[Carmen]Rock wouldn’t have let me touch the girl if he knew what I smelled when I went into the room. I had made sure to remember the scent the night he pointed it out to me. I didn’t know how he knew what people were since his sense of smell wasn’t the same as mine, but I wanted to get this done before he figured it out. This was only the second time I was using my seeing ability on anyone other than my teacher. With her, it was almost always darkness or outlines and words would come to me. When I used it on Spencer, I could see. With this girl, it was the same.I could see and I couldn’t. There was darkness, but it felt like it differed from the darkness I saw every day. Even though I was likely seeing through her eyes, it was only with my own ability. As a werewolf, I needed at least some light to see in the dark. Slowly, the area did start to lighten. I could hear something moving in the distance. And voices... no... one voice. A man, but he was talking to someone who wasn’t responding.As I suspected, I was seeing through the girl’s eyes. She crept toward the voice, staying hidden. More light came from the area as she drew closer. “Yes, this will be much better than where we were before. There’s more space for you to grow, Drakariz,” the man said.Peeking out, I saw a handsome man carrying a large bundle. I recognized him as an elf of some sort. I’d met a few elves while running around as Blanche. The bundle seemed to be the size of a small child. As he unwrapped the bundle, I could see that it wasn’t a child at all. It was a creature… a very familiar-looking creature. It was a smaller version of the thing I’d seen on Moon’s Glow!Large, fleshy wings unfurled from around the thing. It was about the size of a five or six-year-old child. With thick arms ending in claws and tentacles that came off of its body, it stretched and looked around the area. I took in the area as well. It was some sort of cavern.“Trust me I will make sure you get stronger until you are the most powerful being on this planet. Once you’re strong enough, we’ll destroy everything. Neither your god nor my goddess will be able to stop us,” the man told it. “We will rule this world.”The girl stayed hidden but didn’t run away. She was transfixed at the sight of the creature and the man. I could tell she could understand the man as he spoke, so she definitely knew English.As I watched through the girl’s eyes, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread. This man was twisted and dangerous. He was using this creature for his own means, and I had the feeling he would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Suddenly, the creature’s head snapped toward the girl’s hiding spot. I could see its eyes glowing in the dim light. The girl froze, not daring to move. I didn’t think running would have helped her, but I almost wished she had. The man noticed and turned toward her. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he taunted. “I know you’re there.”The girl hesitated but came out of her hiding spot. As she approached the man and the creature, I realized she wasn’t very big at all. She was much smaller than the creature. The man looked down at her, moved her hair back from her ear, and sneered.“I thought your kind were destroyed at birth now,” he scoffed. “You will serve me, as is your place, half-breed. If you do anything to disobey me, you will be food for Drakariz. Show us where you have been settled.”She was so scared. When she didn’t move, he drew back his hand and slapped her so hard she flew into the wall. It took a while before she opened her eyes again. In that time, he had crossed the space and picked her up, shaking her harshly.“YOU DO NOT DISOBEY ME!”The girl whimpered and tried to squirm out of his grasp, but he held her tightly. The creature, Drakariz, watched with glowing eyes, seeming to enjoy the spectacle. I wanted to help her, but this was a vision of the past. There was no saving her from this.He dropped her onto the ground, then grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet. When he released her again, she nearly fell but managed to catch herself. She led him to the nest where she lived.I saw the corpse of a woman lying on her side by a pile of blankets. The temperature and conditions in the cave had stopped her from rotting the normal way. It was obvious that she had been dead for a while.From what I could see, the woman had been tall with fiery red hair. I couldn’t tell what had killed her. The way she was lying, with an arm around the little nest of blankets, made me think she was the girl’s mother. Bones and parts from various animals were littered around the little bed and had been gnawed on by sharp little teeth. She ate the animals, but she never ate her mother.As with Spencer, time sped up. I watched as the man, who called himself Oberon, used the girl and the creature to help him prepare the caverns for something. When the first person arrived, I realized it was for others to come live there.More and more people showed up. They swore fealty to Oberon and Drakariz. The girl scurried around behind the scenes. He punished her severely if people talked to her or commented about her. He disposed of her mother’s body, which I could tell hurt the little girl.At some point, he took her into one of the separate caverns. Most of the people lived in one of them, but he took some to this one that was deeper down. He picked her up to carry when she started pulling away, trying to stay out of that cavern.Then I saw them, the rainbow of vampires’ glowing eyes. He set her down in front of them. The girl seemed to have smelled them earlier. I couldn’t smell what she could, but I was betting that was when she was trying to resist.“This will be for you to feed on for now. She’s not very strong because of how young she is,” Oberon said.“It’s illegal to feed on children,” one vampire replied.