Officer Lyle eyed me closely, a smile tugging up one corner of his mouth before he swept his hand over his dark red hair. “Morning, Shadowbrook. You’re looking well today.”
Dude had a boner for me the size of a meteor trail and I was more than happy to play into it. Keeping guards on side was a speciality of mine. That was why I’d never ended up in the hole in all my time here. I could sweet talk my way out of anything. And I wasn’t beyond flirting with any guard I had to to keep them from paying too much attention to me beyond my exterior.
“Not as good you, Officer.” I leaned towards the glance with a wink. “That boyfriend of yours is a lucky man.”
He waved a hand at me with a chuckle then pressed a button and I practically bounded out into the Magic Compound. The fence and ceiling pulsed with blue light. It was a cage of mesh surrounded by guards beyond it, watching us from the outside. There were sets of bleachers around the edges and groups of picnic tables in the middle. They hadn’t exactly gotten an interior designer in to make the place look nice, but it was functionable. The entire level contained the Compound and the space was so big that they could never man us too closely. Not unless they wanted to step in here and face the wrath of a thousand psycho inmates’ magic. Unlikely.
The ground beneath my feet was concrete, the yard intersected by one wall at the centre of it where we could play wall ball. The Lunar Brotherhood gathered on this side of the wall and the Oscura Clan gathered on the other. The rest of the cliques and gangs split between the two sides. A lot of Fae gravitated towards their Orders while others banded together in various alliances. Gustard and his unFae crew of fuckers he called The Watchers were beating the living shit of a guy already while he was held down with magical vines. The guards shouted out to them in warning, preparing their stun guns and Gustard called off his dogs before they offloaded them. The fact that tattoo-faced fucker had his people attack as a unit instead of Fae on Fae made me sick. He had no pride, he’d sell his soul for power. And there were plenty of people in here willing to follow him because of it. Next to me, the Alpha of the Oscura Clan and Roary Night and his Shades, he was other top power in here. And his cutthroat ways had quickly made him an enemy of mine for more reasons than one.
I headed to the long row of benches beside the wall where I always held court, casting shards of ice in my palms and sighing at the release of my magic. If Fae didn’t use their power regularly, it could drive them to insanity, and it wasn’t worth a prison full of violent nutters to keep us from using it. So this was their solution. Allowing us out here every afternoon to keep us sane. Even the hours I had to wait in between always made me desperate to let my power out. I couldn’t imagine what any longer than that would be like. Hence why I worked so hard to keep myself out of isolation. It wasn’t that I didn’t get up to bad shit in here on a daily basis, I was just clever about it. I made sure nothing led back to me, and if it did, I always had an exit strategy.
I sat down at the centre of the front bench, eyeing the wall as several Fae snatched up the worn red ball which lay beside it and started kicking it. The best thing about that wall, was that it wasn’t just a bunch of bricks. It held magic within it which had been put there by an infamous prisoner called Regan Novak who’d gotten himself executed in here a long time ago. He’d been a genius because he’d subtly set up this wall without the guards ever knowing. And so long as you knew the secrets it hid and how to access them, you had a serious advantage in Darkmore.
We called it the Veiled Wall. Anything you needed, you could post it on the wall in secret then other Fae could place offers to take the job, naming their price until you found one you were willing to pay.
I nodded to Harper and she whistled to the Fae playing wall ball. One of them tossed it to her and she passed it to me in turn, her gaze falling to her hands to check the jobs. I spun the smooth ball between my fingers then tossed it back to the players. I only needed to touch it once and the latest jobs revealed themselves to me on the back of my hand. Only I could see them. It was an illusion that fucking genius Novak had come up with and it made it impossible for the guards to detect.
I always got a high breaking the rules. I just didn’t know when to quit. Maybe I was addicted to adrenaline. Who really knew? That need lived in me as physically as my damn organs. I just couldn’t resist a rush when it came calling.
