Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders) (9 page)

“We will rest here this coming day. There is an abandoned house east of
town,” the woman said, turning towards me.

“Yeah, I know the place,” I told her. “It used to belong to the Kings. Ma
used to take us there to visit Mrs. King before she died.” As I spoke, I
noticed that my arm seemed to feel somewhat better, but my mind and heart were
all but dead. I didn’t care about where we were going to stay. I found myself
not caring about anything. I had allowed myself to be tricked into doing the
unimaginable, by someone that I actually thought cared about me. All that I
knew for sue was that I just needed to get as far away from home and him as
possible. I held the hope of seeing Martin one last time, even if a hundred
years from now. I didn’t know how, but I would see that he paid dearly for what
he had done. Taking me was one thing, but that’s where he should have stopped.

“I never said thank you,” I softly told to the woman. “I don’t even
know your name.”

“There is no need for thanks,
ch
- Renee. I am
just grateful that we got to you before Martin had a chance to harm you
further. Oh, yes, my name is Rebecca.”
 
She
held out her hand just as any normal person would.

“I don’t know how I will ever repay you,” I replied accepting her
gesture. “But even though I don’t show it, I am very grateful to you.”

A warm, heartfelt smile spread across her face. “It brings us great
pleasure to help when we are able.” I didn’t have to ask who she meant by
we
, because as we approached the old King residence,
the three men that had accompanied her at the graveyard stepped out from behind
the bushes.

“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to our new friend. This is
Renee.”
 

The young man with the short brown hair took my hand, and raised it to
his lips just as Martin had, and said, “Good evening, Renee, my name is Marcos.
It is a pleasure to meet you.” He then gently kissed the back of my hand, and
with a small bow backed away.

As he left, the blond gentleman went through the same motions as the first.
“My name is Ronny,” he said. “I am very glad to meet you Lady Renee.”

I expected the third man to do the same, but he hesitated. He slowly
made his way towards me, but he didn’t take my hand. His face was adorned with
a look of contempt, nothing like that of the others. He peered down at me as if
I were a problem, not a young woman he had just helped rescue. Rebecca cleared
her throat, and I noticed her giving him a strange look. “Have you forgotten
your manners, Omar?”

“Please forgive me, Lady Renee. As you know, my name is Omar, I meant
no harm,” he said, stepping back. He never did take my hand like the others,
and I got a bad vibe from him, as if he didn’t like me at all. That couldn’t be
it though, because he had just met me. After everything I had been through, I
had no care to find out his motives. Maybe it was just something else about
this
new world of which I was now a part of that I didn’t
understand. After all, he could have been having as much of a hard time with
being a creature of the night as I was.

“Dawn is coming, and we need to get settled before the daylight hours
approach,” Rebecca ordered with the men not needing to be told twice.

I have to admit, it was nice to see the three men jump when she spoke,
especially Omar. Sure don’t see anything like that where I come from. Rebecca
turned to me and said, “Tomorrow night the boys will find us transportation so
that we can move faster.”

“You mean steal from someone?” I asked.

“If we are to outrun Martin, we will have to have help, do you
understand?”

“Yeah, but,” I paused fighting my moral dilemmas. “It’s just that the
folks in these parts are poor and need what they have. Plus, I was raised to
never cheat or steal from anyone for any reason.”

“This is for your own good, and more importantly, to save the rest of
your people. The further we go, the safer they are,” she explained taking me by
the arm.

“You’re right,” I replied, with a small sigh. “I’m sorry. You’re only
trying to help, and I know you mean well, it’s all too much right now.”

“Come,”
Rebecca
said as she walked me up to a
broken window. “We’ll have plenty of time to work things out.”

Once inside, we found the door to the cellar, and began our descent. The
smell was about as bad as my last home—the crypt—but here, there were no
candles or makeshift beds. There were just a bunch of cobwebs and dirt. There
were also a few discarded items scattered around, a broken rocker here and a
wooden barrel there, but that was about it.

“Sorry we don’t have a bed for you, like
he
did,” Omar commented
with disdain in his tone.

“That is about enough, Omar,” Rebecca scolded. I can’t say why, but
this man didn’t like me; I could see it in his eyes.

The four of them found a place for themselves on the floor, so I did
the same. No one spoke. We all just drifted off to sleep.

*****

When I awoke, the four of them were in what seemed to be a heavy
discussion. I could tell it was about Martin and me, because the instant they
noticed I was awake, the conversation stopped and they all turned my direction.

“Oh, you’re awake. How does your arm feel?” Rebecca asked.

“It’s better, thank you. Um, is there a problem?” I asked, looking from
her to the men.

“No, everything is fine. We just had a small disagreement, it’s nothing
to
worry
 
yourself
about,” she said.

I didn’t know what was going on, but I wasn’t about to ask in the
presence of the three men. I just wanted to be gone from here. I knew Martin
was already looking for me, I could feel it. Even if he wasn’t I knew it
wouldn’t be long until he was.

“So, where do we go from here, did
ya’ll
find
a car?” I asked.

“Yes,” Rebecca answered. “Ronny has one ready outside.”

“Then can we leave? He’s looking for me, I know it,” I said.

Omar looked at Rebecca and gave her a small smile, one you wouldn’t
notice unless you were looking straight at him. I didn’t try to question his antics;
I just got up and started for the stairs. I didn’t have any intention of having
a conversation with the likes of Omar, even if I did want to know what that
little smirk was all about. He made my skin crawl the first time he opened his
mouth, and has had my nerves on edge ever since.

