She shrugged her shoulders. "They all do. If I displease them, it is the consequence for my clumsiness."

"I am really hating these guys," Bry spoke for the first time.

Elise flashed her eyes to his and he raised his brows in question. "I am treated well. They do not... do not," she cast her eyes down and all us guys circled around what she didn't say. But then she bravely raised moist eyes to us, the tears wrung out of her, "use me," she finished.

Sophie walked the short distance to the young Organic and wrapped her arms around Elise. Then Randi staggered over to her, the side of her face swollen from the hit she'd taken from one of the fragment. Tiff grabbed Randi's arm and helped her get to Elise, the sedative still working its magic.

"I won't leave you behind," Randi slurred like a drunk and Elise gave her sad eyes.

"I am sorry, what you say will not be possible," Elise responded.

Tiff stared at the new girl, then asked real slow, "What do ya mean?"

Elise's face turned a dull brick color.

Hell, even I knew how bad that was.

"It is trading day. The females will be auctioned first. You will command the highest price." She looked at each young woman in turn. "If you be untried, more."

Holy shit. They were talking about whether the girls were virgins or not! They were talking about... selling our girls.

Not on my watch.

The Js and I watched this new reality sink in. Sophie covered her mouth with a hand, whipping her head from side to side. "Oh my God, no!"

Tiff, from the recesses of her pocket, dredged out a stick of gum and began chomping on it with relish. "Let 'em try to check and figure it out. I'm thinking they'd lose some fingers," she paused contemplatively, "or some other... stuff."

Hell.

Elise wasn't finished with the revelations either. "The young females who are..." she looked at Jade, Sophie and Randi, "exotic in their physicality will fetch even more still."

Okay, this was beyond creepy.

From the side of the structure Jade piped in with her slurred speech, "Brett can keep me safe."

Yeah right. I rolled my eyes, giving her a look, her face flushed, her eyes glazed. My eyes swept to Mason's. "Any doubt that she doesn't hardly know who she is?" Guilt swept across his face then was gone.

"Chump," I muttered.

I needed the dead. And not a few.

Many.

I pulled Elise into my body, sucking the energy off of her, a full healing just out of reach as I held my hand out for Tiff. She came, snapping her gum. "I'm on board, Hart. Besides, it saves me from severing body parts."

I gave a grim smile at that, I liked the idea of lopping off some parts. Hell, the way I was feeling now, I was ready to do the Mary Queen of Scots routine. Creepy little nursery rhyme that made a helluva lot of sense at the moment.

My power rushed up and swirled around the surface of my skin, wanting to burst through.

But a ceiling of unknown origin kept it locked in a room of death, active within me.

Someone had thrown away the key.

I was shut down. How, I didn't know.

My eyes met John's as Tiff dropped my hand.

"Damn," she seethed.

Archer came forward. "I've got great news."

"Terrific, I could use some," I said, my eyes flicking over to Brett holding Jade.

"Focus, Caleb," he said.

My eyes shifted back to him, willing him to make his point. My patience... well, I didn't have any.

"I can get us out of here."

Right, Lock-Manipulator.

Lewis calmly walked over to a huge, barn-like door and grasped the handle. I could hear a large chain and latch fall from the other side and he rolled the door away from the entrance as bright midday light slanted like a laser beam into the confines of the structure. Dust motes swirled lazily in the band of sunlight.

"You should not have done that," Elise said in warning.

"Why?" Escape was the natural solution, I thought logically.

"They will abuse those you care about to maintain your cooperation."

Gramps.

We poured out of the small wooden building and the first thing that struck me was a wide platform that was maybe three meters deep by five wide. There were steps which led up to the wooden platform that flanked its sides.

What was this?

Elise said from behind me, "It is the auction block. Your females will remain here no longer. They will be sold..." she hesitated and I looked back at her, naked apprehension flooding through my body, my adrenal system firing up like clockwork.

Her face was turned to the sun, a hand shading her eyes. "Maybe they'll be free for two hours more. The doctor will check them first for," she paused over her next words, "readiness." Virginity, my mind translated. She shrugged as if this were normal. "Then they will be traded."

Alex surged toward her and she backed away from his coming tirade. I put a hand on his arm and he looked down at me breathing deeply, collecting himself. His eyes sharpened and he controlled the modulation of his voice. "They can't do this. We're not... we're not from here."

"That doesn't matter, dude. These effing creepers are greedy suckers. They don't care about the chicks, man... they only care about..."

"Power," Archer supplied and Jonesy pointed a finger at him.

"That."

"How do we stop it?" Sophie said, getting ready for hysteria.

We all looked at her and John walked to her. Putting his hand on her pulse he looked at me and shook his head. "She's slipping, Caleb."

I turned to Elise, "They can't sell crazy can they?"

John repeated my question, a little more in line with her understanding. "What if the females are mad?"

She nodded and shrugged. "They will be beaten."

"Until when?" Tiff asked.

"Until such time that they submit."

Tiff snorted. "Fat damn chance. I'll never submit!"

Elise looked at her with sad eyes.

Despondent eyes.

"There are buyers who favor that disposition." She continued to stare at Tiff, "You do not want a male that enjoys that to have you." She shuddered.

Bry shook his head and scrubbed his short hair, working over his face as he did. He scrubbed his face three times then said, "Nah, nobody is gettin' their paws on my sister. I'll kill 'em. I swear to God I will."

