by C. R. Jane
"Thank you. Thank you," I whispered fervently into his smooth skin, the faint hint of brimstone suddenly the best smell I'd ever experienced.
His arms came around me, and he gripped me tightly. His body was trembling, and I noticed that his breathing was labored. "You could have been killed," he whispered gruffly, his shaking increased as he said the words.
It took me a minute, but I realized that this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for.
"The Warden... he's put a bounty on my head. Everyone's trying to kill me," I blurted out, pulling him closer to me.
"What?" Laz roared, his arms squeezing me so tight that I had trouble breathing. His gaze darted across my features like he was afraid that I was going to disappear...or killed at any moment.
"I kind of lost my temper in a meeting with him, and he wasn't happy about it. Ever since then, I've been hunted, chased, and attacked…it's constant. He somehow got the word out to the whole prison."
"Word didn't get to me," he growled darkly. "And it didn't get to the others either. How convenient."
Laz gazed suspiciously out into the hallway, as if someone was going to attack at any moment, which I guess wasn't that far-fetched with how things were going.
It was amazing at how safe I felt at the moment though, like now that I'd been able to tell Laz what was going on, a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders.
"There was another close call the other day. A raven shifter, or something like that. It was... terrifying," I whispered against his chest, and a deep growl rattled from Laz.
"Let's get out of here," he said urgently before picking me up in his arms, and striding out of the cell. I felt the gaze of all the prisoners that we passed, but they stayed away. I'm sure that the bloodied chunks of Guthrie were quite the deterrent. There was no way I wouldn’t be forgetting the sight any time soon.
Thinking of it would probably allow me to actually get some sleep tonight. I was obviously fucked up.
Laz turned down an assortment of tunnels. He didn't speak a single word, instead, he remained watchful and alert. Anyone we passed that even seemed to take a step towards us was met with a warning growl that had at least half of them peeing themselves.
It made me feel a little bit better.
"Keon," Laz suddenly barked…and there my love was.
I struggled out of Laz's arms, and rushed towards a confused-looking Keon, throwing myself at him like he'd just come home from war. Once again, sobs burst out of me.
"Baby, what's wrong?" he asked softly, stroking my hair with a gentleness that would never cease to surprise and amaze me he was capable of.
"The warden put a fucking bounty on her head," Laz all but roared before I could get a word out.
Similar to Laz's reaction, Keon's entire body stiffened. "What did you just say?"
Laz and I explained the details of what had been happening. Keon was holding me so tightly that it was hard to breathe. As with Laz's reaction, I didn't mind.
"How did all of this happen between when we got back yesterday and today?" Keon asked.
I looked up at him, confused. "Keon, what are you talking about. It's been over a week since we got back from my mother's funeral."
"A week?" he said quizzically. "That's impossible. Selena, no. We just got back." There was an edge of panic threaded through his voice.
"Keon," I breathed. "Why can't you remember?"
Keon's silence was terrifying.
"Lazarus, take Selena back to her cell and don't leave her side. I don't care if fifty guards come to rip you away," he said sternly.
Lazarus nodded his head, a look in his eyes that said he'd like to see them try.
"Keon-" I pressed, but he interrupted me.
"Someone stole the last week from me, Selena. They prevented me from protecting you, from being with you. That's not fucking okay."
"Don't do anything stupid," I pleaded with him.
He shook his head in response.
"Just trust me and go with Laz. I"ll find you later, alright?"
I hesitantly nodded my head before letting Laz take my hand and walked away.
I threw a glance over my shoulder before we turned the corner, but Keon was already striding away. I just hoped that whatever he had in mind didn't get him killed.
One thing was clear though, the Warden had definitely found out about us.
Keon
It took everything to control myself when my emotions were heightened like this. As I stalked through the halls of the prison, the desire to kill and destroy thrummed through my veins. I'd always been a bit indifferent about the Warden, I was ashamed to admit. I recognized him for the evil, selfish creature that he was, and I gave him a wide berth...or as much of a wide berth as I could while working for him. Though I'd always recognized the power he held, I foolishly thought he'd never aim it at me. I'd been living in denial, thinking I could find a way to get Selena out of here without dealing with him. But I thought I at least had time to figure out a plan.
However, that time had obviously expired.
The fact that he'd somehow found a way for me to forget an entire week had my skin crawling. Had he done something in the past like that to me? Were there other pieces of my life that were just gone now?
And he'd done it to make sure that Selena would have to suffer alone. I would have marched to the Warden's office and killed him for that right then if I wasn't sure he would win. The Warden couldn't be beaten physically, but there had to be a way to outsmart him. Or maybe to bargain with him...
"Alaric," I barked as soon as I got to his cell. I unlocked the door, and threw it open, a loud clanging echoing down the hallway. "We have a problem."
Alaric had been lounging on his bed, reading a book, but he sat up immediately, his entire body on high alert. You couldn't miss that Alaric was a predator. While I could hide who I was, and did so often, Alaric wore his power proudly.
"What's going on?" he barked.
Recounting what I’d just been told, it didn't take long to realize that Alaric had experienced the same memory loss that I'd experienced.
