4. Aiden
AIDEN
“Have you looked into the pieces yet?” Vea asked as she closed her laptop and directed her attention to Milo and me.
Setting my pen down, my gaze lifted so I looked her directly in the eyes. “I did, yes. I couldn’t find any information on them. There is no record of any more Senketsu artwork on the market or in existence. It’s odd these pieces showed up out of nowhere.”
“That’s what makes me nervous about this auction.
Ceril never does anything without a plan.
He’s got something up his sleeve, and the fact that we aren’t ahead of it is not okay.
” Vea remained calm as she took a deep breath and pushed back from her desk.
She stood facing me. The gorgeous, stoic woman I had come to see as a mother.
She rested her hands on her hips. The flowing sleeves of the bright white blouse she wore billowed with the movement.
“Just keep looking to see if you can find anything before tomorrow. You two need to be as prepared as possible when you go in. If he’s claiming to have these pieces, everyone will be there trying to get their hands on them.
” Leaning forward, she placed her hands on the desk.
“We need that art, Aiden. You understand?”
“Yes.” Nothing else needed to be said. As I rose to stand, Vea followed my line of sight. I nodded to my boss and walked out of her office with Milo close behind.
As I gripped the notebook in my hand, I could see Milo approaching me on my side. “I know you usually do all of the research, but can I help? There has to be something I can do.”
I didn’t have an answer for him because I didn’t know what else could be done.
The photographs of the artwork were listed on the Shirogane Auction House website, but the art couldn’t be found anywhere else online.
There were no known acquisitions of the pieces prior to the Shiroganes, and the art was signed by an anonymous artist. Not only did that make it even more difficult to find information on them, but it also made them more valuable.
The even stranger part to me was that the pieces he had were not like other Senketsu art that had been sold.
Instead of depicting graphic images of death and decay, these were gorgeous still life paintings of flowers or abstract images.
Every single one of them was in various hues of metallic red, black, and grey.
A light green aura began to pulse from Milo. His urge to help punched me in the chest, and I smiled softly. I explained to him where he could find the photos of the art. “Truthfully, just see if you can find anything because I’ve found nothing literally.”
Nodding his head, Milo turned down the hallway and toward his office.
My own office sat next to Desdemona’s, who was tucked away into the back corner.
When I turned my computer back on, the auction house website pulled up, and the anonymous art pieces were the first things I saw on my screen.
Something about the way the paint strokes were applied seemed effortless yet intentional.
One of the pieces was stunning. An ornate vase of withered roses was the central focus.
Petals piled below on a table that melted into a black void beneath.
Everything about the painting was perfect.
It was clear that the artist had a vision when putting the paint to canvas.
The roses, while withered and decaying, were still undeniably beautiful. The typical reaction when looking at a Senketsu painting would be to turn away. They made the viewer uncomfortable most of the time. Their rarity made them expensive and popular among collectors.
When Milo came to me two hours later with no information about the pieces, I knew there was no use looking any longer.
It was likely we wouldn’t find anything, and we needed to do reconnaissance on the auction house before tomorrow.
We sat together for the rest of the evening looking over blueprints and reviewing the security system to prepare.
Coming up with a solid plan to avoid cameras and anticipated extra security.
Keeping in mind they will have likely hired a werewolf pack for additional security, so they will have ground and aerial coverage.
We had no plans to do anything that would cause a scene, but Vea brought up a good point that these Senketsu pieces had the likelihood to bring a lot of people out of the shadows.
Milo and I expected to see many of the same faces we saw at smaller sales and on the black market.
The Shirogane Family was well known for their events, and putting on an auction of this caliber in a short amount of time meant something.
Ceril always thought four steps ahead. All of the families knew that.
Making sales of Senketsus as public as he is will pull all of the families out of their safety nets. All except for Vea.