Текст книги "Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London"
Автор книги: Robin Renee Ray
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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
“That’s what they’re called around here?” Tammy asked, getting a nod in return. “Do you know how to help him?”
“You’ve done well by cleaning the poison out of the wounds. Now it is up to him to fight.”
I bid everyone a good night since everything was under control and left the room to go take a long, hot bath to get the putrid gore off of me once and for all. The others could explain the rest to Martin. Just the thought of our filthy cloths and the smell that now reeked throughout most of his house, had me smiling all the way to my room. Tanda came running up behind me, telling me that she was ready to be rid of the same mess. When I asked about Derek, she said that he was fine and was letting Tammy look at him, and then she asked how I was doing.
“I’m wonderful and I will be even better once I go in here and get out of this…” I paused looking down at myself, “nightmare.”
“I meant about you and Martin,” she added, lightly touching my elbow.
“All I know is I made a stupid mistake with him last night, Tanda. I should’ve waited until I knew more about him, and quite frankly that makes me ashamed of myself,” I spoke with my head hanging, and walked into my room and quietly shut the door.
Chapter Eight
I had to peel the clothes from my flesh, gagging as the fresh scent flushed my senses. The claw-foot tub was half full when I added some of the fragrances sitting on the brass, glass top table in between the tub and the indoor toilet, which still amazed me, coming from a place where I’d seen nothing but an outhouse. The water began to fill with bubbles and blasted my nose with the aroma of lavender and lilac, two of my favorite flowers. I went to step in as the hot water poured from the brass spout, then decided I had to try and spray the gore from my flesh before I added it to the kind warmth of the bath that called out to me like the flowers themselves reached for the morning dew.
Turning the bathtub water off, I stepped over and turned on the spout in the square stone room that was no bigger than the pantry that we had passed through at Cheree’s estate. I turned my head to the right and jumped at the sight of myself looking back at me in the mirror. My hair wildly gripped my discolored skin like several wild, black serpents, twisting up from the back of my knees, to the sides of my face. Unbraiding it had just given it more of the effect of looking like reptiles with the waves going through their body, and with the spots of ashy white, and flaking patches of thick dark maroon…I looked hideous. I shook my head at how strange I truly looked and stepped in under the warm water and began scrubbing my face vigorously. ***
It wasn’t so much the feeling of the tub that had me slipping deep under and disappearing into the inches of cloud like bubbles, it was the beautiful fragrance. I was so relaxed that I never heard the door open, and had no clue that he was standing there watching me. When I opened my eyes, the shock of see him smiling down made me dunk completely under, and I didn’t come back up until I had no breath left in me. I thought he had left the room when my head broke the surface, because he was no longer standing by the tub and I was relieved to no end. “What the hell was he thinking?” I stated out loud, pushing the suds away from my face.
“I was thinking you may need something,” he replied from behind me, making me spin so fast that water sloshed out onto the floor.
“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” I asked, reaching for the towel, pulling it into the tub with me.
“Are you being shy after what we had last night?” he smiled, tilting his head.
“Get out,” I said, closing my eyes to a slant and pursing my lips.
“Not until you tell me why you are so upset with me,” he replied, leaning back on the toilet tank and crossing his arms.
“Fine, then I’ll go,” I sarcastically snapped, pulling myself up with one hand while holding the drenched towel with the other.
“Please, just tell,” he said, getting to his feet, and blocking me from stepping out of the tub.
“How can you ask me that?” I replied in the softest tone I had at the moment. “You leave dressed one way, then come back looking like you had…”
“What did you think would happen if I went to a place such as Mistress Angelica’s?”
“I didn’t think you would be having sex, Martin. Not if you claim to love me, and not after you put this on my finger last night,” I replied, rolling the ring around with my thumb.
“Why would you think that I would ever lie with another? It is a game with them. A game that I have played for more years than you can imagine, and believe me when I tell you that it is not hard for me to pass the night without lying beside another, because I do love you!” he tried to take my hand but I pulled back.
“But, you came close didn’t you?”
He lowered his eyes, and I knew I had my answer. He looked back up in time to see a single crimson tear roll down my already wet cheek as I tried to wipe it away. I moved my face to the right and said nothing else.
