“I’m here to collect and transport a prisoner to the courthouse,” I replied.
“Name?” She moved her finger to a book with a long list of names.
I concentrated hard, applying my magick, and it pulsed out of me. Blasts rippled through the air and struck her.
She blinked, her cheek twitching, and she shook her head. Resistance. They all did it. Weak willed gantii like trolls folded immediately. But the fae were a lot older, minds stronger and resistant. That’s why I hadn’t been able to overpower the Rarknul and they captured us. But I’d ensnare her in a moment.
She rubbed her temple, and her face strained.
“Headache?” I pretended to be concerned.
Her hands groped the bench for something, anything, to steady her. “I… I don’t feel so well.”
Good. That was how I wanted her to feel. Confused. Disorientated. Obedient. Pretty soon, she’d give in, and be putty in my hands. When she stumbled, I knew I had control.
“I need a parchment with the warden’s seal,” I plied her. “Permitting my team and I to take a prisoner to the courthouse to testify.”
“Yes, guardian.” She crossed back to her desk, removing an empty scroll, and a pen. “Who is the prisoner?”
“Raenyn.” At the mention of the name, she blinked and her cheeks and lips lifted. Resisting again. Sometimes it took a couple of tries to persuade them.
Time wasn’t on my side, so I applied as much force as I could muster, and she relaxed, submitting.
“That’s right,” I coaxed as she scribbled a release document, stamping it with the warden’s signature. “Perfect.”
I took it from her hands when she froze. A deep part of her realized what she’d done. That needed to be dealt with until we kidnapped the prisoner and got out of here. I backed away from the counter, not releasing my grip on her. Before I disappeared from her view, I sent out a snap of magick that knocked her out.
“We better hope no one arrives in the meantime.” I shoved the scroll at Knoxe’s chest.
“Good work.” He settled his hand on my shoulder.
“Good work?” I stared at him like he’d gone mad.
Knoxe hadn’t praised me since Jaz died. He blamed me for Jaz’s death. I rubbed the back of my neck. He must have taken too many blows to the head from the Rarknul when we fought them.
Knoxe charged forward. “Let’s move.”
Astra
The blue of the Unseelie guard’s eyes shone dangerously as we approached him to collect the mafia’s prisoner.
I wrung my hands over and over. A nervous habit caused by my OCD. Silver blazes, this wasn’t going to work. The guard wasn’t going to be fooled by the forged paperwork Tor had scraped together to transport the prisoner.
A few feet ahead of me, Knoxe’s jaw was a brutally hard line. Stiff, fierce and determined as hell to save us, he wasn’t in the mood to argue right now. He wouldn’t take no as an answer from this guard or anyone in the Unseelie prison. God help the gantii that got in his way because he could be downright intimidating, like he was, stepping into the guard’s personal space, even though the guard had a good foot on Knoxe at seven feet tall.
The guard growled something at us, and my comms bracelet translated the fae’s words. “What do you want Guardians?”
I stepped backward from the harshness of his tone, crashing into Tor and his hands clasped my waist. Having him as my man made me feel all kinds of good. Safe, protected, and defended. I needed that more than anything after the horrible experience with the Unseelie.
The memory of why we were there took hold and I shuddered, prompting Tor’s grip on me to tighten and he pressed me against his chest. I focused on his warmth and hardness to forget about the images flashing in my mind. I glanced up at him, at his sexy, stubbled jaw, his spiked green hair and cobalt eyes that watch me intently.
Knoxe tapped the scroll in his hand. “We’re here to collect a prisoner. Deliver him to the courts to testify as a witness.”
“Verarie,” the guard growled with the patience of a displeased king, demanding we provide the official documentation for release, delivery or transportation of a prisoner to a facility.
Knoxe held out the parchment, and the guard glared, taking it, unraveling it and reading it.
The guard spat. “What the hell do you want with that Rarknul scum?”
“Keep reading.” Knoxe ticked his head. “Need him to testify against the Rarknul.”
The guard frowned. This was news to him. Something told me we were going to have to fight harder to convince him.
Knoxe remained stoic, not giving anything away. He was almost too good at this game. At the casino, he’d had the best poker face, and I’d helped him win a fortune in jewels and other tokens.
“Haven’t you heard?” he asked. “We caught Tyke.”
Tyke, head of the Rarknul. On the Guardians Most Wanted List for ten years. Has a bounty as high as Styx’s, the vampire we hunted. But no one had seen Tyke in years, and no one breathed a word of his whereabouts. Scary fucking gantii. A cut-your-tongue-off-for-talking-kill-your-eldest-for-betraying-him mean motherfucker.
“That’s big news.” The guard’s deep frown lightened, but not enough to suggest he was entirely convinced. “Would have heard about something like that.”
Knoxe scratched his head, shaking his long, fiery ponytail. I could tell he was jittery and wanted to get out of there with the prisoner before anyone was alerted to our deception. “Mustn’t be common knowledge yet.”
Fuck, if he wasn’t careful our cover would be blown. We had to hurry before the female fae woke up and raised the alarm.
A growl rumbled in Raze’s throat, then he looked to the side as if he noticed something we didn’t.
Pascal rocked back and forth, a nervous impulse when things were tense. I suspected because of his musical frequency gift that he sensed something on a deeper level than us. Perhaps the harsh notes of the words agitated him.
“Hey.” I got his attention and gave him a quick smile that stopped his anxious behavior.
Knoxe’s shoulders hitched up, the stiffness spreading through his body. I could tell by the flush of red on his neck and the tick in his cheek that his patience was wearing thin, and he was about to lose his shit. A look I knew all too well for testing him when I argued with him because he’d been a dick to the team, especially Tor. I fought Knoxe, and he cut me down with something harsh. It was our thing. Kinda hot too when he got all fierce and pissed off. But it wasn’t hot today. Not when everything relied on this.
I scrunched my hands, then rubbed them on my shirt three times. God, I knew this plan wouldn’t work. But Knoxe hadn’t listened to mine and Pascal’s idea to sneak in the comic book hero way. More risk of being apprehended but less risk of word getting back to the warden of our treachery. Stubborn man thought he knew best. We could have saved time by sliding in the back way and grabbing the prisoner. I tried to bring my breathing under control. Now we’d just wasted thirty minutes. Precious time we didn’t have.
“Listen, are you gonna let us take the prisoner or not?” Knoxe pressed the guard. “Tyke’s defense trial starts in an hour. Got to get Raenyn over to the courthouse.”
“This way.” The guard turned to unlock the first gate into the prisoner holding facility. Instead of being grateful, I flinched at every clank of metal and Tor’s grip on me tightened.
As we entered the even darker cavern, Raze kept looking at me with hostile cerulean eyes that set my heart into a faster beat. His huge muscles practically busted through his Guardian’s uniform, a skintight black getup that fit him like a second skin. I wondered what his darkened skin would feel like. Coarse. Soft. Rugged.
Except for Raze, my teammates had a thing for bright hair, which I totally dug, cause I loved comics, superheroes and Cosplay. Even I had purple streaks through my brown locks. Raze kind of disappointed in that department, but maybe one day I could convince him.
Under his gaze, my hand twis
ting tripled. A few week’s ago, I found out his secret, and he didn’t like that I had one over him. He was the one man that frightened me more than I knew. Because of what he was, what he could do to end my life, and the way he made my body respond. I just couldn’t keep away from him or the strange, animalistic connection we had.
Beside him, Pascal glanced up from his tuning forks, his emerald eyes studying me through the layer of died bright blue hair that fell over his forehead. He gave me a shy smile and my heart pitter-pattered. God, he was adorable. Sweet. Introverted. But disciplined in his training, a dedicated warrior and comic mad like me.
We understood each other because we were both on the spectrum, him with autism and me with Aspergers. Weeks earlier, he told me of his yearning to fit in and understand people, and I’d been helping him recently, and it helped us bond and him trust me. He was vulnerable and didn’t always read people or situations, and I just wanted to hug and protect him. But he didn’t need my protection. I smiled back at him and he looked away bashfully.
I caught Raze glaring at me again, and I twisted my hands, until Tor took one, cupping it between his. “Hey, it’s okay, Supergirl.”
I got lost in the moment, forgetting about the shit twenty-four hours we’d had. I fucking loved it when he touched me. He switched up the temperature of my body, which I needed, because I was freezing in these caves, and from nerves about being back in the field after what happened.
“I’m fine,” I lied, because I didn’t want him to worry about me.
We all needed to be on our game if we were going to pull off this mission and avoid dying from the bugs burying into our necks. Fuck. Speaking of that, I touched it over and over, feeling the small lump at the base of my skull. I shuddered and Tor squeezed me, bringing me out of those dark thoughts.
The guard took us down a level, along a right, then left, and stopped at a cell. He used his key to unlock the cell and swung open the door. “Get out here, Raenyn.”
Chains clinked as the prisoner shuffled to the door, and I gasped at the sight of him. Dirty, gaunt and so, so pale, with eyes bulging out of his long head, he had long, matted, filthy hair hanging in clumps over his shoulders. Parts of his ears were disfigured with burns, and scars covered the rest of him. Thick, heavy iron chains attached to his wrists weighed down his limbs. God, the Unseelie left their criminals to rot in here. Disgusting. But we couldn’t say anything. This was the Unseelie’s realm and they decided how they punish their criminals.
Raze lifted his nose to sniff at the cell and his nostrils twitched. I wondered what his gantii senses detected, what the extent of his abilities were.
The guard grabbed Raenyn by the arm, dragged him forward and the prisoner tripped.
“Hey,” I snapped. “He’s a detainee of the Guardians now. We need him in a suitable condition to testify.”
The guard’s lip curled as he unchained our target from the cell, replacing the chains with a set of manacles, which looked too heavy for the scrawny and weak fae to bear.
“We’ll take it from here.” Knoxe nodded and grabbed the prisoner, jerking him forward, but not with the brutal force of the guard.
We hurried out of the caverns as fast as Raenyn could handle, which was agonizingly slow, because he wasn’t used to walking and his legs cramped quick. My muscles clenched the whole way out. Just before we reached the corridor outside, we hit the booth and found the fae female rousing. Tor knocked her out again with his magick and she collapsed back to the stony floor.
“Hurry,” Knoxe urged us on, and we rushed forward to the gates.
I kept checking over my shoulder, expecting a swarm of prison guards to trap and apprehend us. When we finally hit the exit, I sucked in the fresh air, relieved for it. But we weren’t out of danger yet. We had to clear some distance first.
Drezlyn lifted his arms, shielding his eyes from the light cast by the Unseelie sun. A ball of pale silvery light that reminded me of the moon.
Creatures squawked in the surrounding forest. Beasts I would have rather not encountered when this world had some of the deadliest animals of all the planets. Killer worms with sharp teeth slithering through the caves. Bats with long tongues that extracted brains through nasal cavities. The list went on, but I’d didn’t want to recount it, because it gave me the creeps. I wrapped my arms over my chest and rubbed.
Knoxe moved the prisoner to the wagon we’d rented, and helped the prisoner climb onto the back where Raze secured him with ropes. Raenyn grumbled something but the comms bracelet didn’t pick it up or translate it.
The horned horses whinnied, snorted, and stomped at the front of the wagon, getting restless. They set me on edge. I wanted to leave here and fast. Before we got caught or attacked by beasts. Like a lot of creatures in this realm, they had scales, like reptiles, to absorb the energy from the pale sun.
Knoxe stared at me with fierce eyes. But this time, the ferocity was different. It wasn’t directed at me. The dark rage in his eyes was reserved for the bastard who threatened our lives. He already had a hang-up about death because his best friend was killed by the vampire we hunted, but this new danger was eating him up, and I was worried more for him than I was for myself.
That wasn’t the only thing bothering me. Something else behind his eyes tortured me. Confusion, longing, and denial. He wanted me, but wouldn’t admit it, and it was driving me crazy. Stubborn man.
God, I couldn’t get last night out of my mind. Spending the night with him in the infirmary was a turning point in our relationship. The experience with the fae had brought us closer, so close. He’d held me, cuddled me, when previously he acted like he didn’t want to be near me. All night, I snuggled next to him and slept on his chest. Normally, we fought each other. But he’d let his guard down and confessed things to me. We’d had more than a moment. The sparks were always there, but my body craved him, needed his comfort, and I couldn’t deny how I felt.
But the next morning, he’d admitted that what had happened between us—the incredible threesome I’d had with him and Tor before our capture—had been a mistake. Now, I felt way in over my head. Lost to my attraction to him. There was no turning back for me. But I didn’t want to have these feelings if they were never going to mean anything more. I wouldn’t cope.
Whether I lived or died in the next twenty-four hours, the fae weren’t going to be the only cause of my death. Knoxe would be the death of me.
He offered his hand and boosted me into the back of the wagon where I sat beside Tor. Raze and Pascal sat on either side of the prisoner as his guard.
“Where are we going?” Raenyn asked, his voice hoarse and thick, like he hadn’t used his vocal cords in years.
Knoxe knocked on the wood, and the driver took off, causing the wagon to rock. “To the Rarknul where you’re going to give up your secrets to save the pumpkins you poisoned.”
Raenyn smiled. A creepy fucking smile full of blackened teeth and dirty, purple lips that made me shiver. “I’ll be of no use to them. Because I’m not Raenyn.”
Raze
I knew he smelled funny the instant I caught his scent. The smell of a liar. I’d picked up two odors in the prisoner’s cell, one old and fading, and a second, owned by the prisoner next to me. But I wasn’t about to broadcast it when none of the others besides Astra knew my secret.
Knoxe grabbed the prisoner by the raggedy shirt he wore, shaking him roughly. “Who the fuck are you?” His voice was low, frantic, and grave, and it sent a chill racing down my spine.
Before we’d left the Guardians, he’d explained to Pascal and I that he, Tor and Astra ran into some trouble in the Unseelie world and what would happen if they didn’t kidnap this prisoner. To keep up the appearance of a mission, Pascal and I had to travel to the Unseelie realm, but Knoxe gave us the option to wait while they went to Talnok. Hell, no. We were a team. I didn’t let my mates down and neither did Pascal.
“Raenyn’s cellmate.” The prisoner smirked as if this was a game. “My humblest tha
nks for getting me out of that nightmare.”
“Fuck, we got the wrong guy.” Tor shook his head and rubbed his forehead.
Munyara, that was a whole new level of wrong. My beast scratched inside me, desperate for release. If I could just get free, I could track whatever we needed, but I needed more time.
Astra moaned and dropped her face to her hands. “How could we get the wrong prisoner?”
Pascal rubbed his tuning forks harder, and his face twitched, a sign of his growing agitation. “We have to take him back.” He was a man of strict protocol and discipline. If something didn’t follow those rules, his autism kicked in, raising his anxiety.
“No, we’re not.” Knoxe’s voice adopts a cold desperation I’d not heard from him before. He ran his hand along the top of his head. His face tightened and stretched the puffy skin under his eyes. He was on the edge of losing his shit or something darker.
“But, Knoxe.” Pascal glanced up at him, blinking more than usual.
“It’s okay, Pascal,” Astra said. “Let’s figure this out.”
Like Pascal, she needed structure and order for her condition. But right now, everything was going to shit faster than we could control it. My gut turned gritty from the unease filling the air between them both. We couldn’t afford one of Pascal’s meltdowns or the time lost to calm him. Taking a leaf out Tor’s book, I whistled a little tune, and he glanced up at me, distracted.
Good. Focus on the music, brother.
The boney fae continued to smile, smug and pleased with himself. This was no game. Three of my teammate’s lives’ were on the line. I didn’t appreciate his attitude, and growled, jerking forward, tempted to punch the smugness off his face. But he’d been mistreated, beaten, tortured in the prison, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. My fists uncurled, and I glanced at them.
Cold mist swarmed around me, and my attention snapped to the space in front of the prisoner. Out of the fog emerged my three ancestors, two generations gone. They circled him, protecting him. A stone settled into my stomach, heavy, ominous, and unsettling. The bone witch rattled her femur at me, warning me away, persuading me back into my seat.
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