Chapter 27
Item after tediously boring item is presented to the crowd and auctioned off for ridiculous amounts of money.
More than once, I contemplate sneaking around back and stealing the jewelry.
After all, we’re in this situation because the set was stolen in the first place.
If the seller didn’t know I was interested in it, I might have gone for it.
But doing so now would only implicate me, especially since I’ve been seen here—even more so after that little scene in the foyer earlier.
After two long hours, the jewelry set is finally announced and brought on stage.
It’s presented as a rarity that holds traces of dark and mysterious magic bound to nature—the whole picture they paint around it makes my eyes roll.
Sure, it holds some earth magic, but only because it was forged by earth witches.
It’s nothing that anyone can harvest, despite what they’re clearly trying to make people believe.
All in all, it’s just silver jewelry. It shouldn’t even be of much value to anyone else.
As soon as the items are unveiled for the public, a gasp sounds behind me.
I turn around in my seat in the back row and see Alix and Désirée near the exit.
Alix has a flyer clamped in his hand, and Désirée holds hers raised in front of her face, tears welling in her eyes at the sight of the jewelry.
Alix’s hand on her shoulder is clearly the only thing preventing her from launching herself at the pieces.
I should have sent him home; I’m an idiot. Of course he got his hands on a flyer, and of course he brought Désirée.
Alix’s dark, cold eyes meet mine. He’s angry—furious—and barely able to hold himself back.
I shake my head at him, hoping he understands that I have it under control.
He nods, then pulls Désirée into his arms and whispers in her ear.
She starts to cry and nods through her tears.
Her eyes meet mine, and she wordlessly pleads with me to get the jewelry back for her—for them.
I silently promise her that no matter what, they’re going home with it tonight.
The auction for the set starts, and it looks like there are quite a few interested parties. Although all the information given about the jewelry is false, it’s clear that no one knows what they’re really bidding on. For that alone, it should be shameful for anyone else to walk out with it.
After a few minutes, only I and two other bidders remain.
Already thoroughly fed up with this game, I bid the same amount I was originally willing to pay for the set.
Lo and behold, the other two bidders back off, winning me the set.
A smug smile creeps onto my face as I lean back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest.
Not long after, the last items are auctioned off, and people start to file out of the room. I rise from my chair, and Désirée flies into my arms, even more of a sobbing mess than before.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she cries, her tears soaking my clothes.
Alix steps up and gently pries her away from me, giving me an apologetic smile.
He turns his wife to face him, cradles her face in his hands, and whispers soft French words to her.
That’s when I spy the seller behind them as he disappears backstage.
The sight of him is enough to spark my anger anew, making my jaw twitch.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell the vampires and take off after the man. My magic rages under my skin, eager for retribution.
“Shinoda!” I yell at the man as soon as I spot him backstage.
He freezes at the sound of my voice, then turns around and gives me a sheepish grin. “Mister Deimos, what a pleasure to see you here.”
“Cut the theatrics,” I sneer. “Stop wasting my time. I’m not leaving here without the jewelry.”
“You won the auction, then?” he says in mock surprise.
I swear, if I ever come across this man alone, I won’t hesitate to rip his head off. But even now, his men linger in the shadows, armed to the teeth. They’re all human, under the delusion that they’re the biggest threat in the room. How utterly unaware they are of the truth.
I hold back a snarky comment and simply nod. “The exact amount we agreed upon.”
“That works out for the best, then,” he says. “Would you like to finalize the transaction now, or do you need to sort out payment first?”
With a snap of my fingers, Alix appears next to me, a briefcase full of cash in his hand. Whatever Shinoda was going to say about his sudden appearance is swallowed down upon looking at Alix. I don’t even need to look at the vampire to know he’s radiating malicious energy.
Alix raises the briefcase and snaps it open to show Shinoda the money. The man steps closer, musing over it for a moment.
“Everything looks to be in order.” He throws a look over his shoulder and barks something to someone. A few seconds later, another man appears with another briefcase. Clearly, this didn’t catch him by surprise, the bastard.