“I’ll leave you to get dressed. I hope you enjoyed the bath oils that I placed in here for you. I know they are your favorites. I never forgot.” Then he turned and left the room. I sat back down in the bathtub, hitting at the water then sank my face down under and cried. How could I have such strong feelings for a man who had been holding and running his hands over another woman’s body, even if he claimed he never went as far as having sex? I felt like I had played right into his game for a second time, only this time, I had degraded myself by lying in his bed, thinking he was my one true love. Now I was thinking that his being my maker had blinded me, and the allure of seeing him after so long had driven me to doing what I had done. But my weakness would not fall so lightly again.
I found a floor length, blue skirt hanging in the closet and a long sleeved, pale blue cotton shirt folded in one of the drawers. It was the first time that I felt like I was dressed in my own clothes since I left the farm, and the clothing wasn’t even close, but it was comfortable and covered me nicely. I knew the slippers by the bed were placed there for me and I used them. The one thing I left behind was the ring, laying it in a little silver dish on the mirrored dresser. When I went back into the family room, no one was there, other than two normals that I had never seen before, cleaning with a powerful cleaner, trying to get rid of the smell we had brought in. They stopped and looked at me, both bowing their heads. I rolled my eyes and turned to go look in the kitchen, but didn’t see anyone. It was getting close to dawn, but not close enough for the others to be down in their beds, so I kept looking, wondering where they had taken Fala.
I opened Tanda’s door calling out her name, but got no reply. I did the same thing across the hall in Tammy and Cates’ room, finding it just as empty. Making my way to the foyer I could hear laughter, and the closer that I got I could hear Martin telling the others some story that I was about to interrupt. “Where’s Fala?” I asked, stepping out onto the front porch where they all were.
“I’m here, My Lady,” he said, sitting on one of the rounded back, wicker chairs to my left.
“You look good,” I smiled, walking over to him, as Martin began where he left off with his story.
“Tammy has the gift to heal. It is rare among women,” he claimed, touching the side of his face.
“Thank ya sweetie, but to someone like me that’s seen a lot of battle wounds, it’s just wise to clean them out. Nothing special, really, just years of knowledge.” Tammy turned around on the step in front of him, to look at him while she spoke. “It was your will to survive that brought you out of the sleep that the poison had you in.”
“I saw my tribes people around the fire, dancing to the healing songs of our forefathers,” he explained then stopped, because the group around Martin burst out laughing.
I never asked about what he had told them, and truly couldn’t believe he knew how I felt and was trying to get closer to ‘my’ people. Fala continued to tell Tammy and I about the shaman of his tribe telling him to wake. He said it was then that he woke to Tammy giving him a bath in the same tub with her, while Cates helped wash his body. Tammy just shrugged her shoulders because she already knew that I knew her being nude around people was no big deal. Tanda came walking over with Derek behind her. He lowered his head, touching the side of his face that now looked like sewed up ground beef.
“Burned like hell when I took a shower, but it may make me look tougher,” he grinned.
“How’s the rest of ya?” I asked, remembering his body slamming into the statue.
“My legs are sore, but nothing that won’t feel fine by tomorrow night.”
“At least you two have a few days to heal before we go visit Felicia and Bernard…”
“You what?” Martin interrupted.
“You heard me just fine.”
“I thought you were going to do your little thing at Lord Cheree’s first?” he said, getting to his feet.
“My little thing?” I asked spinning around. “Is that what we do y’all? Just go out and have a little thing, then come back and relax?”
“That is not what I meant,” he stuttered.
“You say a lot of shit you don’t mean, don’t you, Martin?”
“Things have changed since we met Inara’s servants. We have to rethink our plans, period,” Jacob explained, taking control of the conversation.
“And for your information, we’re going there to get all the knowledge that we can about Angelica’s place, as well as her sister, because when all this goes down it’s going to hit the barn, so to speak,” I smirked, crossing my arms, raising one brow.
“I should tell you, all of you, that there will be no meeting either. One of Angelica’s slaves, a girl that has listened to the stories that her mistress has been telling of the demon woman, that not even the elders have been able to stop, is coming. She knows she is coming to do the same here as she has done in her own country. This demon and her dominion has every slave trading breeder in the United States packing for foreign countries,” he paused, taking a minute to look around at the group of us. “Carmen said she overheard her mistress tell one of the guards to ready the men for a fight if the demons choose to be defiant.”
