07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“We need to have a little chat,” he said, turning the full force of his menacing dark eyes
on the bulging ones of his prey. “About just how she got confiscated. Don’t struggle. If you haven’t
hurt the girl, you’ve got nothing to fear. If you have…”
He pulled the terrified man completely across the counter and said very softly, “If you
have, then, by all means struggle. It won’t make any difference in the end—if you know what I mean?”
The girls were put into the largest carriages Bonnie had yet seen in the Dark Dimension, three slim
girls to a seat and two sets of seats in a carriage. She got a nasty jolt, though, when instead of going
forward like a carriage, the whole thing was lifted straight up by sweaty male slaves straining at
poles. It was a giant litter and Bonnie immediately snatched off her freesia garland and buried her
nose in it. It had the added function of hiding her tears.
“Do you have any idea of how many homes and dancing rooms and halls and theaters there are where
girls are being sold tonight?” The golden-haired Guardian looked at him sardonically.
“If I knew that,” Damon said with a cold and ominous smile, “I wouldn’t be here asking
you.”
The Guardian shrugged. “Our job is really only to try to keep the peace here—and you
can see how well we succeed. It’s a matter of too few of us; we’re insanely understaffed. But I can
give you a list of the venues where girls are being sold. Still, as I said, I doubt you’ll be able to find
your runaway before morning. And by the way, we’ll have an eye on you, because of your little query.
If your runaway wasn’t a slave, she’s Imperial property—no humans are free here. If she was, and
you freed her, as reported by the baker across the street—”
“Sweet-seller.”
“Whatever. Then he had a right to use a stun gun when she ran. Better for her, really, than
being Imperial property; they tend to char, if you get my drift. That level’s a long way down.”
“But if she was a slave—my slave…”
“Then you can have her. But there’s a certain mandatory punishment set before you can
have her. We want to discourage this kind of thing.”
Damon looked at her with eyes that made her shrink and look away, abruptly losing her
authority. “Why?” he demanded. “I thought you claimed to be from the other Court. You know. The
Celestial one?”
“We want to discourage runaways because there’ve been so many since some girl named
Alianna came around,” the Guardian said, her frightened pulse visible in her temple. “And then they
get caught and have even more reason to try it again…and it wears out the girl, eventually.”
There was no one in the Great Hall when Bonnie and the others were hustled off the giant litter and
into the building.
“It’s a new one, so it’s not on the lists,” Mouse said, unexpectedly at her shoulder. “Not
that many people will know about it, so it doesn’t fill up till late, when the music gets loud.”
Mouse seemed to be clinging to her for comfort. That was fine, but Bonnie needed some