Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London

by Robin Renee Ray,

  I was snapped out of my thoughts when the wood began to snap and crackle and the worst thing of all could have happened. Spiders took off in every direction. Tanda had inadvertently found the mechanism to open the door when she slid her hand over the top of the desk while looking under it. She jammed her fingers into a small bronze statue of a boy holding a dog, that at first glance, one would think it was attached to the feather quill pen and ink holder right beside of it. I jumped back three times as the spiders found other places to hide. There had to be hundreds of the foul things, all bouncing as they ran, stopping when they touched one another then darting off again.

  “There just tiny, little spiders,” Derek pretended not to laugh.

  “They scare me too,” Tammy said, holding the shoulders of Tanda, who was also watching the wall.

  “We had plenty. Even some that would crawl around in my room, but not this many,” Tanda said, wrapping her arms around herself. “I don’t like them either, Derek.”

  “I think all girls are scared of spiders and snakes, don’t you, Fala?”

  Fala was looking at the wall with his brows pulled together, holding his reply as he reached up to the ceiling and brought down something black. At first I thought he had already lost his mind and grabbed a spider, then I saw him spread his fingers apart. “It’s black,” his tone was so low that we all stepped closer. “The web they make is black,” he said louder, as he spun around. Derek stood in place, but the three of us jumped simultaneously. I think I grabbed Tanda’s hand, because Tammy was still locked on her shoulders, making me wonder who was more afraid of the eight legged beast. We watched Derek take part of the dark web into his fingers, as the confusion spread across his face.

  “I ain’t never heard of this before, and we have loads of spiders back home, don’t we, Renee?”

  “Yeah, all types. But, I haven’t ever heard of any that makes black webs, never even read about it in school…and I read a lot, once we got the picture books.”

  “Explains why these stones are black and not like the rest of the place,” Tammy said softly, looking to her right at the wall by the painting. “But if that were the case, why wouldn’t it be all over the things in the room?”

  Fala took the few steps needed to put him in front of us, reached over and lifted the bottom of the painting, causing hundreds more to come running out. He dropped it and we three females screamed, moving to the center of the room with lightning speed. The ceiling above our heads was coming to life with a ripple that ran through the spiders that had made their way up there. “I want to leave this room now,” Tanda whispered, not able to take her eyes off the pulsating visual towering over our heads.

  “Grab the torch and burn them,” Tammy said with wide eyes.

  “No!” Fala quickly added. “You may cause the others to drop when you start bringing the flame close to the ceiling.

  “Never mind,” she swallowed, as a fine tremble became apparent in her hands.

  Derek took the torch off the holder as gently as he dared and thrust it through the opening of the wooden wall. He looked back at us and the dread showed in his eyes. “It’s a small passageway, and I can only see so far with the glow of the light.” He stepped in, holding the torch out in front of him, and we got closer to the opening with Fala stepping in behind us. The sizzling sound was loud as he burned the black web that was so thick it was impenetrable without taking it down. The web popped every so often, and the smell of something other than webs burning was noticeable as we passed, making our way into the narrow, damp passage, having no idea where it was taking us.

  “I really don’t like the feeling of this, Derek,” I admitted, having a bad gut feeling that the tight slanted passage was leading us further down into something far worse.

  “It’s gonna be alright. We’ll find our way out,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the area in front of him.

  “Before dawn I hope. I really don’t wanna be stuck down here after the sun comes up,” Tammy said, making me wish she hadn’t brought that thought to mind.

  “We won’t be down here that long, will we?” Tanda stopped, turning to look at me.

  “I don’t know sweetie. I just don’t know.”

  Derek stopped a few feet up ahead and told us the passage went two ways, and wanted to know which way he should go. Fala told him to look at the flames on the torch and see if they were pulling one way more than the other, explaining they would go to the flow of air. Derek turned to the right, calling back to watch our steps, that the floor was starting to get slick. The one good thing about the way he turned was, the deeper we went the fewer webs hung over our heads. About fifty feet down the stone floor turned into slick steps that opened up into another room, only this one was twice the size of the first. Tammy, Tanda, and myself stayed by the opening of the steps while Fala and Derek followed the wall looking for more torches or some form of wall sconces, finding two on the right side of the room and lighting it enough to look for more without having to hunker down.

  “Are those what I think they are?” Tammy asked, pointing to the other side.

  “They look like cribs,” I replied, staring in disbelief, thinking they had to be something else.

  The room had streaks of the black web here and there, but nothing like the so- called study that we left crawling with an abundance of creepy crawlers. The walls were the natural color of sand, but the floor was stained with a mixture of the black coating and bones in piles that looked spread out on purpose close to the walls. After Derek and Fala lit the only other two torches on the opposite side of the room, we three began making our way to the center. I was intrigued to find out if what we thought were cribs, truly were. There were four in all, and they were indeed baby cribs. They were smeared in the black gore, but with no webs. It was then that Tammy and I saw a small room behind the two cribs in the middle, hidden from view due to the shadows.

