Текст книги "Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London"

Автор книги: Robin Renee Ray

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“Talk about it? What the hell is there to talk about? The facts speak for themselves,” I loudly replied, pulling my knees to my chest.

“I, too, would keep something so appalling to myself if I had been in his shoes.”

“How can you say that and why are you defending him?”

“I am not defending him, just his manner of deception, Renee. As I said last night, Martin is not his father and all who have known him, knows this. Was it a lie that he killed the one who owned this? Do you know he did not put a stop to his father’s wicked ways?”

“No, but he could have explained to me that his father was a bad man, not some fancy pants that Yvette used to get his family fortune. I wonder if she even used him? I wonder about a lot of things, now, when it concerns how he became a breeder and exactly how that came about,” I said, thinking of the things he had told me. “It could have all been lies.”

“Do you see it a lie when he tells you that he loves you?”

“I thought he was telling the truth about everything else, Jacob. I was looking in his eyes then too.”

“Were your words true when you said that you loved him?”

“That is one of the stupidest questions that I have ever heard,” I said; as I tried to get off the bed, with him taking me by the arm and pulled me back down.

“Please, answer my question.”

“Of course I meant it, why do you think I brought us all the way to this forsaken place? I have loved him from the moment I laid eyes on him,” I answered, lowering my head so he couldn’t see my pain.

Jacob removed the note that he and the others had retrieved from the castle gate of Inara’s home and handed it to me. “I wasn’t going to show you this, but with the events that have happened, I think it best that you see it.” I looked at him confused and took it. I had to read it twice; first, in order to understand the writing, then, to try to figure out about the writer being sorry about ‘our’ Martin.

“What does it mean?” I asked, looking at him and holding the paper so lightly it drifted from my fingers and landed on the floor.

“It means that he was taken from the tunnels by one of the houses; more than likely, one of the sisters. For what reason, I cannot say.”

“We have to go get him.”

Jacob raised his brow.

“Maybe I want to be the one to kick his ass, not let one of those horrible sickos.” I looked down at my ring finger on my left hand and my heart began to melt. “Why do you think they would take someone like Martin?”

“It could be for a number of reasons, but, if they found out that he was the maker of the demon coming to destroy their happy homes, no matter how sick they may be… I believe they would use him to get to you.”

“Then I guess that we have new plans to make. Are we going to use the secret tunnels to get into Inara’s, or do you think that it’s a trap as well?”

Jacob told me ‘trap or no trap’ we needed to seek out the entrance and see what came from exploring it. He also said if Inara hated her sister as much as her sister hated her, then maybe we could use them against each other without either one knowing about it. When I asked how, he just turned his smile at me and leaned back on the foot post of the bed. “Bait,” he said, then explained that we would allow one of us to be captured, letting them think that they had one of the highest members of our group. They would have to lie well and be convincing enough to make whichever sister we choose believe that the rest were wounded or killed in the tunnels. Giving them a much smaller number than what they were thinking was coming into their territory in the first place.

“And who do you have in mind for the, bait?” I asked, thinking he was going to say my name but hoping he wasn’t.

“I will go in as bait and the rest of you will wait to attack when they take me to the gala that the note speaks of,” he explained, smiling.

“No way, Jacob. That’s crazy, what if they kill you as soon as they take you to their dungeons?”

“They won’t.”

“Yeah, well, how can you be so sure?”

“Because they will want to show their capture off to the other sister, along with the crowds that gather at their feet.”

He went on further to explain that a few of us would enter the underground tunnels, fully armed, to find out if Alex, the boy Felicia, and his pet Bernard, were telling the truth, then bring them back as our own trading tool. In turn, making their master think it was her sister who had committed foul play against her. Of course, he said we might want to try and make our way to Angelica’s estate and retrieve items we could leave behind to make Inara believe what we were trying to pull off. Taking their pets sounded like a wonderful idea, but that, and getting Martin back was all that I liked coming from Jacob at this point.

“There is one other scenario,” Jacob added.

“Another one? Oh please, do tell,” I laughed, until I heard his reply.

“The assassin could have tracked us here and told the high mistress of our numbers trying to enlist her help to find our whereabouts.”

