Текст книги "Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London"
Автор книги: Robin Renee Ray
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Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London By: Robin Renee Ray
©RobinReneeRay2014
other works by this author:
Bloodbreeders: Living in Darkness Book 1
Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Book 2
Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Book 3
Arrival of the Prophecy
Uncertain Meanings
On a Cold Winter’s Night
Dedicated to my Bloodbreeder ‘Fans’!
My fang babies and I… am grateful to them all~
Just to name a few:
Carol Fortin Michaniw
Jennifer Smith
Andrew Liebling
Lisa Kay Argo
Jordan Ray
Crystal Parks
Dale Morgan
DJ Ray
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London
By: Robin Renee Ray
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London is a work of fiction. Characters, names, place, incidents, organizations are a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
By Robin Renee Ray
©Copyright Robin Renee Ray February 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
“Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.”
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events or locales is coincidental. These characters are purely of the authors imagination and used fictitiously.
This e-book contains material not suitable for readers 17 and under.
Licensing note: This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be resold, or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Published By: Robin Renee Ray
Edited By: Jeanette Ratajczyk
Copy Edited By: Jennifer Smith
Cover Art Work By: Rebel Angel Designs
Prologue:
It seemed time had stood still for me since the moment that I was taken from the farm that dark, dreary night; even though miles have passed under my feet and many lives have fallen due to my rage. Two years had gone by and yet it seemed like only yesterday when I last smelled my mother’s bread cooking in the oven. I remember passing faces that I called my own, coming into my so called new life, and leaving just as fast by the hand of another. All of which left me feeling like that of a drifting dream that lies on the edge of a waking nightmare. The woman I once was is long dead and nothing like the beast that I have now become. Some say it’s the blood that I have taken into my body that drives my hatred for what my kind does to their own and my pity for those who are enslaved knowing nothing about what they are, giving them a deeper fear into their already horrified state of mind. I say it was inside me from the time my mother gave birth and it has intensified by the bloodbreeder that I now happen to be.
Those that follow me give their lives to stop the madness that has gone on since before the elders themselves, who for several thousand years have used the power of submission to control by way of domination. We are a small group that fights for the freedom of those being tortured and enslaved by breeders with a higher power, greed of money, and a sicker side of perversion. I have witnessed things that I could never have imagined and have walked among those who have taken life as if it were simply another daily chore. I have learned from them all as my own power grows inside the body that I finally claimed to be my natural state, and I have accepted the fate that had befallen me back in that little town of Burkett, Texas. I knew that even if my prayers were heard by only my own ears, that I had a purpose; to do everything in my power to stop the elders and all who gave support to them. If they choose not to take heed to our warning then, they too, would suffer the same fate as Mistress Yvette, and the horrid, infant killing Cortez.
We no longer came under the cover of secrecy, for the word of our most elaborated travels had been heard around the bloodbreeder world. We still hid for the hunt, though. We now watch our backs as much as we seek out wrong doers. Our journey has taken us into the heart of England, the home of the vilest and most outrageous prisons that our plight had carried us to, to date. I was just hearing about some of the lands true horror when we found ourselves running in darkness under the earth in the tunnels of London in search of one of our own. Tanda, whose echoing screams took the beat from our fearful hearts, had lost her way.
Chapter One
It felt like I had hit another stone wall, knocking out what little breath I had left in me. It was the shock of his glowing torch that took the words right out of my mouth. I sat there, staring up at the man who had created me, changing me from a lover of life to a woman who had more hate than she could carry. I saw Tanda’s smile turn to a frown when she saw the look on my face. She dropped Martin’s hand and kneeled down beside me. She was about to ask me something when the others came running towards us. Jacob was in the lead, but Derek pushed past him, pulling his blade and going right for Martin.
“No, he found me. He is her maker,” Tanda said, holding up her hands warning him not the swing.
“Are you alright?” Jacob asked, reaching out to help me up.
I nodded once, taking his hand, doing everything but looking at the one thing that I had craved seeing for as long as I could remember. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream out at him for causing me the loss of my family, blame him for all of the hardship that we had been through, or just rush into his arms. If he spoke kindly to me, the latter would be my first response. Derek’s glare spoke volumes and I could see his knuckles turn white as his grip tightened on the hilt of his blade. He was feeling both of our pain and I still wasn’t sure what he would do. It was Garvin that was the first to step up to Martin, pausing at first, and then took him in an embrace much like brothers.
