Christopher: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (3 page)

I came here because it was my turn to go out.
She asked him who made these rules.
Remy and Skylar do. They thought a schedule would keep us in better spirits and rested. How is it you can talk to me?

I can talk to all lesser beings.
Before he could ask her what that meant, she told him to look at the building. “See it?”

The entire building shifted. Not like an earthquake might have caused if there had been a tremor, but like they were watching a movie and the film or whatever had been spliced, and there was too much missing to make it a good flow. Before he could ask what that meant, it did it twice more.

“Three times. It happens three times, and then it stops for precisely thirty-one minutes before it does it again.” He looked over at the bird and saw that he was a man again, and Chris wondered who the hell he was. And more importantly, how he was a friend of Rick’s and how Kate had known to bring them here. “I set up a timer and a camera, but so far all I’ve been able to see is a blur on it. I don’t think the cameras can pick it up as well as the human eye can.”

“What is it, do you suppose?” Chris pulled out his phone and tried to guess how long it had been, and set his timer for five minutes less than he thought thirty-one minutes would be. He looked up when neither of them answered him. “You know.”

Cobb shook his head, then nodded. Before he could ask him to explain it, Cobb looked at Kate. He wondered how they knew each other as well.

“It’s not a real place. At least I don’t think it is.” Chris moved closer to the building, close enough to touch it, which he nearly did before Cobb called him away. “It’s not real, as I said, and touching it will...it’s harmed several people already when they tried to enter this place. Also, you should know that I have been in the back of this building and it looks nothing like this. On that side when you enter, there are empty boxes, clothing that has had better days, and the smell of rotted food. As you can see, this place looks to be freshly painted and well stocked with books. Of all kinds.”

“Books?” Chris stepped closer but still didn’t touch it. “I don’t see books. I see shoes. Displays of shoes on mannequin’s feet, as well as boxes of them behind them. I can see into the storefront as well. There is an old fashioned cash register, as well as a jacket hanging on a coat rack. There is dust on the counter, but not any books that I can see.”

“I see neither of those. I see women’s things, in an array of colors. Sexy things, deep reds and white. Not the sort you’d see in a department store, but the kind one would buy online for your other half.” Rick looked at him and smiled. “Perhaps I should show you that site. It’s very nice. It might go a long way in getting you to be less stressed all the time.”

Chris had no idea what he was talking about, and even if he did, there was no way he was going to comment. But he looked at the building again. This time he saw it too. Lingerie. Scantily dressed mannequins that looked like the woman beside him. It made him think of sex and Kate. Her tangled up, not just in the sheets, but him as well. He could almost taste her dewy sweat from making love all night. Her naked beneath…. Then it hit him.

“It changes to be what we want it to be. I mean, on the inside. The view, it becomes what we think of.” He flushed when Rick winked at him again. “Think of food, something that you’d like to have, and it’s there. I was thinking I need to get me some new boots, and that’s what I saw. You saw books…I’m assuming that you enjoy reading. It’s a catch, like a beautiful display in a big store front that is there to bring you in to spend money. Someone wants to lure people into this place.”

“And the jump in time? Could it be that its magic is not yet stable, or that it’s only a small attempt?” Chris had no idea, but thought that could be it when Kate suggested it. “So, this place, it’s an attempt to get unsuspecting people to come in, and then what does it do to them? Change them? Or is there another reason that you can think of as to why someone would put up such an elaborate display of magic?”

“Could it be a portal of some kind? Like a lure to get people to go to wherever Benton is?”

Chris thought that was it. He knew that no one had seen Benton in a few weeks and they had thought he was dead. Hoped it, really. But if this thing was what they were saying, and he had no doubt that it was, Benton or someone like him had to be doing it. But for what?

“Most of the people in the other realm are gone, we thought. Nearly all of them have come here. But do you suppose that there is no one left there? Just the three of them?” Kate asked Rick who they were. “Benton is the creature that has taken it upon himself to kill all mankind. At the orders of Ward and another man by the name of Dolin. We’ve been wondering what has happened to them since we’ve not really heard from them in a while. And since the number of malefactors is decreasing more and more each time we go out, we assumed that they were dead. Or something has happened to their equipment used to make them.”

