“Please, don’t hurt me,” he cried, dropping to his knees.
“We just want to ask you some questions,” I said then wished I hadn’t, because Jacob spun around and shot me a look like I had crossed over the line.
I backed out of the cell and took off. I had had enough. He had no reason to look at me like that when I said nothing wrong. If he wanted to run this game then he could have it. I went into the ladies dressing room and gathered the last of my things, with Shyanna by my side the whole time, and then I left out for the dock. The ship had to be close by now and I was getting on it. I knew that Johnny was safe in Tammy and Jessie’s care, and was actually enjoying the peace. I was just about halfway to the end of the dock when a sudden blur took me down to the rocky shore ten feet below. I landed hard on my back, with a heavy beast on top of me. It pulled its massive claw filled hand back, and then swiftly came down at me. That was all I remembered until I woke up in a small cave somewhere in the woods.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Shyanna flew back into the great room screaming like she was hurt, getting everyone’s attention including, the man-beast. He dropped to the floor on all fours and started chanting. Tammy ran up to her and tried to get her down, but she flew back out the door. They all chased out after her. Cates ran back in and backhanded the man, knocking him unconscious, before he turned to run back out.
“Where’s Renee?” Derek asked as he started looking around.
“Renee!” Brandon yelled out holding his hands to his mouth.
“Shyanna, come down to me, please,” Tammy called holding her arms in the air.
Shyanna floated above them for a few minutes then took off to the north. Sydney turned to Garvin and told him that I wasn’t near the estate anymore, that he thought that I had been taken away. Jacob grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, telling him to concentrate. Sydney closed his eyes and turned to face the water. He began walking like he was in a trance, making his way to the middle of the dock. He turned and went to take a step off the edge, but Garvin grabbed his arm waking him from the distant place his mind had taken him to.
“She went over the side.”
“She fell, or someone took her?” Jacob asked, sniffing the air.
“It was one of them,” Sydney replied pointing at the man that Cates had knocked silly.
He was stumbling out of the entrance of the gates. Jacob moved so fast towards the man, that he didn’t even have time to open his mouth. Jacob picked him up around the throat and slammed his body into the wood of the gate door. “Who took her?” When the man didn’t respond, Jacob slammed him a second time. “Who took her?” he yelled as his face started to reshape; his fangs showing their length as his lips pulled back. Jacob’s anger was close to the point of being uncontrollable. The man started nodding, but couldn’t speak with the pressure of Jacob’s hand on his throat, so Jacob slung him across the ground. The man got to his knees and held one hand out in a defensive manner as he held his throat with the other. When he didn’t say anything Jacob stormed towards him and sank his fangs into his neck, drinking until the man’s arms fell away like a rag dolls.
“Who has taken my master?” Jacob said so close to the man’s face that his own blood smeared off on Jacob’s bottom lip, leaving a streak across the man’s cheek.
“My Queen.”
“Where? Where, or I will kill you right now!”
“To the caves,” he cried.
Jacob dragged the man to his feet and pushed him toward the woods. He asked him several different questions on the way, and found out that I was with Cochee’s woman, in a cave a few miles from where they were.
***
I scooted as far back into the corner as I could get. The beast sat with its back to me, breathing heavily and growling like it was in pain. My foot slid out, and it turned on me. It went up on its hind legs, tilting its head back and shrieked a horrid blast right at me. I screamed holding my ears, waiting for it to bite down. I looked up when I didn’t feel its jaws snap around me and noticed it was a female, the first that I had seen in this form.
“Are you one of Sontos’ people?” The beast became enraged. It kicked dirt and rocks at me much like a bear would, when becoming angry. I covered my head with my arms and squatted low to make myself as small a treat as I possibly could.
