Asher grinned. “I like shifters. Lots of blood, lots of damage. As long as they don’t eat you after, it’s a good time.”
I turned in Asher’s grasp. He let me, probably because deep down, he was much more interested in me hurting him than in hurting me. I didn’t like being this close, staring right into his blood red eyes set in a yellow, scaly face. Knowing that if I looked too hard at his mouth, I’d see hints of the six-foot-long tongue that had almost strangled me during one of our initial meetings.
“I don’t have time for this,” I said, letting disapproval soak into my voice. “When I’m ready to make something bleed, I’ll call you.” I retrieved my cell phone as I said it.
Asher arched an eyebrow. “And I should trust you…why?”
“Because I want to see you gutted as much as you want to be gutted?” I asked.
Asher’s grin widened.
Too much tongue. I handed him my phone and let him press in his cell number. Interesting. I hadn’t actually been sure he had a phone. He’d need a colossal insurance plan…
Hysteria bubbled up inside me, turning my train of thought into more of a rambling motorcar.
Asher handed me my phone, but didn’t let go right away. “I’m not sure if I can trust you. Maybe I should drag you into one of the rings now?”
Something pink flashed above him. I smiled. “No. But how about a sample?”
Peasblossom had three tricks with her needle-sword. One, death by a thousand cuts. She could pierce the skin of an enemy at all the right points, let them bleed out before they realized they could. Another, her favorite, was to hold it right in front of someone’s eyeball while she spoke. Or while I interrogated someone. And third, she knew all the pressure points on humanoid bodies.
Asher’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he let out a shuddering breath that sounded way too intimate for a public setting. I took a quick step back and waited until Peasblossom had finished and returned to stand on my shoulder.
“Maybe you can be of some help to me now,” I said. “We’re looking for a werewolf. Connor Reeves. You know him?”
“Yeah.” Asher gestured toward the back of the club. “He’s in the corner. Well, what’s left of him.” At the look on my face, he frowned. “You did know he’s dead?”
Chapter 9
Connor’s spine glistened in the overhead lights. Sections of saliva-slick bone showed through shreds of remaining flesh. There were no organs to clutter up his body cavity, his ribs having been snapped like crab legs to get at the meat inside. The only thing left mostly intact was his head. His eyes were gone—a lot of creatures considered them a delicacy—but there was enough of his face left to see the resemblance to his brothers. Though judging by his hair, Connor had not maintained the same discipline his brothers had after leaving Underhill. His brown hair was past his ears, matted with blood and worse things.
“Have his brothers been here yet?” I asked.
Asher looked over his shoulder. We stood in the corner, where some genius had decided it would be a good idea to pile the bodies of the dead. Connor lay on top of a pile as high as my hip. The smell of rotting flesh coaxed bile from my stomach to splash the back of my throat, warning me to maintain enough distance that I could throw up without hitting the body.
“I haven’t seen them. They came the first night, and the second. Connor refused to go with them. I wondered if they would come tonight, or leave him to his chosen fate.”
“Chosen fate?”
I turned to find Liam standing behind me. He was slipping his cell phone back into his pocket.
“Is Kylie on her way?” I asked.
He nodded, but didn’t look away from Asher. Liam’s eyes were no longer gold, but his aura told me he was nowhere near calm. The sensation of his energy against my skin wasn’t unlike the time I’d tried to catch a pickpocket and found out too late he was an ifrit. Fiery bugger burnt all the hair off my right arm.
I took a step away from Liam. He’d likely stay on edge until we got out of this place.
“Connor wanted to die.” Asher tilted his head as he looked at Connor’s body, his red eyes staring at something I couldn’t see. “You can see it, you know. When someone wants to die.” He gestured back at the arenas. “Not unusual in this place. You get all kinds. Some fight for fun, some fight here so they don’t fight somewhere else.” He looked back at the body. “Some fight hoping they’ll be killed before they kill again.”
