the water washed up on the sand, but then he turned back to the right and went around a cliff wall to a dark area where men held lanterns. The more I spoke, the more that I seemed to recall. I told him about the lighthouse that sat off to the right of the estate that was directly above the hidden dock. It was the most important thing that I mentioned, and I wasn’t sure if I said it as an order or a reminder.

  “If you see someone and they ask you what you’re doing, tell them you’re lost. Please, don’t say anything about us.”

  “I know you feel like you have to say things, so I’ll be sure and stick to them. But Renee, you can rest well with me watching over you, and that goes for all of you.” Sydney stood and walked over to a wooden chest by the door to the lower levels. “This was my dad’s.” Then he turned around with a silver pistol in one hand and a machete in the other.

  “Oh, that is so sweet,” Derek said, rushing to his side. “Who did the big blade belong to?”

  “I got it off this chief that I had to fight,” Sydney winked.

  “Did you have to kill him to get it?”

  “Derek, I was joking. I keep it in case I need to cut the ropes in a hurry.”

  “That was a good one,” Derek chuckled, looking back at the group.

  We all had a good comfortable laugh. Even Derek, to our surprise, was actually enjoying being the brunt of the joke. I think we were all starting to feel the anxiety build, but no one, including myself, wanted to talk about it. It was times like this that my mother’s words would come back to me, and one of the times that I welcomed a memory of my family. She would say that every time a person laughed, a piece of their broken heart was healed. She would also tell us that laughter released frustration, and that’s why she never stopped us from having fun laughing at the dinner table.

  The rest of that night we were children, running, yelling, and having water fights. It was the best time that I’d had since I had spent an entire day with my family back on the farm. Sydney rolled out a huge watermelon, looking over at Derek first thing, and letting him know it was for playing with and not to put in his mouth. Once everyone heard him make that statement, we pounced on him. He thought he was going to have to cut the melon, but within seconds we all had our hands full of dripping, sticky, slinging material. Sydney looked down, making us crack up, because he did it in a slow motion action. What he saw was just bits and pieces, and maybe enough to have two hands worth to throw if he was quick enough.

  “Come on…I’m the one that thought about this thing.”

  We didn’t even have to look at each other; we just covered him in watermelon. The only one who hadn’t gotten into the action was Ashley. So, when Sydney saw what we were doing when we started filling our hands, he joined in. Brandon turned first, giving our intention with the curve of his upper lip. Bo brought his shoulders forward and lowered his head, taking one step toward her. Derek put a handful of watermelon in his mouth then let it ooze back out, spitting one of the last seeds at her. I lifted one shoulder and raised my brows. My hair was already soaked, so I was ready for the fun.

  Ashley screamed and turned around to run, when Sydney ran after her, grabbing her around the waist, knocking them both on the cushioned seat by the side railing. I think the four of us knew he took most of the hits to protect her, but we threw, smeared, and rubbed watermelon all over each other, and had a blast doing it. Sydney had dropped the anchor so that he could move throughout most of the day to be where we needed to be by sunset the following night. After we had demolished the defenseless fruit, and before it completely dried to an even more sticky substance on our bodies, we thought it best that we all take a much needed bath in the inviting endless tub that was waiting right over the edge.

  “I’m afraid to go in there. We’re too far out,” Ashley said shaking her head.

  “I’ll stay right with you,” Sydney promised reaching for her hand.

  “I can’t,” she replied, backing up.

  “We’re gonna have to swim from the boat when we get there Ash, he won’t be able to take us to the bank,” Bo explained
before I had the chance.

  “Yeah. But, I’ll be able to see the land…big difference, don’t you agree?” she argued putting her hands behind her back.

  “If you put it that way, yeah,” I nodded acknowledging her theory. “Want us to throw a few buckets of water on you before we get in?”

  “Geronimo!” Brandon yelled followed by a splash, then several others.

  “I’ll pull one up and wash up, but you can help me do my hair if you don’t mind.”

  “Since you’re not getting in, do you mind?” Sydney stood asking with his eyes if it was alright to join the boys.

  “Well no, silly. Go,” she giggled.

  “Tell you what, Ashley. You help me get the tangles out of this mess and I’ll do the same.”

  “Deal.”

  I was about to dive into the water when she touched my arm. “Renee, thanks for telling Sydney it was okay to court me, that means a lot.”

  “You make a sweet couple.”

  She smiled and spun around; I wasted no time diving in.

  That night I woke to commotion on the upper deck. I could hear numerous sets of footsteps and several different voices. I turned around and saw Derek getting up. I stepped over and cupped my hand over his mouth and put my finger to my mouth. “Listen.” I stepped over Brandon who was now opening his eyes. I leaned over and held his mouth while Derek did the same to Bo and Ashley. Once everyone understood what was going on, I stepped over and cracked open the door, so we could hear what was being said more clearly.

  “I told you. I’m just a little off course. I saw the lighthouse and decided to anchor down for a few hours,” Sydney said with labored breathing.

  “He’s alone,” a deep voice said. “What’s a gringo like you doing with pigs on your boat?”

  “I stay on a beach two or three nights a week and smoke one in the ground,” he replied and we could tell he was speaking through clenched teeth. “It keeps me fed for days on the open ocean.”