to go-in the beginning.
"It must have been a shock," Rashel said dryly, "to find out that there really was a darkness to surrender
to."
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, it was. But I didn't actually find that out then. I just said, sure, I wanted to. I mean, I'd
have said the same thing if he asked me did I really want to watch Lawrence Welk reruns with him. He
was that gorgeous. And he was looking at me in this totally soulful way, and I thought he was going to
kiss me. And then... I fell asleep." Daphne frowned at her paper cup.
"No, you didn't."
"I did. I know it sounds crazy, but I fell asleep and when I woke up I was in this place, this little office in
this warehouse. And I was on this iron cot with this pathetic lumpy mattress, and I was chained down. I
had chains on my ankles, just like people in jail. And Quinn was gone, and there were two other girls
chained to other cots." Without warning, Daphne began to cry.
Rashel handed her a napkin, feeling uncomfortable. "Were the girls from the Crypt, too?"
Daphne sniffed. "I don't know. They might have been. But they wouldn't talk to me. They were, like, in a
trance. They just lay there and stared at the ceiling."
"But you weren't in a trance," Rashel said thoughtfully. "Somehow you woke up from the mind control.
You must be resistant like me."
"I don't know anything about mind control. But I was so scared I pretended to be like the other girls
when this guy came to bring us food and take us to the bathroom. I just stared straight ahead like them. I
thought maybe that way I would get a chance to escape."
"Smart girl," Rashel said. "And the guy-was it Quinn?"
"No. I never saw Quinn again. It was this blond guy named Ivan from the club; I called him Ivan the
Terrible. And there was a girl who brought us food sometimes-I don't know her name, but I used to see
her at the club, too. They were like Quinn; they each had their own little group, you know."
At least two others besides Quinn, Rashel thought. Probably more.
"They didn't hurt us or anything, and the office was heated, and the food was okay-but I was so scared,"
Daphne said. "I didn't understand what was going on at all. I didn't know where Quinn was, or how I'd
gotten there, or what they were going to do with us." She swallowed.
Rashel didn't understand that last either. What were the vampires doing with the girls in the warehouse?
Obviously not killing them out of hand.
"And then last night..." Daphne's voice wobbled and she stopped to breathe. "Last night Ivan brought
this new girl in. He carried her in and put her on a cot. And... and... then he bit her. He bit her on the
neck. But it wasn't a game." The cornflower-blue eyes stared into the distance, wide with remembered
horror. "He really bit her. And blood came out and he drank it. And when he lifted his head up I saw his
teeth." She started to hyperventilate.
"It's okay. You're safe now," Rashel said.
"I didn't know! I didn't know those things were real! I thought it was all just..." Daphne shook her
head. "I didn't know," she said softly.
"Okay. I know it's a big shock. But you've been dealing with it really well. You managed to get
away from the truck, didn't you? Tell me about the truck."
"Well-that was tonight. I could tell day from night by looking at this little window high up. Ivan and the
girl came and took the chains off us and made us all get in the truck. And then I was really scared-I didn't
know where they were taking us, but I heard something about a boat. And I knew wherever it was, I
didn't want to go."
"I think you're right about that."
Daphne took another breath. "So I watched the way Ivan shut the door of the truck. He was in back
with us. And when he was looking the other way, I sort of jumped at the door and got it open. And then
I just fell out. And then I ran-I didn't know which way to go, but I knew I had to get away from them.
And then I saw you. And... I guess you saved my life." She considered. "Uh, I don't know if I
remembered to say thank you."
Rashel made a gesture of dismissal. "No problem. You saved yourself, really." She frowned, staring at a
drop of chocolate on the plastic table without seeing it.
"Well. I am grateful. Whatever they were going to do to me, I think it must have been pretty awful." A
pause, then she said, "Uh, Rashel? Do you know what they were going to do to me?"
"Hm? Oh." Rashel nodded slowly, looking up from the table. "Yes, I think so."
Chapter 8
Well?" Daphne said.
"I think it's the slave trade."
And, Rashel thought, I think I was right-this is something big.
The Night World slave trade had been banned a long time ago-back in medieval days, if she
remembered the stories correctly. The Council apparently had decided that kidnapping humans and
selling them to Night People for food or amusement was just too dangerous. But it sounded as if Quinn
might be reviving it, probably without the Council's permission. How very enterprising of him.
I was right about killing him, too, Rashel thought. There's no choice now. He's as bad as I imagined- and
worse.
Daphne was goggling. "They were going to make me a slave?" she almost yelled.
"Sh." Rashel glanced at the man behind the doughnut counter. "I think so. Well-a slave and a sort of
perpetual food supply if you were sold to vampires. Probably just dinner if you were going to
werewolves."
Daphne's lips repeated werewolves silently. But Rashel was speaking again before she could ask about
it.
"Look, Daphne-did you get any idea about where you might be going? You said they mentioned a boat.
But a boat to where? What city?"
"I don't know. They never talked about any city. They just said the boat was ready... and something
about an aunt-clave." She pronounced it ont-clave. "The girl said, 'When we get to the aunt-clave...'"
Daphne broke off as Rashel grabbed her wrist.