Dark Refuge (10 page)

The next door was Mary and Mbali’s room. Mary still slept with the covers over her head—she hadn’t adjusted well to her abduction a year ago. The continual trauma had left her almost childlike in her willingness to please, hoping that if she behaved she’d get to go home. All Sissy knew about her was that Mary called a little town in Indiana home, and the way girls got used up in this city, she’d always thought it was a good bet she’d never make it back.

Except now she had a chance.

None of the men lived here. Just six attractive young women who rarely saw their neighbors. They were quiet, respectful, always dressed nicely. Never flashy, nothing that looked at all cheap, though they were definitely sexy. Acceptably sexy. Sissy doubted that anyone in the entire complex realized they were sex slaves, hired out to the guys with cash. Held here by armed men who obviously worked for someone, somewhere, with a lot of power. A lot of money, and the political strength to get away with something this terrible.

She went back to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and then returned to her room. Hopefully, Janine would be home soon. With any luck, today might be the day she escaped from hell. She called out to Annie, to Alex, Em and Gabe.
Will that help you? You’ve seen the entire apartment and all the girls except Janine. She’s due back in a couple of hours. That’s when all six of us should be here at the same time, but not for long. We’re rarely all here at once.

Gabe answered.
We’ll be ready, Sissy. Are you okay?

I am. I’m alone in my room and the door is shut. I think I’m going to try and shift. Can you show me how?

This time Annie answered.
I’ll do it. Concentrate on me, and I’ll show you exactly what to do.

She heard Em’s soft laughter.
Don’t forget to get naked first, or you’ll tear your clothes. And take off any jewelry, because it will fall off. Got it?

Got it.

Chapter 6

It was actually funny, when Sissy thought about it later, how simple it had been to shift. The hard part was not charging out into the other room and attacking the three bastards guarding them. Instead, she paced around the room for a while and then thought to stand in front of the mirrored closet doors.

This first sight of herself, standing tall and proud on four long legs, was utterly fascinating, outshining even her wildest dreams. She was absolutely beautiful. Beyond beautiful with her pale gray coat outlined in black, with what looked like hints of reddish brown across her snout and mixed into her dark ruff. Her color vision was altered in this form, but color didn’t matter. Not when she was so big and strong, when her teeth were sharp and white and her muscles rippling with power. She wagged her tail, a thick plume of dark hair along the top and almost pure white on the underside. It reminded her of a flag, but she realized it was also part of her voice, a means of communication. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.

She heard the front door open, heard Russo’s gravelly voice, and she’d shifted back to her human self before she had time to think about it. She was under the covers, feigning sleep, when Janine opened the door and entered the room.

Sissy opened her eyes and grimaced. Janine had a horrible bruise across the left side of her face. Scooting up in bed, she grabbed her cup of lukewarm coffee and took a swallow. “What happened? Russo didn’t . . . ?”

“No. It was the john. Ugly brute wanted to pass me around to his buddies, do some two on one. I said no, that he’d paid for one girl, one guy, and he got mad and hit me. Russo didn’t show up until four of the jerks fucked me, three at once with the john cheering. Turns out he got off on watching, not fucking. Russo beat the crap out of the guy and scared the rest of them off, but not before relieving them of some extra cash. Of course, I’ll never get any of it, but it was nice to see the bastards get their nuts kicked in. They won’t be screwing anyone for a while. Russo’s got a mean kick.”

“He’s still a bastard.” Sissy got out of bed and went into the bathroom, rinsed a washcloth in cold water and brought it back out. Folding it into a neat square, she said, “What do you want to bet he waited until the others had fucked you so he could get their money.”

“You’re probably right.” Janine was stripping out of her clothes. “I need a shower. Have to wash their stink off me.”

“Here. Put this on your eye first. That looks awful. Girl, we gotta get out of here.”

“How? And go where?” She sat on the bed and stared at Sissy. “I wasn’t like you, going to college, a chick with plans. I was living on the street, pullin’ tricks, barely making it. There’s nothing for me. Sometimes I wonder why I even try.”

“You try because there is something for you. Something better. Go get a shower. You’ll feel better. Any idea what the guys have planned for us today?”

