savage 04 - the savage vengeance

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  Maddoc would not care where she be!

  Decision made, she smiled at Calia and the select grinned back.

  “When may we go?” Evie asked, her wisdom dulled by her residual anger at Maddoc.

  “Aye, the present is as good a time as any.”

  Evie frowned. “What of the great door?”

  Calia opened her palm and a large key, taking up her entire hand lay there like a gold serpent. Evie gazed at it and asked the question but Calia pressed her lips to Evie's. “Nay, better that you do not inquire, little one.”

  Evelyn was not little but she held her tongue.

  Calia had a twinge of guilt, robbing the key from underneath Clara's nose and leaving the note as goodbye in its stead. If anyone would understand Calia's need of independence it would be Clara.

  They were more alike than she knew.

  Evie and Calia made their way to the sphere tunnel and eventually the great portal where the two that Calia had paid handsomely waited to assist their escape.

  Calia fitted the full rucksack on her shoulders with practiced ease and left the way she had come, in a shroud of stealth.

  Her young charge shadowed her escape.

  THE END

  3/17/13: If you enjoyed this, you might also like my New York Times bestseller: A TERRIBLE LOVE, writing under my pen name, Marata Eros....

  Read on for the first exciting chapter of book #5, THE SAVAGE PROTECTOR, available now!

  THE SAVAGE PROTECTOR-excerpt

  Book Five: The Savage Series

  Copyright © 2013-2014 Tamara Rose Blodgett

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to a legitimate retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  DEDICATION

  Kami Bravo

  Thank you for all you did for me.

  For others~

  Rest in Peace.

  CHAPTER 1

  Edwin ran to where he knew the men of the clan congregated to take food. His manner was such that Bracus stood upon Edwin charging into the Gathering Hall.

  “What say you?” Bracus asked, scanning the space beyond his shoulder as if an unseen enemy shadowed him. He could have told Bracus it was not an enemy, but fear.

  One in the same.

  Edwin swung his longish hair out of his eyes, caught his breath and plowed forward with the wretched news, “Evelyn and Calia have departed the sphere.”

  Bracus was joined by Philip, Maddoc, Daniel and the foppish Charles. They stood together now, the ornately carved chairs scraping across a floor worn from thousands of meals taken together at this very table, almost twenty feet in length.

  Edwin scanned the faces of the men, all were brutal and unforgiving, filled with the tightness of concern. Edwin imagined a looking glass would reflect back what he observed in theirs'. It was Philip's face that showed the most anxiety, the planes and angles like razors of flesh, his worry no longer etched like a sword of indifference on his features, but one of acute regard for the safety of a female who eluded him.

  Calia.

  Now, Edwin knew they had a dual purpose; they sought the same thing. Be that she would just bow to their stewardship.

  “I have found a note left for me by my blooded sister. It does not bode well.” Edwin carefully recited the short sentence.

  Phillip moved forward gracefully and Edwin noted his sheer size. Though all members of the Band were larger than typical males across all societies, Phillip's size was noteworthy even amongst the Band. He stood closer to seven feet than six, his shoulders so broad he moved through doorways canted, for to pass through them straight would stick him within the jamb. Edwin was very glad that he did not meet Philip in battle but as ally.

  “Oh? And the lass trouts off without nary a hello or goodbye?” Philip asks, his low voice of fury so much more than a loud one could ever be.

  “Aye,” Edwin spit out in disgusted agreement.

  “Who would aid two unescorted females to Outside?” Charles asked, then answered his own question. “I say, it speaks to the undercurrent of dissent that has been flowing unabated within our culture since the war between kingdoms.”

  The troubled silence was broken by Daniel, “There isn't anything we can do about the residual conflict and assimilation of the spheres.” Daniel looked at each male and allowed an exasperated sigh to leak out. The full-blooded Band were always so persistent in their stubbornness. Daniel thought if he slammed a few skulls they would think much more clearly. Unfortunately, there simply wasn't time. The wee lass of ten and five was with Calia- who was a proven piggish female. Stubborn as could be imagined. He did not need a long acquaintance with her to understand that Calia would not be manipulated. Why Edwin had not seen that as obvious was beyond him.

  “She makes herself a target in the Outside, and... she accompanies Evie,” Maddoc said in a voice so low Edwin strained to hear it, his expression one of significant pause. What he saw on the male's face made him suck in his breath; it was hard and determined.

  “No,” Edwin said, in answer to his unspoken question.

  Maddoc, his Day of Birth having been just weeks past said, “Oh most decidedly-- yes. We cannot let those two...” he said as he stomped off, large hands on his hips, bronze hair glinting as soft sunlight from Outside bled through the opaque walls of the near translucent walls. As the youngest of the clan members present this day, he was very much about being rash. That was relative, Edwin decided, as rash was an apt moniker for those of the Band. Along with a few other descriptors.

