Pretty in Orange

by J B Trepagnier

  She was a witch, and I think every single guard, no matter what their species, was afraid of her. They only bitched and moaned away from her. There were some big, scary shifters and Vampires avoiding this tiny witch. She was probably even smaller than Charley, though she wore six-inch heels to look taller. All the guards here still dwarfed her, but honestly, she had such a presence I would have watched myself around her too, and I could burn her alive with just a thought.

  “How did this happen? There’s no way any of those prisoners could have known how to get into that wing. They should have been killed if they touched the wall the wrong way. And who was supposed to be listening and didn’t hear them planning this?”

  A shifter started stammering. “We’ve reviewed the tapes from all their cells. They never once discussed breaking out of here, or we would have been better prepared. Doctor Graves must have done something wrong when he took the girl. She wasn’t supposed to remember anything, but they trashed his lab, and they went straight for him before they tried to break out. Maybe there’s something different about that girl that’s different from the other elementals Doctor Graves was testing, Warden Skinner.

  “She was different!” Warden Skinner yelled. “She was our best chance of success. Do you know who you’ve pissed off letting that girl escape? With a demon with her, there’s no telling where they are now. She took a highly desired demon, wolf, and Vampire with her. They were all important! Now, we are short-staffed, and it’s not like people are lining up to work here. We had to blackmail you lot to get you down here. It’s not like you’re all fine, upstanding citizens guarding the riff-raff down here. You should all be down there with them.”

  So, that’s why someone would work in this dank, awful place. It wasn’t some personal belief to protect everyone from the more dangerous inmates. The police just hadn’t caught up with them to give them a trial. Did Eiltan have his fingers in that too? Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad about the massive body count we left behind on the way out. They were all the same type of people Serafina and I would have killed when she was off playing undercover justice warrior.

  “Get out of my sight!” Warden Skinner yelled. “I have to clean up this mess and get the prison back under order.”

  The guards all looked like they didn’t need to be told twice to get away from her. Warden Skinner waited until the office was totally empty before she moved a painting off the wall. There was a safe behind it. I committed the combination to memory and watched her open it. The only thing in the safe was a phone. I hadn’t been away from the Fae realm that long. That was Fae technology. Eiltan had given her a Fae cell phone.

  As intimidating as Warden Skinner was, she was petrified of Eiltan Sunshadow. She drew a protective pentagram on the floor and lit candles at all the points. She didn’t make her phone call until she was sitting at the center. She took in a deep breath and hit a number on her speed dial.

  “Hello, your majesty. No, there’s been no progress. We have a colossal problem. Yes, I know you hate it when I call with problems and want me to deal with them myself. Your daughter broke out of prison with all the potential subjects chosen for her. She murdered Rathmore quite brutally, and between her and the other subjects, they killed every single guard on duty. She destroyed Rathmore’s computers, but we don’t know if she looked at his research.”

  “She’s my daughter. Of course she would have gone through his research before she destroyed it. I thought you sufficiently threatened Rathmore that he wasn’t supposed to make a mistake this big. I gave all of you the tools that she shouldn’t have remembered they took her. I’ll find my wayward child. Find out how Rathmore fucked up. You insisted he was competent and would want to take up this cause considering what they arrested him for. You know I had my issues letting that butcher near my child.”

  Eiltan sounded like he was protective and almost proud of her for breaking out, but he still wanted her back to experiment on her.

  “I laid into Rathmore myself. Perhaps he was so afraid of hurting your daughter he didn’t do the procedure right, and she remembered everything.”

  “This is not my fault, Luciana. Everything I’ve provided Scorchwood from the Fae realm is totally safe, and Rathmore would have been aware of that. They are also totally effective. Serafina should have been out for all the tests, and the entire prison should have been sleeping. No one should have known they took her.”

  Warren Skinner cleared her throat uncomfortably.

  “There were some complications that night. A prisoner woke up screaming, and they had to gas the prison a second time. A witch escaped with them, your majesty. We’ve scoured all the audio, and we can’t hear the witch doing anything to check or break Rathmore’s spells on your daughter, but it’s the only thing I can think of that she remembers.”

  “How many times have I warned you to upgrade the surveillance in the prison to cameras instead of that outdated sound system?”

  “Of course, I see that now in hindsight, but we were hesitant to use the gas for the amount of time that would be needed to install hidden cameras.”

  “You don’t need the gas to install cameras, Luciana. They need not be hidden either. It’s a prison. They’ll expect cameras.”

  “I’ll get right on that, your majesty. I’ll start putting a list together of potential new guards so we can get fully staffed again. Will you be sending someone to replace Rathmore?”

  Eiltan just scoffed.

  “That water elemental has always been a failure, and from what I understand, she wasn’t able to snare the demon, just piss him off. He’s the reason she’s a shrieking mess in your padded cell. You’d do well just to go in and kill her. She will die anyway.

  “I’m ending this experiment in Scorchwood. It’s not the right environment for babies, and I never trusted Rathmore. It was you that suggested him. We nearly broke the other elementals trying to trap them in prison. They are in much better environments now. My daughter has made her wishes known. She doesn’t want to stay in Scorchwood, and she’s clearly bonded with the wolf, Vampire, and demon.