“You look well my friend,” Martin said, causing a lump to form in my throat.
“We told you she would come back for us,” Tanda added, hugging him around the waist.
“She freed us, Martin…she is a good leader,” Garvin stepped back, gripping his shoulder.
“I can only imagine,” he replied, glancing over at me. “I have been searching for her for a long time.”
“Yvette made us lie,” Tanda said, lowering her head.
“But the bitch paid, didn’t she?” I smiled, dusting off my pants, as I continued down a tunnel that I had no clue where it led. I was, without a doubt, in a situation that I could not handle.
Derek snickered, walked past Martin like he wasn’t even there, and followed me deeper into nothing. Jacob caught up with his torch, and took the lead. “Are you going to say nothing to him?” Jacob asked in a low voice as I stepped in behind him. I glanced up and thought before I spoke, for a change.
“We need to find a safe place before dawn, right? So, can you just let me think and you lead the way?”
He smiled so big his fangs glowed in the light of the torch, seeming pleased that I had stayed strong while seeing my maker for the first time since he created me, or very shortly after. I couldn’t control my head from turning to see whether my maker followed, noticing he had a limp on his right leg. Little else had changed. His long black hair was still smoothed behind his ears, and the sharp curve of his jaw, which led to those beautiful lips, was absolutely perfect. I acted as if I was letting Tammy catch up and slid in behind Derek and Tanda, but I really wanted a better look at Martin. I was hoping, with me talking to Tammy, he wouldn’t notice me glancing. My thoughts came to a halt when I looked up and saw him looking directly at me, causing me to stumble into the back of Tanda, who was right behind Derek.
“How about you get back up behind, Jacob,” Derek said, slowing down and pushing his way in behind me with Tanda keeping up with his step.
My moan probably sounded like a growl but I didn’t care, I just made my way back up to Jacob. “What the hell am I supposed to say to him?” I asked in a soft whisper, putting my hand on Jacob’s back.
“I would start with what happened that night? That way it will finally be cleared from your mind.”
“I feel like I’m gonna be sick,” I replied, holding my stomach.
“We don’t have that much further; this next turn will take us to a place that Chin once showed me. I think many of the old ones knew of places like these, it’s why they survived for so long.” Then, he slowly looked back at me. “Until you came along.”
After going down what seemed like a mile or more, Jacob took a right, then a sharp left, taking us into a small chamber filled with bones all the way to the ceiling. He waited until we were all inside, then, moved several skulls away from the back wall that was lined in nothing but skulls. He reached his hand in, elbow deep, and turned a lever, which made it easier to slide the partially stone, partially bone wall to the side.
“I can’t believe it doesn’t smell worse down here than it does,” Tammy said, going through the opening sideways, followed by Cates, who then waited for the rest of us so that he and Jacob could slide the wall closed.
“Count your blessings woman,” Cates laughed. “It could be like ole Cortez’s, or that place with the walking dead.”
“Then, it’s true,” Martin interrupted, looking right at me.
“Is what true?” I asked, knowing what he meant.
The area that we were in was small enough that, no matter what short burial chamber we walked into, everyone was going to hear what we had to say. The main room was dome shaped and much bigger than any part of the tunnels that I had seen so far and had four smaller tunnels leading just a few feet in, each just long enough to lay bodies in. He walked up to me so fast that I stumbled backwards, putting up my left hand and going for my blade with my right. I glanced over seeing Derek trying to make a move to step in, but Jacob and Cates both closed in around him.
“This is between her and her maker,” Jacob said, gripping Derek’s arm.
“All this time and you act like you do not even know who I am,” Martin hissed, slapping my hand out of the way. “Is it true?” he yelled, reaching for the front of my shirt.
“How can I answer your question, if I don’t know what you want to know? It is true about the others being dead?…yes…did we kill them?…yes…make your question clear and I’ll give you an answer!” I yelled back as he lifted me off the floor.
