Siren Awakened

by C. R. Jane

  Alaric came to stand next to me. “What kind of power does he have that could bring someone back to life?” I asked him. There weren’t a lot of fae that ever found themselves in this place. The fae ruled themselves, so the fact that they’d sent one of their own to Nightmare Penitentiary, their crown prince, said a lot for the crime they’d thought he committed.

  “It’s something only fae royalty are said to be able to do. Through that crystal, they’re able to connect to the afterlife, where the fae royals’ ancestors supposedly reside. They drag the souls through the connection.”

  “But…” I responded, sensing that he wasn’t saying something.

  “But just because he gets her soul back doesn’t mean that she’ll live again,” he said quietly. “The soul still has to choose to return back to earth.”

  We were both silent after that. Why would Selena choose to come back to the hell that had been her life on earth? Her last memory had been of me slicing her throat open.

  There was no chance.

  I had to look away from Seth and Selena. I staggered my way over to the wall and slid down it, my hands on my face. I was heartbroken, unable to breathe. My body began to shake, and I closed my eyes, desperate for the escape the beast could bring.

  Suddenly, a gasped breath filled the cell, followed by the sound of coughing and an anguished cry from Alaric. I sprang to my feet and sprinted over to the bed, where Selena was staring wildly at the three of us as we all gaped down at her.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, even though her stunning eyes filled to the brim with tears was all the proof I should have needed. My heart was beating wildly in my chest as I saw that her once ravaged neck was now perfectly smooth, like nothing had ever happened.

  The fae suddenly collapsed next to us, and Alaric barely caught him in time. His breathing was out of control, but I couldn’t spare him a glance.

  Selena’s body started to tremble. “What…” she croaked. I reached out to her and then quickly pulled away. I didn’t deserve to touch her. She might not remember what happened right now, but when she did…

  She’d never want anything to do with me again.

  But at least she’d be alive. At least I could exist, knowing she was still in the world.

  Selena began to sob and thrash wildly. I froze, not knowing what to do.

  “You’re back with us. Everything is going to be all right. Seth brought you back,” Alaric said, trying to soothe her, but his words seemed to make her even more hysterical.

  Footsteps echoed down the hallway. I had a lot of sway in this place, but I didn’t have a good reason why I was in the fae’s cell with two other prisoners. I didn’t want the warden asking questions.

  “We need to get her out of here,” I whispered urgently, picking her up quickly as the footsteps drew closer. My right arm had finally healed, making the process much smoother.

  It was hard to keep my arms from tightening around her in relief at the feel of her soft body against mine. She’d been so cold before as I’d carried her around the hallway, and now here she was, breathing against me, warm and alive.

  Alaric strode after me as I hurriedly left the cell. He looked back at Seth, who was sitting on the ground, looking like he could faint at any minute. “I owe you,” he said gruffly.

  The guards were coming from the passageway I knew about, so once again, I found myself going through Alaric’s pitch-black tunnel, except this time, there was a tendril of fear that spiked through my stomach. I knew the beast could kill whatever monsters were hiding in the dark, but I couldn’t risk losing control again.

  I just hoped that Alaric knew what he was doing.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when we made it through. And I didn’t bother looking back this time. I could feel those red eyes watching me the entire time we’d walked through the tunnel.

  The corridor was thankfully empty, and we made it back to Selena’s cell just in time for her cries to erupt into full-on shrieks.

  I froze as she grew more and more hysterical. Alaric took her gently out of my arms and laid her down on the bed. Her cries lessened, but she was still trembling wildly.

  I watched as he climbed into the cot with her, wrapping his arms around her body as she buried her face into his chest.

  I stared at them for a long moment, abject longing filling up my soul. I stayed there watching her like I had from almost the moment I’d met her.

  Except I didn’t feel that I had a right to it now.

  I finally dragged myself back to my room, a mixture of dread and relief churning in my gut.

  She was alive. But I’d probably lost her forever.

