Question Him

The guard’s grip on me slackened as the scene on stage turned to the horribly trivial auctioning of a young girl. This gave me the opportunity to shake his hand off my mouth and speak when the bastard in the ridiculous robes and stupid hat approached.

“Why?!”

Apparently willing to answer my question, the wizard approached and, seeing this, the guard didn’t cover my mouth again.

With a sigh, the wizard responded, “I already told you why; I’m here in search of my quarry. If I have to help some human slavers turn some poor nascent into fetish-bait, then it’s a price I have to pay.”

“A nascent, like me. What was she, some kind of werecat or something?”

“More or less. I was hired to ensure that her transformation only affected specific features, hence the tail, ears, and eyes.”

“Are you just going to leave her like that? Will she ever change back?”

“Yes and I think you know the answer to the second, after the Carolina Incident. Still, her mind is intact, or at least I didn’t damage it any further than these slavers have.”

“And that makes it okay?”

“I’m not concerned with that.”

“You’re a real bastard, you know that?”

“No, my mother and father were always faithful to each other and there was no chance of infidelity.”

“Fine. You’re a sack of shit.”

“That… is at least closer to being true. Now, if you’re done shouting insults, I’m going to tell you something that may be useful or it may be too late. Either way, don’t let what comes next cause you to forget it.

“The man bidding from the first box is Marco Espinosa-Durán. He’s a replacement for another man who was killed on his way to tonight’s event and I don’t have any useful information on him.

“The man bidding from the second box is Fabián Garza. He’s a playboy and a shameless cad. He and his merry band of gigolos are probably looking for sexy and decadent acquisitions.

“The man in the third box is dangerous, for a human. His name is Julio Rosales and he’s a killer, plain and simple. The men with him are also killers, but few can match the efficiency that he gained during his military career. Needless to say, they’re pleased with sex appeal, especially when it’s mixed with ****.

“The man in the fourth box is Esteban Valdez, also a killer, but prefers to fool himself into believing he’s a man of the people. His little band of thugs want to reform Mexico ‘for the people’, which really just means he’s an aspiring oligarch.

“Finally, you have the man calling himself ‘Heraldo de la Noche’. Like the others, he’s here bidding on behalf of an organization. He’s looking for chattel and anyone his master may find interesting. Though he’s the least prone to **** someone for fun, he represents the greatest threat to you, personally.”

As he finished his info dump that I struggled to fully process, I asked the one question that really mattered to me, “Have you seen my sister? Do you know what happened to her?”

“I have only watched your group. I don’t know about any previous auctions. And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry, for the loss of your sister and for yourself.”

“Vendido por cuatrocientos setenta y cinco mil,” a voice called out from the stage and I watched them carry Garotinha’s limp form off the other side.