I swung my blade around, stopping it at the base of his throat. “I am no longer yours to push around, so put me down,” I hissed, much like he had, into his face as the tip of my blade dug into his flesh. He lowered me to where my feet were firmly back on the ground, but did not let go of my shirt. Instead, with his eyes close, he leaned into my blade, cutting himself. I gave up the pressure that I held as I watched the red liquid run down his chest, soaking the white lace of his shirt.
“Exact your pound of flesh. I know too well what I have done to you, and I have wished against it every waking moment since,” he softly replied, slowly opening his pale blue eyes and melting my heart more than I would have ever admitted to anyone at that time.
“They killed my family, Martin…you weren’t there,” I said with a fine tremble in my voice, knowing what he had already been through, but needing to hear it from him.
“I tried…” he paused, swallowing. “I was at the disadvantage of Rebecca’s men. I could stand here and explain everything to you, but, it will change nothing of what has happened. All that matters to me is that you are alive and standing right here, right now,” he proclaimed releasing my shirt, running his hand down my arm and bringing my hand to his lips.
I looked back and saw all the others watching us, Tanda now holding Derek’s other arm in a loving manner; Cates and Tammy were holding hands; and Garvin and Sydney with an arm over each other’s shoulder. Jacob and Fala were just smiling. I grabbed the front of Martin’s jacket and pulled him into one of the small coves, giving the others the hint that we needed a bit of privacy. They began moving about making small talk, while I pushed Martin up against the short curved shape wall, and pressed my head into his chest.
“I never thought seeing you would be this hard,” I whispered into the scent of his flesh.
“Did you find the letter?”
“I knew you were looking for me,” I said, raising my eyes to meet his.
“Until my death,” he whispered back, leaning down and taking my mouth with his.
He wrapped his arms around my back and lifted me off the floor once more, only this time my arms were around his neck and we were in an embrace of a long awaited reunion. I feared opening my eyes, because I didn’t want this to be a dream. I slid my lips from his and nuzzled my face in beside his ear, burying myself into the fragrance of his hair, then deeper, finding the scent of him. We held each other for a very long time, before I finally pulled back. He slid me down to my feet as our eyes searched each other’s soul.
“I have a better place to rest than this,” he claimed, smiling down at me.
“If you know who we are, then you know why we’re here,” I calmly replied, stepping back out with the others.
“I have a little place at the end of the city. No one will bother you there.”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“We can talk about it tomorrow night. But, if you wish to sleep with soft feathers under your heads, then we must hurry, or do you prefer the dust of the long dead?” He ignored my question a second time.
“It would be better to keep clear of the scavengers,” Jacob replied, taking the offered hand of Martin. “I am Jacob, you know me from Chin’s head lead. But, I now follow Renee, as my friend.”
“You cannot say you have forgotten me, old one,” Cates said stepping up. “It has been a long time.”
“You are still as big as an ox, but you seem to be missing something,” Martin smiled, touching the big man’s elbow.
“Just a small price in the heat of battle,” Cates laughed, causing Martin to glance back at me. “This is Tammy, and besides our Renee, one of the best females I have ever known.”
“Heard a lot about you,” Tammy said, shaking Martin’s hand, but smiling back at me.
“And this is Sydney,” Garvin proudly said, patting Sydney on the back. “He is a part of me, and a good man as well.”
“We are a family now,” Tanda smiled, taking Martin’s hand like a small child would. “He is not our kind, but Fala is our family as well.”
“I know what he is, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Fala,” Martin said with a bow to his head.
“There’s more back with Cornelle…” Tanda began to say.
“Shouldn’t we be going, or are we staying?” I interrupted, before she could mention my brother’s name.
“She’s correct. We must go now if we are going to make it home before the dawn calls out for our rest.”
“Or our burning flesh,” Derek smirked, going to help Jacob slide the wall back.
“Not likely young one. These tunnels run into the tunnels that go to the basement of my home.”
“Then we just may end up sleeping on the floor anyway…if we don’t move, right?” Derek asked more sarcastically.
He didn’t care for the way that Martin got around my question, no more than I had. Derek seemed to have a dislike for him from the moment they first met, when he had his blade ready to take off the man’s head. I knew it was going to be a long night, indeed, if I had to find out what was bothering him. Derek had become like walking death since the loss of his brother. He gave little in the way of emotion and even less when it came to talking to anyone about how he felt.
