Hale glanced over to the passenger seat where Kenzi sat, staring blankly out the windshield. The streetlights ghosted over her pale skin, lighting up the scars on her arms. He could even see the remnants of the mark left from her encounter with the Norn, right before she vanished. Bo had been frantic, calling Dyson at work. Hale could still vividly remember the moment when Dyson's face went white as snow. The two of them had rushed over there to find Bo pacing a path into the kitchen floor. Dyson could find no scent other that Bo and Kenzi having visited the clubhouse recently. Upon searching Kenzi's room, they found some of her clothing missing.

Calls had been made, favors exchanged, and fruitless search after fruitless search had been conducted for almost a year. Nothing had been found. But they all knew Kenzi knew how to disappear, to blend in with her surroundings. Finally, coming up empty-handed yet again, and by the new Ash, the Empress, they had been forced to give up actively searching for her.

"She didn't leave a note, she hasn't called, or texted, she has to be somewhere! Kenz wouldn't just vanish on us!" Bo had snapped furiously at Dyson when he had relayed the news over a late-night drink. "Even if you won't keep searching, I will!" she stormed out of the Dahl, Lauren trailing behind her, glancing back at them with a sad, apologetic smile. And search she had, but had found nothing. Slowly, slowly, Bo started taking on cases again. She refused to talk to Dyson, and was coldly formal with Hale.

And then, almost two years after that, Kenzi turned up for sale at The Market, an empty shell of who she used to be. Somehow, the Empress had known she was there, and that she mattered to Dyson. And to him. So she had sent his partner to bring her to his birthday party and given her to him as a gift.

"It can keep house for you, listen to you, obey your every command," The Empress gave him a sly look, "pleasure you. Train it as you see fit. If it ever hesitates or attempts to disobey, just squeeze that stone. It's linked to the collar around its neck. The harder you squeeze the more it'll hurt." She laughed again, all of the Fae present following suit.

Hale wasn't sure exactly how they had left right after that, fury had been turning his vision bloodred, and his siren song wanted shriek around the room and bring those laughing at him, at what had been done to his lil momma, to their knees. But that would get him locked up and Kenzi killed, or worse. So he had taken the offered leash and left, opening the door for her and closing after she sat inside.

He stopped at a red light. "We're almost to my place, Kenzi."
Kenzi glanced at him. "Yes, my lord."

Hale ground his teeth at the term of address, but didn't pursue it for the time being.

He parked his car and got out, walking around to open the door for Kenzi. She emerged and stood by the hood of the car, waiting to be told what to do. Sighing, Hale slipped his arm around hers and led her inside his house.

OoOoO

He sat Kenzi on the sofa while he got himself a drink of water. She had started to get up when she saw him enter the kitchen, but had sat back down when he told her to stay where she was. He grabbed two glasses and poured water from the bottle in the fridge. Still full of frustration, he slammed the fridge door harder than necessary, causing the whole thing, and a lot of what was in it to rattle precariously.

When he turned around, he found Kenzi kneeling on the floor in the dining room, hands clasped behind her back and eyes trained on the floor in front of her. Feeling his attention on her, she said softly, "I'm sorry for upsetting you, my lord. I accept punishment for my behavior."

Carefully, Hale set the glasses on an end table, and knelt in front of the human, noticing that she stiffened when he did so, but didn't move to get away from him, or even look up at him.

"What did they do to you, lil momma?" he whispered, forehead creased in concern and fury. Slowly he reached out, brushing a strand of black hair behind her ear, fingertips brushing her cheek. She was so cold. He dropped his hand, taking her hand instead. He wanted to ask her questions, to push for answers, to find out what had happened to her, but he was in no condition to question Kenzi until he knew more about what had happened, and what kind of state of mind she was in, if she had any at all. Given how she was acting, he wasn't too sure. He got to his feet, pulling her with him. "C'mon, Kenzi. It's late, for both of us."

She followed him obediently into his bedroom. Once she was seated on the bed, he dug through his closet, knowing he had a pair of black sweatpants and tank top he had gotten her as a birthday present before she disappeared. Finding the crumpled gift bag in the far reaches of his closet, he grabbed the garments out and turned around. He froze.