  But at least she was alive.

  Chapter 2

  Selena

  I inhaled sharply, bolting upright in bed, utterly lost.

  Cement walls, filthy floor, and a metal barred entrance. I sat unmoving as flashes of memories came back to me, bursting across my mind.

  Pop. Pop. Pop.

  Prison. I tried to remember everything.

  The word hovered in my mind as all the pieces slotted back into their place in my mind like a puzzle. I closed my eyes and leaned forward, waiting for a faint buzzing sound in my head to stop. What was that? I glanced around, reminded of a fly trap that constantly hummed, but couldn’t see what caused the noise.

  My tongue snaked out and licked my cracked lips while a deep hunger roused in me with a heavy craving for a cheeseburger. Salivating, I pushed my legs out of the bed, and my feet touched the cold floor. Typical that the one thing I craved after dying was a burger. It must be said that if the afterlife didn’t have greasy burgers, well, that would suck just as much as me not remembering a single thing from the afterlife.

  I’d died!

  The reality crashed into me, wave after wave, and it was hard to make sense of how to deal with that.

  I’d been dead, they told me, the three men who ultimately lead to my death. Three men who I had no intention of wasting another second on after everything they did to me.

  I sighed and looked out through the bars of my locked door to where another inmate strolled past, minding her own business. She looked upset, probably for good reason, this whole institution had a way of draining every thread of happiness out of all of us. I grounded my teeth, hating this prison, hating Julian for putting me in here, hating every day I had to push myself out of bed in this hell.

  That was when I noticed the stainless steel tray with food on the table at the end of my bed. I hurried over and brought it back on the bed with me, needing to gorge myself and forget everything.

  I’d never been so hungry in my life. I scooped the mac and cheese into my mouth with the plastic spoon. The tastes exploded over my tongue like somehow my taste buds had been reawakened as well. I ate faster, unable to get enough. The chocolate pudding melted on my tongue, and I closed my eyes as the delicate taste flooded me. This had to be the most incredible thing I’d ever eaten. Had the prison gotten a new cook?

  “That good is it?” a deep voice asked.

  I jerked my head up to find Alaric outside my cell, one hand gripping a bar, the other deep in the pocket of his orange prison pants. His dark hair sat swept off his face, bringing out his piercing steel gray eyes. I couldn’t deny everything about him called to me, especially how strong and broad he stood. He was the epitome of the ideal man no woman could deny, except I refused to give in to him and his incubus allure ever again.

  Just seeing him again tightened my stomach, and the pain behind his eyes betrayed his cool demeanor.

  Like everyone else in this place, he’d betrayed me. I’d heard him in the warden’s office, talking about Seth’s scepter. And funny how just earlier, he had asked me about the same artifact. His words spun in my mind. If Seth says anything about the scepter, come to me before you say anything to the warden. What game was he playing? Did he want it for himself or to present it to the warden as a favor to get something? Either way, I didn’t care. He’d used me, and there was n
o way in hell I would tell him anything I found out.

  That same heaviness twisted through me again to know I didn’t mean as much to him as I had initially hoped. I hated that he made me feel this way, or that I let myself believe his intentions. Except he was there when I woke up with the other two, he’d helped me…somehow. But did that make him less guilty of using me?

  I eyed him and spooned more pudding into my mouth. “What do you want?”

  “I was worried about you, gorgeous.” His words sounded genuine, but were they really? I wasn’t sure what to believe.

  I lowered my head back to my empty tray. Damn, where had all my food gone so fast?

  “Can I get you more pudding?”

  I met his gaze again, those stunning steel gray eyes that always make me forget myself…they were always getting me in trouble. My head wasn’t feeling right, the buzzing refusing to abate, and I didn’t want to deal with him. And as tempted as I was to give in, just for another few bites of sweets, I couldn’t forget his betrayal.

  “I just need to be alone, please.”

  “Did I do something wrong?” he asked, tilting his head to the side, and I could see his knuckles starting to go white from how hard he gripped the metal bar.

