Siren Redeemed: Paranormal Prison Romance (Thief of Hearts Book 4)

by C. R. Jane

  I screamed purely out of instinct, while my hands gripped the cart that stood between him and us.

  Looking back quickly, of course, no one came to our rescue, and the guard didn't move. I was going to murder him if I got out of this alive.

  "He's not coming for you, my little finch." He makes that horrible sound again that makes me gag.

  I doubted I'd get far if I ran, and could I live with myself at leaving this poor terrified girl at his mercy?

  My fingers curled around the plastic spork on the cart, knowing that it wasn't much of a weapon, but I'd make it work. Instead of panicking, I lifted my gaze to the man.

  "Don't come near us. The guard will be here in seconds," I said with bravery I barely believed in. I had no idea what to expect from him, but I'd been in enough fights in here to have picked up a few things on surviving.

  The girl next to me was moaning behind the gag, pushing her tied-up hands against my side to untie her.

  "Don't even think about it," he threatened, lifting his blade. "I'm not asking for much. You each give me one of your eyes, and I'll let you both go. Now, let's start, I'm starved."

  I might have just peed my pants... just a tiny bit, I was shaking that much. Where the heck was Keon or Alaric, or even Laz?

  "Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Us!" I enunciated every word to drive my message home, to show him I wasn't weak.

  But the grin curling on his thin mouth didn't reassure me in the slightest that I'd succeeded. Not when a shiver crawled up my spine.

  He advanced on us, and I recoiled, dragging the meal cart to keep something between us, the girl glued to my side. My mind was whirling with what to do next.

  But instead of freaking out and waiting for someone to help us, I did the next best thing.

  I shoved the cart with all my strength at the guy, then grabbed the girl's arm, and whipped us around. Then we were running like our lives depended on it, which they did.

  A crash boomed from the cart falling over.

  Terror jolted up my legs, a scream in my throat as we continued to move. Inmates from up ahead; looked at us, but no one came to our rescue, and that fucking guard didn't even crane his neck to look up. I released that scream, but he was too far to hear it.

  Something hard struck my shoulder, and suddenly, I was wrenched backward, my feet giving out from under me.

  Terror squeezed my heart as I hit the floor hard. The girl lost her footing too, falling face-first, and I winced for her.

  Scrambling back around, a shadow fell over me. The guy stood there, wings extending out from his back on either side of him. They were covered in feathers as black as a raven's, his irises, turning black as well.

  I lost all ability to think straight as I rushed to my feet, my heart thundering in my ears. He lifted his blade, and everything about him reminded me of a bird... He was a fucking bird shifter.... raven more specifically. Then I remembered a story I'd once heard of a raven shifter serial killer leaving behind dead bodies, their eyes removed.

  Instantly, I reached down, and grabbed the girl by the arm, hauling her to her feet.

  "Look," I said to the shifter. "I don't want any trouble. Leave us alone, and you won't receive a visit later from Keon and Alaric."

  Something crossed his face at the sound of their names, but just as quickly the look vanished. "Send them to me, little finch. I will be ready."

  Fuck!

  We were backing away from him when he came at me so fast, I barely saw him move. Instinct took over, and I shoved the girl out of his reach, then ducked under his arm as he came flying toward me. I kicked my leg out wildly and slammed my heel right into his barefoot.

  He groaned, making a squawking sound, but he didn't stop. So, I spun back around, my arm with the spork flying at his face. The plastic pointy ends puncturing his neck, the snap of the weapon echoing as it fell apart in my hand.

  "You bitch." His hand flew backward, striking me across the side of my head. The pain radiated through my skull, and I stumbled backward as stars danced in my vision. The guy was grasping the side of his neck where I'd broken skin and drawn blood.

  I crashed into the girl who hadn't run away for some reason.

  She murmured louder, turning for me to undo the ribbon tying her wrists. I reached down to do just that when a squeak came from my feet, and my attention shifted to my little mouse.

  What was he doing here?

