Page 93 of Coerced

“Water?” She sounded like she hadn’t spoken in a long time. “Please?”

Travis brought a bottle over and sat on her other side. When she shied away from him, panic all over her face, he stood up and handed the bottle to Gigi, who helped her sit up and piled pillows behind her so she could drink.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Mi—” she stopped, coughing harshly, and took another long swallow of water. “MiraKuznetsova.”

“That’s a mouthful,” John muttered.

“It’s Russian.” Travis waved one hand. “How old are you, Mira? Do you know how long you were enslaved?”

After telling her the date, she said she was twenty and had been enslaved for a little more than two years. I cut my eyes over to Rome, who understood what I wanted right away. He pulled out his phone and started texting.

Mira’s eyelids were heavy, and her face lined with exhaustion.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

“Yes, but I might throw up if I eat.”

“Yeah, it takes awhile for your stomach to remember food.” I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “I know you feel like you wanna sleep for a year, but maybe you wanna clean up first? Take a bath or shower? Gigi could, uh, help you and loan you some clothes?” I looked at Gigi, who nodded, so I went on. “In the morning, could we borrow your car to go into town for supplies? In return, make a list of anything you need and we’ll get it for you while we’re there.”

“We’ll get you some soup and ginger ale.” Travis nodded. “That worked best for me. I didn’t vomit it up, anyway. Maybe OJ.”

I remembered the broth and orange juice Hank had poured into me the first few days after the exorcism. Seemed wise.

“Thank you.” Her voice was hoarse and Gigi encouraged her to take another sip of water. “I can’t remember the last time I ate anything or bathed or changed clothes.”

“Here.” Travis handed Gigi one of the motel’s little notepads and pens. “John and I made a list for the rest of us, too. Just add your stuff”

I tried to think fast. I hated to delay any more than necessary. I wanted to start looking for a trail, but I couldn’t abandon this girl. She didn’t look capable of caring for herself at the moment, and I knew exactly how it felt to find yourself suddenly freed after years of enslavement. To come to your senses with no idea of who you were anymore.

To feel like you didn’t deserve to be alive.

“How did you know what to do?” Mira’s face was puzzled as she looked first at me, then at Rome. “You knew right away something was wrong.”

“Me and Rome can smell evil.” I shrugged. “We can also smell what you are.”

“Shemight not know what she is,” Rome raised an eyebrow at me, then turned to Mira. “Do you know you’re not purely human?”

“Oh, yeah. My mother had no problem reminding me whose spawn I was.”

“What’s your power?” Gigi smiled. “I’m a watcher. John is a messenger. Kerry and Rome are warriors, of course. Travis is a bookworm—”

“Bookdragon,” Travis insisted, “or bibliothecary, to be categorical. Notworm.”

“I don’t know the names for anything.” Mira shook her head. “I like tinkering with engines and inventing things. Metal does anything I ask it to. I can fix nearly any machine. Is a mechanic a type of nephilim?”

“It’s called an artificer,” Travis told her, then looked at me.

“They’re going to love you at the Sanctuary.” Rome looked at me now, too.

What did they wantmeto do? Confirm it?

“Uh, so, you glow gray when you use your power, right?”

“Yes. The Sanctuary? What’s that?”

“It’s a place where nephilim can go for protection, education or training, and support,” Rome explained. “We can’t take you there right now. We’re out on a mission and were ambushed earlier today. Several of our friends have been taken and we need to rescue them.”

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