Siren Awakened - C.R. Jane Page 0,52

starting to feel like it wasn’t me against the world.

Chapter 12

Alaric

The rumors were spreading. Precious possessions that prisoners would die to keep safe were going missing.

And all roads lead back to my little possessed siren.

I’d staged two break-ins so far of the warden’s office, but nothing had come from it. And we were running out of time.

Keon and I had taken to watching over her at night, but on some nights, somehow, she would disappear in the blink of an eye. Right in front of us, she’d go from sleeping in her bed fitfully to somewhere else in the prison. We both managed to track her down most nights, but the bags under her eyes were growing deeper.

Selena’s spirit was a klepto, or maybe it was just trying to get her in trouble. Any time she disappeared, she usually would wake up the next day with something new in her room, something stolen from other prisoners.

Discontent was growing around the penitentiary, and it wasn’t the easiest thing to return the stolen goods to their owners and not get caught. Selena had taken to hiding things in various places around her room that we weren’t able to get returned, but it was only a matter of time until there would be repercussions and she’d be caught. It was almost like the ghost was seeing how much she could get away with.

I was used to handling a lot at a time, but I usually approached every problem already knowing how I could solve it. The fact that I didn’t know what talisman in the warden’s office could help, and the fact that I couldn’t persuade him to tell me, was a situation I was unaccustomed to.

And it was driving me crazy. I stalked the halls, keeping an ear for Selena’s name to be mentioned, and it was mentioned a lot. I turned a corner and stutter stepped when I saw Selena’s little pet, the hellhound, lurking against a wall. He was watching a fight that had broken out between a group of cat shifters. To most people, he would appear disinterested, but I knew better. He was aware of everything around him. And he wasn’t hanging in the hallway for his health.

He was waiting for me.

The hellhound didn’t look at me when I sidled up to him and leaned against the wall, pretending to watch the fight as well.

“How long are we going to play pretend?” I asked sarcastically as a prisoner shifted suddenly, swiping a paw full of sharp ebony claws across another prisoner’s face.

That probably hurt.

“I want to know what’s going on with Selena,” he growled. I bristled at her name leaving his lips. It sounded like a caress.

“Why would I tell you anything about her?” I answered calmly.

His body stiffened next to mine, and I smelled something coming off of him that smelled suspiciously like brimstone. The hellhound was obviously very interested in Selena, enough to shatter the calm he was trying to portray.

“She’s ignoring me,” he admitted reluctantly.

I started to get suspicious. “I wasn’t aware you two were close.”

“Things have changed recently.”

My suspicions grew.

“Is she all right? She seems exhausted every time I see her. Is she sleeping? Eating?” The words rushed out of him like they’d been pent up inside of him. He was desperate to find the answers to his questions. He was a junkie going without his fix.

He’d fucking slept with her.

The hellhound had fucking moved in while the rest of us were on the outs.

A black haze descended on my vision. My hands curled into fists. I was jealous…I was enraged. It felt like hot flames licking at my throat. I’d come to an uneasy acceptance that I was going to have to share with the other two for the time being.

But the hellhound? The loner shifter?

How the hell had that happened right under my nose?

“The way I see it, Selena needs all the help she can get right now,” he told me, sensing my fury.

I thought about just how much help Selena needed as another shifter’s canines extended and he bit into the jugular of the guy he was fighting. I didn’t think the guy was going to come back from that one.

As I watched the shifter begin to chew on the dying man’s neck, my anger dampened. I thought about Selena crying in my arms, the fact that Keon and I hadn’t been able to protect her, those circles under her eyes.

She did need all the help she could get.

But I hadn’t