She stepped back, and then went down on all fours. Once again I watched in amazement as the fur on her body started to recede and light brown skin took its place. She screamed as her bones shifted and popped, reforming themselves into her much smaller form. Her hair was past her backside and slick with clear fluid. She raised her head as she stood and she was beautiful. Her nude body was also covered in the thick slime, shimmering as she came closer to me. The one thought that came to mind was that I could take her much easier with her in this form, than I could while she was in the other. I pulled my gut together and stood as she stepped up to me. Her dark brown eyes watched mine with such intensity that I had to look away.
“You cannot face me?”
“I don’t even know you,” I replied, looking back at her.
“You dishonored my husband, and then your man took his life.”
“Cochee, was given to his father. My son let him live,” I replied stepping up to her, showing my anger.
“You lie!” she yelled and backhanded me into the wall, causing me to hit my head and slide down it.
“I saw him drop. I saw everything,” she claimed getting right down in front of me.
“Then you didn’t look close enough,” I whispered and kicked out with both legs.
She went flying back. I got to my feet looking for anything that I could use as a weapon since mine had been removed. I grabbed a rock and bounced it in my hand. The women sat up, and wiped at the blood that was running from her bottom lip. My feet had made a good contact with her lower face and mid-section. She sprang from the ground, coming right at me. I slammed the rock into the side of her head and we both went down. I pushed her nude body off of mine and rolled away from her. I laid on my stomach on the dirt floor of the cave with my head pounding. Pain was loving my body, when the reality of just how long I had been unconscious hit me. I scrambled to my feet and found my way to the entrance of the cave. It was pitch black out and I was grateful.
I started down the incline from the mouth of the cave that was a good twenty feet from the base of the mountain, letting the momentum take me down. I looked up to see if she was coming down after me, but saw nothing except the trees swaying in the wind. I heard a cry from the sky and knew Shyanna was looking for me. I made it to the bottom and ran, as far away from the threat as I could get. I had no way of knowing which direction that I was going. I just knew I had to move. One singular howl hit the wind and my blood turned to ice. I slid behind a tree and froze. I heard Brandon call out that he found a hurt woman.
“No!” I screamed and ran out from behind the tree, but it felt like my limbs were moving in slow motion.
I came around a group of trees as Brandon fell back from the cowering woman. He turned holding my jeweled hilt at his chest and I screamed out running toward him, watching his eyes fill with the horror that he was going to die. He dropped to his knees and into my arms. “No Brandon,” I sobbed, “don’t you leave me!” Derek and Sydney came running up as the others filtered through the woods. Brandon fell back into Derek’s lap and reached for his face, but his hand fell to the earth. He was dead, truly dead. We had lost our precious Brandon, because he was thinking he was coming to the aid of a victim. Derek’s cries could be heard for miles. My anger was boundless. The woman began to change, readying herself for a fight to the death, laughing like she had lost her mind. I screamed my rage and ran full out at the changing beast and tore my hands into the morphing flesh, tearing her piece to piece as she changed, using my teeth to rip out her throat. Her body quivered and shook as I ripped her flesh and pulled her insides out with my bare hands. Her corpse lay in a pile of ruin when I was finished, and I wante
d more. I stood covered in her blood then took the rest of my frustration out on the nearest tree.
My body collapsed into the base of the tree and I fell face first to the ground. I rolled my head enough to see Derek draped over his dead brother and a piece of me died. My hands were badly broken and my body had completely given out. Cates carried me back. Derek walked with Brandon in his arms well ahead of everyone. No one had spoken a single word. Before dawn we buried our beloved Brandon in the open foyer and set the estate ablaze. Derek was no longer himself. A black cloud had taken the one we knew when Brandon died in his arms. He went to the bowel of the ship and didn’t return as we left the day and the shores to those who lived on it. Johnny was at my side, and my remaining loved ones were close at hand. It would be a hard thing to get over losing one such as Brandon. He was the heart of us all. The prisoners were locked in the cells of the ship, four that now do as Jacob says without resistance. They were far easier to control than a breeder and welcomed his every command. Ronny and Marcos would stand trial with my people being the judge, jury, and executioner.
