“Shhhh,” Jacob mouthed and I began to cry. There were times like this that I wasn’t as brave as they all thought I was. It was easy to admit that the thing that I had just seen scared me worse than anything I had witnessed in the dark world.
He released my mouth and pulled me into a hug, whispering that it was going to be alright. I gripped his shirt tight, burying my face into the side of his neck, until I could control my breathing. He leaned back looking down at me as I nodded once. He rolled off of me, pulling me by the hand to the side of the wall. “Go to the far end then follow it back to the center. Most are waiting outside the main gate. I have to find Derek and Fala,” he whispered, pushing me in the direction he wanted me to go. I began crawling, looking back every so often then coming to a complete stop when I heard Derek scream out. I jumped to my feet and yelled out his name, then took off running back into the center of the graveyard.
I could hear him yelling, and took off towards the sound of his voice. When I came around a huge angel statue I saw him trying to hold on to the girl’s body as a werewolf was doing its best to pull it from his grip. Derek yelled out again. “They can’t have her.” He then pulled so hard that he and the girl’s corpse fell to the ground. The werewolf threw its head back and was about to howl out, when it stopped and spun around snapping its massive jaws. That’s when I knew it was Fala. My whole body jerked when I saw what he was looking at, because it was three figures that looked very much like him, Derek, and Tammy. How they had seen her over the rest of us, I couldn’t say, but they had Fala and Derek’s form down extremely well. It was the faces that were different; the mouths hung wide and the eyes were not even there, just empty socks of blackness with skin that looked slightly transparent. Fala’s look-alike was amazingly accurate compared to the others. The fur looked solid all the way to the snout, but like the other two, the jaw hung wide and it too had no eyes, and all three made horrible sounds as they made their way closer.
“Derek,” I said, jumping over the tomb, landing down beside him. “Just give them the body. She’s dead for goodness sake.”
“They want her soul. Didn’t you hear what Fala’s people called them…soul eaters, Renee, or some shit like that and they can’t have her.”
“God gets the soul, Derek. I’ve known that all my life. Those rules have applied since he created this world, not these things. They can’t have what belongs to the high creator, and you know that as well.” I gripped the front of his shirt.
“Look at us. Don’t you think things went a little wrong somewhere?”
Fala stormed over and yanked the girl out of Derek’s arms, by placing one of his hind feet on his chest. Derek yelled out, but Fala turned his upper body and flung the corpse into the air, it landed well behind the ghost things, and to me that’s what they were, shape shifting or not. They were ghosts that could mimic what they saw with their no eyes, and that was it. Our souls belonged to only one being. Whether or not a person believed it was his choice as to where that soul would end up spending an eternity, and it is written one of two places, not in the belly of one of those things. It took hearing one of my little one's screaming out to break the fear that was causing me to break down and convince me to run back into the graveyard. Jacob jumped over the same tomb and knocked my courage back down a level and I screamed out.
“Fala, let him go,” he demanded, pushing on his leg.
“I will not,” Fala growled down, pushing in harder on Derek’s chest trying to keep Jacob from pushing his foot off.
“I can’t breathe,” Derek said through clenched teeth. “Stop pushing his leg, or he’s gonna kill me.”
I yelled up at Fala to look at Derek’s face, which was turning a pale purple. Fala eased up and Derek was out from under him like greased lightning. He pulled his two-foot blade, screamed out in a full run and dove at the three things as they were fixing to lean down over the girl’s crumpled body. “Derek…no!” Fala screamed out in his werewolf voice, and ran out after him, regardless of his own built-in fear.
Derek kicked off one of the square headstones and leaped into the air, spinning around, slicing his blade through the midsection of the fur-covered thing closest to him. His blade passed through as the thing looked down, seeing the tip barely pierced the flesh on its stomach, but no blood spilled as Derek fell to the ground. His blade had gone completely through the ‘ghost’ body and did absolutely nothing. The fur-covered ghost threw back its head and howled out a gruesome sound that mimicked nothing that I had ever heard. As Derek got to his feet, it swung around and hit him so solid across the chest that he flew back into the angel statue, breaking it in half.
‘Maybe they weren’t just ghosts,’ I thought, running to check on Derek, while Jacob ran to help Fala. Derek was lying on his side with fresh blood all over the side of his face, with the upper half of the statue on his lower body. I threw it off in anger, and prayed that I would find him alive when I rolled him over. His eyes rolled back and the first thing he said was, “That hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.” I smiled, and turned back when I heard one of the werewolves begin to growl.
“Will you be alright here?” I asked, getting to one knee.
He nodded, closing his eyes. I laid his head back and ran to help the others. I stood up in time to see the werewolf with no eyes rake his claws down the side of Fala’s face. At the same time, Jacob came down on the back of its head with his blade going hilt deep. The same creature whose body was transparent earlier was now solid, and I was more confused now than I was when I first saw the things. It fell to the ground dissolving into a black mush that seeped into the soil, leaving nothing behind except Jacob’s blade. The other two ghost-like creatures turned into their liquid mist selves, with the girl in their arms and disappeared into the earth.
