“Access key pad. You’ll need a card to get the door open.”
“Wonderful,” I said, rolling my eyes.
This whole search and rescue mission of mine just got a lot fucking harder but, whoever thought I liked it easy was dead wrong. I’d been through far worse than this and came out on the other side guns blazing.
I will find Michael, get us both out of here and back to our pack. I wasn’t made to be cooped up in a box and Michael sure as hell wasn’t either. It may take a bit more work than I’d planned but I’d see this through to the bitter end, and anyone who tried to get in my way was in for a long stay at the healers. By the time I got out of here everyone inside these rat-infested walls would come to know and fear the name Jessy Gilchrest.
CHAPTER SIX
Jessy
After we were released from our cells this morning and Jamie took me to the elevator to Gold Block, he and I spent the morning together having breakfast and catching up.
With Jamie at my side, I did get a few evil glances from magicals wanting to take Blackwater up on her offer of killing me in exchange for their freedom. But after one look at us together, nobody dared approach. Two ‘A’ class magicals were a pretty intimidating sight it seemed.
My morning had been relatively peaceful until Jamie was pulled away to some mandatory prison counselling session. The moment he left, I was all alone and then, all hell broke loose.
For the rest of the miserable day I’d been pulled into one scrap after the next in almost every hallway I walked through. Mostly with a few cocky ‘B’ classes trying their luck at getting out of here.
Tell you the truth, it was pretty fun at first stretching my legs, blowing off a little steam. Even if I couldn’t use my flame magic or light manipulation, I was still winning every battle.
I was in a new environment and I craved exploration, even if it meant the hassle of interacting with the more unfriendly inmates.
I’d just beaten the hell out of some angels on the outskirts of cell block three when I continued roaming through the threshold into cell block four. This prison was massive and I had no idea of just how many cell blocks there really were.
All around me were open jail cells with sour faced magicals littering the area with their backs against the bars as they eyed me with contempt. Everywhere I went somebody wanted a piece of me and my own cell block was no exception. It’d soon become more than obvious that if I was going to ever have the time to rescue Michael, I was going to have to find a way to shake the heat off me and fast.
The number of magicals around began to dissipate as I ventured deeper and deeper into the trenches of cell block four.
“Hey you, fae!” A voice called out from a jail cell behind me. I turned to see a big mean panther shifter emerge from the cell. His legs were bulky in his blue jeans and his chest and arms made him look like a fortress of muscle.
Emerging from the same cell came four others. Also, panther shifters but not as big as the first one. The big one must have been their alpha.
“You the one Blackwater put the price on?” He asked, a gnarly grin creasing his bearded cheeks. But before I could answer, he held his hand to his chin in contemplation and said, “Yes, that’s right. I saw you with my own eyes in the southern end of the cafeteria, last night. You’re that trouble making fae alright.”
“I’ve been here for months, the fae you're looking for is way hotter, trust me.” I lied and he seemed to have ignored me, the alpha gave a nod to his lackeys and they nodded back at him. Then without another word the alpha came at me throwing one punch after the next at my face. With a quick shift to the left and right, I dodged them all.
Him and his greasy faced buddies decided to fight dirty, as they surrounded me on all four sides. Each sent a series of punches flying towards my chest, back and my arms.
I bent my knees and dropped to the floor, dodging them and leaving all four of them to punch each other, not registering my sudden disappearance. This sent two of the underlings flying into the hard metal bars of nearby jail cells while the alpha and his third underling went toppling over and splatting on to the floor.
The ones who hit the metal were down for the count, but not the ones on the floor. They were still alert, squinting their eyes and shaking their heads in confusion.
Taking advantage of their momentary confusion I sprang to my feet, kicking the lackey on the floor in the shin which made him give out a high-pitched squeal. I then stormed over to the alpha and kicked him right in the balls. The alpha cried like an oversized baby as he rolled around on the floor in pain, cupping his balls with both hands.
Regaining his composure, the alpha rose to his feet and sweat trailed down his neck as his eyes darted in every direction trying to find his escape. He never expected one little fae to cause him so much trouble, well unfortunately he was dead wrong.
I approached him, righteous fury burning in my eyes. It was useless running, he had to know that by now. This was the loneliest part I’d seen in any cell block so far. There was no one to help him.
“You won okay! You won, I’m sorry!” The cornered alpha declared, backing up to press his back against the cold bars of a nearby cell. I marched right up to him, barely giving him room to breathe.
“Sorry?” I boomed. “That throw-up colored shirt you're wearing is sorry. That wispy excuse for a beard you're sporting is sorry. But you are not sorry. At least not yet.”
I grabbed him roughly by the collar of his jacket and leaned into his face to say, “You do not gang up on a person like that. Do you understand me, you spineless coward?”
He had no respect for the rules of decency on the battle ground. Ganging up against one person was the lowest of the low and as an alpha he deserved to pay for it.
“You’d better let me go. Or-or else…” he threatened, but in his eyes there was only fear.