Alaric let out a loud bellow that threatened to burst my eardrums. I could smell the fear of the prisoners in the air, thick and tangy, like they were sure Alaric was about to come after all of them.
"Where is she?" he asked frantically, striding towards the door. I pulled on his shoulder and narrowly avoided his fist as he tried to come at me for stopping him.
"Laz is with her. She'll be fine. We need to figure out how we're going to get her out of this mess. If Lazarus hadn't been there this time, she would have been dead. What happens when it happens again, and someone's not there?"
"He can't be beaten," Alaric said with a sigh as he put his fists down. There was a long silence as he stood there. I could almost see the cogs in his brain working as he thought through the problem. Alaric was a genius. You didn't control one of the world's largest criminal syndicates without being smart.
"I'll go to the Warden. There's got to be something he wants," Alaric finally said, a determined look on his face.
The idea was much less simple than it seemed. A favor from the Warden never came without a price, and after what Selena had done to his treasures… it would be even harder to make him see reason.
"It's going to cost us," I told him, stating the obvious.
"She's worth it," he said fervently.
"She is," I agreed.
And she was.
Alaric pushed past me without another word. I followed him out, and then headed towards my room to prepare. Although I didn't know what I was preparing for, the goal was clear.
Get Selena out of here. Alive.
Chapter 6
Alaric
My entire life I'd dealt with chaos, and I liked to call it my specialty. But it was a very different thing when it was happening to someone I cared for instead of me. That shit ate me up and spat me out, destroyed. The truth was, Selena's time in Nightmare Penitentiary was always goin
g to be short-lived. Someone as pure and innocent as her didn't belong in a prison, and whether it was her sanity or the lunatics locked up in here, that would get to her first; I knew it was only a matter of time if she remained.
I approached the Warden’s door, the guard standing nearby nodding for me to proceed. He understood there was an arrangement between the Warden and me. One where neither of us trusted each other, though we acted like we did. Mutual respect between two enemies.
Raising my arm, I knocked on the door hard.
"Come in," he called from inside his office, and I pushed down the handle and entered. The man... if one could call him that, had his head twisted in my direction while stretching his arm up to place a tiny trinket box up on the top shelf of an empty bookshelf. I’d never once seen his trinkets removed from their display, so this was new. In a corner were several cardboard boxes, and in one I noticed some of his artifacts, broken. Now that sight made me smirk like a mad man to see his little toys smashed up. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when that happened to see his reaction.
“Are you redecorating?” I asked sarcastically.
He growled under his breath. "What do you want, Alaric?"
I shut the door with a click, and made my way across the office to his desk. "I have a favor to ask of you."
The Warden turned back around to face me, studying me from behind hooded eyes. The wheels were spinning behind his gaze with how this could possibly benefit him. The guy was so fucking predictable.
"And what would that be?" he asked, sauntering over to the desk, dressed in black tailored pants and a matching button-up shirt. It almost concealed the faint wisp of black mist that came off him today. I had no fucking idea what he was, but now and then snippets of his real self came through. Basically, no one knows shit about him.
He sat in his leather seat, his short hair slick and off his face, and he crossed one leg over the other. Leaning back into his chair, he clasped the armrests. "Go on, I'm listening."
There was a quirk at the corner of his mouth like he'd recently received good news, and he fought the urge to let himself smile. Maybe it had been whatever trinket he's just added to this shelf, or maybe it had something to do with my sweet Selena.
I tensed, but refused to let him pick up on my unease. "You and I both have a vested interest in Selena's wellbeing."
"We do?" he said, playing coy, that time his grin splitting his mouth and revealing a perfect line of white teeth.
"I'm not a fool and neither are you, so don't patronize me," I answered.
The shadows around him danced and darkened, as did his expression. "I don’t have time for your fuckery. Get out of my face," he barked.
I pressed my back into my seat and stretched my legs out, crossed at the ankles. "Good, now you're ready to listen."
He bristled, and I held back my laughter at how much he loathed not having the upper hand.
"You know as well as me that you wouldn't want Selena to die while under your care. What would the Master Vampire think of that?"
His eyes narrowed, and now we were on the same page. Keon had told us everything that happened at the funeral, along with who we were dealing with.
"And, your point?"
"Look, since she just arrived back from her mother's funeral, she's been attacked several times by inmates ready to kill her. One was because of a fucking incompetent asshole guard under your command."
He didn't move or say a word.
"So, you want me to punish him? Is that what this is about? Have you forgotten how to take care of your own shit?" His voice hardened, nostrils flaring.
"No, what I want is for you to call off the bounty you placed on her head."
I watched the nerve in his temple twitch.
“What's in it for me?"
"You get to live another miserable day in this crappy shithole," I answered.
"Is that a threat?" he hissed. The darkness pulsing around him, billowing outward into a hulking outline.
"Not from me, but from the vampire prick who'll come for revenge on you for letting others touch what's his. You know he put her in here for you to just babysit her, right?" From everything I'd learned from Selena and the other guys, her time in Nightmare Penitentiary was her punishment until she submitted to that fucking son-of-a-bitch.
