Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I will pay $40,000 for the one on the left,” a brunette woman stood up in the front row.
Shanna glanced her way with passing interest as she followed Damien to the back of the stage. With a quick look over at the cage Rachel was in, she saw that Ash was doing something to her chains from a few feet away, just by whispering under his breath.
“They are to be sold as a pair only,” the auctioneer insisted, frowning down at the woman who spoke. “Miss…?”
“You may call me Metrise,” she replied. “And he’s mine. He escaped me. He belongs to me. If Miss Roma wishes to be paid for him, I will only pay for the one, or I will not pay at all. Either way, he comes with me.”
Shanna’s eyes snapped back to the woman, who suddenly had bat-like wings protruding from out of her back, fanned open threateningly. She was a beautiful girl, with fiery green eyes. If she didn’t have monstrous appendages sticking out of her, Shanna would assume that she was just a pretty college student.
Her eyes narrowed as she noted Quinn on stage, pale and trembling. He was trying to hold himself together, but it looked like his legs were going to give out at any time. His voice echoed in her ears.
Her name was Metrise. I think she fed off of their pain, and my horror, like a succubus.
“Quinn,” Shanna whispered. This was her. The monster who had tortured and killed his parents and girlfriend in front of him. He had to be terrified, being in this situation with her. Metrise could walk out the doors with him and he would have to relive that horror all over again. But Shanna wouldn’t let that happen. She felt a fire in the pit of her stomach, and she wondered for a moment if it was dread, but the more she thought about it, she decided that it was anger, or excitement. Because now that Metrise had turned up like this, Shanna was going to get revenge for Quinn. The monster who’d haunted him was going to die, one way or another.
Damien looked back at her with a frown. “Shanna?”
She bit her lip and nodded for him to continue.
“This is hardly protocol,” the auctioneer protested, looking around. “But if Miss Roma agrees, I’m sure we can work something out here.”
“I do not agree,” Roma spoke up from across the room.
Shanna stiffened at her voice, and couldn’t help but turn to look at the necromancer, and started when she saw Krystal captive at her side.
Metrise hissed, causing Roma to chuckle. “Now, now,” Roma said. “You will have to purchase both. But feel free to turn around and sell the other one as soon as they’re yours.”
The demon considered for a moment before relaxing her wings. “Very well. I will pay $100,000 for both.”
The auctioneer sucked in a breath. “Well. $100,000 to the young lady in the front row. Do I hear another bid?”
“Damien,” Shanna said quietly, putting a hand to his shoulder.
Damien turned and met her eyes. “Don’t worry. As soon as they bring them back to their cages backstage, we’ll get them and go. We can’t afford to cause a scene with so many monsters around.”
Shanna nodded. She knew that. But she hated to think of what Quinn was going through. She couldn’t even look in his direction, for fear of what she would see in his eyes.
“And sold! $100,000, to the young demon!”
“How can they put a price on human beings?” Shanna shook her head sadly. “It’s terrible.”
“Your own people did it once.”
Shanna nodded slowly. “I’m aware. It wasn’t any less terrible then.”
“Come, Quentin,” Metrise said, stepping up to the stage. “Didn’t think you’d get away that easily, did you?”
“There are cages in back,” the auctioneer said. “You can have him once-“
“He’s mine,” she snapped. “I want my human now.”
Shanna stopped, and Damien cursed behind her.
“Very well,” the auctioneer relented. “And we’ll put the other male back on the auction block. Another good specimen, isn’t he? Let’s start the bidding at $20,000.”
“We’ll have to start killing now, won’t we?” Lupe asked, suddenly at her side, and with a gleam of pleasure in her eyes that unnerved Shanna.
“We will,” someone agreed to Shanna’s left, throwing off a robe.
“Natalia!” Shanna was relieved to see the hunter safe and sound, not that there’d ever been any doubt, but was startled that she had been so near without her knowledge. “You’re alright.”
Natalia raised an amused eyebrow at this observation before turning her attention to the crowd, many of whom were staring at her.