  I frowned, my chest bubbling with words I wanted to throw at him, but my head wasn’t feeling right. And I didn’t want to get into an argument with me feeling this way. At the end of the day, I freaking died because I got close to dangerous men who’d hidden secrets from me, and that meant being smarter about how I dealt with them going forward.

  “I want some time alone.”

  “I’m here for you, baby,” he said.

  I blinked at him, unsure how to take that. Was I just a means for him to find out information, or was the look in his eyes sincere? Part of me wanted to slow-clap him for his act, yet part of me didn’t want to get into an argument and listen to more lies.

  Setting the empty food tray on the floor near my bed, I got back under the covers and curled in on myself, trying to shut out the humming sound in my ears.

  Part of me felt bad for pushing him away. After all, he had broken into the warden’s office and retrieved Seth’s crystal for me, except was that some set up too? A ploy to win me over to find out about the scepter? I didn’t know, but I had to remind myself I refused to be anyone else’s stepping stone anymore. Not to mention, I’d died!

  Closing my eyes, I pushed everything aside, attempting to not let it faze me.

  “I’ll let you sleep then. I’ll come see you later,” he said, and his footfalls faded.

  “Don’t bother,” I whispered back, unsure if he heard me.

  I didn’t know how much time had passed when someone calling my name woke me up.

  “Selena,” he said again, and only then did it become clear who spoke.

  Keon. I froze on my bed, curled up, unsure how to respond.

  He’d kept secrets from me from the beginning, secrets about him being a demon, secrets that ended up getting me killed.

  “Are you awake, sweetheart?”

  When I heard his voice, images of him changing as he fought the hellhound inmate, Laz, swept over my mind. One after another, they kept coming.

  Cold black eyes.

  Clawed hands.

  Horns pushing out from his temples.

  And that wasn’t the part that scared me. It was the look in his eyes when he turned on me. There was no sign of Keon inside, only a starved monster who saw me as a meal. Then he attacked me…killed me.

  How could I not have known about that side of him?

  I curled in tighter on myself and hoped with every fiber of my body that he didn’t come in. He was a guard so he had access, but I hoped he respected me enough to give me space.

  “I don’t know if you’re awake,” he began. “But I want to explain everything to you. I feel like fucking shit at how things turned out. That’s not who I am.” He sighed loudly, his voice gravelly and remorseful. “I’d do anything to protect you, and what I did to you is killing me.”

  Trembling, I lay in bed, unmoving, feeling powerless, wanting to state that obviously, he had killed me. I couldn’t avoid him for long. Except making sense of the fear, the hurt, the anger left me numb, and I couldn’t face him. Not yet. Not until I sorted myself out. Our encounters together had always been scorching hot and imprinted on my mind. It shocked me how much he affected me, not to mention, somehow, he’d marked me, leaving two stars on my ankle. Who the hell was this guy anyway? Sometimes, I wonder if it was a coincidence that I picked him out of all the guys at the bar to give my virginity to what felt like a lifetime ago.

  Thinking back, I’d been too naïve, which ended up with everyone walking all over me. Including Julian and even my own mother. I had no intention of repeating my past mistakes. I’d died and came back, which meant this was my second chance, right?

  “I’ll let you be,” Keon murmured, his voice deflated. “We’ll speak later,” he promised me, and I had no doubt about that, except determination curled in my chest.

  I didn’t hear him walking away, but I refused to look up, just in case he remained outside my cell, and instead, I welcomed sleep as it finally feathered around the edges of my sight. Falling into sleep came fast and snatched me away.

  I opened my eyes to the sound metal clicking…the familiar noise of my prison cell door unlocking.

  Panic wrenched through me, and I scrambled out of bed, half expecting to find Keon making his way inside. Except, he wasn’t there. No one was…the doors were on an automatic sensor to open up that way every morning.

  I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “How long have I been sleeping?” I mumbled to myself.