“Or else, what?” I continued with an evil grin creasing my cheek. The clatter of footsteps beating the ground filled the air as his little panther lackeys fled the scene with their tails between their legs.
He eyed them, watching till he could no longer see them. All bravado draining from his eyes. He was in some deep shit and he knew it.
I liked a good game of nutcracker just as much as the next fae, but all this fighting was seriously messing up my escape plans. Something had to be done and fast if I was going to figure out how to get to Michael. I needed some help to keep these random brawls to a minimum, and as my eyes explored the sniffling panther shifter in front of me I suddenly knew exactly where I could get it.
“So, you and your pals want to play the warden's little game of kill the fae and go free, huh? That means last night at dinner when I first arrived, you were watching me?”
He nodded wearily, eyeing me cautiously as if expecting a nose breaking punch to come flying his way if he didn’t respond.
“Good. Well then, you’re in luck! I think I might just know a way for you to keep that ugly mug of yours and your hairy little balls intact. What do you say?”
“What, what do you want?” He choked out, his voice shaking with every word.
With a cheerful grin and flinging my head to one side I responded, “You’re going to help me with something. The vampire, demon and dragon shifter who helped me. Tell me everything you know about them and don’t you go leaving out anything juicy.”
***
Interesting. So that panther alpha had his uses after all. He told me that all three of the magicals who helped me last night were pretty big dogs around here, each having a gang of loyal followers. The demon, dragon shifter and the vampire had all been here longer than the panther could remember, and they all had, to varying degrees, gained immunity against the magic draining poison. Which meant bad news for anyone who happened to get on their bad sides. But good news for their friends.
The question was, could I make friends with them? They’d all helped me once before, only the gods knew why. But whatever the reason was, maybe I could convince th
em to lend me a little manpower. Just enough to keep these annoying sons of bitches off my tail long enough for me to get my shit together and get out of here. With more than a thousand prisoners locked up in here, I’d need as much help as I could get.
That’s where the demon and vampire came in. I’d sooner eat my own hair than ask the dragon boy for help, but the former two would do nicely.
I strolled through the eastern wing of the prison; this area was used to house some of the prison’s recreational rooms. It was also a seedy area used as a hang out spot for contraband users.
The air smelt of cheap beer and weed, the scent spilling its way out of the many half opened doors that lined the pathway throughout the wing. Behind these thin white doors I glimpsed prisoners drinking from beer bottles and smoking whatever strains of weed they were able to get on the prison black market.
The entire area was completely devoid of guards. But each and every door I passed had scratches and boot shaped stamp prints all over them, a remnant of raids gone by. At least for now they were free to get high and drunk as they pleased.
This part of the prison features more vibrant sights than I’d seen in here so far. There were colorful murals taking up most of the vast open wall space. Being underground there were no windows, just an abundance of hard concrete wall.
But this was actually pretty nice. In the mural there were flowers, rainbows, and even animals ranging from wolves to deer all painted in cheerful and varied shades. It was surprising there were so few magicals around to enjoy it. Most who passed me as I walked just slipped in and out of the doors, not taking even a minute to look at the murals.
I suppose I got them in a way. They didn’t come to this wing to look at pretty wall art and neither did I. The path I was on led right to the prison's library. The panther alpha had told me so.
Apparently, the library at the end of this vibrant little hallway was the demon’s favorite hangout spot. All I had to do was talk to the demon. There had to be some way for me to convince him to help get the heat off me so I could find Michael.
I was an expert negotiator. I’d talked my way out of more than a hundred parking tickets, not to mention a speeding charge when I’d gone racing against a gang of bloodthirsty rabbit shifters.
But that was nothing compared to what lay ahead. Demons and fae had never gotten along. We were like night and day. Fae by nature were creatures of the light, one with nature and blessed with control of natural elements along with the control of light.
While demons, on the other hand, were creatures of the darkness, their every instinct was to cause as much pain and destruction as possible everywhere they went.
During the seven-year war, the only group to kill more fae than the humans were the demons. Resenting our light, they tried to snuff out as many of us as possible and we did the same to them.
Since the war ended relations had improved somewhat, but there'll always be bad blood between our kinds simply because we were so different. It was a miracle that the demon had helped me in the cafeteria. How in Dominion would I get him to do it again?
I reached the end of the hall. It was a lonely little dead end with an enormous double door made of red oak. The door almost touched the high ceiling above. I turned the door handle and creaked it open slow enough to not alert a soul to my presence.
The scent of musty paper long past its prime filled the air. Still, something about the scent was calming, almost homey in its humility. The room was dark, as if every light had either gone out or been shattered by someone who wasn’t too keen on too much light. Yup, a demon hang out spot if I’d ever seen one.
It wasn’t pitch black in there though, there was a magical glow seeming to come from the ceiling itself. Like a glow in the dark paint. It was just enough to see the silhouettes of all the many tall bookshelves that filled the room, and the long spiraling staircase that led to another floor in the distance. The room was massive, it almost looked like a labyrinth made entirely of shelves all stretching as far back as the eye could see. There wasn’t a sound in the dark, and yet I sensed the presence of another.
