Bound by Pride Ch. 02

"Yes." He answered. His hands were cuffed to the table, which curbed his desire to run one of his hands through his shortly cropped brown hair; his brown eyes reflected his anxious energy. He was stocky with a black wife beater under an open plaid shirt and a pair of dark jeans. A tattoo of a snake ran up the left side of his neck.

"And you are waving your right to an attorney?" She asked, flicking her pen around over her fingers.

"Yes."

"Why?" She inquired, curious.

"No point in fighting it. You caught us in the act." He answered honestly.

She was immediately on edge. Granted, he was a minor criminal but he had fought every charge thrown at him so why was he not fighting this? "Okay, what do you want?" She asked as the D.A walked in. They both knew he wanted a deal, for what he knew.

"I want solitary. I'll tell you everything if you can promise me solitary and when I get out, a new identity." He said. He honestly didn't care about how long he stayed in jail; he knew he would be safer for the interim in jail until the people he had worked for joined him.

Electra glanced to the DA who didn'teven hesitate. Most asked for reduced sentences but this person only wanted to be kept alive. "Done." He said as he sat. "Twenty five to life in solitary, parole after seventeen and a new identity when you get out, if you plead guilty to charges and tell us everything you know."

Brian nodded.

"Okay. Where were you taking her?" Electra started the first round of questions. She wanted to get this over with quickly as she didn't know how long her charge would last without her near.

"I know her name, the guy we picked her up from called her Mayhem, 'be careful with her, she's willful. Don't feed her, she doesn't need it, every now and again throw in a bottle of water.' Those were our instructions." He told her.

"Who owned her?" The DA asked.

Brian went a little green but soldiered on, "Miguel Falcone. He's a big shot attorney over in Florida."

The DA's knuckles went white. He had gone to law school with Miguel. He knew the man was a ruthless lawyer; they had even been on opposing sides many times. He never knew that he was evil, that he could do what he had done to another human, even if she was Were, that was not an excuse.

"You've been in the house for a month. What happened this morning?" Dave asked cutting in, they had lain low for a month, only this morning there were gunshots.

"Harry was getting… horny. He grabbed the gun and went down to take it out on her. We've been watching her for weeks and all she did was stay against the wall in a tight ball. He thought she would be an easy lay." He brought his head down to his hands to rub his face. "I'm a driver… that's what I do… I don't do rape and I don't watch it either so I went out for a smoke. I don't know what happened, there was a shout then gun shots. I ran in as he raced upstairs. He was bleeding badly. Before I had a chance to run or even help, cops were there and we couldn't flee. So I helped him get cleaned up then the police stormed, I surrendered but Harry… he was going mental." He told them solemnly.

Dave walked over and undid his cuffs, letting him have his hands, as he didn't seem violent. He nodded his thanks to Dave as he rubbed his wrists.

She nodded, "Okay, what were you doing with her?"

"We were to hold her for the auctions." He answered and leant back in his chair. "A whole heap of Were have been abducted over the last three months, all are fresh meat for the auctions. The auctions are held once every five years, the last one was held shortly before Amy made all the Alphas more friendly towards each other. The auction is being held tonight. We were meant to hold her because a private buy was set up. An immortal-Were is considered a top-end buy, at the last auction she fetched seven and a half million. A woman who can take anything thrown at her… immortals fetch a high bid."

"Is that why someone tried to snatch Alanna?" Electra asked with sudden insight, hoping that these two cases were actually one. Alanna's attempted abduction fit in with all the other abductions.

He nodded. "An agreed price was organised for her. The men who were going to snatch her were going to split ten million for her."

Electra's jaw dropped for a moment. Her sister was worth ten million to these people, she closed her mouth as she felt seething anger erupt within her but managed to keep that from her voice when she asked her next question. "How much were they getting for helping Markus get Sage?"

"They were getting Alanna… that was their payment."

"Okay, we have their names. They will be caught." Electra made a note, using that time to rein in her anger. She was going to get so many flags put on those men that they would be caught within a day. Dave watched her closely, just encase she snapped and attacked someone.

He hesitated for a moment before adding, "They had a price on your head for awhile. Your sire had blabbed about you being immortal… but when the first attempt to get you failed, they backed off."

She felt as if a bony hand had wrapped around her heart and squeezed it tightly, forcing it to stumble in its beats as she saw her mother's death in a completely new light. She had thought that Barry had meant to claim her, it was what everyone had assumed but no one had guessed that his motive was so sinister. "Barry… He killed my mother to try to get me. What was he offered?" She asked; her voice almost deadly silent as her mind seemed to go numb.

"His gambling debts wiped clean and a couple of million extra."