I scanned my eyes over the jobs on my hand, the words appearing in inky lettering that almost looked the same as the tattoos of my sleeves. There was always the usual thing, inmates wanting food, money, drugs. Then there were the more interesting jobs. Someone wanted a shank made while another wanted a Kripclaw bone. I got my pack to take on jobs if I needed anything. I was getting pretty low on hair product and I knew a guy who knew a guy who could get me a Kripclaw bone in here fairly easily. There was a drop point in commissary where items could be delivered anonymously, packaged up with a number on it that related to the job they’d done.
The ball bounced my way again and I caught it, rubbing my thumb over the plastic and using magic to reply to the Kripclaw job before tossing the ball against the wall to send the message. My offer would appear on the hand of whoever had posted the job. It could even be some Oscura scum for all I knew. But that was how the Veiled Wall worked. Keeping the jobs anonymous meant no one could snitch. And I was willing to accept I was probably doing a job or two for the Oscuras on occasion for the sake of keeping the wall intact. It was valuable beyond belief.
The last of the Fae were filing into the yard and my eyes hooked on Rosalie as if a magnet had drawn me to her. A flash of yesterday flared in my mind, her body bending and bowing to mine then pushing me down, trying to dominate me. She was a wild creature I needed to tame. It had been so long since I’d been challenged, I was itching to make her fall at my feet and howl to the moon just for me. Soon, love. Soon.
I growled as I spotted the Oscura pack swarming around her and rage sliced at my gut. Had they claimed her already? Had I really lost her to my enemies so soon?
I pushed to my feet as an Oscura bitch directed Rosalie beyond the wall, but there was no chance in hell I was letting her pass into their territory. She was going to be mine.
I strode forward, hunting for the Oscura Alpha in the group. I’d challenge her for Rosalie and claim her as mine right here, right now. Where the fuck is she?
I spotted her stepping to the front of the group with her head held high. Amira Kumari was an empty hearted witch who always looked at me like I was a piece of dirt. And she gave me that same look now as she noticed me approaching.
Rosalie moved to the front of the group as she spotted me. “Hi,” she said lightly, her brows lifting and amusement dancing in her big eyes. I got captured in them for a moment, offering her a smirk.
“Hey, love. I need a word with your Alpha. No one steals you away from me without a fight.” I looked to Amira and she bared her teeth.
“I’m challenging you, Alpha. I want this Wolf as my own,” I growled, rolling my shoulders back.
“Oh really?” Amira laughed like I was missing something. “You sure you want this pup in particular?”
“Yeah I’m sure,” I said in a snarl.
Rosalie stepped forward, raising her chin, getting right up in my personal space, a twisted sort of smile gracing her lips. She rested her hand to my chest as that psycho smile grew and my heart thudded unevenly under her palm.
What the fuck is happening right now?
“I’ve already chosen the Oscuras,” she said simply. “In fact, it was never really a choice.”
I barked a laugh, fucking howled it. Because bull. Shit. She was mine.
“Don’t worry, love, I can undo that choice for you real fast.” I looked over her shoulder at Amira who looked like she was about to laugh her head off, but Rosalie caught my chin, yanking my head around and setting her jaw.
“I’m Rosalie Oscura of the Oscura Clan. I was raised by Bianca Oscura, mother of the Storm Dragon who I’ve ridden with in the c
louds countless times.”
I fell back a step, horror sinking into my bones. My skin crawled with ants as I felt her hands everywhere on me, remembering her touch like a burning flame.
“No.” I shook my head, denying it. “No!” I snapped, lurching back into her face and baring my teeth. “Do you know who I am?!” I bellowed and silence rang out in the yard as every single head turned in our direction.
That smile of hers danced, lighting a fucking furnace in my chest as she nodded.
“I knew,” she whispered, her breath fluttering over me and tasting too fucking familiar.
“Bitch!” I grabbed her shoulders, throwing her to the ground with a blast of water.
