by Skye Jones
I’d fallen for his lies, his roguish charm, and even led my parents here to this lair of theirs. How could I have been so stupid as to trust them? A man who kidnapped me, a doctor who bagged and tagged innocent girls and sent them on their way to fates worse than death. Ben, a mutant of a creature, and a vampire. An undead creation who probably didn’t feel at all, despite putting on a good act. Rage filled me and replaced my sorrow, and it felt good. The anger gave me energy I sorely needed because I had to get out of there.
I had to get my parents out too.
But to go where? Then it struck me, the Ravens. Yes, they might be evil people traffickers, but I knew them, and Simon was there. He was high up in their little hierarchy now, translating for them. If I’d been alone, I’d have been more fearful, but Simon craved our parents’ affection and approval, and he’d go to great lengths to protect me in front of Dad. It bought me time while I made better plans.
A commotion downstairs had me rushing to the window and looking out. A huge armored vehicle had pulled up to the house. Six muscular men climbed out of it and glanced up at the building. I ducked back behind the window, but peeked out again in time to see a woman step out. She was tall, brunette, gorgeous. The bitch I’d seen in Jackson’s thoughts.
Fuck.
Unsure what to do, I did nothing. I stayed in my room and hid like the little coward I was. Eventually, after a long time when I got more and more wound up, until my stomach hurt it had so many knots in it, my name echoed as someone shouted at me from the hallway downstairs.
Shit. Should I go? Or stay up here?
A pounding at the door answered the question for me.
I opened it to see Jackson, scowling, angry. I hated him, absolutely hated him. I scowled right back.
“What,” I snapped.
“You need to come downstairs.” He stepped back and indicated for me to follow him.
“Why?” This was it, the moment he was going to hand me over to her.
“I need you to tell Sienna you’re happy here, treated well, then I can send her the fuck on her way; meddling bitch.”
His words confused me, but they made me realize I had been right in my earlier assessment that perhaps he’d somehow changed his mind. To what end though, who knew. Perhaps he wanted me for even more nefarious schemes?
He must have thought I was an idiot, and why not, I’d swallowed every lie he’d tossed my way.
“Okay,” I said with a forced smile.
“What’s up with you?” He seemed genuinely confused, which meant he didn’t know I’d been in his head. This gave me an advantage, for he couldn’t read my mind without alerting me, but I could get into his incognito.
“Nothing, I’m tired is all.”
He shot me a doubting look but didn’t push it.
As we headed down the stairs, I stopped for a moment when I saw one of the men who had got out of the vehicle with Sienna holding a weapon to Doc’s head.
So the bastards were all falling out, were they? Gave me a tiny advantage at least.
“She’s here,” Jackson said. “See? I haven’t let her get away, or traded her, or any of the other crap you’re accusing me of. Ask her if she’s okay and then go. Trust me, you do not want to do this.”
Sienna looked at me and gave me a soft smile. “Hi there, Milly. You’re more beautiful than Jackson said. You’re also more important than you can ever know.”
“Cut the shit. Ask her if she’s okay and then fucking leave. I only brought her down here as a courtesy; then you can go back to your superiors and say you’ve seen her. We go back a long way, Sienna, but you come into my home and hold a gun to one of my men’s heads, and you forfeit that history in our dealings going forward.”
She gave Jackson a curt nod. “As you wish.” Then she turned her beautiful face to me and smiled again. It was warm, seemed genuine. But this woman had been willing to sell me to a sick bunch of depraved sadists, along with Jackson. Clearly things weren’t good between them now, but what was the truth? They were probably all in it for themselves, for what they could get… out of me.
Suddenly wanting to see if I could do the mind reading thing on demand, I focused on her. On her pretty features, her kind smile. I tried to force my way into her brain, but nothing. Then I tried to desperately find out what she wanted, wondered what she thought, but again, nothing. I stopped for a moment, because maybe I was trying too hard. Both times it had happened with Doc and Jackson, I had been curious but not desperate.
