Coventina (11 page)

“We cannot be here when the ambulance arrives. You must all be taken to the hospital,” Denise said.

“You are free. These men will never be able to harm you again,” Layla said.

The women were in such bad shape Denise wondered if they would remember a word they said as she and Layla once again disappeared into stealth mode. They stayed until they were all safely on their way to hospitals before Denise spoke. “Let’s get a taxi Supergirl.”

“We better leave before I go back inside to finish what we started.”

“Lucilla, how is Anna?” Denise asked.

“Shaken. Happy to be free. She is soaking in a hot tub here with Marcus and myself. The other woman is doing the same with Venutius standing guard in your room. I was able to dress Odumnus’ wound from a gunshot.”

“He was shot?”

“It just grazed him. He’s fine.”

“We have one more stop. We will see you in a bit.”

“Denise, be careful.”

“We will, thanks,” she said, hanging up her phone. “Layla, how tall do you think boss is?”

“I’d guess he’s an average height bag of pus why?”

“Let’s take this taxi.”

“Drop us at the end of the block please,” Layla said. She paid for the fare.

“Can you please wait for us?” Denise asked. “We won’t be long.”

Layla handed the driver another hundred-dollar bill to wait.

“Si, I wait.”

In mid stride Denise changed her appearance to that of the boss. Layla changed to appear as a muscle bound Amazon woman.

“Boss, two visits in one night?” one of the men at the front door asked.

Do you know where I live?
Denise asked the two men.

“No one knows where you live.”

“Layla.”

She slammed them together and moved their unconscious bodies away from the front door before opening it.

“Do you know where I live?” Denise asked.

“No. Boss, what is wrong?”

“Where is this woman?” she asked, holding up an image of Coventina.

“You should know boss. She has been in your limo with you the past few days.”

“Why?”

“Big bucks?”

“Fuck.”
Layla.

She spent the next few seconds slamming the men into the walls and each other until they were no longer a threat. They walked through another door and down a flight of stairs to a dark and dank vision from hell.

“Boss,” one of the three men said.

It was an open space, red lights hanging from the ceiling in various places the only light available that added to the nightmarish scene of women tied to pipes along the wall, lying on filthy mattresses, some being fucked, some being beaten, some appearing unconscious or dead as their bodies were being violated.

“Where do I live?” Denise asked.

“Boss?”

“Where do I live?”

“Nobody knows.”

“Where is this woman?”

“Why are you asking us boss? She was with you no more than an hour ago when you were here.”

“Where were we going?”

“Boss, are you alright? You must know where you took her.”

Layla.

It took less than a minute for her to render the men working there and all the men violating women in the place unconscious.

“Get that piece of shit off that woman,” Denise said.

They made certain Coventina was not one of the women in the place. They had to move the bodies of three dead women in a corner to see their faces.

“Follow me.”

Layla followed Denise up the stairs to the front room. She picked up a phone and called her cel phone. When she saw that the caller I.D. showed the number she hung up and dialed the emergency number. “There has been a terrible accident. The basement is full of injured bodies. Send ambulances,” she said, before giving them the address.

“Stealth?”

“Wait until we get outside,” she said, pointing up to a video camera in the corner.

The first ambulances arrived when they were half a block away. They deactivated their medallions and got into the taxi. Denise gave the driver an address a few blocks from their hotel.

“Was there an accident?” the driver asked as the taxi turned the corner.

“Yes,” Layla said.

Returned

Denise watched Odumnus’ eyes light up when Anna walked out of the bathroom dressed in some of Lucilla’s clothes. She refused to put any makeup on, and confessed that it was going to be hard for her to do so after what the savages who abducted her forced her to do. The remaining bruises on her face, neck and arms a painful reminder of what she meant.

“Odumnus,” Denise said.

“Yes Denise.”

“Would you like to come with us to take Anna back to her family in York?”

“I would consider it an honor.”

“Great, we are just about ready.”