Janine gazed at her out of one piercing blue eye. She held the cool cloth over the other half of her face. “Russo said he wants us all hanging around here for the day. There’s some big convention in town tonight and he’s got us all working, except for you. He said that rich dude that hired you last night wants you again tonight.” She laughed, a bitter, sad sound. “If he’s got any lonely friends, give ’em my name.”

“You got it. Get a shower. I’m already cleaned up, but I need to get dressed.”

Sissy watched as Janine closed the bathroom door behind her.
Gabe? All six of us are here. We’ll probably be together for at least a couple more hours, but come soon if you can. We’re rarely all here at the same time. There are four men—the three who were here earlier, and Russo’s back.

We’re already close. Wear something you can get out of fast in case you need to shift. Annie’s going to knock on the door—if anyone but you answers, she’s going to be looking for her old friend Sissy. I want you out in the front room because she’s going to recognize you and waltz on in, maybe flirt with one of the guys, hopefully get their attention long enough for the three of us to barge in and disarm them. The only weapons I saw were the rifle leaning against the door and the handgun tucked into Ralph’s waistband.

Russo might be carrying, but Ralph is definitely the scariest. Kamon and Jengo are good with martial arts and they’re fast. Be careful. A couple of the girls might still be asleep. Janine just got back—she’s got a bad bruise on her face. Her john hit her and then passed her around to his buddies.

Is she okay?

She’s tough. We all are. She’ll be fine.

We’re in the hallway. Go out to the front room.

I’m there.
“Hey, Russo. What happened to Janine? Her face is a mess.”

He sneered at her, looked her up and down as if he could see right through the robe she’d put back on. “The bitch was asking for it.”

Sissy stared at him for a long moment. “None of us asked for any of this.” Then she walked past him into the kitchen and filled her coffee cup. She heard someone knock on the door. Anyone coming to the door was a rarity, so it was perfectly natural for her to walk back into the living room.

Russo jerked his head toward the door. “See who that is and get rid of them.”

She set her coffee cup down and walked over to the door just as the doorbell rang.

“I said, get rid of them.” Russo stood right behind her.

Sissy opened the door, and Annie stood there with a bright smile on her face. She wore a sweater that looked like it had been glued to her body, and jeans that were just as snug.

When she saw Sissy, Annie squealed and jumped into her arms. “Sissy! I heard you might live here. Ohmygod, I haven’t seen you in like forever.” She stepped back and held on to Sissy’s arms. “I’ve missed you so much. You just disappeared. It was like you’d never existed!”

Before Sissy had a chance to answer, Russo shoved in front of her, separating the two of them. “Who’s your friend, Sissy?”

Annie wasn’t deterred. She reached around Russo and grabbed Annie’s hand, managing to get herself further inside while still standing in the doorway so the door couldn’t be closed.

Sissy held on to Annie and refused to turn her loose. “Annie and I grew up together.”

Annie flashed a big smile at Russo. “So, who’s the good-lookin’ hunk, Sissy? Is he the reason you’ve disappeared off the face of the earth?”

Russo immediately preened like an overstuffed rooster. Annie leaned out the open doorway, still holding Sissy’s hand. “Alex! Em, come see who I found.”

Kamon and Jengo had come to their feet. Ralph stayed in his chair, but he had his hand on his hip, much too close to the gun he carried. Grinning like an idiot, Sissy tried to block the men behind her as she warned the others.
Kamon and Jengo are right behind me. Ralph’s still in his chair by the door, but his hand is on the pistol in his belt holster.

Alex and Em barged through the open door like they owned the place. Alex grabbed Sissy up in a hug and twirled her around, and that’s when Sissy noticed the huge brown and gold wolf beside Em. He walked straight over to Ralph and sniffed his hand, wagging his tail as if he approved of the odd little man. Ralph actually smiled and reached out to pat the wolf’s head.

“That’s the biggest damned dog I ever saw.”

Gabe’s voice burst into Sissy’s head.
Sissy, on the count of three, shift and take out Russo. Try not to kill, but if it happens, it happens. Annie’s going for Jengo, Em and I’ve got Ralph and Alex will take Kamon. One, two, three, now!

