Текст книги "Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London"
Автор книги: Robin Renee Ray
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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
“You have two bullets left and one blade. I know he would be honored to have you use it in his name,” Derek said, pulling me into a hug.
“Well, damn it, now ya gone and made me start crying all over again,” I laughed with my sobs and hugged him back. “Thank you. I just don’t know what else to say.”
“Say, let’s go kick some ass and get your man back,” he leaned back, gave me a wink, then took me by the arm and we joined the others waiting on the porch.
Garvin held Tanda the longest, telling her to hide as she did when they hid from Enrique not explaining the meaning to the rest of us. She nodded, telling him to return safe and that she loved him. He jumped off the porch to join the rest of us who were heading to the back gate, and she called out. “Watch over one another and come back soon!” We all waved as we reached the side of the house. Derek walked backwards, looking at her and Sydney standing in the light of the open front door. Tanda jumped off the porch and took off running, then dove into his arms.
“I beg you to return to me,” she said, pressing her mouth next to his ear as they held each other. “I love you, Derek. I have from the first moment I laid eyes on you.” Then she kissed him lightly on the lips and ran back to the house, disappearing inside.
Derek caught up with us with an extra skip in his step. “We’re going to go get Martin and get back home.” He sounded so sure of himself that I believed every word said, and knowing what made him have that extra few inches in his spine made me want to have a great deal of it myself. Tanda had made no move to hide her words in a whisper.
The side area of the house that should have been called a small castle itself was nowhere near as groomed as the front or the very back, and we had a mess of thick shrubbery and vines to get through before we could even find the gate. Cates was the one who found it. It was at least ten feet in height and about six feet wide with spear like daggers pointing to the sky all the way across the top. The iron hinges were bolted to the stone wall that enclosed Martin’s property from the rest of the world just like the other master’s homes that we had seen so far.
“It is rusted closed. I cannot budge it,” Cates said as Fala stepped in and began pushing the gate with him, to no avail.
“Can’t we just go to the front or back gate and make our way back to this one?” Derek asked.
“We could, but this is the closest way to the Narrows and it would be much harder to make our way around the cemetery, possibly alerting the beings we have already come in contact with. And the same would go by using the front,” Jacob explained.
“Well, since you put it like that.” Derek pushed on the gate as if he could open it.
“We will have to go over,” Jacob said, while Fala and Cates began taking turns kicking the gate at the handle; once again to no avail.
“Just how do you suggest we do that? It has to have twenty of those spike things on it,” I asked, tilting my neck back, looking up at the sharp tips.
“It is an old trick that we learned in training, and used it often in war,” Jacob explained. “Once on top between the edge of the wall and gate, it will be easy dropping down on the other side. The earth here is soft, because the air is always so wet.”
“Wait a minute,” Tammy said, getting into the conversation. “Let me get this straight, Jacob. You mean for us to get up on the top of the wall and jump down on the other side?”
“I do.”
“Have you taken a good look at me lately? My breasts weigh more than you. How in the hell do you expect me to get up on that wall?”
“I will show you with Cates. He is three times my size and, no offence My Lady, twice yours.”
“None taken. I wanna see this,” she furrowed her brows, poked her hip out and crossed her arms, waiting for the two of them to show her. “I tell you right now, if I break one bone dropping on the other side when we could have gone to the very back where the wall is lower…I’m kicking one of your asses.”
“My good man, shall we show your lady?” Jacob bowed mockingly at Cates, who bowed in return, then took ten or so paces back and slightly to the side closest to the wall.
Jacob laced his fingers and stuck his left leg forward and right leg back, bending slightly at the waist. Cates bounced on his toes a few times then took off at a high rate of speed, planting his foot in Jacob’s hand as Jacob lifted his arms as high as he could, throwing Cates with his own momentum right up to the top of the wall. He landed using his arm to balance himself then called down that it was a good two foot wide. I could not believe what I just saw until Derek took off running and committed the same feat that Cates had just performed, going much higher than the wall and laughing on his way down, landing perfectly, bowing like Jacob and Cates had done looking down at those of us still staring up in disbelief.
