Vance gave her a crooked smile. “Lapel camera. There are lots of interesting things like that out there.”
“You wore a lapel camera?”
“It’s not a Bluetooth. It had an actual wire, and the shutter button was on my sleeve.” He grinned. “The whole thing was threaded through the coat I was wearing. Even if I took it off, no one would have seen it.”
“What in the name of James Bond…?”
“Doctor, Lincoln is very serious about following the law. There has been more than one time where I had to investigate on his behalf, and I learned very quickly that wires are the best tech.”
Chuckling, I nodded. I filed that away—that Vance would and had spied for his boss before, and presumably would again.
I turned the page over and froze.
“What’s this?”
“The brochure.”
Staring at the pages, I couldn’t bring myself to touch it. “It’s heavy clay coat paper and CYMK printing. This is…expensive. Specialized. And not something you can go down to Minuteman press for. Holy shit.”
“They were all supposed to be dropped in burn barrels on the way out,” he said. “But I strapped that to my leg to smuggle it out.”
“This needs to go to Haden,” I whispered.
“They were all bought.”
“…oh God.”
“It’s good and bad because they dispose of the children they can’t put in the rental stable. And that there’s a rental stable also makes me sick.”
“That’s where Elutheria was…”
Vance looked disgusted. “She was in the stable? Lincoln didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s not exactly like we go around handing out her sexual resume, Vance. We keep it quiet, we try to give her the childhood she missed out on keeping her brother safe.”
“She has a brother?” Vance asked.
“She does,” I answered. “We’re trying to locate him in the foster system so we can adopt him, too. Keep them together.” I stared at the color brochure. “I’m afraid to touch it. I almost feel like it would make it too real.”
“Too real?” He snickered. “You’re adopting one of the stable kids. You know what goes on in these things. You tried to warn him, and me.”
“I did.” Still, I hesitated to open the damn thing, my palm sweaty. I finally got the courage and lost it as soon as I saw the first child. “Oh, God. He’s six.”
“They go in age order,” he said, wiping his own hand on his pants again. “They didn’t bring them out like that though. I think it was in whatever order they could wrangle them. Someone were so rebellious…”
“They’ll have that beaten out of them.”
“Christ,” he mumbled.
I turned the page. This was more than appalling. The children were all dressed in the same thing—a plain white T-shirt and a pair of white underwear. There was a stats panel on each page describing the child. There were at least two photos each and a profile.
Just as I reached for the next page, the front door of my office was knocked open and two people tumbled it.
Haden straightened herself first. “We have a huge, huge, huge problem.” She marched over to the desk and put her hands on it. Before another word escaped her, she gasped. “What the fuck is that?”
“Child trafficking auction catalog,” Vance said.
Her eyes snapped to mine. “Holy shit.”
Pursing my lips, I sighed. “He smuggled it out.”
“All sold.” He grimaced again.
“Yeshua and Mariyam, are you for real?”
“It gets worse, and that’s why we wrote it down,” Vance offered, pushing the catalog to the side and pointing to the two sheets below.
“But what’s your problem?” I asked. Haden didn’t usually overreact to things.
She pointed at the catalog. “Ben was sold to the Pipeline.” Gasping, Haden grabbed the catalog and started thumbing through it. She stopped and I could see the tears and fear in her eyes. “Paige!”
Until that moment I hadn’t even realized that Paige was the other person in the room. She leapt over and looked down at what Haden was pointing to.
“Fuck.” Paige’s face lit up in terror.
Haden slapped the catalogue down. “Where is he?”
“Who is he?” Vance asked.
“Ben Sheehan.”
“What?!” I screamed.
Paige grabbed my arm. “It’s why we’re here. The mess at the foster home had to be cleaned up and taken care of. There were two other children, and we had no idea he would be at the auction.”
“Who is Ben Sheehan?”
“Ellie’s half-brother,” I said.
Haden stared at Vance and he jerked. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Paige and me. I couldn’t hear all of what she said to him, but the single world angelico floated over and Vance utterly paled. He looked ready to vomit.
I wasn’t going to be put off. “Guys, have your secret conversations another time. My daughter’s brother has been sold in a sex auction.”
“He was sold to Frankford,” Paige whispered, looking down at the notes. She tapped the page. “Look here, in Vance’s account. He managed to remember the lot number—” her face twisted, disgusted, “—and it matches the picture of Ben.”
“You’re sure that’s Ben?” Vance asked.
“Yes,” Paige said. “I have his picture…”
Her hand dove into the briefcase she had at her side, and rifled through to pull out a single file folder. She opened it and the picture of Ben, smiling, was paperclipped to the top sheet.”
“Shit.” I ran a hand through my hair. “How are we going to get these kids back?”
Haden let out a huge sigh. “I’m coordinating with the FBI, because most likely, with how close New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware are geographically, there is a good damn chance this is interstate and we can pull in federal laws and help.”
I stared at the picture of the adorable little boy Fischer and I agreed to adopt. I wanted him safe and I wanted him back. This was my son and I needed him here.
