“I’ll save ye fer a wee toty, but Ah’m afraid the fleshers gets ta keep ye, luv,” he replied, closing his eyes and going in for a kiss.
The man’s eyes flew open as Tammy’s blade slid into the pit of his stomach, hilt deep. “But?” was all that the man was able to say before Sydney came down on the back of his head with the wide tip of his club. Blood flew across Tammy’s face as the man’s body fell into her. Cates reached out in time to grab her under the arm, before she ended up being the cushion for the man’s last trip over the wants of a woman. Everyone came back out, except Derek and Jacob who had taken off to scout the place out. Those of us left to wait their return, headed back into the scents of the forest, finding any type of escape from the putrid stench that clung to us like death itself. It was Fala that I kept my eye on, because he could feel those that were like him—but not. Whatever he meant by that. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to find out.
Chapter Six
The longer we waited, the more comfortable we became in the cover of the greenery, which shadowed our movements. Fala sniffed the air a few times, and his posture showed that he wasn’t worried about the area in which we moved about. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the landscape was with it being cold enough for us breeders to feel it. It was not bothersome, but where we had come from, the trees had changed in color and most had already lost their summer foliage. Here the leaves still clung to their branches but they had started to make their change. Jacob and Derek found us walking close to the area where they had found the entrance to the lower levels of the Lord’s estate. The thought of going back down didn’t thrill any of us.
“I had a feeling you wouldn’t stay by the tunnel,” Jacob smiled, as he whispered the direction to the secret panel.
“With a smell like that, who would have?” I shrugged.
As we moved closer to the edge of the dense forest, the top of the four-story monster house became clearer, and it was amazing. Even the elaborate details in the iron railings that circled the balconies on each level had impressions of twisting vines worked into its metal, much like the forest that surround it. Arched, ten-foot high windows looked over the balconies and all I could see had areas big enough to stand on, so they weren’t there just for the glamour of the estate itself. I couldn’t imagine what Angelica’s home must look like, if this was one of her lower in rank’s establishment. To the left of the back of the property was where we made our way across by way of the four foot high shrubs. On the other side we found coach after coach with driver and horse waiting for their master’s return.
“We’ll have to take this just like we did that bitch, Yvette,” Derek spoke low as he got closer to Cates and Jacob. “Start from the bottom and work our way up, you know, take as few as we have to at a time.”
“Are you sure you are not older than you say? Those were my thoughts exactly,” Jacob proudly nodded. “Everything in the cells will be too close to death to save. It will be best to give them peace. We know now that there will be these things called, fleshers?”
“That looks and smells like, Cates,” Tanda bashfully added, wrinkling her nose.
“Okay, peewee,” Cates said, rubbing the top of her head, as she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth.
“Forgive me, but you truly smell worse than the hole,” she laughed low, desperately swiping at her hair.
We all cracked up at the truth behind Tanda’s statement, as Derek took Sydney and Garvin across the gravel driveway behind the coaches, then past the eave of a stone gutter. Afterwards, he came back to take two more until we were all lined up in the shadow of the wall, and quickly one by one through the small secret entrance, sliding down into a dark stench with the slight fear of falling into what we had recently climbed out of. I kept my eyes shut tight and my elbows pulled in to my sides as gravity took me down the slippery stone path that had a constant flow of water coming from somewhere up above. I felt my feet drop right before the rest of my body was completely airborne. A few seconds later Tanda screamed as I splashed down and went under, hitting something solid that pushed me back up in time to be hit by Tanda’s flailing limbs.
Sydney grabbed me by the back of my shirt and yanked, as Derek mimicked his action with Tanda, because they knew Tammy and then Cates would follow. Tammy went under right where Tanda had been seconds prior. Garvin tried to grab her and both were buried by the weight of Cates. Fala was on his way. Jacob managed to drag Garvin back, who had Tammy in a death grip around the neck, as Fala came crashing down right on Cates’ back, rolling them both back under and knocking Cates smooth out. “Hold his head up,” Jacob called out, seeming to panic in the darkness. He knew Cates was out, because he wouldn’t answer to his call. Everyone else had replied, letting the others know that they were okay, except Cates. He was more muscle than fat and hell to keep from sinking in the round cylinder-like tank that we were now in.
“Who has him?” Tammy yelled out.
“I do, and Fala,” I replied in a much lower voice. “He’s coming around.”
“Was this not on the map?” Derek sarcastically asked.
“Nothing like it. It must be a new drain system that has been added, or I’m sure it would have been there,” Jacob replied, striking his flint on the stone wall, causing a spark of light that vaguely showed our surroundings. “Feel around for a grate. There has to be a way for the water to drain out.”
The water started moving so much that Cates went under several times, bringing him around even more. “Who landed on my back?” he asked, grimacing in pain. Fala looked at me, and then answered with a hand on Cates’ chest. “I think you may have popped my spine pretty good,” Cates said, trying to smile through the pain.
“I truly am sorry, but I thank you,” Fala smiled back, pleased that Cates wasn’t angry.
