“Emmitt?” she asked casually as she slipped the thumb drive with his interview into her pocket where he couldn’t see.
“Hmmm?” he asked, pouring over footage of her interview with Vyr on his monitor. “Fuck, why isn’t there any sound on this one either?”
Ha. Because Vyr had way more control of what was happening here than anyone realized.
“Maybe your cameras are malfunctioning?” she wondered in a chaste tone. “Um, how much time did Vyr get added to his sentence for eating that guard?”
“Huh?” Emmitt asked, distracted as he turned up the volume on the speakers to no luck.
“His sentence. How much longer did he get for eating that guard? Number Seventeen.”
“Oh. Uh, no extra time.”
“Why?” she asked, shuffling her paperwork from the clipboard into a neat pile.
Emmitt tossed her a dirty look over his shoulder. Instead of answering her question, he said, “At least you got the interview footage. That will surely have volume. I couldn’t hear jack shit when you two were talking.”
“I think I should do more of these interviews with him. He seemed to open up. It may make him more docile when he needs to be moved, or…fed.” Or something. “Why did you turn the lights off on him?” That part pissed her off. From here, she could see his heat signature like snake vision. The man was pure red.
“I told you he’s a creature of darkness. We try to keep him calm. His kind like caves, so we do what we can to keep him from going dragon on us.”
“But he’s human, too. You’re keeping a man in the dark with no mental stimulation. That’s awful. I want this changed right away.”
“Veto.”
“I have authority to change his living conditions if they don’t meet acceptable standards.”
Emmitt sighed loudly, stood, and flipped the switch, turning on the light. “Your ass will be fired as soon as he gets overstimulated and Changes in his cell. He needs to do that in a cage especially made for the dragon. You haven’t seen the Change yet, so you aren’t careful like you should be...”
Emmitt continued talking, but she tuned him out since she was too busy looking at Vyr, sitting just where she’d left him on the mattress. He wasn’t looking at her, but had his chin lowered and was running a hand over and over his shaved head, right over the long scar.
She would bet her tits the New IESA did that, and a part of her didn’t even want to know why they’d performed surgery on him. This prison wasn’t what it seemed, at least not in the lower levels. This was horrible mistreatment of a prisoner.
“Why no time, Emmitt?” she asked again.
“Because paperwork, Mercer. We all get the big salaries to work down here, but we all signed the same confidentiality and release forms. That’s the trade-off. You don’t have parents. You don’t have family. You don’t have friends. You don’t have any attachment to the outside world. You know how I know? Because that’s one of the requirements to work down here. You have to be completely expendable. Accept that now, and it’ll make you careful enough to survive this place. Number Seventeen, Chad, wasn’t careful with the monster, and he got himself eaten. No one outside of this facility will be made aware of that fact, and adding to Vyr’s sentence would mean paperwork. We have to explain our actions, and that New IESA lab down the hall? They wouldn’t let us explain our actions. We would come up missing before that happened.”
“You mean people aren’t allowed to know what’s going on down here because of how you treat the Red Dragon. You don’t want the media all over this.”
“You sure are a nosy bitch, aren’t you?”
“No, I think it’s fair to know exactly what I’ve walked into.”
“You’re a bad person,” Emmitt uttered as he rested his butt against the desk. “Know how I know? Because they wouldn’t have hired you if you had morals. And you wouldn’t have taken a job like this if you had a conscience. I don’t have one either. No one down here does.”
“What did Chad do?”
Emmitt shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care.”
“But Vyr cared enough to eat him.”
“Vyr is a monster. He’s mindless, and when he gets hungry, he eats. He’s not a man. He’s pure animal. Wrap your head around that real quick, or you’ll be in the belly of the beast next. We have six months and a shit-ton of work to do to make the world safe again. You’re part of a super hero squad the world will never know about and will never thank you for. We make the hard decisions to keep it safe from monsters like the Red Dragon. Your only job is to make him steady so we can get him where he needs to be.”
“Dragon-less?”
Emmitt smiled, but it never reached his eyes. “No darlin’. Dead.”
Chapter Four
It was all Riyah could do to get through the rest of the day. She met all the lower-level inmates and eight of the upper levels. Her office was small but worked fine. She was to take on the hardest cases and try to make life in the shifter prison easier for everyone. The aggression in there was off the charts. Twice, she’d watched two silverback gorillas go to war in the cafeteria. No provoking each other either, they just locked eyes across the table and went to blows. And it happened again as the guards were dragging them out. They’d had to tranquilize one of them and Taser the other.
Thankfully, some of the upper-level guards were shifters, so they were strong enough to handle the brutal stuff, but geez, she was feeling way out of her element here.
Her theory? They didn’t have shifter guards down on the lower level because they would see what the New IESA and the research lab were doing and cause havoc.
Little did Emmitt fuckin’ know, she was the one he needed to worry about, because no matter how long it took and how patient she had to be, she was going to blow the lid right off this place.
Starting with a phone call.
Clara Daye picked up on the second ring. “You’re on the burner phone?”
“Yes,” Riyah murmured.