“Tell me what happened.” I took a step back from the pile of bodies. Then another. The smell didn’t get any better.
Asher leaned closer to me. “And what will I get for being so helpful?”
I was not in the mood. I jerked open the zipper of my waist pouch, ignoring the excited intake of breath from the goblin. “Bizbee, be a dear and hand me a healing potion, will you?” I raised my eyes to Asher’s. “Not the one you drink, the one you pour on wounds to disinfect them. And numb them. My friend has a cut.”
Asher jerked away from me, one hand going to the gash in his stomach, poking it with his claws as if to reassure himself it was still there. “Very cold, Shade.” He took another step back. “Connor came in here two nights ago. Covered in blood. Noticeable, since people usually come in healthy and leave bloody. He jumped into one of the rings.”
“And?” Liam asked.
The goblin frowned. “And he never left. Or, rather, he refused to leave until he lost consciousness. Then someone would drag him out. Shifters can take a lot of damage, so they’d throw him out and he’d lay on the floor till he healed.”
“And he’d get right back in?” My voice sounded squeakier than I’d have liked, but maybe no one had noticed over the roar of the club.
“His brothers came in the evening and tried to make him leave. He wouldn’t do it. He fought them.” Asher raised his eyebrows. “Really fought them. Almost took out Toby’s eye. Broke six of Kurt’s ribs. Finally, they stopped trying to take him and just made him eat something.” He wrinkled his nose. “Protein bar. Disgusting.”
“That’s what makes you think he wanted to die?” Peasblossom asked.
“No. It was the look in his eyes.” He gestured to the skull with the empty eye sockets. “You can’t see it now, obviously.”
“Don’t make light of this,” I snapped. “This isn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. My point is, Connor wanted to die. And this morning, he did.” He pointed to one of the cages. “It was there. Connor fought all night, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink. But he was still winning.” He narrowed his eyes. “If you ask me, that was Katie’s doing. Connor was drawing a crowd, and I think she was deliberately forcing his opponents to leave him alive. She wanted to get as much money out of him as possible.”
“How does she get money for that?” Liam asked, his voice dangerously low.
“You have to pay to fight. There are some people here that enjoy a challenge more than a brawl. They like trying push someone to the very edge of death without letting them fall over. She’d have kept him going if it hadn’t been for the pazuzu.”
I jerked away without meaning to.
Liam’s eyes sharpened, and he took a step closer to me. “What? What’s a pazuzu?”
“An evil creature.” Peasblossom shivered against my neck. “An evil among evils, you might say.”
“It’s a demon.” I closed my eyes, then immediately opened them before a mental image could form. “The body of a man, the face of a dog, the talons of an eagle, two sets of bat-like wings, and a scorpion’s tail. They don’t manifest often, but when they do, they take pleasure in killing other demons.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad,” Liam said carefully.
“He also brings famine.” I resisted the urge to wrap my arms around my stomach. Hunger pains followed the mere mention of the creature’s name. “There are few things that will drive someone to violence like hunger. Such a basic need, and so painful when it isn’t satiated. A starving man will kill to eat. And just looking at a pazuz
u seems to turn the food in your belly to ash. Such a demon revels in the suffering he causes and delights in punishing those he…” I shook my head. “He is evil.”
Asher shrugged. “People here are always hungry. It’s why a lot of them fight. You get to eat what you kill.”
I glared at him and he gave me an uneasy look. “You aren’t vegan, are you?”
“You’re telling me the pazuzu ate Connor?” Liam asked.
“No. Tolga just watched him fight. Until this morning, that is. This morning he cut the line to get in the cage with Connor.” The goblin waved a hand. “And by ‘cuts in line,’ I mean he used that tail of his to poison the first two ahead of him and then everyone else ran. Anyway, he gets in the cage with Connor and stares him down. Connor’s just standing there. Then Tolga says, ‘You want punished.’ Then he asked Connor what he did.”
