Hexes and Handcuffs: A Limited Edition Collection of Supernatural Prison Stories

by Margo Bond Collins

  Chapter Four

  After touring the grounds, I still couldn’t process how big this prison actually was. They were growing corn, potatoes, vegetables, herbs, and had a section for livestock, such as pigs, cows, and chickens. It was huge, but when you think of how many supernaturals were here, it would take all types in order to feed them adequately. They also had cabins, on complete opposite sides from one another, with a place where the vampires cooked for the prisoners since they couldn’t walk out into the sunlight. One was for the men and the other for the women. There was a separate fence around those that stood over twenty feet high with four sets of barb wire just like the front on top. There was a cut out door that locked into it that the guards could open so the prisoners could come and go.

  It was strange to see all these supernaturals, doing manual labor and not utilizing any of their powers. And since I didn’t have my badge yet, my magic was being suppressed as well. That was a neat little fact Dad filled me in on.

  “So you now see why this place is special and sacred.” Dad genuinely smiled which was a rarity at the best of times. “I’m going to be honest, son. I’m a little jealous that you get to be a hunter. They wanted me to stay here and use my powers as a guard, but damn… to be out there tracking someone down sounds exhilarating.”

  That was something I couldn’t relate to. Yes, I was glad for a good job, but the hunting side made me nervous. It was one thing taking a prisoner in, but it was another thing killing the parents. I wasn’t sure I was cut out to be a killer even if it was for the greater good. “Yeah, it’s something.” See, I hadn’t lied.

  “Let’s take you over to Mac so he can give you a briefing, and then we’ll get you all badged in.” Dad swiped his card and opened the door that led back into the building.

  I hadn’t expected Dad to spend almost all day with me. It was already half over since the prisoners were all held outside. “I don’t want to cause you to fall behind on anything.”

  “Oh, no, you aren’t.” Dad once again patted my back, but this time it was a little too hard. “Do you really think I’d slack on my duties?”

  Of course he turned this into something I didn’t fucking mean. “No, of course not.” If I said anything else, it would make the situation even worse.

  “Good, because this job is important, and no one can slack.” He paused and grabbed my arm, turning me toward him. “Do you understand?”

  Something inside me seemed to toss and turn and fight back, but I squashed it down. Fighting back with him never accomplished anything. “Got it.”

  The rest of the tour, silence seemed to echo around us, but in reality, only our footsteps were making noises on the slick linoleum floor. We walked down a long hall that had two doors on the left while the right side was floor to ceiling windows and turned right at the end of the hallway. There was a door to the right a few steps after the intersection, and Dad reached over and opened it.

  As I walked in behind him, I saw rows of black lockers running parallel to the walls. It almost reminded me of my old high school’s locker room but on steroids. The lockers weren’t staggered like school but long, running from the ground to the top. Instead of dial locks, they had a place to scan a badge. “What is this?”

  “This is where you store your personal items while you’re on the clock and a place to leave your guns and armor when you head home.” Dad motioned around the room and took a few more steps inside. “Since you won’t have a desk, you’ll be assigned one of these.”

  That didn’t sound like a bad deal. I hadn’t thought about it, but he was right. I wouldn’t have an office like Dad so I’d need to store my keys and stuff somewhere.

  “Come on, badging is right down the hall and Mac is supposed to meet you from there.” Dad turned around heading back out to the hallway.

  I sure hoped I could remember where everything was tomorrow morning. Following Dad, we turned back into the hallway, heading further down. There was another room to the right opposite all the windows that had the door propped open. The words ‘Badging and Essentials’ was etched in black.

  At least one door was labeled appropriately. Right now, I’d take the small wins. As I entered the room, I noticed a lady sitting at a desk to the left behind a computer. She had long, dark hair and bright green eyes. “Warden.” She bowed her head slightly, and her focus moved to me. “And son. So this is the new guy, huh?”

  “Yes, the Elites determined he was a good fit here.” Dad forced a smile and motioned for me to move closer to her. “I’m going to head out from here. Mac will be picking him up soon, Marsha.”

  “Perfect. This shouldn’t take long at all.” She turned her focus back to the monitor and began entering information into the computer. “All right, Aaron. I need your address.”

  “It’s the same as Dad’s if that makes it easier.” I hated to admit it, but damn.

  “Oh… okay.” She did a few more taps and turned back to me. “Please stand over here,” she said as she pointed to the middle of her desk, which held a camera and some other type of device next to it. “First, we’ll take your picture.”

  I positioned myself in front of the camera and waited for the flash.

  “Don’t you want to smile?” She arched an eyebrow as she looked at me.

  “I didn’t realize this was a portrait.” I couldn’t hold back my words, which surprised me. This day had been long, and even though the prison was something I hadn’t expected, something didn’t sit right with me.

  Her eyes widened, and her mouth partially dropped open. “No, it’s not.” She pushed a button, and the camera flashed. “Okay, now step closer for your retinal scan.”

  “Is it necessary?” The thought of letting a laser hit my eyes bothered me. Maybe I’d watched too many movies, but I could just see something going wrong that made me lose my vision or worse.