“Is that a human?” a female goblin squinted at Natalia. “What’s she doing loose?”
“No,” her male companion cocked his head. “See how it moves so gracefully? I think it’s a monster trying to pose as human.”
“Why would anyone want to do that?”
Natalia shoved Metrise aside as she jumped on stage beside Quinn, who she freed with a swift knife stroke over his bonds. He rubbed his wrists as Natalia grabbed the microphone from the auctioneer, who squealed and ducked his head. “Alright, everyone,” she said. “Anyone who does not want to get hurt, I insist you vacate this room immediately.” And to accentuate the point, she pulled a gun out from her belt and tossed it to Quinn.
Quinn didn’t even hesitate as he turned the gun on Metrise and fired a round into her forehead.
The room erupted in panic as creatures made for the doors, screaming and pushing each other in their hurry.
Shanna joined Quinn onstage and before she knew what she was doing, she had pulled him into a tight hug.
“Gosh, it’s good to see you too,” Quinn said, amused, returning the hug before stepping back to take her in with a smile on his face. “I did it. I killed her.”
“I saw,” she agreed, grinning back at him. “Everyone saw. And she’ll never do what she did to you to anyone ever again.”
He nodded, glancing at the body of the demon, which was quickly deteriorating in a hissing fog of vapor. “No, she won’t.”
Shanna turned to see Damien watching her, a frown lining his face, and she looked away guiltily, although she wasn’t sure why she should feel guilty for having just gotten her friend back.
Her eyes danced around the room, taking in the bedlam. Her other friends were all free now, and were making their way to the stage, ushered by Ash and Serene. Natalia was taking shots at anyone who was getting too close to them, hitting each target neatly between the eyes. And Roma was just standing at the back of the room, eyes blazing, her entourage around her silently waiting for her command. Krystal looked small next to her, but Shanna could see the joy in the girl’s eyes at the events, even from such a distance.
“Who’s that?” Quinn asked beside her, looking at Roma with a frown.
She glanced at him. “Nobody good. She’s behind everything.”
A loud roar erupted through the room, and a creature stepped to the front of Roma’s group of monsters. A creature obviously made from the parts of several different monsters.
“And who’s that?” Quinn swallowed hard.
“I don’t think he’s anybody good either.”
Only a few monsters not of Roma’s entourage lingered in the room, but even they scurried away as Roma flicked her fingers at Carla, and the loup-garous unlocked the chains that had been holding the monster back, letting them drop to the floor with a clank.
The hunters seemed to all stop and stare as one for a moment before the room erupted again, Roma’s horde of vampires and loup-garous charging at the hunters indiscriminately.
“Here we go,” Shanna murmured, glancing sideways at Quinn before a pair of loup-garous descended on them.
Twirling quickly out of the way of the werewolf that came for her, Shanna attacked the one focused on Quinn, stabbing it quickly through the chest, the silver of her blade reaching its target despite a cry of protest from the monster.<
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“Thanks,” Quinn said, retrieving a black axe from a pile of antique weapons that were surely meant to be auctioned off. He turned with her to the other loup-garous, who hissed at them like a wild animal, the vertical slits of her eyes alien and disturbing as it regarded them.
As Shanna made a move to attack the creature, Quinn took advantage of the moment to press his own attack, but had to dance out of the way of her sharp claws, as she’d expected such a move. However, while the loup-garous had her concentration split, Shanna shifted her attack and slashed her cross-dagger into her unguarded right side. The loup-garous rounded on her, giving Quinn the opportunity he needed to finish it off, making a clean sweep with the sharp axe blade, through her neck.
Letting out a breath, Shanna felt a surge of hope rush through her, but the feeling didn’t last long, as she noted that they were easily outnumbered. Roma’s vampires and female werewolves outnumbered them three to one, and to further tip the odds in the favor of the necromancer, ogres began to filter into the room wielding their spears. They’d obviously been informed of the disturbance by the fleeing monsters.
