Ridley

Vi's eyes tore into me.

I took a deep breath before responding. "How did you know?"

Vi smiled slightly. "Well, I wasn't completely sure until you just confirmed it." My eyes widened, realizing my mistake. "I've never seen you before," Vi continued softly. "You've never been in the aviary and I've never seen you at a Blood Masquerade. Besides, lord Vandel never brings pets. The whole thing just seemed too off."

I looked around nervously. "You aren't going to tell anyone I'm here, right?"

Vi shook his head. "No, no, no! Of course not!" His sky blue eyes widened. "Are you here to rescue us? I knew it had to be only a matter of time until Alteria found out about this and sent someone to save us!"

I felt my stomach drop and I quickly lowered my gaze in shame. "I'm...I'm sorry," I said slowly. "I can't tonight. I'm not prepared enough. But, I promise you as soon as I can I'll find a way to get all of you out of here." I took his slender hand in mine. "I swear it."

Vi's face turned slightly ashen. "I'm afraid," he said slowly. "I'm absolutely terrified I'm not going to make it to the end of the night."

"What happens at the end of the night?"

Vi bit his lip. "To be honest I don't really know. At the end of the party they send us to an aviary outside with the exception of a few chosen pets. After the masquerade the demons who are fond of their pets come back to collect them and the demons who couldn't care less (which is most of them) simply leave us there till next year. The pets that are chosen to remain at the party however...they never come back. Every year I get so scared of becoming one of them."

I gave his hand a little squeeze. "I promise that'll never happen. I'll figure out a way to protect you all." I took a deep breath. "That being said, right now I need you to help not only me but the rest of the human kingdom as well."

Vi gave a little nod. "Of course. What do you need?"

"Information."

Vandel

I followed, trailing a few feet behind Varmeer and Lyell to the other side of the ballroom. I glanced back once to Ridley who had already begun a conversation with Lyell's pet Vi. I took a deep breath, hopefully everything would go well.

I continued, following after Lyell and Varmeer to a merchant who was currently sipping on a blood red cocktail. He definitely stood out at this kind of event. He was a tall, lumbering man with scrappy salt and peppered black hair. A blue mask covered his face which matched a long blue cape. My gaze raked over the cape and I noticed a large family crest embroidered onto the back that appeared to be an ostrich. I grimaced slightly. His family certainly had bad taste. I had definitely seen that crest somewhere before. My mind raked back, trying to remember where. Maybe finally all my fashion information would come in handy. Having a family crest on your cape had gone out of style before even I had been born, thank the Gods. I would have remembered someone wearing such an outdated garment to a party. So if I had never seen this crest before where else would I have seen it? The gears in my mind continued to turn. Where else did one see family crests, especially one as unusual as this. History books? But why would the crest of such a lowly family be in the...! I suddenly remembered! This was the family crest of House Ptilium! A house that had been disgraced and had it's titles and wealth stripped away even losing their place in the demon court over the selling of Corisathium hundreds of years ago! This had to be our guy!

Trying to appear as unthreatening as possible I made my way over to the man. Lord Vermeer and lord Lyell exchanged a smug look, coming to stand at either side of me.

"Hello sir," I said with a little grin.

The merchant looked up from his drink, blinking a few times. "Oh, 'ello," he mumbled.

I cocked my head to get a better look at him. "I don't think I've seen you around at any of our parties before. Are you new?"

"Err...yes m'lord. I just...recently came into a large fortune."

Hmm, and I wonder how that came about.

This man truly was an idiot.

Selling something so illegal and then coming to a party among the very people hurt most by the thing he was selling was utterly daft. Then again, his brilliant plan for getting the drug smuggled across the border was by hiding it under chickens so I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised.

I gave the man a little nod. "And what's your name?"

"Ginus m'lord."

"Ginus, what a lovely little name," I said softly. "It's so rare that we have such...down to earth people at these events. Are you a noble Ginus?"

He shook his head. "Err, no m'lord. I'm a merchant by trade."

"And what do you sell," I asked, watching Ginus intently like a bird watching a worm.

I could feel Ginus squirm under my gaze. Varmeer and Lyell seemed to take great amusement in this but I couldn't hate it more. I just wanted to get this done with, get the information I needed, and then make sure Ridley got out of here safely.

"I sell rare items m'lord."

I arched a brow. "Really, how rare?"

