Chapter 7

Current times

~Interlude~

Dressed in a heavy traveling shirt and loose, but sturdy pants, Kathryn was trying hard to not let her depression get her down. As she trudged on towards the next city she planned to search it was getting harder and harder to stay up beat and positive.

She had started her journey after a couple months of moping and self reflection as she realized that she had to make some changes or she would lose what could be what little time that she had with Elliot.

Since she had merged with Maxwell, she had become basically an eternal.

She of course could be killed and die just like any other being, and like Maxwell almost did before she met him, but she would no longer get sick from disease or age. In short unless she was violently killed by some outside force, she wouldn't die until she allowed herself to be put in the position of putting herself to death.

But in realizing this knowledge, she also realized that she needed to spend what time she could with Elliot before his time was up because he did not have the same unlimited time she did. She knew that she would give it all up to be with him, but first she had to find him and that was proving harder than it should.

Kat could have sat on her hands and waited to hear any information about him as she asked it, but she also realized that if she missed the chance to be with Elliot because she was to lazy to search she would hate that even more. If she failed it wouldn't be because she hadn't tried everything first.

As she walked she hated that she still occasionally replayed the last look she had seen on his face, when she was close to killing that man Nathan, and it often took forefront on her mind. She hated that that was the last action he had seen by her before she fled.

She had to find a way to make him understand that what she had done wasn't meant to be evil. There were evil people all around and she had been using whatever method provided to her to make them stop, but she would give it all up for him. She would live however she needed to for him.

And she also needed to find a way to show that he too need her just like she needed his, and only his, love to be whole. That without him she just existed and he could help her be a better person. She was starting to realize that if she hadn't been so naïve with William before none of this would have ever happened. How she wished she could take it all back now!

She trudged on and had the thought that even if he had someone else by now, she would be content to be the other woman to be with him. She really didn't want that, she wanted to be the only one in his heart, but she would take what she could get if he would only consider taking her back.

Even if he had a string of women and wasn't attached to any given one of them, then she would find a way to be his only one again no matter how long or how many women she had to wait after to get her turn. To be fair she had more than her fair share of men over the seasons, so she could live with this if need be too.

And after just over ten seasons apart he would be thirty seasons soon and she had to get as much time with him in as possible. The more she thought about it the more she was sure that she could convince him to give her a chance if she could just sit him down and talk.

She needed to take her time when she found him and she wouldn't rush him, but she had to make it happen. She just had to!

But her problem was that the last time they met she had fled before she found out where he was, and she couldn't talk to any of the men they used know because she was now wanted in her home city in connection to all the evil men that needed to be stopped.

Kathryn still really felt that it wasn't all her fault as they were each sleazes and they shouldn't have been forcing themselves on other women.

Well that was in the past. She was determined to make a fresh start somewhere else in a new city, but she wanted to try just one last time with Elliot before that happened.

But after spending almost a month exploring the fourth city since she had left her home she was starting to realize without a given direction this might take a while.

It was hard, so very hard, not to teach a few men lessons for the liberties they took either with her and other women as she watched, but she was proud that she managed to hold back.

As she thought about it honestly the last time that there were a couple of men that she had to teach a lesson, as she unconsciously patted the heavily laden leather purse hidden in the folds of her shirt that contained all their money, it wouldn't have happened if they had left her alone.

And they shouldn't have referred to her as a tease and a whore all because she wanted to be left alone and said so.

That little mistake cost them almost all of their life energy and defiantly all their money. The last one probably was still sleeping it off now almost three days later as he recovered his lost energy.

That made her smile.

She didn't kill them, as much as she wanted too, because she was still haunted by the last look Elliot gave her. But if she truly met someone evil, then she probably would have to do whatever it took to rid the world of them. Elliot couldn't fault her for that.

But that happened in the previous city, and now as she trudged on as she left this city, the frustration was starting to get to her.

Screaming out she suddenly gave into her frustration, as she saw yet another tree that looked just like the last, and before she knew it she had launched a large lighting bolt at it.

Then before she could stop herself she launched bolt after bolt at it, and at a few surrounding trees, and was breathing extremely hard when she finished. It was more from the frustration and the futility of her situation, than from her exertion. She only stopped once there wasn't any more power with-in her anywhere to cast any other spell.

Having thoroughly vented her frustration Kat started walking again in the direction of the next city on her list. She was prepared again to visit every Inn, Tavern, and business to see if anyone had seen someone matching or calling themselves Elliot.

And she would have to put up with yet again another round of men trying to chat her up or grope her while only being able to tell her they had no real information to trade for the liberties. She could only put up with this for the sake of him.

Kat decided to work her way through the woods to cut down on the travel between cities. If she took the road it would take her several weeks to get there, but if she travel via the woods it would only take her a couple weeks, give or take, to make it.

Walking along, suddenly without realizing it, Kat broke through the trees in the waning afternoon light and found herself in a large clearing that had a few men milling around in it.

Kat started for the men she saw near the edge, but something caught her eye and she managed to look past them to see what it was.

Seated on the ground, and off to one side of a large fire, was what she estimated to be about ten women, but their hands appeared to be behind them.

As she looked harder she realized that the women were seated and all looked down. She could make out some were shocked, or hurt, or even had the look of despair on their faces. From what she could see they were all very pretty, but looked desperate for help.

Looking further she couldn't miss that there were about four to five armed men standing around them, some watching them, and others looking around, peering into the woods from time to time.

They were slavers!

Hoping she wasn't seen until she could figure out what to do, as Kat was still close to edge, and she started trying to back backwards back into the tree line when someone grabbed her.

"Well, what do we have here," said a voice, who then spun her around as she caught herself right before she screamed as the sudden surprise.

