One Journey Ends

Tara felt a wave of revulsion strike her as she let the strange man pull her to him. He wasn\'t gentle about it either. He wound her dark blonde hair around one of his hands and pulled on it tightly. She winced a little with pain but she tried to hide it, seeing as he seemed to feed off of her terror. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Seka struggle with her bindings, rags it looked like. Tara wasn\'t naïve enough to believe this man would free the Japanese girl when he was finished with her. Seka\'s only hope now was that Tara keep him occupied long enough for her to escape. And if Tara showed him the fright he clearly wanted to see from her, things would be over too quickly for Seka to get away.

She was secretly glad that Sven had been called away this evening. She didn\'t want him to get hurt because of her. He was a good man and dragging him into her mess of problems seemed wrong on so many levels, no matter how much he protested. She fleetingly thought of the dark haired man that had saved her in the hospital and wished he were here now. But not for herself. Tara didn\'t want to live through the humiliation and damage this man was undoubtedly about to cause her. She wanted the man there to save Seka. The girl was so young and full of hope for the future. Tara wanted that preserved, though if the girl had to witness what Tara suspected was about to happen, that wouldn\'t be possible.

Another yank on her hair forced her thoughts back to the present and the man\'s cold eyes bore into her own, trying to dissect her. He watched her dispassionately as he tore her smock and shirt off in one motion. Tara felt her face redden hotly but she made no move to cover herself, standing in her bra and slacks with her hair still caught in the man\'s grasp.

\"Not bad,\" he said without inflection. He turned his eyes briefly on the bound man on the floor. \"I see why you wanted this one.\"

The man made no reply, merely watching the two with fearful eyes. Tara tried to muster some pity for him but found she couldn\'t while memories of his dirty hands on her assaulted her mind.

\"He wasn\'t right for you, was he, sweetheart?\" the cold man turned his eyes back onto her. \"I know. I\'ll erase you memories of him soon.\"

Tara couldn\'t conceal the shudder of disgust that coursed down her spine. The ramifications of what he meant hit home all too clearly. She didn\'t mind the death but she did mind the other act. She could see it in his eyes. He got off on the fear and he made his victims share every inch of it with him until they were dead. Once the rape began, so did the beginning of her death. She had to draw this out for Seka. Willing herself to calm down she looked directly back at the man and reached down for the last bit of bravery she had left.

\"So, what do I call you then?\" she asked in a voice that sounded foreign even to her own ears. How had she managed to sound so serene?

\"Call me?\" he asked, visibly surprised. \"Why should you call me anything?\"

Tara managed a nonchalant shrug while he kept her hair firmly bound. He gave her a guarded look before the cold smirk replaced it.

\"You can call me Adam if you really want to,\" he said. \"But I like it better if you just scream.\" He gave her hair a sharp twist and she hissed in pain. But she wouldn\'t give in to the scream he wanted. \"Don\'t feel like screaming yet?\" he pretended disappointment. \"You will. Soon.\"

--------------------------------------

Justin floored the petal of the car as he and Sven raced to the cabin. His mate made no move to slow him down, either. He knew Sven was terrified of what was probably happening to Seka right now. But at least Tara was safe for the moment, he grimaced. He didn\'t know what a second attack on her would do. And if he knew Adam, he knew it would be brutal. Justin remembered the bruises and scars his mother bore while she was married to the sick bastard. He remembered that some of them went below the collar of her dress. He could only imagine what Adam had done or made her do to cause them. The man\'s need to inflict pain had escalated to such a horrifying level shouldn\'t have surprised Justin. His guilt weighed heavily upon him as he steered the car.

\"You could not have known what he was going to become back then, Justin,\" Sven\'s soothing accent drifted over him breaking his self-deprecating thoughts.

\"But I should have understood in the years since I have been gone.\"

\"But you had to put him from your mind to become the man you needed to be.\"

\"And look where that has led,\" the dark haired man sighed.