I stayed curled next to my baby brother that now called me “mommy”, not wanting the night to wake us to the thoughts that we would have to share. I didn’t want Derek to wake alone wherever he had hidden from not only the light of day, but those of us who cared for him. Tears fell as Brandon, Bo, and Ashley ran on the beach in my mind. Their laughter and joy of the life that I had given them, filling them with over ambitions of saving others in need, was pounding on my thoughts like a large hammer. They were all dead because of me and my desires to change a world that I knew nothing about.
“You cannot blame yourself,” Jacob softly said sitting on the foot of the bed.
“I’ve made all the wrong mistakes, Jacob. I’ve killed all of them,” I replied through the sobs.
“We all face the possibility of death, Renee. No one follows you blind.”
“He was so kind. Why did it have to be Brandon?”
“Would you have chosen another to take his place?”
“Yes. I would have taken it. Me, Jacob!” I cried sitting up. “She had the chance to kill me. Why take my Brandon?” Then I fell back on the bed grabbing my face.
“Renee,” he said touching my leg. “His heart put him in harm’s way. He made the mistake of trusting his enemy.”
“Don’t. Don’t sit there and make this his fault!” I yelled scrambling off the bed.
“He was the best of us all. He didn’t deserve to die thinking he was helping that bitch.”
“And you made her pay greatly,” he added coming over to where I stood in the corner. “I was not being disrespectful to our Brandon. He was like a son to me as well. His heart was far too soft for his own good, Renee. In time the evil of our world would have taken him.”
“I just want to go back and make it not real. I want him here with us right now,” I said, putting my hand over my mouth to hide my pain.
“It is what he left you that you must put your thoughts on now, for he will need you much more now than he ever has.”
“Derek?”
Jacob nodded and took me in his arms. I cried for what seemed like an eternity. Cates woke, and then the rest followed. I left the room as soon as the sun went down, in search of Derek. I looked everywhere and could not find him. My heart dropped as I imagined him jumping over board, taking his own life, leaving to be with his brother.
“Renee,” Tanda said in a voice filled with emotion. “He’s at the front of the ship, looking out over the water.”
“Thank you,” I replied and started to walk past her.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said taking my hand.
I looked down at her and squeezed her hand, then gently let go and walked away. I saw him sitting on the edge of the ships front anchor, covered in a black hooded cape. It was the one that he and Brandon took from Yvette’s, saying they would go in like a shadow, cloaked and completely unseen. They laughed and hid from each other seeing if its hood really helped hide their light hair. It did, the light of the stars outlined his bent form like a rock, unmoving against the shimmering waters that shined past him. The cape’s ends waved in the wind, but he sat like a statue as I came closer. I went to put my hand on his back then pulled it away.
“Derek, can we talk?” He never acknowledged my being there; he just kept his eyes on the water below. “Please, Derek. I need to know that you’re going to be all right,” I said then silently started crying.
“Go away, Renee, please. I wanna be alone,” he replied never turning to look at me.
“Come back inside with me, Derek. Please?”
“Leave me be. I mean it, Renee.”
I stepped back. His tone had changed. Brandon’s death took the Derek that we all once knew and replaced him with the one that I was now looking at. He was now cold, distant, and determined for me to walk away. It was as if I could feel a piece of his hate for me now. A piece that was driven by my changing them into breeders and my guilt exploded in my heart. I backed up and then turned and ran for the other end of the ship. I wanted to be as far away from the sound of his voice as I could get, because it would kill me to hear his pain again, his hatred toward me. I watched the distant light on the shore from the back of the boat that night, keeping myself away from the rest, very much like Derek. It wasn’t until Tanda brought me a cup of warm blood, that I even realized that half the night had passed.
“The others are worried about you and Derek,” she said taking the cup back.
“That was really good, thank you. Have you tried to give any to Derek?”
“I thought you may want to ask him.”
“No, honey, I think he might take it from you,” I said touching her chin. “You two are good friends.”
“I will try. His heart is heavy, and mine weeps for all of our loss.”
“See what you can do, he needs someone to lean on, whether he knows it or not.”
