Текст книги "Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London"
Автор книги: Robin Renee Ray
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“You would think I was at my own wake. Why do you look so sad?” I asked as I walked up and gave her a hug.
“We don’t want you to hurt, in here or…in here,” she replied touching first my head, then my chest over my heart. “This woman that your maker wishes us to meet with is said to be worse than the one that you carry inside.”
“I have no plans of meeting with this woman, for any reason other than to do what we came here to do. How stupid does she think we are? Surely they know about the elders?” I asked, turning to look at Jacob.
“It is well known, and anyone ready to break away from them would be hunted just like us. I say it’s a trap to get us in a place where she will have the power to hold us until the elders arrive. Or worse, take all of us out but the ones the elders would want. Namely, those who carry a medallion and the Red Devil.”
“Meaning everyone could, and would more than likely, be put to death but you and me?”
“Precisely.”
“But, why would Martin do this? He’s always been our friend,” Tanda inquired, unknowingly placing her hand on Derek’s.
“I think he believes that her words are true, but many like your Martin have fallen to the ways of a desperate woman,” Cates added, sitting back down and pulling Tammy onto his lap.
“Perhaps I believe that there is a better way than a battle that will end in blood shed,” Martin said, coming into the room.
“Then why haven’t you ever done anything about what’s been going on, you know, brought peace to your kind?” Derek asked, stepping out of a dark corner. “Whose blood are you really afraid of shedding…your own?”
“I will let that comment pass, because you do not know me well enough to judge me. But I would watch that tongue in future statements,” Martin replied, hissing the last.
“We didn’t come here to fight amongst ourselves.” Sydney stood walking around Garvin. “If you have heard what’s been going on, then you know we can’t take the chance of meeting this woman. You weren’t there when Yvette took the love of my life and our dear friend, with her words of good will. It’s you that needs to sit down and hear what we have to say, and not push down our throats what others wish for you to tell.”
“Well said young Sydney, I believe you are coming into your own,” Cates laughed out.
“Then tell me so that I will understand,” Martin replied, and we did just that.
He sat back rubbing his chin as each of us jumped in to tell a piece of the story up to the time that ended with us in the tunnels where we found each other. I kept the lower levels of the Cuba’s estate to myself, and Garvin and Tanda offered nothing in the way of my torture. It was for me to tell in my own time. We spoke of the ones we lost and lives that we took, leaving little out in the way of destruction that we found when we entered a new place of demented hell. He was intrigued throughout, until I told him of finding Johnny on the end of Chin’s golden leash, then explained how it was that my four year old brother suffered the curse of the bloodbreeder. That was the only time that I witnessed him removing a single crimson tear from his cheek. He stayed silent, never asking one single question as we went on into the wee hours of the night.
“So, you see why we cannot, and will not, trust this Angelica, Martin?”
“I do.” Was all that he said, then he stood and left the room.
Chapter Three
We carried on among ourselves; Jacob drawing out on a parchment what he remembered of the four estates that sat on the out skirts of London, one of which, held slavery on the highest of pedestals. As soon as we thought that Martin had gone for the night, he returned with an armful of rolled up maps. They all led from the place where we were at, to each of the places we would soon be visiting.
“These belong to Isa and myself when we once had hopes of doing the very thing you have begun.”
“Isa is a good man and he said to tell you that you were even now,” I smiled, taking a few of the maps from him. “He helped me escape because of the past that you and he had.”
“He helped me in the same way many years ago, but saving you does not make us even,” Martin replied, walking around behind my chair, lightly touching my shoulder. “I owe Isa so much more now.”
“We know of the four main estates that these tunnels lead to, do any of these maps lead to Mistress Angelica’s domain?” Jacob asked, unrolling one of the scroll-like maps.
“To her private resting place, no, but these will show you several different ways to enter the grounds, as well as what station they hold, in order,” Martin replied as he finished walking around my end of the long mahogany desk. “Here, this is the home of Lord Cheree Montclair. He holds the next highest rank in line to Angelica’s lead here on the Isle of England.” Then he reached over and unrolled another one. “This is the home of what is well known in London as Angelica’s sicker half, her twin Inara. It is said that the ancient that fell in love with their beauty, died with one on each side of his neck. She is her sister’s highest rank, and worst nemesis, when competing for trade.”
