Pretty in Orange

by J B Trepagnier

  “The guards are all asleep in their beds except two who are posted outside a door in the secret wing. That must be where Rathmore is sleeping.”

  “That can’t be right,” Skoll whispered. “This is a prison. There has to be someone awake.”

  I shook my head. “The only people awake are the two guards outside that door and four in another room listening to the surveillance system. They aren’t guarding these halls at all.”

  “Something isn’t right,” Skoll argued. “If breaking out of Scorchwood was this easy, more people would have done it.”

  Roman shook his head. “It was like this when I broke out too.”

  “The only reason they aren’t worried about people breaking out is that all these doors are demon technology. They can only be opened by the right key or an upper demon. The locks can’t be picked, and no level of magic or strength can open those doors unless it’s demonic.”

  “So, we’re doing this?” Skoll asked. “My wolf wants to kill.”

  I felt a little ball of warmth return to my belly as Fergus came back.

  “No one is there, my Ena, but you still need to be on guard. I will guide you to the secret door and help you open it. Do nothing to that door unless you are sure. One error and you could all die.”

  No pressure, right? I watched Amduscias touch the door. I heard the click of a lock, and the door swung open. I stepped through that door and took one step forward to revenge and freedom.

  Chapter 14

  Fergus

  T

  his would have been so much easier if Amduscias could have just gotten them all out of here, and I come back and just incinerate the entire secret wing of the prison. That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t just that this was something that Serafina and Roman needed to do for closure. Fire was a fickle element and notoriously difficult to control once you released it into the world and let it get more significant than you.

  Not even I could control a fire that would burn down that entire wing. It would eventually spread and kill everyone in prison. There might still be innocent elementals somewhere in this prison. I could only hope there was a shred of decency left in Eiltan, and he didn’t kill them just for shutting down when they were framed. I wouldn’t have been able to get them out like Serafina could if they were actually here.

  Just because I knew it had to happen this way didn’t mean I had to like it. For the first time since becoming a guardian, I was cursing myself for not having a proper body. If she never wished me real, I could live with that. Not being able to join this fight was killing me. I was the one with experience in the Fae world, and there was way too much Fae intrigue going on right now.

  Serafina may have grown up on the streets, but she was smart. If I walked her through it, she could handle the secret door. It just felt like I should be the one dealing with the Fae portion of this entire mess since I was full Fae, and it was my people doing this to her.

  We didn’t run into any trouble as I led Serafina down the maze of hallways to the secret door. All Serafina would have seen was a wall of stone. She was still half Fae, and she could tap into that. She had more magic than just her fire. I just never taught it to her because I didn’t think she would come across anything Fae in her lifetime. I was feeling woefully unprepared and like a shitty guardian.

  “What am I looking at here, Fergus? I just see a wall.”

  “You have Fae magic, my Ena. You have more than just your fire. Relax and stare at the center of the wall. Let your eyes go out of focus and think of your element. There are runes hidden in that wall. If you concentrate, they will glow blue for you.”

  “You think I can Fae Jedi mind trick this wall into showing me symbols? I’m not even full Fae.”

  I didn’t know if she could see the symbols. I didn’t have much experience with halflings. I stayed in the Fae realm when the portal opened to Earth because my charge didn’t want to go. When it closed, most people were in a lot of pain from leaving their children and grandchildren behind. No one talked much about what the halflings and generations after could access as far as Fae magic went. I was just counting on her being able to see them if I could feel the pull to her.

  “I know you can do this, Serafina. You can do anything you set your mind to. Focus. You’re the only one who can open those doors. Call to your fire and tell those symbols to show themselves to you.”

  That was one thing I loved about Serafina. There was never any waffling. If there was something that needed to be done, she just jumped in and tried until she mastered it. It had to be that way with her living on the streets. I could feel her concentrating, and I could feel her calling to her fire. I gave her some of mine to help her. I could sense Skoll and Roman backing away from the heat, but Amduscias stayed close in case she needed extra support.

  “Oh, shit. I see them,” she whispered.

  I knew she could do it. She didn’t know the Fae language, and she wouldn’t know what those runes meant, but at least she could see them. I could walk her through the pattern. This particular door had the Sunshadow family motto as the key. I realized that almost as soon as I saw the guard unlocking it. The guard wouldn’t have been able to see the runes, but they had probably been trained on the exact spots to touch, and more than one guard had perhaps died trying to open that door.

  “What do these symbols mean, Fergus?”

  “It’s the Fae language. Fae learns almost all the realm languages in school, but this is what they speak to each other. I never taught it to you because I never thought you’d come across the Fae. I can teach you when we get out of here.”

  “Let’s start with opening this door. I don’t want to fuck this up and get us all killed.”

  I knew the Sunshadows to be ruthless and cunning. This door would have been simple to open for a Fae. The Sunshadow motto was only three words, and whoever installed this door put the runes in an easy pattern. I knew why. The Fae in this prison had no hope of getting to this door, and no one else would have been able to see the symbols. The door was simple to unlock because of hubris. The Sunshadow king who had this door commissioned didn’t think another Fae could get to it and made it easy to open for the minions who kept his people captive.