I did the same thing I had done with the men. I remained calm and thought about Sienna, her life, where she lived, who her friends were, and what she liked, and then it happened. I was in her head.
She was thinking about polishing her toenails with a pink varnish she had acquired. Wow, talk about mundane at a time like this. Then I poked some more, ventured farther in. I didn’t experience any Resistance, which made me hopeful she didn’t know I was there.
As I pushed at her thoughts and memories, I saw a flash of Jackson and chased after it. Now I knew not to trust these men. I made sure to keep my reactions locked down, which was a damn hard job.
I saw her begging with Jackson not to give me to those men.
Crap, Sienna wasn’t the bad one in this? Jackson was?
It got worse and worse.
She told him they would do unbearable things to me and as a fellow woman, she couldn’t bear it. He laughed and told her to get a grip, I was expendable.
She said there were many other ways I could help the Resistance, and he needed to let me go, but he refused. She called him a control freak, said he’d always needed to be the one making the decisions, couldn’t stand it that she, a woman, was in charge.
“Are you okay here, Milly?” Her voice shocked me, cutting off my concentration and throwing me out of her thoughts.
“Yes,” I answered, but I said it with no conviction.
Jackson, Alex, and Doc stared at me, but I didn’t give a damn about them anymore. Or at least, I tried hard not to.
“Milly, if you’re not happy here, you can come with us. You only have to say.” Her smile was warm, kind even.
Three of the men with her came to stand near me. They surrounded me, and Jackson gave a low rumbling growl.
“Do you want to come with me, Milly?” she asked again. “I can keep you and your parents safe. Secure.”
“If I sleep with people for you in exchange for information,” I said with a snort.
“No, that’s not on the cards anymore. We have a much better use of your talents.”
“What?” I asked, intrigued.
“We have a prisoner, one who knows a lot of information. Only, he’s not talking, and you can get inside his head. We will ask him questions, he’ll refuse to tell us, but his brain will go there because that’s human nature. You’ll get inside his head and tell us what he knows.”
“I’m still not trained,” I told her truthfully.
“All of which is irrelevant because she isn’t going with you,” Jackson added.
“Yes, I am,” I told him. “If I can help by reading the mind of this man, then you have to let me go. I’ll be back later.”
“You can’t trust her,” he yelled, pointing at Sienna, and I had to admit the man could act. He seemed genuinely upset. “You’re not leaving.”
“You told me, only the other day, I could leave if I wished.”
“I lied,” he snapped.
“Seems to be a habit of yours,” I shot back.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Thanks for letting me know about the second blood test and the fertility issue, you fucker.” I let out the one thing I was willing to let him know I had sensed.
He flinched, but didn’t deny it. “I was going to tell you, I didn’t know how. But… how do you know?” He was confused, on the back foot and I hoped he remembered how it felt because it was how he made me feel all the damn time.
“Ah, not telling. You’ll simply have
to guess, won’t you?” I sneered at him, but even in my anger, my heart broke and my eyes filled with tears I didn’t want him to see.
“Milly, you don’t know what you’re doing. Go to your room,” Alex said, all refined and shit.
“I won’t go to my room like a naughty child.”
“Milly, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I don’t think you should go with these people,” Mum said.
Oh, now she cared!
I scoffed. “Oh, I see. You hated these guys at first, but a few pretty dresses and hair dye and you’re bought and paid for. I never would have guessed you’d come so cheap.”
She gasped and brought a hand to her cheek. Drama queen.
“I bet you’ve fucked him, haven’t you?” I pointed at Jackson and her eyes widened.
“Of course not, Milly, what are you saying?”
One of the big men with Sienna had a wicked nasty blade tucked into the waistband of his black pants. I sidled closer to him as the foyer erupted into shouted arguments. Upon reaching him, I grabbed for the knife and pulled it free, then I aimed it at my own stomach.
