Wraith Captive, page 15
“There’s one more person to get out.”
“But it’s more than that,” Ax says, staring off as if barely listening. But I know damned well he’s drinking in every word of our conversation. “We need to trust each other. We need to know the strengths and limitations of each other’s abilities.” His gaze swings to her. “And that’s something we don’t have with you. Yet.”
Elizabeth gets the strangest expression. “Are we back to this shit? I already said—“
“You’re human,” I finish for her, feeling a tick in my forehead.
She glares back defiantly. “What do you want me to say?”
“How about the fucking truth?” I say, my voice rising.
“Because you’re so good at telling the truth,” she shoots back.
I don’t know why, but her words seem to challenge something within. “Ask away.”
Her brows rise. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
She crosses her arms over her chest and leans back against the wall. “What are you?”
Of course she’d fucking open with that. But if I back down now, she’s won. “A dark fae… At least, I’m half dark fae.”
“And the other half?”
I almost stand up and leave, but force myself to remain seated. “A necromancer.”
Some of her attitude fades. “I don’t know anything about either of those things. So, you’re like a fairy who raises the dead?”
Ax the asshole chuckles beside me.
I shoot him a glare and turn back to her, throwing my words at her like daggers. “Dark fae are feared by all. They are rare and powerful. They feed on dark emotions and can kill with just a thought.” I’m breathing hard, waiting to see the fear in her eyes. “As for the necromancer part of me, I’ve only ever raised things by accident.”
To my surprise, she doesn’t look the least bit afraid. “And why are you here? Why did they toss you in a prison for the supernatural?”
The answer is complicated. I have the urge to give her the simple answer that I’ve given Ax and Blade, but the desire to be honest with her, to lay it all out and see how she reacts, can’t be ignored. “My mother was a dark fae who was rejected by even her own kind. She did everything she could to blend in as human. When I turned sixteen and accidentally brought my best friend back to life at his funeral, I came home and found she’d moved without me. I was homeless for a time, until a dark fae took me in and taught me how to use my gifts to kill, to become the perfect hitman. That’s what I was doing when we met. I’d just finished killing my mark.”
Her eyes meet mine. “And that’s how they caught you?”
I shake my head. “My boss was always careful with his targets. Everything was always well planned. But one day I met a human who was hurting a child and I acted without thinking. The man, it turned out, was not so human. He was a very powerful vampire. His murder led me here.”
She doesn’t say anything for a long time, just stares down at her hands, frowning. To my surprise, my pulse picks up. I’d told myself I was going to lay it all out for her and decide if she could accept me for me.
I didn’t think about what would happen if she couldn’t.
“Okay,” she finally says.
I stare at her as if she’s lost her mind. “Okay? That’s all you have to say.”
She shrugs, and those beautiful blue eyes of hers meet mine. “Well, we’re all here for some reason. Right? And I’d rather know who you are than keep trying to figure it out on my own.”
I should feel relieved, but I don’t. Nothing of what she has said suggested she’s okay with what I am. It just seems to be that she doesn’t care, but perhaps that’s because I’m nothing more than her ticket out of here.
“So Ax is a shapeshifter and Blade is a vampire-shifter,” she continues. “But why are they here?”
Ax stiffens near me, and I look to him. His story is not mine to tell, so it’s his choice what he wishes to say or not say. And I don’t blame him for wanting to keep his story to himself.
“It’s almost funny,” he begins, running his hand through his dark hair. I watch his nervousness, curious where he’ll go from there. Nothing about his imprisonment was funny. “I got married because my parents wanted me to, and the woman was one of the few shapeshifters who was willing to be with a mixed breed. Not romantic, but we were a good match.”
I make a sound, and Ax gives me a look. Clenching my fists, I will myself to remain quiet. This is his story to tell, even if he’s telling it the wrong way. Even if he isn’t describing his bitch wife properly.
“Well, I guess she was fucking a local politician.” He tries to sound like the whole thing is a joke, but anyone who knows him well can see just how much every word is hurting him. “I came home to find them both dead. The authorities showed up, said it was a crime of passion, and because her fuck-buddy was some big demon, I was sent here.”
“I’m so sorry,” Elizabeth says, and she looks sorry.
I try not to glare when she reaches across the table and pats his hand. But I can’t help but notice the way his eyes light up at her touch. Fucking hell, Ax has it bad for her. No matter how much he seems to be acting like he doesn’t.
“And Blade?” she presses.
“Blade, what?”
I turn to see the vampire coming up behind us. There’s tension in his shoulders as he sits down beside Ax, and I swear he clenches something in his hand.
Releasing a deep breath, I will Blade to remain calm. “We’re discussing how we all ended up here.”
Blade looks pissed. “Why does that matter?”
“We’re working on trust,” Ax says with a grin. “We figured breaking out of this place would be a hell of a lot easier if we all actually trusted each other.”
Blade scowls. “She doesn’t need to know.”
“We both showed her ours…” Ax winks at him.
Blade continues to scowl.