  “It’s just three runes, and the pattern is easy. Start with the very bottom left. It means vigilant. Good. Now go to the very upper right. It means steadfast. Press that rune. Press the rune in the very center. It means order. Vigilant, steadfast, and order is the Sunshadow motto.”

  She pressed the center rune, and I watched the door swing open. Serafina just eyed the door.

  “Isn’t that like using password for your password?”

  “Back when this door was made, secret doors didn’t require fourteen characters, an uppercase, a number, and a special character, Serafina.”

  She whirled around and faced her mates. I knew she was talking to me too.

  “Let’s go bring some bitches down,” she said, stomping through the door.

  Chapter 15

  Amduscias

  I

  knew everyone wanted to just get in there and kill Rathmore, and honestly, with all the guards in here, that was probably the safest option. I wanted Rathmore dead just as much as everyone else did. Still, I was a demon, and I knew the merits of torture. Rathmore had a lot of answers to our questions. That squirmy little warlock couldn’t handle a prison beating. He’d be singing Fae secrets in my dungeon. Still, I couldn’t bring Rathmore outside this prison. Bael wouldn’t take him in, even if it were to torture him. Bael would kill him. Even if Bael were working for the Fae now, he would kill Rathmore because he knew too much. If Bael were still the man I knew, he’d kill Rathmore for hurting people I loved. It was just how he was. Bael could have a temper sometimes.

  I grabbed Serafina before she could go charging down that hall. Even if I couldn’t torture Rathmore for information, it could still give us answers to go through his lab before we destroyed it. I just didn’t know how to do that without alerting the guards
we were here and having them spirit Rathmore to safety.

  “Serafina, we need to go to the lab first. There might be answers there. I just don’t know how to ruin his research without alerting the guards we are here.”

  Serafina just gave me this evil grin. This was probably some modern thing I didn’t understand. Just looking out that secret door she opened, I didn’t recognize some materials out there. The floor was some strange, shiny material checkered like a chessboard, but it wasn’t marble.

  “I was in his lab, and Charley gave me my memories back. There were several computers in there. Once the wards are down, Fergus can get into the computers and scan the hard drives in seconds. Then, we just need to dump some water on them and destroy his samples.”

  I did not understand what a computer was or why Rathmore would have his research in one if pure water could destroy it. Serafina had talked about several miracle inventions since I got arrested, but back in my day, we made things much sturdier. Things held up to simple water. Sometimes, even ink on parchment could still be read if it got wet.

  Rathmore slept in this wing, but his room was down a different hallway than the lab. Fergus was guiding Serafina as she led us. I’ll say one thing for modern technology—this wing was ugly. It had no style at all. The walls were a stark white, and the floors were that strange material. Were they not using marble and wood anymore? Those were classics. This wing was just dull, and I didn’t see the point of it at all.

  I wasn’t expecting the lab at all. Roman was off drinking all the blood samples for a top off while Serafina opened a strange folding device. I didn’t know what kind of sorcery Rathmore had done with it. She pressed a button, and it came to life like they had enchanted it. The first thing we saw when she turned it on was Serafina!

  Skoll growled. “You didn’t tell us Rathmore trapped your soul in this device.”

  Serafina just giggled. “This is a computer, and that is just a photograph. Fergus is scanning it now to see if he can find out anything.”

  Roman started gagging and sputtering from across the room. He was still mowing his way through all the vials of blood.

  “I knew Jasmine tasted bad. That blood was like drinking seawater. It’s fresh, like it just left her body recently. Jasmine is alive and somewhere in this wing unless he took her blood and killed her. There’s not enough blood here for her to be dead.”

  I loved Roman to death, but sometimes he did things that didn’t make a lick of sense.

  “Roman, you don’t know who that blood belongs to. Are you sure you want to be drinking it?”

  He just looked at me with his fangs resting on his lower lip and blood dripping down his chin.

  “Yeah, I do. I know what Serafina’s blood tastes like. Jasmine was around you enough that I know what her blood smells like. This blood will tell me if those other elementals are still here and if they are alive. There’s something in all these samples that makes the blood nasty, but I can tell how old it is.”

  Serafina looked up. “There’s something in the vial that keeps it from clotting. That’s what you are tasting. Are there samples for anyone else besides Jasmine and I in there?”

  “There are a lot of samples here. More than just elementals. All the vials are labeled, but not with names. He’s given us numbers. One of these vials is a warlock, and it smells like Ballard. It’s a few weeks old. Wasn’t Ballard Jasmine’s latest conquest?”

  Yeah, he was. Jasmine was bragging about how well-hung Ballard was to anyone who would listen. I was guessing either Jasmine stole Ballard’s blood while he was sleeping, or there was another late-night gassing party at Scorchwood so Rathmore could get blood. There was some sort of madness to the men Rathmore was choosing for Jasmine, but what it was, I didn’t know.

  I heard Roman growl and a vial snap in half. I turned to him because we couldn’t let anyone know we were in here. If Roman would flip out and trash this lab, he’d better have a backup plan. Skoll was still just staring at that computer like he was trying to figure out how it worked.