“So you think they set this up to make others go to them. To do what?” No one had an answer, but Cobb cleared his throat. “Do you know?”

“I have a guess. Most people, humans that have not been changed, walk by. They look in, see whatever they want, I know now, but ignore it for the most part. I guess...well, since you’ve set up most of the grocery stores and other places of business, most of what we need is readily available now. But there have been...I would call them engineers. Or something like that.” Chris asked him what they did. “Two of the men in lab coats entered a few days ago. I don’t know what they might have seen…I was seeing blankets, but I’d not compared my seeing with anyone else. Then just today, three men went in as well. I heard screams and started to enter when I thought of all the other things that have been going on and decided to call for help. I’m glad that I did now.”

“Do you suppose that now that all the people who worked in the labs are here, they’ve decided to see if they can bring some back to do whatever they had been before? That they might need some help getting the labs up and running again?” Chris looked at Rick when he said that made sense. “Well, that’s really fucked up. We need to destroy this place now.”

“No.” He looked at Kate when she voiced her opinion. Before he could tell her she didn’t get a vote, she moved toward him and the building. “What if we can go there? I mean, what if this is the only way we can end this once and for all? Go there and destroy whatever is making these things and end this?”

“You really think that it’ll be that easy?” Rick looked at him when Kate didn’t have an answer for his question. “I agree that we might not want to destroy it yet, but going there? I’m not sure that’s a good idea either. Hector said that in order to go there and remain in one piece that you had to be on death’s bed. I don’t know about you guys, but I kind of like living. Even with all this other crap going on, this is better than being dead.”

After talking to Remy it was decided in the end that they’d not destroy the building, but they’d put people there to stop anyone else from entering. Hector was coming to check it out, along with Remy and Skylar and the rest of the men and women, but Chris didn’t like it. It was just too...he didn’t think it was scary, but more horrific than that. Who the hell were these people, and why did they want them all dead?

“You do not trust this?” Chris looked at Cobb. There was something very odd about the man, and he wasn’t really sure he trusted him either. “I should like to think that there is good in all people, but lately, there seems to be nothing but death and mayhem. Don’t you agree? I know that you have no reason to trust me, but I will tell you that I shall never harm those that are in alliance with Kate. She is...she will be very protective of those that she considers her family or friends.”

His voice, his words. There was something there, but Chris couldn’t put his finger on it. When Remy was stressed or tired, he’d slip back into an old world speech, but this man…Chris thought the man was out of touch.

“I don’t know what to think.” Which was true. “How long have you been out here? On your own, I mean?”

“You don’t have to trust me, young man.” Cobb laughed when Chris started to deny it. “I’m not from around here. I am of earth, but...I’m nearly as old as your Hector. I have lived here through many changes…too many I guess, so that I went to ground. Not unlike a vampire, but I hid away. Then the lady of the earth, she begged me to come and see what was going on, and I have been watching things for her. Your young friend there, the one called Vicki, she’s like me. Faerie. We are one and the same but for our age.”

“Does she know that?” Cobb said that he had not told anyone but him what he was for a long time. His kind, like most, were hunted. And in that, destroyed because they didn’t understand them. “And why me? What makes you think I need to know?”

“Because, my dear friend, you are going to be the one that keeps us safe. Your inner beast, he is stronger than you allow him to be.” Chris asked him what he meant. “When the time comes, you will see that I’m correct. Your cat, he is not alone in there, is he?”

“I’m just a panther, nothing more.” Cobb only nodded. “You know, I’m sick of people giving me half answers. What the fuck do you mean?”

“That when you and she come together, she will give you all you need to come to your own. I cannot tell you more than that. But when she comes to you, and she will, you will know a strength that none before you nor after will ever know again. You will be...what does Rick call it? Ah yes. You will be awesomesauce.” Cobb laughed and nodded at him as Chris just stood there. He wanted to ask who
she
was, but was afraid that he knew that too.

