Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  My eyes widened in panic and I dropped to my hands and knees, scrambling back into the hole in the wall as I started dragging bricks into place behind me.

  Ethan wordlessly joined me, shoving them back where they belonged as I used my magic to create fresh mortar to bind them in place again.

  As I grabbed the last two bricks, Ethan caught my wrist and looked right into my eyes through the little hole which remained in his wall.

  “I’m going to want access to that cuff key, love,” he said in a deadly tone.

  “Fine,” I snapped, not having time to argue with him.

  If the guards were tossing his cell block it was only a matter of time before they came to toss ours too. I had to get back through the shafts, create a hole in my wall, seal it back up and hide the key and shank before that happened.

  Ethan nodded firmly and I pushed the last bricks into place so that I could seal them there.

  I scrambled away from him through the tunnel that cut through the wall, casting the faintest Faelight that I could manage just in case anyone appeared in the maintenance shafts.

  I crawled so quickly that I managed to cut my knee open on one of the bricks and I cursed as pain shot through my skin, but I didn’t have time to even pause and heal it.

  I scrambled into the maintenance passage and threw my hands at the wall of bricks there, urging them all back into place with a grunt of effort. I didn’t have time to waste making sure the job was perfect and I just had to hope that no one would come through this way and look too closely at the rough job I’d done before I got the chance to come back and fix it.

  I turned and ran as I fast as I could manage in the low space, my only relief being that no one had tripped my detection spells yet meaning my cell block was still clear of guards.

  Sweat beaded along my spine and in my panic, I missed a turning in the network of shafts and my foot suddenly stepped out onto nothing.

  I screamed as I fell, my stomach plunging as I tumbled down to the level beneath mine and I hit the floor hard, the wind driving from my lungs.

  I gasped for breath as I shoved myself upright again and quickly cast vines into existence hanging from the level above so that I could climb back up.

  My muscles bunched and strained as I heaved myself up the makeshift rope until I finally scrambled back up onto my level.

  Concentrate Rosalie, don’t fuck this up!

  I started running back the way I’d come as quickly as I could, taking the turn back towards my cell and spotting the hole in the wall ahead of me with a gasp of relief.

  A tingle raced along my spine as the first of my detection spells was breached and I cursed in panic as I dove into the hole.

  I didn’t have time to replace the bricks in the shaft so I left them, crawling as fast as I could until I reached the wall to my cell.

  I placed my palms against it and the mortar crumbled away so that I could shove the bricks out of my way and I half fell back into my cell.

  The sound of the guards barking orders downstairs reached me and sheer panic swept through my veins.

  I yanked the murder weapon from my pocket and tossed it back into the tunnel before turning and urging the bricks to move back into place behind me.

  The second detection spell was breached as a guard moved onto the stairs and the prickle it sent along my skin had my heart damn near exploding with panic.

  The third spell was breached as a guard moved beyond the first floor then the fourth as they passed the second. There was only one Order of Fae who could move that quickly and one guard in particular who always made a beeline straight for me.

  Shit, shit, shit, shit!

  The bricks finally made it back into place and I cast mortar into the gaps between them, but I didn’t have time to do a good job of it.

  Terror coursed along my limbs as I scrambled for a plan.

  I disbanded my silencing bubble half a second before Cain’s voice came from right outside my door.

  “Open on three, cell twelve.”

  Blind panic consumed me and I quickly dropped my jumpsuit, kicking my boots off in the same move and leaving the heap of material crumpled beside the wall in a vague attempt to cover the poor job I’d done on fixing it.

  The cuff key was tucked behind my sink and I quickly shut off my magic using the key but I had no time to hide it properly again as my door began to rattle open beyond the sheet I’d hung. I placed the key into the gap behind my sink as terror coursed along my limbs.

  I dropped to the floor in an instant and started doing push-ups to try and give myself a reason to be covered in sweat with my heart pounding like crazy.

  Cain’s silencing bubble spilled over my skin a second before his shiny black boots appeared beneath my nose and I fell still.

