Most of the people attending the auction were supernatural. When they heard Jacob's command to kill them all, they immediately rose to their feet. Glowing eyes of various hues—red, yellow, white, blue—fixed on Jacob on the stage, while others watched Cogman and the girls with predatory vigilance.
A man near the back stood, holding his hands up. "I don't know what grudge you have with the auction house, but I want no part of it. I'm leaving."
Jacob simply stomped his foot. With a deafening rumble, thick walls of solid earth erupted from the floor, slamming shut over every exit and sealing the room like a tomb. "Sorry, buddy." Jacob said, his voice echoing in the sudden silence. "None of you are leaving here alive."
The wizard and two witches near the stage didn't say anything, they looked at each other and with a nod, they stood as one. Their hands were already weaving intricate patterns in the air, lips moving in a guttural chant. But Jacob didn't give them a chance to finish their spells. He coated his entire body with lightning, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from the stage and reappeared amidst them. A silver blur—Shusui, his katana, coated with lightning—cut through the air once, twice, three times. The spells died on their lips as three heads tumbled to the floor, their bodies slumping a moment later. The smell of ozone, blood, and burnt flesh filled the air.
The man in gothic clothes, realizing Jacob was the greater threat, made a calculated decision. He became a blur of motion, his speed carrying him not toward Jacob, but straight for Lydia, the seemingly vulnerable one. But Lydia, who was paying close attention and focusing so she wouldn't be a burden to Jacob and Allison, was ready. She raised a hand, and a shimmering, semi-transparent energy shield materialized around her an instant before impact.
The man slammed face-first into the energy barrier with a sickening crunch. The sound of his nose shattering was audible as the rebound sent him flying backward through the air, disoriented and stunned.
Before his body could hit the ground, Jacob was there. He met him mid-air, Shusui held in a two-handed grip. The blade fell in a vertical arc, cleaving the man cleanly from head to crotch. The two halves of the man landed with a wet thud, but to Jacob's mild interest, they continued to writhe.
Jacob looked down at the twitching halves, noting the dark veins around the man's eyes and his sharp fangs. "A vampire, huh?"
He took a bank card from the vampire and said. "Let's see if you can survive this." He waved a hand dismissively, and a torrent of fire erupted from his palm, engulfing the two halves and incinerating the vampire, leaving only a pile of ash that scattered across the floor.
There were still thirty people in the room, excluding the four Jacob had decided not to kill. Ten of them were normal human hunters, now desperately looking for cover.
"Walter, Jeanne." Jacob commanded, his voice cutting through the panic. "Make quick work of them."
The room erupted into chaos.
Cogman moved with mechanical precision. He approached a table where two wendigos were beginning their transformation, their mouths filled with sharp, jagged yellow teeth, their eyes glowing white as they hissed at him.
Cogman sighed and said. "I wish I had more time to play with you, but unfortunately, I don't." His hands shot out with impossible speed, fingers like steel talons. There was a wet, tearing sound as he plunged his hands into their chests and ripped out their still-beating hearts, crushing them in his fists before the creatures could even scream.
Allison, her eyes glowing a fierce green, raised her hands. Dozens of razor-sharp arrows made of condensed wind materialized in the air around her. With a flick of her wrists, they shot forward with a sound like a hundred arrows being loosed at once. The group of unarmed hunters, caught in the open, had no defense. The wind arrows pierced their bodies with brutal efficiency, dropping them to the floor in puddles of blood and ending their lives.
Lydia felt a wave of nausea, her stomach churning at the violence. But then she remembered the terrified Veela, the helpless caged women, the caged teenage werejaguar twins, and the jars of preserved organs. Her resolve hardened. She took a deep, steadying breath and stepped into the fray.
She walked purposefully toward a beta werewolf with glowing blue eyes who was charging her with a snarl. She didn't flinch. Opening her mouth, she released a concussive wave of sound that hit him like a physical battering ram, lifting him off his feet and sending him crashing into the far wall. Before he could shake off the daze and rise, she was upon him. She focused, and this time, released a tightly controlled, high-pitched frequency directly at his head. The werewolf clutched his ears, a scream dying in his throat as blood began to trickle from his eyes, nose, and ears. His skull vibrated violently until, with a final, sickening pop, it exploded, painting the wall behind him. Lydia turned away, swallowing hard, but steadied herself and moved toward her next opponent.
Jacob was a whirlwind of destruction. He moved through the remaining shapeshifters, a blur of elemental fury. He burned one in a pillar of fire, electrocuted another until he convulsed into a charred husk, and impaled a third on a spike of rock that erupted from the floor. Then he cut seven other shifters to pieces with his katana.
Allison, having cleared the hunters, engaged three more shapeshifters. She dodged a claw swipe and retaliated with a scything blade of wind that cut one in half at the waist. She peppered another with wind arrows, and with a final, sharp gesture, summoned a vortex that lifted the third and slammed him into the ceiling with bone-shattering force before cutting him in half with a wind slash.
