Chapter 4

Breakout

"Do we need either of them?" Nicky asked.

"Not if you already have all the information in your head," Harry responded.

"I only have the locations. Is there anything else we need?" He asked.

"Not sure, so we should take one of them," Lou commented.

"Let"s take the old man," Harry suggested.

That was what we did. I had high hopes something would come out of this. More than anything I could imagine, I wanted to get Lou"s daughter back to her. The first location was very close to Lou"s house. It was at the edge of town, just out of sight of most houses. It was their exit point.

Harry opened a passageway, and we all stepped through. Later, it occurred to me that it was foolish to travel this way without knowing where we were going.

We didn"t land where we needed to be but were close. We saw a huge castle across a large body of water, which I suspected was where we should be.

"What now?" Nicky asked.

"We try again. This time, Lou gives me her strength," Harry requested.

Lou gave Harry her hand. Seconds later, we were in the woods with nothing to see. I was sure we were closer, but I was also sure we were miles from the castle.

"Everyone, give Harry their strength!" Will demanded.

No one challenged her. We all touched Harry"s arm. This time, it worked. We ended up in a walkway between cells.

The cages were nearly full of all kinds of paranormals. We would set all of them free. Harry grabbed the keys and opened a section of the doors. She had been doing this kind of thing for a long time.

Soon, I realized that setting everyone free at the same time would create chaos–something we wanted to avoid. Many prisoners could escape under their own magic, but that was not true of vampires, wolves, and some of the younger paranormals who had not yet developed their powers.

Then, I saw a mermaid for the first time. She was held in a tank of water.

"One of us needs to get her back where she belongs," Harry said, turning to Lou.

They instantly reached an agreement. Suddenly, Harry was gone with the mermaid, the last prisoner in that particular section of cells.

Lou released another section of prisoners. This area held many who needed help getting home. Lou took four at a time who lived close to each other. She"d come and gone twice before Harry got back.

Harry didn"t wait; she immediately took four and left. None of us had that skill except Nicky, but his talents were limited.

It took them an hour before all those in that section of cages went home. Another area was automatically released. Most were able to go where they needed to go. Witches were asked to take somebody with them before they left.

Only a few did. Selfishness prevailed in all kinds. Those who did were a help, and some even took more.

That section was done quickly, and the next one opened automatically. While Harry and Lou were gone, we checked out the other sections.

So far, Star has yet to be found.

We found the twins in the cage next to her. They said she had been moved but didn"t know where.

I had forgotten about Belle. She immediately opened the cage, took the twins out, and vanished.

I thought her job was done. To my surprise, she came back to help. Removing prisoners from the newly opened, she took them wherever they needed to go.

Maybe she was told that if she found the twins, they had to go home before she did anything else. I could relate. Our council often gave us orders of that type. With two witches and a fae working, everything moved forward quickly.

I had to admit, I was surprised the security was so lax. As soon as I thought it, someone came at us. It was my turn to fight. As far as I could tell, he was a wolf, but not a particularly large or vicious one.

As we ran at each other, I morphed and met him head-to-head. Our teeth clashed. Damn, it hurt. I hoped I hadn"t chipped any of my teeth.

The other wolf stepped back as I pushed him harder and harder. Even though I was overwhelming them, the fight didn"t stop.

Breaking free, I went for his neck, wrapping my jaws around it. He went down but continued to try to get away. It was no use. He couldn"t do anything as my teeth cut into his neck.

I wasn"t trying to rip out their throat, but if he continued to move, it would happen. Finally tired, he moved a paw forward and tapped. The rules were clear. I let him up, only to watch him rush away.

Would he warn others? Maybe he was only concerned with saving his own life.

It didn"t matter because the jail was nearly emptied out, and all those imprisoned knew they were to be auctioned. No one wanted that. Hopefully, they would take care not to be caught again.

"We"ve released all those that were imprisoned. Star isn"t here, and we need to go," Will announced.

Everyone gathered and gave Harry their strength. This time, the trip ended well. We arrived at Lou"s house in the living room. The trip was easier because it was a place Harry had been before.

It was my first time traveling by magic, and I didn"t like it. I would never let anyone know that it gave me a headache and I wanted to hurl. The first time was better, but the second was terrible. Had it been a cumulative effect? I should have never gone the second time, but what choice did I have?

It was good to be back at Lou"s. Thankfully, no one was injured. The bad part was that Lou"s daughter was still not home. It felt good that all the others who had been captured, at least as far as I knew, had been freed.

"How do we locate her?" I asked.

"We can try a location spell, but they have been fairly good at blocking magic," Harry admitted.

"Does it hurt anything if we try?" I wondered aloud since I knew little about magic.

"The other thing is we"ll be unable to do another spell for a day or so. Since we don"t seem to be coming up with new clues, that won"t matter," Lou responded.

