I woke up on a cold, hard surface with a massive headache and a smorgasbord of new aches and pains to add to the horrible cramps from my period. I had a very bad feeling about this, given what I thought I heard before losing consciousness, so for the moment I remained still and kept my breathing steady, feigning sleep as I listened and tried to figure out my current situation. What I figured out was not comforting.

I mean, I already suspected that the situation wasn’t good. If it was, then I wouldn’t be hurting all over because Dr. Diaz and Mom would have taken care of any injuries, so just the fact that I hurt all over was telling, but at least it didn’t feel like anything was broken. There was also the fact that I seemed to be naked and felt something hard and uncomfortable encircling my neck.

Usually, being naked would make me more comfortable, but I hadn’t been the one to take my clothes off and that combined with the weight around my neck, and what I could hear and smell, wasn’t reassuring in the least. Wherever I was, it smelled strongly of dust, mildew, blood, and old sweat. The only thing I could hear was two other people breathing, one steady and probably asleep while the other was steady as well, but shallow and deliberate, possibly someone who was trying to remain calm in a bad situation, just like I was.

With my magic sense, I could detect plenty of magic. It was all around me, first on whatever was around my neck, two other similar enchantments close by, something faint somewhere to my right, and a far more powerful source of Divine magic. Wherever I was being held, they had some very powerful wards around the building, at least, I assumed it was a building from what I was sensing.

I opened my eyes and tried to move, every ache and pain protesting that decision. The room was dim and blurry to my eyes at first and the sound of my groaning summoned my conscious companion to my side. It took a moment for the blurry image to take the form of a familiar face, a very familiar face, the one that I now saw in the mirror every day, right down to the pointed elven ears.

No bunny ears, and for a moment that left me a little confused and wondering just how hard I had hit my head. “Jess?” I asked, my voice slightly raspy.

My sister nodded, a relieved but shaky smile gracing her face, which was now completely identical to mine in every way. “Yeah, it’s me, Sis,” she whispered. “The last thing I remember was panicking when I heard someone talking about grabbing you after we crashed, and I woke up like this. So, the good news is that I think I’m finally over my shapeshifting block.”

“And the bad news?” I asked, even though I was already pretty sure that I knew what that was.

Jessica’s reply was not in the least reassuring. “We’re naked and in some dank dungeon. Mallory is here too, but she’s still unconscious. They must have put these collars on us right after knocking us out, or I would have shifted back to my bunny form in my sleep. Given the collars to prevent magic use, our current situation, and how organized our attackers were, I’m gonna guess we were nabbed by the Chimera Syndicate.”

“Fucking lovely,” I muttered, not that it wasn’t what I had been expecting myself. I was just hoping to not have it confirmed and let out a long sigh before speaking quietly once again. “I figured as much. Any idea how long we’ve been here?”

“No clue,” my sister replied with a frown and a shake of her head. “I woke up not long before you did. I’m guessing that we’ve been out for at least a couple of hours. You’re smelling pretty strongly of blood, and I know you changed your tampon right before we left the school.”

I nodded grimly since, again, it was not unexpected. Whoever undressed us hadn’t removed my tampon, I could still feel it inside me, but I was pretty sure that it was soaked through, and I could feel warm liquid dribbling down my thighs. That, and the thought of all the bruises and scrapes I could feel on me were giving my poor Nymph vanity a beating.

My mood was not improved any when I tried to heal myself and couldn’t reach the magic inside me, like there was something blocking it, and the same went for trying to teleport to the Fire Plane. It was as I expected, given that my sister couldn’t shapeshift either, but it was definitely disappointing. There was one last thing that I could think to try, but I wanted a better idea of where we were and to make sure we weren’t being monitored first.

I had no doubt that Mom and Pandora were probably already organizing some sort of rescue attempt, and that Carmilla was probably ready to tear our captors limb from limb. Those wards were probably going to keep them from being able to teleport to our location though, if Melody and Carmen were in any shape to do so. I had no idea what happened to my girlfriend and Carmen when we were attacked, but I assumed that if they were in any condition to be able to reach us through teleportation, they would have done so while we were in transit or prevented our capture altogether in the first place.

That caused an uncomfortable ache in my heart as I worried about both of them, but focusing on that wouldn’t help our situation right now, even if we could do anything for them. Hopefully, they were both okay, but our rescuers would have to track us down the hard way now and, while they did have a secret weapon, that could take a while. In the meantime, I should probably try to figure out an escape plan of my own in case they tried to move us before our rescuers could arrive.

I took a look around once Jess helped me get to my feet and tried to ignore the warm liquid running slowly down my thighs. She was right about us being in a dungeon, and it wasn’t the fun kind. We were in a three-meter square room that seemed to be made completely of stone, and the only exit was a thick-looking metal door that muffled any sound coming from outside. I thought that I could faintly hear a girl screaming when I put my ear to the door, but the sound was too faint for me to be certain.

