Chapter 102 : Taken

THEO.

Wariness creeps up on me like ivy covering up an old house. I stare at the soldier curled up against my feet like a puppy, shaking as he begs over and over again.

“Please, sir,” he whimpers. “Please, I need your help. I don’t think I can take this anymore. I just want some help, and I think you’re the only one who can help me….”

“What’s going on?” Maxine suddenly asks groggily.

The soldier flinches as though he didn’t know she was there. I quickly move over to where she is, getting ready in case he goes amok and tries to hurt her. He gets to his feet, struggling because of his broken arm, but he doesn’t make a move towards her. In fact, he bows again, as though we’re some sort of deities that he needs to worship.

“Okay, this is getting weird,” I say, motioning him to get back up. “It was weird before when you showed up out of nowhere. But now it’s crossing another territory of weird. What do you want and how did you find us?”

“I followed Master Ajax’s car when he brought you here, but I was just looking,” he says, his tone with the last line sounding more reassuring but at the same time more uncertain. “I didn’t mean to do it, but I know that you saved the women. I know that you had them brought back to the Human world without them being harmed by me. I… I’m grateful for that. I never wanted them hurt in the first place.”

“Right,” I mutter, looking at Maxine for help.

I don’t want to decide for the both of us, and it doesn’t help that I can’t read the situation either. I can tell that there is some truth to what he’s saying, but as for the other part of me that doesn’t want to believe… I don’t know. Maybe things have just made me cynical.

Either way, Maxine steps forward. “What’s going on? What do you want us to do?”

“I just need you to come with me,” he says.

“Well, that can’t be good,” I mutter dryly. “You do realize that sounds like a trap, don’t you? I’m tempted to keep you tied down and locked in here so you won’t go out to dear old Draco and tell him where we are.”

Genuine shock passes over his face. “I don’t work with Master Draco. Not anymore. He kicked me out of his unit when I came back and told him I’d been jumped. I didn’t tell him about you two, but I think he already knows. I didn’t tell him about his own brother helping you either. I would rather work with Master Ajax, because things are getting a lot worse. They are bringing in more Human women, but not just for the purpose of turning. They’re being used for other things too, like se—”

I raise my hand to stop him. It’s so disgusting to me and I don’t want to hear it. “It’s implied. We already know. Now where are these women and how do we free them?”

“They are in the northern part of the forest, across the empty river,” he says. “I can take you there right now. I have prepared a car for the transport. You can help me free all of them, because I can’t do it all… and I can drive them back to the Human borders.”

Maxine and I look at each other. I wait for her to speak, but her thoughts are loud and clear on her face: she wants to help him and the women he’s referring to.

I’m personally wary. I don’t want to do it because of the small risk that it might be a trap, but at the same time, I also want to make sure that those women are going to be okay.

The soldier waits, and when we both nod, it’s almost as though a visible weight gets lifted off his shoulders.

We set off into the night, with no use of lights whatsoever. Our eyes adjust to the dark, and soon enough, we find ourselves facing the river.

There is hardly any water, but we still decide to use the fallen tree as a branch just to be faster. We cross right away, and my paranoia makes me wait for that arrest, but it doesn’t come. The only thing that comes within earshot is the cacophony of low moans and cries of the women in the distance.

The soldier was telling the truth. I can hear and smell them. I can even feel their presence. When we go up the hill, they become visible. Women in wooden cages, their wrists and ankles bound and their mouths gagged. They all look at us when we get close, and I can feel them trembling in fear.

I don’t waste time. Maxine and I look at each other, then we start to tear into the locks of the cages, coaxing the women out. The soldier leads them all into a cargo truck in the distance, ushering them in hushed tones. When they realize we are freeing them, they become more relaxed. More cooperative. The process becomes smoother until all of them are safe in the truck.

“You need to go now,” Maxine tells the soldier. “Tell them these women have been turned and are ready to get assimilated back to the Human world to turn other people, and you will be safe.”

The soldier nods, and with that, he starts to drive. But then he stops completely, staring at something in the distance.

I’m about to ask him what’s going on, but the thing he’s looking at looms into view. It’s not even a thing, it turns out.

It’s Draco himself.

“Well, well, I knew you would come around and stab me in the back,” he tells the soldier. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. But you’re still of use. You still brought me back to my prizes. Hello there, Maxine and Theodore.”

Draco steps away from the truck like he couldn’t care less. The soldier still steps on the accelerator and drives away, but now I worry for him and the women. What if Draco already informed people in advance and he would just get killed like he intended to?

Still, I keep a mask of calm as I face Draco. I know I can fight him one on one, and even better since Maxine is here. We can finish him off.

But then figures start to emerge from the shadows. More soldiers. These ones don’t look anywhere near like the one who approached us. I can already tell that these are in full alliance with him. They have malice in their eyes, their bones.

“You’re both so slippery,” Draco whispers, almost to himself. “Always escaping, always leaving. Always within my grasp. But I don’t think you got anything to fall back on this time. I will make sure of it.”

With that, he motions his men to attack. All at once they come at me and Maxine. The space is small, and if I shift, I might hurt Maxine too. I keep myself in my Human form as time seems to slow down. The men come at us with shifted teeth and hands, so I do the same. I slice through them, biting some of them in the neck before I snap their backs across my knee.

Rage is flowing through me. I can see Draco smirking in the distance watching us fight, and my anger burns even brighter. I cut a swathe through his ranks, getting closer to him. But he just seems so relaxed when he steps into the chaos.

And I realize why too late.

The men keep coming. I don’t know where they’re from. I’m in the middle of their tornado and I’m just repeating my steps. Scratching them. Biting them. Breaking their backs and sometimes their necks. They’re dead for all I know. Very few of them come back up.

When it eases, I turn around to check on Maxine, only to realize that she’s not there anymore.

And so is Draco.