by K. N. Banet
“I am,” I promised, checking my weapons instead of looking at the werewolf. It wasn’t a lie. I was ready—for anything.
“You know he’s not the only enemy you have in this building, right? I know he’s a bit close to home, but—”
“Tarak, if you want this to go smoothly, you’ll drop it,” I said quickly. He only nodded in response, and the discussion died as quickly as it started.
We walked toward the building and met Raphael and Korey at the door. Korey held it open as Tarak stomped in first, his commanding presence growing as we moved into the building and walked through various security checkpoints. Finally, we were at his office.
“Where would you like to start?” he asked.
“Let’s start with the easy stuff. The external security seemed fine, and Eliphas is developing upgrades. That’s good. The fewer the breakouts, the more effective the prison.”
I went to his window and peeked out the blinds, checking the yard below. Every Warden had a view of the yard. I could see several supernaturals wandering aimlessly while others stood in cliques. It was a lot like a human prison. Some were playing basketball, some were using the outdoor gym equipment, and if someone didn’t have a group that protected them, they ended up being vulnerable to others. There were some on the inside who worked to procure things they weren’t supposed to have, normally bribing guards to get those items. Visitors weren’t allowed at all, something our kind did differently from humans.
I didn’t see Nakul, but I saw others I knew by name. Others I had tracked down and captured when I could have killed them. Others I knew were in because I had been at their Trials, waiting to kill them, only for their sentence to be the prison instead.
Tarak was right, I had enemies here, and for the first time in years, that sentiment hit home.
I should have tried to leave Raphael at home. This normally doesn’t bug me. I have enemies everywhere.
“Let’s start with a tour of the grounds around the fence,” Tarak said, heading back for his door. “You have an option to leave Raphael here with Korey, or they could both come with us.”
I looked at my charge, my partner in a way, asking him with just my facial expression if he wanted to join.
“I’ll come with you,” he said softly. As we walked out of the office together, he leaned over. “I’m not stupid enough to go anywhere alone or separate from you. I might disagree with it, but I know you can kill people, and I don’t know anyone else here.”
I almost chuckled. At least his Catholic guilt didn’t make him a complete fool.
6
Chapter Six
I followed Tarak back out of the building, nodding at the guards who manned several stations between the inner offices and the outside world. There were actually two fences around the entire compound, and surveying the grounds meant walking between the two. It was evening in the desert, which I would normally love, but it was winter. The afternoons rarely got into the seventies if I was lucky. Today, it was in the fifties.
“This is always the most boring exercise,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes at Raphael, who gave me the courtesy of chuckling.
“You don’t seem like the type of person who enjoys this sort of thing,” he commented. “You like action and getting things done. This does seem…routine and unnecessary.”
“It is,” I confirmed, sighing. I shrugged when Tarak shot a look over his shoulder.
“You never take this seriously,” the Warden accused.
“It’s boring. We’ve now been walking in the desert between two ineffective fences for forty-five minutes. You can’t deny it’s boring.”
“I normally run it with the pack. Maybe if you changed into a useful creature, this wouldn’t be boring.”
“Useful? I’m venomous. Try that again.” I laughed, shaking my head as we walked. I knew Tarak was trying to lighten the mood. He wasn’t a stick in the mud like the Alpha in Phoenix.
“What were you two talking about earlier?”
Before Tarak or I could, Korey answered. Damn female werewolf didn’t have any filter.
“Probably Nakul. They always talk about him.”
I turned to give her a scathing glare, and she went pale under my stare.
“If he didn’t know, why did you think he should?” I asked softly.
“Korey, why don’t we meet you back at the front door?” Tarak asked, stepping quickly in my way and blocking my view of his wolf.
“Yup.” She turned and started running faster than I could.
“Who’s Nakul?” Raphael asked quietly, drawing my attention.
I stared at him for a long time, debating if he deserved to know. He was a naga mate, even if he didn’t know it. If I ever claimed him, injected my venom into his bloodstream, and tied him to me forever, he would have to know. If others found out he could be my mate, he deserved to know for his own safety.
“Nakul is my uncle by marriage. The night my mother, father, and brothers were murdered, so were his wife and son, both nagas as well. He went on a killing spree afterward. He wanted other species who ignore the plight of our kind to feel the same pain. He’s unhinged. He killed…” I couldn’t finish. He’d done exactly what had been done to him. There were fae, witches, werewolves, vampires, and even humans associated with our world who were in the exact same position now—all men who once had a wife and son who would never have either again.
“Oh…” There was a green tint to Raphael’s normally tawny complexion. “And he’s here? I thought…I thought you executed people like him.” Raphael seemed uncomfortable, and I was glad he was. It was an uncomfortable topic.
“There are only nine nagas left,” I reminded him. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but he’ll be here for eternity. We couldn’t execute him.”
“It sounds like there’s a lot more to that story,” Raphael said softly, looking at his feet as we walked, the green tint fading away slowly.
“I wanted to execute him,” I said plainly. The awkwardness of my beliefs and the position I was in always caught me at odds. I never really wanted to think about it, so I didn’t. I had so many other things on my plate on any given day—except for the days I was at the prison, days like this one.