“Yet, you stayed knowing this, huh?” I smugly asked.
“Only to find out what her plans were, Renee. Why do you have to be so judgmental? I was merely trying to protect you and your people from walking into a trap.” Then he got up and went into the house.
“He told me in private that Angelica was going to imprison us at the meeting, then turn us over to the elders for a higher seat in London. He told her that he hadn’t seen us yet, but would let her know as soon as he had. It may be why he was so worried about us going to see Felicia,” Jacob explained, taking the chair next to Fala.
“So, he told you what happened tonight?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable knowing that he told Jacob and not me, but also realized that I was being hateful thinking the worst about Martin.
“He claimed it was not right to keep it to himself and could not discuss it with you until you calmed down,” he replied, reclining, and raising one brow.
“Don’t look at me like that, Jacob. I just don’t see any reason why he would have to put his hands on her,” I admitted, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks.
“It wasn’t he who was doing the touching. It was Martin, that was trying to keep the hands off of himself.”
“So he says, and why do you believe him anyway?”
“Because, it has always been a gift of mine to know when I am being lied to, and he was telling the truth,” he smiled, showing he was overly pleased with himself.
“Time to hit the hay,” Derek broke in, stretching his arms over his head. “I’ll be glad when I can find an ancient to drain.”
“Why is that?” Garvin asked, shivering at the mere thought.
“Because, I can stay up longer,” he replied, making most of us laugh.
“I think I would rather sleep and wait until my age depicts my draw to the coming dawn,” Garvin added.
“I have to agree,” Tanda said, helping Fala to his feet. “It’s the things that go along with draining those who have killed an ancient, or the ancient themselves. I care not for any of it.”
Everyone found their way to their rooms, while Jacob and I stayed on the porch watching the sky change to its purplish haze. We spoke little on the subject of Martin, and more on why it bothered me so much that he had tried to help us. The only thing that I could say was to admit that it made me jealous, causing him to nod as if he already had that figured out; perhaps they all had. We talked about getting the note the next night as he and I went inside, closing up the heavy wooden doors behind us, locking out the coming day. He took my arm and turned me to face him.
“I will make no judgment on how your heart feels for your maker. I, too, have loved once and lost her to the way of my actions. Rest well this night.” Then he leaned in and kissed my forehead, just as I had seen him kiss Jessica’s many times. “Tomorrow night will come soon enough.”
“You’re more like a brother to me than any friend, Jacob.”
“And you think that I do not know this? Jessica and I are blessed to have a little sister to watch over, and before you say anything…to watch over us as well,” he smiled, smoothing my hair behind my ear. “But, I will have to admit with me it is more like a father teaching and watching his daughter.”
“And I have to admit, that that statement coming from the face of someone that looks younger than myself is just a little strange. I love ya for it anyway.” I reached out and took his hand and began walking toward the bedrooms.
“So, now that we are alone, what do you think of Derek and Tanda’s new fondness of one another?” he asked, wrapping my arm around his.
“I think it’s wonderful. She’s bringing him back to us.”
“Here you are My Lady, your room awaits,” he said, opening my door for me.
“Thanks, for everything…Dad,” I chuckled at my own statement.
He simply bowed at the waist and smiled, then turned and headed for his own room. I walked in, kicked my slippers off, glanced at the dresser and the first thing I saw was the ring missing from the little dish I had placed it in. There was a folded note under the dish, and I knew at that moment who had taken it. I waited until I undressed and had one of the long sleeping gowns on, before I braved picking it up. I took the note over by the fireplace that was burning brightly, no doubt thanks to Martin, and unfolded it.
My precious, Renee,
My hopes grow that one night y ou will see the love that lives deep inside this shell of a man. On that night, the night that I can truly see that same love come back to me in your eyes, I will then again make it right by giving you the ring to be my bride. All that I can do now is wait and if that time never brings you to me, then I will know it was never meant to be. I would walk the day for you, my love…a thousand times.
