Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders) (27 page)

I listened closely, and just when I thought it was safe to peek over
the steps, someone that I hadn’t even known was there coughed. I threw myself
as far under the stairs as possible, praying silently that I hadn’t been seen. My
heart had jumped into my throat, and it took me several swallows to coax it
back down. I wasn’t sure how many had come out of the house, or how many of them
there were period. The only thing I was positive about was that they were
normals
, because I could smell it.

“Come on Ernie, give me a hand, and hurry it up, will
ya
? The sooner we’re out of here, the better,” I heard a
man yell from somewhere close to the house.

“Yeah, yeah,” said the man that stood not five feet from me.

He flicked a cigarette over the railing, and it landed mere inches from
where I lie. I heard his footsteps fade as he got farther from me. When I was
pretty certain he was gone, I continued the rest of the way up the side of the
steps. I reached the top of the slope, and cautiously raised my head to search
the area.

The front door was open, and there was an old truck parked in front of
the house, loaded down with boxes. Two men stepped out the front door, carrying
a large wooden box between them.

“This is the last one,” one said to the other. “Couldn’t be soon
enough, either, this place creeps me
out.
”

“This place? Man, I’m just glad those people didn’t stay the whole
time. They scared me pea green,” the other man said with a shudder.

“Yeah, me too, least they
ain’t
coming back
til
the summer.”

“Makes no difference to me if they come back next summer, or tomorrow,
‘
cause
I
ain’t
never
stepping foot back in these parts again.”

The other man laughed a little, but it was obvious that he had the same
thoughts himself. They heaved the box into the back of the truck, and when
finished, the larger of the two patted the smaller man on the back.

“Well, that’s that,” he said with a smile. “Now, go on and fetch Ernie.
Be sure and lock up on
yer
way out. I’ll start the
truck.”

The little man didn’t seem too happy about it, but he did as he was
told. He disappeared into the house, and after a few minutes, reappeared with
Ernie trailing close behind. They locked the door, piled themselves into the
pickup, and drove away.

I stood slowly, still unsure of what to do. I walked up to the side of
the house, and opened every sense I had. I strained my ears, but couldn’t make
out anything other than the sounds of the ocean. I sniffed the air, much like a
bloodhound would do when following a trail, and still nothing but the lingering
smell of
normals
. My eyes played along the house,
searching windows for any possible stragglers, but I saw nothing. I knew that no
one was around, none of my kind, nor my previous breed. Yet I couldn’t convince
my feet to move. The fear that welled up inside me kept me from trusting even
my own senses.

Could it really be this easy? The house being empty until summer just
seemed too good to be true. As far as I could tell, I was safe, but
nevertheless, I was scared out of my wits. It didn’t stop me from standing
there coming up with several different forms of what ifs.

What if they found out that I was missing
?
What if Rebecca and her goons are in there right now, waiting to
surprise me when I go in?

“What will I do if they are?” I said aloud. Either way, I had to find
shelter. The sun was going to rise, and I could take my chances inside, or
stand out here and fry. “I have my knife, and if I can kill with it once, I can
do it again,” I tried to convince myself. I thought back to the look of horror
on
Capie’s
face, the way he stared in disbelief at
what stood at his back. I took a man’s life tonight, and I didn’t feel one
ounce of guilt. In my book, he was just as responsible for what has been
happening in Cuba, as the people that orchestrated it. It was people like
Capie
that has kept their sick little business going for
the past few hundred years, and anyone involved, our kind or not, needed to die
for what they’ve done.

I was knocked out of my thoughts by the sound of laughter. It was the
sound of children, or at the very oldest, teens, echoing through the silence. They
were walking toward the house, coming up the road from the south.

“That one looks empty,” a young man said. “We could sleep there, maybe
find some food. What
ya
think, huh, Brandon?”

“Yeah, I’m cold and I’m tired.
Please, Brandon, we
need to stop,” this coming from a young woman.

Poor things
,
I thought to myself.
Probably orphans, maybe runaways
.
 
Then an idea came to me. Maybe I could trick
them into going into the house first. That way, if someone was in there waiting
for me, the kids would find out first then just run off, then I would be able
to get away and find another form of shelter.

I crept quietly beside the house, and stopped at the edge to peek
around the corner. There they were, not twenty feet from the house, three boys,
and one girl.
They’re just a bunch of ragged
youngens
,
I thought to myself.

“I know
ya’ll
are tired, so am I, but what if
they’re just gone for a few hours?” this coming from the boy they called
Brandon. He was the smallest of the bunch, but he had an air about him of being
the one in control. “Look, we can’t get caught. They’ll send us to different
places, Ashley.” He walked around the other two boys and put his hand on her
shoulder. “It’ll be okay. We’ll make camp soon, I promise.”

They continued walking, and I knew that if I was going to get their
help, now was my chance.

Chapter 21

I smoothed down the front of my shirt, pulled my hair back, and stepped
out around the house. “Holy moly,” I yelped, doing my best impression of
someone that had been startled. “Y’all scared me so bad I almost peed myself.” I
started laughing, in hopes that they wouldn’t run off. Almost simultaneously,
they turned and started back down the way they came. “Wait,” I hollered. “I
mean, I need some help. I locked myself out.” It was no use, they continued on
without as much as a backward glance. “Please… I’ll pay
ya
.”
That stopped them dead in their tracks. I let out a sigh of relief.

Slowly they turned, and started back my way.
 