So, of course, Ax grins. “No need to if your little hotdog is feeling shy.”
For a minute I think Blade is going to say no, but then he speaks, “I murdered the men that killed my family. One after another. Violently. Until they were all dead. And when I told my uncle, an Enforcer, he turned me in.”
I look to Elizabeth, waiting.
“Was it painful? The way you killed them?”
“And slow,” Blade says, drawing out the last word, his tone challenging.
Suddenly, she flashes us a smile that’s all teeth. “Good.”
Good? I stare at her. Since when does the sweet woman I knew from that summer say that killing someone slowly is a good thing?
I look at Blade and Ax. The bastards look aroused as hell, which only further irritates me.
“Your turn,” I say.
Elizabeth’s smile melts away.
We wait.
“Come on,” Ax coaxes. “It can’t be worse than what we are, and why we ended up here.”
She opens her mouth, and the bell rings.
Relief washes over her face. And she leaps from the bench, all too eager to escape.
I grab her arm as she tries to run past. “This isn’t over.”
“Got it,” she says, but the smug look on her face says she’s hoping to wiggle her way out of this.
I let her arm go, but my eyes follow her as she races off. If the little minx thinks we’re going to let this go, she’s got another thing coming. I rise and follow after her, realizing a moment later that Blade and Ax are at my sides.
“I like her,” Ax says.
Blade smirks. “Yeah, we know.”
The three of us follow her back into the dining hall, watching her every move.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Elizabeth
After dinner, we’re all allowed to sign up for different tasks around the prison. I manage to get assigned to the library. For one glorious minute I think it’ll get me out of having to tell the guys what I am and why I ended up at the prison, but they all sign up for the same work detail.
Of course.
The four of us follow a guard to an area of the prison I haven’t been to before. We go down a quiet hall and to a door. He flashes his pass and the door opens, the smell of old books wafting to me, strangely nice in this miserable place. I inch forward and see a medium-sized room with about ten shelves of books. An older man sits behind a desk with a pile of books. When he spots us, he scowls, but then his gaze moves to Ax, and his scowl turns into a smile.
“Ax, old boy, you’re back.”
Ax grins. “I told you you’d never get rid of me!”
I try to hide my surprise. For some reason, the handsome jokester is the last guy I’d expect to spend time in a library. Especially not a prison library.
The older man tugs his cap a little lower on his head and rises from his stool. “I’ve got books to deliver. You think you can show the newbies where everything goes?”
“Of course.”
But before the man leaves, his gaze lands on me and widens. “Wait, you’re the woman? The only one in block Beast Meat?”
“Beast Meat?” I ask, frowning.
He rolls his eyes. “The prison is a big place. Your block seems to be the only one being killed by the beast, so a lot of us call it the Beast Meat block.”
“Catchy,” I say dryly.
“Forget that.” He waves his hand. “You’re her, right? I heard you looked at that damned beast and it exploded. Is it true?”
My heart speeds up. “No.”
“Others said you had some kind of black magic? A cloud of powers?”
I shake my head again.
He frowns. “Then how did you do it?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I say, lifting my chin.
The old man’s bushy brows drop. “If you’re going to lie, you might want to make sure the whole block didn’t see you kill the beast.”
I avoid his gaze and shrug. “Stuff happens.”
He makes an irritated sound. “Ax, tell your girlfriend she’s a terrible liar.”
“She’s not mine,” Ax says, almost too quickly.
The man grabs a cart full of books. “You’re a terrible liar too.”
He pushes his cart to the door, raps on it, and a second later it opens. I stare after him, saying nothing until the door closes once more.
“Man, what was his problem?” I ask, tapping my foot.
“He can see through your bullshit,” Ax says underneath his breath.
I whirl around and glare at him. “It’s not bullshit.”
“It’s not the truth.”
“Enough,” Gabriel says, the word tense. “It’s now or fucking never.”
My gaze moves to his, and I’m a little unsettled by the way he just seems to be able to close himself off to me. It’s like a bizarre skill, or a reflex. Something I wish I was better at.
“I… I don’t want to do this.”
Blade sighs in irritation. “Everything was simple before, and then this…this…walks in and complicates everything.”
I level him with a glare. “Stop acting like coming here was my choice.”
“I’m just saying we had a plan, and you’re messing it up.”
“Not helpful,” Ax mutters, going to the books on the carts and looking far too interested in organizing the books onto the table.
“Stop drawing it out,” Gabriel snaps.
My heart races. “I’m sorry if I’m not just spilling my guts to a bunch of strange men!”
“We’re hardly strange men,” Gabriel says, a little slowly.
“You’re an asshole who fucked me a bunch and disappeared, and then there was that, whatever that was in the bathroom…”
“Bathroom?” Now Ax looks interested.
He scowls. “I didn’t just fuck you and disappear.”
“That’s how I remember it…”
He crosses his arms over that broad chest of his. “My boss needed me to get back to work, and I decided you might not want to be part of that life. Was I wrong?”
