Chapter 13 #2
“Yeah, well I started looking into them a bit more ever since Noria declared that she wants to run off and join up with the local Resistance army.” Annia tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
“I’ve tried talking to her about it, but she doesn’t listen.
I may have to have Mom chain her up at night to keep her from leaving. ”
“I’m honestly not sure even that would work.
” Shaking my head, I glanced out the window at the mountains flanking the road on either side of us, which looked like they’d caught fire in the light of the dying sun.
Guilt squirmed in my chest – Noria had initially wanted to be an enforcer, and Annia and I had both tried to dissuade her from that path because it was a dangerous line of work, and also because as a talented techno-geek we knew Noria was capable of so much more.
But when I’d been arrested and nearly executed for possessing illegal magic, Noria had been exposed to the corruption in the Enforcer’s Guild, and decided the Resistance was the only group that had the power to right the scales.
I couldn’t help but feel that it was my fault Noria wanted to join the Resistance – if I hadn’t fucked up and exposed my magic to everyone, she might still want to be an Enforcer.
As much as the job sucked sometimes, it was better than joining a terrorist rebel army.
At least being an enforcer didn’t make you an enemy of the state, and though the system was flawed you still had the potential to do a lot of good.
“Yeah, well I’m planning on talking to her about the attack on the bridge the next time I see her,” Annia declared. “Maybe that will knock some sense into her.”
I sure hoped so. Because Noria was going to be finishing college soon, and if we didn’t find something else to divert her attention to she might be gone by the time next semester came around.
We arrived in Turain just as night began to fully settle over the sky, and it took us a few minutes to find the address that Silon had given to Annia when she’d bought the tickets.
Eventually, we rolled into a lot on which a large grey warehouse sat, the windows blacked out or boarded up.
There were already a number of steambikes and steamcars parked in the lot, and I could make out a bouncer near the door, checking tickets and ushering prospective spectators inside.
“If I was going to be setting up an illegal fighting ring, I’d definitely pick a place like this,” Lakin murmured.
“No kidding,” Annia said, and I privately agreed. This building was located in Turain’s industrial district, and there would be very little foot traffic here even during the day.
“Well, I guess we’d better get in there.
” I sucked in a long breath through my nostrils to steady myself, then squared my shoulders and climbed out of the vehicle.
Lakin automatically stepped forward to help me down, but Annia beat him to it, taking my hand and then sliding her arm possessively around my waist.
“Lesbian couple, remember?” I whispered.
“Right,” Lakin muttered as he followed us from behind.
I could feel his eyes on my ass the entire time, and tried to ignore the sensation.
When we were through with this I was going to have to give Lakin a stern talking-to – he was starting to show signs of possessiveness, and if I didn’t nip it in the bud his shifter instincts were going to take over.
I needed to remind his beast that he did not own me, and soon.
But right now we had bigger things to worry about.
“Tickets?” the bouncer growled, staring down at us through narrowed eyes.
He was built like a bull, thickset but sturdy, and he wore his long brown hair in a tail that hung down to a waist easily three times the width of mine.
Tattoos covered his forearms, and I resisted the urge to arch a brow.
They were a bit of a rarity – mages shunned them, shifters couldn’t have them, and the humans didn’t consider them to be a respectable form of adornment.
“Coming right up.” Annia dug into the pocket of her jeans and handed them to the bouncer. “Three tickets, three people.”
The bouncer studied the tickets for a moment, then ripped off the stubs and handed them to us. “Head across the first floor to the far left corner and down the stairs. There’ll be someone there to guide you.”
We did as the bouncer said, our boots scuffing against the dusty concrete floor as we crossed the room.
The space was largely empty except for a few rusted-out typesetting machines that stood like solitary islands in a sea of concrete, and I figured this warehouse had probably been owned by a major newspaper at some point.
It reminded me of the Shifter Courier’s dilapidated building, and I bit my lip.
Maybe sometime tomorrow I would give the Chief Editor a call and tell him about the Shifter Royale.
