The Black Merchant

by Shannon Reber

  “Yes, I do,” I said, waiting to hear what she’d spill out as I walked into the house.

  I was not a fan of new construction, though there was a charm about the place despite that. The charm was in the family pictures that were scattered all around, the shoes on a mat inside the door, the warm glow of a floor lamp that was lit even in the middle of the day.

  I looked around, trying to find something that would give me a clue about their family. The blond man wasn’t in any of the pictures though acted like he belonged right there. Something about him seemed familiar like I’d seen him somewhere. He’d said something about seeing me at Hope House, so that had to be it. I couldn’t care less that he didn’t approve of my interactions with Ian. Hadley was my priority.

  Mrs. Novak let out a weary sigh as she led me into a comfortable living room. She motioned for me to sit in a cushy chair across from her before she spoke. “Hadley has always had trouble fitting in. I have never liked Esther though she has been a good friend.” She took in a shuddering breath. “I’m starting to think we should call the police. I thought at first that Hadley was acting out again. Now . . . she wouldn’t have run away. Not when Esther was missing.”

  My heart rate increased as I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “I honestly think you should call the police. The more people that are looking into it, the better.” And if the cops are involved, I can see what they’re doing since I’m in their system.

  Mrs. Novak sniffed and tipped her head to the side as she pulled a fresh tissue from a box next to her. “What do you need to know?” she asked, her voice thick with unshed tears.

  “Anything you can tell me. Her habits will help but anything else as well. I know she has allergies. Can you tell me how long her inhaler will last?”

  She sniffled and hung her head a little. “Hadley started using a new kind of inhaler. I . . . don’t know anything about it. She always has an EpiPen with her . . . or she always did before.”

  I took out my phone and made a note of the EpiPen, not sure if there would be anything I could do with that information. “What is she allergic to, Mrs. Novak?” I asked, my phone set to record when she spoke.

  “Dust, mold, animal dander . . . birds are the worse.” She sat still for a moment, her body bowed in fear. “This is my fault. I should have paid more attention. I shouldn’t have sent her to Hope House at all. I thought it would help her. I thought she . . . now she’s gone. If anything happens to her—”

  I stood and walked over to her, taking yet another tissue from the box and handing it to her. “Mrs. Novak, we don’t know what’s going on. You cannot blame yourself. Guilt won't help. All it does is make you feel bad. Hope House is a good place that’s meant to help kids. I can’t say if you were right or wrong to send your daughter there. All I can say is that I’m going to find her. I promise you that.”

  The blond guy sat down next to Mrs. Novak and gave her another hug. “Hadley’s probably run off to try and prove a point. She wants you to feel bad for sending her away. She’s punishing you. Don’t play into it. She’ll come home on her own when she gets hungry or cold.”

  “You’re right, Kevin. I know you’re right. But it’s hard to watch my girl go through this.”

  I folded my arms and scowled at the guy. “Who are you?” I asked, irritated by him for some reason.

  Mrs. Novak wiped at her eyes one last time before she spoke. “This is Kevin Marchand. He’s a family friend,” she said, her voice still shaky from all the tears.

  I put that away in the back of my mind to look up later and turned my attention to Hadley’s mom. “Mrs. Novak, I honestly believe that calling the police is the best idea. If you report Hadley as missing and get people looking for her, it will be a lot easier to find her.”

  “This has nothing to do with you,” Kevin said in a sharp tone as he rubbed his hand up and down Mrs. Novak’s arm.

  I shook my head adamantly. “All I know about Hadley is rumors I’ve heard and what I saw yesterday. It’s altogether possible this whole thing is only her jerking you around to pay you back for sending her away. Could you live with yourself if that wasn’t the truth? What if something really has happened? Wouldn’t you rather overreact and have your daughter home safe rather than to ignore her when something seems very wrong to me?” I demanded, my eyes boring into Mrs. Novak’s.

  Kevin rose and made an imperious motion toward the door. “I think it’s time for you to leave. Now,” he ordered.

