Davis: Blood Brotherhood (7 page)

Leo started to hand him back, but Jarvis declined. “He’s your son. He’d probably feel better with you.”

“Carter. His name is Carter. And even though he’s not of my blood, he’s my son. And you look to me like you could use a little of his special kind of magic.” Jarvis looked over at Ann and Catherine. “They’re telepaths. Both of them. And I would imagine that Carter will be as well. That’s what the father, Catherine’s father, wanted them for. He thought she could control people with her mind and get him all kinds of money in the process.”

“That man?” Jarvis nodded and said nothing else. “He hurt Ann badly. Will she heal like the rest of this house can?”

“No. She’s too human to heal like that.” Jarvis looked at him. “You don’t either. Why is that?”

“I don’t know. I can heal faster, a good deal faster than other people can. But it’s not instantaneous. But then I’d been very ill for a while before coming here.” He had been nearly dead before leaving the hospital. In fact, he was pretty sure that someone had called the undertaker that morning. “I was healed by Hector. He said I was too good a man to be lost to such an illness. I wish that he’d left me alone.”

“You’d rather be dead than here holding my son?” Leo didn’t like the question, nor the implications that he was a pussy. But Jarvis laughed, and he looked up at him. “What will you do when you’re in the middle of a fight with one of these guys? Will you let the malefactor kill you? Or will you stand and fight with them?”

“I won’t leave anyone to die by those things. I’ve seen enough of their work.” Jarvis nodded and looked at Ann, who was pulling things from the cabinets. It looked like she was planning to bake. “I don’t want to be here either. This is not where I should be.”

“None of us thought we’d be here. But had Catherine not come here with her mom, I would have lost them both. All three of them, as a matter of fact. That man would have killed them because they’d not be able to do what he wanted. Davis had cancer before coming here. I’m not sure what kind but, like you, he was dying. Remy was on a battlefield when Hector approached him. He, from what I’ve heard, had a long pike through his chest and would have died there without Hector.” Jarvis took the baby when he started to fuss. “You think about what you’re going to be doing, the lives you’re going to save by being here, and then think about the people you would have left behind had you died then. Was there anyone there, one single person that might have benefited from your final breath?”

“I was going to be married.” Jarvis told him he was sorry for that. “It’s not your fault, but she decided that having me ‘cramp her style’ would have been too much for her to bear. Death till us parted wasn’t really what she would have signed on for.”

“Fuck her.” He started to stand and tell him to fuck off, but the man only smiled. “You want to hit someone, go down to the gym and work off some of your anger with Remy. He’s fucking scary big. Or Vicki. I’m sure she’d go a few rounds with you.” Leo asked why not him. “Me? I’m much too pretty to let you beat on my face.”

Leo laughed for the first time in days, maybe even weeks. He looked around the room and the people there. They were not a bad group. Just…just not what he’d thought he’d be with at this point in his life.

The grave only took about two hours to dig. He and Vicki were partners digging side by side for a time, then Davis and Remy. Skylar was out with them, but she was more of a lookout. They were burying the man, Wally Hathaway. It was thought that if anyone dug him up, they’d leave his grave open for the animals to take care of. This man was not at all liked.

“I’m not in a good place.” Vicki only huffed at him. He was pretty sure she’d said something else, but he chose to ignore it rather than have her repeat what he thought she said. “I’ve had some major changes in my life that I wasn’t happy with.”

He stopped digging when she did and looked at her. “You weren’t happy with them. I see. And you think that as a nurse, I’m thrilled to death to have taken a man’s life. Yeah, he was a bastard, but I killed him with my bare hands. And every day, I kill even more people…well, what were once people. So if you don’t mind me saying so, fuck off to you not being in a good place. We’ll have a pity party for you when this is done.”

“Christ, you’re a hard ass. Anyone ever told you that before?” She stared at him. “I was ready to die. I was more than ready. My body had been…it wasn’t easy going from so sick every day that I needed someone to keep me doped up to feeling like I could take over the world.”

“Get over yourself. All of us here have been in a shitty place.” She started digging as she continued. “I’m sorry that you were sick. Sorrier still that someone did something to you against your will. But you’re here now, so either get over it or move on. We have enough to deal with without you mucking it up.”

