Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. Just a quick heads up that there is a bit of torture in this chapter (although I tried to make it less detailed). I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.


Eric's room was dark and messy, and it looked like there had been someone else in here not too long ago. The smell of drugs and alcohol wasn't hard to detect. I had no idea how many people had been intimate in here, but there was nothing clean about this room. I felt like if I touched anything, I'd have to bathe myself in rubbing alcohol.

"Jeez. The least this guy could do is clean up," I heard Eddie say through my ear. "It looks like a junkyard just threw up in his room."

I hid my laugh with a fake cough, covering my mouth. Eric closed and locked the door, completely oblivious to my hidden laughter. I walked over to a table by the wall which was facing the bed and leaned my hip against the side.

"I didn't expect to see you here. I was told I'd have a familiar worker, but I didn't expect it to be you. In fact," Eric said, coming closer, "I thought you escaped."

"Lie," Dimitri said.

"Yeah, well, I didn't get very far. That's why I'm here. I was tortured for hours," I said, dropping my face to look sad.

"Good. Maybe this time, you won't waste your time trying to escape."

I didn't reply as Eric started to pour an alcoholic drink into a glass. Things were moving too slowly, so I changed the subject. "You sent me those pictures."

"So you got those. What did you think? Don't I have great photographers?"

I scoffed. "Yeah. You also have good cameras. So good that I could practically see every pore in the background faces."

Eric paused, looking up at me from his drinks. "You know, you sure have an attitude for someone who was just recently tortured."

"So I've been told," I muttered.

Eric cocked his head to the space behind me. "Grab me that bottle opener behind you."

I would have told him to get it himself, but I forced myself to keep my mouth shut and just did as he asked. As soon as I turned around, I heard some soft whispers and swears through the earpiece. Dimitri's voice sounded worried and had a huge hint of warning. "Rose, do not drink what he poured you. He just spiked it."

I swallowed, remaining as calm as possible as I handed Eric the bottle opener. He opened what looked like a new bottle of the same drink he had poured into my glass, and I suddenly had an idea.

"It's hot in here," I complained. "Do you have towels or something?"

"Yeah. Hold on," Eric said, walking into the small washroom in the room. When he wasn't looking, I quickly swapped our drinks, keeping my eyes on him to make sure he didn't see anything.

"Smart girl," Abe said proudly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Eric came back with a towel, throwing it against my chest. "So," he started, picking up his glass, "obviously, you were brought here for services. I take more time than most clients here, but I still expect a job well done."

I gave him a fake smile, taking a sip of my beverage. "Of course."

Still holding his drink, he sat down on the bed and motioned for me to sit next to him. His bed was probably infested with germs which only made me feel so much worse. I cautiously sat down and could barely keep the bitterness out of my voice. "What did you want for tonight?"

He traced my bottom lip with his finger. "With those lips...definitely fucking your mouth."

I blanched, nearly choking on the alcohol. The whispers in my ear were getting angry.

"I'm definitely cutting this guy's dick off," Dimitri said.

"I'll knock his teeth out," Abe chimed in. "Or maybe I'll take away his sight. Maybe both."

"I definitely will," I said out loud, nearly gasping when I realized what I'd just done.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Oh, I-I mean I'll definitely do that," I stammered, hoping I sounded believable.

"Good," he said, relaxing again. He placed his hand on my thigh, tracing the skin with his hand. He started going on about all the things he wanted me to do for him and it eventually got to the point where it wasn't even making me angry anymore. Instead, I got bored and really just wanted him to shut up. Over time, his speech started to slur a little bit and I knew the drugs were kicking in.

"This looks nice on you," he commented, running his fingers along the straps of my lingerie. "But it would be even nicer if we could take it off..." As soon as he pulled down the straps and nearly exposed my breast, I stepped away from the bed with a speed so fast it took him by surprise.

"Hey, what the hell are you—" Eric stood up from where he was sitting only to immediately fall on the ground.

"Is your head hurting?" I asked. My tone was very passive-aggressive.

"I need some fucking water. I'm probably just tripping," he said, pressing a hand against his forehead. He started ordering me to help him and get him water, but I simply stood there and watched. In the past, it had always been me. I was always drugged, helpless, and abused. Now, it was the opposite. I was in charge, and he was about to get tortured.

As soon as he passed out, I spoke to my crew. "What now?"

Abe was the first person to respond. "He'll be out for a while. Tie him up and wait for us while we take everyone else. Dimitri and I will be up soon."


I tied Eric up to a chair and waited for nearly half an hour. I wanted to go down to see what was going on while he was still unconscious, but I couldn't risk leaving him alone. I just hoped Abe or Dimitri had some extra clothes for me.

The door burst open behind me. I whipped my head around, ready to fight whoever had walked in until I saw who it was. "Took you long enough."

