Lyle was chuckling already but I wasn’t done yet.
“’Alright, we’ll give it a go!’ the Tiberian Rat says enthusiastically and he stands up to go first. He drinks almost all of the bottle of Sourache then stumbles forward and collapses unconscious on the floor. The Pegasus steps up next, drinks the entire bottle of Sourache then staggers into the room with the Dragon Shifter. A tremendous roar sounds followed by a terrified whinny, and a second later the Pegasus comes running back out of the room in his Order form with one of his wings burned off.
Unshaken, the Incubus rises to the challenge. He grabs a bottle of Sourache off of the bar and drinks the whole thing.”
Lyle gave me his full attention, his eyes wide as the punchline loomed.
“The Incubus strides confidently into the room with the Dragon Shifter and another tremendous roar carries to the bar, followed by another and another, then the entire bar trembles and shakes as a loud banging sounds against the door.”
I grinned at Lyle, as he stared at me with undisguised delight in his eyes.
“The Incubus steps out of the room, bleeding and battered and says, ‘Now, where is that lady with the splinter in her foot…’”
Lyle howled a laugh, clutching his side as honest to the stars tears glistened in his eyes. I smirked at him, shaking my head as he totally lost it.
“Is that better than the Medusa and the snake charmer one?” I asked and he nodded, unable to answer through his laughter. “I’d better up my game for next time.”
He swiped at his eyes, still chuckling as we made it to visitation and slowed to a halt in front of the double doors.
“In you go, Night,” he encouraged with a wide smile on his face.
I gave him a nod and filed through the doors, a scanner running over me before I stepped out into the corridor full of doors. The rest of the inmates followed me in and I noticed some of them were grinning at me so maybe my jokes weren’t too piss poor after all.
A guard with a clipboard called us forward one at a time, directing us into the rooms and I waited my turn with anticipation racing through my limbs.
“Sixty Nine!” Officer Harding called at last, pointing me toward room fifteen. I hurried forward, opening the door and pushing through it. The room held a single table with four chairs at the heart of it and another door at the far end.
I smoothed down my hair, waiting to see if Leon had brought anyone else with him. The camera in the corner of the room glinted at me as I waited and waited, sweat beading on my brow.
The door finally opened and Leon strode in, his loose mane shining like pure gold around his shoulders. His smart white shirt and jeans were a far cry from anything I’d been privy to in a long time and a flashy watch adorned his wrist. I glanced over his shoulder once to be sure he was alone and my heart splintered before I pushed the feeling away and rushed forward to embrace my brother. He clapped me on the back, hugging me tight and the scent of fresh air and freedom clung to him like a drug.
“Looking sharp, brother.” I stepped back, slapping on a taunting grin and he smirked right back at me.
“I would say the same to you, but it would be a total lie. Orange isn’t really your colour,” he laughed and I joined in as we moved to the table and dropped into seats opposite each other.
“How’s our moms? And dad?” I tried to keep my voice level, but I always asked him this, hopeful that their disappointment in me might have finally started to subside.
Leon’s smile fell away as he leaned back in his seat with a sigh. “Everyone’s good. Dad is still…dad. I stole an emerald bracelet right off the wrist of the mayor’s wife the other day and do you know what he said?”
“Shame it wasn’t diamonds,” I said at the exact same moment Leon did and we started laughing.
Our amusement soon faded away as a tightness filled my chest and Leon sighed. A heaviness filled the air and I reached out to my brother, patting him on the arm. Dad had always been harsh on us, and I’d once thought that was to make us better Fae. But maybe I was wrong.
“Pfft, I never liked diamonds anyway,” Leon said, puffing out his chest and I nodded, withdrawing my hand as I fixed on a smile.
“Yeah, so dull.” We shared a sad sort of smile that spoke of a lifetime of Dad’s disappointment in us, but at least I knew he could never be more disappointed in my brother than me anymore. That was one good thing which had come out of this shitstorm. Because Leon had once gotten the shittier end of Dad’s treatment, but now he’d taken the top spot as his golden boy. So I knew he wouldn’t be bothered by Dad too much these days. Not when he had a failure of a brother to compare him to.
I dropped my gaze, wanting to change the subject. “Do they know about Rosa?”
Leon grinned. “Everyone knows about Rosa. Bianca is losing her shit even though Dante told her it’s going to be okay.” He gave me a meaningful look and I threw a surreptitious glance at the camera behind him, wondering how we were going to discuss this without giving away what Rosa was up to.
“She’s got a lot of belief in herself,” I said slowly.
“I know. Dante’s got a lot of faith in her too.”
“And what do you think?” I asked. “I mean…I’m worried about her.”
He nodded then shrugged. “She’s an Oscura, bro. They’ll do what they wanna do. And they don’t do anything without a plan.”
My ears pricked up at that. I knew Rosa had a plan, not that she’d shared it with me. But maybe I wasn’t giving her enough credit for how prepared she was for breaking out of here.
Leon’s eyes caught the light and I smirked. “So how’s the family?”
His whole face lit up as a smile split across his cheeks. “They’re good, dude. The kids miss you.”
