That wasn’t like me.
And although the tension of the situation had contributed, as had our mutual overflowing of emotion for Saorise and the need to find comfort somewhere, I was sure there was more to it than that. There was something about Connor. Though very different in nature, my connection with him had been as immediate as the one I had made with his sister all those years ago. The results had been stratospheric.
We lay now, side by side on the bed, holding hands in the silence, sharing in our sorrow over a lost friend and sister.
"We should go," said Connor, finally. “It’s been a couple hours now, and I think they’ve probably stopped searching by now. My brothers will be worried.”
"Agreed," I nodded.
Hastily, we dressed - still in silence but a comfortable one. As we reached the door of the practice, Connor stopped me and kissed me.
"What was that for?"
"I didn't want you to think it was just about... you know."
I nodded and managed a smile. "I didn't. And it wasn't for me either. Although, the 'you know' was pretty amazing."
"Best 'you know' I've ever had. Woman or Selkie.”
He turned to the door as I pondered the oddest compliment I had ever received. I'd never had to measure up to Selkies before but it was nice to know that I compared favorably.
He walked out first, scanning the area before coming back and calling me to join him.
As we walked back to Battery Park, I wondered if what had happened between us was ever likely to be repeated. I hoped so, partly because it being a one-off seemed to cheapen it. And also because it had been incredible and my legs were still wobbly.
"You took your time," said Patch, when we arrived back. "I'm guessing you found something."
Connor brought his two brothers up to speed on what had happened, explained that we had had to hide from our pursuers, and pointedly refrained from mentioning what we had done whilst hiding. He then went on to talk more about where Saorise was being held.
"It's what we feared; a Twisted Club."
From the looks on the faces of Patch and Declan, they knew exactly what he was talking about and it was bad.
“A Twisted Club?” I said, my guts churning as my brain supplied all sorts of possible meanings, each worse than the last.
"They have always been around in some form," Patch explained. "Used to be called freak shows, menageries - they've gone by many names over the centuries. Places where humans can come and look at magical creatures caged up, so they can laugh and gawp and throw peanuts at them. Of course, back in the day, our kind used to be locked up alongside those humans who didn't fit in; the deformed, the unusual - elephant men, bearded ladies etc. Now, it's become politically incorrect to showcase unfortunate humans, but underground Twisted Clubs still showcase fantastic creatures in secret. They're forced to do tricks, dance…” he cleared his throat and then pressed on, “or worse. They set up shop for a few months at a time and then move on, catering to only the richest and most depraved clientele."
"Freak shows,” I managed to mutter, nausea coating my insides like an oil slick. “It’s disgusting. So, let’s call the police. We can--”
“No way,” all three males snapped back in unison.
Patch held up a hand and sighed. “Look, even if people this wealthy weren’t above the law most times, the second authorities get a bead on our kind or those like us, we’re toast. First, it’s in the name of science, then, it’s in the name of god, then, it’s in the name of war. I can promise you, if Saorise is in danger now, she’ll be worse off and so will we all be if we let the police know. Trust us on this.”
I nodded slowly, saddened by what I knew was the truth of his words. Humans could fuck up just about anything if you let us.
“How do you think they caught Saorise?"
Patch looked at Connor impatiently. "Can I tell her now?"
Connor looked at me and nodded. I would have been pretty furious if he hadn't, all things considered.
"A Selkie's skin is more than their disguise," Patch explained. "If you steal our skin, then you, in essence, have control over us. Back in olden times, men used to steal the skins of Selkie women to force them into marriage."
"And the Selkie couldn't do anything to stop it?" I asked, aghast.
"Very little. To fight against that control takes an extremely strong Selkie."
Realization dawned over me. "Like Saorise."
Patch nodded. "She must’ve managed to escape and went to you. The reason she couldn't tell you where she had come from was because those who took her still had power over her. And the reason that there was no sign of a break-in at your apartment is likely because they only had to come to the door and tell her to open it. At that close proximity, she wouldn't have been able to refuse."
"I knew that the dream message to you was not what she was actually seeing because you saw a flipper," said Connor. "I knew that whoever had taken her would not have allowed her back her skin for long because once she was back inside it and regained her strength, it would be a bloody battle to get it from her again."
"Sending that message," Patch went on, "will have been an incredible effort for her – again, going against the will of her captors. I doubt she will be able to do it again. It may have taken a physical toll."
"But if she doesn't have her skin, then... what's her place in this show?" I asked. "Without that, surely she's just a girl."
"They would likely let her wear it long enough to put on a show under tight constraints and then take it away again. She would still be a sight to behold underwater the rest of the time," explained Patch. "Of course, we can't breathe underwater - nor can seals - but we swim with more speed and grace than any human."
"To a degree," chipped in Declan, "it's just about humans wanting to see something that looks like them but isn't. The fact that Saorise isn't human gives them license to treat a naked woman like an animal. And some of your kind get off on that."
