Bloodbreeders: The Revenge

by Robin Renee Ray,

  “No you dimwit, it was a metaphor,” Brandon tried to explain.

  “A what?” Derek replied.

  “Never mind.”

  “Derek, haven’t you ever seen anything so precious that it brought you to tears?” Tanda asked walking up to him.

  “Naw, I don’t think so.”

  “Then we shall say it is because you are so young, and will understand when you are older,” she added.

  “Not you too,” he said, putting his hand on the top of his head. “There is no way that you’re any older than me, so don’t even go there girly.”

  “And what age do you place on me?” Tanda asked, showing that Derek had just rubbed her the wrong way.

  “What thirteen, fourteen tops.”

  I was wiping the tears of laughter out of my eyes now, waiting for her response.

  “I’m sixty five years old to this world little boy, and you would be better off if you did not forget that.”

  “Yeah right.” Derek said licking his lips. “No way you’re really sixty five and he’s what four hundred and seventeen?” He pointed at Jacob shaking his head in a disbelieving manner.

  “Fifteen, to be exact,” Jacob replied.

  “This is something y’all planned up to make fun of me with, isn’t it?”

  “No, Derek,” Garvin added.

  “So like in a hundred years I’ll still look like this…really?” he asked.

  “Really, with a few changes,” Tanda replied smiling at his innocence.

  “That is the neatest thing I have ever heard.” Derek looked like he had just won the blue ribbon at the county fare.

  “To answer your question Bo, I was upset, because of what Kelee had said. We have to attack them before they hit us and some of us might not make it,” I broke into the conversation.

  “Then let us make sure we are ready,” Jacob added.

  “Now that’s one thing I can agree with Jacob,” Bo said while clapping Jacob on the shoulder.

  “I say we get all the weapons in this room. Make sure we know where everyone has to be and with who and get some chow,” Derek said, and every single one of us started laughing again. That was exactly what the doctor order. I prayed that God would be with my little ones, because we were sure going to need all the help we could get.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  It wasn’t long until we had what we thought to be the best plan. Garvin would take Sydney, Tammy, Jessie, and Derek to the entrance of Yvette’s room on the third floor. Bo, Jacob, Brandon, Ashley, and I, would take the passage that we had blocked by the lockers. Tanda would hide herself and Johnny somewhere on the grounds, until she heard one of us whistle. If nothing was to be heard, she was to find safety in the caves around the cliffs until the next sunset, then do her best to get herself and Johnny out. Once again everyone had the weapon of their choice and Jacob and Bo helped in any way they could to make sure everyone knew how to use them. Thanks to Garvin and Sydney, bypassing the goats for a change, that night we fed on a large pig. Brandon, Ashley, and Sydney, took the cell closest to the passage for the day, in case one of Yvette’s men tried to sneak down before we fell asleep, or as we woke, so that they could warn the rest of us. Garvin and Bo took the floor in front of Kelee’s cell.

  “It is not like I will be walking out, why do you find this necessary?” Kelee asked.

  “That would be some more of your business, so shut the…” Bo said, but couldn’t finish because Garvin put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Have you ever thought that some may wish you dead for your loyalty to Yvette, and that we are simply here to protect you, slave?” Garvin proclaimed.

  Kelee pursed his lips, bringing his eyes into small squints. He sat there with his arms crossed looking out at them for a few more minutes, and then turned and crawled to the far back corner of the cage like cell. The rest of us slept in the cell in the torture room, better known as our temporary home. Johnny snuggled as close to me as he could get, just like he did back home when a storm would come and the older boys would send him back to his own bed. Except he would never make it back to his own bed. He found mine.

  ***

  I woke early the next night as I had been for some time. Everything was quiet, and I didn’t have a thought about what was fixing to happen. I was almost blank with no thought at all, when I heard a soft moan. I sat up moving Johnny to the side then I stood and walked to the cell door to see if I could hear anything else. “Renee.” I heard in a weak voice. I ran out of the door and into the hall. Garvin was covered in blood in front of Kelee’s cell. I fell to my knees at his side.

