“What did they do with the man that they brought off the boat this afternoon?’
“Help me,” he pleaded as blood gurgled out of his mouth.
“I’ll do whatever you ask if you’ll just tell me what I want to know,” I replied, putting my hand over the wound on his neck and adding pressure.
“Inside,” he moaned.
“Is there a lot of my kind inside?”
“She’ll kill me,” he said as if the life wasn’t already slipping from his body.
“Tell me how many and I’ll save you from her,” I lied, in away.
“Renee,” Ashley said.
“I know what I’m doing, Ashley. Does the Mistress have a lot of guests?” I asked the man more sternly.
“Few…cold months,” he muttered, then his head fell back and death took him.
“How were you going to free him,” Ashley asked.
“Finish him off,” Bo answered nodding once at me.
“Front door?” I asked looking from one to the other.
Chapter Thirteen
Each one in turn said the words ‘front door’. We made our way back up to the main house the same way that we had moved away. I jumped over the hedge and ran up to the side of the stone wall. I slid around the corner and dashed to the front double doors. The others were to wait until I saw if the coast was clear. This was the one thing that I insisted on. I cracked the door open and all I could hear were the screams of Sydney’s agony. I heard Ashley, before I saw her sprinting across the drive with the boys right on her heels. I closed the door, knowing it was some sort of sound proof entrance. Once I knew it was secure, I turned around in time to see Bo and Brandon taking Ashley down at the same time. I gritted my teeth and didn’t bother with hiding in the shadows. I just walked right up to them.
“You could have blown everything,” I snapped, showing my temper. “Now get up and do this right or get back to the boat, because I don’t want to die here, and I damn sure don’t want to go through what he’s going through right now. I’ve been there before and I didn’t like it.”
“She heard him, Renee. I felt her body jerk,” Brandon said looking up at me.
“Ashley, honey,” I softly said getting down on my knees. “Let her up boys.”
“Their killing him,” she cried.
I picked her up into my lap and began rocking her. She was a real mess. Not only was she crying, but she was also skinned up from the fall. I took her back to the side of the house, if that’s what you would call it. It was made of large square stones and looked much more like something you would read about in a fairy tale, not in a nightmare like the ones that were going on behind its walls. I heard Rebecca call it an estate, after I called it a castle. “I didn’t mean to snap like that, but if even one of them would have come out that door and saw you running up, it would have been over. That man that you love would have done all that he has done for us, in vain.”
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stand…”
“I know.”
I shook my head at the boys and wondered if she would be able withstand what we would find on the other side of the doors. “I’m gonna to go and see what’s going on. I want y’all to stay put until I come back,” I explained, giving Bo the look that told him to keep things in order.
“And if you don’t come back?” Brandon asked taking Ashley.
“Get on that boat and get as far away from here as you can before dawn. You know what to do after that.”
I left them standing there thinking about what I had just said. It was a good reason for me to go first, but the real reason that I wanted to be the one to take the lead this time was, because I knew what I was looking for. I made it back to the front door and cracked it open enough to listen. This time there was nothing but silence, so I opened it a little further. My heart was causing a pressure in my head with its rhythmic beating. I had to concentrate to get myself to calm down, or I was surely going to make a mistake. I took several deep breaths and pulled the door open and quickly looked inside, pulling my head back just as fast.
I could now feel the fine tremor in my body, and an unbelievable heat rising on the inside of my stomach. I soon realized that the lump in my throat was actually my heart. I closed my eyes, said a small prayer, and stepped through. I closed the door and dashed to the far right and hid next to the long burgundy curtains that hung from the ceiling to the floor. I made my way to the one door that I knew Yvette would have had Annabel take Sydney through. I turned the knob, seeing in my mind Enrique, standing on the other side waiting to grab me by the throat. I opened it no more than a few inches seeing nothing, not even the light of a torch, but I could certainly hear the cries of my friend, as the stench from the depths below brought memories of horror crashing back into my mind.
I shook my head and swallowed back the rising of my stomach’s contents, and went back to tell the others which way to come. I had them come in one by one, and wait close to the door, hiding anywhere they could find. Once we were all inside and the door was back the way that Yvette’s people knew it to be, we started moving through the door that led to the lower levels. I had my hand over Ashley’s mouth when we were stepping into the small area, where the steps began to go down. She was already crying just hearing the man she cared so much for screaming in undeniable pain.
“Just a few more minutes, then whoever is hurting him dies,” Bo whispered next to her ear.
“Please, no, I swear. I’ve told you everything. I was lost,” Sydney yelled through his pains of torture.
“Who marked you then?” Annabel demanded and Sydney screamed a scream that sent chills down my spine.
I darted past the others and flew down the stairs. The further down I went the more familiar the scent became; it was that of much death. I turned the corner and slid on the slime covered floor. I gathered my footing and ran out, straight at the torture room door. I crashed through landing on the floor at the foot of the very table that she had once tormented me on.
“I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes,” Annabel laughed stepping back from Sydney. “I knew you would be back, but never on your own accord.”
“Go to hell you bitch,” I said getting to my feet.