She rolled fast, baring her teeth as she lunged upright again and vines twisted around her palms a second before she shot them at me. Two snapped around my throat and she force me to the ground with a sharp whip of her hands. I coughed against the tightening vines, casting a blade of ice in my palm and slashing right through them.
I leapt back to my feet as adrenaline crashed through my veins and I threw the blade at her with a yell of fury. She dodged aside and one of the Oscura Wolves melted it with a flash of fire as it sailed toward their ranks.
“Hey!” Officer Cain’s voice carried to me from the fence behind her, but I was in too much of a rage to stop fighting.
I sent a tsunami of water towards Rosalie and she bent the concrete beneath her feet, ripping it up and building a wall between the wave and her pack. I snarled, racing forward as the wave broke against her magic and casting steps of ice up the broken concrete before leaping over it.
Just as I fell on top of her, Cain offloaded a stun gun and the shot slammed into my chest. I hit the ground as what felt like a thousand volts of electricity raced through my limbs. I bit my tongue as I jerked on the ground, losing sight of everything around me. When the pain finally stopped, I pushed myself up onto all fours, panting heavily as I lifted a hand to my chest to heal myself.
Rosalie was still under the influence of another shot, a scream ripping from her as she writhed on the ground beside me.
“Fix the mess you’ve made or you’ll both lose Compound privileges for a week!” Cain roared and I pushed myself to my feet, my head spinning, but I still managed to laugh at Rosalie on the ground. That whore deserved to hurt for what she’d dared do to me.
She was freed from the electricity at last and her pack rushed forward to help her up. She pushed them back, getting to her feet herself and eyeing me with her upper lip peeled back.
I siphoned the water away around us while she put the concrete back into place. Earth Elementals could only dig so far down in the ground in here before they hit another magical fence, and from the sparking blue light that was shining up from the holes in the concrete, I guessed she’d hit it.
The urge to shift ripped through to my core, but I couldn’t do it here. It wasn’t possible. And even if it was, I couldn’t fight her properly with the guards watching. But I was sure as shit not gonna let this lie.
As she finished fixing the ground, I strode towards her and cast a circular wall of ice around us along with a silencing bubble. I knew we only had a few moments before Cain melted it away; I could already feel the heat of his magic pushing at mine. But I was powerful enough to keep it intact long enough to have this conversation.
“Why would you do this?” I demanded and she batted her lashes like she was entirely innocent of anything.
“Do what Ethan?”
“You know what!” I fought the urge to attack her again, starting to pace as I clawed a hand through my hair. “I’m your enemy, why would you even want to fuck me? You knew who I was!”
She approached me with her head cocked to one side and something about her expression almost disarmed me. I could taste her magic in the air and feel the feather-light brush of it against my skin. My anger started to soften and I turned to her with a need in me so desperate it almost broke me. She was a stranger and yet she felt so familiar. Like I knew her from some other life.
She reached for me, stroking her fingers across my arm and her magic tingled gently against my skin. “Honestly? I was drawn to you…don’t you feel this connection between us? We’re perfectly matched.”
A lump rose in my throat and the kiss of her magic slid further up my skin. It took me a second longer to realise she was trying to bedazzle me and I roared in anger, shoving her back a step. I let Cain’s magic burn through my ice and water cascaded down around us, splashing over the ground.
I pointed in her face as a dangerous growl rumbled through my chest.
My pack had gathered close and hers were eyeing us up as if this might break into an all out war. But that wasn’t what I wanted even if we could have gotten away with it here. I wanted it to be me on her in Wolf form. I was going to tear her throat out and show her who the true Alpha of this prison was.
“I’ll see you in the Order Yard,” I hissed, painting on a smirk despite the fact that everything inside me felt hollow, dead.
“I’ll be waiting,” she said easily.
