Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others (17 page)

I went into a state of panic when I woke, smelling something burning, thinking it was me. I began swatting at my body frantically, as my mouth let out the sounds of a frightened girl, and a not so brave breeder. Jacob turned me around and stared shaking me by the shoulders. “You are fine. Open your eyes!” He pulled me into his embrace and began rocking me like a child. I shook as the thoughts of waking in flames left and gratitude took over. I pushed away from Jacob’s chest and sat on my own, feeling a bit foolish for over reacting.

“I don’t know why it scares me so bad,” I told Jacob as I scooted closer to the fire, the one I smelled when I woke.

“It is natural to fear an enemy that you cannot defeat.”

“Never thought about it like that, but no one else seems to be as bothered by it.”

“Everyone has their own fear, and to them it is far worse than it is to others. Where you could easily slice the throat of a man who has harmed an innocent, Sydney would hesitate. It is one example.”

“Strange way to put it, but I get the point.”

“What is strange about it? Sydney fears harming another no matter the reason. I have seen him hesitate even when his life was in danger. You would not.”

“I knew he was having a hard time with the brutality of people like, Cortez.”

“The pit touched his mind,” Jacob said looking over at me. “The look in his eyes told all.”

“What do ya mean?”

“I mean, he will make a good warrior, but his heart will not be what you know now.”

“I think we’re all losing our former selves. You and Cates aren’t included.”

“And why is that?” he asked smiling at me, as Shyanna rolled over and passed gas.

“You’ve had more than enough time to get used to this shit,” I laughed. “It’s strange how we don’t have normal bodily functions anymore.”

“Your words,” he laughed with me. “We have also lived under a well-structured past. So do not think that we have not felt the change that you have brought about.”

“Is it really that different?”

“I was used to moving at the lift of a finger and standing while my master took the whip to my back. You have given us a breath of fresh air. I do not know how else to explain it.”

I laid my head on my knees and smiled at him. Those words meant more than all the gold in the world. Everything was worth what we had been through, and his words were all I needed to hear to make me want to search for others. To see the face of a being who has been so abused that their bodies were withered to nothing but a shell of their former
self, is both heart breaking and a jubilation at the same time. More than anything I wanted to get back to our home. I wanted to see Johnny and the girls. It was obvious that we couldn’t take them into harm’s way, or leave them on the ship when we went inland. It was now out of the question after seeing what happened to Sydney’s boat. I was getting to the point where I didn’t know what to do about them. They could become victims far too easy.

Cates started waking up before I could talk to Jacob about moving the girls and Johnny elsewhere, because as soon as the real word got to the elders, that would be the first place that I would look. Cates roared out, coming up like a bear, stretching his arm above his head. I stared laughing at the way his shadow looked like the bear that made the sound, all being ironic because this was probably an animal’s shelter at one time. They immediately started talking about having to go up and around the open cliffs due to the tide that would be coming in close to the time of our passing under the cliffs that were a few miles south of where we were now. They explained the way that we would head out once everyone was awake. We all needed to feed, our movements were sluggish, Derek more than the rest. It could be seen as they all woke.

“They need to feed,” I said turning back to Jacob.
“I have seen no homes, much less one with livestock, since we left the last.”

“We are not far, maybe ten, fifteen miles from our land,” Cates broke in, walking up to the fire.

“Renee’s right. We need to go out and find something,” Jacob replied getting to his feet.

“I’ll go,” Derek quickly added standing and dusting off his pants.

“No! You save your strength in case we find nothing,” Jacob ordered with the explanation, then he and Cates left the cave.

“Why do I feel so weak?” Derek asked sitting down beside me.

“I feel the same way,” Brandon added.

“It’s this bite mark that hurts, feels like it’s infected,” Sydney said scooting closer to the fire.

“Mine too,” Tammy said.

I put my hand to my neck and hissed. I pulled my shirt over my shoulder and looked
at the bite mark. It was swollen, not better the way the other wounds that I had had on the next day. Every one of us had one or more bite marks, and all looked extremely pale compared to our normal appearance. All but Jacob, and Cates, who had no marks at all. I didn’t seem to feel as weak as the others, giving that to the fact that I had drank from Jacob, but I still felt as if I was getting the flu. My bones ached and I had a strong pain pulsating where the bites were.

