Bloodbreeders: The Revenge (13 page)

Ashley grabbed my arm and pointed in the direction where she had spotted Bo, who was raising his sword above his head. He stepped back into the shadows and a few seconds later, the guard walked into our sight. Bo’s blade came down so swiftly the man made no attempt at a reaction. Bo simply stepped out, wrapped his arms around the dead man before he fell to the ground then he disappeared again. Not five minutes later we heard something coming up behind us. I pushed Ashley to the side and pulled my blade a second time. Derek stepped out and smiled, then dropped the arms of the dead man he was dragging. Brandon came in behind him, wiping the remainder of the man’s blood off of his hands.

“I won’t be hungry for a while,” Derek snickered, getting a slap in the back of the head from Brandon.

“You’re up, Ash,” Bo softly said stepping in from the shrubbery, never once being heard by one of us.

“How’d you do that?” Derek whispered.

“Easy, your mouth was running,” Bo glared.

We all stayed on the outer rim of the hedges, and when we were almost to the gate we split up. Ashley, Bo, and I went past the gate and down the road, then turned around and came back up. Bo and I slipped off to the side of the road as soon as we got close enough to see the soft glare from the light of the lantern that was on the inside of the little gate house that the two men were in. Brandon and Derek were making their way around the other side, so they could come up from behind. My heart went out to Ashley as she looked back one last time before she started what looked like a death march up to the door.

The men saw her through the two panel window as she was making her way around. The men jumped up and ran out with weapons pointed at her. Immediately she started telling them that she was lost and needed help. It seemed to relax the smaller of the two men, but the bigger one stayed in his defensive stance with his blade pointed directly at her throat. If someone made the wrong move right now, she could die simply by the man’s reflexes.

“My Master was supposed to meet me outside for a walk on the beach, but I think I took the wrong turn,” Ashley lied, swaying her hips from side to side. “I really wanted a little company on the beach tonight. A slave doesn’t get a night off very often.”

That’s when the big man lowered his weapon and raised the side of his mouth in a sinister grin. Both men started laughing, telling her that they knew how to make her night, even if they were hot blooded. Then the smaller one added, “As long as you promise not to take too much.” Ashley smiled, still swaying slowly from side to side, and then she did something that dropped my jaw. She unbuttoned the first few buttons of her shirt, while both men locked eyes on her chest. Two dark blurs fell from the top of the small house right down on top of the men. One man had enough time to make the sound, “Oh” before his neck was snapped.

Brandon was pulling his blade out of the bigger man’s throat, who was still alive and gasping for air around the damage that Brandon had done. Brandon raised his blade for a killing strike, when I grabbed his wrist.

“Hide that one and help Brandon drag this one in the bushes before he bleeds to death. I wanna ask him a few question,” I instructed, as I stepped around the house to see if there was any movement by the main house.

I was more than relieved to see absolutely nothing. I was elated because I wasn’t even sure we were going to make it that far. I turned back to find the kids dragging the big man down into the bushes that were beside the gate house. I went down last and kneeled beside the dying man.

“What did they do with the man that they brought off the boat this afternoon?’

“Help me,” he pleaded as blood gurgled out of his mouth.

“I’ll do whatever you ask if you’ll just tell me what I want to know,” I replied, putting my hand over the wound on his neck and adding pressure.

“Inside,” he moaned.

“Is there a lot of my kind inside?”

“She’ll kill me,” he said as if the life wasn’t already slipping from his body.

“Tell me how many and I’ll save you from her,” I lied, in away.

“Renee,” Ashley said.

“I know what I’m doing, Ashley. Does the Mistress have a lot of guests?” I asked the man more sternly.

“Few…cold months,” he muttered, then his head fell back and death took him.

“How were you going to free him,” Ashley asked.

“Finish him off,” Bo answered nodding once at me.

“Front door?” I asked looking from one to the other.

Chapter Thirteen

Each one in turn said the words ‘front door’. We made our way back up to the main house the same way that we had moved away. I jumped over the hedge and ran up to the side of the stone wall. I slid around the corner and dashed to the front double doors. The others were to wait until I saw if the coast was clear. This was the one thing that I insisted on. I cracked the door open and all I could hear were the screams of Sydney’s agony. I heard Ashley, before I saw her sprinting across the drive with the boys right on her heels. I closed the door, knowing it was some sort of sound proof entrance. Once I knew it was secure, I turned around in time to see Bo and Brandon taking Ashley down at the same time. I gritted my teeth and didn’t bother with hiding in the shadows. I just walked right up to them.

“You could have blown everything,” I snapped, showing my temper. “Now get up and do this right or get back to the boat, because I don’t want to die here, and I damn sure don’t want to go through what he’s going through right now. I’ve been there before and I didn’t like it.”

“She heard him, Renee. I felt her body jerk,” Brandon said looking up at me.

“Ashley, honey,” I softly said getting down on my knees. “Let her up boys.”

“Their killing him,” she cried.

I picked her up into my lap and began rocking her. She was a real mess. Not only was she crying, but she was also skinned up from the fall. I took her back to the side of the house, if that’s what you would call it. It was made of large square stones and looked much more like something you would read about in a fairy tale, not in a nightmare like the ones that were going on behind its walls.  I heard Rebecca call it an estate, after I called it a castle. “I didn’t mean to snap like that, but if even one of them would have come out that door and saw you running up, it would have been over. That man that you love would have done all that he has done for us, in vain.”

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stand…”

“I know.”

I shook my head at the boys and wondered if she would be able withstand what we would find on the other side of the doors. “I’m gonna to go and see what’s going on. I want y’all to stay put until I come back,” I explained, giving Bo the look that told him to keep things in order.

