“And Xanth,” he adds, “Whoever is responsible will be dealt with at the greatest severity.”
“Of course.” I walk out without looking back. All of my insides are screaming that he knows about Shaye and how she was there at the time of Skul’s death. How he set her up, the bastard! So am I the instrument to help cover his tracks?
I clench my fists wanting to beat something. Nelos. He put her in danger. I’ve got to fix this. The tapes. I change directions to the video surveillance room. The video feed from that night would’ve already been reviewed, so why was the Warden asking me to look into this? Unless it is a test of my loyalties.
Fuck him.
At the door, a mechanical team is fixing the lock outside the door.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Looks like a prisoner broke in.” The shorter of the men ties off a red and black wire.
“Anything taken?”
“Hell if I know,” he answers. “The Warden says fix it and that’s what I do. Learned a long time ago not to question orders.”
I snort but pull the door open and step inside.
Phil, a bald-headed old man with questionable dirty lineage, curses as he taps at a glitchy security camera.
“Bugger. Never works right no matter what I do.”
I sit in the empty chair next to him and lean back, putting my boots on the counter.
“Get off my stuff.” He whacks at my boots.
I don’t move and he grunts. “What do you want?”
“Show me the tape of the broiler room from last night.”
Phil crosses his arms, glaring at me.
The muscle in my jaw twitches. I like Phil as he’s the only one around here besides the Warden who isn’t fearful of who I am and what I can do. Maybe it’s because he’s faced death five times in his life and never died. The guy must be a cat reincarnated.
But I don’t have time for his scrutiny.
“Today, Phil. I’m here on Warden’s orders.” Sort of. He wants me to find Skul’s killer and I want to protect Shaye.
He grunts again but taps the controls. Even though we imprison demigods here, Phil’s stuff looks like a bad 80s movie. Blue and yellow lights flash and the buttons are the size of my palm and worn down so much the writing is gone.
After we watch nothing happening except Skul going into the broiler room and never coming out again, the screen is empty. Even all the hallway cameras from the broiler room to Shaye’s cell are empty.
“I don’t understand.” Phil smashes the buttons like they are lying to him. “Who killed Skul then? I know he didn’t go in there and commit suicide. Was it a ghost?”
It was something. I need to fucking find out what new power Nelos has that isn’t documented in his file. I know every prisoner, every ability of each and being burned from the inside out isn’t part of Nelos’ abilities. Though freezing time is. Had he come here and erased the tapes?
He had to have.
“Thanks, Phil. That’s all I need.” Standing, I let myself out and head back to my rooms and Shaye. After I check on her, I’ll confront Nelos and get to the truth of all of this.
The sound of a baton raking across the bars vibrates behind me and I stiffen.
“You, Xanth?” a nasally male voice calls out.
Fuck.
I turn to face five guards dressed in dark blue uniforms rather than the simple gray like mine.
Chapter Fourteen
Rowan
Nelos nods that the coast is clear, and I wiggle the shiv into Warden’s lock. Bastard must have changed it since the last time I broke into his office and he caught me. I will not get sent to solitary even if I have to shove Nelos at the guards if it comes to that. Being that long without being able to kiss or touch Shaye nearly drove me insane.
“Hurry up,” Nelos hisses.
Boots echo from the corridor and the lock clicks. I push open the door and Nelos dashes inside after me.
“Keep a listen at the door,” I order and rush to the Warden’s files. “What was it Shaye said he told her?”
“Project X.” He pauses at the door, not facing me, his body tense. “And look for anything on Skul. There might be something to give us a hint about why Warden wanted him dead.”
I nod, using my shiv to bypass the lock on the file cabinet. At least I know how Warden alphabetizes from breaking in here dozens of times to find god and goddess patronage on my fellow inmates. Blackmail and information go hand in hand and I’m never without a full deck to play.
The file cabinet clicks, and I pull the drawer open. I yank out Skul’s file, but even double-checking, find no Project X. Damn it.
“Did you get it?” Nelos asks.