I couldn’t see any cameras or other electronic devices, nor could I feel any enchantments other than those powerful wards, the collars around our necks, and the single stone in the wall that had been enchanted to provide the faint light in the room. There was no furniture whatsoever either, unless you included a rancid-smelling bucket in the corner. The only other thing of note in the cell was close to a dozen thick metal rings embedded in the ceiling and the floor alongside three of the walls with steel chains attached to manacles connected to them.

By the time that I finished my check of the room, Mallory was beginning to stir, and Jess went to check on her. I heard the Efreeti groaning, followed by a confused, “Crystal?”

“Sort of, but not quite,” my sister replied with a laugh. “It’s Jess, Crystal is over there.”

Fairly certain that we weren’t being monitored, I let Jess explain the situation while I focused my thoughts inward. “Cinder?” I could still feel her presence so I was hoping that the collar would only block out my abilities. If Cinder could still materialize in her physical form, we might have a chance here. “I need you to try to leave my body.”

I could feel her focus shift to me immediately after my query as a flood of relief, fear, and fury at our captors hit me all at once. What surprised me most though was the single hesitant word in a feminine and child-like mind voice. ~ Try. ~ It was her first real focused thought beyond the emotions that I usually felt from her, and it brought tears to my eyes.

She didn’t just try though, she succeeded as my Salamander mark flared and her physical body took its place, perched on my arm and nuzzling my skin. It didn’t even seem to strain her any more than usual, so these collars probably weren’t made with symbiotic Fire Elementals in mind. “That’s my good girl,” I told her with a misty-eyed smile as I gently stroked her tiny head and wings with a finger. “I need you to practice stoking a flame now, sweet baby. I know you haven’t been able to do it yet, but I believe in you.”

Cinder tried, and I could sense that she was so very close, until five minutes later we heard a rattling at the door from the lock being worked. Cinder once more flared, returning to my body to hide from sight. We couldn’t let her be discovered if we wanted to have our chance of escape, so I breathed a sigh of relief as she vanished, and her energy once again infused me, seconds before the door opened with the creak of rusty hinges.

The door opened to reveal a human man, probably an Earth Mage from the magic I sensed on him. He was tall with tanned skin, dark brown hair, and a goatee and he wore a dark suit. Two trolls were right on his heels, dragging a sobbing and naked young blonde woman, who they tossed roughly into the cell once he had stepped aside. Once the trolls stepped back to hover in the doorway behind him and prevent any escape attempts, the man gave us a smile that I didn’t like at all.

This tracked with what Calliope had been able to tell us about the Chimera Syndicate. They were mostly run by human Mages who were selfish bastards and didn’t want to play nice with other Paranormals when they could profit from them, usually by selling things they needed via the back market or selling rare Paranormals as slaves. They hired Trolls and some of the other really nasty Paranormals for muscle, but sometimes kept particularly useful slaves, like Mallory’s mother, for themselves to work for them and/or to breed more of.

He hadn’t said anything yet, giving us time to look at our new cellmate. She had been roughed up, she had bruises all over her, including one side of her face being swollen and hosting a black eye, and she collapsed where she had been thrown in a sobbing heap. Fury filled me as I saw the blood and semen all over her thighs and leaking from between her legs. Oh, I knew exactly who she was, even with the bruises covering her face, there was no mistaking that it was Delilah, but her condition and that sick smile on the bastard’s face made me seethe. Not even Delilah deserved what they had done to her.

“Del!” Mallory was beside her as soon as she realized who it was, trying to comfort her sobbing former friend.

“How touching,” the man snorted “Maybe you should worry about yourselves instead of the whore who sold you out though. Can you believe she came looking for us? And she actually thought that the Chimera Syndicate would let her go after she told us about you. I can think of a lot of people who would pay top dollar for Steven Deveraux’s girl. Far more than we’d ever get for ransoming her, and yet, not nearly as much as we’ll get for a pair of Snow Nymph twins who can live in a city. The bitch held out on us and didn’t even tell us there were two of you.”

“Fucking bastard!” Mallory spat, seething with fury as she looked up from trying to soothe Delilah.

“Don’t worry, we have uses for you too. Maybe we can keep you all together at one of our whorehouses, at least until someone puts a kid in you.” Then he turned his attention on me and Jess to add, “You two will soon be getting all the sex you could ever want, whether we sell you or whore you out ourselves. Maybe I’ll get a little taste for myself before we...”

I interrupted his monologue, my tone frosty and very controlled as I forced out the words, “What is your name?”

“I wouldn’t give it to a slave like you. You can call me Master; it’ll be good practice for you,” he said with a snort.

“Suit yourself,” I told him icily. “I just wanted to know what should be put on your tombstone.”