  Maddoc spun around, the short tail of his dark copper hair whipping to his shoulder, high cheekbones and seawater eyes blazed their anger over all of them. “Tear around Outside!” he finished his thought in a grating tone. “It is akin to ringing a dinner bell before the Fragment.”

  “A banquet,” Bracus agreed grimly.

  “Protocol dictates...” Charles began and the Band gave him a withering look. He was tolerated, but not respected. Charles allowed a tight smile to move his lips, but the bite of humor never reached his eyes. “Whatever you may be about, this issue needs be addressed by us with Queen Clara... and your very own Matthew,” Charles paused, so ill to speak the next words he swallowed his taste like a dose of arsenic-coated bile, “who will soon be our sovereign. He could possibly have insight into this issue.”

  “Issue?” Maddoc asked in outraged anger, hands flying out like wild birds at his side. “This is not an issue, you fool! It is an emergency.”

  “Aye,” Bracus said, then added as Charles' face flushed a dull red in anger, “However, in this Charles is right.” Bracus watched Charles tighten the ridiculous flag of silk at his neck and school his expression with difficulty. He was like the magpie that bid their time about the supper table, laying in wait for a morsel and squawking until they had one. His eyes took in the males of the Band that surrounded the table and continued before an argument took hold of the group, wasting precious time, “Clara and Matthew must know. Charles is accurate in that Matthew is a few short months from becoming king of this sphere. It is an alliance that will protect us all and is conceived in love.” Bracus speared the other males with serious eyes, having been the leader of the Clan of Ohio for ten years past. “Many of you do not know the cocoon of love a female that is the missing piece to you... that once found, makes a male of the Band whole. Yet, that is what Matthew has found. It is the potential for us
all. Let us make haste, eschewing our grievances on petty issues which do not advance us. Evie and Calia make their way through the Outside even as we debate it.”

  “Bracus is right,” Daniel said. “The Outside is infested with Fragment. They keep close to the Great Forest, watching the spheres.” Daniel did not say that Calia would know this- must know it. For she had remained Outside in a way and for a time that was not healthy. However, she had prevailed. It was no longer just her. It was also Evie. Evie who had lived the life of protected female. Calia’s confidence could be her demise. And Evie's as well.

  Maddoc scowled, his hand wrapping the solid bronze door handle that would put them outside of the Gathering Hall and onto the path of cobblestones which led to the Royal Manse. “I do not care about any of it. Evie is with Calia and if I know the tenor of this female, she will seek to save any wanderers, endangering both herself and Evie.”

  Phillip replied, “Aye. I do not think she has thought about the safety of the extra female. It is one thing to have only your own hide to concern yourself with but quite another to also have that of an untrained female.”

  Maddoc grunted his agreement as he tore the door open, leaving the males to follow or discuss. He would not tarry further. His female was vulnerable and unprotected Outside.

  It did not matter to Maddoc that Evie was unaware of her status as his female. He would simply be patient.

  Not a natural proclivity of the Band.

  *

  Elise

  Elise lifted her skirts, trailing behind the other escapees who had survived the auction block. She kept the flutter of anxiety at bay by the slimmest of margins, where it sought entrance at the soft points of her mind. Seeking her fear like an itch she would not allow to be scratched. The strange ones whom had come from another world had freed them. The Fragment who remained and enslaved her and the others had disbanded, many slaughtered and more roamed without a henchman. However, Elise knew from grim experience that it be but a matter of time until there would be one who rose to the top of the heap, as they were wont to say. And she wished to be far and away when that happenstance occurred. For when it did, she and the other females would need to be out of the path of that particular storm of leadership.

  It would be bloody and swift. Taking all the weak in its path and throwing them beneath the one who would prevail against all comers.

  Elise had seen it time and time again. A rite of succession, only the fittest of them would rise to lead. She put her hand to her mouth, remembering the kiss given by the young Traveler who had bid her farewell and smiled. It had been the touch of an extreme novice but given so tenderly that it would remain with her always. After all, Elise had suffered nothing but brutality. They had kept her for the things she afforded the Fragment: her gender and healing skills. For Elise was part Band. The select ran in her veins. It was not looks or strength which set her apart as special, but her abilities as Healer. It had been legend that some of the Band had a touch of the other. Supernatural. In Elise's case, she could advance healing to a degree that was inexplicable within human norms.

  The Fragment had noticed and done what they normally did: exploited for their own gain.

  How many times had Elise used her healing to aid those the Fragment would torture, bringing them back to partial health? Then watch in a state of numb despair as they resumed the torture to procure yet another precious detail. To gain one more thing they deemed worthy or valuable.

  Too often.

  However, by unnatural convention and coincidence... or heavenly intervention- Elise and a handful of others were free and moving toward the Clan of Ohio. It was a long journey and it was the interim which made her throat tighten with fear.