We could all feel the pull of dawn when we reached the basement to Martin’s so-called home. The basement carried the very same odor of torturous death that all the lower levels of the demented estates had. Martin kept walking toward the winding steps that led to the comforts above, as we all stood there staring at him, wondering just what his life had truly been about. Or, at least, that was the thoughts going through my mind, questioning if we were actually walking through a part of his personal domain.
“I’ve had it cleaned time and time again, but the hard crimes that happened cannot merely be washed away with soap and water,” he explained looking back at us as if reading our minds.
“Whose crimes happened down here?” Derek asked, stepping forward.
“I will explain everything, but right now, time is not on our side. I have the first floor secure from the coming day with guards to watch our rest.”
“I think it best if you just answer his question, Martin,” I replied, stepping up next to Derek.
“I bought it from an old breeder when I first came in search of you. I thought others were lying to me, just as Yvette had, because of the way that I had broken free from their grip.”
Sydney dropped to his knees, as the pull of day beckoned his daily death. Garvin lifted him under the arm and headed for the steps, with the rest following his lead, all but Derek and myself. Derek’s legs wobbled, and I grabbed his elbow. “I’m going back into the tunnels, Fala will stay with me,” he claimed, nodding once at the werewolf at his side.
“His rest will be undisturbed. I give you my word,” Fala promised, taking him from my hold.
“Stay in the tunnels under this estate, we can hope those scavenger things stay clear of here.”
“And if they do not, several will die, while the others think twice on coming this way again. I have felt no others like myself, nor have I caught any scent, new or old,” Fala nodded, turning back with Derek now limp in his grasp.
“Thank you, Fala…I mean that,” I said as they disappeared through the small opening that we had all come through.
I turned to see Martin waiting halfway up the staircase. His expression seemed a bit confused, I guess because my body showed no signs of being pulled by the approaching light of day. I shrugged my shoulders, thinking if he had heard so much, then he should have known that I drained his maker, who’d drained an ancient, giving herself, as well as myself, the gifts of the old ones. I walked up the stairs, passing him as if he had no effect on me, and made my way out into an elaborate foyer, much like the one in Cuba.
“I can almost guess the decorator,” I smirked looking back, then immediately walked over where Cates had carried Tammy through one of the open doors beside the staircase.
“All the surrounding rooms have been made for our convenient. The windows have been sealed and coated with a layer of cement, and all have their own bathing quarters.” Martin explained, picking Tanda up and carrying her into the closest room.
It was Cates, Jacob, Martin and myself that got everyone that had been pulled under into a room of their own. Jacob stood back until I walked into the room closest to Tanda’s, then slid down by my door, and closed his eyes. As for where Martin had gone, I couldn’t say. No more words were exchanged and the day took control. ***
I woke in a soft clean bed, somehow thinking I was back on the ship. I stretched out my arms and looked to my right, realizing that I wasn’t anywhere near the water, much less my ship. A vase of long stem roses sat waiting, with a glass pitcher of dark red liquid. I then heard water running in the next room, which I assumed had to be the bathroom. I was so tired the last thing I remembered was walking into the room, looking at the bed, and collapsing.
Martin came out of the bathroom with a cloud of steam following him. He was wearing a pair of red silk bottoms and no top. His hair was as out of place as I had ever seen it, which told me that he must have just woken himself.
“Thought you might enjoy a peaceful bath,” he said, going to the closet and opening it. “There are clothes beyond your wildest dreams in here, choose what you want. I will return soon.”
“Thanks,” I replied, pulling my legs up to my chest.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“No, I’m fine,” I replied, noticing the way his body moved as he opened the dresser drawers.
“Here are the undergarments that you may need, and there are plenty of oils and fragrances for your bath and hair in the bathroom. Should I send Tanda in when she wakes?”
“I can take care of myself, and Tanda doesn’t have to serve anyone ever again,” I snapped, getting up and heading for the bathroom.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, stepping over and grabbing my arm. “She loves you very much and said she wished to be near you when she woke.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped like that, but things have changed a great deal since you saw me last.” I looked him in the eye pulling out of his grip. “I’m not the girl you took from her family anymore. She died a long time ago, back in that dungeon of hell in Cuba.”
