I was about to say something when Jacob yanked on the rope, pulling me back behind him. I bit my tongue, but he would damn sure hear about it later.
“You and Chin were close. I knew you would make the best ally,” Jacob replied going to one knee, then right back up.
“In all these years I never really noticed how very young you looked,” Caden said walking up closer to Jacob. “Chin must have been a man after my own liking.”
I saw Jacob double up his fist and I stepped in. I knew that I had better do something or Jacob was going to blow the whole deal. “Pig!” I screamed and kicked Jacob right behind the knee cap. His leg buckled and he went forward. I screamed again and ran straight for him hitting his lower back with my shoulder and taking us both to the ground. By now he knew what I was doing and made a sparing move on me, flipping my legs out from under me, causing me to land flat on my back, and with my hands tied behind me. It hurt. I rolled like a wild alligator ramming my body into Garvin’s legs pushing him into Sydney who toppled into the shrubbery in between two trees.
“Enough!” Cates yelled turning all of us on the ground into statues.
“You will pay for that,” Jacob snarled grabbing my shirt with both hands and lifting me none to gently to my feet.
“Hey, not so damn rough,” I snapped then added, “or I’ll beat the shit out of you just like I did your old man.” Then I spit in his face.
Jacob reared back to backhand me, but paused. Caden laid his hand on Jacob’s shoulder and shook his head, then stepped in front of him, looking me dead in the eye. He smiled, seeming to be a very delicate young man, then he smashed his fist right between my eyes. I flew back and once again was lying flat on my back. He was no prissy boy, and I would not make the mistake of judging a book by its cover again. My head was spinning, and nothing that anyone was saying was making any sense, then all of the sudden, things became clearer.
“Is she mine to do as I see fit, or not?” Caden asked standing in back of his two body guards.
“Lord Cates just lost his self for a moment. It was not your actions that he became so angry about. It was that he did not get to serve her first. She killed his mate,” Jacob lied and quickly I might add.
“Is this true, Cates?”
Cates nodded breathing far too heavy for just words, and I begin wondering what I had missed.
“Never put your hands on me again, unless you have my permission,” Caden said then came walking back up to Jacob. “Bring them inside. The boy can stay with us, but the thing has to be taken elsewhere.”
“You have my gratitude,” Jacob said turning to look at me.
I rolled my eyes back and just laid there. I raised my head just in time to see a black figure slip into the front door and I smiled from ear to ear. Caden walked over and spit in my face. “You make me sick.” He twisted around and grabbed the arms of his men and walked back up to the house. I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop. Sydney began snickering to the point that he started laughing and it looked like we had gone mad.
“Can you get up? Are you hurt?” Cates asked coming to me as soon as Caden was out of sight.
“That little boy can hit,” I laughed, letting him pull me up.
“That will not happen again.”
“You almost blew it, didn’t you?” I asked looking up at the gentle giant.
“Had Jacob not been swift…yes.”
“Are y’all really going to let them take me somewhere else, because if you are I’m not going in.”
“Calm yourself,” Jacob replied. “I will insist that Cates accompany you, or there will be no deal.”
“And if he doesn’t go for it?”
“Then we do what we do best.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
We went inside in single file; Garvin and Sydney, behind Cates and Jacob, and then myself, with me stumbling in between the four as if Cates was really dragging me by the makeshift rope. The closer we got to the open door, the better I could see the inside. It was ten times more cluttered than Jacob had described. It was hard to believe that the ones who stepped out of the pigsty actually came from anywhere near here. The clothes didn’t fit the home, and I didn’t understand any of it. The foyer was full of old piled up clothes and boxes, and the staircase was just like Jacob described. You would truly have to kick your way up or down, there was so much crap sitting on the steps. They lead us through a door at the back of the staircase and into a small room that lead to a larger one that was in no way, shape, or form, anything like what we had just come through. The brass trimmed furniture shined with its high polish, and the tiled floor was glowing with the lights of the candelabra sconces that hung on the walls. It was overly immaculate. All the décor was in dark burgundy colors from the throw pillows that adorned the chaise lounge at the foot of the four poster bed in the nook at the left side of the room, to the heavy drapes that hung and lay loosely on the wall behind its headboard.
