Christopher: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (9 page)

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Kate walked around the big room and wondered what sort of questions they were going to have for her. There were things she was willing to answer, but there were also things that she could not. When Remy and Skylar came into the room along with the rest of the group, Chris pulled her into his arms for a much needed hug before they sat at the long table.

“What are you?” Kate nodded and told Remy. She liked the big man…he was direct, kind, but he was also a man who got what he wanted, and she liked that as well. “And this keeper of records, what is that exactly?”

“I watch over the things that happen in the world, this one anyway. There are others like me in different realms that do the same. When we need to have information, perhaps on something that occurred there, we can contact them and they can help. Every realm has one.” She looked at the people in the room before continuing. “Hector, you’ve met your keeper. Her name is Adaline. She is the one person on your realm that will never die, but continue long after there is nothing left of your home to keep the records. Then as the world begins to regrow, she will be the one that is there before all others.”

“Why?” She asked Skylar what she meant. “Why would anyone need to keep records if there is no one there to make anything happen?”

“But there are other things in the realm that are not human. Trees continue to grow and die, plants reform, adjust to their environment. People might come to the realm, see what is there is and move on. Or stay if they find the planet or realm something that they can work with. And not just plants, but the creatures that live there as well. They go on, function, live, die. It all needs to be kept on record.” Hector asked who helped her, or even Adaline. “Some of us take mates; others of us, like me, tried to make a life for myself. Fall in love. Most of the time there is one person for us, and they too will gather and help with the collection of information. I will admit that my previous mate was taken at a time when I was lonely. I should have known that he wasn’t for me and avoided that part of my life.”

“So not just keeping records of humans, but of all living things.” Kate nodded at Vicki. “The earth, she says that no matter what happens to us, the world around us continues. And you keep that knowledge somewhere safe, right?”

“I do. Magic is everywhere, even you know that.” Vicki nodded. “There are a few—some with a lot of magic, others with very little—that help me. They don’t know it, of course, but their magic sustains the place where the records are stored. And when I need information from another realm, the same magic helps me there as well. Like the monsters that day.”

“So you knew those monsters that flew in the sky were from my realm.” Kate nodded at Hector. “Could you have told us about them? Warned us that they were coming here?”

“I cannot intercede, nor can I change what is going on. I can only tell what is done.” Remy asked her what that meant. “Once they were here, the teratorn, I could help you with them. I could tell you where they came from, how they survived, and who had sent them. But only if you asked me. I cannot give you what you do not want to know. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you they were coming. First of all, I wouldn’t have known until they were here, and secondly, I cannot predict the future. I can only know what has been done.”

“So if we were to ask you, could you tell us if this ends? This war with the other realm?” She shook her head at Remy. “Then I don’t understand what you have said. You can help, but you cannot. You can give us information, but we must know to ask it. Is there anything you can tell us that would be helpful?”

“Plenty. But as I said, I don’t know what the future brings. I can only tell you what you ask, and only if it’s already come to pass.” Kate knew that she was frustrating them, but there was no way that she could tell them anything without there being consequences. “Remy, you must ask me.”

“I know not what to ask you.” Remy stood up and began to pace. “My life before this was so simple. If I needed information, I would simply ask my wife and she knew it.”

“Shandell, your lady wife, was a good woman. She did not deserve to die the way that she did.” He paused in his motion to look at her. “Yes, I know what happened. I have all the records for every birth and death, and even how it took place. Every blade of grass, every leaf that fell from the trees. Offspring that are born to people, where they lived, and where they’re buried.”

“I saw that.” Everyone turned to Chris. “The first day we were there, at this building, a book was in front of me and it wrote the name down of a child. The date, the time, even how much the child weighed. Then, just as quickly, it wrote the date of death, how she had died, and who was with her when she passed. I read up on some other things as well. Information that I thought might be helpful to someone. Turns out...it doesn’t matter how that turned out, but she’s right, it’s all there.”

“Adaline told me once that she knew where all the bodies were buried. That no one could get anything past her.” Kate smiled at Hector and the look on his face as what his friend had said to him took on a whole new meaning. “She does know where they are, doesn’t she? And the history of...well, all of us.”