“Would someone please explain how that just happened?” I asked as I stared at the ground where the dead thing had turned to gore and sank in.
“Shadow walkers, they are like nothing, yet like everything,” Fala replied, dropping to one knee as he shifted back into his human form.
Jacob reached down to pick up his blade then slowly stood back up, watching steam rise where the black blood of the creature began to eat the metal. We both looked over at Fala, discovering the entire left side of his face was ripped open with four long indentions.
“It is in my system,” Fala said, then fell forward unconscious.
Jacob told me to go as fast as I could, staying far to the right, then follow the wall to the front and find Cates. Fala would be too much for the small frame of a fifteen year old to carry without problems, and I knew I couldn’t carry Derek, and help with a man the size of Fala. He would have to be bent halfway over at the waist to fit my much shorter height.
I ran over to Derek and told him that I would be right back. He didn’t open his eyes but he nodded a few times. I kissed his forehead and immediately wiped my lips on the inside of my shirt because he smelled like what I know I must have, I just couldn’t smell myself any more.
I did just as Jacob explained. I found Cates, brought him and Tammy back, and we got the hell out of there. Garvin tried the back door to Martin’s house but it was locked, so he leaned back and kicked it in. Sydney helped carry Derek inside, and Cates carried Fala. Tammy took charge, as she always did when wounds were involved, and I let her. She had Tanda cleaning the chips of stone out of Derek’s mangled cheek. Tammy then poured warm water over the side of Fala’s wounded face. “He shouldn’t get this infected so soon. Actually, he shouldn’t get infected at all. I heard weres don’t catch things like normals,” she explained to those of us who were watching, as she dug inside one of the wounds with a clean white strip of cloth.
“See the black, isn’t this what you said the thing turned into after you killed it?” she asked, holding the smeared cloth up to, Jacob.
“That’s it, no doubt,” I replied, first.
“It is,” was all that Jacob said, as he watched her clean out more.
“So, you do
n’t know anything about these things?” I asked, looking over at him. “None of y’all do?”
“Do you know that when you get nervous your accent from your home becomes worse? And no, I have never in my four hundred years ever encountered what Fala was calling a, shadow walker,” he replied never even glancing my way, because he was intently watching Tammy’s movements.
“I always talk the same.”
“No, you do not. You have learned a great deal from us, and speak much better because of it. But at times, you speak slang words like, ain’t and y’all.”
“Silly, those words ain’t slang, they’re Texan, and that’s where Derek and I come from. So, stick that in your pipe and smoke it.” I explained myself beautifully, I thought.
“I have never smoked a pipe, and what would I be sticking in it? I don’t think I understand any of that statement,” he replied, finally looking at me.
“Never mind. You think Martin will know about those things?” I asked, changing the subject back to where we started.
“He should,” Sydney added, coming over by us. “He lives here and those things are in his backyard.”
“And he’s been coming to London for almost two hundred years,” Garvin said, setting down another pitcher of hot water on the table in front of the couch that Fala was lying on.
“Derek’s ready to be sewn up, Tammy,” Tanda said, rechecking her work.
“Almost through here,” Tammy replied, cleaning out the last of the four wounds.
“It’ll heal. I don’t need to be sewn up,” Derek interjected, holding the cloth to his face that Tanda was using.
“You’ll scar if you don’t let her,” Tanda explained, sitting on her knees in front of him on the other couch.
Cates was building a fire when he started laughing out of the blue. “I can do almost everything I did before I lost my arm, and you think Lord Derek is going to worry over a little thing like a scar?” He then asked me if I would hold the box still while he struck the long match, and the room erupted in laughter. Derek was holding his face, laughing so hard his eyes were closed tight because of the pain it was causing. Tammy was laughing but never stopped working on Fala, and Tanda snorted when she drew in breath, which caused everyone to laugh even harder. I noticed Sydney sit up straight and turned my attention to the living room doorway, where Martin was standing, watching us. His hair was hanging loose and his shirt was unbuttoned to his pants.
“Did we wake you?” I asked, trying to stop smiling.
“No, I just got in. I heard nothing of an attack on Lord Cheree’s humble abode,” he claimed as he stepped into the room. “So, tell me, how is it that you have wounded?”
“Why don’t you worry about your life and lets us worry about our own,” I said, standing up, losing my smile the moment he said he ‘just got in’ and looking like he did.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Renee. It’s been a long night and I’m not in the mood.” He moved to the side of the couch where Tammy was leaning back on the balls of her feet.
“Don’t talk to me like that, Martin. You won’t like the outcome.”
“Why are you so angry? Can you not just tell me what happened?”
“Fala was…” Jacob started to say when I interrupted.
“I’m not angry,” I snapped. “I just think you should mind your own business.”
He leaned down and picked up one of the blackish strips, smelt it, then put it back down. “Specter’s have infected him.”
“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.
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London Page 7