“The laws of the vampire High Council do not apply here. They believe they are working for the goddess. It was the goddess that took your human lives from you by letting the vampires who sired you live. It was she who betrayed you. Your new god gave this child to you.”One of the other vampires grabbed the little girl. She tried to fight back, but he was much larger and stronger. Once the vampire was feeding on her, Oberon got right in her face and gave her the nastiest glare. She stopped struggling after that.There were only a few vampires, and she didn’t have to feed them every night. As the group grew, several people volunteered to feed the vampires. She wasn’t needed as much anymore.It was hard to tell how much time passed. When time was going faster, I could see the slow growth in height. She had to stick to the shadows and barely received any food.She never looked at people’s faces after the first night with the vampires. She tried to keep herself from being hurt again. Not that she was fragile. Though the girl seemed frail, she was taking full-strength hits from the elf and getting back up. One day time slowed and there was suddenly a werewolf in wolf form walking around at the end of a chain. The girl wouldn’t even look at him in the face, but I could tell she identified with him. She was trapped. Sometimes, when she would walk past him, she would secretly stroke his fur as if she was comforting him. In all the time I had been watching, she never spoke. I knew she understood English, but she never made the effort. I almost thought she would start talking to the wolf, but she didn’t. There were times when she would sleep next to the wolf.The next time slowed down was when the little girl was sleeping in the throne room next to the wolf. She woke up suddenly, fighting and struggling, but it was dark and I couldn’t see what was attacking until it was jerked off of her. A very large beetle tried to get at her. I didn’t understand why the wolf didn’t try to protect her. It growled and snapped, but didn’t attack the beetle. It was Oberon who saved her. He tossed the bug aside and glared at the girl.“Nasty beasts. I told you I don’t want you on this level. Get out of here or I’ll let that thing try again,” he growled.The little girl ran as fast as she could, ending up in the vampire section of the caverns before she realized it. They weren’t really normal anymore. None of them even acknowledged her. She dodged out of their paths and toward a narrow tunnel.Without ever looking back, she crawled through the tunnel until I could see daylight ahead. When she finally reached it, it was so bright that she huddled away from it. After her eyes adjusted, she ran into the woods.Some trees had started growing buds, but most were still bare. She shivered as she ran, but she didn’t stop. As she looked down to watch her step, I could see her bare feet landing on grass and plants that varied from brown to patchy bits of green.She ran until she couldn’t run anymore, then found a place to hide. It was a little lean-to that was still standing against the remains of a wall. The little girl huddled inside, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She couldn’t stop shaking. Her eyes closed tightly as she tried to control her breathing. She was free, but she didn’t know what to do next.I felt so bad for her. I wanted to bundle her up and carry her away. It was obviously not winter. How long ago was this? How many years had I watched her for?Time went fast again. She moved on from the lean-to and headed into the human town. She was scared. There were so many of them, but no one really noticed her. She stuck to the shadows and found places no one else could.She dug through dumpsters and garbage cans at night. When she found things to eat, pieces of cloth, discarded clothing, or other useful things, she would take them back to the place she was hiding. Some nights, she would bundle up and lay in the middle of her little hiding place, and look at the sky.For the first time, I would say the girl was happy. Her life seemed to be going well. At least, compared to how it had been going before. No one bothered her because no one realized she was out there.More days passed. A month. She thrived.One night, something startled her awake. A large figure was in her hiding place. It was blocking the only route to freedom. It said nothing but started toward her in a slow and plodding manner.She let out a squeak and tried to dodge it and get around it, but the space was small and it moved faster. When she looked up at it, I saw a monster. One eye wasn't destroyed despite the top half of its head being twisted and deformed. And it looked a hell of a lot like the eye of the first vampire who fed on her.With everything in her, the girl fought to keep the creature from feeding on her. It tried several times to bite at her, but she did everything she could to avoid its fangs.As she struggled with it, she looked up and saw Rhett looking down from the rooftop. He looked like a superhero with his jacket playing the part of a cape. I watched him pull out a gun and shoot at the creature before jumping down. Even a werewolf would have been wary of that jump, but he just did it.The last thing she saw, as the monster threw her away, was Rhett quipping at it with a smirk. I let her go and my vision went dark again. This girl had run from something pretty terrible, but I had hope.“Well?” Rhett asked after a little while.“She’s not a demon. I need to tell Alpha Trent what I saw. She was living in the place where the cult is. Trent has to know.”“To what end? She doesn’t speak. Did you see anything that was actually important to our work?” Rhett asked.“Don’t talk to her in that tone, warlock. You asked her to help,” Rock growled.The little girl shook. I took her hand and rubbed it. She started to calm down. I spread my magic out so I could see her. I stroked her hair gently. She responded to it and moved her head aside.That was when I saw one of her ears. Her hair had been hiding them. Now, I could see that the ear was quite large, with a pointed tip and a serrated edge on the outer curve.Suddenly, I seemed to fly backward. Rock had a hold of my waist and had pulled me away from the bed. I was so startled I screamed a little.“Rock! Let me go! What are you doing?!” I demanded, trying to get out of his hold.“That’s a fucking goblin. That was what was bothering me. It’s a half-goblin.”Rock moved away from the bed, holding me in his arms. I knew from experience that I couldn’t get away from him. In a fight, a troll could beat a werewolf if the werewolf wasn’t smart enough to run.“You’re a half-troll. What’s the problem with her being half-goblin?” Rhett asked.“Don’t you compare me to them! They are nothing like me.”“I don’t understand, Rock. She’s just a little girl. Her mother is dead, and she was living in that cave all alone,” I said.“In a cave where goblins belong. Far away from civilized fae.”That froze me. It sounded terrible. I knew he didn’t like goblins, but I didn’t think it was that bad. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.  The scent of her fear grew. She had no one to look after her and now she was being treated poorly because of something she had no control over. My magic was still filling the little room, but I could only see the physical locations and movements of things. Couldn’t he see how scared she was?“Rock, she’s a child. She didn’t know what she was and she still doesn’t. All she remembers is being treated harshly by an elf and some sort of monster. They made her feed vampires. She was so scared,” I told him.Rhett looked over at the girl and went to sit on the bed. She stared at him with very wide eyes. He picked up her hand and rubbed it the same way I had. Men had hurt her more than women had. It was why she fought against him so hard and tried to escape. The poor thing.