Bloodbreeders: The Revenge (23 page)

“Have you ever seen that many up there before, Garvin?” I asked turning to him.

“I have never been permitted in the upper lever.”

“I was in there once,” Tanda timidly added from behind Tammy.

“How many did you see?” Derek blurted out, fear apparent in his voice.

“We were never allowed to hold our eyes upon the Mistress in her personal domain, but I was curious being in the room for the first time, so I disobeyed.”

“How many?” Derek asked again.

“Derek,” Brandon said, and pulled him out of the way.

“I am sure there were nine men that I had never seen before, but I could not say if they were guests or slaves,” she explained, rubbing her hands together nervously.

“I would just say that we may be facing up to twenty and work on that,” Garvin said.

“Well, we might as well bend over and kiss our butt’s good bye now. Twenty—are you kidding?” Derek complained.

I was about to reprimand Derek when I noticed a faint movement go around the far corner that led to the area where Garvin and Tanda’s sleeping area was. I leaned down like I was going to pick something up and pulled on Bo’s hand. He bent down and I pointed toward the direction of the movement, then stood back up. “Okay, we know she may have a few more men, but here’s what we don’t want her to find out.” Then I paused to lean into Bo’s shoulder.

“Be ready, someone else is down here with us,” I whispered.

I went on talking about everything and nothing, while Bo, Garvin, and Brandon, maneuvered to the side of the wall and slid around the corner into the darkness.

“So we’re going to just leave tonight then,” Sydney fabricated.

“What the hell is he…” Derek started to say.

That was all that he got out, before Jacob had a hand over his mouth, moving with a speed that surpassed anything that I had seen to date. I swiftly walked over and hurried the girls back into the room that I felt was the safest place and whispered for them to lock the door. Tammy had Johnny in her arms. I gave him a wink and he closed both eyes tight and opened them back up with a little smile. When he started to say something, I put my finger to my lips and shook my head. Jessica whispered something in his ear and his little smile went to a full blown ear to ear grin and he practically dove into her arms. I would shiver for years to come when that child smiled with those perfect little fangs, and all the implication that came along with them. I suffered to keep the thoughts of his uncertain future at the base of my deepest thoughts, to spare myself the flight to madness. Would he grow up? I didn’t know, but time would definitely tell. If not, how would he cope? It was a vicious cycle in the least.

“Mistress!” a piercing scream came from a man somewhere in the left hall.

“Sydney, move.” We took off running in the direction of the noise with Derek and Jacob on our heels.

“Let me go or you will pay. Mistress, please, help me.” he screamed. “There are…”

“Shut the hell up,” Bo said, hitting the man across the face with the back of his hand.

“Who is it?” I asked coming to a stop.

“He was going up a hidden passage behind the lockers. I had no idea it was even there,” Garvin replied.

“She will kill you all if you harm me,” he cried.

I walked up and looked at the man that was now being held by the throat and firmly planted up against the cold, slime covered wall. Bo held one hand around the man’s throat and had his small blade in the other, pressing it steadfastly into his abdomen. The whites of his eyes stood out, as the fear of knowing that he wasn’t going anywhere started to sink in. “Please don’t hurt me.” were the words he was saying now. The threats of our demise left when he saw the rest of us, and not the aid of his Mistress.

“I saw him running and pulled his leg when he tried to go up the stairs, the prick cut me,” Brandon said holding his stomach.

“What? Are you okay?” I asked taking a closer look.

“I think so, doesn’t hurt much.”

“Get on back, let Ashley take a look at it. I’ll take care of this piece of shit.” I turned to the man that Bo was holding and the look in my eyes set him to screaming all over again.

“How dare you hurt my boy!” I hauled off and hit him as hard as I could with my fist, rocking his head back into the wall.

Bo dropped him, kicking him several times before I could pull him back. The man curled into a ball and began to weep, mumbling ‘she made me come’, over and over. I looked at Garvin, because I was at a loss as to what we should do next. Jacob came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “May I speak with you, My Lady?” I let the comment about calling me “lady” go due to the circumstance, and followed him into the room that I had helped bathe Tanda in.

“What is it, Jacob?”

“The man will say anything to be set free. I have seen it many times. I am trained for this sort of thing and would ask that you take him for questioning. You must show yourself as a strong Master to make him talk or he will not be broken so easily.”

“How do I do that?”

“Just as you did when you struck him. You must also be the Master to your own people. I have seen how you are with them. You cannot show that same affection in front of this prisoner, or he will certainly work on that weakness.”

“You see my caring for those around me as a weakness?”

“It is, a weakness,” he replied. “Those who you come to destroy, prey on the weakness of other’s. It is their best weapon.”

“Will you help us?”

“I will do as you ask. It is the law of our way. You are my Master, whether you like it or not.”

“I’ll go along with this tonight, but only tonight, then don’t ever let me here you say that I’m yours or anyone’s Master again, and that’s an order.”

“As My Lady wishes, but tonight you must be the
Master
and therefore rule with a firm hand. I think it wise to move the child and females before we take him for torture,” he explained, bringing a gasp from me with the last of his statement.

“Let’s get one thing straight right now. I will be the biggest, hateful ole cow that you have ever seen, but there is no way in hell that anyone, not now, not ever, is going to be tortured in my presences, is that clear?” I replied showing the anger that he was wanting.

“Are you alright, Renee?” Bo asked stepping in the door, giving Jacob a hard stare.

I explained everything to Bo, then turned around and had to explain it again to the others while Jacob and him stood guard over our new enemy. They all agreed it would be entertaining, watching me pretend to be their mean Master, even with me telling them that I didn’t care for the plan. Garvin seemed to fully agree with everything that Jacob had said, confirming that if I didn’t do it, we might not ever find out how many we were really up against. Not to mention, finding out what he knew of Yvette’s plans for us, so I went along with.