Shinoda nods at the other man, and the briefcase is opened to reveal the jewelry: a pair of rings, a bracelet, and a choker—the silver still gleaming after all these years. Alix tenses next to me at the sight of the pieces. It’s all the confirmation about their authenticity I need.
“Likewise,” I say as the case closes.
“Should I find the money isn’t up to standards—”
“You know how to contact me.”
We prepare to exchange the cases, Alix’s fingers already grazing the one with the jewelry, when we’re interrupted. A woman saunters in as if she owns the place, and my magic screams at me.
“I’ll be taking that off your hands, boys.” Her voice is strong and confident until she sees Alix and me and falters for a moment. Her mint-green eyes catch mine, and she curses. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Screams erupt from back in the foyer of the auction house, momentarily distracting Shinoda and his men.
The woman sneers and lunges for the case with the jewelry.
But Alix is faster, snatching it out of her grasp and hitting her in the face with the other case.
Not holding back, the woman flies through the room and crashes against the wall.
Despite the severity of the impact, all she needs is a fraction of a second to regain her footing, not even swaying on her feet. She yells something I don’t quite catch, and a handful of inhumans spill into the back room.
But my eyes are on her—the woman whose hair tumbled free from her hat. Red hair. Alix notices as well and immediately picks up on what this means.
There’s another crash, and one of the inhumans falls down among us.
On top of him is Désirée, snarling like a wild animal.
She’s covered in blood, more of it spraying around as she rips the man’s throat out.
Shinoda yells at his men, who pull their guns in unison and start firing.
Désirée is hit with a handful of bullets, but the wounds instantly knit back together, her torn clothes the only sign she was ever hit.
She rises, ready to jump her assailants, looking every bit the fearsome vampire queen that she is.
That’s when the inhumans the woman brought in begin their own assault.
“Get the case!”
The case that Alix is still holding and that I know no one will be able to take from him.
Chaos erupts. Inhumans make their way over to Alix for the case with the jewelry he holds.
Désirée jumps in between them, assisting her husband in fending them off.
The humans foolishly mix themselves into the fight, for who knows what reason.
Alix splits a human’s skull open with one of the two cases, while Désirée shreds another inhuman to pieces with her bare hands and teeth.
It’s all blood, gore, and screams, and one would almost forget the real prize: the red-haired woman.
I spin around and see her carefully making her way around the fighting in an attempt to escape unnoticed. My magic lashes out at her, but she turns and manages to counter my attack. Her green clashes with my black, and something about it is oddly familiar as the two explode upon contact.
The woman does her best to parry my attacks, and although not a single hit lands, I easily gain ground on her. The closer I get, the harder she struggles to block my attacks until a few manage to make contact. Seeing how I need her alive, I make sure to avoid any vital spots, but I ensure it hurts.
She doesn’t scream, but her face twists in pain nevertheless. It brings me a twisted kind of joy to see her like this, to finally have her within my grasp. Torturing her is going to be the highlight of my week.
My magic rips at her skin and makes her blood boil in her veins, but she’s relentless.
She defends against as many of my attacks as possible while simultaneously casting her own.
With every move she makes, I observe her until I finally see that the tips of her fingers are missing completely. She uses bone magic.
My blood magic rages through me, taking more and more as I send it toward her, gaining ground and making her falter.
Until I can almost reach out and close my hand around her neck.
It doesn’t matter that the extended overuse of magic is making me lightheaded from blood loss, that parts of my skin are being flayed with every step I take.
I’m going to snap her fucking neck, and I’m going to enjoy watching the life drain out of her eyes.
I’m stopped in my tracks when a sharp pain jolts through my legs. With a curse, I look down and see that I’m pinned. Daggers of white-yellow bone protrude from the floor and pierce my shins. Sneaky little—
The woman walks up to me, and a bone dagger appears in her hand. She flips her long red hair over her shoulder and gives me a wide, satisfied smile.