Yours forever,
Martin Vegee Lebrun
I folded the note back up and sat down in the high back chair that faced the heat. A part of me wished I had never taken the ring off, and another was glad that I had. In my life as a normal I would have never stood up and spoke my mind, but through all the hell that we had all been through, not just myself, all of us had changed. The things that Martin wanted, like to live out our days in his home somewhere in France, without continuing our fight to free the others living in torment was impossible. Yet, until he could see that what we were doing was the most important thing right now, and was the reason that I felt like I was created to be a part of this black world, he could never have me as the bride that he had wanted from the time he found me on the farm. Which now seemed like it was someone else’s life and from a very long time ago.
Chapter Nine
I woke with my head leaned to the side and still sitting in the same chair. The fire had burned out and my room was extremely dark. I stretched my legs out, yawned in my first breath of the night and jumped halfway out of the chair when I saw Jacob sitting in the matching chair beside me. “I see you chose to sleep as I do, sitting up. How did it suit you?” he smiled. I squinted my eyes to make sure he was smiling, and then began to get up to bring the fire back to life. He put his hand on mine and got up and did what I was just thinking.
“I don’t think I like waking up with my head all twisted like that,” I replied, leaning over in my chair, putting my head into my hands.
“It was the first time that I have seen you wake, yet stay in slumber. Did you dream?”
“I was wondering why you were awake before me. I don’t recall waking to the night and going into any slumber and dreaming. We can do that?”
“In times of slumber. Though I gather you did not,” he laughed, striking his flint and setting the fresh wood to blaze.
“Why don’t you use the long matches?”
“I come from the old ways, and find it hard to forget my skill. Besides, one will not always have the long match out in the woods.”
He turned around and handed me the folded note that I had the night before. “This fell out of your hand, but do not worry its contents were safe from my eyes.” I smiled taking it, and explained the note to him. He told me that he had found a note in his room as well, that said that Martin would be gone for a few nights, to make this house our own.
“He’s gone? Where?” I asked, sitting up straight.
“It did not say.”
“It’s my fault he left,” I said, leaning back and slumping down into the chair.
“Perhaps he is giving you time to clear your mind,” Jacob replied, sitting back down in the chair next to me.
“I wish he could see what we’re doing as a good thing.”
“And I am sure he wished to find you and take you away from all of it. He could not have known that you would have managed all that you have in such a short time of being a breeder. None of us would have believed it so, had we not been with you.”
“Why is it so hard for him, when y’all just jumped on board and saw what needed to be done?”
“Only he can answer that, Renee. One’s heart is full of many things and you cannot be so quick to judge without knowing those very reasons.”
“I know, but I did and now he’s gone,” I whispered, trying to hold back the tears.
“Only for a time, he will return.” He reached over patting my hand. “Come, let us see who else wakes. I, for one, woke starving.”
“One more thing…how did he leave if he sleeps the same way we do?”
“More than likely left out in the tunnels last night, waking to finish his journey tonight.”
No sooner than we opened my bedroom door, Cates stepped out of his, reaching up to the top of the door frame with his one hand and bending backward, arching out his back. He yawned, putting a loud growl-like yell behind it, then grabbed his lower back. “Stubborn old bones,” he said, not knowing we were watching him with smiles on both of our faces. Jacob whistled as we came down the short distance to his and Tammy’s room, making Cates roll his eyes and smile back at us.
“Now you know I was just complaining to be complaining, cause my back is just fine,” he laughed, straightening up.
“Yeah, sure, we didn’t see a thing,” I half snickered at the big man.
“You didn’t see a thing to tell my woman. Can you imagine what she would do to me if she knew that Fala’s fall broke a piece of my back? The she-devil would have me down for nights,” he proclaimed, stepping out and joining us as we made our way to the kitchen.
“If I didn’t know how fast we heal, due to my own broken bones, your secret may not be too safe. But since I’ve had plenty that have all healed just fine, I promise not to tell,” I replied, going to lift his shirt.
“Hey, what are you doing back there?”
“How on earth did you keep her from seeing this?” I asked, hissing at the discoloration of his lower back and then looked around his girth for an answer.
“Kept her in front, and on top of me,” he winked, bringing a blush to my cheeks and closure to my mouth.
