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“You may have been hot stuff out there, but in here, you’re nothing,” Bobby spat. A drop of spit landed on my cheek. “Get that through your head. You’re nothing and no one is ever coming to rescue you.”
I closed my eyes and pressed a hand to my swelling jaw. The sudden desire for the next five days to pass by plagued me. Ruth and her team would come busting in, saving me and the other girls. No one would get hurt. But I couldn’t do that – not until I knew where Bobby was keeping my mother. If I got scared and ran, I might never find her. She could be buried so deep in this organization that she’d never get out.
“Take her. That’s all we need for tonight,” Bobby said.
Tensing my body, I waited for the giant to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. Instead, I heard a shriek next to me. Opening my eyes, I saw Timur dragging one of the sobbing girls by the wrist. She sunk her heels into the floor, reaching out to her friend and begging for help.
Not a single one of us moved. We watched her disappear through the metal doorway, along with the giant and Bobby Caro. It wasn’t until the metal door slammed behind them and the lights above us ceased to sway, did the sobbing begin.
Chapter Eleven
Early the next morning, while we were all spread out on the dirty mattresses trying to catch a few minutes of sleep, the metal door slid open. Tala and I were the first to notice the dark woman with brilliant white teeth poking her head through the door. She took a look at the girls on the floor, picked up a bucket on the floor beside her, and entered the room.
The bucket she was carrying sloshed back and forth, dripping a few suds onto the cement floor. Depositing the bucket in the middle of the room, she clicked her tongue and waited for the rest of the girls to wake.
I stood with a start. This might be it, the moment they took us out of this room and I would see my mother for the first time in fourteen years. She had to be nearby. The very thought gave me goosebumps.
“Come on now… clean yourselves up.” The woman spoke with an affected accent, like from the southern portion of Africa. “Got to clean them faces, make them pretty. Hurry up, now.”
We scrambled toward the bucket filled with soapy rags. It felt amazing to run the rag over my grimy face, and on the bruise Bobby Caro had left along my jawline yesterday. The rag was smeared with remnants of mascara and eyeshadow by the time I returned it to the bucket now filled with dirty water.
As I swept the last droplets of moisture off my arm, I caught a look at Tala. Dark bags had formed under her eyes. It didn’t surprise me – we’d shared a mattress last night and Tala had spent most of it tossing and turning. The stubborn and solemn girl I’d met last night was fraying at the edges. Crazy had begun to enter her eyes.
“What are they going to do to us?” Tala cornered the woman, backing her into a corner. “What do you know?”
“I know nothing.” The woman cowered, nearly dropping to her knees. “Please, don’t. I is not supposed to say nothing.”
The fierceness only grew on Tala’s face. Several of the other girls joined her in surrounding the woman.
“Please, you’ve got to help us. You don’t know what it’s like in here.”
At that, the woman lifted her chin with a stubborn grimace. “I know what is like. I was here, just like you. This is what happened to me and I is lucky. You may be lucky, too.”
The girls exchanged glances. Tala swore and kicked over the bucket of dirty water, sending the rags tumbling in a tangled mess.
“This is lucky?” she shrieked. “I don’t want to be a slave for the rest of my life. You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to help us.”
The woman ignored Tala and shook her head at the empty bucket. With a flick of her wrist, the puddle of water on the floor began to pool together into a stream of water that lifted into the air and dropped back into the bucket. When all the water was collected, she grabbed the rags and threw them back into the bucket and headed for the door.
Those were basic powers for a water spirit. I’d seen elementals like her before. It was no wonder she didn’t have to wear a collar like the rest of us – her powers wouldn’t be much help to get her out of here.
Tala ran for the door and pounded on the metal surface, nearly breaking her fists in the process. Her dark eyes had become frantic, like the look of an animal caught in a cage. She screamed and struggled while the rest of us watched hopelessly.
Abandoning the door, Tala stumbled to the middle of the room and raked her fingernails over her face. They stopped at the metal collar clasped around her neck. With a grunt, she worked her fingers under the metal and began to pull at it, her face turning red with the effort.
“Don’t do that, Tala,” Becca called. She dropped the hands of the girl sitting next to her and stood up. “You don’t want to do that.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care anymore,” Tala cried. She yanked at the metal, leaving dark red rings on the skin around her neck.
“Stop her!” Becca turned to me and pointed at Tala. “Stop her from taking that off.”
I raised my eyebrows and leaned against the crumbling drywall. “Why? If she gets it off, it might help us to have a fully functioning werewolf.”
She sprang to my side and dug her fingernails into my upper arm until they stung. “Because, if she breaks the magic, it’ll kill her. It killed one of the girls I came in with the first day. It’s a safety mechanism.”
I stared in horror at Tala for a full five seconds before springing into action. My shoulder rammed into her stomach, sending her flying onto one of the abandoned mattresses. While she struggled to catch her breath, I climbed on top of her chest and pinned down her arms with my knees. She struggled and screeched, cursing me and my future children. But after a long moment, she began to sob.
“I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. I can’t be here.” The tears rolled down the sides of her face and over her sharp cheekbones. “I was just getting my life back together. Why won’t she let us out?”