“And if you don’t come back?” Brandon asked taking Ashley.

“Get on that boat and get as far away from here as you can before dawn. You know what to do after that.”

I left them standing there thinking about what I had just said. It was a good reason for me to go first, but the real reason that I wanted to be the one to take the lead this time was, because I knew what I was looking for. I made it back to the front door and cracked it open enough to listen. This time there was nothing but silence, so I opened it a little further. My heart was causing a pressure in my head with its rhythmic beating. I had to concentrate to get myself to calm down, or I was surely going to make a mistake. I took several deep breaths and pulled the door open and quickly looked inside, pulling my head back just as fast.

I could now feel the fine tremor in my body, and an unbelievable heat rising on the inside of my stomach. I soon realized that the lump in my throat was actually my heart. I closed my eyes, said a small prayer, and stepped through. I closed the door and dashed to the far right and hid next to the long burgundy curtains that hung from the ceiling to the floor. I made my way to the one door that I knew Yvette would have had Annabel take Sydney through. I turned the knob, seeing in my mind Enrique, standing on the other side waiting to grab me by the throat. I opened it no more than a few inches seeing nothing, not even the light of a torch, but I could certainly hear the cries of my friend, as the stench from the depths below brought memories of horror crashing back into my mind.

I shook my head and swallowed back the rising of my stomach’s contents, and went back to tell the others which way to come. I had them come in one by one, and wait close to the door, hiding anywhere they could find. Once we were all inside and the door was back the way that Yvette’s people knew it to be, we started moving through the door that led to the lower levels. I had my hand over Ashley’s mouth when we were stepping into the small area, where the steps began to go down. She was already crying just hearing the man she cared so much for screaming in undeniable pain.

“Just a few more minutes, then whoever is hurting him dies,” Bo whispered next to her ear.

“Please, no, I swear. I’ve told you everything. I was lost,” Sydney yelled through his pains of torture.

“Who marked you then?” Annabel demanded and Sydney screamed a scream that sent chills down my spine.

I darted past the others and flew down the stairs. The further down I went the more familiar the scent became; it was that of much death. I turned the corner and slid on the slime covered floor. I gathered my footing and ran out, straight at the torture room door. I crashed through landing on the floor at the foot of the very table that she had once tormented me on.

“I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes,” Annabel laughed stepping back from Sydney. “I knew you would be back, but never on your own accord.”

“Go to hell you bitch,” I said getting to my feet.

I looked over and gasped at the sight of, Sydney. He was completely nude and strapped down like a wild beast. Arms, waist, legs, ankles, and even his head were in the famous leather straps. He was covered in so much blood he was almost unrecognizable.

“I didn’t tell them anything,” he said choking up blood. “Nothing, I swear.”

“You are the one that marked this animal?”

“He’s my friend.”

“Your friend will pay for deceiving me.” Then she rose a blade up that I didn’t even know that she had.

“No!” I screamed and raced toward her.

“Fool,” she yelled, as she turned and grabbed me around the throat with her free hand.

I quickly took hold of the hand that she held the blade with. I saw my death in her glowing eyes, as she started to push me backwards, slamming me into the wall. Her fangs were snapping at me like a rabid dog. “You should have waited a hundred years before coming back and trying to take…” I saw her blink a few times then she released me. I slid to the floor, looking up at her as she began appear to bend down and look at me. I gasped when her head slid from her body, and landed right in my lap, while her body collapsed at my feet. I turned the gruesome thing over, and I watched as her mouth moved in a silent complaint. I smiled down and shrugged my shoulders, as it turned to a blacken mush in my hands.

I looked up to see Bo standing, smiling down at me, and wiping his long sword clean. I shook my head and held out my hand. As soon as I was on my feet I rushed to Sydney’s side, where Ashley was already cleaning off his face. Brandon and Derek were working on his restraints, while I looked for something to cover his nudity, finding only a small cloth on the table by the wall. Once he was free he started telling us what sort of questions they were asking him. He said that they could smell a familiar scent on his flesh and knew that he had been marked by one that they knew. He mentioned hearing Martin’s name, but said that the other woman said that it was impossible, because had been stupid enough to go to London to look for his whore.

“Did they say anything else about him?” I asked interrupting him.

“No, they wanted to know who marked me, so they called in that bitch,” he replied and pointed. “What happened to her?”

“Holy shit, she turned to ashes,” Derek bluntly added.

I couldn’t explain any more than anyone else in the room as to why her body turned to ashes right before our eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was dead, and that was all that I cared about. I warned the others about Enrique, and that he would without a doubt be coming to check on Annabel, and that we needed to be ready.

“Do we have to stay down here? I can’t stand this smell,” Derek complained, holding his nose.

“Wait until we move deeper in,” I replied helping Sydney off the table. “See if you can find him something to wear.”

“Further in? Aren’t the bad guys on the upper level?” Derek asked, coming around to look me in the eye.

“My friends may be somewhere further down here. If they found out who helped me, I can guarantee it.”

Derek was about to argue when Sydney went into a seizure. His body began to convulse, throwing itself forward as we were lowering him to the floor. I pinned his shoulders, while Bo held his legs. I thought Ashley was going into shock. She was pacing asking what was going on, over and over. I yelled at Derek to get a hold of her. She was too weak to be here and I was kicking myself for bringing her. He wrapped his arms around her and started whispering in her ear, and she actually calmed down. Sydney fell unconscious after the seizure was over. Blood was trickling out of his ears, telling me that he had a concussion from the beating.