“You are so young,” he laughed, putting his arm over my shoulder. “That my child will come with age, and you have many years to go. But, the eyes are a start.”

We stepped in the room with both Alex and Bernard’s eyes locked on the enormous man standing in the middle of the room saying nothing with his arm crossed over holding his elbow. Cates kept that mean exterior as we entered; never wavering when my eyes turned to slants and my mouth went taut. I was doing my best to be the demon they had heard so much about. I reminded Alex that he was telling me about the party, and that he had mentioned a way to get into the castles lower levels. Jacob pulled out his smaller alabaster blade and began cleaning his nails, while reclining on the wall where Bernard was chained.

“Yes…yes, I heard Mistress Angelica tell my mistress, that she was going to have the gala on the new moon, so all would have time to arrive.”

I turned and looked back at Jacob, who held up four of his fingers.

“What else, Alex. What are you keeping from me?” I asked, stepping in close enough to feel his breath on my face; close enough to hear him swallow.

When he said nothing, glancing back and forth from one of my eyes to the other, fire built inside of me so fast that I was walking over grabbing Bernard’s broken femur before I even knew what I was doing. I could barely hear Alex screaming “okay” over the piercing screams of Bernard. I released his leg and looked down as my lips pulled back from my fangs in an evil grin. “You better hope he loves you as much as he says, because it’s your ass I’m coming after if he fails me.” Then I stood and in a speed I didn’t even realize that I had, I was back in Alex’s face so fast that his head slammed into the wall behind him. “You have no idea what form of breeder you are dealing with little man. I drank Yvette dry as her body turned to ash in my hands. I drove my blade through Chin’s heart, and cut the head right off the shoulders of Cortez, and now I’m here to do the same thing to Angelica.” I spoke part in truth; I had drained Yvette dry while she turned to ash in my hands.

“Will you let my mistress live?”

“Unless she gets in my way,” I lied again, because if I had the chance…they were both going to die.

“Angelica plans on killing your maker in front of the crowd. She thinks it will show her superiority and you will flee,” he spoke so rapidly, I almost didn’t understand his words.

I turned and left the room. I couldn’t say anything because his statement had made me speechless and instantly drained the anger from my body like pulling a plug. I was now filling with dread of what was happening to Martin in the dungeons of that power hungry bitch. Jacob stepped out knowing what Alex said had crushed me. I told him to find out where the tunnels were, because I wasn’t waiting four days to get him back. The gala was set, breeders all over England were coming and I didn’t think she would cancel regardless of the fact that she had Martin or not. It wouldn’t hold to her society standing. The crops may have had a bad yield, but it never stopped that annual barn dance and everyone from five counties out showed up.

Chapter Sixteen

I lie back in my bed, thinking of the things that were done to my body in the pits of Yvette’s hell at the hands of her torturous Annabel, and her pet, Enrique. My hand clenched into a fist with the memory of Annabel breaking my finger before sliding the thin blades under my nails. My ankles held the scars where she twisted the rope tight as my legs pressed against the block between my lower legs, finally breaking free of my skin as the bone shattered under the forceful twist of her hands. All the things running through my mind were driving me deeper into insanity, wondering what they were doing to Martin.  Were his bones being broken, or worse, removed? He was, without a doubt, being beaten so badly that he willingly let them know that I belonged to him. I couldn’t help feeling responsible for what he was going through. Had he just told me the truth and fought at our sides, things wouldn’t have ended up like this; or that’s what I kept telling myself.

I woke the next night with a pillow under my head and a blanket draped over my lower body. I knew what the last thing that I was thinking about was, but I couldn’t remember feeling the pull of the coming dawn. I looked up at the chairs to see if my ever present angel was watching over me, but he wasn’t there. Jacob wasn’t watching me from somewhere in the room. I put on the housecoat that was hanging over the foot of the bed and went to find him. The halls held an eerie glow of the day that was saying its goodnight. Shadows danced off the corners of the foyer walls as I made my way closer to the front area of the house. The heavy curtains were drawn on the only windows that remained unsealed on the front of the house, but the hint of eve still found its way through the sides that rest on the unpainted, sand colored stone in the family room off to my left, which gave the deep, dark, leather furniture a more realistic, rustic appeal.

I turned to my right and went back through another hall, finding Jacob in the study, leaning over the desk at the back of the room with the rolled up maps spread open everywhere. I walked over to the fireplace, knowing he knew I was there and waited for him to finish what he was doing. I’d stood so long I finally sat down, pulling my legs up, becoming so comfortable that I think I may have dozed off. I reached up, feeling something move across my forehead, then flew out of the chair slapping at my head like a wild woman. All that my mind could see were spiders, as Jacob laughed holding up a feather quill that he had been using at the desk.

“That was so not funny,” I snapped, jerking all over, slapping my hands on my thighs. “I thought one of those spiders just crawled across my face.”

“I know. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen you do,” he replied, and laughed even harder.

“Jacob…I was going to say your name like I use to my brothers, but I don’t know your full name.”

“You have lost me once again,” he wiped his eyes, and walked back over to the desk.

“You know, my name is Renee Earlene Crocker, well Lebrun’s what I tell those who ask me now, but ya get the point,” I said, following him to the desk.

“Earlene. What an unusual name. Lady Earlene,” he paused, looking up at me. “I like that very much.”

“Thank you, I was named after my aunt, Deanna Earlene Slayton, she was my ma’s little sister. She passed from bad health. But, anyone who knew her, loved her. Aunt Ena, as we knew her by, was the kindest creature that I have, and will ever know,” I remembered as I explained. “You’re the first person that I’ve ever told that to.”

“Then I am honored you choose me to share such a gift,” he replied, stepping closer, wiping the tear that dropped to my cheek when I looked up. “I do not know my real name. Chin gave me the name Jacob because of the story in your people’s bible of the tale of the ladder where the man called Jacob fooled his brother out of his blessing. I know it is not a name to be proud of, but it is my name none-the-less.”

“Your name is one of beauty, Jacob. He failed to tell you that the Jacob he told you about had a vision of an ascent into the Kingdom of God. Jacob is a name to be proud of. Your maker was a weak man and a liar, and if you can really tell truth in words, then you know I mean what I say.”

“One day maybe you can complete my name. It would be good to have a completion to one’s self.” Then he turned dragging the maps to our side of the desk, with me grasping for anything to stop from wrapping my arms around his neck and promising him that it had nothing to do with a name when it came to making a person whole, but I wasn’t the one living his life, and in no way could understand what he must have been dealing with as a young man. I couldn’t even imagine the tale that involved the four hundred year old boy in front of me.