They had caught the Brutes off guard and spent the evening tearing through the camp. Dakota had fought side by side with Tony, and they had managed to take down nearly two dozen between the two of them. There had been a significant increase in force from what their scout had seen when they had originally mapped out the area.
“How are your people?” Argento asked as they reconvened in the center of the camp.
“No losses or serious injury. Yours?”
“We are fine as well. I am disappointed in the number of traitors I had in my ranks.”
One of Argento’s warriors came up and whispered something to him. His eyes went wide and he looked straight at Dakota.
“Come, now.”
Dakota and Tony ran after Argento and the other Brute until they came up on a small trapdoor. It would have barely been noticeable in the daylight, and had it not been for the Brutes’ extra sensitive eyes, they may not have ever found it.
“What is it?” Dakota asked, studying Argento’s face.
“I believe that we have found your Anastasia.”
“What?” The adrenaline began pumping through his veins again as he reached for the door.
Argento grabbed his arm. “Be careful, Dakota, you do not know what she has been put through. It may be best to let my healer go in first.”
“Absolutely not. No offense to you, but the traitors have been who she has been with. She does not know anything about our friendship, so your warriors will only put her on the defense. It’s best for everyone involved if I go in.”
“Agreed,” Tony seconded, and folded his arms over his chest.
“Very well.” Argento released him. “I am pleased to hear that you consider us friends. I do as well.”
Dakota nodded and lifted the hatch. “Ana?” Dakota started to run to the small form huddled in the corner of the tiny room, but when she pulled away from him, he slowed down. “Ana, it’s Dakota.”
“This is just another trick,” he heard her whisper.
“No, baby, it’s not. I’m here. Tony is here as well.”
“Tony?” He had been the only person who had not been in her illusion. Could it be that Vincent did not know his face? Couldn’t form an illusion based on him?
“Yes, Tony is here.”
“I want to see him,” she demanded, sinking further into the dark. She couldn’t risk seeing his face. If it was another illusion, she wasn’t sure she would survive the temptation.
“I will get him.” Dakota tried to hide the hurt in his voice as he looked at Tony, who stood at the top of the stairs.
“I only want Tony.”
Dakota nodded and stepped out of the cellar.
“Anastasia?” Tony stepped into the dark and moved slowly towards the corner where she was.
“Tony?”
“I’m here.”
“Is it really you?”
“Yes, it is.”
“How do I know?”
“Anastasia, I swore to your father that I would watch over you. That I would help you defeat Vincent and the Brutes and that I would keep you safe while you did it. Although I haven’t done the best job lately, I have every intention of making sure I do better from now on.”
“Tony,” she cried. She tried reaching for him, but her entire body ached. She didn’t realize she was chained to the wall until the shackles pulled her back.
“Oh, honey.” He pulled her in for a hug. “I'm going to bring someone in here to get you out of these chains. These are Brute metal, so I'm going to bring a Brute in, but he is our ally.”
“No, no Brute, please, Tony.” She started panicking, and her chest got heavy.
“Trust me, honey, he is our friend. It is a long story and one I will tell you tomorrow, I promise. Argento!” he yelled, and when the large figure filled the doorway, Anastasia cried out.
“I will not harm you, Anastasia.” He reached for the shackles on her wrists, and when she pulled away, he smiled lightly, an expression she hadn’t known Brutes were capable of forming. “I will not harm you,” he repeated, and gently gripped either side of the metal. He pulled it apart, and with a popping noise her hands were free. He removed the ones on her ankles and she tried to stand.
Her legs gave out, and she fell into Tony.
“I need a blanket. She is freezing.”
“Here, use this.” Argento handed him the cloak he had been wearing over his back, and Tony wrapped her quickly.
Anastasia sighed with relief at the warmth she hadn’t felt in she couldn’t even remember how long. As Tony carried her out, she closed her eyes to avoid seeing Dakota.