Asher shrugged. “It was weird. But then Connor just starts babbling. ‘She just stood there,’ he says. ‘She didn’t move, didn’t scream…She didn’t fight…she just died.’”
I looked at Liam. “He was talking about Jamila.”
Liam nodded. “What next?” he asked Asher.
“Then Tolga slashed him right down the middle. Opened him up like a salmon at a buffet.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to vomit.
Asher studied my face. “It’s been a long time coming.”
“What?” Liam asked.
“Connor’s death. Some soldiers need war. They get itchy without that sense of purpose, that violence and adrenaline. It’s particularly common among werewolves.”
Liam’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. He didn’t need to say anything for me to know what he was thinking. He could have helped Connor. If Connor had come to New Moon. If his brothers weren’t so against the idea of pack.
“Connor wasn’t a bad person. I don’t think you would have approved of his moral compass, but he did have one. Which is more than I can say for a lot of folks around here. But he needed that fix. Eventually, it took him over.” Asher tilted his head. “You mentioned someone named Jamila.”
“Connor killed her.” I winced at the taste of bile making my mouth water. The smell of death seemed to grow worse with every breath. As if each inhale added another layer to my lungs. “Someone pulled her consciousness to another plane, so she couldn’t fight back.”
Understanding dawned on Asher’s face. “So that’s what did it.” He nodded. “It’s very different killing someone who’s trying to kill you. It’s a rush, something your conscience can brush off. But killing someone who can’t defend themselves…” He shook his head. “That would be a nightmare.”
Goblins didn’t attack something that couldn’t fight back. If it couldn’t hurt them, it wasn’t worth it. The only time I’d seen goblins preying on someone too weak to fight back was after they’d made them too weak to fight back and were enjoying the spoils. Usually, it meant they were going to eat what they’d killed.
Liam turned away, and the movement was the final straw for his pants. The last thread snapped. There was a small flash of thick, muscled thigh and narrow hips. Heat rushed to my face and I quickly flicked a hand in his direction, sending a Cinderella spell over his clothes. He wasn’t watching me, so the spell took him by surprise, and he tensed.
“Neat trick,” Asher said. “Didn’t do it earlier because you were admiring the view?”
“It’s not too late to give you a healing spell,” I pointed out.
“You are in such a mood,” Asher muttered. “Wouldn’t kill you to let go, have a little fun.”
I stared at him. Maybe it was the pile of dead bodies. Maybe it was the fact that the murderer who could have helped us stop the Emperor was dead. Or maybe it was the fact that Connor’s brothers might show up any minute and find their brother…like this. Anger stiffened my spine. I flowed forward, forcing my way into Asher’s personal space until the goblin stumbled back a step in surprise.
“This,” I hissed, gesturing at the club. “Is unacceptable. What. Happened?”
Asher leaned closer until his chest touched mine, and his face was close enough for me to smell the blood drying beneath his jaw.
“Stavros died,” he whispered. “And when he died, he took all his silly rules with him.”
“Katie took over,” I said, remembering Asher’s earlier comment.
“Sort of. Stavros had scheduled fights to last the entire month he died. Things pretty much ran as usual, until Katie realized Stavros wasn’t showing up to oversee the paid fights. Didn’t take the witch long to put herself in his place.”
He grinned. “But she’s not strong enough to keep us out. Stavros was very judgmental of me and my kind. There was a strict five goblin limit. But without him…”
He gestured around. For the first time, I realized just how many goblins were here. You couldn’t swing a gargoyle without hitting one now.
“Me and my older brother Khan made a deal with Katie and Rafe. Katie always had a little sideline going here.”
“I remember,” I said bitterly.
“She’s the one that sent Rafe out to fight people with her cheating medallion,” Peasblossom accused.
I gritted my teeth. The medallion. That little magic charm had nearly gotten Liam killed when he got in the ring with Rafe. “If I remember correctly, she and Rafe targeted specific people to learn their fighting style and weaknesses, then they sold that information to the highest bidder.”
