Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London

by Robin Renee Ray,

  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 you 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.