  “He has our blood. This row of blood is all three of us, and it’s new. It had to have been collected when they kidnapped Serafina.”

  Now I was pissed off. There wasn’t a lot Rathmore could do with just a little of my blood as far as controlling me. He couldn’t control any of us with that tiny amount. He wanted it for something, and I knew when he figured it out, we might all go missing like Serafina and Roman did and have filthy magic put on us.

  Charley had said it was safe to do a magic pulse to crack the wards in this room so Fergus could get in, and Serafina still had her powers. She was just standing in the center of the room with her eyes closed, and her hands in the air.

  “Magic has been done to that blood too. I know the spell. It’s a lineage spell. It’s normally performed before witch and warlock marriages to make sure there’s nothing in either of the couple’s heritage that should prevent a marriage. It says if there are any relations in the past and if someone is not pure witch or warlock. Rathmore is not looking into relations. That’s only a concern when it’s a group that commonly marries each other. Rathmore is looking at the purity of your lineage. Why, I don’t know. Most supernatural groups rarely mix, but it seems like he’s looking to find out if you ever have.”

  “He’s handpicking people for Jasmine though. Roman, did you drink all of Ballard’s blood?” Skoll asked.

  Roman just screwed up his face. “No. It tastes funny because of that stuff at the bottom of the vial. I’m just sampling it to see how old it is.”

  “Charley, can you sense anything about Ballard as to why Rathmore would have chosen him?”

  “It’s old, but he’s got Cromwell in his family history. They are famous witches and warlocks. They were supposed to be very strong at magic. That’s the only thing in his family history. He’s pure warlock. His line has never mixed with another type of supernatural.”

  “Fergus knows what’s on this hard drive now,” Serafina said, standing up. “We need not stay here any longer than possible. Dump all the blood, and I will pour water on all the computers.”

  There was still a lot we could learn from that blood. Like if those other elementals were here and needed saving.

  “Wait. Roman, are you getting anything from that blood that the other elementals are here?”

  “Fergus checked this entire wing. The other elementals aren’t here. Jasmine is in a padded room and won’t stop screaming. Your handiwork?” Serafina said.

  I grinned. “She’s been demon touched. There’s no fixing her unless I do it. Did you want me to turn off her nightmare before we go? She will not last long. She’ll probably die in a few days, anyway.”

  “The only reason Rathmore stepped up his plans with me was that she cut me and stole my blood for him. She knew the other elementals disappeared, and she didn’t care. She will hand a helpless baby over to Rathmore if it meant getting out of here. Let her die,” Serafina said.

  I just shrugged. We’d all been dealing with Jasmine’s nastiness way longer than Serafina had. We got what we needed here. I still didn’t know why that strange computer started smoking when she poured water on it and why they didn’t construct it so it didn’t have such a significant weakness, but I didn’t have time to figure it out. We had a job to do.

  I stood up and rubbed my hands together. “What do you say we go kill Rathmore and get out of here?”

  Chapter 16

  Serafina

  W

  hat the fuck was going on in Scorchwood? It sounded like gassing the prison was a regular occurrence if Rathmore had blood samples from that many men. Was that the entire reason Jasmine had gotten chosen from all the elementals here? It didn’t matter. I didn’t have time to figure that out. We’d trashed all his blood samples. There were no filing cabinets in here. I dumped water on all the computers and off we went for a little murdering.

  Before we left, Skoll stripped off his trousers, and I got a nice peek at that monster between his
legs again. I heard his bones snap and watched him change into a wolf. It was pretty badass. I kept to myself when I was topside. I didn’t hang out with the other elementals, and I assuredly didn’t hang out with the shifters. I’d never seen one change before. It was amazing.

  Skoll was a magnificent wolf. He was bigger than a normal wolf. He came up to my waist, and he was ripped with muscle. His fur was mostly white and red with a little black in there. His eyes were glowing amber. He trotted over to me and nuzzled my hand with his muzzle. I had no idea if this would piss him off, but I buried my hands in his soft fur and scratched the top of his head. He let out this contented little growl, then a whine like he wanted us to get going.

  When I turned to the others, Roman’s fangs were out, and his eyes were glowing red. Amduscias was just Amduscias. He said we would see his demonic form only if we needed it, and I guess now was not the time. I would admit to being crazy curious about it. He was the first demon I’d met, and all I knew about demons was stories and horror movies. He blew all that out of the water, but would I see him differently when I saw his other form?

  “I can lead the way to Rathmore,” Amduscias said. “I remember what he felt like when I used to beat on him, and I can sense him in this wing. I know you are deadly with your fire, but let Skoll and I go first.”

  I just shrugged. I said I didn’t care who killed him as long as he was dead. I wouldn’t have minded if it was me or Roman that got to do the deed, but I wouldn’t be pissed if Skoll’s wolf tore him apart or Amduscias did to him what he did to Jasmine. Slow and painful wasn’t my style, but I wouldn’t bat an eye if Rathmore suffered a little.

  We’d come across no resistance so far, but that changed when we turned left down a hallway. Two men were guarding a door, and as soon as they saw us they started screaming for backup right away. They must have had earpieces in.

  “Get your asses down here! We have a problem. We—”