“Yes. She, like me, is bound to rules that keep everyone safe. Not just us, but those that would come to us for information as well. Telling one of their impending death is not allowed. We cannot tell a person not to get into a car should we know that they are to die in an accident.”

Remy paced. She knew that he’d ask her questions soon that she couldn’t answer, and she waited for them.

“Then how are we to beat this thing? How are we to save the world?” She told him that the rest of the world was fine. “What do you mean, fine? These creatures are taking over the world. There were, at one time, hundreds of thousands of them. The world is not fine.”

“No, Remy, the world really is fine. They—the creatures—are only here, near the mountains and you. When they ventured forth, going to other towns, they weren’t able to sustain a life there. Too many people, too much magic against them. But here, this is where they were to be. And once they were able to kill you, as was the plan, then the rest of the world would crumble at their feet. It is here where they needed to start.” Chris looked at her before he continued. “I’ve seen what lies beyond us. Hundreds of miles away from here, this hasn’t affected them. A few ventured there, the malefactors, but the humans are living their lives. Going to school. Mowing their lawns. They’ve only concentrated here, near the mountains and you, Remy.”

“I get it.” They all turned to Vicki. “I know why that...it’s us. We’re here because.... Don’t you see? We were all brought here so that the malefactors would only come here, for us. Mostly Remy and the stones, but the other men, they came here so that it wouldn’t spread.”

“What do you mean?” Skylar looked at her and Kate only smiled. “Is she right? They’re only here because of us? If that’s true then.... I don’t know.... What if...what if we were to just give up? Or spread out? Then the concentration would be small enough that we could handle it.”

“No, that’s not right either, is it?” Kate watched Remy now as he figured it out. “We brought them, the other men, here in order to save the rest of the world. With us here, all of us, the malefactors were working to kill us and left the rest of the world alone. Had we stayed apart, tried to live without the power of all of us, then they would have spread out as well, changing more and more until they were covering every part of this earth and not just a small part of it. And our other halves, they’re here because...because we were to save them for us. For our reward, as Hector called them.”

“You’re both right, I believe. Had you not gathered here, then the world, as we all knew it, would have been gone. There would have been worldwide spreading of the monsters, and nothing would ever have been able to come back from the devastation.” Remy sat down and asked her if they could beat this. “Is it your wish to win this war?”

“What a question to ask. Why would I not want to save the world?” He sat there for several minutes, and she could feel his anger. “Yes. I wish this to end. Even if it means my death.”

“You are an immortal. All of you are.” He nodded, but still looked angry. “Tell me, Remy. Tell me what it is you’re thinking.”

“Can we save the other world as well?” She told him she had no answer to that. “Why is that? Because it is not your domain? Not your concern? Why can we not have everything the way it once was?”

“Now you’re just being cruel. And you know the answer to that as well as I do.”

He nodded and looked over at Hector. He knew as well as they did that they could not save the other realm.

As they all seemed to be lost in their thoughts, Kate moved out of the room. There was nothing more that she could do for them at the moment. Remy was a true leader, and once this information was processed, they’d be able to move on. For now, she knew that they each had to work through what they’d figured out.

Chris came up behind her and pulled her into his arms. “Nate is still fighting this. I thought about telling him about his mate, but I couldn’t.” She didn’t say anything. Chris had maybe moved a little beyond the bounds of what they could do, but it wasn’t breaking too many rules. “I want to take you back to our room and make love to you until we can’t move.”

“I love that idea.” As they made their way to the part of the building where the bedrooms were, she said nothing. She was, if she was honest with herself—and she seldom was not—tired. Not just of body, but her mind needed a rest too.

Their room. It had nice ring to it. Kate had been living where she could for so long, it was nice to have a place where she belonged. She supposed she could call the library her home, but it really wasn’t. It was everyone’s home. This place, it felt good. It even smelled like she thought of as a place that she could live forever.

“What happens to us when this is done?” She asked him what he meant, even though it was hard to think with his mouth at her throat. “Do we get to have a place of our own or do we live here?”

“I don’t...what is it you want to do?”

He’d pulled her blouse open and was nibbling his way down to her breast. But he was going so slow that she wanted to tell him to either do something or stop and let her do it. But when his mouth covered her suddenly bare breast, it was all she could do to stand upright.