The fucker laughed, not that I hadn’t expected it. “Who’s going to kill me? You? That worthless prick, Devereaux? I don’t think you quite understand the situation you’re in, you fucking bimbo.”

My reply was a swift, “Nope. I wasn’t talking about me or Delilah’s father and I’m pretty sure it’s you who has no idea how incredibly, epically screwed you are. Someone is coming for us, and you’ll be lucky if she only tears you limb from limb.”

“Are you talking about that Demon bitch that was with you? We filled her with Holy-enchanted lead. She’s not coming for you or anyone,” he informed me with another laugh.

Fear for Melody sent a cold shiver down my spine and made my heart skip a beat. No. I couldn’t believe that she would die so easily. “No, I’m talking about the Night Princess, and there is no place on Earth where she won’t track us down or the people who kidnapped us.”

For just an instant, I saw real worry in his eyes, but it was quickly shoved aside. “Nobody is going to find you here, and even if someone could, they would never get through the wards. You’ll be safe here until the boss decides what to do with you.”

Okay, so he wasn’t the head of this cell of the Syndicate, that was good to know. Jess beat me to the punch though as she warned, “You might want to tell ‘the boss’ that death is coming your way then. You’ve screwed with the wrong people.”

“I thought you Nymphs liked being screwed though,” he replied with a sneer. “We’ll see how hopeful you two are about your rescuers when you’ve been hanging out in here for a couple of days and you’re both begging for my dick. Get them chained up boys.”

The two massive trolls entered the room and none of us had the strength to give much resistance, especially in our current state, though Jess did give it a good try by giving one a solid kick to the nuts. Our wrists were manacled together high above our heads, so we were hanging from the rings in the ceiling, high enough that I had to stand on my tiptoes to ease the strain in my arms and shoulders. Our legs were secured far enough apart so they were spread, something that the bastard in charge told us gleefully would allow them easy access when they eventually came back to ‘sample the goods’ and keep me and Jess from trying to pleasure ourselves or each other until then.

As we hung there and they left, securing the door behind them, I tried to think about my plan to get us out of here. Delilah being here changed things and I didn’t dare release Cinder while she was conscious, let alone use Divine magic to heal us after Cinder melted my collar so we could escape. Not only was she stupid enough to search out the Chimera Syndicate in the first place, but if she thought she had any information she could use to negotiate her release, she would probably do so in an instant.

It was possible that she might side with us instead after what they did to her, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to take that chance. She looked like a broken version of her former self, not just from the physical injuries but because of the way that she just hung limply in her chains. I was still angry that she had thought to go this far though and a part of me wanted to ask, “Are you happy now? Is this the sweet vengeance you imagined?”

I couldn’t bring myself to do it though because she was suffering enough already and, even now, I wanted to try to be the better person. So, instead, I asked Mallory, “How’s she doing?”

Thankfully, the Efreeti knew who I was talking about. “I… I don’t know, Crystal. She’s stopped crying but she’s… vacant. I wasn’t able to get her to respond to me before we were all chained up, so she’s probably traumatized, but now it’s like the lights are on but nobody is home. I mean, you know her ego and this…”

She couldn’t seem to finish that sentence, but she didn’t need to. Delilah was used to thinking of herself as better than everyone else, to being in charge and having people treat her as though she was special and powerful. It had been a slap in the face when I showed up and didn’t take her shit, but this... She was beaten, raped, and I wouldn’t doubt that they had also done everything they could to make her feel worthless and used as well, to destroy that big ego of hers. To a person like Delilah, well, I had no idea how much that would mentally damage her.

“Hey, Delilah, it’s Crystal. You got us all into this mess, so could you at least talk to us?” I called out. Nothing but silence. I leaned forward as much as I could in my current position to look past my sister and Mallory, to Delilah who was the furthest away. Shit. She did not look good. Not only had she been beaten pretty badly and was wearing the same type of slave collar to prevent her from using magic, but Mallory was right. Her eyes and her expression were just… empty right now, there was no trace of the fire and fury I was used to seeing there.

The silence stretched on for I don’t know how long as my thoughts drifted from Delilah to Melody. I tried to tell myself that she was fine, the asshole was just trying to make me upset. She wouldn’t let me be captured like this if she could prevent it though, and that made the ache in my heart burn with despair and hot tears sting my eyes. What if she truly was…

“Mel will be fine,” Jess told me, looking at me intently as she seemingly read my mind and interrupted those dark thoughts. “Even if they did shoot her, she’s not a full Demon, so unless they got her somewhere fatal, she’ll probably live if help got to her in time. Yeah, she might be hurting, but I don’t think that she’d allow herself to die before coming to save our sorry asses. She loves you too much for that, Sis.”