Guns were drawn and pointed at me, and Jackson’s face went ash white as he watched me.
“Milly, what the fuck are you doing?” Alex demanded, his voice more roughly accented than I’d heard it before, and I began to wonder if his whole refined thing had been part of the act.
“I don’t want to stay with you, not for one more minute,” I spat as I stared at the men. “I fucking hate you, you’re all sick, people trafficking scum.”
“Milly what the hell?” Doc had a gun to his head and still managed to sound genuinely dismayed. Fuckers, the lot of them.
“You don’t let me go, Jackson, I swear, I’ll plunge this blade deep inside and end myself right now. You think I won’t do it?”
“No, you won’t do it,” he said all cocky confidence. “You have a life to live, people you love.”
I hated him, but still I felt something for him, which only made the hate and the rage burn brighter. I opened my mouth and lied. In the worst way, I lied. “I hate you. I hated every minute of my time here. You fucking kidnapped me, don’t you get that? Stockholm Syndrome isn’t a thing. I lied, I played you because I needed time, and I wanted you to get my parents for me. I loathe you and all you stand for, you fucking freaks.”
“You’re lying,” Alex said, sotto voice. “I know you enjoyed your time with us.”
“Maybe I’m the whore you all want to train me to be.” I raised my eyebrows at him and stared until he looked away with a confused shake of his head.
“Now, let me go.” I pushed the blade a small way in and gasped when pain hit me. Red seeped onto the front of my pastel pink t-shirt, shockingly bold against the pale fabric.
“Shit!” Doc looked frantically from me to Jackson and then Alex.
“Let her come with us. She can do this favor and then you can speak to her, see if she’ll come back to you,” Sienna told Jackson. “If she doesn’t want to, we’ll send her to a compound; one that hasn’t been compromised.”
“Mum, go and get Tils and Daddy and meet me outside. For once in your life don’t argue.”
She had tears in her eyes, but she did as I said, scurrying up the stairs and rushing along the landing.
“I’m going to find you, Milly. I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but I’m going to find you.” Jackson stared at me with an intensity I felt in my soul as he spoke.
“Good luck with that,” I said with a sneer. Then I walked out of the door, blade still pressed into my stomach.
Sienna and her men bundled me into the armored vehicle and after what seemed an eternity, Mum, Dad, and Tils joined us. I hadn’t packed anything, and neither it seemed had my parents.
Mum sat facing the tiny window and stared out, her jaw set. Dad gave me a disappointed look and then focused on shushing Tils who seemed on edge.
Sienna climbed in, bracketed by two of the hulking men, three more got in the front, and the other I had no clue, and then we were moving.
My heart ached as we journeyed down the long drive, but I told myself this was the only way. I had to get away from those men and their evil, but undeniably sexy, clutches.
I stared at the floor, feeling morose, when I suddenly had the world shifting on its axis sensation and was back in Sienna’s head.
What I saw there made no sense. This time she was arguing with Jackson who was stating that he wouldn’t let me be pimped out. He was the one arguing the plan had to change and he wouldn’t let me be harmed, and Sienna was the one saying I would do what they’d got me to do, no matter what.
The polar opposite of what I’d seen before.
In these recollections, she was the one wanting to give me to men to have their way with, and Jackson was protesting. Even more confusing, the men she discussed were not into pain or extreme sadism, but were ordinary men. Normal, she said, with a few basic kinks.
I didn’t understand. My head began to hurt. I put my hands either side of it and pressed hard.
“Don’t ruin your talent now, little Milly, or you’ll be of no use to me whatsoever.”
I looked up at Sienna and saw her smiling at me. A cold, disdainful smile, not the caring one of before.
“What the hell?” I frowned at her.
“Oh, yes, about that. Sorry, but what you saw back at the house, it was a lie. I made it up,” she admitted with a small laugh.
It made no sense, none of it. Even if she had made it up, then it didn’t explain what I’d seen in Jackson’s mind.