When Cobb left him, Chris looked over at Kate. She was talking to Rick and Remy, and he wondered not for the first time what she was doing here. What was her deal? As they moved toward one of the vehicles that Hector had brought with him when he’d come here, he ended up sitting in the front and her in the back. Chris decided that he was going to avoid her now. At all costs. There wasn’t any way that she was his mate, but he didn’t want to come to her any more than he was sure she wanted to come to him. Whatever the hell that meant.

Chapter 3

Master moved around the little lab and tried again to figure out what he was seeing. He’d been in this other realm for nearly a month now, and he knew that whatever he was looking at was some sort of key. The human behind him called to him again, and Master picked up Dolin’s head and went to him. Dolin was the only man he trusted. Then Ward, but Dolin first and foremost.

“Sir?”

The man kept looking at Dolin. Master wondered if he knew the man was dead, and that without a body, he wasn’t going to talk to him. Of course, Dolin spoke to him. It was how he’d known to turn on the switch that brought the others to him; this man being one of them. Master wanted to think it was his idea, but really, the big green switch had nearly screamed at him to turn it to the other direction. Master realized the man was still staring at Dolin.

He’d had to put Dolin in a sort of netting. About a week ago, while he’d been carrying around his only friend by his hair, Master had dropped him. The hair, like a lot of the other things on Dolin’s head, had simply fallen off, leaving a large bald space where it had been. Dolin’s nose, along with one of his ears, had come up missing a few days ago. Now Master carried him in a net so that not only were his parts all there, but he was easier to transport when he needed to go elsewhere. Things were needed, and Dolin helped him with the answers.

“What is it? Do you not see I have things to do?” Master really had nothing to do. He was actually in too much pain to do more than just hobble around all the time. But when he sat for too long, he nearly sobbed until he worked some of the pain out of his joints and muscles. His body would stiffen up and the muscles would cramp up when he tried to stand again. The pain was overwhelming at times. “What did you want?”

“I’ve figured out the formula. I mean, I think I have. I’m not really sure.”

Master wanted to hug him, but remained where he was in the event that the nasty word followed. They, the three men that he had here now, were forever saying that they’d done this or that, but it was always followed by the word “but.” There was always a
but
. Master giggled at his thought, and that had the man staring at him now. Master asked him what he had to do now.

“I was just going to try it out on him when I thought you should know. The preliminary tests show that it’s just the right mixture of—” Master told him to finish and give him the results. “You said I could leave when I figured it out. You promised me. Before I try this out and it works, I want to know that you will uphold your end of the bargain. You will, right? Let me go like you said.”

“So I did. But we’ve no way of knowing if this one works any better than the last one, do we? You’ve all told me before that you had it, and it was nothing more than a thing to put me to sleep. He paid the price for that, didn’t he?” They both looked at the man that had disappointed Master earlier in the week. He supposed that his body should have been stacked with the rest, but Master thought it was a good reminder to do what he wanted. No one messed with him, and he liked it that way. “Test it. I’ve not got all day while you wait on something else.”

He limped to the man that they’d found wandering the streets. He wasn’t right in the head. Master had wanted to kill him right away when he’d come upon him, but Dolin had suggested that they’d needed a test subject, and what better person than him? Dolin, since his death, was a much smarter man than when he’d been living, as far as Master was concerned.

The man in the cage screamed when they came toward him, cowering in the corner as far away as he was able. Master had noticed that he’d begun to not eat yesterday, and now it seemed he was defecating in his food bowls. Well, he’d have to eat that now…Master was not going to clean up after him. As the man was pulled to the bars and injected, Master watched him to see what, if anything, happened. He’d been sorely disappointed so much of late. And he couldn’t wait much longer on his medicine. He was nearly out of it, again.

