38: Ruining Absconditum

**Damon**

It took me a few minutes to get to the Mirage, and once I had arrived and parked my car, I realized I had no clue where we were meeting. I tried calling and calling but no one picked up and I was about to get into my car and leave, frustrated, when I heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor behind me and I smelled the faint scent of roses in the air.
"Punctual as always, Damon." Loren said as she neared me. I gave a curt nod and held out my arm for her. She took it in her own, interlinking them and we continued to walk. We were awfully polite and careful around each other, given our past. But nonetheless, we tried our best to ignore it and focus.
"Is it not risky for us to be so out in public? I mean, for someone of such fame and status as me, there is no doubt people will recognize me."
Loren shook her head as we walked to the elevator, so far, it had been quite quiet up here which I was grateful for.
"This hotel is allegedly owned by Andrew's pack and today they are celebrating the day of Absconditum, so this function we are going to will be all masks and no faces."
I was quite familiar with the day of Absconditum. It was a traditional werewolf holiday for those who followed the way of the deity, the Moon Goddess. In essence, much like its name, it was a day to celebrate our world being secretive and hidden from the humans. It also celebrated our appreciation for our ability to transform into wolves. Thus, it was traditionally celebrated by wearing wolf masks and children would usually engage in the most intricately constructed games of hide and seek. Adult would, however, often celebrate by hosting grand masquerade parties, such as this one. Traditionally, wolf masks were worn, but as time passed by these grand parties became less traditional and so a variety of other masks were provided.
When we reached the entrance, we found Jared already in a rather expensive phantom of the opera mask made of pure, white porcelain. He smiled at us and greeted while we covered our faces slightly.
"You two are here on time. It's refreshing to have more than one person actually being punctual,” he said before opening a box up, revealing gorgeous masks intricately designed to perfection. Immediately, my eyes caught sight of the black fox mask and grabbed at it hastily. It was plain black with beautiful golden patterns above the eyes and to the bridge of the snout and had a slight matte finish to it.
"I see I'm not the only one missing the little Vixen,” Jared said as he watched me tie the mask to my face. I made no comment regarding my mate, and instead grunted.
The topic also seemed to agitate Loren, and I watched her nervously grab at a silver cat mask which matched her shimmering silver dress. Once she had tied it, she looked up at me and gave a small, nervous smile. That was when I saw it in her brown eyes, that look of guilt and sadness. It was then that I realised the extent of her feelings for Jasmine. Admittedly, I had already suspected something the day we had all gathered for our meeting with Jared. Although I didn’t fault her for her feelings, I couldn’t help the nasty bitterness of jealousy gathering up at the back of my throat. And so, I turned away from her, eager to calm myself down before I said or did something irrational.
Soon the rest of the group joined us, each wearing a mask of their choice. Jared then gave us a quick briefing regarding our mission, so that we were all up to speed on where we needed to be, when, for how long and what we were supposed to be doing.
"Right, so remember, mind-linking is only for emergencies, we can't risk any werewolves interfering in our telepathic conversations. You each have two hours to perform your given tasks. Should you fail to complete your task within the given time limit, leave immediately once the time has expired. No exceptions, understood?"
Each of us nodded in agreement with Jared and within the minute, we all dispersed. Loren had decided to team up with me, much to my dismay. We were, given our fabulous tempers and intense snobbishness, instructed with the most important task: pure, uninterrupted distraction. Blake and Rene were tasked with security, cameras and erasing any traces that we were here. Cody and Viktor were in charge of picking up Macy's location and extracting her from here. Kristal and Peter were in charge of following behind them as tails and getting rid of any unnecessary obstruction to their task. Lastly, Jared and Yuki were in charge of overlooking that everything was running smoothly and were on standby, should anything go wrong.
Inside, the casino was decorated beautifully with various decorative masks placed on the walls, silver streamers hanging from the ceiling and lights which illuminated the room and flickered here and there. There were plenty of people, making the space quite claustrophobic and heated and the scents ranged from human to werewolf and then developed deeper into aromas of skin, sweat and perfume. It was quite a relief to know that our scents would not be so easily identifiable. It did, however, also mean that Macy’s scent would be difficult to pick up on.