"Is that how he got in contact with the syndicate?" Dave asked, giving Electra time to come to terms with this. He carefully made his way to her, his hand reaching into his pocket where he kept a special Were stun gun. It wouldn't render her useless like it would other Were but it would smart like hell and hopefully snap her into a better frame of mind or at least still her until they could get control of her.

"Yes."

"What time does the auction start?" She asked as her mind quickly started to work again, her mind ticking faster and faster. All those people living the life she had been freed from. This is what she believed her destiny was. To keep people from the life she had been forced to live and to free those who were trapped. She wanted to get to work not just now but yesterday, to plan their rescue.

"The bidding begins at seven thirty. The doors are locked at five past seven so everyone is in the building before the doors are locked. They can view what's up for auction and catch up. The expensive bids are done first, immortal and the youngest and newest go first, then the others follow." He explained. "Some were disappointed about the private sale of Mayhem but got excited when a new immortal was put on the docket."

"New Immortal?" Dave asked; his head came up from observing Electra.

He nodded, "A man. He'll go up first because, not only is he new, but he is immortal."

"And everyone else follows?" Dave asked, wondering why the big bids were done first.

"So that no one is waiting and everyone gets sold," Electra explained to Dave before turning back to Brian. "What happens to the people who don't get bought?" She asked.

He tensed and his knuckles went white, eyes on the floor, knowing that this Were definitely did not want to hear this, fearing that she might finally snap when she did. "After auction entertainment, they get injected with some kind of drug that induces fury and are tossed into a pit. They fight until there is only one survivor and the survivor is then kept for other pit fights by whoever wants to patch them up." His eyes finally met Electra's. "I was forced to watch one of those fights once… never again… no one should have to go through that kind of agony. I would get out and hid somewhere when they happened… I know it doesn't absolve me, I was there and I didn't try to stop them…" His eyes met Electra's, "I got no thrill from watching that fight, it disgusted me."

Electra felt sick to her core, memories started to bubble up, memories she had forced into the recesses of her mind where she thought they could not hurt her anymore. She took a deep breath, forcing everything back to focus on what was happening now but she realised that the only way she could stop it from overwhelming her here was to mention it. "I've been in one of those fights. That's when my sire learned I was immortal, I was fourteen." Electra stated matter-of-factly.

Dave and the DA turned to her in shock. They, however, could not see her eyes, the dead look in them as she fought to remain in control and to keep herself from shaking.

She glanced to her watch. "Interview suspended at ten fifteen."

She got up and left the room, not caring about anything but getting away to push back her memories and lock them away where they would not trouble her. She crossed the hall and leant her head against the cold concrete wall. She took several slow deep breaths trying to force down memories she had worked so hard to repress.

Dave gestured for the DA to leave him and Electra alone instead of just standing there staring at her as if he didn't know whether to console her or demand to know why she hadn't excused herself from the case. The DA went to step forward but Dave shook his head, sensing that it would be wrong to walk up to her while she was having such a fierce mental battle. He had been with Electra now for three and a half years. However only over the last few minutes, had he learnt more about the true her than he had since he met her? He now knew how she knew so much about what Mayhem was going through for she had gone through it herself and that left more than the physical scars he had noticed but had dismissed, as being a curse of common Were life. Dave gestured again for the DA to leave this to him and this time he headed Dave's advice.

She gently knocked her head against the wall, trying to clear it. She shook her head but she couldn't force the memories down, the world around her faded as a memory sucked her in.

The door was thrown open and a bright light flashed into her eyes, blinding her. A man walked into the cell and kicked her hard in the side. He unchained her and fisted his hand in her hair. He dragged her from her cell by her hair, her skin grazed against uneven stone, her silent screams merely tired whispers. He dragged her downstairs into a brightly lit room. Her eyes watered as he pulled her to her feet.

He held her by her throat. 'You're not worth keeping.' Her father spat at her. Her eyes squinted in the bright light, teary and unable to focus. She felt a sting in her arm and was suddenly thrown down into a pit.

She landed with a thud. She shuffled back until her back hit a wall. She heard others being tossed in. She started to pant as a heavy iron grill was lowered. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Her wolf was snarling and starting to foam at the mouth as madness set in: she wanted to rip, to kill.

She felt her body tear as it was forced into a violent change. Before she had even finished her shift, she felt teeth tear into her side. She didn't think, didn't consider that what she was doing was wrong. She attacked the jaws that sunk into her side that had hurt her.

A heavy body jumped and landed on hers, jaws wrapped around the back of her neck, trying to snap her spine. Another set of jaws latched onto her left shoulder. She snarled and snapped her jaws, shattering the bones beneath her teeth. She bucked, throwing the body off her back. Her claws tore at her attacker until they released her.

