incapacitate any of the men. And now that I’d stripped them of their fun, they focused their combined energy on a new target.
I cursed my foolishness that I hadn’t paid better attention to my surroundings. They came at me from all sides, two in front and two behind. The two men behind me were angrier, considering I’d roughed them up a bit. I reached for the shadows, desperate to join their company. A ray of early morning sunlight filtered in through the roof and my heart stuttered in my chest. Too late. Something swooshed behind me and I spun. The heavy length of chain rushed at my face so fast I didn’t have time to react. It smashed against my head, and a bright white light of pain exploded in my skull moments before darkness swallowed me whole.
* * *
“Do what you want. I’m not taking a woman while she’s knocked out. Where’s the fun in that?” a muffled voice poked through the dark haze of my brain, pulling me from a state of nothingness.
“The way she tossed you around, Pete, it might be best to take her that way. Wonder why she’s dressed like a man,” another voice said.
“Who cares why? All that matters is what’s underneath her clothes.”
“She could be someone important,” a third voice entered the conversation. “Might be a bad idea to mess with her if we can make a buck off of her.”
“Ransom?” the first voice, Pete, asked.
Silence fell and I assumed the men were all contemplating the situation. It appeared that perhaps money meant more to them than the possibility of rape. Good for me, I supposed. Though at present, my situation could be considered anything but good. I couldn’t discern my surroundings, though I knew they’d moved me from Colman Dock. And though I couldn’t see the sky, the fact that I was confined to corporeality was proof enough that I hadn’t been unconscious for long.
My captors weren’t taking any chances with me. Heavy chain had been wound around my body several times, anchoring me to a post as big around as a large tree. My confidence that I could easily escape faltered. Though certain I could break even a thick rope, I didn’t think I could break through this much chain. I smelled the briny tang of the inlet and heard the gentle lap of water somewhere below me . . . no longer at Colman Dock, but we had to be close to the waterfront still.
Azriel had to be awake by now. I tried to push my worry to the back of my mind. Would he think I’d left him? God, I had to get back to him. I couldn’t let him think that he meant so little to me that I would simply sneak away while he slept.
“She’s not worth anything to us unless we figure out who she is.” The men began their plotting again, as they talked about me as if I were nothing but a fine piece of merchandise.
I refused to sit and wait to hear my fate decided by these imbeciles. They’d been out looking for sport, and when I’d ruined their good time, I became the consolation prize. I’d played the victim once, and it was not a role I planned to reprise. “I’m no one you want to tangle with. That’s all you need to know about who I am.”
All four of them turned to gawk. It’s not like they’d gagged me, so I wasn’t quite sure why they looked so shocked to hear me speak. “Guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see you up and talkin’.” I recognized the voice as belonging to Pete, the one who actually had a problem with raping an unconscious woman. If I had to guess, I’d say he was the “honorable” one in the group. “The way Sam here smacked you with that chain . . . you should be bruised to hell. Or worse. But there’s not a scratch on your pretty face. Why’s that?”
Well, well. Pete had the honor and the brains. Azriel had told me once that it was important that we keep to ourselves. Most humans didn’t pay enough attention to recognize that part of us that was other. But, every once in a while, a person took the time to really look. It was just my luck that Pete happened to be astute. “Maybe Sam overestimates his strength?” I suggested in an innocent tone.
One of the men stepped forward. He scrubbed a dirty hand over the stubble growing on his face and smiled. His gray-blue eyes narrowed as he looked me over from head to toe. “I’ve got strength enough,” he said and then grabbed at his groin through his pants. “Right here. How ’bout I show you?”
“How about you go to hell?”
That earned a few snickers from my captors. I suppose that I didn’t sound very tough, or threatening. I made a mental note to improve on that. But tough-sounding or not, bound or free, I had to believe that I still had the upper hand on these men. They couldn’t kill me, not without a magic blade, and I doubted any of them had such a thing. And though I was wrapped in chains and bound to my corporeal form, I was still stronger. If they planned to rape me, they’d have to take the chains off. When that happened, I’d kill every last one of them with my bare hands if I had to.
“Look,” Pete said as he held his hands out as if to calm me down. I’d thrown him a good ten feet before his friend had knocked me out, and I sensed that he wasn’t going to take my soft, feminine appearance for granted. “Nobody’s going to hurt you if you don’t give us a reason to. We just want to know who you are, is all.”
I raised my chin up toward the ceiling, hoping I looked defiant. “I don’t see how my identity is any of your business.”
“That’s rich,” Sam scoffed. “What you done was none of your business, but you didn’t seem to have a problem stickin’ your nose where it didn’t belong.”
“You attacked that poor woman,” I said, low.
“Maybe we oughta give you what we were gonna give to her?”
My stomach tightened and my heart threatened to start up its frantic racing once again. That’s what they wanted, though. Wasn’t it? Men like these fed off their victim’s fear. The power they exercised over the helpless was better than any petty sexual thrill. Predators in the truest sense, they hunted their prey with precision, looking out for only the freshest kill.
Well, they weren’t going to get what they wanted from me.
“Try it!” I snapped. “In fact, I dare you.”
I’d listened to Azriel’s tough talk more than once over the years. Just the other night, he’d threatened Lorik’s men as casually as he’d exchange polite conversation on the weather. I mimicked his tone, letting a steeliness settle in to my words so these men would know that I meant business. I lowered my gaze, met each one of them eye to eye and never once demurred.
“She’s somebody’s girl,” Pete said, his voice a terrified whisper. He tugged on Sam’s sleeve while the other two nameless men just stared, jaws slack. “She’s gotta be. Maybe Joe Connolly, or shit, J.P. Chase. Why else would she be dressed like that and talkin’ tough like she is? It’s because she knows what her man is gonna do to us if he catches us with her!”
As Pete’s tone escalated, his face turned a lovely shade of puce. Hands trembling, he didn’t ask for his cronies’ permission before he started working at the fastenings of my chains, desperate to free me. Laughter bubbled up from my throat as he fumbled, not because I’d managed to rattle him, but for some reason I found it ironic that Pete suggested I might be Joe’s girl.
I could have told them that Joe was dead. And I might have mentioned that my lover had done the deed. But why waste my breath? We could play these games throughout the day until the sun set. It wouldn’t change anything. Or save any of their lives. So I sat, biding my time, giving Pete the opportunity to make good with whomever he supposed I belonged to. Sam scrubbed his hands across his face again as he watched Pete uncoil the chain from around me, and I smirked. I could see the doubt, the fear etched in every dirty line of his forehead.
“Worried?” I asked him.
Rather than answer, he turned away.
I shouldn’t have enjoyed watching him squirm. I’d given Sam a dose of his own medicine, and knowing I’d gained the upper hand by preying on his fear should have sickened me. Instead, I felt like I’d dispensed some form of justice. As the coil of chain loosened around me, I armed myself with the only weapon at my disposal: namely, the very chain that held me.
Pete really quit paying attention to me the moment he’d had his little epiphany. Sam, on the other hand, pointedly ignored me while he paced back and forth in front of me. As for the other two, they’d slunk away as soon as they realized Sam had actual concerns about my identity. The punishment for their wicked ways should have been divided equally among the four of them, but I would simply have to hope that after I was through with Pete and Sam, they’d stand as examples to their friends.
When the last coil of chain fell to the wooden plank beneath me, I struck. With preternatural speed I jerked a length of the heavy chain around Pete’s neck. I almost felt sorry for the guy. He didn’t see it coming. From my