“I could not help but notice that you live in one of the main estates, Lord Lebrun,” Cates added to the conversation.
“I am the forth,” Martin stood strait. “I took the life of Lord Bastille, he who longed for those who had taken too much abuse. Much like many who live in London.”
“What does that mean?” Sydney asked, leaning up in his chair.
“It means young one, that he would pay the highest price for slaves closest to death, be it breeders, or not,” he explained, reaching for the largest map. “Do you need to know more?”
“No…I get the idea,” Sydney replied, sitting back.
“I wanna know what makes you so popular in this game?” Derek asked, stepping around the end of the desk. “What have you been doing throughout your long slave trading life?”
“You have every reason to have anger in your heart, but you have no reason to place it toward me.” Martin averted his question.
“You didn’t answer, as usual.” Derek slammed his hand down on the desk, causing Martin to freeze like a statue; one hand on the map, the other holding his bent form off the table, and then he slowly rose.
“I have done no worse than you have witnessed, or done yourself for that matter, young one. Tempt me again and we will have to settle our differences in a gentlemanly manner.”
“Time and place old man,” Derek snapped back, leaning into the desk.
“Enough!” I yelled, standing so fast that I knocked the high-back chair to the ground. “I will walk out of here right now and leave the both of you to act like little kids, and the rest of us will figure out what in the Sam’s hell we’re gonna do.”
“Sam’s hell?” Martin asked, turning his head in such a way that it made me smile.
“It’s a phrase I heard,” I blushed. “Can you two please just stop the bull charging? I don’t know why you don’t like him, Derek, but you have to stop trying to pick a fight. And you, Mr. Smooth talker, you have to stop making future challenges with my son, because he will take you up on it. Trust me…he will.”
“Your son?”
“They’re all my little ones; even that big, one-armed, beast over there. Things have changed with us. There’s no higher rank in one or lesser in others because of age, nor does power rank with us. We’re a family.”
“She is my maker, but unlike you, she’s taught me well,” Derek remarked, then walked back over to his corner.
“Not all could be helped, and I can see that she has done well. Many have dreamed of what you are doing, but few have had the courage to do it.” Martin lowered his head.
“Including you,” Derek whispered loud enough to be heard.
“Yes, young Derek, even me.”
The look I gave Derek as he leaned back into the shadow was all that was needed to keep him quiet for the rest of our conversation. It seemed that Angelica was the kinder of the two twins, and took the higher status because of the respect that she had gained throughout the years. It gave her twin even more reason to grow hatred toward her more powerful sister, and in the world of bloodbreeders, power was the key word. Once we began to listen to what Martin was talking about in meeting with Angelica, we began to come up with a more sinister plan of our own. It was Jacob who said to let the two houses fall on one another…with a slight push from us, of course.
We had not only shown Martin that we were a strong family, in strength as well as mind, but we showed him how it would be the wiser to take down Lord Cheree’s estate before we did anything else. First to put the point of fear into the already feuding twins, then secondly have the east side cleared for escape in case that things did not go as planned. Our plan was to hit the tunnels and make our way to Angelica’s sickest, in our minds, because he preyed on the weakest of the weak. Martin had explained that he was much like the man he had killed who once lived in the estate he now owned. Jacob, Cates, and Tammy all agreed that he would be better known as a man into necrophilia than he would be as a pervert torturer, as I kept calling him. To me they were both the same evil.
It was decided that we all needed a break from what would be happening soon enough and put the maps away. Everyone went their way to explore the big home that we had been invited into, feeling somewhat free from all worries, even if it was just for this one night.
I was standing on the second story balcony of a bedroom that I had wandered into, looking out over a city that I had only seen in a photo of in the history books in school. The reality was nothing like that of the charcoal pages. It was a marvelous sight to take in with my own eyes. I could hear music coming from a distance and I could vaguely see normals moving about the streets that were lit by tall black street lamps. The streets themselves looked like layers of brick. They were cobblestone, only much different from what you see back where I came from; these seemed never ending. I could smell the smoke coming from the smokestacks that shot to the tops of the misshapen buildings in the distances, and it was all extremely majestic compared to the horrors that lay below.