"You behave as if there be choice in the matter." Elise's eyes searched his. "There is no choice. None," she said with a ringing finality.

"How is it that you've managed?" I asked.

"I heal," she said, turning her palms upward and facing us. "I heal, therefore, I am of value."

Wow... just wow.

"Okay," I looked around me, seeing structures that surrounded ours, "Parker, Tracker...?" I raised my eyebrows and Jonesy piped in, "yeah, he's here somewhere."

I nodded. "Gramps and whoever else we can bust out..." I gave John a look. "Can we get Elise here to juice Randi out of her stupor enough to get us the hell outta here?"

John shrugged. "It's our best chance, but..." his eyes found mine.

"What," I stepped forward, our gazes locked. "We have to get that blood collected or it'll be a moot point. The girls will go crazy and the guys will follow. It won't even matter if we get back. As a matter of fact, look at the degradation even now."

I looked at the girls. Tiff was hanging in there but getting more ornery (if that was even possible), but Sophie was going the way of Jade. The girls were getting sick and Sophie was moaning about purses and crap.

Jonesy went to her and felt her head. "She has a fever. I thought they said it was mental."

"It's metastasizing," John said in a flat voice.

"What, like cancer? That crap that used to kill people all the time before The Cure?" Jonesy asked.

John nodded. "Yeah, just like that but worse. This thing, it'll make the girls sick, then they'll clear up in time to go batshit."

Things were bad if Terran was cursing.

I turned to Elise. "Can you fix his leg?" I asked her, looking at Brett.

She nodded and he looked puzzled and I clarified, "I can't use a gimp, Mason."

"Oh Hart, you like me after all," he said, all-sarcasm.

"Nah, but I need you," I replied in complete seriousness.

Elise went and healed his leg as he held Jade, delirious with sickness. I watched her face as she became more ill. It strengthened my resolve. I would get that effing blood if it was the last thing I did. Shoot the girls up like a drug pimp and get us out of here.

Or die trying. The fragment weren't going to touch our girls.

Especially Jade.

I loved her, and that was all that mattered. I'd see this thing through, regardless of the cost.

The sacrifice.

CHAPTER 20

"Question!" Jonesy said, halting our progress as we made our way to the other buildings. I turned, my brows to my hairline as Brett and Jade came behind us.

Just ask me how I was lovin' that.

"Where are the guards? This seems way too easy. These boys are big time into control. If they have plans for us, if they want the chicks, why are we running around free?" he asked, making perfect sense for once.

Archer smiled. "I got us out, remember Mark?"

Jonesy scowled. "Yeah... but, I don't know, something seems off."

I shook my head. "No, they think we're locked in here and everything is secure."

John palmed his chin. "Maybe," he shot a contemplative look at Jonesy. "But Caleb," I turned to look at Terran, "somebody has shut down your AFTD."

"We have several sorcerers within the confines of our group," Elise said softly. John took her hands and she flinched but didn't pull away. Seeing her with John, I realized how young she really was. Maybe she was just our age, maybe a year older.

"Tell us, what skills do they possess?" he asked, switching to that weird mix of modern and archaic speech the fragment used. But the more I listened, the more I realized it was a cadence to their speech that made it so difficult to interpret.

She gazed at him shyly then cast her eyes down at her slippered feet. It took so long we didn't think Elise would answer then finally she did. "We have one such as he," she inclined her head at me then blew us away with, "and he can stop another from using his power over those things that are now dead."

John's head snapped my direction. "They have a dual paranormal here, Caleb."

"English, Terran!" Jonesy almost yelled and Tiff shushed him.

Like that'd work.

John plowed his fingers through his hair, frustrated. "They've got someone here that is AFTD and Null. He's got the know how on your death vibe, and he can negate it." His eyes bored into mine and I got the message loud and clear.

I wouldn't be using the dead any time soon.

And neither would Parker.

Effectively, I had whatever wits I possessed and my physical stamina and fighting skills. But in this group, who knew how I'd make out. I glanced at Jade, her safety pressing uncomfortably within the confines of my skull. Not that she'd take to me helping her, with the whacked out enhancer raging in her body.

"So you're like us mundanes, Hart?" Brett asked.

Love him, the pencil dick.

I gave him a hard stare. "Yeah, looks that way."

"No corpses springing out of the box?" Brett said, rubbing the shit in, the salt into my wounds that were so open, so raw.

It stung.

I turned and was in his face before he closed his mouth.

I lifted my fist to give him a pounding and Jade's fevered eyes opened. "Caleb," she whispered, a look in her eyes that told me she was here right then, with me.

My anger dropped like a stone in a well. I reached out and touched her face, my thumb caressing her hot skin, like rasping over silk.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked and my hand dropped, the confusion filling her expression again.

Brett and I looked at each other. "Do your goddamned job, Brett. Protect her, stop goading my ass, or I swear to God we're gonna go. You hear me?" I stabbed my eyes into his, willing him to agree.

"Me protecting her was never a question, Hart. But can you calm your shit long enough to let me?" he asked, his dark eyes searching mine.

I didn't know, but I hated him calling me on my temper. Hated him making any kind of sense.

I turned on my heel and walked to the building where I could feel death energy. As I got nearer I heard Parker call out. "Caleb!"

I ran to the building.