I looked over and gasped at the sight of, Sydney. He was completely nude and strapped down like a wild beast. Arms, waist, legs, ankles, and even his head were in the famous leather straps. He was covered in so much blood he was almost unrecognizable.
“I didn’t tell them anything,” he said choking up blood. “Nothing, I swear.”
“You are the one that marked this animal?”
“He’s my friend.”
“Your friend will pay for deceiving me.” Then she rose a blade up that I didn’t even know that she had.
“No!” I screamed and raced toward her.
“Fool,” she yelled, as she turned and grabbed me around the throat with her free hand.
I quickly took hold of the hand that she held the blade with. I saw my death in her glowing eyes, as she started to push me backwards, slamming me into the wall. Her fangs were snapping at me like a rabid dog. “You should have waited a hundred years before coming back and trying to take…” I saw her blink a few times then she released me. I slid to the floor, looking up at her as she began appear to bend down and look at me. I gasped when her head slid from her body, and landed right in my lap, while her body collapsed at my feet. I turned the gruesome thing over, and I watched as her mouth moved in a silent complaint. I smiled down and shrugged my shoulders, as it turned to a blacken mush in my hands.
I looked up to see Bo standing, smiling down at me, and wiping his long sword clean. I shook my head and held out my hand. As soon as I was on my feet I rushed to Sydney’s side, where Ashley was already cleaning off his face. Brandon and Derek were working on his restraints, while I looked for something to cover his nudity, finding only a small cloth on the table by the wall. Once he was free he started telling us what sort of questions they
were asking him. He said that they could smell a familiar scent on his flesh and knew that he had been marked by one that they knew. He mentioned hearing Martin’s name, but said that the other woman said that it was impossible, because had been stupid enough to go to London to look for his whore.
“Did they say anything else about him?” I asked interrupting him.
“No, they wanted to know who marked me, so they called in that bitch,” he replied and pointed. “What happened to her?”
“Holy shit, she turned to ashes,” Derek bluntly added.
I couldn’t explain any more than anyone else in the room as to why her body turned to ashes right before our eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was dead, and that was all that I cared about. I warned the others about Enrique, and that he would without a doubt be coming to check on Annabel, and that we needed to be ready.
“Do we have to stay down here? I can’t stand this smell,” Derek complained, holding his nose.
“Wait until we move deeper in,” I replied helping Sydney off the table. “See if you can find him something to wear.”
“Further in? Aren’t the bad guys on the upper level?” Derek asked, coming around to look me in the eye.
“My friends may be somewhere further down here. If they found out who helped me, I can guarantee it.”
Derek was about to argue when Sydney went into a seizure. His body began to convulse, throwing itself forward as we were lowering him to the floor. I pinned his shoulders, while Bo held his legs. I thought Ashley was going into shock. She was pacing asking what was going on, over and over. I yelled at Derek to get a hold of her. She was too weak to be here and I was kicking myself for bringing her. He wrapped his arms around her and started whispering in her ear, and she actually calmed down. Sydney fell unconscious after the seizure was over. Blood was trickling out of his ears, telling me that he had a concussion from the beating.
I remembered that there was a clean cell behind the curtain across the room. I walked over and pulled it back just enough to make sure there wasn’t going to be anything of a surprise, and then pushed the curtain back. The barred door was locked. I instructed the others help me look for the key. We looked in every place that could be searched, and came up empty. I knew that Annabel kept a set of keys that went to the lower levels. The question was where were they?
“Do you think it was possible that she might have had them in her pocket when she went all charcoal like that?” Brandon asked squatting down by her remains.
“You willing to dig around in that?” Bo asked raising one brow.
“I hope someone is, because I think he may be right,” I added squatting down next to Brandon.
“Want me to do it?” Brandon smiled.
“Let’s get something and poke it around.”
“That’s a much better idea than using my hands,” he laughed reaching for a piece of wood that was lying by a chair leg.
I picked up another one and the two of us started spreading out Annabel’s remains. I heard metal scraping the floor before Brandon announced that he had them. The keys were covered in the blackened residue, and the ribbon was as crisp as the clothes she once wore. A substance that had every characteristic of being burned, but never being in a fire, was a matter that my mind couldn’t wrap itself around. Brandon had the same confused look on his face as I must have had on mine, because he said, “Did you notice any smoke?”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I shook my head. “It’s like she burned from the inside out, but how could that be when there wasn’t any flames or smoke? It’s something that could drive you crazy just thinking about it.”
Brandon went to open the cell door, and I returned to check on Sydney. Ashley was now kneeling by him, stroking the hair away from his face, while whispering softly that everything was going to be fine, that she was going to take care of him. I smoothed her hair back, “We need to get him up on that cot, babe.” She smiled at me and put her hand under his neck and we lifted him off the floor. I told the boys that Ashley could sit with Sydney behind the closed curtain, knowing good and well that she wasn’t going to argue. Sadly, we didn’t have the time to wait for him to wake. I leaned down, pulling the cover up close to Sydney’s shoulders and touched his forehead, saying a little prayer hoping that he was going to be alright, then went out to talk to the boys.
