Bloodbreeders: The Revenge (10 page)

“Hold on, Derek,” Bo yelled as we both pulled them from the enraged ocean.

“I thought I was gonna die,” he gasped as he gripped Bo’s waist, crawling his way to safety.

“That’s a little redundant isn’t it little man?” Bo laughed lifting him into a bear hug, with me wrapping myself around them.

“Renee, he’s not breathing,” Ashley yelled in a frantic tone.

I slid over to where they had pulled Sydney from the water and felt for his pulse. “What are you doing?” Ashley asked. I pushed her away and did what I saw my pa do when my brother Sam, almost drowned in the Hordes Creek Lake. I turned him on his side and pressed his ribcage a few times, trying to get the fluid out of his lungs. I turned him back over and blew air into his mouth. I rolled him onto his stomach and pulled his arms over his head, by pulling on his elbows. I then turned him back over and blew air several more times into his mouth, hard enough that his chest rose. This time he began to cough. I turned him back on his side and yelled my gratitude into the night as he spit up the ocean that his body had taken in, when he tried to save one of my little ones.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Bo asked with astonishment in his voice.

“My pa said he learned it back in the war times. I didn’t really think it worked till now.”

“How’s Derek?” Sydney coughed.

“He’s fine. We’re going to take you back to the beach house,” I explained while helping him sit up.

“I need to stay with the boat,” he replied holding his ribs.

“Yeah, well this boat might not even be here if this storm gets any worse,” Ashley added taking him under one arm.

“Oh, don’t even joke about that,” he said leaning heavily on her. “She’s all I got.”

“You have us now,” Derek added as he stood between Bo and I. “Ain’t that right y’all?”

“That’s right, Derek,” I said out loud, then I whispered. “You’re a living doll, you know that sweetie?”

“He ain’t so bad. He never let me go, not even when that big wave crashed into us.”

“Looks like we all made ourselves a worthy friend,” I added as I kissed his cheek.

We made our way back to the beach house, parking the car in the garage. Once inside, Bo and Derek built a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room. Warmth soon filled the space, as the flames cast a soft glow. Sydney looked like he was going to be feeling his ordeal for a few days. Derek was holding the arm that he had broken a few nights before. At first I thought that it was the arm that Sydney had held onto, but it wasn’t. The fact that we heal amazingly fast compared to our once normal selves, left me puzzled by his actions. His bones shouldn’t have any sign of discomfort after this much time had passed. I knew we would have to talk later. With the fire blazing, we all huddled around it. None of us really felt the cold the way that Sydney did, but our bodies remembered the comfort that the flames gave on a stormy winter’s night.

I made Sydney stay up all night in hopes that he would sleep the day away. I told him that I thought it would be for the best if he stayed down in the basement with the rest of us. Of course, I did my best to keep any thoughts of Rebecca and her entourage at bay. I would hate to think about what would happen if those four showed up and found a strange normal, sleeping on what they considered their couch. At least this way we could protect him if they were to show up while we were getting ready to leave. I knew they slept the day away just as we did, but my trust in the animalistic ways of the others is on a scale too small for measure. My imagination could see them sleeping in a small crypt, waiting for the falling sun, so they can rush to the beach house and kill us before we even knew they’re there.

Chapter Ten

I woke up with all of my little ones surrounding me. I looked down where I thought Sydney was going to be sleeping on his makeshift bed, but the only thing that was there was a pile of messed up blankets. I slid out of the middle of the kids and crawled off the foot of the bed. I think it will always seem strange that, none of them moved when I pulled myself away from them, when we slept together. No one rolled to their stomachs, and no one stretched out. They were like frozen pieces of art. Tonight was the first night that I stood and watched as they started to wake up…if that’s what one would call it.

Bo’s arm twitched, then I noticed the pasty ash tone of his skin began to change. His leg stretched out as his head went back and he drank in his first gulp of air since the night before.
His eyes blinked several times as the tone of his flesh took on its own normality. I could even see the veins pulsing under the thin skin on his neck. Moments later, Brandon and Ashley began to show signs of waking. My mind relished every last second of the wonders before me, always wishing that I knew more and now standing here watching it unfold. Derek was the last to wake, but they all did it the same way, which told me that it was the way that I woke. Just like most teens, they lay there moaning and pushing against each other. I stood in the shadows watching in amazement at the thought of being taught something so important, by those that look to me for the answers.

“Wake up you sleepy heads. We have a boat to catch,” I announced, walking up to the foot of the bed.

“One more hour, Mom,” Derek moaned.

“Yeah, what he said,” Bo added, arching his back then rolling over onto his stomach.

“Now you guys move around,” I said, then started laughing at my own private joke.

“Haven’t I heard this story before? You know you couldn’t go back to sleep even if you wanted to.”

“We could pretend,” Derek interjected.

“We need to go make sure that everything’s alright with the boat. Sydney’s already taken off,” I replied pulling the comforter off of them.

“He did?” Ashley said jumping off the bed. “When did he go?”

“He was gone when I woke up.”

“You guys heard her…get up,” Ashley yelled.

“Holy cow. See what you did, Renee? You created a monster when you brought him around,” Brandon said as he sat up on the side of the bed.

I let them go back and forth over the statement that Brandon had just spouted off, and went on upstairs. Sydney had left a note on the inside of the door that said he couldn’t lay there anymore, so he was going to go get things ready on the boat. He said the weather had turned for the good, and to not worry, just come over when we woke up. He left a ‘P.S.’ saying that he would have to talk to me about what he saw when he woke up. I giggled to myself, thinking that I bet that he would. If he had waited around he would have a whole new subject to talk about, because waking up was a topic all on its own.