Cates looked over at me, shook his head, and mouthed, the words, “I was being facetious.”
I mouthed back, “I know.”
“Over here, about three feet down,” Derek said, slinging his cloak to the side. “There’s a cover and it’s on tight.”
He and Jacob were down for a long time, coming back up empty handed. “Where are your two good arms when I need you?” Jacob asked, meaning the statement for, Cates.
“I have an idea,” Fala proclaimed.
“Anything,” I replied, getting tired of treading water.
“I can become my true self and use the strength of my two hands.”
“I told you we couldn’t do this without you,” I said loudly, letting go of Cates with one hand to pat Fala on the back.
“Hey…” Then Cates went under, coming back up treading on his own.
“It would be a great help. Can you shift in water?” Jacob asked, trying to spark his flint again.
“It must go all the way to the top floor,” Garvin said.
“That’s why we can make each other out the longer we’re in here,” Tammy replied, getting out into the middle. “The night sky is shining in. I hope like hell Fala can get that grate off.”
“Holy shit, you mean the sun will shine down from…” Derek began saying then fell silent, due to the fact that he went back under to fight the grate that held us prisoners of our own capture.
“I’ll return.” Then Fala too was under the surface. Moments later the water began to stir and foam around us, and out of nowhere Fala came up out of the water in werewolf form with Derek on his back holding the grate above his head. The drivers of the coaches had to have heard our cheers and ignored us, or just didn’t care, thinking it was other commotions coming from the houseguests. Jacob swam down and out first, upon his own demand, and shortly came back up smiling.
“It’s not a great area to escape too, but you won’t be kicking in here anymore. Follow each other and stay close to me. Holding our breath is not a problem, but going the wrong way could be if you do not find a place to surface.”
We went under with Fala bringing up the rear, barely squeezing through the square hole that wasn’t an easy fit
for Tammy’s frame, and he and Cates were twice her size; other than around the chest, of course. The area that we finally surfaced in made me want to turn around and go back and face the sun. It was a demonic atmosphere, to say the least. Even the water was slimed in several inches of thick blood that had run, or been pushed off the floor with a broom. Sconces burned on the walls but were so spread out that it gave the large room dancing, shadowy figures that made one think that there were people walking about. We were as still as could be, trying to maintain our heads above water just enough to peer out of the very deep, narrow, brick river at the back of the eerie space. My eyes were so full of the tainted water that they burned with a fierce feeling, as if caused by acid, making it even harder to see.
“We have to get out of this liquid,” Garvin said, not caring who heard him as he swam over and began pulling himself out. “They clean the floor with lye, and the water is filled with it.”
“That’s why my eyes are burning,” I replied, pulling myself up on the extremely slick floor. “They haven’t cleaned it in a while.”
“I think most of this is fresh,” Sydney said, bringing a red-coated hand to his nose, while he was half in and half out.
“My skin is beginning to burn,” Tanda added, sliding her hands down her arms, to get as much of the liquid off as she could.
“This place will have a lavatory, with a fresh water shower. We just have to find it, but watch your step. Those who use this place know it well,” Jacob explained, putting his hand out on Derek’s chest before he could disappear. “Those who find themselves in places unthinkable by the sane will not hold any care to trespassers.”
Once everyone was out of the water and no one attacked us, we were sure that we were alone on this particular level. There were very few remains, and those that were down here hung from chains on the wall, far too decayed to be the owners of the fresh blood that coated the floor. Even if they had been breeders and just drained, the cobwebs and withered bodies told another story; one of long abuse on something other than breeders. None that I had seen so far had fangs; most were just dried-up skulls with mouths left open in permanent screams of unending torment. Knowing the many different forms of things in the dark world, the beings on the walls could be anything that shifted, or those who were just as normal as we once were. Fala stood nude in his human form, staring at two of the men that were hanging side by side, both with their feet removed just like the men in Yvette’s dungeon of torturous hell.
“They fought back,” he said, taking a big enough piece of cloth from one of them to wrap around his lower half. “These are shifters of the feline family. Look at their teeth; even in human form they stay the same.”
It had to be one of the most ironic things I had seen on a normal, or what looked like a normal. The teeth were just like that of a barn cat, with several sharp fang-like teeth on both sides of the jaws, top and bottom. “Are those the type of things you felt out behind Martin’s?” I asked, catching up to Fala. He just shook his head and kept following the others, with Jacob and Cates in the lead.
We found no form of washroom anywhere on the level that we were on, but we found out how all the blood got down there. It was Tanda and Garvin, who noticed the droplets falling on the rest of us. It was dripping like a drizzling rain from the thousands of tiny holes in the ceiling above. I never felt anything hit my already soaked body, and had they not seen the fresh blood on the white of the lye, we may have never known.
“Why can’t we hear anyone screaming?” Sydney asked, turning a bit paler than he already was.
“Because, their victims are too close to death to have the strength,” Cates replied, pulling down on several of the sconces, until one gave way and a stone passage opened up.
