Christopher: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (8 page)

“Yes. He said that he would be a part of us forever. What else? What else are you not telling us?” She shook her head and told Leo she’d return with answers. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re going to create more questions than you can answer for us?”

Remy spoke before she could tell Leo he might not want all the answers he’d be given. “All right, but I want the two of you to be careful out there. No taking chances that you might get hurt doing. All right?”

“We’ll be safe. But you won’t want to know some of this.” He said that more than likely he would not. “We will both return in two days.”

~~~

Chris moved along side of Kate, still trying to get used to his wings. They were huge, and he felt like...he really wasn’t sure what they felt like, but a part of him was about all he could think of. But the view now that he was in charge of his speed and altitude was amazing.

“They are a part of you. If you think of them as an extension of your arms or body, you can use them better.” Chris nodded, and realized that Kate seemed to have a better handle on these than the rest did when they first got them. And come to think of it, so did he. “I’ve been able to fly for decades, and that knowledge would have been passed to you. I am an elite shifter, so have been able to become an animal that flies for some time. You are also one now, as well as everything that I am. You’ll get used to them.”

“We never tested the theory that we could be other animals together.” She said nothing as they moved along the sky. He looked around, trying to put to his mind that he was several hundred feet in the air and he had no idea where they were headed. “Kate, what is it that you are?”

“We are magic, as Skylar said, but more than that. We are vampire, shifter...really, we are anything we want to be.” He asked her what that meant. “When we land, I’ll be better able to explain it to you. For now, why not enjoy the freedom we have?”

Nodding, he looked down. It took him several minutes to figure out what his eyes were telling him. There were people, yes, but they were...they were going about their day as normal people might. Not running for cover as everyone he knew did.

Children were in yards playing, and several adults were washing their cars. One woman was even bringing groceries into her home a few bags at a time. He nearly left the sky to go and see what sort of magic this was, and whether he was in some sort of surreal dream.

“They are real. We’re far enough away from the compound that you can see that life has gone on without you…or I suppose in spite of you. There were malefactors here, but not nearly as many as you have had. I think, as Remy said, that they were made to go after him. And the things that the mountains can give the other realm.” He watched as two children ran around their back yard chasing a puppy. He asked her why these people seemed unaffected by the monsters. “I’m going to show you something.”

As they took to the ground, he felt the air around him. It was...while cleaner wasn’t really the word, it was the best he could do with what he was smelling. When he asked Kate what he was smelling she laughed at him. She told him he could smell everything now.

He inhaled deeply and looked at her again. “I smell cut grass. Apples with cinnamon. Someone burning leaves, and the sweat of someone working out.” She nodded as they moved to a smallish building. “Paint. I smell fresh paint, like someone is painting their home. Gasoline. Why am I smelling these now when we have all of that back at the compound?”

“No, you don’t. You have cut grass, but there are no mowers doing it. It just needs to be shorter, so the magic accommodates it. No one has painted your rooms or buildings. When they are in need of repair, the magic knows it and takes care of it. There are no fruit trees on the property, yet you have fresh fruit when desired. The gardens that you have there, I bet there are no weeds in them, and the produce and vegetables are pulled from the ground that is soft and yielding. And the more of you that become whole, the stronger that magic is that takes care of you.” He asked her how that was possible. “Remy and Skylar do it.”

“I think we might have noticed one or both of them standing in the yards doing these things.” Kate just stared at him as they stood by the building. “They don’t do it physically, do they? That’s not what you meant. It is as much a part of what they are as we are. Magic.”

“Yes.” She put her hand on the wood and asked him to do the same. “When you come here alone, you will need to show the door who you are. Should you try to open the door without that, it will kill you.”

“Kill me how?” He watched as the door just disappeared. When he asked Kate again, he realized that he knew the answer to that as well. “It will remove my head. Then burn my body.”

Nodding, she entered the building and he followed. But as soon as he did, Chris had the urge to turn and run. This was no ordinary shed that they were in. It was fucking crazy.