As Tony carried Anastasia out and into the light of the lanterns, Dakota felt the chains on the rage that had been building in his chest snap. His body began to vibrate when he looked at what they had done to her. Her lips were blue from the cold, and she had bruises and cuts everywhere, as if she had been beaten. Her eyes were hollow, and he could see that she had lost a significant amount of weight that she hadn’t needed to lose. Had they even fed her?
He turned away from her, not wanting her to see the anger on his face, and he walked back towards the cellar. He wanted to get a good look at where she had been trapped. She had been so damn close to him, within a day’s walk, and he hadn’t even noticed! What kind of man was he? Why had he not even tried looking for her here? He slammed his fist into the wall of the cellar and felt the pain shoot up through his arm.
“Anger will do you no good, my friend.” Argento came in behind him, having to duck so that he wouldn’t hit his head on the ceiling.
“I am feeling so much more than anger, Argento. I am feeling rage, disgust, guilt, sadness…in fact, you name it and I’m feeling it right now. You saw what they did to her!”
“I did. It is absolutely atrocious the way she has been treated. Even after seeing the way your villagers were being worked to death, I had not wanted to believe that those of my kind could have been capable of such horrific torture. To be chained down here alone must have been indescribably awful.”
“You aren’t helping,” Dakota muttered.
“I am not trying to.” Argento rested his large hand on Dakota’s shoulder. “What you must remember is that you have her back now, and although it will take you time to get back the woman she was before, she will come back. That one has fight in her, and she will not give up.”
Dakota nodded. “Thank you.”
“We should go now, the others have already started walking back. We do not want to be anywhere around when they discover what we have done to their village and that we have taken your Anastasia back.”
Dakota followed Argento, and together they walked back towards the village with the group. He knew that he couldn’t have possibly known she was back in Terrenia. When he left her she had been in Seattle, but he knew that it would still eat at him every day. He should have at least tried to find her here. They should have torn through the Brute camps long before now.
She wouldn’t even look at him, he remembered. How could he blame her? It was his fault she had suffered with the traitor Brutes for nearly two months. Argento seemed sure that he would get back the Anastasia he loved, but he wasn’t so sure of it. He couldn’t blame her if she hated him for the rest of her life.
Tony carried Anastasia carefully, as if she might break, and honestly she was worried she would. The Fighters and Brutes that were with them surrounded her like a wall of protection as they made the journey back, and she finally felt safe. She wasn’t sure how the Brutes began working with her people, but she was grateful to them for helping free her.
Anastasia’s entire body felt bruised, her heart broken in a way she wasn’t sure she would recover from. Dakota hadn’t even looked at her. She couldn’t blame him, since she hadn’t been able to look at him either. Not after what the illusion had shown her. Even though she knew it now for what it was, giving up Dakota and their daughter had been the most difficult thing she had ever done in her life, and she knew she would hear the little girl’s cries in her head for a long time.
“Anastasia!” She heard Brady’s voice and looked up to see him walking next to Tony. “What happened to her?” he asked.
“The Brutes had her chained in a cellar.”
Brady shot an angry glare at one of the Brutes that walked near him.
“Don’t you dare disrespect Argento and his men. If it weren’t for them, not only would we have not found her, but on the off chance we had, we wouldn’t have been able to get her out of that cellar. She was chained with Brute metal.”
She saw the battle play out on Brady’s face until it softened. “I am grateful to them for that.”
“As we all are. Run ahead and have Elizabeth set up one of the beds in the medical cottage. She is injured badly.”
Anastasia moved slightly, and Tony held her closer.
“We are almost there, Anastasia, it is okay now. You are safe now.” She looked up at his face and saw the sadness that could only come from a father, blood or not. Tony had always been like a father figure to her, and she knew he loved her like a daughter. Would he still feel the same when she told him what she did to Mitch? Would he understand?
“Oh, Anastasia!” Elizabeth’s voice brought a small smile to her lips, and she turned her head to look at her. “Oh, honey, it will be okay. Tilly, grab some pain-management herbs. Oh, honey, you must be in so much pain.”
