Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

Banging on my cell door jolted me awake, and I cursed as fireworks whipped through my aching, bruised body. What the hell was going on now? The guards didn't bring me back from Venna's torture session that long ago. She couldn't be ready for more.

What was I talking about? Of course that psycho demon princess would be ready for more. Instead of ruling Vlehull, she was busy inflicting pain and torment on me.

"Prisoner 487331, get up!"

I rolled toward the door as Tajeed and Vankis loomed in the hallway. "Back so soon?"

Vankis grinned and licked his lips with a forked tongue. None of the dux demons in Heldrok bothered with a glamour. "Too bad this isn't a torture call. I love your screams. So cute and painful."

"I'm glad my pain entertains you."

Tajeed slammed his fist above the hole in the bars. "Put your hands here. Let's go. I don't have all night. "

With a groan, I stood and shuffled toward the door, pushing my hands through the gap so the guard could cuff me. "Where are you taking me?"

Once I was secured, Tajeed opened the door, and they held me between them. "You're getting a new cell."

Cold fear slinked down my spine as I pictured those stacked cages reeking of filth and anguish. "The cavern?"

Vankis's laughter pounded against my skull like an invisible hammer. "You should see your face. So scared."

I bit my tongue against the insults I wanted to hurl at him. It would only get me beat with the stick dangling from his belt.

"You're not going there." Tajeed's ebony horns were so large his neck muscles had to be powerful to hold up his head. "The warden has decided to give you a cellmate."

"Cellmate?" My heart dropped to the bottom of my boots, and my breath quickened. The warden might have helped me escape Sorin's violence twice, but that didn't mean he was a kind, forgiving demon. Plus, he wanted to know Ruin's plans, and I refused to tell him. Venna wasn't getting anywhere with me either. Maybe Demarcus really was allowing her to torment me for his sake.

But when the COs stopped at my new cell and the nightworlder stretched out on the top bunk peered over, dread coiled through my limbs. This was even worse.

Maddie unleashed a wide grin as she sat up. "When they told me I was getting a new cellmate, I figured it would be another prick."

That made my fears solidify. The warden put us together for a reason, and it wasn't anything good. Could Princess Venna have requested this arrangement to fuck with me?

Vankis opened the cell door, and Tajeed shoved me inside where a blanket and flat pillow were rolled on the bottom cot. I got a pillow? I didn't have one in my other cell.

"Don't mess this up, prisoner 487331," Tajeed said while waiting for me to place my hands through the hole. "If you keep your mouth shut, head low, and eyes peeled, you might survive in this place."

Vankis snorted. "She won't do any of that. She has troublemaker written all over her."

"I think Venna has other plans for me that don't include any kind of peace."

Tajeed shrugged and unlocked the cuffs from my wrists. "Still, it might be better than getting your ass kicked or threatened by every other inmate."

After Vankis and Tajeed left, I crawled onto the bottom cot and slung the blanket over me, wishing I could see Fane again. Touching him for real had been like a soothing balm to all the aches and pains in my body and mind.

"Isn't this great?"

I lowered the blanket to my chin to find Maddie leaning over the edge, her long midnight locks hanging around her face. "I've never had a cellmate that didn't want to murder me in my sleep."

My eyebrows knit. "Who said I didn't want to murder you?"

She scoffed. "It's pretty obvious you don't hate me. We totally kicked ass in the cafeteria together. Once a raven, always a raven." She gave a conspiratorial wink.

"We're not going to be friends." That would only get her killed.

Maddie shrugged and vanished from my sight, the rickety bed frame creaking as she settled down. "Allies then. I watch your back while you watch mine. It's a win-win, Tate."

It would be a lose-lose for Maddie like everyone else that got close to me. She would either die or end up hating me like Hawk.

The scent of chlorine and liquor choked me as sweaty hands dragged over my flesh. My insides twisted, and the toast I'd eaten earlier threatened to shoot back up. The tremors running through me excited him even more.

"You were always my favorite, Tate." Mr. Bowden brushed the hair back from my neck, his chubby fingers making my skin crawl. "Those other girls were just a distraction."

My gaze flicked to the exterior pool house door where his wife and the other kids were only a few feet away outside. If I could just get to the door?—

He grabbed my jaw and forced me to look at him. "Don't worry about them, sweetheart." The lust in his eyes thickened as he smiled, bunching up his ruddy cheeks. "They won't bother us."

I wanted to run or hit him, but my feet were glued to the ground, frozen as he violated me. Like a prisoner trapped in a cage of fear's making, I couldn't do anything except let it happen.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as my lips wobbled. Somehow, I knew he'd like it if I sobbed.

"I'm so glad you finally wore one of my gifts." Mr. Bowden tugged on the strap of the bikini top he tossed on my bed this morning. He'd give it to one of the younger girls if I didn't wear it this time. "Your body is so beautiful. You should be proud I want to admire it."

