Bloodbreeders: Seeking Others Read online

  I rolled out of its way, but it kicked out catching me across the face. My head flew back, and before I could gain my senses it had me by the leg and dragging me back to the house of horrors. I screamed out, grabbing a hold of anything I could get a grip on, but the thing pulled me without any hindrance to my strength. I kicked its knee, getting no response. It felt nothing that I tried, not even my blade cutting at the hand that held me. I couldn’t see any of my people. I knew now that there were a great deal more out in the forest than just four, it was a ploy to fool us and it had worked.

  “Tammy!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, but no one came.

  Fear filled me the closer that this thing dragged me to the back of the house. I twisted until its arm looked like a deformity, yet still it held firm. “No!” I screamed and grabbed the earth as he reached the first step. My heart was ripping through my chest. I didn’t fear seeing the doctor. I didn’t want to become a new creature. I didn’t want to die here and be brought back. My body wouldn’t turn to ash. I was past the point of hyperventilating.

  “Renee,” Jacob yelled.

  I rolled my head back as it pulled me through the door. “Jacob!” I yelled in return as the door slammed shut.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “If we take the house in full force they will kill her without thought,” Jacob explained to the others who wanted nothing more than to come to my aid. But, he was correct. Had they come kicking in the door at that point, my head would have been removed, as well as my limbs or at least that’s what the walking dead made me assume. The thing dragged me down a long flight of steps where the smell of death grew continually stronger. I gagged as by body bounced off each step that was covered in God only knows what, and in these places it could be anything.

  It never let go of my ankle, but the thing finally froze in the middle of a cold stone floor, that was undoubtedly covered in the bones and the fecal matter of victims. It was like they used it to dispose of both bodies and their waste. I pulled with all my might so hard, that I saw its dead flesh pull at the things shoulder. I thought if I couldn’t get it to let go I would just rip the whole arm off. So I began twisting myself like a top, until I heard a loud snap.

  “That won’t be necessary,” a familiar voice said.

  I jerked around looking in every direction, but saw no one in the poorly lit space. Then I heard Omar say, “Bring her.” The beast began dragging me further into the depths of the underground pit that I assumed to be the doctor’s dungeons. I could hear the loud clanking of metal doors, before we passed through one. I would hear them slam close, as if they were opening and closing by magic, and with what was dragging me like a rag doll, it was something that wouldn’t surprise me. I now would believe anything. It stopped in the entrance of a well lit room that was illuminated with multiple hanging wall sconces, and two large torches at the back of what I would very much call the torture room. I was sitting up, pulling with my hands, gripping the door until my fingers went numb, as my eyes took in everything in front of me.

  Between the torches on the back wall, hung a man wearing a long, white overcoat that was drenched in blood. The long stone table in the middle of the room held two restraints at the top and two at the bottom, and both were attached to very short chains. As I was looking at the many blades and devices hanging on the wall to my left, three more walking dead things came from an area to my right that I hadn’t even noticed.

  “Place her on the table.”

  “Place me there yourself, Omar! Or are you that afraid of me?” I yelled, giving one hard pull, using the weight of my whole body on the door jam, and pulled the things arm completely off.

  “Not a wise move,” Omar said looking down at me from behind.

  “Think I would make it easy?” He then lifted me up by a handful of my hair.

  I held tight to the arm that held me off the floor, as my other hand grabbed for my blade. Omar saw me pulled it and threw me. My back collided with the stone table that didn’t budge, pain shooting up my spine like lightning meeting the earth with an enormous blast. My blade went spinning across the room and my gun was somewhere in between here and the forest where the big thing had grabbed me. I had one solid thing to keep me strong—my people were coming. They wouldn’t stop for anything to keep from getting here, other than true death itself.

  “You’re gonna pay for what you did to my family,” I sneered as those things fought to put me on the table.

  “Your mother was as sweet as honey, and fought better than your father,” he mockingly replied then licked his lips.

  “Bastard!” I yelled fighting back the tears.

  “Your mother begged for me to spare the rest, to take her instead. What a brave woman she was. I took her in my arms and drained her pathetic, so called, life. I took your brothers, and let’s not forget that yummy little sister of yours.”

  “Shut the hell up!” I screamed.

  I kicked out, hitting one of the things in the throat, taking the head off with ease. It wasn’t so much my strength that did it but more so how rotten the walking dead was. I brought my knee up, smashing in the face of another and almost leaped off the table, but the thing with one arm grabbed and pushed my arm down to the restraint and another strapped me down. A different one held my legs using itself like one big rope, while the others clasped the restraints on my remaining limbs. Omar sent them away with a flick of his wrist, and then came closer than I ever wanted him to be.

  “How did one little girl manage to take down one of the strongest of our kind?”

  “First, I’m no little girl, and second I didn’t do it alone. You’re fixing to meet the rest.”

  “Brave words for someone at my mercy,” he replied, pushing the hair away from my eyes.

  “Don’t touch me….don’t you ever touch me,” I cried, snapping at him with my teeth.

