“I’m not sure what is going on here, but I promise you we’re leaving this place,” Anjali vowed. She hated the idea of women being rounded up and terrorized. She was going to make sure it never happened again.
The young woman didn’t reply as she moved toward the back of the barn.
“No one leaves,” another voice chuckled darkly. Her accent was different from the locals she had spoken to, but she couldn’t place it.
Turning, Anjali saw more than two dozen attractive women huddled together on the dirt floor inside the filthy barn. Their clothing was in the same state of ruin and their hair was matted. The woman with the weird accent was sitting in a corner by herself, and was wearing a long poncho that covered most of her curled up body.
“Juanita is right. We do not know of any who have escaped,” the young woman said calmly.
Anjali crossed her arms. “I won’t let any of those men hurt you. I swear that we will leave this place tonight,” she vowed.
“No,” the young woman said quickly, “They will kill you.”
“What is your name?” Anjali asked the kind woman.
“Maria,” she said softly.
“Don’t worry, Maria, I can take care of myself,” Anjali smiled cruelly. “I need to know what these men are doing. Please, tell me what goes on here and why you have been captured.” Looking at the terrified faces of the women, she hoped that they could explain what was happening.
Maria stared at her as if she were crazy, but Anjali winked at her.
A woman named Nina spoke up and told her about her time in the barn. She explained that the men holding them captive were led by Santiago, the asshole who liked to make women scream. Nina had overheard some of the guards talking and found that they were being sold to someone. There had been other women in the barn when she first arrived, but she didn’t know where they had been taken. New women came in every day from different towns, having been taken from the streets at night. There were at least ten men who abducted the women at night and lived on the compound to keep them from escaping.
Another woman named Lucilla had also been taken from Santa Blanca and had been tricked by the same young man who had warned Anjali. The man’s name was Manuel and she too had trusted him. She had followed him to what she thought was a safe place to wait for her father to pick her up after work at a meat market. Unfortunately, he hadn’t given her the same warning before the men with the van grabbed her.
Maria spoke up. “I overheard Santiago saying that someone was coming on Sunday around 3:00 AM to take some of us to a new location.”
Anjali smiled when she remember that today was Sunday. All she had to do was gather as much intel on what was happening and kick in some teeth when the men arrived.
“I don’t expect any of you to fight alongside me. I want you to remain hidden until it’s safe. Let me deal with these creeps. Do you understand?”
The women nodded their heads, except for Maria. “I want to fight,” Maria said confidently.
Anjali shook her head. “You said that the men were armed and I don’t want you to get hurt. Let me handle this.”
Maria shrugged and leaned against a post holding up the loft above them. She clearly wasn’t confident in Anjali’s ability to escape.
“I need everyone to huddle together against the far wall and stay out of sight. Keep low, in case they start shooting. I promise that I will do everything I can to help you,” Anjali said as she motioned for the women to move into the corner.
“You will not succeed,” Juanita warned. Maria shot her a dirty look.
Anjali ignored her and smiled at the others to show that she wasn’t deterred by Juanita’s cynicism.
Checking her X-Men watch again, Anjali saw that it was almost 3:00 AM. She pensively stared at Maria, who was watching her closely. Anjali was afraid that the schedule would change and the men wouldn’t arrive. It was critical to hit both the men on the farm and the men coming to take some of the women since she didn’t know where they were being taken. She should have called for backup, but she didn’t want to scare the women by having her angels appear out of thin air, especially Balthazar and his intimidating demeanor and scarred face. Based on their stories, these women had certainly been through hell. They had been beaten and starved by the men to keep them submissive. Some of them had even been taken advantage of. Anjali had no tolerance for men like that and looked forward to torturing them in the Realm of Monsters.
The sound of a vehicle approaching calmed Anjali’s nerves. Whatever was going to happen, at least it would be dealt with tonight.
“I’m going outside to see what’s going on,” Anjali said to Maria.
Maria stepped in front of her. “You cannot go out there. The doors are locked,” she said.
“That’s not a problem for me,” Anjali smiled.
She disappeared from the room and reappeared on the other side of the barn wall. She crouched down in the shadow of the barn to see what was going on. The entire compound was lit up with spotlights positioned along a tall chain-link fence surrounding the entire area. To her left was a large farmhouse where a number of men were standing on the wooden porch with guns at the ready. She peered around the corner of the barn to watch the gate along a dirt road open to allow a small black cargo truck to enter. Two men with AK-47s, dressed in civilian clothing, closed the gates, and directed the truck toward the barn.
“Secure the women, Carlos!” Santiago yelled from the porch of the farmhouse. Now that she could see the asshole, she realized that he was nothing more than a short, fat tyrant, the kind who would easily break under torture. It wouldn’t be hard to make him talk.
A man started running toward the barn as the truck slowly drove down the long dirt driveway from the gates.
The guards from the farmhouse and the gate spread out and took up their posts around the compound. They stood at the ready but didn’t appear nervous.
The truck pulled up in front of the farmhouse and three men jumped out. The truck continued toward the barn as the three men approached Santiago to greet him.