"Taking those guys out wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Not without hurting and scaring the victims at least," Dimitri explained. I noticed he had some tiny cuts on his face as well as small bruises that were starting to form. I wondered how many people he had just fought.

"Are you okay?" I asked, brushing my finger tips against his skin.

"This is nothing to me," he said, not even flinching when I touched a bloody cut. Abe walked in, holding what looked like something I could change into.

"Get dressed," he said, tossing it into my arms. I quickly changed into the clothes I had been wearing before. It was a relief to finally take the lingerie off.

"Take this," Dimitri said, handing me my stake.

"You should take a break, Rose," Abe said. "We can take over from here."

"No way," I protested. "If there's anyone here who deserves to see this bitch suffer, it's me."

"I'm not sure whether to feel worried or proud to see this brutal side of you," Abe remarked. He was staring at Eric whose head hung sideways as he slept.

I grinned. "At first, I thought I got it from you. Now, I'm beginning to think it's just a strigoi thing."

Dimitri chuckled as his eyes toured the mess on the table. "No, I think that's just a you thing."

"Thanks, Comrade," I said sarcastically, hearing Abe scoff behind me. I reached out and grabbed Eric's hair, pulling his head back. My hand came into contact with his cheek, slapping him so hard the chair almost tipped over. I really needed to stop waking people up like this.

Just like that, Eric was awake. He blinked, not completely aware of what was happening until I leaned down, resting my palms on my knees. He was drowsy, but the look in his eyes told me he could see me very clearly.

"I'm sorry, did I disturb your sleep?" I asked sweetly.

"What...what the hell is this?" he croaked.

"I switched our drinks, idiot. And now you're here. By the way, your entire club has been raided by the authorities, so I suggest you start talking."

Eric lifted his head, now noticing Abe and Dimitri on either side of me. "I thought it was strange of you to walk in all by yourself."

I ignored his comment and used the stake to lift his chin up, silently threatening him with the weapon. "I know Sebastian is out of jail. He has a little girl, and I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. I need you to tell me exactly where he is."

Eric laughed, looking up at me as if I was crazy. "And what makes you think I'd do that? In fact, why don't you just make it easy for yourself and compel me? I've got nothing to lose, right?"

I could in fact compel him if I wanted to, but I had other ideas in mind. Compulsion was too easy. "Now where's the fun in that?" I taunted, dragging the stake down his skin. I applied more pressure at his neck, piercing his skin and causing him to bleed. His eyes clenched as he clenched his teeth, hiding his growl of pain.

"Where is Sebastian?" I asked him. My voice was dripping with venom.

"I'm not telling you," he gasped out through his teeth. This time, I brought the stake up before bringing it down, stabbing it straight through his thigh. His scream was loud and it was obvious I was causing him pain. While I could imagine myself torturing someone—whether it be for revenge or information—the last thing I expected was to enjoy it. It wasn't like I took pleasure in it, but a darker part of me wanted to see him suffer. I wanted to see all my rapists suffer. Even if I tortured every single one of them individually, none of them would ever be able to experience the pain I felt.

"You son of a bitch!" Eric shrieked. I stepped back and sighed, turning to face Abe and Dimitri.

"This is going to be a long night."


As time passed by, I let Abe and Dimitri in on their fair share of torture. So far, the only thing we discovered was that Sebastian wasn't alone. It wasn't very helpful, but Eric was so stubborn. We had all tortured him in our own brutal ways that would have made me sick to my stomach when I was a normal dhampir. After the crap I'd seen and gone through however, my mind was now twisted. It scared the crap out of me.

Eric was bruised and bleeding, but I wasn't done yet. I wasn't going to give up until he gave me proper answers. I clearly wasn't getting through enough, so I stabbed him again—this time in his abdomen. "Where is he?!" I roared. For the first time all night, Eric looked scared. Like, really scared. Even the men behind me flinched. I didn't sound like myself at all. I sounded like a monster.

"Fuck, okay!" he cried. "T-there's a house—a-a mansion."

"Where is it?" I demanded. When he didn't answer me, I twisted and moved the stake around, causing him to cry out again.

"Colville!" he yelled. "It's—somewhere—near Colville—"

"An address! Give me an address!"

"Westside road. I don't—" He was coughing between his words. "I don't remember the numbers."

"Rose, go alert the others," Abe ordered. "We'll finish him off here."

I whipped my head around, giving Abe an incredulous look. "Don't I deserve the final hit?"

Dimitri placed a hand on my shoulder. "You've done enough. Go find that address, okay?"

I sighed but did as I was told and left the room. While I didn't stick around to watch whatever Dimitri and Abe were doing, I could still hear Eric's screams and pleas on the way out. Usually, hearing someone beg so painfully made my heart ache, but that wasn't the case here. I had no sympathy for the people who had put me through so much pain and trauma.

