“We have no plans of killing them all, Martin,” Jacob smiled. “We only mean to kill the three with the highest power.”

“Yeah, then the rest will get the picture,” Derek nodded, with his brows furrowed toward Jacob.

“Much like a war, one could say. We have a few things upstairs that will insure the help of one sister; the weaker of the two, to be exact.”

“You are the ones who took Inara’s pets? She came running down the steps where Angelica was…” he paused lowering his eyes.

“That bitch did this herself?” I asked, feeling the fire build in my gut all over again.

“Inara wants her pets returned right away. I’m not even sure she believed Angelica when she told her she didn’t have them because she has taken them before as a punishment of sorts.”

“Doesn’t one of them belong to Angelica?” Sydney asked.

“Yes, but Inara thinks them to be her own.” Martin coughed so hard that he almost threw up. “She allows them to be one with each other and Angelica uses Bernard and Alex to punish her when she has any form of disagreement with her sister. She has no care for anyone, especially one of her slaves.”

I fumed as he told us about the argument that the two sisters had, even getting into a slight fist fight, with Inara telling her sister that if she found out that Angelica had her Alex, that she herself would help the demon kill her. All that I could think about was killing the bitch myself. He then told us something that shocked me right back into reality. “The boy, Alex, was an orphan left to die when he was maybe two or three years old. Inara found him wandering, nude and hungry, in the forbidden zone when the last plague took London and took him in as her own. She found a boy close to his age, killed the boy’s parents and raised the two as brothers. Alex was her favorite, and Bernard was his whipping boy, as they called it the days when he was a child. Angelica would take Bernard to her home, saying that she too wanted a child, and Inara shared him. It was a mistake that she has always regretted.”

“Here I thought his dark secret was knowing that Angelica had planned on killing you in front of the crowd at the gala but this whole time he was keeping the fact that Inara was his mother,” I said, more talking to myself than the rest in the room. “No wonder she said she would do anything to get them back.”

“You have spoken to her?”

“No, this was left on the gate out front,” Jacob said, handing Martin the note, who handed it to me to read because of the swelling in his eyes.

“It was after what I had heard and most of what Angelica and her men had done to me that she told me that they had captured you in the tunnels and dispatched you all in battle. Only then did I fall to the pain and tell her that you were my own.” Martin lowered his eyes.

“All that matters now is that you are back here, safe with us.” My people gathered closer to the bed, reaching out and touching Martin, showing we all understood. Some saying they would have done the same. Others admitted that they could not have endured as much. ***

Our plan was to send Bernard back, keeping Inara’s beloved son as our trump card in case she choose to tell her sister anything that Bernard went back and told her. We would make it clear to him that Alex would end up worse than Martin…if not dead…if he didn’t do exactly what we said. While the others went to prepare Bernard for his coach ride home, I told Martin about the night I ran away with Rebecca and the reason that I did. I told him about Johnny, but before he could console me, I added that I found Johnny on my return visit to Cuba, when my four little ones and I took it down…alive and now one of us. The horror in his eyes said what everyone felt when they saw the little four year old breeder, but he was my brother and would remain in his small shell until we could find an answer as how to save him from an eternity in that form, without putting him into the final state of rest. That was not an option open for discussion.

“What do you know about this doctor’s assistant or the man that did the same work like the one known as ‘the doctor’, Martin? If he can reanimate the dead and create those things, do you think he knows a way to help, Johnny?”

“He is a sick and evil man, Renee. I have seen his work and it has nothing to do with saving our kind,” Martin answered with more sorrow in his eyes than I cared to see.

“We found his notes back at his place in the states. There were things on there where the main doctor was working on going into the sun. And he was alive when we went out the night after we hung him on a cross to see if his work had done any good. He was whole and alive. Of course, he burst into ash shortly after.”

“He was a fool to think such things, and you must not fall into the belief that little Johnny can be saved from this life any more than we can. You will lose your mind trying to find a cure for what we have become.”

“He’s just a little boy, Martin. A little boy that I brought over.”

“At no fault of your own,” he recoiled as the high pitched screams of Bernard echoed down the hall.

“I better go see what’s going on. I think they just gave him the news that Alex would be staying,” I opened my eyes wide, then smiled down at Martin, who tried to laugh. “I’ll be back soon.”

I left Martin, and as soon as the door was closed I ran down the hall as fast as I could and up the stairs. I wanted to see what was going on, and I wanted to know if they had told Alex that we knew about his little secret, because if they hadn’t, I was going to. I stepped through the open door to find Bernard crawling over the back of the mattress, trying to get away from the reaching hand of Cates. “I won’t leave Alex, I won’t!” he yelled, dropping down onto the floor as if he could hide. Cates kicked the mattress and Bernard screamed when his broken leg slammed into the wall.

“Leave him alone. You’re hurting him,” Alex cried out from the other side of the room.

I walked up to Jacob and whispered, asking if they had mentioned anything about Alex being Inara’s son, and he shook his head just enough to tell me no.

“Will your mother not be pleased to have one of you back, Alex? Isn’t that the little secret you were keeping from me?” I asked as I made my way painfully slow in his direction, my statement even silenced Bernard. “Thought we didn’t know about that, didn’t ya?”

“I…I,” he stuttered.

“I, what? I told you that I could smell your lies, but what I failed to mention was the fact that I see all, I know all, and your failure to tell me everything has now split you and your brother apart.”

“I was afraid. Please, leave him alone. Take me to your dungeon,” he begged as crimson streaks ran down his face.

I turned around and looked at Jacob, who shrugged with a slight smile on his face. I twitched my lip to keep from smiling and turned back around. “He’s the weak one, Alex.”

“I will tell you anything, please.”

“You had your chance,” I spun around, swinging my hair into Alex’s body. “Take him out of here.” I stormed out of the room and made my way to the top of the stairs as fast as I could to keep the prisoners from hearing my laughter.

I straightened, acting like I was fixing my gown, which was one solid piece of white cloth. Cates appeared, backing out while dragging Bernard by the back of his shirt, with him kicking his legs, splint and all. Jacob came out and closed the door to the howls of Alex’s cries, smiling from ear to ear. He walked up beside Cates, where Bernard couldn’t see him. I bent down and got right in Bernard’s face. “If you don’t shut that mouth of yours, I will pull your tongue out myself.” He looked at me with eyes the size of teacup saucers, and closed his mouth. Cates lifted him with his one hand and carried him down the staircase, dangling like a ragdoll, from the grip he had on the back of Bernard’s shirt.