I had once thought that Garvin and Tanda were sharing a room, and possibly Sydney, until we passed Tanda’s room and I stepped over to peek in at them resting. Garvin and Sydney weren’t anywhere to be seen, but Tanda and Derek were wrapped in each other’s arms in the center of the bed. Jacob reached in and closed the door, because I must have been staring a little too much. I thought they looked beautiful together, but it was an invasion of their privacy and when the time came they would tell. We heard the grunting of a pig as we reached the end of the hall that led into the kitchen, and sure enough there was a large male tied to the back door. There was also another note sitting under a glass on the center of the table in the room. Cates was the one who picked it up and read it first, handing it back to me after.
I had my men place your breakfast in the house, just in case those of you whom wake early, wake with hunger.
Martin
“Your maker is a fine host, Renee,” Cates said untying the pig that followed him without protest.
“You can thank him when he comes back,” I softly replied, opening cabinets until I found the one with glasses.
“He left?” Cates asked not looking at me, but Jacob.
“He will return. The real question is should we wait for the others to wake, or give them the joys of cool blood?” Jacob raised one brow.
“I’ll take mine fresh and hot, please,” I responded while placing three, bowl sized wine glasses down on the table, grinning like we we’re doing something we shouldn’t.
That was all that Cates needed to hear. He reached around and pulled a blade from his back area that I hadn’t seen when I lifted his shirt, and then moved it slowly behind the backside of the pig that was leaning into the nub of the elbow that was rubbing him under the jowl. Cates brought the blade up the pig’s side scratching the beast with his fingers, saying things like ‘good boy’ and ‘that feels good, huh, boy’. My body flinched when the pig squealed out and dropped to the side, with Cates half-an-arm trying to hold it up. “The bowl,” he called out, but I just stood there re-seeing what he just did in my mind. Jacob spun around looking for it and saw it hanging on the wall of pots and pans behind me.
“Renee, grab the bowl,” Jacob said loudly, picking up the three glasses.
“What?”
“The bowl…the bowl,” he said, using his head to point behind me on his way down with the glasses.
“The bowl!” I yelled, grabbing it off the wall and running around busting my backside by slipping on the blood that was spreading in spurts of red showers every time the pig’s heart beat.
Jacob had all three glasses filled to the rim when he slid on his knees to grab the bowl from me. I was pulling myself up using Cates’ back, who was still trying to hold the front of the enormous beast up to keep the flow of blood at an angle to get it into the stupid bowl.
“You’ll be knocking me over next if you don’t get off me back.” Cates lifted his one good shoulder to give me the hint.
“And my accent gets bad,” I replied, reaching up and grabbing the table top, smearing blood on everything that I touched, and managed to get to my feet.
The thin, white nightgown that I was wearing was clinging to my body in the now nice color of the pig’s blood. We all had a gross amount on us, when all we wanted was to get it inside of us. Jacob looked up at me with the most innocence that I had seen in his eyes in a long time and said, “Maybe we should have waited?” It made me laugh so hard I almost went back down.
“What have you all gotten yourselves into now?” Garvin asked, smiling like a Cheshire cat from the kitchen entrance.
“Would you believe, we wanted to surprise you?” I laughed.
“Not really, and I mean no offence by that,” he replied, walking carefully around the table.
“None taken, because a surprise was not our plan,” Cates admitted, lifting up on the back of the pig’s body. “But, one that we got anyway.” Then he chuckled, causing Jacob and me to absolutely lose control of our laughter.
“Young Jacob has returned and to think it has only been what…three hundred and seventy five years?” Cates proclaimed, dropping the pig’s dead carcass to the floor.
“I laugh so hard my stomach feels the pain,” he replied, as he tried to gain composure. “I once thought it would be the blade in battle that ended my life, but I now think it will be from laughing myself into the grave.”
“My ma used to say that laughter healed the soul.”
“Then I should be well on my way,” he shook his head, then looked up at me. “She was a wise woman. It must be a true statement, for I do feel different than I once did.”
“It is good to see the young Jacob once again,” Cates said, putting his blood coated hand under Jacob’s chin. “Though, you missed a spot there.” Then threw his head back and burst out laughing.
Jacob dove on the big man and knocked him over the pig’s legs, and onto the blood coated floor. Cates grabbed Jacob around the neck spinning his little body around so fast that his feet caused a spray of blood to take Garvin right across the face. I lifted one of the glasses in a ‘salute’ manner then turned it up, while Cates and Jacob wrestled at my feet. Garvin, being the individual that he was, lifted one of the other glasses toward me and drank up without mentioning a word about the mess that just splattered across him. By the time Cates and Jacob got to their feet, they looked pretty close to the same way they did when we came in from our adventure in the tunnels the night before, and I let it be known.