  “Yes.” Her tone was hard, and her body tensed. “Someone can steal your badge, but it’s a lot harder for them to steal your eyeball.” She huffed and crossed her arms, which emphasized her bosom. “Are you always going to be this difficult?”

  Not having a good retort, I stepped up to the laser and sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “Good with me.” She dropped her arms and hit another button on the computer, activating the red beam.

  It took only a few seconds for the scan to complete. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but all I could see was red for a moment out of my right eye.

  Someone stepped through the door, and I turned around.

  It was a man who appeared to be in his thirties. He was dressed in black just like me and he scratched at his scruff as his attention landed on me. “I’m Mac.” His blond hair brushed across his shoulders.

  So this was the man who would be training me. “I’m Aaron.” At least he looked nicer than Rufus.

  “Well, I figured it wasn’t Marsha.” Mac smirked and winked at the girl.

  “Hey, Mac.” Marsha giggled and flipped her hair.

  All of a sudden, I felt like the third wheel. “Uh… Is my badge ready?”

  Her smile dropped as she focused on me. “Yeah, hold on.” She turned to the printer and grabbed the badge that was sitting there. “Here, and here is your holder.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a retractable badge reel.

  “Thanks.” Now I felt kind of bad. I hadn’t meant to be a smart ass to her. When I took the badge in my hands, both her and Mac’s essences sprung to life. Marsha’s tint was a dark gray, so she was a vampire. My gaze turned back to Mac, who had an earthly brown, which meant a wolf shifter.

  “Yeah, thanks for helping my new recruit out.” Mac saluted her and grinned. “We’ll be going, but I’ll see you around.”

  This was odd, seeing two different species flirting with one another. With how the world viewed hybrids, everyone went out of their way to not seem overly interested in another species.

  I followed Mac out of the door, and we turned down the hallway again toward another door on the rig
ht. There were three other men in the room we approached. The guy on the left had a red essence, which indicated he was a dragon shifter, and the man on the right was an earthy brown like Mac. But what caught my attention was the man in the middle.

  He was handcuffed, and his shoulders slumped. His essence was like no other I’d ever seen. It was a brownish gray, which I’d never encountered before. It was as if he was both vampire and wolf shifter… he was a half-breed. The first one I’d ever encountered.

  “Good job.” Mac stepped to the one on the left, which was closest to us. “You got him back here faster than I expected. Hell, it wasn’t even a full fucking day.”

  The guy laughed and glanced at me. “It was an hour short of a full day. Hey, new kid.”

  “All of you can go to fucking hell,” the hybrid in the middle spat out. “One day you all will pay, and I’ll be the one to find you four and make each of you suffer.”

  Wow, I was already lumped in with them, and I hadn’t even been here for a full eight hours.

  “Go take him out with the others.” Mac narrowed his eyes and took a step toward the hybrid. “Remember your place. You aren’t the only one who has threatened us, and you won’t be the last. You’re scum, and we’ll make you work like the menace you are.”

  “You piece of shit.” The man’s face turned dark crimson, and he pushed toward Mac. But the men on the side held him back. “You think you’re so much better… Ohhh…” He fell down onto his knees.

  What the hell just happened? I glanced at Mac and saw him pull out a needle. “Get him in his assigned bunk before he wakes up.”

  Both men nodded and dragged the man in the middle out by his handcuffs. A trail of blood was left from where the cuffs dug and cut into his hands.

  My stomach rolled, and a salty taste filled my mouth. I hadn’t expected them to treat the half-breeds that badly, but I’m not sure why. They were a menace to our society, so they didn’t deserve respect… but somehow, it didn’t feel right to me.

  “That was probably the best way to explain what we do.” Mac grinned, delight evident in his brown eyes. “We are the ones who hunt the hybrids down and keep our society safe. We are the judges and executioners. And now me and you are going on a job together.”

  My heart began thumping, and I licked my lips. “But I rode with my Dad.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve already talked to the Warden. I’ll drop you off at the house.” He grinned, the predator in him showing. “Right now, we have a hybrid to track.”

  Something in my heart screamed now, but this was my future. The longer I waited the harder my heart would get in the way. Today was the first day of my new life… of my new me.

  The End

  Want more?

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  USA Today bestselling author Jen L. Grey is an accountant and CPA. All her life she loved reading, and one day decided to write her own stories down. Her love is female main characters that grow in her stories and include romance.

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  Read More of Jen’s Books

  The Artifact Reaper Series

  Rising Alpha

  The Life Time Academy Series

  Death’s Angel

  The Pearson Prophecy Trilogy

  Kiss And Lock Up

  An Asgard Penitentiary Story

  Leigh Kelsey

  About Kiss and Lock Up

  Meet Helle’s harem in this alternate POV of their first meeting, a companion to the forthcoming supernatural prison RH, A Shift In The Verdict.