“I saw men hurting me. In Jackson’s mind, men were hurting me. Whipping me on a cross.”
“Well, I suppose, my precious little Milly, that may be because he recently found out that the men we want to give you to are a little more… demanding in their tastes than we’d led Jackson to believe. He’s angry about it, probably thinking about it a lot.”
“But… I saw you and him,” my voice shook. “You were kissing, and he was joking about training me in more ways than one.”
“Oh, yes.” She smiled. “Thanks for letting me remember that. Delightful afternoon it was. That was when Jackson first started dreaming about you and had figured out where you were. He had a connection to you, but at that point he was denying how strong. You see, he’s spent his life fighting to get revenge on those who altered him, and at first, he thought he could do anything to keep that revenge alive. As did I, but sadly he became more concerned about you, and saving your stupid behind.”
No, no, noooooo. I couldn’t have been wrong.
I couldn’t have walked away from the best thing ever to happen to me because this bitch had tricked me. It couldn’t be.
It was though. I’d messed up, and perhaps for the last time. I hadn’t trusted them, not truly, not deeply enough when it mattered. Now I was going to reap what I had sown.
“No, you’re lying now.” I leaned forward, gritting my teeth, refusing to face the horror of what I’d done. “How would you have known to lie in your head at the exact moment I was rummaging around in there?”
I sat back, triumphant. See? I’d prove she hadn’t duped me and made me leave the only place my family and I were safe.
“I felt you in there. I’ve been training with one of our other psychics, and she taught me how to sense when she was in my mind. It’s subtle, but if you focus you can feel it; that gentle echo of someone else in your head. I was thinking about something boring… nail polish, I think. Isn’t it odd the way your mind can flit about, even in heightened situations? Anyway, I was thinking about nail polish and then, there you were. I gave you what you needed to see to come with me. It’s simply perfect serendipity that Jackson was thinking things that gave you pause to doubt him. You know, they say a little training, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Certainly proved true for you, eh?”
I was so angry I wanted to slap her. My hand itched to make her cheek red raw with pain, but the massive and heavily armed men sat oppo
site my parents stopped me from doing so.
Mum and Dad were watching the whole exchange with wary and scared expressions.
“Why don’t you use your other tame psychics to do what you want with this man?” I asked Sienna, remembering that according to Jackson, the people he worked for now only needed me to seduce one man. Some older guy who wasn’t in to pain and shit anyway.
She laughed again, beautiful and hateful in equal measure. “There is no one man. I lied to Jackson in the hope he’d let us have you if he thought it was going to be one man instead of many. Sadly, he’s gone off the reservation, and I don’t think anything can bring him back to our cause now. And my other psychics are no good for what I want. One is male, one is a homely creature, and the other… she’s far too… worldly to interest the men I need you to help me with.”
“What makes you think I’ll do anything to help you?”
She leaned forward and stroked one red nailed hand through Tils soft fur, before grabbing her scruff. Poor Tils yelped. “Because Milly, my dear, I have your family.”
I shot my parents a terrified glance but received no comfort; the same fear I experienced was reflected back to me in their eyes. Mum’s were brimming with tears.
Not able to bear looking at them and seeing hope die in front of me, I turned to look at Tils and tried to access the calm she usually bestowed upon me, but even my dog looked scared.
We arrived at a sprawling, concrete building about an hour later. The place looked like a hospital or a laboratory. Clinical, cold, and unwelcoming. Sienna got out first, and my family and I were manhandled out of there by her goons.
They marched us into the building, and Mum, Dad, and Tils were taken away from me down a corridor.
I dropped to my knees at this final blow and begged Sienna to let them stay with me.
“Get up, child, you’ll see them again soon enough. We’re going to meet your trainer now, or one of them at least, and then you can have your family time, okay?”
She ran a hand over my hair and then knotted her fingers in it close to my scalp and pulled me up. I screamed and grabbed at her hand, but she only yanked harder.