“Rodrigo, you will be pleased. There are some beauties in there. Do you have my money?” Santiago called out to the three men from the truck.
“I always have your money. Let us get this over with. I don’t want any problems like last time,” Rodrigo said coldly.
Santiago’s bravado faltered at Rodrigo’s comment. He pulled up his belt as an excuse to look away.
“Your men broke the rules. I can’t help that. They should not have tried to take more of the women without paying for them,” Santiago said indifferently.
“I lost good men,” Rodrigo snapped.
Santiago shrugged. “They were stupid and paid the price. You made a bargain with the devil because of your lust. No one forced your hand.”
Rodrigo didn’t like his answer, but didn’t argue. He had sharp eyes and little patience for Santiago. He assessed the guards on the porch, one of whom was casually smoking, and motioned for his two men to move toward the barn. Rodrigo was tall and appeared to have military training based on the way he walked and carefully scanned the area. He reminded Anjali of how Calin assessed a situation. Santiago was different from him in the way he carried himself. Santiago was overconfident, but didn’t seem like he had as much training. His gun belt hung too low on his waist for a fast draw, something she had recently learned during her shooting lessons.
Watching Rodrigo hand over a large stack of money, Anjali wondered why Rodrigo and his mercenaries were paying a loser like Santiago to capture and watch over the women. She also wondered why everyone needed so much firepower. From what Anjali could tell, there was no one in town brave enough to rescue these women, yet the mercenaries looked like they were preparing for battle.
Running short on time, Anjali glanced around the compound and formulated her plan of attack. She took a deep breath and prepared herself.
Santiago’s man Carlos was unlocking the barn doors as Rodrigo and his men headed for t
he barn.
Anjali changed into her black dress and took a deep breath before disappearing. Reappearing in the middle of the dirt driveway leading to the farmhouse, she threw fireballs at each of the lights, until only the interior lights from the farmhouse were visible.
The men ducked and grabbed their weapons as each bulb popped. One of the skittish men fired into the night.
“Hold your fire!” Rodrigo yelled.
“Rodrigo, what is happening? It was quiet until you and your men showed up,” Santiago yelled, reaching for his gun.
Rodrigo looked back at his men crouching by the truck. “We were not followed. Someone must have been watching you,” he said, accusing Santiago of the breach in security.
Using her night vision, Anjali noticed that the men had gathered to guard the gates instead of spreading out to find the intruder. Rookie mistake. She threw multiple fireballs at the gate, sending the men diving out of the way. The guards from the farmhouse ran toward the gate, but Anjali threw down a wall of Hell Fire to cut them off. She threw another fireball at the back of the truck. The fire hit the fuel tank and the gas exploded. The force of the explosion tossed the truck into the air and flipped it until it crash-landed with the wheels up. The driver was knocked unconscious from the impact. One of Rodrigo’s men hiding behind the truck had been caught up in the explosion and was badly injured while Carlos was thrown into the barn door and knocked out.
Santiago didn’t know which way to run. He pulled out his revolver and aimed it in multiple directions, looking for someone to shoot.
Rodrigo had his gun in his hand and he was aiming at her general direction. He had determined her location based on the direction of the fireballs. He ran toward her, but she didn’t think he had spotted her yet.
Just as he saw her, she disappeared and reappeared directly behind him. She kicked the back of his knee and sent him crashing to the ground. Stomping on his hand, she relieved him of his weapon, popped the magazine out, and cleared the chamber, just as Calin had taught her. Rodrigo was already popping up to his feet, but she punched him in the nose. He grabbed his face and staggered backwards.
“Why are you taking these women?” she scowled.
“They belong to us now,” he said through his cupped hands.
Anjali’s skin prickled at his smarmy tone. He had bought half of the women and intended on keeping them.
“Who is Santiago and why is he keeping the other half of the women?” she asked.
“He is a means to an end, nothing more. The other women are not my problem,” he scowled as he removed his hands and wriggled his face around to see if anything was broken.
She had no idea what he was talking about, but she wasn’t able to question him further because he pulled a knife from his boot and swung it at her. She blocked his hand and punched him in the throat. He fell back on the ground and rolled around, trying to breathe. Kicking away the knife, she left him gasping for air in the dirt, but continued to ponder his strange statement.
Rodrigo’s remaining man saw her fighting his leader and ran toward her, but Santiago had started firing in her general direction. Rodrigo’s man dropped to the ground and covered his head.
She appeared next to Rodrigo’s man on the ground and stripped him of his weapons before he even saw her. When he tried to get to his feet, she shot him in both of his kneecaps. He screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his damaged knees.
“That’s what you get for buying women, asshole,” she sneered.
“Get her!” one of the guards from the gate yelled when he finally saw her.
Santiago jumped off the porch and ran toward her. “Surrender!” he yelled.
She turned and pointed her borrowed gun at Santiago. “Tell your men to surrender or I will kill them,” she shouted.
Santiago skidded to a halt. “We are under attack by a woman?” he laughed.
