Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others

by Robin Renee Ray,

  The wolves stepped up beside Derek and he lowered his hood to hide his face. They moved in close behind Shyanna and myself, who stayed very close to Cates’ back. Sydney and Garvin pulled in tight to our sides and closed in the circle. Shyanna began acting like she wanted to take to the sky, yanking on the rope and hopping backwards.

  “Shya, no! Me’om needs you’s to be calm.”

  “Bad…bad, no go’s,” she chirped.

  “Make her be quiet,” Cates hissed under his breath.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” I hissed back, putting all the anger I could into it.

  “Then let her go!” he demanded.

  “What?”

  “She’s going to get us all killed…let her go,” he snapped.

  I pulled my blade and cut the rope. “Go to Tanda, find the ship, baby.” She grabbed my hand as her wings burst out, getting the attention of the strangely covered men. Shyanna lifted me several feet off the ground before Cates grabbed my leg and pulled me back. She let go and took off out of sight. He looked down at me and mouthed the words ‘forgive me’ then back handed me to the ground. I grabbed my mouth as I watched Cates take a blow from Derek.

  “Bastard, don’t you ever touch her!” he yelled and swung a second time, only to be stopped by Jacob, who took him down to the ground, landing hard on top of him.

  “It’s simply an act. It’s well known that these breeds fight over their females. Calm yourself.” Then Jacob started to stand up, getting one of Derek’s feet in his face.

  “She will be mine this night!” Derek yelled and yanked me up by my arm and pushed me between the wolves.

  “This night, but the next is mine,” Jacob said, getting to his feet finishing the act for the many eyes that were now watching.

  When I was able to see what little faces these things had they were all flashing what I could only assume were smiles, at our disagreement. But the other two men were being bound and still held to the ground with nothing close to laughter, and more like they wished they had never came to Blad Alley, on their faces. I tried to find Shyanna in the sky, but she was nowhere in sight. The closer we got, the more I could make out the difference between the men and the forest. It was amazing how much they looked like the world that surrounded them. What was more amazing than that was the way they melded into it by merely being still. It wasn’t until we were right up to them that I saw how horrid they truly were.

  The breeder that walked up to Jacob was covered in so much debris from mother earth that it was hard to tell at first that his ears had been removed. His hair was filled with greenery and twigs, and the only thing that stood out on him was his emerald green eyes, that flashed like a beacon through the grunge on his face.

  “Your winged one will return, yes?”

  “Hunger called, one can only assume,” Jacob replied.

  “Need you a place with us?”

  “Passing, heard mother was in the area.”

  “Me thinks she would like your winged one.”

  “What you really want here, strange one?”

  “Looking for a trader to our kind, he wishes harm to mother and all who follow her.”

  “You follower her then, yes?”

  “Always and forever. Never think that you are all that she has,” Jacob harshly replied pushing him backwards.

  “Shall see, you lie, well, me thinks you already know.” Then he turned and started back to the others.

  Our wolves snapped and growled at the others as we passed the group that was now kicking the two men that were still on the ground. My legs were burning from staying in the bent over position for as long as I was. My body wanted to stand straight, but we just kept moving in deeper, the forest around us became thicker the further we went. Every so often a creature would step out of a hut, then we would turn and it would disappear again. We saw several fires with the same type of cover, keeping others from seeing its glow. I could hear one of the men that was being dragged somewhere behind us, begging for them to understand why he had come to this place. He claimed he was in need of the mistress’s sanctuary, causing the group around him to burst out laughing, making every nerve in my body flinch.

  We finally stepped into an opening that was covered with an overhang of tree branches and vines, so thick that I couldn’t see any stars in the sky beyond. The smells that drifted up would have told the weakest of breathers of their whereabouts, it would have been impossible to hide the stench that threatened to spill the contents of my stomach. It was truly wise to keep the heart of this death trap deep in center of this unseen world; the normal world would never believe it. A fight broke out just ahead of us and Jacob brought us to a stop. Two enormous men were pushing each other, yelling in a language that I couldn’t understand, so I asked.

  “He claims the other took his meat and he wants it back,” Cates explained in a low tone.

  “The other is telling him he is crazy,” Jacob added, as the fight escalated into a blade match.

  The smaller of the two slashed his blade across the others abdomen and then stepped back, taking a blade in the right side of his back by a creature that came out of nowhere. Derek stepped up and Jacob grabbed his arm and slowly shook his head. Derek looked down at me then stepped behind me. The man spun around and kicked the three foot creature in the head and knocked it to the ground. “Corena!” the other man yelled and lunged at the smaller man, while holding in his insides with one hand, raising his blade with the other. The smaller one was much faster, stepping to the side and forcing his blade into the bigger man’s chest. He dropped to the ground and soon turned to ash. A breeder and I couldn’t even tell.

