Blood of the Neko - 11. Chapter 11

Kayden stumbled again as they approached the river, his bloody hand smearing the rocks as he regained his balance.

"We'll track up the river here for a bit," Ehern said, stomping his booted foot into the shallow edge of the water. Kayden wasn't surprised, they'd used this tactic several times before to keep their tracks hidden, especially in the spring as the ground was softer from the melted snow of winter.

He hissed as he was shoved into the cold water. His bare feet scrambled for purchase on the slick stones in the river bed. He was dragged to the far side before they turned upstream, keeping to the shallows where the water wasn't high enough to rise over their booted feet, but was enough to wash away evidence of their passage.

"Crap," Theo suddenly cursed.

"What?" Ehern turned abruptly.

"I left my dagger back there, in that guy's shoulder."

Ehern frowned. "The tiny throwing one?"

"Yeah."

Kayden was grateful for the slight rest. Between the chill of the night air on his bare, bleeding chest and the cold of the river water freezing his toes and seeping into his pant legs, he was starting to shake uncontrollably, not just from the cold, but from the loss of everything he had just recently gained--friendship, trust, and love.

Images of Ysmenia and her feather dusters, and racing with Ellis to the Lake, and Garin sneaking him a sweet cake when no one was looking assailed his mind. He knew he'd never see Finn climbing on a horse again, or Brenner and Nash in the training arena, or even John smiling when he caused the duke to laugh. Tears filled his eyes as he thought of Miss Penelope, and how he would miss seeing the new baby.

Damien's deep, throaty laugh echoed in his mind. The way the man's eyes crinkled at the corners, and his lips spread into a wide grin over his perfect teeth every time Kayden made him smile had Kayden drowning in his silent tears. God, how he wished he hadn't hit his master. He should have just thrown his arms around the man and held on to him until Damien realized just how wrong he had been. But he had been so angry that his lover could believe such a thing. Why hadn't he just gone back?

He'd cost Palick and probably Nash their lives, and now he would never see Damien again. Damien's last memory of him would be of how he had hit the man. He prayed that Damien wouldn't forget the love he'd had for him. He didn't want their fight to be the only thing the man remembered.

Kayden tried to let his mind go as numb as his toes because he knew if he let himself think at all, the fear of this nightmare would consume him.

He glanced back in the moonlight at Theo who was trailing behind him. He held his hands and arms to his chest for whatever warmth he could muster.

"Well, we ain't goin' back now," Ehern stated. "You want to get it, you can go back yourself."

Theo just shook his head, shoving Kayden's shoulder to move him forward again. "Shit, and I really liked that one."

"With what Laos is paying us to keep that damned army from getting to the pass, you can buy a new one," Ehern stated.

"Guess so," Theo shrugged.

Kayden felt the yank on his hands as Ehern pulled on the rope. He stepped quickly so that he could pull his arms back against his shaking body. The rough ropes and rubbing of his arms on his chest kept breaking open the wound, slicking his torso with more blood, but Kayden couldn't seem to care anymore.

He was right back where he'd been all those years ago. Alone. Rejected. Trembling with both cold and terror. Being dragged around by the damn hunters who'd just use him for their own amusement.

He'd spent the last few hours mourning the loss of his lover. The anger and betrayal he'd seen in Damien's eyes would haunt him until he died. Which probably wouldn't be long knowing the hunters.

When they finally stepped out of the river, it was onto a rocky path that would not leave boot prints. Kayden could feel his energy being sapped by the cold and stumbled again as his numb feet slipped on the slick rocks. He gasped back a cry of pain as his chest hit the rocky path, the sharp stones biting into the jagged wound. He didn't even bother to move from where he'd landed, he just wanted to give up. He lay there breathing in the scent of the damp earth for a second before he felt arms wrap around him, dragging him off the ground.

He was set on his feet again, but he didn't know how he managed to remain standing. Maybe it was just sheer instinct. He had done this so many times before when he'd been their slave that maybe his body just knew what it had to do. It didn't need his mind to work anymore.

Kayden managed somehow to stumble along, sometimes needing to stop his fall by grabbing a nearby tree, but he stayed on his feet. It seemed like hours and quite a bit of an uphill climb before they came to a stop. Ehern whistled a quick tune, waiting for a reply. Once the return call came, they trudged the last couple hundred feet into the hunter's camp.

It was one of their usual spots to hole up. Kayden recognized the slope of trees up behind the camp. They were near the mountain pass. Obviously, there to help Laos protect the mines from unwelcome guests. This spot was pretty well hidden off the main pass through the mountains. It was high enough to over look the pass, but well hidden in a copse of trees.

There was only a small fire, shielded from the lower elevations by the scrub of brush that had been carefully built around the camp to keep prying eyes from noticing. Even in the light of just the moon, Kayden could tell that the hunters' den hadn't changed much in the last two years. There were three small dark tents at the edges of the clearing, the dingy canvas and hide blended into the brush and trees. The hunters had stripped a few trees that they used as posts for chaining up the slaves they were transporting to the mines. This camp was just one of three that they had hidden throughout the forest as resting points. But it seemed to be their favorite as well, since it was the farthest from civilization, and therefore, the safest since there were rarely any travelers to the mountain pass.

