I trust them.” I started walking again, knowing it was time to end this little scene. Everything looked fine, and the prison was running business-as-usual in the southern cell block. It was the simpler of the two cell blocks and infinitely less complex to look over than the vampire prison in the basement.
We left the cell block, and I looked down at Raphael’s hand, frowning.
“Care to explain?” I asked, trying to ignore the pleasurable heat of his skin.
“I…I don’t know,” he said softly, letting go. “I’m sorry. It just happened, and I decided to roll with it.”
“You know, you’re allowed to be honest with me,” I reminded him, ignoring Tarak’s confused and concerned state. The Alpha didn’t like strangeness in his prison, and this was definitely strangeness. Me telling some guy to be honest while he’s grabbing me? Cassius never touched me like that in public, but Raphael just did.
“I do, but…” He shook his head. “What’s next? I don’t like being here.”
Me neither, Raph.
“There are no vampires in attendance right now, so we’re going directly to the northern cell block,” Tarak answered before I could say anything. “No need to look over the underground facilities because they’re empty.”
“Of course,” I said, sighing. “To the northern cell block, we go…” I tried to contain my disgust with the idea, considering how I felt about the criminals held there. “Are we doing solitary after that?”
“There’s no one in solitary, but I’ll let you walk through,” Tarak replied. He started walking again, and I followed with Raphael, wondering when my not-human charge would start asking the questions I had a feeling he really wanted to ask.
We were halfway there when it began.
“Is there any difference between the two cell blocks? Or are they both like that?”
“Northern cell block contains individuals who have life sentences for whatever reason,” Tarak answered. He was frowning when he turned back to us. “Did you explain any of this to him?”
“I explained the security but not the intricacies of prisoner placement.” I pushed my hands into my pockets. “You know I don’t care what their sentence is. They’re the ones who perpetrate some evil shit in our world and nearly expose us to humans. I don’t care if the ones in the southern block are only serving timed sentences. I don’t see why anyone should. When they get out, they’ll be watched, and they’ll cross the line again, and I’ll get called in to clean up.”
“You don’t think people can be reformed?” Raphael asked, sounding less curious and more expectant of my answer.
“Not really,” I answered, not elaborating. One in one hundred wouldn’t become a repeat offender, and because these were still alive, they would always have a chance to screw it up. We walked silently for a moment, and I looked into the yard in the center of the compound, with only one edge pointing to the outside world. The building was in a large U shape, making it easy to see the yard from any inside wall, like Tarak’s office. There weren’t many out. I knew the times were staggered to keep it as safe as possible, but it wasn’t a totally effective plan. There were still fights out there, and people died before the guards could break it up.
“Do we need to check out there?” my not-human companion inquired, obviously trying to cover up some emotion. Since seeing the southern cell block, he’d turned stiff, and it grew more obvious every step.
“No, I don’t go into the yard. Too much of a chance for trouble,” I explained, stopping to stare out the window. There were no recognizable faces out there, something I was both grateful and annoyed with. The northern cell block was going to be packed. When I started walking again, Raphael stuck to my side like he was glued there.
The security sounded when we walked through the guard post into the northern cell block. There was one key difference between the two cell blocks everyone noticed—the noise. It always got me when I walked into the silent northern cell block and looked at the doors. This three-story section wasn’t full like the southern block, and they didn’t share cells. Every room held an individual, and the doors were solid, except for a very small window where one could look in or out of the cell.
“You’re going to make me walk the entire cell block, aren’t you? You're going to make me do Wesley’s prison, too?” I asked Tarak softly as we stood