"Slot machine?" Loren asked. I nodded and tried my luck, concentrating hard on the contraption and trying to keep as silent as I possibly could. But after a few minutes of silently deriving nothing eventful from the slots, Loren spoke.
"Why is it so... tense between the two of us?"
I looked up and played dumb. "Tense, it's not tense between us, is it?"
She met my comment with a sarcastic laugh and shook her head. "Fine then, you pretend too." She paused, looked around and then clapped excitedly when she saw the poker table. She was just about to rush towards it when I grabbed her by the neck of her dress and dragged her back. She growled at me, and I shook my head in response.
"There will be no poker for you. Remember what happened last time?" I said pointedly. She sighed heavily and growled at me, before removing my hand from her dress.
"Fine, roulette it is. Besides, it's almost time for our distraction."
Loren folded her arms and led the way to the roulette table. She bet on number 5 first. The croupier spun the roulette wheel and then the ball. Once the contraption and ball lost its momentum, Loren and I were both surprised to see the ball did, in fact, land at five. She exclaimed excitedly and a bright smile appeared on her face. For a moment, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of Deja vu as I gazed at her face. She noticed my staring and immediately we both looked away awkwardly. Perhaps we *did* need to talk a little later. She was right after all, there was tension between us. Not just tension regarding our past, but now regarding Jasmine as well.
It was my turn to play next and I bet on number 10. Once again, the croupier manoeuvred the wheel and ball. However, when the ball and wheel stopped spinning, I was disappointed to see that the ball landed not on my number ten, but on seven. Frustrated, I grunted, but did not say a word. Loren snickered next to me, much to my annoyance, and then placed her next bet. Again, the ball landed on the number she bet on. She kept this winning streak, with all of her bets being won, while I lost every single bet I made. Eventually, I grew so frustrated by the lack of winning, that I growled out loudly and ran my fingers through my hair saying, "This fucking machine is broken!"
The croupier shook his head and, in a robotic voice said, "I'm afraid not sir. You just seem to be unlucky. It seems we all can't get exactly what we want."
And those words were what set me off immediately. My hand soon collided with his face, sending him flying into a few people here and there.
"Now you've gone and done it!" Loren whispered under her breath as she got into a fighting stance. She could not have been more right. Many wild, furious eyes glanced up at us, including the werewolf croupier.
"You bastard!" he yelled out before charging at me along with the other people who tumbled down with him. I smirked, anticipating a fight when, just before he reached me, Loren executed a perfect roundhouse kick, sending him falling unconscious to the ground. It was silent for a moment, before the crowd erupted in violent shrieks, and the once peaceful casino was turned into a sparring playground with all of the creatures it housed. I let a few fists and kicks fly, allowing my blind, heated rage to control me as I collided and beat at bodies. Eventually, Loren and I were relieved to hear the words we were waiting for from one of the security staff. " Requesting backup, we have rowdy guests within the constraints of the casino, I repeat, rowdy guests in the casino."
Loren and I looked at each other and nodded as soon as we heard this. The security team, however, only seemed to make things worse.
Time had almost expired before Yuki made an emergency mind-link, pulling our attention away from our tasks.
"They've escaped with her! We need to leave now, before they get away! They left through the back entrance of the hotel section of the building, those nearest, you are requested to transform immediately and trace the vehicle. They have opted to use a white van this time. Those further away, please get into your vehicles and follow the van."
I assumed Loren and I were of the people further away from the hotel section of the place, and so, after basically pushing and punching people out of our way, we made our way to the parking lot and got into our cars hastily. Immediately, I drove to the back entrance of the hotel and followed the mind-linked directions, in pursuit of the van. It was slower than the normal car and, as such, the wolves had a better chance of keeping up with it. Once I had the white of the van in my vision, I stepped harder on the gas with the intention of crashing into the back of the van, but before I could even get near enough, the doors to the van opened, revealing a large man with an even larger bazooka in his hand. Next to him was Macy who, although healthy looking, had her face covered in tears and her mouth gagged. As soon as she saw me in the car, she shrieked out in desperation, her eyes wide in terror, and she attempted to wrestle the man for the bazooka. Unfortunately, he gave her a violent slap across the face, and she fell motionless onto the lower surface of the van. Enraged, I used more force on the gas pedal and growled angrily, totally and illogically in a state of lividness. Seeing the distance between the van and myself shrink considerably, the man fired the bazooka, but before the rocket hit the car, I jumped out and came tumbling onto the road. Unfortunately, neither I, nor my colleagues were safe from the shrapnel nor the fiery wrath resulting from the explosion of my car, and for a while, none of us moved as our skin burned and stung.
