by Jen L. Grey
“I don’t know, but it’s not good.” He sighed and loosened his grip on my arm so his fingers weren’t still digging in.
“How do you know that?” I was hoping for a nugget of information he might drop.
“The doctor’s never been intrigued by someone before.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “What is it with you? What makes you so different?”
“Oh, I’m sorry if my existence makes it rough on you.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Because I’m sitting around having a great time trying not to die.”
“That’s not fair.” It was as if he breathed the words.
“Yeah, and it’s fair that all of us half-breeds should be locked up because we were born.” I didn’t feel sorry for him. “So, yeah, go ahead and cry about how hard it is on you.”
“Do you know how much shit I could get into?” His voice raised a bit louder than normal. “My Dad is the fucking warden here and rides my ass every day.”
“At least you get to see your father.” If he wanted empathy, he was coming to the wrong girl. “I can’t call my parents on the phone. They have no clue where I’m at, so keep on whining, and see how much I care.”
“I still have your cell phone.” He spoke the words slowly and unsure.
“What?” There had to be a reason he was telling me this. I had to appear disinterested in case this was some kind of sick-ass ploy they were creating.
“You heard me.” We had enough distance between both guards where it was safe to talk. It was the right place where neither one could hear us.
“Okay, but I’m not sure how to respond to that.” I wasn’t going to beg or plead if that was what he was expecting.
“Maybe I could sneak it in, and you could call them.” He avoided my gaze, glancing at the stars. “Would that make you trust me more?”
This would be a cruel trick if he wasn’t being serious, but I couldn’t let a slight possibility go by if he was being genuine. “Yes.”
“Ugh, this sucks because I can’t see you tomorrow. People are noticing how I’m coming around more, so I need to at least take a day to be apart from you.” We continued our walk to the cabin, and he remained quiet until we passed by the last guard on the way to mine. “So, in two days I’ll come get you and bring the phone to you.”
“Deal.” A hard shiver hit me as the coldness spread throughout my body. My teeth began chattering, and my body began to quiver. Sweat covered my forehead, and I could barely stand on my own feet.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” He wrapped his arm around me, taking some of my weight off my legs.
“I don’t know. So cold.” That couldn’t have been a steroid he injected me with. The world seemed to shrivel as I focused on keeping one foot moving in front of the other.
Aaron pulled out a wad of keys as we approached my cabin, and within seconds, he had me inside.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” Deissy jumped out of bed and rushed over to me.
“Get her in bed.” Aaron rubbed his hands down my arms, and the buzzing couldn’t soothe me.
“You did something to her.” Deissy pointed to the top bunk. “She’s up there.”
“Okay.” He picked me up, and I crawled into the bed.
I wrapped my sheet around me, waiting for some kind of relief, but instead of feeling warmer, my eyelids only grew heavier. Whatever that doctor gave me was definitely not a steroid. What the hell did he put in me?
Chapter Fourteen
My eyes were heavy as I tried opening them the next morning. “Ugh, I think I’m feeling hungover.” Hell, in the old days, I’d put a lot of effort into attempting to get drunk, and it never happened. I had to pretend despite the numerous amounts of shots I put in my body. The only highlight was that I made some serious cash when it came to outdrinking the guys.
“I’ve been worried all night.” Deissy stood in the living room, staring at me. The problem was that I couldn't tell if she was truly worried or pissed off. Her look could have gone either way.
“That was not my intention.” I remembered how cold I’d felt last night. At least that part was over.
“What in the hell happened?” She glanced at the door and back at me. “Can you get up and get ready?”
Actually, I was okay after opening my eyes. Granted, I was still tired, but I didn’t feel horribly out of sorts. “Yeah, let me get down.” I crawled down the ladder to the floor. When my feet touched the ground, I paused to make sure I had my balance.
“Hurry and get ready, but you better tell me everything.” There was a promise in her golden eyes.
“Yeah, yeah.” I rushed into the bathroom to relieve myself and get ready. It didn’t take long before I walked back into the room.
“They should be here any minute, so spill it.” This time, her forehead was lined with worry.
“So, the doctor said he was injecting me with a steroid-like drug to help my shoulder heal.” It was odd since I had been almost completely healed by that point. “He filled a shot up and stuck it deep into my shoulder.” Ugh, it had been stupid painful. “It was cold and felt …” Damn, what was the word I was looking for? “I don’t know. Inky.”
“Steroids burn.” Deissy shook her head and came over to examine where he stabbed me. “They aren’t cold.”
“Then afterward, he took two more vials of my blood.” He might have been human, but at this point, he had to be more vampire than me.
“Girl, do you think that guard is in on it?” She put my shirt back in place and moved closer to the door.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure.” I wanted to proclaim his innocence, but things seemed to be a little too coincidental. “He said he’s going to let me talk to my parents.”
Fists pounded on the door as Deissy’s mouth opened.
I placed my index finger to my lips, making sure she stayed quiet. The last thing we needed was another guard poking around and getting all up in our business.
The door swung open, and of course, it had to be the biggest jackass in the prison other than Mac.
