by Rachel Red
The man laughed. "Oh, come on, now. Surely you three have seen shape-shifting before, what with your husbands being shifter dragons and all. I wouldn't have guessed it something to scream or get white as sheets about." He took a step forward. "Now, I'm guessing time is of the essence here, so I'm going to circle you all in a magical lasso of sorts and spirit you away to my encampment where we're all going to have a bit of fun."
He leered at us.
Elizabeth grabbed mine and Julia's hands. "We're not going anywhere, Miles. You're not stupid. You know Victor will literally torture you to death if you even dare try to take us, and you know he and the other men are powerful enough to do it."
Miles gave her a crooked half-grin, his green eyes glittering. "Well...we'll see about that."
And with that, he extended a hand and shot a beam of silvery light from his index finger. The beam formed a sort of rope and coiled around me, Julia and Elizabeth.
He sneered at us, revealing yellowed, crooked teeth. "Say goodbye to your precious Stonebrook.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Miles began levitating with us rising with him. Julia screamed.
I turned to Elizabeth, shaking. "What do we do?"
"We stay calm and keep our wits about us. We'll survive this."
Just then, I caught a glimpse of a woman's face peeking out from the crack in the mountain wall, maybe some twenty or thirty feet below us.
I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Help! Get Victor! Get Michael and Sam!"
Julia and Elizabeth spotted the woman and they began shouting, too. The woman definitely saw us before pulling her face away.
Miles pointed at us, his dark green eyes glaring, and the magical silvery rope around Julia, Elizabeth and me tightened like a noose.
"Shut up, whores!"
He then closed his eyes and began chanting in a low mumble, and within seconds, he began zipping through the sky with lightning speed, pulling us behind him. The ground became a blur and I squeezed my eyes shut, thoroughly jarred and disoriented, afraid I was going to be sick. I didn't open them for several minutes when l I felt us slow down.
We were above an emerald green forest, beginning to descend. To get our attention, Miles yanked on the magical silvery tether. "You're entering an Oppressor camp now, whores, and you'll treat me and my men with absolute respect and obedience at all times. And if you don't, well, you'll soon learn how Oppressor men treat their whores. And I'm sure it's quite different from how you're treated by The Keepers."
Although Miles was of average height and size, he was well-muscled and I knew that between his physical strength and his magical abilities, he could more than make good on his threat.
We slowly descended through the trees and landed in an encampment in the middle of a clearing. Miles' magical silver tether around us disappeared. Near us, maybe a dozen Oppressors sat on logs encircling a burned out campfire with a kettle hanging on a hook above it. Numerous tents made from gray fabric dotted the area of the clearing behind them. All the Oppressors stood, and one of them, a tall, thin man with brick-red hair, took a few steps over to us, leering.
"Well, well. I see your plan worked, Miles."
Miles snorted. "Of course it did. Did you doubt it would? It's the rare whore that can resist helping an animal in distress, and I knew the Stonebrook whores would be no different."
Miles' voice was smooth and cultured; not at all how I imagined the leader of The Oppressors would sound. It almost made him seem more menacing.
He continued, glancing over at me. "It was this dumb blonde one here that fell for it. She just couldn't resist helping a poor, bloodied little rabbit. I must say...this new shifting power of mine sure is fun."
The red-haired man took a few more steps forward, the others behind him creeping closer as well. "Can we break them in right now?"
A stomachache I'd developed while being dragged through the sky intensified and a light sheen of perspiration broke out across my forehead. Elizabeth was pale. Julia looked absolutely petrified, her entire body visibly shaking.
Miles glanced from the three of us to the red-haired Oppressor. "No, we won't break them in right now, at least not immediately. I have a different plan in mind. One that will help us finally take down Victor. See, there was a whore who saw me take these three, and unfortunately, she ducked back inside before I could kill her with a spell. I'm sure she's telling The Keepers what has happened, and within a few minutes, they'll be attempting to charge . But they'll surely be frustrated since I put a spell around the land surrounding Stonebrook, which won't allow any Keepers to leave. The only flaw is that it only lasts for maybe an hour. But that's fine. I want Victor and whomever the hell else he brings here to come. Because when they do, I'll cast another spell around our encampment, preventing them from getting in. I, along with two of you, will step outside the force field here and tell Victor, Sam and Michael that we're ready. But during the fight is when the real fun will begin: because that's when those of you dozen who won’t be fighting with me will get to break in the whores."
His lizard-green eyes glinted as he turned from his men to the three of us before shifting his gaze back to his men. "And you'll break them in outside of the tents, in full view of everyone. Make them scream. This will distract the dragons that they'll be useless to fight or to save their women. And this will give us certain victory. We'll kill Victor and whomever else before we speed off to Cold Creek with our new whores, too fast for the rest of the dragons to catch us." Miles gave his men a crooked half-grin. "Now, how does that sound?"
A roaring cheer went up from his men, and he turned back to Julia, Elizabeth and me smiling.
