Death Weeps Part 35

"You should not have done that," Elise said in warning.

"Why?" Escape was the natural solution, I thought logically.

"They will abuse those you care about to maintain your cooperation."

Gramps.

We poured out of the small wooden building and the first thing that struck me was a wide platform that was maybe three meters deep by five wide. There were steps which led up to the wooden platform that flanked its sides.

What was this?

Elise said from behind me, "It is the auction block. Your females will remain here no longer. They will be sold..." she hesitated and I looked back at her, naked apprehension flooding through my body, my adrenal system firing up like clockwork.

Her face was turned to the sun, a hand shading her eyes. "Maybe they'll be free for two hours more. The doctor will check them first for," she paused over her next words, "readiness." Virginity, my mind translated. She shrugged as if this were normal. "Then they will be traded."

Alex surged toward her and she backed away from his coming tirade. I put a hand on his arm and he looked down at me breathing deeply, collecting himself. His eyes sharpened and he controlled the modulation of his voice. "They can't do this. We're not... we're not from here."

"That doesn't matter, dude. These effing creepers are greedy suckers. They don't care about the chicks, man... they only care about..."

"Power," Archer supplied and Jonesy pointed a finger at him.

"That."

"How do we stop it?" Sophie said, getting ready for hysteria.

We all looked at her and John walked to her. Putting his hand on her pulse he looked at me and shook his head. "She's slipping, Caleb."

I turned to Elise, "They can't sell crazy can they?"

John repeated my question, a little more in line with her understanding. "What if the females are mad?"

She nodded and shrugged. "They will be beaten."

"Until when?" Tiff asked.

"Until such time that they submit."

Tiff snorted. "Fat d.a.m.n chance. I'll never submit!"

Elise looked at her with sad eyes.

Despondent eyes.

"There are buyers who favor that disposition." She continued to stare at Tiff, "You do not want a male that enjoys that to have you." She shuddered.

Bry shook his head and scrubbed his short hair, working over his face as he did. He scrubbed his face three times then said, "Nah, n.o.body is gettin' their paws on my sister. I'll kill 'em. I swear to G.o.d I will."

"You behave as if there be choice in the matter." Elise's eyes searched his. "There is no choice. None," she said with a ringing finality.

"How is it that you've managed?" I asked.

"I heal," she said, turning her palms upward and facing us. "I heal, therefore, I am of value."

Wow... just wow.

"Okay," I looked around me, seeing structures that surrounded ours, "Parker, Tracker...?" I raised my eyebrows and Jonesy piped in, "yeah, he's here somewhere."

I nodded. "Gramps and whoever else we can bust out..." I gave John a look. "Can we get Elise here to juice Randi out of her stupor enough to get us the h.e.l.l outta here?"

John shrugged. "It's our best chance, but..." his eyes found mine.

"What," I stepped forward, our gazes locked. "We have to get that blood collected or it'll be a moot point. The girls will go crazy and the guys will follow. It won't even matter if we get back. As a matter of fact, look at the degradation even now."

I looked at the girls. Tiff was hanging in there but getting more ornery (if that was even possible), but Sophie was going the way of Jade. The girls were getting sick and Sophie was moaning about purses and c.r.a.p.

Jonesy went to her and felt her head. "She has a fever. I thought they said it was mental."

"It's metastasizing," John said in a flat voice.

"What, like cancer? That c.r.a.p that used to kill people all the time before The Cure?" Jonesy asked.

John nodded. "Yeah, just like that but worse. This thing, it'll make the girls sick, then they'll clear up in time to go bats.h.i.+t."

Things were bad if Terran was cursing.

I turned to Elise. "Can you fix his leg?" I asked her, looking at Brett.

She nodded and he looked puzzled and I clarified, "I can't use a gimp, Mason."

"Oh Hart, you like me after all," he said, all-sarcasm.

"Nah, but I need you," I replied in complete seriousness.

Elise went and healed his leg as he held Jade, delirious with sickness. I watched her face as she became more ill. It strengthened my resolve. I would get that effing blood if it was the last thing I did. Shoot the girls up like a drug pimp and get us out of here.

Or die trying. The fragment weren't going to touch our girls.

Especially Jade.

I loved her, and that was all that mattered. I'd see this thing through, regardless of the cost.

The sacrifice.

CHAPTER 20.

"Question!" Jonesy said, halting our progress as we made our way to the other buildings. I turned, my brows to my hairline as Brett and Jade came behind us.

Just ask me how I was lovin' that.

"Where are the guards? This seems way too easy. These boys are big time into control. If they have plans for us, if they want the chicks, why are we running around free?" he asked, making perfect sense for once.

Archer smiled. "I got us out, remember Mark?"

Jonesy scowled. "Yeah... but, I don't know, something seems off."

I shook my head. "No, they think we're locked in here and everything is secure."

