Free Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders) by Robin Renee Ray Page A

abandoned house east of
town,” the woman said, turning towards me.
    “Yeah, I know the place,” I told her. “It used to belong to the Kings. Ma
used to take us there to visit Mrs. King before she died.” As I spoke, I
noticed that my arm seemed to feel somewhat better, but my mind and heart were
all but dead. I didn’t care about where we were going to stay. I found myself
not caring about anything. I had allowed myself to be tricked into doing the
unimaginable, by someone that I actually thought cared about me. All that I
knew for sue was that I just needed to get as far away from home and him as
possible. I held the hope of seeing Martin one last time, even if a hundred
years from now. I didn’t know how, but I would see that he paid dearly for what
he had done. Taking me was one thing, but that’s where he should have stopped.
    “I never said thank you,” I softly told to the woman. “I don’t even
know your name.”
    “There is no need for thanks, ch - Renee. I am
just grateful that we got to you before Martin had a chance to harm you
further. Oh, yes, my name is Rebecca.”   She
held out her hand just as any normal person would.
    “I don’t know how I will ever repay you,” I replied accepting her
gesture. “But even though I don’t show it, I am very grateful to you.”
    A warm, heartfelt smile spread across her face. “It brings us great
pleasure to help when we are able.” I didn’t have to ask who she meant by we , because as we approached the old King residence,
the three men that had accompanied her at the graveyard stepped out from behind
the bushes.
    “Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to our new friend. This is
Renee.”  
    The young man with the short brown hair took my hand, and raised it to
his lips just as Martin had, and said, “Good evening, Renee, my name is Marcos.
It is a pleasure to meet you.” He then gently kissed the back of my hand, and
with a small bow backed away.
    As he left, the blond gentleman went through the same motions as the first.
“My name is Ronny,” he said. “I am very glad to meet you Lady Renee.”
    I expected the third man to do the same, but he hesitated. He slowly
made his way towards me, but he didn’t take my hand. His face was adorned with
a look of contempt, nothing like that of the others. He peered down at me as if
I were a problem, not a young woman he had just helped rescue. Rebecca cleared
her throat, and I noticed her giving him a strange look. “Have you forgotten
your manners, Omar?”
    “Please forgive me, Lady Renee. As you know, my name is Omar, I meant
no harm,” he said, stepping back. He never did take my hand like the others,
and I got a bad vibe from him, as if he didn’t like me at all. That couldn’t be
it though, because he had just met me. After everything I had been through, I
had no care to find out his motives. Maybe it was just something else about this new world of which I was now a part of that I didn’t
understand. After all, he could have been having as much of a hard time with
being a creature of the night as I was.
    “Dawn is coming, and we need to get settled before the daylight hours
approach,” Rebecca ordered with the men not needing to be told twice.
    I have to admit, it was nice to see the three men jump when she spoke,
especially Omar. Sure don’t see anything like that where I come from. Rebecca
turned to me and said, “Tomorrow night the boys will find us transportation so
that we can move faster.”
    “You mean steal from someone?” I asked.
    “If we are to outrun Martin, we will have to have help, do you
understand?”
    “Yeah, but,” I paused fighting my moral dilemmas. “It’s just that the
folks in these parts are poor and need what they have. Plus, I was raised to
never cheat or steal from anyone for any reason.”
    “This is for your own good, and more importantly, to save the rest of
your people. The further we go, the safer they are,” she explained taking me by
the