  “I will do whatever I please!” he yelled down into my face, grabbing my breast with force as he said it.

  “Get…off…me,” I gritted my teeth, showing no sign of fear, and never took my tear filled eyes off of his.

  “My, you have changed,” he laughed, pulling his hand away, but running it down my stomach.

  “They sweep the grounds,” a man ran in, yelling in a panic.

  “Then kill them, you fool!”

  “They have already taken the dead and several of the breeders.”

  That put a smile on my face, which made Omar so mad that he backhanded me with a closed fist.

  “Laugh now, bitch! I’ll send you to that pathetic family you mourn for. All will see what a waste you were. ” Then he went and grabbed a short blade off the wall.

  He was about to raise the blade in the air when the very same man who had just warned him about the others, came flying through the air, landing right on top of me. Jacob came in first, followed by Cates. Jacob took two long steps, putting one foot on the end of the table, jumping up and with a lightning fast kick, knocked the blade out of Omar’s hand as he was making a downward strike for my head. He then put his foot in the center of Omar’s chest knocking him into the wall full of weapons.

  Cates started swinging his sword making contact with every dead thing walking around in the room, until there was nothing left but headless things oozing on the floor. That’s when Omar tried to make a break for the door, but not until he first grabbed another blade. He then ran and that’s when Derek’s blade took him in the stomach as he reached the entrance. When I saw Derek spin, I knew I had lost my kill. Omar dropped to his knees as his intestines covered the ground. I saw Derek pull his arm back and yell before he plunged his blade into Omar’s forehead, yanking his hand back like it was now repulsive.

  I was sitting up waiting for Sydney and Brandon to get my legs free, watching as Omar turned into a thick black mush. Derek grabbed his blade as Omar’s body began to turn and dropped down to one knee, but the hard expression on his face never wavered while he stayed down looking at what he had done. He took vengeance for the loss of
my family. I too felt the hatred inside. Once my legs were free I went to him. I thanked him for avenging my family and held out my hand. He looked up at me for a few seconds, and then stood to meet me eye to eye.

  “We could hear him taunting you.”

  “Everything’s okay now. He paid, thanks to you.” I bumped him with my elbow.

  “I believe this belongs to you,” Cates said handing me my blade.

  “Thanks,” I smiled up at him. “I knew you wouldn’t be far behind.”

  “Couldn’t let you have all the fun,” he replied raising one brow.

  “He lives,” Jacob said as he and Brandon took the doctor down from the back wall.

  The man had been beaten senseless. His face was so messed up that I couldn’t make out his features. I wanted to know about his research, but everyone else wanted to put him down, burn the place and leave. Johnny was my top concern and if this man had any form of answers I was going to get them if I had to stay here alone to do it. Cates puffed up right next to Jacob, so I politely pulled rank. I kept my reasons to myself, and told Sydney and Derek to check his stock for fresh blood. I wanted him strong enough to do some explaining, and afterwards they could do with him as they pleased.

  “I suppose we will be spending our day down here then?” Cates asked as we waited for them to return.

  “Go! Just start walking and go. No one is making anyone stay. I want the answers, and I can find my way back to the creek. If you can’t handle this for one night, then go,” I replied turning back to watch as Tammy cleaned on the doctor’s face.

  “I have never left my guard, and have stayed in much worse than this,” Cates snapped.

  “Then stop the damn complaining.”

  “Is she always like that of a mule? Hard in the head, and harder yet to steer.” He laughed looking back at Jacob.

  “Look big man, my pa said, ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall’. So, shut up before I knock you on your ass.”

  “Renee, that was not called for,” Jacob interjected.

  “He just called me a mule!”

  “Then stop acting like one,” he replied, tilting his head.

  By this time the big man was rolling in laughter at my comment and the ongoing conversation that I was having with Jacob. He was laughing so hard that he bent over and grabbed his knees. I could feel the blood start to boil in my veins, which Jacob saw as well. He went to reach out but my foot came up too fast, catching Cates right on the bridge of the nose. His head went up as his body went back, landing him square on his backside. Blood started to trickle from his broken nose, as a sinister smile took a hold of my face. His masculine jaw tightened as he gritted his teeth. His pale green eyes glowed with anger, while his brows grew closer together. He got to his feet, never breaking contact with my eyes.

  “Jacob has taught you well,” he said wiping his nose and slinging the blood to the floor.

  “You touch me, I’ll kill ya,” I replied unsheathing my blade.

  “With that, please, Renee. I would never strike the one I call my master, but I would not push that issue too far.”

  “He’s coming around,” Tammy said taking the pressure off the subject at hand.

  Nothing else walked around, living or dead, except for us and the good doctor. The boys found several things in the barn-like shed, bringing back a small goat, filling several cups before the doctor waved it away. He seemed to think that we had come to rescue him from the likes of Omar. He told us that Omar beat him into submission, making him give him control over everything that he owned, to save his own life. We let him ramble on about how Omar had made him do the incantation to raise more of the walking dead, then giving him control over them. He hadn’t exactly told how it was done, and none of us seemed to care. I personally hated the idea of even being here, but I needed him to talk.