“Will the new Lady Renee find room in her heart for the one who created her?” he asked, leaning down as if to kiss me.
“We have a lot to talk about before either of us decides what happens in the future.” I quickly moved out of his way and walked into the bathroom, closing the door before he could respond. But then I had a thought and opened it just a crack. “How did you get in here with Jacob at my door?”
“I simply stepped over his slumber state,” he smiled with a shrug then walked out.
Chapter Two
I was lost in thought with my body neck deep in the warm bubbled water that smelled of roses and lilacs, when a light tap sounded at the door. “Go away Martin, I don’t feel like talking right now.” I heard Tanda giggle from the other side.
“It’s me, Tanda. He told me you would not let him wash your back.” Then I heard her giggle louder. I told her to come in, but to close the door behind her. She did as I said then leaned up against it, smiling from ear to ear, waiting for me to say something. And I wasn’t going to, but she kept staring at me with her huge blue eyes and her slightly mischievous smile.
“Nothing’s changed, so you can wipe that smile off your face,” I said, right before lowering my head under the water, only to find her next to the tub when I came up.
“All things are coming together, don’t you think?”
“In what way? We came here to do the same thing we’ve been doing, and trying to outrun those assassins while doing so.”
“We all saw how you held him in the tunnels, Renee. You kissed him much like I kissed Derek,” she wiggled her brows, lathering up the sponge.
“You did what?” I replied, pretending to be shocked, taking the sponge out of her hand.
“It just happened, and it was magic,” she glowed. “He may be younger in years, but my heart has given itself to him, none the less.”
“So, that’s why you’re so giggly about me and Martin, who, by the way is nothing more than my maker. I have no place, or room, in my life for a lover,” I said, standing up and grabbing the robe that Martin had laid out. “I didn’t mean to cut you off earlier when you began speaking about the others. I thought it would be best if I told Martin about my brother.”
“Of course, I should have thought before I spoke. I’m just so excited to have found him. Now if we could all just live in peace,” she said drying the back of my hair.
“That sounds like something you were told to say,” I paused, turning to look at her. “Was it?”
“Martin mentioned that now that we had found each other that all of this could stop.”
“Do you think that it’s fair to the ones who are still locked away in the same kind of prisons that we were in to have to stay there because we found happiness?”
“Well, no….”
“He doesn’t have a clue about anything, because he hasn’t cared enough to try and stop it before.” I angrily took the brush and began detangling my hair. “Where was he for the fifty years that you and Garvin were in the care of that crazy bitch that he calls his maker? When he can say he has followed us, and taken out some of the evil that we’ve destroyed, then he can make judgment calls on what we should, or should not, be doing.”
“Why are you so angry with me?” she asked in a timid voice.
“Because you’re the only one standing here right now,” I smiled, placing my hand under her chin. “I’m sorry. You know it’s not you that has me so tied up on the inside.”
“Martin may not understand what we have been trying to do, but he loves you none the less.”
“How can you sound so wise and look so young?” I asked, kissing her on the forehead. “As bad as I hate to admit this…I love him too, but this isn’t the time for him to be thinking that we should leave things be.”
“May I come in?” Martin asked as he opened the door as I tied the sash around my waist making sure I had little flesh showing.
“Please don’t, we need to get the others together, and make plans about what we’re going to do about the crime here in London,” I politely said, then walked over and tried to close the door on him, only succeeding after the hard stare I gave him.
“They already wait for you in the study,” he called back through the closed door.
“Then go wait with them, and we’ll be down when I’m finished,” I called back as I started putting on the same dirty pants that I had been wearing.
“Did you not see all of those beautiful gowns?” Tanda asked, shocked at my choice of clothing.
“I would be so pleased if you could find me a clean shirt, but there is no way that I’m ever putting one of those things on again.” I looked out the bathroom door making sure we were alone, then hurried Tanda out.