“Where are you?”
“Sitting in the parking lot of Fed-Ex. I have something I need to overnight you.”
“What is it?”
“Video of your son. It needs to get to his crew, but you should see it first. And Clara?”
“Yeah?”
“I think it’s time to bring in Damon.”
A deep sigh blasted static on the other end. “Is it that bad?”
“They’re killing him.”
“What?”
“The New IESA is involved, and they aren’t just trying to take his dragon. They want him eliminated, and they can’t do it when he’s still this strong, so they are killing the dragon first. The second he is weak enough, they are going after Vyr.”
“Oh, my God,” Clara whispered.
“It gets worse.”
“How the fuck can it get worse?” Clara blasted into the phone.
“I toured a research lab on the lower level. They are making something with the tissue and blood samples they’ve been taking from Vyr.”
“Something like what?”
“I don’t know. But there was one small room no one was allowed in except the head researcher, and when we passed, it looked like there was a two-person team studying blood and tissue samples. And in the middle of the room was this huge canister that was lit up with a red neon light, and through the window of it, I could see a single vial of something. The room was completely locked down.”
“Riyah, did you get a feel for anything in there?”
“Yeah. It was overwhelming, but whatever they’re making is huge. There’s this underlying current of excitement from the research team. Even when they were meeting me and talking with me, they were still humming with anticipation. Whatever they’re making, they’re getting close to a breakthrough.”
Clara had gone quiet, so Riyah waited a few minutes before she asked, “Are you okay?”
“How is he?”
Riyah shook her head and stared at the Fed-Ex sign, but all s
he could see was the hollowness in Vyr’s eyes and his frozen dragon pupil. “He asked for his crew.”
“Shhhhit.”
“That’s bad?”
“Vyr doesn’t need people. He was different growing up. He attached to Torren, so I always knew if he asked for Torren, he was in trouble. But he’s asking for his entire crew? He didn’t even want to be Alpha.”
“What do I do?”
“Ship the video. Ship it to me. I’m bringing Damon in. I should’ve from the beginning, but I learned a long time ago to let him and Vyr work their own stuff out. Fire versus fire. They’re both stubborn men, stubborn dragons. Damon has it in his head that Vyr will do a year in that place, and then his punishment will be done and he’ll move on. That’s not what’s happening, though. Damon trusted a broken system to try and keep things calm between shifters and humans, but it’ll get Vyr killed in the process. Time to open my mate’s eyes to how bad things really are. We will send the video to the Sons of Beasts.”
“And what should I do?”
“Riyah, I need you to keep Vyr steady and keep him strong, remind him of the fight he has in him. I’ll get things into motion, but I need time. Be his friend. Be there for him. Be his crew until the Sons of Beasts get there, and when they do, get him as much time with them as possible.”
“Six more months in this place won’t work. He’ll be long dead before he serves the entire sentence.”
“Okay.” Clara inhaled deeply and repeated, “Okay. If he gets close to the edge before I can line things up…Riyah…get my son out of there. Before they take the dragon, get him out. I can’t get anyone else in there to help you, I’m sorry. I tried, and you’re all I was able to secure into one of those positions safely. Help him keep the dragon. Please.”
“I’ll do the best I can. Clara?”
“Yeah, hon?”
Riyah dipped her voice to a whisper. “He’s like me.”
“I know. Damon and I have watched you for a long time, Riyah. We knew of your parents. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I know it’s lonely. I was like that, too, until I found Damon. Vyr struggles with feeling alone as well. You have always felt important, but I couldn’t figure out why. And now I keep getting this feeling that you’re supposed to be there with him.”
A strange sense of déjà vu took her. She’d been thinking the same thing lately. Like the stars were lining up, and her journey could be epic or end in disaster.
She just didn’t know which one yet.
Chapter Five
Riyah plopped onto the couch and rested the carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on her stomach before she flipped channels, looking for something good to watch. The small apartment was full of boxes she would never unpack because this would never be home. She had a wandering problem. A year at her last job was the longest she’d ever stayed in one place since her parents passed. A few months in, and she would get restless and continue the search for the elusive “home” she’d always craved but never found.
She changed channels until she tracked down a show about Alaska homesteaders and pulled the blanket over her lap, then scooped a spoon of ice cream.
“You’re still awake.”
Riyah jumped so hard she dropped the spoon onto the laminate flooring with a clatter. Terrified, she looked around, but she was alone. “H-hello?”
“Don’t be scared. I can’t burn you from here, Witch.”
“V-Vyr?” she whispered. Fuck! She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and focused, slamming her mind closed.
There. She couldn’t feel him anymore.
Panting, she sat there too scared to move. He’d sounded as if he was sitting right beside her when he spoke. What the hell? He could reach into her mind all the way from the lower levels of the prison? The amount of power he possessed to be able to do such a thing was horrifying. It had built an instant headache behind her eyes. Even with him far away, he could hurt her.
But…
This was kind of like a phone call…right?
Vyr could talk to her. Could she talk back, like when they were facing each other in the prison?
