Chapter 9
CASSIE
Cassie still couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Just a few hours ago she’d been safe in her bedroom back in the Crystal City. She couldn’t exactly say she’d been happy—life with Sskarth hadn’t been happy in a long time. But she’d felt secure, despite the world-wide outbreak.
Now she was naked in a tub with two huge Kindred warriors—one of which appeared to be determined to scrub her down, even though she didn’t want him to.
“Just let him wash you,” Severin said to her in a low voice. “He won’t hurt you. He probably thinks the two of you are in the middle of your Bathing Week or something.”
“The Bathing Week?” Cassie felt her heart jump nervously in her chest. Having lived aboard the Kindred Mother Ship for some time, she knew about the Bathing Week—it was part of the Claiming Period—the four week timeframe a Kindred warrior had to convince his chosen bride to stay with him.
First there was the Holding Week, where he could touch her, but only over her clothing.
Next came the Bathing Week, when he could bathe her and massage her naked body with special oils.
There were also the Tasting Week and the Bonding Week, but it was the reference to the Bathing Week that worried her.
Was the huge Beast Kindred going to insist on rubbing her naked body all over with massage oil when he finished bathing her?
If he did, she didn’t see any way to stop him. Severin had already said that Ravik might get “upset” if he tried to take her away from him. By upset, she assumed that he thought the Beast Kindred might go into Rage—which was something she definitely didn’t want.
She’d seen a Kindred warrior go into Rage only once and it wasn’t even aboard the Mother Ship.
She’d been visiting her children on Earth and the Beast Kindred pilot who had flown her down had brought along his pretty young bride, who happened to be from the same part of Florida Cassie was from, to visit her parents.
The three of them had chatted, making small talk about living in Florida and how nice it was to be aboard the Mother Ship instead, where it wasn’t hot and humid all the time and there was free health care and child care.
The young bride had been pregnant but just barely showing—a tiny bump in her lower abdomen where she rested her hand lovingly as she spoke.
Once they touched down at the Tampa HKR building the Kindred pilot had to speak to his superior so Cassie and his wife—her name was Miranda, but she went by Miri—had decided to go across the street where there was a downtown street fair going on.
It was at least an hour before her daughter was due to be there, so Cassie had linked arms with Miri and the two of them had strolled up and down the street, looking at all the different arts and crafts and delicious foods for sale.
“Oh, cotton candy—they have cotton candy!” Miri had exclaimed, pointing to a stall about half a block down. “And look—they made it into those huge multicolored flowers! I’ve always wanted to try one of those.”
Cassie laughed.
“Well, I’m not standing in the way of a pregnant lady’s cravings—let’s go get some,” she suggested.
The two of them started towards the stall selling the cotton candy flowers, but before they were even halfway there, two men stepped out in front of them.
“Hey, pretty lady—where you going?” one of them asked Miri. They were both dressed in tight jeans and dirty t-shirts and Cassie didn’t like the look of them one bit.
“It’s none of your business where we’re going,” she said briskly. “Now if you’ll excuse us…” And keeping hold of Miri’s arm, she had pointedly tried to step around the two men.
But this only made them laugh—an ugly, guttural sound that raised the fine hairs at the back of Cassie’s neck.
If she’d had any doubt before, it was gone now—these men were up to no good.
She looked around the street fair, but they were between stalls and no one seemed to be paying any attention. There was no help to be found.
“I asked you a question,” the first man said. He had long, greasy black hair which hung limply over his forehead. “Where are you going?”
“And what’s your name, sweet thing?” the other one said, speaking to Miri.
The young bride was shy and frightened—her cheeks turned a dull red as she blushed and looked down, trying not to meet the men’s eyes.
“Her name and our destination are not your business,” Cassie said again, firmly. “Now please let us pass or you’re going to be sorry.”
“What are you, her mom?” the first man sneered.
“Yeah, we don’t mean any harm—we just want to talk to her,” the other man said. “In fact, why don’t all of us go for a walk and talk some,” he added. “We got a van with plenty of room—both of you can come.”
“I don’t know—I don’t like the mouthy one,” the first one grumbled. “She’s too old.”
“Naw, she’s fine—she’s still pretty even if she’s a little past her prime,” the other told him. “She’s got big tits and them child-bearing hips—lots of guys like that. Come on, ladies—come with us,” he added and took Miri by the arm. “You’re gonna make a lot of new friends.”