“Tammy, you are next,” Jacob said as he readied himself.
“Garvin can go next, I can wait.”
“I need him down here in case you miss the top.”
“This is absolutely insane. A big girl flippin’ through the air,” she mumbled as she walked about twenty five feet back. “Better hope I don’t knock you on your ass, Jacob. I can run like the wild.” Then she took off and her speed was amazing.
Tammy’s foot landed perfectly in Jacob’s hand and she leaped with both hands extended in the air, reaching for the hand that Cates was holding out. A half a foot to short and her body slammed into the wall. Cates dropped on his stomach grabbing her wrist, while she held on to the vines with the other. Derek straddled the wall, reaching down as soon as Cates had her close enough to grab her pants at the waist and they easily got her to the top. “My breasts will not forget this night soon,” she said getting seated good on her backside, and gripping one breast in each hand. I cheered, throwing my hands in the air, that is, until Jacob turned around and smiled at me.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
I went about as far as Cates had gone then went a little further for good measure. I twitched every part of my body; my head went to the side as I licked my lips. My arms jumped slightly as my fingers touched my thumb. Even my toes wiggled in my shoes as I bounced on their tips. I counted to three out loud, and then took off running. I stuck my foot out and missed Jacob’s hand completely with him coming up hitting me right between the legs, flipping me head over heels with my chin sliding on the stone wall. I landed in a crumpled heap with more than just a throb in my lower face. My whole side had a sharp pain where I landed. As I sat up Jacob, Fala, and Garvin came running to my aid.
“You did that on purpose,” I said, pushing Jacob’s hand away as I got to my feet on my own.
“I would never.”
“Never my ass. You couldn’t stop before you rammed me in my womanhood?” I inquired, walking a bit stiff.
“I was prepared to lift you to the top, not spin you like one.” Then I heard the crack in his voice and knew he was trying not to laugh.
“I dare you to start laughing,” I glared back, “I dare any of you to start laughing, cause when I can walk right again. I’ll get ya…really, I will.”
That statement alone was all they needed to burst out at my expense, and why not, I had burst out laughing at many of theirs. If one bad thing at the wall wasn’t enough, another was just waiting to happen. The second time I ran at Jacob, I flew into the air, way above the wall and just to the side of being…too far over. As soon as I realized that I was going to go over and crash to the ground, I began reaching out for Derek’s hand, that he was reaching out to me. He got a hold of my fingers and my body, just as they made a solid impact with the outer wall. The vines were thicker and the foliage helped to keep me from hitting the roughest part of the stone with my head, but it hurt like the dickens none-the-less. Derek tried to pull me up, but I shook my head to stop. I didn’t have enough air in my lungs to speak, and my arm was ripping out of the socket. “Let go,” I tried to say the first time, and then took what air I could and yelled, “Drop me!” How my little brother could enjoy leaping into the air and missing my arms, I would never understand. That had made my stomach meet the bottom of my throat.
Derek did as I had asked and I dropped down as far as my grip on the vine allowed. I rolled to my back so I could see where I was going to drop and let go of the vine, crashing into the shrubbery that circled the estate. I stepped out waving my arm, letting them know I was alright. A few minutes later Garvin came flying up in the air and landed right on top of Derek, grabbing the vines on my side and making his way halfway down before dropping into the thick foliage. Derek was almost to the ground when Fala’s feet landed behind us. We turned to check if he was alright and saw his werewolf form rising up and looking back.
“That was enjoyable,” he said in his werewolf growl, raising one side of his jaw.
“What about Jacob?” I asked, getting no response from breeder or werewolf so I went to the gate to watch.
Jacob backed up and ran at the wall, jumping up and kicking off, getting higher and higher. When he stopped and dropped back down, Cates got on his stomach cross ways with his legs hanging over on our side, and his arms on the other. Tammy lay across his back, and Cates called out, “You can do it young Jacob, just like you did when we climbed the wall in Italy.” Jacob laughed, saying it was a few feet shorter and then ran straight at the wall, kicking off the ground about five feet out, landing one foot on the wall then the next as his body moved skyward. Cates stretched as Jacob moved his feet faster, flinging his self forward toward the upper wall. At the last second, before his body gave into the call of gravity, his hand shot upward and grabbed the one that was waiting. Jacob put his feet on the wall and climbed the rest of the way up, using Cates to hold on to. Jacob and Cates helped Tammy down, dropping her sooner than they should of, but she, too, landed in the thick shrubs and once she realized she was okay, stopped complaining.
