Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked me softly.

  “There’s nothing to say,” I replied. “The past is the past. That’s where it should stay.”

  Roary hesitated for a moment before pressing on in a low voice. “Leon told me once what Felix did to you after I was arrested. He said he-”

  “I don’t want to talk about that,” I snarled, my entire body tensing as screams rang in my ears and the scars along my side tingled with the memory of that pain. Even the memory of the agony was blinding, the taste of bile coating my tongue.

  My breaths came faster and I made a move to push out of his arms but he pulled me closer, nuzzling against my hair as he tried to soothe me.

  “Okay,” Roary breathed. “Don’t talk about it. But if you ever want to, I’m here, Rosa. I’m not going anywhere. You can tell me anything.”

  “Not that,” I growled, though I relaxed back into his arms. I needed the comfort he was offering me then more than I needed to prove how big my balls were by throwing a fit and kicking him out. But he needed to know not to push me on this. “I’ll never talk about that. Or him. I’ve locked all that shit up tight in a little vault which keeps company with the darkest parts of my soul and I never open it. There’s no point in making old wounds bleed, Roar.”

  His silence said he didn’t agree with me but he didn’t push me either.

  “Well slap my ass and call me Three Way Willy,” Plunger’s voice came from right outside my door and the two of us sat up with snarls as we found him peeking beneath the sheet I’d hung there. “You want some extra sausage in that bun, pup?” he offered, driving his tongue in and out of his cheek and making it bulge suggestively.

  “Get the fuck out, Plunger,” Roary warned, pushing to his feet and rolling his shoulders back in a clear threat.

  “I could give you some pointers on some new things you could try,” he said suggestively. “Or you could just pretend I’m not here and I’ll watch in secret.”

  I snarled as I stalked towards him with my hand locked in a fist, but he dropped the sheet with a dirty laugh and moved away before I could punch his slimy face in.

  I took a step to follow him, but Roary caught my wrist and halted me. “Don’t mix it with Plunger if you can avoid it,” he muttered.

  “Why?” I demanded. “I’m not afraid of him.”

  “It’s not that. I know you’d wipe the floor with that asshole. He’s just…depraved. That guy does messed up shit and if you get on his bad side he can do some pretty disgusting things in his vendetta against you. I’m telling you, it’s not worth the aggravation. Why do you think he has a cell on the top floor?”

  I gave up trying to pull out of his grip and turned to look up at him instead.

  “Are you looking after me now then, Roary?” I teased, stepping closer to him.

  “I promised Dante I’d look out for his kid cousin,” he agreed casually.

  I rolled my eyes at him as he went back to that age gap bullshit and moved away to get changed into fresh clothes for the day.

  Roary didn’t fall into the trap of watching me as I pulled my clothes off, but moved to the shelf which hung on the wall opposite my bunk and started looking through my things. Not that I had much. Dante had sent me a few family photos and Aunt Bianca and my cousins had written to me a bunch of times. I’d bought some wash stuff from the commissary and Sonny had leant me a pretty graphic erotica novel which I’d flicked through a few times, but that was it.

  Once I’d pulled on my jumpsuit, Roary turned to look at me again with a smile playing around his lips.

  “I have an idea for something we can do to help distract you from the shittiest things about being here…which, let’s face it, are most of the things about being here,” he said.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. We can play, I bet you won’t.”

  I groaned as he named the ridiculous game my family had made up years ago. I remembered the night that Roary and Leon had been at our manor house, drinking around the bonfire we were having in honour of the winter solstice when they’d joined in with us. Dante had challenged Roary to use his Charisma on as many of the girls in attendance as possible and my cousins had all fallen over themselves as they threw themselves into his lap and practically crushed him in a dog pile. His Order gifts meant that he could draw weak willed Fae to him like moths to a flame if he wanted to, and they’d do everything and anything he asked of them to please him. I’d been the only one of my family who hadn’t tried to climb into his lap and he’d smirked at me like that made me special somehow, but at the time I didn’t know why. Now I understood. With a gift like his, it was hard for him to be sure if people’s feelings towards him were genuine or just brought on by his talents. If I was immune to the Charisma, then he knew anything I offered him was real. Although he liked to pretend it wasn’t.

  “Do we have to?” I groaned, though the idea of adding something fun to my day wasn’t all bad.

  Roary prowled towards me and I fell still as I looked up into his golden eyes. He had a smile playing around his lips and I couldn’t help but think about the way it had felt when he’d kissed me. Not that he’d given me any indication that he was intending to do it again since.

  He reached out and pushed my hair back behind my shoulder before leaning down and speaking into my ear in a rough voice. “I bet you won’t start singing in front of everyone in the Mess Hall.”

  I snorted a laugh and turned my head to look at him, the space between us almost non-existent as electricity crackled along my skin.

  “I can’t hold a tune,” I warned him.

  “Even better. And no cheating,” he added. “I want you to put on a proper performance.”

  I smirked at him and raised my chin at the challenge. “Okay then, Lion boy, I’ll see what I can do.”

  I brushed past him and headed out of my cell just as the bell rang to announce breakfast.

  Roary fell into step beside me as we headed for the stairs.