Tanda smiled and the two of us walked back to the opening of the lower levels.
She went out to Derek, as I went below to face the others. It was Johnny who brought tears to my eyes and put a smile on my face. “Mommy,” he yelled and came running straight at me. He jumped and I grabbed him with both hands, pulling him down into my arms, and holding him as my body began to shake. “What’s wrong, Mommy?” I shook my head as my tears cascaded down my face. I couldn’t speak for fear of breaking down all over again. Tammy came and took him out of my arms, and I immediately turned my back to the room.
“We are all here for you, Renee,” Jessie said coming up behind me and laying her head on my back, as her arms wrapped around me.
“We are your people,” Jacob added coming to my side and holding us both.
“Our blood is one with yours,” Cates said and bowed in front of me placing his huge hand over my foot. “You belong to us as well.” Then he wrapped his other arm around my waist.
Tammy, Garvin and Sydney joined us, reaching in and placing a hand where they could hold me, and I cried reaching out, touching each of them. I wasn’t the only one with red stains on my face that night. We all mourned, even my giant, Cates. The door opened and Tanda walked in with Derek on her arm. He was covered in crimson tears. He walked up to me and fell into my arms. We all circled together and held him. I looked up at Tanda as she smiled down at me, and wonderment took a hold of my mind, as I thought about the things she must have said to him. He held me like he had never held me before, crying into my bosom like a frightened child, and I held him with all the love that I had.
“Forgive me Lord Jacob, but we reach the coast line,” a worker said, holding his head down and eyes averted from the scene that we were wrapped up in.
“One more night out, Jacob. I don’t think were ready to face anything right now,” I whispered rubbing the back of Derek’s head.
“Please, Renee. I’m ready,” Derek said looking up at me. “I’ve never been more ready in my life.”
I saw a new man when he
spoke those words. There was no little boy left and even that broke another piece of my heart. I nodded to Jacob, who in turn nodded at the man. The ship slowly came to a stop and we quickly gathered our weapons. Derek moved about faster than any of us, placing blades in areas that I wouldn’t have even thought about, sliding one in the band that was holding his hair back. He swung the black cloak over his shoulders and walked out. I looked down at my jeweled handled blade and set it back down on the table. All I could see when I looked at it was Brandon, and that I couldn’t take. I reached for another one, but Jacob grabbed my wrist.
“Here, use his. He would have wanted you to.” Then he handed me Brandon’s silver dagger, the one that Bo had given him. I held my hand out. It was heavy compared to mine, but I took it with pride. I grabbed the hilt and slid the blade from the sheath.
“I think Derek would rather have it, don’t you?”
“I think he has chosen his weapons, Renee. He plans on taking out his revenge, and until that fire that is burning inside him has been sated, I think it best you hold such a valuable piece.”
I knew Jacob meant that most of Derek’s blades would end up in the body of anyone that happened to get in his way. That is, if the place was truly as bad as Cates and Jacob had described. I myself had read of lovers of the same sex, but I had never seen it with my own eyes. I was from a world where life came from a man and woman who raised their children under the eyes of God, by the sweat of their brow. We took only one boat, leaving Tanda and Johnny with Shyanna, hoping she would stay with them in the comforts of the lower levels as the ship headed back out to open waters. It was the only way that we knew to keep them safe.
Derek took the front of the boat, sitting there like a mounted statue, never turning back to even acknowledge us. The ride was rough; the waves rocking the boat as the storm was building around us. The night grew darker as the clouds hid the stars. By the time we reached the sandy shore, lightning was guiding our way. It made a streaking flash across the sky and lit up the cliff in front of us. Cates and Derek both jumped out and pulled the boat to shore. Everyone jumped out into waist deep water as the tide came crashing in. The boat was placed under the cover of the hanging rocks and we made our way into the small community of Morehead. The ship had dropped us off on the shores of North Carolina. We would now make our way by foot, finding shelter, and then continue until we reached Havelock.
Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Page 22