Jacob was about to step into the room when Caden, spun around and stared at his feet. One of the men beside him looked a few seconds later and walked over to a pale pink rug and slid his shoes off, showing he was wearing no socks. Jacob bowed his head slightly then followed his action by removing his. We had never been so careful when it came to attacking our enemy, and never had I seen Jacob act as if his skin would crawl off of his body at any moment. It seemed like every time Caden reached out and brushed his hand over Jacobs shoulder or back, Jacob’s essence would change. I personally got no vibe off the sick minded little breeder. He may have a heavy hand, but no matter how hard I tried, I just didn’t find him to be impressive at all.
“Can your man control them both in the outer room, my…” Caden paused wiggling his fingers around, “not so pleasant works, calls for my immediate attention?”
“He can,” Jacob coldly replied.
“Buttons, be a doll and wait with them. I don’t know if I trust just one handling her. She took Chin after all. Please, join me.”
The one he called ‘Buttons’, which was also one of the two bigger body guards that had walked out with him, now walked up to him, kissing him directly on the mouth, as Caden ran his hand through the man’s hair. My mouth hit the floor, and the pictures in my mind became a little clearer.
“Queers,” Sydney whispered.
“Where?” I whispered back and started looking around. “You mean the situation? Yeah, it’s very queer.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“I think I’m beginning to get the picture,” I snickered a little too loud.
“Shut up, bitch,” Caden yelled from across the room. “Open that mouth again and I’ll smash it in.”
Cates stepped around me, and Jacob told him to remove his shoes, leaving Garvin in the room with Buttons, and Sydney and me down our knees. The door closed and we waited.
“Caden will like this one,” Buttons said running his hand over the top of Sydney’s head. “He’s in a good mood, and now that he knows this bitch isn’t like what he’d heard, he will want to feast this night.” Then he ran his hand over Garvin’s shoulder and down his back.
“You would do good to keep your hands off of Lord Jacob’s property,” Garvin hissed, causing me to turn.
Buttons heard my movement, looking down frighteningly fast then drew his foot back to kick me. His face changed from fierce rage to opened mouth confusion. He lowered his foot, and then pulled open the front of his suit. His nicely starched white shirt was turning a vibrant red as he watched. He ripped open the shirt and a small piece of silver stuck out by his nipple. He dropped to his knees and my cloaked dark one pulled his blade free. Derek grabbed the big man by the ankles and dragged him out of our area, disappearing somewhere back into the depths of the house.
“What the hell are we going to say?” I asked, getting slightly panicked.
“You can’t say anything,” Sydney replied sounding just as frantic.
“Lie on the floor and act like you got into it with him,” Garvin said
noticing the black smear that happened as Button’s was taken into his death state. Derek was fast but not fast enough to stop Button’s from marking up the floor. “Never mind, we have to hide this.”
Sydney and I slid closer together and Garvin got behind us. Now that everything was silent we could hear laughter in the other room. The door swung open and Cates looked at Garvin, then down at me. He stepped in and closed the door. He spun around, thinking the man might have been behind him, and then slowly looked back at us.
“I am to follow the man to the lower levels with Renee, and you,” Cates pointed at the boys, “are to go in with Jacob.”
“Derek killed him,” I shrugged.
“Go in. If you are asked we have gone with Caden’s man,” Cates said helping me to my feet.
“What about that,” I asked nodding my head toward the smear by the door.
“We have no time. Go now Garvin, this one is no fool.”