His response takes me off-guard. Somehow he manages to explain being a complete ass like he was doing me a favor. And it bugs me. A lot.
“And they didn’t have phones where you were?”
His jaw twitches. “That’s not a life you pop in and out of whenever you want, Elizabeth. If I brought you into it, they’d expect you to stay in it.”
What do I say to that? “And I’m sure you tried really hard…”
That muscle in his jaw twitches again.
Blade moves toward me, then stands towering above me. His gaze roves over my face, his expression almost gentle for a moment before his gaze locks with mine and the gentleness is gone. “It’s almost nighttime. We have…plans. Important plans. But we need to know what you are and what you can do beforehand. If you can’t tell us, as much as Gabriel might not like it, we’re done with you.”
Done with me? I don’t know why the cold way he says the words seems to claw and my chest. Maybe because I sort of thought that it wasn’t just Gabriel who cared about me.
Apparently I was wrong about that.
But did I trust these guys enough to tell them the truth? Sure, they’d told me their secrets, but everyone already knew what they were. Revealing their secrets wouldn’t get them killed.
So, it seemed, I could either tell them the truth and hope they were trustworthy, or try to figure out how the hell to survive here without them. And, more importantly, decide if I wanted to survive here without them.
The second thought bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
“You can never tell anyone,” I say.
I feel the tension in the men.
“I mean it,” I continue. “I need your words.”
“Elizabeth—“
I cut Gabriel off. “I just…I just need to hear you say it.”
Slowly, the three of them give their word to keep what I tell them secret. And then they’re silent. Waiting.
I don’t know where to start, so I just start from the beginning. “My mom had a twin sister she loved very much. My mom was also a woman obsessed with the supernatural. After seeing a few unexplainable things, she’d made it her mission to discover everything there was to know about the paranormal. But then her sister got sick.”
My mom had told me very little about my father and about how they’d come to have a relationship, but this part I knew. Because as a young woman my mom had finally told me, and the story had stuck with me like a nightmare.
“On the night she was certain her sister was going to die, she felt ready. She’d studied all she could about death and thought she had a way to keep her sister from dying. She created a symbol around her sister’s bed, a trap for death himself, and waited. But instead of death coming, my father came.”
“Your father?” Ax asks, and I realize he’s come to stand closer to us.
I nod. “A wraith.”
My words seem to drop between us. Gabriel’s brows draw together. Ax and Blade exchange a confused look, and then Blade begins speaking.
“Wraiths are no more than ghosts. Creatures that people see before they die, or that others might see after someone dies. They’re not…beings. Beings that can have children.”
“You’re wrong,” I say, the words coming out soft. “My father came into my mother’s trap, and then he couldn’t get out. But even though she had hoped her plan would save her sister, it didn’t. The woman died, and then she had a trapped wraith to deal with. At first, she imprisoned him out of grief and rage, but then things changed between them. They fell in love. But it couldn’t last. It was only her spell that allowed him to remain tethered to this world, and when her spell failed, he was gone.”
My mom spoke even less about what happened next, but I press on with my story. “After that, she tried to be in the room when people died. She tried to trap him again. She tried to see him again. But she only caught sight of him once, briefly, just long enough to tell him she carried his child, and for him to tell her that she could never reveal who my father was, or I’d be killed.”
“I didn’t know such a thing was possible,” Blade says, frowning.
I shrug. “I lived the rest of my life as a human. I didn’t have any real powers, except…”
Suddenly, I’m reluctant to tell them. Although it’s silly. Maybe it’s because they seem to think I’m some big bad creature now, or maybe because it’s embarrassing how little control I’ve had all my life over my abilities.
“Except what?” Gabriel asks, his voice soft.
Grow some balls. “Except that death calls to me. Except that sometimes I know someone is going to die before they do. And sometimes, if someone dies near me, I have no control, I’m dragged to their body. Other than that, I’ve been just a human all my life.”
“What about what you did to the beast?” Blade’s brows are drawn together.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, and then time just seemed to…stand still. And, I swear, I saw my father, and he showed me what to do. And then I just knew.”
Ax lets out a breath and runs his hands through that flawless black hair of his. “So, now you know how to use that kind of magic?”
“Maybe,” I say, then add, “but I’m still learning.”
Gabriel crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against one of the shelves, his expression far away. “Hopefully you can figure out how to use your magic again, because we’re planning a prison break soon.”
My jaw drops open. “You are? How? When?”
Blade is the one to answer. “We’d planned it for next week. We have some help. But if the doc takes you tomorrow, chances are you won’t return to the cells for weeks. So I asked our outside connections if they could get us out tonight.” He leans over and hands something to Gabriel, but before I can see it, he stuffs it into his pocket.
My heart hammers in my chest. If we don’t get out tonight, they’ll leave without me? The thought makes me sick.
“Can they get us out tonight?”
“They said they’ll see what they can do.”
For some reason, I don’t feel any better. The idea of escaping is like a distant hope, but for some reason the reality of me being trapped here and the men leaving without me seems more likely.
