tell. There’s so much magic pumping in here, Kaazu won’t suspect a thing, and you’ll have more than enough money to get far away from these vamps,” I tell him easily. “Do you have enough juice?”
He flexes his fingers where they hang at his sides. “Definitely.”
“Good.”
Uproarious applause marks the end of the performance, and my eyes rush over to the stage where Master Kaazu is now walking to the center, while Jetta and the others stand behind him, their skin glistening with a thin layer of perspiration. Kaazu raises his hands to quiet the praise, his dark eyes glittering with satisfaction as he looks over the crowd.
Black hair slicked back like always, he doesn’t have a single strand out of place. He’s wearing one of his signature colored suits, of course, this one made of deep burgundy that shimmers at the lapel and collar. Every inch of him is put together with meticulous purpose.
He’s the ringleader of the circus, the host of our macabre show. He built this barbaric demonstration and somehow made it into a thing of beauty that makes him filthy rich.
With a burnished skin tone and a body that exudes pride and charisma, he’s a showstopper in his own right, especially with his black beard cut to look like thorny vines curled around his jaw.
“Wonderful, aren’t they?” he calls out, his lips curving up as he taps the decorative cane that he’s holding on the wooden floor. “Now it’s time for the finale.” That word creates a buzz in the room. A hundred vampires lean forward, ready for blood to be spilled.
I just hope it’s not Jetta’s.
2
Heathcliff
It’s time. Now or never. And if this goes badly...then my life, this kid’s life, and maybe even Jetta’s life, will be forfeit. But I have to try. I can’t back out.
“Now,” I tell the kid, pushing him between the shoulders. “While he’s distracted.”
With a terse nod, the kid disappears behind the curtain.
I set up this part of the backstage, so I know for a fact that there’s a small space between a wooden lean-to behind the curtain, cutting off the rest of the back area. Just enough space for a skinny conjurer to stand at the edge of the stage.
Master Kaazu completes his spiel, and the hypnotizing bell rings out—the mark of the start of the fight. Four females and two males in full costume launch themselves at each other the second the bell dings. The crowd explodes, changing in a heartbeat from silent spectators to a shouting mob.
Kaazu stands on the other side of the stage in front of the audience, where he accepts what he calls his under the wire wager. For the first sixty seconds of the fight, he allows one last chance to place a bet.
It gives people a chance to see everyone in action first...but it’ll cost them double the stakes.
Fifty more seconds. That’s all we have.
Jetta takes a hit from one of the others, her head snapping to the side even while she simultaneously sends a kick into the male who was coming up on her flank. It’s a free for all, the only winner is the last person standing.
When a different shifter knocks her fist into the trapeze female with the sweetened blood, the shouting intensifies. With her free-flowing blood now in the air and dripping down her split lip, the intensity in the room nearly makes me see double.
We have thirty seconds at best until Kaazu closes the bets for good, and his sole attention will once more be on the fight. My fingers are curled into such tight fists that I can’t even feel them anymore.
My eyes dart to the left, where I know the conjurer is waiting for his chance, but Jetta is on the opposite side of the stage.
Sweat beads down my brow, but I don’t dare wipe it away. There’s no time, and I can’t miss a single blink.
Jetta is taking on two shifters, and one of them, the female wolf, is about to shift, the telltale eruption of fur snaking down her arms.
If she shifts, it’ll take all of Jetta’s attention to fight her off, and she’ll be occupied on the wrong side of the stage. Jetta isn’t allowed to shift on stage. Her only defense is the body she’s in now.
Twenty seconds.
The last-minute bets are swarming in like locusts on a field, so many vampires standing around Kaazu that I can’t even see my troupe master past the throng.