My heart twisted sharply as I nodded. My little brother had found everything he’d ever wanted beyond these walls. And sometimes it was hard not to envy him, despite how happy I was for him and his wife. But the fact that my nephew and niece weren’t allowed to visit here until they were sixteen was just plain painful.
“They’ve never even met me, Leonidas,” I said, forcing a smile despite it hurting my fucking face.
“Well they basically have. I show them pictures all the time and tell about their great Uncle Roary and all the crazy robberies he pulled off.” He beamed and I nodded, trying to take some comfort in that.
“Hey er…out of interest, how did you know your wife was the one for you?” I asked, leaning forward across the table. We hadn’t ever discussed it much seeing as I’d gotten carted off to Darkmore not long after he’d found her.
Leon’s brows raised as he eyed me like a detective. “Whyyy?” he asked in a sing-song voice.
“Just wondering,” I grunted.
He chuckled softly. “Well I guess I knew the first time she brushed my hair. I couldn’t even let my Mindys do that.”
My heart jerked and I schooled my expression as I nodded. Leon used his Charisma to create a massive army of helpers he called Mindys. Although, I wondered if he still used them as much these days.
I pushed a hand into my hair and thought of Rosalie. Maybe I shouldn’t have let her brush it after all. But being touched like that by her had felt so right, I didn’t want to stop her doing it in future. Besides, just because that had meant something for Leon and his wife, that didn’t predict anything between me and Rosa. I was strong-willed enough to keep my hands off of her.
“That’s nice man,” I said with half a smile.
“I’m sure you’ve got plenty of pretty things to look at in here, you could have anyone you want. Even that blonde guard with the nice ass who signed me in might be single.” He winked and I sat up a little straighter. Leon smuggled stuff in to me through the guards, planting it in their pockets so I could steal it back off of them on the way out. So long as it was small enough to go unnoticed, he got me little bottles of shampoo, chocolate bars, candy. Treats that made life in here more bearable.
“Harding?” I guessed.
We soon fell into a conversation about Pitball as Leon caught me up on the League, jumping up from his seat and playing out the best moments in dramatized slow motion.
I felt miles better by the time visitation was over, but hugging him goodbye hurt like a bitch. These short moments we spent together were the highlights of my time in here, but beyond these walls he had a whole life to return to.
In Darkmore, life pressed pause. And by the time I got to press play again, I’d be in my late forties with no kids, no future, and returning to a world that had long since forgotten I was once a part of it. And I was starting to think, if Rosa really did have a solid plan to break out, maybe it would be worth the risk of getting caught and having another ten years slapped onto my sentence to gamble on my freedom. The old Roary would have rolled the dice. So maybe it was time for the new Roary to get back in the game and commit to this escape plan with all my heart.
“Again.”
I panted as I looked across the ring at Papà, my chest heaving as sweat coated my skin. His cold gaze slid over me analytically and I tried not to favour my left foot as my other ankle stung like hell. If he spotted the injury mid-round, I was done for.
“You hit like a little bitch,” I hissed, spitting blood from my mouth. At eleven years old I could swear more colourfully than a sailor and I’d long since learned that Papà preferred it when I did. He might have been a cruel sonofabitch but there was method to his madness.
Every spiteful word, every snarl, slap, punch and kick were all aimed to toughen me up. To teach me a lesson about life and survival. Only the tough made it in this world. It was Fae eat Fae and a runt like me had to learn to fight twice as hard if I expected to make it out alive.
“I said, again!” Papà barked and I lurched forward despite the pain in my ankle.
His grey eyes flared with triumph as they flicked to my injured leg and I almost whimpered as he came at me.
But instead of giving in to the inevitable, I gritted my teeth and dove forward anyway.
His foot connected with my ankle and I yelped as something cracked within it and pain splintered through the limb.
But my momentum carried me forward all the same and I collided with his chest, punching, punching, punching as I aimed for every soft patch of flesh I could find.
Papà’s arms closed around my waist and threw me off of him, my back slamming against the stone floor so hard that the air was driven from my lungs.
Agony crashed through me and a pained howl escaped my lips.
“Never show weakness!” Papà roared, losing his temper.
He reached for the hem of his wife beater, ripping it over his head before dropping his pants and shifting in the blink of an eye. His Wolf form was enormous and his fur was as grizzly as his facial hair in his Fae form. I always thought he looked half rabid as a Wolf, with his eyes bulging and saliva dripping between his teeth.
I tried to scramble away on my elbows but he leapt forward, two huge paws slamming down on my shoulders and pinning me beneath him. His weight crushed me and I snarled with fright and anger as I tried to wriggle out from beneath him.
His massive jaws filled with razor sharp teeth lunged for my throat and I screamed as terror flooded my small body.
Before those teeth could reach me, my fist snapped out and a snarl tore from my lips as my knuckles collided with his throat and I threw everything I had into the strike.
Papà fell back with a yelp of pain and he shifted again, landing heavily on his ass in his Fae form.
