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“Where did you have that hiding?”

“Tammy took it from a ladies pouch that she had between her breasts. I believe I will never grow so old that I do not learn something new from this younger generation. So tell me, should we not mark these normals for our own safety?”

“You can if you have a problem when you and a few others come back first thing tomorrow night to get what they offered to sell. That is, unless we can get them to deliver?”

The two men came back out with Tink pulling a not so willing, healthy goat between them. I noticed Jacob looking up, and then he rushed over and took the rope of the goat from Tink and shook his hand. Jacob spoke a few moments with the men and then we said our goodbyes and hurried back the way we had come. The sky was changing to a faded grey; telling all that dawn was on its way. One by one we rushed through the oval shaped hole in the wall, with Cates being the last. I looked back and saw him pull in a dried hedge to cover the outside view of the hole and once inside push the wood pile back in place.

Once inside, Jacob held the goat still by the cabinet with its neck pulled tight, while Garvin slid his blade quickly across. Tanda was there with the big bowl to catch the stream of steaming blood and all I could do was watch and lick my lips. The more I stared at the red flow, the more my mind went to the gala and what we were going to do to the sick of the city. I wanted to take the heads of Angelica and her twin and I wanted to sit back and watch as Tammy had her way with Bernard and Alex. I could envision Jacob and Cates slicing through flesh and bone as bodies dropped in solid to ash form. My mind was swimming with the visions of Sydney’s club coming down and crushing a breeders’ skull. All of the sudden I could hear Derek calling out my name.

“Renee, open your eyes!”

“Everyone just step back and give her some room,” I heard Tammy say in the distance, but then she too went away.

Chapter Twenty Four

Memory told me I had been in the sandstone wall room before, only the figure in the bed was not the same dark haired man that I had seen the last time my visions had brought me here. Yvette lay curled on her side, her lower half covered by a sheer white blanket of sorts. The rest of her was nude. I wanted to walk over and choke her to death again, but I didn’t seem to have a body. All I could do was watch whatever I was here to see.

“Bring me my drink, will you, love?” Yvette said, raising her hand lazily.

“You said you would help me take him down this night, Yvette.”

“And I will, my beautiful man, but you must trust me if you wish to have his throne. I do not care to have another ancient in my body. You will have to take him if you wish to have all that he owns. Of course, giving me half if I help trap him for the kill.”

“He is my father,” Martin replied, sitting on the bed beside Yvette.

“And you want to be free, do you not?”

I saw Martin lower his head as he nodded twice. He stood and walked to a wooden door and spoke too softly for me to hear. A few moments later the door opened and a young male that was bound and blindfolded was pushed in. Yvette smiled and pushed herself into a sitting position, as Martin grabbed the young male under the arm and forced him to the left side of the bed. I wanted nothing more at that moment than for Martin to turn around so I could see the look on his face. “Take that thing off of its eyes. I like to see the horror in these nasty beast’s eyes as I drain their pathetic lives away.” I was grateful when, for the second time, I witnessed Martin’s head dropping as if ashamed.

“You must wake before I am pulled under.”

“Go away, I wanna watch.”

“Renee, it’s Jacob. You have to come back to my voice.”

“Go away, little one.”

I felt the sting before the view of Jacob’s smile wiped the vision from my mind. “Did you just slap me?” He shook his hand as if he felt the sting as well, and then shook his head and stood up. “I gather I was out a little longer this time?”

“We are the only ones that have not been pulled under, but I am soon to be on my way.” Jacob pulled one of the high back chairs in his room over by the bed and sit down and lean back with his eyes closed.

I waited a few minutes before I spoke. “Jacob,” I whispered. When he didn’t reply I continued. “Martin had Yvette help him kill his dad, like, way back when. They were in that same room where she killed that man you called 'the Egyptian’. He said he lied, but I had no idea he was that old. The really bad thing…he held down a young man while she drained him; well you woke me before I actually saw it but it was about to happen.”

“I know, I have always known.”

“Good grief!” I all but jumped off of the bed. “You could have given me a heart attack. I thought you were out.”

“No, I could not do such a thing and I, as you say, I will indeed be out shortly.”

“Either way you look at it, Strawberry, that scarred the shit out me. Rest well, Jacob.”               ***              

I woke with a hand holding mine. It was hard to make out the face with the hair hanging around the features but when the fireplace came to life it was hard not to pull my hand free. It was Martin and all I could see was him by Yvette’s bedside. Then the memory of him being tortured replaced my childish jealousy. “Should you be up moving around?”

“You slept in the guest room. I do not like waking without seeing your face. Not if you are under the same roof.”

“We got in late and I didn’t want to disturb you,” Jacob said as he stood beside the fireplace.

“I understand my young friend. I, too, have held the curse of drinking from an ancient,” Martin looked at me as I pulled my hand free and sat up, bringing the covers to my chest as I did so. “I just hope she can forgive what she sees from the ancient that she now owns.”

“I’d look pretty stupid if I held something that happened longer than I can even imagine, against you. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t ask you about it. Like what was the deal with you needing Yvette’s help to kill your father?”

Martin took in a deep breath, stood and limped over in front of the blazing fire. He kept his back to me so I got up and walked over and gently wrapped my arms around him from the back, resting my hands on his chest. Jacob looked at me and was about to turn and leave. “Stay,” I whispered. I then lay several kisses on Martin’s shirtless back. “I love you and we can talk about anything, just like you said.” Martin reached up and rubbed the back of my hands with his left, as he leaned his cane on the side of the chair with his right. He then pulled me around and into a hug.

“I love you and will answer all that you ask.” He looked down at me and I rose onto my toes. The kiss was magical and must have lingered a bit too long because Martin didn’t release me until Jacob cleared his throat. I heard nothing but the soft humming of spring. I was in love and it showed no matter what I did to hide it. “I needed her help to seduce my father into going to a place where his guard could not follow but his trusted son could, and would. I saw them together many times before, being a slave to them both. Now I was using her when she thought she was using me.”

“Your father would have been an elder, had he lived, is that correct?”

Martin nodded several times. “Because I was his blood kin, I was given to him from birth and told he was my father. Yvette had no idea what I was to inherit by taking his last drop but it was enough to rid myself of the likes of her.”

“And the story about the man you saw burn in the tunnel?”

“Very true, Renee. My father had this piece of London since it was created. But, we had not come to this stay for many years, leaving London to the likes of those you have met, or others much like them. We had only been here a short time when some of the slaves my father had bought, escaped. It was then that the old man with us lost his mind and walked out into the coming dawn. We woke in the cover of that tunnel and the first thing that I did was step out into the night to see the charred remains that the day had left behind.”