“Of course.” Raphael was silent as we continued our long walk around.
Once the perimeter was done, we found ourselves back at the front door. The heavy silence continued as we moved through security, with Tarak making it go quickly. Then we moved into the real troublesome area of the prison—the cell blocks.
There was a loud, obnoxious noise as the door opened. Once inside, I looked up at the three levels of cells with walkways. Every cell door was visible. Spelled bars kept magic users and the super-strong from breaking through, but unless the prisoner was in solitary, they had a completely unobstructed view of everything outside their cell.
Meaning, they could all step up to the bars and see me.
So, it begins.
“Looky here!” someone yelled. I didn’t bother to look for the individual. In my mind, they were all the same. My job was to make sure they were being treated fairly, and security was still tight. “Our grim reaper has stopped by!”
Someone grabbed my wrist tightly, squeezing though I didn’t know why. I couldn’t bother to glance down when I had the all-important task of looking dangerous in front of the most dangerous supernaturals allowed to live. I licked my lips, catching the eyes of the different superstars of the supernatural underground, but there were too many scents. The hand was warm, but I didn’t know the feel of it well enough.
“She’s got a boyfriend now! Yo, Warden Tarak! Your pussy found a new plaything!”
Raphael, then. I wonder what’s wrong. He doesn’t touch me often, if ever. He’s never done this before. Should I have left him in Tarak’s office? Can he not handle this?
Our group walked slowly through the southern cell block, and I reviewed each cellmate for anything worthy of concern. The guards were on their best behavior, and the general
rule was to let the jeering happen and just ignore it. Everyone followed the protocol, but the hand on my wrist grew tighter as the jeering grew worse.
“Hey, pretty, I love your skin. How much does it go for on the black market these days?”
“Heard snake eyes are lucky, sweet thing. I need a bit of luck. Maybe you can lend me yours some time.”
Chills went down my spine. The ones on the bottom floor always made the sly, darker comments that hit home. They weren’t comments anyone on a higher floor was stupid enough to scream down, but down on the first floor, they were ballsier and could get a hand on me if I went too close to the bars. I turned and met the gaze of one scarred son of a bitch with a toothy grin. He seemed pleased with himself.
“I won’t lend you my eyes, but my fangs are always willing to meet someone new,” I whispered, smiling a little as his eyes went big. I stepped closer, trying to exude confidence and superiority. I was the one in charge here. I was the one who would come if any of them stepped just enough out of line to get their sentences changed. I was their grim reaper, and they all knew it. “I haven’t played in a little while.”
“Not what I heard,” someone muttered. “Heard you killed Sinclair.”
I kept the smile and shrugged. “I bet you have. I’ve been itching to start a new game.”
“Kaliya,” Raphael whispered softly and tugged gently, not enough to move me but enough to tell me he wanted to keep moving.
“Yeah, Kaliya…get moving like the little boyfriend wants you to. Never knew you to keep backup, but it’s cute to see you’ve finally found someone,” someone teased. I wished I knew all of their names and species. I had no idea who this guy was. The only thing he couldn’t be was a vampire. Those were kept underground for their own security reasons, and generally, vampires didn’t send their bad apples to the prison. There were only a couple being kept there.
“You should honestly be more worried that I have backup now,” I said, my fangs dropping. “It means there’s finally someone who can keep up and kill well enough, I trust them.” I started walking again, knowing it was time to end this little scene. Everything looked fine, and the prison was running business-as-usual in the southern cell block. It was the simpler of the two cell blocks and infinitely less complex to look over than the vampire prison in the basement.
We left the cell block, and I looked down at Raphael’s hand, frowning.
“Care to explain?” I asked, trying to ignore the pleasurable heat of his skin.
“I…I don’t know,” he said softly, letting go. “I’m sorry. It just happened, and I decided to roll with it.”
“You know, you’re allowed to be honest with me,” I reminded him, ignoring Tarak’s confused and concerned state. The Alpha didn’t like strangeness in his prison, and this was definitely strangeness. Me telling some guy to be honest while he’s grabbing me? Cassius never touched me like that in public, but Raphael just did.
“I do, but…” He shook his head. “What’s next? I don’t like being here.”
Me neither, Raph.
“There are no vampires in attendance right now, so we’re going directly to the northern cell block,” Tarak answered before I could say anything. “No need to look over the underground facilities because they’re empty.”
“Of course,” I said, sighing. “To the northern cell block, we go…” I tried to contain my disgust with the idea, considering how I felt about the criminals held there. “Are we doing solitary after that?”
“There’s no one in solitary, but I’ll let you walk through,” Tarak replied. He started walking again, and I followed with Raphael, wondering when my not-human charge would start asking the questions I had a feeling he really wanted to ask.
We were halfway there when it began.
“Is there any difference between the two cell blocks? Or are they both like that?”
“Northern cell block contains individuals who have life sentences for whatever reason,” Tarak answered. He was frowning when he turned back to us. “Did you explain any of this to him?”