Her comment surprised Anastasia. She couldn’t feel anything. Her entire body was numb.
Tony laid her gently down on the bed and stepped back. Anastasia knew she must look pretty banged up, because the expression on his face showed pure anger. Tony, she knew, would bottle the anger, push it down until it threatened to burst out, and then he would use it in battle.
“I will step outside.”
“Dakota?” Elizabeth asked, wondering why her son hadn’t been the one to bring Anastasia in.
“He is fine, he’s talking with Argento.”
Elizabeth nodded, and once the door was closed, she removed Argento’s cape and stared down at Anastasia’s tattered undergarments.
“Oh my.” Tilly had been one of the women Anastasia had sent through the portal from Seattle. She was married to Robbie, and they had been the leaders of a small group of survivors.
“Anastasia,” Elizabeth said sadly.
“What is it?” she asked carefully, regretting the words. The adrenaline that had been holding the pain off was gone, and every movement and word felt like someone was twisting a dagger in her side.
“This is going to hurt, but I have to see how many are broken.”
“How many of what?”
“Ribs.”
Anastasia bit back a scream as Elizabeth started feeling on her side.
“Honey, I need you to stop moving. Tilly, go get Dakota.”
“No, not Dakota.”
“I need him. Believe me, I don’t want him seeing this any more than you do. He is the only man who has seen you this way.” She gestured down, and Anastasia knew she was talking about how little she was wearing. “Is that okay?”
Anastasia nodded and lay back, closing her eyes.
“What is it?” Dakota came bursting into the house with Tilly at his heels. “I'm going to kill the bastard.”
“Dakota, I need you to focus. I have to see how many ribs are broken and make sure there is nothing internal going on, but I need you to hold her still. Can you do that?”
Dakota nodded and walked over to Anastasia. As carefully as he could, he reached his arms around her and held on.
Six hours, four broken ribs, some internal bleeding, a broken arm, and multiple lacerations later, Elizabeth had finally finished.
“I don’t know how she is alive, Dakota. I'm glad she is, but I don’t know how. The pain alone should have put her in shock.”
“She is tough.” He sat and watched her sleep. The steady rise and fall of her chest was enough to put a bit of his pain to rest. The guilt of watching her was nearly overwhelming.
“Her magic would have helped keep the injuries from causing death. It helps her maintain a state of healing, although with injuries this severe, she wouldn’t have been able to heal herself completely,” Carmen added.
There was a knock at the door, and Argento came in with his healer.
“How is she?” he asked, approaching Ana’s sleeping form.
“They nearly killed her,” Dakota said simply.
“I don’t know how they kept her alive, even with her magic,” Elizabeth said, still shocked.
“The stasis would have helped as well.” The healer moved to stand next to her.
“How so?” Dakota asked.
“We use the stasis for those who are injured beyond healing as well, as a way to help them pass peacefully.”
“He was using it so she would die?”
“I do not believe so.” The healer placed his hand gently over her forehead and closed his eyes. “The stasis he used was much stronger than that. It wouldn’t have worked long with the amount of magic in her blood.”
“She is very powerful.” Carmen smiled proudly.
“That she is,” the healer agreed.
“Why don’t you all go and rest? I will sit with her until morning.” Carmen took a seat next to the fireplace, a book in her hand and a cup of what smelled suspiciously like coffee.
“I’m fine,” Dakota said, unmoving.
“Dakota, please don’t make me drug you again.” Elizabeth yawned and stood.
Argento let out a deep laugh. “Your mother drugged you?”
“Something she is quite proud of, I’m sure,” Dakota said sarcastically, a small smile playing at his lips.
“Dakota George, let’s go.” Elizabeth lightly slapped the back of his head, and he stood.
“You are just like some of the females in our world. They are strong and stubborn as well.”
“I will take that as a compliment.” Elizabeth smiled. “Let’s go. Thank you, Carmen.”
Carmen nodded and closed the door gently behind them.