  We made our way around the one he called, Corena, who was pushing herself up into a sitting position. It wasn’t that she was a short person; she had no legs beneath her knees, and her face was like most that were cursed with leprosy. She glanced up under my hunkered stance and smiled, then started laughing in an insane, lunatic manner. I gave her my best growl then kicked dirt at her, all the while staying as close to Cates as the steps between us would allow. I was finding it very hard to control the beating of my heart, and knew my fear would be smelled if I didn’t get it under control, then I remembered what Hoop had told us in the cave. Fear was why they chose the one with no tongue, and I stopped trying to hide the racing fear of our future deaths.

  The man that was walking in front of Jacob told him we could take shelter from the day in the hut that he was pointing to. Jacob made it clear that we wouldn’t be staying that long, and explained the reason for the hastiness of our journey, then asked for a meeting with his mistress right away.

  “She not like one asking for her time without wait,” he said, swaying nervously.

  “It is a chance that we will take,” Cates growled his reply, stepping up showing his stature.

  “Shall see. She witness with clean skin soon. You wait here. Trouble finds you, no problem of mine.” He leaned around Cates and looked at me. “She smells of sweet love, others are knowing.”

  “We take care of our own,” Jacob replied stepping up to the man, bumping his chest into his.

  “You not need worry on me. Many others you will fight. I care not for things of female. Lost my jingle,” he laughed grabbing his private area. “I go now, you fight.”

  Once he turned his back I heard one of our wolves cry out. By the time I had turned around Derek was on the back of a solid black, fur covered beast that towered over the two that stood with us. Fala dropped to his knees with blood gushing from his side. Derek held tight, slamming his blade down into the creatures shoulder. Two more fur covered beasts came from the woods at our backs and started to attack. Sydney and Garvin pushed in closer to me. Sydney with his club held ready to come down on anything that came close, and Garvin with a blade in both hands swinging them from side to side. Jacob jumped up and kicked the beast closest to him, causing it to stumble, but it retaliated viciously. It swiped out with its claw filled hand and caught Jacob on the forearm.
The other was in the clutches of Cates’ huge arms, he had it around the waist and didn’t let go until the sound of bones rang out into the night air.

  “Enough!”

  That one word brought the two beasts that still lived to a complete stop. That’s when Derek ran his blade through the temple of the one he refused to release. The little woman that was sitting on a board that was being dragged around by a severely deformed human, slammed her fist down on the ground.

  “He was a good fighter.”

  “Then you should have saved him for a weaker opponent,” Derek replied spitting down on the beast that was changing back into his man form.

  “Hold your tongue or lose it,” she snapped back, pulling herself closer with her one good hand.

  “He is mad, Mistress,” Jacob said while going down on one knee. “He knows little more than the kill, My Lady.”

  “I have other matters at hand, but this is not over.” Then the man drug her around us.

  We watched in silence as they made their way to the small group that stood around the breeder that had been kicked around since they walked out of the woods and into the arms of hell itself. Jacob and Cates walked around to stand in the front of all of us. I placed my hand on my back and squatted down, sitting on my heels to save my back any more discomfort. The leper woman named Corena slid over trying to get closer to me, but Garvin kicked her away, hissing like a wild animal. She called him something in the same language the two men had been using during their fight, and then she disappeared around one of the hut-like homes.

  “I don’t care what brings you, or who comes in with you. No one with such fair skin dares comes before me!” Annanothra yelled.

  “I wish to be one of you. I cannot return to my home,” the man cried, covering his face from hers.

  “Tell me this reason why you cannot.”

  “I took the masters slave by mistake. I only meant to take a small taste, but she fought and…I wish to be one of you.”

  “Does he hunt you for your crimes?” she asked getting extremely close to the man.

  “I am worth nothing to him, but he will kill me for what I have done.”

  “You are willing to take my mark then?”

  The man foolishly glanced up at her and cowered back down under the guard of his own arms. You could see her shoulders going up and down with the anger that was building up. “Kill him and enjoy his offered meat,” she yelled and the one dragging her pulled her out of the man’s reach. He began to scream for mercy, claiming he did not want to offend her beauty with his bad skin. She laughed as creatures of all kinds started spilling into the streets. It became hard to see with so many in the middle of the dirt filled road, but you could hear the one that followed the breeder in. He never said a word, he just screamed. The breeder was lifted up by several of the creatures and taken to a stone slab that was surrounded by bones, laying him down face first.

  They tore his cloths from his body, as fighting for the shredded pieces began. He screamed the entire time for them to take mercy, but it never came. One fat man wearing only a brown leather thing around his waist and another on his shoulders, came out of the same hut that Annanothra had, carrying a very long sickle type of blade. He simply raised it over his head and came down over the back of the breeders’ neck. He must have been a new breeder because blood flowed freely from his opened torso, and his body barely changed from its pale white to an eerie gray. They began to yell, ripping his body into pieces; some shoving his remains into their already gore filled mouths. Others slid parts of his remains into their clothing, afterwards rushing off into the darkness of the woods.

  I was yanked right out from between Garvin and Sydney who were too engulfed to have seen the thing grab me. I reached back feeling a wooden surface that was the things arm that was pulling me at a high speed through the forest floor. I screamed trying to get to my feet, but it moved far too fast. I could see Sydney and Garvin running after me, and they were slowly slipping away. I saw a glimpse of a shadow over my head and yelled to the top of my lungs.

