“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.”
I stiffened at the names of the two human Enforcers who’d been assigned to Roanas’s case, and who’d done absolutely nothing to solve it. Not only had those two assholes arrested me when they’d found out I had magic, they’d also stolen my crescent knives and chakrams and sold them off. If the Chief Mage hadn’t tracked my weapons down, I would never have gotten them back.
Following Annia’s gaze, I saw Brin, a tall, muscular man with bronze hair and good looks, and Nila, a petite blonde with huge boobs that probably netted her more bounties than her actual fighting skills. They were scanning the crowd with watchful eyes, and my heartbeat ratcheted up as I realized what would happen if they saw Annia.
“Do something!” she hissed in my ear. “Give me a disguise, like you did with Lakin.”
"Okay." I scooted myself closer to Annia and snuggled in, nuzzling her neck with my nose. The smelled of patchouli and soap teased my nostrils as I reached for my magic and murmured the Words of the illusion spell. I couldn’t change Annia’s appearance completely, not in the middle of a crowd like this,
so I focused on the little things, making her a little shorter, a little thicker in the waist and thighs, and dulling her features so that they weren’t so attractive. For good measure, I gave her a slightly bulbous nose and pudgy cheeks.
“What exactly did you do to me?”
“I just made you look like your older, unattractive sister. If you had one, that is.”
“Great.”
“Just pretend to be from out of town somewhere if you talk to them.”
“They’ve got to be paid off somehow,” Annia murmured as she turned her face to bury it in my hair. “I’m sure they’re not just here for fun, judging by the way they’re surveying the room. They’re making sure no one’s here who isn’t supposed to be.”
“Oi.” A gruff voice caught our attention. “You taking bets?”
We glanced down to see the bookie standing just below us, his leather book clutched in his hand as he stared up at us expectantly. My jaw clenched at the idea of putting money down on the lives of any of those caged shifters, but I knew we had to or we would look suspicious, so I turned my attention back toward the cages, studying the “contestants”. At this distance I couldn’t tell what all of them were, but I knew they were all predators of some kind – I spotted a wolf, a tiger and a lion amongst the bunch.
“I don’t think we got a line-up of the fights,” Annia said coolly, holding out a hand.
The bookie’s eyes narrowed, but he dug into his pocket and pulled out a list, then handed it to Annia. Lakin and I leaned in so we could scan the matches – five total. I let out a little sigh of relief – this wasn’t an elimination contest. I wasn’t sure if I could manage to sit through that many fights.
Annia put her bet on the gray wolf in “wolf vs. lion”, and Lakin decided to back the wolverine going up against the grizzly bear.
“You gonna place a bet?” the bookie asked me.
“Oh I don’t like betting.” I giggled, leaning my shoulder against Annia’s and batting my lashes at the man. “I’ve never really been good with odds. I leave that sort of thing to her.” I squeezed Annia’s arm.
“Suit yourself.” The bookie shrugged, then closed his book and moved off.
I sighed in relief as I watched him walk away, partially because I didn’t have to bet and also because I really didn’t have any money to put down anyway.
“You seem to be getting pretty good at playing the bimbo card,” Annia teased me under her breath.
My lips quirked up in a brief smile. “It’s the only card I’ve got at my disposal right now, so I may as well take advantage of it.”
The announcer, a skinny man in a flashy green suit with a shock of bright orange hair, got up onto his podium and picked up his microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Shifter Royale!” he cried, and the crowd went wild. I forced myself to clap and cheer with all the others, and Annia and Lakin followed suit. “Thank you all for coming tonight! We’ve got a fantastic line-up for you this evening, so I hope you’ve all placed your bets. Are you ready to get started?”
“YEAHHHH!” The audience shouted, and I fought the urge to clap my hands over my ears at the deafening roar.
“Then let’s begin! First up, a real classic here at the Shifter Royale – Grizzly Bear versus Polar Bear!”
I watched as two of the cages were opened, and the shifters were dragged out. They tried to bite and snap at their handlers, but the humans who pulled them from their cages were well trained – they used a strange clamping device to grab the shifters by their throats and drag them out, and then each shifter was grabbed by two humans, with four more standing by as backup, and hauled to doors on opposite sides of the ring. It wasn’t until the shifters were inside that the humans unlocked their handcuffs, and then beat a hasty retreat as the shifters instantly started changing.
My heart pounded as I watched the white light engulfing the two males as their shapes stretched and reformed, until two hulking bears stood on opposite ends of the ring. They both let out eardrum-shattering roars, then charged each other, battle fever raging in their bloodshot eyes. Claws sank into fur as the bears grappled for the upper hand, their heads twisting as they tried to bite each other. The polar bear managed to get his maw around the grizzly’s more accessible ear, and the tang of blood laced the air as he ripped at it with his fangs. The grizzly roared again, struggling, but the pain threw him off balance and he toppled to the ground, the polar bear on top of him. It wasn’t long before the polar bear clamped his jaw around the grizzly’s neck, teeth sinking into the thick fur as he tried to tear out his opponent’s windpipe.