First of all, it was huge. Not like seeming big because there was nothing in it, so it was deceptively larger. No, it was fucking huge. And far from empty. And the deeper he moved into the building, the bigger and wider it became.

There were walls and walls of books. Some were stacked on the floor, others were made into large pyramids that boggled his over-taxed mind. Books with bindings that he was sure were older than any book he might have seen in libraries before. There were others that were gold. Chris had no idea how he knew that, but he was as sure of that as he was his name.

He moved deeper into the room and saw things that just made him think he was in a dream. There were chairs that moved. Not on wheels that someone might want to roll around, but floating above the floor several inches. When one went by him above his head, he looked up and saw that there were several more there, all of them moving around the room slowly, as if waiting for someone to need them. He looked at Kate, not sure what to say. She laughed at him then, and for some reason he didn’t feel any better about what he was seeing, or feeling for that matter.

“I am...we are the keepers of records. In here is every book ever written, every prose that was ever said, and even books on happenings around the world that, while recorded in some history books, these words are truer than any other written. Here are the records of all mankind, and even creatures that walk the earth. Who has been born, those that have died and how they did it, as well their wives or husbands, and any children and their lives as well.” He suddenly need to sit down and found himself in one of the chairs. “This room knows you as well as it does me. As I said, we are the keepers now.”

“How...how long have you been doing this?” She didn’t answer him, but sat in one of the chairs as it suddenly appeared behind her. “You told me that you were over four hundred years old. You’re older than that, aren’t you?”

“I told you that I was over four hundred years old. That seemed to be a number that you could take. No one wants to know that I have been around forever. That my kind, me and a few others, have been watching over humans, without coming to their aid, for as many years as there have been people here.” He nodded, almost afraid to think beyond her being ancient. “I have seen wonders of the world that no one else has. I have witnessed such destruction that I feared no one would survive it. Wonders that I can share with you, but none other. And you must do the same.”

“You told Remy that you would help us.” She nodded. “You still will. You’ll help us conquer this thing.”

“You cannot conquer what you don’t understand. You should have learned that by now.” Shit was running through his head a mile a minute. He looked at her then, and she looked so sad. “Yes, I was there when you were hurt and your wife died. It’s the reason that I could see so plainly what you couldn’t. Or in that matter, what you didn’t want to see. But you knew in your heart that things were not as they were told to you. It was easy to grab your memories and blend them with my own. That date, its written here with all your other history and that of your family. As well as Pella’s.”

He got up to pace and books moved out of his way as the chair moved back from him and rose to the ceiling. Chris wasn’t sure how much more he could take, yet he felt that he needed to know what was going on. Whatever was going on now, he was as much a part of it as she was.

“Do you know if we win this war or not?” He didn’t look at her, but watched as a book was opened and words began to appear on the blank page. Moving closer to it, he saw that a babe had been born. Then as suddenly as the name appeared with a date, time, and weight, the same name was put with another date and time. The child had died almost as soon as it had been born. “How does this work?”

“The earth knows everything, and tells me the details by putting them in one of the books that is a part of the whole. Then with our magic, it is written down so that it will be remembered.” He asked her who would know that it was here if she didn’t allow anyone to enter. “You will know. I know. If you are asked something, a fact that could help you—say the name of the man who might have invented an object you want—you have only to think of him and that information will come to you.”

Chris tried not to think of anything, but of course he did. The book in front of him appeared, opened, then the words seemed to jump out at him. The first car, who was there, who had been in the room, and even those people that had been some part of its making in even a small way was on the page in front of him. Dates of their birth as well. People they had married, children born of them. He had only to look at a name and more information would appear. Who the children had married, their children that they’d had, and when they had died. As well as where they were buried and the marker that was there.

Rembrandt was the next person he thought of, and the book disappeared to be replaced by another. As the pages turned, he saw men that had been in his company, the names of his children and wife. He saw the day he’d found them, all burnt to death. He even saw the man who had done it, the one man responsible for so much.

“Benton was his friend. Or so Remy thought.” Kate said nothing as he continued to see the murder. The words were so vivid that he could see it as it was written, as detailed as any movie he’d ever seen. “Benton told those men to go to his house to rob him. That Remy had betrayed them all. Then Benton went back and...and he desecrated their bodies.”