“Only his, not the project one.” I wave the file.
“Check the other drawers.” He nods.
“We don’t have time for that.” I frown. “Warden is due any minute from his morning meeting with the gods.”
Nelos holds out his hands, glowing emblems in a circle light up. Like a clock in a foreign language or symbols really. “I can buy you more time.”
Right. I’d forgotten about his timing trick. Never had seen it done in person, only his files mentioned the god talent. “Do it.”
A shimmer fills the office with the outline of the symbols in a circle along the walls.
“How much time will this buy us?” I ask, not knowing the limits of his power.
“Enough as long as you stop fucking around.” He points his chin to the file cabinets.
I turn around and start on the first set of drawers. Highly doubt, since there was no folder marked Project X, that Warden will have it easy to find. I’ll have to search through all the files for anything out of place.
My skin prickles as the colored clock magic around us shifts to a hazy orange. “What does that mean?” I ask but know I won’t like the answer.
“The Warden is heading this way. Hurry up.” Nelos snaps and sweat coats his brow.
So there is a limit to his manipulating time. Good to know. “Well, this cabinet’s got nothing. How much longer can you hold him back?”
“Not long.”
“Fuck it. We’ll have to come back again later.” I stuff the folders back into the cabinet, then close the drawer, relocking it. Project X. Why would the Warden send Shaye after something like that and involve her with Skul? The dude was a walking asshole on steroids. Which could mean there might be a clue in his cell.
“Let’s go.” I smooth back my hair, then open the door. The hallway is hazy like someone shoved fog inside the building. Inmates walking past are barely moving. “Fucking cool, man.”
Nelos closes the Warden’s door behind him. “We need to get to a secluded spot so I can wind this time to catchup to the rest of the prison and world.”
“Follow me.” I take a few turns and a whoosh blasts behind us. “Is it done?”
Nelos nods and he looks pale like he’s been up partying an all-nighter. “Yeah. Listen, I gotta check on something. Mind if I meet you at Skul’s cell in about twenty?”
“Sure.” I turn away and he heads in the opposite direction. No doubt to see Shaye which I’m only envious he can go see her while I traipse around looking for some damn Project X. If I know the Warden, he set Shaye up to test her power again.
My steps slow. He was really interested in her earlier too. Kept asking me questions like he was trying to feel me out about her.
Why?
I mean yeah, her file was blank as far as her god birth parent or even human parents. But I didn’t sense any huge power-level in her. Then again, the damn cuffs block anyone from going too berserk and busting out of this shit hole.
Yet, Shaye did kill Anubis and ended up here. Plus, she defeated Bono in her first fight. Was the first an accident and the second just luck? Or what if someone had set her up?
I shake my head, recalling my god-father’s words about being ready. A pressure tightens in my chest because I don’t want Shaye involved in anything that wou
ld hurt her.
At the stairs, I glide down the rail to save time. Suddenly I want to find out if there’s anything in Skul’s cell and race back to see Shaye for myself. Ensure that she’s all right. That the Warden has left her the fuck alone no matter what his agenda with her is. One that I will find out one way or another.
I push past the doorway and down two turns when whimpering and the sounds of fists hitting flesh echo. A cry sounds and I dash down the corridor because whatever it is, it sounds too close to Shaye’s voice for my liking.
I turn the corner and pressure latches onto my chest.
Shaye.
She’s on the ground, her arms over her head to protect herself.
I can’t breathe at seeing her in this state.
I don’t think and throw myself at the attackers. I crash into one of the guys, taking him down with me. The crunch of bone is satisfying, and I Ieap onto the next guy, driving a punch to his balls. He falls to his knees, and I feel no damn remorse.
The skank yanks Shaye up by her hair. "Stop or I break her pretty, little neck."
"Try it and see what happens." Before this place, I had a vow never to hit a girl. But when they put someone I care about in danger, then all bets are off.
"She's not worth it,” the first guy says, climbing to his feet, cutting me a fearful glare. “Come on, Rien."