We left the car in the garage and walked down to the dock, carrying what little that we had left. I think we took our time that night, saying goodbye to the sands of our home land just in case we didn’t make it back. No one had much to say on the way to the boat. I think we were all a little on edge thinking about the first major step in our adventure to Cuba. Just five new bloodbreeders, standing against a world of the unknown, leaning on the support of one normal to make sure that their journey was complete.

I stood on the deck of the boat watching the lights that graced Corpus, very much the same way that I had the first time I crossed these waters. Everyone was hustling about in a state of excitement. Sydney was on the top deck with Ashley at his side, leading us deeper into the endless night of rippling black waves. The further that we got out the brighter the stars became, and the more that Sydney had to explain how he used them to navigate where he was going. The tarp was back in place and without turning around, I knew that all the kids had joined Sydney at the wheel. I could hear them laughing as he let each of them take a turn navigating the boat. Not one seemed to notice the lights fade on the shore; not as much as I did.

My heart filled with fear every passing second. Getting even one yard closer to the place that put me through so much torment was now making me physically ill. We had been holding off from having a meal every night, to every third night, so that we would be prepared for the trip. My hands were shaking and I couldn’t do anything to calm the thoughts that kept running through my mind. I had to gain my composure before they came back down, or I had to go up.

“You have to give into them if you’re going to be able to get your friends out,” Sydney said stepping up behind me.

“Give into what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I want to kill those bastards too for what they’ve done, but you have to let it get you angry again. Fear is only going to get you killed.”

“How much have you seen?”

“Enough to know that you won’t let them take you alive again,” he replied looking away from me. “No woman should have that taken from her.”

“Please, don’t say anything else, Sydney,” I said, placing my hand over my mouth.

“I feel like I’m apart of you, Renee. I don’t know what you did to me, but I think I belong to you. No one will ever hear those words from me.”

“I did want to use you for this boat, but I never wanted you to read my mind. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to have to witness something like that,” I explained, walking closer to the front of the deck.

“This is the first time since my dad died, that I’ve had friends on board.”

“Didn’t you say he died five years ago?” I asked turning to look at him.

“Yeah. So you see, I’m glad you guys came along. I don’t understand a thing about what you are, or why it is that you have to do things like drink blood, but you’re just good people to me. Don’t get me wrong,” he said holding up his hands. “I couldn’t live without my sunny days, and root beer floats. I’ll be staying just like I am, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week.” Then we both started laughing, because he already knew that I was relieved hearing him say that he didn’t want to be one of us.

I told him to go tell the others that we were going to feed. It didn’t take very long for everyone, including Sydney, to come down. When I asked who was steering the boat, he told me that he lowered the speed and put a straight stick on the wheel to keep it stable. I hadn’t been up there so I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but everyone else was nodding their heads in agreement.

Bo carried over a small white pig that was squealing loudly. On the open ocean it sounded like it was echoing as if we were in a large black dome. It was then that Ashley came out of the kitchen with a good size bowl, handed it to Brandon then turned around and went right back inside. I watched Sydney as he watched their every move.

Bo sliced its throat while Brandon caught the warm stream of blood. “I am so hungry.” Brandon licked his lips.

“Are you going to try it? I did that once before I…you know, became like this,” Derek asked Sydney, with a bit more information then he needed to share.

“No silly, but I’m going to cut me up some of that meat. It’ll make great jerky for one thing, and it’ll give me a darn good supper tonight for another,” Sydney replied licking his lips.

“I bet I could chew on some jerky,” Derek added.

“No!” Was what he got in unison from everyone except, Sydney.

Now it was Derek that followed Sydney’s every move. I sat back watching in awe, as the young boy who not more than twenty four hours ago wanted to beat the tar out our new friend, was now acting like he could do no wrong. Sydney carved the gutted carcass, hanging thin strips of meat across the rope that held the tarp in place. Derek sat crouched down next to him as if in a trance watching intently, leaning over, mocking Sydney’s move when he bent down to remove another piece for making jerky. The rest of my little crew explored the beauty of the night on the black water. Bo eventually left the others and went up and took the wheel, with few instructions from Sydney.

“Once you finish washing that off don’t you think you better get some sleep?” I asked Sydney, as he threw the last of the remains overboard.

“I suppose I should,” he replied, pouring a bucket of ocean water on the deck. “Derek, I can get that.”

“Nope,” Derek said getting to his knees. “My arm needs the work out.” Then he reached over and picked up a brown brush and started scrubbing the floor.

“Mind if I sit here?” Sydney asked as he looked back in amazement at Derek’s hard work.

“No, not at all. I find it a bit strange myself,” I snickered. “But my pa always said to never look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“You have four great kids here with you, Renee.”

“Yeah, but what am I doing with them?”

“It looks like you’re creating a family unit.”

“Family doesn’t bring those that they love into the presence of hell itself, Sydney. If I had made them stay behind they would have found a way to follow me, then they would have surely gotten themselves killed.”

“I don’t mean to sound like a total ass, but what makes you think that being with them will change that?” he asked leaning into me.

“It won’t, but at least I’ll die with them,” I turned staring him right in the eyes. “I’m sorry that I got you messed up in this. We should’ve just taken your boat.”

“And what? Just leave me all alone on a part of the earth that I can’t stand…that would have been so sweet of you,” he replied then put his hand on my shoulder. “Thanks, but no thanks.”