Kenzi was on her feet again, her bare back to him as she slipped the dress off and onto the floor. When she turned, he saw a mark on her right hip. It was of a healed branding scar of a snake eating itself. It was to show that whatever it was marked upon was either a human slave or thrall that had been sold by other humans to the Fae, be it because of a debt, for money or power, or because the human had committed crimes human or Fae, when was the case with Kenzi, he realized, seeing an X on the back of each hand between the thumb and pointer finger. He knew what the brand meant, but word had it that it was being used by a certain, select group of slavers who dealt with elite clientele, be it human, dark Fae, light Fae, anyone with enough money and power. If there was something you desired, they either had it, or they would get it for you, for a price.

"Where would you like me to be, my lord?" Kenzi asked, snapping Hale back to the present. "And what would you like me to do?" She sat on the bed, nude, with her legs slightly spread, leaning back on her elbows. Her pale eyes stared emptily up at him, waiting for orders. He had always found her attractive, even now with all the scars. Her beautiful curves, silky, dark hair –when she wasn't wearing one of her wigs – and her crystalline eyes, always filled with mischief. But they were empty now. This wasn't the Kenzi Hale had cared for, that he had wanted for his own.

He shook his head, eyes screwed shut and turned away from her. "No no no no. Nothing like that. Here," He tossed the clothes onto the bed next to her put those on while I go change." Without turning around he disappeared into the master bathroom where he had a clean pair of shorts and shut the door behind him. With something between himself and Kenzi, he could think, somewhat. He would keep her, and keep her safe, definitely. But other than that he was at a loss. He had tried to call Dyson on the drive back to his house, and it had gone straight to voicemail. He had left a scathing message and shoved the phone back into his suit pocket. He took it out and got the same result.

"Dyson, please call me! I don't know what happened, what's going on… what the hell happened to Kenzi? What do you know? Have you told Bo yet? Because if you don't I will!" he paused. "Call me, damn it!"

Hale snapped the phone shut, clenching it in his fist, unsure if to throw it into the opposite wall or break it with his hands. Finally he talked himself into doing nether, and set it down by the sink before stripping out of his dress suit and into his satin sleep boxers. He took his time with his nightly ritual, not wanting to face what waited without, in his room. But finally, he had lingered long enough. He left the suit where it was, slung over a chair in the corner of the master bath, on top of a lot more clothes. He would have to do laundry soon, and drop off the rest at the dry cleaners tomorrow, on his day off. He sighed, hand on the door handle. He would also need to get her some clothes. He HATED shopping.

OoOoO

When he emerged, he found Kenzi kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed. This time she looked up at him. "What would you like me to do for you, my lord, since you do not want physical pleasure tonight?"

Hale pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nothing. I'm going to put you in the guest room for the night. I want you to stay there, unless you need to use the bathroom, which is across the hall, and I want you to sleep." He motioned for her to follow him, opening the door to the spare room. He had to toss a few old clothes off of the bed, but the sheets were clean. Kenzi stood silently by the door. He motioned her into the room and onto the bed. She sat down obediently. "Now, go to sleep." When she looked at him blankly, he added, hesitantly, "I need you well rested tomorrow. I will give you a list of things that need to be done around here then. But until then, I want you to rest."

Her eyes drifted down to the floor. "As my lord commands." She tucked her legs up beside her, hands in her lap.

Hale sighed again. He touched her hair, before letting his hand drop back to his side. "I'm not mad at you, Kenzi. Just get some rest for me, ok?"

"Yes, my lord."

Hale couldn't sleep after he had put Kenzi to bed. He tossed and turned for nearly two hours before he thrust back the covers in disgust. He got up and took a shower, cranking it to as cold as he could stand. Stepping under the stream of water, he tried hard to forget the evenings' events, letting the cold seem into his pores and bones. His body had gone numb by the time he stepped out. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he returned to his room to see his phone dancing across his bedside table. He dashed across the room and picked it up.

