Her slender eyebrows arched. “Then why are you here?”
“To fight. I didn’t realize prostitution was part of the deal.”
“That’s absurd. I would never allow my clients to get that close to my best fighters. They could tamper with the product.”
I folded my arms. “Tamper?”
“Bribe. Ask them to make things happen in the fight that would yield that individual more money in the betting pool. I don’t play those games. If I catch you or anyone having relations with my clients, you’ll have a memory wipe as a parting gift and a one-way trip to Lithuania. All private interactions are supervised. They’re not interested in dim-witted women who ask inane questions. The more refined you are, which is in opposition to what they see in the ring, the more intriguing you are, and the more they’ll pay for a private introduction. This is not an uncommon practice.”
“So they’re not afraid I might expose their identity?”
Audrey tilted her head to the side. “Exposing their identity would mean exposing our operation. You wouldn’t be foolish enough to do that, would you?”
“No, but someone else might. What assurances do they have?”
Audrey branched away and neared the wall. “If you ever receive such an offer, I’ll make you aware of the repercussions.”
“These are pretty gruesome weapons,” I said, scanning the room. “Doesn’t seem like the fight would last long. Most people surrender when there’s an axe against their neck.”
“You’d be surprised how long a fight will last when your life is at stake.”
I blinked. “Are you talking about death matches?”
She held a long chain between her fingers before letting it clink against the wall. “You’re a bright woman. Surely you considered this as a possibility.”
“Most of these weapons wouldn’t finish the job. The axe is small and would take too many strikes to sever a Mage’s head.”
What really got me thinking was how none of the victims were beheaded. In fact, none of them were reported to have the type of grisly wounds that these weapons would cause.
She gave me a look of reproach. “Perhaps you’re not as bright as I thought.”
I dropped my bag and stared at the chopping block. “This isn’t a Mage fight, is it?”
“The topside matches are simple to arrange. The worst the higher authority can do is lock me away for life, but I have more money than you can imagine and plenty of inside contacts to keep me safe. Keepingmesafe keepsthemsafe.” Audrey glided along the surrounding walls. “But there are ancients who hunger for more than a fight. They want to see pure domination. They want to witness one Breed rule over another, and that Breed is you, Robin. Shifters once played a crucial role in our rise to power. They worked the fields in both human and animal form, they drove and pulled carriages, they acted as bodyguards, and they contributed to an immortal’s fortune. Eventually, they rose up. As bodies of law were created, one country after another capitulated. It was even worse here in North America. The higher authority purchased so much land in the early days, and when Shifters were emancipated, they were given a larger share and first choice. They still are. And their behavior is so entitled. Despite the plastic smiles you see topside, animosity lives beneath the surface. As a Sensor, I can feel it. We all can.”
“You don’t think they deserve a little more for what they’ve been through? We’re not talking about ancestors. Most of the Shifters who were slaves are still alive. They lost their freedom to make their masters rich.”
“We’re giving privileges to animals.” Audrey paused near a torch. The flames rivaled her hair color. “If you have compassion for them, this will not work out in your favor. I would hate to lose another.”
I folded my arms. “So I’ll be fighting Shifters?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. Shifters andonlyShifters.”
“You know as well as I do that a Mage can knock a Shifter out with a blast, and it wouldn’t take long to finish the job. They’re tough, but it would take a large animal or a couple of wolves to make it a fair fight. Especially with all these weapons conveniently hanging on the walls that they wouldn’t be able to use in animal form.”
“Precisely.”
In the quiet of the room, all I heard was the crackling fire from the torches. I ruminated over the facts and concluded that people were paying to watch only one outcome, and that was for a Shifter to die. Maybe they took bets on how long it would last or which weapon would do it. The people most likely to watch these fights would be ancients, ones with pockets deeper than this ring. Maybe some of them had once owned Shifters and were bitter about their circumstance.
“What happens if a Mage loses and can’t fight anymore?” I asked, thinking how the dead women weren’t Shifters.
“Nowthat’sa smart question.” When she resumed walking along the wall, I turned to watch her. “Rumor has it you’re a serious fighter, one who isn’t a stranger to death. Only one fighter will walk away from the matches down here. Some of the animals won’t kill women, so they leave their maimed bodies on the floor. When a Mage is dominated, we stop the fight. We don’t like disappointing our clients, so that Mage will never fight here again.”
“When the Shifter doesn’t kill them and you can’t use them anymore, do you scrub their memories?”
“Believe it or not, scrubbing memories isn’t guaranteed. People have gone on to remember fragments of their life, and I can’t afford to have anyone remembering my face or anything that could compromise my business. We have no choice but to put them down.”
A cold chill swept over me. “How do you do that?” I asked, staring at the chopping block.