  “Get up,” he barked and I pushed myself to my feet, looking up at him as my mouth dried out. If he tossed my cell, he’d see the wall, find the key. I’d be thrown in the hole and everything would be over before it had even begun.

  “Hi,” I said, forcing my lips to turn up into a smile like I was pleased to see him.

  He frowned for a moment, his gaze sliding over me in my tank top and panties and fixing on my knee.

  “You’re bleeding,” he pointed out in a rough voice.

  “I, um…” My brain was all out of lies. I’d used them up, run them out, told too many too often and now when I needed one most, I couldn’t find one to save me.

  “You should save workouts for your time in the gymnasium,” Cain growled. “It’s hardly ideal to rip your knees raw on the stone floor in here.”

  “I don’t mind it rough,” I replied in a teasing tone that had him growling at me while I secretly thanked him for providing the lie I needed.

  “Up against the wall,” he commanded, his gaze hardening like he didn’t like me flirting with him. I was pretty sure he did though.

  I quickly moved to do as he’d asked, choosing the wall beside my bunk so that he’d be turning his back on the sink and my tunnel to search me. I placed my hands on the wall above my head and parted my legs as I waited for him to frisk me, though I didn’t know what he thought I might be hiding in my tank and panties combo.

  Cain moved to stand behind me, so close that I could feel the heat of his body radiating against mine.

  He reached out and ran his hands down my sides, skimming over the thin fabric I wore as my heart continued to pound with terror. I needed to distract him, to make sure he didn’t search the rest of my cell too thoroughly…

  As his hands made it to my hips, I spun around and leaned back against the wall, smirking up at him as he frowned.

  “Disobeying an officer is an infraction,” he growled. “Are you refusing to submit to a search?”

  “I’m sorry, Officer,” I said in a teasing voice. “Are you going to have to punish me?”

  I drew my hair over one shoulder and tilted my chin to the side in offering as his gaze hooked on mine.

  A deep growl left his throat as his fangs extended. “I prefer to hunt my meals than have them handed to me.”

  “Okay,” I shrugged innocently and his gaze hardened.

  Before he could say anything else, I ducked beneath his arm and darted away from him.

  Cain snarled as he whirled around and he caught me in an instant, twisting me back to face him and shoving me up against the bars which lined the front of my cell. The sheet I’d hung was the only thing hiding us from the view of everyone outside and my heart leapt at the dangerous game he was playing. I gasped as he caught my jaw in his grip half a second before his fangs drove into my neck.

  I’d never let a Vampire bite me in this way, not before he’d done it in the store cupboard the other day. I had to admit that I hadn’t been prepared for how good it might feel. Yes it hurt for a moment, but once the sharp sting subsided and my blood and magic began to slide from my body into his, a sense of euphoria began to trail along my skin, radiating out from the point at which his mouth met my flesh.


  I arched my back, pressing my body against his as he fed from me and reaching up to hold onto the back of his neck, dragging him closer as my skin tingled at his touch.

  His hands moved to my hips as he pinned me against the bars and I couldn’t help but moan at the feeling of his body pressing to mine.

  There was something about the darkness in Cain’s soul which called to me and when I was with him like this I just wanted him to draw me down into the shadows at his side.

  “Mason?” Hastings called from outside the cell and Cain jerked away from me suddenly, his eyes burning with a dark promise of violence like he thought I might be about to tell someone what he’d just done. “Fifty Eight isn’t cooperating.”

  Cain growled in frustration, reaching out to heal the bite mark on my neck and letting his magic fix my grazed knee too. He placed a finger to my lips and dropped the silencing bubble that surrounded us.

  “I’m coming,” he called back to Hastings with irritation lining his voice.

  He held my eye for a long moment like he was trying to figure out what I was thinking and I bit my bottom lip as I gazed back steadily.

  “Clean this shit up,” he snarled at me before shooting away, ripping everything from my bunk and tossing it to the floor. He yanked the sheet covering my door down last and sped outside, leaving my skin burning from his touch.