Jacob moved down with a graceful skill using the vines to his advantage; whereas Cates had to use his thighs to grip the vines since he only had one hand to lower himself. Yet he still managed to break the vine from the wall. He landed in the arms of Fala, missing the shrubbery all together. I think we all got a good laugh as we made our way to the edge of a place that I had heard stories of, back in my neck of the woods. The darkness of the ruins of the old part of the city that had been abandoned when the plagues hit London, stood like jagged teeth in the paler background of the night sky. A foggy mist covered most of the lower lying areas. I was pleased to see it, no matter how sad and forgotten that it looked, since it was above ground where we could breathe fresh air and use the light of the stars to keep us out of darkness that had no possible light of its own.
“Stay close once we reach the Narrows. It has been more years than I care to remember since my last venture into a place such as this,” Jacob spoke as we made our way down a rocky slope, and through a small group of trees. “The buildings were falling down then, so watch your step on the broken stones under your feet. The tunnels have been known to collapse right out from under the one walking above it.” ***
An hour later we were winding our way through a broken-down, two-story building, that was made from wood, not stone as I thought it would have been, since everything standing tall that I had seen so far had been. It was as gray as the street was black. The wood crumbled under the weight of my shoes as I followed the others over the fallen debris. The deeper we made our way into the fallen depths of the city, the darker it became and the thoughts of my walking in the fresh night air with the open sky above my head disappeared. The stench was nothing like that of the enclosed tunnels but it held the hint of death regardless. Rats scurried across the broken cobblestone streets, as we showed a force of power walking in a group as big as the one we had.
Derek bumped Jacob on the side and lifted his head toward an alleyway that had four young youths standing lazily about, watching us as we passed. I thought I heard the faint sound of purring and turned my attention to Fala who was still in his animal form at Jacob’s request. He said he thought it would be best if those who lived in the Narrows saw our group walking with a beast that they were used to seeing and one that they knew better than to mess with. Fala paid no attention to the four, letting me know they were no threat to us, but I could swear the purring sound that I was hearing wasn’t coming from the wolf behind me, but the four youths watching us from the alley. I looked over, staring for a long while as we moved by. Two of the boys looked at each other and started laughing. It was then that I knew where the purring sound was coming from. Their teeth were just like the teeth of the dead men hanging on the lowest dungeon walls of Cheree’s estate. They were cat people, and the first I had ever seen alive.
I had asked Jacob why he called this area the Narrows, and he said because he knew no other name for it, and it was what they called the ruins of the city around France, a place that he and Cates knew well. “We are being followed,” Fala said in a voice as low as his large stature would allow. When I whispered back asking if it was the four standing in the alley, he just shook his massive head once, replying that it was not. Jacob stopped, turning his head to the right, and gripped the blade on his hip. Each of us followed suit.
“The elder’s assassins have found us,” he hissed through clenched teeth, sliding his blade from its sheath. Tammy and I both squatted to the ground spinning out to the side looking for any signs of movement, while Fala and Derek put their backs to us, looking in the direction we were not. Jacob and Cates took a fighting crouch. Jacob turned his blade in a figure eight motion, as Cates popped his neck to the side. Garvin mimicked their stance, holding his blade out in front of him with his back to theirs.
An ear piercing scream rang out, raising every hair on the back of my neck. It didn’t sound like a normal or breeder; it was far too high pitched. Several more rang out; with loud hissing and roar sounding howls much like Fala’s, but with nowhere near the embodiment of his deep guttural outburst. These were more like the cries of two wild cats fighting, only these wild cats sounded twice the size and like they were fighting for their lives. The four youths must have stepped out behind us at the wrong time. Abruptly, everything fell silent.