  “Oh Garvin, what happened? How?” I spoke in a panic.

  “When I woke they had Kelee, dragging him out of the cell,” he said coughing on his own blood.

  “Who had Kelee?”

  “Normals, they saw that I had woke and began beating me, before I could react,” he explained as I helped him sit up.

  “I have to check the others, will you be okay?” I asked, now with my heart beating with more anticipation than I had ever felt

  “Yes. Go, I will be fine. Do it with caution, Renee. I did not see which way they went,” he said spitting the blood out of his mouth. “I will explain to Bo, when he wakes.”

  I ran full out glancing momentarily as I passed the room that I had slept in, making sure everyone was in there. Then I was off to check on my other little ones. I came around the corner of the room entrance and my heart fell like a brick. They were nowhere to be seen. Ashley, Brandon, and Sydney, had been taken by that evil women’s normals, while we slept and that damn Kelee had lied the whole time. I threw my head back and screamed at the top of my lungs, letting a rage escape my body like no other. I dropped to my knees, my hands became fists, my lips pulled back from my fangs and all that I saw was blood—her blood. I could not explain it, but I knew something had changed inside my body after taking the Master of Jacob and Jessie. I now know that I had become stronger, older. The understanding of what Garvin had explained about owning all when you take the life of an old Master, was starting to set true. Not just their personal possessions, but I now felt a part of Chin’s power building. I stood and started ripping the items out that blocked passageway.

  “I told them it would be safe to rest here. I told them I would protect them.” I spoke out loud, as I more viciously tore the things from the opening. “I told them this wasn’t a good idea,” I then said, as my body began to shake and my lips began to quiver, realizing that my own words were coming back to haunt me. My knees became weak as I let thoughts of what might be happening to them at that very minute enter my mind and all I wanted to do was get to them. I fell into the debris, tangling myself on my way down.

  “Renee, take my hand,” Jacob called out, but I was distraught and continued to kick and thrash about.

  “If you wish to get free, woman, take my hand,” he demanded.

  I froze in my movement at the tone of his voice, “Jacob... Oh God Jacob, they took them,” I cried reaching for him.

  “Garvin told me what he knew.”

  “You have to help me,” I added as soon as I was up. Then I started pulling the items out and throwing them to the side. I felt his hand land lightly on my shoulder, before he spoke.

  “You must get a hold of yourself or they are lost without doubt.” I lowered my head and it was then that I let it all out.

  “It’s all my fault. I should have never brought them here. I just wish I could take it all back.” Then I collapsed to my knees. I rocked back and forth, while Jacob stood aside letting me release the pain that was ripping its way through my heart. Once I had drained myself of self-pity, I looked up at the young man before me.

  “What do we do?”

  “I was created for this type of thing as I have said,” he smiled. “Battle is all that I know. So, I tell you now, you must keep your mind clear, because she will use your weaknesses against you at every turn. If we are to have any hope at all, we must move now.”

 
I nodded, wiped my face and got to my feet. I did something that I had wanted to do from the night I met this young man, I wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you, I mean it. For everything and you know what I mean.” He didn’t reply he just stood there like a frozen statue, and still I knew he was touched by my show of friendship. “Now let’s get the rest, make a plan and go get our family back.”

  “You are forgetting one very important thing,” Jacob replied with a serious look.

  “What?”

  “Kill the wicked queen.”

  The hell with that, let’s send that stupid bitch back to hell where she belongs with a force that no one will ever forget.”

  “Said, like a true warrior,” he responded as the two of us began running back down the long corridor.

  We reached the others as they woke, Garvin had made his way back to the torture room just as Jacob and I had.