Cates pushed me through the door back into the cluttered hall by the staircase. I slid on the gore of Button’s remains, where Derek did a poor job of pushing his remains into the pile of garbage. I looked around in the dark shadows and saw nothing resembling a human form. I was concentrating so hard that I yelped out loud when Cates grabbed my arm. He pulled me to my feet for a second time and untied my hands.
“If we are to seek for others we must move quickly.”
“Here,” a soft voice said.
“Derek,” I whispered.
I heard the creak then felt Cates’ huge hand grip my forearm, then he pulled me across the hall. We entered a small landing where Derek led us down a long, winding metal staircase that stopped on a floor that split into two directions, and both were going down long, dark halls. Derek went down the outer walkway-like hall that led to another set of steps that went further down. The glow coming from the bottom lit our way, and gave us an idea of what we were stepping into. It was a big square room very much like every other type of torture room, only this one was well lit and carried a heavy stench of fresh blood.
Derek moved out first, stepping into one of the shadows made by a standing shelf in the right hand corner. If I hadn’t seen him go there I wouldn’t have suspected it. Cates, our giant, proceeded to the opposite side of the room moving as if he was walking on air. I slid in behind Cates, and watched to see what Derek was going to do next. He brought his head out and nodded toward the open room, then went back into the shadow. Cates dashed out getting a glance, then came back in shaking his head. He pushed me back then stepped out. He and Derek walked into the room and several men started asking who they were. I peeked around the corner and stepped out, simply from the sheer shock of what I saw. The men were leaning over what I would call a padded saw horse; neither wearing a stitch of clothing. They grabbed their privates and rushed around the other side after they saw me.
My eyes scanned the room coming to a sudden stop when they spotted the backside of a male strapped down to a table with his legs spread and dried blood puddled between his “family jewels” and coating his buttocks. It was hard to tell if he was alive or dead from where I was standing, but the scream brought my attention back to the two men yanking on their chains to get away from the sight of me. They were all nude and slim framed. These two were holding each other like they were the last things left on earth, both scrunching up their face and staring up at me. There was another door in the far left corner of the room and the two men that were on the saw horse took off running for it. Derek pulled his blade and flung it through the air, hitting one in the middle of the back. He went down screaming as the other man fell to the ground trying to hold him up. Cates pulled his sword and shut up the two closest to us, in a slow, agonizing manner. He and Derek then took two more dark lives. Cates chopped like they were going to be getting back up, and didn’t stop until I called out his name.
“Sick…foul,” he said spitting on the remains that stayed very close to their normal selves.
“I’m going to check the one on the table,” I said as I started to walk over.
“Don’t bother,” Derek said, whipping the gore off of his blade. “He was dead the first time I came down here.”
“He’s a normal?”
“Was a normal.” Then he turned around and stepped over the two he’d just killed.
He leaned his ear on the door that the nude men had been running for, then turned the knob. Cates and I made our way up behind him, giving him the lead of our exploration of the very strange world that we had entered. I was getting the meaning of what “a lover of men” meant when it came to those like Caden, and now knew why my parents said that there were things better left unsaid. As soon as Derek opened the door the air rushed out, pushing us all back more than a few steps. It was the worst thing that I had ever smelled and we had seen and been in some horrible places. My mind couldn’t begin to imagine what was inside the dark room. Smoke mixed with the stench of rotting death billowed out around our feet, as the decay scented air filled our nostrils. I gagged, bending over, breathing through my mouth. Cates swallowed, gritting his teeth, holding back the urge to join me. Derek acted unfazed, stepping into the dark pitfall, grabbing a torch off the wall as he returned, and going back in without so much as a warning of what we would be walking into.
I stood up, wiping my mouth and glancing at the carnage that Cates had made of the two chained men, and closed my eyes tight. It was hard to tell where one body part started and the other ended. He had literally chopped them to pieces that went perfectly with the smell that perfumed the air. I grabbed the back of Cates’ shirt and followed him into a room that brought me to a whole new reality in cruelty. I grabbed my mouth as my eyes gripped the scene in the room. Derek walked slowly around the mounds that were everywhere on the floor. It was easy to tell they were bound bodies that had been burned. Not after death like an old breeder would turn, but actually lit on fire and burned.