The woman pushes Shaye forward. I rush and catch her in my arms.
All three assholes run down the hallway. As much as I yearn to go after them and rip out their spines, Shaye is my priority right now.
"Rowan?" Shayne blinks up at me, her voice croaky, blood staining her cheek.
"Yeah?" I don't trust myself right now to say something funny to lighten her mood. I’m fucking fuming and I want to kill something. She didn't deserve this, and I tuck her blonde hair behind her ear. Her face is swelling and bloodier by the second from her bleeding nose. She’s holding herself and I’m pretty sure those fuckers cracked one or more of her ribs. I grit my teeth and gently lean her against the cement wall.
She snatches my prison shirt, then cringes at the pain the movement brought her. “Wait... you’re not leaving me?”
“I’m taking you with me.” I kiss the tip of her nose. “Trust me.” I lift her into my arms, and she cries out at the pain. My insides crumble at hearing her agony. Then I dash next door into Skul’s cell. He was a big-time seller of all kinds of potions or nectar from the gods, he called them. Most didn’t do fucking shit. But a few were legit like the ones his great-great-grandmother Circe threw his way.
I lay Shaye on the bed, then I whip around and toss his place upside down, checking through the mini-vials of colored liquid until I find the purple one with gold flecks. Bingo.
I hurry back to Shaye’s side by the bed and uncork the vial. “Here, drink this down.”
She glares at me with one eye as the other one is swollen so much she can’t open it all the way. “What is it?”
I love that she challenges me even in the little things and doesn’t blindly follow me just because I’m one of Loki’s countless direct offsprings. “It’s not an aphrodisiac or anything like that. Only something to help the pain and speed healing.”
Straightening and wincing, she takes the potion from me and drinks it down. Choking, she says, “God, that tastes awful. It’s like licking the backend of a donkey.”
I chuckle and sit beside her, drawing her gently into my arms. For a few moments, I stroke her hair lightly and she sighs contentedly against me.
“It’s working,” she gasps. “I can open my other eye now, and it feels less like a knife is sticking out of my side. What was that stuff you gave me?”
“Circe’s creation.”
Shaye tenses in my arms.
“Hey, it’s okay, she gave it to Skul to help him buy shit and stuff.”
“Are you sure?” she pushes up to look at me with her gorgeous blue eyes. “Cause I really don’t want to be turned into one of her pigs.”
I laugh and kiss her lips softly. “But you’d make such a good little piggie. I could eat you up.”
She drags in a breath and nibbles on my lower lip. Letting out a growl, I kiss her back, hauling her closer to me. I skim my fingers underneath her orange prison shirt that’s tied on the side and reveals a gash along the seam. Easier access. Her skin is so soft, so perfect. Makes me want to track down every fucking member of Skul’s cult and shove their own shit down their throats.
To sate my anger, I drank her in. Her spicy-sweet scent and the feel of her velvet lips against mine. She tasted like honeyed berries and I couldn’t get enough.
I don't want to stop kissing Shaye, but the heavy running footsteps of someone tells me that we are not going to be alone soon. Reluctantly, I pull away from Shaye's lips and Nelos rounds the corner, then looks straight into Skul’s cell at us. He stiffens at seeing Shaye in my arms. I know there's something between them and the pained look on Nelos’ face has me doing the right thing for a change.
"I gave her a healing vial. Mind watching over her while go check on something?" I ask.
Nelos takes a step forward. "Yeah sure."
After I squeeze Shaye’s shoulder gently, I leave the two of them alone even though everything in me is yelling to stay with her. Instead, I head to the exercise yard to feel out the other inmates to see if anyone’s heard of this Project X. I don’t like that I’d found nothing in Warden’s office. He is hiding something. I could practically smell it and I would uncover it one way or another.
Chapter Fifteen
Nelos
I sink next to Shaye. Despite her small smile, there is a weariness in her eyes that cuts me deeper than any knife I've ever had stabbed into me. I wouldn't blame her if she hates me… if she's scared me, of what I've become.