Kayden's eyes flickered over to the two slaves chained to the posts by the collar and lock on their necks.

Two more men stood to greet their leader as they came into camp, a third one nodded from where he was sharpening his knife by the low fire.

"A new one?" the thinner one stated, his eyes gleaming as he looked over Kayden's half-clothed body. He was tall and lean, not quite as bulky as the rest of them.

"Actually, an old one." Ehern grinned, his hand snaking into Kayden's thick black hair and yanking it up. "Remember, the little one? Kayden?"

The two who had been guarding the camp cocked their heads as they looked over him with renewed interest. The slow leering grins that slid over their faces seemed even more menacing in the dark. Kayden swallowed heavily, trying desperately to keep his body from shaking, but failing miserably.

"We need to rest up," Theo stated, handing the rope over to one of the men. "Borin, just tie him to the tree limb over there for tonight. We need to head out first thing to the mines, let Laos know he was right. The King sent the Duke after him. And the Duke is bringing a small army with him."

"Got it." Kayden felt the scraggly man, Borin, yank him forward. He was so tired he almost just dropped right there, but he knew the man would probably just drag him and he didn't want that.

He could feel the eyes of the other two slaves, both who were human, watching him sadly. He returned their gaze, knowing how hopeless they must be feeling. The same feeling was washing over him as he felt the man stand on the bench of their makeshift table to throw the end of the rope over the thick branch of the maple tree.

As Borin leaned close to tie off the rope, Kayden gagged at the acrid scent of the unwashed body pressing up against him. Kayden felt his arms stretched over his head, the rope cutting into his wrists as he was pulled up to where he could barely touch his bare toes to the cold ground. He could just about wrap his hand around the rope to grip it and keep the weight off his wrists. But he knew too that soon exhaustion would win and he'd be left hanging from the tender joints. But at least for now, he could spare himself a little pain.

"I'll be back, little one," Borin sneered into his ear, his grubby hand raking over Kayden's bare back. Kayden shivered as the man's fingers slid to the base of his tail, dipping and twirling around it before sliding to the tip. The hunter grinned as he brought Kayden's tail to his lips. "I've missed you, little one. None of the other hybrids we've had have ever been like you were."

Kayden jerked his head away from the man's rancid breath. Broken. That's what he had been. They had never kept any others as long as they'd had him. None of them had been as young as he was either.

"I see you've gotten a bit feisty," Borin sneered. He dropped Kayden's tail to press his fingers into the wound lacerating the neko's chest.

At Kayden's anguished cry, he grinned. "I'm sure you'll remember your place real quick."

"Borin, you've got first watch," Ehern called, as he ducked into his tent. "Walk those two off to relieve themselves now, before we all turn in. Not that I think they'd try anything at this point, but let's not risk it."

Kayden sighed in relief when the scraggly man turned to the other two slaves. Their eyes widened as the hunter approached them, and Kayden couldn't help but feel their fear. Even in the dark, he could see the whip lashes bloodying their shirts. Ehern would make sure they were broken before delivering them to Laos, like he always did.

As Borin pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked one from the post and yanked the man to his feet, Kayden felt like he was ten again. His tiny body chained to the same post, an iron collar biting into his neck as he strained to sleep, his stomach cramping in perpetual hunger. The constant cold causing his body to eat at what little fat and energy it had. The pain of the whip every time he dared to speak, and worse, if he cried out for them to stop. Too many times he had begged them to stop hurting other slaves and had earned his own stripes in response. Soon, he'd learned to bury his head, curling as small as he could get, keep himself quiet and unnoticed. It seemed as if he'd spent years curled up in a ball of fear, until Lord Harrison had found him at the slave market, until Damien had loved him. And, even though it had taken time, he had finally learned to love and trust another again.

A soft cry from the slave brought him back to the present. The man had fallen to his knees when Borin had pushed him, his legs giving way under him. Pushing weak slaves and making them fall was all sport for these men. They entertained themselves by tormenting the slaves, beating them down, humiliating them. Borin dragged the man up and stepped off into the brush to allow the man to relieve himself. Kayden could see Theo and one of the others still standing in the camp. They each grabbed a bota (a goatskin water pouch) of water or whatever drink they had in there, and they took a swig. They all tended to share the two or three leather drink pouches, taking swigs before retiring and when they first woke up.

Borin returned with the slave, quickly re-chaining him and taking the other slave. Theo made sure that Borin had both of the slaves relocked to their posts before he crawled into his makeshift tent with the other man. Ehern was the only one in his own tent. He tended to keep the extra supplies in a small box in the edge of his tent--gunpowder, the ropes, chains, the whip--even the bottle of the poison they kept to sometimes kill off slaves that wouldn't make it to the mines. Kayden had often wondered why they bothered with poison when they could just use a knife, but soon he realized that the scent of too much blood often brought out predators. Strangling them or breaking their necks were one option in getting rid of useless slaves before dropping the body far off into the mountains, away from their camp. But once Ehern had discovered the poison, they'd found that watching the agonizing death of a slave through poisoning was much more entertaining than the quick merciful death a knife gave.

