Chapter 4

Veronica awoke to an uncomfortable pressure against the side of her neck. As she tried to move away, she became aware of a rough, warm pressure against her face and mouth.

"Awake, girlie?" a raspy voice grumbled into her ear. "You just sit up now and don' make any noise, unnerstand?"

Ronnie was wide awake, now, that familiar, evil voice she'd hoped to never hear again flooding her mind with terror. But she wasn't going to submit, this time! She opened her mouth as wide as she could, letting her would-be abductor's hand drop down, then bit him as hard as she could.

"OW! Goddam Bitch!" the voice in the darkness snarled. Then something hard bounced off the side of her head, and she realized she'd been struck with the gun that had been pressed against her throat. Gun and Struck impacted against her mind at the same time and she was suddenly enraged, squalling like a burnt cat and clawing at the darkness where his vile face should be.

A loud flash deafened her left ear and blinded her as well, but she kept fighting and clawing, feeling her fingers digging into bleeding flesh, determined to never submit to this vile son-of-a-bitch, ever again. The room suddenly seemed brighter; a luminous, flickering blue light in the doorway. Another bright, deafening flash blacked everything out for an instant and Ronnie felt like she'd been punched in the stomach – right in her diaphragm.

A young female voice shouted, "Hey!" and Ronnie realized that one of the twins was here.

"Get out!" she screamed. "Run!" But it was too late and the illuminated frame of her ex-master turned and fired at the door. She heard a grunt and a gasp, and realized that one of the girls had been shot.

Then the vile man was on fire! His body was burning, his gun melting in his hand. The ragged cry he made as he fell sounded like an animal in agony – not like the evil villain who'd imprisoned and tortured her until she'd managed to escape once she'd convinced him she was his personal slave and he let his guard down.

She fell back, dizzy and disoriented, her mind working to figure out how he'd found her. It was obvious, of course. Getting a job in an underground food court probably hadn't been the best idea she'd had, but she'd needed the work and it was the only thing she could find – except for maybe being a barmaid, and after being held captive for several months, she wasn't willing to trade sex for security. But, the trouble with a food court was, eventually, everyone came by to be fed.

'He must have seen me and followed me here," she realized. 'Oh, God! I put Buck in danger!' Then she moaned, dizzy from blood loss, though she was trying to put pressure on the wound until Buck could save her.

Buck staggered into the bedroom, alerted by the flames and the fire alarm. His head bled where the intruder had struck him, but that wasn't what caused him to halt in his tracks when he staggered against the bedroom door.

Both golden haired twins were lying on the floor and Veronica was lying half off the bed, holding her stomach and there was a lot of blood all over her bare stomach and the sheets. A pit fire glowed in the center of the room, providing the only visible light as it flickered a deep, cheery red, mostly coals now. Whatever was on fire smelled like burnt meat and hair, but it didn't look human. He had no idea what it might be.

Tia groaned and sat up, her enlarged, bare breasts glowing red from the remnants of the fire. There was a very neat hole just below her sternum and it pulsed black fluid with each beat of her young heart.

"Oh fuck! Not you!" Buck exclaimed as he quickly knelt down beside her, pushing her hands away so he could see how badly she was injured. Tia coughed and spat up some blood, which dribbled down her chin and her bare chest, making it next to impossible to tell where she'd been shot. Buck was appalled at the fact that he was getting an erection even as his niece bled out on the floor.

"S'all ... s' ... all right..." Tia coughed, trying to breathe with all that blood coming up her esophagus. "Ronnie..." She choked again and tried to swallow, managing to lift one arm up to point at the bed. "Shot..."

"Tia, you've been shot, too!" Buck urgently tried to explain as he pulled her down to lie flat on the floor so he could put pressure on her wound.

"I'll do it," Tara cried out, suddenly appearing at Buck's side. "Go get Ronnie!" She physically pushed Uncle Buck to one side and knelt over her twin, placing both hands on Tia's wound.

Buck sat up and struggled to his feet, appalled even more at the sight of Veronica, lying on the bed watching him, gasping, whimpering, holding her stomach while blood seeped out from between her fingers and dribbled down her belly onto the sheets.

"Bring her over here!" a female voice from behind demanded.

Buck grabbed Veronica by both arms, causing her to lose her grip on her stomach, which caused her to cry out in both fear and pain. But then he had her lying flat on the floor next to Tia, who, surprisingly, seemed to be breathing normally.

He stared over at Tara, then down at her hands, which were glowing blue. After a moment, Tia actually chuckled and gave a relieved sigh, "Oh god – that's much better..."

Instead of replying, Tara moved over and shoved Uncle Buck away from Veronica, where he'd been pressing down on her stomach wound, replacing his large hands with her small ones. Buck stared, noticing that her smaller hands barely seemed to cover all the blood on Ronnie's belly. Then Tara's hands started to glow!

Blue fire crept out from her fingertips and disappeared into Veronica's skin. The soft, blue glow seemed to dissipate along the length of her fingers and the breadth of her hands, then slowly faded.

Veronica began to breathe more easily, though she still whimpered with each exhalation, mostly from the fear of having been shot. "You okay?" Buck asked, astonished that Tara had somehow, magically, healed her sister and his girlfriend.

His question seemed to bring Veronica back from the terror she'd just experienced. Her questing eyes met his and she whimpered once again, 'Uh-huh ... I think ... I don't..." She looked down at herself, staring at all the blood, then gingerly touched her now-healed wound. "What ... What happened?"

"I ... I saw it," Buck stammered, "but I don't believe it!"

"They burned him..." Veronica grunted as she tried to sit up. "My old boyfriend ... he wanted me back ... To lock ... put back ... in his basement..."

"He held you prisoner?" Buck asked, once again astonished by the events of the evening. "Who ... who burned him?" He stared down at the dying embers in the middle of the floor, only now beginning to realize that the ashes were somewhat shaped like a human – that could be an arm ... and those were his legs...

And then he threw up.

As Buck extinguished the remnants of the human bonfire, Tia created a small blue ball of flame and sent it up into the middle of the room so everyone could see. Tara blinked in the pale light, only now noticing Veronica's breasts. There were half-healed puncture marks from earlier tonight, but there were also older, more vicious scars where her breasts had been, at one time, nearly torn off.

"The bad man did that to you?" she asked, including an image of what she was asking about.

Ronnie turned to stare at the naked young witch who'd just saved her life, not understanding how she could communicate with pictures like that, then she simply nodded. Yes!

"I can fix that," Tara offered.

Ronnie stared at the girl and simply laughed, a strange sound that almost got strangled in her throat. Leaning back and dropping her hands to her sides, Veronica gave silent permission to the girl, willing to let her do whatever she might.