  He was holding a gold coin between his teeth, and I had no idea where he came from. But I understood instantly. Ravens loved shiny things, they collected them, even eyes to eat it seemed, so maybe this could work.

  Rapidly, I grabbed the coin from his mouth. "Thank you, little guy," I whispered, and without really thinking how to do this, I hurled the gold coin at the approaching monster.

  The coin struck him in the middle of the chest and bounced back down, clanging against the stone floor. His gaze followed the golden coin, and for a split second, I believed this would work. But all hope faded when he squawked out in laughter. "You think that a worthless offering will satisfy me?"

  His gaze darkened, and panic gripped me. I leaned in close to the girl. "Run," I told her, my hands falling to her back, tugging at the ribbon binding her wrists. "Run for your life."

  Raw fear zipped through me, the kind where deep inside I saw my own death, where I couldn't foresee how the hell I was going to get out of this intact.

  "Get the fuck over here and kneel to your god!" he screeched.

  But both of us were already running. I hadn’t managed to fully free her arms, but we'd lost all ability to wait.

  Run or be tortured were our only options.

  My feet hit the ground, inmates flying out of our way on seeing us coming. Not to mention the shadow falling over us, the black wings darkening our world.

  My heart beat so fast, I was convinced I would die before he got a chance to catch me.

  The girl ran for her life too, her shoulders swinging back and forth in her awkward run as her wrists remained tied behind her back.

  My eyes were locked on the damn guard who still seemed like a world away, still so far my screams wouldn't reach him.

  Sharp talons dug into my back suddenly, breaking the skin, the pain excruciating. I cried out, falling forward. All I saw was my death flashing before me. How the next funeral to be held would be mine.

  Hitting the hard floor on my hands and knees, I lost sight of everyone else. My sight feathered at the edges from pure dread.

  I frantically turned around where a tremendously huge black raven hovered over me. Gone was the man as he'd transformed into his shifter form. And right then, curved claws like knives were coming right for my face. Black beady eyes held my gaze as if capturing me under a hypnotic spell.

  I couldn't look away, couldn't move. But the terrifying scream falling from my mouth echoed through my skull.

  It all happened so fast. The beast was coming for my eyes, swooping down.

  Next thing I knew, electricity slammed into the bird's chest. White lines of energy wrapped around him so fast. I was still screaming.

  Unleashed from whatever he'd done to hold me in place, I scrambled backward. The raven crashed into a wall then fell to the floor, the lines of electricity tightening in around him, squeezing the sheer life out of him.

  The bruning stench of what was happening to him flooded the air.

  A split second. That was all it took for the psychotic bird shifter to attack me and be tossed backward. A pop sounded, so loud I flinched, still sitting on my ass, watching in utter shock.

  One moment, the bird squawked and fought the magic restraints, next it burst into nothing. A shower of black feathers raining down into a pile in the middle of the hallway.

  I couldn't move, couldn't breathe as my brain tried to catch up to what I'd just witnessed.

  Only when I turned away did I notice the girl I'd saved standing behind me with her hands pointed toward the pile of feathers, magic dancing on the tips of her fingers.
<
br />   She looked down at me and lowered her arms, a red marking where the tape had covered her mouth. "I'm Nova. You saved me and for that, I owe you."

  I blinked at her, wanting to say, I was saving myself as much as her, but those words never came. "How did you do that?"

  Climbing to my feet, I noticed the guard was marching toward us, his face pale as a ghost. Fucking bastard. Of course, he showed up now after I almost died.

  My heart was still pounding in my chest a million miles a minute. "I'm Selena. What are you?" I asked.

  She laughed and ran a hand through her messy hair. "I'm kind of a wizard, but my powers aren't as powerful as they are on the outside, you know."

  "They looked incredibly impressive to me just then."

  Her gaze flicked to the feathers. "That fucking ass had it coming."

  "Son of a bitch!" The guard skidded to a stop next to us, his attention on the shifter’s remains, then he looked at Nova and me. "What the hell did you do?" he barked at us.

