Bloodbreeders: The Revenge (21 page)

“What did you see?” I asked holding my chest.

“I have an idea,” Garvin replied.

“That was all because of an idea? You just scared me half to death.”

“I am afraid that I do not understand. Did I do something wrong?”

I couldn’t answer him with words, because I didn’t think that I could explain that raising his hand and stopping us like that would scare one of us. He had lived in a completely different world for the last fifty years and this was his first attempt at fighting back. It hadn’t crossed my mind whether or not he would be able to stand up to Yvette if she gave him a direct order. But, knowing that he also knew that she was the one responsible for the torment that his sister went through, made it easy for me to come to grips with the fact that, he would not crush under her pressure. I hadn’t talked in great detail to Garvin about the facts of his and Tanda’s imprisonment here, and now I could only hope and pray that we would have the future to do it in.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. I just thought when you raised your hand, that you might have seen someone,” I explained.

“Should I not do that again? My father was in a war and I remember how he showed me things.”

“My father showed me the same type of things,” Bo added. “That was one of the most perfect warning signals that I’ve ever seen. I just think that Renee wasn’t prepared for military maneuvers.”

“Bo, I …”

“It’s a man thing, Renee,” Bo interjected with a high rise of his right brow.

“Oh, of course. My pa was a farmer, so you guys are gonna have to hold off on the super sharp stops and swift hand things, unless you really see or hear something.”

“I never meant to frighten you, Lady…I mean…this is going to be difficult for me,” Garvin bashfully admitted.

“Think of me and the rest, as your brothers and sisters. Right now you’re the one that we’re looking up to, Garvin. You have the most experience out of all of us put together, and as far as I’m concerned you’re in charge at this point.”

“Bo is more like a captain, not me La…Renee.”

“I would do it, but noooo,” Derek jokingly replied.

“That’s right pipsqueak and don’t forget it,” Brandon said, grabbing him around the neck.

“I know we decided to split up into two groups,” I said blowing out slowly. “But, I need to ask you one thing before we leave this particular area.”

It was just me who had the thought of the room at the end of the long dismal hall. The room was without a doubt a laboratory, but what was the tubs of body parts for and why two, so I asked. With the small red lights now on, and the gruesome paintings growing to life as we walked by, Garvin began to explain. He started to tell us while we held our heads down with our eyes closely examining our feet. Our intention was to not look at the walls that we passed, forgetting that none us had warned Sydney of the horror that he was going to experience, if he dared to inspect one of the paintings in detail. Garvin was just about to tell us about the large tubs when Sydney dropped to his knees in front of the last painting, the one closest to the secret panel door.

“Sydney,” I called out going to him. “We should have told you.”

“It’s just a baby,” he replied with tears rolling down his face.

Fear struck my heart to the point that I could not place my eyes on the painting. I knew if it dropped a grown man to his knees and brought him to tears, that I had no business looking at it, and certainly not when we had to be as strong as we needed to be this night. Sydney didn’t seem to calm until Garvin put his hand on his shoulder. Sydney turned his head into Garvin’s leg as if trying to wipe away the ghastly images that were severely imprinted for what would be the rest of his unnatural life. I heard the door slide open, knowing that Bo had hit the hidden switch without looking. I reached down to take Sydney’s hand and he reached up and took Garvin’s. It was another moment of the learning curve for me. It was Garvin that changed him and Garvin that he sought comfort from.

“It looks like you have a follower of your own,” I smiled looking up at Garvin.

“He is the first that I have brought over, but I in no way meant to take him from you,” Garvin replied, as if Sydney wasn’t even there.

“You can’t take something away that’s never belonged to someone. You saved his life and if it means he needs you when he’s frightened, then I’m grateful that you’re here for him.
Who do you think that I’m going to lean on when I’m scared, honey?”

“And I you,” he snickered.

“Me too,” Sydney chimed in. “I feel a strange type of bond with Garvin, a line that can’t be seen, but I will always be a part of you, Renee.”

The three of us joined the other three boys who had already searched the room for any form of danger, or any sign of a secret passage, finding neither. Garvin continued telling us about the room that we now stood in. He said that most of our kind lived off of the animals that we had been feeding on—pigs and goats. Then he mentioned something that I knew to be fact. He said that at least once a month Yvette and her guest would drain a normal, then to get rid of the body, which was one of the most important things among the more wealthy and pampered, they would send it to the laboratory. It was dismembered and placed in the larger tub which was filled with acid. That also answered why our eyes burned when we entered the room. Then once the remains had been dissolved into a mushy like substance, it would pass through the two clear tubes into the smaller one, which was filtered out into the sewer drains to be disbursed into the ocean.

“How could they do this?” Brandon asked shaking his head in disbelief.

“Our kind has lived off of animals much like our normal past. But, the evil and the temptations of the old ways carried over into the minds of those like the Mistress.”

“Is there a lot of this going on? I mean in other places?” Bo asked.

“It has been going on for thousands of years, my young friend.” Then Garvin paused not breaking his gaze with Bo. “It is unsettling for me to think on how many of these estates that there are. Time has bred the worse of the perverted, and the lust of power has created the way of new and all but buried the ways of our ancestors.”

Several minutes passed as Garvin explained a few more things about the many places that went from our home land to that of Africa. I was listening as intently as the four others, who were all standing with their mouths hanging open. I think that the reason that no one pushed to hurry and get the first floor cleared, so that we could start on the second one, was that we we’re all trying to prepare not only our minds, but we also knew that the night was young and our nerves were raw. Garvin’s teachings helped in every area and no one complained.