He wanted to be pissed. Take the shovel in his hands and hit her in the head with it. But the longer he stared at her, thinking of all the things he could do to her, the more he realized she was right. He was in a shitty mood. He wasn’t instantly happy, not even feeling better about what was done to him, but he did know that being mad at this woman was going to get him hurt. Not by her mate, but her. She’d take him down a few pegs, break a few bones, and not think a thing about it.

As he made his way back to the house, feeling tired and sore, he said nothing to anyone but let them get ahead of him. Remy, however, slowed and was walking beside him as they entered the main part of the yard.

“Are you all right? I mean, you’ve made no bones about being here, but I don’t want anyone here that is going to cause trouble.” Leo looked at the man. Here was a man that he could like. A no nonsense sort of man that would do anything for you if you were only to ask. “I’m serious.”

“As am I when I tell you that while I’m angry and upset with what has been done, like most things in life, I’ll get over them. But as for trouble, you won’t have any out of me. I’m…let’s just say that I’m all right with my life for the moment.” Remy stared at him, then nodded once and put out his hand. Leo stared at it, then at the man. “If you don’t mind, I’m a little too sore right now to have you change something else about me.”

Remy laughed. “I can understand that. Every time that Hector came around, for a while there anyway, I was terrified that the man was going to hurt me again. But I think for now, we’re what we need to be. At least I hope. We’re finding out things daily. You will too, I think.”

“I’m sure you’re right. Like today.” He looked around and pulled his shirt off over his head. There on his hip and side were the most intricate tattoos Remy had ever seen. And he was still trying to figure out what it was. Remy had him turn for him.

“I think it’s a dragon.” Leo tried to look at him but from his angle it was nearly impossible. But he did notice that today it was up under his shoulders and lower on his hip. “You think you can change into one?”

“Christ, I hope not. What the hell would I do as a dragon?” Many things popped into his mind, most of them having very little to do with him resting under a tree while he napped. “You really don’t think that’s what is going to happen to me, do you?”

“I honestly have no idea. Everything about this situation is new to us. We’re sort of playing this by ear.” Leo nodded but didn’t go into the house. Instead, he looked up at the sky. Could he really change into a dragon and fly the skies?

Chapter 7

His body hurt in more places than he knew that he had. By now, at least hours ago, he should have not just been healed but well on his way to going back to the compound and killing the fucking bitch. What had she hit him with? And where the hell had she come from?

“What the hell happened to you?” He could no longer hold the shape of his monster, so Master turned to look at Ward, and was surprised to see Dolin with him. Dolin looked as if he’d aged several times his known age. Master almost felt sorry for him. But feeling sorry for anyone but himself was too much today.

“Why was I not told of the weapon they have in that woman? She nearly took my life from me the day before yesterday.” Dolin sat down on something on his end, and Master did the same. It was too hard for him to maintain this facade, so he didn’t even try. “You said they would be easy to kill. You told me that once they were gone, all of them would be easy to control. That was a lie.”

“What woman? You mean that mate of Rembrandt? I know of no such weapon that they have.” Ward looked at Dolin. “Do you know anything about this?”

“I’m not talking of that bitch Skylar. I mean the new one. The one that smells of the fucking trees and something sweet, a newcomer to their group.” Both men looked confused. Then Master remembered that they’d had no more contact with the stupid beings since Hector had defected. “She is tall, too skinny, and has a marking on her face and arms. She also smells of earth.”

“Earth?” Dolin stood up and began to pace. “Hector said that there would be twelve of them to help battle against us. Are there any more men there? Perhaps one of them could have harmed you and you missed it.”

His beast rose up. Not entirely because he was still too weak, but both of them shied back, even though he could no more harm them than they could him. Not unless he went back to their realm or they actually came here, which he doubted would ever happen under the current circumstances.

“I know when a woman raises her magic against me. And she did. There are only the two men there that are a threat to me. I will kill any more that come within miles of that place.” He tried to think if there was anyone there when he’d been there, and all he could think was the woman. She had tried to kill him and had nearly succeeded. “I shall require more of the magical stones. There are a few stones here, empty of their magic, of course, but you can…why are you saying no? I need them.”

“There’s a problem with the magic. I…we never actually made it before, and since Hector has left us, things have not gone well.” Dolin stopped moving around the room and stared at him as he continued, “We have nothing left. And the people of the lab, our lab, are leaving us faster daily. Not by choice, but we are being told they are dying. All of them. The blood of the dead has been spread to more of the people than we’d thought. Someone is killing them, and it’s not us this time.”