When she was naked, her body warmed by his roaming hands, she watched him as he got down on his knees in front of her and pulled her body to his mouth. As soon as he suckled at her clit, already sensitive by him touching her, she came hard and fast. And she knew that this was just the beginning.

“I love it when you fill my mouth with your cream.” Nodding, she wasn’t sure she could speak beyond her body readying for him to bring her again. “When this is finished, I want to have children with you. Lots and lots of them.”

If she was going to answer, she had no idea what it might have been. Her body bowed back, and her hair felt as if it stood on end as he brought her over the edge and let her fall again. When she felt herself floating, knowing that he was carrying her to the bed, Kate touched him. Anywhere she could feel his naked flesh, she ran her fingers over it, tasting him too.

“Take me.” He nodded, his cock at her entrance, then he moved inside of her. It wasn’t just fucking, he was making love to her. Wrapping her legs around his hips, locking her ankles, she watched his face, seeing his animals there as they seemed to approve of what they were doing. They loved her. This she knew somehow.

“Come for us.” Kate screamed, her body simply obeying his command as if he’d had a gun at her head and ordered her. “Again. Come for us again; we need you to come again.”

Her body didn’t have time to ready for his command before she was coming again. Adjust to what was happening to all of her. Even as she came a fourth, then a fifth time, she felt his cum fill her, his body claim her as no one had ever done before. When she came again, this time rolling darkness claimed her, and she knew that this man would love her forever. And she would love him as well.

Chapter 9

It was destroyed. Everywhere he looked everything was gone. The lab, the medicine that he needed, every part of it was simply gone. Master looked around for Dolin or Ward. Both of them had been absent for some time now, and he could no longer hear them speaking to him. He could not even get close enough to see if the worker had made him any more of the lovely drug. The fire raged on, taking not just the building, but the ground and the trees surrounding it.

“They’re dead, you idiot. Why they kept you around is beyond me. If anything, I believe you’ve gotten stupider.” Mary had been mean to him for hours now, and no matter how many times he’d told her to hush up, she did not heed his commands. “I’m dead too. And in the event that you’ve not caught on yet, you are going to be stuck here if you do not get back to the other world before they close that down too.”

“I wish to stay here and make more creatures for me to rule.” She told him there was no one here to change. What was he going to do, shit some people? “You are very rude and I do not care for your tone. I am Master. And I will find them. They hide from me.”

“Look at you. You’re ugly, falling apart, and you’ve not a lick of sense. What do you think they’re going to do? Hmm? Are you going to stand here, yell for them, and think them to come running here to do as you bid?” She snorted. That was just what he’d thought of doing. “There is no one here for you to change. You’ve managed to kill an entire race, and are still as dumb as you have always been. When they brought you here all those decades ago, I told Ward you would never do. That you were too stupid to even learn to care for yourself.”

“Stop that right now.” He could hear her humming, something that she did when she was trying to annoy someone. She’d do it just long enough that you’d speak to her again, and then she’d start again. Master was beginning to hate Mary.

His body was still injured, but it also felt better than it had ever felt. He knew that he was bigger; whatever had done it to him, he was glad for it. Bits and pieces of what had happened in the lab flittered through his mind, but he wasn’t able to pinpoint anything. There had been a man in a cage, but he was having trouble remembering if it was him or someone else. Then there was the way his mind kept forgetting things.

Yesterday he’d been standing in an open field, and he could not for the life of him remember what he was there for. As he walked away, sure that he’d done whatever had brought him out there, he remembered that he’d been looking for food. Then this morning, he’d woke to find himself in his cave, but there was no one around. He’d called for Randall for twenty minutes before he realized that the man was no longer alive.

“Rembrandt was here too. He and that woman of his. They took my things.” He had no idea if that was right or not. There was something there, pain and blood, but he couldn’t think right.

“You’re stupid, that’s why.”

He decided to ignore her for now. Making his way to his portal to see if anyone had come through, he walked past a broken bell. Something about it conjured up images as well, but again, they were too fast for him to catch what it was about. He knew that the ringing of it, the sound, had reverberated in his head, and that it had made him angry. But then lately, everything did.