“We’ll split up so we can check each door swiftly, then right back to the foot of the stairs,
correct?” Sydney asked looking at Garvin.

“Yes?” he in turn asked looking at me.

“Only this time if someone comes running out at one of us you damn well let it be known, no matter who hears it. The one thing that we don’t do again is put our lives on the line to keep that woman from knowing we’re here.” I stood there as a fine tremor began in my fingertips and my teeth began to grind. “I want her to know she has a storm coming and there isn’t anything she can do to stop it.”

“By this night’s noon if she has not spoken to her first, Annabel, she will indeed know that there is something amiss in her keep, but the question is…what will she do about it?” Garvin replied leaning down and hitting the latch to open the door.

“I know there’s no question who’s gonna go with you. Garvin, Bo, you take Derek, and Brandon and I will pair up.”

“Okay. Renee, you and Brandon check the room under the stairs. Sydney and I will check the other side and that will leave the kitchen for Bo and Derek,” Garvin said, stopping at the sight on my face. “Is there a problem?”

“She was attacked the last time she looked in that room,” Derek replied rubbing his throat.

“No it’s fine really, it was just a sour thought,” I quickly added.

“Then we two will take the furthest room and you two can take the first,” Garvin continued looking over at Bo.

I glanced to my side and Brandon raised his shoulders and smiled. The two of us then took off down the long dark hall. I could hear clatters of feet on our heels, as we reached the door to the foyer. It was my turn to open it and look out. I was like a rabbit in the lights of an oncoming car, I opened it and froze. I watched as one of the servant girls turned and made her way up the stairs, carrying a tray of items. I couldn’t see what was on the tray from where we were standing. I held my breath until she took the final step that graced the view of the glamorous staircase. I dropped back in like a wet noodle, falling on the closed door. I wondered what we were going to do about the innocent ones that didn’t know any better than to die, because they were ordered to fight for their so called owner.

“We have a slight problem, boys.”

“Once the Mistress has been dealt with they will be free of her influence,” Garvin explained knowing my meaning.

“What do we do until then?” I asked.

“I know you will not like this, but if we can take them without harm, we can lock them into the lower levels.”

“Imprison them?” Bo interjected.

“Not in the way that you are thinking my young friend. Just until we have the opportunity to give them the choice to live, or to die for her.”

“He’s right, Bo. If they stand against us we have no choice but to fight. If we can capture them, we should. That little girl couldn’t have hurt one of us if she tried,” I concurred.

Once everyone was in full understanding on the matter of not killing anyone that couldn’t defend themselves, we started checking the rooms on the first floor. They were all clear. It was my boys and I that took the stairs first, with Garvin and Sydney coming up from behind. The first few rooms were empty. The room that we had destroyed the fat man in looked just as it did when we closed the door. Now, we went deeper than we had before. Every sense in my body was on full alert and I’m sure that I wasn’t alone. Every door we passed, one of us placed our ear to it and each time ended with a shake of the head. The long hall was coming to an end, separating into two more halls. One going down to the left, and the other to the right.

“Do we split up?” Sydney asked.

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” I whispered. “Not up here.”

“Renee, we can stay in sight of each other, if there is a problem the others will know,” Garvin said stepping close to me. “It will be much faster.”

“If we split up I’m going with y’all,” Derek added looking at me.

“Want me to go with them?” Brandon asked

“Sydney and I will be fine. If we hear anything behind one of the doors we will wave to you before entering.”

“Fine, but I can’t even see the end of the hall it’s so dark, so swear if you see anything, you’ll scream out,” I demanded then hugged both of their necks.

“And you as well, Renee.” Garvin said, then he and Sydney went their way.

Chapter Twenty

The very first door that the four of us came to—Brandon, Derek, Bo, and myself—could hear a small sound coming from it before we even had a chance to put one of our ears to it. It almost sounded like a child whimpering. I looked back trying to see if I could spot the other two, but it was as if they just vanished into thin air. I moved my hand gesturing for us to move back so that we could go find them before we found out what was behind the door. That’s when the sound became louder and the fact that it was without a doubt, a younger child. “Get ready.” Was the only thing I said before I walked back over in front of the door and held my hand up. I put one finger up, two, three, and then Bo and I kicked the door. We did it with such force that, it didn’t break free from the latch and hinges that held it. We had knocked it completely off its hinges.

The room was an extremely large one, empty compared to the others that we had looked into. There was an elaborate throne centered in the middle of the back of the room, opposite from the door that now lay in front of us. The man that sat in it looked to first be nude, but as my eyes took in the scene in front of me. I saw that he was wearing some type of wrap around his waist. He was adorned with gold chains of different lengths around his neck and wide golden bands on each wrist. The thing that my mind seemed to have a hard time comprehending was the golden chain that he held loosely in his right hand, and on the end of the long beautiful rope chain was a lavish golden ring around the neck of a very little naked boy. I landed hard on my knees as I heard the word escaping from my lips. “Johnny!”

My brother that I had thought dead by my own hands, stood with his little head hanging, by this beast, on the end of a chain as if he were an animal. I was stunned to the point of being immobile. It was when the man flicked his wrist and the dark haired young man stepped out from behind the throne, that I felt myself pulling my nails from the flesh of my palms. The man flicked his wrist a second time and a young female, who was so close in appearance to the young man that I knew they were kin, stepped out from the other side of the throne. Johnny began jerking on the chain as soon as the young girl walked in front of him. The whimpering that we had heard turned into a manic scream of sheer terror, setting me on the very edge of insanity.