“Come on, ladies,” Pete grumbled as his unnerving eyes stared at me. “How are you two feeling this morning?”
He’d never asked that before. He had to know something. “I’m fine. Had real good sleep last night.”
“Well, marvelous.” He tilted his head to the door. “Come on, move it.”
Deissy grabbed my arm and pulled me outside with her. When we were several feet away and he was opening cabin fourteen, she leaned into my ear and whispered, “He knows something.”
“Yup.” I was glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed his oddness. Granted, he was a strange creeper.
“There’s my girls.” Sol jogged until she reached my other side. “Where’s the fire?”
“We’re super hungry.” If my loud voice didn’t alert her to something, I didn’t know what would. I went for smooth, but instead, it came out awkward as fuck.
She took a step back and waved her finger at me. “Oh, girl. That’s bad. You can’t lie.”
“Noted.” She was right. It was something I needed to work on. I’d have to learn to lie and do it well in order to get out of this shithole.
“She’s blunt and to the point.” Deissy shrugged and then bumped her shoulder into mine. “Lying isn’t second nature to her, and that’s one thing I’m grateful for.”
Jenee and a group of her girls caught up to us. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked my way. “How’s training going?”
It wasn’t going well, but I refused to tell her that. Let’s hope my lying skills were better. “Good.” That awkward loud voice reared its ugly head again.
“I’ve been watching, and she’s getting good after a couple of days.” Sol ran her fingers through her dark hair. “I wouldn’t act so cocky if I were you.”
“Listen here, Sol.” Jenee growled the words out. “The cockier you get, the more I’ll enjoy it when you have to crawl back to me.”
“That won’t
ever happen.” Sol patted Jenee on the arm. “But I appreciate your concern.”
“You were supposed to leave her alone until training was over.” Knox stepped from behind a large tree. “What’s going on?”
“What, I’m not allowed to talk to her? That’s a stretch.” Jenee arched an eyebrow. “I’m not fighting her if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Talk. Yes, by all means, go ahead.” Knox stalked between Jenee and me. “Bully. No.”
“When did you get all high and mighty?” Jenee sneered at him. “Before her, you were doing the same thing to anyone who you thought threatened your rank.”
“Is this what it’s all about?” The last thing I wanted to do was have a pack. I wouldn’t have known where to begin. “Don’t worry. Your spot is safe. I don’t want it.”
“You are an idiot.” Jenee narrowed her eyes and barked out a humorless laugh. “Even if you don’t want to take my place, if the others in my pack notice that I’m not fighting you, I’ll lose their respect. It’s not all about you.”
“Well forgive me. I didn’t know that.” I was tired of everyone shitting on me. Yes, I was a newbie and clueless, but damn … Why not explain it to me? “Unlike you, I’ve only known I was a supernatural for two months tops.”
“That’s no excuse.” Jenee lifted her head and looked down her nose at me. “You’d better learn and fast, or I’ll make sure you don’t survive after your month of training is up.”
“You know what?” Knox shook his head and scowled. “As much as it’s her fault, it’s your fault too. Do you think you really look strong, picking on someone who hasn’t tried to do anything that undermined you? You think that makes you look as if you’re a top-notch alpha? See, you never considered taking her under your wing because, for some reason, she scares you.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Even as she said the words, they fell flat.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.” He took a threatening step toward her. “Stop lying to yourself, and grow a pair.”
“All I want to do is survive here and find a way out.” So what if I was still naive. “Your thoughts and feelings are irrelevant to me.” Yeah, I should probably have shut my mouth … but who was I kidding? “The only time I think of you is when you seek me out yourself to harass and bully me. So why don’t you stop obsessing over me, and move on with your fucking life.”
“Damn.” Deissy giggled and tried to hide it by coughing and covering her mouth.
“And that’s how I’m going to win.” Jenee pointed two fingers to her eyes and then at me. “I’m watching you, and you’re going down.” She waved her hands forward to her squad, and they took off toward the cafeteria again.
“Really?” Knox turned around and smiled. “You do realize you antagonized her more and made things worse.”
“My mouth is a curse.” I mashed my lips together and shrugged. “Sorry?”
“If only that was sincere.” Knox rubbed a hand down his face and chuckled. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
“Oh, no.” Deissy punched Sol in the arm. “It’ll kill her first, but damn. I loved every minute. Her face was priceless.”
“You’ve got five minutes.” He jogged off in the direction of the cafeteria and glanced back at me quickly. “Don’t be late.”
Yeah, I had a feeling this was going to be a real … blast.
I’d rushed through my breakfast and made sure to make it to our meeting place ahead of time. It didn’t matter if I was still chewing the last wad of food I’d shoved into my mouth.
“Wow, you beat me here.” Knox's eyes landed on my face, and a huge grin filled his face. “Even if you’re still eating.”
“You never said I had to be finished.” The words were close to indistinguishable since my mouth was still full.
He shook his head. “You enjoy those technicalities.”
“Especially when they go in my favor.” It was true. I wasn’t going to lie.
