“Me’om…me’om!” she cried as she tried to lift me out of the churning waves.
“Go to Derek, Shya. Me’om is fine,” I yelled trying to get her to let go of my hair. “Shyanna, let go!”
Once I yelled she released me and flew to the shore. Cates took Tammy around the neck and started swimming to the shore with her. Garvin and Sydney made it to Brandon and Derek, while Jacob took a hold of me. We were all safe on the rocks below the cliffs, but the creatures above were going mad with the want to get to us. Derek and Brandon had collided as they hit the water, breaking Derek’s arm, the same arm that he had broken before, and Brandon was knocked smooth out when Derek’s elbow hit his head. He was still out when we reached the shore, so Cates picked him up like one would a small child, and ordered that we move right away.
“My leg, I think I broke it when I landed on that thing,” Tammy said as tears filled her eyes. “Just go, leave me. I’m too heavy and I will slow you all down.”
“No one stays behind,” I said trying to pick up her arm, but she pulled it away and shook her head.
Cates handed Brandon over to Jacob, who had a harder time, not because of his weight, but the bulk of his frame, compared to Jacob’s small one. Tammy was shaking her head, as Cates reached down and picked her up the same way he was carrying Brandon. “Light as a feather.” His words made Tammy look him in the eye. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his broad shoulder, hiding her face while she cried. I heard him several times whispering to her that everything was going to be fine, and that it was a privilege to carry such a beautiful woman. I heard her sniffle, then chose to walk further ahead, giving them their privacy.
“Did you know about those things? They live pretty close to your land,” I asked Jacob as soon as I caught up.
“One never knows where they move to. They can mark a territory up to five miles or to fifty. They have been in this area for about eight years, but never this close to our land.”
“Have they ever attacked our kind like that?”
“Chin had made a pact with the leader of their clan, but that was during the first year of our stay. Now, they too might have heard about the changes being made.”
“So now they’re going to come and try and kill us?”
He stopped and turned around to look at me.
“I know that was another stupid question, but can you tell me anything? Have they attacked you before? And how did Chin talk to a dog and make them understand?”
“You are going too fast and asking too much at one time. I will make it as clear as I can once we reach our home,” he said, turning back with Brandon in his arms and more speed in his step.
“Well at least tell me how far that is?” I yelled stopping him again.
“It will take much longer if you keep talking.”
“Don’t you dare get pissy with me! I was just asking you a question.”
“No. You were asking many.”
“Please, can we just get out of this area? You two can fight all you want once we reach a place of safety,” Garvin interjected as he and Sydney passed us.
“Talking to a damn dog. They’ve all lost their minds,” I muttered as I stomped in behind Cates and Tammy, taking the rear of the group.
I thought more on the line of a pack of wild dogs with rabies, not something we could simply talk to. Where I came from we just put them out of their misery and went on with life. I know that I saw them from pretty high up, and from a downward angle when I was climbing, but all that I saw was an overgrown dog with smelly fur. I never got an answer as to how far we had to go, so I followed at the pace that Jacob set. Brandon started coming around about an hour after we made our way off the rocky part of the shore.
“What happened?”
“Can you stand on your own?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Derek happened. He landed on your head and broke his arm,” Jacob replied releasing a small chuckle.
“Is he alright?” he asked in a nervous tone as Jacob lowered his feet to the ground.
“I’m fine, but bro you have one hard head,” Derek laughed, still holding his arm.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better I have one hell of a headache thanks to your arm,” Brandon said as he and Derek laced their arms over the others shoulder and helped the other walk.
“We need to keep moving,” Sydney said looking behind him.
“Can you feel them in your head?” I asked looking back in the direction he was looking.
“No, not at all. But I can smell them and I don’t like what I smell.”
“They will not leave their territory unless provoked,” Jacob explained watching Brandon’s movement.
“Think they felt provoked with us walking through?” I asked taking Brandon under his other arm.
“I think they will stay in their boundaries. They were just making a point, or they would have been more stealth in their movements,” Jacob added, turning to keep moving as we talked.
“Let someone kill a few of us and watch the rest retaliate,” Derek said as we came up behind Jacob.
“True in most cases, but not in this,” he replied never once turning around.
“They pushed themselves on us, bringing the death of their comrades on themselves. We merely defended ourselves.”
“It isn’t always an eye for an eye,” Cates interjected. “If your little ones started a fight and lost, would you avenge them?”
“If you’re asking me, you bet,” I replied in full confidence.
“Interesting. You would fight even if your people were in the wrong,” he said while leaning over to miss a tree branch.
“She loves her people, Cates. Not just because they do as she says, but because they have a bond without conditions,” Tammy added lifting her head from his shoulder.
“I would die or kill for any of them, even the ones that think they know everything,” I laughed.