“How did…” Tammy began saying when he held his finger to his mouth.
Voices of men could be heard now that the secret door was open. Jacob and Derek took the stairs first, with Cates and Garvin behind, followed by Fala and Sydney. Tammy, Tanda and myself stayed at the bottom of the staircase until we saw the light from the opening above and knew the boys had made it through. As soon as we heard the men ask who they were and how they got in, we took off up the staircase with our weapons in hand.
“Did Lord Cheree have you waiting?” a man wearing a woman’s dress and make-up asked.
“Is this another of his silly games for the night?” the other, who was dressed in very tight black leather that covered him from head to toe, asked.
It was the one dressed like a woman that screamed when we three came running out.
“Angelica would just die if she knew he gave those slave’s weapons,” leather boy laughed.
“But, how many times has he done it? He should know by now that I like playing the woman. We don’t need them for this part,” boy-girl added.
“We are a part of the plan, pretty one. And you will go along or the Lord of the manor will be very pissed off,” I said, waving my blade around like a mad woman.
“Oh, I like this one,” leather boy said, rubbing his hands together.
“Fine, take all three. I’ll play with them,” boy-girl giggled, pointing his blood-covered glove at the boys who were just letting things play out.
“Shall we go back up to our rooms? We’re through with these two,” leather boy asked, lazily waving his hand back behind them.
“Will Lord Cheree be sending in a few like these to finish off the evenings excitement? Unless of course, we’re all pleased, then we can just come back down here and use these two up?” the boy-girl asked.
“They’re dead,” Cates growled.
“And your point, flesher?” boy-girl shrugged.
“Perhaps we should just play down here,” he replied, calmer after getting a sharp look from Jacob.
“You fleshers do like to play in the messy areas of the estate…don’t you? We can sneak up the back, and believe me, our room is nothing but a blood bath with plenty to wet that big appetite of yours,” boy-girl smiled, walking up and running his feather between Cates’ legs.
I smiled over at Jacob, who nodded so slightly, that had you not been looking directly at him, you would have never seen it. About that time I saw his face go slack, I turned to see that he was looking at the look on Tammy’s face. She looked frightened to the point that she was trembling. I turned around to see what had her attention, and could understand her expression from the bottom of my dark soul. The two dead females, one small, the other large in size, both lay with several thin, long, silver blades through the tender tissue of their breasts. These two would pay for their crimes the moment we didn’t need them, and by the look in Tammy’s eyes, she would be a big part of it.
Derek and I would always remember finding her tied down with blades shoved into her body just like the dead girls. Even though she had never talked about her time with the sick-minded fat man, I was more than sure the memory of that night was still very fresh in her mind, as well as her heart. Not even the death of the man who tormented her, or the one who placed her there, could ever be enough for what she had been put through.
We agreed to go up, pretending it was the lights and the well dressed, that bothered our ‘kind’, which was now to these completely foolish bloodbreeders, flesh eaters of the dead. How anyone, or thing, could stand within ten feet of us and not gag, was beside me. I was now becoming accustomed to the rank of my own flesh and clothing. The stench of the decaying dead, mixed with the blood filled water that we came up in, which was blended with the lye, put the group of us in line with the worst smelling things that we had come in contact with. We had smelled rotting death at its worst, or so I thought until now.
I looked to the right and saw clean white tiles that covered the back wall of the room from top to bottom, as we followed the two whatever you would call them, to the other side of the huge room of torture devices. It was a washroom, one where you could turn the crystal knob and water showered down on you from the brass spout three-quarters up the wall. I saw them before in
the estate in Cuba, and something similar at the beach house back in Corpus Christi, Texas. I wanted nothing more than to walk in there and wash myself off. I would have been happy with the old washtub back home on the farm. The white, ashy residue of the lye, with streaks of dried blood, was unbelievably itching. And the more it dried, the worse it got. The boy pretending to be a female told us his name was Felicia; and Bernard, who was dressed in black leather was her/his, pet.
Felicia put a finger to his mouth making the “shhh” sound, puckering out his lips, and batting his lashes far too slow, so much so it was unnerving. Bernard smiled, his mouth and eyes were all that one could see, and then he opened the door that pulled back toward us, and led us into a large food pantry. He held his hand up, walking through to see if anyone was in the kitchen, and then waved back in a way for us to hurry.
“Move, move, move,” Felicia hissed, wrinkling up his nose, getting more ugly as a woman by the second. We may have been semi-running behind Bernard up a slender set of steps that were in the kitchen, but my mind was bouncing all around the ideas of why any man would choose to play dress-up as a female. It would be a subject that would be something I would have to inquire about at a later time.
The stairs made three turns before Bernard stopped and cracked open a door with no handle, stuck his head out and smiled back, and waved his leather covered hand for us to make haste. It was hard to tell if the smell was getting any better the higher we climbed since we were taking the horrid smell everywhere we went or if the entire place was putrid. I saw Jacob freeze when he got to the secret door after the boy named Felicia darted out, which of course, stopped all of us behind him.
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London Page 5