Another human waited at the doorway on the other side of the room, this one smaller and leaner than the bouncer, but similarly muscular and no less intimidating.
I could already hear the buzz of excited conversation even before he led us down the set of stairs, and an amalgam of scents wafted up to me – humans and shifters, reeking of a combination of excitement, fear and anger.
“I don’t like this,” Lakin growled in my head.
“You and me both.”
We reached the basement, and I squinted against the harsh lights set into the ceiling; a bold contrast to the dusky sky outside. Annia took my hand, and I followed her blindly, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light as the human led us down the stairs.
When my vision finally cleared, I had to bite back a gasp of shock.
Down here, beneath the abandoned warehouse, a huge fighting cage had been set up – a boxing ring that was surrounded by a silver-coated bamboo cage.
There were bars set far enough apart to allow spectators to see inside, but close enough that they would impede anyone who tried escaping the ring.
Rows of bleachers had been set up along three of the walls, and were already packed with excited humans, talking and laughing amongst each other as they waited for the fights to start.
A couple of humans wearing bright red and white striped aprons wandered between the bleachers, offering popcorn and candy to the spectators in exchange for coin.
Across the room, I could see a stocky man with long blonde hair dressed in a dark brown coat and hat talking to a human couple.
He scribbled something in the beat-up leather book in his hands, and the couple handed him a coin. That must be one of the bookies.
But none of this was the shocking part.
On the far right, away from the bright lights and the bleachers, about ten different shifters crouched in cages, all in human form.
Their colorful shifter eyes were tinged with red, and ropes of drool hung from their snarling mouths, making them look crazed.
Anger sizzled in my gut at the sight of shackles gleaming at their wrists, and as I looked closer I could see glowing runes inscribed into the metal Those shackles must be keeping them from shifting – their beasts were all so close to the surface that I couldn’t see any other reason why they wouldn’t already be in animal form.
The shackles looked similar to the ones that had been placed on me to prevent me from using my magic after I was arrested, and my stomach roiled in remembered anguish.
Annia squeezed my hand, hard, and it took me a second to realize that I’d been growling.
Snapping my mouth shut, I turned my head away from the horrible sight and continued to follow our host. He led us to the bleachers on the far side of the room, closest to the shifter cages, and gestured for us to go sit on the second row.
“Those are your seats,” he said. “Get settled in – we’re about to start.”
“Thank you,” Annia said, and the human left us.
We clambered up the bleachers, squeezing past the humans already seated and earning ourselves numerous glares as we bumped a few elbows.
But I didn’t care – these humans were complicit in helping some sick bastard profit off the misery of the shifters in those cages.
“Why do you think their eyes are red?” Annia murmured as she settled herself in between me and Lakin.
Her dark eyes scanned the room casually, and I knew she was checking for threats and escape routes.
There didn’t really seem to be any way out of this place aside from the staircase we’d entered through, but I wondered if maybe there was a hidden door we were missing.
It seemed like it would be too difficult for them to transport all the shifters down through that stairwell, and I doubted they kept the shifters here when the fights weren’t taking place.
“They’ll be drugged to the max,” Lakin muttered tightly, keeping his eyes fixed on the stage. I had a feeling he was ignoring the shifters on purpose to try and keep his emotions in check. “All the addicts I’ve taken in recently had bloodshot eyes like that.”
“Right.” An image flashed in my mind of a crazed rhino shifter charging me, blood flowing from his flared nostrils, and I shuddered a little.
That was the day my life had changed forever – the day I’d rushed into a rabbit shifter’s house in Rowanville to try and save her babies from a rampaging rhino shifter who’d decided to attack her family for no good reason.
I’d ended up incinerating him with a magical blast to stop him from killing me, but before that had happened I’d gotten a good look at his eyes, and they’d been bloodshot too.
We couldn’t be sure since I’d turned him into a pile of ash, but I was pretty certain he’d been on the shifter drugs too.
“Shit!” Annia cursed under her breath, nudging me. “We’ve got company. Brin and Nila are here.”