“See the woman holding the man’s head? She saved your life this night. Remember it well, for I would have drained your virtuous blood until your heart shriveled in this sorry encasement that you call a chest.” Then he raised his elbow coming down on the back of the priest’s head, knocking him unconscious. We fled, leaving the back door to the church open without a care. It was the same when Fala slammed his body into the gate and burst through as we ran for the alley where we had last seen Luther and Lane.

We were halfway down the alley when one of the black cats stepped out from the shadows, followed soon after by the second. They took off in the direction of the edge of the city, with us on their tails… literally. Martin’s blood must have alerted the fleshers in the graveyard, because no sooner than we met its walls, howls erupted on the other side. “Ready yourself to fight,” Jacob called out, drawing his sword. I pulled out my gun, while holding Martin’s head in my other hand and searched the graveyard over the crumbled wall as we ran beside it.

“There!” Derek yelled, pointing to the center, where several of the beasts ran our way, jumping over the broken headstones of the ones who lay in the graves where they belonged, good and dead.

I saw four before Cates moved with a speed that caused me to drop Martin’s head. I spun around in time to see one of the fleshers leap the ruins of the wall and land mere feet from Derek, who was trying to move to the side while swinging his blade up. He took the flesher across the face, causing it to scream out in a high pitched squeal, but that didn’t stop it from lunging forward trying to grab at any part of Derek that it could.  The sound of my gun echoed throughout the low lying area as the flesher looked down at its side where my bullet pierced through it. It dropped to its knees as Jacob ran up beside it, removing its head at the shoulders. He grabbed Derek by the front of the shirt and came running right at me. I began hopping backwards, turning as they got to me, and then we all ran. I saw Jacob turn his head to look back, causing me to do the same. The other fleshers that were clearing the wall lost interest in us. They fell upon their dead companion and began ripping his rotten flesh apart.

Luther and Lane slowed down as they neared where they had left their clothing, circling the area sniffing the ground. Once they seemed to be secure, they shifted just as smoothly back into their human forms as they had into their cat forms, and quickly dressed, showing us an easier way to the back of Martin’s estate.

“Come with us,” Derek said, watching them turn back toward what they called the forbidden zone.

“We belong here,” Luther smiled his gratitude. “But, we will be watching for your return.” Then just like that they were gone.

I knew why Jacob watched behind us every few feet; he was looking for the assassins to ambush us at any time. Fala tried to pull the gate open at the side wall that surrounded Martin’s estate, but just like before it wouldn’t budge and there was no way that we were going to get Martin up and over in the shape he was in. So we took him around to the front gate. We had to break the lock to swing it open to keep from having to take him over the top of it. Sydney and Tanda ran out the front door to meet us, saying that others had come by yelling outside the gate. Jacob went back outside the gate, with Derek and Garvin following him, while the rest of us took Martin into the house. Tammy took control of Martin’s head, while I rushed into my room and threw the covers off the bed. Tanda ran into the bathroom and started gathering towels and a pitcher of water so Tammy could start working on his wounds.

Cates laid him down on his side, bringing a cry from deep inside of Martin that brought instant tears to my eyes. I stood back as Tammy and Cates began examining his wounds. Tammy soaked a towel in warm water, then laid it across his back, rolling him over as gently as she could to inspect the front of his body and face, before she began sewing up the crisscross marks that gapped open, showing the bones of his spine. I grabbed my mouth when I saw what they had done to the front of his body. Cates stood and turned his back as Tammy spread Martin’s legs. The cruel sons-of-bitches had sliced his inner thighs to ribbons. His manhood was marked from his lower stomach to the tip of his penis, with two inch long marks crossing over the others, making so many that it was impossible to tell just how many times they had cut him. The ones on his thighs were much deeper and twice as long. His upper chest looked like it had been burned with some type of long, thin, branding iron. I could see now why he told them that I was his creation. Anyone would have broken under this sort of torture and someone was going to pay dearly for what they had done to him.

The others came in. Jacob had a rolled note in his had that had a red ribbon tied around it, but froze at the sight of Martin lying on his back. Derek stumbled back and left the room, while Garvin stepped up to the side of the bed, reaching down and taking Martin’s hand. He had just done the very thing that I should have done the moment Cates laid him down. Martin’s feet haunted me, as much as the rest of him maybe more. They stayed in the same deformed position when they rolled him back on to his side. His body had begun to heal and his bones were set in place just the way his tormenters had broken them. Garvin was looking at me staring at my maker’s mangled feet, knowing I knew what had to be done. If he was ever going to walk again his feet had to be re-broken. I went around the bed and crawled up on the pillows, moving them out of my way and laying Martin’s head in my lap.

Tanda kept bringing in more warm water as Tammy poured it over Martin’s body, filling the mattress with his blood. Once she finished with his back, she began on his face. She draped another clean, wet towel over his now sewn up back and Cates help her roll him over. I held my hand over his nose and mouth as Tammy poured the warm water over the top of his head, filling my lap. I used my other hand to help clean some of the blood away from his eyes, as his lashes fluttered under my touch. “You’re safe now,” I spoke softly as my tears dropped down onto his face. “They can’t hurt you anymore.” I saw the faint blue of his right eye as he forced it open to look up at me.

“I’m sorry,” he said so low that I almost couldn’t hear him.

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I cried, barely able to see him through my tears.

“Forgive me,” he coughed, spitting blood.

“Shhh, don’t try to talk.”

“Martin, I am going to have to cause you pain to make you better. Your feet are badly broken. I need you to drink this,” Tammy said, pouring wine into a small glass.

“Won’t it make him sick?” I asked, grabbing her hand.

“A small amount will make his mind drunk. Too much will make his stomach ill,” she replied without looking at.

I moved my hand, helping lift his head, while she put the glass to his lips. “Swallow, Martin. Just a little, you must for the pain,” she said as it spilt from the sides of his mouth. He choked, trying to move his head to the side, refusing what she had to offer.

“Please, try Martin, for me,” I begged. Tammy didn’t hesitate; she held the glass to his mouth until she was sure that some of the liquid went down his throat. After he had calmed down she cleaned the wounds between his legs, as I stroked his hair, humming no particular tune. He screamed out when she lifted his privates, finding that they had almost castrated him. I leaned my head down by his ear and began telling him how much I loved him, and that everything was going to be alright. I told him he was going to wake in my arms and this was all going to be a bad dream.

“We have to do his feet at the same time,” Jacob said, setting the note on the dresser. “It will be too much for him to take one at a time.”