"Lou should make these decisions," Harry nodded in agreement.

"Who wants to be the one to do the spell?" Will asked.

"Why don"t you do it, Harry? I feel a little nervous, and that"s not good when doing a spell like this," Lou admitted.

"Do you have an item of hers you don"t mind having destroyed?" Harry asked.

"This horrible hat," Lou grunted, picking it up. "Star mostly leaves it here because she knows I hate it. She has a perverse sense of humor sometimes."

"Toss it to me." Harry directed.

She was holding a puke-green bucket hat with some ugly, unidentifiable bugs attached to the brim. I silently agreed that I would leave the hat behind as well.

Harry stood beside the fireplace and chanted. When the hat caught fire, she tossed it into the fireplace and grabbed paper and pen to write down the address that was now showing.

"Any good news?" I asked.

"Yes, this isn"t the castle. At the very least, we can get some clues," Harry offered.

"Is there a reason you feel like she"s not there?" I asked.

"It would be foolish of them to leave her there. If we want any clues at all, we need to hurry. Everyone, gather around," Harry instructed.

Everyone did, then touched Harry. The trip was short. It was a dilapidated, dreary house with a sense of pain I could not explain.

As we looked around, Harry yelled

, "I found a hidden room. The smell is terrible. We"ll need help to clear out all these people. They are in bad shape," she explained.

Harry had worked a great deal on the blood drug investigations, which often involved slavers. This was a sad reality of our world. Slaves were constantly being found, and new ones filled the void.

It was hard to explain how anyone could treat another living soul in such a horrible manner. But they did. I had seen it too many times to doubt it. Greed overwhelmed any feelings of care for their fellow humans or even paranormals. Nothing would hold them back except the severe punishment the wardens or each council doled out.

The smell hit us as soon as we entered. It was bad. There were no cages, just many people squeezed into small spaces. A couple were deceased. There was no helping them. It was clear they had been there for varying amounts of time. Some looked almost skeletal because they had been starved. Others didn"t look bad, having been there a shorter time.

Several witches appeared as soon as Harry got the prisoners out the door, and they instantly disappeared. A few got out of their own volition to heal at home.

There were a little more than a hundred people. Harry managed to get ten of them out the door. Will was already making sure everyone got the water they needed.

Belle followed Harry"s example, sending people out the door before taxiing a few home. They were dealing with the easy ones while waiting for help to arrive.

It was hard to stomach the condition these people were in, and when Harry returned, she touched the worst cases, easing their pain. I could only assume she was giving them some energy and hoped it would be enough to help them survive.

It wasn"t long before the others arrived. I didn"t know one of them, but I assumed they were magic users. They took the prisoners in the worst condition. I didn"t know where, but any place was better than this.

The need to escape this hall of horrors was overwhelming, but I had to stay. Focusing on Lou, I found her caring for a group of children. They had been treated horribly.

When selling people as slaves, why would you let them get in such a terrible condition? To let these people die was horrible. I simply couldn"t understand.

The place was clearing out, and I could not deny that it made me happy. I wanted to return to Lou"s, where we could clean up, eat a good meal, and sleep. I was not cut out for this type of work, but I tried to help in any way I could.

"That"s the last one," Will announced.

The relief I felt made me feel guilty. These poor people had been through so much more than I had, but I couldn"t help feeling the need to go home. Yes, since Lou was my mate, I considered wherever she was home. I felt horrible that we still hadn"t found her daughter. This stop helped us free many others, but not Star. I didn"t know what else to do.

We held hands in a circle, and Harry took us back to where we had started. We all dropped into a seat in Lou"s living room. Since I was sitting next to her, I reached out, grabbed her hand, and squeezed it. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn"t know how.

"What do we do now?" Nicky asked.

"There were few clues there. Any ideas where we might find more?" Lou asked.

"I managed to get a few names, but I don"t know if they are real. I was also given an image of the slavers. It will be more helpful than the names. We"ve worked hard. We should have supper and then go to bed. In the morning, Jagger can bring Linda to draw the people involved with this slavery ring. I hope we can track some of them back to their hiding place," Harry explained.

"Belle, did you learn anything?" I asked.

"I learned how to transport four at a time," she answered.

"Anything else?" I questioned.

"Someone who hunts fae involved with this," she reluctantly admitted.

"You have a name?" I wondered.

"They are very dramatic. They go by The Shadow. I have no real name, but one of the fae gave me a mental picture," Belle replied.

"Will you let Linda draw a picture of this shadow?" I asked.

"Sure, why not? For now, I"m starved, and I"m sure Harry is too. What are we going to eat?" Belle requested.

"Why don"t we order fried chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. We could get a salad on the side and maybe some pie for dessert?" Harry suggested.