“I think we may have a type of infection from the rogues,” Tammy added as we all got closer to the fire.

“I didn’t think we could get sick,” Brandon inquired looking down at his arm.

“It had to be something in their mouths, like rot.”

“What? What do you mean
rot
?” I asked hoping that wasn’t what I heard.

“They eat ravishingly, leaving flesh in their teeth to rot, over and over, creating a toxic bite.” Tammy’s explanation gave me chills in a bad way.

“So, what happens to us?” Derek asked, getting to his feet.

“I don’t know,” she replied looking up at him.

“What do you mean you don’t know? Is it going to make us like them?”

“No Derek, it’s just going to take a little longer to heal,” I said basing no fact behind my statement.

“I’m gonna be sick.” Brandon stumbled to his feet, and then to the corner in time to lose his stomach contents.

“I do not feel so well myself,” Garvin said putting his hand on his forehead.

Out of nowhere everyone, including me, started feeling worse. It seemed the longer we were awake the worse our symptoms became. Jacob came back in, then turned to pull the front end of what I thought was a dead deer. Cates slid through making it look a lot easier than it was. Jacob knelt down in front of Derek who was now lying on the ground next to Brandon. Cates soon followed by going down on his knee in front of Tammy.

“They have the poison,” he said pulling Tammy’s eye lid up.

“I’ll be back. Feed them well, and see that it stays down.” Then Jacob shot out of the cave.

Jacob ran like the wind heading back the way we had come. He jumped over fallen trees like they weren’t even there, landing twenty feet away, not missing a step in his stride. He made his way back to the one person who would know what to do about what Cates called ‘the poison’, and he didn’t stop until he stood in front of the old, haunted looking, colonel style home. “Merna!” he called. When he got no response, he stormed up on the porch and started pounding on the door that he and Cates helped replace.

“Merna, we need your help,” he yelled. “Please, do not make me break your wards.”

“Why have you returned?” she asked from the security of her home.

“The others have fallen to the bite of the rogue. I know what you are and I plea for your aid.”

“Go to the back. Wait by the door.”             

Jacob did as she asked and waited several minutes before the small window opened over the sink in the kitchen. “Come…quickly,” Alec said, and helped pull Jacob through. He followed them down into the basement and back into the same room that he was beaten in. He looked over at the man that looked a great deal like Alec, and flinched his shoulders at him. The man jumped and ran around Merna, who glanced up at the grin on Jacob’s face. He was the man that had taken the liberty in using his fist to find out information, when he already had been given the truth. Jacob did not care for the quiet one. Merna pushed a shelf of bottles and books, sliding it open to a secret entrance.

“Come, I will make you a tonic and cream. The poison will hit the brain and take their sanity in twenty four hours’ time.”

“What payment do you seek?”

“You have given us payment enough,” Merna replied, causing her to get a look from both Alec and the other man. “You have taken away the pest that would have tried to claim our home, not to mention drain us dry.”

“Then we will be beholden to you, Merna.”

“Just tell no others of our whereabouts, young man. We have lived in peace, away from the ways of the elders and wish to keep it that way.”

“Is there any supplies that we can bring on our return?”

“Your plan is to return here?” she paused holding a glass flute.

“No, we seek others as we move north.”

“Then you may bring back a few items for my shelves.”

“I could use art pads,” said the one standing behind Alec.

“What is your name brave one?” Jacob asked watching Merna, instead of the one he was talking to.

“Alex.”
“He is my brother,” Alec added.

“Twins?”

“Yes, Merna was kind enough to take both.”

“Enough of that,” Merna said, handing Jacob a glass filled with green fluid. “Make sure each takes two spoons full.” Then she handed him a spoon.

She turned to mix a cream out of several different powders and oils, and while she did that Alex and Alec made a list of items to bring back. Alec leaned over and whispered in Jacob’s ear, that if it were at all possible, could he find some flower seeds for Merna. He said that it had been many years since she had been able to enjoy her sweet growing flowers. Jacob nodded at him and took the list, folding it and putting it in his pocket. Merna gave him the cream that she had made with instruction on how often to use it.