“If they know how I got out, then Garvin and Tanda are somewhere down here,” I said, as soon as we were back in the gruesome hall.
“What do you want us to do?” Derek asked.
“We need to look in each cell. You’re going to see things so horrible…I don’t even know what to say to prepare you for it,” I sorrowfully admitted, hanging my head, not able to look at them.
“Renee, I think we get the idea just by the smell alone,” Bo said putting his arm over my shoulder.
“Yeah, I gag every time I take a deep breath,” Derek added.
“And I’ve been wanting to throw up ever since we started down those stairs,” Brandon bashfully acknowledged.
“Then let’s go find them. I want y’all to stay right with me.”
“Why don’t we split up?” Derek asked, walking backwards in front of me.
“Because, Derek. Are you going to know Garvin or Tanda when you see them?”
“I can always ask their name,” he smiled.
“And if they’ve been tortured to the point that they can’t speak?” Brandon inquired.
“Oh, guess I should have thought about that.”
“At least if you see someone in one of these cells, you can just call us over. When I was trapped down here, I never saw very many coming down. I don’t think anyone, other than that crazy bitch smeared on the floor in there, would come down here without being ordered to. I remember hearing Enrique complaining several times about having to be down here, but he will show up sooner or later. So keep your eyes and ears open.”
The boys started bending down at the first few cells we passed, and each one held their noses, swallowing past the rising liquid that was threatening to push its way out. I saw Brandon fly backwards mere seconds after he looked in the third cell. He began heaving, up against the wall on the opposite side. I was terrified to see what had upset him so much, but I found myself bending down before I even realized what I was doing. “Sweet Jesus.” Is what I heard, but it wasn’t until Bo asked ‘what’, that I knew it was me that had said it. I shook my head while I stared at the poor being that was lying on its back, blinking tear filled eyes at me.
The torment was ten times worse than anything that I had seen or heard of. There was no way of telling if it was male or female. Both arms and legs had been removed at the ball and socket joint, and it looked like they had burned the wounds to stop the bleeding. The flesh on the creature was as blackened as Annabel’s dead body. Decay caked so thick that it looked like a layer of cloth covering its flesh. Still, one could tell it was nude by the way the private area had been mangled between what use to be the legs. Yet, it lived. What once was a being like us, was now reduced to this mentally and physically tormented shell of its former self.
“Bo, I’m going to ask you to do something,” I started to say when he stopped me.
“Go check the other cages, because these aren’t cells of any kind. They’re cages made by animals.”
“Let go,” Derek hissed.
We all spun in Derek’s direction, finding him leaning down by one of the cells, only this one had an arm through it grabbing Derek by the throat. He panicked after seeing what made Brandon ill, that he never thought to draw his weapon. Bo took off, pulling his sword from his back as he ran and was about to swing down when I heard someone call out my name. “Bo, stop.” I had yelled just in time. Bo’s blade was inches from the man’s arm.
“Renee, is it you?”
“Oh yes, Garvin,” I cried not caring who heard, and ran sliding down on my knees in front of his entrapment.
“I knew you would come back,” he whispered reaching f
or me.
“Open it…open it now,” I begged grasping at his soiled arms.
Bo and Brandon worked on the rusted lock. I held Garvin’s hands to my face, rubbing as much of his arm as I could until I heard the clank of the latch, only then did I release my grip. I stood back long enough for the boys to open the heavy, barred door, and then I darted in. We hesitated for a moment, then embraced each other and wept. He was wearing one of the slave gowns, which was nothing more than a bag with holes for your head and arms. He had been in the filth for what looked like as long as I had been gone. I noticed something I hadn’t before when he put his other hand on the side of my face. Two of his fingers were missing. They had taken the ring and little finger from his right hand.
“You are an angel,” he said as he touched me.
“Oh Garvin,” I replied, as I closed my eyes and turned my face into his palm. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have no reason to be sorry. You have kept your word.”
“Where’s Tanda?”
“I think they’ve placed her in the hole,” he responded, his head slowly dropping.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here, then we’ll go find her,” I said taking him under the arm.
I had to back out of the small, putrid cage, bent over, and gently pulling Garvin as I did so. He winced in pain as his legs started straightening. It was at that time that we all realized that he must have been sitting in the same position for a great amount of time. His legs looked deformed and made me think that they had been broken. When he started moving his feet and wiggling his toes, I let out a breath that I didn’t even know that I was holding.
“How long have you been in there?” Derek blurted out.
“I cannot recall my friend, but I am certainly glad to be free from its walls,” Garvin replied, grabbing Bo by the forearm.
Garvin put his feet underneath himself and pulled with our help and tried to stand too quickly. He yelled in pain, falling right back down. I was about to ask him if he wanted to rest, when he strained to get back up. Tears fell as I watched his determination to stand on his own. I looked up to see Bo’s brow wrinkled, as he stared at the strength of the man in his arms. Garvin was no more on his feet for the second time, when we heard the bang coming from somewhere behind us.
Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Page 11