  “Bring me your torch, Derek,” Tammy snapped her fingers, not taking her eyes off the four little cribs.

  My mind was spinning as much as hers, wondering why on earth there would be baby cribs in a place like this, other than it being a sick breeder like Cortez, but he gave the infant’s corpses as a show of some warped sense of gift to those he visited while in route for slave trading. Tammy gasped as soon as the light filled the small room and I froze as the knowledge sunk in. There was a birthing table in the center and larger piles of bones on both sides of the bed. The women must have given birth then were killed and dropped to the side like worthless trash. But, why? And why keep the babies down here? My mind was in so much turmoil, that nothing that I came up with made any sense.

  “These are the bones of the little ones,” Fala said, standing up from one of the strange piles spread throughout the room.

  “I think maybe that guy in the painting was one sick bastard to have women down here, just to kill their babies,” Derek said, walking around in the room with the odd shaped table. “Wonder why it doesn’t smell more like death down here?”

  “This is long death. It doesn’t look like it has been used in a great many years,” Fala replied, turning to look at us.

  “What do you think those big holes up there are? Drainage?” Tanda asked, raising her finger in the direction. “I think I just saw something.”

  “Like what?” I asked, walking over to her. “Where?”

  Fala turned to look up as Tanda and I screamed out with every ounce of air in our bodies. Fala stumbled back but was nowhere near fast enough to get away from the dropping spider that came out of the hole that Tanda had seen moments before. Derek came flying out of the small room, reaching for the blade that he no longer had, because I had it. The huge black and gray spider had its legs locked around Fala’s upper body. Its tail lifted and a shot rang out so loud that I went deaf, as the large body of the spider exploded, covering Fala in a greenish liquid of its body fluids. Fala was completely pale as Derek kicked the massive spider off of him.

  “Did it bite you?” De
rek asked, looking for the evidence, as Fala stood shaking his head over and over.

  “Grab your weapons!” Derek yelled. “Better change before these other holes come to life,” he said, putting his back to Fala’s and looking up at the other places that more could come from.

  Fala swallowed twice, then began taking off his pants. He tossed them to the side, and was about to remove his shirt when a second spider came down behind us. Tammy spun around as it legs reached for her, and sliced her blade through the air cutting off part of its front two legs, screaming the whole time. The same green liquid sprayed out, but the spider scurried back up as fast as it could, disappearing from sight.

  “Wonder what’s kept them alive?” Derek asked, as a huge growl reverberated throughout the room. Fala had shifted.

  “Why don’t they just attack at the same time,” Tanda asked, getting ‘shhh’s’ from Tammy and myself as soon as the words left her mouth.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Derek said, frantically moving his eyes around the room. “Fala, start looking for another way out, or we go back up the way we came.”

  I counted eight holes in all, and one dead spider. We had no way of knowing how many had survived down here and how many would come out of which opening. Fala broke one of the sconces off the wall and held it up in front of the hole that the dead spider came out of and nothing happened. His werewolf form seemed to have little fear of the arachnids now, and he moved swiftly to the next hole. I don’t think any of us knew what he was doing until the flame of the sconce blew back into the room then flickered, and just as swiftly the blaze turned back toward the opening of the spiders dewelling.

  “This way,” he said in his gruff wolf voice.

  “Are you out of your ever lovin’ mind?” I asked. “You think we’re going to go into one of those things home?”

  “They have survived somehow,” he replied, turning his huge snout back my way.

  “He’s right, they’ve had to go find food somewhere and that might lead outside,” Derek explained with excitement.

  “What about the coming dawn?” Tanda whispered, still watching for the spiders.

  “Come here,” Derek said, holding out his hand to her. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see.” Then he took her into a one armed embrace, while pointing his gun in the air.

  She was right about the dawn, and we didn’t have time to argue about it. The sounds of clicking and an even stranger sound of hissing began as Derek got up on Fala’s shoulders to look inside the round hole that was nothing more than a manmade round tunnel. Derek pulled himself up into the opening that was four feet in height and width, and saw nothing in the way of eight legs coming at him, so, he yelled down for the rest of us to hurry.

  “Tanda first,” I insisted, helping her up Fala’s back. “Grab her, Derek!”

  “Come on Tammy, your next,” I said, holding my hand out.

  “How are we gonna get me up there?”

  “Quickly,” I replied, pulling her over.

  Two of the damn things dropped to the floor with a line of black web behind them, as Tammy was on Fala’s shoulders and reaching for Derek’s hand, “Move!” I screamed, backing up into Fala’s hind legs. Both spiders moved forward and then stopped, pulsating up and down, my heart beat to match the rhythm, and then some. I dared glancing back to see Tammy’s legs being pulled through the opening, and the spiders took advantage of my stupidity and charged. I screamed and took off around Fala’s legs, getting his attention to our dilemma. He bent forward at the waist and let out a guttural beast of a yell, so loud that I grabbed my ears. The spiders hesitated, but I think they were more hungry than they were fearful of the big, furry monster in front of them. Derek yelled out for me to watch out, the blast of his gun went off again, and a third spider dropped down right on my back, knocking me to the ground with its weight, pinning me in place.