She didn’t have time to think, to be afraid, to wonder if she could shift. She just did it, throwing off her robe and shifting within a single heartbeat. Gabe lunged for Ralph as Annie dove over Sissy’s wolf after Jengo. Alex spun past Russo, kicking high and fast, catching Kamon under the chin with one well-placed booted foot.

And Sissy did what she’d wanted to do for five long years. She went straight for Russo’s throat.

• • •

Gabe stood on Ralph’s chest and snarled. The man was so terrified he was babbling. Em had grabbed his sidearm and she stood guard over Jengo. Kamon was still unconscious. Alex was on the phone with the police. He paused talking long enough to tell them an ambulance was en route. The other women in the house had all come out into the living room, obviously confused and frightened by the shouts, the snarling and the blood.

Sissy stood over Russo, still in her wolf form. Gabe was so proud of her—she’d brought Russo down without killing him. He knew how hard it could be to control the wolf when everything was happening at Mach speed, but Sissy had done a perfect job. The man’s throat was bloodied but not badly enough to indicate permanent damage—his major blood vessels were still intact. From the stench in the room and the stain on the front of his pants, he’d obviously had a little issue with bladder control.

Annie walked over to Sissy and stroked her back. “You did a great job, Sissy. Congratulations. It’s not easy to bring a big man down without killing him.”

Sissy snarled, and both Annie and Emeline laughed. Em said, “I know you wanted to tear his throat out, but think of the mess.”

A spiky-haired blonde wrapped in an oversized robe broke away from the group and walked over to Em’s side. “Is that Sissy? That wolf?”

“It is. Beautiful, isn’t she?”

“How did she do it? How did she know?”

Em glanced at Gabe.

Tell her,
he said.
But don’t mention the mindspeech. Sissy, are you listening?
She turned her head and looked at Gabe.
Good. We try not to let anyone know we’re telepathic. That’s a Chanku secret, okay.

I understand.
Russo moved. She turned her attention back to the man, bared her teeth and snarled. He lay still.

“I saw Sissy downtown a couple of nights ago,” Em said. “We can sometimes recognize our own kind, and I suspected she was Chanku. She is. She’d actually suspected it herself, before she was kidnapped, and had taken the nutrients that helped her body make the change. We gave her more of the pills, and she made her first shift today.”

“How do you know if you’re, you know, like you?”

“I was born to Chanku parents, so I’ve always known, but if you don’t know, it usually starts with dreams of running in the forest, dreams so vivid that you can smell the scent of the trees, hear the owls at night, smell game in the forest, feel the crunch of pine needles beneath your feet as you run. We think it’s a genetic memory, something imprinted on our DNA. It’s powerful.”

Wide-eyed, Janine stared at her. “I know. I have dreams like that. They’re all that keep me sane.”

Em shot a quick glance at Gabe, and then another of the women spoke up.

“I have them, too.”

Dark-skinned with long, curly black hair, she was slender and tall and totally confident amid all the bodies on the floor. “My name’s Mbali. I’ve had those dreams since I was a little kid. Before my mother died, she used to say they were dreams the angels sent to keep us safe. Do they mean I can shift? Turn into a wolf like Sissy?”

Gabe shifted, standing tall and comfortably naked, though the women weren’t quite sure how to take him. Em handed the gun to him and stepped outside, where she grabbed his clothes. He gave the gun back and slipped into his jeans. “I hear the sirens so the police and ambulance should be here in a couple of minutes,” he said. “Mbali, we’ll talk later, but yes. Dreams are a good indicator. Ladies, this was meant as a rescue of all of you. What these men have done is obviously illegal—sexual slavery is a crime, and they’ve held you against your will and forced you into prostitution. Even if you were prostitutes before you were captured, slavery is wrong. The police are going to question you. I want all of you to know that we can offer you a safe place to stay and help you get your lives back on track. We’ll pay for transportation if there’s somewhere you want to go, and if there’s a chance that you might be Chanku, you can stay at our place and take the nutrients to see if you are indeed Chanku if that is what you wish. It’s entirely up to you.”