  “Cell twelve clear,” he barked into his radio as he sped away to help Hastings and I sagged with relief as my cell door rattled shut again.

  I quickly rehung my sheet and ran to fix the mess I’d made of my wall and hide the cuff key properly just in case anyone came to check on me again.

  My limbs were trembling with fear and my magic was running really low after he’d drained it, but I had just enough to make a good job of the wall and hide the key away.

  As soon as it was done, I remade my bed and flopped back down onto it with a smug as fuck grin biting into my cheeks.

  In the morning I’d retrieve Sin’s weapon from behind the wall and Roary would slip it into Two Hundred’s pocket for me at breakfast. We’d already commissioned a Veiled Wall job for someone to snitch to a guard about an inmate having contraband on them while we were in the Mess Hall, and as soon as he was found with the murder weapon, he’d be dragged off to isolation and Sin would be set free.

  I closed my eyes as the sound of the search continued to wash over me and my heart finally began to settle. That had been too damn close. But it had been such a rush too.

  I was doing a handstand in the centre of my cell. Isolation goal number two hundred and ten? Check.

  With all the blood in my body rushing to my head, my dick was given some reprieve from dwelling on Rosalie. I swear I’d been hard since I’d almost stolen a kiss from her. And jerking myself off in my lonely cell didn’t really appeal. So I tried not to think about how much I wanted that pretty little mouth hole of hers. Didn’t help knowing I was probably going to be here until I was an ancient pile of bones. I’d still have a rager for her though, right on into the afterlife.

  I’d been going over in my mind the few things I knew about her. I’d seen the symbols on her jumpsuit so I knew she was a Werewolf which was fan-fucking-tastic because everyone knew that Wolves fucked like animals and were up for trying just about anything. And secondly, she was an earth Elemental which meant she could perform all things bondage related with nothing more than a flick of her wrist. And I’d imagined her doing just about all of them in the days that had passed since I’d seen her.

  A voice caught my ear down the hall, a guy shouting. “I didn’t do it! Someone planted that weapon on me!”

  “It’s been confirmed by a Chimera, fuckwit. You’re going to rot in here,” Cain’s voice came in response. A bang sounded as the guy was dumped into a cell and a door slammed shut a second later. I remembered my first few days in isolation like a strange dream. It was easier to accept it sooner rather than later and start talking to yourself to fill the silence, because no one else was going to. It was either that or go crazy. And my twelve personalities didn’t want to end up in Psych just because isolation was rough on them.

  Knuckles banged against my door and I flipped over onto my feet, staggering as I readjusted to being the right way up.

  “Open in isolation, cell eight,” Cain’s gruff voice was followed by the crackle of the radio. My heart thrashed excitedly. I got let out once a week for a shower, but I’d just had one yesterday. So this had to be something else.

  A heavy clunk signalled the door releasing and it swung wide. Cain stood there with a bored expression on his face, his arms folded tightly across his wide chest.

  “The stars must be shining brightly on you, Eighty Eight,” he said in a low growl.

  “What do you mean?” I drifted towards the edge of the cell, scraping my tongue across the roof of my mouth as I gazed out at all the free space surrounding Officer Frown.

  “It means…” He stepped up into my personal space and I didn’t mind that one bit. I needed the closeness, the heat of another body and I didn’t care if it was his. “That the murder weapon showed up in Two Hundred’s possession. So you’re a free man. And I use the term free very lightly.”

  My heart lurched like it was about to take off right out of my chest. “No fucking way,” I breathed.

  “Yeah,” he said, stepping closer and dropping his arms so his chest bumped against mine. So warm. So fucking good. “But I’m not an idiot, I know someone’s watching your back, Eighty Eight. Do you really think Two Hundred would walk around with a murder weapon in his pocket? You should have seen how shocked he looked when we pulled it from his jumpsuit.” His mouth curved up in the semblance of a smile as he recalled that and I shrugged in answer, a shit-eating grin tugging at my mouth. Rosalie had pulled through for me. She was clearly as badass as she claimed. And I planned to claim that bad ass pronto.