“How do we get him back?” I tapped the papers on the desk. “We know who he was sold to, so we should be able to just—”
“We can’t just anything,” Haden said. “We need a plan, we need a way to find out where he took the boy. He’s not going to have him in his penthouse. They take them away and hide the kids. They train them far away from here and then keep them in houses that are under ghosts.”
“Oh, my God,” I ground out. “We have to do something! Anything!”
“We are,” Haden said.
I whirled around and put my finger right in her face. “We’re not! We’re standing in my office and doing nothing!”
She grabbed my hand…
…“What the hell is this?”
Lily smiled at her, and the dark-featured man next to her chuckled.
“Appropriate, little star. Very appropriate,” he answered, his voice hot smoke and cool acid. “You are being given direction.”
“Direction?”
“El has realized it would be wise to have his sons and daughters help to rule the After. I am not sure what El wishes you to do, exactly, yet. But he has granted you a name and guardians.”
“I don’t need guardians,” Wren said.
“Nonetheless.” The dark man stretched his hand forward and pointed to the ground ahead of them. It cracked and shivered, and split wide. Two flames leapt from the fissure and took up existence in front of her. One was pure white fire, and the other was black fire.
“You are granted two, and a name,” Lily said.
“A name?” she gasped.
The two flames settled and took form before her eyes. “A name,” they said together. “And you may name us, mistress.”
She looked at Lily, who smiled back at her. “Just as I have a name, and my husband has a name. Our reality is changing, little star.”
“You are the balance struck,” the dark m
an said. “It is your job to keep the good and evil in all in careful portions. You are Temperance.”
“Temperance,” Wren said, trying the name on her tongue. “So I am both named and burdened with this?”
“You are,” Lily answered. “Name your guardians, but in your own time.” She folded Wren into her arms. “So loved, little star. This duty is not yours alone.”…
We fell away from each other and crashed to the ground. I sat up to find Haden staring at me. Her eyes were black and glowed from inside with heat I’d had never seen before…
…I had seen before…
“What the hell?” Paige gasped, running over to me as Vance dropped next to Haden.
So he was loyal to Haden? What the hell was that? And what the hell had I just seen?
I jumped up, and walked over to her, lifting her off the ground by the front of her shirt—though it was really only the end of her standing up. “What the hell was that? What the hell did I just see?”
“El’s Awakening,” she whispered. Her eyes had faded from black, but I could still see power burning in them.
“Paige, Vance, get out,” I snapped.
“But—” Paige started.
“I don’t—” Vance cut in.
Haden turned to him and barked a word that sounded like Klingon French, and he instantly bowed his head. Grabbing Paige’s arm, he dragged her, stuttering and protesting the whole time.
The door slammed.
“What the fuck is going on?” I snapped.
Haden growled at her, “I could ask you the same thing. What the hell did you just do to me?”
“I did nothing! You grabbed my hand!”
“You pulled a mem—” Haden’s words froze on her tongue. “You don’t know what you did?”
I slumped a little. “It’s a vision. I seem to cause them in people. At some point, nearly everyone around me has one triggered. I’ve always had them, but they are getting worse.”
“How you met Fischer…”
“I thought the insomnia was making me insane. It wasn’t. Fischer has helped me control the ones that aren’t attached to people. But if there’s high emotion and contact with someone, they’ll go off.”
There was a different emotion in Haden’s eyes this time. It was strange, but I wouldn’t have hesitated to call it love, a deep affection—like I had with Miriam and Laxmi. Another sister I never had.
“Lily,” I whispered, “I don’t know what the fuck any of this is, but right now, my daughter’s brother is in the custody of a pedophile who fully plans to turn him into a pet. I’m at the peak of emotion, and we need to find him.”
“We can’t go charging in,” Haden whispered. “We really, really can’t. They’ll kill him. He’s collateral damage to save their asses.” She looked at the door where we’d sent Paige and Vance. “We need Lincoln to keep up his charade in the circles. It’s going to ruin him, but he’s a good man under all that greed.”
“Vance is already worried about him, from what I can gather from the man.” I stared at the door.
“He is. And I don’t blame him.”
“What do we do to help him?”
She paused and stared at me, then whispered, “Rrichk mux’ flish al’zheron’ben beo dari luiv, quilikrozh.” She touched my forearm.
…The bed is big enough for as many as your heart holds, little star…
“I need to talk to Vance and Lincoln as soon as I can. I’m going to make a copy of these and take them with me.” Haden headed for the door. “Whatever you do, Wren, do not go after these men.” She shook her head and added, “Not alone. Not without the Versilange.”
She was out the door.
Lincoln
Three weeks later…
The chair was plush, the champagne was Cristal, the temperature perfect and the ambiance was hell.
This was my third auction, and the third of everything: location, brochure, time having to bullshit with these cretins. I couldn’t keep doing this. I was losing my entire soul to the absolute blackness that consumed these horrible, compassionless monsters.
I might have even been insulting monsters with that.