“It is beautiful, is it not?” Martin asked in a soft voice from behind me.
“How much beauty can there really be, with so much evil hiding here,” I replied without turning around.
“Can you not see past it?” he whispered, laying his hands lightly on my shoulders.
“I can see what the normals see. The false layers on the surface.” I leaned back just enough to feel his chest touching my back. “Does London know about the breeders?”
“Some, I think. But none speak of us for fear that we might hear,” he replied as his hands moved down my sides and around my waist.
“I wanted so bad to hate you. I thought you betrayed me. That’s why I left with them. I drank from my brother and left him for dead. It was Rebecca who told me that it was your plan, and that you would have me kill my whole family if I stayed.” I took a deep breath, holding back the tears, as he held me and listened. “I felt like such a fool when I found out the truth.” Then I did start to cry.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. They were made for trickery, and have done their jobs well. I was attacked that night when I woke. The moment I stepped out of the crypt, my head was covered and I was beat so bad I could hardly move. I limp because of the way the three men broke my legs and tied me to the earth to meet the sun. By fate alone I pulled one arm free and saved myself by pulling my body into a small cave that belonged to a mother coyote and her three pups. We had a small disagreement, but in the end, she allowed my dead remains to rest throughout the waking day. She left me intact and was gone with her pups when I woke the next night. I lay there for three more nights before I was able to make it back and find you gone. I knew in my heart that they had taken you, but knew it within my soul when you were not there.”
“How do we continue now? I’m not the same girl that you fell in love with, Martin.”
“No, you are not,” he said, turning me around to face him. “You are a woman that stands on her own, and I love you even more. I loved you from afar months before I could no longer stay away, Renee. And the heart grows fonder no matter what you have done in the time that we have been apart. Nothing can ever change how I feel about you.”
He kissed me and I felt my body melt against his as his mouth explored mine and, for the first time in my life, I wanted a man to take me in the way that a man takes his bride. I wrapped my arms around his back, running them up, feeling the coolness of his flesh under his shirt as he mimicked my moves. I began pushing him backwards toward the bedroom and off of the balcony. Once we were inside the room, I stepped back and began unbuttoning my shirt. He stepped up to me, and gently moved my hands to my side, then finished what I had started. I raised my hand to cover my scars and he grabbed it and slowly shook his head.
“You have no need to hide yourself from me. You are the most perfect thing that I have ever seen.”
“Then you, good sir, are blind as a bat,” I smiled, blushing as much as a breeder could.
“So wonderful to be nocturnal, we can use our hands much better when we cannot use our eyes,” he smiled back, running his hands under my breasts, causing me to catch my breath and hold it.
“I have to tell you something before we can go further.” I pushed my body into his, laying my face into the softness of his neck and stopping his hands from moving over the most tender part of my breast.
“I know about Enrique,” he whispered against the top of my head as he laid a gentle kiss. “Had you and your people not already made him pay, I would have done so myself.”
“I’m not pure anymore,” I replied, burying my face deeper into his chest.
“You cannot think on things such as that anymore my love,” he said, reaching into his pants pocket. “Do you remember this?” Then he handed me the gold ring that once sat in the little golden box that he had once given me, back in our beginning.
“Of course, I remember,” I wiped the tear from my cheek, while moving it around in my fingers.
He took the ring from my trembling hand, stepped back and got down on one knee. “I told you then that I would not give you this until you were ready. So, now I ask you, My Lady…are you ready to be my bride? Will you have me as your mate for the rest of our unnatural lives?”
I know my body was shaking as he slid the ring onto my finger. My world was moving so fast that I never recalled saying the word, “yes”. The next thing I knew we were locked in a heated embrace and Martin was backing me toward the bed. My heart was beating like a butterfly in flight, yet I wanted more. His hands felt like silk as they moved across my bare back and his solid chest pressed into my breasts as if wanting to meld.
When Martin lay me on the bed and stood looking down at me, I felt like getting up and running. The fear of knowing he was well advanced in the art of making love and I had absolutely no knowledge scared me to death. As if reading my thoughts, he leaned down, running his hand over my stomach and waist and whispered. “I will be gentle, My Lady.”
