Page 5 of Dark Rebel's Mystery

"Did she respond?"

Syssi shook her head. "She just stared at him with glazed-over eyes. There wasn't any panic in her expression or even revulsion, and yet I knew it wasn't consensual. Something was done to her."

"Tell me about the room—the cell. Any details that can help us identify the place."

It was easier to focus on the practical aspects of the scene rather than the emotional impact. "At first glance, I thought it was a prison cell. There were bars on the small square window, and the bed was one of those old metal-frame types you see in movies about prisons or asylums. The paint on the walls was peeling, and the linoleum floor was coming up in patches. Everything looked run-down. When the scumbag entered wearing a doctor's coat, I realized it must be a hospital of some sort."

"Do you think you can draw the room?" Kian asked.

"I can try."

He rose to his feet. "I'll get your tablet from the bedroom."

Syssi nodded despite dreading him leaving her alone even for a minute. She focused on the cappuccino, which was indeed excellent, taking small sips and savoring the taste until Kian returned with her tablet in hand.

"Here," he handed it to her. "It's a good idea to sketch what you saw while the images are still fresh in your mind."

"What good will that do?" Syssi took the tablet and detached the stylus. "It happened a long time ago in another country. I doubt it will help us find Kyra."

"Someone who escaped the regime might have been detained in the same place and recognize the institution," Kian said."Especially if it was used to house rebels and brainwash them to abandon their rebellion in favor of blindly following the regime. Remember the story about the Iranian girl who took off her clothes in the middle of the street?"

Syssi nodded. "She was accosted by the modesty police because her headscarf wasn't covering every strand of her hair. After they tore her hoodie, she just snapped and took everything off except her sports bra, panties, and socks. I was terrified for her. I thought they were going to hang her like they did other women who dared to rebel or take her eye out. I was so glad that they just put her in a mental institution." She shivered. "I feel so sorry for these women and so proud of them at the same time. They are fighting an impossible fight."

Syssi opened the sketching application and started outlining the room, the window, the door, the floor, and the bed. Her artistic talent wasn't good enough to provide a realistic representation of what she'd seen, but perhaps she could give the drawing to someone to enhance with her guidance.

"When the story exploded all over the world, everyone was afraid the regime would kill her," Kian said. "But they didn't because of the international pressure. They held her in the mental asylum for a while and later released her."

"Yeah, if that's true. I'll believe it once I see her with my own eyes." Syssi shifted her gaze to him. "Do you think it might be the same place Kyra was in?"

He shrugged. "It's possible, and since it was made famous, maybe I can get some information about it."

Syssi had a feeling that he was just saying that to give her hope. "I'll try to sketch a portrait of that so-called physician. It willprobably not be good enough to identify him, but maybe Tim can enhance my sketch with my input. Those former Iranians you wish to show my sketch to might recognize the pervert if he's a physician who's sold his soul to the devil and is working for the regime."

"Good thinking." Kian lifted his cup and took a long sip. "If anyone recognizes him and knows where we can find him, he might lead us to Kyra, and once we find her, we will avenge her." He gave Syssi a chilling smile. "I would be delighted to rid the world of that vermin. One less demon to walk the Earth and prey on the vulnerable and the defenseless."

Syssi sighed as she opened a fresh file and started sketching the fake doctor. "I sometimes dream of having god-like powers, and I don't mean an Anumatian god. I mean the real master of the universe, so I could wish all the monsters dead and liberate the world from evil."

Kian leaned back and draped his arm around her shoulders. "The master of the universe, if such an entity exists, leaves the governing of the physical world to those living within its boundaries. It is up to us to uphold good and eradicate evil."

"I know. And I'm glad that I don't have such powers." She lifted her eyes off the sketch to the beloved face of her mate. "With immense power comes immense responsibility, and I don't delude myself into thinking that I'm strong enough to shoulder it."

"It's not about strength." Kian's hand tightened on her shoulder. "It requires a level of detachment that you don't have. Be glad for that. The detachment is bought with pieces of your soul."

There was something to that. Empathy was a luxury that warriors often had to go without in order to be able to do their jobs. "Kyra looked to be about Jasmine's age in the vision, so the event I saw must have occurred shortly after she was taken."

"Taken?" Kian's eyebrows rose. "From where?"

"Her home." Syssi set the tablet down. "Kyra didn't just decide one day to leave her husband and daughter, fly back to Iran, walk into that institution, and ask to be chained to a bed."

"She could have gone to visit her family and got caught by the regime for some reason. Maybe her family was up to something."

Syssi shook her head. "If Kyra had left the US voluntarily, she would have told her husband and said goodbye to her daughter. Then she would have found a way to contact her husband once she escaped the asylum and joined the Kurdish resistance. She would have wanted to know if her daughter was alright."

"Unless she was afraid to contact them," Kian suggested. "Perhaps letting them know she was alive would have put them in danger."

"That's another possibility. But what are we supposed to do with this information? The vision showed something that happened over twenty years ago, and Kyra is clearly not in that place anymore. That entire facility might no longer exist."

Kian pointed at the tablet. "Showing your sketches to people who might recognize the facility or the so-called doctor is a long shot, but that's all we can do with what we have." He set his coffee cup on the table. "In your other visions, the ones of Kyra with the resistance—did she look older?"

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