  I pulled one of Erkens’ business cards out of a little case in my pocket and set it down next to the tissue box. “Mrs. Novak, I think you’re endangering your daughter by not calling the police. Please, call them,” I said and walked out before anyone could say a word.

  EIGHT

  Hadley Novak blinked, amazed as her eyes began to clear. She had thought . . . she wasn’t sure what she had thought. What she saw made no sense. She and Esther were in a large cage with thick, iron bars, five other girls huddled against the wall with them.

  The cell was large enough for them to move around at least a little, with a small privacy screen to hide a toilet at one end. It was a place that looked like it had come out of a creepy movie. Hadley nearly expected to spot a surly, Nazi guard coming in to throw their food at the wall rather than allowing them to eat.

  Another girl sat in a different cage next to theirs, chains holding her wrists to the walls. Hadley covered her mouth as a surprised squeak escaped her. That girl wasn’t a girl at all. She had shimmery, gossamer wings and a human shaped body. That creature was NOT human. She couldn’t see specifically what it was, though that thing’s skin was a shimmery white. It was both the most beautiful and frightening thing she had ever seen in her life.

  Hadley looked at the other girls that were in the same cage she and Esther were in, relieved to see no chains on them. She didn’t know why that creature was in a different cell or why she was shackled. She assumed that meant the thing was dangerous.

  “Hey,” she called, her voice a little raspy from all the allergens around her.

  The creature turned its head to look at her and Hadley’s blood pressure rose. Beautiful was the most profound understatement that had ever been made. It was breathtaking.

  Hadley turned her lips up in a quavering smile. “Are you okay?” she asked, trying to clear the nastiness from her throat.

  The winged woman stared at her in return, clearly as fascinated by her as she was by it. “I am well, human. Are you?” she asked, her voice sounding far more like a girl her age than the woman she had thought.

  Hadley gave a wry, unamused chuckle. “This is about par for the course in my world. I often find myself in a cage with a bunch of other girls and a . . . um . . . what are you?”

  “I am a Valkyrie.”

  “Oh,” she said and shrugged. “I’m an albino. Nice to meet you.”

  The Valkyrie gave a small, seated bow. “I am Aldora. I give you my oath when my sisters find me, I will be certain you are freed and that the demon who marked us is taken to the fiery pit.”

  Hadley shot her a wide smile. “I’m Hadley and I think you just passed Esther in the best friend rankings. Sorry, Fester,” she said in a cheerful tone that did not match the circumstances they were in.

  Esther’s lips quirked up in a small smile, though she didn’t respond.

  Hadley turned to look at her friend, startled by the way she looked. Esther had been missing for close to a week. Hadley had unconsciously expected to find that her friend was a mess, unwashed, unfed, wearing the same clothes as the last time they’d seen each other. That wasn’t the case at all.

  Esther wore an off the shoulder black top and what looked like yoga pants, something unmistakably sexy about her appearance. That was when she noticed . . . she wore the same thing. All of them did.

  Her skin crawled. What was going on? That was when voices filled the air around them. They were male voices, one of them recognizable to her immediately.

  Not so long befor
e, she had thought Kevin’s voice was the best thing about him. Right then, it made her want to vomit. He was a monster and her family had no idea.

  The voices grew closer until a small group of suited men came clear to her. They stood talking quietly together as another man stepped closer to their cage.

  The man who stepped closer looked like he had been taken out of the pages of a magazine. She couldn’t see anything particular about him since he was still several feet away from her though what she could see was perfection.

  “Incubus,” Aldora hissed, her voice holding the kind of revulsion Hadley had never heard in her life.

  He didn’t acknowledge the fact she’d spoken at all. He simply snapped his fingers as though to beckon a dog forward. “Open the cage so I can see them more clearly,” he commanded.

  Kevin rushed forward and unlocked the gate. “They’re all fine specimens, between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. No one will miss any of them,” he said with a sycophantic bow to the incubus.