“Then I would suggest that you find out who it is and put a stop to them. Is that so hard for you to figure out?” Ward shook his head this time, saying that they couldn’t find the person. “Are you telling me that you’re no longer ridding your planet of the surplus of people there, but that someone else is doing it for you? You said that it would only be the ones that are draining our resources. You both told me by the time the fight on this realm was complete all that would be left on your end would be more than enough to serve us. We cannot start fresh at this point. People should have been kept trained. Why have you not trained others in his job? What are you doing there? And not working to fix this problem?”

“Hector didn’t give us notice when he left, in case you forgot. We thought him grieving and never thought to go and get his notes when we tried to kill him. And when we read over his notes…none of us are able to figure out what the hell he was saying. His handwriting is all wrong, like he was writing in another language or something.” Ward took a deep breath to apparently calm himself. But Master was too pissed himself to care at this point. “You’ll have to take your time in healing on your own. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“You might as well tell him the rest.” Dolin only nodded toward him when he looked at Ward. “We’re going to hear about it if we don’t.”

Master wanted to tell them to leave him. Dolin only nodded again when Master shook his head. He didn’t want to know what else. Because surely what they had told him was the worst.

“Two of the orders we had have cancelled. They have decided that working with us is no longer a viable option. They have seen, apparently, what we have been dealing with on this other realm.”

Master could only think of all the work he’d done so far for this. All the time and effort that he’d put in with the promise of a large payoff. His temper seemed to be growing with each beat of his heart, with every breath he took. But as he tried to calm his beast, tell him it would be fine, the pain was nearly unbearable. Master knew that losing control now would serve no purpose but to make him weaker. The men he was angry with were not going to feel his wrath anyway, so it would be a huge waste of his spent energy.

He felt the blackness that had plagued him of late take him, and knew there was little to nothing he could do to keep it at bay right now. He was too weak, too hurt to do anything but let it slide over his body and take him under.

When Master woke some time later, he knew that several hours had passed. The day was gone now and the sky was as black as his beating heart. Master smiled at his description of himself. He was sure that his heart, a dark and hard place anyway, was just as he’d said. Black as pitch.

“It would serve them right if I were to ride above their compound and toss fire upon them.” Of course, he knew for a fact that it wouldn’t work. Whoever had put the magic around the place had taken that precaution into account as well.

His wounds were deep this time. Looking down at them, it nearly made him ill to think just how close to his heart, black or otherwise, she’d come. Her magic had burned through his own magic until there was nothing left to keep him whole. And the fact that she’d done it at all was still burning into him. Did she not realize that he would rule her soon?

Master supposed it was very arrogant of him to think along those lines. The humans and these creatures that Hector had created to help the earth were not going to go down easy. He wondered at what point Hector had given them the extra powers. It had to be soon after they had gathered together. Because before that, Master had had no problems at all in turning the humans and killing off the others like Rembrandt. And there had been many others over the years since the day in the field where Rembrandt had been changed.

Over the decades there had been hundreds of the same type of man as Rembrandt. In fact, there had been more than a thousand of them created the day that Rembrandt had been. Even Master had thought of joining the fight, but he’d been more inclined to join Ward and Dolin than what he considered a lost cause with Hector’s group of men.

Master sometimes forgot that Hector was there with them at the beginning, or so he’d been told. That Hector alone had been responsible for making and controlling the creatures that had been a part of their world.

But he’d killed all of Hector’s warriors. Master would destroy these too, he’d no doubt of that. Every time that he’d heard one of the others talk about a new man that could turn the tides, he’d go and hunt the man down and kill him. Always leaving Remy, knowing that someday he’d come back to find him and tell him just what he’d done.

“That was a disappointment.” Master frowned when he thought of the look in Remy’s face when he’d told him what he’d done to his wife and children. He had expected him to sob. To cry out of the injustice of it all. But he’d not done either of those things. He’d been angry, yes that was true, but not the type of anger that Master had been hoping for. Remy always was a spoil sport.

Master went deeper into his cave. He would not have been happy for Ward or Dolin to see his new home, but then he was pretty sure that they could see as little of where he lived as he did with them. The big roaring fire was the only thing that he’d been able to make without making himself ill again. And it kept him very warm.