Cogman, meanwhile, finished his gruesome work. His forearms shifted, revealing the muzzles of integrated laser guns. With four precise, humming bursts of blue light, he drilled neat, smoldering holes through the heads of the final four targets. They dropped to the floor before they even knew what hit them.
Jacob collected his military knife from the stage and put it away in his pocket dimension, then turned his attention to the couple with the wolf masks, who shrank back as he approached.
"Tell me why you're here." His tone was flat and final, a demand, not a question. "You didn't bid on anything, and I could smell your anger and anxiety the moment I entered this room."
The man stepped forward, placing his body as a shield in front of the woman. "We're werewolves from a small town near Phoenix." He confessed, his voice strained. "We're here for our daughter. She was kidnapped, and all the leads pointed to this place."
"Let me read your memories." Jacob stated flatly. "I will only confirm the truth of what you just said. I won't pry into anything else."
The man hesitated for a heartbeat, then gave a stiff nod. Jacob's claws extended and gently pressed against the back of the man's neck. A flood of images and emotions washed over him—a girl's laughter, a frantic search, a desperate, aching hope. He withdrew his claws.
"You're telling the truth." Jacob said. "You have nothing to fear from us. We came here to destroy this place. And your daughter is here, in the basement. She was scheduled to be sold next week. I saw her in the auctioneer's memories."
The woman let out a choked sob, her hands flying to her mouth. "Really? Is she safe?"
"She's in a cage, but she appears unharmed." Jacob reassured her.
"Thank you." The woman whispered, tears streaming down her face. She gripped her husband's arm. "George, let's go! We have to save our baby girl!"
"Wait." Jacob commanded, holding up a hand. "There are people outside the walls I made. They're trying to get in. If I weren't constantly reinforcing the walls with my magic, they'd already be inside. They're probably armed with all kinds of weapons, including wolfsbane."
The woman's face fell. "Then what should we do?"
"Wait until Walter collects all the bank cards." Jacob instructed. "Then we'll deal with the threat outside and help you rescue your daughter."
His gaze then shifted to the other couple, who were huddled together. "And you? I assume you're cops."
The man, still visibly shaking, managed to find his voice. "We're FBI agents. We were following a human trafficking case. We caught a suspect with an invitation to this place and came to investigate."
Jacob smirked. "By your scent, I can tell you found more than you were looking for, huh?"
"Our scent?" The female agent asked, bewildered.
"You reek of fear and anxiety." Jacob clarified. "I'm assuming you had no idea the supernatural was real."
The man gave a shaky nod. "Yeah. We had no clue we were walking into a... a freak show."
"Welcome to the real world." Jacob said dryly.
Just then, Cogman returned, holding a stack of bank cards. He handed them to Jacob. "Sir, please keep these safe until we return. I'm afraid I might lose them in the upcoming fight."
Jacob took the cards and stored them in his pocket dimension. "Alright." He said, his voice taking on a commander's tone. "Jeanne, Arial, and Walter, you three will head to the basement and rescue the prisoners."
"What about you?" Allison asked, her concern evident.
"I'm going upstairs to deal with the rest of the people in this building." Jacob stated, his gaze turning toward the ceiling as if he could see through the floors. "This place is just a branch. The organization behind it holds auctions in many other states. The ones in charge here are a man and two women. I don't know what they are, only that the werebear was terrified of them, according to the auctioneer's memories."
"Then be careful." Lydia said.
"You guys too." Jacob said. "Because one of the women is guarding the basement. Let me show you." He closed his eyes, and a moment later, the memories of the auctioneer flooded into the minds of Allison and Lydia.
They saw it all: the sterile, blood-stained concrete of the basement, the cold iron bars of overcrowded cages, the hollow eyes of captives waiting to be sold like livestock or dismembered for parts. They saw children of all ages huddled in fear, and they witnessed, through the auctioneer's cold gaze, the brutal butchering of supernatural beings that had been going on for years.
A wave of pure, incandescent rage washed over Allison and Lydia.
Allison's hands clenched into fists, her knuckles white. "Ja... Jack." she corrected herself, her voice trembling with fury. "We have to destroy this place."
Jacob gave a grim, single nod. "You guys just deal with that woman in the basement as quickly as possible. Rescue the people in the cages, then get them out. I will burn this place to its foundations."
"Alright." Allison nodded.
Jacob then turned to the two FBI agents. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
The male agent straightened his shoulders, a flicker of professional duty overcoming his fear. "We'll help."
"You can't help." Jacob said bluntly. "But you can go with them to the basement. Try not to get in the way. But first, let's go to the backstage and release the people who were brought up here to be sold tonight."