  Thumping footsteps made the metal steps rattle behind me and let me know that Pudding was following too.

  “Morning, Pudding,” I said, turning my head to look at my cumbersome friend.

  “No pudding at breakfast,” he muttered, his brow low.

  “That there isn’t,” I agreed, exchanging a smirk with Roary. “It’s still nice to fill our bellies though, right?”

  “No pudding, no pots,” he grumbled before looking away from us and ending our conversation.

  To be fair, the oatmeal we got for breakfast wasn’t all that appealing, but I was getting used to it. There were usually little jars of honey to sweeten it anyway which made it a bit better.

  As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I noticed Hastings was on duty and I slipped away from Roary as I headed for him.

  “Buongiorno, ragazzo del coro,” I purred, swaying my hips as I moved to stand before him. Good morning, choir boy.

  “Why do I always feel like you’re teasing me when you speak in Faetalian?” he asked, his lips twitching with half a smile.

  “It’s affectionate,” I promised, painting a cross over my heart. “Are you walking us to breakfast today?”

  “Er, yeah I’m on the breakfast run.”

  “Perfect.” I reached out and took his arm, tugging gently to get him walking with me.

  “It’s not really appropriate for-”

  “When do you get time to eat?” I asked him, looking up at him with an innocent expression. “You must need a lot of stamina…for a job like this.”

  A faint blush lined his cheeks and he cleared his throat as we started to walk up the stairs to the Mess Hall. “Well, I get up early, so-”

  “I bet you get much nicer food than us, don’t you?” I teased.

  “We have a bit more choice,” he admitted. “I like to have some fruit with my oatmeal.”

  I groaned with desire, leaning into him a little more as we continued to climb the stairs. “What I wouldn’t give to have an apple with
my breakfast.”

  “Well, I’m not a criminal,” he replied with a smile as we made it up to the Mess Hall.

  “Yeah. I guess that’s what I get for being bad.” I pouted at him as his gaze slid over me then released my hold on his arm, sighing dramatically.

  I turned and walked away from him without waiting for a reply, collecting my bowl of oatmeal from the counter before dropping down in the centre of my pack’s usual table.

  I started eating my food alone as I waited for the members of the other cell blocks to arrive and my pack to show up.

  Hastings did a slow sweep of the room before heading into the kitchen and my lips twitched with amusement.

  The first prisoner from Cell Block B to arrive was Sin. He grabbed three bowls of oatmeal and six jars of honey for himself and no one dared to reprimand him for it as he stalked across the room and dropped down at the table he’d claimed for his own.

  He started eating like a man possessed and I found myself smirking as I watched him. He’d tied his jumpsuit around his waist again so I had a clear view of his huge arms, the dark skin lined with more tattoos than I could easily count. He may have chosen his name for himself but there was something about him that made it suit him perfectly. And not just because he was an Incubus. Everything about him seemed designed to draw me in. He was temptation embodied, from his powerful build to the dangerous smile that played around his lips and the wicked glint in his eyes. Even the fear he inspired in the Fae surrounding him had my skin prickling with excitement. There was something about him that screamed of freedom, even though he was locked up just like the rest of us.

  Hastings reappeared from the kitchen and walked along the side of the room at a casual pace. When he reached my table, he turned and walked along it until he made it to me where he leaned forward and placed an apple beside my bowl.

  Sin looked up just as the guard walked away again and the smile he gave me was so heated that I felt it right down to my core.

  “I thought I was the one who was supposed to embody everyone’s desires?” he called teasingly as I bit into the gift with a smirk on my face.

  “You do,” I assured him, my gaze sliding over his muscular physique just as my pack appeared.

  They flooded around me, blocking my view of the Incubus and I offered out welcomes and smiles as they brushed their hands over my arms and back and I continued to eat my apple.

  The Mess Hall filled up around me and I waited until all of the tables were full before suddenly getting to my feet.

  My pack looked around in confusion as I hopped up onto the table and I gave it an extra few seconds as inmates all around the room turned and looked my way, wondering what I was doing.

  I caught Roary’s eye and winked at him as I cupped my hands around my mouth and started singing It’s Raining Men by The Weather Girls at the top of my lungs.

  After a few beats of shocked silence, my pack all leapt up and joined in, dancing around the table and howling as they sang.

  I fully gave myself to the song, closing my eyes as I belted out the song and strong arms suddenly closed around my waist.

  I looked over my shoulder and found Sin grinning at me as he sang too, dragging my body back against his as we danced so that my ass was grinding into his crotch.

  I laughed as I kept singing and the guards started to get antsy in their positions around the room.

  Sonny got really excited as the chorus kicked in and grabbed a jug of water from the serving counter before leaping up beside me and pouring it over the two of us to make sure we genuinely were soaking wet.

  I laughed as I swung my hair around my head and more and more prisoners leapt up to join us as we danced.

  Sin’s hands on my body had heat rising to the surface of my skin and the way he belted the song out with zero insecurity had a wide smile plastered to my face.

  I reached my arm back over my shoulder, grasping the back of Sin’s neck as we danced and he groaned as I drew him closer, his stubble catching on my hair.