In a flash, Cassie realized what was happening. These men were human traffickers and they were trying to take the two of them away to sell them!
Their brazenness surprised her somewhat—she’d heard of women getting snatched from parking lots and mall food courts, but she’d never thought predators like these two would attempt to snatch victims right in the middle of a crowded street fair.
But was it crowded? It had been when they first arrived but they’d walked a little way from the main hustle and bustle of the fair and the crowds had thinned considerably.
In fact, she didn’t see anyone around but an old woman who looked to be in her eighties minding a booth where she apparently sold hand knitted blankets.
She wasn’t even paying attention to them—she was peering myopically at her phone and she had the volume turned up as though she couldn’t quite hear it.
Shit! Cassie thought. They were in trouble. Still, she wasn’t going without a fight.
“You’d better leave us alone or you’ll be sorry!” she snapped at the man who was tugging on Miri’s arm.
Miri, poor girl, wasn’t saying a word but tears were filling her big brown eyes and rolling down her flushed cheeks. She was trembling so hard Cassie could feel it where their arms were still linked together.
“Oh yeah? How you gonna make us sorry?” the first man demanded, glaring at her.
“I won’t, but her husband will.” Cassie nodded at the weeping Miri. “He’s a Beast Kindred and she’s carrying his baby. You don’t think he’ll tear you limb-from-limb for daring to touch his wife and child?”
This seemed to worry the first man with the greasy hair, but the second one only remarked,
“Holy shit—she’s pregnant?” as he tugged harder at Miri’s arm. “That’s a fucking bonus!” he added to the first man. “I got a client who’ll pay double for her.”
“I don’t know, man—didn’t you hear her? She’s got a Kindred husband,” the first man protested.
“Fuck that—she’s lying,” the second one—who had a big pimple in the middle of his eyebrows snarled. “Come on—let’s get ‘em to the van.” And he pulled so hard that Miri’s arm came loose from Cassie’s and she went stumbling to her knees on the sidewalk.
She gasped in pain but still didn’t say anything as tears poured down her face. Cassie bent to help her with an exclamation of dismay, but the first man grabbed her arm and hauled her away from her weeping friend.
“Let me go! Let me go!” she shouted. “Help! Help me! Help us!”
It occurred to her that she ought to have shouted earlier, but everything had happened so fast and she’d never been in this situation before. She had never dreamed that someone would try to snatch her right off the street!
A few heads turned but the people they belonged to were far away and they didn’t seem to understand what was happening. The old lady at the knitting booth didn’t even look up from her phone.
“Help!” Cassie shouted again but at that point, the first man slapped a hand over her mouth and began dragging her physically away from the sidewalk and towards a dark panel van with no windows and no license plate across the street.
Cassie couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Was she really going to be trafficked in broad daylight in the middle of the street?
Apparently so because no one was coming to her rescue and Miri was being dragged to her feet, still sobbing, with her knees bleeding from the contact with the hard sidewalk.
And that was when a deep voice behind them said,
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing to my wife?”
Cassie tried to whip her head around but the man who was kidnapping her still had his hand over her mouth. So she didn’t see anything but a blur as Miri’s Beast Kindred husband rushed forward and grabbed the man who was trying to kidnap his wife by the throat.
He hoisted the would-be kidnapper over his head and Cassie saw his eyes turn from gold to blood red as the Rage took him.
“How dare you touch her?” he roared at the hapless man.
“Didn’t…mean…nothing by it,” the man choked out—he was the one with the pimple between his eyebrows. “Just trying to…to…”
“To what?” The Beast Kindred’s voice had dropped to a low menacing growl.
At that point, Cassie bit the hand of the man who was still holding her and he screamed and tore his hand away.
“They were trying to kidnap us!” she shouted, her voice coming out hoarse with terror and fury. “They were trying to drag us to a van and take us away!”
The Beast Kindred’s eyes went even redder and almost seemed to glow with Rage.
“You fucker,” he snarled at the man he was holding.
“Lies!” the man choked. “Not…true!”
It was clear the Beast Kindred wasn’t buying it.
“Look at her!” He nodded at his wife, who was still crying with her arms wrapped around herself. “You hurt her! You made her cry—you made her bleed!”