Right now, I was ready to disown all of 'my kind'. The thought of Saorise in the hands of these terrible people made me sick to my stomach.
"I wish we could go and rescue her now."
"We all do," said Declan. And I noticed that, as we had been speaking, he had been clenching and unclenching his fists in impotent frustration. The toll this wait took on Saorise's twin was an extreme one. "The only good thing is that she’s worth far more alive than she is dead, and she’s new. They will want to give her some time to get used to her surroundings for risk of her dying in captivity, which is always a risk with magical types.”
"Twisted Clubs open at night," said Connor, decisively. "That's when they'll be busiest - when everyone will be watching. We'll never get her away by night. Four thirty AM or so is our best shot. After they've closed and anyone still left cleaning up will be exhausted after the night's work."
“Outside of business hours…I wish I’d waited. I just couldn’t bear the thought of not knowing.” Connor raked a hand over his jaw and shook his head.
"You do know that I'm coming with you, right?" I didn't ask if I was allowed to come, I just asked if they understood that it was happening one way or the other.
"I think we all sort of assumed," said Patch, with a curt nod.
"I can be useful."
"We expect it," said Connor. Just because we had been intimate did not mean that he would accept half measures when it came to helping Saorise, and that was fine with me.
"So, what now?"
Connor looked at his watch. It was early afternoon. "Get some food, try to get some sleep, if you can. We'll pick you up from your apartment at four AM."
I nodded, then chewed on my lower lip for a second.
"Look. I don't know where you guys are staying or how you sleep, but I've got space at mine if you'd like? We could order take out."
Chapter 8
We got Chinese from the same place that Saorise and I had used on her second night at mine, and it was hard for me not to think back t
o that night.
It had been such fun, so carefree. How on earth had Saorise managed to be in that happy frame of mind when her situation - knowing that people were actively hunting her - must have been weighing down on her. I liked to think that I had done a little to alleviate that stress, that spending time with me had helped her forget her worries, as much as that was possible, and be the carefree person whom she was by nature once again. That said, I also understood now why she had reacted with such fear when I had said, 'I'm never letting you go'. Even in a joking sentence, the idea of confinement must have cut her like a knife.
The four of us spent most of the afternoon talking through possible scenarios, and ways to get into the club and out in one piece with Saorise in tow. It became quickly apparent that there were far too many unknowns and it would require some recon, so we scoured the net for images of the place.
To my disgust, there were dozens of pictures hidden on the dark web of leering humans beside captive magical creatures, and although they were purported to be fakes, Saorise’s brothers assured me that they were very real.
We forced ourselves through the process and were able to get some good information on the layout of the building. Once we had a plan A, B, and C, we sat talking about anything but Saorise and watching bad TV until the weight of it all seemed to be too much, and we all separated to sleep as much as we could before the rigors of the day to come.
The three Selkie males made themselves comfortable in my living room. Declan was on the sofa - having won the toss - while Patch and Connor curled up in easy chairs with a blanket draped over them.
I dearly would have liked to suggest that Connor spend the night with me, but it would have been impossible to do that without letting on to the others what had happened between us - which I was not ready to do yet and nor, I thought, was Connor. Anyway, that would probably not have ended in either of us getting a lot of sleep. I had to keep my mind focused on what all this was about. But, equally, that was the thing I wanted to think about the least because I could not stop picturing Saorise in her aquatic prison, like a goldfish in a bowl.
I closed my bedroom door and went to lie awake in my bed, trying to sleep but finding the events of the day rampaging through my head. A hell of a lot had changed since yesterday. The existence of magic and the supernatural, which I would have scoffed at, had now become a part of my life. My best friend had turned out to be a mystical creature, was currently an exhibit in a freak show and I was going to rescue her along with three other mystical creatures. One of whom I had slept with. That was something to think on. On the one hand, I had had the best sex of my life, on the other, it had been with someone who I didn't really know. And, of course, he wasn't human.
Still; the best sex of my life. The memory of it still made me tingle in all the best possible places. I drifted off to sleep imagining Connor's strong arms around me.
I was woken what felt like a few minutes later, but was, in fact, hours later. Connor stood over me, gently shaking my shoulder.
"Still insist on coming?"
"You could have just gone without me if you didn't want me there."
He shrugged. "Yeah. But I reckon I'd never have heard the end of it."
"Damn right."
“And, honestly, she might be able to reach out to you.”
I got ready quickly, and in the living room found the guys ready to go.
"There's coffee in the pot," said Patch. "We helped ourselves, I hope you don't mind."
Perhaps the oddest thing about playing host to three supernatural creatures was that they were all so disturbingly normal. Nothing about them said 'supernatural'. Nothing about them shrieked the fact that, in the small rucksacks they all wore on their backs, they carried a seal skin, which enabled them to turn into an animal. They were just three guys having coffee in my living room.
"Muffin?" offered Patch, as I sat down. "I found them in the freezer and thawed them. I hope that’s all right."