  “I wanted to let things happen naturally with her anyway. I’ll locate her and watch her from afar. When she falls pregnant, I’ll visit her when she gives birth, and we’ll have a nice father-daughter reunion. When she finds out why I’ve done all this, she’ll understand.”

  “Your majesty, your daughter has a volatile temper, and you didn’t see the slaughter she left behind on her way out. I don’t know how she did it, but Rathmore was killed quite awfully.”

  Eiltan just laughed. “That’s because she’s a Sunshadow. Everyone knows you don’t mess with us. Blood calls to blood, and I just need to meet her and explain. She’ll calm down and understand.”

  I still didn’t know what Eiltan’s endgame was, but he didn’t want Serafina dead. He sounded almost proud of her. But like all absent fathers, he knew nothing about his daughter. Luciana was flat out warning him about the carnage we caused, and he still hadn’t guessed Serafina had me in her corner.

  He hadn’t bothered asking how Rathmore died. He should have because while Serafina would hear him out just to get closure, what happened to Rathmore would seem like a Disney movie compared to what she would do to Eiltan.

  Chapter 32

  Roman

  I

  loved everything about Hell so far. I was getting used to all the new modern things in the world. I loved the movies and porn Serafina showed me, but I was glad I hadn’t had to use those cell phone thingies. It was such a small device, but it reminded me of a leash you would put on a pet to control it. Bael and the rest of the kings of Hell were blowing up Amduscias’s little talking thing and kept him chained to it almost all day.

  I knew what was at stake. We were trying to find those missing elementals and get them out of Eiltan Sunshadow’s clutches. But why couldn’t they plan out what they needed to say and make one call instead of calling all day? Serafina was in a buzz after she finally emerged from Skoll’s room. Fergu
s visited Scorchwood that night.

  I wanted to know that too. That could answer so many questions. We still didn’t know why Eiltan was doing all this other than Eiltan was deluded enough to think all he had to do was tell Serafina why and she’d forgive him. I didn’t know every insignificant thing about my mate, but I’d watched her unleash Fergus on Rathmore. It took forty-five minutes in the shower to get all the burned warlock out of my hair. If Eiltan thought his fate would be any better, he was seriously deluded.

  Amduscias was pacing and talking on the phone with Bael. I was snuggled on the couch with Serafina and Skoll. I missed holding her the night before, but I understood Skoll’s wolf needed to mark her. I just hoped I got to deepen our blood bond with her soon.

  Amduscias hung his phone up and tossed it on a chair.

  “Bael wants to send a shadow demon to break into Scorchwood and steal the warden’s phone.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked.

  “If the warden’s phone goes missing, they will wonder how. It might expose Fergus,” Serafina said.

  Amduscias just gave us this evil grin.

  “No, it won’t. You heard Fergus. Right now, Eiltan thinks Rathmore messed something up. If the warden’s phone gets messed with, he will think we had inside help. Nothing else would make sense to them. A halfling has never had a guardian before, so they have no reason to think Serafina has one now. It makes more sense that the only way we got through that secret door is that someone inside the prison helped us. We all should have been gassed and Serafina’s memories wiped. We only knew the truth because someone had to tell us. That will make a lot more sense to all of them than Fergus. They admitted to blackmailing the guards there. They probably don’t trust them, anyway.”

  “Can a shadow demon get in and get out without getting caught?” Serafina asked. “I know this is your domain, but if we killed all the guards on the way out, the ones that are there now probably have better weapons.”

  Amduscias just laughed.

  “We’re demons. We all have our specialties. All a shadow demon needs are an unlit room full of shadows to travel. They can sense the shadow too. They will know when it’s lights out at the prison. Fergus has the combination. Besides, Bael said we aren’t stealing the phone. I have no idea what kind of magic he’s talking about, but the shadow demon will get everything off of it, then add something to it that we can watch and listen to the warden and Eiltan.”

  Serafina perked up.

  “Can I get a laptop and a copy of the program to listen in?”

  Amduscias just shrugged.

  “I have no idea what any of that means, but I’ll arrange it, and I’d like to listen too.”

  So did I, even if I wasn’t quite sure I wanted this cell phone anymore if a shadow demon could put something on it and all of Hell could listen in. What if I was away from Serafina and needed to call her, and the conversation got naughty? I’d experimented with it, and you could take photographs of yourself. What if I took artistically posed pictures of my erection for her and it ended up in front of the eyes of everyone in Hell?

  Did women even like that in the modern world? Nude art was popular back in my day, and you could capture an image with this device with a press of a button. It was perfect for capturing pictures of your cock posed with just the right lighting. I could only imagine Serafina checking her phone and seeing my erection. But not if all of Hell could see my cock. My cock photos would be only for her.

  “Can we all listen?” Skoll asked.

  “We will need to,” Serafina said. “Fergus wants to go with the shadow demon since he’s been to the office before.”

  Amduscias sighed and picked up his phone again.

  “One day, I’ll get used to this electronic tether. Shadow demons aren’t fire born, so Fergus can burn them. Tell him to keep that in mind.”

