I didn’t.
We all still healed, still bled, the scars remained, and the desire of our wolves to follow an alpha was stifling. But it wasn’t the same, not when our leader couldn’t rely on his wolf’s alpha authority.
No matter how much Locke believed he was in charge, he wasn’t. A rabid wolf wouldn’t submit.
The pad of my thumb flicked my serrated knife on my belt. Blood ran down the cold silver, dripping onto my thigh.
Locke did his signature strut, his shoulders pulled back confidently as he approached the teller-like window of an old-fashioned movie theater. The men behind me chuckled. Pushing each other like this was some game. To them, it was. Our lives were technically already over; we were just waiting for the “game over” to cross our eyes and send us into the next life.
The surrounding area was obviously glammered by a spell. To the human eye, it would look like a run-down warehouse, the lights flickering where the light bulbs were dying, the wind blowing a loose board away from the windows. But it was more.
There was a tiny gold coin in the middle of the building that blasted the glamour within a certain radius. It could be seen within and outside of the glamour spell. No human would look for such a small coin, but if they did, they would be opened to a whole new world.
At times, when magic wasn’t the strongest, the coin would flicker like a television that was on its last leg.
But humans didn’t pay much attention to that. They believed what they saw and were none the wiser. They didn’t believe in magic like the fairy tales they were told. If they only looked, they would see what was right in front of them was another world. A world where their nightmares could easily come true.
We walked forward, and the glam flickered, unable to work on the supernatural. It was too weak.
The glamor glimmered again, revealing a winter fae. His pale white skin and the frost on his brows twinkled in the small candle that lit his box. The window fell away, but he didn’t look up. He continued to manicure his claws.
“Name and coin.” The blasé attitude made Locke stop his chuckle of amusement and grow stone cold.
“We are actually here for payment.” As the fae glanced up, his frosted eyes widened, while Locke grabbed the manicured hand and cuffed him with iron. The fae’s winter-like appearance dulled, turning slate gray, his head falling to the table.
Reaching over the table, Locke pulled on the switch, a buzzer sounding to open the door to the left. “Let’s get to work,” he smirked, pulling out a satchel of dust.
The group behind us didn’t wait. They walked into the dark halls of the beating bass of music. They waved their hands and moved their bodies with the beat. Blood was going to be shed, and we were ready.
The lights glinted twice at the entryway, letting us know Switch had already dismantled the cameras inside. Hoods were thrown off, and growls of approval rang through the black-light-lit hallway.
This was indeed a warehouse. The walls were mostly bare with only support beams, large overhanging headlights, and open tunnels for airways.
As we split through the crowd, the bass thumped, rattling our bodies. The stage was filled with some vampire wanna-be band. Fae women threw their undergarments onto the stage, and small orgies stayed hidden in the corners.
I did a double take when a human joining in on the fun caught my eye.
Humans weren’t allowed to know of supernaturals, so why the hell was he here?
He wore a business suit and smoked a cigar while two scantily clad she-wolves hung onto him. Surely, they were releasing their musk to tempt the poor bastard so they could steal his wallet.
Then I saw it, a small bag of black powder with sparkles of gold inside.
Fae Dust.
Fae dust, in small amounts, could get supernaturals a high they couldn’t get from human drugs.
The she-wolf pulled it out of her pocket, sliding it into the human’s hand. He passed over some cash, not so subtle, I might add, and pushed it in her bra, letting his hand linger there.
Locke’s eyebrow raised at my inattentiveness, not seeing the spectacle I’d just witnessed. I shook my head, following him through the crowd.
That was something we would have to deal with later.
Finding the stairs, far away from the enormous party, five of us climbed the wooden planks to nowhere. The darkness enveloped us as we trudged upward. Our sight had declined considerably since we had lost our animals, but it was just enough to see ahead of us.
The hallway was not guarded. It was too easy to get up here. We would have to work fast.
Locke reached for the first door, hoping to find a prisoner of some sort until an alarm sounded with just his touch. Red lights that lined the hall lit up brightly, and the music on the main floor stopped.