"Well, this is all just turning out perfectly, isn't it? At first, weeks ago, I had a plan to kidnap a few of you whores to ensure your husbands would meet me in battle. But then, when it became clear that they would anyway, I decided I still wanted to kidnap a few of you, just to humiliate them. And then, I figured out how I could really humiliate them by raping their women right in front of them while we battled. So as you can see, whores, this is a win, win situation."
Suddenly angry about the name he'd been calling us over and over, I took a tiny step forward, balling my fists. "We're not whores. We're women. We're shifter dragon wives."
Miles lunged at me and slapped me across the face. Hard. "You'll speak only when you're spoken to." He spit at my feet. "Whore."
Stunned, I grabbed my stinging cheek with tears springing to my eyes.
Elizabeth immediately pulled me back, away from Miles, whispering. "Just stay quiet. Just hush. We just need to survive this until the men arrive."
Miles snorted. "Arrive to meet their deaths. And you, too, whore. You shut up, too, until you're asked a direct question. Which...I guess I just thought of one. Who do you whores each belong to? I'm so hoping that my suspicions are correct. I'm so hoping that when you were all shouting to the Stonebrook whore who saw me take you three, you were all shouting for her to get Victor, Sam and Michael not just because they're the strongest dragons, but because they're actually your husbands."
The pain in my cheek fading, and anger built once again, I decided I wasn't going to give Miles the satisfaction of knowing I was Victor's wife. Elizabeth, who stood staring straight ahead, her face a blank mask, seemed to be thinking the same thing. Julia, still shaking, and making the very faintest of whimpering sounds, looked too terrified to speak even if she wanted to.
After several seconds of silence, Miles snorted. "All right, then. Fine. There are other ways I can get you to reveal information. I have two whores here at the camp who can help us. And you'll have to become accustomed to indirect torture sooner or later anyway. You see, it's one of our favorite methods of torture at Cold Creek. So why not become familiar with it right now?"
A wave of nausea swept over me.
Victor looked in the direction of the tents and whistled. "Whore twenty-five! Whore ninety-eight! Out! Now!"
Instantly, two young women scurried out f
rom a tent and came over: one of them, a blonde, very petite, while the other, a dark-haired girl who was taller with caramel-colored skin. Both were very, very skinny. Both were clothed in dresses that were no more than thin, gray rags. And both of them seemed to stare at nothing, their eyes vacant, even though both of their gazes were on Miles.
He turned his focus from them to us. "Welcome to indirect torture. Let's see how long you can bear it before giving up your owners' names." Without shifting his gaze, he reached out a hand, grabbed one of the blonde girl's scrawny breasts, and began twisting it, squeezing. Then he looked directly at me. "Blonde Stonebrook whore. You first. Who is your owner?"
The petite blonde girl cringed in pain under Miles' hand. I didn't even wait a second before responding.
"Victor. Victor is my husband."
Miles grinned, showing his yellowed crooked teeth. "Excellent. Now, you two: Redheaded Stonebrook whore and brunette Stonebrook whore. Who are your husbands?"
Elizabeth answered immediately, followed by Julia. Miles gave the petite blonde girl's breast one final squeeze, making her cry out, before releasing her.
"Wonderful. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Julia, Elizabeth and I didn't respond. Miles continued.
"No, it wasn't. This is wonderful news. In fact, I can hardly believe my luck. You see, though I knew Lord Victor wouldn't be letting any whores outside as long as I'm near, I knew if I spent a little time lurking around Stonebrook in cute little hurt rabbit form, I might find one or two naughty little whores lurking somewhere. And to my incredible luck, the one I happened to spot first was none other than the whore of Lord Victor himself."
My anger threatened to boil over again, but I took a deep breath, willing it to remain in check.
Miles stepped closer to me, picked up a strand of my long blonde hair that had fallen loose from my messy bun, and examined it before letting it fall, his reptile-green eyes glittering. "Our dear Lord Victor chose well. Though I can't help but notice that he's of the bigger whore persuasion, which is maybe a bit unusual, but understandable to me, as I share that same persuasion myself. Although, I don't get to indulge in it, because in Cold Creek, food is often in short supply, and we tend not to waste a lot on our whores. So I don't get to indulge my fantasies of raping a whore with a good amount of something to hold on to. But that's about to change, isn't it? In fact, after you're broken in by my men today, I might change the policy set by my brother, that all whores are community property. I might make you my personal whore. At least for a while, until you get starved down to skinny like the rest. Now, how does that sound?"
I shuddered, imagining the scenario he'd described.
Miles threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, this is simply amazing. The whores who visibly shudder always turn out to be the very best ones to rape. Oh, yes, you'll be loads of fun. Not to mention how fun it will be to see the look on Victor's face in about an hour when he happens to catch a glimpse of you being broken in by a few of my men while he's fighting me. Oh...I feel like it's my birthday." Miles laughed again, the sound tapering off to a satisfied sigh. "But...business first, and I need to determine which two of my men I'm going to take into battle with me, and then we need to prepare. So right now, all whores into the tent. We'll call you out when it’s time. So run along, now. Chop, chop."
