by Dannika Dark
Chapter 26
On Friday nights, most people put on their best clothes and enjoyed food, drinks, and flirting. I had no idea what lay in store for me. Without knowing Audrey’s intentions, I worried that my evening would be filled with murder and mayhem.
Neither Audrey nor Pablo had specified a preferred arrival time, just that they expected me early evening. Instead of my usual club attire, I put on ripped jeans and a black tank top. Just in case they searched me, I stuffed a pair of fighting clothes into a plastic sack. This wasn’t the time to blow my cover. On a mission like this, I would have chosen sneakers, but the boots had the tracking device. If Pablo got the bright idea to shuttle me elsewhere, it would allow Keystone to follow me or change plans.
The back of the auction house had a white door with no knob and a loading dock next to it. There weren’t any lights on, so I stood in the shadows, pounding my fist against the door. After a minute or two, I began knocking to the tune of “We Will Rock You” by Queen.
Pablo opened the door and gave me a look of derision. “You need only knock once.”
I walked inside. “No one answered.”
He glared up at me. “We have motion sensors outside the door that alert me of movement and knocking. This is a large building. If you think I sit in a chair next to the door, you’re sadly mistaken. Next time once.” He held up one finger.
“Fine,” I grumbled, knowing there wouldn’t be a next time.
“What’s in the bag?”
“No one told me if this was just a meeting or something else. I brought a change of clothes.” I twirled the plastic bag around.
“Follow me, Miss White.”
Instead of escorting me to the elevators in the main room, Pablo turned right and stopped in front of a wide set of doors.
“This is our freight elevator,” he said, watching the doors open. “All fighters enter this way, never through the front.”
The elevator was longer and taller than any I’d been in before.
“Most of our items are small,” he continued. “Paintings, jewelry, maps, et cetera.”
“You really auction stuff? I thought it was your cover.”
He pressed the button to close the door. “We have to conduct a legitimate business. If the higher authority looks into our operation, we need proof of buyers and sellers. The storage rooms are upstairs, and every so often we receive large items like sculptures. Once we even acquired a four-poster bed from the fifteenth century.”
I snorted. “We have a furniture mart down the road that sells that stuff.”
Pablo clasped his hands in front of him, the light reflecting off his gold watch. “This one was carved from tree trunks. It was quite an ordeal to get it inside.”
The elevator shook as it moved down. Cognizant of the camera around my neck, I made sure to position myself so Wyatt could see anything relevant. When it stopped and the doors opened, I stepped into the curved hall and recognized it as the lower floor where the viewers watched the fights. From this entrance, I was able to see the doors that led to the observation rooms. Each had a keypad above the doorknob.
Pablo strolled to the right. “I thought the necklace was precious to you?”
“I found a stronger chain. After the last fight, I think it might be my lucky charm.” I wanted Pablo to talk, but we needed to change the subject before he started asking too many questions. “How many rooms are there?” I already knew since I’d counted twenty-two windows in the ring, but it seemed like a question anyone would ask.
“Twenty-two. That doesn’t include the second level for larger groups, but no one ever uses those anymore. They prefer being ground level even though it can hinder their ability to see everything.”
“Who put the dagger in the room during our fight? I didn’t know we could bring weapons.”
“The only weapons allowed are the ones we provide.” Pablo stopped by a door on the outside wall and stood beneath an ominous red button. “We open up bidding for those interested. The winner can choose a weapon or any item at all. We once had a customer with a strange sense of humor who put a feather in there.”
“What an asshole. I would have broken the glass.”
“I’m afraid that would have been useless,” he said, retrieving a key card from his pocket. “The glass won’t break, and the doors are steel.” He knocked on the door in front of him to make a point. After he swiped his card on a reader, the door slid open.
I stared at the small space, no bigger than a coat closet.
“Ladies first,” he said.
I stepped inside. “Is this one of those rooms with a secret wall?”
The door shut, and I howled when the floor dropped. I was free-falling before my legs and back met with a smooth surface. In pitch-black, I shot down a slide, into the unknown. It curved in what felt like a large spiral, but the angle was so steep that my descent continued to accelerate. When I reached to grab something to slow down, I felt nothing. Disoriented, I channeled energy into my fingertips and released healing light so I could see a wide cylinder made from polished black material. My stomach lurched, my lungs held on to a scream, and panic flooded my veins. All I could hear was Christian’s voice saying, “What if there’s a tank of hungry sharks at the end?”
As the angle leveled out, my descent slowed until the tunnel spit me into a large room. I tumbled across the floor, my joints striking the hard surface. Dizzy, I lay on my back and stared up, darkness hovering over me from a ceiling that wasn’t there. Torches mounted to the walls flickered and cast shadows across the room.
When the room stopped spinning, I stood up and drank in every detail. The circular wall was similar to the other fighting ring, only this one was right out of the Middle Ages. I looked at the hole in the stone wall from which I’d emerged. On the opposite side of the room was a door, and ahead of me was a gate with thick, rusty bars. Torches flickered from all directions. I tried to pull one out, but it was connected to the mount.