“I had almost forgotten about the elders. Do you think that I got us in over our heads this time?” I asked, looking over at him, wanting to see the answer in his eyes, not his words.

“I think this is right where fate has brought us,” he replied, with a return smile.

“Do you think whoever has Martin, is hurting him?” I knew I had just asked another stupid question, but he never said a word.

It was then that I saw his answer in his eyes. It was the caliber of creatures we were dealing with that should have had me answering my own question. They would be causing any that they took discomfort for the sheer joy of it. “We have to find him,” I said so softly that he knew my heart was breaking, no matter how angry I was that Martin had lied.  And no matter how mad I was at the man that I loved, it was nothing compared to the fire that was burning for those who dared to take, and possibly harm, him. “One more thing, Jacob. No one is going to be bait…not now, not ever. On this, I am pulling rank.” ***

Once the rest woke, we gathered in the kitchen to discuss who would be going to Inara’s castle to see if our two friends were actually friends or foe. The one rule that would remain with the ones that stayed behind was to stay hidden in the house but not explore anything until the others returned.

Jacob, having a head on his shoulders for planning strategic moves for the past few hundreds of years, decided to split the best of the fighters up, taking two with him, and leaving the others behind to fight if the occasion should arise. I wanted to go and got my wish. I almost immediately wanted to retract my statement of wanting to be a part of the group that headed out when I found out we would have to cover ourselves in the same horrific gore of the decaying bodies before we entered the secret tunnels under the castle. Just the thought made me gag, which made Cates begin laughing loudly, because this time would be staying back with Tammy, Tanda, Garvin, and Sydney. Fala and Jacob would be the strength behind Derek and me, in case the whole thing was a trap to capture more of Martin’s creatures.

We left the others safely locked in the house and ran like the wind through the tunnels, seeing the scavengers once along our way. They moved out of our way so fast it was a mere glance for both parties. It wasn’t until the stench of rotting death filled our noses that our feet slowed down, no matter how much our minds wanted to push forward. I had found some old rags that I think once belonged to the help, and all but Fala wore them. His stature was too big, so he had to wear the same pants that he had on the night before.

“I say we just all do it at the same time,” I suggested when we reached the putrid pile of decomposing bodies.

“Should I not do as Cates?” Fala offered.

“We have to look like we did when they saw us, Fala, and we won’t be swimming in a pit of blood this time,” Derek explained, grabbing his knees, trying to keep the feeding down that none of us should have had before we left.

I was grateful that Tanda had helped me braid my long hair as I put it down my shirt and tucked it into my pants, fighting back the gags myself. “On the count of three?” I asked, looking at Jacob, who also had dread written all over his face. “Glad to see that this is bothering you, too,” I smiled.

“You thought it would be pleasant to me?” he asked, with a forehead full of wrinkles.

“No, you just have guts of steal and sometimes it’s nice to see that you’re a little softer than you seem,” I replied, winking at him.

He looked at me, laid his torch on the ground and counted to three before I was ready for him to even say one. He hit the pile of gore first with the rest of us right behind him. Derek and I were making sounds like wild animals as we slid, and pulling on flesh that had bone that came away with the slightest touch. My arms and legs were sinking in the more I tried to climb, soon I was face to face with a face that was eaten away to the skull and filled with earthworms and other creatures that lived comfortably off of the flesh of the dead. I threw up right on it. I felt a hand grip the back of my shirt, pulling me up by the cloth and my braid, feeling like they were going to rip my braid right off the back of my head. Fala set me down, and reached back in for Derek who was also stuck up to his waist, speechless, and ghostly white in horror of the whole thing. Jacob was the least covered of us all, but was out too fast for me to witness how he had done it. Fala, on the other hand, had stormed right over the pile using the strength of his arms to pull himself right out.

“I thought we were supposed to be ten times stronger than we use to be, and I couldn’t get on top of that…” Derek spoke, desperately shaking the decay from his hands, “to save my life.”

“It is true. Fala has brute strength to fight through just like Cates. But, you are thin and your limbs find their way into the small places and the wetness sucks you deeper,” Jacob explained. “It does not mean you are weaker.”