“She worked with Stavros on a few of his deals,” Asher added. “Trading information she and Rafe gathered. When she realized Stavros was dead, she looted his files and got the contact information for some of the more influential Others he’d worked with. She made arrangements with them to continue providing information, not just on fighting styles, but also any gossip she and her new employees heard. And she made a deal with me and Khan because she knew it would be impossible to get us out completely.” He grinned. “No more goblin limits for entry, but only two cages can have a goblin in it at once, and we work as security if Katie decides someone needs to leave.”
He started to say something else, then stopped. I narrowed my eyes. “You’re holding back. Did I mention I also have shield potions? Something to reduce any damage you might take in a fight?”
“Only now, Katie takes requests,” Asher rushed to add. “And Rafe isn’t the one fighting.”
“What do you mean she takes requests?” Liam demanded.
Asher took another step away from me, giving me a dirty look for the shield potion comment. “If someone’s planning on getting into a fight, be it a challenge fight for a pack, a duel, or even a competition, they can come to Katie and tell her who or what they’ll be fighting. In some cases, Katie just matches the creature. In that case, she might send some of my brothers out to fetch them, or lure them to the parking garage.”
“Hence the illusion and the teleportation circle there,” I remembered.
“Yes. She’ll match them up with the right species and observe the fight, then hand over the notes to whoever hired her.” He paused. “Rumor has it, she’s also the person to see if you want someone dead and don’t want it traced back to you.”
“She arranges assassinations by death match.” I closed my eyes. “Blood and bone.”
“And the main casino?” Liam spoke up. “It looks like it was destroyed too.”
Asher shrugged. “I don’t know exactly how it happened. Stavros must have had more to do with running the casino then we thought. A few weeks after he left, the business fell apart. Someone said employees didn’t get their paychecks, bills didn’t get paid. The electricity was shut off, so was the gas.”
“Let me guess,” Peasblossom spoke up. “A monster wandered in and made a nest in there.”
“Not exactly.” Asher scratched his chin, sending a rain of dried blood flakes down his ripped T-shirt. “It wasn’t just one monster. More like a few monsters chased their prey into the casino and when there was no one to make them stop, th
at place just sort of became a free for all. A hunting ground for whatever monster wanted to lie in wait for the unsuspecting.”
I looked at Liam. “I need to do something about this. It’s my fault Stavros is gone. I let this happen.”
Liam held up a hand. “If you’re going to take responsibility for every consequence that snowballs out from a criminal getting punished, then you won’t last in this business.” He looked around the club, pupils dilating as a scream was torn from one of the fighters in the second arena. “But we will do something about this.”
I looked back at Connor. “Kylie will be here soon to take samples. Without Connor, we don’t have a witness. And his shoulder’s gone, so who knows if he had a tattoo?” I pushed my hair behind my ears and straightened my spine. “I’m going to go back to the apartment. Maybe I can find a way to block the Emperor from spying on the women through those tattoos. I think if I can find a way to block that, Rima might talk to me. Or maybe Renee, if we can get her to talk without Moghadam.”
Liam nodded. “I’ll take you home, if you can wait for Kylie to get here? I need to go back to the office and find out more about Moghadam and Nikolaos. Make sure they are who they say they are.”
“No, I’ll get a cab. You shouldn’t leave Kylie alone here.”
Liam started to protest, probably to say the half-ghoul could take care of herself. Then he noticed me looking at the pile of bodies. Particularly the rotting flesh on the bottom. Rotting flesh being a particular treat for ghouls.
“You’re right. And I’ll have a few of my pack take shifts here in case Kurt and Toby show up.”
I looked back at Connor. What was left of him. Whatever their past sins, no one deserved to have something like that be the last image they had of their loved one.
“See you tomorrow then?” Liam said gently.
I turned to leave. “Can’t wait.”
Chapter 10
“So where were you last night?”
Scath peeked at me over the top of the glass of water she’d poured herself, then upended the glass and downed it in one long swallow.
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