Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,77
the ground just outside a vacant building. “There’s an entrance right here. The tunnels lead to a little underground city. The Malinov brothers prepared very well for this.” Tariq put her gently on the cracked sidewalk. “They bought up most of these properties, and we think they’re using the harbor to go out to sea on boats. They buy men and women from the trafficking rings and take them out where no one can see them all die.”
A little shudder went through Charlotte. “Is that what they wanted us for? To feed on and kill?”
“No, Charlotte.” He shook his head, his gaze moving broodingly over her face. “Down there, you’ll find the reason hopefully just by touching the cages. We think we know what they’re doing, but need to be certain. We found the bodies of several young women in various stages of pregnancy. We believe they are trying to find mothers for their children. Those women have to be capable of becoming lifemates.”
Maksim led the way down into the tunnels. Tariq followed him. Charlotte stuck her hand in Tariq’s back pocket in order to feel more at ease in the labyrinth with all the twists and turns.
“They’re looking for their lifemates so they can have children?” she echoed faintly. Who would want the likes of Fridrick as the father to her children? That was the worst possible thing she could imagine.
“It is impossible for them to find lifemates. Even if one stood in front of them, they have chosen to give up their souls. They cannot bind her to them. No, they are looking for gifted human women strong enough to carry their children. How that is possible I don’t know, but it is certain they are trying. We found . . . remains. We removed the bodies but had not gotten to the skeletons and bones. Those are still buried in the debris.”
Charlotte felt a little frisson of fear creep down her spine. She couldn’t imagine what someone like Fridrick would put a woman through, and according to Tariq, he was not the worst, not the man in charge. She really didn’t want to be around to meet him.
They halted beside a door that was broken and held up by just one hinge. Beyond that, there was nothing but dirt, concrete and what looked like twisted steel. Tariq turned to her, put his hands on her waist and pushed her back two steps.
“Right there, Charlotte. I want you in sight at all times. All of us will clear out the rubble and then you can do the reading for as long as you can take it. When you tell me, I will pass every word along to the others. But stay close, don’t wander off.”
There wasn’t going to be any wandering. This place gave her the creeps. The sconces remained high up on the walls and Dragomir waved a hand toward them to light them. She didn’t think that made being in the tunnels any better. She could see splashes of blood on the curved walls here and there, as if the hallways had been deliberately and artfully decorated that way.
“Say you understand, sielamet.”
His tone could be a whip or a caress. This was the whip. He meant business. She nodded because already, even without her hand hovering on any object, she could hear the whispers. Agony. Waiting for death. Praying for death. She choked down the bile and did deep breathing. At the first test of true fire, she wasn’t about to vomit all over the floor and prove to Tariq that Dragomir was right. She might be sensitive, but she was still a woman with a woman’s power, and no way would she fold before she even got started. If there was any way to help other women Vadim and Fridrick were torturing, she would do whatever it took to save them.
“Honey, I’m not moving from this spot,” she assured.
Tariq studied her face, seemed satisfied and then turned back to the door. A wave of his hand sent it floating to the ground out of his way. He pressed both palms down over the mess of concrete and dirt and slowly raised his hands. To her shock, the debris lifted away, leaving half-smashed cages and the remnants of a table and revealing another door beyond the first. The moment Tariq cleared the front room he moved to the second one, removing that door, glancing over his shoulder at her, giving a silent command not to move.