  “I’m as innocent as a nun in a whorehouse,” I said sweetly, leaning close to his face, refusing to blink.

  He didn’t balk like most people did when I looked at them like that. My eyes always betrayed my unpredictable nature, but I guessed Cain knew he had the upper hand.

  “I’ll be watching you,” he said in a dark tone, then his hand closed around my wrist and he dragged me into the hall. I swear the air tasted better out here already, but nothing would compare to the daylight and sweet air up in the Order Yard. How long would it be until I got to go there? I was dying to get out in the sun, but more than that, I needed to hunt down my Wolf girl and fuel my magic reserves with her sexual energy. I was going to shift into her darkest desire and claim her body like no Fae had ever done before. They didn’t call me wild just because of my name. I had a reputation of becoming pure animal when I fucked a girl.

  Cain lifted his radio to his lips as he guided me out into the stairwell and I just about pissed myself with excitement. “Sin Wilder moving to general population. Backup needed at Cell Block B for reintroduction.”

  A dark smile pulled at my mouth as we moved upstairs. They knew what was going to happen the second I stepped into that block. And they wanted more eyes on me in case I killed again. But I wasn’t stupid enough to give up my freedom so soon. A few broken bones wouldn’t hurt though.

  We soon arrived on level four and energy flashed through my veins like lightning.

  “How much restraint do you have, Eighty Eight?” Cain asked in a mocking tone. “One more death and I’ll lock you in the hole for the rest of your sentence. And as you’re in here for life, that’s one hell of a long time to be alone in the dark.”

  “Monsters grow in the dark, Officer. Be careful what you do with me.”

  “Is that a threat?” he snarled, resting his hand on the baton at his hip.

  “The day I threaten you is the day you die.” I smiled brightly at him and he glowered, hauling me along toward Cell Block B where I-shit-you-not over thirty officers were standing around the door. “Is this welcome party just for me? You’re a little sparse on the banners.
”

  They said nothing and I gnashed my teeth at Officer Rind so he shrank back against the wall, drawing a manic laugh from my lungs. Cain shoved me toward the door and nodded to Officer Luscious who pressed her palm to the scanner. I smirked at her and a blush lined her cheeks as she looked down at her shoes.

  I started bouncing on my heels as the door parted before me and the metal bridge extended over the void below. Convicts looked up to see what was happening and I grinned hungrily, doing a mental sweep as I hunted for the meanest assholes in here who were holding the top floor cells. I was ready to unleash the furious energy which had been locked in my veins for months.

  “Hello pretties,” I purred, stepping out onto the bridge. A bunch of the weakest Fae ran into the coop to hide and my smile stretched wider. “Daddy’s home.”

  I stepped off of the bridge and it immediately retracted behind me. I spared a glance for the officers gathered by the door, keeping it open to watch me. And if they wanted a show, they were about to get one.

  I headed to the stairs and Fae lurched out of my way as I raced up to the top floor and moved along the walkway as I picked out a cell. Well fuck it, why have one cell when I could have three?

  I lunged at a shirtless fucker who resembled a walrus, snatching him by the throat and throwing him over the railing before he even knew what had happened. He screamed in alarm, hitting the metal floor below with a thwack that rang throughout the entire block. Fae came spilling out of their cells to watch as I moved to the railing, leaning over the edge and cupping my ear as I listened for signs of life. A grunt said the shitbag was still breathing and I tossed a wink at the guards in the doorway before turning back to my prey. Two girls and a towering bastard I was fairly sure was a Minotaur were approaching me. I rolled my neck as adrenaline surged into my limbs.

  “Form a queue,” I instructed, hoisting myself up onto the railing and standing there as I selected my next opponent from the line-up. I pointed at the girl with the pissed off eyes and tattoos covering ninety percent of her body. “Let’s dance, sugar.”