As I ran down the hallway, I passed by a room where I could see a young dhampir girl curled up into a ball on the floor. She was crying into her arms. I paused in the doorway, cautiously stepping forward while trying not to scare her. She noticed me right away and gasped, flicking some of her brunette locks away from her wet face.

"Hey," I whispered. "Are you okay?" I stepped closer, causing her to curl further in on herself. "I'm not going to hurt you. I can get you out of here. Can I come in?"

Tears still came down, but she slowly nodded. Keeping my eyes on her, I walked over and kneeled down to her level, taking in her features. In a way, she looked like a younger version of me. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, and tan skin I once had. She looked so young.

"I'm going to help you," I told her.

"How?" she asked. "Th-they'll hurt you...they'll hurt all of us. They'll hurt me too."

"No one will hurt you. I came here as an undercover. There are tons of guardians outside to help."

"What? Are you serious?" she asked. I could see a glimmer of hope through her teary eyes. She started breathing heavily, but it sounded like it was out of relief rather than fear.

"I'm serious," I answered with a smile. In that moment, someone else walked in, and I quickly moved into a defensive stance over the girl until I realized it was just Dimitri. He was about to say something but closed his mouth when he saw us.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, keeping his voice soft. I relaxed, looking back at the girl whose lips started to tremble in fear.

"Hey, it's okay," I said. "He's a guardian. He won't hurt you. He's here to help."

She kept her arms around herself, but she didn't seem so afraid of him anymore. I wanted to get her out of here as soon as possible, so I asked her a few more questions to make sure she was comfortable.

"What's your name?"

"Chloe," she replied, wiping one of her tears away.

"And how old are you, Chloe?"

"Um...f-fourteen."

I flinched, briefly glancing towards Dimitri. Chloe's answer had completely blown him away and he took a deep breath, sighing sympathetically.

"How long have you been here?" I prompted.

"I-I don't know...maybe a few months. I—" she looked like she was on the verge of tears again as she struggled to get her next words out. "I'm so stupid. I ran away from home. I have to call my mom...I have to see her again." And that's when she lost it. She burst into tears, and it took everything in me to resist holding her. I wasn't sure if she wanted physical contact.

"Chloe, look at me," I said softly, and she did. "I understand why you're scared. I was a victim here too. We can get a hold of your parents, but we have to get out of here, okay? The people outside will take good care of you."

Thankfully, Chloe didn't give us a hard time. She seemed relieved to get out. To my surprise, she held her hands out and let me help her up. I didn't know what had been done to her tonight, but she was clearly exhausted and worn out.

"Do you know who was with you tonight?" I asked her on the way out.

"He was a strigoi. I don't know him though," she said. I had a feeling I already knew who she was talking about, but I didn't ask her any further questions. She was already in enough distress.

The club was now almost empty with only a few women who stayed behind. Like Chloe, some of them were young, and the majority of them were here by force. Guardians were making an effort to help them which made me feel a little bit better.

Outside, several arrests were being made. The strigoi had been flat out killed, but everyone else was being sent to jail. Strigoi or not, these people were evil. The fact that a lot of them weren't strigoi was actually worse. They were supposed to have humanity. They were supposed to have morals and a sense of right and wrong. I didn't see any of that.

I spotted a large van used by guardians which had some of the other victims in the back, ready to be transported somewhere else for help. Most of them were women, but to my surprise, I even saw a boy in there. I knew men could get trafficked despite the percentages being lower, but this was the first time actually seeing it with my own eyes. I hoped he was okay. I hoped all of them were.

"I'll be right back," I told Dimitri, facing the van. He nodded in understanding before I guided Chloe to the vehicle. A female guardian was just outside, squinting her eyes when she saw me. "You must be guardian Hathaway's daughter. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said honestly. "This is Chloe. I found her in one of the rooms."

"Okay. We'll take care of her," she reassured me, smiling warmly at Chloe. Before I could leave, Chloe grabbed my hand.

"I didn't get your name," she said.

I smiled, turning my head over my shoulder. "Rose."

Chloe watched me a little longer, but I didn't stick around to talk. My work tonight was far from over. I had to find Nevaeh now. Kira was off my list of things I had to deal with for now as she had decided to go with the rest of the victims. I'd still be there for her when I had the chance, but not now.

I found Dimitri who was leaning against one of the SUVs, looking down at a tablet with Abe. "Did you find anything?" I asked them.

"We have an address. Sort of," Abe answered. "It's in the middle of nowhere, but we can track it on the GPS. It's just outside of Colville, near Westside Road. It's only a half hour from here."

"We need to go," Dimitri said urgently. "Get in the car."

"Can I drive?"

"No."