She shot him in the shoulder and watched the laughter die on his face. The men from the gate saw that Santiago was hit and ran toward her. The rest of Santiago’s men in the farmhouse heard the commotion and came running out of the house. Some of them had weapons, but the rest of them looked like they were civilians.
“Kill her!” Santiago shouted, groaning through the pain.
She threw out her hand and set the entire porch on fire. The men who were caught in the flames ran around, trying to extinguish the Hell Fire from their clothing to no avail.
The group running from the fence shielded their faces with their arms and stared in disbelief at the blazing farmhouse. They weren’t sure if they should follow Santiago’s orders to kill her or save their associates.
Two men stepped forward and began firing in her direction, but she was able to disappear before the bullets reached her. She aimed her gun and fired at the two men, who were terrible shots. She clipped one in the shoulder and the other she shot in the thigh. Both men stopped firing to tend to their wounds. The rest of the men ran to the porch, ignoring their orders, and attempted to put out the fire.
She walked over to Santiago and kicked him in the face with her platform thigh-high boots. “Men like you disgust me. These women were taken from their homes and their families and you tormented and hurt them. Where you are going, no amount of money will save you. Remember my face, because you will be seeing me again, and trust me, I’m going to make you suffer,” she said cruelly.
“You are nothing, no one. I serve someone greater than you,” he laughed.
She smiled sweetly. “You will find out who I am once you’re dead. Now, tell me why you are holding these women. Only half of them were bought by Rodrigo, what happens to the other half?” she asked, pushing her finger into his shoulder wound.
He screamed and cried, but refused to speak.
“I am a master of torture, Santiago. I will get the truth from you,” she smirked.
One of the guards near the gates braved the wall of fire and came to Santiago’s aid. He shot multiple times, but missed Anjali. She was forced to disappear and reappear behind the flaming truck. The heat from the fire made her feel shaky and weak, which was odd since she lived in the heat of Hell. Feeling a strange burning sensation in her side, she looked down to find blood. The last round of bullets must have hit their mark. A wave of dizziness overcame her and she shook her head to clear her vision. Annoyed that she had been shot, she tried to focus her thoughts. There were still enough men to prevent the women from escaping.
Mentally tallying how many men she believed were still able to fight, she decided which ones to take out first. She popped the magazine out of her borrowed gun and checked to see how many rounds were left. If she played her cards right, she might have enough rounds to disable the rest.
She flexed her hands when she realized that some of the dreaded numbness had returned. It seemed that she had overexerted herself. Moving her toes and fingers around, she felt them tense up as if her joints were locked in place. She shook out her shoulders and hoped that she had enough strength to finish off the last of the men.
Pushing through the throbbing pain in her side, she rolled out from behind the truck and aimed toward the middle of the compound, where she had last seen the guards. She stood up just in time to see her target dropping his gun and falling to the ground, grunting in pain. Looking around the compound, she saw that the remaining men were all writhing in pain, though she hadn’t done anything to them. Confused by the strange occurrence, she stepped out into the open and looked around. The gate was still locked and the men on the porch were still battling the Hell Fire. She had no idea who had defeated the last of the men.
She turned and confirmed that the barn was locked from the outside. Maria and the others were still safely inside, so they hadn’t been able to aid her.
A whizzing sound to her right made her jump. She looked around for the source of the noise when a sharp pain tore through her thigh causing her to lose muscle control in her leg. Balancing on the other leg, she saw a small throwing knife sticking out of her thigh. She l
ooked around at the men on the ground, but none of them appeared to have thrown it.
Another whizzing sound was followed by more pain in the other leg. Unable to stand, she dropped to her knees.
“Show yourself!” she screamed in frustration.
The sound of someone breathing behind her came a second before a sudden pain in the back of her head made her eyelids heavy. She never felt the ground hitting her face as her body slumped over.
∞
Gunfire lit up the Caves of Darkness as the deafening sound reverberated off the walls.
“Spread out and find them,” Lucifer yelled.
Liam looked around the cave for a second time, angry that he had been summoned from his peaceful sleep to search for something that wasn’t his problem. He had no idea why the Nachtghuls were being asked to fight Lucifer’s battles.
Glancing over his shoulder, he watched Calin shoot at the feet of the hideous Shades, who were edging closer to their perimeter. The monsters were confused by the noise and the bullets spraying rocks at their feet. They backed up slightly, but they smelled flesh and were ready for dinner.
“Malcolm, watch the right side, and Crevan take the left side. Swords at the ready. The brothers are highly skilled with a blade,” Vaughn, the Höllenhund, yelled as he moved his torch through the din, searching for the intruders.
Liam was still learning the names and duties of the angels, but he respected Lucifer’s Lead Punisher, Malcolm and worked closely with Crevan, the Commander of the Guard, who made sure the prisoners in the Hall of Shadows didn’t escape.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Calin yelled over his shoulder as he eyed the Shades who were far too eager to attack.
“We aren’t looking for anything; we are listening for any kind of sound that will indicate their position. Listen for their breaths, their feet scuffling against the ground, or anything that would give away their position. You need to keep the gunfire to a minimum,” Vaughn explained.
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