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What fortitude the soul contains,

That it can so endure

The accent of a coming foot,

The opening of a door!

--Emily Dickinson, Collected Poems, Love IV ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Seventeen: Rabbit in a Trap

~*~You have got to stop ignoring and suppressing me. Why do you not understand? I am here to help you. And now look what has happened,~*~ Serenity's voice floated unrestrained in the blackness.

What *has* happened? Serena wondered groggily, drifting pleasantly in the black space of unconsciousness.

~*~Wake up, and you will see.~*~

She did not want to leave the black space. It was peaceful there, far away from brightness or pain. But despite her efforts to remain unaware, she was slowly, inexorably drifting up to the light, up to consciousness and a dull throbbing in the base of her head.

~*~Come on now, little one. Your stubbornness has led you into danger. Wake up, and I shall try to help you get out of it.~*~

She let her eyes slit open, and soft yellow light streamed through into her dim brain. She blinked and sat up to take in her surroundings.

She was lying on a plump and cushy crushed velvet sofa, a tasteful shade of champagne. The carpet was the same color. A glass coffee table with gold- gilt lion's-claw-and-ball feet was strewn with scattered pages of the Wall Street Journal. Classic artwork hung on the walls in gold frames. The entire atmosphere radiated wealth and interior decorating.

"What in the world." she whispered, unable to fathom how she had ended up in such a ritzy place. The last thing she remembered.was the crazy lady who had hit her on the head and taken her bag. Luna! she thought, suddenly in a panic. Where was her cat? Had the woman taken her? Was she all right? Had she been hurt?

Serena struggled with the enveloping softness of the sofa cushions, but it was no good. She was sunk too deeply to extract herself. Panic began to rise more quickly, choking her. Where the hell am I? How the hell did I get here? Where is Luna? What's happening? Too many questions with no answers! She flailed her arms wildly, trying to release herself from the soft imprisonment of cushions.

"Hey now, easy there!" an amused and calm voice came from somewhere behind the sofa's back. Serena twisted her head, but couldn't see the speaker. She could hear footsteps coming closer, though, and the voice came again, "Just hold still now and I'll help you sit up."

That's funny, Serena thought, I feel like I recognize that voice. like false warmth with an edge of ice. Her breath stilled for a moment. Oh, but no, it couldn't be.

A strong arm gently helped her into a sitting position, and a figure knelt beside her. Serena hardly dared look, but of course she must.

The face was crinkled into a warm smile, but the features were sharp and hawkish, and the eyes were the palest, iciest shade of blue she had ever seen.

Oh shit, it's Diamond. The edge of panic began to slip from Serena's grasp. Oh shit, Oh shit.what do I do?

He kept smiling and reached out to tenderly touch the sore spot on her head. She did her best not to jerk away. "How's the head?" he asked, still using an easy, friendly manner.

"F-fine," she lied, badly. Her wits seemed to have leaked out through the bruise in her skull. She decided that this was no time to be stubborn about figuring things out on her own.

Serenity, please, you've got to help me!

Diamond chuckled. "No, it's not fine, I can tell. But I'll get you some wine. That will make you feel better."

~*~Oh, so now suddenly I am not such an unwanted presence after all?~*~ Serenity was miffed.

Serena groaned inwardly. Oh, please, this is not exactly an ideal time for nursing hurt feelings.please, please, I'm very sorry, just help me now, please! I need you! Out loud, she tried to be more convincing as she said, "Oh, no, really, I'm fine. I don't feel any pain at all. I was just so startled to see you at first." She managed to summon a pretty smile for Diamond's benefit.

But he was not to be dissuaded. "I'll get some wine anyway, just to be sure. Head injuries are pretty serious. Maybe you ought to lie back down, too," he called over his shoulder as he moved into another room.

Serenity, please! Help me! she shrieked silently. What do I do?!

~*~All right, all right. Just stay calm. I will help you. You can handle this.~*~

But how? How did I get here? How did he get me here?

~*~You were knocked unconscious. He must have carried you. Now calm down and think, Serena. Do you remember at the party? The black force he pushed into your mind? You are alone with him. He will try that again, and you must be ready for him. Do not take any wine. It will make your defenses weaker. And where is the silver crystal?~*~

With a sickening lurch of her stomach, Serena realized that the locket was not around her neck.

~*~He must have taken it. You will have to get it back, or you stand no chance at all.~*~

But how do I do that? she begged, desperately.