Ginus continued to squirm. "Uh...w-well m'lord-"

"You know, I actually have an item you might be quite interested in. Would you mind stepping out with me for a moment? I could show you." I smiled thinly at him.

The merchant looked around nervously, avoiding meeting my gaze. "I...I don't know my lord. I'm pretty busy-"

"What, with that cocktail? Nonsense!" I took my mask off slowly. "You wouldn't refuse an invitation from the prince of demons now would you?"

Ginus's eyes grew wide with shock when he realized who I was.

He immediately bowed his head and I could see he was shaking slightly. "O-Of course I'll come with you m'lord."

I flashed him a smile. "Brilliant! Come along then!" I made my way out of the party with Ginus behind me and Lyell and Varmeer trailing behind him to make sure he didn't run off. I led them through the hall to a smaller chamber off from the main ballroom. The second we entered my fingers wrapped around Ginus's throat and I slammed him against the wall.

"I know what you did," I hissed. "You tried selling Corisathium didn't you?"

"I...I don't know what 'yer talkin' about m'lord!"

My grip tightened around his neck. "Don't fuck with me. Just admit it and I can save you a lot of pain later. Do you have any idea how dangerous the thing you're playing with is? Do you realize how many of our people have died at its hands! You know how powerful my mother is in mental torture. We'll get the information out of you one way or another-"

"Alright!" Ginus gasped. "Alright! Yes! I was the one who sold it!" I let out a little huff. I at least expected him to put up more of a fight. This man wasn't just a traitor but a coward as well.

"How did you get it?" I asked, my hand still remaining wrapped around his throat.

"I found a single bottle left in my family's old home."

"And do you know how to recreate the recipe?"

"No m'lord. I'm not smart enough."

I actually believed him on that.

"Who did you sell it to?"

"I was trying to get it over seas to the goblin colony there. I swear I didn't want it anywhere near our kingdom m'lord. I would never put our people at risk!"

I sighed heavily, this fucking idiot. "Just by attempting to sell Corisathium you've threatened this entire kingdom. I'm sure you're aware the Corisathium you sold never arrived at its intended location. Do you have any idea who took it?"

Ginus's gaze fell to the floor. "Yes m'lord. There was a Alterian human that was extremely interested in the Corisathium. He was going to offer me a huge sum for it but I turned it down since I didn't want it falling into enemy hands. I don't know who he is, he communicated with me completely anonymously but I have a feeling he must be the one to have taken it."

I sucked in my breath. This was bad, this was very, very bad. If the Corisathium was in Alterian hands who knew what it was going to be used for. The demons could be its target.

I finally released Ginus who fell to the ground now, gasping for breath. I snapped my fingers and suddenly two guards appeared in the hallway outside.

I gestured to Ginus. "Arrest him," I said slowly. Ginus didn't protest as the guards each grabbed him by an arm.

He had taken money from a goblin colony and hadn't delivered on his promise to pay them back. He probably realized he was safer in a demon prison since anywhere else the goblins would have found a way to get revenge. Perhaps that's why he came here tonight and didn't even put up a fight.

Maybe Ginus wasn't as stupid as I thought.

Then again, he still had tried to smuggle the most powerful drug in the world under a chicken.

Lord Lyell stepped up beside me looking fairly disappointed. "Aww, I thought you were going to kill him. I've always wanted to watch the ruthless slayer of the demon eater in action."

I sighed heavily. "I will not kill my own people. Besides, I might still need to get information from him later."

"That's your problem Vandel," Lyell said giving me a chilling smile. "You always seem so cold and cruel but deep down you're much too soft. If you weren't maybe you wouldn't have almost been murdered by that human."

My face turned ashen. "How did you know about that?"

Lyell laughed coldly. "Rumors have a way of spreading quickly my lord."

Still in shock I opened my mouth to respond when suddenly a bell rang. Lyell's eyes widened and a huge grin spread across his narrow features. "And speaking of murder, the blood dance is about to begin! We better get back!"

I froze.

No way. Already???

I thought I would have more time to get Ridley out before it started. Shit! This was really bad! This was really, REALLY, bad!

Lyell began to make his way towards the ballroom and I ran after him.

"I'm excited for tonight," Lyell said. "I'm going to ask Vi to dance with me."

Varmeer looked to me now. "How about you? Will you ask your human to dance?"

No, what I needed to do was to get my human out of there as quickly as possible before he saw something he would never be able to forgive the demons for.