“See, Sydney will stay with me, and no one would dare come near me with him and that club he swings,” she giggled, getting a smile from Derek.

“Jacob?” Derek asked, looking over at him.

“We could use him with us, but he is correct. We do need a fighter to stay and keep guard over the two upstairs, just in case one finds a brain and figures a way to escape their chains,” Jacob admitted, getting to his feet. “Then it is settled. Are we ready?”

Chapter Seventeen

Everyone got up and started checking their weapons. Derek walked Tanda back to their room and came back out with her on one side and something small wrapped up in his other hand. He walked up to me with Tanda smiling and gripping him by the elbow tight. “Brandon would have wanted you to have it,” he said, then handed me the wrapped object. I looked down as tears built in my eyes, because I could feel the handle of his blade in my hand. I slowly removed the cloth as sound spilled from my lips. I held back the whimpering the best I could, making myself sound even worse, and tied it around my waist. Derek got down on one knee and tied the string hanging from the tip of the sheath around my leg, then stood back up as I pulled the two foot long blade free. I sniffled and tried to find the words, but nothing came that more tears wouldn’t follow.

“You have two bullets left and one blade. I know he would be honored to have you use it in his name,” Derek said, pulling me into a hug.

“Well, damn it, now ya gone and made me start crying all over again,” I laughed with my sobs and hugged him back. “Thank you. I just don’t know what else to say.”

“Say, let’s go kick some ass and get your man back,” he leaned back, gave me a wink, then took me by the arm and we joined the others waiting on the porch.

Garvin held Tanda the longest, telling her to hide as she did when they hid from Enrique not explaining the meaning to the rest of us. She nodded, telling him to return safe and that she loved him. He jumped off the porch to join the rest of us who were heading to the back gate, and she called out. “Watch over one another and come back soon!” We all waved as we reached the side of the house. Derek walked backwards, looking at her and Sydney standing in the light of the open front door. Tanda jumped off the porch and took off running, then dove into his arms.

“I beg you to return to me,” she said, pressing her mouth next to his ear as they held each other. “I love you, Derek. I have from the first moment I laid eyes on you.” Then she kissed him lightly on the lips and ran back to the house, disappearing inside.

Derek caught up with us with an extra skip in his step. “We’re going to go get Martin and get back home.” He sounded so sure of himself that I believed every word said, and knowing what made him have that extra few inches in his spine made me want to have a great deal of it myself. Tanda had made no move to hide her words in a whisper.

The side area of the house that should have been called a small castle itself was nowhere near as groomed as the front or the very back, and we had a mess of thick shrubbery and vines to get through before we could even find the gate. Cates was the one who found it. It was at least ten feet in height and about six feet wide with spear like daggers pointing to the sky all the way across the top. The iron hinges were bolted to the stone wall that enclosed Martin’s property from the rest of the world just like the other master’s homes that we had seen so far.

“It is rusted closed. I cannot budge it,” Cates said as Fala stepped in and began pushing the gate with him, to no avail.

“Can’t we just go to the front or back gate and make our way back to this one?” Derek asked.

“We could, but this is the closest way to the Narrows and it would be much harder to make our way around the cemetery, possibly alerting the beings we have already come in contact with. And the same would go by using the front,” Jacob explained.

“Well, since you put it like that.” Derek pushed on the gate as if he could open it.

“We will have to go over,” Jacob said, while Fala and Cates began taking turns kicking the gate at the handle; once again to no avail.

“Just how do you suggest we do that? It has to have twenty of those spike things on it,” I asked, tilting my neck back, looking up at the sharp tips.

“It is an old trick that we learned in training, and used it often in war,” Jacob explained. “Once on top between the edge of the wall and gate, it will be easy dropping down on the other side. The earth here is soft, because the air is always so wet.”

“Wait a minute,” Tammy said, getting into the conversation. “Let me get this straight, Jacob. You mean for us to get up on the top of the wall and jump down on the other side?”

“I do.”

“Have you taken a good look at me lately? My breasts weigh more than you. How in the hell do you expect me to get up on that wall?”

“I will show you with Cates. He is three times my size and, no offence My Lady, twice yours.”

“None taken. I wanna see this,” she furrowed her brows, poked her hip out and crossed her arms, waiting for the two of them to show her. “I tell you right now, if I break one bone dropping on the other side when we could have gone to the very back where the wall is lower…I’m kicking one of your asses.”

“My good man, shall we show your lady?” Jacob bowed mockingly at Cates, who bowed in return, then took ten or so paces back and slightly to the side closest to the wall.

Jacob laced his fingers and stuck his left leg forward and right leg back, bending slightly at the waist. Cates bounced on his toes a few times then took off at a high rate of speed, planting his foot in Jacob’s hand as Jacob lifted his arms as high as he could, throwing Cates with his own momentum right up to the top of the wall. He landed using his arm to balance himself then called down that it was a good two foot wide. I could not believe what I just saw until Derek took off running and committed the same feat that Cates had just performed, going much higher than the wall and laughing on his way down, landing perfectly, bowing like Jacob and Cates had done looking down at those of us still staring up in disbelief.

“Tammy, you are next,” Jacob said as he readied himself.

“Garvin can go next, I can wait.”

“I need him down here in case you miss the top.”

“This is absolutely insane. A big girl flippin’ through the air,” she mumbled as she walked about twenty five feet back. “Better hope I don’t knock you on your ass, Jacob. I can run like the wild.” Then she took off and her speed was amazing.

Tammy’s foot landed perfectly in Jacob’s hand and she leaped with both hands extended in the air, reaching for the hand that Cates was holding out. A half a foot to short and her body slammed into the wall. Cates dropped on his stomach grabbing her wrist, while she held on to the vines with the other. Derek straddled the wall, reaching down as soon as Cates had her close enough to grab her pants at the waist and they easily got her to the top. “My breasts will not forget this night soon,” she said getting seated good on her backside, and gripping one breast in each hand. I cheered, throwing my hands in the air, that is, until Jacob turned around and smiled at me.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

I went about as far as Cates had gone then went a little further for good measure. I twitched every part of my body; my head went to the side as I licked my lips. My arms jumped slightly as my fingers touched my thumb. Even my toes wiggled in my shoes as I bounced on their tips. I counted to three out loud, and then took off running. I stuck my foot out and missed Jacob’s hand completely with him coming up hitting me right between the legs, flipping me head over heels with my chin sliding on the stone wall. I landed in a crumpled heap with more than just a throb in my lower face. My whole side had a sharp pain where I landed. As I sat up Jacob, Fala, and Garvin came running to my aid.