“Benton is a man that thought he had nothing. He wanted it all, and did not think what he had was enough. The treasures of another were always just out of his reach, even when he took them.” Chris turned to Kate and saw that she’d been boxing up things while he’d been getting a lesson in history. “I will gather what I think we will need. You will have to read information on all those that can help us. Nate will...when you have his story, he won’t be happy that you do. Be careful how you tread on this man from now on. He is a fuse that is very short. But remember, Chris, you can only tell him what he asks for. Any more will not help anyone, especially him.”

Chris didn’t think any of them were going to be happy with him knowing everything about them. But he did as she asked and thought of Nate Livingston. He had a feeling that by the time he was finished, he’d have less of an understanding of the man that had been captured by Benton than anyone else.

Chapter 8

Nate hurt. And even when someone came into the room with him, even to check on him, the breeze that accompanied their movements seemed to be spears in his body. Over sensitive didn’t even begin to cover how he felt.

He could hear his blood rushing under his skin. Even his hair seemed to be overly loud when he moved his head on his pillow. Sheets sounded like sandpaper, and felt that way too. Nate kept his eyes closed against the bright light, even when it was just the brightness of a candle, he’d been told. Smells made him sick. When Weston came in, it was all he could do not to beg the man to go away. His cologne and deodorant made him think of rotting bodies.

He knew that Weston was doing everything he could. Nate did know that. But it didn’t lessen the fact that he wanted him and everyone else to leave him the fuck alone. Or better yet, kill him. He’d been in this room for three days now, and he just wanted to be dead.

He opened one eye when the door was opened and closed.

“Go the fuck away.”

Chris said nothing and he started to turn over. He’d been told to be careful of the bed, that his new weight was hard on the metal. Nate moved slowly, but only got his upper body to move before he heard the bed giving under him. He froze, afraid of breaking the bed again and ending up on the floor.

“I can fix that.” Chris moved forward, and before he could tell him not to touch him, his finger moved over the bed. “It just needed to be reinforced a little more. You should be all right now to move around. Weston said to tell you he’d be in later to take your blood pressure, by the way.”

He did feel…well, not better, but more secure. And when he lay back again safely, he told Chris to get out and leave him to himself. But Chris pulled a chair noisily toward the bed and sat down. Nate put his hands over his ears, trying to stop the noise from tearing his head apart.

“Christ, what is wrong with you? What part of leave me alone do you not get?” Chris said nothing. “Why the fuck can’t you people just leave me the fuck alone? I don’t bother you; why the fuck do you come in here and bother me?”

“You’re an elite shifter. I had to look that up. I mean, I had an idea what it was, but not fully. You’re one of the few that can shift into an object regardless of the size, or whether or not it even has a heart beating. Kate, my mate, she’s one too.” Nate said nothing. It wasn’t as if he’d been sharing any information with these people, but no one spoke to him either. No one had asked, and he didn’t feel inclined to share. “I also know that before coming here, you were set to kill yourself.”

“So? I understand that you’re not so thrilled about being here either. Or does getting pussy regular make it all seem okay now?” Nate had expected him to leap at him. At the very least for the other man to tell him to shut the fuck up. But he did neither. Just sat there. “You want more insults? I have them.”

“There wasn’t anything you could do to save them.”

Nate felt his body chill. His blood seemed to stop his heart from beating for several seconds while he waited for Chris to continue.

“Had you been there when they were killed, you would have died too. I know that’s what you want now, but it would have done no more to help them. It wasn’t your fault that they were killed that day. If you want to know why they did it, then all you need to do is ask me.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You have no idea what went on in my life before you got here. So fuck off.” But Nate had a feeling that not only did Chris know for sure what had happened that day, he knew his part in it. “I told you to get the hell out, and tell Weston I want to fucking be taken off his IV.”

He’d not been able to pull it out. Nate was sure that one or both of the hyped up duo, Remy and Skylar, had made sure that he couldn’t, but whatever was in the drugs they were pumping in him, it wasn’t doing much for the dull ache where his heart used to be.

