Chapter 8

Cam

My sweet Cerys had been the most beautiful I had seen her yet, reassuring the young guard that all was well. She was right, she had power here. I'd always considered empathy as a weakness. But it wasn't if you knew how to use it. Understanding people gave her a power that I'd never considered before. She was so in control that she had almost reassured me. But as soon as she got away from us, I heard her run. My ears didn't miss much. I let the shivering whelp of a guard lead me back to my cell and lock me in as she had wanted. But I took a moment to sit and close my eyes and listen. I usually try to zone out my bat hearing, keeping my ears relaxed and floppy; it was overwhelming otherwise. But now I needed it. I lifted them up as high as I could and let it all in.

At first it was a painful assault of noise. My teeth ground together as the waves of vibration flowed over me and my brain tried to process it all. Prisoners everywhere. Hundreds of them. Walking around, talking to neighbors. Standard stuff. Further out I could hear guards talking. Most of them seemed calm, like this was no big deal. I twitched my ears around in various directions, searching for her. For Cerys. I knew humans had weird feelings about "privacy" and other human concerns, so I hadn"t listened to her before, as tempting as it was. Her voice was like the softest fabric brushing against you. But this was different. I found her voice amongst the many quickly. She was talking with several other people, and they all sounded calm.

"It's strange for them all to break at the same time like that, though," Cerys said.

"The engineer said they'll be fixed in a few days. They just need to find the right parts," another voice replied.

I relaxed my ears. I wouldn"t eavesdrop on her for no reason.

I settled down onto my thin hard mattress and pulled the scarf out from underneath it. The movement wafted her scent into my lungs. I had been so close to having her. To claiming her as my own. The feel of her lips on mine had been exquisite. She"d seemed intimidated by my cock. But that was okay, I could take it slow until she accommodated me. Until she was begging me not to be slow anymore. My need for her heated my body. I wanted to break out of this cell and find and claim my mate. To take her away from here. It was nearly overwhelming. But I knew it would lead to more trouble than it was worth for her. I'd make do with my hand and a bit of self-control. For her. For my Cerys.

I heard a shuffling outside my cell and my ears twitched up instinctively. Someone was there who shouldn"t be. A guard would have just walked over and looked in. And these were heavy feet. Another shuffle.

The hairs on my neck stood up a moment before the door to my cell flew open. I stayed lying down on my mattress as five different monsters piled into my cell. They stood over me, sneering. I tucked the scarf back under the mattress.

"We don"t like half breeds," said a short but stocky troll with a club. Saliva dripped from his mouth, hitting the floor next to me.

I sighed. It had come quicker than I thought.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

I gave them a grim smile.

"Oh yeah, we are," the troll responded.

They stood looking at me as though waiting for me to do something or respond. I sized them up quickly. Behind the troll was a dark shadowy creature that barely seemed solid, an enormous bear, an orc and a mothman. None of them were as big as me, but there were five of them. I had to deal with this without getting extra time. For Cerys. No maiming or killing. I slowly stood up and faced them. The first rule of fighting opponents with weapons was to accept that you were going to get hurt. Trying to avoid it would lead to you holding back and not fighting effectively. The second rule was to hurt them more. I stepped one leg behind me for balance and balled a fist.

"Let"s do it then, my tiny bigoted neighbors."

The troll rushed at me with a roar. I raised one very long arm and then punched him in the face as hard as I could before he got close enough to me to do any damage. A tiny sliver of pain ran up my arm. He was a heavy brute. But he stumbled back and fell, hitting the ground like a sack of lead. The others looked between him and me. I could have sworn that the shadow demon was laughing, but it"s hard to tell with them.

"Who"s next?"

The orc looked at me intently for a moment. He'd been lingering at the back, seeming more like a watcher than anything else. But as he sized me up his face broke into a wide grin. He charged towards me, his face filled with what almost looked like half rage and half joy. He was faster than I expected, and I didn"t have time to get a swing in before he shoved me backwards against the wall of my cell. The air rushed out of me. I"d seen orcs go full berserker mode before, and I'd never wanted to be on the receiving end of it. I needed to take him out before he reached that point, and I didn't have long.

He swiped me across the chest with his sharp prison shank, before throwing it to one side. I felt the pain, but it hadn't cut deep. In the back of my mind I knew he'd held back. I didn't have time to figure out why. Anger flooded me. I thought of my mother, grieving my father who had died because of idiots like this. Who believed in some weird monster purity nonsense. The orc was now raining blow upon blow on me. Something cracked in my chest. I tilted back my head and roared. My deep cry echoed across the cell block as I launched myself at the orc, pushing him backwards. He stumbled a few steps but stayed upright. He wasn't as tall as me, but he was bulky. I looked over the scars on his face. He'd seen battle. I swung at him, feeling a satisfying crunch as my first blow connected with his face. I pulled my fist back and there was blood and bits of flesh on my hand. He roared back at me with a wild grin on his face. His eyes were still green. No sign of the red that came with an orc rage. He was still playing with me. I was vaguely aware of two of the other three monsters backing out of the cell and disappearing. The shadow demon lingered by the door and watched them go.

"Cowards!" I roared after them.

The orc landed a punch to my gut that sent pain rocketing through me. I doubled over for a moment, trying to catch my breath. I twisted my head and stabbed him in the side with one of my horns. He responded by grabbing my other horn and trying to yank me over. He was strong, there was no doubt about that. We tussled back and forth for a bit until we both ended up standing and trading blows again. Punch after punch I could feel parts of him give way underneath my blows, but he would not stop. It was kill him or out-think him. An image of Cerys flashed in my mind.

The next time he swung at me, I dodged to the side and shoved him sideways. He fell over, so I grabbed his legs and lifted him into the air by his ankles. My muscles screamed with pain at the weight, but anger fueled me.

"Oi!" he yelled, sounding offended.

I dropped him straight on his head.

He keeled over onto his stomach and twitched a bit, trying to get his arms underneath him. I had to restrain him. With a long sigh, I reached under my mattress and pulled out the only thing I had that I could tie him up with. I growled with disdain as I pulled his arms behind him and bound them with Cerys" scarf. It was precious to me. And it was fragile. But I didn"t think Cerys would want me if I went around killing anyone who upset me. At least I'd cleaned it.

Once he was bound and I clonked him on the head again so he couldn't rip his way out of the scarf, I turned to face the shadow demon. He was leaning against the door frame. My eyes struggled to find his face as he shimmered with darkness.

"Well?"

"Oh, I have no problem with you," the deep resonant voice echoed from the vaguely humanoid shape. "I just wanted to see the troll get knocked on his ass."

"You're carrying a blade."

"The troll handed it to me. Such a primitive and clumsy tool."

He threw it in the corner of my cell.

"Thank you for the entertainment, though. Oh, have you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

"Your connection with the little human is attracting the wrong sort of attention."

With that, the shadow demon blipped away as though he had teleported. Something that a collared prisoner shouldn't be able to do. I didn"t have time to dwell on it as I heard guards shouting and running up the cell block. I sat down on my mattress and raised my hands above my head. It didn"t make much difference as the moment the round bald guard arrived, he hit the button to activate my collar. The pain made me dizzy, and I heard myself roaring as everything went gray and disappeared.