"Fuck!" It came out of Loren’s mouth in a low growl. She too had jumped out of her car which had also been a victim of the bazooka. Her dress was badly torn, exposing much of her body and her skin was covered in red coats of blood. Her hair, usually neat was now in shambles and she groaned in agony. Judging by her vulgarity, she was in an awful amount of pain. I was in the same boat, with shards of glass lodged deeply into the side of my body and my whole left side in scorching agony as a result of the burns I received.
"Is everyone alright?" Jared yelled out. He came sauntering forward, clutching his arm which, from the elbow had a bone jutting out.
"We're okay!" Yuki yelled a distance away, followed by others who emerged from the smoke. I was relieved to see that Loren; Jared and I had taken the brunt of the explosion.
"Can I have some help here?" Jared asked Loren who carefully snapped the bone back into place. He yelled in agony and cussed for a while, before falling silent. By now everyone was gathered together and slowly, we all felt the crushing weight of disappointment settling down on our chests and shoulders.
"If Jasmine were here, Andrew would have been here as well. Not only that, but she would have gotten Macy out of there within seconds with her stealth and intellect. Fuck!"
I felt the guilt creep in. This was, essentially my fault for lying to her and now poor Macy was paying the price. At this point, I felt hopeless and hollow. Everything had amounted to nothing. Every sacrifice, every pretence, every tear and heart-shattering decision had all been rendered futile. I was ready to quit, to hang up my cape and give Jasmine the opportunity to re-join her friends. But that was until Loren spoke. "There's only one way to get Andrew to abandon his quest for Jasmine. That is to order a hit on her."
My eyes snapped to hers immediately and I let out an aggressive growl. Loren lifted up her hands in surrender, weary of my sudden aggression. "Just hear me out Damon. You’re going to organize a gala as the Morningstar Company CEO. Then, you’re going to invite Andrew and put a hit out on Jasmine, whom you will state, is your mate. Andrew knows about and has seen all of our faces and knows who we are. But you… you’re our wildcard. Right Jared?”
Jared nodded and said, "All information on Damon was kept hidden, and he took care not to be seen publicly with Jasmine, except for in the diner. There’s no way he’d know that you’re working with us. "
I shook my head at them− I was afraid to get my hopes up− then said, "But why would he even agree to my request?"
Jared’s lips pulled up into a mischievous smirk. "Because I know Andrew. Firstly, he loves a good, luxurious party, and secondly, he will see you as competition. He might not come to fulfil your request, but he will definitely come to kill you. For Andrew, Jasmine is not only someone to torment and target, but she is also his obsession. Whoever hired Andrew made sure that he'd take a liking to her immediately."
"Okay, I understand, but what about the girl?" Viktor asked.
Loren paled slightly, but Jared placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and then said, "I overheard one of them saying that they'd be wiser to stay with Andrew after our little stunt. So, where Andrew goes, Macy will follow. Hopefully, he will be smart enough to bring her along with him as his date." Jared was clearly hoping for something impossible, but I did respect his optimism and hopefully, he would be right.
I was beginning to grow uneasy with the entire situation. Who the hell actually hired Andrew and why was Andrew tasked with tormenting Jasmine instead of just killing her or capturing her? It all seemed to be a little game to whoever was calling the shots. He wanted to take every single thing she possessed, as if to reinforce her outrageous idea that she was the cause of the people in her life getting hurt. It was a unique kind of game to be playing with someone as emotional as she was, and it had me wondering how intimately this game-maker knew Jasmine.