“Do you want to know what happened that day, or are you still so set in your grief that you have no desire to hear it? Do you want me to help you? I can. Would you like to know what happened, the truth of it, that day, Nate?” Nate said nothing. He knew what had happened. “No, you don’t. You have a version that is in your head, but it’s not what really happened. Not the reasons for it either.”

“You don’t know shit. I’ll tell you what happened. Then you can try and fill in what you know. Miriam and her mom were in the kitchen when they entered the house. They killed her mom first, just cut her throat and dropped her to the floor. Blood indicated that Miriam had been hurt there as well. Then Miriam was taken to her bedroom and tied her to the bed after stripping her down. They didn’t rape her right away, they were waiting. For what, I have no idea.” Nate closed his eyes against the pain of what he’d seen when he’d gotten home. “The children were murdered in their beds. Each of them had had their heart stopped by a single bullet put into it. They just went to each of their rooms and killed them, as if they had no lives to live out and loves to find. I caught them taking them to the living room…that’s where I found two of them on the sofa. They wanted me to find them as soon as I came in the door. How fucking sick is that?”

He looked at Chris then, hoping that he’d be like everyone else he’d tried to talk to, sickened to the point of walking away. But he only sat there, his face unreadable, as Nate stared at him. Finally, he told Chris to tell him what he knew.

“The older woman was killed first, but Miriam died soon after. They were dragging her up the stairs to rape her, as you said. She owed them, or their boss…that was why they were there. But she tried to get away and fell down the stairs, breaking her neck in the process. She was dead before they got her to the room.” Nate stared at Chris as he continued. “They tied her to the bed after they murdered the children. The men had been told to wipe them out, all of them, and that was just what they did. Each of the children were asleep and never knew what happened to them. Nor did Miriam or her mom.”

“No, that’s not...what men? How did she owe anyone? I want you to leave here right now.” Chris sat there and Nate felt tears roll down his cheeks. “You don’t know what happened, do you, Chris?”

“Yes, and you know I do. When you caught them taking the children to the living room, they weren’t putting them on display for you, but setting them up so they could take their picture and sent it to their boss. Like I said, they were to clean out the family, erase them from this earth. Would you like to know what happened next?”

“No.” But he did, and Chris nodded as if he understood. “They raped her. They…the police said it was brutal.”

“It was, but she was gone long before they did it, as I said. They were told they could take more time with Miriam, make her suffer. An accident prevented them from their fun with her while she was living, as I said, but they did make her suffer. The picture they never got to send their boss was to show them that the job had been done. Without it, they wouldn’t get paid. Not that they would have. The men were set to be killed too, by Michael James himself. You know who that is, don’t you?” Nate said that he knew him…he was a big time boss. “Yes. Miriam had a gambling problem and she was into him for millions. Not only that, but she’d sold out her husband too. She told him that his insurance was huge, and if he was murdered, like he had been, then it would be more. That was who killed him. It wasn’t who you thought. What you did was bring them to justice in your own way, and that was the result of it.”

“Miriam said...she told me that she was finished. And that now that Conrad was gone, her husband was gone, she knew that she’d have to start saving money. It was...she didn’t want to, however. I think she was broke at the end.” Chris nodded his head, and that knowing look touched a nerve and his temper flared up. “What the fuck do you know? You weren’t there. You didn’t see them the way I did.”

“No, I didn’t, but the earth knew what happened. When you came home you found Sandra, her mother, first. She had been left where she was…it would have been impossible for you not to see her. You entered the house through the basement because you saw the body on the floor when you started to enter through the kitchen, didn’t you? You caught them in the act. You found them there and you ended the lives of all those men.” Nate looked away, his memories taking hold of him in a tight grip. “The first man you killed, you broke his neck. Dropping him as you went. You were shot twice as the second man came around the corner and saw you. As he was killed, his own gun shattering his chest cavity and the bullet tearing into his heart, you never paused in your pursuit of the children upstairs. Because you didn’t want to believe that they’d kill them all, that it had to be a mistake. You also knew that they’d take her there, to the bedroom, to rape, didn’t you?”