  I felt the thing move on my back as I scrambled on my stomach to get free. I screamed in fear that it was about to stab me with what had to be a two foot stinger, and my adrenaline went into over drive. I rolled over closing my eyes, pushing at the sticky, hair covered legs, until I worked my way out from under it, taking the curved blade that Derek had given me and slamming it into the spider’s body until it didn’t flinch at the feel of my blade anymore. I turned in time to see Fala wading into the other two, slinging his open claws at them viciously, until nothing was left except a nasty pile of legs and gore. He looked back at me on my knees by the one that had had me trapped and in two big steps, came and lifted me off the ground and straight up into the hole with the others. Fala threw back his head and gave one more bone chilling howl, then jumped up, grabbing the rim and pulled himself free of the room of many unanswered questions.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jacob and the others made it back over the gate to Martin’s estate; going back through the city without any problems, and without passing by the alley of what they now knew was the wrong side unless you were looking for the sort of woman they’d run into when they first left. They dropped in the chairs on the front porch where the light was good and opened the silk cloth, not only finding a note, but a key with a red ribbon tied to the end.

  The Gala has been changed to the night of the new moon. The mistress will be celebrating the fall of the one who comes to bring London down. As if that could ever happen. Sorry to hear about Martin, but you will have the freedom that all fleshers dream of now. The key fits the secret gate that leads to the tunnels under our castle. Look for the entrance at the base of the mountain past the marshland, left of the main road. We will meet you there; just follow the tunnel.

  Alex, your Felicia forever!

  “What does it mean, ‘sorry about Martin’?” Sydney asked.

  “Foul play is at hand,” Jacob replied, folding the note. “I ask you all to keep this bit of information from the others until we know more about what it means. I do not want Renee rushing over and getting herself killed.”

  “I thought she said he left a note saying he would be back,” Garvin said, getting to his feet.

  “They must have taken him in the tunnels,” Cates added, getting to his feet as well. “Let’s go see if the others found anything while we were gone.”

  “Things just turned bad didn’t they?” Sydney asked, following the others inside.

  “I’m afraid it has,” Garvin replied, closing the door after Cates had opened it from the secret latch at the very top, since he was the only one tall enough to reach it.

  The boy’s looked in the study, then the family room, thinking that we would all be sitting around waiting, but saw nothing and found the same when they searched in our rooms. Next they went upstairs, calling out our names getting no reply. It was then that they made their way into the beginning of lower levels, shocked beyond words that no one was around.

  “Did they take them also?” Sydney asked with panic in his voice.

  “I don’t know. Look around,” Jacob said, looking at the lit torches in the wall sconces. “Someone’s been down here.”

  “If you concentrate can you tell if normals have been through here, Sydney?” Garvin asked. “Or see them in any way?”

  “I didn’t feel a thing once we left the city, and no matter how hard I try…” he froze in thought. “Fala…” Then he grabbed his head.

  “What about Fala, Sydney?” Jacob asked, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Tell me what you see.”

  “Spiders! I see spiders,” he claimed, clenching his eyes closed tight. “He’s below us.”

  “Then the rest are with him.” Cates rushed to the stairwell that led down.

  “No,” Sydney called out. “They didn’t go that way.”

  “What are you talking about?” Garvin stepped up beside Jacob.

  “He’s below us, I’m sure of it. I just know they didn’t go down those steps.”

  “You’re wrong. Look, it’s a button, a female’s button,” Cates said, picking it up and then rushed back in grabbin
g a torch before heading back down.

  Sydney in a trance-like state, walked right up to the wall that opened and began touching it. “Here, they went in here. I can feel Fala in my head, telling the others he found a door,” he explained, confusing himself as he touched the solid stone. Jacob looked over at Garvin, who nodded, showing he trusted the words of Sydney, and both began searching the wall for anything that might open a passageway. Cates came back up the stairs to let them know that there were no other torches lit below and stopped to watch them run their hands over the stones.

  “They made the latches up high in the days of old.” Then he, too, began helping by searching above where they couldn’t reach.

  A soft clank and the wall slid in, with Cates turning to look back at Sydney. “They went down,” Sydney replied, then gave a sharp nod. They followed the same path, soon finding the room with all the tiny spiders, the same way the others had. From the smears on the desk and their tracks on the floor it was easy to figure out how to open the wall in the room that looked like a study, with all stepping in with the wall lifting and closing behind them.

  “Trickery,” Cates growled.

  “Black web, Cates,” Jacob said, pulling his hand away from the wall. “These are the spider’s younglings.”

  “Hurry,” Cates replied, moving quickly down the slanted passage.

  ***

  Derek and Tanda were a few feet ahead of the rest of us, crawling around the second bend with no end in sight. The air kept blowing the torch but now it was blowing the flames back in the other direction. Derek stopped and waited for us to catch up. “Thank goodness, my knees are killing me,” Tammy said, scooting around to where she was sitting on her backside.