...Present Day...

Jarod sat in his hotel and studied the picture of the Asian woman before him. She was a beauty, lethal but a beauty. He had first learned of her when his contact and mentor at the Centre, Sydney, had emailed him several letters mentioning the “chinese dragon,” as the young woman was known.

Sydney told Jarod that the triumvirate was afraid of this woman and that made Jarod interested in knowing more about the person who could inspire fear in the almighty triumvirate. So here he was, in Beijing, hoping to catch the illusive Chinese dragon.

He gave his driver a bow and slid out of the cab. He sighed and went to check into his hotel. While checking in, he casually noted those milling about. Everyone of them had a life and some place to be but he, he was still searching. For a moment he was envious of them but he shook the feeling off, smiled his thanks to the receiving clerk and headed for the nearest elevator.

He reached his floor and slid into the suite. Sometimes having wealth squirreled away was an advantage. He tossed his suitcase on the bed and sat down at the table with his little silver briefcase. He opened and pulled out the disk and sat back to once again watch the training of a Pretender just like him.

...Ten years ago (Video)...

She sat stiffly in the chair, nude and bound. Her long hair which usually glowed with health was dull and matted. Welts and cuts criscrossed her arms and legs. The room was dimly lit but the single light shone on the chair and its captive.

“You disobeyed orders, Serafina. Why?” a male voice asked somewhere from the darkness.

Serafina moaned but her voice was steady. “I thought it would be best to trust the informant, even though he was unreliable. I was expecting betrayal from him, not the other.”

“That is what I wanted to know. You “thought” and that cost us the information we needed For that you are being punished. If I had wanted the informant, he would have been your target. You disappoint me, Sera. Now tell me the real reason why you took him with you.” Finally a man walked into the light, a riding crop in his hands.

Serafina’s eyes were fixed on his approach. She felt a faint tremble run through her. Master was angry again. She had failed and what was worse, he knew she had taken a lover, the one thing specifically denied her for she was his property, his whore.

He took the riding crop and flipped her hair back over her shoulders, one section at a time. He dispassionately gazed down at her breasts. “You know, Sera, I told you that no other man was to touch you unless I had authorized it. Your body belongs to me. Yet you had the audacity to go fuck another. I really thought you had better sense than that.” He stopped speaking and with four quick swings, hit her breasts with the riding crop hard, raising instant welts.

Serafina didn’t cry out but her body did stiffen and her eyes glistened though no tears fell.

“You know, since you want to feel a man inside your body so badly, I have the perfect cure for you. You can be a play toy for the third shift. That’s about twenty men. Maybe that will cure, your need to have a man between your legs other than me,” Master said coldly as he reached forward and twisted her nipple hard, laughing when she winced.

...Present...

Jarod wiped angrily at his eyes and wondered how he would have fared if the same sort of things had been done to him. No, he wouldn’t think on it right now. He had to find her and get her away from this hellhole.