~*~I do not know.~*~

Diamond came back, bearing two goblets and an opened bottle. "There we are," he said cheerfully, and poured an inch of ruby liquid into each. He handed one to Serena. "Come on now, down the hatch. It will make you feel much better, I promise," he prompted when she did not reach to take it. Reluctantly, she accepted the glass and brought it to her lips, but did not part them. She hoped he wouldn't notice that she wasn't actually drinking any alcohol.

He settled himself in a majestic wing-backed leather chair across the coffee table from her, draping his arms over the sides, swirling his wine languidly and looking like a king on his royal throne. His pale eyes studied her. "What's wrong?" he asked mildly. "You look a little shaken up."

"Um.I was just, uh, wondering." Her head was addled, and no good words would come to her. "Um.I had a necklace on. Do you know where it is?"

Oh well, so much for subtlety.

Diamond chuckled low in his throat. The blue eyes locked with hers, holding them as a slender hand reached into the pocket of his white buttoned shirt. A slim gold chain dangled across his fingers as the shining oval slid from the fabric and swung free.

The icy eyes pierced her. "I was afraid you might choke yourself, being unconscious with a chain around your lovely throat. And that just wouldn't do." Serena watched fearfully as, holding her gaze, he slowly extended his arm and let the chain slide from his fingers. The locket fell with a little gold flash and clatter upon the glass of his coffee table. Serena stared, mesmerized, at the tiny golden heap, the etched pattern of moon and stars shining softly in the light. Diamond's cold voice drew her back to his pale eyes. "I could never let anything bad happen to you," he whispered, smiling an awful smile.

Serena stared at him, paralyzed. The little pile of gold chain and oval stood like an obelisk of fear between them, a overpowering monument of the domination that he held over her. Diamond sat back, still smiling, and sipped his wine. His entire posture dared her to try and take it. There it was, right in front of her. But the icy glint in his pale eyes said that he knew what she felt in the sinking pit of her stomach: She could not move for it. She was in his power, the fly merely twisting in the spider's web in a futile effort to escape.

Her breath began to quicken, and she could not stop her eyes from darting to the unreachable door. Her heart was racing in circles around her frantic thoughts, like frightened little rabbits caught in a trap. Afraid that he would try something in the silence that stretched, Serena tried to swallow in a dry throat and quickly said something, anything: "Um.so, where exactly are we?"

Diamond chuckled and took a long drink of his wine. "This," he said with a grand, sweeping gesture of his wine glass, "is my humble home away from home." He looked at her curiously. "Hm, I guess you are wondering what exactly has happened. Well, I found you, knocked out cold with that horrible bruise on your head, so I carried you up to my apartment to tend to you. Right at the bottom of my stairs, you were. As though fate had delivered you into my hands." The frosty eyes sparked with some unknown emotion. "What a fortunate turn of events, is it not, my dear Serena?" he asked softly.

Serena forced herself to smile despite the freezing pinch of fear that twisted in her stomach. "Indeed," she lied, taking another pretend sip of her wine.

Diamond's smile just wouldn't seem to go away. The contrast between its warmth and his cold, cold eyes was quite disturbing. "So tell me, Miss Hino, by what instrument did destiny deliver you to me?" he inquired, refilling his drained glass.

Serena watched nervously as more alcohol disappeared down his throat. "Um.well, there was this woman.I asked her for directions, and she hit me. She thought I had money and I guess she was mugging me. Which reminds me, did you happen to see a small black cat anywhere near when you found me?"

A muscle in Diamond's cheek jumped, the only indication that his smooth reply was insincere. "No, I didn't see any animal."

But Serena saw the twitch, and she also saw for the first time that there were three parallel rips in the skin of his left cheek. Luna, she realized with a jolt. Luna scratched him for me.

~*~It's a warning. Luna is connected to the silver crystal. She is your Reader, and she will try to tell you about the intentions of the people you meet.~*~

Well, I really appreciate her scratching him for me, but I don't need any warnings to know that Diamond is a bad man and that I am in trouble, Serena thought back wryly.

"You are not drinking your wine," Diamond pointed out suddenly.

"Oh, I'm not?" Serena repeated dumbly, caught off guard. "Uh, well, I.never really much cared for wine," she improvised quickly.

"Really?" he asked incredulously, obviously unable to believe that anyone could dislike something that contained alcohol. "Still, you ought to try and drink it. It will make your head much better. Pretend its medicine, as my mother used to say," he said with a grin.

He was watching her very closely now. She wouldn't be able to fake it any more. Feeling a little panicky, she tried to laugh. "But I hate medicine, how will that help?"