John palmed his chin. "Maybe," he shot a contemplative look at Jonesy. "But Caleb," I turned to look at Terran, "somebody has shut down your AFTD."

"We have several sorcerers within the confines of our group," Elise said softly. John took her hands and she flinched but didn't pull away. Seeing her with John, I realized how young she really was. Maybe she was just our age, maybe a year older.

"Tell us, what skills do they possess?" he asked, switching to that weird mix of modern and archaic speech the fragment used. But the more I listened, the more I realized it was a cadence to their speech that made it so difficult to interpret.

She gazed at him shyly then cast her eyes down at her slippered feet. It took so long we didn't think Elise would answer then finally she did. "We have one such as he," she inclined her head at me then blew us away with, "and he can stop another from using his power over those things that are now dead."

John's head snapped my direction. "They have a dual paranormal here, Caleb."

"English, Terran!" Jonesy almost yelled and Tiff shushed him.

Like that'd work.

John plowed his fingers through his hair, frustrated. "They've got someone here that is AFTD and Null. He's got the know how on your death vibe, and he can negate it." His eyes bored into mine and I got the message loud and clear.

I wouldn't be using the dead any time soon.

And neither would Parker.

Effectively, I had whatever wits I possessed and my physical stamina and fighting skills. But in this group, who knew how I'd make out. I glanced at Jade, her safety pressing uncomfortably within the confines of my skull. Not that she'd take to me helping her, with the whacked out enhancer raging in her body.

"So you're like us mundanes, Hart?" Brett asked.

Love him, the pencil d.i.c.k.

I gave him a hard stare. "Yeah, looks that way."

"No corpses springing out of the box?" Brett said, rubbing the s.h.i.+t in, the salt into my wounds that were so open, so raw.

It stung.

I turned and was in his face before he closed his mouth.

I lifted my fist to give him a pounding and Jade's fevered eyes opened. "Caleb," she whispered, a look in her eyes that told me she was here right then, with me.

My anger dropped like a stone in a well. I reached out and touched her face, my thumb caressing her hot skin, like rasping over silk.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked and my hand dropped, the confusion filling her expression again.

Brett and I looked at each other. "Do your G.o.dd.a.m.ned job, Brett. Protect her, stop goading my a.s.s, or I swear to G.o.d we're gonna go. You hear me?" I stabbed my eyes into his, willing him to agree.

"Me protecting her was never a question, Hart. But can you calm your s.h.i.+t long enough to let me?" he asked, his dark eyes searching mine.

I didn't know, but I hated him calling me on my temper. Hated him making any kind of sense.

I turned on my heel and walked to the building where I could feel death energy. As I got nearer I heard Parker call out. "Caleb!"

I ran to the building.

Then the fragment came from every corner, swarming around us as Archer hit the lock on the building, dropping the chain.

Elise backed away from John and he grabbed her, drawing her in next to the protection of his body. I heard him ask her in a whisper, "Who is the one who can stop he who controls the dead?"

She pointed at a guy that wore a vest with a s.h.i.+eld that had grapes on it. Or had at one time, it was torn, faded and ragged. He had a quality to him I recognized. I studied him, the connective memory just out of grasp.

Then, it slammed into me in cohesive recognition.

He looked like he was from Clara's sphere, her world. Then he spoke and I was certain.

"You have nothing to gain from testing your abilities here, Traveler," he smirked.

The Zondorae brothers came to stand next to him as Parker exited the shelter of the other building, dragging Gramps like a side of beef beside him.

Gramps was breathing through his mouth, his nose flattened like a ruined pancake on his face. That he was standing at all was a testament to his const.i.tution.

He looked at me out of the slit of one eye, seeing my expression. "Looks worse than it is, son."

Tears burned in the back of my eyes. My anger had nowhere to go. But the dead wanted it. I could feel their greedy fingers caressing my emotions.

The sphere dude with the vest held up his finger, swinging it back and forth. "No, no, Traveler. You will not call the d.a.m.ned to a.s.sist you in this." He looked at Joe and Gary, "or I presume something else. Am I correct in this presumption?" he asked the brothers and Joe responded, "Yes, you are quite right, Jabez."

Jabez, the Null of epic death, grinned at Parker and I; his eyes touching on Gramps, then settling on Tiff. "All of you death seekers will be as the ma.s.ses," he swept his arm to encompa.s.s the fragment, held back only by the brothers' will as he trained his eyes on Jade and Sophie, obviously ill.

"We've administered the inoculation in this group, Caleb."

My shoulders fell.

"With interesting results. Not all have to be in p.u.b.erty to respond. Of course, that would make sense since the genetic splicing used for the young people of our world was extracted from the people of this world. Whoever has that blood of the Band and sphere running through their veins manifests... many interesting traits."

"Ya know, for being so smart, they're slow learners," Tiff said, snapping a bubble like firecrackers. The brothers looked at her.

"You have a c.o.c.ky mouth. Considering what will happen to you next."