\"We cannot change the past,\" Sven said softly. \"It is useless to try to live in it.\"

Justin sighed again, picking up the double meaning in Sven\'s statement. He was telling him that he\'d wanted to live in the past, too, when he lost his family. But he couldn\'t. And Justin can\'t live in the past by blaming himself for Adam\'s deeds, when the man was clearly deranged. Justin wanted to hold onto his rage. It\'s what made him the dangerous man he always was. But he realized he couldn\'t hold onto it, as it distanced him too much from the man he loved. He wasn\'t willing to go back now.

\"You are every bit as dangerous with your emotions intact, my heart,\" Sven stated grimly. \"Just ask Tara.\"

Justin nodded and kept his eyes firmly on the dark road and gripped the steering wheel. He would save Seka. He had to. If that bastard had already started raping her he would tear him apart.

--------------------------------------

The woman refused to give him her terror. Adam growled in frustration. Why the hell was she making this so difficult? He\'d already promised her he would let the other one go. Not that he would, but people would believe anything when their lives were on the line. Yet Tara was making him work for every gasp and shudder. Maybe he was taking too long to grab her. That must be it. She seemed to find his touch disgusting. He liked that. He pushed her back up against the wall and grabbed her breast roughly with his free hand, giving it a sharp and painful twist. She cried out and a tear roiled down her cheek. So satisfying, he thought.

\"You like that?\" he sneered. \"You should have cooperated when we got here. I wouldn\'t have had to be so rough.\"

\"Fuck you!\" She finally screamed. \"You\'re pathetic!\"

Adam\'s sharp intake of breath didn\'t go unnoticed by her. She smirked back up at him challengingly.

\"I wouldn\'t just give in to you,\" she informed him haughtily. \"I have too much respect for my late husband to do that.\"

\"Late?\" Adam taunted. He could afford to play for a bit. Her disappearance wouldn\'t be discovered for a couple of hours yet. And she was more interesting than the Japanese girl right now anyway. He loved to beat the confidence out of a woman. The girl on the bed would be scared and pliant until her last breath, but this little one before him had some fight in her. This is where he would sate his desires. \"You respect the dead then?\"

Her cheekbones colored and he wondered if she was backing down now. For some reason the thought disappointed him. He didn\'t want to win that quickly.

\"I may not care too much about myself, but HE did,\" she hissed finally. \"And I won\'t willingly let you defile something that once belonged to him.\"

Adam\'s smirk broke into a full-fledged grin. \"Well then, ma\'am,\" he said as he inclined his head forward. \"Let\'s get ready to rumble.\"

--------------------------------------

Seka struggled with her bindings. She knew that she couldn\'t possibly fight this Adam asshole to save Tara. Her only chance was to get free and to her cell phone, sitting in her bag on the floor next to the bed. She tried to be as quiet as possible, so Adam wouldn\'t hear her. She caught Tara\'s eye and tried to will her into fighting harder. Seka had heard about enough such cases to know that once Adam started raping her, Tara was in for a long and painful death. Seka had to help her somehow. After all of the help and support Tara had given her, she just had to save the smaller woman.

Adam ripped Tara\'s slacks off and gripped her thighs, leaving bruises and welts everywhere he could. Seka was sick watching, but she held Tara\'s gaze trying to send her strength. The disgusting man slammed Tara back against the wall again and her eyes closed briefly. Please open, Seka silently implored. Adam\'s hand disappeared between Tara\'s legs where Seka couldn\'t see, but she heard the sharp gasp and saw the horror in the blonde woman\'s suddenly opened eyes. Tara stared back at her blankly, as if she was slowly leaving her body and letting her attacker do what he wanted.

\"No!\" Seka mentally screamed. She tore at her bonds with renewed desperation. Her left arm finally pulled free. She looked at it then quickly glanced back at Adam. He was too involved with Tara to notice, holding the flame to a cigarette lighter ever closer to Tara\'s chest. Tara\'s eyes were now lifeless and she became a rag doll in his arms. Seka worked to free her other arm. It was only a matter of seconds to rid herself of her loose ankle bonds and gag. She grabbed her bag quietly and rifled through it. The phone was gone! Where was it?

