But none of this was the shocking part.
On the far right, away from the bright lights and the bleachers, about ten different shifters crouched in cages, all in human form. Their colorful shifter eyes were tinged with red, and ropes of drool hung from their snarling mouths, making them look crazed. Anger sizzled in my gut at the sight of shackles gleaming at their wrists, and as I looked closer I could see glowing runes inscribed into the metal Those shackles must be keeping them from shifting – their beasts were all so close to the surface that I couldn’t see any other reason why they wouldn’t already be in animal form. The shackles looked similar to the ones that had been placed on me to prevent me from using my magic after I was arrested, and my stomach roiled in remembered anguish.
Annia squeezed my hand, hard, and it took me a second to realize that I’d been growling. Snapping my mouth shut, I turned my head away from the horrible sight and continued to follow our host. He led us to the bleachers on the far side of the room, closest to the shifter cages, and gestured for us to go sit on the second row.
“Those are your seats,” he said. “Get settled in – we’re about to start.”
“Thank you,” Annia said, and the human left us. We clambered up the bleachers, squeezing past the humans already seated and earning ourselves numerous glares as we bumped a few elbows. But I didn’t care – these humans were complicit in helping some sick bastard profit off the misery of the shifters in those cages.
“Why do you think their eyes are red?” Annia murmured as she settled herself in between me and Lakin. Her dark eyes scanned the room casually, and I knew she was checking for threats and escape routes. There didn’t really seem to be any way out of this place aside from the staircase we’d entered through, but I wondered if maybe there was a hidden door we were missing. It seemed like it would be too difficult for them to transport all the shifters down through that stairwell, and I doubted they kept the shifters here when the fights weren’t taking place.
“They’ll be drugged to the max,” Lakin muttered tightly, keeping his eyes fixed on the stage. I had a feeling he was ignoring the shifters on purpose to try and keep his emotions in check. “All the addicts I’ve taken in recently had bloodshot eyes like that.”
“Right.” An image flashed in my mind of a crazed rhino shifter charging me, blood flowing from his flared nostrils, and I shuddered a little. That was the day my life had changed forever – the day I’d rushed into a rabbit shifter’s house in Rowanville to try and save her babies from a rampaging rhino shifter who’d decided to attack her family for no good reason. I’d ended up incinerating him with a magical blast to stop him from killing me, but before that had happened I’d gotten a good look at his eyes, and they’d been bloodshot too. We couldn’t be sure since I’d turned him into a pile of ash, but I was pretty certain he’d been on the shifter drugs too.
“Shit!” Annia cursed under her breath, nudging me. “We’ve got company. Brin and Nila are here.”
I stiffened at the names of the two human Enforcers who’d been assigned to Roanas’s case, and who’d done absolutely nothing to solve it. Not only had those two assholes arrested me when they’d found out I had magic, they’d also stolen my crescent knives and chakrams and sold them off. If the Chief Mage hadn’t tracked my weapons down, I would never have gotten them back.
Following Annia’s gaze, I saw Brin, a tall, muscular man with bronze hair and good looks, and Nila, a petite blonde with huge boobs that probably netted her more bounties than her actual fighting skills. They were scanning the crowd with watchful eyes, and my heartbeat ratcheted up as I realized what would happen if they saw Annia.
“Do something!” she hissed in my ear. “Give me a disguise, like you did with Lakin.”
"Okay." I scooted myself closer to Annia and snuggled in, nuzzling her neck with my nose. The smelled of patchouli and soap teased my nostrils as I reached for my magic and murmured the Words of the illusion spell. I couldn’t change Annia’s appearance completely, not in the middle of a crowd like this, so I focused on the little things, making her a little shorter, a little thicker in the waist and thighs, and dulling her features so that they weren’t so attractive. For good measure, I gave her a slightly bulbous nose and pudgy cheeks.
“What exactly did you do to me?”
“I just made you look like your older, unattractive sister. If you had one, that is.”
“Great.”
“Just pretend to be from out of town somewhere if you talk to them.”
“They’ve got to be paid off somehow,” Annia murmured as she turned her face to bury it in my hair. “I’m sure they’re not just here for fun, judging by the way they’re surveying the room. They’re making sure no one’s here who isn’t supposed to be.”