“Everyone is getting their things together to change hotels,” Layla said, entering the room.

“Lucilla has all she needs?”

“Affirmative,” Layla smiled.

“Well, shall we?” Denise said, reaching down to pick up her bag.

“Please, allow me,” Odumnus said, smiling each time his eyes made contact with Anna.

Denise stopped by Lucilla’s room. “We’re off baby. Be careful.”

“I think we will be fine.”

“Keep Diana under wraps just in case.”

“I will.”

Layla was waiting outside the hotel with the Mustang by the time they exited. After loading up the car, she made a U-turn and turned left at Via Conte Verde. In the middle of the first block she threw the car into stealth. “Over the Vatican per your request Anna.”

“Thank you Layla.”

Denise simply looked at her and smiled as the Mustang smoothly left the ground.
You’re a natural at this too,
she said.

Thank you. You can plot the course back to York if you don’t mind.

I don’t mind at all.

“Now there’s a view most tourists do not see,” Anna said, as they slowly approached Vatican City. “Wish I had my camera.”

“Oh we can snap a few for you,” Denise said. Over St. Peter’s Square Denise started recording images, yet another feature that had been built into the Mustang they discovered in the instructions while learning to fly. Bright flashes seemed to emanate from an empty sky to tourists below.

“Wow. This sure was a nice gift you received here. You must have done something pretty incredible to receive it,” Anna said.

“We got lucky,” Denise smiled.

“Such a beautiful city, I must come back with a bodyguard,” Anna said turning to smile at Odumnus.

The Mustang started to climb and pick up a little speed. “How soon do you wish to get back to York and your family?” Layla asked.

“Sooner is best. They must be going bonkers, especially since I turned down an offer for my brothers to come and collect me.”

“Soon it is.”

The view beneath them seemed to go by in a subtle blur as they passed over towns, farms, mountains and rivers, invisible borders making it impossible visually to know what country they were above. Within minutes they were crossing the channel, and shortly after that zipping over the lush green patchy landscape of Britain. The Mustang descended and slowed, landing finally roughly a quarter mile from Coventina’s home where both families were gathered.

Youngest members of Anna’s family were walking around the brick foundation of a large circular birdbath in the middle of the front yard when they turned into the driveway.

“Erin, they’re here,” Brian shouted, before jumping off the small wall and running to the house.

The tears did not form in Anna’s eyes until she saw Coventina’s mother walk into the yard.

Denise and Layla were invited to stay for dinner but declined. “We must get back while the trail for Coventina is fresh. There is not a minute to lose.”

“I don’t know how to thank you for Anna, and she is not my daughter,” Esther said.

“We will find your daughter. If she is alive, we will find her,” Denise said.

“I wish I was twenty years younger and could come with you.”

“Do not share a thing with the Italian police. Contact us instead.”

“It’s that bad there?”

“Worse. I must get my friends. We need to go.”

Esther now had tears in her eyes. Denise collected Layla and Odumnus, who was surprisingly not down emotionally when it came time to leave. “I cannot wait to find Coventina, so I can return here,” he said.

“Really? And why would you want to return here?” Layla grinned.

“I think I’m in love,” he laughed, turning to see Anna watching him as she sang a song with family members.

“Come on, we’ve got work to do,” Denise said.

“I’m with you sistah.”

“Lead the way Denise.”

After keeping the goodbye’s short, and after one last hug and kiss from Anna thanking Odumnus for saving her, the Mustang pulled out of the driveway and vanished while driving north on Stockton Lane.

Back

Denise and Layla returned to find Lucilla had gotten them rooms at the Hotel Raphael. “It was not possible to get family rooms, they were booked up,” Lucilla said.

“So we are at two per room?” Denise asked.

“Not quite. There is one double room that four can stay in, then there is a room for you, another for myself & Marcus, and another for Venutius and Diana.”

“Diana. How is she taking things?” Layla asked.