"What happened?" I ask, my throat going dry at the thought of her hurt.
"I got lost on my way back to my cell and was jumped by three prisoners." She trembles, but she pushes back when I lean forward.
I know I need to give her time, but I want so fucking badly to hold her and kiss her and put the past behind us to start again, to make her understand that I feel like fragments of our past remain embedded in my heart as a constant reminder of who we were before all this is splintering.
"What happened to you?" she asks, her eyes searching mine for answers that I don't want to give.
When she finds out the truth will she hate me? I wish more than anything in this shitty world to go back and right my mistakes the night she left. I should’ve chased after her, told her I would go with her to the University no matter what.
"Please, just tell me," her voice is a whisper echoing in the corner and I force in a shaky breath.
“Not sure this is the right time.”
“Stop giving me excuses, Nelos. You stare at me like you can’t bear to be away from me, yet you refuse to tell me what the heck happened to you,” she tells me, her eyebrows pinching together. “I’m tired of lies. My whole life is a damn lie. All I want is the truth. You owe me that.”
I lick my lips and her words spiral on my mind. Yeah, I fucking owe her that much, and I’ve been a coward long enough, hidden behind the truth, staying away from her. This has to end, and she’s done what I haven’t been able to. She’s drawn the line in the sand… the decision is now mine. Come clean about my past or lose her. If she doesn’t like what she hears, then I’m back at square one, right?
Fuck, I hate this.
With a sigh, I begin. "There was a witchdoctor I was told to kill. I didn't know it until later that he was the son of Katonda.”
She pales.
Katonda is the judge and ranks spirits into categories including slaves, and most people know he’s a dangerous son of a bitch.
“His offspring was kidnapping girls and using them before sadistic blending rituals."
"Then what you did was a good thing."
"Not everybody thinks that way. And even though the order had come from several other witch docto
rs, his God sire was furious and cursed me.” I place my hand briefly on my chest, where the fire wolf sears me underneath my skin every fucking day and night. “He fucking hexed me to forever live with a beast. The dark side of me, he had called it.”
“The fire I saw last night,” she whispers, her eyes widening.
I curl my hands into fists resisting the urge to reach out and touch her, knowing that she’ll recoil from me after knowing what I've done—what I've become. "The thing that lives inside me craves blood and death. If I let it go too long, my restraint on it weakens. It's a danger to anyone around me."
The monster inside me picks up her frantic heartbeat.
"This is what you were doing while I was studying at the university to become a teacher?”
"Yeah." I rub the back of my neck. "Now the Warden sends me assassination orders and I follow them. Usually, they’re for some scumbag that doesn't deserve a second chance. Or sometimes even gods or goddesses decide they don't want anyone to know their offspring is in prison, so they skip the fight arena completely for a quick death and that's where I come in."
She hisses sharply between her teeth and shakes her head. "I always thought me not knowing who my parents were or which one of them was a god or demi-god was the worst. Now I'm thinking I might be luckier than I thought.” She wraps her arms around herself. "Maybe whoever sired me doesn't even know I'm their offspring."
“I wish I could say yes, Shaye. But with all the publicity of you being a god-killer, the chances of that are fucking zero." Which made me wonder if I would ever get a kill order for her. I wouldn't do it. “I will do whatever it takes to protect you.”
"So, what do we do now?" She swallows hard. "The warden sent me to talk to Skul about a project X. Do you know anything about that or why would he order you to kill him at the same time?"
"I don't know, but me and Rowan are going to find out."
She raises both eyebrows. "You're working with Rowan?"
I look down the hallway from where Rowan had left and back to Shaye. I know they'd been kissing. My wolf could hear them, and her lips were still swollen from his kisses. Part of me is filled with rage for him touching her, another part of me is turned on with the idea of us both having her. I shake my head. We have to deal with bigger problems than whatever is going on between us. "I don't know but Rowan said the warden was asking a lot of questions about you after Skul’s murder."
Sinful Gods: Paranormal Romance (Hell's Playground Series Book 2) Page 8