He chuckled. "All right, pretend it's coke. I don't care, as long as you drink it."

Oh, shit. But that was what she must not do. Um.a little help, Serenity?

~*~Get rid of it somehow. But whatever you do, do not drink it.~*~

Great, thanks a lot. Get rid of it how? Diamond was watching her intently. She had to do something.

She moved to set it on the edge of the coffee table, saying, "Well, just now I feel a bit queasy, I guess I'll try to drink a little later." but her hand trembled quite accidentally and the glass tipped off the edge and fell. Red wine splashed dark against the pale champagne carpet, instantly soaking into the fibers in a shocking stain.

Serena gasped, and Diamond sprung up from his chair. For a moment she was afraid he would hit her, such anger blazed in his pale blue eyes, and she all but cowered beneath the expected blow. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I did that, I'm so incredibly sorry," escaped her in a rush. Then his violence was abruptly gone and he was hurrying to the kitchen for some towels.

It was lucky that Serenity, at least, had her wits about her.

~*~Now, now, you will not get another chance!~*~ the lady shrieked, and Serena felt her arm snapping out almost of its own accord. Her fist closed around the cool metal of the locket on the table and snatched it up against her chest. The motion was barely finished when Diamond returned.

"It's all right," he said in a tight voice as he blotted dark red out of his beautiful carpet. But it wasn't all right, and Serena was torn between glee at having disposed of the wine and distracted him long enough to retrieve the crystal, and fear of the anger that he was trying to hide from her.

Oh, but if it weren't for Serenity, that opportunity would have just slipped right by. This was not good. Serena's wits were stretched too tight. She desperately needed a moment to regroup, collect herself, and form a feasible battle plan to put in action. This had all happened too quickly. Right after she had regained consciousness, she had been faced with the most dire situation of her life. It was too much. If she was going to save herself, she needed to be calm, prepared, and completely on her guard. She needed time to achieve that.

"I.I need to use the bathroom," she whispered weakly, clutching the locket against her chest. It was the best she could come up with. She hoped he would take pity on her and buy it.

"Down the hall," he said in a preoccupied tone, scrubbing at his carpet.

It was all she could do to keep from running down the hallway. She escaped as gracefully as possible and put a lock between herself and Diamond as soon as she reached the little room. She only wished that bathrooms came with steel doors, deadbolts, and chains.

She sank to the floor. Here was the second carpeted bathroom that she had occupied in her life.

God help me, she thought, with her face in her hands. Somebody please help me. Darien, I'm scared. If I don't stop him.he means to rape me. Oh, God, someone please help me.

~----------~

Sapphire flinched as his father's meaty fist came banging down on the solid oak desk.

"WELL WHERE IN FIERY HELL IS HE?!" the old man bellowed, his great, wrinkly face turning beet red up to the roots of his slicked-back silver hair.

"I don't know, sir," Sapphire said as calmly as possible. He was afraid of his father, and the old man knew it. Mr. Darmoon never had been able to decide if this was a healthy trait or if it meant that his second son was a pansy. He usually tended to lean toward the pansy option, as Diamond, his eldest and favorite son, wasn't the least bit afraid of anything. But right now, he had a crisis on his hands, Diamond was not at work where he should be, and the senior CEO of Darmoon International was very displeased with his absent junior CEO.

"Now you listen here," he spat, furious that something had to be trusted to his least favorite son, "You find your brother and you tell him to get his sorry ass in here before I personally wring his neck! You hear me?"

"Yes, sir," Sapphire asserted smartly, only too glad to escape from the awful office. He did his best not to run out the door.

"Hope he didn't give you too hard a time," the young secretary purred at him as he passed. She was pretty and found it thrilling to flirt with the powerful Darmoon's sons. Sapphire was the only one of the three who hadn't slept with her.

The wall behind them shuddered as his father threw something heavy against it, and she flinched.

"Ah, not too bad, thanks, Penny," he smiled at her, but kept walking, not in the mood for games.

He knew exactly where Diamond was, of course. His brother had been even later than this before, and it was always for the same reason.

Ah, my brother, he thought sadly to himself, all these women.haven't I told you that your little games would get you in trouble one of these days? And now, you see, I was right. He pressed the elevator button for ground floor and sighed. But we both know it won't matter. Father has always liked you best. You will be forgiven the instant he sees you again.