“I explained the security but not the intricacies of prisoner placement.” I pushed my hands into my pockets. “You know I don’t care what their sentence is. They’re the ones who perpetrate some evil shit in our world and nearly expose us to humans. I don’t care if the ones in the southern block are only serving timed sentences. I don’t see why anyone should. When they get out, they’ll be watched, and they’ll cross the line again, and I’ll get called in to clean up.”
“You don’t think people can be reformed?” Raphael asked, sounding less curious and more expectant of my answer.
“Not really,” I answered, not elaborating. One in one hundred wouldn’t become a repeat offender, and because these were still alive, they would always have a chance to screw it up. We walked silently for a moment, and I looked into the yard in the center of the compound, with only one edge pointing to the outside world. The building was in a large U shape, making it easy to see the yard from any inside wall, like Tarak’s office. There weren’t many out. I knew the times were staggered to keep it as safe as possible, but it wasn’t a totally effective plan. There were still fights out there, and people died before the guards could break it up.
“Do we need to check out there?” my not-human companion inquired, obviously trying to cover up some emotion. Since seeing the southern cell block, he’d turned stiff, and it grew more obvious every step.
“No, I don’t go into the yard. Too much of a chance for trouble,” I explained, stopping to stare out the window. There were no recognizable faces out there, something I was both grateful and annoyed with. The northern cell block was going to be packed. When I started walking again, Raphael stuck to my side like he was glued there.
The security sounded when we walked through the guard post into the northern cell block. There was one key difference between the two cell blocks everyone noticed—the noise. It always got me when I walked into the silent northern cell block and looked at the doors. This three-story section wasn’t full like the southern block, and they didn’t share cells. Every room held an individual, and the doors were solid, except for a very small window where one could look in or out of the cell.
“You’re going to make me walk the entire cell block, aren’t you? You're going to make me do Wesley’s prison, too?” I asked Tarak softly as we stood by the entry.
“Always do for the northern cell block. This is routine, Kaliya. Let’s just get it done. And no, we’re not going to fuck with Wesley today. He’s been agitated recently.” He didn’t sound particularly annoyed, but he wasn’t pleased. Normally, I did this walkthrough with Dian because Tarak hated doing this procedural stuff for Alphas who were stronger than him. Most werewolf Alphas hated this kind of stuff. They ruled their little corner of the world and ignored the others unless someone intruded on their space. I represented power over Tarak, and he didn’t like it on an instinctual level.
“Wow,” Raphael whispered. “Why are they all so quiet?”
“Northern cell block, the worst of the worst,” I reminded him. “They don’t need to be blowhards. Among their ranks, a naga who’s considered the most proficient serial killer of the last five hundred years, a fae princess, daughter of Titania and Oberon, with a knack for skinning people alive—” Saying that caused someone to giggle hysterically on the second floor. That made me take a pause and reconsider telling Raphael more. There was more to that fae, but it suddenly made my skin itch to think about, and I could only imagine how Raphael felt without even knowing all the details. “And others.”
“Fuck,” he mumbled.
“Yup.” I stepped closer to the cell doors. I had to look inside of these to see the inmates. These were people of power, importance, rarity, and more. They had done horrendous things, but for whatever reason, they weren’t executed.
Seeing them always left a bad taste in my mouth. This cell block made me uncomfortable in ways that made me feel vulnerable. These supernaturals w
ere sick, and they all unabashedly knew it. Many were damn right proud they ended up getting away with what they had done.
“Kaliya,” a singsong voice called. “Are you still with my nephew, sweet serpent?”
I looked up for a moment and wondered why she was talking today. Normally, she was quiet, and I appreciated that. She had that happy-go-lucky thing that freaked me out.
“Nephew?”
“Remember what I said. Fae were born of two people, either with each other or with humans. Fae royalty are children of Oberon of the light and Titania of the dark—Cassius, his parents, and his direct relatives. She’s a princess, one of them. She’s his aunt. I promise you, they aren’t close.” Swallowing, I ignored the woman and looked into the first cell. Sometimes, these motherfuckers liked to spook me, and I wasn’t really in the mood for that shit today. I was already jumpy because Raphael was with me. I was certain he was the cause of my extra layer of discomfort.
I caught sight of the prisoner, lying on his bed, staring at me with hooded eyes. He gave me a very small smile, then closed his eyes.
“This is Leviathan,” Tarak started explaining, probably to Raphael, who was hovering over my shoulder because I sure as hell didn’t need to know who was who. “The one who—”
“We don’t need a rundown on every one of them,” I snapped. “He doesn’t need to hear about all of them.”
“It’s fine—”
“I want you to be able to sleep tonight,” I muttered, walking to the next door and leaving them standing in front of Levi. His name wasn’t fucking Leviathan. It was Levi, and I hated when people let these monsters use their special little nicknames to stroke their own egos when they had one.
I stopped in front of the next door and looked in to find another healthy criminal, then the next door and so on. We walked up a metal staircase to the second floor, and two doors in, I was confronted with eyes I didn’t want to see.