Wow. They really wanted us to put on a show. Weapons hung everywhere like décor—chains, axes, small knives, and even some instruments I’d never seen. Small spikes protruded from the wall in certain places, some at stomach level and others at chest. I passed by a chopping block and raised my eyebrows at the dark stains across the grooved part where a person’s head would rest.
Are those gardening shears next to the whip?
I looked up at dark archways on the second level. “Hello?”
My voice reverberated off the walls as if I were in an old church. The damp air had an earthy smell, and it reminded me of the underground tunnels in the Bricks. Was this an extension of it, and how deep were we?
The door opened, and Pablo stepped into the room. “Impressive, isn’t it?” His gaze steered upward.
I snatched my plastic bag off the floor. “I’m guessing you took an elevator? Thanks for the warning.”
His inscrutable gaze drifted to the upper level. “Fighters aren’t permitted to use the main entrance. Security reasons. At least if someone sneaks in the way you came, they’ll be trapped in the ring.”
“What about leaving? I can’t climb up that slide.”
“We have taken every security measure,” Audrey said. She had the soothing, refined tone of one of those BBC narrators. “Pablo, you can leave us.”
Audrey moved away from the doorway as Pablo made himself scarce. The slit up the front of her black evening gown showcased her creamy-white legs. Like before, her orange hair was styled in the same wavy do, and when she turned, the light glinted off the diamonds on her halo-style emerald earrings.
“Robin, charmed to see you again.” She held out her flaccid wrist, and again I stared at it with no idea what she wanted me to do.
I lightly shook it, and she chortled.
“Darling, we’ll have to work on your manners. You seem absolutely lost, and we need you fit for polite society.”
“I’m fighting. What does it matter?”
“We do have the occas
ional request from elite clients to have a private meeting with our fighters.”
“For free?”
“Everything has a price.”
“I don’t.”
Her slender eyebrows arched. “Then why are you here?”
“To fight. I didn’t realize prostitution was part of the deal.”
“That’s absurd. I would never allow my clients to get that close to my best fighters. They could tamper with the product.”
I folded my arms. “Tamper?”
“Bribe. Ask them to make things happen in the fight that would yield that individual more money in the betting pool. I don’t play those games. If I catch you or anyone having relations with my clients, you’ll have a memory wipe as a parting gift and a one-way trip to Lithuania. All private interactions are supervised. They’re not interested in dim-witted women who ask inane questions. The more refined you are, which is in opposition to what they see in the ring, the more intriguing you are, and the more they’ll pay for a private introduction. This is not an uncommon practice.”
“So they’re not afraid I might expose their identity?”
Audrey tilted her head to the side. “Exposing their identity would mean exposing our operation. You wouldn’t be foolish enough to do that, would you?”
“No, but someone else might. What assurances do they have?”
Audrey branched away and neared the wall. “If you ever receive such an offer, I’ll make you aware of the repercussions.”
“These are pretty gruesome weapons,” I said, scanning the room. “Doesn’t seem like the fight would last long. Most people surrender when there’s an axe against their neck.”
“You’d be surprised how long a fight will last when your life is at stake.”
I blinked. “Are you talking about death matches?”
She held a long chain between her fingers before letting it clink against the wall. “You’re a bright woman. Surely you considered this as a possibility.”
“Most of these weapons wouldn’t finish the job. The axe is small and would take too many strikes to sever a Mage’s head.”
What really got me thinking was how none of the victims were beheaded. In fact, none of them were reported to have the type of grisly wounds that these weapons would cause.
She gave me a look of reproach. “Perhaps you’re not as bright as I thought.”
I dropped my bag and stared at the chopping block. “This isn’t a Mage fight, is it?”
“The topside matches are simple to arrange. The worst the higher authority can do is lock me away for life, but I have more money than you can imagine and plenty of inside contacts to keep me safe. Keeping me safe keeps them safe.” Audrey glided along the surrounding walls. “But there are ancients who hunger for more than a fight. They want to see pure domination. They want to witness one Breed rule over another, and that Breed is you, Robin. Shifters once played a crucial role in our rise to power. They worked the fields in both human and animal form, they drove and pulled carriages, they acted as bodyguards, and they contributed to an immortal’s fortune. Eventually, they rose up. As bodies of law were created, one country after another capitulated. It was even worse here in North America. The higher authority purchased so much land in the early days, and when Shifters were emancipated, they were given a larger share and first choice. They still are. And their behavior is so entitled. Despite the plastic smiles you see topside, animosity lives beneath the surface. As a Sensor, I can feel it. We all can.”
“You don’t think they deserve a little more for what they’ve been through? We’re not talking about ancestors. Most of the Shifters who were slaves are still alive. They lost their freedom to make their masters rich.”
“We’re giving privileges to animals.” Audrey paused near a torch. The flames rivaled her hair color. “If you have compassion for them, this will not work out in your favor. I would hate to lose another.”
I folded my arms. “So I’ll be fighting Shifters?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. Shifters and only Shifters.”