“I’m so afraid right now,” I spoke as he lay down next to me. “Through everything I have been through, you frighten me the most.”
“I fear you as well,” he kissed my brow. “I fear you will enslave me with your love,” he then kissed the tip of my nose. “I fear I will die if I were to ever lose you again.” He then locked his lips to mine and my anxiety floated away.
His lips moved from my quivering mouth as he kissed his way down my neck. I could feel the uncontrollable spasms as his hand moved under my breast and down to the top of my pants. My hands roamed his muscular back as his mouth worked my breast and his hand pushed my pants down over my hips. It was the most erotic thing that had ever happened to me and I loved every second of it. He stood so fast that it made me jump, but then he reached down and pulled my pants from my body. That had me rolling to my side and bringing my knees up a bit. I was no child but I was a woman that had little to offer in the way of pleasing a man. Martin then did something that had me wanting to turn my head; he slid his pants down and, right before my eyes witnessed his full beauty, I did indeed lower my eyes.
Martin smiled as he slid back down beside me, pushing one of my legs down so he could lay his in between mine. We needed no words. I knew he knew my situation so I allowed him to show me the way.
Chapter Four
I know that our passion was brought to life that night in a way that I never thought possible. When I woke in his arms the next night, with him looking down into my eyes, I knew that we would be attached for eternity. “How long have you been awake?” I asked, running my hand across his hairless chest.
“Long enough to witness life come back into your beautiful body,” he smiled, kissing me on the forehead.
“Last night was magical. Is it always like that between our kind?”
“I think it was so magical because we love each other and have been waiting for so long to be in each other’s arms.”
“Are you going to go with us tonight?” I asked, sitting up on one elbow.
“I think it’s best if I show face at Angelica’s when her third house falls.”
“But why? She’s gonna know it was us.”
“She will trust that I had no part in it and will believe me when I say that I can set up a meeting.”
“I don’t think I like the idea of you being around people like that,” I replied, laying my head down on his chest.
“Remember, this is the plan of you and your first. I would have gladly taken you away from all of this,” he said, bringing my blood to the boiling point in a split second.
“Now why the hell would you have to go and say something like that?” I asked, sitting up and swinging my legs off of the bed. “Do you actually think that’s why I came looking for you, so you could save me?”
“I thought maybe it was one of the reasons, yes,” he replied, trying to reach out and touch my back.
“Don’t,” I said, jumping to my feet. “You can’t touch me after you make me mad. Just so you know, I thought finding you might help us win against the elders and have a fighting chance of changing the way the breeders have to survive.”
“Why are you getting so angry?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled, putting my shirt on. “Maybe, because I wanted more support for what I’ve been trying to do, not have you think I’m some weak tiny thing that needs rescuing.”
“Please, come back to bed. I did not mean to make it sound as bad as you took it.”
“No, you stay in bed. I have a fight to get to.” I slid my pants on and started for the door when he met me halfway there.
“You are still the most stubborn woman that I have ever known. Are you going to become this angry every time I try to take care of you?” he asked, spinning me around.
“You don’t have a clue about how big of a bitch I can become, Martin. And I can damn well take care of myself!” I shouted the last up into his face; pulling away and yanking the door open to find Derek about to barge in.
“Is he hurting you?” Derek asked, looking shocked, seeing Martin standing in the nude and me with my shirt undone.
“Good grief, doesn’t anyone around here think I can take care of myself?” I said through gritted teeth, and then stormed past him.
I could hear them arguing all the way down the hall and didn’t care if they killed each other. I found my way to the kitchen where Tammy and Cates were both leaning on the center table waiting for Garvin and Sydney to slice the throat of a plump pig. I pursed my lips together and walked past them and out the back door. Neither said a word as the back door slammed. I saw Garvin stand up from the stalls out back but he only watched as I moved through the hedges on the walkway behind the home of my maker. I must have walked a good half of a mile before I realized that my shirt was still flapping in the wind. I angrily buttoned it the rest of the way and tucked it into my pants. The only thing that felt good was my bare feet on the grassy lawn that spread out for what seemed like forever. There was a twisting path of waist to neck high shrubbery all the way to the enormously high wall that circled three-fourths of the property.