  We made it about three quarters of the way through the song before the guards ruined it, banging their batons on the tables threateningly and screaming about sending people to the hole if we didn’t stop.

  Sin released me and started leaping from table to table as he kept singing defiantly and the guards chased him.

  I leapt down from the table with a heady laugh as I ran towards Roary, shoving through his gang members before leaning down to speak with him.

  “I bet you won’t steal a pudding from Pudding,” I breathed in his ear and the grin he gave me in return sent my heart racing.

  “Too easy,” he said as my wet hair dripped onto his knee.

  “While he’s eating it,” I added with a wink before shoving away from the table and heading for the exit.

  I spotted Hastings as I stepped out into the hallway and paused to speak to him.

  “Thank you for my gift, ragazzo del coro,” I said in a low voice. “But do you think I could beg for another?”

  “Isn’t an apple enough?” he asked, frowning a little like he was wondering why he’d done that for me now. “And you just caused a scene in the Mess Hall, so I really shouldn’t be giving you any preferential treatment now.”

  “I know,” I agreed, shifting forward until I was right in his personal space and lowering my voice seductively. “It’s just…I’m so wet.”

  Hastings stared at me for a long moment like he didn’t know what to say to that and I stepped back, pointing at my drenched clothes.

  “Oh. Right. Your clothes are wet,” he mumbled, dropping his gaze to the floor.

  “What else would I have meant?” I asked in a confused tone.

  “Nothing,” he blurted. “Nothing else.” He waved a hand at me, using his water magic to pull the liquid from my hair and clothes and I grinned at him before turning away and heading for the row of phones at the far end of the hall.

  There was a long line already waiting to use them but I ignored it, walking straight past everyone in the queue until I was at the front.

  The guy there snorted angrily as I moved to stand before him and I turned my gaze to him lazily. He was about a foot taller than me and twice as wide. My gaze skimmed over the symbols on the lapel of his jumpsuit as I assessed him.

  “Oh, you’re an Experian Deer Shifter?” I asked curiously.

  “What of it?”

  “It’s just that your kind are pretty rare. Probably because they were hunted to extinction…by Wolves.” I bared my teeth at him and he flinched. “Is it okay if I take your turn on the phone?” I asked sweetly.

  “Yeah, sure,” he muttered. “Whatever.”

  “Thanks, poppet.” I slapped his cheek a couple of times and moved to claim his turn.

  The girl who was finishing up quickly ended her call and held the handset out for me. I smiled widely as I took it before dialling Dante’s number and moving to lean against the wall.

  It took a minute for the call to connect via the prison spy tech and I tapped my foot impatiently before my cousin’s voice came down the line.

  “Rosa?”

  “Hey, Dante, how is everyone?”

  “Good, everyone’s good. Mamma is worrying herself sick over you and Fabrizio has another new boyfriend. Aunt Paula finally got that thing removed from her foot and Elaina’s wedding was amazing. I drank your drinks too and I had to be carted home in a barrow.”

  I laughed, closing my eyes as I listened to his voice, letting it wash over me and transport me back home to the huge cream house overlooking the vineyards where there were more Wolves than you could shake a stick at and more love than you could ever drink in. He told me snippets about all of our aunts and cousins, his wife and the kids, more information than I could really take in in one hit, but there was only one thing which really counted. They were all okay. All happy. All waiting for me to come home.

  “How are you, Rosa?” Dante asked eventually. “Is everything going well?”

  “Yes,” I sa
id, falling straight into our rehearsed codes. “Everything’s great, apart from my bed being uncomfortable.” There’s an unforeseen problem.

  “Can you ask someone to fix it?” Is it something you can solve from in there?

  “Unfortunately not. All the beds are the same. The guards don’t care about us being uncomfortable,” I sighed. I’m going to need your help.

  “We miss you here,” he said, waiting for my next coded message.

  “I keep thinking back to that summer we spent fixing Nonno’s car.” I said slowly. I’m having trouble with the Order Suppressant Tank.

  “You knew that engine inside out,” he replied. “I was surprised it went wrong.”

  “Well, I thought I knew the engine inside out,” I agreed. “I studied that manual night and day…but then when it came to me actually working on it, I realised I’d been studying the wrong model.”

  There was a beat of silence as Dante figured out what I was trying to tell him and I hoped he could manage it. He started laughing but I could hear the false tone to it. He knew as well as I did just how important it was that I could neutralise that machine. I wouldn’t be getting out of here at all if I didn’t.

  I could hear him tapping on his keyboard as he quickly searched the internet to find out what other models the tank could be.

  “I don’t even know why I’d thought it was so old,” I sighed. “It was a much newer model.”

  “Well Nonno always did like to have the best of things. Do you remember when he bought that vat for all the ice cream?” he asked, putting emphasis on the word vat which must have been a model of tank, though not the one I was faced with.

  “No,” I replied with a frown. “I don’t think I was there for that.”

  “Well you must have been there when he got that pump for the well at the end of the vineyard?”

  “Oh yeah I remember the pump,” I agreed.

  “He must have moved about three hundred gallons of water with that thing,” Dante added.

  “More like five hundred,” I said, scratching my cheek to hide my smirk.