  "Are you kidding me?" I snapped back, still shaking too hard to tone it back. "You were too damn lazy to do your job, and it almost got us killed."

  He walked over to the feathers, calling in the incident on his earpiece. Swinging back toward us, he growled. "Get back to your cell," he commanded Nova. Then turned to me, grabbed my arm, and hauled me back down the hallway.

  "Selena," Nova called out. "I'll be seeing you around."

  But I never got the chance to respond because the dumbhead guard dragged me farther away from the scene of the crime.

  "This is what's going to happen," he hisses between clenched teeth. "I'll take you back to your cell where you will spend the rest of the day. My report will outline that we were both attacked. When it comes to the bird-brain back there who's dead, we never saw a thing about it. Understood? I can make your life very uncomfortable here if you choose otherwise."

  Anger flared in my chest since I was no longer the girl that assholes walked over. I'd had enough of everything, so I ripped my arm out of his grasp, and turned toward him. I also noted that with him freaking out, he had no clue about the Warden’s target on my back.

  "Don't touch me. You can't do anything to me, I know bigger and badder monsters in this place than you could ever imagine. They’ll skin you alive when they hear you put me in danger." I breathed heavily, my muscles tense, and I stared him dead straight in the eyes. I had no idea if he knew the men I associated with, but when he gave no response, I guessed he must have known.

  The moment he swallowed loudly and dropped his gaze, I knew I had him.

  "Lucky for you," I continued. "I don't want any of this shit to come back on me either. So, I'll say nothing, and you will never be with me on my shift again. If you see me in the prison, you fuck off in the opposite direction. Do you understand?"

  He swallowed hard and glanced back toward the remains of the raven shifter. I had no idea if he witnessed Nova taking out the psycho, but if not, I’d let him believe it might have been me that had done it.

  He growled his disapproval under his breath, but also didn't say a thing. "Move, I'll take you back to your cell. I have to clean up this shit."

  "That's what I thought," I answered and followed him back to my cell, desperately wanting to be alone so I could finally freak out about what just happened.

  Chapter 5

  Selena

  The Warden was a man of his word...at least when it came to threats. Five days had passed since he'd placed the bounty on me, and every day there had been some kind of torment. The attack from the raven shifter had been just the beginning.

  I was already tired, and it hadn't even been a week.

  And I'd had to go through it all alone. I hadn't seen any of the guys, even Keon, since everything had begun. We'd thought that the Warden didn't know about the relationships we were pursuing, but he had to. That was the only reason I could think of for why I hadn't seen any of them.

  I wasn't an idiot. I might have kept secrets in the past, but in this situation, where anything and everyone was trying to kill me, I would have gladly told the guys everything in the hopes they could help keep me alive. I'd even been removed from the dinner rotation in the sector that would have taken me past Seth's cell. I'd been cut off from anyone who could help me.

  Today that had to change, though. Somehow, I was going to find a way to talk to one of them. If I didn't, I wasn't sure I would survive tomorrow. There were a lot of baddies in this place, a lot of creatures I hadn't even heard of… that I didn't want to hear of. There had been one yesterday that had oozed slime, and then tried to throw it at me. The slime caused extreme burns. I'd been lucky to escape with only a slight burn on my leg. Apparently, gelatinous creatures didn't move very fast because I'd been able to run away, and it hadn't been able to catch me.

  I peeked around the corner, trying to use my cart as a mirror to see if anyone was lying in wait. The other day, I'd been jumped in the shower. A demon had come at me with some kind of glass shank. I was just lucky that the hot water had been turned on in the prison that day. Most of the time, the showers were ice-cold. I'd flipped the water to the hottest setting and burned the ever-loving shit out of my attacker. Since then, I hadn’t slept at all remembering her screams.

  I'd never imagined what I would be capable of once backed into a corner. It was terrifying to think about, actually.

  My makeshift mirror didn't show anyone lying in wait, so I pushed the cart around the corner, stopping every time I heard a sound... which meant I stopped constantly. It meant that it took forever to make my meal deliveries now that they forced me to do them on my own, and I'm sure the prisoners were starving by the time they got their food. I didn't feel too bad though; they were the ones that were trying to kill me.

