“Oh hell yeah, I get it. Someone can play scream, while someone else beats the dead guy and breaks a few of these old bones. Dang I should have thought of that,” Derek said with a little too much excitement.
“I love it, Sydney. That’s a great plan,” I added. “For a minute there I thought you guys really wanted to hurt this man.”
“One must do what is necessary in times of war, Renee,” Jacob said walking over and looking into the torture room.
“He speaks the truth. Let’s just hope that our Sydney’s plan works,” Garvin concurred.
“It has to, Garvin. Now, go ahead and take Jacob and Sydney with you and bring back the body, but watch your back. I don’t want them to have the same option. I’m sure that woman wouldn’t be so kind to think of using a dead body to intimidate. Brandon and Derek can gather up some bones.”
We had everything that we needed to start this pretend scare tactic. Now, all we had to do was get this thing to wake up. It turned out that he wasn’t faking. Jacob must have knocked the crap out of him much like he did Bo, when they were strapping him down.
Bo was now sitting up holding a hand to the side of his head, not looking or speaking to anyone, and anyone that had tried to talk to him, was told to get the hell away. I knew that when he was ready, he would come around. I’m sure his pride was hurt more than his head.
I think he still saw Jacob as a threat and not someone who had become one of us, or maybe he was a little jealous of the way that Jacob came up with ideas. It could be because of the way he knew how to fight, but the one thing that everyone, even myself, had to understand, was that we had no idea how long Jacob and Jessica had been bloodbreeders. Jacob’s knowledge already blew my mind and I knew I would listen to whatever that young looking boy had to say. One only needed to look into to his eyes to see the years that he must have had to endure on this earth, not to mention, in one of these infernos. In just the small amount of time, he had stepped up. His information alone stopped me from making the mistake of showing my true nature, to the man that we were about to question. That was something that I don’t think Garvin would have even thought about.
“Renee, he’s waking up,” Brandon called out bringing me out of my thoughts.
I walked back into the room and over to him, trying my best to give him the meanest look possible.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“I will tell you nothing,” he spat.
“Why were you down here?” I asked.
“I will tell you nothing,” he repeated a little louder.
“Excuse me, My Lady. May I?” Garvin interrupted using a bow as he spoke.
“If you must,” I said, trying my best not to crack up, turning to make sure Derek wasn’t either.
Good boy, I thought. He had his hand over his mouth knowing he would screw up if he didn’t, but that made it harder for me, so I just looked the other way. Tammy walked in, causing me to gasp, first because she was supposed to be with the girls, and secondly because of the way she looked. “Oh my goodness.” Came pouring out of my mouth. She shot me a look that closed my gapping mouth. It was all part of the plan and one I apparently wasn’t part of, so I added, “You dare come in this late.” She dropped to her knees and began to beg.
“Please, don’t beat me. It will never happen again Master.”
She is good, I thought. She was wearing the ugliest, filthiest, rag she could have found, that just so happened to have a large tear over her still badly torn up right breast.
“See that it doesn’t,” I demanded in my best fake ‘Master’s’ voice. “Continue slave.”
“My Lady.” Garvin nodded, turning to the prisoner. “We will take things from you that your Mistress can never return, no matter what she has promised you, slave. You are no better than the slime on the floor to her, as we all are,” he explained to the man, leaning close to his face.
“She will kill me if I speak to you, and she will do it in a way that none of you can imagine. Nothing you can do could be worse than her wrath,” he cried.
“We shall see,” Garvin said, while leaning even closer to the man’s face. “Bring in the other slave, but do not let him speak,” Garvin demanded in such a way, that one would truly think that this was a position that he had held for years. Derek and Brandon bowed the best they knew how and then dragged the dead body around the corner.
“Now place him behind the table, I want this one to hear all,” Garvin order.
The man on the table tried his hardest to turn his head, but the best view he got was Brandon’s hands holding a set of an unknown wrists that were covered by a long sleeve shirt of the once living corpse. But the acknowledgement of the fact that he knew there was another slave showed all over his face. Sydney was right. The man hadn’t changed when he died, not like the others that we had killed. His skin had taken on a blackish tint, but it stayed firm, and you could tell what he had looked like when he was alive. It was the expression that lingered on his face that kept me from taking a closer look. Eyes wide open in a forever death stare, mouth gapping wide, and worst of all, the skin that slid around on his face, as if it would fall off with the slightest tug.
“Are you sure you wish your fellow slave to suffer, because you wish not to speak?” I asked, hoping the sight would be enough.
“I said, I will tell you nothing. She sees all and her punishment cannot be matched. Can you not understand that,” he said now with a pinch of anger.
I was getting a little pissed myself. This ass was going to let another person take a beating, all because he was too afraid of getting one. I knew it wasn’t a living creature that we were going to be ‘torturing’, but this thing didn’t know that and every moment that I was near him, the angrier I was becoming. I couldn’t understand even though I tried, becoming angrier, because every time I turned around something else like this floored me. He was just another being that had no concern for anyone but himself.
“Fine, you wish to kill a fellow slave because you are no man, then so be it. Just know this slave, there will be no mercy when your time comes.” I watched his eyes grow as he thought on the words that I had just said.
