I was pulling the hair pins out of my hair when I felt a hand on my chest. “What the hell.” Fala growled and yanked on the arm that had touched me and pulled Bernard free from his hiding spot. He screamed once and then fell silent when Fala’s huge hand clamped down over his mouth then he passed smooth out.
“He is a weak one, isn’t he?”
“Lane, is that you?” I asked as he stepped out from the same dark area.
“Yes, that one released me and my brother and hid with us here in the little room. He said we would be freed after all was clear. I do not think he knew you would be coming after the others went by.”
I could hear several footsteps coming our way and see the light of the torch. Derek held it as high as he could until he saw Luther stepping out. He slowed down and walked the rest of the way, smiling like he had swallowed the yellow canary. It was then that I saw Sydney running up behind him. “You pick them up all over the place, don’t you, Renee?”
“You’d be one of the first to know, huh Derek?” I laughed.
“He wakes,” Fala said, getting our attention.
Tammy was the first to get in front of Bernard. “Where did they go, Bernard?”
“What? What happened?”
“You touch my chest and our wolf friend here almost ate you for supper, that’s what happened. Now, answer her question.”
“Where did who go?”
“Pick him up, Fala. We’ll take him with us. Let’s move.” I gave the order and turned, heading down the hall-like tunnel to find the rest of my people. I could hear Bernard begging to be put down, saying that he could walk on his own. He rambled on about knowing where they had gone and would show us the way if we swore not to harm him or his beloved, Alex. I think Fala must have bumped Bernard’s head on the wall to shut him up, because it became very quiet all of the sudden.
Derek put the torch on the floor and stomped it out, telling us that the others were waiting just around the next turn. It hadn’t been an extremely noticeable slant in the hall, but with the way we walked, it was easy to tell that we had been going down at a slight angle the whole way. The turn opened into a small room with stone benches where the rest were waiting on us.
“You do not know how pleased I am to see that you found the key,” Jacob stood and was smiling so big I could see his fangs in full.
“The key?” I laughed at the look on his face. “We found a few things alright, but I didn’t see any keys.”
“Not you, my fearless leader, Fala.”
He was talking about Bernard and I was dying to see the meaning behind his words. Fala let Bernard slide off of his shoulder by pulling down on his arm, and not too gently. Bernard hit the stone floor with a thud. His scream echoed throughout the room as he grabbed his lower leg, falling back and acting more like a female than any man should. Cates stood up, walked over, yanked him up by the back of his leather top and slung him into the far corner.
“Open it you little weasel or I will break every bone in your body.”
“Then I will let you heal and let this beast of a man do it all over again,” I calmly added, crossing my arms over the shirt that Sydney let me use, with tights covering my legs and nothing else on but the slipper type shoes. My hair was hanging off to one side, half rolled up with hair pins sticking out everywhere. I must have looked like a mad woman.
“They split up. Inara took her men and left. She gave word to ready her ship before we came to the gala, in case things did not go her way.”
“And her sister?” Cates said in a deep growl, leaning down over Bernard, who just glanced at the wall then down at the floor. “Then open it before I get busy.”
“I can go to the coastline and stop the ship. I know the way well,” Monroe offered.
“No, we stay together.” Jacob looked at me and I nodded.
We watched Cates reach down and yank Bernard up a second time. “Okay, I will!” he screamed. “Please don’t hurt me anymore.” He broke down sobbing like a small child. He slid back down to the floor and crawled over to the corner to our right, on hands and knees, crying with his head hanging. He got up on his knees, using the wall to support himself, then pulled back one of the inset stones. “The stairs that go up go to Angelica’s private quarters. The ones that go down will take you to three tunnels. There are many places to get lost past the torture…” he paused.
“Why don’t you just open it and show us the way,” Garvin said, shocking me. “We’ll need a guide.”
“Please, I don’t want to go down there. I beg you, I will do anything.” Bernard grabbed the bottom of Garvin’s jacket and pulled as he begged. Garvin slapped him.
Bernard released his grip on Garvin’s jacket and like a wet puppy, scooted back into the corner and stuck his hand into the opening. A loud clank rang out as chains rubbed together and the wall lifted into the unknown.
Chapter Twenty Nine
“Should I go check on him?”
“No, Tanda, he will be fine. Besides, he cannot go anywhere that we cannot go,” Martin smiled at her.
“Do you think they’re okay? I wish I could have gone with them.”
“You are very fond of this Derek, are you not?”
“I love him very much, Martin. To look at us we resemble the same age, but I am so much older in here.” Tanda touched her chest over her heart. “I believe that does not matter, but I often wonder if it will.”
“Love cares not for any of the same things that we do in life, my child. It can only feel; it has no eyes to see age or color or deeds. Love knows only the heart that it touches and that touches it back. For when the two become one, this thing that beats in here,” Martin laid his hand over Tanda’s, “is finally free.”
“Then why, when I look at him, do I feel more hunger than I ever did in Yvette’s hands? Why do I feel like I am in a cage with no door when he walks into a room and I dare not say how I feel when he touches me?” She blushed, lowering her eyes and moving around the desk.
“He is your first love and the first is always an experience that you will never forget. Cherish every moment that you have with young Derek, love him with all that you have, Tanda. You both have my blessing,” Martin leaned back in the desk chair. “But, I fear if you do not try to stop him from doing this crazed madness that your first may well be your last.”
Tanda walked over to the closed entrance to her entrapment and lightly touched it. “You are a good mentor and teacher,” she turned and looked at him. “But, and I mean no disrespect, are you as good at being a student?”
“No offence taken, young one.”
“Martin, I smell smoke and this stone is very warm.”
Martin rushed to the stone entrance and got down on his hands and knees putting his face close to the floor. “They’ve set my home on fire. We have to get to the tunnels.” ***
A light wind blew a swirl of dust around our feet as the door lifted into the walls above us. Bernard stood with his back to the rising wall with his hands out toward us, begging to be left in the stone hall. He stepped away the higher the wall went up but couldn’t go far with us pressing in, urging him to move back into dark abyss that only he knew and seemed to fear with great prejudice. Two decaying arms shot out with more speed than I had seen from death, grabbed Bernard and pulled him, screaming and kicking into the darkness. Seconds later his screams were cut off abruptly.
“Monroe left, Cates right,” Jacob commanded as he took the middle. The rest of us stepped in behind them and waited for whatever was going to come out of that blackness. What came out was not what I was expecting. Bernard’s crumpled and bloodied body was thrown at us with great force, knocking us down like twigs before he burst into ash. Cates and Monroe were helping us up, when the thing dragged itself into our torchlight.