“The most disturbing thing is I somehow know what you’re saying.” Knox rubbed his eyes. “I’m not sure what that says about me.”
“That you’re a man of many talents.” I cringed. Of course I’d say something stupid around him. He did awful things to my insides with just a look.
“Am I now?” He took a step closer to me. “What happened last night?”
“Don’t we need to train?” I was a little fatigued, but this was super important. It might help if I did get my ass kicked.
“A little birdie stopped me on the way out here to you.” He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “Do you have anything you want to tell me?”
“Nope, no clue what she was talking about?” I stared at the grass as if that was the key to lying successfully.
“If this is going to work, you gotta tell me everything.”
“If what’s going to work?” I was tired of getting all damned confused. It was as if one minute he wanted me, and in the next, he didn’t. Besides, at the end of the day, it shouldn’t matter. I didn’t need him to complete myself, but I knew it would be nice …
“Training. I mean training.” The words were so fast they were almost blurred.
“Yeah, okay. Training.” I swallowed the food in my mouth, ready to move on from this awkward conversation. “So let’s go.”
“Are you at one hundred percent right now?” He stopped tapping his foot and leaned forward like he was eagerly anticipating my answer.
That hussy told him. “You know the answer to that already.”
“Maybe, but I wanna hear it from you.” He stayed motionless, staring at me.
“Seems as if you already heard it, so why waste our time?” We were in a standoff. He wanted to hear it from me. Despite the fact that he wasn’t willing to admit there was something between us. So why should I have cared about how he wanted the story.
“Why are you so damn stubborn?” He lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m trying to help you, for God’s sake.”
“But yet, you’re only here for the training.” I had no clue why I was pushing it, but damn it, I was tired of being the only one all torn up inside. “So why the hell should you care?”
“Hey, keep it down over there.” One of the guards glanced at us. “You’re disturbing my nap.”
“Heaven forbid.” I placed my hands over my mouth.
“What’d you say?” The guard sat upright and glared at me.
“That comment was directed at me. Not you.” Knox turned toward me and put his finger to his mouth.
Yeah, I deserved that. “Yeah, he said he peed his pants so … yeah, heaven forbid.”
His brows furrowed, and he shook his head.
“Uh … Okay.” The guard sat back down and got comfortable. He muttered, “Stupid freaks.”
I opened my mouth, and Knox hurried over and covered it with his hands. “Don’t say anything else. Please.”
Ass. Even if he was right. I bit his hand and a drop of his blood hit my tongue. It was delicious like the other night.
He groaned and removed his hand, stepping back. “Damn.” He let out his breath. “You need to learn to keep that mouth of yours shut.”
“That’s not what you were saying a few minutes ago.” Oh, how his tune had changed.
“Stop with the games. Just tell me what happened.” Knox’s face turned a shade red.
I must have been frustrating him as much as he did me. “What did Deissy tell you?”
“We’ve been through this. I want to hear it from you.” His nostrils flared ever so slightly, and his jaw twitched.
“You said to stop playing games.” I pointed at him. “That includes you too.”
“Fine. She said that the doc said he was giving you a steroid but that you got sick.” He lifted his hand toward me. “Now it’s your turn.”
“What she told you was basically the gist, but I’ll add some details.” If I opened up to him, maybe he would return the favor. “My shoulder was pretty much healed, but he swore I needed th
e medicine. He jammed it into me because … well … that’s his thang, but it was cold and icky.”
“That doesn’t sound right.” He pointed at my shoulder. “May I see?”
At least he asked. That was a step in the right direction. “Sure.” I moved the cloth away.
“Yeah, it’s completely healed.” He ran his fingertips across my skin. “How are you feeling today?”
I wanted to shiver but held it back. I’d done enough embarrassing things today. “In all transparency, I feel the same, just tired. Last night though was a different story. I was cold. The stuff in the shot felt like it flowed through my entire body.”
“Did anything else happen?”
“Well, he took another two vials of blood, but they were substantially smaller than last time, so that didn’t make me feel weird.” It still didn’t make any sense why the whole thing had happened.
“Yeah, when that guard said that the doc was going to fix your shoulder, I knew that something had to be up.” He took my hand and pulled me toward the road back to the garden and barn. “Let’s take the day off. We need to make sure nothing else happens. We can’t risk you getting hurt.”
The last thing I needed to do was let him hold my hand, but I couldn’t pull it away. I’d gone farther with him than anyone, ever. My dating life had never been busy though I preferred to say I was super selective.
“I’m sure I’m fine.” I barely had time to train as it stood, and the last thing I wanted was to miss more time.
“How ’bout this?” He squeezed my hand gently. “If you feel fine by dinner, we’ll train tonight.”
That was kind of a compromise. “Fine, but be ready to fight tonight.”
“Only if you’re your normal self.” A small grin peeked through.
“I hate to break this up.” Aaron was several feet away from us, leaning against a tree. His normal boyish grin was missing. “But the doctor has specifically requested for me to come get you.”
“What?” That didn’t sound right. “But he saw me last night, and I thought it was going to be a day or so before you came back.”