With that, they moved to the backstage area, sealed by one of Jacob's earth walls. Upon entering, they found six nervous employees there. Cogman didn't give them a chance to say a word. He moved through them like a phantom, his movements a blur of lethal precision. There were brief, choked cries and the sickening sound of snapping bones, and then silence.
They then proceeded to unlock the cages that were made of iron mixed with mountain ash. The first to emerge was the beautiful Veela, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and desperate hope. She was followed by six other women—four shapeshifters of various kinds and two normal humans—and the two teenage werejaguar twins.
Then they helped them open their chains and the shocking collars around their necks.
As the prisoners were freed, the air in the room changed. Relief was quickly overshadowed by a smoldering, collective rage. They had been treated as objects, and now they wanted vengeance.
One of the shapeshifters, a woman with sharp features and a predator's grace, stepped forward. "Can I join you?" She asked Jacob, her voice a low growl. "I want to help you fight the monsters who run this place."
Jacob looked over the group, seeing the same fiery resolve in every pair of eyes, even the two normal women who stood tall despite their fear. "Sure." He said. "Anyone who wants to fight can go to the basement with Jeanne's group. Help them kill the guards while they deal with the woman guarding the basement."
Without another word, the newly freed victims formed a grim, determined procession behind Allison and Lydia.
Before leaving, Jacob collected the artifacts from the auction. He stored the dagger that never lost its edge in his pocket dimension. Then he picked up the mirror that showed a person's greatest fear. Against his better judgment, he looked into it. The glass swirled, and a horrifyingly vivid image formed: Allison and Lydia, lying broken and lifeless in a pool of blood. A cold dread gripped his heart.
He cursed under his breath and, without a second thought, unleashed a jet of fire from his palm, reducing the evil mirror to a pile of molten slag and ash.
Lydia, seeing his reaction, asked. "What did you see?"
Jacob shook his head, his face pale. "I shouldn't have looked into the stupid evil thing, and I'm not telling you what I saw. It was a nightmare."
He turned sharply toward the main exit, where his earth wall still stood. "Alright, let's go."
They gathered before the solid wall of rock. "Listen up." Jacob announced. "After I open this door, Walter and I will come out first to eliminate the hostiles waiting outside. The rest of you, be careful not to get shot. They're likely armed with all kinds of firearms, flashbangs, and wolfsbane grenades."
With a gesture, the earth wall dissolved into dust. Immediately, a hailstorm of gunfire erupted from the hallway, accompanied by tear gas grenades and blinding flashbangs.
Jacob simply waved a hand, and a massive fire snake erupted from his palm. It surged forward, its maw wide open, swallowing the tear gas grenades and flashbangs, and continued its advance, forcing the panicked guards to scatter and dive for cover.
In that moment of chaos, Jacob and Cogman became blurs of motion, streaking out of the auction room and into the hallway. The hunt was on. The twenty guards, trained and well-armed, were utterly outmatched. They were hunted down in the corridors, cut down by Jacob's katana or having their hearts ripped out by Cogman. None survived.
---
On the sixth floor, in an office, a strikingly beautiful woman named Elena sat stroking a massive albino python coiled around her shoulders. A faint frown marred her perfect features as she picked up a radio.
"John, report. Did you find out what is happening in the auction room yet?"
From the surveillance room on the fourth floor, a frantic voice replied. "No, ma'am! Someone has completely taken over the building's security system! The cameras are down, the elevators are locked, and I can't even open the damn door to get out of the surveillance room! It's sealed shut! But I sent Carl and nineteen guards to check the first floor."
Elena's voice turned to ice. "You will regain control of the building's security system, John, or you will not live to see the morning."
She didn't wait for a reply, cutting the channel and switching to Carl's frequency. "Carl, report. What is the situation?"
Instead of Carl's voice, a distorted, manic laugh echoed from the radio—a sound that was pure chaos. "Ahahahah... oh, eh, ah, ahaaa, eheheheheheheh... wohahahaha!"
Elena shot up from her chair, the python hissing in agitation. "You are not Carl. Who are you?"
The voice replied with chilling glee. "I'm the monster that monsters like you fear... and I'm coming for you, bitch. Ahahahahaha!"
The radio call ended, leaving only static and the echo of Jacob's maniacal laughter.
Elena bit her perfectly manicured nail, a sign of anxiety. She quickly took her phone and made a call.
A deep, calm male voice answered. "Elena? What's going on?"
"Dimitri, get back here, now!" She hissed. "We're under attack by someone extremely dangerous. He's already killed twenty of our guards and probably everyone in the auction room. You know what that means—most of the participants were powerful shapeshifters, and there was a vampire, a wizard, and two witches there tonight."
There was a brief pause on the other end before Dimitri responded, his voice now sharp and serious. "Alright, love. I'm on my way."
To be continued... 😊