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Some time later . . .

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Shamira's mouth felt like cotton and bile when she woke up. Her vision was blurred, and the intensely bright light hanging somewhere overhead was not helping matters at all. Her hands were secured, with what felt like leather-lined metal, and her restraints were secured to a chain attached to the ceiling. She hung freely, her feet cuffed together with similar devices, and she was at least two feet off of the ground. She was also naked as the day she was born.

"Wuh . . . what --"

"You should have left when I warned you," came a masculine but...