Kat found herself face to face with a grizzly older man, possibly in his forties, with salt and pepper hair. He had one good eye that was steely blue, but the other had a nasty jagged scar that ran from his left eyebrow to his bottom of his nose, across what used to be his left eye, which now had a white milky appearance to it.

The man was heavily muscled, and while in his grip, Kat couldn't manage to struggle free no matter how hard she tried.

"And here we had to visit some homes and cities to acquire some of the best merchandise we can find, and the best quality I've ever seen in my life just stumbles into our hands," smiled the man maliciously.

"Let me go! If you know what's good for you, you'll let me go! You don't want to do this, it won't end well for you!" screamed Kat as she struggled.

"Or what? "You'll kill us? Or you're trying to make a threat for someone else? I somehow doubt that would be the case because you're so far out here all by yourself. And before you try to bluff about having someone else with you I checked.

"That weird noise we couldn't miss made me go have a look and I followed you here so I know you're by yourself. But I have to say I find it hard to believe that you're traveling without any provisions for such a long journey," smiled the man

"Perry what do you have?" called a man from the far side of the camp by the fire.

"Mitch, it seems that fortune just keeps smiling on us. Look what I found that just dropped into my lap," said Perry as he forced Kat to walk forward, while still maintaining his grip on both her arms.

Walking forward Kat was forced to stop and stand before an equally imposing man. This man was tall even for average, but that wasn't want seemed make him appear larger than life. Where Perry was largely muscled, Mitch was lightly muscled, but his arms were longer and his face had a perpetual sneer to it.

But as she thought about it, it was his eyes, they looked cold and dead. Before Kat realized it she did a shiver in the warm summer afternoon. She could tell that he was a cold blooded killer and would kill her without a second though as his eyes looked her over.

"I knew we would get a good price for this latest lot, but this addition will ensure that we won't have to work for months. She will fetch the most of them all," said Mitch almost deadpan.

Kat couldn't miss the laughter from the other men. The conversation between them had attracted the attention of the other men. She quickly counted twelve men in total in the camp. More than enough to chase down one woman, if they tried to run, and of course punish them once they caught them.

"Did you search her yet?" asked Mitch coming even closer to peer down at her.

"Nope, didn't have the chance. I just now caught her coming into the camp," smiled Perry.

Smiling a smile that had no humor to it again, which again caused her to shiver, Mitch started to pat her down.

Then he got more aggressive once he tapped her coin purse and started letting his rough calloused hand roam round inside her shirt all over her bare skin to get at it, where he then unbuttoned her pants and did the same thing inside her pants and underwear.

He made sure to feel her all over really, really well, but he wasn't harsh in his inspection of her.

Mitch seemed to think about something for a moment, and then lifted up her shirt around her neck and dropped her pants to take in what she looked like under all her traveling clothes. Once he had a good look, and Perry and the other men as well, he allowed her to pull up her pants and tuck everything back in.

And as he did so Kat refused to give him the satisfaction of crying, cringing, or pulling away, and so once she finished dressing she stood and looked him defiantly in the eyes.

"Yes, top notch. Everything is firm and tight. The fire in her eyes will also set top coinage for her. Yes we did well to be camped here tonight. I thought the slower pace would cost us, but instead fortune will triple our income," said Mitch as he smiled at her.

While in his search he managed to take her coin purse and Kat gave it up without a fight, but she started to viciously struggle and scream when he went for her left hand and took Elliot's ring off her finger. It hadn't been removed since the day he put it on her hand over ten seasons ago.

That was the only real emotion she had shown during his whole fondling of her body.

Mitch couldn't fail to notice that when he took the ring it was the only time she showed any emotions. He found it really funny.

"Ahh, where you're going you won't need anything like this. By the looks of you, you probably won't ever need clothing ever again either. I can't imagine anyone who buys you allowing you to cover up that body. Unless they are into spending their time undressing you that is," smiled Mitch, before he dropped the ring into her coin purse and then secured it inside his own shirt.

"You just took something more precious to me than my life and I will do everything I can to make you pay for it. You will die, and I will make it as painful as I can," said Kat low and with a dangerous edge that even Mitch wondered if she could make good on. Something in her eyes, and how she just spoke, made even him take notice of her statement.

"I'm going to put her with the other women and then take my turn to sleep before my shift," said Perry as he laughed nervously at her statement, before he roughly pushed Kat before him to join the other women. The way she just spoke rattled him as well.

Soon she was tied up and seated among the other women.

Kat was cursing herself for wasting all her magical power earlier. If she still had some of it she would have been out of her a long time ago, but now she couldn't even fuel her own succubus power. She was completely at their mercy.

She had to find someway to get some essence from someone.

Over the course of a couple days travel Kat was starting to get very frustrated.

A couple of the cute, but a little less attractive girls, were taken and used to work out the frustration of the traveling slavers. But Kat noticed that she and the remaining girls were never touched.

Later it came out that Mitch said that they were too valuable to take the chance they either became pregnant or sported visible bruising which would drive down their pricing, as either would hurt profits.

Mitch also said that since Kat had joined the party, and if either of those girls used happened to have something like this happen to them, then her sale would more than make up for their loss. All the slavers seemed to get a chuckle out of that.

That made her mad because often time her heart went out to either of the women as they were taken away by forced and used. When they were returned to the small group of women they were trying to silently cry as not to attract anymore attention.

Later they stopped struggling as they were dragged off, but still cried quietly on their return. Kat was so enraged that they were handled like this and that she was powerless to even try and help them. She felt she had a responsibility to help them, but foolishly wasted it.

So no matter what she did to lure them to her, away from either of the women, none of the men would take a chance and touch her. And that frustrated her. She needed essences and she wanted to stop the rapes of those two women. She really needed enough power to kill them all.