The bodies of the two men that had happened upon him were roasting over it. Master had had human before, and while it was good in some ways, he really didn’t care for the taste. But it helped him heal, helped him in ways now that nothing else would. And there would be nothing else.

Master thought of the money. Two orders couldn’t be that bad, could it? There were millions of beings that used the same stone they had for magic. Where else did they think they were going to get such stones if not from them? Unless Hector was going behind their backs and selling it at a discount rate. That would be so like him.

Poking at the meat, he grinned. No, that would be very unlike Hector. The man could barely make enough money to keep his family, and seemed to be so happy about it. Going to someone to deal with them was out of the question. He would wet himself if he had to even try.

Hector was a stupid man despite his abilities in the lab. He’d never go to someone in order to cheat another. It wasn’t in his nature. Master prided himself on reading people, and Hector was a pussy. A whiny pussy.

~~~

Dolin sat down. He was nervous, Ward could tell, but it was time to cut ties with the fool on earth and move on to someone that could be controllable. And Benton no longer was. He sat in his own chair and waited. Sooner rather than later, Dolin would start to speak. It was much sooner than he’d thought it would be.

“Do you think he suspects anything?” Ward stretched his legs out in front of him without answering. “If he figures out what we’re doing, he’s going to come here and kill all of us. I know it has to be done, but it’s dangerous. He has a nasty temper, you know. And as much as I’d like to have him kill the others, I do worry about him coming here.”

“Of course it’s dangerous. We knew that from the first. But Benton is beginning to play by his own rules, and that is going to get us nowhere. You heard what the buyer said. If we’re having this much trouble controlling one man, then why should they expect us to come through for them? I’m not going to go under before we even get this thing going.”

“It was a big blow to our plans to have them back out.” Ward nodded at Dolin. “When do you meet with the others? The ones in that realm? The sooner we can get some answers and some money, the better I’ll feel.”

“Tomorrow. They’re supposed to be looking for a candidate to bring here so that we can change him on our own. He’ll have to be semi stupid, I think, but smart enough to work himself out of tight things when necessary.” Dolin asked how many they were going to bring here. “Four or five, I think. Once they’re here, we can figure out who we’re going to change. I’m really glad you found the notes that Hector left behind. Now if we could only find someone who can decipher them.”

The notes had been found in his home, under the bed that his wife had died in. Ward had only found them because he’d sold the mattress to someone and had been there when they’d pulled it out. The books, five in all, were bundled in an old baby blanket tucked up under the frame of the bed. There had been other things as well; a magazine that featured Hector on the cover, a wedding picture of someone he had no clue who they were, and a piece of turquoise. It had burned him badly when he’d picked it up, not having a clue what Hector had done to it to make it so different.

“Did you ever figure out what the turquoise was used for?” Ward shook his head and said that he’d never even see the stone until then. “I’ve only just heard about it. The humans wear it around their necks and fingers as jewelry. Whatever for, I can’t imagine. But they are an odd bunch of beings. I, for one, will be glad when they’re all gone.”

“I have never even spoken to one directly, other than the ones we brought here. Surely they aren’t the true nature of them, are they?” Dolin looked shocked, and Ward had no way to set his mind at ease. “If that is the case, then it is small wonder we’re having so much trouble there. Why would they adorn themselves with such oddities?”

“Why indeed?” Ward felt a wave of sadness wash over him. It was happening less and less these days, but it was still there, his loss of his best friend. Mary had meant the world to him. And now he was going to make them all pay for her death. “I’ve been trying to figure out where Hector is. He told you once that we’d never be able to breach the compound. Do you suppose that now that he’s there, we could? It would certainly make things easier on us if we could bring him back here and make him tell us what to do.”

Ward didn’t think that was going to happen, even if they were able to breach the compound walls. If that was where he was. Hector had been hiding from them for a while now, and Ward had no doubt that he knew a great deal more about them than they did him. Like those fucking books. He’d done that on purpose. Writing them, then filing them away so that neither of them could read it.

“Doubtful. It was our blood that made the monsters in that realm. And it is that alone that keeps us from entering the compound. It might be where Hector is too, but we’ve no one inside to help us find out. I wonder at times if he never really trusted us. I mean, when you think of all the precautions he’d come up with to ensure that he was the only one that could read his notes. He also changed and watched over that Rembrandt person without letting us know what he’d been up to. Of course we had our secrets too, but his were more to give himself gain, not to help us all.”