“Night out?” he asked.
“It’s what we called it. The night out of our cage. Not a full night, just a couple hours really.” She shrugged. “Five nights after I got there, everyone else got a bowl but me, and I was taken upstairs.”
She paused again, this time holding her breath, and Anders tensed, afraid that these memories might be too much for her, but after a moment, she let her breath out on a small puff and continued, “I don’t usually lose my cool in a crisis. I mean running a veterinary clinic can sometimes be as stressful as a hospital ER. Dogs are hit by cars, or have other accidents or ailments and are rushed in, and we have to be able to jump into action. We can’t freak out, or fall apart.”
“Of course,” he said when she fell silent. It seemed to encourage her.
“By the time Igor came for me it had been twenty-four hours since our last feeding, and the drugs must have been wearing off, but I was still off balance. My vision was affected, or maybe it was my brain,” she muttered grimly. “Whatever it was, everything seemed distorted, my hearing was going in and out like a bad radio station, and my emotions were exaggerated and all over the place. But worst of all, my coordination was non-existent and I couldn’t seem to remember a damned thing from my martial arts training. It was like all those skills I’d honed and practiced for years had just fled.”
She sounded bewildered, and maybe even a little betrayed by that fact, Anders noted. He tried to think of something to say to make her feel better, but before he came up with something, Valerie continued wearily, “By the time Igor got me upstairs, forced me through a bath and into the white silk robe, I was a complete mess. There didn’t seem to be a lick of my usual calm, rational self left. I was just this bundle of raw emotion and terror when he dragged me out into the master bedroom. I was sure I was going to be raped. I mean why keep seven women if it wasn’t rape, right? There were no men in the basement. So it had to be rape, and that infuriated me because I wouldn’t be able to stop it. I didn’t seem to have the wherewithal or coordination to fight it.”
She was obviously still angry about that, Anders decided, noting the way she was clenching her hands. Her knuckles were white.
“Igor’s boss was dressed in a red velour robe and lounging against a mound of pillows on this huge king-sized bed like some pasha or something,” she said suddenly with disgust. “I struggled, but . . . damn, Igor was a huge guy. A behemoth. And superstrong too. There was just no escaping at that point.”
When she paused again, Anders waited patiently. But this time there was a huge struggle taking place on her face. He didn’t have to be able to read her mind to know that she was having an inner battle over what to say next. And it wasn’t that she’d been raped. Anders knew she hadn’t been. While he couldn’t read Valerie, he hadn’t had any problem reading the other women who had been prisoners along with her. Each of them had experienced the very same thing on their “night out,” so he had no doubt she had too. Aside from that though, Dani had examined Valerie thoroughly. She hadn’t been raped. But she had been terrorized and mauled, her throat mangled by what she would call a vampire. She’d hardly think she could tell him that though. None of the women had felt they could. They’d all said he was crazy. That he thought he was a vampire. That he had fake teeth or something, or maybe it was a knife, but he’d messed up their neck somehow.
Anders had no doubt Valerie would say the same thing; partially to avoid sounding crazy, and partially because speaking the truth was intolerable. Her mind simply couldn’t accept that such things existed. It was too horrible for most mortals to contemplate . . . and that was his big worry. If she couldn’t accept that vampires existed, he’d never convince her to be his life mate.
The sound of the door opening made them both glance toward it. Leigh was back.
“She’s not at any of the animal shelters,” Leigh announced, waddling across the room to reclaim her seat at the table. “So I called Lucian and he said one of the men was at your house collecting some clothes for you and he’d have him check with the neighbors. I’m sure someone recognized and took her in until your return. He’ll find her and bring her here.”
“Thank you,” Valerie said quietly, but worried what she would do if Roxy wasn’t with one of the neighbors. What if the blow that had caused Roxy to yelp had killed her?
“The good news is that she can’t be dead,” Leigh continued. “Otherwise she would have been taken to one of the shelters to be disposed of and they would have told me.”