Chapter 42
P etra stepped foot through the doorway of the main building of the Balkan compound with fresh eyes, and hope suffusing her. “This place is fucking massive.”
Emerson nodded from her left. “This is where most things happen...though apparently it’s not our original compound and temple.”
“And where is that?”
“No idea. Maybe the priests will finally give that info up.” He smirked.
The foyer of the building was huge, two large stairways on either side of the room leading to a second floor and then another two, leading to a third. Five men walked from the left into the main foyer.
“And you return with precious cargo,” one of the guys said and went to Finn, shaking his hand. “The well is frothing, and the priests are pleased.” He looked to her. “Welcome, Devotion.” He bowed his head.
“This is Damon,” Emerson said to her. “He’s building your house.”
“Oh... Hi. Pleasure.”
“It is. You are a revelation,” he offered and looked to Finn. “Everything is cool, but we have a problem...found something.”
Finn sighed. "Why am I not surprised? I have a horrible feeling we'll be finding messes left by those fuckwits for years to come." He shook his head. "What did you find?"
“A cache of information, books the priests didn’t even know about,” Damon started, “and Vincent found accounts, tons of them. But the biggest thing? We found what amounts to a fucking harem.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Emerson said. “A harem? Of women? Here?”
Damon nodded. “Youngest about fifteen.”
Petra looked to them, eyes wide. “I’m sorry, a fifteen-year-old girl?”
“Among others, yes.”
"What the fuck?" Easton had gone pale and Carter squeezed his shoulder. "When were they found?" Finn demanded. "Do they need medical assistance? Were they without food and water?"
“About six hours after you left. Bradley did some of his drone magic, and noticed lights coming from a section of the older compound area that was supposedly not in use. We took a team down, found four rooms of women, well fed and pissed off as hell.” He grinned.
“Abernathy went in, checked who would let him. They are in good health, and the oldest, a woman named Hadley, wants answers. I told her what I could, and moved them all to the east wing.”
“How many women, total?” she asked.
“Forty-seven. And two are pregnant.”
"What the fuck?" This time it was Carter who swore. "Do we know which Elders are responsible?"
"It doesn't really matter." Finn stepped in before Damon had to answer. "For there to be that many, they all had to know about it. Especially if they've been bringing them in from the women's compounds."
"Does this mean we have to clean house at the women's compound, too?" Leo asked uneasily, none of them really looking forward to skinning a bunch of old ladies alive. "If they were collaborating?"
"Only one way to find out," Finn said grimly. "Lead the way, Damon."
Petra took Finn’s hand as they walked and squeezed. “We will figure this out.”
Damon walked them to the east wing, and then to the middle rooms, and knocked. “Hadley? It’s Damon. New management is here.”
The door opened, a woman around her age looked them over and then settled on her, eyes wide.
“She’s not here for...”
She shook her head. “No...oh no... I’m here of my own free will with my guys,” she said. “I’m Petra.”
“Come on in,” she said after a few moments, seemingly believing her.
The room itself had several older women there, and the two pregnant woman, as well as two younger looking girls. All looked wary, and several also looked pissed off.
“Are your needs being met?” Petra asked them.
“Damon and his team have been most agreeable,” one of the women said. She had an English accent. “It’s true then? You are the lot that murdered those assholes?”
“My guys did.” She introduced them all to her Seven.
“You are a devotion,” one of the women said. “I thought that had been done away with.”
"You know about devotions?" Carter glanced at Finn, who shrugged.
"Look, as you've probably figured out by now, the whole male branch of The Order has been led in a bit of a different direction the last forty years, give or take," Finn said.
"We're trying to put that right, thanks to He Who Sleeps sending us our Petra here, but you know how the priests like to talk in circles and frankly our boy Emerson has a lifetime of texts to try and wade through, so we're pretty much clueless.
“Why don't you tell us how you ended up here and what you think has happened, and we'll work from there?"
Hadley sighed. “Told you no one knew.” She shook her head. “Let me guess, you didn’t know about her, didn’t know about the female side of the organization?” They nodded in unison. “Well then, let’s sit and talk, yeah? Because this is going to blow your mind.”
“Don’t get all dramatic, Hadley,” the English woman said.
“Let me, since Hadley is all drama and anger.” She smiled.
“Ardith, by the way, that’s my name. So each of us were brought here, against our will, after our safehouses had been cleansed, and burned.
Between us, we all came from seven houses, collectively.
Devonshire,” she pointed at herself, “as well as four others, and then there was San Francisco, Maine, Manitoba, Temecula, the Blue Ridge Mountains and some god forsaken swamp in Louisiana. We were brought here because we were all thoroughbreds.” She snorted. “Bloodlines.”
"The prophecy," Carter said quietly. "This must be why they were trying to break us up and get kids from pure bloodlines. They must have found out about it."
“How long have you been here?”
“Some of us over seven years...a few only three.”
“And how many children were born?”
“Eight,” Hadley said. “That number will be ten soon.”
“And how many were fathered by Stephan?” Rix pulled up his phone and showed Hadley, who sneered.
“Two.”
“Boys?” She nodded. “Where are they?”
“Arizona I believe...where you all were.”
“And the girls?”
Hadley went ashen and shook her head.
“Fuck,” Rix growled. “Well, that fucking rapist is dead, along with the rest of those assholes.”
“It wasn’t rape,” one of the girls said. “Some of us did it willingly. It was safer...”
“Sweetheart, coercion is still rape,” he said dryly.
"Yeah, we're gonna need all the therapy in here," Leo sighed. "Those priests had better know their shit. They're gonna be busy."
Finn nodded. "Well, you're safe now. You have your own free will. You don't have to stay stuffed up in here if you don't want to. You're welcome to go back to your compounds and rebuild."
“There isn’t anything there, I mean they came in and took what they wanted.” She looked to Petra. “And just how are you with them...?”
“I don’t know. By His grace, I guess,” she offered. “Did you ever hear of a compound in Ohio?”
Hadley shook her head. “I don’t think so. I was fifteen when I was taken from Manitoba.”
Ardith shook her own head. “Devonshire was closed off from everywhere. Our matrons,” Petra looked to Finn.
Same word, “they said we were the safest, that He Who Sleeps had given us amnesty from the world, and we would be liberated, and given as devotions to those that would cherish us. Three days later they were trying to get us all moving to leave.” She shook her head.
“There was twenty-six of us there, and eight matrons. Now, it’s just us five left from that house. ”
“I think it’s time to see the priests,” she said to Finn. “We need to know before we go further.”
"Then let's go see the priests," Finn said, rising to his feet. "Thanks, ladies. We'll be back later."