“You mean Jacob, of course,” he replied smiling down at me.
“Of course!”
I left him and Tammy laughing and Brandon in Derek’s care while I went to catch up with Jacob. He stopped on the curve of cove on the beach. Cates walked up and took a deep breath, and we both stepped out onto the soft sand. Once we were across the cove and back on a rocky shore I asked Jacob what was with his and Cates reaction to the sandy beach. He looked and pointed past the trees to a glow of lights about a mile up the shore.
“The cove marks the beginning of our land. We are home,” he explained as he reached over to take my hand, very much like he did with his sister.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The rocky outreach of the cliffs that we now crossed was absolutely ridiculous to get over. I was on all fours moving over most of the earth, having no clue how Cates was going to get Tammy over it. My answer soon came when I heard Tammy complaining about having to get back in the water, and more so having to get back into his arms. Cates walked out far enough to get her over with ease. I believe we all stopped and watched him swim past with her, wondering why we hadn’t done the same thing. “Smart ass!” I yelled out then went back to watching Shyanna hop from rock to rock. When she found it too hard of a leap, she opened her wings and skipped it. She was my shadow and seemed to prefer staying as close as she could. Just watching her fly up over that first cliff made me wish breeders came with wings.
Several men met us on the other side and immediately started telling Jacob of their worries. He in turn told them that we had trouble with Sydney’s boat and left it at that. I on the other hand, told them to ready us a meal and a warm bath. We stunk as bad as the rogues—well maybe not as bad—but the blood on our clothes and the flakes that were pilling from our skin, was starting to take on a smell of its own. It had dried to the point that not even the jump in the ocean could wash it off. As those men turned to run back toward the house I could now see Johnny, Tanda, and Jessie, running toward us. Johnny did his famous leap and I missed. He shot right over my head and i
nto Brandon’s grasp.
“You silly thing,” I laughed taking him. “You keep jumping like that and you’ll reach the moon.”
“We’ve been playing ball,” he excitedly replied.
“Really? That sounds like so much fun.”
“You smell bad, Mommy.”
“Oh, I do,” I snickered tickling his side.
“I’ll go warm you a bath,” Tanda said and started to move faster.
“Not this time, I’m already taken care of. I just want us all together now,” I added putting my arm around her.
This is what we were supposed to be—together. We filled the dock as we stepped up and walked through the entrance. Cates took Tammy into the room that we women stayed in, and two young women rushed to her aid. I went back with Tanda and Jessie to the bathing area, and started taking off my soiled clothes. I put my robe on and went back out. The only ones that were left in the sleeping area were Jacob and Cates.
“The others went to wash,” Jacob said as soon as he saw me looking around.
“Good, we all need it.”
“How is Tammy?” Cates asked.
“I believe you’re sweet on her, Cates,” I smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I am a man and she is a woman,” he replied, raising one brow.
“I just didn’t take you for the caring kind.”
“I have been known to woo the opposite sex.”
“She’s been through a lot.”
Tanda walked out and the subject changed. She was coming to fetch me for a bath and I was more than ready to follow her. Shyanna was too busy eating out of her bowl of fruit to come after me, so I left her with Jacob and Cates. I sent Tanda to check on Tammy and bring her back to where I was when the others were finished with her leg. I stepped into the hot water and slid up to my neck in the fresh fragrance of roses. The oil felt like magic to my dried, cracked hands, and it soothed every inch of my body that was covered in filth and blood. I went under and rose up just to my chin and closed my eyes. I could still smell the scent of the big dogs deep in my senses. It was their size that was burned into my brain. I lay their wondering what else we could possibly encounter; quickly pushing the thought aside, knowing that Jacob insinuated that there would indeed be more.
“May we come in?” Tanda called out.
“Please,” I responded sitting up in the tub.
Tammy was hopping, using Tanda for a crutch. Jessie came in behind them with a stack of clothes. We three helped Tammy get cleaned up, washing her hair the best we could without setting her in the tub. We explained to the girls what we had seen and done, as we all got ready for a long awaited rest in a nice soft bed. Tanda cringed when we told her about the walking dead, saying she had heard Yvette speak of them before. Jessie turned to look at me when I spoke of the big dogs.
“Why do you look so surprised?”
“They’ve never came this close before, unless they had council with the old one,” Jessie replied and resumed brushing Tammy’s hair.
“I just don’t get that. How do you talk to a dog?”
“I think it best if Jacob explains this. He knows a great deal more than I do,” Jessie claimed, lowering her head even further.
“Why don’t you tell me what you know?” I asked, putting a brush to my own hair.
“Renee, it’s not a very believable thing to hear, much less say.”
“After what we just told you that we saw, I think I would be more open minded about it than you’re giving me credit for.”
“Would you believe that a dog could at times, look like a man?”