I took a cinnamon swirl and sipped my coffee. However odd the lack of oddness was, it was also the most comforting thing about the situation. We were just four people having breakfast. There was no suggestion that we were about to embark on a commando raid of an underground club trading in supernatural creatures. Of course, all that would change soon enough, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the calm before the storm, rather than worrying about it.
Though it was a lot earlier than I would usually leave for work, the walk to the club was also almost frustrating in its normality. It was a route I walked five out of every seven days in my life. There was the shop where I would oftentimes stop to buy donuts for the other nurses to give them a morning treat. There was the florist where I might pick up something to brighten the reception desk. There was Stanley, the homeless man who I would give loose change to, or buy a sandwich for when I had the time - he was asleep now, but still there. It was all there, it was my walk to work, but today I was walking it for a very different purpose.
"Let’s run through it one more time,” I said as we walked.
"You and I are going to knock on the front door to get their attention while Patch and Declan kick in the back," Connor said, his face intense with concentration.
"What if they have guns?"
Patch laughed hollowly. "I don't think there's any 'what if?' about it. They will definitely be armed."
“Luckily, we’re stronger than the average human, and we can handle it,” Connor said.
They’d assured me of that the night before, and I didn’t doubt it, but I was still worried.
Declan nodded. "Saorise is depending on us."
And that was the problem. Taking time to formulate a better plan and get together weapons of our own was all very well and good, but it would take time. We had no way of knowing what her mental state was, and if her condition when she’d escaped the first time was any indication, she wasn’t handling it well. They’d likely kept her even more restrained to keep her from getting away again, and I shuddered to think how she was dealing.
It had been bad enough that we had had to wait the better part of a day, the brothers were willing to wait no longer. Perhaps it was foolhardy, but was there ever a good way to break into a cellar guarded by armed men? We could spend a few days planning better and still come up with nothing better than what we had now.
"Don't worry," said Connor, his voice now slightly softened. "We’re also fast. Just stay behind me. Once we're in, it will get progressively easier."
"How so?" I asked.
"We start smashing cages."
That was a good point. This wasn't a raid on a zoo housing animals who, when released, might just panic or eat each other, this was more like a prison break. The inmates, when released, would be on our side. Once we were in, the odds shifted significantly in our favor.
And what powers might those inmates have?
All the creatures in there were magical in some way. True, they had all been captured in the first place, but that did not mean that they were powerless. And when they were set free, I had a hunch they would be looking for some revenge.
It would be too much to say that I started to feel optimistic, but I started to feel better.
We split up and went our separate ways, me following Connor. He checked his watch as we approached the alley that led to the staircase down to the club.
"Declan and Patch should be in position now. Ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
I wanted to be here, but at the same time, I would have given anything to be somewhere else. I went for runs - did a half marathon the other year for charity - I hit the gym when I could, but I was no GI Jane, and I had never felt any less like GI Jane than I did at that moment.
"Let’s go, then."
For all my anxiety, I didn't hesitate. I followed Connor, running into the alley.
There was no guard at the top of the stairs as we entered - clearly, we had picked the right time to make our move. Connor checked his watch again then banged on the
door.
It swung open.
That seemed to make matters a lot easier but I could see the shock on Connor's face. He wasn't sure what this meant, and definitely wasn't assuming it to be a good thing.
"Stay close behind," he breathed. "And I mean behind."
Clearly, he was wondering if this was a trap. Could they have been expecting us? Had they guessed from yesterday that we might be back? Or, a horrifying thought, could they have found out that Saorise had sent me a message?
We crept in, our footsteps seeming unnaturally loud on the bare concrete floor. A left-hand turn led to another staircase, bare, unadorned and currently unlit. Connor flicked the light switch - we'd already blown any element of surprise by knocking and it would otherwise have been too dark to see. A single hanging bulb lit the stairwell.
I had expected something a bit more lavish and exotic, given the nature of the club, but perhaps the entrance was kept like this to fool any would-be trespassers. We crept on down, stair by stair till we reached the bottom, and another door. Still not a single sound had reached us, nothing to suggest that there was anyone or anything else in the building.
Could the main club be sound-proofed? That would make sense.
Connor pushed the next door, which swung open as easily as the first, and peered into the dimly lit room beyond. There were hints of habitation scattered across it - empty boxes, discarded bottles and the like - but other than that, the large basement room was as bare as the stairwell.
"Fuck all. They've done a runner."
I jumped out of my skin as Patch snarled, his voice coming from off to my right.
"Sorry," he said, raising a hand in apology. His voice was dour and his face, utterly despondent.
The three men and I stood in the middle of the bare room and looked about. We had come to a dead end in our search.
"Son of a bitch!" Connor punched the bare wall with his fist and the plaster cracked and crumbled.
"It's not your fault," said Patch, reading his brother well.
"It is. We should have gone yesterday, together. I should’ve come and gotten you when we got there and I suspected. We could’ve all gone. Instead, I gave them a heads up and then time to clear out. We should have gone straight away as a team."
Her Selkie Harem Page 6