Tonight, though, was different. Miriam, Wren, and Fischer had all given me access to funds. Between their money and mine, I could go up to nearly fifty million dollars on a purchase.
Vance had conveyed I wanted to see the goods before purchase and not just in the catalog. I wanted to see them there. The plan was for me purchase two of the children, one boy, one girl. They needed to be the ones that were utterly desperate for rescue. The ones that were near the end of hope, but not yet broken.
The organizers were probably used to getting requests like mine—to see the goods. Once I produced evidence of several million in my bank account, they were happy to take me back to the cages.
Cages.
Actual fucking cages. The back wall was lined with bars, and behind those bars were one-way glass picture windows. That was the corridor I was allowed to walk down with Vance to examine the different lots. All of the rooms had the lot number in grease pencil on the window.
I started to realize they didn’t just get up and move the auction every time. They had auction houses set up in different locations and probably randomized them.
“So,” I said to the man walking next to us. “Do the auctions usually come this close together?”
“No,” he said. “But we had some backlog issues and some…supply issues to deal with. We have two more weeks and then we’ll back to our more randomized time frame.”
I nodded, looking into each of the rooms as we went. I stopped dead about halfway down the corridor, transfixed at the little prisoners.
The guide doubled back when he realized I wasn’t following anymore. “Ah, yes. The twins. Just about ready for their real training. A few more lessons and they will be completely at their owner’s commands.”
Lessons. Torture sessions.
I motioned to Vance, who nodded and circled the lot number in the catalogue. The guide raised an eyebrow.
“We think they would do better together,” the man said.
“I think they would as well.” I winked. I wanted to gouge my eye out immediately.
“Very good, Mister Castor.” He nodded agreeably. “Shall we finish the tour?”
Motioning him ahead of me, I made a quick gimme motion to Vance, and he passed me a box of Altoids. I needed to get the taste of horrendous ass out of my mouth. There were more rooms, but most of the kids tonight seemed to be further away from breaking than those two.
We were led through the passage back into the main area, and Vance and I had to mingle with these spawn of Satan. Though, again, I felt like I was insulting Satan.
I took another glass of Cristal as Vance quietly cleared his throat. I was well aware of what I was doing. Half of this would end up in a plant. I needed to not even be remotely buzzed for this situation.
I was buying two human lives.
The gavel tapped on the podium and everyone moved to their assigned seats. Vance and I had been given closer seats since I’d indicated I was looking to buy this time. It was a wide comfortable chair and even Vance had a seat next to me.
He sat perched on the edge like every other personal assistant in the place. There was no doubt that there were enough guns concealed in this room to take down a bull elephant. I’d even consented to a small six shooter in a shoulder holster and I was about as good with a gun as a drunk monkey.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to begin. Our catalogue is finally starting to run smaller, so we won’t be long this evening. Please remember to use your placards to bid.”
“Twins, right?” Vance asked.
I nodded once as the first victim was brought on stage. She wasn’t older than eight and she carved another part out of my heart. I didn’t know how much more my heart could give.
The twins were dead last. I had to sit through the auction of eighteen other young children before they broug
ht the brother and sister up.
“A treat tonight, but we won’t call it a BOGO,” the auctioneer said, and chuckled quietly.
The door opened and the two little ones were shoved up on the stage, naked, terrified, and clinging to each other.
They had the sweetest, saddest faces I had ever seen.
“Let’s begin the bidding at ten thousand.”
Vance put the placard up.
“Fifteen I’m bid, thank you. Anyone else?”
“Seventeen,” someone called.
“Seventeen, thank you.”
“Twenty,” someone called out.
“Twenty-five,” I stated.
“Thank you,” the auctioneer nodded to me.
“Thirty,” the same voice as twenty called out.
Fuck. A bidding war.
“Thirty-five.” I called back.
“Fifty.”
“Seventy-five.” Holy shit, that was a lot.
“One hundred,” he called back.
“One twenty-five,” I answered.
There was a pause.
“Bid stands at one hundred twenty-five thousand,” the auctioneer stated. “Do I have any more bids.”
The same voice again. “Two hundred.”
“Two hundred fifty,” I snapped.
Another pause, but before the auctioneer could call out the stated bid, he came back again. “Three hundred.”
“Three fifty,” I barked at him.
The silence hung in the air. Then, “Five hundred.”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I bit the bullet. “One million.”
There was collective gasp in the room. It was the most I’d heard bid in the auctions I’d been to, and it came out my own fucking mouth.
“Bid stands at one million.” The auctioneers voice was quiet. The silence dragged on for a few seconds, and finally he continued. “One million for Lot 33839 A and B. Going once, going twice…”
The gavel came down. “Sold. One million to Mister Castor. Thank you, sir. A generous bid on an excellent purchase.”
I swallowed my vomit back down, and offered a single nod.
As was protocol, all the auction winners stayed in their seats as everyone else walked out. In the order of the purchases, the winners were brought back to the cages and allowed to take possession of the children.
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