Thirty minutes in and the man still refused to give up any information.
“Tell us, or we will break his legs,” Garvin demanded.
“Never,” the man yelled back.
I nodded and Jacob broke another bone, while Brandon playing the voice of the victim, screamed as if in pure agony.
”Stop, please, stop,” the man finally begged.
I raised my hand and Brandon pretended to breathe hard and cry softly so he could hear.
“Will you tell us what they’re planning upstairs now?” I asked hoping he would say ‘yes’, before we all burst out at Brandon’s poor attempts of being tortured.
“I cannot, miss. Please do not hurt the young man anymore, I cannot bare it,” he pleaded.
“Then help him,” I replied walking up and leaning down close to his face. “Tell us so we can stop this from ever happening to anyone else ever again, please.”
“I…I cannot, you will not win against her, miss. She will torture me far worse than you can imagine,” he said doing his best to beg me with his eyes.
It was Jacob that placed a hand on my shoulder bringing me back to the reason that we we’re doing this in the first place. I looked back to the man. “You’re not going to help us are you?” I asked with disappointment in my voice. The man did not answer, he just closed his eyes as if I had said nothing. I closed my own eyes as my head feel forward. I stepped back slowly with the guide of Jacob’s hands pulling on my shoulder lightly, so disillusioned that such drastic measures couldn’t even break his fear of Yvette’s hold.
“We must let this one know we mean what we say, My Lady,” Garvin added.
“I agree. Do whatever you have to,” I replied then stepped back, never taking my eyes from the man who was now darting his eyes wildly from me to Garvin.
“Bring the saw, Derek
.” Garvin ordered.
“May I speak with you in private, Ren...Master?” Brandon asked, coming up from behind the table as if he had been in on the torture of the dead man.
“Yes, you may,” I replied, wondering if we sounded as stupid to the captive, as I know I did to myself.
We walked out of the room, giving me a much needed break, and stepped far enough away not to be heard. Once again we soon found out we were not alone. Everyone but Garvin stood in the small hall, even Bo had decided to stop pouting and join the rest of us.
“I can’t do it Renee, I can’t sit there and watch Jacob cut up that dead body,” Brandon exclaimed
“I can,” Derek added, very quickly. “Let me do it.”
“It’s okay, Brandon. I’m having a little trouble with this myself,” I replied. “You’ve done a great job.”
“I will do what is necessary to get the information. Let your Derek help me,” Jacob added.
“Okay Jacob, but we will not hurt that man in there under any circumstances, is that clear?” I demanded.
“Of course…I know I may look like a child to you, but I assure I am not. I need only be told once,” he said, showing the first sign that he was offended.
“Yeah, well there is no need to get all cocked off either. We are all on edge here and you aren’t any better, and personally, I don’t give a damn how old you are,” I replied with some anger myself.
“I meant you no disrespect. This is a very new life for me and I have stepped out of line. It will not happen again,” Jacob replied, stepping back and lowering his head.
“No Jacob, I’m the one that’s sorry. I had no right to jump like that. Truth is, we need you, and I’m just on edge tonight. Talk about new, I think we all have a whole new world coming our way, so let’s just try to make it through it together. Deal?” I said as I offered my hand in friendship. He stood there for a few moments and I was about to pull my hand back when he took it.
“Thank you, Jacob, and please, step out of line anytime you feel like it. You have no one to answer to here, sweetie. We work as a group, no one’s better than the next.”
“Yes, I think I like that very much. Now, shall we scare the Mistress out of that slave once and for all?” he asked, then pulled my hand to his lips, laying a delicate kiss on the back of it.
Chapter Twenty Three
Once again we put on a show for our captive. Jacob stood in front of the table keeping full eye contact with him, never saying a word. It was Garvin who spoke first. “I shall end this now.”
“No,” Jacob finally spoke. “I will take great joy, if the Master does not disagree.” Then he looked back at me.
“I think this salve of our enemy, needs a little touch of your skill,” I replied, smiling back at the wide eyed man. “You have my blessing.”
Jacob grinned slightly, raising only one corner of his mouth, but it was beautiful. Then his features turned to stone like someone hit an invisible switch. He started turning slowly, while pulling his shirt ever so carefully over his head, making sure that the man could see every slash mark across his back. Once he faced the man again, he walked around the table, taking his time gliding as if on air. He never took his gaze from the man, who was now beginning to tremble. Jacob’s coal black hair fell forward, slowly sliding off of his shoulders as his face transformed into a sinister grin.
“I have waited over four hundred years to take my suffering out on filth such as you. Any who would stand and let another take such agonizing torture, when but simple words could stop it, needs to feel what it is that I am thinking.” He then reached over and took the saw from Garvin, raising it in the air in extremely slow and agonizing motion. He then swung it toward the ground very close to the man face, causing him to scream repeatedly. His body began wiping about madly, in what little room he had to move in the tightly bound restraints.