“I think I shall go back to Rembrandt’s world. There I can see about gathering a fold of my own so that we might plan and kill him.” That hadn’t worked out for him as yet, but he thought that his luck was to change. Mary told him he was a fool. “I’m no such thing. I am Master, master of all that will bow before me.”

He would have to find someone to repair him. He was falling apart, and some parts of him were no longer working correctly, like his arm. It was limp now, no longer functioning enough for him to even lift it. Even with the new energy he had, there was something wrong with his body. Looking at himself, he wondered if he’d be better off taking a body to use.

His left arm was useless, but his right seemed stronger for some reason. The left hung down from his body at the shoulder, and would not lift up for any reason unless he did so with his other hand. Well, it wasn’t a hand any longer, but a large claw that was difficult to use when he had to dress himself or even scratch his head. Even his claw was missing some of the sharp points at the end. And he could no longer become his other self, just the big monster that made him feel so wonderful. Most of the time anyway.

His body was bigger, yes, but no less sickly. Parts of his scales were missing, some of them broken and burned. He blamed that on the bitch of a woman that had burned him with her white heat. His tail, usually so strong and easy to swing around to keep his rear safe, no longer moved the way it should, mostly just flopping around behind him and getting caught in things. He’d also noticed that he was picking up nasty things with it. Twice now he’d had to stop to pull the dead from the spikes on the tip.

His mind, too, was acting strangely. Along with his recent memory loss, there were times when he could not even remember his own name, his purpose in life, or what he’d done to make himself look like he did. Large gaps were missing from his childhood…his parents and family, or even if he’d had any. Then as quickly as the memories were gone, they’d come back to him several days later with a clarity that he’d never had before.

“You had no parents, I believe. I think you to be hatched from a stone.” That hurt, but he said nothing to Mary. Of late she was getting meaner in her comments to him, and when he found her, he was going to talk to her about it. “Yes, you do that. Because you do know that I’ll heed every word of it, because
I am dead,
you idiot!” Her shouting at him had him holding his head. When she said nothing more, he made his way to the place where he could go between the two worlds.

The portal was just where he’d left it. It was damaged; some of the magic around it had been tampered with, but he knew that it would take him away. He looked around, wondering if he was forgetting anything, knowing somehow that he’d never return here.

“Not that it matters. I shall rule the other world, and will not even care that this place was here.” Mary called him a bastard. “You may call me what you wish, but you will not be at my side. I shall leave you here, with your lovers.”

Entering the magic, he closed his eyes. Movements like this, the magic almost seemingly sucking at his body at all the worse places, he wondered if he could find enough men to work for him and if they’d be willing to bring him food. Master realized quite suddenly that he was hungry.

The portal on the earth side of the realm was damaged as well. It took him several seconds to realize that he might have come just in time. As he moved away, his body burning from the magic, he saw the big dragon, dressed as a human, and his mate come out of one of the vehicles that had only just pulled up. Even Remy and that bitch of a mate of his were there. No one, he thought, saw him coming through, for which at the moment he was glad.

He thought about approaching them all. Killing them with his newfound power. But he was weak; lack of food, as well as the magic that had been depleted from coming through, had left him less than up to par, as Ward used to say. Moving back deeper into the wooded area around the group, he watched as they stood around a large building. Then one of them spoke.

“How do we destroy this?” No one seemed to have an answer, and Master wondered why they were doing it in the first place. It wasn’t theirs to destroy. They’d not made it. He knew that this was the building that brought him his men, the ones that had tried to help him, but he wasn’t really sure how that had happened either. “I’m all for just burning it down, using magic on it, then when we’ve done that, pissing on it.”

“Urinating on it will not improve its unworthiness to us, but I can understand why you think you must do it. Pissing on that will give me a great deal of satisfaction as well.” Master wanted to go out and strangle Rembrandt, even tear his head from his body, but he laughed then and Master knew that he would get the man soon. “However, burning it will be the first thing we do. Then when the others arrive, we will have Vicki and Kate work their magic on it as well.”

He had names. Master thought about them over and over. Vicki and Kate. He knew Rembrandt and Bitch, but as he repeated them over and over in his head, the reason for doing so was lost. When the building simply burst into flames, all thoughts of names and reason fled his mind as he watched his magic being torn down.
Will these people ever stop trying to destroy me
, Master wondered.