  As Elise made haste she caught sight of something that glittered in the wheaten grass, twinkling at her from the fading light of the day. The knee-high fronds slithered against her woolen skirt as it trailed through the blond sea that parted with her passage, patches of snow revealing the tufts of the prairie like found islands. Elise knelt, picking up the object and immediately recognized it for what it was: a necklace of great intricacy, a lone jewel of meaning in the Outside, to be found by her in this singular moment that gasped like a stolen breath. A pause in her sojourn she could not afford, yet one Elise took in a greedy solitude.

  She held it between her fingers, admiring the delicate hammered feathers of a fine silver metal, the ancient symbol of catching one's dreams stamped on its structure in a rough circle with a finely woven spider web of metal. A deep green stone winked back at her from its center.

  Elise clasped it about her neck, the cold metal heating as it lay against the intersecting bones at the base of her throat. She gave a furtive glance about her person, moving into the border of the forest. Toward safety, toward The Clan of Ohio.

  Elise did not look back, nor did she pause again.

  *

  Theodore

  He rose in a blind stagger to his feet, the skin of his knuckles long gone and surveyed the damage.

  “Come if you will, come one- come all,” Theo commanded. If they were Fragment enough to take him, then he welcomed it. If they dared.

  Many already had.

  And they had fallen to his fists.

  Bodies littered the ground like broken dolls, blood and bones which shone in the weak light of the sun's winter rays bleached the ground, paling the tapestry of death. Dimming it for those who still stood and faced Theodore, chests heaving.

  “No?” he cocked a brow at the three Fragment brave enough to meet his eyes. All but one dropped his gaze from the piercing green of Theodore's.

  He would be the one.

  “You there.” The one with flinty eyes that moved ceaselessly came forward with caution.

  Theo thought him wise to approach thus as the six who had come before him lay bleeding out in the snow at their feet, throats slit like a second grin. Though humor would now evade them forever.

  “What are you called?”

  His eyes met Theo's then shifted away. “Harvey.”

  Theodore remained silent until the moments grew to a minute or more. Finally, when Harvey met his eyes, Theo said, “You will be my right hand man.”

  “I don't want to follow ya, you're not natural,” Harvey admitted, taking a step back. His two companions nodded a little too quickly, their eyes shifting to what stood at his throat.

  Theo smiled, he was accustomed to their response. He would use it as all Fragment did. To his advantage. “And what has happened to your leader?” Theo asked quietly as he appeared to muse. He grasped his chin and rubbed it, looking thoughtful. Some of the affect was lost as he stepped over the bodies of the dissenting Fragment he'd murdered. But no matter, it was artful really.

  Theo's point would be made, not with diplomacy and tact, for there was naught to spare of that, but with the finesse of a sledgehammer- his way. Theodore threw his hand up in the air with a flip, gore bleeding halfway up his forearm, the hair on his skin clumped with it. “I think Tucker thought that he'd have a nice little happy trading life. He'd capture the queen from the sphere,” Theodore appeared to deliberate on the correct name but knew it from the start. Better not to appear too clever with the imbeciles. Let them think they best him in some area. “Queen Clara!” He stabbed the air. “Yes, the minx who has escaped the cold, dead fingers of Tucker.” He spun suddenly and Harvey cringed away from him.

  “And what of our cruel masters that did nothing for us at auction?” he queried and they exchanged uneasy glances. Theo nodded slowly. “You see? When the unnaturals came into this world and threw our good work to the wind they ran-- and left us at whatever mercy they possessed.”

  His tone of voice conveyed there was none. It had been all Theodore could do to hide underneath the fallen bodies of the other Fragment in a bid to remain hidden until the ones from away left them. Theo's eyes had followed the precious women who were freed as they escaped their hold. The one of special interest was Elise. She was vital; her absence akin
to losing an internal organ which kept the body whole. Without her, the heart of the Fragment beat more slowly.

  She would never bear children so was useless for trade, but there were other... things she offered.

  That would be the first objective of the new ragtag group of fractured men he now led.

  Get the females back, especially Elise.

  And if more be about, Theodore would net them like the fish that swam in the river.

  #

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  Acknowledgments

  It has been since March of 2011 since my first book, Death Whispers, was published. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of my readers. Without you, I would not have an audience for my work. Your support, recommendations, encouragement, and critical feedback have allowed my improvement as a writer and as a human being. Ironically, words are inadequate for expressing the depth of my gratitude. Please know how much your support has meant and will continue to mean in the future.

  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Dear Ones:

  Danny

  Cameren: Without you, there would be no books.

  Thank you:

  Stephanie T. Lott, my editor

  Special thanks to the following: Ange, Beth Dean Hoover, Dii, and Shana B. for all your help and support.

  More Books by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  Death Series:

  Death Whispers

  Death Speaks

  Death Inception

  Death Screams

  Death Weeps

  Unrequited Death

  For the Love of Death

  Savage Series: