Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  I had one small advantage in the stairwell. That fucker was huge and its legs weren’t made for running down steps. It slipped and skidded, its teeth gnashing blindly as it hunted for me. I leapt down the stairs, taking them four, six, seven at a time. If I missed my footing once, I was fucked. I’d be just another number in this prison, another statistic. Fifty three die in Darkmore Penitentiary after an accidental outbreak of their bio-weapon. Fuck. That. I was not gonna be a headline in the news. Not like that anyway. If I was going to make headlines, it was because I’d won the biggest dick competition, or hottest Alpha Werewolf award. I wasn’t going in print like this. Not like this!

  I rounded onto level eight where Medical was and spotted a store cupboard across the hall. I raced for it, shoving it open and practically fell inside. I got the door shut before the fucker saw where I went and it charged on down the corridor, turning left towards Psych.

  Fuck. Yes.

  “Hey, asshole,” a voice made me jump and I turned, spotting Roary Night looking like death warmed up, his face pale and blood pissing from his arm.

  “What the hell happened to you?” I asked.

  “That creep’s spines cut me when I ran from it. Looks like they’re fucking poisonous,” he wheezed. “I need to get to Psych but I can hardly walk.”

  “Trust me, you don’t wanna go to Psych right now.” I leaned back against the wall as I tried to catch my breath.

  “What? Why?” he demanded, panic flaring in his eyes.

  “Because there’s where I just sent the monster.”

  “What?!” he roared, trying to get up, but his body gave out and he slumped back down again. “Fuck. I’ve gotta help her.”

  “Help who?” I asked, folding my arms.

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said through his teeth. “Like you’d give a fuck anyway. She’s your damn enemy.”

  “Who?” I breathed, my heart beating out of rhythm. “Fucking who!?” I strode toward him, dropping down to a crouch and grabbing hold of his collar as anxiety bled through me.

  “Rosalie Oscura,” he ground out, making my whole world fall to pieces in an instant.

  “She’s down there?” I rasped, fear gripping me in its fist.

  He nodded, fear flashing through his eyes.

  “I’ll help her,” I said immediately and he frowned at me.

  “Why would you?”

  “Because I just will, alright?” I spat and he growled deep in his throat protectively.

  “Bullshit,” he spat, catching hold of my arm like he was really gonna try and keep me there. “You’re more likely to hurt her than help her.”

  I huffed, clenching my fists as I made a decision I prayed I wasn’t gonna regret. I turned my head and pointed to the crescent hidden within my tattoo. “We’re mated. But if you tell a soul I’ll rip your kidneys out and stuff them down your throat, got it?”

  He stared at me like I’d just punched him in the face then released me, reaching into his pocket and produced a cuff key. My lips parted as I went to take it, but the sound of the door opening halted me.

  Roary quickly twisted it in his own cuffs until they glowed blue then stuffed it back in his pocket.

  “Inmates!” Officer’s Cain’s voice cut through the air. “Back to your cells – now!”

  “Wait, sir-” I started, getting to my feet but he rushed at me, taking hold of my arm. His gaze fell to Roary on the ground and a low noise of frustration left his throat. Cain dropped to a crouch, releasing me and ripping Roary’s sleeve away before pressing his fingers to the swollen wound to heal it.

  I backed up toward the door, adrenaline seeping through my blood. I had to get to Rosa. I had to make sure she was alright.

  “Move another inch and I’ll throw you in the hole, One,” Cain warned without even looking around. But Rosalie’s life was worth some time in the hole. I had to get to her.

  I lunged for the door but Cain slammed into me with his Vampire speed, dragging my hands behind my back and connecting my cuffs together with a chain of magic.

  “You dare refuse a direct order?” he snarled in my ear.

  Cain yanked the door open and threw me out of it so I stumbled forward into the corridor. He directed Roary up next, pulling him out of the door by his arm.

  Three more guards were standing on the stairs and Cain shoved us towards them, sending panic daggering through my heart. They marched us up towards our cells and I shared a look with Roary, unsure what to do. As we reached level four, Roary shoved his way out of the guards’ grip with a snarl.