“Yeah, but you have to admit they smell better,” Tammy said from the hall entrance. “Do I even want to know?”
We all laughed, explaining our actions, then handed her a glass that she took with timid fingers. About that time the others made their way to the kitchen; Sydney coming down the stairs that Garvin had, with Fala behind him, and Tanda and Derek from the hall that led to the rooms. I couldn’t stop watching the two of them act like nothing had happened between them, while Garvin and Jacob bounced back and forth telling about the mess in the kitchen. After the rest had their fill of what was in the bowl, still snickering at the look of the floor, and us, we went to clean up…again. ***
Later, after the mess we made was cleaned, we went into the study at the front of the house and made plans on who would be going to find the note that Felicia would be leaving by his master’s gate. Derek and Tanda, looked like they were having words in the far corner, and I wanted nothing more than to walk over and find out what was going on, but the look on Jacob’s face made me stay out of it. A few minutes later, Tanda came over to me.
“He thinks I should stay behind when we fight. Do you feel the same way?”
“Why would you think that I would feel that way? I brought you here, didn’t I?” I replied, a bit confused.
“It’s not her choice,” Derek said, stepping up beside her. “It’s our choice, and I say you stay here.”
“Why, then, did you allow me to come this far, if you mean only to keep me behind?” she spoke with a cracking in her voice.
“Because,” Derek’s voice was soft as he moved in front of her. “I have lost the most important person in my life, and now that I have found someone that I love just as much I cannot, and will not, take a chance on losing her, too.”
“You really mean that?” she smiled as a cascade of tears fell down both cheeks.
“How could I not?” he replied, taking both of her hands.
“Then I will wait here.” Tanda lifted his hands, kissing them both.
“My little sister has become a woman,” Garvin interjected with pride.
“And my little boy, a man,” I added in jest.
“Come on guys. I’m serious here,” Derek frowned back at us, more so me than anyone else.
“It looks like not only are you the bringer of destruction, Lady Renee, but the bringer of love as well,” Cates said, gripping Tammy’s thigh.
“I have to agree with him on this one,” Tammy added, kissing him on the cheek.
Chapter Ten
Tammy was sitting on the arm of the couch that Cates was sitting on, while Jacob and I sat at the desk to go over the map of Inara’s castle, as Felicia had called it. Garvin and Sydney sat in the matching chairs by the French doors that led out onto the front porch, not far from the place that we were sitting the night before. Derek sat down on the floor, pulling Tanda down onto his lap. No one had said a word about him losing his cloak when he’d tossed it off in the round cylinder of water, and he didn’t seem to be bothered without it. Jacob had decided it would be himself, Garvin, and Cates that went for the note. But it was Garvin who suggested that Sydney accompany them due to his ability to see certain things with his mind. Jacob agreed.
I wanted to go to just get out and see the place that we would soon bring down, but Tammy, Tanda, Derek, Fala, and myself were going to explore the place that we were in, trying to find any other passages or clues as to the previous owner, hoping it would lead to more knowledge of the other three estates. Before the others readied themselves to leave, we were given the works about watching for any traps if we went into the lower levels of the house and to stay out of any tunnels that we came across. It was the moment that Jacob mentioned staying away from the grounds, that I looked back at him and said, “We aren’t crazy. That one run in with the Shadow Walker/Specter things, was good enough for a lifetime.” Fala was nodding the whole time I spoke.
“Lock the door. Martin has told me where the secret latch is above the doorframe. If you are still on your search, we will be able to get in without your assistance upon our return.” Jacob then left with the others to change.
This night the boys dressed in black, to better hide on their way. Only this night they walked out the front door and planned on going right through the city, using its alleys to bypass the normals that enjoyed the night life. We closed the door behind them, but only after Tammy gave Cates a swat on the backside after a long, drawn out kiss. The look on his face as he turned and hugged her was of pure agony, because she must of hit the part of his back that was giving him trouble. He leaned back smiling, said he would see her soon, and let her lock the door.