“So, now we have to cut back and go through the marsh you spoke of earlier?” Derek asked, about to wipe his hands down his pants but rethinking his decision when he saw folds of skin sliding down his leg.

“I think we can use the safety of the forest,” Jacob turned, looking into the depths of its darkness.

“I don’t mean to speak out of place, but I believe it may be best if we do not use the forest this night,” Fala interjected, sniffing the air. “Many others move about the trees this night.”

“What kind of others? Can you tell?” I asked, walking up beside him.

“Other weres, but I’m not sure of their breed.”

“So, if we keep to the outer line of the trees will they know we’re there?” Derek asked, joining us with Jacob coming to stand beside him.

“They already know that we are here, much the same as I can tell that they are in the forest.”

“Then we best move,” Jacob suggested, as he turned on his heel and took off for the marshlands, at the base of the mountain.

I could see why Jacob wanted to use the forest when I stepped down into the grassy marsh, but I also didn’t want to run into anything that shifted into ‘anything’ like that in the graveyard the night of our first adventure in London. By the time we reached the end of the marsh I had lost both shoes somewhere back in the middle, due to the fact that I was knee deep to everyone else’s mid-calve submersion. Even Derek, who was close to my height, seemed to only go down so far compared to me, and no one else lost a shoe. We turned back to the left at the base of the mountain and continued for about a mile; Fala kept an eye on the forest while Derek watched our back. Jacob took the lead, and I just watched my footing.

The entrance was easy to find with the white silk cloth that had been tied around one of the bars on the gate that was closed over the opening. “Fala, the key,” Jacob whispered, who unlocked it as soon as he was handed the key and pulled the rusty hinged gate back. At the entrance on the inside, two torches leaned up against a large rock that looked like it had been purposely placed there just for that reason and to keep them out of the water that ran down the middle of the tunnel floor. Jacob scraped his flint across the wall and brought the one he picked up to life, then waved his hand for us to join him. The moment I stepped in I could smell the hint of death, and knew that this would be just like the rest of the places that we had ventured into.

Derek handed Fala the second torch and he tilted it into the one that Jacob was holding and took the back. The deeper we made our way in the worse the smell thickened. It felt like the rotting death of the pile that we had climbed through was just the beginning of the horror that we would witness before our plan was put into motion. That is, if the ones we looked for didn’t have plans set in motion of their own. Jacob whispered back for us to watch our step about the time my foot felt something roll underneath it. By the time I looked down there were several things that my feet were hitting and it was very hard to miss them. Body parts were strewn about the tunnel floor. Some just bone; some with flesh still attached. One arm lay severed at the elbow with the hand still open, as if waiting to be shaken in a passing greeting.

Torsos, with more on the outside than in, lay grotesquely up against the tunnel wall; with a faceless head a few feet away. A full leg mixed together with bones that I had no knowledge of what part of the body they came from, lay up a few feet away from the torso, but not one whole body was to be seen. I wanted nothing more than to be carried at this point but my pride would not allow me to ask, so I kept the thought to myself, sliding my feet through God only knows what hoping that we would soon reach the end. Jacob put his hand behind him, touching my stomach as he came to a stop.

“Someone’s coming this way,” he said in a normal voice.

“The torch, put it out,” I whispered as softly as I could.

“It’s…” he began to say, once again in a normal tone.

“Not so loud,” I hissed.

“They know we are here,” he turned, looking at me with frustration on his face. “If I can see their torch, they can surely see mine.”

“Well you don’t have to get so pissy about it.”

“And you do not have to question my decisions, either,” he whispered.

“Oh, that you whispered,” I smirked, putting my hand on my hip.

A young man came around the curve of the tunnel and smiled at us. “It’s me Felicia, only like this I’m known as Alex,” he smiled, walking closer. He was alone and didn’t seem to care that it was just the four of us; telling me that had there been a plan to take us all prisoners that he would have asked about the others first thing. I guess it showed on my face when I refused to take those first steps when he asked us to follow him. He turned, explaining that the rest of the way was a bit tricky, so, he thought he would come show us in case that we had come this night, and that if we went the wrong way to make sure we didn’t end up in the butcher’s corner. The last statement made him laugh as he kicked a hand down the tunnel. “The butcher is the one who disposes of the bodies, but you can tell he does a sloppy job while taking them out of the tunnel,” Alex laughed like the bones he was kicking through were just an every night ordeal. And by the look of things, I guess it was.