“Great,” Shanna muttered, looking up sharply as the Frankenstein creature let out a loud bellow, slamming his muscled werewolf arms against a pink force field that Ash had thrown up to protect himself and Rachel. He seemed to be straining under the assault, wincing with each attack.
“Over there,” Shanna said to Quinn.
Quinn followed her gaze and nodded. “Right.”
Shanna jumped off the stage and began to make her way in that direction, but paused as she noted Krystal beside Roma, and a loup-garous with her claw positioned over the girl’s throat. If she could take out that loup-garous, perhaps it would free Krystal to turn the tide of this battle.
“I’m going to Krystal,” she told Quinn.
Quinn nodded, then continued on toward Ash and Rachel.
Two male vampires descended on her quickly when they noticed where she was headed, and Shanna very carefully tried to keep her back to the two of them as they circled her.
“This one is pretty,” the blonde vampire said to his brunette companion. “Maybe Roma will let us keep her to play with.”
The brunette looked her up and down. “I’d rather just drink her right from the tap.”
“You’ll have to reach me first,” Shanna said through clenched teeth. She tilted her head, then smirked.
“Something funny?” the blonde asked, glancing at the brunette quickly, uneasily.
“It’s funny how pathetic vampires are,” Shanna shrugged. She held her cross-dagger out so they could see its shape clearly, and they immediately hissed and drew back. “See what I mean?”
“He won’t protect you forever,” the brunette warned, then grunted and suddenly fell to the floor as ash, alongside his companion.
Serene smiled from behind their remains, twirling a javelin.
“Thanks,” Shanna said, lowering her cross-dagger. When Serene gestured toward Krystal, Shanna nodded and took off at a run, determined not to get caught up in any more fights. There were, however, half a dozen loup-garous between her and Krystal. But as she neared them, gripping her weapon tightly in hand, they suddenly cried out and were lifted from the ground, unceremoniously slammed into the far wall with a loud thump that left them dazed.
Shanna watched this with wide eyes, and turned to see Amelia on the sidelines, giving her a thumbs-up before turning her attention back to a pair of vampires.
When she was only a few feet from her goal, Roma stepped forward, an amused smirk on her face. “And where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
Shanna glanced from her to Krystal, to the loup-garous at her friend’s throat.
“You forget your place, human,” Roma said, lifting her chin. “At my feet.”
Shanna felt her hair wrap around her neck and dig into her flesh. Trying to ignore her constricting airways, she threw her cross-dagger at the loup-garous.
Her aim was wide and the loup-garous would have sustained a minor blow to her shoulder, but instead merely plucked it from the air, throwing a grin Shanna’s way.
The grin fell from the creature’s face, however, as her hand begin to smoke and she cried out, throwing the silver weapon aside, and releasing Krystal in the process.
Seizing the opportunity, Krystal quickly snatched up the discarded weapon and jabbed it into the loup-garous’ back in a fluid motion that would have done any of the hunters proud.
“Carla!” Roma screeched, her eyes wide at the spectacle of her trusted minion’s demise.
Shanna felt the hair loosen around her neck and charged Roma while she was distracted, ramming into her side and sending her sprawling over the floor. She got in one solid hit to the side of her face before Roma threw her off with a bolt of green light that sent black spots dancing before her eyes.
But it had been enough to give Krystal a moment to get her bearings. In a moment, all of the vampires had turned on their loup-garous comrades, surprising, and very quickly overwhelming, most of them. Shanna saw blood spurting from wounds all around the room as vampires dug their fangs into furry necks and tore limbs from the monsters.
“No!” Roma screamed. She lifted a hand and squinted in concentration, but Krystal’s power was much more powerful than her own, and she gained little traction in trying to regain her lost followers. “Wilhelm! To me!”
Shanna frowned and looked up to see the creature made from various monster bodies abandon his attack on Ash and Rachel, making a beeline right for the necromancer.
“You had your chance!” Roma yelled in Krystal’s direction. She looked to Wilhelm. “Now, husband, kill the girl. Then kill all of her friends.”