The trees were different here yet they filled the night sky very much the same. To my back lay the land of the city of London, but to my front stood what looked like the gateway to another abyss in time. The land rolled out into the dark night; a strange misty fog covered what I could see of the lower areas and the differences in the shapes of the trees made it look like a hidden city of its own. With what we had seen in the forest back in the States, besides the orange and golden brown leaves, my mind didn’t even care to know what secrets were kept in the eerie world that I was now staring off into.
“Many different beasts live beyond these boundaries.”
“Oh Fala, you scared me,” I gave a nervous laugh. “How do you know?”
“I can feel them inside here.” He placed his hand over his heart. “There are shifters out there that I have only heard of in tales from the old ones.”
“And you get this just from a feeling?” I asked, looking back out into the dense forest beyond Martin’s land.
“All animals can feel if they are prey or predator. Here, I am thought of as both.”
“So, you’re saying that there are things out there that are bigger and meaner than
you are?” I smiled, trying to make light of the seriousness on his face.
“That would be correct,” he replied, keeping that same look, causing me to lose my smile.
“Maybe we better head back now.” I began walking back, looking over my shoulder as we turned.
“I believe that would be wise.”
“Is it why you followed me out here?”
“I did not follow you. I followed him.” He turned his head slightly to the right, where I caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure. “I chose to tell you of the others before you choose to go further.”
“That boy is a sneaky little bugger, isn’t he?”
“Excuse me, My Lady?”
“Nothing, I was just talking to myself,” I smiled, putting my hand on the tall werewolf’s back. “Thanks for telling me, and thanks for taking care of us while we rest. It means a great deal to all of us, ya know?”
“It will make my people proud when I return,” he said, holding his head up with pride.
“We couldn’t do this without you, Fala. You come from a brave people indeed. My pa would call ya good stock”
“And you as well.”
We walked back in silence, not seeing Derek again, but I knew he was there watching my every move. It seemed that he had become my personal protector, and proved that by standing up to anyone who he felt was placing me in harm’s way. I often forgot that I was all he had left of our original five. I had taken the ones we had gathered along the way into my heart just as I had him and Brandon, as well as Bo and Ashley. Derek on the other hand, held his heart in a deep stone case letting few hold the key. He fought by the side of every person; be it breeder, shape shifter, or winged flyer, but he refused to show that once loving emotion that he so freely shared not very long ago. ***
We could see that Garvin and Sydney were now in the kitchen surrounded by everyone else in the house, including Martin. Fala excused himself and walked toward the stall where the pig’s carcass waited, empty of its fluid and hanging upside down from the barn door entrance. Derek stepped up behind me as my mind wandered on what it must have been like for my father being hung in that same fashion, scaring me before I could carry that thought over into something I needn’t be thinking about anyway. He reached up and opened the back door, partly raising the right side of his mouth, as his long blond bangs covered the left side of his face. That boy never needed to say he was sorry for stepping out of line when it came to Martin and me. I could see it in the one sparkly, hazel-blue eye that looked back at me.
“What would I do without my dark angel?” I smiled with both eyes full of tears.
“Be in a world of shit,” he replied, making me laugh out loud as my sad tears turned to happy rivers down my cheeks.
I hurried and wiped my face and as I walked by him to enter the house, I kissed him on the cheek, whispering, “thank you” with a quick “I love you too, kiddo” then walked into the best smelling kitchen since my ma’s homemade peach cobbler. The scent of fresh warm blood filled the air with a sweet welcoming aroma that had once plagued me with doubt of ever surviving the life of a night walking bloodbreeder. At that moment I craved nothing more than that moist texture running down my throat; so I walked right up to the counter, grabbed one of Martin’s fancy goblet style glasses and dipped it down into the silver bowl sitting in the middle of the kitchen table.
“I believe there is a ladle,” Garvin said, holding it in his hand.
I turned up the dripping mess, swallowed the warm liquid as fast as I could, and gulped loudly as the blood spilled from the sides of my mouth. Tammy was the only one smiling when I dipped the glass in the second time. “I know what made me that hungry,” she snickered, blowing a kiss at Cates. I rolled my eyes and smeared blood into my hair as I moved it out of my way to turn the glass up again. I drank half and then slowly set it back down.