“Where is your companion?” Jacob inquired, making me think he was going to receive the same question.

“The mistress was ordered to the high mistress’s castle, to go over the coming of, what they seem to be calling, the ‘demon seed of Martin’. Bernard was taking her to her coach when I headed down here. We were hoping you would come this night and not last night. Our owners had us very busy and there is no way we could have played. But we are as free as any slave could be this night.” The way he looked back and licked his lips was almost enough to make me lose what the stench of the dead had not.

“Do you know what they mean by that?” I asked, keeping my head low and behind Jacob.

“We were drawing the mistress her bath and heard her arguing with her sister…as if that was anything unusual. It was then that the phrase came out. Angelica claimed she knew for a fact that the one traveling to London was the very creation of Martin Vegee Lebrun himself,” he stopped, turning slightly around. “Your master!”

“He has been away for a while. I wonder if they got the bastard?” Derek blatantly asked, with me spinning on him.

“Excuse me?” I grabbed the front of his shirt before I even realized what I had done, causing Derek to take a step back. “I wanted that son-of-a-bitch to be taken by us,” I quickly added as soon as I caught on to my own actions.

“Too late, flesher…if that’s what you really are?” Alex asked. turning to the right and heading up a set of stone steps. “I told Bernard you were more than just fleshers, or Martin would not have you. He is far too picky. Hell, he won’t even allow slaves in his home.”

I think we all let out a breath that we were holding when he made that first comment, thinking he had made us for what we really were. He went on to tell us that he and Bernard had argued after we had left the first night about whether or not we were fleshers made breeders or breeders made fleshers, but neither could figure out how the breeder part of us held down the meat. I snickered out loud at not only the thought of them arguing about it, but the thought of seeing Derek actually trying it back in the beginning of his first nights as a breeder. Like the time when he drank a glass of cold tea and became extremely ill, or the time he jumped off the side of the cliff, thinking he could fly, and dropped down to the beach floor with a thud.

Bernard met us at the top of the stairs scaring me right out of my humorous thoughts and right into the defensive mode. Bernard was holding a sword that had to be four feet long with red tassels hanging off of the gold swirled handle. “She may not let me touch these when she’s here…” he smiled “but, she’s not here now, is she?” he stuck it out in front of himself and said ‘en garde’, stepping out, moving away from the door in strange looking steps, putting the same foot forward every time. Almost like short hopping moves, while swinging the sword in circles. To me, he looked quite silly, but I was glad to see he was dancing with the thing and not trying to drive it through one of our bodies.

“Did you hear Inara talking about the elders and the two they sent?” Bernard asked Alex as we exited from the stairs.

I was looking at the elaborate surroundings, while Jacob spun Bernard around by the shoulder. Bernard yelped out in more of a feminine tone than masculine, dropping the sword on the ground, showing he would be no problem taking back to our home. “Tell me what you know of these two of which you speak,” Jacob demanded not caring for a second what either of them may have thought about his aggressiveness.

“She…she said she heard word that the elders sent two assassins out from the counsel; that they now sought the ones coming this way as we speak,” he explained in such a nervous reply that his hands were visually shaking.

“She told you this personally?” Jacob asked, yanking him closer by the lace on the front of his shirt.

“No, of course not. You don’t discuss orders with things you consider your pets. She was talking to her lover while I painted her toe nails. I forget your name,” Bernard said, touching Jacob’s hand lightly.

“Jacob,” he replied, removing his grip from Bernard’s shirt.

“Why do the elders concern you?” Alex asked, walking up and wrapping his arms around Bernard’s shoulders, leaning his head over to see Jacob.

“Forget that. Where is our master being held?”

“At Angelica’s, she would never allow him to be any place else. Who are you really?” Alex asked, stepping back a few feet from Bernard, looking from one of us to the next. “I believe there are things that are much different about you tonight.”

“We are the ones that your mistress’s have been speaking about,” Jacob stepped up and looked Bernard directly in the eyes; he dropped to the floor, and passed smooth out.