  Hadley’s heart sank. Kevin was right. No one would miss her. Esther was the only one who would even notice if she was gone. No. That wasn’t true. She had spoken to Madison Meyer. Madison HAD to figure it out. Their lives depended on it.

  The incubus stepped into the cell and walked down the row, looking at each girl as though she was . . . well, his dinner.

  Hadley didn’t know much about incubus’. From what she’d seen on TV they fed off the sexual energy of their partner. What did that mean? Could that mean Kevin was some kind of black market, sex-trade dealer?

  That creature stopped in front of Hadley, his brows raised high. “You are not the typical offering,” he said as he crouched down as though to get a closer look at her.

  Hadley cocked her head and spit in his face. “You are so right. I’m unique,” she said, braced for what he would do to her.

  The incubus surprised her by laughing as he wiped her spit from his face. “Unique indeed. Also stupid.” All of a sudden, a pair of red, scaly wings emerged from his back. His face went from the swoon-worthy male model to something reptilian.

  He was close enough that Hadley could make out the fact he looked like a gargoyle, with serpentine eyes. It appeared the beautiful man was nothing more than an illusion to hide the creature’s true repulsiveness.

  That creature took hold of Hadley’s hair and pulled her forward. “You will learn to do as you are told, child,” it hissed, its tongue flicking out to touch her cheek.

  “Orphius, you know the rules. Don’t touch the merchandise unless you plan to buy it,” Kevin said from the door of the cage.

  The creature smiled as it stood straight, its face returning to that beautiful illusion as it motioned to Hadley. “Hold that one for me. I will buy it next time,” Orphius hissed like a snake as he made another motion to Aldora. “I will take that one today. I have never tasted Valkyrie before.” He stepped out of the cage and looked at Hadley. “I will come for you soon, my white tiger. I will break you until there is nothing left of you other than a pathetic kitten that I will step on.”

  Esther let out a shriek. “You will never touch her, you vile pig! I will kill you before I’ll let you lay a single one of your obscene fingers on her!”

  Orphius threw back his head and laughed. “Hold that one as well. I will break them both . . . slowly.” And he turned to walk away.

  The other men wandered closer, each of them pointing out one of the girls. It was the most degrading thing Hadley had ever seen. It was like those men didn’t even see them as human beings.

  One of the girls screamed as Kevin hauled her out of the cage, fighting to be free. He didn’t even react to her screams. He simply wrapped a gag around her mouth and bound her hands and feet.

  Hadley and Esther both jumped to their feet, their voices even louder than the other girl. Hadley was desperate. She had to stop him. He had to listen to her.

  When the girl had been dragged away, Kevin walked over to the cage door with his arms folded. “You asked for this,” he told Hadley, his eyes narrowed. “You threw yourself at me. If you hadn’t, I never would have touched you.”

  Esther scoffed. “Oh, you are so right, Kevin. A seventeen-year-old girl is responsible for you being a sex-trafficker. It’s all Hadley’s fault. You are entirely blameless,” she snarled, sarcasm dripping from her tone.

  Kevin tipped his head in an imperious pose. “I’m doing my job. Everybody’s got to make a living. You and your little friend here would be perfectly free to live your miserable little lives if Hadley wasn’t so desperate for attention. So you have no one to blame but yourselves for your predicament.”

  “Blame ourselves for you kidnapping us, selling us to some monster?”

  He turned and started walking away, glancing over his shoulder as he went. “Valkyrie, if I have to sedate you, I will. The more you are sedated the more difficult it is to regain your sight, so I’d suggest you be a good girl and climb into the truck.” He pulled a remote from his pocket, pointing it at the wall in her cage.

  A beep sounded out and the cuffs around her wrists released. Aldora stayed where she was, her crystalline eyes blazing. “My sisters will find you, human. When they do, pray that they give you a swift death. They are not inclined to show mercy when they are angered.”

  Kevin didn’t appear to have even heard her. He simply turned and walked toward what looked like a refrigerator truck that had been parked not far away.

  Aldora looked over at Hadley and Esther, a tear cascading down her cheek. “We will meet again,” she promised and got regally to her feet as the truck was pulled up to her cage.