“Ready yourselves,” Jacob called back, taking his weapon with both hands, turning his body in a sideway position.
“I can’t see anything,” Tammy said as she and I stood straighter.
No more had the words left her lips, when a body dropped down in between Derek and the three of us that were grouped together. He looked down and out of nowhere took a blade across his upper back. He yelled out and dropped to his knees as Jacob brought his blade up just in time to stop the assassin, who was dressed so that he blended perfectly with our surroundings, from taking Derek’s head off at the shoulders. Another black figure went over the top of our heads so fast that I would have missed it if not for the small pieces of rubble falling from the bottom of his feet. Fala sliced at open air, missing the dark figure as the assassin’s feet connected with his snout, knocking him backwards and into the decayed wood of a building going right into the unknown beyond. Tammy instinctively put her arm around me and pulled me behind her. I wrapped my free arm around her as we looked for the figure to strike again.
Jacob and the first masked assassin swung blade to blade, matching each other’s moves as if they had studied side by side. Cates pushed Garvin aside and dove, knocking Tammy and me to the ground as we heard metal hit and saw sparks fly. Cates’ arm never stopped, as he pulled back, feeling the tip of his blade make contact along with a distinct grunt confirming it. Cates rolled and was on his feet holding his blade out waiting for his enemy to advance, with Tammy and I, being pushed back toward the rotting wall where Fala had disappeared. Garvin was dragging Derek, who was trying to get to his feet, in our direction, as Jacob and the other assassin kicked and leapt into the air, swinging their blades like they were attached to some kind of invisible strings. The assassin kicked out hitting Jacob in the upper chest knocking him back several feet, then ran at him. Jacob slid on both feet never falling to the ground, stopping with a loud fighting yell, kicking his foot straight up as the assassin was bringing his blade down. The assassin’s head went back as his body arched in midair, blood flying from his mouth as the mask tore from his face, leaving him with only a hood to hide the pale glow of his bloodbreeder flesh.
Jacob took in a deep breath and stormed on heavy feet, yanking the assassin up by the back of his black, fitted suit. He yelled out and raised his blade, coming down, only to have it blocked with a counter blade and taking a fist on the side of his face. Jacob stumbled back, angrily spitting blood on the ground, looking sideways at his query and jumped up into the air at the same time the assassin did. In unison the blades hit; sparks showered down as their feet landed hard and both stood face to face with their arms above their head, locked hand and blade staring into familiar eyes. Jacob, had he not known better, would have sworn he was looking back at Jessica, and the one looking at him held the same shock as he looked back at Jacob. He kicked Jacob in the stomach, knocking him backwards, then ran to his fallen companion and pulled him to his feet. The assassin turned back and watched Jacob as he got to his feet, staring in disbelief, then disappeared into the alley without as much as a sound.
“Why didn’t you kill him when you had the chance?” Cates asked, turning to Jacob to see if he had been wounded.
“I don’t know, Cates. There was something about him…how is Derek, and Fala?”
“I’m fine, but it hurts like hell,” Derek replied with Tammy probing his back.
“The slice is a long one, but it’s not deep,” she said, dabbing at the wound with a piece of her shirt.
Noise came from the partially standing building behind us and we all jumped, ready for another attack. Two of the youths that we had seen in the alley held Fala under his fur covered arms, helping him through the debris covered wall of the place that was once someone’s home. He stepped through the hole his body had made, then turned and took the hand of one of the youths, helping him out next. We watched until they were out, with no one saying anything. The sheer shock of seeing them with Fala left everyone…especially me…speechless. “They killed our brothers,” one said. “I’m Luther and this is my brother, Lane. We can show you the way through the forbidden zone. We know who you are.”
“Who are we, Luther?” I asked, stepping up, sliding my blade back in its sheath.
“You are the ones. You come to stop them from killing our people, it is being told all over the city,” he replied, blinking bright green eyes at me.
“Thank you for helping our friend, and you're right about us, we do come here hoping to stop what’s going on. I’m sorry about your brothers.”
“We are all sorry about your loss,” Jacob added, reaching out with his hand. “It would be an honor to have you lead our way to the church called St Michael’s.”