“I… you’re right,” I replied, my voice tremulous. Melody wouldn’t let herself die to people like this, not when she wanted so strongly to keep me safe. I had to believe that while she might be down, she probably wasn’t out. She wouldn’t want me to worry about her when I could do something about our current situation either.

So, since Delilah seemed to be catatonic right now, I decided to get back to business. If I managed to get us free with Cinder’s help before help arrived, then I would make these Syndicate assholes rue the day that they targeted me and the people I cared about. And when I found that asshole who chained us up like this, and put Delilah in the state she was in, I would flash-freeze every molecule in his body one piece at a time, starting with that dick he was threatening us with.

Another brief glance toward Delilah showed that her eyes were closed and her posture more relaxed. Maybe everything had caught up with her and her body needed rest, but at least I could let Cinder out to keep working on summoning her flames. She was having trouble though, and I was a little worried that maybe she was still too young, until suddenly the entire cell brightened as she burst into flame.

“Good girl, Cinder! That’s my sweet baby!” I whispered happily as both my sister and Mallory turned to watch my Salamander with smiles that matched mine. “Now I want you to go as hot as you can manage and melt this collar off me, okay?”

I could sense the pride and affirmation in her mind, snuggled so close to mine, as she once again thought to me, ~Try.~

Cinder flew toward my throat, where she tightly gripped the collar encircling it with both her forelegs and hind legs. The growing heat warmed me but didn’t burn, thanks to our bond, but I was worried that she might have to return to my body before she could rid me of the collar. She had been out for a while this time while trying to ignite her flames and this was probably pushing the limits of her endurance at her age. And yet, her mind was filled with a sense of determination and dedication.

She was doing her best to do this for me and all I could do was to send her back my feelings of pride and encouragement. The heat of the collar was almost uncomfortable now and just before Cinder’s physical body dissipated, and her energy returned to merge with me once more, I could sense the magic on the collar break as molten metal ran down my skin and the connection to my magic returned. Cinder did it, and now it was my turn.

First, I attempted to teleport out of these chains and to the Fire Plane, but I wasn’t all that surprised when it didn’t work. The wards on this place probably prevented any form of teleportation because otherwise, someone would have tried to get to us that way by now. Even if Carmen and Melody couldn’t, they could have sent Ashe, and Mom and Pandora knew other people who could teleport and owed them favors.

Since that was a no-go, I focused on finding the Light within me and on the chains holding me in place. It wasn’t easy to focus my mind with the pain and discomfort I was feeling, but if Cinder could pull through, so would I. So, I remade those chains, manacles and all, changing them into ice and then simply commanding my primary element to reshape itself into a less confining shape. Now I just needed to do the same for the collars and chains on the others before Delilah woke up. At least I wasn’t too worried about anyone detecting small bits of Divine magic when we were surrounded by those wards.

I worked as quickly as I could, mentally thanking Ms. Norstrom for helping me to work on my focus, control, and mental imaging for the past few weeks. I worked on Jess first since she was the closest, then Mallory, and finally, Delilah, who my sister and Mallory caught before she could fall, easing her to the floor. I turned to Jess and sighed. “Well, we’re free-ish, at least from the collars and stuff, but the wards here are keeping me from going home for any help. Are you gonna stay like that or…”

“Yeah, unless we need me to change into someone else for some reason, but I doubt any girls are working here for me to copy. I’m finally able to be your twin for real, no way I’m changing now, Sis. Besides, the less we give away before escaping, the better,” she replied in a whisper as she hugged me. “It’s probably not a good idea to let them think one of us can use Divine magic unless we’re really in a pinch.”

I nodded and sighed, realizing that she was probably right, which meant that I shouldn’t heal any of our scrapes and bruises yet either. “I hate to say it, Sis, but that probably means it’s also not a good idea to make us any clothes from that ice. I know that none of you are as comfortable naked as I am, but you made a good point.”

She released me from the hug and nodded. “I understand, Sis, but maybe you should try for something to clean up a bit of that blood and replace your tampon if we’re gonna be moving.”

It was another good point, so I went into the corner and turned the frozen remnants of the collars into a rough cloth and a replacement tampon. They weren’t perfect, but they would do, and after replacing the old with the new and cleaning up a little, I turned the bloody cloth back into ice. There was one other thing I could do though that wouldn’t be noticeable, and I quickly did so, casting a pain relief spell and easing my discomfort, then casting it on the others, even the unconscious Delilah.

She didn’t look like she was relieved, at least not going by the look on her sleeping face, but I figured that she was likely having some kind of nightmare after her ordeal. We needed to get going anyway, I didn’t want to stick around this cell any longer than I had to when we could be searching for a way out of here. I turned to the others and said, “That’s the best I can do without being obvious that one of us has Divine magic, and now that we’re free, I believe we have some debts to settle on our way out. Let’s wake up Delilah and get moving. We’re not carrying her out of here.”