You could hear the flesh and bone tear and crunch under the weight of Jacob’s strength, even over Derek’s attempt at being a morbidly abused victim. The man screamed for mercy for the corpse that he thought was bound and being sawed into pieces. Derek was beginning to get the giggles, and we all were realizing the mistake of letting him be the victim, when he started saying, “Oh God, not my legs, what am I gonna walk on.” Garvin immediately ordered that the soon-to- be-dead man, be gagged…again, setting the rest of us at ease. That is until Derek started humming his agony, which all but had me bending over. ‘Umm...nooo,’ was what it sounded like, as if he was getting pleasure than pain. Sydney yanked him up and took him out. One more brake and an arm thrown across the room, and we had finally made headway.
”Enough,” the man cried out.” I will tell you anything you ask. Please, I can take no more.”
“Tammy, make him a bit more comfortable,” I ordered.
“Yes, My Lady,” she replied, picking up her tray.
She set the tray on top of his groin area, then started loosening the restraints. She made sure to do the one that would have her leaning over the man first. She made damn sure that the one breast that was exposed, brushed the man’s face. “Excuse me, but you must tell the truth or they will do this, or worse to you,” she whispered, pretending she had already been in his position. After seeing the man’s eyes grow twice their normal size when he saw the marks on her breast, I did the only thing I could think of, I acted like Annabel. I walked over and grabbed a handful of her hair, bending her head back.
“Do you have something you wish to say, slave?” I spat, sounding vicious even to myself.
“No Mistress, I was only excusing myself for touching him,” she cried in pretense.
“Leave me. You make me sick,” I said in a low voice, choking back a tear, not realizing until this very moment how the memories could fly back in, and how very much I hated what I had just done.
Tammy gathered her things, reaching out and touching my hand as she left. It must have shown on my face what had just gone through my mind, and in that simple touch, she told me that everything was going to be alright. We gathered around the captive and he began to sing like a canary.
The man told us that Yvette was going to attack in two nights, that she had a plan to come at us through two of the secret passages; the one we closed and one we hadn’t found yet. It would seem it was also the same one, he swore on oath, that he didn’t know its whereabouts. He also told us she had a great deal more help than we once thought and that on the second night she was expecting others to come to her aid. It was then she would open the large doors that lead to her domain.
“We’re going to lock you in one of these cells and if everything you have told us turns out to be the truth, after we take out your Mistress, we will set you free,” I told the man. “Do you have a name?”
“I am called, Kelee,” he replied.
“Okay, Kelee. My name is, Renee. Know this and know it well. If you have lied and you get my kids hurt or worse, I will come back and when I do, it will be you getting sawed into pieces and no amount of begging will set you free. Do I make myself clear?”
“I have told you what I know, but if things have changed it will not be my fault,” he replied looking a little too worried.
“You better hope they haven’t changed then.”
I had nothing else to say and left the boys to take care of Kelee. Being the bad guy was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I could see the fear behind his eyes, only I wasn’t sure if it was fear from what he was experiencing now, or fear from having lied to us. I found Tammy and Sydney explaining what had gone on to Ashley and Jessica, who was now being called Jessie, thanks to little Johnny. About that time he came running around the cot that they were sitting on and jumped so high to get into my arms that he almost went over my head. I grabbed his foot and pulled him into my embrace and started laughing.
“Boy, you just about took off like a little bird.”
“I can jump real high now, huh, Renee?”
“Well, you sure can. You’re just getting to be
such a big boy.”
“Tammy and Jessie said we were family now and we was gonna live in the same house and play all the time,” he said, rocking his top half back and forth.
“Your brother is much like my own, My Lady. I do hope you do not mind,” Jessie said getting to her feet.
“No, Jessie, I don’t mind at all. And please call me, Renee.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
I let out a deep sigh and let it pass. How could I expect them to change after what I heard Jacob say in the torture room—four hundred years, was that even possible? I thought. I handed Johnny over to the waiting arms of Jessie. “We have to move as soon as the sun sets tomorrow night. The rest of this night we need to make sure we have our backside’s ready,” I told the three, then lowered my eyes in more thought of how I was going to get everyone out—and in what.
“Are you okay, Renee, you look like you may pass out?” Ashley asked.
“Here, sit down,” Sydney said.
I walked over, sat down, and put my head down into my hands.
“Baby girl,” Tammy said coming to sit beside me. “You’ve come this far, and you have more than a few of us ready to stand with you. Whatever tomorrow night brings, no matter if its name is death or life, you have done a great thing, one that will be heard among our kind for all time.”
“It’s not that simple. I can’t lose these kids because of my wanting this world to change. It’s not fair Tammy, it’s just not fair and I put them in this situation,” I said, and out of nowhere I began to cry.
“Please don’t, Renee. You know we wanted to come with you,” Ashley said and she too begin tearing up.
“What happened?” Bo said from the door. “Who hurt her?” he demanded.
“No one has, Bo. She’s just upset,” Ashley explained.
“What’s going on?” Derek asked as the rest came into the room.
“She is a woman, and women can cry at the flight of a beautiful butterfly,” Tammy kindly said, putting her arm over my shoulder.
“You saw a butterfly?” Derek asked, and brought me from crying to cracking up instantly.
Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Page 20