“And I’m just supposed to go with it,” Emma said dryly, thinking of the possibilities. She hadn’t sensed any foul play, but she wasn’t going to be trusting just like that.
“Well, you’re the one looking to find someone. If you’re scared, I’ll go first, and if you don’t want to follow, help me pull the box back over the hole when you leave,” the man finished and dropped into the hole.
For a demon, he was quite ballsy. Emma took a breath and jumped in. She kept her hands to her body and looked straight down, looking at the light on the other end of the hole. She landed feet first, looking around at the hazy room. It was filled with smoke, as though something was burning.
“What the hell?” Emma said to herself, looking around for Caleb. As she took a step forward, she realized that it wasn’t just smoke. It was sleeping gas. She saw the man standing at the far end of the room with a gas mask on his face, his eyes squinting as he stared at her. Emma began walking toward him, but a moment later, she dropped to ground.
***
The sounds were the first thing to come back. They started small and piercing, resulting in a powerful headache that shook her entire skull. Emma shook her head slowly as she tried to wave off the effects of the gas. As she opened her eyes, the lights quickly blinded her, causing her to look away. She took in a breath, picking up on the smells.
Paranormals, a lot of them.
Emma quickly realized that she was hanging upside down, and her entire body had been restrained. She squinted through the lights and realized she was on some sort of stage, with over fifty people in front of her. She couldn’t tell who was who, but there were all kinds of creatures there. Dragons, Werewolves, Wendigos, Kitsunes, Demons and more. Even a few humans were in the mix.
“Well well, look who decided to join us,” Caleb said from beside her, sitting at a small table.
“What the hell is this?” Emma growled, trying to break free. She felt the ropes dig into her flesh, pushing against her wrists and legs as she tried to break free.
“Oh come on, love. You think I’d use just any ropes?” Caleb chuckled, pulling on the ropes to bring her close to his face. “Enchanted.”
“Untie me, and I’ll let you live.”
Some of the men and women in the crowd laughed as they heard what she said, causing Caleb to chuckle even louder. He swung her back, looking around at everyone with his hands spread open. “Now I know you all heard her. She’s going to let me live! What do you say, should I untie her?”
“Yeah! If ye can take her in a fight and keep yer wits about ya!” someone yelled from the crowd as they jeered.
“Sadly, I’m just a lowly salesman, and I can’t take on such a powerful creature like this all on my own. But, I can make her become someone else’s problem!” Caleb cheered. “I give you a perfect Werewolf, for sale!”
Emma swore under her breath as she got a better look at the place. It was some sort of bar, with a long table at the far end, and several doorways that seemed to lead out to someplace. If she could get out of the ropes, she could make it to a doorway and get away from the place. It would take her a second to rip Caleb’s throat out first.
“We’ll start the bidding at a hundred thousand,” Caleb said, smiling with the slick grin of an underhanded businessman.
“I’ll take her!” someone yelled, raising a hand.
Emma growled. She was literally being auctioned off, and she had only been there for a few minutes. She hadn’t even gotten around to finding the person she had come all the way to Orin to find. She had to get out of there. “Hey, I’ll double your price if you let me go.”
Caleb’s eyes grew wider as he turned to her. “Wow! You hear that? She wants to buy her own freedom! She’s doubling the price! Do I hear four hundred?”
“Oh, fuck you!” Emma yelled, pulling at the restraints.
As she struggled, someone walked out from the crowd, making his way to the platform. He was a large man, over six feet tall, with a broad muscular body. His arms were covered in scars, and he had lost an eye. He reached out and grabbed Emma’s hair, yanking her toward him.
“Get your hands off me,” Emma growled as he pulled her closer. With a single sniff, she could tell what he was. A Wyvern.
He was similar to a Dragon, save for the ability to breathe fire or do a lot of flying. Wyverns were known to be extremely bloodthirsty and even cannibalistic. Emma had never faced one in her life, but she had seen them in action. They were absolute brutes that did not care about what stood in their way. They plowed right through it to get what they wanted.
“I’ll give you five hundred for the Werewolf,” the Wyvern said in a deep voice. The man spoke plainly, but it sounded like a resonating growl. He acted as though she wasn’t a person, and wasn’t even there.
“Five hundred grand!” Caleb yelled excitedly, barely able to contain himself. “Do we have anyone looking to doub—”
The Wyvern reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close to his face. Emma could smell the blood on the breath of the Wyvern. He looked Caleb in the eyes, ensuring he would get his point across. “That’s your final offer, you irrelevant scum.”
Chapter 2 - Hunt
Hunt listened to the sounds of bar around him, hearing them banter over the price of the Werewolf. He turned for a moment to look at the woman put on display, and without a second thought, he turned back to his drink. The golden-brown liquid swirled in the glass cup as he stared at it, channeling magic through his fingers into the liquid and causing the single ice cube in the bottom of the glass to swirl.
“You never do anything fun,” came the voice of a woman who walked up to him from behind, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You want to have some fun?”