  “Rosalie’s in trouble,” he blurted at Cain. “She’s down in Psych, where that thing is headed.”

  My heart beat out of tune as I looked to Cain, wondering if he really might help.

  “Do you think I give a fuck?” Cain growled and my heart sank. “Take them back to their cells!” He directed the Officers and they shoved us along. Cain turned around and shot down the stairs with his Vampire speed and I gazed over my shoulder in confusion.

  I was hauled along and my breaths came raggedly from my lungs. I shared an anxious look with Roary beside me, seeing the same panic in his own eyes. We shared a nod and threw ourselves at the guards, forcing our way free of them in seconds. We made it two steps away before a net of vines crashed over us and my knees hit the floor as the power of the earth magic weighed me down.

  “Up. Now!” Officer Rind barked.

  Strong hands gripped my shoulders and me and Roary were dragged to our feet once more. Rind had his shock baton on, pointing it at us as the other two guards shoved us towards the cell blocks and my heart started to ache.

  But as I was dragged away and Roary’s bellows of protest rang out around us, a tiny flower of hope started to bloom in my chest. Because Officer Cain had headed in the direction of Rosalie. And he may have been a bastard who had the temper of a Dragon Shifter with a hot poker up its ass, but he was powerful as fuck. And it was his job to get that freak back in its cage. I just prayed he managed it before it got its teeth in my mate.

  I fled down the white corridors with my heart pounding and my stomach churning. I’d come here to figure out how to save Sook from Psych and was leaving with both the knowledge that she was dead and that they were doing something really, really bad to the prisoners they sent down here.

  So much for thinking losing your mind was the worst that could happen to you in this place. You could lose your damn life to some kind of magical butchery too.

  How the hell is this allowed?

  I understood that as the worst criminals in Solaria, we didn’t have a whole lot of rights but chopping someone up because they went a bit bat shit? What the actual fuck?

  Sook was a money launderer, not a psychopath. What the hell kind of fate was that for her?

  I sped towards the next corner which led to the final corridor with nothing on my mind aside from wanting to get the hell out of here and I gasped as my Moon Wolf instincts almost floored me with an intense wave of warning.

  My breath caught, my skin prickled and hairs raised along the back of my neck.

  In my desperation to escape, I’d almost run right up to the guy with the trolley.

  I crept closer to the corner, thanking my silencing bubble once again for saving my life. I owed this piece of magic my ass ten times over and I sent silent wishes of good fortune to my old Cardinal Magic Professor. She was a mean bitch with a better moustache than Freddy Mercury and the temperament of a horse trying to walk in stilettos. I’d made it my mission to fuck with her on more than one occasion without her ever figuring out it was me. But now I owed that mean old hag a life debt. I’d be telling Dante to send her a gift basket filled with moustache grooming products if I ever made it out of this little slice of hell.

  My chest rose and fell heavily as I reached the corner and the porter’s whistles reached me. The tune was familiar and it only took me a moment to recognise Hickory Dickory Dock. That was such a psychopath thing to do. Was it because their mammas never sang to th
em so they felt the need to entertain themselves with a childhood tune or two when the demons in their minds were resting?

  But if that was the case then surely I’d be in the habit of whistling nursery rhymes too. My mamma certainly never sang me a song. I’d often wondered how I ever made it past the baby stage at all. Maybe back then she’d loved me. Or more likely I’d just been a determined little fucker as a baby too and refused to die from neglect just as surely as I had as I’d grown.

  The whistler moved further and further away until I felt confident that he’d left the next corridor and I stepped around the corner.

  A door swung shut at the end of a corridor on my left while the thick doors which led back to the main prison stood down the corridor to my right.

  I hesitated for a moment, the desire to find out what the hell was in that jar gnawing at me. It was an itch I needed to scratch. But delving deeper into the secrets of this place to satisfy my own curiosity seemed like suicide.