We all loaded in the vehicle, and traveled throughout the night,
stopping only to steal gas. No one spoke much, though Rebecca asked how I was
several times. Along our way, we found abandoned houses to seek refuge from the
day, even staying in a cramped little crypt in a rundown cemetery. We were
usually crowded, but once the sun came up, it didn’t really matter where we
slept. The days and nights passed uneventfully. On the fourth night as we were
huddled in a dank cellar, the pain in my stomach returned
with
a vengeance
.

“She needs to feed. We don’t need her weak,” Omar told Rebecca.

“No,” I cried out. “I won’t hurt another person, I can’t.”

Omar opened his mouth as if to say something, but Rebecca grabbed his
arm.

“We will teach her to feed without taking life. That is Martin’s way,
not ours,” she said looking at me. “We can show you how to survive without
causing harm to a normal. Even animals can serve us well.”

I thought about it for a moment before agreeing. “Ok, then I’ll feed. I
don’t want to slow us down, and give that bastard a chance to catch up. I would
rather die than go back with him,” I said.

I knew that was only part truth. Despite everything, I missed him, or
at least some part of me did. The other part wanted his neck hanging from a
noose. I could still feel the kiss…our last kiss. How could I have been so
stupid? How could I have thought it was real? Just another of his tricks, I
told myself. The neigh of a goat brought me back to reality. I looked up the
cellar stairs to see Ronny and Marcos peering down with a brown and white goat
between them.

“Anyone ready for breakfast?” Marcos laughed.

The rest of us made our way up, and when we surfaced, Ronny pulled out
a blade like I had never seen. “What are you going to do with that?” I asked.

“It’s better to get the blood flowing than trying to bite,” he said.
“They‘re too dirty for my taste, if you get my meaning.”

“Oh, I see...”

“I prefer the blood of a normal,” Omar interrupted. “This is beneath
me,” he said disgustedly.

“Shut up, Omar,” Rebecca demanded angrily. “You know this is our way
now.”

Omar puffed out his chest, but didn’t say another word. It was obvious
he had more to say, but her look stopped him before he could open his mouth.
Instead, he clenched his jaws, and left the room. Marcos, with a tin cup in
hand, looked to Ronny who then sliced through the goat’s throat. The gurgling
noises that followed were enough to make me want to leave the room as well, but
I stayed where I was. Marcos filled the cup to the top and handed it to me.

“Ladies first,” he said.

I took it, sloshing the blood causing it to run down the side of the
cup and over my fingers. I licked my lips and reluctantly took a sip. The taste
was wonderful. I gulped down the viscous fluid, trying not to leave a single
drop. The pain was gone the moment the blood hit my stomach. I handed Marcos
the cup and greedily licked my fingers clean, as I thanked them in-between the
very un-lady like spectacle. When everyone had, had their share, we were off
again.

“We will reach the ocean sometime tonight,” Rebecca said. “Then the
real
journey will begin.”

“I don’t understand, what do you mean?” I said, confused. “Where are we
going from there?”

“Cuba. We have many friends there, and that is a place I assure you,
that Martin will never come looking.”

“Cuba?” I asked, unable to disguise my shock. “You mean get on a boat
and cross the ocean?”

“That is exactly what I mean,” Rebecca smiled. “All of the preparations
have been made. We will set sail first thing tomorrow night.”

The more I learned, the more frightened I became. I had never been more
than fifty miles from home in my whole life. “Well, why do we have to leave the
states?” I pleaded. “Can’t we just go to New York, or Chicago, or somewhere? Maybe
he won’t find me in a big city.”

“On the contraire, Martin knows how you think, Renee,” she told me. “That
would be the first place he looked, knowing you would think just as you did. It
is better that we get you as far away from him as possible.”

“Does it have to be Cuba? It just sounds a little scary to me,
that’s
all.”

“You mustn’t worry yourself,” Rebecca once again gave me that
reassuring smile. “You are not the first that we have saved from the likes of
Martin. Our kind, are all over the world, and Cuba is the closest safe haven
that we have to this part of the states. You will love the people there, they
will teach you all that you wish to know,” she said lovingly.

I still wasn’t completely convinced, but I also knew I had little in
the way of choices. No one spoke as we drove and it gave me plenty of time to
think on the only other choice that I could have made, and finding the one who
made me into the blood breeder that I became, was out of the question. I hadn’t
stopped to think much that maybe the ones that were helping me, could also be lying
so that they could do what Martin had warned me about. When it did enter my
mind, Rebecca’s words always felt sincere especially when I thought on what she
told me when I took my brother’s life. We had traveled no more than an hour when
I was overcome by a scent that I didn’t recognize. It was a good scent,
something fresh, strong, and very different.

“What is that smell?” I asked. “I can’t make it out, but it’s extremely
refreshing.”

“That would be the ocean, girl,” Ronny said, as if in disbelief. “Have
you not seen it?”

“No, I haven’t. Pa was going to take us if we yielded a good crop next
year,” I said, and the moment the words exited my mouth, I wished they hadn’t. I
was once again flooded with memories of my family back on the farm.

*****

“Next year, Ma, we should have enough for that vacation you been
wantin
`,” my father said, patting her hand.

“I can’t wait to see them
youngens
faces,
when they lay eyes on that beautiful ocean. I only saw it once, but Pa, it was
beautiful,” my mother reminisced.

“I know, honey. We just have to pray for a good crop next year, and
then you’ll get your wish,” he promised.

“I knew ‘fore I married you, Sam Crocker, you were the best.” She
reached over and kissed his cheek.
 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s me alright. One of a kind,” and together they
laughed.

*****

As the bittersweet memory cleared my mind, like magic, there it was. Even
at night I could see the dark blue, nearly black water, and the white caps that
formed as it rolled over the shore.