Nate had known. Miriam had been the target, and he had tried his best not to think of what they might have done to the children. Surely his mind kept telling him, they wouldn’t hurt the children for the acts of the mother.

“The man coming down the stairs was next. His body was torn nearly in half when he tried to kill you with his knife. But you let one of your beasts go, and the bear in you attacked even though you were losing blood fast. Then you found the last two in the bedroom.” Nate closed his eyes against the memories, but all that did was bring to living color the nightmare he had all the time. “Your anger was fueled by the sight of the children having been murdered like they had.”

Nate thought of his friend’s wife laying there, her eyes vacant in death. “They were raping her. Not with their bodies but with their guns, shooting her between her legs, telling her that they were coming as they did so.” Chris said nothing, and for all he knew he might have left him by then. “I killed the first one when he came at me, shifting in midair even as the wolf took him. But he was no match for my anger, and as he came forward I put out my fist and rammed it down his throat. The second man I...I played with him before the cops came.”

“You made him suffer. Made sure that he knew that he’d fucked with the wrong man before he died.” Nate nodded. “They called you a hero. The police and the others, they called you that when they found out that you had tried to save a woman and her children that were not your own. They had no idea that you were related to her in any way, did they?”

“Conrad was my half-brother. His wife and children were related to me only because I thought of him as...we thought they’d be safer when he testified if everyone assumed he was an only child. I have no idea why we thought that would work. Miriam had a big mouth and couldn’t keep.... I never told a soul that they were my brother’s children and wife. That way, if he was killed or hurt because he had ratted out his company, someone would be there to care for them. But I couldn’t. He begged me at the end to watch over them for him, knowing that he was going to be killed, to keep them safe, and I failed him.” Nate looked at Chris then. “Like I’m going to do here. I’m a failure.”

“No you’re not, Nate. She failed you. Miriam told them where she was, let the men in the house that day. The man that she owed, he’d been expecting her payment in the form of Conrad’s insurance. But she spent it, every penny of it, on her habit.” Nate shook his head at Chris. “She did. The man that Conrad had testified against had nothing to do with the death of Conrad’s wife or family. I’m sure he might have gotten around to it eventually, but it wasn’t him that killed that family. James is...was not one to mess with, but Miriam thought that with her looks and her children, he’d never harm her. She was dead wrong about that.”

“No, she’d never do that. She loved her family, and I told her that I’d help her if she needed me.” Chris said nothing, but Nate had a moment of doubt then. “She was struggling, yes, but I had put her on a budget, told her that she’d have to start living within her means. But she would never have betrayed...why would someone do that to their own children?”

Again Chris said nothing, but Nate knew. She’d told him, several times, that the insurance had never paid up. Something about premiums not being paid on time. But he had known, even then, that the money had come out of Conrad’s check every week. That there was no way that he would have not taken care of it.

“How do you know all this?” Chris didn’t answer and Nate looked at him again. “You don’t know, do you? You found out a little bit and decided to fill in the rest with bits and pieces that would…I don’t know, bring me around to your way of thinking. Well, it won’t work. I’m not going to be in this group of idiots that think they can make some sort of difference.”

Chris only stood up and moved to the door. Nate wasn’t sure, but he thought that he’d just lost something, something profound. When he found himself in the room alone, he closed his eyes and tried his best not to think about Miriam and the kids. About the many times she’d told him that she needed more. Not just money, but a bigger house, a nicer car. She wanted to go on lavish vacations, sometimes alone. Her mother was no better, telling him that it was his fault that Conrad was dead, that he’d left them penniless.

There had been money, a great deal of it…he knew that. Conrad had a huge life insurance policy, a fat savings account, as well as his inheritance from his own father. When he asked Miriam about it, her answer had amazed and astounded him.

“Mom and I went to the casino.” He asked her how much she had lost. “Well, there is enough for us to make the house payment. We were in grief. I had to do something to cheer me up.”

She’d lost nearly seven million dollars. All in one day, and for no other reason than she had it. And now, she and her entire family, his family too, were gone.