Chapter 81

LUKAS

A masked party. Or you could call it an auction with a party as a front.

I imagined I was prepared enough. Councillor Merrick told me what to expect, and the type of people I was to look out for. Nothing prepared me for the sea of faces that filled the event center, right in the middle of the city.

I picked up various scents as I navigated through the crowd. Some human, I realized, and a lot of them were wolves. I couldn't tell from which pack, maybe a mixture or all.

There was a VIP section upstairs, I saw, where people didn't have to push against each other and instead sat down on leather chairs and gazed down with lofty expressions, like they were better than the rest of us, like they were watching a game from the bleachers. Those, I imagined, were the people actually doing the bidding.

There were three different exits out of this room. I took my time, walking around and marking all of them, in case the afternoon took a messy turn. I was dressed in a royal blue suit and satin pants. My eyes were hidden behind a leather mask, my hair pulled back in a knot (Merrick's idea), and the whole thing made me feel more fashionable than I would have liked.

I didn't see why the auction of a most likely worn-out leather book would draw so much attention. I knew that some of the people here had to be from the Order, spies, I thought. And I needed to find them.

I shuffled through the crowd, moving towards the spiral stone stairs that led upwards. Two bodyguards were standing at the top of the stairs.

I was still getting used to the disco lights that changed between blue, purple, and red at intervals. It was impossible to know when, and for someone that always liked a sense of control, it left me slightly disoriented.

I reached into my suit, and my fingers tightened around the hilt of my dagger that was carefully hidden from view.

The guard to the right had a list of names in one hand. The guards were human, I thought with a smirk. How lousy must the host be to assume that a couple of human bouncers would be more than enough if a werewolf were to start a fight? It was one of the rare occasions that I had actually seen humans and werewolves together. Last I checked, the Order was sworn to keeping the two races apart.

Then again, last I checked, the Order seemed to have long strayed from their sacred mission.

This might have simply been arrogance on the part of the host. Whatever, I thought.

The mission was simple: Wait till everyone was focused on the auctions and then find a way to scan through the list. My target was Gerald Freeman, a member of the council, but one that Councillor Merrick was sure had turned against them. Order sympathizers, as he called them. Once I was certain that he was here, I could move in.

"Welcome one, welcome all," Alpha Michael's voice boomed over the noise in the building as he mounted the stage.

Everyone's attention was on him at that moment. I took my chance, walking past the men. My actions were too swift to be noticeable. I spread out the folded piece of paper that I had swiped out of the guard's fingers.

My eyes scanned the list of names and seat numbers. The words "Gerald Freeman" seemed to leap out of the paper straight to me, seat number 24. I pulled down the paper, staring straight at a man, a rather small one, the mask covering more than half of his face, although that might not be a coincidence now.

He had a black suit, and a single rose pinned to his front pocket.

"A hundred thousand dollars," he stood up, lifting his right hand.

I followed his eyes back to the stage where Alpha Michael stood with the ghost of a smirk on his face.

Next to him, two bodyguards held a glass trophy between them, a book suspended in the air inside.

Fuck... I hadn't been paying attention.

"A hundred thousand dollars," Alpha Michael repeated in his booming voice. The mutter of angry men passed through the ground, but no one was willing to bid higher for an ancient book.

"Sold," Alpha Michael declared.

Gerald stood up and made his way down the stairs, passing by me completely oblivious to the pair of eyes that tracked him. Just as the bodyguards stepped down the podium to hand him his prize, my brain ticked in one silent command: Follow.

And so I did.

The book, as it appeared, was all that Gerald had come here for. The rest of the auction seemed to be history to him as he made his way out through one of the side exits. I was fast on his heels, following after him and keeping a reasonable distance between us so he didn't have to know.

The sunlight washed over me immediately I stepped out of the hotel. Everything was in a way dark inside, that it was hard to imagine that it was still daytime.

There was a sports car parked outside the building. Gerald spoke to some men in uniform, standing at the entrance of the hotel, and then walked towards the car, the book now clutched almost protectively in his hands.

I could intercept him now, I thought, before he got into the car.

If my guess was right and he did work for somebody, then that was probably the best move before the book got into the wrong hands.

Broad daylight, I remembered, glancing around the street as cars sped past and a couple walked into a restaurant nearby.

Councillor Merrick's instructions to remain discrete flashed across my mind.

I could risk that.

I got into the nearest cab and held a gun to the driver, pressing a finger to my lips.

I pried his phone out of his pocket and slipped it into mine. "You're going to let me drive," I said slowly, "and you're going to look fucking natural about it."

His eyes widened, mouth open in a scream, but no sound came out as his scared eyes darted to the weapon glinting in my hand.

He nodded, frozen. Feeling a sense of self-loathing, I grabbed the wheel and followed after the sports car just as it sped down the street.

As I tailed Gerald, the sports car weaved through traffic with surprising agility. The driver was clearly skilled. He maneuvered through the rest of the cars on the road, getting on a more secluded lane that I recognized led to the outskirts of the city, mountain sides, I realized, seeing the rising hills in the distance.

My grip tightened on the steering wheel, the stolen cab feeling sluggish in comparison to the car's speed. I accelerated on each turn, my knuckles getting white with desperation. I couldn't afford to lose him.

The sports car eventually turned onto a secluded road lined with trees, leading away from the main city. The man whimpered on the passenger seat next to me. I ignored him, my thoughts racing. This had to be where he was meeting whoever was pulling his strings.

I kept my distance, the cab’s engine straining as I pushed it to its limits. The sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, ominous shadows.

Gerald Freeman hadn't yet realized that he was being followed. Good, I thought.

Up ahead, Gerald's car slowed and turned into the driveway of a secluded estate. The gates were tall and imposing, but they were already open, as if expecting him. I parked the cab a short distance away, hidden behind a cluster of trees.

Killing the engine, I slid out of the car, forgetting all about the other man. My eyes scanned the area, my senses on high alert.

I had two options now. I could go back to the strongholds and report back to Councillor Merrick, or I could keep going now and find out all I could.

This felt like a trap. I didn’t know what to expect.

Dangerous men could be in there. My fingers tightened around the gun. I could feel the dagger against my thigh, its presence reassuring. I was armed with two weapons and enough training to hold my own against whoever was inside.

The gates began to close now, and I didn't have time to deliberate on the matter anymore. Without thinking, I slipped through them, expecting to be caught, but there was no security officer at the entrance.

A trap, the thought buzzed in my head. I pushed it away. The sports car was parked at the garage.

To be fair, the estate looked like a normal house and not some secret lair. It might be, I thought, the home of a notable member of the Order.

It could be a lot of other things, I reminded myself.

I followed Gerald, keeping to the shadows as best as I could into the main lobby.