Escape from Endeavor by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  Angelica had focused on everything she didn’t understand and willed herself to become very nervous, after a few seconds she allowed herself to calm down and stop worrying. She repeated the process three times. She’d done this a few times in the past to let Daemon know she needed his help and hoped he would understand. She didn’t want him upset, just in a hurry. She switched to focusing on their link to see if she could tell if he got the message… within a few moments he was closing the distance between them at a much faster pace. If he could keep up the speed he was traveling at now he was still going to take hours to get to her.

  She needed to get more information, so she reached out with her mind, trying to find others nearby. Sara was the first person she felt, but since she was asleep it was easy for Angelica to ignore her and push her senses farther out into the ship. She found another female badly hurt and in deep depression. The woman had given up on life and was allowing her wounds to kill her. Next she came across an older man, also hurt and tired. He was shifting between despair and anger, which she deduced meant he was a prisoner.

  The last person was young and full of energy. His emotions shifted erratically, meaning he was unstable and most likely insane. Angelica knew it was wise to be scared of this man the deeper she probed his emotional state. She’d felt emotions like this in others back in town—they were the ones who’d been caught doing terrible things and had had to be killed. It had to be Jim. He must be the one the others were afraid of and the one she’d seen herself fighting.

  She thought it best to do what she could to help the crewmembers; she would need their help to survive until Daemon could get to her. First, she focused on the other woman, who needed food, but was too depressed to care. Angelica worked on inducing hunger; she spent a long time pushing the woman emotionally before the unhappy lady finally ate something and went to sleep.

  The older man was going to be easier to help—or at least she hoped so. She was weak from the strain of concentrating for so long. She didn’t try to manipulate the man’s emotions; instead, she worked on boosting his healing. He was not lost in depression like the woman; he was still willing to fight; she would heal him just enough for him to start thinking about fighting back. She focused as long as she could before passing out from the strain.

  Angelica didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when someone grabbed her by the arm and started dragging her out of her bed. She heard Sara say something but was too exhausted and confused to be able to make it out. The person dragging her stopped and kicked at Sara, catching her in the side of the face as she tried to roll away. Angelica felt the spike of pain and despair Sara felt as she sobbed into the pillow.

  Jim took the time to yank Angelica to her feet and push her toward the open door. Angelica knew she would lose so she didn’t fight him. She simply tried to stay on her feet as he pushed her down the hall. Jim made perverse and disgusting comments about his intentions to rape her as they went. She had a profusion of bruises and scrapes by the time they reached the captain’s cabin.

  Jim shoved her into the bedroom. “Strip, bitch, or I’ll do it for you.”

  Angelica slowly got undressed and started to climb onto the bed when Jim grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. He forced her to stand before him while he inspected her tall, athletic build. She could feel the lust growing in him and knew what was coming. She was glad she’d allowed Jake to convince her to give him her virginity—this would have been a horrible way to lose it. She guessed the best thing she could do was to try to make him feel exhausted; it was her only way to fight him. She started manipulating him as much as she could while trying to ignore what he was doing to her. She hoped he wouldn’t hurt her too much.