“It’s not far from here, but we will have to move fast past the graveyard that takes most of the center of the forbidden zone. Fleshers roam looking for anything to fill their stomachs,” Luther said, taking off his shirt, with his brother doing the same. “We move faster in our natural form, just keep up.” They both removed their pants, just as Fala always had without any worries of Tammy and me being present.
Chapter Eighteen
I thought they would stand on two legs like Fala, but it was nothing like the beast that watched our backs. Both had jet-black hair that hung in strands down their back and with a trick of the eyes they stood on all fours covered in solid black fur. The young boys changed like liquid running into solid. They looked at us with emerald green eyes while growling out, then lowered to a soft purr, showing shiny white teeth that were much like the shape of their human form, only much longer. Their backs reached up to my hip and I couldn’t help but to run my hand over Luther’s back as he walked beside me; feeling to see if he was as soft as he looked, and he was. His cat head turned up and looked at me before he padded off to catch up with his brother.
Both brothers crept low to the ground once we reached the crumbled walls that once protected the graveyard that was twice the size of the one behind Martin’s home. We all did our best to watch our footing and hide in the shadows of the rubble of the surrounding buildings and what little wall was left. I wasn’t worried about the fleshers, until I saw Fala sniffing the air and turned to see the two cats doing the same thing. Only they were holding their mouths open with their skin pulled back from the teeth. At this point I couldn’t tell one brother from the other, but both were jumping at the least bit of sound or movement, lowering their bodies as close to the ground as they could, while still moving forward. I had seen rats the size of small dogs throughout the ruins, but hadn’t seen one since we got close to the graveyard; which made me even more nervous about running into what we were once thought of by Alex and Bernard.
“There, by the round tomb,” Garvin pointed in a low whisper.
Three thin beings moved about, then, two more stepped out from the other side of the tomb. We froze at Jacob’s hand going up high enough for us to see it. He pointed across what used to be the street that was now filled with broken stones and rotted wood, to an open door that the two cats silently went into. Garvin and Derek made their way around Cates and Jacob, moving as quickly and quietly as they could. Once they were inside the building, Tammy and I took our turn. Tammy’s foot went through a piece of wood and we froze like statues; her closing her eyes and me daring to glance back at the things in the graveyard.
Jacob yelled, “Run!”
Fala stood; throwing back his head, echoing his presence throughout the forbidden zone. The creatures, that I was hoping were not the ones who lived off the flesh of others, paused at Fala’s enormous size then started moving over the desecrated headstones with a speed that I certainly would not have expected from creatures that looked like their limbs would detach at any moment.
Cates yanked me up around the waist and pushed Tammy with his nub, toward the building with Jacob and Fala coming up behind us. We ran in, finding the cats going down a staircase that didn’t look like it would hold their weight, much less ours, but we followed. They took us through a maze of basements, and then upstairs into other buildings and back down again into another basement filled with the homes that used to stand tall above them. They slowed when they came to what looked like a back alley. It was hard to tell with the rubble looking the same at every turn, but the graveyard was nowhere in sight. They hurried to the right and didn’t stop until the buildings became whole and a few lights lit their windows. Luther changed into his human form but his brother remained.
“The church is around the next street. We will wait for you to return but we can go no further.”
“You’re welcome to join us,” I said, as I had to any who helped us and wanted a change in their lives.
“It is forbidden for our kind to go near the sacred church. But, we will help you find your way back out of the forbidden zone when you find what you are looking for,” he replied, and before I could say anything else he shifted back into a cat and he and his brother blended into the shadows of the alley.
“Fala, do you know why they’re not like you?” I asked as Jacob led us out into the street.
“My people were infected by the great grandfather wolf. They were born with the curse in their line,” he replied in a gruff tone, slurring every other word trying to speak with a snout.
“Changing into two legs to them is the change, where becoming a werewolf is the change to Fala,” Cates explained using a low tone.
“That must be the church,” Jacob said, stopping to look up at the steeple towering over the top of the other buildings. “Fala, take your human form.” Then he pulled Fala’s pants from the pack that carried the maps.