The mists and darkness swirled around him, and he leaned forward in his seat, his elbows on the desk, arms folded over one another. "How about this… I’ll offer you a counter deal."
The sneer in his voice was not surprising. Of course, he'd want this to benefit him, he didn't care about Selena. I didn’t answer, which gave him the opening to keep going.
"Find me the Cintamani Stone, and I will remove the bounty."
I stared at him as his shadows ebbed, and then dissolved back into him. "Never heard of it, and you know I can't leave the prison to search for this thing you want?" I swore to Hell, anytime this bastard was given any chance to make a deal, he never wasted the moment. He used others to do his dirty work, to gather more fucking crap to collect dust on his shelves.
"That's the beauty of it," he said, his voice brimming with excitement. "The stone's in the prison."
"What's stopped you from finding it?"
"You think I haven't tried?" He sighed, and he stared over to the shelves behind him. "With the stone, my collection would be close to completion. It's one of a kind, said to have once belonged to Buddha. I've been searching for it my entire life, and when I eventually tracked it down to somewhere inside this prison, I had no choice but to get a job here. It's one of the many reasons I started with Nightmare Corporation."
"You're setting me up to fail," I stated the obvious, and we both knew it. Was this his new way of saying no to me, making up crap about finding impossible relics for him?
"You're scared?" he asked, one of his eyebrows quirking.
"Fuck no, I'm not scared. But I'm a realist. You've been here for what? An eternity and you still haven't found it, and now you want me to track down a goddamn stone for you? I need you to remove the bounty from Selena now, not after I complete an impossible mission."
He was on his feet and marching over to his filing cabinet by the wall. With a few punches into the keypad, the lock clicked open, and he started rummaging through the files.
I clenched my hands, suppressing the shudder that flared through me. The anger that demanded I shove his fucking head into the filling cabinet, and ram it shut a dozen times at least.
The revelation that he'd asked for something in exchange wasn't new, but what he demanded was ridiculous. He wanted me to go play, find the needle in the goddamn haystack while Selena remained at the mercy of other inmates. The guys and I couldn't be with her every second of the day, as much as I wish I could. I'd get the guards under my control to keep an eye on her. But in truth, there was no guarantee of who the Warden would send on her shifts to deliver food.
"Found it," the Warden called out, like that should somehow make me happy. I growled under my breath in response.
Making his way back to the desk, he hurriedly sat and opened a folder with one sheet of paper in it. Even that only had a paragraph handwritten on it... if that. Was he fucking joking?
"These are my clues," he said.
As much as I fumed, I was fucked. The Warden was an asshole and would toss me out the moment I said no to his stupid request. "Let's hear them."
He clasped the paper with two hands. "There are two items to collect. They are connected and once all merged, they will lead you to the Cintamani Stone. All you need to do is bring me the two objects as I know how to connect them." He looked up at me, the corners of his eyes wrinkling from his excited grin. I contemplated throwing my fist in his face, so he'd stop staring at me that way. "The first is a key, and from what I've discovered so far, it's with one of the guards. They most likely don't even know they have it on them."
"Why the hell is the stone in the prison anyway?"
"Maybe whoever stole the stone we
nt and hid it in the darkest place, where even Buddha couldn't track it down."
I shrugged. Not that I could argue with that since it made sense I supposed. "Okay, so there's a key with a guard?"
"I’ve searched all the guards, trust me, but nothing. Either the guard knows or someone else in the prison does and is concealing it. The second object—”
"Wait, wait," I said. "That's all you have? A key that is with a guard?"
"It's no ordinary object and well, I'm guessing it might be concealing itself."
I rolled my eyes. This had to be the worst mission in the world.
"The next item is a scroll case, which I assume holds a map or spell to find the stone. And that's all I have." He lowered the paper back to the folder and closed it. “Bring me both items and you have a deal."
He stared at me like what he'd just told me was the easiest thing in the world.
"For fuck's sake," I muttered. "Now I know why you never found it and why we'll never find it, either. This is a joke. Give me something else to do."
His eyes flashed with anger, then he got to his feet with his thin folder, and returned to the filing cabinet. "Take it or get out of my office."
I gritted my teeth, and bitterness rose to the back of my throat. But I didn’t move.
"Do we have a deal?" he asked, turning back to face me, standing tall and formidable.
I stared at him with a gaze fueled with hate. Heavy breaths filled the space between us. My mind went over everything he'd told me, over how ridiculous his task was, but it all came down to Selena and her safety and the reminder that she remained an easy target.
"What's so special about the stone?" I asked.
He glanced back to his shelves of collectibles, filling up the rest of his huge office. "It once belonged to Buddha," he informed me. "Isn't that reason enough?"
I studied him intensely, well aware that things weren't adding up. The stone was one of the reasons he ended up working in the prison, and he'd been searching for it ever since... forever, then he mentioned it would complete his collection. Nope... no way in fucking hell was the Cintamani Stone just a dust collector. There was more to this thing, and he had no plans on letting me know. Which was fine... I'd do my own research.