For a long moment silence rang out as we stared at each other. Even the members of his pack who had come to watch the runt get her ass kicked again didn’t have anything to say this time. No more names or taunts or mocking calls. Just silence as Papà and I stared each other down.
A snarl escaped my lips as I fought to hold his eye. His glare intensified, his Alpha aura shining brightly with the desire to make me bow as I fought my hardest not to.
I bared my teeth as I fought it for another few seconds before it finally became too much and I dropped my gaze to my knees.
Papà barked a laugh and the sound of him moving to retrieve his clothes reached me as I continued to scrutinise my sweatpants. There was a hole in the knee but I didn’t have any others.
“Better,” Papà growled and I flinched as his hand appeared before me.
For a long moment I only stared at his dirty palm, not knowing what he wanted me to do with it.
He leaned down and snatched my hand into his, dragging me upright. I whimpered as I tried to put weight on my ankle and Papà suddenly hoisted me off of my feet.
He ducked beneath the rope which made up the ring we’d been fighting in and carried me out of the barn, up towards the house.
I didn’t dare to move as he held me in his arms. Wolves were supposed to get a lot of physical contact with others of our kind like this but I never did. I slept alone in the room with no windows and I’d long since stopped caring about it. At least when I was locked up tight in there I didn’t have to worry about where the next strike might hit.
Papà carried me up the stairs inside and kept going until we reached a room at the back of the house. I never came upstairs. Not once in the three years since he’d brought me here. He kept going until we reached a room with one tiny window and a mattress lying on the floor.
“Where are we?” I asked.
He dropped me onto the mattress and looked down at me with a calculating scowl.
“You just proved you’re not a complete waste of space,” Papà said in a low voice.
My heart beat faster at his words and I peered up at him hopefully. If I’d been in my Wolf form, my tail would have been wagging.
“Thank you,” I breathed. That was the closest thing to praise which I’d ever heard crossing his lips.
“But you still showed me your pain when we began,” he added, his tone darkening.
My lips parted but I knew better than to make excuses. Apologies wouldn’t go down any better either. I licked my lips and tasted blood from my busted nose. If I kept quiet he might just tell me what I’d done wrong and leave it at that. Maybe... Hopefully.
“So I think it’s time we worked on that, runt,” he added.
“On what?” I breathed as I forced myself to hold my ground. Trying to run only made things worse.
“Your pain control,” Papà said darkly as he slid his belt from its loops. “When you learn to master pain, you can master everything.”
My lips parted on a protest and his eyes flared in warning.
I took in a shuddering breath and raised my chin as he wrapped the belt around his fist.
“Okay,” I breathed, knowing that the only power I could claim over this was in owning it. “I’m ready.”
“Then let’s begin your next lesson,” Papà snarled as his shadow fell over me.
I woke in a cold sweat as the sound of the bell ringing to announce the arrival of the guards pulled me from my nightmares. I scrambled upright in my bed as the ghosts of my past clung to my flesh with cold hands and dark memories.
The door to my cell was already standing open and I frowned to myself as I realised I’d slept through them opening for the day. I’d woken for the count a few hours ago but I must have drifted back off again.
“And I thought Nemean Lions were supposed to be the ones who slept too much,” Roary’s teasing voice came from the bunk beneath mine and I flinched in surprise.
“What are you doing in here?” I breathed.
“It’s not particularly safe to be sleeping with your door open, little pup,” he teased. “I thought I’d be a gentleman and keep watch over you when you failed to wake up.”
My pounding heart softened at his words and I slid from my bunk, finding him sprawled on the mattress with his hands behind his head, looking totally at home in my space.
I bit my lip as I fought to push aside the nightmares, but I was stru
ggling. The plan was going to shit. That Order Suppressant Tank could easily ruin everything and some part of me felt like that little girl who’d been locked in the cellar all over again.
Roary frowned up at me as he noticed something was off and he held out a hand in offering. “What’s up, little pup?” he asked, taking my fingers between his and running his thumb across the back of my hand.
I had the most awful urge to cry sweeping through me and I suddenly just needed the reassurance of having my pack close. Of warms hugs and gentle touches. But none of them were in this cell block and Roary was all I had.
I dropped down suddenly, climbing into the bunk beside him despite the fact that there wasn’t really room. He shifted over to accommodate me and I tucked myself in against his side, laying my head on his chest and winding my arms around him.
“Sometimes, this place makes me feel like I can’t breathe,” I murmured as I nuzzled into him, needing the contact like I needed to feel the light of the moon on my fur.
“I know the feeling,” he replied darkly and those damn tears welled in my eyes again.
He was here because of me. I knew it, even if he wouldn’t admit it. He was too good to get caught by the FIB. The only reason they’d managed to catch him was because he’d been trying to protect me. And when they’d hauled him away, I’d sworn to the stars that I’d find a way to get him out again. But it had already taken me way too long to set this right.
Roary’s fingers began to move through my long hair and I shifted even closer to him, winding my leg over his hips. I’d slept in my tank and panties as usual, but Roary was already dressed in his orange jumpsuit so I hoped that barrier between us was enough to stop his I’m too old for you bullshit from pushing me away again.
Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1) Page 29