  Charged with murder and revealed as the Fenrir, the secret daughter of Loki, Helle’s life as a normal human is changed forever. Cuffed with magic, Helle is thrown head first into a world where Norse myths are real and the very worst of them inhabit Asgard Penitentiary. But she won’t be going to the prison alone. Three vargar—Norse wolves—have been assigned as her guards. Whether they’re guarding the other inmates from her, or her from them remains to be seen…

  Bjorn

  “Stop it,” Bjorn snapped at Magnus as the youngest of the three vargar assigned to guard the girl paced from one end of the processing room to another, his shoes irritatingly loud on the austere concrete. There was a single window in the room: three feet by three feet, barred, and warded by rune spells for good measure. It was specifically designed to contain magical prisoners while they awaited transportation from courtroom to prison, and entirely bare. And it was grating on all three of them, the ward spells pressing down on their inner vargar. “Pacing isn’t going to expedite the trial,” Bjorn added, resisting the urge to grind his teeth. “It takes as long as it takes.”

  As frustrated as he was himself, Bjorn wouldn’t resort to pacing. Instead, he stood in the middle of the room, his big arms crossed over his chest and his attention alternating between his sulky pack members and the door the prisoner would enter through.

  Magnus spun, a snarl curling his usually charming face, but Bjorn ignored him. This assignment had unsettled all three of them—Bjorn, their alpha, Magnus, the youngest, and even Valr, who leant silently against the wall in a foul temper. Unlike the other two, he had no interest in being the girl’s guard. Or rather the newly awakened Fenrir’s guard, because no matter how innocent and harmless she might appear, the girl was the daughter of Loki, a vargr like them—a wolf like them—and she had the power to bring about the apocalypse.

  But even if Valr would rather be elsewhere, when the Allfather gave a command, you didn’t ignore it. Especially not when it bought them access to Asgard Penitentiary, the place where Erik—Bjorn’s brother, Magnus’s lover, and Valr’s best friend—went missing a year ago.

  Their bond as a pack was tentative, and they were only working together until they found out what had happened to Erik, but Bjorn would do anything for these men. Even if they tested his temper and composure most days, they were his packmates.

  The door clanged open, and Bjorn snapped his gaze up, his eyes flaring in surprise at the woman escorted in, her hands bound in what appeared to be a scarlet ribbon but was in fact a containment spell formed of mountain air and water from the deepest Asgardian sea, ancient tree roots and and lightning harvested from Thor’s most brutal storm. Its harmless appearance was an illusion; she could throw every bit of magic she possessed at those bindings and the ribbon wouldn’t even fray. It was so legendary it even bore a name: Gleipnir.

  “I didn’t do it,” she said breathlessly to the guard who hauled her into the room. “He didn’t even die; he winked at me and vanished.”

  Bjorn watched her closely, her pale face flushed and tear stained, her icy eyes at once terrified and defiant. She was small and curvy, her shape accentuated by the too-small T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms she’d been given, and the azure light of a spell wrapped around her neck, this one in the guise of crackling lightning.

  This woman was Ragnarok? The apocalypse herself? This short, teary, pleading woman was prophecised to kill Odin?

  Bjorn eyed her sceptically, concerned that the Allfather had made a mistake. But Odin didn’t make mistakes. And if this woman, Helle Aven, was truly the Fenrir, that made her Loki’s son. Which made Odin as good as her grandfather. And yet she was still fated to slay him.

  “Helle?” Magnus swept past Bjorn, his voice too breathy with awe to go unnoticed. Bjorn gave him a look, echoed by Valr as he pushed off the wall to stalk closer, but when Bjorn glanced back to Helle, her icy eyes met his, and it felt like Thor’s hammer slammed into him, knocking all the air out of his lungs. He tensed his whole body, fighting the automatic urge to stumble back in shock as an inner thread wound around his bottom rib and tugged sharply.

  It felt like … but it couldn’t be … she was the Fenrir, a prophesied killer, the end of the world in vargr form. Fate woul
dn’t be so cruel as to bind Bjorn to a woman with that destiny.

  His nostrils flared as Helle’s gaze jumped from him, to fair-haired Magnus, to dark and brooding Valr. “What is that?” she breathed, her bound hands shaking in front of her.

  The male guard looked between them in confusion, but didn’t comment on it; Bjorn outranked him. A lot.

  “A mating bond,” Magnus breathed, his blue-violet eyes glowing with wonder. “There’s a bond between us.” He cast a glance at Bjorn and Valr, and added, “All of us.”

  Valr

  The woman was shaking. Helle, Valr knew, but didn’t care enough to use her name. He didn’t care to be here at all; he was only in this court house because it brought him one step closer to finding Erik. As for the supposed mate bond, Valr couldn’t feel anything. No soul bridge, no tug on his inner being, no warmth surrounding him. Magnus was deluding himself—he might have been twenty-six, but he still acted like a romantic teenager and a sentimental fool, and the sparkle in his violet eyes was testament to that. Not to mention his soft, breathy voice.

  Valr didn’t have time for romance or pretty women; he’d rather be back home, training with the other warriors and hunting with the other vargar. Instead he’d formed a pack with two men he barely knew, and he’d come here, to pick up an oblivious, helpless woman who just might turn out to be the end of the world.

  Valr sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling as she swung her gaze to him, shrinking back at whatever she saw in his eyes. Uncompromising death, most likely. He was born for it, honed in the icy tundras where vargar were trained to fight as both wolves and men.