“Make your mistress drink before you tell her where you got this, or she will not partake in its healing. She may live in the dark, but her soul is pulled between the light and that of what she has become. Regardless that fact, she takes life like a well-trained solder.”

“Your sight is strong. She is a powerful leader. She just has not seen it with her own eyes.”

“She is changing, and change can be as hard on one’s normality. I feel she will face many hardships with this course she is on.”

“She will not face them alone,” Jacob said, bowing in front of Merna. “Look to the water’s edge. We will return soon.”

“Let your legs be swift. The poison rages as we speak,” she called out as he dropped to the groun
d. “Thank her for the rogues.”

Jacob brought up one hand then turned around no more. He ran as if his own life
depended on it. Meanwhile we were all feeling the effects of the bites. My neck was pulsating with agony, and my arm wasn’t far behind. I had fed from Jacob and now the deer, and still I felt that if I stood I would lose it all. Cates went out and soaked his shirt in the salt water of the ocean that wasn’t too far away, then came back in and placed it on the one closest, going back out repeating the process with someone else’s shirt, until we all held one on our wounds. All the strength had drained from my body, and I was now lying over on my side. I couldn’t imagine how my little ones felt, but it had to be much worse than me because I had Jacob’s blood in my system.

Cates spoke of how he and Jacob caught the deer by surprise and knocked it smooth out, to keep it from kicking them all the way back. We all took in his words of the tales that he and Jacob had done in the past. The gripping pain and the intense burning throughout our systems had each of us lying on our sides holding ourselves. Cates’ voice was like music to my ears, so I was hoping it was having the same effect on everyone else. Every once in a while someone would moan out in pain, and Cates would go to them. I clenched my teeth and withheld any expression of my pain to keep my little ones from worrying, but it was agonizing.

“How long has he been gone?” I asked struggling to make each word sound as normal as possible.

“It’s been a while,” Cates said coming back to me. “Don’t speak, just rest. There was a time when Jacob was but a boy like Johnny, and he got the poison ivy. He swelled and itched. When we laughed he rubbed his sores on us thinking it would spread to us, but it only spread more on him. He looked like an over ripe strawberry before he began to heal. Chin called him ‘strawberry’ for years, until he became a man.”

I smiled knowing that if this, whatever it was that was rushing through my body didn’t kill me, I was going to have a new pet name for Jacob. No sooner than I thought it he stepped back into the cave. He rushed to my side first and pulled a glass bottle filled with green fluid out of his shirt, and another with a thicker substance. He pulled a spoon out of his pocket and opened the bottle with liquid. “No, them first.” I shook my head and closed my eyes, giving him no room for an argument. When I heard his feet move away I opened my eyes and watched him put two spoons full into Derek’s mouth. His face distorted as soon as the taste hit and as soon as he swallowed, he let it be known.

“I’m gonna be sick.”

“No! You hold that or you will take it again,” Jacob demanded, going to Brandon.

“It’s horrible,” Derek heaved.

“You have taken yours, it is over, think of the ones that still have to take it,” Cates said, smiling at him.

“Use the cream on the bite, Cates,” Jacob said as he put the last spoon full in Brandon’s mouth.

“What the hell is that?” Brandon yelled out as if it hurt to take it.

“Be still now,” Jacob said going to another.

I heard everyone’s reaction and wished I had gone first. Cates was rubbing the awful smelling cream on my neck when Jacob slid in next to me. Jacob filled the spoon to over flowing. I let out a hard breath and opened my mouth. It was the sourest thing that I had ever tasted, and I had to swallow it again. I took my medicine and wondered why it didn’t hurt our stomach like everything else had. I left the question for later and laid back down and let Cates put the cooling cream on my arm. My body started tingling from the inside out about an hour after we took the green elixir. Derek was the first to fall into a deep sleep. I had just enough time to ask Jacob where he got it from, and heard him say Merna’s name before I too went under.