Her jaw snapped and tore the wolves' throat out. She snarled at everyone, daring whoever was left to come and get her. Four wolves and one tiger summarily jumped her. She ignored the wounds they inflicted and quickly tore them to shreds. Even when they were dead, she kept on tearing and breaking. Finally, she felt a sting in her rump and snarled.

Her eyes snapped open and she took a deep breath. She raced to the bathroom, which was just down the hall. She made it to a stall moments before she lost what little was in her stomach. Dave was there, he gently pulled her hair away as she dry retched. He rubbed her back gently, wanting to do more, to reach for her phone and call her mother, to tell the director to excuse her from this case. However, he did none of those things as he had learnt to trust her and her judgment. He would ask her if she was up for this before taking any action.

She coughed and spat that last of it out. He offered her the bottle of water he had been sipping in the interrogation room. Electra rinsed her mouth, spitting it into the bowl.

"You okay?" He asked gently.

She raised her head from the bowl. She reached up and pressed the flush button, she took a few deep breaths and rested on her heals. "I didn't lie; I was thrown into a fight pit. It was how my sire learned I was immortal. Seven on one, six wolves; one tiger. He told me, it took me… three minutes in full fury to tear them to shreds. They had to sedate me to get me out of the pit and away from the mess. He taunted me that they had to use shovels to scoop them up. I was fourteen and I killed seven people who had done nothing to me, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time." She paused for a moment. "I still have nightmares." She took a deep breath, feeling a little better about telling him this.

He wrapped a comforting arm around her, offering her comfort. He wanted to say that he understood but he couldn't, he had lived a privileged life, he couldn't relate to her life before Amy came to be her mother. "Are you going to be able to cope with this?" He continued gently.

"I have to." She told him solemnly.

He nodded his acceptance, gaining a stronger respect for his partner's character, "The moment I think you're not coping, I'm pulling the plug." He warned her. She turned to him with accusing denial in her eyes and body language. "You…" He slipped in before she could protest, "You are my responsibility. I can't have you having a mental break down when I need you the most."

She shook her head, "You don't understand…"

"Then make me." He demanded gently.

She moved and sat with her back against the cubical wall, he sat opposite her. "Did you know I had a twin? A brother?" He shook his head, he didn't. "Growing up I always knew that my sire despised me. I was a girl, insignificant to him, nothing more than a living punching bag. He treated my brother like a prince, everything he wanted he got while ma had to beg for money to clothe me. When I was nine, I was dragged from my mother's arms and thrown into a lightless cell. A week later the raping started. I never got to see them; my eyes became light sensitive very quickly in that cell. Some weren't content with merely raping me… they beat me. I, however, remember three truly nasty men. One liked to cut me, another liked to bite and the third like to break bones."

He went pale with helpless fury; no child deserved the life she was pouring out.

"I was twelve when I was collared and chained, dumb fool forgot to lock the door when he entered. I bashed his skull in and fled… tried to… I didn't know it was daytime, the moment I left the underground I couldn't move, I couldn't see. The collar was welded shut, a black smith did the work… you asked me once about the four wide scars that run across my back horizontally."

He nodded, he didn'twant to speak, afraid that if he did she would stop pouring out her story and he would never learn her past, and in turn never know the true her and what made her tick.

"When the collar was welded, my sire put a bar of steel in the forge. He then lifted it and rested it against my back, just before he touched it to my skin he said, 'scream and it'll last longer, move and I'll do it again'. The one near my shoulders… it was the last one, it was almost white… it was so hot, it rested against my skin until the metal cooled, I don't know how long it took, fifteen-twenty minutes of tormented agony and by that last one I had learned my lesson I didn't move, I didn't scream. I was then dragged back to my cell and chained up." She stopped talking.

He didn't know what to say so he just waited.

"I was twenty one when I next left that cell. Carried out by a man called Angelo. Roberto himself snapped the collar from my neck. I was free and I was back with my ma." She pulled her glasses away to wipe tears from her eyes. "You don't know the relief I went through when I finally realised that I was free, that I would never be in that cell again, that neither he nor those men could ever hurt me again."

He suddenly knew why she was so adamant about being on this case now. She wanted, no needed to give those victims what was given back to her, her freedom. He stood and leant down to clap her on the shoulder. "We have work to do then if we are going to be ready to save them." He said and left to tell the DA to back off… that she had it handled and to assure the director that she would be fine and nothing would stop her from doing her job.

She got to her feet and took a deep breath. She walked to the sink and washed her face. She took off her glasses and cleaned them. She then rubbed her face dry, she felt for some reason lighter, as if telling Dave about her past had a healing effect. She returned her glasses to her face, looked in the mirror, and saw herself, the woman she had become. She could do this… she would free those people.

First things first… she had to talk to Mayhem. Divide and conquer. Dave would take the suspect while she would take the victim and together they would get everything they needed to know.