“I believe there is a ladle,” Garvin said, holding it in his hand.
I turned up the dripping mess, swallowed the warm liquid as fast as I could, and gulped loudly as the blood spilled from the sides of my mouth. Tammy was the only one smiling when I dipped the glass in the second time. “I know what made me that hungry,” she snickered, blowing a kiss at Cates. I rolled my eyes and smeared blood into my hair as I moved it out of my way to turn the glass up again. I drank half and then slowly set it back down.
“I’m full,” I belched, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, never once looking at the one that I was putting on the show for. “As our good friend, Bo, would say, let’s do this!” Then I turned and headed down the hall.
Cates yelled, “Let’s do this!” as he plunged his drinking cup into the bowl of blood, spilling it down his beard as he drank. I heard several cups clank together as everyone else followed suit, yelling out the same cheer. By the time they joined me in the basement, everyone had lines of blood from the middle of their face, in long, red, thick lines, to the middle of their stomachs. All but, Martin that is. He was wearing a black tuxedo dinner jacket that hung down in the back so low that it dusted the tops of his black shiny boots that held his matching slacks with a nice tuck. It was all fitted nicely with a dark burgundy silk shirt that he had buttoned snuggly around his upper neck. His hair was pulled back so tight that it looked as if he had cut it, giving my heart a small skip in its abnormal beat, until I saw the braided tail as he turned to speak to Tanda.
“Well, aren’t you Mr. Fancy pants tonight?” I smirked, walking around him in a circle as if I hadn’t seen him standing right beside me in the kitchen.
“I will be going to a different party. One where coating thyself in pig’s blood is not called for. Not in the beginning of things anyway,” he gloated, trying to make me jealous.
“We’ll be coated with a hell of a lot more than pig’s blood before it’s over with. See ya later, sweetheart,” I replied, mustering as much sarcasm into the last of my statement as I could.
“Have a grand time, love…and do take heed to remember that Lord Cheree has many sick friends who also join his tete-a-tete on nights like these. Many could out number your few,” he countered with as much sarcasm as I had given him.
“Look who is still standing, old man. We’ve been out numbered how many times?” Derek mockingly asked, raising his shoulders and once again jumping to my rescue.
“Well said, young man,” I concurred, slapping him on the back. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Five
We all walked out leaving Martin standing there with his mouth ajar, just enough to see his elongated fangs as he hissed and stormed back up the stairs into the comforts of the world he had known. We took to the lower levels that we had more than certainly become accustomed to the moment we decided that enough was enough. Tanda was the only one that didn’t wield her weapon, making grunting animal-like sounds to ward off any group of scavengers, no matter what number the tunnel dwellers carried. Those that craved the flesh of others were feared by the most feared; and we not only sounded it, we looked the part. It would be Cates and his missing arm, elbow held as high as the ceiling would allow, leading our way, grinding his teeth, scrunching his facial features and absolutely making the biggest fool out of himself as I had ever witness him do. My moans and grunts were more laughs and snorts being held back with the back of one hand, while I held my curved blade in the other.
It wasn’t the scavengers that stumbled on to us, it was Cates that boldly and blinded by his own torch, walked right out into their camp in the ‘T’ of one of the many tunnels we had already gone down. “Zombies!” one scavenger yelled, grabbing his sword. Jacob darted out around the big, one-armed man as Derek flew around the other side. It must have been a terrible sight to see, because all four scavengers turned tail and ran. They looked like dwarfs, not one over four feet in height. I caught a glimpse of their faces and all that I really saw and could explain was their huge bulging eyes that were just as black as Shyanna’s. The rest of their face was dark and they moved so fast, that it was all that I could make of them. That, and the fact that they stunk just like our skunks back home in Texas.
“That was easy,” Sydney smiled, lowering his club that was truly now just an extension of his arm.
“Hope that sick-o thinks we’re half dead and wants some,” Tammy smiled back at him, then winked at me.
“Bet he ain’t half as stupid as he is sick, you know what I mean?” I replied, causing all the smiles to drop.
“We all know exactly what you mean,” Jacob replied, putting his arm around my shoulders much like he had his sister’s. “What say we give this piece of bull dick a bit of our intellect?”
Derek burst out laughing, echoing through the tunnels the most wonderful sound I hadn’t heard in a long time. “To be so smart,” he laughed even harder, walking over and leaning his chin on the top of Tanda’s head, unable to wipe the hilarity off of his face. “You really need to figure out how to cuss, or this Lord whatever guy is going to think we’re just a bunch of idiots.” Derek nodded, getting a friendly slap on the arm from Tanda, who was smiling just as big of a grin as he was.
“I do not get what is so funny, but it is really good to see him happy, do you not agree, Renee?” she giggled, shinning her eyes up at me.
“Bull dick?” I grinned at Derek then looked back at Jacob.
“Was it not one of your good curse phrases?” he innocently asked, and even Cates, his close equal in age, burst out laughing.
“Dick-less, maybe dick-head, but animal personal parts just doesn’t work,” Derek foolishly explained.
“Yet, you once said the phrase asshole. An ass is a barn animal, is it not? I know the word dick to be the name of a man, not used as an insult. But I am learning, and would learn a great deal more if you would simply return to your prior self,” Jacob smiled, walking over to Derek. “The self I miss more than these lips can explain, young one.” Then he put his hand on the top of Derek’s head, sliding his cloak away from his face.
“I’m getting there, old man…I’m getting there,” Derek replied, nodding once then pulled his cloak back over his head, holding onto Tanda’s shoulders as we made our way deeper into the tunnels and further out of the city of London.
Cold air ran up my lower legs, climbing up my body the further and deeper we made our way out. Jacob stopped us in a junction in the tunnels and pulled out one of the rolled up map. “We leave our torches here,” he said after reading a small inscription on the parchment scroll. He rolled up the map, which had some type of instructions on the back, and put it back in the inside of his belt just as Cates lowered the last torch, smearing it on the damp earth until it went out. I didn’t know what we were going to do now, other than feel our way through the maze of unending catacombs of death that had turned into the roadway for the damned.
“Look,” Tanda said, as I noticed her body beginning to glow a pale greenish haze, then I looked up.
“What are they?” I asked in amazement at the little wiggly creatures clinging to the rounded ceiling of the slime-covered tunnel that now glowed as far as our breeder eyes could see.
“They’re Lichens,” Cates replied reaching up, taking one down with a sticky pop.