Chapter 9

  Next Night

  If ever a man could be called a wolf, this was him. Lord Smith, everyone called him, but he was more like Lord Wolf Man. As soon as she saw him, Yuki started shuddering. She looked down at herself to confirm she wasn't wearing anything red. This guy was the big bad wolf. He had the smile, the grin, and Yuki could feel him tearing into women and their clothes every time he talked them, but for some reason, the other women weren't as scared of him.

  “Because of his magic,” said Lady Mirabelle. “All the other women seem to be under his glamour; they see him as a handsome and charming man. A millionaire in a powerful position. He is very sexually attractive, and I have no doubt many of them will sleep with him tonight. But his glamour won't work on us. You can see him for who he is, a beast in human form. A beast who likes to hunt and kill.

  Though I really do wonder what he is doing here. If tomorrow night is the big human sacrifice, why isn't he preparing? I know it takes two or three days of full-time preparation to carry out that many human sacrifices. Why is he here?”

  They were at the Hilton, the only five-star hotel for 100 miles. Security was tight and there were not only the police providing the outer security but also private guards checking each invitation. Yuki was surprised. She doubted there was anyone important enough in the local town to warrant this sort of security. She had met the local mayor and the local head of the county. They didn't even get a constable as a security and had to drive their own cars.

  Lady Mirabelle had called ahead and she had had invitations within seconds. They were both ushered in through the VIP entrance and taken to the main hall.

  It was extremely brightly lit, and there were tables upon tables with champagne on them. Dozens of men in smart black suits and women in fancy evening gowns were milling about talking to each other. Mirabelle had gotten Yuki a really fashionable evening gown, but Yuki still felt out of place. She was sure Eve would fit right in.

  They both saw him at the same time, even though hundreds of people were talking and it was very loud. They heard him; and they certainly smelled him within seconds.

  He smelled dangerous, like a wild animal that had been sleeping in the rain and had been eating raw meat. He smelled disgusting. He smelled wrong. His teeth were like fangs, and his eyes were red like the blood moon. His hair was well-trimmed, but Yuki could see wild and thick patches of fur growing all over his hand and under his shirt.

  And Lady Mirabelle assured her nobody could see him like that. They just saw a rich and powerful man, and everybody wanted to shake his hand.

  “Let's keep 10-20 feet away from him at all times. His glamour won't work on us, but if he gets close to us, he'll know what we are.”

  Yuki couldn't agree more. “What do we do here? You say we should stay away from him, and besides, there are so many people around him. We won't get a chance to talk to him anyway. So, what are we supposed to do?”

  “Keep an eye on him and search for any clues. If you find a good-looking, rich man you'd like to fuck, feel free to vanish for a few minutes. I won't mind.”

  You keep feeling hot under the collar, and Mirabelle laughed and gave her a champagne. “Relax girl, you're so tense since the moment we walked in. You're like a little sheep screaming: Don't look at me! Don't look at me! Don't eat me!

  You realise every predator in the room is attracted to you, right? It's like you have a glowing red blinking light on your head. There is more than one predator here tonight, and we have to avoid all of them. Let's go to that corner and sit there. We'll keep an eye on our man from there. I doubt he came to this party just to shake hands and laugh with the guests. He's going to have a secret meeting somewhere in the back, and we must be ready to follow him at a second's notice.”

  That agreed more with Yuki, and she realised that Lady Mirabelle was right. She had been really tense and clenching her wrist. Taking two deep breaths, she let her body relax, and they sat in the corner.

  3 hours passed and Yuki was dead tired. She wanted to go to bed and she was really hungry. They had tiny snacks here and far too much alcohol, but nothing proper to eat. She was sure the local restaurants would have closed by now as well, and she had nothing in her home fridge. Her stomach was grumbling. She turned to Lady Mirabelle. “Did we make a mistake? Nothing is happening.”

  “10 more minutes, then we'll call it quits and go home. Let's get up and walk around the place.”

  Within five minutes, the dangerous man, Lord Smith, made his move while everyone was distracted by a speech some local politician was giving. He slipped through the back into an area marked “Employees Only.” Mirabelle and Yuki followed him quickly as a flash.

  The corridor was straight and had only one way to go, so they had no problem following him. He went into a conference room, and Mirabelle pulled Yuki into a small room right next to it. From there, they could hear everything that was going on. And through a small side window also see most of the other room.

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  “You think I'm a fool, don't you? You think you can follow me secretly and get away with it?”

  Yuki froze in terror, but Mirabelle held her arms tight and whispered in her ear, “He's not talking to us. Relax and don't scream or make any noise. There are three other men in the room, and he's talking to them. They must have been following him too.”

  One of the men with a thick Arabic accent spoke next. “You took our money and you ran away! Did you think Al Qaeda would just let you leave so easily? You promised you would get our men into the country. Instead you cut off all contact with us.”

  “I already apologised for that. The local intelligence agency has its eye on me, and I have to keep a low profile. Listen, I'll return your money. Not a big deal. We're still all friends, right?”

  “We are certainly not friends,” said the man with an Arabic accent. “And why do you call yourself Lord Smith? Why take on a white man's name? You are one of us, brother. Why you turn on us?”