  The vent I needed to escape was right there.

  I’d come here for Sook and I’d failed.

  I didn’t even want to consider what that meant for my escape plans yet, but it did mean I had no further reason to stay down here.

  I clenched my teeth and pushed all thoughts of that creepy jar from my mind as I ran towards my escape route.

  I quickly made it to the spot beneath the grate I’d broken and I tipped my head back to look up at it as I created vines in my palms and sent them snaking up into the vent.

  They grew and strengthened, hunting down something to secure themselves to before leaving me with the means to climb out of here.

  I leapt up as soon as they were ready and heaved myself skyward with a grunt of effort.

  My fingers curled around the lip of the hole in the vent and I began to hoist myself inside.

  Footsteps clicked along the tiles behind me and I gasped as I fought to heave my legs inside.

  I reached forward to grasp a raised bolt as I used it to pull myself higher, but my slick palm slipped against the cool metal.

  One moment I was half way up into the vent and the next I was falling.

  My back slammed into the tiled floor and I gasped in pain and panic as the footsteps drew closer.

  “I always feel so drained after surgery,” a woman’s voice reached me.

  “I know. I can’t wait for a bit of down time now,” a man replied.

  I rolled over, scrambling to my hands and knees as I hunted around for some way out, some plan I could implement or way for me to escape. I dispersed the magic in my vines so that they disintegrated.

  There was nothing around me besides the door back to the main prison and no time to climb back up into the vent.

  My heart crashed against my ribs painfully as I backed up, throwing my hands up as I fought to construct a concealment spell around me.

  But those spells were designed to shroud me in shadow so that I might go unnoticed in the dark. They weren’t for stupid girls in white corridors wearing a motherfucking orange jumpsuit.

  My back hit the wall beside the door as I threw more magic at the spell and the light twisted around me as my power tried to do what I needed it to.

  Hide me! Don’t let them see me! I have to hide!!

  Panic swept through me as tension coiled in my limbs. If they caught me here, they’d throw me in the hole for years and let me rot… assuming they didn’t decided to take me back to that operating theatre and give me a dose of what they gave Sook.

  The two doctors rounded the corner, their eyes widening as they fell on me and I sucked in a sharp breath.

  I’ve got to hide!!

  My limbs started trembling with something that had nothing at all to do with fear and a flood of silver light like a pure moonbeam suddenly erupted from my flesh, coating me in a hazy glow of warmth.

  I froze, my eyes fixed on the two Fae who could ruin all my best laid plans as they slowly turned away from me.

  “I’ve lost track of the time again,” the woman muttered. “Is it dinner now?”

  “Yeah. I heard there’s a new chef at that curry house in town, maybe we can grab some dinner there?”

  “That sounds like heaven,” she groaned hungrily and they walked straight up to the doors like they couldn’t see me at all.

  I didn’t know what the hell this stuff coating my body was, but I did know it wasn’t magic of mine. That said, it did feel like a part of me, like something linked to the very fibres of my being.

  The doctors moved to unlock the heavy doors which led back into the main prison and I waited as they had their magic scanned and entered a code into the reader. A low buzz sounded and the door swung open to admit them.

  I didn’t know if it was bravery, madness or if I was just plain stupid, but I scurried behind them before the door could close again.

  They walked on down the corridor which led back to the main prison and I fell still as the doors closed behind me and the silver light coating my body faded away.

  I sagged forward, my hands falling to my knees as exhaustion tugged at me and my eyes flickered with fatigue.

  I felt like I’d spent the night running beneath the moon, my limbs trembling from the power of my Order form.

  I paused as that thought occurred to me. Had I just tapped into one of my Order gifts? It shouldn’t have been possible with the Order Suppressant flooding through the vents in the main prison but now that I thought of it, I could feel my Wolf shifting beneath my skin. And my Moon Wolf status was rumoured to come with all kinds of strange and wonderful gifts…

  A frown tugged at my brow. Why wouldn’t they be using the suppressant in Psych? I could feel it creeping over me again now that I was back in the main prison, my Wolf snarling in displeasure as she was locked away again.

