Page 31 of Hellhound AU

“Well, that was… efficient,” I murmured.

She looked up and smiled at me, which was kind of horrific, what with the blood all over her. She then gestured toward a viewing window that looked down on the factory floor. It was tinted, making me think that people probably couldn’t see in, which was definitely a good thing.

Riley walked around, finally saying, “I think this is the loudspeaker system over here. Makes sense if this used to be a factory. Hopefully they got it up and running for the event.”

“I can’t believe no one heard all that,” I commented.

“A warehouse office probably has good soundproofing to drown out noise from the warehouse below. No one’s come running in yet, so I’m guessing we’re fine.”

I’d just have to hope that Riley was right. I walked toward the window and looked down at the crowd, ready to watch for Rowan’s signal for me to call out over the loudspeaker.

I didn’t see Rowan, but I did see the dogfighting ring. There were two dogs in the ring, and one was attacking the other, but the other one wasn’t even fighting back. It was just cowering in the corner. And people werecheering.

“What the fuck?” I asked.

Riley came over, looked, and said, “Bait dogs. They get the dogs ready to fight.”

“Fuck that,” I murmured, and I headed over to the loudspeaker system.

13

Author’s Note:

It really isn’t fair that humans can’t turn into hellhounds or harpies. Just saying.

ROWAN

I was standing just inside the door, and a pretty steady stream of people were still coming in. I guess I looked like a bouncer or hired muscle, because most of them just nodded at me like I belonged there.

The crowd was getting riled up, and I kind of figured the dog fighting had started, but I wasn’t gonna go over and look. I’d be too tempted to start killing people, because there were plenty of rotten souls in here, and most of them were close to the ring or in the back by the dog cages.

Then I heard a crackle and the sound of a loudspeaker. Fuck. We were supposed to wait until two fights in.

“Is this thing on?” I heard Milo whisper over the loudspeaker.

“Yes,” Riley answered, sounding extremely exasperated.

“Attention, everyone. This is the Pennington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and we are hereby closing down this illegal dogfighting ring. Please cease and desist all dog fighting and prepare to be arrested.”

There was a loud swell of noise from the crowd, and people started heading toward the exits.

“People, people, everything is fine!” a guy yelled up by the ring, motioning a few guys to head upstairs.

Luckily, people didn’t listen. The few people who were leaving became a steady stream out. Most of them were gray souls, but they weren’t hellbound yet, so I let them leave. Most of the people who stayedwerehellbound, which made sense. They had a vested interest in this, and their souls were black.

“Let’s go, people! Clear out and we’ll handle this!” I yelled.

I wasn’t sure if it would work, but apparently looking like hired muscle was enough to convince people that I knew what I was saying. The steady stream became a throng pretty quickly, people whispering and looking around as they left. One black soul did try to sneak out, but I grabbed him by the back of the neck.

“Not you,” I said. “Boss wants you to help.”

I had no idea if that would work, but apparently it did, because the guy sighed.

“Get all the civilians out,” I told him, “so we can deal with the animal people.”

“Animal freaks, you mean,” the guy muttered, but he went off to clear people out. Good. Maybe he’d get others to help.

It took maybe ten minutes for the warehouse to mostly clear out. There were still people back by the dog cages, and there was still a group of people by the ring itself. Once the crowd was gone, I could see a dog in the ring lying on the ground, bloody, and a guy pulling another dog out of the ring that looked completely uninjured.