Acid shot up my throat, and I choked it back down before I hurled all over his fat, hairy gut.

He slowly licked his lips. "This just makes everything easier too." His fingertips brushed my neck again as he pulled the strings loose…

"Tate. Tate ," a feminine voice hissed as someone shook me.

I bolted upright and swung my fist at the figure above me, hitting only air. I scrambled out of bed and growled as my nightmares and reality collided.

Where am I? Who's here? What's happening?

Screams echoed and blood, sweat, and fear poured into my nostrils. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from vomiting.

Long, raven hair curtained a pale face. "It's me, Maddie." She lifted her hands in surrender and took another step back, leaning against the bars. "The guards moved you into my cell, remember?"

I took in the surroundings as my recent memories flooded forward, but the sickening ones lingered like a sour aftertaste. Laughter from the kids in the pool pounded in my skull as my innocence was stolen time and again.

Many days were spent crying in the bottom of the shower.

But I couldn't let that sick bastard touch the younger ones. They could still make it out of that place in one piece. Once Mr. Bowden realized my weakness, he used it against me to make me compliant .

The urge to claw my skin off ravaged my system, and my nails dug into my arms.

Something warm stirred in my chest, a presence attempting to comfort me.

My inner wolf.

A sharp intake of air filled my lungs. I hadn't felt that presence since before we were taken to Heldrok.

I was a shifter. And a trained raven. Anyone who tried to hurt me like that again wouldn't do so easily. I'd fight and tear them apart if given the chance. Even that bastard Sorin would meet my wicked side if he came after me again. I didn't need Fane or Knox to fight my battles.

"Tate?"

My head snapped toward Maddie. "What are you doing?"

"You were screaming, so I woke you up."

I wiped a layer of cold sweat from my forehead with a trembling hand and took several deep, ragged breaths. "Thanks. I just—don't always wake up calmly."

Maddie chewed on her bottom lip and took a step toward me. "I have them too."

"Nightmares?" I scoffed. "Who wouldn't in a place like this?"

"I had them before Heldrok." Maddie shrugged. "My unfortunate childhood haunts me."

I backed up and crashed on my cot, the metal slats hard through the thin mattress. "That's something else we have in common."

"Really?" Maddie slowly made her way over and perched on the edge of my bed. "You didn't have it so good as a kid either? "

I dragged my fingers through my snarled reddish-pink locks. "I grew up in foster care and then lived on the streets."

Maddie nodded as shadows crossed her brown eyes. "Me too. Not the living on the streets, but the foster care stuff." Lines developed across her forehead as she stared off into the distance. "My dad was an alcoholic and my mom a drug addict, so I was in foster care and then sent back to my parents until they fucked up again. Neither place was all that great."

"The streets were usually kinder to me," I admitted. The parents in the good homes noticed my oddities, or maybe they saw something dark in me.

"I can understand that." She unbuttoned the top of her jumpsuit and pulled it down to reveal a jagged scar on her shoulder. "My dad tossed me into our glass coffee table after I poured his liquor down the drain."

I had my fair share of scars from foster homes. In fact, they outnumbered any received from nightworlders. "Those alcoholics really get mad when you take away their drinks."

The similarities between us continued to pile up. What were the odds that we both grew up in foster care and ended up as ravens in the Savannah chapter? Coltrane herself had recruited us too.

My brows furrowed as an uneasy feeling spread inside. "How exactly did you become a?—"

A spike of adrenaline hit me so hard that I nearly toppled off the bed. My heart slammed against my ribs as my breaths came in erratic pants.

"Whoa, are you okay, Tate?" Maddie asked as she steadied me. "What happened? One minute, you were talking, and then the next, it looked like an invisible force struck you."

The adrenaline came from Fane, and it was the first time I'd felt something this strong through the bond since we'd been in Heldrok.

I needed to go to him. I needed to know if he was okay.

I tapped into the storm of emotions from the demon shifter and pictured him in my mind. Maddie would probably assume I'd gone into a trance as I left my body. It was plausible. Nightworlders did all types of weird shit.

Hot tingles crackled over me as the concrete and stone walls spun, and weightlessness looped around every square inch of me. The cell faded, and another room materialized, loud shouts and raucous cheers infiltrating my eardrums.

An arena came into focus, the room shaped like a circle with a balcony overlooking a fighting ring. Blood and sweat permeated my nose while fear smeared my tongue. Guards leaned over the second-story railing to watch prisoners battling it out. My stomach clenched as the black jumpsuit emerged in the center of the action.

Fane snarled, his pupils in diamond slits, his teeth elongated, and talons out. Blood ran down his temple and smeared his mouth as he faced off with three dux demons.