Darkblood Prison - G.K. DeRosa Page 0,36
harmless little demons. “Does stuff like that normally happen here?”
“Being attacked in the ladies’ shower?” He smirked. “I wouldn’t really know about that.”
I rolled my eyes at the grinning idiot. “I’m sure that was not the first time you were in the ladies’ bathing quarters.”
His broad shoulders bounced up and down as he chuckled, drawing my attention to his dark wings spanning half the length of our cell. My hazy thoughts cleared, and I glared at his feathery appendages. “How are your wings out? And Talon—he partially shifted back there too.”
His wide jaw unhinged, and the crease between his brows deepened. “Um—”
Talon stormed into our cell cutting off the angel’s stuttering. Dark oily stains covered the bottom half of his light gray jumpsuit mixing in with the crimson splotches. Three bloody slashes streaked across the silver dragon shimmering on his bare chest. I sucked in a sharp breath as I assessed his flayed skin. “Are you okay?”
He stomped toward me and loomed over my bed, his legs almost brushing my knees. The muscles in his chest twitched, and the dragon across his stacked torso came to life. Blood and sweat glistened on his tanned skin and for some reason I didn’t find it completely repulsive. Quite the opposite, in fact. “What the hell were you thinking, Azara?”
The ice in his voice snapped my head back. “Excuse me?” I stared up at the seething dragon, my own anger pooling in my core. The slits replacing his pupils pulsated as he glared down at me. “I didn’t think taking a shower was such a big no-no in this place.”
He jammed his fingers through his mussed-up hair and grunted. “It is when Delacroix wants your ass.”
“Did you kill it?”
“No, I left it in there so it could attack the next stupid girl.”
I shot up to my feet and squared my shoulders at the infuriating beast. Jabbing my finger into his obscenely firm chest, I punctuated my words. “I. Am. Not. Stupid.” His thick fingers wrapped around mine, and my pulse spiked. Also, my towel began to slip. “And I could’ve taken care of that demon if you hadn’t shown up. I was seconds away from making my escape.”
“Right…” he snarled, still crushing my finger. “I wasn’t asking for a thank you, but you could at least admit you were in over your head.”
“Not a chance, dick.” I jerked my finger back and tucked my arms across my chest, securing the dingy towel. I had magically opened that door, hadn’t I? Or did I hallucinate the whole thing?
“You think Delacroix summoned that caracara?” Hayden asked.
The fury raging through my cranky roommate ticked down a notch as he pivoted toward his friend. “We don’t have any in residence, so yeah, that would be my guess.”
Hayden’s blue-eyed gaze rolled over me, and his brows crinkled. “Isn’t that an awful lot of work just to get a half-blood demon on his team?”
“Thanks a lot, jerk,” I muttered.
“It is.” Talon’s pupils returned to a more human shape, and he took a step back. “You better talk to your warden friend about this.”
“I will, as soon as he gets back.” I could finally breathe without inhaling his winter fresh musk, and the synapses in my brain started to fire up once more. Glancing at the black cuff on his wrist, I returned to my earlier train of thought. “How did you shift with that thing on?” I blurted.
Talon’s eyes darted to Hayden’s, and they exchanged a veiled glance.
“What?” I repeated when neither one responded after a loaded pause.
“Remember what I told you when you first arrived about need-to-know info?” Hayden slapped me on the shoulder. “You don’t need to know.”
“Yes, I do. I could use access to my powers in this place.”
“So you could soul-suck a few more dozen lives?” Talon’s silver gaze turned glacial.
My head dipped to the tiny white flecks in the cement. “That was an accident,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
Talon grunted and trudged to the back of our cell. I couldn’t help my gaze trailing after him. I had to force myself to look away as he started peeling off his blood-stained jumpsuit.
“You might want to take that wet towel off, pumpkin. We don’t want you catching a cold.” With a wicked grin, Hayden shrugged and flopped down on his bottom bunk.
Luckily, I had a spare uniform under my bed because I’d left the other one in the shower. And there was no way I was going back there any time soon. Unluckily, happy hour