  A scream echoed down the corridor ahead of me and I stilled as a deep growl followed it.

  The screams got louder and I started running towards them, not wanting to end up cornered in this dead end by whatever the hell was happening up ahead of me.

  I rounded the corner, spilling out into the corridor of level eight just as the male doctor threw his hands up into the air, an enormous fireball exploding from his palms.

  The wave of heat slammed into me and I staggered back a step as the walls were charred and everything from the signs hanging on the brickwork to the cameras suspended from the ceiling were incinerated instantly.

  But it didn’t slow the monster which came for him.

  Six huge, scaly grey legs burst through the wall of flames and a shriek of triumph erupted from a mouth lined with row upon row of razor sharp teeth as the Belorian pounced.

  The doctor’s scream barely passed his lips before the creature was on him, its jaws snapping closed over his head and ripping it clean off in one bite.

  The fire licked around the creature’s hideous body as it feasted, stuttering out of existence as the Fae who had summoned it was devoured.

  I choked on the scream which wanted to escape me and started running as fast as I could.

  I skirted the beast, ignoring the horrendous crunching, and chomping sounds which came from it as it ate. My sneakers slipped in a puddle of blood and my arms whirled as I fought to keep my balance.

  I raced on, spotting the other doctor running ahead of me as I sprinted for the stairs at the far end of the corridor and the possibility of escape.

  How the hell had that thing gotten out? Who in their right mind would…Sin.

  I snarled with rage as I ran for my damn life. I was gonna kick that Incubus’s ass so hard he’d be crying real tears by the time I was done with him. I’d told him. I’d fucking told him that this was a terrible goddamn idea!

  A deep roar sounded behind me and my heart leapt with terror as the sound of the Belorian’s clawed feet rattled against the concrete floor behind me.

  I was damn fast, but not fast enough to outrun that thing.

  The doctor who had killed Sook raced ahead of me, wailing in terror as she clo
sed in on the stairs.

  The Belorian roared right behind me and I shrieked in fear as I dove aside. It slammed into the wall where I’d just been running a second later and I screamed again as I scrambled to get moving once more.

  The doctor looked back at me, raising her hands before throwing a wall of dirt up between us, blocking me in the corridor with the monster as she ran for freedom.

  You ass feasting whore!

  I screamed again as the Belorian dove at me and I summoned wooden spears into my hands as I ducked beneath it, slashing at its soft belly with them.

  Grey ichor spilled from the wounds and the creature bellowed in rage.

  One of its taloned limbs slammed into me and I was hurled away from it as pain sliced through my arm and blood ran hot against my skin.

  I hit the dirt wall the doctor had created to trap me and threw my own power at it, carving a hole just big enough for me to scramble through.

  The Belorian shrieked as it charged after me and I pushed my power into the wall, hardening it, strengthening and turning the dirt to rock as fast as I could.

  I fell through the hole into the corridor on the far side just as the Belorian collided with the wall. The whole thing trembled and rocks and dirt cascaded from it to fall over me.

  It wouldn’t hold for long.

  I pushed myself to my feet and raced on, ignoring the keen sting of pain in my arm as my blood continued to run down my skin.

  The dirt wall exploded behind me as the Belorian smashed through it with a roar of rage and I screamed again as I made it to the foot of the stairs.

  The doctor was just rounding the corner at the top of the first flight and her eyes widened in surprise and fear as she looked back down at me.

  You’re right to feel fear, bitch.

  I threw my hands up and vines shot from my palms, wrapping around her ankle with an iron hold.

  She screamed in panic as she reached for the vine, but I didn’t give her the chance to sever it before yanking it back like a lasso.

  The doctor shrieked as she flew over my head and I twisted to watch as the Belorian burst around the corner to the stairwell. The beast leapt up, catching her between its sharp jaws with a snarl of glee. It landed heavily, almost crushing me and I leapt aside, rolling away from the stairs and into the corridor.