It was actually a little odd that they were leaving the blood on him now, and he hoped that it didn't attract a wolf or bear or something worse. Usually after whipping him bloody, he'd been dropped in the icy river to rinse away the blood. He shivered at the memory, grateful that they hadn't done that. Maybe because it was mostly dried now, and it was already on the far side of the night approaching morning, that they didn't care right now.

As all the other hunters crawled into their bedrolls, Borin took his own gulp of whatever was in the water bota, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Kayden watched anxiously as he made his way over to the two chained slaves who were cowered on the ground against their tree-poles. Borin crouched in front of them, taunting them with his knife.

When one of them suddenly snarled and spit at the hunter, Kayden flinched as Borin backhanded the slave. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back the flood of memories that threatened to cripple him.

The cry of the hybrid next to him burned into his soul. He couldn't help the man any more than he could help any of the ones before him. And oh, how he had tried.

He would accept the whippings as quietly as he could, but it never worked. Ehern liked to use him against the new slaves. The hunter would whip Kayden when the new slaves misbehaved, and the slaves would always beg Ehern to 'stop hurting him, he's just a boy.'

And he was, but that didn't matter. Ehern knew the older men that he caught would feel pity for the tiny cowering neko. It didn't matter if Kayden didn't fight anymore, if he stayed as silent as he could. Ehern had discovered that he could exploit a weakness in the slaves they captured--pity. And that weakness eventually led them to break.

He had been with them for two years now, and all he hoped for was that he could just go to sleep one night and not wake up. He didn't want to live in the nightmare anymore, but the couple of times he'd felt close to his goal, they had dragged his body back from the brink of oblivion.

Kayden briefly peeked through his fingers at the current group of slaves. There were three, all of whom had just watched Ehern rip apart his back and shoulders with a cane until he was a bleeding mess. Until they had finally broken and yelled at the hunter to stop, fearing the hunter would kill the neko child.

The first one cried out as the cane lashed across his calves, dropping him to the ground. Kayden winced, knowing exactly the pain the man was feeling. He often hoped that the slaves wouldn't break, that they would just ignore Ehern's assaults on him and maybe the hunter would go too far one day. But they never did. Kayden had collapsed under the assaults sometimes, but he always seemed to hear the agonized cry of the other slaves. He refused to let them hear his cries. He didn't want his cries to haunt them like theirs did to him.

But he couldn't stop them from seeing. As much as he wanted to beg them to just close their eyes, he knew Ehern and Theo and the other hunters would never let them ignore his torment, or even the torment of the other slaves. And in the end, no matter what, they did break.

He lay there curled on the cold ground, cringing at the loud snap of the whip and not knowing where it would land. The laugh of the hunters rang in his ears as he jumped at the loud sound, yanking briefly at his chain as he tried to escape the noise. He didn't hear a cry that time and figured the hunters were testing that the sound of their whip had the desired effect on their slaves. It didn't matter what caused the loud noise--whip, gunshots, a slap--Kayden would instinctively try to skitter away from it.

He could barely lift his head to see the other slaves shaking against their own poles. In a way, he envied their health. They were bigger and stronger, and so they wouldn't stay with the hunters long, just long enough to be broken and sold.

But Kayden had been a mistake, captured too young when they'd killed his parents. They barely fed him, keeping him chained to a pole or tree every night. It seemed like he was always cold, even when they actually gave him a blanket and wrapped his feet in cloth in the winter to keep him from freezing to death. He knew he would never get big enough to sell to the mines, not with the way they were keeping him. He sometimes wondered when it would dawn on them that he would never be of use to them. Would they just decide to kill him then? Would they just give him to Laos for free, to be rid of him, even knowing he wouldn't last a week at the mines in his condition?

Kayden gasped as a hand yanked his chin, and he snapped out of the past. He could feel his face was wet with tears, the chill reminding his body how weak and tired and hungry he'd always been here.

"Hey, little one," Borin's voice rumbled. "Didn't think I'd forgotten you, did ya?"

Kayden's eyes snapped open. The camp was still, broken only by the snores of the other hunters, and he wondered how long he'd been out. The only other movement was the restless shifting of the other slaves as they struggled to find a somewhat comfortable way to lay. Even the fire had died down to smoldering embers. Dawn would be breaking in another couple hours.

Borin's hand ghosted down his bare skin, causing him to shiver. "You're all mine," he growled in Kayden's ear.

Suddenly, something snapped in his brain.

No! He didn't belong to this man or any of the hunters anymore. He belonged to the duke, even if his master doubted it at the moment. He belonged to Damien Whitmore.