  “Where’s, Brandon?” Derek asked stretching his arms into the air. About that time Garvin stepped into the small room. “What the hell? Where’s Brandon, Renee? Something’s wrong, I can see it on your face,” Derek demanded with a bit more force.

  “They took them while we slept,” I replied.

  He started to take off for the door, but Jacob grabbed him around the waist. “Let me go, he needs me, they’ll kill him.”

  “Derek, we’ll get him back. We’ll get them all back,” I called out over his cries.

  “Who else do they have?” Bo asked stepping in from around the corner.

  Ashley and Sydney,” I replied.

  Bo became so enraged that he lifted the cot that was beside the bars and threw it across the room.

  “We have to keep our heads if we want to get them back. Like Jacob said, we can’t go up there halfcocked or we will all lose. Well, he didn’t put it to those words, but that’s what he meant,” I explained.

  “Look, we do this in the next five minutes or I don’t give a damn what anyone says, I’m going, with or without you,” Bo replied, pulling his blade from his back.

  “Jacob, this is your area, make this work, and may whatever God’s be with us,” Tammy added.

  It was Jacob, Derek, and I that were going to take the passage once we had it clear. Tammy, Bo, Garvin, and Jessie would go up to the top floor and make their way into the front door, if they had to chop it down. Tanda was to stay with Johnny just like we had planned before, and leave the grounds as soon as we hit our marks, to wait it out under the cliffs, which was the only thing that we had changed. If she didn’t hear from one of us at least two hours before dawn, she was to find shelter in one of the caves, until the next night and do her very best to get her and Johnny to some place safe, which was something that I had to repeat to her several time. She held me and cried after I reminded her of what it was that she had to do.

  “I don’t mean to sound like such a baby, but how can I care for such a little thing like him when I don’t even know how to take care of myself?”

  “Tanda,” I said raising her soft chin in my hand. “You are one of the bravest girls I’ve ever known, and I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my baby brother.”

  “What if you don’t come back? What if no one comes back?” Tears ran down her cheeks and my heart broke into a thousand more pieces. The worst part was, she was asking all the right questions, I just didn’t have any good answers.

  “I’m not going to lie, things don’t look so good, and I’m sorry about that. I should have gotten you out when I first got here and this wouldn’t have happened. I’m so sorry baby, but I just can’t change a damn thing, and now you have to be the one to step up and help this little boy,” I tried to explain and felt like I was failing miserably.

  “It’s not your fault, Renee. I understand. I can take care of Johnny, because you came back for me, just like you said you would. That means you love me, like you love your brother. Every one of us owes you and your little ones for coming to this place. Can you ever forgive me for being so weak?” she said and dove back into my arms.

  “Child if I cry any more, I’ll just be worn out. We all have our weak moments, but let’s dry these tears. It’s time for me to go get the rest of my kids back.” She hugged me tight one more time. I turned and picked up Johnny who never once had a clue of what was going on. He was more concerned about when he was going to get to go with Tanda to see the barn animals, not to mention, pick the small lamb the two would share. I held him as if this would be my last, because for all I knew, it very well could be.

  “I love you, sweetheart.”

  “I love you to, Mommy,” he replied.

  And once again my eyes over flowed. Only this time, I cried with the depths of my soul. I knew his little mind was forgetting our parents, yet in the same breath, my heart was given a new power by those few words that he had just spoken to me.

  “Now you be a good boy and listen to Aunt Tanda, momma’s gonna be back real soon,” I spoke as my mother would have as I passed him over to her. He smiled back and we all went our separate ways.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  I made my way to where Jacob and Derek had been working away on the passage and soon after the three of us were working our way up to the top floor. Jacob was in the lead, holding the only torch. Derek was in the middle and I was coming up from the back. Jacob held his hand up as soon as he reached the top to warn us to be quiet, when he was pulled through the door leaving us in total darkness. Not one sound, nothing. Derek and I just stood there not knowing what to do next, when a body came crashing down on top of us. We both knew it wasn’t Jacob, because it was a large man and very dead. “Push him out of the way, Derek.” He did and we ran in.