“You’re not even fleshers are you?” Alex yelled as he turned to flee.

Derek was on him before he even knew he was on the ground. He began screaming for mercy the moment his stomach touched the shiny tile. Jacob walked over and bent down, telling him that we were not the ones that he had to worry about. He told him the rumors were true about us saving the slaves that had been tortured and placed in harm’s way and taking the lives of those who had committed the acts against them. Afterwards, Jacob lied and said that he was only going to use him and Bernard to turn the two sisters against one another but we needed their help to do it and by doing so, he and Bernard could have all that their master’s owned. I almost swallowed my tongue listening to Jacob lie the way he was, because we all knew that if Tammy was anywhere near these two for five minutes alone, they were dead and she was their executioner.

Our main plan was long past once we realized that there was absolutely no way we could take down one master and its home without alerting the other two that we were here. So, Jacob had devised a better plan of taking what belonged to one sister the same way she’d taken Martin, leaving a note behind stating if she wanted to see her beloved pets alive again that she would do everything her sister asked of her. The note would not only infuriate her, it would confuse her as to who had her precious pets. Derek pulled Alex to his feet, while Fala lifted Bernard up as he started to come around. When he began to scream, Alex, still in the grip of Derek’s fist, told him to calm down that they were in no danger, then explained quickly what Jacob had told him.

“May I go to him?” Bernard cried, tears rolling down his face as he leaned back to look up at Fala, who in turn looked over at Jacob.

“When will your mistress be back?” I asked, stepping up and cleaning my face with a cloth from the arm of the chaise lounge that was close to the door.

“You’re the…” Bernard said sluggishly, looked at me, then went limp in Fala’s grasp.

“She won’t be back until tomorrow night. When they plan a gala they plan for days” Alex explained. “I will help you in any way that I can, but I must ask that you do not take me from my home. My mistress needs me.”

“You will do as you are told and ask nothing from us. Do you understand?” I smiled, showing my fangs as I walked closer.

Alex nodded, saying nothing, and looked at me like I had just sprouted a second head. Jacob took the note from his pocket and told Alex to lead him to the one place that only Angelica would go to visit his master that others were not permitted. When Alex tried to say that he didn’t know what Jacob was talking about, Jacob’s face contorted much like it had when he thought Jessica had been killed in Cuba. His fangs elongated, the bone structure in his cheeks and forehead shifted, and the sound of his voice changed to tones ten times in depth. “You dare lie in the face of your own demise?” Jacob growled, storming up to Alex so fast that Alex’s eyes grew as his mouth fell open in a silent scream, too afraid to produce sound.

Derek dropped his grip on Alex’s shirt, stepping out of the way, staring at Jacob in the same astonished manner that Fala and I were. Alex began to move backwards until his body was flat against the floral patterns on the wall in the sitting room of sort. I found myself trying to force my face to do the same thing that Jacob had done but nothing happened, other than my making a fool out of myself by moving my mouth around and grunting so bad that even Jacob took a second to look over at me. I shrugged my shoulders and thought it best to try later.

“It’s a room hidden off of her study. I didn’t mean to lie,” Alex begged, holding out his hands, now looking back and forth from me to Jacob, perhaps thinking I was about to morph like he had. “We were told we would be taken to the care of Lord Cheree if we ever gave out the information.”

“Lord Cheree should be the least of your worries right now,” Jacob replied, grabbing him around the throat causing him to scream out. “Take me to it!”

Alex took Jacob up a flight of stairs that appeared when Alex pulled down on a golden rope hanging by one of the plush sofas that were spread throughout the lavish room. Once they were gone, we waited. It was then that I noticed that the walls were made of material. The paisley print was raised just enough to feel the texture under my fingers as I glided them along the golden print of velvet swirls. Three chandeliers hung from the fifteen-foot high ceilings, which were lit by some form of oil, I assumed from the faint smell, but as to how they were lit, I had no idea. Black and white marble-topped tables that sat in between the lounge sofas stood on shiny golden pedestals with intricate leaves decorating the legs. The room was not what I was expecting to see coming up from the horror not half a foot behind a secret door that hid not only the hell we had just walk through, but the passage of what we now knew was the creature called the ‘butcher’.