  I made it through the first section without incident. I could see the yearning in the prisoners’ eyes to come at me, but luckily their cell doors were locked, and they couldn't. A shiver crept down my spine when I passed a particularly gruesome prisoner with spikes protruding from every inch of his skin like some kind of supernatural version of Pinhead from that old horror movie, Hellraiser. I could just imagine the damage he could do to me if he was free.

  One more section passed safely, and then my luck ran out. The cell doors were open, and the prisoners were moving about the hallways freely. I heard the whispers as I passed out the trays of food, and a bead of sweat trickled down my face as I tried to push back the fear churning inside of me.

  I rushed through the food delivery, practically throwing the food into the cells so I could get out of there as fast as possible. The guard I'd been with had mysteriously "disappeared" so there was no one to help me with what I knew was coming. I winced when some of what was supposed to be mac and cheese splattered across the floor of one of the cells.

  Keep it cool, I murmured to myself.

  A monster was waiting in the second to last cell. While technically most of the prisoners in this place could be considered a monster, the vampire standing in the doorway of his cell was one of the scariest creatures in the place to me.

  It was Julian's second in command, Guthrie…and he looked like he was waiting for me.

  "Long time no see, Selena," he purred, somehow still managing to look perfect despite the fact he was in prison too. Evidently, he’d been finding plenty of blood based on his healthy complexion.

  "What are you doing in here?" I asked, trying to hide the tremor in my hands as I passed him a plate of congealed bloody meat that he eyed distastefully. When his gaze flipped from the food back to my face, I knew I'd asked the wrong question. If looks could kill, I'd be six feet under with the scalding hatred he was directing my way.

  "Apparently suggesting Julian find another slut to obsess over was the wrong thing to say," he hissed as he took a slight step forward.

  I shrugged helplessly and started to push the cart forward. "Sorry about that," I called over my shoulder, the words dying in my throat as his hand shot forward and tightened around my arm
.

  "What is it about your pussy that has a creature like Julian frothing at the mouth?" A snake-like tongue that I'd definitely not seen before slithered up my neck. I shuddered and tried to pull away, but he held tight.

  "I think I'll kill two birds with one stone, little siren. Get a taste of that golden pussy, and then collect the bounty from the Warden. I bet your blood will taste good too, even without your power."

  I began to thrash around, trying to break free as panic shot through my veins. I didn't want to die, but dying at the hands of a vampire... that was never going to happen.

  My frantic attempt to escape was no match for his superior strength, and he dragged me back into his cell with no issue. He threw me down on his cot and straddled my hips, forcing my hands above my head as I continued to jerk around uselessly.

  He laughed cruelly and scraped his sharp incisor teeth down my throat. I stiffened in horror, the idea of him biting me, freezing me in place. My breath came out in loud rasps as I started to hyperventilate. His teeth had just pricked my skin and then he was gone, ripped off of me, and the sharp smell of brimstone assaulted my senses.

  A harsh tearing sound filled the small cell, and I sat up with a gasp, scooting against the wall as I tried to figure out what was happening. I squeaked at what I saw. Black, acrid smoke was seeping out of a wolf-like creature that was currently mutilating and ripping Guthrie's body into a million bloody chunks.

  Black spots danced across my vision as my panic increased, but I forced myself to take deeper breaths. The last thing I needed was to pass out, although maybe that would be helpful if I was about to die.

  The creature growled as it dropped what looked like Guthrie's leg from its mouth, and then spun around to face me. It took me a second, but a hiccupped sob erupted from my mouth as soon as I realized that the creature in front of me was a hellhound.

  "Laaaz?" I squeaked hopefully. I was so screwed if it wasn't. The hellhound shook out its sharp fur and then slowly shifted, until Laz was indeed standing in front of me. His eyes glowed red for a second longer before they finally reverted to normal. Without another thought, I threw myself at him, relief clawing at my chest.