He knew now that the other creature was dead. When he’d not shown up for several days, Master had gone to the other realm to see what had happened and had found his body, broken and beaten on the ground. Master had been so angered by it that he’d gone to the cave that he’d shared with the other man and started to destroy everything he could touch. Then he found the container, and had nearly tossed it away when he heard it rattle. Master had found the stash that Randall had hidden from him.

There had been sixty vials when he opened it. A few had been broken, but not many. He’d been so mad at Randall that he’d gone back to the man’s body and pissed on him. Randall had told him over and over that they were down to a dozen vials, and that he’d taken to only giving Master the drug when he was near death. Well, as near death as he could fake. But now he knew that Randall had lied to him.

The first thing he’d done when he’d found them was shot himself full of the drug with ten of the needles. It might have been a little much, Master thought with a grin. He’d been out for several days, but when he woke, he wasn’t feeling any better. After that, he carefully gave himself two of the needles per day, and only when he was feeling poorly did he double that. But still, even after rationing things out, he was nearly out of the drug. Master had a feeling that someone was there, taking his drug without his permission, but as yet, he’d not been able to find him. When the amount of drugs was getting dangerously low, Dolin had helped him with the switch. The switch that had brought him—

“It’s working.” Master pulled himself from his thoughts when the man next to him sounded so excited. He looked in the direction that he was and saw that the man in the cage had changed somewhat. “Look, it’s working on him.”

It seemed to be. But the real test, and one that he so enjoyed, was to see how the man reacted to pain. Reaching out to the man, Master snapped his arm off and watched in glee as he lay there in his own blood and shit and smiled at him. It was perfect.

“I need you to make me as much as you can.” The man—his lab coat said Ward, but Master knew he’d only borrowed it—was shaking his head. “You cannot tell me that you’ve no idea how to remake this. I have told you over and over to write it down. Even Dolin has said as much to you. Make me as much as you can with what you have here and I shall get you.... Why are you still shaking your head at me?”

The man looked over at Dolin and shivered as his head continued to shake. “You said I could leave once I figured out the compound. You promised. I have a family there. I need to see to them.”

“Ah yes, so I did. But you’ll be happy to know that I’ve taken care of them. They’re dead and no longer in need of you. So you can make my drug without thinking about them any longer. I need you more than they did anyway. You must know that.” The man backed from him and Master wanted to kill him. But he knew, as he’d learned from Dolin, that killing the man that helped you was not a good idea. “What is it now? You need more money? I assure you that you’ve no need of anything else. I have jewels that you can have. And as for your family, you are better off without them. They were draining you dry anyway. Always making demands on you and your time.”

“You killed them?” Master nodded, not really seeing the problem. He did glance at Dolin to see if he was watching this, and turned his head so that he could see it as well. The things that he had to put up with was making him angry. “You walk around here talking to a dead man’s head, and you just expect me to be all right with you killing my family? What is wrong with you? You made a promise to me and now you’ve broken it by...by killing them. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Nothing.” Master let a little of his beast go. It was painful and draining on him, but the man in front of him had no way of knowing just how weak he was. And if he did, he’d soon find out that no one messed with Master. “Do as I say or I shall kill you.”

“No.”

Master killed him. There was no hope for it, and he was sure that the dead man would know that as soon as he thought things through. As he lay there bleeding, Master waited for him to come to his senses. But the longer he lay there, his body simply not moving, Master wondered when anyone was going to do as he told them without him having to resort to violence. Nothing was going as he had planned it, and it was all Rembrandt’s fault. He’d told him time and time again to let him kill him, and still he lived.

When there was nothing more forthcoming from the man on the floor, he turned to the last man with him, one of the few that had come through the portal when Dolin had told him to turn on the green switch. He didn’t trust this man any more than he did the others, but he was all that he had for now. The man only stared at the man on the floor, saying nothing at all.

“You’ll make it for me now. As you can see, I’ve no need for men who do not do as they’re told. You’ll get started on what I want without hesitation.” The man looked at him and smiled. “You think I jest with you? I assure you that I am not.”