\"Looking for something, ginger candy?\" Adam spoke in Japanese, laughing from the other side of the room.

Seka looked over slowly. Tara was still motionless now in nothing but her panties held against the wall by Adam\'s hip. He had turned to Seka

\"I dumped the phone back at the school,\" he smiled. \"I also fixed the lock on the door. You\'re not getting out until I\'m done with you. And I haven\'t even started with her yet.\"

\"They will kill you for this,\" Seka raged back.

\"Well, now,\" he glanced at her with renewed interest. \"You have more fight than the other ones. Whoever \'they\' are won\'t be able to do a damned thing. Just let me finish with your friend here and I\'ll be right with you.\"

He turned back to Tara without another glance and Seka ran for the door, trying to pull it open.

\"Told you,\" Adam called from the other room, too busy to follow her.

Seka sank down on the floor trembling.

--------------------------------------

Sven approached the cabin warily, Justin only a step behind. The blonde man peered into the window and saw a trembling figure not far away on the floor. It looked like Seka and she appeared alive and unharmed as of yet. He turned to Justin who nodded in relief and prepared to kick down the door again. Just as the dark haired man connected, there was a loud bang from the back room and a man\'s loud curse. Seka jumped up and into Sven\'s arm speaking in rapid Japanese. Sven\'s face fell as he heard her inform him that Tara was in the back being raped as they spoke. Justin stood nearby looking concerned. Sven turned to him and uttered one word in an uncharacteristically fearful tone.

\"Tara.\"

Justin\'s eyes flew wide and he ran to the back room with speed Sven didn\'t even know he possessed. The blonde man listened to the sounds of fighting while he held Seka close and tried to comfort her. She kept mumbling over and over in his ear.

\"She\'s doing it for me. Heaven forgive me, she\'s doing it for me.\"

--------------------------------------

Justin\'s rage exploded when he took in the scene. Tara lay beaten and bloody on the bed, making no move to leave. And Adam was trying vainly to douse the bedspread on the floor with a small bottle of water. A squirming thin man lay on the floor and Justin deduced who he was. Suddenly Adam looked up and the shock on his face couldn\'t be hidden, which gave Justin a small measure of pleasure seeing as the man was a control freak.

\"Thomas,\" he hissed.

\"Not anymore,\" Justin smiled hollowly.

\"You can\'t stop me!\"

Adam suddenly launched himself at Justin intending, no doubt, to beat him like he was still a child. The dark haired man side stepped him easily and banged his head into the wall. Suddenly Sven was beside him. Adam was a crumpled heap on the floor.

\"Time to go,\" Justin said, pulling the bound thin man off the floor and pushing him at Sven.

\"What about the fire?\" the blonde man asked curiously. Justin knew he would understand.

\"Leave it.\"

Justin pulled the bed sheet around Tara and carried her unresponsive body easily. She was so light. He noted that Sven untied the thin man\'s legs, picked up Seka\'s bag and dragged it and the man out of the room. Seka was standing outside the cabin wringing her hands.

\"Tara!\" she cried and rushed forward.

Justin held the small woman, girl actually, too old for her age, tightly to him. She didn\'t acknowledge anything or anyone around her. He locked eyes with Sven who stared down at her worriedly. The thin man struggled again and Sven backhanded him with such force he fell back about three feet.

\"If you know what is good for you, you will confess to your attack on her when we bring you to the police,\" Sven growled, no trace of the sympathetic man left in him. \"You do not want to be out of jail anytime soon,\" he added, smiling cruelly. \"Does he, Justin?\"

\"No,\" Justin hissed lethally. \"He doesn\'t.\"

Behind them the cabin fire slowly spread, erasing all trace of the monster still inside.