The elevator lurched sickeningly to a stop and the doors parted on ground floor. Sapphire strode out into the warm sunshine, heading for his car and Diamond's apartment. He looked up at the sky and shuddered with a sudden dark feeling, like a shadow passing over his soul.

Oh, Diamond, what are you doing?

~----------~

Darien heard Beryl's strained gasp as the tires squealed around a tight corner, but quite frankly, he wasn't worried too much about safe driving at the moment. His mind was occupied by one thought, and one thought only.

Diamond had Serena.

His car's squealing protests to being handled so roughly, accompanied by Beryl's panting gasps of fear, made a fitting background for the turmoil of his thoughts. Serena, small and terrified, cowered helplessly beneath the awful looming figure of a cackling Diamond in the worried theater of his mind. He turned the wheel hard, straining against the weight of the car and the weight of the images his all-too-apt imagination was conveying to him. Diamond smiling that cold smile at her.Diamond whispering intimate profanity in her ear. Diamond delighting in the shocked widening of her clear eyes. Diamond's hand on her bare thigh..

"Shit!!" he cursed, slamming his foot down, the sound of antilock brakes shrieking through him as they tried to kick in. "Which way?!" he demanded wildly of the distressed female who was clutching at the door handles in the seat next to him.

"Left, Left!!" she hurriedly directed, briefly freeing one hand to gesture at the correct street off the intersection. It was quickly replaced as the car nearly tipped on one side speeding around the turn. "And for God's sake, Darien, you can't save her if you kill the both of us in a car wreck first!"

"Sorry," he said tersely, but didn't let up one bit of his pressure on the gas pedal. The stone in his pocket was burning into his thigh, spreading desperation throughout his body. The mental theater that his imagination was oh-so-kindly providing didn't help much to calm his sense of urgency, either.

~*~Hurry, for God's sake HURRY, she cannot take him on her own!!~*~

Not to mention that Endymion wasn't exactly being the voice of serenity. [AN: no pun intended, ha ha ha. ^_^]

"Here, here, STOP!" Beryl's strained voice cried over the squeal of burning tires. The car finally shrieked to a blessed standstill, about three inches away from crashing into a sign that read, 'No Parking, Anytime.'

Darien turned to the woman next to him, yanking off his seatbelt. "This is it?" he asked hurriedly.

Still holding the handles of her door in a death-grip, she sat braced against the seat, panting, her eyes turned skyward. Her mouth moved in a silent prayer of thanks for having survived.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Darien muttered wryly, jogging around the car and yanking her door open for her. She stumbled out unsteadily, needing to lean a hand against the car to stand. She pressed her other hand over her racing heart.

"Good God, I thought I was going to have a heart attack if you didn't kill us first. Yeah, this is it. Apartment 3E. On the second floor, to your right, I think," she quickly directed him.

Despite the burning urgency that pulsed through him from the crystal, he felt a wave of gratitude. "Hey, Beryl.uh.thanks, I."

Still leaning against the car and panting, she waved a hand dismissively at him. "Oh, go on, Chiba, it was no problem, aside from the risk to my life. Anyway, it's me who owes you." Her voice softened to a mere whisper that he had to strain to catch. "I wanted to thank you.for everything.it.means a lot."

Pity washed through him. "Where will you go?" he asked, gently.

She shrugged. "Back to my apartment, I guess, or maybe over to Emerald's.Maybe I'll even tell her what happened. I dunno.She's a bit shallow, I guess, but she's a good friend to me." Beryl drew the fur coat tighter about her shoulders, despite the warm mid-morning sun. Then she grinned a sarcastic grin and put a hand on her hip, looking like her old self again. "But I did risk my life to get you here, Darien, so just consider us even and don't come asking for favors. Now go on, noble hero, time to save your precious princess." She laughed sardonically and sauntered off down the street.

Darien looked after her for a moment, a fur-clad figure in the summer heat. It's funny, he thought, turning toward the building and slowly pulling the heated stone from the little bag in his pocket. I guess you can know a person, but not really know them at all. To think that the last time I saw her, I wished that I would never see her again. And now look what's happened.

With that thought, his mind jerked back to the situation at hand, to what *was* happening.

~*~Hurry, it may already be too late. Alone, she will not be strong enough, but together, you can take on the black crystal!~*~

With Endymion's urgent voice in his head and the golden crystal gripped strongly in his fist, Darien sprinted up the iron stairs.

Behind him, a little black cat, crouched in the shadows of the staircase, looked up after him. Ears pricking up in recognition, Luna mewled worriedly at his retreating form.

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