  “I am not one of you, brother. I am not even human, you fool.”

  There was a second of silence and Yuki just knew something bad was going to happen.

  “Now!” said the Arabic man and they all jumped on him.

  It's happened so fast Yuki couldn't even make sense of what was going on. One of the men took out a sword and attacked Lord Smith. Another one went at him with a knife, trying to gut his stomach. The third picked up a heavy metal bar and hit Lord Smith repeatedly on the head

  Within seconds they had him down on the floor bleeding all over and they finally beheaded him.

  “Nobody steals from the Al Qaeda and gets away with it, said the leader. “Take his head, we will show it to the others as proof of his death.”

  But even as he said so, the head rejoined the body, and the cuts on his body started healing. Lord Smith got up and laughed. “Is that all you got? My turn now.”

  What happened next was hard to describe. Mirabelle had to put her hand on Yuki's mouth to stop her screaming. Lord Smith opened his mouth wide, and it's impossible to describe it as it didn’t make sense, but Yuki saw him literally eat the three men, swallowing their bodies like a python would swallow a pig. They were too shocked to even resist, and within seconds they were gone. Like they had never existed.

  “See what you did! Now I have to change my clothes.”

  Yuki was still shaking terribly as he left, and as Lady Mirabelle tried to pull her away, she walked into the other room.

  “What are you doing?” hissed Mirabelle very sharply.

  “One of the three men dropped his bag. Maybe we can find clues.”

  The bag just had a few sandwiches, a bottle of water, and a diary. They quickly opened the diary and there were a few addresses in it. One place, a large empty farmhouse outside the city, had been circled in red with a note that said: “This is his home but too well-guarded to break into. We'll have to try to get him at Hilton.”

  “That's it,” said Lady Mirabelle. “That's the clue. We know where his base is. That's where he will carry out the human sacrifices tomorrow. Let's go.”

  They left via the back fire exit, which luckily wasn't alarmed. Both of them literally ran away until they could no longer see the Hilton and had to pause at a small local park to catch their breath.

  After taking a seat on a bench, Yuki turned to Mirabelle. “Why did I get wolf-like vibes from him?”

  Mirabelle replied, “Like the Storyteller told us, there is some sort of old magic going on. Did you notice that almost all the women in that party were wearing red or shades of red? Every single one of them. The few that weren't, couldn't get close to him.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I have no clue. I've never seen magic like this in my life. We'll have to go tomorrow to that base and figure out.”

  “But how will we get in? Those Al Qaeda men said the place was really well guarded.”

  “We will worry about it when we get there.”

  ***

  Mirabel had asked her to go to sleep early because they would be up all night the next day, but Yuki couldn't sleep. She was up at 4 a.m. and spent the next three hours researching this so-called Lord Smith. It seemed he had brought almost 3,000 refugees into the UK in the last two years, and almost 90% of them had been young girls under the age of 16. He had won the United Nations Peace Prize, and the Minister for Equality had personally thanked him and nominated him for an award for special service to the country.

  But here was the thing: none of those girls was seen again. There were no clues where they had been settled, which school they went to, or what had happened to them. It was like they had vanished, which they most certainly had.

  When she mentioned this to Mirabelle and Isabella, Mirabelle was surprised. “If they have that many girls, why are they kidnapping more young girls like Isabella's sister? That doesn't make sense.”

  “To sacrifice even more girls?”

  “That's too many. Kidnapping young girls, especially European girls, is very dangerous. You could make an Afghani girl vanish, but it would be hard to hide a kidnapped European girl. The local police would pay more attention, not to mention the Spanish government might intervene. Why take such risks?”

  They spent the whole day researching, but they found no clues as to what Lord Smith did with the girls, what relationship he had with the other cult if he even had one, and what his big plan was.

  “I am still surprised he showed up at that party. The ritual they are planning to undertake requires 3 days and everyone present must spend their time preparing for the ritual. What does that tell us? Isn't this Lord Smith taking part in the ritual? What is his role in all this?”

  By 4 pm, they were dead tired and couldn't take anymore. Setting an alarm for 10 pm that night, they went to sleep. Mirabelle had arranged for a close friend to lend them their car, and Mirabelle herself was going to drive there with Yuki.

  Isabella, in spite of all her protests, was going to be left behind as they felt it was too dangerous and she was certain to be recognised there. To keep her happy, Mirabelle gave her a job. If they rescued the girls, they would need a place to stay and hide. Isabella was given the task of cleaning and then emptying the shop and finding enough sleeping bags for at least two dozen girls that they hope to rescue that night.

  Mirabelle was convinced the ritual would take place at 2 o'clock in the night, so they would have more than 3 or 4 hours to stop it and rescue the young girls. They had no idea what they would expect, and so they're taking all their magic with them. Yuki had more than two dozen of the most powerful curses she had ever created.

  Mirabelle had given her permission to use them indiscriminately and kill anyone who got in their way. She was sure the cultists were planning to murder millions of people, so there was no need to show them any mercy. They would kill everyone as soon as they got there, rescue the girls, and get the hell out of there.