He’d learned a long time ago that confidence could get you almost anywhere.He and Braith walked like they had every right to be heading toward that door.The guard who was still watching their approach frowned and opened his mouth, but Braith cut him off.
“We’re here for the kids,” Braith said smoothly.
The guard’s frown deepened, but he hesitated.Archie took advantage of that and pushed past him, hand already on the door handle.The guard grabbed his arm, but Braith was there, his hand clamping down on the guard’s wrist with enough pressure to make the man hiss.
“We’re going in,” Braith said quietly, something dangerous hinting through his voice.“You can let us in, or we can make this difficult.”
The second guard reached for something at his belt, but the crowd moved, and someone stumbled into the guard hard enough to knock him off balance.By the time he’d steadied himself, Archie and Braith were through the door, slamming it shut behind them.
The contrast between the two rooms was jarring.The main warehouse was all concrete and rust and barely controlled chaos, but this space had been transformed.The floor was covered in thick, red carpet.The walls were draped with dark fabric that hid the concrete and absorbed sound, making the crowd outside feel muffled and distant, even though it was on the other side of the door.Leather chairs and small tables were scattered around, and a bar ran along one wall, fully stocked with top-shelf liquor that probably cost more than Archie made in a month.
But it was the area at the far end that made Archie’s blood run cold.
It overlooked a smaller fighting ring, separate from the main one.And the people gathered there—maybe fifteen or twenty of them, all dressed in expensive clothes—were watching something that made the fights outside look like child’s play.
Archie and Braith moved closer, keeping low behind a cluster of empty chairs.In the ring, three kids were fighting against each other.One had a short blade, another held a length of chain, but the third had nothing but his fists and a set of horns that looked newly grown.They were all covered in bruises and cuts.The girl with the chain was limping.The boy with the knife had blood running down his face from a long cut above his eye.The third was Finn.
He looked smaller than he did in the photo his parents had given Archie and Braith.His shirt was torn, revealing purple-black bruises, and his left arm hung at his side, but he was still fighting.
“Finn,” Archie breathed.
One of the adults surrounding the ring—probably guards making sure that the kids did what they were supposed to do—backhanded the girl with the chain when she stepped back instead of forward.She went down hard and didn’t get up.The people watching the fight barely reacted.A few sipped their drinks.One woman laughed.
“We have to do something,” Braith said.
“I know.”Archie’s hands were curling into fists.Rage was building hot and sharp in his chest.“But look at them.”
Braithwaslooking.Like Archie, he saw the guards by the ring, the spectators that were obviously armed, and the number of people separating them from the kids.
“We can’t take them all,” Braith said.The frustration in his voice matched what Archie felt.“Not just the two of us.They’ll kill us, then the kids.”
“I’m calling Jasper.”
Finn suddenly went down.The boy with the blade kicked him in the ribs, and Archie saw Finn’s body curl in on itself.He didn’t get back up.
A few people applauded, but most didn’t react.They were paying to watch this, maybe betting on which one of the kids would win, yet they barely seemed interested.Those kids were killing each other for nothing.
Archie hated it.
* * * *
JASPER AND KERRY HADsplit up when they left the library since Kerry was seeing friends.She’d invited Jasper to go with her, but his headache was getting worse, no doubt because of the dust and the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about Sanctuary.He’d taken pictures of the few articles they’d found on what had happened there around the time Jasper had been born, but he didn’t know if it had anything to do with him.Even if it did, he had no idea how to find out more.The articles hadn’t mentioned a baby.Nothing he and Kerry had found mentioned a baby, found or abandoned.It might just be that they had to look harder, but Jasper wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.Of course, he wanted to find out more about his birth family, but would it be worth it?
He rubbed his forehead as he dug into his pocket for his keys.Corey was at work, which meant Jasper would have the apartment to himself this evening, unless Cullen decided to spend the evening in.He should probably call Archie, but even though he wanted to spend time with his boyfriend, he was in no state to leave the apartment.He was going to take painkillers, drink some water, and go to bed.
He pushed open the front door, stepped in, and closed it behind himself.His senses went on high alert, and his headache was instantly forgotten.The monster sitting on his couch made sure of that.
Jasper wasn’t even surprised that Kester had found his apartment.Hell, he wasn’t surprised to find the monster sitting on the couch.What hewassurprised about was that he wasn’t dead yet, but he probably should be.Kester clearly enjoyed toying with him.
Jasper’s heart raced, but he told himself not to freak out.If Kester wanted to kill him, he’d had plenty of opportunities to do so.Instead, he was sitting there, watching Jasper.There had to be a reason for that.There had to be a reason why Kester was here for Jasper.
“What do you want?”Jasper asked.
Kester smiled.The sight made Jasper want to throw up.“Aren’t you happy to see me?”Kester asked.
“Has anyone ever been happy to see you?”
Kester laughed.Jasper was terrified, and the laughter wasn’t helping.It was especially creepy considering what kind of person Kester was.
