Chapter 27
UNEXPECTED REVELATIONS
PARKER
I didn’t want to take off the hood. I knew right down to the brand-new blister on the heel of my left foot that whatever Tammy wanted to show us was going to be awful.
I was beginning to regret so many things about tonight, including wearing new shoes.
But how was I supposed to have guessed we’d be hiking through tunnels half the night?
I removed my hood anyway.
I blinked into the dimly lit room, surprised at the size of it.
After being led through countless underground corridors, I’d thought we’d end up in a long-forgotten storage closet repurposed for the paranormal investigator’s group.
I had expected to discover that our worst fears were unfounded and that these people were just some real-life versions of the Scooby Gang with Tammy as Velma, Kyle as Fred, and Fin as Shaggy.
I thought there might be a makeshift shelf built from concrete blocks and two by fours filled with books about the occult borrowed from the university library.
I’d been prepared to find a cork board featuring a map with pins showing where they’d filmed and print outs from questionable websites about paranormal sightings.
This wasn’t that.
My gaze darted around the room. Several of the people we’d started with were no longer with us. That was mildly concerning.
Having been trained by Nana in those summer bootcamps, I immediately searched for the exits. There were three doors. One behind us and two on the other side of the room. Those doors could lead to storage closets for all I knew, but it was good to know where they were.
Next, I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon, although I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Sure, I had the gun in my ankle holster, but guns weren’t always practical, and it was good to have a backup plan.
I was the king of backup plans.
The room was huge with high ceilings and bare walls. There wasn’t a single thing I could use as a weapon. Well, didn’t that just suck?
Pipes and ductwork crisscrossed the ceiling, but I didn’t know what they were for. Water? Sewer? Something else? I’d never been interested in buildings or architecture. When something happened in my café or apartment, I phoned people to fix it.
What the room’s original purpose might have been, I didn’t know. But right now, it held about forty people, many of whom wore domino masks like they were going to a masquerade party. Based on their clothes, I suspected at least half were university students.
What the hell had happened to the others we’d started with?
Had they changed their minds about coming with us after I put my hood on?
The only other person I recognized was Kyle.
He was scowling as he walked around the perimeter of the room.
Then he disappeared through one of the doors without looking back, leaving us with… well, whatever this was.
In the center of the room was a large octagonal MMA cage.
Fighting really wasn’t my thing. I didn’t enjoy boxing or MMA or karate or even wrestling—anything where two people tried to beat the crap out of each other, really—but I’d learned about all of them when I was dating a guy while I was in culinary school.
He’d been into that, and I tried watching matches with him a few times.
Inevitably, I’d escape the room after the first few hits, using the excuse of getting snacks ready for him and his friends.
The relationship hadn’t lasted long. I couldn’t imagine suffering through those fights for the rest of my life.
It might seem like a silly thing to break up over, but I’d seen it as a sign we weren’t compatible.
I reached for Levi and slipped my hand in his again. He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. For such a small gesture, it was reassuring. I doubted most people would realize he was anything but relaxed, but I could tell he was as anxious as I was.
Beside me, Fin tilted his head slightly to the side like a curious puppy.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.” Fin’s gaze bounced around the room the same way mine had, and I knew Nana’s training was kicking in for him too. “I thought we were going to a lecture or something. This looks like the set up for an underground fight club.”
Fin didn’t know about our listening devices, but he said the perfect words to alert our listeners to what was going on. I only prayed that the signal was getting out. But we were in the basement, surrounded by concrete, so I didn’t have high hopes.
Tammy must have heard him because she came over and patted Fin on the shoulder. “This is the moment, Fin. You’re going to see real live monsters. But don’t worry, it’s all very safe.”
“What do you mean?” He gulped.
“I know you think monsters don’t exist,” Tammy said with a shake of her head like he was a sweet, na?ve child. “But after tonight, you won’t question that anymore. Some of the bastards tried to get into tonight’s meeting, but we stopped them.”
“Oh?” He looked queasy, and I probably wore the same expression. Beside me, Levi’s face was devoid of almost all emotion, but he couldn’t contain it all. His nostrils flared, and he was taking short, huffing breaths.
