Page 44 of Wolf Trap

I wouldn’t be surprised if Luke Philips was a regular guest with his vampire girlfriend.

Lycaon shot me a grin, shook his head, and rolled his eyes.

Beyond us, further down the hallway, a vase lay shattered on the ground, pictures hung at angles and stools were strewn on their sides in the kitchen.

Something was wrong.

Anthony hollered, “Nathaniel?” Then he rushed forward as Nathaniel staggered into the hallway.

His voice strained, “Nathaniel, what happened, are you alright?”

He didn’t look alright. His face was swollen, his right eye bruised and bloodied. Blood had dried on his face and chest, he held his stomach.

Anthony grabbed Nathaniel and pulled him close, “Mate, what happened? Adara, what the hell?”

Nathaniel yelped, then pushed Anthony away. Putting his hand to his glistening forehead, Nathaniel took a slow deep breath and leaned against the wall, his legs shaking.

Gasping, staring at the floor, Nathaniel whispered urgently, “They must have traced my IP address, I... I found something online. Something... sadistic. Heinous.”

“How, what did you find?” Lycaon’s voice was coarse, but he reached out a hand to place on the vampire’s shoulder.

Nathaniel’s eyes stared at Lycaon’s hand until Lycaon removed it.

Urgently Anthony responded, “Come, sit down. Tell us what happened.”

Lycaon and I rushed ahead and picked up the kitchen stools. I turned around, worry squirming in my stomach as I watched Nathaniel carefully ease himself onto a stool, his hands flat on the table, but his arms, like his legs, quivered.

Swallowing hard, he didn’t look up. His voice was quiet, strained. “I followed a link on the dark web to trace Adara, and after some time picking through the horrors of that web search, I came across a site. It’s called Project Aurora. The site...” his words seemed to catch in his mouth. I sat opposite him, flashing Lycaon a worried stare.

Anthony pulled up a stool, his hand gently resting on Nathaniel’s back. “It’s ok, go on.”

Now Nathaniel looked up. “The site I found is an auction site. They’re selling immortals, and... auctioning off their body parts to the highest bidders. A werewolf’s heart, a vampire’s fangs, or if you’re rich enough, you can pick which vampire you want from their prison. They extract the limbs, or teeth, live on the web.”

He buried his head in his hands as Anthony rubbed his back. Nathaniel shrugged him off. “I watched them do it, I saw them...You can bid on an angel, werewolf, have them drugged and enchanted to do your bidding. And,” he rasped, “in their words, ‘for your own use. Angels, demons, witches.” A look of horror in his eyes as he looked around at us. “They’re all on there. And they have video links to the immortals, videos of them locked in cells. Worse still-”

Lycaon gasped, “Worse, it gets worse?”

“They have a memo on their site for a new service coming. You can shoot the vampire, or whatever you choose, using your mouse, whilst the vampire is in his cell.”

Anthony sunk down on his stool, whispering, “Barbaric. We need to find this place and burn it to the ground. You’re sure it’s Adara?”

Now Nathaniel pulled himself up. “Oh yes. They’re not hiding it, in fact they seem rather pleased about it. The number of bidders on there! Thousands, Anthony. Maybe more. You can watch in real time as the bids increase. And the chat bar,” he shook his head.

I had questions, too, but I didn’t want to add to his stress. Anthony touching Nathaniel’s arm, asked, “How did they get past the VPN? I mean…?”

“I don’t know. But if they managed to find a local IP address, I mean look at us. We live on one of the grandest streets in Bath, and we’re the only vampires on this street. It wouldn’t be difficult I suppose.”

“I want to see this;do you still have the link?” Lycaon tensed, his chest raised, eyes hardened.

Wrinkling his face, Nathaniel shook his head. “What do you think? They smashed everything. Then they beat me. Told me that if I told anyone, specifically, well, if I mixed with you or her, and they no doubt know you’re here. Look, when I heard them pounding on my front door, shouting, I switched off my phone and hid it. My phone didn’t have the GPS app enabled on it anyway, much to Anthony’s disdain. I had already disabled that.”

He took another long breath, his body collapsing before pulling himself up. “You can watch the video on my phone. I recorded it. I’m not sure we should pursue this further. As for you and Elsa, especially you Elsa, you should stay the hell away from Lycaon. If you continue, you might find yourself in their auction.”

Anthony stood up. “Show us the phone, I’m not going to stop. But we need, you need to go somewhere safer, Nathaniel. I will kill them, I’ll slaughter them all!”

Wearily Nathaniel stood up, his voice croaked, “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll take my chances. But you’re a fool, I’d say you’ll die but that would be the least of your worries. All of you will end up in one of their vivisection cells, or auctioned off, piece by piece.”

I held his glance. “Let me heal your face.”

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