I rolled my eyes, stubbornly crawling into the front seat. Behind me, another person jumped in.

"Man, that was fun. You should have seen the look on those guys' faces when I took them down," Eddie exclaimed. Just like Dimitri, he had a few bruises on his face, but for the most part, he was okay.

"You should be proud of yourself," Dimitri said, starting up the car.

"I could've been better, but it was still worth it. They deserved a lot more than what I gave them. There's a special place in hell for abusers and rapists."

I shook my head. "Hell is a luxury. Put them in solitary confinement for a week and see what happens. Or maybe they'll drop the soap bar in jail and then—"

Before I could finish my unruly comment, another person jumped in beside Eddie. It was Abe.

"Excuse me. Got caught up with Janine there," he said gruffly. Dimitri started pulling out of the parking lot while the others followed closely behind.

"Okay, seriously. Are you two getting back together?" I asked.

"That's something I'd rather not discuss right now. Believe me, there are a lot of things that need to be addressed in regards to relationships," he said, stressing the last word, "but it'll have to wait."

Dimitri cleared his throat. "Mr. Mazur..."

Abe chuckled. "Relax, son. Your intentions with my daughter are questionable, but you're a good man. An interesting one too."

"Oh, for god's sake. Where's his next turn?" I asked, making both of them laugh. For the next half hour, Abe gave directions while I stared at the dark road ahead of us. I really wanted to find this little girl. Over the past few months, I had grown so attached to her. I wasn't sure if it was because we were both shadow-kissed, or the fact that I just had a strong urge to protect and nurture her. With her looks, she actually reminded me of a younger version of Lissa, so that could have been another reason. There could have been a number of reasons, but either way, I loved her. A part of me wanted to be there for her while she grew up, but if I was going to be a guardian, it wasn't an option. It made me feel so...sad.

I was lost in my thoughts until Dimitri grabbed my hand. "Roza? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. Are we almost there?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes. Get ready," he said. Abe instructed him to turn into a small, unpaved road. At the end, I could see the house Eric must have been talking about. And boy, was it big. Unlike the first house we had gone to, this one had lights on. As soon as we parked, I got out of the car, taking my stake out. There were definitely strigoi here, and there was more than one.

"Rose, slow down," Dimitri said when I started striding to the house. "It's dangerous in there. You can't go in alone."

"I'm perfectly capable of—"

"Taking care of yourself. I know. You've proved that to me more times than I can count, but given the circumstances and the fact that you're still a target means you can't be alone. Don't react on impulse."

"Right." I was trying to listen to him, but all I could think about was that damn house. God only knew what was going on in there.

My mother snuck up behind me, keeping her voice down. Like everyone else, she had her stake out. "Abe and I will go in through the back. Eddie, stay with Alberta and guard the side. Stan and Yuri are on the other side. Everyone else will circle the perimeter."

"Hold on. Where the hell is Damian?"

"Boo."

I spun around, noticing Damian's figure standing right behind me. I punched his arm in annoyance. "Ha-ha, very funny. Can we go now?" I asked, striding towards the house.

I caught Dimitri shooting Damian a death glare before he quickly caught up to me. We were at the front door, spacing ourselves out at the side so that whoever was inside couldn't see us through the glass window in the middle. I reached out, placing my hand on the door knob and slowly twisting. The door was locked, so I forced my hand down and broke the knob off.

"How did you do that?" Dimitri asked me in bewilderment.

"I have no idea," I answered, tossing the knob away. Slowly, I pushed the door open, giving everyone a nod when I saw a clear hallway. The area in the front was open and the first thing I saw was a large staircase. A bright crystal chandelier lit up the hall at the top of the high ceiling.

Through the back doors, I could hear footsteps and prepared myself for whoever was coming. Before any of us could attack though, we were only met by my parents. They had come in from the back.

"The perimeter is clear, but we've got other guardians surrounding the area," Abe informed us. "Anyone inside?"

"We haven't found anything, but I can feel their presence."

"Strigoi?" Dimitri asked. I nodded, furrowing my eyebrows together. The fact that I could sense strigoi without being able to see them was fucking infuriating.

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement from the room on the left. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had seen it, but it all happened so fast that I only caught a glimpse of what happened. A strigoi leapt out from around the corner, ready to attack me when another tall figure shoved me out of the way to block me. It was Dimitri, and he had jumped in front of me, colliding with the strigoi and taking them both to the ground.

My first instinct was to help him, but it was impossible. It was only the beginning of what I knew would be a very bloody fight as every single strigoi who had been working here came out of their hiding spots and attacked.

It was absolute chaos.


How was it? Please, please review and let me know what you thought! I'm going to try to post more since most of us will probably be stuck in quarantine in our house for the next few weeks/months. I love you guys and I hope you're all okay.