“Master, what would you have us do with him?” Jacob asked as soon as I walked out.

“Excuse me?” I replied, getting a roll of his eyes in return. “Oh yes, tie the dogs hands behind his back, and when I send one of the others back, bring him to the torture room.

I left Garvin, Jacob, and Sydney, with the prisoner, as the others and I went back to the famous torture room. When I went in Ashley was holding Johnny, and Jessica was helping Tammy sew up Brandon’s wound. “I use to help when my Master’s men got hurt,” Tammy said. Then she returned to what she was doing. I filled the girls in on what was going on and we decided it was best to lock them in Tanda’s sleeping quarters for the time being. While they were getting settled in there, I helped Derek and Bo stack as much debris in the bottom of the secret passage as we could. If someone came down they would have to make a lot of noise to get past the junk we stuck in their path. Jacob and Garvin then moved the man a few feet from the torture room door and waited for the rest of us to return. Sydney had insisted on making sure there weren’t any more hidden passages in the room that the girls were going to be in, before he joined the rest of us, which made it that much easier to get everything done.

Chapter Twenty Two

I closed my eyes and took in several deep breaths, before I started walking up the hall, where all the boys were now waiting, watching me. Each one took a knee as I got closer. Derek was having a hard time not cracking up, which made me start to snicker. Jacob and Garvin both cleared their throats at the same time, pulling Derek and I back into the right frame of mind. It looked like the man who was now perched extremely close to the dried hanging corpses, was also pretending to have passed out. He more than likely pretended to be unconscious, so he could hear more information, or make us think that he was already in pretty bad shape. Sydney raised his hand with a look on his face, like he was afraid to speak out.

“You may speak freely slave,” I said trying to put a tone of authority in my voice.

“Don’t you think that we better take him on into that torture room before he wakes up?” Sydney said with the best, “see my wink” that he could pull off, doing his best to make sure that we all saw it.

“He is right, My Lady. We need him strapped down and ready, if we are going to get anything out of him,” Garvin added with a wink of his on.

Once they had the man secure, Sydney motioned for the rest of us to come back out of the room with him, “Remember the guy that Garvin and I killed? He didn’t turn like the rest, he stayed, well—thicker.” Sydney began.

“Yeah, what’s your point?” Bo asked harshly.

“Give him a chance, Bo. You have heard nothing and yet you are ready to snap,” Jacob interjected.

“I don’t think I was talking to you Jap boy,” Bo snapped, standing and stepping up to face Jacob.

Jacob simply smiled, cocked his head to the side and faster than the eye could follow, landed his left foot to Bo’s right temple, putting Bo face down on his side against the bars across the hall from where we stood, knocked out cold.

“Why the hell did you do that?” I asked going to Bo.

“I am sorry Lady Renee, but he does get on my nerves and we have no time for such nonsense.” Jacob tilted his head then without missing a beat turned right back to hear the rest of what Sydney had to say.

“Have I been missing something here?”

“It seems that Bo’s a little jealous of Jacob, Renee,” Derek replied.

“Why? What do you mean by that?”

“Bo’s always been the one in charge…you know, the one who takes the lead, the best fighter,” Brandon added.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” I asked standing back up.

“For one thing, you have enough to worry about,” Brandon replied.

“Yeah, but I don’t want any fighting amongst us either. The next time maybe one of you better let me know what’s going on. This could have been prevented.”

Sydney looked at me, and I just raised my shoulder and lifted my hand for him to carry on.

“Anyway, the body is whole and there are bones everywhere. We make him think we are beating the shit out of someone else and that he will be next if he doesn’t start talking.”

“Oh hell yeah, I get it. Someone can play scream, while someone else beats the dead guy and breaks a few of these old bones. Dang I should have thought of that,” Derek said with a little too much excitement.

“I love it, Sydney. That’s a great plan,” I added. “For a minute there I thought you guys really wanted to hurt this man.”

“One must do what is necessary in times of war, Renee,” Jacob said walking over and
looking into the torture room.

“He speaks the truth. Let’s just hope that our Sydney’s plan works,” Garvin concurred.

“It has to, Garvin. Now, go ahead and take Jacob and Sydney with you and bring back the body, but watch your back. I don’t want them to have the same option. I’m sure that woman wouldn’t be so kind to think of using a dead body to intimidate. Brandon and Derek can gather up some bones.”

We had everything that we needed to start this pretend scare tactic. Now, all we had to do was get this thing to wake up. It turned out that he wasn’t faking. Jacob must have knocked the crap out of him much like he did Bo, when they were strapping him down.

Bo was now sitting up holding a hand to the side of his head, not looking or speaking to anyone, and anyone that had tried to talk to him, was told to get the hell away. I knew that when he was ready, he would come around. I’m sure his pride was hurt more than his head.

I think he still saw Jacob as a threat and not someone who had become one of us, or maybe he was a little jealous of the way that Jacob came up with ideas. It could be because of the way he knew how to fight, but the one thing that everyone, even myself, had to understand, was that we had no idea how long Jacob and Jessica had been bloodbreeders. Jacob’s knowledge already blew my mind and I knew I would listen to whatever that young looking boy had to say. One only needed to look into to his eyes to see the years that he must have had to endure on this earth, not to mention, in one of these infernos. In just the small amount of time, he had stepped up. His information alone stopped me from making the mistake of showing my true nature, to the man that we were about to question. That was something that I don’t think Garvin would have even thought about.