free; that bitch had gotten hold of a fucking cuff key and somehow Shadowbrook had ended up with it. Had he been working with her? It didn’t make sense. And then he’d come asking me about when she was getting out of the hole, and if that wasn’t shifty as shit then I didn’t know what was.
I growled. Whatever it was, she was up to no good. And she’d been playing me like a fucking fiddle.
And yet as angry as I felt, as much as I wanted to crush her for manipulating me, I hadn’t breathed a word about the cuff key to Warden Pike. Call me a fool, a fucking half-brained moron, but I had, for reasons beyond my comprehension, kept her dark little secret. Maybe it was because she’d kept my secret, or maybe I’d never intended on telling the warden at all.
I’d ensured the situation was neutralised anyway by encouraging Pike to upgrade all of the cuffs in the prison, so it wasn’t like the key would do her any good now even if she had still had it stashed away somewhere. But that didn’t explain why I hadn’t exposed her. She would have had ten years slapped onto her sentence for it. And I kept telling myself that was another reason why I’d held my tongue. I didn’t want her around any longer than I was already going to have to put up with her. Sure, asshole, that’s why you did it.
I wrapped my hand around my cock then bared my teeth as rage built inside me like the fires of the sun lived in my flesh. I jerked off over her almost as often as I bled inside over her. I despised myself for it. But I despised her more.
I let go of my hard on and threw my fist into the white tiles instead, again and again, until they cracked and shattered beneath my blows. With my Vampire strength, I soon had a sizeable hole pounded into the wall, the remnants of the tiles coated in blood from my split knuckles. I let the pain of crushed bones in that hand steal me away as I clenched my teeth through the agony. But nothing would steal her away from my mind. No matter what I did, or what I endured to rid her from my fucking soul, nothing worked.
I finally had to accept that Rosalie Oscura was here to stay. And I might just go mad and end up in Psych over her one day soon. Then maybe the drugs pumped into my veins to silence me would be some kind of mercy.
***
I sat in the warden’s office as Pike placed a white binder on the desk between us.
“The new cuffs have been quite the success, don’t you agree?” she asked, straightening a pen beside the binder so it lined up exactly.
“Yes, ma’am.” I touched the remote around my neck. I could key in a specific inmate’s cuffs at any time and check the status of their magic, switching them on or off at a press of a button. I could also shut off the entire prison’s magic or switch it on. But there was a code and a magical signature scanner for that so even if some shady asshole got hold of it, they wouldn’t be able to use it.
“I have a few more upgrades in the works, but most importantly, this one.” She opened the binder, pushing it toward me and I took in the blueprint of the prison and the newly highlighted magical barrier that ran deep into the earth, circling the entire underground complex.
“What is that?” I asked curiously.
“The biotech company who created the Belorian have been working on it for a while now. It’s going to cover a few blind spots I’ve been concerned about for some time.” She tapped on the blueprint, pointing out the gaps between the detectors in the earth surrounding Darkmore.
“The chances of someone tunnelling out there are slim to zero,” I pointed out. “And the detectors are placed randomly. It would take a miracle to get through them.”
“Yes, but I must account for miracles,” she said slyly. “The new barrier will ensure that absolutely no miracles can happen in Darkmore Penitentiary.”
I nodded, satisfied by that response. Any layers of protection that kept the psychos where they belonged was good enough for me. “When will it be put in place?”
“Six weeks,” she announced, beaming with pride. “It’s going through the final trials then the lab