Bernard began moaning on the ground and that’s when I noticed that his black slipper type shoes looked like they would fit me easily enough, so I bent down and took them for myself. I was, after all, the demon seed of my maker, as they had been calling me. Even though they were a bit too big, they would do nicely until we went back through the marsh. The secret panel slid open and Alex came out a little too fast, by the looks of it with a shove from Jacob. He slid quite far on his stomach as Jacob stepped down slowly from the steps. To my biggest surprise, he was holding a pair of ladies shoes in one hand and a scroll of papers in the other.

“You brought me shoes?” I smiled, tapping my covered foot.

“I see you have acquired a pair of your own,” he replied, smiling back; his face back to normal.

“Yep, but I can use those after we get out of the sluggish swamp,” I laughed, taking them from him. “Bernard won’t mind getting his feet a little dirty, will ya Bernard?”

His eyes fluttered open as I bent down beside him. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Not anytime soon,” I smiled. “Are you going to be a good boy and do exactly what we tell you to do?”

“Yes, I will do anything,” he replied, with crimson tears building.

“Then you have nothing to worry about,” I lied, getting to my feet, offering him my hand, which he never took.

He bent his head back, saw Alex getting to his hands and knees, and cried out. He and Alex crawled to each other and held one another in a death grip, more like two scared women than two grown men.

Chapter Fifteen

We exited the same way we had come in, with the two of them in tow. Jacob explained what the scrolls were as we made our way to the end of the tunnel, waiting until then so that the butcher wouldn’t hear our retreat. He told us that they were plans that the two sisters had derived of the two lesser powers that ruled London, Lord Cheree, and the Lebrun Estate, so that they, themselves, could create an attack to bring them to rubble. It was then that he explained that he had found a third scroll of Angelica’s castle that she couldn’t have known about, and one that Inara had planned to use on her own sister after her sister had helped her rid London of the others.

“Sounds like we should have waited awhile,” I said as we walked along the base of the mountain.

“It looks as if they have been planning this for years. Some of the parchment didn’t look like it had been touched in some time. Although, the one of Inara’s estate room lay open on a small table in a room concealed just off of this room that I think she kept hidden from her twin,” Jacob explained.

“I showed him without his asking, My Lady,” Alex immediately added. “I also told him that my mistress has been planning the death of her sister for some time.”

              Bernard took in a sharp breath, and Alex slapped him in the back of the head. “How long do you wish to lick her boots? I tire of running when she snaps, and doing everything she says. They come to offer freedom. How many times have we spoken of running away?” We continued on, crossing the marsh with Bernard complaining that his feet hurt, spreading a huge smile across my face because I had already lost his shoes in the depths some twenty feet back. We bypassed the pile of bodies from Lord Cheree’s dump at the end of the tunnels and continued at a swift pace, making our way around the outside of the tall wall that enclosed the graveyard. All of us that had seen the Specters first hand and looked for them diligently as we moved.

We were almost to the edge of the front wall when a strange clicking started in the distances. Fala yelled, “run” and we did just that. Bernard tripped and fell face first in the damp earth as the sound got closer. “Javelinas!” Fala yelled, yanking Bernard up by the back of his pants and pushing Alex. “Run!” he demanded, making sure we were in front of him moving as fast as we could. He tossed Bernard over the wall by the gate, then reached down and grabbed Alex who was shaking his head after seeing Bernard hit the ground on the other side after his body went airborne. But it didn’t stop Fala from tossing him to the top where he too would have gone over had he not grabbed the wall. “Climb now!” he yelled, pushing my backside up, as he reached over with the other hand lifting Derek up to the side of the gate. Jacob was up and over in seconds, taking my waist as I descended. Fala reached the top of the side post and turned to look back as the clicking began to die down, as if it were sinking back into the woods surrounding the graveyard and our estate.

“What the hell was that?” Derek asked as Fala jumped down.

“Javelinas, they are the wildest of the pig family and hunt in packs. The difference is that they have been infected with the were-curse and are far worse than their four legged kin,” he explained, taking in several deep breaths.