“I’m so sorry, Martin.”
“I wish you would all change your minds and not go this one time. Renee, would it be so hard to gather your family and take a break? You can always make a better plan later and go do what you all do best once you have rested well and trained to your best ability.”
“If we take down the elders, we can live in peace, Martin. If not we all have to watch over our backs and stay in hiding. I’m not willing to do that. Not even for a little while. I know you mean well, but the plans are in motion and they can’t be stopped now or Angelica and Inara will be worse than when we got here.”
“She’s right, Martin. If we were to leave now they will find it as a victory and London’s dark world will pay with their cruelty.”
“You few are going to go to a place where there is going to be at least fifty, if not more. And you plan on being the only ones walking out…” Martin held up his hand before I could speak. “I know you think if you take down the main heads that the rest of the body will fall, but what if you only anger the body and it retaliates?”
“Then we’ll fight our way out. It won’t be the first time,” I shrugged.
“How can you be so nonchalant about this matter, Renee?”
“The same way that you’re so bothered about it I guess, Martin. I don’t know. You know, I can see you being upset because you can’t join u, but I don’t get why you pretend that this shouldn’t happen. I’ve told you that I will join you after we take care of the beginning of all of this and we will live a very happy life.”
“But, not until then,” he whispered, lifting my hands and kissing the backs of both. “I shall keep my word.”
A light tap sounded on the bedroom door. “Are you guy’s about ready to get these stupid clothes on? Tanda’s having a fit waiting to see if the things she fixed are going to work out okay,” Derek spoke loud enough for us to hear him through the door.
“I will go and try on the pants she worked on of mine. Don’t be too long, Renee, your hair will take time.” Jacob left Martin and I alone.
We both said each other’s name at the same time and started laughing. “I’m sorry, you go first.”
“No, ladies first. I insist.”
“If all of this is meant to be, if you and I are meant to be forever, then those who are doing these horrid things will go down and we will see it happen. Those who follow the ways of their makers will turn tail and run or they will go down as well. One night it will all end and our kind can live in peace, just like us.”
“You have my support this night and you may take anything that I own. Whatever is mine, is yours. The unmarked coaches are hidden under tarps at the back of the stalls.”
I couldn’t resist, I reached up and put my hand on the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet me and pressed my lips to his until he opened to me. Our tongues mingled as the taste of his blood rushed through my senses like a wildfire in a wheat field on a windy day. I had pressed too hard on his lips and nicked his already scarred bottom lip. He was so sweet, that I wanted more. Martin broke the kiss and moved my head to his neck. “Take from me, I am your maker.”
“No, I can’t.”
“I will make you stronger and I will be with you on this battle tonight. Take from me, my love, and satisfy us both. My promise to you is to return that satisfaction when I am healed,” he spoke low by my ears and sent chills cascading over my entire body. “Now, take from me, my love.”
There was no way that I could look up before I sank my fangs into that amazingly soft flesh, but I did as my maker asked. I took a small amount, enough to feel it coating my stomach and making its way through my veins. I licked the wounds clean that I had made. Now I couldn’t take my eyes off of Martin. His head was slightly tilted back and his eyes were closed. He was beautiful! I continued kissing my way up his chin then cheek and that’s when he stopped me.
“You must go and get ready, and I must go to our room and rest,” he said, with both hands on my shoulders.
“Are you okay?”
“I am in a bit of pain but Tammy was kind enough to leave a little wine in the room. I think it best if I go and have a small drink.” He kissed my forehead, leaned over and picked up his cane and slowly made his way to the door.
“Can I at least help you to the room?” I asked, walking over and touching his back.
“No, I believe that would do more harm than help. I do not mean to hurt your feelings in any way, my love, but I have told you that it would be very hard to be around you until I have healed. This, I am afraid, is one of those times.”
Blushing would be an understatement to what I must have looked like after I realized what Martin was talking about. He had become aroused from me drinking from his neck and it was causing him a great amount of pain. I felt like he had given me a gift, one that I could feel rushing through me. Every sense that I had was because of touching him in some way. I could smell him, see his eyes when mine were shut, hear his breath on the vibrations of my ear as if he were whispering something to me. It was if he was walking with me as I walked into the room with the others.
Chapter Twenty Five
Tanda had already worked on half of the group, putting their make-up on after they dressed. Derek, Sydney, and I were the only ones left waiting to sit in her chair that soon became known as, Tanda’s torture throne, and to feel her wrath; but she was having the time of her life. Fala stood back and watched it all. All that he had to do was get a light powder on his face with a touch of cheek blush. Once the others were finished I knew it was my turn. I for one was ready for a good laugh. Just the thought of all of my little ones playing dress-up was a hoot to me.
If I was going to look anything like Tammy then I was going to look ridiculous. The white could not get any whiter than Tanda painted on her face and her cheeks and lips were a bright red. On one cheek she had a black mole painted on, and her eyes were extremely heavy in make-up. It looked as if her face would crack in half if she smiled even a little. The boy’s thought they would get away with a mask but because we were doing our best to not be noticed as breeders who were not known to the area, they all had one form of make-up on or another. That made it very hard to not have some form of a smile on my face when I finally stepped into the room instead of peering at them from the secrecy of the shadows of the foyer.
Jacob, Cates, Tammy, and Garvin turned and looked at me at the same time I stepped into the room laughing, thinking they would join me. My laugh slowed to a giggle, then stopped all together. Tanda and Derek came around me, with Sydney and Fala following them. “What’s wrong with all of you?”
“You walk with a power of Martin all around you,” Jacob replied. “Why would you feed on him at a time like this?”
“You cannot go to the gala with his aroma all over you. They will know you belong to him as soon as you walk in the front door,” Cates growled, shaking his head.
“Renee,” Tammy walked up to me. “Why didn’t you wait until we came back?”
“What the hell are y’all talking about?”
“You drank from your maker, did you not?” Jacob snapped.
“He said it would make me stronger!” I snapped back.
“He has fooled you, Renee. Martin knows they would feel his blood in your veins. You cannot go with us and that he also knew.”
“That son-of-a-bitch,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Well, I’m going no matter what he thought feeding on him would do.”
“If you do, we will all die.” Jacob turned his back to me. “There is only one way to mask what Martin has done… and you will not approve.”