Shadow Chapter 13
White Knights





Irissa’s heart sank when four of the five Cappellis came into the office, Stephano among them.
“We’re dead,” she thought. “They won’t let us see them like this then let us live. Whatever has been going on outside we are witnesses.”


“Well, well. What have we here? The traitor’s puppy. You’re mummy is dead, little girl, and your friend Sergey is going to miss you,” Marco grinned, his eyes manic.




Enrique shook his head, trying to clear it of the image that filled his mind, fuzzing his thoughts. His dream, Irissa’s voice saying his name, her arms around him.





“Marco, they’re kids. We don’t make war on kids,” he snapped, surprised at the tone in his voice.
Marco turned and stared at him. His baby brother, daring to argue with him?





Stephano glanced at the two young girls. They stood trembling but not cowering, useless weapons in their hands, awaiting their fate but unable to do anything to influence it. Stephano was touched by their bravery and demeanour. Such pretty children, too.
“I am not content with this,” he said softly to his elder son.“Father, have we really sunk so low that we would kill young ones? That was never your style. They are innocents,” Enrique astonished himself with his bravery, but his voice faltered as Marco turned an evil gaze on him.




“Your brother is right, Marco,” Stephano said mildly.
“Not in this case. They have seen us. They can identify us. They need to die,” Marco snapped.
Another image from his dream swept over Enrique, bolstering his courage. Irissa grown up and making love with him. If that was ever to be, he had no idea, but he knew he had to try to give her the chance to grow up into that young woman.





“Father, you are still head of this family. You make the decisions,” he appealed. “Have we sunk so low? We had honour. This is not honourable!”
“You dare to argue with me? You will pay for this!” Marco’s fist flew out and he struck his brother.
“Enough!” Stephano growled, stepping between them.




“Excuse me?” Irissa ventured.
Stephano turned to look at her
“You weren’t in here, Sir. We never saw you. We hid in here and you didn’t come in....”
“Now tell me they need to die...” Enrique demanded of his brother.
“I can’t take the word of a couple of little sluts!” Marco retorted.
He would have shot them and ended the argument, but his father had a look on his face Marco had not seen in years. Resolute and determined. The older man was staring intently at the trembling girl.
“You just want to kill them. For revenge on Sergey more than because of any threat to us,” Enrique yelled.
Marco struck him again.





Stephano pulled his gaze away from Irissa.
“Enough. Marco you will not hit your brother again! I am still in charge in this family. We leave and these brave little girls stay here, alive.
But if they dare to break their word we will find them and they will never testify against us,” Stephano decided. “Now we go, before the cops get here.”




Outside Julius waited in the car. He saw his father and brothers coming and prepared to drive away.
“Marco will make you pay for what you did in there, Enrique. You are a fool to anger him over two stupid girls,” Angelo warned his brother.
Enrique knew he was right, but his dream was still tied tightly into his mind and he felt that whatever happened next, that she was safe made it all worthwhile.





“Have they really gone?” Zara asked, nervously, terrified that it was some trick and that the men with guns would reappear and kill them after all.
Irissa nodded.
“But they will find us and kill us if we don’t stick to our story and say they never came in here,” she warned.
“I’ll stick to that. I’m just glad to be alive. But Irissa, my parents?”
“I don’t know, Zara. And I don’t want to go out there...”






The door burst open again and the two girls almost jumped out of their skins. Sergey strode across the office and swept Irissa into his arms.
“Thank the Gods you are all right,” he gasped, Hugging her close. “With what we saw out there...”





“We thought we were too late,” Richard told Zara. “There’s been a complete massacre in this place. The paramedics are out there now,”
“My parents...” Zara asked, sobbing.
There was no kind way to say it.
“I’m sorry, Zara,” he said gently, glad that Sergey had told him the name of Irissa’s companion. “There are no survivors besides you two.”




The only way out of the office and down to the street was back through the restaurant, past the blood soaked floor and the neat rows of body bags.
“My parents and Irissa’s mother are in some of those,” Zara thought, her chest tight with pain.
They were heading for the car when suddenly Irissa suddenly turned and started walking back towards the building.
“Sergey, there are other people here... living people...”






Sergey followed her. She stopped at a blank wall feeling a strange surge of energy. Passion, lust, fear and pain. She could feel the physical manifestation of something ugly behind that wall.
“Irissa, it’s a wall. If there is a room there then the entrance must be in the restaurant,” Sergey reasoned.
“No, it’s here,” Irissa insisted, running her hands over the brickwork.
Remembering something from a dream she formed the words of a finding spell inside her head, not sure if it would work.