"Dyson! About fucking time! What the hell-"

"I don't know!" a guttural voice shouted across the line. Hale held the phone away from his ear as the shifter continued, "The Empress requested my presence this afternoon. She gave me an envelope and told me to present it to The Johnson at the Market. When I got there I was directed to a back room. There were about thirty humans, mostly women and about ten Fae in that room. All collared, all chained, and all the humans had the same empty look to them." In the background, something glass shattered, and then another. "I don't know what happened to Kenzi!" Third shatter.

Hale hadn't even realized he had sat down on the edge of his bed. "Do we know anything?"

"Besides the fact that she's alive, acts like a thrall and was given specifically to you and fetched by me by the Empress? No, not a damn thing!" Dyson shouted. "Why don't you ask your precious Empress these questions?"

"Hey, hey, hey. She's not mine, any more than she's yours. We serve the leader of the light. And face it, man, we both know she likes to play with her subjects; she's a cat. They play with their prey." He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I was just… shocked. Do you think Trick would know anything?"

Dyson thought about hanging up. His friend had jumped on him, and had been almost blaming him for something that was not his fault. But this was Kenzi. The feisty human who always stood by Bo… and by him. She had faced down the Norn to get his love back. She had face Berserkers with them. Like Hale and Trick, Kenzi had grown on him. And he had seen how much, before, Hale had cared for the human girl. And to see her like she was now, empty, scarred, smelling of blood, sex and defeat… He sighed. "It would be worth a try. I'll call him and tell him we'll be in at the Dahl in the morning, before patrons start arriving."

Hale flopped back onto his bed. "Thank you, Dyson. I just had no idea which way to turn right now, other than to you, and Trick." He thought for a moment. "What about Bo, and Lauren?"

The shifter growled softly. "You can deal with her. She's blocked my number, and whenever I try and call from a different number she hangs up. I've pretty much given up. She still…" he voice caught. "She still blames me for not defying the Empress to keep searching for Kenzi. I thought she had either run off… or was dead. So there was no point in searching for her. If she was alive, she would return, or at least contact Bo. If she was dead, then why ruin Bo's hope that she was still alive? Now I wish I had defied the Empress. Maybe I would have found something where Bo did not."

"I'll try and call her, see what'll happen." Hale said after a moment. "She might even want Kenzi to stay with her. But…. She's been marked."

Dyson sat finally, staring at the paper-covered windows. "You'll need to impress on her that Kenzi is viewed as your property now. Have her ask Trick about the mark, and how she will be hunted down like a runaway slave and treated as such. If you explain that to her, maybe she'll understand."

"Not likely," Hale muttered. But Dyson was right. That was exactly what would happen. "But worth a try." He paused. "Thank you for calling me back, Dyson. I mean it."

"Just take care of her," Dyson replied. Then he ended the call.

After leaving the party at the Empress's, Dyson and vanished into the woods, his clothes left behind in shreds as he ran into the night, pelting down deer trails and tearing into the brush to make his own. Branches had snapped at his face, as if they were hands trying to grab him and pull him to the ground. But he ran on, trying to outrun what he had seen and smelled, outrun the knowledge of what had been done to the frail human girl he had come to care about and respect. She had risked so much for him, and he had repaid her by letting… that… happen to her.

The moon had set by the time he returned to his car. Changing back into his human form, he dug out the one of the spare sets of clothes he kept for times like these. Pulling a shirt on over his head, Dyson noticed his phone, which he had thankfully remembered to toss into the car before tearing off into the woods, was blinking. Growling, he grabbed it. Two missed calls and two voicemails, all from Hale from about two hours ago. Well he had waited this long, it would wait until he got back home.

The shifter sighed, eyeing the broken glass across the room. He's have to clean it up later. Right now he didn't have the will or energy to do so. Instead, he dialed another number. Right about now, Trick would have shooed the last customer out of his bar and be cleaning up. Hopefully he was still up.

"Hello?" He was in luck, apparently.

"Hey Trick, it's Dyson."

Trick could hear something was wrong, terribly wrong. "Dyson, what is it? Are you alright?"

"Well…"

OoOoO

Thank you to those who reviewed! I hope you liked this new chapter : )

FYI, this is Hale/Kenzi centric, with a little Lauren/Bo Dyson/Bo hints thrown in. It is NOT Doccubus. There are plenty of those on here, if that is what you want to go read.