“She has had a pretty rough life, even before being taken. She is of Greek ancestry. She buried the last of her family a year ago. Her abduction occurred upon her arrival in Rome for a legitimate job, not a con. She never made it there.”

“She and Venutius?” Denise asked.

“I can see them hanging out together for a while,” Lucilla smiled.

“He can help heal her,” Layla said.

“They can help heal each other,” Denise smiled.

“Quintus was hoping to have a word with you.”

“Sure. Send him over in a few.”

Layla took the key card from Lucilla and lead Denise by hand to their room.

“Whatcha thinking?” Denise asked.

“What I’m usually thinking around you,” Layla said before kissing her deeply.

They had just plopped on a large soft chair when there was a quiet knock at the door.

Quintus?

It is I Denise.

She slid off Layla to let him in.

“I won’t take up much of your time,” he said.

“Don’t worry. We were just going to discuss where to head from here.”

“I wanted to personally thank you again.”

“Thank Odumnus. We just drove,” Layla said.

“No, you have done far more than that.”

“You’ve something on your mind. Please speak frankly,” Denise said.

“It is a personal sense of helplessness and the unknown that weighs on me.”

“Continue, please.”

“In battle, I knew how to lead my men, to protect them. Here, I feel so helpless in being able to offer anything of value.”

“Well, this is a battle, and a race, to find a woman who WAS someone you were in love with, indeed are still in love with. There are no clear lines drawn. You cannot look across a field and see your enemy.”

“And this type of battle is indeed something we came to learn in Britannia. The enemy would hide, vanish, lay in wait and ambush with ferocity. Every day was a mystery, not knowing what would happen, who might be lost.”

“Quintus, their general, for lack of a better way of putting it, had much of his operation come to a screeching halt yesterday, and you and your men are responsible for the victory.”

“Fighting and winning a battle is only part of what weighs on me. I think perhaps I have been fooling myself to think that if or when we find Coventina she will understand why I returned for her. I wonder if she will even care, about me, or any man, after what she is being put through.”

“Well, that is something you and you alone will need to work out once we find her, and we will find her,” Denise smiled.

Quintus seemed too emotional to do anything but smile.

He is weeping, inside,
Layla said.

Yes.

“What is next? What can I do to help?” Quintus asked.

“For now, nothing. Layla and I will go out alone tonight. It is easier for us to work quickly alone.”

“If you and your men are needed we will contact you immediately,” Layla said.

“I see there is no way I can convince you to take me along.”

“Not tonight Quintus, unless we summon you,” Denise said.

“I will take my leave.”

“Quintus.”

“Yes Layla.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Thank you Layla, I shall try not to.”

Big Bucks

Denise handed Layla her cup after getting back into the Mustang and sighed. “I miss lattes, I miss Starbucks.”

“Me too.”

“Shall we?”

“If you wish?”

“Nervous?” Denise smiled.

“Nervous, who, me? No. It’s just that 1900 years is a LONG time in case we’re wrong about them.”

“Let’s do this.”

Layla threw the Mustang into stealth once they turned the corner, where it left the ground, coming to rest in the Imperial Arena on Palatine hill. They could see the bright beam that encompassed their vehicle and brought it up into the large shuttle vehicle of the ‘Friends of the Ninth’ as Layla called them. To any passing eye nothing would be visible.

Mys greeted them upon exiting the Mustang.
Please follow me. Aya awaits.

“I wish we could move like that,” Layla whispered as they walked behind Mys who seemed to be effortlessly gliding over the floor.

“Quieter than tip toes,” Denise said quietly.

Three vanishing doors later they were in a part of the ship they had not seen. There was a table in the center of the space.
Please, make yourself comfortable
. Two very comfortable looking chairs materialized before Mys left the room.

“Space, uncluttered even with furniture, until you need it,” Layla said.

“Now THAT is a Final Frontier for humans,” Denise laughed.

A door opened in a soft hum on the other side of the room, the golden light in the space increasing slightly before Aya came to a soft landing on a seat that materialized across from where they were sitting.