  Outside in the corridor, inmates started emerging from their cells and making their way to the bathroom or mess hall, I guessed. Speaking of which, I was in major need of a wash, so not wasting another second, I grabbed clean clothes and shoes from the shelf at the back of my room. Quickly, I headed to the communal showers. I recognized many of the other prisoners, mostly females who, like me, preferred to wash before the men came in.

  On fast steps, I finally arrived in the bathroom and made quick work to grab a towel and head into the cubical in the corner. Less likely of people walking past and poking their head inside.

  I drew the flimsy plastic curtain shut and undressed, then I dumped the dirty clothes in a pile. I flung the towel and fresh clothes over the curtain railing. Turning around, I switched on the water. Cold water sprayed over my body, but I wasn’t complaining.

  While I washed in ultra-fast mode, memories hovered at the edges of my mind just before I died. Afterward, there was nothing but darkness. I searched deeper through my thoughts as though there was something I had forgotten… Something just out of reach.

  Nothing.

  Why couldn’t I remember anything from the afterlife? I had read so many articles and seen shows about people experiencing a white light or something when they died. Disappointment slithered over me at not recalling anything.

  Except, I wasn’t exactly the same now, was I?

  Food tasted like I was eating it for the first time. The constant humming in my ears, like the television was left on a static channel, continued. Then there was that sensation that I didn’t quite fit in my skin. That was a stupid way of explaining it, but the strange sensation lingered.

  A coldness sank deep into my bones at the thought that I’d come back different. I’d read Pet Cemetery enough times to know things went askew when death was involved. A tremble raced down my spine. Clearly, I was overthinking this and letting it get to me. What I needed were actual facts. And that meant paying the library a visit and reading up on other death-like encounters. But first, I had to check into the kitchen to see if I was on shift work. Not like I could sit around overthinking everything until it drove me crazy.

  By the time I’d dried myself and gotten dressed, I started to feel some level of normalcy. I made a quick pit stop in my cell to comb my wet hair and apply deodorant a
nd then marched into the mess hall. The whole time, I scanned the hallways for any sign of Keon, terrified he’d come out and drag me into a room to talk. But that was the last thing I desired. Throwing myself into work sounded like the perfect solution.

  Inmates already strolled into the room, lining up for their breakfast. From the corner of my eye, I scanned them for any familiar faces. My heart thumped in my chest that I might see Alaric, but he wasn’t there. I rushed past and headed to the door near the food station against the back wall, where I normally collected my cart for delivery. It wasn’t there.

  My stomach growled at the delicious aroma of toast.

  The door suddenly opened, and Boris, the head chef, emerged, wearing a blue apron, his long hair drawn into a ponytail. His gaze met mine, and upon recognizing me, his eyes narrowed. He looked angry. I cringed, well aware of what was coming.

  “You’re late,” he barked, drawing attention from several inmates nearby lining up for their meal.

  “I’m sorry. I-I—”

  He sneered, then a softness washed over his expression. “Heard what happened to you, so I’ll overlook it this time only. Don’t be late again.”

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  “Get in the kitchen and load your cart. Trevor’s waiting to take you into maximum security to deliver meals. You better hurry. The inmates will be starved.”

  And I did just that, figuring I could sneak in something to eat from the kitchen. Though I found it interesting I was back on food delivery to the prisoners underground, instead of focusing on Seth. The warden must have given Boris new instructions. Fine by me. Down there, I just delivered food and was mainly left alone.

  Half the day flew past, and it surprised me when we arrived back into the mess hall and lunch was already being prepared. I helped myself to a bowl of tomato soup with chunks of stale bread that were a poor excuse for croutons and sat at a table near the window where a sliver of light poured in from outside. The soup tasted like fresh tomatoes with a layer of basil, thick and sliding like silk on my tongue. I moaned with delight and kept eating, well aware this stuff came out of a huge metal can and had tasted like crap in the past. Still, I couldn’t get enough.