  NINE

  The rest of my day consisted of mentally kneecapping everybody I had spoken to that day. It was like every person had given up on two girls who so obviously needed somebody to care about them. I refused to give up.

  The trouble was, I was exhausted and Erkens had insisted I go home. I had tried to refuse. He hadn’t let me. There was so much that could be done still. Going home felt like giving up. I hated that.

  It surprised me as I pulled into my driveway to find Serena getting out of her car. We didn’t usually have similar schedules. I wondered if she’d gotten a new job. Maybe I should ask.

  I fiddled with my keys as I got out of the car. I didn’t know if she was even ready to talk to me. The thing was, it was possible I wouldn’t be around too much longer. Maybe I should say something. Or maybe that would make things harder if that demon thing got me.

  She fiddled with her keys as well. She didn’t run away, so that was a change. Did that mean she was ready to talk to me?

  I stopped next to her and decided that Spencer was right. Serena and I were friends. I had to make things right between us.

  “He wasn’t the guy you thought he—”

  “I wanted to tell you but—”

  We both started to speak at the same time. My eyes widened a little, eager to hear anything she had to say. I motioned for her to continue, my heart lodged in my throat.

  Serena swallowed hard. “Dylan scared me. I thought at first it was the bad boy thing. He would get this look in his eyes sometimes like he had this darkness inside him.” She hung her head. “I wanted to talk to you about it but he was Ian’s friend. It felt wrong,” she finished, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

  I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. “Serena, I’m so sorry.”

  All of a sudden, she wrapped her arms around me in return and hugged me like she might never let go. And a huge weight eased off my shoulders. My friend had returned. I didn’t feel so alone. Thank God.

  I pulled away after a minute and looked even more closely at her. “Serena, is there something going on? This doesn’t look like you.” I motioned to her torn jeans and ratty hoodie.

  She shrugged and turned her eyes away from me. “I . . . I might be going crazy,” she blurted out, her shoulders hunched even more.

  I motioned over my shoulder toward my car. “Serena, I’ve got dibs on all the
crazy in the house. Come on. I started volunteering at Hope House last night. I bet you’d like it. We can talk on the way.”

  She hesitated for a bit before she took a step toward the car. “I’d like that,” she said, not quite looking like the Serena she had been a couple of weeks before, though far closer than she had been.

  I turned the radio down as she got in, not sure what to make of her comment. I had thought I was crazy when Emma had begun appearing before me. Could it be something like that? Could Serena have seen something of the paranormal world?

  She glanced at me as I pulled out of the driveway, her dark eyes full of sorrow as she looked at me. Serena’s mocha toned skin and bleached hair made her one of the most striking girls I’d ever seen. Even in her mussy clothes, without a spec of makeup, she was still gorgeous.

  “You’re going to think I’m nuts if I tell you,” she said quietly, her eyes fixed on her hands as she clenched and unclenched them in her lap.

  “You’d be surprised the things I’d believe. Come on, Serena. Just tell me.”

  She flicked her eyes toward me, turning them down again as she wrung her hands. “I’ve seen Dylan,” she breathed, glancing over her shoulder like she thought he would appear in the back seat or something.

  I groaned inwardly. A ghost. On top of everything else, a ghost had to show up.

  I glanced over at her and swallowed hard. “No, Serena. I do not think you’re crazy. I believe in the paranormal world. If Dylan’s ghost is around you, I promise you, I will find it.” Or I’d ask Spencer to find it. Whichever.

  “Ghosts don’t exist. It’s all fiction.”

  That was what I had thought not so long before. Looked like it was time to fill Serena in. Hopefully, she wouldn’t decide I was nuts and run for the hills.

  So I spilled out the truth. I told her about Emma, about Erkens, about what had happened on the day Dylan died. I told her all of it. When it was all spilled out, I held my breath and waited.

  Serena gaped at me. “This is crazy,” she whispered, not in an accusing way but a ‘holy error code’ way.