Her fingers found a small metal catch in the wall and a whole section slid away, revealing a room decorated in soft pinks and whites. Little girl decor.





A blonde haired man leapt off of a low bed where he had been having sex with a girl who looked to be no older than Irissa.





Another man, engrossed in taking a second young girl in the shower did not even notice that other people had entered the room.
The girl’s eyes were closed tight and she was flinching in pain every time he thrust into her.
Sergey crossed the room in long strides and pulled the man off of the girl. The man tried to fight him off. Out of the corner of his eye Sergey saw Richard manhandle the other man to the floor.
Sergey’s man put up a good fight before the detective managed to pin him down and cuff him.





There were three girls in the room and there had been three men. The third had made good his escape while Richard and Sergey had been dealing with the other two. The young girl who had been performing a blow job on him. She had stopped her endeavours and stood when Irissa had found the room. She still stood in the same stunned way.
“Richard, call for an ambulance for the girls and transport for these guys,” Sergey ordered.


[U]Trauma[/U]




“How are they, Doc?” Sergey asked the young doctor.
“These two are pretty shaken and shocked, obviously,” Dr Irvine replied. “I’ve given them a mild sedative.”
“And the other three?” Sergey enquired.





“The Western girl is unharmed, physically. Still intact, no physical damage of any kind. Very shocked and upset, though.
From what I can gather she has been sexually manhandled and has been forced to carry out various sex acts, but she hasn’t been raped,” Dr Irvine explained.
“The two eastern girls haven’t fared so well. They have both been raped, the older one by at least two men. She is quite badly torn. The last assault seems to have been especially rough. We have her heavily sedated.”
Dr Irvine went on.




“I believe you may have interrupted the first attack on the youngest of the Eastern girls. She is not so badly damaged as the other. I think that the bastard who forced her was at least trying to be gentle. I hope you caught the guys behind this.”
There was venom in the young doctor’s voice as he spoke.
“Some of them, yes. And the men behind it are dead. We will be looking for the others,” Sergey assured him.





Through the murky mist of the medication Irissa became aware of the entity that inhabited the hospital. At first she through that there was a young Goth standing beside the bed.
He came and looked down at her.
“Good stuff tonight,” He sighed, looking spaced.
Irissa ignored him. She could feel him feeding on the negative emotions in the hospital. All the pain and fear and death. She closed off her mind, not giving him access to her own anguish.




“Too late. Got some of it. So sweet. Cruel mommy. Didn’t just beat you and mistreat you, she was going to sell you. You’d have been like those girls upstairs. Open up, girl. I want to taste that pain again. I could just eat YOU up....,” he leered.




Irissa forced herself to sit up.
“Sergey? Can we leave here, please? I really hate hospitals,” she asked.
The entity moved off and she lay back down while Sergey spoke to the doctor.
“Are they okay to leave? Zara’s aunt can pick her up at the police station. I’ll make arrangements for Irissa too,” Sergey asked.
“They’ll be a little groggy from the sedatives I gave them but they should be okay to leave. Social services will be over later to talk about the other girls,” Dr Irvine nodded.


[U]Station[/U]





In spite of the medicine the doctor had given her, the pain had not numbed at all. Zara had cried until she had felt there were no more tears to cry. Her eyes were red and sore and her face stung with the salt. They sat together on the sofa in Sergey’s office while the big detective made numerous phone calls. Irissa had held her and comforted her through the stormy tears. She kept her arm around her and held her hand. There had been no tears from the dark girl.




“Yeah,” Sergey was saying. “The red haired bastard, Sinclair, his lawyer got him out on bail. Phillips is still downstairs in a cell. I’ve sent uniform out to the Han place to pick up anyone left there...”
“Irissa, what will happen to you?” Zara asked. “You don’t have any other family.”
“I don’t know,” Irissa shrugged.





The door opened and a pretty woman with strawberry gold hair came in.
“My aunt,” Zara said, hugging Irissa. “Sergey has my number, get him to give you it. Call me, Irissa. Don’t lose touch.”
She turned into Irissa’s arms and hugged her tight.
“I don’t want to leave you,” she cried.
“I’ll be fine, and I will call. Go home with your aunt. You need to rest,” Irissa insisted.





Zara gave Irissa one last hug then stood up and said goodbye to Sergey. Irissa stretched out on the couch, totally exhausted.
She watched Zara leave and wished that she was going with her.




Sergey pulled her to her feet and into his arms.
“C’mon, honey. We’re leaving too. You’re coming to my place tonight.”