  “Shyanna, help!”

  I heard her sweet cry as I witnessed her decent, losing her from my view the moment she crashed into the thing that had me. I rolled to a stop, turning to see her ripping at the stumpy little thing that was swatting at her with razor sharp claws. I saw the blood coming from her arm and fire went through me. I jumped up throwing the heavy coat to the ground and ran to her aid as she had come to mine. I pulled my twenty two and left my blade in its sheath. I fired three times before I hit the thing. It spun and came at me with a swiftness so frightening I barely had time to pull the trigger a fourth time. My shot hit the thing right between the eyes and it took me to the ground, biting me everywhere its mouth could find my flesh. I was now screaming from the agonizing pain that was shooting through the many marks it was making, rapidly tearing at me with its jagged teeth.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  The thing that had grabbed me, lifted off of my body as I was blocking its jagged teeth from tearing out my throat. I heard branches breaking as the two forms rolled out of sight. Shyanna limped over to me holding her arm with tears running down her face, and tried to get in my lap. I sat up looking for the thrashing sounds while I tried to push her behind me. I glanced back and saw Jacob and Cates moving through the trees, that’s when I heard Derek scream the words, “Die, you son-of-a-bitch.”

  “Move, Derek,” Cates yelled out, and then I heard the sounds of crushing bones.

  The creature yelled a guttural cry when Sydney came down on its skull with his club. After a few minutes it began to change. The fur slid back, leaving a small deformed shape of a man behind. He was covered with leprosy; his face too unrecognizable to tell how bad the disease was, because the crushing blow from Sydney’s club left nothing but a pile of brain matter and bone fragments.

  “Angry she will be that killed him you did,” a man said peeking around the trunk of a tree.

  “He tried to kill one of us first,” Cates replied, stepping in front of me.

  “Matters not, be he her favorite for sticking, understand?” he snickered, limping closer to Cates.

  “Make a trade,” Jacob said walking up. “Give us information, and we’ll give you our woman for the night.”

  The man squatted down trying to get a better look through Cates’ huge legs, but I covered my face with my arm. I knew they would never put me in a situation like that, or I was going to blow everything and fight my way out. “Can I clean her wounds?” The man asked licking his lips, then pushed himself back up. Garvin and Sydney pulled me to my feet and took me far enough away to ask if I was alright. I had enormous bite marks on my chest, and one scraping down the side of my face. The little beast man had damn near bitten through my collarbone in the attempt of getting to my throat. If it scarred I would have a matching set, one on each collarbone. I heard the strange man take the agreement, as long as he was able to enjoy the blood that was seeping from my body.

  “Have you seen a smooth skinned man come through here in the last few nights?” Jacob asked. “Wanting aid from the mistress?”

  “Several come, few leave, not alone he was.”

  “Then how can you be sure that we’re speaking of the same man?”

  “He’s lover of men, yes?”

  “He is,” Jacob replied looking back at Cates.

  “Two were with him. One, he gave for safe passage, other fond to him I think,” he smiled pumping his crouch out several times then squatted down on the ground. “Heard was giving out a warning that others come, kill our mistress they try?”

  “Where is he now?”

  “First taste me prize, no woman blood long time.”

  “How about we just kill you now?” Derek growled, jumping down from the tree, landing right in front of the now scared man.

  “We…trade,” the man mumbled falling back.

  “Then make good on it, before I cut out your heart!” Then Derek slid back into the dark.

  “C
ages below the mistress’s home he be. She no believed words, no smart to cross her, right?”

  “And this is all that you know?” Jacob asked, placing his hand on the hilt of his blade.

  “That, hum, plans she does on making lover gift, lots crippled women, like he will not.”

  The deformed man looked up at Cates laughing as Jacob’s blade slid through his throat removing his head completely, with him never even knowing what hit him. The boys started covering up both bodies with branches they tore from the trees, and then threw as much debris from the ground on top as they could to make it look semi normal. Now it was time to go in and find Caden, the man we were looking for, who just happened to be in the one place that I really didn’t want to go. I didn’t have to pretend too much when it came to leaning over and walking with a limp, my back took several logs, as the dwarf beast drug me through the woods. Once we stepped back into the main area of Blad Alley, no one seemed to even notice that we had been gone. There were no solid remains of the man that was being torn apart when I was yanked out, but the people were still fighting over bits and pieces of meat.

  Annanothra was nowhere to be seen, but it wasn’t long until the crippled man that had been pulling her around came up to us. He told us that she would be seeing us in her quarters, but when we all started following, he turned and said, ‘only the two of you’, meaning Jacob and Cates. Jacob told the man that he would not leave his woman for another to take. The man left, going into the closest hut, then returned with a sharp nod then quickly went back in. I followed Cates and Jacob in, thinking she would be right inside. Instead we were taken down a trap door, on dirt covered steps that went a lot further down than they looked. We could all hear the cries of Caden before we were halfway down. He was begging for whomever to please not touch him again, and a smile crossed my face.

  “The best torture for a fair skin, is our kind,” the man leading us laughed, twisting back to glance at Jacob.