When two women arrived with two more men, Master moved away. He didn’t even know why he was there…watching his old friend tear down a building was boring and somewhat stupid. As he made his way to his cave, he thought about things he’d not thought of for years.

“She was no more your friend than I am.” Master paused and looked around for Mary when she spoke to him. “Remy’s wife was not your friend. She was a woman who was so far out of your realm of friendship that I’m surprised that she didn’t make you bathe every time you came to her home. Or take your meals in the barn with the rest of the animals that were stored there.”

“Shandell was my friend. Many a time, she would have me over to give her comfort.” Master tried to think what her face had looked like, the woman that had loved him above Rembrandt. “We had children together, she and I, and she loved me above all others.”

“Lies,” Mary screamed at him. “All lies, and you know this. She hated you. Did not want you around her children, and when her husband was away at war, where you should have been, she hid from you, barred you from entering her dwelling so that you could not taint her home. You were even then a monster to her. It is why you killed her, is it not?”

Master felt his anger grow. Even as he entered the cave, he knew that once he released his anger, Mary was going to be.... Master felt a pain in his head as he tried to think of Mary and killing her. At the thoughts of her body, grief so profound that he couldn’t breathe around it touched him. He could almost see Ward there, his sadness so great that it took him to his knees. Dolin too. The man had been crying, like a small child who had lost something. They had, in Mary, but his mind wouldn’t tell him how.

“What is this trick that you play on me?” She said nothing and he began to pace his new home. “You make me believe your dead. Dolin and Ward, what have you done with them? I demand that you bring them to me. I have a need of their services, and you are an annoyance that I can live without. Where are they?”

“Dead. Like you will be soon if you do not take care of Rembrandt.” The words, spoken so softly, nearly had him falling to his knees. He was an immortal, was he not? As were Rembrandt and the people, his enemies that were trying to murder him. “Are you, Benton? Are you like them? If you are, then why are you in constant pain? Why must you take drugs to keep you from hurting?”

“Why indeed.” He looked again at his body. “I am injured. What has happened to me? Where did...? Did Rembrandt do this to me?”

“He did. He and his bitch of a mate.” Master nodded and sat down at the fire pit in front of him. For a moment he missed what he’d been thinking about. Mary spoke again. “They are going to hurt you to the point where you are nothing more than a broken monster. How will that look when you rule? That someone so meaningless was able to get the better of you for a time?”

“I will rule.” She said nothing to him. “I will. Once I have taken care of those men and their mates, I will rule this earth with a hard hand and my magic.”

“You will not be able to rule anything if you do not heal. You must have more drugs to heal. Where will you find such drugs?” He had no idea. And what sort of drugs would he use? “Benton, pay attention to me. You must kill Rembrandt.”

“Rembrandt is my friend.” But that didn’t sound true either. Something was there, some memory that just teased at the point where he could see it. “He tried to harm my wife and children.”

Again, that wasn’t quite right. Children? Master tried to think if he had children and where they were. And a wife? He had never taken a wife as far as he knew, but she was there. Or some memory of her.

“Why can I not remember her?” Mary told him because she was never his. “Yes, she was. We were in love.”

No, again, that was wrong. Standing up, forgetting where he was for a moment, he tried to think. Then he saw the drawings on the wall. He moved to them, careful of where he was going for fear of falling again. It hurt him so to try and get back up on his feet.

There were pictures; crudely drawn, but he could make them out for the most part. Of course, whoever had drawn them had put the names of the people depicted in them. Rembrandt was there. A woman simply called bitch and a few others. Looking at the picture of the woman who seemed to have long fingernails at the end of her hands, he saw that she had red on her clothing, and he could only surmise that she’d been hurt. Then he moved along the wall and saw himself.

“I am quite handsome, don’t you think?” He had a crown on his head, as well as a long cape that seemed to be flowing behind him. Looking at it, he smiled. Beneath his feet was Rembrandt. “I do believe you’re right. Rembrandt and I are not friends. He is trying to kill me. I need to find him and kill him before this gets twisted up in my head again.”

Sitting down again at the fire pit, he used a little of his magic to warm himself by starting a fire. The longer he sat there, quietly letting his mind work, he realized a great many things. And most of it was making him angry.