“You mean like catching it just right and getting a different view?” I asked.
“I mean, someone that talks, walks, and looks as we do one moment, then turning into his animal self a few minutes later,” she paused looking over at me. “Would you believe that?”
“No, I guess that I wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t have believed in the walking dead either. Hell, I wouldn’t have believed in our kind, not in a million years,” I laughed dropping the brush on the vanity.
“I remember when Chin had one in our prison. The man-beast had crossed into our land by mistake and killed one of our people. He claimed he was frightened and lost control. I went down into the lower level and saw him as a man, but he was really just a boy, only now he was nude and vulnerable to his surroundings.”
“Did you talk to him, could he speak like a man?” I asked more interested than I would have ever thought.
“As well as you or I. He was kind in every way,” she paused thinking. “He was the son of the clan leader, and they wanted him back untouched. It was then that Chin made an accord with them.”
“So, Chin let the man go?” Tammy asked, turning around.
“Not at that gathering. I’m afraid his punishment was to be whipped in front of our people, and then he was to be freed and given to his kind. The boy fought the chains, and changed into his beast, killing the one who held his chain, and was taken down by our officers. They beat him to death.”
“That must have really pissed off his, pa,” I inquired in a roundabout way.
“His people disappeared into the woods, as the boy’s father laid out a curse, swearing that any breeder that crossed his land would be subject to instant death for what Chin had done. That was the bond made between the two, an agreement if you will.”
“What did Chin do?”
“He just stood and watched the man go with his people, never saying anything about what he had heard. I know that extra guard went up for many years, but this is the first that I’ve heard of them since that night. I stayed with my mother, and we rarely came to this stay. I believe Chin worried and made it so.”
“I’ll see y’all later. I need to have a talk with your brother.” I got up and left the bathroom to the girls.
I went out and found Johnny and Shyanna playing with a leather ball on the floor, but there was no sign of Jacob or Cates. I walked out into the open air foyer, and still no sign of anyone. As I was walking into the great room, or where they had their council, a man and two women came around a corner and froze at the sight of me in my long white robe, with my hair draping over my body like a cloak. They all went down on their knees. The one girl that carried a tray of bath items spilled them on to the floor, and started picking them up in a panicked manner. I bent down and she slid away. I began picking up the spilt items and replaced them on the tray. The man started helping me, then took my hand when I went to stand. The girl crawled back over to my feet and laid her head on top of them.
“Please, get up,” I said, saying it more like an order than a request.
“I was a fool to be so clumsy,” she replied staying on her knees and bent over even further.
“We all drop stuff. Would you please get up off the ground?”
“Do as she asks, Mona,” Jacob said stepping into the main room with a clean pair of black silk pants on.
“You clean up nicely,” I smiled.
“I might say the same about you. The smell is an improvement,” he winked. “Take your things and go, the others wait.”
The three scurried off like little rabbits running from the big, bad wolf. I went for a walk with Jacob, telling him what I had been told of the big dogs. He told me that his people called them The Moon Clan, but knew them as the wolf people as well. He agreed with everything that Jessie had mentioned, throwing in a few things that she hadn’t. He said what the others did not know was that three of Chin’s normals were working on the dock, repairing it on the eve of one of their many departures, when a female servant heard the screams of the men and went to the gate to see what was going on. He told me that he found her hiding in a wooden box in the back of the kitchen, shaking from head to toe, saying that a giant beast ate the men on the docks. He went further to explain that when the sun had set, he and Cates, along with a handful of his guard went to inspect the dock. They found bits and pieces of the men’s body parts spread from one end of the dock to
the other, as if his men were trying to run for their lives, which they probably were, losing parts along the way.
Jacob told me that Chin sent them out to search for the ones responsible and bring them back for punishment. They had looked for four nights before coming upon a camp close to the shores edge, about thirty miles north of where we were now. He said they had two bodies torn to ribbons, eating the flesh and meat raw, even though they had a fairly large fire burning. My mind began to see the vision that he spoke of and chills ran over my body. I wanted to ask if the two bodies were human or breeder, but I wanted him to carry on with the story, without my many questions. He said that when they rushed the camp that all were killed and beheaded, all but the one who was smart enough to run. It was Cates, who later found him by a small brook and knocked him unconscious; carrying his fur covered body back to Chin’s home and waited for the thing to come around. It was then that Jacob learned the truth behind the clan, because the man went from fur to skin before their eyes, and all while in his sensible state of mind.
“Why didn’t Chin just make peace with them?”
“Chin was not one to do something to weaken his status.”
“How could a person making peace with their enemy be showing weakness? It’s the most honorable thing in the world.”
“No, Renee. In your old world, not in this one. Soon enough you will learn that our enemies are so, for a very good reason. Two beings cannot live as one without consequences.”
Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Page 18