I stood my ground, watching as she moved into the Oscura pack with her head held high and they headed beyond the wall. She threw me a glance over her shoulder before she stepped beyond it and those large brown eyes cut deep into my soul. She’d made a fool of me. Fucked me like a whore and for what? To see me shatter now before her?
I clenched my fists as I returned to the benches, my pack swarming around me as they growled and chatted about the new Oscura bitch. She was beautiful, dark and utterly psychotic. And if she wanted to play dirty then she’d picked the wrong guy to fuck with. Because no one played dirtier than me.
At the end of my second day of living at the pleasure of the Celestial Throne in the sanctuary for deeply darkened Fae which they called Darkmore Penitentiary, we were finally called out for a session in the Order exercise yard.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone a day without shifting into my Werewolf form and it felt a lot like having someone cut off one of my limbs. I wasn’t whole without my Wolf to call on. I wasn’t me. But now we were finally on our way up to the top floor of this underground prison and even better than that – I was about to see the sky!
Each Order of Fae needed something different to replenish their magic supplies and as I’d burned mine low fighting with Ethan in the Magic Compound, I was extra excited that this session was being held at night. As a Werewolf, I needed to run beneath the light of the moon to replenish my magic. Any moon would do, though of course I loved the extra rush of power I got from a full moon on a clear night, but even a total eclipse during a thunder storm would boost my power reserves. It was all about running in my Wolf form while the moon was overhead, and to say I loved it would be selling my own feelings short.
Other Orders required their own methods to replenish: a Dragon needed to be in contact with gold for a prolonged period of time, a Medusa needed to look into a mirror and gaze upon their reflection, a Pegasus needed to fly through the clouds. And of course the parasitic Orders just stole magic from other Fae; Sirens fed on your emotions to drain you of your magic, their gifts allowing them control over how you felt and Vampires just sucked it right out of your veins, assuming they could overpower you to do so. Not that many Vampires had managed that with me.
We got five Order Yard sessions a week, each held at slightly different times of day as there were Orders who required different things from the heavens to boost their magic. As a Nemean Lion, Roary needed to sunbathe to replenish his so this night time session wouldn’t do much for his magic, but he’d chosen to join me all the same with the promise of showing me where the Oscura Wolf pack met for their runs and giving me a tour of the Order Yard for good measure.
“Are you ready to run with the big boys, pup?” Roary breathed in my ear, sneaking up on me as I crossed the gangway towards the exit.
“You should be more worried about whether or not the big boys are ready to run with me,” I purred, turning
to look at him. Gah, he was even more attractive than I remembered from my teenage fantasies. Honestly, how was it fair that someone could have such perfectly chiselled features and eyes like molten gold? It was no wonder I was always blushing around him. He looked like some kind of Demigod, especially with that dark hair spilling around his face and the light catching in his eyes…
“Rosa? I asked you a question.” Roary frowned at me and I cursed internally.
“Sorry, I was thinking about…pudding…”
“What do you want?” a deep voice asked.
I damn near flinched out of my skin as the enormous Bear Shifter loomed over me, appearing like a damn ghost out of nowhere. Roary Night’s pretty face had me so moon addled that even my instincts were going to shit. Dammit.
“Want?” I asked in confusion as the Bear Shifter waited for a reply. Roary barely concealed a laugh and I cut him a glare.
“You said you were thinking about me,” the Bear growled impatiently, looking at me like I was being purposefully dumb.
“No I didn’t. I said-”
“That you were thinking about Pudding. I’m Pudding. So what do you want?” he demanded and it took my brain a full five seconds to figure out what the fuck he was on about.
“Oh…no, sorry. Not Pudding like you, Pudding. I meant pudding like the little pots of-”
Pudding turned and walked away from me without another word and my eyebrows rose as I watched him go. Fae didn’t turn their back on me. Like, ever. They knew better than to toss that kind of insult my way and expect to get away with it, but the Bear Shifter who lived in the cell beside mine clearly gave no shits. And I kinda wanted to be his best friend because of it.
Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1) Page 11