Page 63 of Deep Within Me

Zeke took Liz’s hand. Her fingers were icy and shook slightly.

“I’ll make this brief,” Carreon said then spoke to Liz. “You and your father are coming back to our clan. Where you belong.”

“Never,” Zeke said.

“Never?” Carreon mimicked, his smile deadly. “Don’t be so certain of that.” Again, he addressed Liz. “Do you want to see anyone die because of you?”

Zeke squeezed her fingers, a warning not to answer or play into Carreon’s sick game. “This transmission is over,” Zeke announced.

“Very well,” Carreon said. “If that’s the way you want it and you refuse to bargain, this is what’s going to happen.” He moved to the side, out of view.

Zeke put his hand up to keep his people from shutting down the transmission.

The camera showed a well-appointed office that could have been in a thousand places. In front of the desk was a brawny young man Zeke had never seen before. However, the black scarf in his hands was the same one from Zeke’s vision. The man had wrapped it around a woman’s throat. Zeke’s breathing picked up. He recognized the scene and her mouth. In minutes, her tongue would protrude from her lips.

The camera’s angle showed her from the waist up. Her breasts were bare, her eyes rolling into the back of her head from lack of oxygen.

“No!” Liz shouted.

“Liz, Liz, Liz,” Carreon crooned out of camera range. “You want this to stop?”

Zeke squeezed Liz’s hand again so she wouldn’t answer. The woman made gagging noises. Her face turned a dark red, but she didn’t fight. She seemed incapable of doing so, her arms hanging limply at her sides.

Zeke whispered to Liz, “It’s a trick.”

“No, it’s real,” she breathed.

“If it was, she’d be fighting.” Zeke recalled the scratches on the man’s hands in his vision. He looked for them now.

“Carreon must have drugged her,” Liz moaned.

He came back into camera range, standing next to the man and woman. “Do you want this to stop?”

“Yes,” Liz cried.

“Good. I want you and your father at my stronghold within—”

“Not going to happen,” Zeke growled. “Neither of them is leaving here.”

“Do you agree with that, Liz?” Carreon asked.

Zeke answered before she could. “It doesn’t matter if she does or not. I’m not letting either of them go.”

“I see.” He sighed deeply then murmured, “That’s too bad. Do it,” he said to the young man.

Liz gasped and turned away as he finished strangling the woman.

Horrible noises poured from her before it was over. Zeke knew he’d never forget them or the way she’d fallen to the floor, her limbs flopping lifelessly.

“Still want to stay with Neekoma?” Carreon asked.

Liz shuddered. Zeke pulled her against him. He kept her face to his shoulder so she couldn’t see the woman’s body.

At Liz’s silence, Carreon inhaled deeply as though trying to control his irritation. “I’m giving you and your father twelve hours to return to my stronghold. If the two of you aren’t there when the time’s up, another woman will die.” He reached for something to the side.

Liz trembled. Zeke tightened his hold on her then stared at the woman Carreon pulled into camera range. She was young, quite beautiful, her blue-black hair fanned over her shoulders, her eyes an unusual shade of green, given her warm skin tone. The camera revealed her bare breasts, just like the first woman. Had Carreon raped her and the other one? Had the young man? One of them had tied this young woman’s hands behind her back. Tears dripped from her sooty lashes. Her expression registered pure terror.

“She’s next,” Carreon said, “unless Liz and her father return to my—”