Fala shifted and changed in the shadows of the trees that were dwarfed by the buildings that towered them, then stepped out, bare foot and shirtless. I don’t know if I was expecting the church to be like the ones back home, but it was nothing like them. Our white washed, one-story buildings were big enough to hold maybe sixty people. This one stood as high as Inara’s castle, was made of brick and stone and could more than likely hold all the people in our county and several of the neighboring ones to boot.
We jumped the wrought iron fence that circled the back of the church and found a door close to the back that was made of solid wood and what looked like railroad ties. The doorframe and door were arched with a top so high that Cates and Fala would have had a hard time reaching it with up-stretched arms.
The door was locked and wouldn’t budge, so we made our way further around the back, and found a window about six feet off the ground with the same type of iron bars that the fence was made out of covering it. Cates was able to reach up with his one hand and pull, showing that the top of the iron ribs were loose at the top right. Fala got on Cates’ shoulders and pulled the bars free, handing them down to Garvin, being as quiet as he possibly could. He then pushed the window until it slid up enough for him to stand one foot on Cates’ shoulder and slip into the opening. A few moments later, he popped his head around the side of the church and waved for us to come back to the arched door.
“Well done, Fala,” Jacob said, putting a hand on his arm. “Did you sense anyone around?”
“Only the smell of normals. I could not tell if they were close by, because the inside is strong with the smell of old scents as well as new ones,” he explained in a low tone as he followed Jacob back inside.
“This is where Sydney would have come in handy,” I whispered, getting a frown from Jacob and Cates. “Sorry,” I added, shrugging my shoulders.
“One does not need to feel something when they already know the consequences of their actions.” Cates turned back looking in the direction of the way we were headed and got a tongue stuck out at him because Jacob was holding up a hand for us to be quite.
Garvin laid both of his hands on my shoulders and squeezed lightly. I reached up and touched his hand in a ‘thank you’ gesture. Jacob stuck his head around the corner of a room that had a large amount of light coming from it then darted back in just as fast, holding up one finger. He watched until a man left the room and then ran to the other side, waving us over one at a time. I had to stop to witness the enormity of the room. There were enough pews to fill the church with hundreds of parishioners. Statues standing on pedestals were spaced every other pew, with more affixed to the ceiling looking down on those who came to worship. I wanted, more than anything, to see what the pews were facing, but I was yanked out of my adoration by the back of my shirt right before the man in a brown gown that draped to the floor, came back in the large room holding a golden goblet in his hands. I saw from the shadow of the door, him kneeling then walking out of view.
Jacob gave me a stern look, which caused me to give him one back that had just as much glare as he was giving me. Fala and Derek were still on the other side of the room as we waited for the strangely dressed man to leave the area again. That’s when he started speaking in a language that I didn’t understand. Jacob waved his hand for Fala and Derek to go around to the back of the small hall that they were in and move around another way. After we were all together, Jacob moved us further down the hall, and put Cates to watch our backs. Jacob was about to go down a flight of stairs to our right when a voice rang out, “You dare desecrate the house of God?!”
A bald man, dressed just like the younger man that we saw in the large room, ran back out. Jacob grabbed the back of Garvin’s shirt and hurried him through the door. “Move, he’ll be back,” he said in a low voice. Tammy was next, and was past the door frame when the man came running back in with a silver cross with our Lord Jesus Christ on it as if he were just being nailed to the cross and a long silver flask in the other hand. “Our Father who art in Heaven,” he began saying the Lord’s Prayer, pulling the flask back and slinging it toward us. As soon as the contents hit the skin on my arm it started to burn like he had splashed acid on me. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Then he raised it back and slung the substance at us a second time. Derek pushed past me, as I pressed my body to the wall, with Jacob trying to push me through the door and down the steps yelling, “run”, but I couldn’t stop watching the man’s actions. Cates and Fala were down and Jacob and I were all that was left. “On earth as it is in Heaven.”
“Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” I said, walking right up to the man, who was now backing up from me. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from every evil. Psalms 23. We mean you no harm, but we do need to use your beautiful church to enter the tunnels to stop those who do wish you harm.”
