Page 57 of Jezebel's Liberation

“You know how you’re the best at hacking?” he counters, and she nods. “I’m the best at tattooing, and based on the ones you have, you could use an update.”

Diabla has some beautiful ink, but Possum is right, he’s the best and would only enhance what she already has.

“Wow, conceited much?” she banters.

“It’s not conceited if it’s true,” he says.

Diabla tosses her hair over her shoulders. “I’ll think about it.”

Possum steps back. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

Soul crosses his arms. “Now that we’ve settled that, can we get back to the real reason we’re here?”

Knuckles points to a screen behind Loki. “What’s that?”

Everyone’s attention diverts to what he’s looking at.

I zoom in on the photo. “Damn it, with everything that happened I forgot to ask Abyss,” I mutter mostly to myself. The image is a collection of photos of every girl we were able to identify that Ted came into contact with at some point. The catatonic looks are their faces stare back at us.

Abyss steps forward. “Ask me what?”

“When I went to Ted’s house, I found something.”

“What did you find?” Malice questions.

I turn to Abyss. “Hold on. Let me grab it. Better to show you.”

I reach under the table for my bag that contains the medications I found at Ted’s home. Luckily, my backpack was with me in the trailer when I was rescued, and when he recognized it, Demon grabbed it, not wanting to leave any trace of me behind. I pull the boxes out of my bag and hand them to Abyss.

Abyss’s expression goes from shock to rage as he looks over the contents in his hands and back at the photo on the monitor. “Son of a bitch!”

“Want to share with the rest of us?” Grim signs.

“It’s Versed and Romazicon,” he explains.

“What’re those?” Soul asks.

“Versed is used as an anesthetic by dentists and some doctors on kids. It’ll knock some kids out, but others, it just makes them lethargic.” Abyss pulls out a lollipop and holds it up for everyone to see. “Versed is administered in this form because it’s better than sticking kids with a needle. They gobble these suckers up before a procedure. Best part, they won’trememberanything. Versed wipes your memory.” He holds up the Romazicon. “This is the antidote, so to speak. It reverses the effects of Versed, bringing someone out of anesthesia. Romazicon has to be administered intravenously, but with the kids out of it, it’s easy to give them a quick shot in the vein to bring them back. Was Ted a doctor or dentist?” Abyss asks.

I shake my head. “No, he was an accountant and youth pastor at numerous churches throughout the country.”

Abyss narrows his eyes. “He’s working with someone then. There’s no way he’d be able to get his hands on this easily.”

“We haven’t found a connection to anyone else,” Jinx speaks up.

“That’s true, but we also didn’t know about the medicine,” Loki says. “Now that we know, we can start digging into any doctors or dentists Ted encountered through the years.”

My team starts firing away on their computers as my brothers all stand back and watch in fascination.

“If that fucker wasn’t already dead…” Malice’s voice trails off, no doubt him recalling what Demon told him.

My eyes flicker to Demon, who’s gone pale. Phantom follows my line of sight, and we both rush to him. I place my hands on Demon’s face and gently tug so his eyes are level with mine. His breaths are ragged.

“Breathe, baby,” I coo. “In and out, like this.” I take a deep breath through my nose and exhale out of my mouth. Slowly, Demon starts to mimic me. He rests his forehead against mine. “You’re okay,” I soothe.

I can feel everyone’s eyes on us, but no one else approaches.

Demon shudders. “What about Stewart?”

---