“You know as well as I do that a Mage can knock a Shifter out with a blast, and it wouldn’t take long to finish the job. They’re tough, but it would take a large animal or a couple of wolves to make it a fair fight. Especially with all these weapons conveniently hanging on the walls that they wouldn’t be able to use in animal form.”
“Precisely.”
In the quiet of the room, all I heard was the crackling fire from the torches. I ruminated over the facts and concluded that people were paying to watch only one outcome, and that was for a Shifter to die. Maybe they took bets on how long it would last or which weapon would do it. The people most likely to watch these fights would be ancients, ones with pockets deeper than this ring. Maybe some of them had once owned Shifters and were bitter about their circumstance.
“What happens if a Mage loses and can’t fight anymore?” I asked, thinking how the dead women weren’t Shifters.
“Now that’s a smart question.” When she resumed walking along the wall, I turned to watch her. “Rumor has it you’re a serious fighter, one who isn’t a stranger to death. Only one fighter will walk away from the matches down here. Some of the animals won’t kill women, so they leave their maimed bodies on the floor. When a Mage is dominated, we stop the fight. We don’t like disappointing our clients, so that Mage will never fight here again.”
“When the Shifter doesn’t kill them and you can’t use them anymore, do you scrub their memories?”
“Believe it or not, scrubbing memories isn’t guaranteed. People have gone on to remember fragments of their life, and I can’t afford to have anyone remembering my face or anything that could compromise my business. We have no choice but to put them down.”
A cold chill swept over me. “How do you do that?” I asked, staring at the chopping block.
She caught the direction of my gaze. “We’re not monsters. After Pablo heals them, he removes their light and kills them humanely. Too many bodies showing up with animal wounds would draw attention, and skilled Sensor detectives might be called in. We had someone cleaning for us, but when we found out where he was dumping them, we decided to find another way. It’s not as easy as you might think to get rid of a body. The Shifters are easier to manage because they die in animal form. We can drop them off in the woods and no one would look twice at their remains. I’m telling you this, Robin, because you need to know what’s at stake. You can’t afford to lose. If you lose, even if you live, you won’t leave alive. If you triumph, as I fully expect you to, then you will retire a very wealthy woman. By that point you’ll be in so deep that you won’t be able to report us without signing your own death warrant.”
I looked up at the archways, imagining the faces of a captive audience cheering for blood. Cheering for death. “Where do you get the Shifters from?”
When Audrey circled back to the doorway, she lifted a torch from the inside hall. “Come with me.”
I caught up and fell into step beside her. “I didn’t notice windows up there or private rooms.”
“This is an exclusive fellowship,” she replied as she led me through a narrow hall with a low ceiling. “We haven’t added new members for the past eighty years.”
“Aren’t you afraid someone might charm them and accidentally find out about this operation?”
“No. We have safeguards in place.” Audrey looked over her shoulder at me. “Most of the girls ask about the money first.”
My face flushed. I was treating this like an investigation more than a job offer, so it was time to switch gears. “I just like to know what I’m getting into first. Money makes people do stupid things.”
“And you find this offer… stupid?”
“Dangerous? Yes. Stupid? Only to someone who doesn’t know how to fight. Stupid would be accepting the job without understanding all the risks. That’s why I ask a lot of questions. The fighters aren’t the only ones I’m concerned about. I might survive the match, bu
t if you haven’t covered all your bases, I could wind up in Breed jail.”
“I assure you that will never happen. So long as you meet all the qualifications, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“I’ve gotten into more than one death match with a Shifter. I’m about as qualified as you can get.”
“How did you wind up working behind a bar, if I might ask? You would be better suited as a personal guard.”
I sighed. “Bad life choices.”
“I hope you exceed my expectations,” she said. “A good fighter can do this for many years before retiring.”
“How many are there?”
“One.”
I stopped in my tracks.
Audrey turned around, the flames illuminating her stunning features. “This isn’t a competition. There’s no other Mage competing for your spot. The longer you last, the greater enjoyment you bring my benefactors. Not all of them show up for every event. We reserve their membership even if they go away for thirty years. The idea is to draw in the largest crowd, and if you please them, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.”
“How did a woman like you become a pit boss? Sensors can make so much money the legal way. I always thought these fights were run by big men with small penises, not a gorgeous woman who can probably get whatever she wants.”
“And this is what I want. I was once married, you know. My husband bought and sold Shifters for profit. When it became illegal, we lost everything. Then one night a group of those Shifters returned to our home with torches. I escaped while my dear husband distracted them. I almost didn’t make it out alive. I fought a Shifter with my bare hands, and it brought out something in me I didn’t know existed. I suppose that’s always stayed with me.” She rubbed her arms from the slight chill. “When I met Pablo, he had smart ideas.”
Audrey continued her walk down the hall until we reached a narrow gate. When she pulled a lever, the gate lifted. “You aren’t permitted to bring any electronic devices such as a phone.”
That worried me. Audrey was probably concerned about a fighter recording things. Could cell phones even work down here? If not, where did that leave the video camera around my neck? Was I out of range?