Slowly, she relaxed and opened her mind again. He was gone. She couldn’t feel him anywhere, and the headache had faded as though it had never existed. She tried reaching out for him, but there was nothing to hold onto, and she got mentally exhausted within moments. She would need to use some of Mom’s spells to make her stronger if she wanted to do this. Already she was ticking off a list of plants, herbs, and powders she would need. The spell books were in a box in the corner. She hadn’t looked at them in years, but maybe it was time to dust them off.
She couldn’t focus on the show anymore. She tried for half an hour, but she kept thinking about Vyr and part of her wished he would come back. She’d reacted out of fear, closing her mind like that, and maybe it had pushed him away forever. She should be relieved, but instead, she felt hollow.
Giving up on relaxing before bed, she got up and brushed her teeth and washed her face. It was still early to sleep, but maybe she could get her body to wind down. The alarm would come early enough in the morning.
But as she lay in bed, she thought about Vyr’s eyes, his harsh smile, and straight, white teeth. She tried to remember the footage of his dragon eating that guard, but she kept drifting back to the way his arms pushed against the thin material of his white T-shirt, the way his tattoo ink trailed down his arm to his inner elbow. Even on death’s door, he was a gorgeous man.
“Thank you.”
She’d been half asleep, but Riyah jerked up in bed. “You’re back.”
A deep chuckle echoed through her head. “I tried to leave you alone like you wanted. It’s boring as fuck in here though, so I figured I would try again. What are you doing?”
“I’m lying in bed. And I feel like a crazy person for talking out loud to myself.”
“Maybe you are crazy. Maybe I’m not really in your head. Maybe you just want to talk to me so badly that you’re making all of this up.”
“Are the lights off?” she asked.
There was a mental shrug. “They turned them back off right after you left. I got punished. They made me eat dinner in the dark, too. They have the flashing lights of the hangar doors going though, so there’s that. I’ll probably go insane and twitchy by the next time you see me. Prep yourself. You might not think I look so hot tomorrow.”
“I didn’t say hot.”
“Were you going to touch yourself to me?”
“Stop, or I’ll kick you out again and let you rot in the dark.”
“If I could, I would be jacking off to you. But there are eight grown dudes in the observation rooms. Turns me off.”
Riyah bit back a smile. “You would really jack off to me?”
“Hell, yeah. You’re hot, too.”
“Is this what mental conversations will be like with you? All perverted stuff? Don’t tell me you’re one of those guys.”
“I’m absolutely one of those guys, but okay. Let us pretend to not be attracted to one another. What would you like to talk about?”
Riyah smiled even bigger. “Sometimes you say things strangely.”
“What do you mean?”
“You say them all formal.”
“It’s how my dad talks. Momma bear curses like a sailor, Daddy dragon is millennia old, an ancient who only turned mortal when he met my mom, so he grew up in a different time where manners were everything. Blame him for turning me into this.”
Vyr’s voice had gone all dark though, and had lost the edge of humor he had earlier.
“You mean blame him for the dragon part?”
“Blame him for everything if you want. You’re a counselor, right? Prison psychologist? You’ll love me. Daddy issues for days. What are you doing? Paint me a picture.”
She giggled and relaxed back in bed. “I’m under mismatched sheets, in my twin-sized bed, in my apartment that is full of boxes from moving. I’m too lazy to unpack them, and I’m fine with
clutter.”
“Strike one. I hate clutter.”
“I’m wearing pajama pants with cartoon tacos on them and a white tank top.”
“Bra or no bra?”
“Sports bra.”
“Strike two. What color panties?”
“Get ready for a supermassive boner.”
“I’m prepared.”
“Beige.”
“And there’s your strike three. You’re a boner killer.”
“You’re welcome. Now you don’t have to worry about those eight dudes watching you adjust yourself.”
Another chuckle sounded, low and soft, and it made her smile on reflex. “You have a nice laugh.”
“I can’t sleep lately.” He said it suddenly as though he wanted to do it before he could change his mind.
“Why not?”
“I think it’s the meds. Or The Sickening.”
“What is The Sickening?”
“I’ve been away from my crew and my mountains too long. It started out as nosebleeds, but now I hear things and see things that aren’t there. I feel sick even when I don’t have the meds in my body. Sometimes I Change without knowing. I just…come to and I’ve burned the room again.”
“What did that guard do? The one you ate?”
“He hurt little girls. Thought about it all the time. He was remorseless, and his memories were so loud I couldn’t help but see what he did. Emmitt talks about the lower level being hell, and I’m the devil himself, right? Maybe. But I’m not the only one down here. Paperwork means they’ll have to admit what caliber of guards they hire down here. And they would have to do it publicly. Subject change. Why peonies? In your memory, you had a bouquet of them.”
Riyah swallowed bile at his admission about the man he’d eaten. How awful. She struggled to catch up with the new conversation and stuttered when she said, “Th-they were my mom’s favorite.”
“My mom likes wildflowers. My dad used to buy her big bouquets of expensive roses, but she was never as impressed as when he would go into the yard and pick her some little pink wildflowers. She would put them in this little shot glass and keep them alive for two weeks.”