“And we have a winner!” the announcer cried. “Polar bear comes out on top!” The crowd went wild, a mixture of cheers and boos, and I clenched my fists – that polar bear was going to kill the grizzly if someone didn’t do something!
Thankfully, someone did – the announcer made a gesture, and two humans came forward, both holding some kind of long, tubular device. They pointed them at the bears and shot them with some kind of dart. Instantly, both bears went limp, collapsing against the stained white surface of the ring, and to my shock, white light enveloped them as they shifted back to human form.
“What the fuck?” Annia muttered as we watched several humans rush into the ring so they could re-cuff the shifters and drag them back to their respective cages. “How the hell did they manage to force unconscious shifters to change?”
“It’s got to be some kind of magic,” I hissed, unable to hold back my glare as I stared at the now-empty ring. “There’s no way some drug did that on its own. There’s a mage involved somewhere.”
Just like there’d been a mage involved in the Resistance’s attack on the bridge. One strong enough to strip away the wards.
I froze as I considered that. The substance they’d used to attach the bomb to the underside of the bridge had been magical in nature, just like whatever the humans had just injected those shifters with. It was one thing for humans to use charms and potions, but the magic involved at the bridge and the injections given to those shifters were really powerful and sophisticated. What mage of that stature would be willing to work with humans like this? Was it possible the same mage that had been involved in the attack on the bridge was also involved with this? I couldn’t see respectable mages working for the Resistance, but it was possible they might have roped in some renegade who was unhappy with the current regime. I supposed it could also be a witch, but if that were the case they would have to be an unusually powerful one.
“This is disgusting,” Lakin spat, disturbing my train of thought. “I can’t believe we’re just sitting here and watching this happen!” A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“We could always try talking to them,” I said dubiously as I glanced at the maddened shifters snarling in their cages. “Maybe get some information that could help us stop this”.
“Already tried that,” Lakin growled. “They’re unresponsive, the lot of them. Full of blood lust.”
For three more fights, we watched shifter after shifter get thrown into that horrible cage and forced to fight each other. The drugs pumping through their system made them ferocious – they didn’t even think twice about attacking each other once they were free of their shackles and thrown into the ring. The humans ate it up of course – they shouted and cheered and threw popcorn and apple cores at the shifters, as if the beasts fighting in the cage weren’t living, breathing beings that deserved respect and freedom. It made me sick to my stomach, both the inhumanity of the situation and the effort it took to hold back the emotion that kept trying to burst out of me.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen!” the announcer cried after the last two shifters – a cougar and a wolf – were dragged off the stage and returned to their cages. “And now for our final match, I offer you a treat! Lion versus tiger, in a fight to the death!”
Horror rushed through me, propelling me to my feet, and I nearly jumped off the bleachers before I remembered myself. Luckily, the rest of the crowd surged to
their feet with cheers and whoops, so my cover wasn’t blown. Blood pounded hot and heavy in my ears as I stared at the ring, watching as the lion and tiger shifters were tossed inside. My heart twisted as I watched the tiger – a female – struggle to her feet, her long hair matted and the bags under her eyes so deep they looked like smudged charcoal. Whatever they’d been pumping these shifters up with was clearly hitting her harder than the male she was facing, who’d already started to change. I could tell the woman was struggling to reach for her beast, but it wasn’t happening.
He’s going to rip her to shreds.
A wave of helplessness washed over me as I watched the glow fade from around the lion shifter’s form, and I clenched my trembling hands into fists. I felt so useless, so ashamed. Who was I to call myself an Enforcer, if all I could do was stand by and watch as one of my own kind was murdered?
You are not just a shifter, Sunaya Baine, a voice murmured in my head. You are also a mage, and it is your birthright to use your magic to protect the weak.
I started, not just at the unfamiliar voice in my head, but at the way the air around me changed – it grew lighter somehow, reminding me of the air inside Resinah’s temple. I didn’t know if it was she who spoke to me but the words filled me with strength, and my doubts and fears fell away. I wasn’t helpless – I had the power to help these victims, and damned if I wasn’t going to use it.
Reaching for my magic, I focused all my attention into the center of the ring, willing the illusion in my mind to form. Two seconds later, a towering flame sprang to life right between the two combatants, licking the ceiling with its long, colorful tongue. The lion shifter, who was about to pounce, shrank back, and the crowd’s cheers turned to terrified shrieks as the fire began to spread.
Of course the fire wouldn’t actually burn them, but they’d feel the heat and smell the smoke as if it really were.
The humans in charge of the Royale rushed to contain the shifters, a few of them throwing sand on the flames to try and put them out. I allowed the illusion to die down before the humans realized the fire wasn’t real, and leapt from the bleachers as everyone else stampeded for the exits. I tried to make a run for the cages, but Annia grabbed the back of my dress and yanked me back.
Bound by Magic: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Baine Chronicles Book 2) Page 13