“I’m full,” I belched, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, never once looking at the one that I was putting on the show for. “As our good friend, Bo, would say, let’s do this!” Then I turned and headed down the hall.
Cates yelled, “Let’s do this!” as he plunged his drinking cup into the bowl of blood, spilling it down his beard as he drank. I heard several cups clank together as everyone else followed suit, yelling out the same cheer. By the time they joined me in the basement, everyone had lines of blood from the middle of their face, in long, red, thick lines, to the middle of their stomachs. All but, Martin that is. He was wearing a black tuxedo dinner jacket that hung down in the back so low that it dusted the tops of his black shiny boots that held his matching slacks with a nice tuck. It was all fitted nicely with a dark burgundy silk shirt that he had buttoned snuggly around his upper neck. His hair was pulled back so tight that it looked as if he had cut it, giving my heart a small skip in its abnormal beat, until I saw the braided tail as he turned to speak to Tanda.
“Well, aren’t you Mr. Fancy pants tonight?” I smirked, walking around him in a circle as if I hadn’t seen him standing right beside me in the kitchen.
“I will be going to a different party. One where coating thyself in pig’s blood is not called for. Not in the beginning of things anyway,” he gloated, trying to make me jealous.
“We’ll be coated with a hell of a lot more than pig’s blood before it’s over with. See ya later, sweetheart,” I replied, mustering as much sarcasm into the last of my statement as I could.
“Have a grand time, love…and do take heed to remember that Lord Cheree has many sick friends who also join his tete-a-tete on nights like these. Many could out number your few,” he countered with as much sarcasm as I had given him.
“Look who is still standing, old man. We’ve been out numbered how many times?” Derek mockingly asked, raising his shoulders and once again jumping to my rescue.
“Well said, young man,” I concurred, slapping him on the back. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Five
We all walked out leaving Martin standing there with his mouth ajar, just enough to see his elongated fangs as he hissed and stormed back up the stairs into the comforts of the world he had known. We took to the lower levels that we had more than certainly become accustomed to the moment we decided that enough was enough. Tanda was the only one that didn’t wield her weapon, making grunting animal-like sounds to ward off any group of scavengers, no matter what number the tunnel dwellers carried. Those that craved the flesh of others were feared by the most feared; and we not only sounded it, we looked the part. It would be Cates and his missing arm, elbow held as high as the ceiling would allow, leading our way, grinding his teeth, scrunching his facial features and absolutely making the biggest fool out of himself as I had ever witness him do. My moans and grunts were more laughs and snorts being held back with the back of one hand, while I held my curved blade in the other.
It wasn’t the scavengers that stumbled on to us, it was Cates that boldly and blinded by his own torch, walked right out into their camp in the ‘T’ of one of the many tunnels we had already gone down. “Zombies!” one scavenger yelled, grabbing his sword. Jacob darted out around the big, one-armed man as Derek flew around the other side. It must have been a terrible sight to see, because all four scavengers turned tail and ran. They looked like dwarfs, not one over four feet in height. I caught a glimpse of their faces and all that I really saw and could explain was their huge bulging eyes that were just as black as Shyanna’s. The rest of their face was dark and they moved so fast, that it was all that I could make of them. That, and the fact that they stunk just like our skunks back home in Texas.
“That was easy,” Sydney smiled, lowering his club that was truly now just an extension of his arm.
“Hope that sick-o thinks we’re half dead and wants some,” Tammy smiled back at him, then winked at me.
“Bet he ain’t half as stupid as he is sick, you know what I mean?” I replied, causing all the smiles to drop.
“We all know exactly what you mean,” Jacob replied, putting his arm around my shoulders much like he had his sister’s. “What say we give this piece of bull dick a bit of our intellect?”
Derek burst out laughing, echoing through the tunnels the most wonderful sound I hadn’t heard in a long time. “To be so smart,” he laughed even harder, walking over and leaning his chin on the top of Tanda’s head, unable to wipe the hilarity off of his face. “You really need to figure out how to cuss, or this Lord whatever guy is going to think we’re just a bunch of idiots.” Derek nodded, getting a friendly slap on the arm from Tanda, who was smiling just as big of a grin as he was.