“Oh, hey, thank you, I didn’t mean to step out like that,” I said,
hoping that my acting looked better than it sounded. “I’m sorry if I scared
y’all.”

As they got closer, I noticed that the tallest boy had something in his
hand. It was some type of blade, like that of an army sword, but I pretended
not to notice.

“You said you’d pay us?” the tall one asked, “To do what?”

“Well, don’t laugh, but I went out for a walk on the beach, and forgot
my house key, so now I’m locked out,” I told him.

“So, you want us to break into your house, and you’ll pay us for it?” Bo
asked looking at the boy next to Ashley. They looked at each other, and began to
laugh, so I joined in.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I could really use the help. I’ll
understand if y’all are in a hurry...”

“No, we can help,” Ashley interrupted. “But if we do, can we sleep,
maybe in your garage or something, just for a day, maybe two?”

My heart fell to pieces looking into her hazel eyes. She was a very
beautiful young girl, with almond skin, and dark brown, single-length hair that
fell just below her shoulders. She had a small frame like me and just a bit
shorter.

“No, you can’t sleep in my garage, but you can take a room in the
house,” I said walking closer. “I’m Renee... Lebrun.” The name exited my lips
without too much thought. After all, Renee Crocker was dead, and what better
name to take than that of my maker. “What do you say, want to help?”

I knew it would be best if I made it seem like they held all the cards.
Little did they know that I needed them as
bait.
Who knows
?
I thought to myself.
I
may need them later as well
.
After a few minutes of talking amongst themselves, they agreed.

“Sure, we’ll help you,” said the tall one with the blade. “If you let
us sleep here, are you still
gonna
pay us?”

“Of course,” I said. “Can I ask your names?”

“I’m Bo,” he said, then motioned to the other three. “That’s Ashley and
Derek, and that’s Brandon.”

“It’s a pleasure,” I said. I turned and started walking to the front
door. “What do you say we get out of this chilly night air?”

Derek was the first to join me at the front door. “I may be the
youngest, but at least I’m taller than my brother,” he said, gesturing toward
Brandon with a grin on his face.

“Yes, you’re even taller than me,” I said, smiling back.

“I’m strong, too, and I fish better than the rest.” I could already
tell he was going to be my handful, but it was great, he reminded me
a lot
of my own brothers and it felt good to see smiling
faces for a change.

When the others got to the door, Bo took out a small wire and a little
blade. I must have been staring, because he looked at me and smirked, “Don’t
look surprised, I’ve done this before.”

“I can see that,” I said, with a little smirk of my own.

He squatted in front of the door, and began working on the lock. Within
seconds, it popped open.

“Very nice,” I said. “You’re going to have to teach me that one day.”

“One day?” he asked. “Are you saying we get to stay longer than a
night?”

“Sure... if you want to that is.”

They all looked at each other, then at Brandon, as if for approval. “Why
would you do something like that, you don’t even know us,” he said.

“That’s true, but you helped me. Besides, where else do you have to
go?” I waited, and then said, “Well, want to come in?”

 
“Oh yeah, a soft bed,” Derek
quickly replied. “I
ain’t
passing it up.” Then he
started walking through the door.

The rest followed one by one. I trailed behind, because in the back of
my mind, I was still expecting Rebecca and her goons to pop out at any second. I
hung back while the four children darted in to start exploring the dark house. The
one place that I needed them look was the basement, because that was the one
place that I was really worried about. I would have no choice but to go in the
basement at daybreak and the others of my kind knew that. Suddenly, I had an
idea that just might work.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving,” I said. “I have some
supplies in the basement.”

“Why put kitchen stuff in the basement? Why not just put it in the
kitchen?” Bo asked suspiciously.

“I’ve only been back for a few days, and I haven’t had a chance to get
things in order,” I replied quickly. “The delivery men were told to put my
things in the basement to keep it from being seen by the prying eyes of anyone
that might look in the windows.”

He seemed satisfied with the answer, because he really had no more
right to ask me the question, than I had lying in the first place. I went to
the side of the room, and found the light switch and when I turned around each
one of them was staring at me, as if stunned at the light coming on. I cleared
my throat. “Most homes have electricity now,” assuming that was why they all looked
so surprised. “Didn’t y’all know that?”

No one spoke at first, but then Brandon came walking up a little
closer. “It’s not that,” he said, mesmerized. “It’s your face... and your eyes.
Your eyes are...are...” It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten that I was
different than the four, it just hadn’t crossed my mind that I looked like the
walking dead, that much I forgot. How in the Sam hell was I going to get out of
this one?

“I know,” I started. “I’m somewhat different...”

“Somewhat?” Derek broke in. “I think it’s cool, I wish I looked like
that. I would scare the shit out of people.”

“Derek!” Brandon reprimanded. “Shut up, that’s rude. She can’t help how
she looks any more than you can.”

“Hey,” Derek said, furrowing his brow. “What’s wrong with my looks?” At
that, everyone started laughing including me.

“Oh my goodness,” Ashley exclaimed staring, wide-eyed, at my mouth. She
had just seen my fangs.

“I can explain, please don’t be afraid,” I said, holding my hands out
in front of me.

“I’m not scared,” she replied. “I‘ve never seen teeth like yours
before, you have a beautiful smile.”

“Were you born with those?” Bo asked.

“Well, dumb ass, of course she was,” Brandon told him.

I was really starting to like this kid. I would be lying if I said I
wasn’t fond of them all, but Brandon and Ashley took people as they were, and
that was a trait that I admired.