I glanced toward the door we’d used a minute ago. We should leave. I never should have suggested we come tonight, although I’d have hated it if Fin had come here alone. Would he have told us anything about what happened here if we weren’t with him?
“Okay. Quiet everyone,” Tammy said.
Four hooded figures were led into the room. I recognized their clothing. These were the other people we’d started with.
Tammy’s words echoed in my head. Did that mean these people were the supes she’s supposedly uncovered? And if she’d identified them as supes, why hadn’t she figured out Levi was one too?
Tammy approached the new arrivals.
“We’re so glad you’re here,” she sneered as she ripped the hood from the first person in the line.
The young woman blinked and cast her gaze around the room, just like we’d done a few minutes earlier. She smiled when she saw one of the men standing beside Fin. She stepped toward him but was yanked back by an angry man in a mask.
“What the hell?” She swatted at him. “Get your hands off me.”
By now, the other three people had also removed their hoods. There were two other women and one man.
“Get in the octagon,” Tammy said to them. “It is the perfect cage for animals like you.”
“Screw this,” the guy said. “I’m outta here.”
But when he turned to leave, the assholes closest to him wouldn’t let him.
“The lady told you to get in the fucking octagon,” a big guy with a mask said. He pointed a gun at the younger man. “You are the entertainment for tonight.”
Oh fuck.
“I’m curious to see what a wolf can do against a bear,” the guy continued.
“And we have a fire mage too. Haven’t seen one of them before.
Do you think she’ll set you on fire?” Then he turned to the last woman.
“And you, what are you? We know you’re a shifter, but you’re something we haven’t seen before. ”
The woman in question cringed away from him. She moved toward Tammy, but Tammy pushed her back toward the cage.
“T… Tammy? What… What’s going on?” The girl’s face contorted in hurt and fear.
“Did you think you could fool me?” Tammy laughed.
The guy who’d been flagged as a supe snarled. The masked asshole called him a wolf shifter, even though he hadn’t shifted. And the asshole was right. The supe’s eyes flashed in a way that a human’s never would. In the last few days, I’d seen the same thing happen to Hayden’s eyes and Adrian’s.
I needed to do something. I needed to stop this because I had zero interest in witnessing some underground supernatural fight club. I didn’t like fights to begin with, but when the participants were unwilling, it was so much worse.
Fin was clinging to my arm now.
“We have to do something.” Fin’s urgent whisper echoed my thoughts.
But what could we do? Was Nelson back with us yet? I glanced around the room but didn’t see any abnormal shadows.
Someone had to stop this. It couldn’t be Levi. We couldn’t draw attention to him and risk exposing his supernatural side, or they’d shove him in that cage too. Holy crapola. This was so incredibly bad.
I had my gun, but it was no match for this many people, particularly when some of them were also armed .
I needed a damn plan.
My priority was getting Levi and Fin out of here, but could I really leave those four young supes behind? No, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t know how to live with myself if I did that.
But if something happened to Levi and Fin, my world would shatter completely.
I was fucked.
I was surprised Levi was still standing. Given how paralyzed by fear he’d been the night the hunters broke into his house, I knew he had to be barely hanging on. If we were going to get out of here, I would have to act.
Tammy spun toward us, wearing a maniacal smile.
“The true form of the monster that lives inside them will burst out soon. Watch closely, because it happens fast. They shed the shell of their human skin as quick as a blink. You don’t want to miss it.
I still remember the first time I saw a monster’s disguise ripped away.
It changed my life. I knew from that moment what my calling was. ”
The man whose girlfriend had been identified as one of the so-called monsters was trying to get her away from her captors.
Tammy shook her head and sighed like she was disappointed the guy was trying to help his girlfriend. “There’s always at least one monster-fucker. Sometimes they’re fooled by the monster. I can forgive them then. But sometimes they know, and that’s reprehensible. Damn traitors.”
“How do you know they are monsters?” I asked. “What if you’ve made a mistake?”
“We know. We have ways of finding out these things. ”
The amulet . Nelson had said something about a magical amulet. That had to be it. But why hadn’t it flagged Levi?