  “Why the girls?”

  “You mean, why their blood? I always let them go, of course, unless an experiment went wrong, then I had to euthanize them.”

  “Then I guess that’s what I mean,” I sarcastically replied.

  “I use their blood to try and find a way to fix this problem.”

  “What problem is that?” Jacob asked leaning into the man that sat on the end of the table.

  “The one that keeps us out of the light,” he responded, scooting back.

  “And your results? Do they all end up like the ones on the crosses in your back yard?” I asked, putting my hand on Jacob’s shoulder.

  “So far, I’m afraid. Why do you all seem so angry? Were you not sent to save me?”

  Laughter burst out from behind me, and the doctor came close to leaping off the table. It seemed that Cates, Brandon, and Derek were finding his questions extremely hilarious.

  “You would be better to assume, not,” Jacob answered with a straight face.

  “Have you found anything out about us?” I asked watching the fear grip his spine as he absorbed the fact that we were the enemy tale that passed on the wind one night, a warning he failed to listen to.

  “I’m not like the others. I thrive to make change, just like you,” he forcibly smiled as his eyes darted to Cates.

  “What is your name, so I don’t have to refer to you as a ‘doctor’,” I frowned shaking my head slightly.

  “Gilbert, Gilbert Von Barrette,” he replied, sitting up a little straighter.

  “Well, Gilbert. You are nothing like me and you’re damn sure nothing like the people behind me,” I said closing my eyes and pursing my lips, while I shook my head a little more quickly.

  “I heard there was a group that was burning the homes of strong masters. I am no master.”

  “You must have heard wrong. Are you going to tell about the research or not?” I re-asked my previous question.

  “I have found out little, but I believe one can change out the blood by transfusion, and gain progress on, well, to become closer to our former selves.”

  “Yeah, how do you know that?” Sydney asked stepping into the conversation.

  “I have been using myself as a subject,” he nervously replied, as everyone stepped up to hear more.

  “With the help of little girls, against their will,” Derek snapped, knocking over a shelf of glass bottles.

  “Derek?” I looked back at the now wide eyed, so called doctor. “Your results, Gilbert?”

  “I haven’t really tested my theory, but I can now drink a small glass of wine without becoming ill.”

  “Something anyone of us could do with enough time and patience,” Cates blurted out.

  “I highly disagree,” Gilbert retorted slapping his knee. “I stand by my work.”

  “Is that a fact?” I asked.

  “Indeed it is.”

  “Then I say place him on one of the crosses, if he’s still there tomorrow night, then we let him live,” I ordered, looking back and up at, Cates.

  “Spoken like a true master.” He bowed his head just a bit.

  “If you do that and the sun takes me, you’ll never get your answers.” Gilbert made the mistake of grabbing my arm.

  “Never touch her,” Jacob yelled and slammed his foot down on the inside of the man’s elbow.

  He screamed grabbing his arm, pulling it to his body, cradling it like a baby.

  “Put him on a cross,” I ordered and this time it sounded like one.

  “As the lady wishes,” Cates replied, picking the screaming, begging man up and threw him over his shoulder.

  “No, please!” Gilbert cried right before Cates smashed him in the face with his elbow.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  All the males went out to put Gilbert on the cross, who I now found to be as loopy as a backwards misfit, with a taste of perversion. Tammy and I stayed and started searching through his files in a room we found on the first floor. Tammy found one file that dated his experiment all the way back 1865, and the ledger was completely full of marks, which to me appeared to be the number of victims that went through his lab. This creature was
nothing like us. On the contrary he was the worst of the lot, at least so far, I should say. Not only did he take life, he reanimated it. How, I don’t know and I didn’t care to find out. Even though I knew that I was also a form of the walking dead.

  “Look at this, Renee. This file is on a girl. It says she had a decrease in the size of her eye teeth…her fangs. Think he’s full it?”

  “I wish he wasn’t.”

  “Want to be normal again?”

  “No, it’s too late to go back now, but Johnny,” I paused. “I just can’t see him

  being in a four year old body throughout his life span.”

  “Then why take Gilbert’s life? He could be on to something.”

  “You’re holding the files, Tammy. He’s sick and can’t be allowed to carry on with this sort of thing. He’s been using normals and getting them anywhere he can.”

  “I know what you mean, but…”

  “No buts about it…he dies!”

  I left the room and started down the hall to go through another room in his home. I opened a door to a bedroom that looked normal enough, so I closed it and went to another. I found pretty much the same thing, nothing that was of any concern to us. I decided to go upstairs. There was the dim glow coming from the lights downstairs, casting shadows in every corner and making me see things that weren’t there. Walking up to the first room I tried to open the door, but it was locked, so I went across the hall and tried that door, which opened as soon as I turned the knob. It was pitch black so I slowly opened the door just enough to peer in. Two gray hands that looked more like a skeleton reached out and grabbed my shirt. I screamed and pulled back, bringing the thing out into the hall with me.