“There are no story books in here for you, fae. But I know another form of… entertainment that might be to your liking.” A deep booming voice escaped into the air and fluttered over to me like wind.
“Who’s there?” I said, talking to the dark. My eyes landed from one shelf to the next but I didn’t see a soul.
“I’ll give you a hint.” The voice replied and suddenly I felt the sting of magic burn against my arms and legs. The person, was he trying to cast a spell on me?
Just then a scene unfolded all around me, transforming the dark library into something else. Was this a mirage? Or maybe some type of hologram?
I now saw mountains of fire and lakes of lava so hot it could burn the flesh clean off you, all around me. It was as if I were suddenly in the Underworld and no longer in a library. I could even feel the searing heat on my skin, bringing sweat to pour from my forehead. Even my shoes were now peppered in the black ash that covered the ground.
Throughout the hellish landscape, there were hundreds of lava men stomping their big booming feet around, carrying lava rocks the size of boulders atop their heads. The massive monsters moved in a single file line across the wasteland like slaves fulfilling a task. Why was I seeing this? Was this demon magic?
Lava men were the guardians of hell and servants of Hades. Standing at eight feet tall, their bodies were big slabs of volcanic rock, their faces bulbus and awkward with four eyes red as lava. Their horns were so long they would touch the heavens if they weren’t so far removed from celestial grace. Heaven wouldn’t want a thing to do with this terrible place.
The lava men closest to me jerked their heads in my direction to look at me. Alerted to my presence they gave out howls of fury at my unwelcomed arrival. They then dropped their boulders to crash over the ground and marched closer to me with murder in their red glowing eyes.
The lava men were on the move, now charging in my direction, the ground shaking beneath their gigantic feet.
My heart pounded in my chest and I staggered backwards. This was just an illusion, it had to be. I stared down my attackers, trying not to turn and run or to give any sign of weakness.
They were ten feet away, five feet, four, three, two, one… and just as the monsters were about to swarm me, they disappeared in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, I was back in the library with no lava men, no lakes of fire, no Underworld. It was Just me and the dimly lit bookshelves that stretched out in front of me.
This was magic, all meant to scare me.
“Demon magic, really? Did you really think your little parlor tricks would phase me?” I said, folding my arms and tapping my foot impatiently for the demon to appear.
Only a demon would have the power to summon illusions that vivid. He was here alright. The demon who’d helped me last night.
“No, how silly of me. How could I expect the famous Jessy Gilcrest to be afraid of a little illusion?”
A tall handsome figure emerged from the shadows between two bookcases to my left, his blond hair glowing brightly in the dark. His manly frame took up my entire field of vision. He was even cuter than I remembered with delicately masculine facial features, a piercing stare that screamed of danger, all topped off with a devilishly sexy grin designed for pure seduction.
“How do you know my name?” I asked and his eyes drew together as if disappointed.
“So, you really don’t remember? Thought you were just pretending to have forgotten me in the cafeteria.” He said as he came up to stand right in front of me with a smug expression on his face. “You help a lot of demons during the seven-year war? You really aren’t a normal fae, are you?”
Wait, now that I took the time to really study his features, he did look familiar to me. I met this demon once before. He was on the brink of death; he’d been captured by my pack during the war. He was trying to steal fae secrets from us to help his demon
comrads defeat us.
“I’ve never been one to let a handsome face go to waste. You have that to thank for why I let you go, demon.” I lied, twenty against one wasn’t my style. Had he been with his demon brothers, me and my pack would have torn them to shreds.
“And you have that act of kindness to thank for your life, Sugar lips.” He said stalking ever closer to me, his eyes hard on mine. He was now so close I could feel the warmth of his breath caress my face.
“I was wondering why a demon would randomly come to rescue little old me.” I said toying with my bottom lip with my index finger and glancing up at him from under my lashes.
“I always repay my debts, but truth be told…” he said combing his fingers through my hair considering each strand as if they were made of gold. “… I may have had some less than innocent motives for stepping in when I did.”
“Less than innocent?”
“It goes against my policy to let such a fine specimen of a woman go… unfucked.” He said, his eyes now trailing down to the swells of my breast and they stayed there as if enthralled by the secrets that lay beneath the thin fabric of my top and bra.
“A bit presumptuous of you, wouldn’t you say?” I said, pulling back from his grasp. “I’ve fucked your kind, demon. What makes you so special?”
“The name’s Broderick...” He said swinging his hand back in to grab a fist full of my hair. He then took a sniff and shot me a gaze so sinister I felt my panties melt a little bit more with every passing second. “… and you’ve never fucked demon dick like mine.”
He wasn’t lying. His power signature was off the charts. He was pure alpha from the tips of his shiny golden locks to his impenetrable wall of muscle, right down to the soles of his oversized black booted feet.
“What do you say you and me play a little, huh?” He said, the sweet scent of his warm breath caressing my nose.
“A game? What did you have in mind?”
“It’s a fun game. It involves me being balls deep, fucking your pussy senseless while you scream my name.”
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