“They’re the females that he kills,” Cates said, squatting down next to one.
“How can you tell?” I asked, hugging myself.
“She holds her child.”
“What?” I asked, looking closer. “Oh, my, God!”
“This has nothing to do with your God,” Cates said standing up, pulling his sword.
He and Derek looked at each other and the heat from the gaze was a frightening blaze all on its own. Derek lifted the hood of the cloak over his head and went for the door. I turned and ran out before Cates. I didn’t want to be the last one left in the room that was filled with burnt women, some clinging or bound to small children, more than likely all girls. They must have been burned alive and that thought alone created a rage inside of me that made me want to do the same thing to those who had committed the act. Since we wouldn’t find out who that was, I would take the one who gave the order.
As we were fixing to go back up the steps, Derek stopped and went around to the back of the spiral stairs and called out to us. There was a wooden crate with movement shuffling around, coming from the inside. Derek and Cates began tearing the top off and the muffled, whimpering sounds of a woman and a small child became apparent. I ran back and grabbed the torch and brought it over as they lifted off the last of the top. The woman was tucked in with her knees bound tightly to her chest and her hands were behind her back, tied at the elbow and wrist. The little girl was bound much the same way, only without the strap around her elbows. Both were blindfolded around the eyes, and gagged at their mouth. When Cates lifted the woman out of the crate she screamed through the gag as her body shook violently from the pain. She and the child were normals.
I crawled into the crate and untied the child’s wrists and as gently as I could I pulled them forward. The little girl screamed through her gag and fell unconscious in my lap. I quickly unbound her frail little legs that were so tight up against her body that her flesh bled when I pulled the rope away. My eyes were flowing with tears that came both from hurt for their suffering and anger that it had even occurred. Cates untied the woma
n’s legs then removed the gag on her mouth. He reached to remove the binding on her eyes and I cleared my throat. When he looked at me I shook my head. They were normals and probably had a home somewhere with a family that longed to have them back. If they didn’t see us and know that we were what we were, they could be taken back to the life that they once knew, and maybe in time bury this horror in the depths of their memories.
“My husband? Please, they were killing him. You have to find him,” she begged as soon as her mouth was freed.
“Leave your eyes covered,” I said handing Derek the child, watching as she tried to lift her arm up to her face. “Find something to cover them.” Then I took the child back and laid her next to her mother.
Derek took off and Cates went up the stairs. The woman pulled her unconscious child into the arms she could barely move, and began frantically pushing her hair back trying to feel her breathing. “She’s alive. Lay still until you get the feeling back in your limbs.” She began to weep and I had to stand and turn my back. It was pretty obvious that the man on the table was her husband and she had heard his fatal cries. Derek found a gray blanket and I covered the woman and child. I knelt down and stroked her hair and told her to please leave the binding on her eyes, telling her that we could get them out alive if she could not make out our faces. At the time it was the best thing that I could come up with. If she were to see us, she would be more frightened then she already was. Cates came back down and said that the others were still in the main room. He lifted the woman as carefully as he could and I took the child.
Derek went up first, then we followed. We took the two victims to the front door, finding it was locked solid. The two stained glass windows on each side of the door showed several torch lights moving out in the woods. The men we had seen earlier were coming back. We rushed into a room that looked like it was once a dining room, but now a dump ground for discarded junk. It was filled with broken furniture, old clothes, garbage, and stacks of chopped wood. Cates pulled a couch over on its back and laid the woman behind it. I placed the child by her then he slid the couch in, hiding their whereabouts. I turned to tell Derek to hide, but he was gone. A metal clank and a sliding bang rang out as the front door came open. I ran and put my back up against the wall. Cates walked right out like he lived in the place.
Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Page 24