Tanda smiled, giving me a little curtsey, and then dashed out of the bedroom in search of a top for me, giving me enough time to braid my hair down my back, and smooth some sweet smelling cream on my face and hands. It was the first time that I had looked at myself in a full-length mirror in a long time. I looked boy-like with my hair pulled so tightly back, but my body showed that I was all woman. I touched the scars above my left shoulder, running my hand down over my breast, following the scar on the side of my ribs, scars that I could barely remember getting; all but the scar that clearly showed on my throat. Yvette was at least giving when she offered her blade across my flesh. It was then that I placed my fingers in the indention that her blade had made on my lower right side as I drained her of her eternal life.
I turned, looking at my full view, wondering at the back of my mind what ‘he’ would think of me now if he knew all and, in the same thought, wondered if I really cared. I wanted nothing more than to have him take me in his arms and never let me go, but only if he accepted our plight, which I feared, after hearing Tanda, that he never would. However, the deep feelings that I had bursting into my mind every time I heard him speak was driving me mad. It went from hate to love in swirls, neither able to agree with the other. It wasn’t until a vision of him and Yvette making love floated across the mirror that I knew why the anger lived inside. She had had him in ways that I could only have dreamed of. I knew a great deal of what they had done just by merely thinking in the fog of my own visions.
“Give her air…move back, all of you,” Jacob said in a distant dream. “Renee, can you hear me?”
“He speaks with her now. Beware the golden hair, for she will not be as easy a kill as I.” Then I collapsed back into unconsciousness.
I woke to the sounds of Martin and Jacob arguing about something that they were saying that I had said, but the last thing that I remembered was leaning closer to the mirror. “You cannot be serious to believe the words of a trickster like Angelica,” Jacob said, sounding clearer.
“She wishes to have a meeting and come to an understanding with no loss of life. How could that in anyway be wrong?” Martin proclaimed.
“You have lived in this world long enough to know the ways of a fearful woman, and yet you still fall for the beauty that lies before the beast,” Jacob growled.
“Can I ask why you two are arguing?” I asked, trying to sit up but falling back with a horrid pain in my head.
“You are awake,” Martin replied, rushing to my bedside.
“What happened?”
“You had one of your spells,” Jacob said, coming to stand at the end of the bed. “You spoke in the tongue of the ancient. It was he that warned of the golden hair, and this man wishes for us to meet with her on what he calls ‘equal ground’…her place of choosing.”
“He does not understand that she wishes to make peace, and stop what she has been doing,” Martin replied, raising my hand to kiss it, but I gently pulled it away.
“I want to see the rest,” I said, pulling myself up, grabbing my head from the pounding headache that hit as soon as I moved.
“You need to stay down,” Martin replied, beginning to push on my shoulders.
“This has nothing to do with you, and I can take care of myself.”
“And if she cannot…we will take care of her,” Jacob added, coming around to the other side of the bed to help me up.
I looked down and saw the sparkly, dark pink dress shirt that someone had placed on my body while I was out, and the soft pale pink sleeper bottoms, that I didn’t recall putting on myself. The first thing I did was pull the top over my head and lean down to grab my old shirt, looking back, seeing pure shock on Martin’s face as I showed no shame in showing my nude breasts. “I just wanted a shirt to wear with my jeans, not some frilly ball top that, more than likely, belonged to one of your past lovers,” I sarcastically glared at him, while I pulled off the soft pink sleeper bottoms. Jacob went into the bathroom and found my pants and handed them to me, allowing me to dress myself, showing Martin that we stood as equals, not one who answered to the other. “I do hope it was Tanda that took my jeans back off and dressed me while I was out.”
“Your honor is intact, I assure you. It was Tammy who helped Tanda while you were in your state of recalling.”
“Recalling,” I snorted out a laugh. “That’s one way of putting it, Jacob.”
We left Martin standing near the foot of my bed, as Jacob and I walked out. I could tell that he was having a hard time with the new me, and I wasn’t about to let that change. We had all sacrificed greatly in making it this far and we weren’t going to stop now. If this country was like the one we had just left then they, too, would have our mark on their scent, even if it meant losing the one thing that I truly thought that I had been seeking. When we walked into the study everyone got to their feet, as if given the order to do so, which made me smile. It was the look on Tammy’s face that made me burst out laughing.
