Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,20

piss me off.

I shoved at his shoulder. “Just as you intended me to be. And don’t deny it. Be man enough to own what you did.”

I gasped when I saw vines poking through my skin and wrapping around my hand where I’d shoved him. What the hell was happening to me? He grabbed my wrist to inspect the vines, and lightning shot out like a snake to bite at him. “Ouch!” he yelled while snapping back, shaking his hand with a wince.

“Explain to me exactly what I did,” he demanded.

I rolled my eyes, both annoyed with myself and frustrated with him. Saying it out loud made me feel foolish. “You had that fairy woman in your lap. You were trying to get a rise out of me,” I murmured. Hearing my own voice make those words forced a blush to my cheeks. My mouth opened and closed as I tried to process what I was feeling. My reasoning seemed childish and out of sorts. Even though I hadn’t planned on blowing up the place, I still hated how out of control these new powers were.

Cypress’s face twisted into a series of expressions. Confusion. Realization. Annoyance. And then…

Cocky assholery.

He smirked, and I wanted to slap him across the face. The ground trembled where we stood in echo of my anger, and I fell forward, bracing my hands against his muscular chest. “You’re jealous,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice.

I didn’t dignify his comment with an answer. “I have no control over my powers.”

“But you can control your emotions. Let me simplify things for you a bit,” Cypress said while bracing both hands on my shoulders and pushing me away from his hard body.

“Last night? Was nothing more than pity.” I curled my lip as he continued to speak. “I know you’re probably confused. You were locked up in that prison with virtually no interaction. Infatuation is normal.” He sounded pretentious and condescending. I wanted to tear my eyes away from his and knee him in the balls.

“I’m not infatuated with you,” I gritted, though I wasn’t sure if it was true or not.

“Good,” Cypress replied. “Because I’m no knight, Princess. I’m a killer, and you’re a job.”

Cold ice infused with pain slashed across my chest, but I didn’t want him to see the effect his words had on me, nor feel out of control of my emotions. If my powers were triggered by that, then I’d draw them in and lock them up in the prison behind my rib cage.

I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes, drawing upon that familiar numbness I knew well. Being in the prison required a certain unfeeling. If you wanted to survive with your sanity intact, you had to take your wants, hopes, disappointments, and wishes and bury them within yourself. You simply had to exist in nothingness.

I opened my eyes. “You’ve made your point. I’ll be sure to remember our dynamic.”

Cypress stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Alright. I need to go back to the inn to get our supplies. You stay here, okay? Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t go anywhere. I’d take you with me, but I don’t want the Fae to smell the residual magic on you.”

I didn’t understand what that meant, but I didn’t question him. “Fine.”

He left, rounding the corner, leaving me standing there all by myself. Goosebumps broke out on my arms. I rubbed them away. This was screwed up. I was with a stranger that, yes, I was infatuated with. Why? Because he’d saved my life and held me last night. I was starved for attention. There was no question about that. People had come and gone from my life in shifts for as far back as I could remember.

One woman would raise me, and then she’d leave. Another would take over. I’d learned to hold on for brief periods of time, to take temporary love in lieu of ever having the real thing. That was what I was doing here. He was another stop for me, another brief interaction. And I was pouring too much into it.

I leaned against the wall. Yep, that was exactly what I was doing.

He was right. I was a job for him. And maybe if he could actually get me to these parents I evidently had somewhere, I could learn how to do the real thing.

“Layne?” A voice called my name, and I turned toward the sound, recognizing the voice, although it had been a very long