  “Oh, he understands. He can’t talk to them either. He’s just going to scout and kill anyone who needs to die.”

  Well, fuck. As much as I never wanted to set foot in Scorchwood again, I wanted to go too. This could be vital information we were gaining, and it would feel odd to be left behind. I also didn’t want her going back to Scorchwood, and I didn’t want to leave her alone here.

  “When are they moving to get the information off the phone?” Skoll asked.

  “In a few hours.”

  Serafina just stretched. “Perfect. We can have some alone time now that we aren’t being summoned for feasts, and we can’t do anything until we have that phone. Race you upstairs!”

  She took off running. That little elemental should have known better than to run from a Vampire or a wolf. We both gave chase. Amduscias just turned his phone off and sauntered upstairs behind us. I don’t think he would ever do anything so blasé as chasing anyone.

  I had no idea what she had planned, but I hoped it was like our whole group thing while I fed off Amduscias.

  Chapter 33

  Serafina

  I

  probably shouldn’t have been plotting to get laid so much, but what can I say? I didn’t fuck that much when I was topside, but being locked in a dirty prison where you only had sex on those dirty beds if you had a death wish affected my libido. Getting fate mated with a Vampire and a wolf, finding out I could make Fergus real, and being around a demon with a heart of gold and a torture dungeon probably had something to do with it too.

  It wasn’t like we could do anything until we got that phone. I hoped it had information on it to find those missing elementals. I couldn’t say I had any loyalty to my own kind until I got down here and met some that were actually cool. I think if I had met Briar and Azura when I was topside, I might have sought out elementals more instead of totally avoiding them unless I was looking for work.

  I started stripping my clothes off as soon as I entered Amduscias’s bedroom. I left an entire trail for them to follow and dove into bed. Roman got to me first because he had Vampire speed. He yanked his clothes off and flung himself into bed. Skoll was next, and he must have started stripping in the hallway because he ran into the room naked, sporting a massive erection.

  Amduscias just lazily strolled in, still sipping his wine. He swirled his wine in the glass and just cocked an eyebrow at all of us naked in bed.

  “You know you could all just move in here full time, right? That way, Serafina doesn’t have to choose who she stays with. I will not fight if it’s not my turn to hold her that night. I figure, Skoll can hold her every night and Roman and I can swap out since we both enjoy sleeping holding each other. That way no one feels left out,” Amduscias said.

  That was actually an excellent solution, but it wouldn’t always work. They forgot him because he wasn’t always with them.

  “That could work, but eventually, Fergus will join us. I know it’s forbidden with the Fae, but I want to wish him real as soon as I’m able. I know I’m asking a lot from all of you, asking to share me with the three of you. I’m just asking to let Fergus in your heart too.”

  Amduscias just chuckled and sipped his wine.

  “The horny little dragon has style when it comes to killing. I couldn’t have come up with a better way to kill Rathmore if I had the help of several demons. I’d like to meet him face to face and shake his hand for the epic way he took down Rathmore, even if washing burned warlock out of my hair took forever.”

  “I wouldn’t deny you Fergus, Serafina,” Roman said. “I’m the only one of us besides you who have met him in your dreams. He’s a talented guy, and I don’t think any of us have forgotten we wouldn’t have most of the information we do if it weren’t for him.”

  Skoll just chuckled and nuzzled my neck. “I’m still getting used to this whole sharing thing, and I will admit to being more jealous of Fergus than anyone else. But that’s just because he’s known you for longer. I have time to find out your favorite things so I can get them for you.”

  I sighed. As much as I wanted to fuck like the Energizer Bunny for the rest of the afternoon,
Skoll was right. There wasn’t time for twenty questions in prison.

  “Then, let’s snuggle naked and try to find some of that out, okay? You too, Amduscias.”

  Amduscias set his wine glass down and started a slow, sensual striptease.

  “I was just enjoying the view in my bed right now. It teases of things to come.”

  Amduscias slid into bed and spooned Roman. Now that I knew I wasn’t getting laid, what were we supposed to talk about? They were all hundreds of years old and spent a lot of that in jail. Did they need help to deal with everything they had seen so far?

  “Favorite food, killer. Go.”

  “I’d like to know that, too, so I can have the kitchens prepare it often.”

  “There’s nothing better than a big, bloody cheeseburger with greasy fries and a strawberry milkshake to wash it all down with. My palate isn’t exactly refined, but the food Alozan has served has been amazing.”

  Amduscias just chuckled. “Then we shall all dine on these cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes for dinner. They didn’t have food like that before I left Hell, but I would imagine we do now.”

  “And then we should eat everyone’s favorite food, so we know what it tastes like,” I said.

  “None of you can have mine,” Roman pointed out. “Serafina can have a little of my blood to strengthen our bond, but none of you drink blood.”

  “There are several recipes that involve blood. Can you eat those?”

  Could Roman eat blood pudding or blood sausage? I had no idea. I’d seen him sip wine, but I’d never seen him eat anything. Did he want to eat food?

  Roman wrinkled his nose. “I’ve never tried, and I don’t know. I’m not sure I would like cooked blood. Blood tastes best fresh from the vein. I could try it if you really wanted me to.”