The petite blonde girl and the taller, dark-haired girl scampered away to the tent they'd come out of, but Julia, Elizabeth and I hesitated.
Miles looked at the two girls heading inside the tent, and then shifted his gaze to Julia, Elizabeth and me, his eyes narrowing. "The three of you would do well to follow their example. I and the other Oppressors expect immediate obedience at all times. So take yourselves in the tent. Now!"
The three of us began dashing over to the tent. Miles called out after us.
"And don't even dream about pulling anything! I'll be watching!"
Julia, Elizabeth and I stepped inside the tent and sat down on the grassy ground next to the two young women, who sat staring straight ahead, their eyes vacant.
Julia looked at Elizabeth. "What do we do?"
"I don't know. Maybe nothing. Maybe there's nothing we can do except wait for the men and hope that one of them can perform some magic strong enough to break the force field Miles is going to put around this camp, before Miles' men rape us. Because the only other alternative is all of us making some sort of attempt to sneak out of this tent and go off into the forest behind us, and something just tells me we wouldn't get very far. And then Miles might be so mad that he kills us on the spot. So...I guess better to wait and hope one of them can summon magical powers strong enough to break the force field and rescue us. We'll have faith. We'll stay calm, and we'll wait for rescue."
Julia nodded. "Okay. We'll stay calm. We'll have faith in our men. They'll rescue us; I just know it."
Elizabeth squeezed her shoulder and then looked at me. "This sound good to you? We just wait for the men and hope and pray for the best?"
It honestly didn't; not at all. Even though I had faith in Victor, as well as in his men, something just didn't feel right about waiting for them. But I couldn't think of a better plan, and I knew anything half-baked might get us all killed. So I just nodded. Elizabeth said, good, and we all fell silent.
The voices of Miles and his men rose and fell some maybe fifty or sixty feet outside the tent. A minute or two went by. I clutched my stomach, a dull ache in the center of it intensifying again. Julia put her trembling hands between her knees. Eventually, Elizabeth turned to the petite blonde girl sitting next to her and asked for her name.
The girl lifted her face from her fists. "I'm whore twenty-five."
Elizabeth winced. "No, I mean...your real name. Do you have one?"
"Well...all of us girls in Cold Creek just call each other by our numbers, because we don't want to get in trouble with Miles, but...one of the older women once told me that my mother called me Rose when I was born. Right before she died."
Elizabeth smiled. "Then that's your real name. Rose. And it's a beautiful name."
Rose flushed pink and then buried her face in her hands, smiling a little, as if she wasn't at all used to anyone speaking kindly to her. Which I was sure she wasn't.
Elizabeth looked at the other young woman. "And what's your real name?"
She didn't answer right away, appearing to be thinking. "My mother didn't die until I was maybe four or five years old, and I remember her calling me Brook. She said she liked calling me that because the water in a brook flows free, and it gave her hope that maybe somehow, I'd be free someday."
Elizabeth nodded, smiling, her eyes suddenly shiny. "Brook. That's a beautiful name, too."
Brook smiled a little, but kind of looking all around the tent, avoiding Elizabeth's eyes, as if she, too, wasn't used to hearing a few kind words and wasn't quite sure how to react.
We all fell silent again. Maybe another minute or two passed before Rose looked up at a small hole in the top of the tent and suddenly spoke.
"Sometimes I imagine myself rising into the clouds. Wouldn't that be nice? I think that's where my mother's soul went to when she died."
Nobody responded at first, but after a moment or two, Elizabeth agreed that it would be nice to rise into the clouds.
She sighed. "Especially right about now. Oh, I hope the men would hurry. I hope one of them can magically lift the force field."
I stared up through the hole in the tent, at the little patch of visible blue sky beyond. Thinking. Wondering. And after a few seconds, I lowered my gaze to Elizabeth.
"We don't need the men to rescue us. We're going to rescue ourselves."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Elizabeth frowned at me. "What are you talking about?"
"Our men aren't the only ones with magical gifts, remember? I may not be a shifter dragon, but I do have one magical gift of my own."
It seemed to dawn on Julia what I was talking about before it did Elizabeth.
She
gasped. "You're right! Your power to levitate things! What object are you thinking about? Like maybe a boulder or a tree? If you can somehow look out of the tent and spot a boulder or some kind of big rock somewhere in the forest, you can levitate it and just drop it on Miles' head. Then, while he's pinned beneath it, you can do the same to the rest of the men."
"Well, I was actually thinking of something much easier."
"What is it?"
"Rose gave me the idea. I think I can levitate us all right up into the clouds. And then, out of sight of Miles and his men, I can levitate us back to Stonebrook. Maybe before they even realize we're missing."
Julia peered up through the hole in the tent. "It's still partly cloudy and partly sunny. I think there's just enough clouds that this could work."