  Jacob was surrounded by at least seven men, all holding huge blades not a foot from his throat. Jacob wasn’t looking at any of them; his eyes were to the front of the room. “Brandon!” Derek screamed. And it was then that I saw what it was that held Jacob’s attention. I grabbed Derek by the arm to keep him from lunging forward. He was moving his head from side to side, saying “No, no, no” over and over. Brandon was on one side at the back of the large room, and Ashley on the other. Both were suspended in midair, chained by their ankles and wrist, with their limbs stretched out taut. One thick metal collar around their necks was attached to a solid pole to the wall behind them. Other than the chains, it was the only other thing that held them firmly up in the air and they were up good five feet from the floor. They were both covered in so much blood that at first it was hard for me to tell that they were both nude, causing a sound of horror to escape from my trembling lips. I didn’t have to turn my head to see that Jacob had turned his attention to me, but how could I not let this bother me. “Renee.” I heard in a soft voice and I knew it was, Ashley.

  I started to go forward, when the old witch herself walked out from a door that was in between Brandon and Ashley. My anger became fire and I took two quick steps toward her. She held up a small device attached to a thin silver chain. “I wouldn’t do anything stupid, or I may have to do something stupid myself,” she said waving it at me.

  “Where is, Sydney?”

  “Oh, he still lives if that’s what you mean, but once I found out they were lovers, she was much easier to break,” Yvette said with a smirk.

  I looked up at Ashley. Her face was swollen and purple from the pressure of the collar. She and Brandon were going to choke or hang to death, if she didn’t let them down.

  “Let them go you bitch, or I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” I demanded.

  “Will you now?” she asked and she lifted the device.

  Ashley began to struggle. “I don’t wanna die. I wanna go home,” she cried, forcing out each word.

  “Shut up, I have heard enough of your blabbering,” Yvette yelled.

  “Then let her down. Just tell me what you want, Yvette.” I said.

  “Renee,” Jacob said. I looked back, and then lowered my head. I had no idea that I was going to see these two beautiful children like this, and how could I just stand here
... simple, I couldn’t.

  “I want you on your knees,” she said, as a smile spread across her face, “And I want you to be the slave to me that you were meant to be. You have taken my Annabel. I would say you owe me a great deal.”

  “Don’t do it Renee,” Brandon managed to say, choking with the pressure around his neck.

  Yvette tilted her head and one of her many soldiers took a long blade and sliced Brandon across the abdomen. Derek started screaming at the same time that Brandon did. The next thing I knew, Derek flew forward, hands in a claw like shape. He was knocked out cold and on the ground, before he ever had a chance to reach the man that had hurt his brother. Another man had come up behind him and laid his head wide open.

  “Do not fall into her trap Renee, it is what she has based everything on,” Jacob said.

  One of the men standing around him made a move to hit him like the one had Derek, but the man didn’t know who he was dealing with. Jacob spun and took him down with a foot to the man’s throat. Two others made their move and those two joined the one that he had just placed on the ground.

  “Enough.” Yvette demanded.

  “I see you have turned Chin’s son to your side. Did you really think that a few children could come into my home and undo what I have built over hundreds of years?” she added.

  “Someone had to try. Everything you do, everything you are, is pure evil, Yvette,” I replied with a vibrating growl.

  “And I will be doing it when you have been long gone. Is it really worth watching all of these things that you have created, die? I have to say that it was a wonderful story by the way. I was told everything by your little Ashley, had you been so easily broken, we would not be here now.”

  “Let them go and I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “Sweet Renee, do you think I would just let you come into my home, kill my guests, and then simply plead for the freedom of the trash you made, and all would be fine?”

  “No, not really. I’m sure you know what my hopes were. No more games Yvette, what do you want?”

  “You on your knees, begging me to forgive you. I think we can start with that.”