“No, I believe you. You look like a...man, I guess, who gets what he wants or else. I do understand that. But you should know that whatever he invented, I’m pretty sure that it’s dead with him. He only wrote down the formula after it was injected in the test subject so that he’d not do it again. So we have a bunch of not working recipes, and not one that he got to work.”

Master let his beast take him. His anger was so profound that he knew for several minutes that he’d lost control. This was all Rembrandt’s fault; everything that had happened fell on the steps of his worst enemy. Rembrandt had fucked him over and over, again and again.

When he awoke—that’s how he’d begun to think of his rages when they happened—he was in the shelter where he’d found Dolin hiding. He was also alone. Standing up, always painful nowadays, had him staggering out of the shelter and into the dark inky night. Stars, it seemed, had forsaken him as well as he looked up into the sky to see where he might have been. As he made his way to the labs, he wondered what sort of destruction he’d find there, and wasn’t surprised to find the doors torn off their hinges and several of the front windows gone as well.

Bricks and glass were strewn everywhere. He knew on some level that he’d done this, but his mind was fuzzy on the details as to why or how he had. As he made his way to the lower levels he took note of the things that Rembrandt had caused him to do, and knew that for each thing, there was going to be payment made to him. Master had had enough of the man. He’d been his ruination since the moment he’d been turned that day.

“I cannot believe that it has come to this. Me having to work in these kinds of conditions. Broken items, glass on the floor. Why will no one just do as I say?” He stepped over a wall, not a door but an entire wall, to enter what was left of his lab. Dolin, he thought, had been down here, so he looked for him before anything else. “Dolin? Where are you? Dolin?”

“You killed him.” Master turned so quickly that he fell. His body, most of which had been damaged too much to heal, was not able to withstand quick movements any more. But as he lay there in the glass and broken test tubes, he looked at the man standing above him. “Hello, Augustus. I see you’ve been up to your usual tricks. Why is it you let your temper get the better of you?”

“Rembrandt, how did you get here?” He looked around for a weapon and Rembrandt laughed at him. “I should like to kill you now. Come here. I shall end this now.”

“I’m not with you, but a figment of your mind. It’s about gone, you know…your mind. Not that you had a great deal of it before. But now, you’ve lost it. Why else would you be thinking of me at this moment?” Master started to tell him he was just fine when he morphed; Rembrandt just changed into that woman, the one that had tried to kill Master several times. “See? You can’t even hold onto your enemies long enough to try and kill them. You’re insane. And you stink as well. Did you know that?”

“I’m no such thing. And I do not smell. Even if I did, you said you were not here, so how do you know? Lies. All lies.” He looked around again for something to smash her face in when she laughed at him. “You will come here now and help me to my feet. I will kill you, there is no hope for it, but I will not allow you to laugh at me.”

The next person to be standing before him was Ward. He was just as pompous looking as he’d been before Randall had ripped his head off. Master tried again to have him help him from the floor. He was nicer to him…Master was really aching to stand, and thought Ward was the only one who would do it.

“I’m not able to help you get up for the same reasons that the other two could not. I’m not here. But I have decided to help you. The formula that you want, you can do this.” Master asked him how. “There are about ten vials left, correct? You saved ten of them for yourself?”

“I had to use two today, but there are six.” Ward told him his adding was off, but Master told him to go on with his idea. Of course there were eight left, but if Ward thought to take them, then he’d at least have the two. “Tell me how to make this drug that you’re talking about. Surely you can see that I have no one left here to make it for me.”

“He didn’t write it down, you said, but he did write down the ones that didn’t work, right? You can use those to get to the one that does. Just don’t do those again. You need to get started on those.” Master hated to say it, but he told Ward that it would matter little, since he could not read it anyway. “Ah. Then get one of the others to come here and do it. The portal is open still, right?”

It was. Where were...he had no idea what was going on that had brought the first group of men here, but when they appeared in the little room that had been closed off to him when he’d been here, he’d been excited to see them. He knew it had to do with the switch he’d turned, but nothing more. He asked Ward why there had been no more people coming here to help him.