Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,7

movement.

“I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t. And I’m not the one to tell you, Princess. Come on.” He signaled with his head. “I have one job and that’s to get you and bring you home. I’m going to do that. If you’d like to be conscious during the experience, then shut the fuck up with the questions and keep moving. I’m not a knight; I’m not interested in being your savior. You’re a job. Hustle along.” He lowered his voice. “Now.”

I was used to following orders...to a point. I’d gotten good over the years at knowing which ones I had to obey and which ones I could ignore or manage to thwart without getting in too much trouble. His tone right now? It told me that if I disobeyed, I’d be in serious shit. I rubbed my eyes.

Okay. If I wasn’t going to get answers, then I was going to figure out other things. I’d never been outside this long before. Ever. It was...exhilarating. There were people who might want to hurt me—and I had no idea why—but even that couldn’t hinder the fact that the moon was filling me up inside.

There was so much more noise than I’d expected, too. A chirping and buzzing I couldn’t ignore. I rubbed my arms. It was cold, as well. Chilly. My feet had gotten wet even with my shoes on. Prison slippers weren’t really conducive to this kind of walking.

He turned to look at me, his dark eyes somehow almost seeming to glow in the darkness. “Can you move faster?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t at all certain that I could, actually. “I’ve never...done this before?”

He blinked. “Walked?”

That was such an obnoxious thing to say that I wished I could break his nose for saying it. That was the kind of thing we did in prison. I’d seen plenty of people get their ass kicked in the yard. I’d always been sort of horrified by violence, which was why my response to him was so strange for me.

I swallowed. “I’ve never walked outside, except in the central area of the prison during the day. Small amounts. I’m...not used to this.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Listen…”

Whatever he would have said, he stopped and closed his mouth, tilting his head to the left just a little bit. I’d learned all the ways to read people’s nonverbal instructions over the years. His told me that he was listening to something that he really wanted to hear. I sucked in my breath. What had caught his attention?

Without warning or pause, he grabbed my arm and threw us both to the ground, covering me with his body. The night lit up like sunlight. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, moving from moderate pain to a burning, scalding sensation like I’d touched a stove and rolled around on it with my whole body.

“Sun bomb,” he whispered in my ear. “Don’t say a word. Not a fucking word. It’s meant to draw us out in pain. Ignore the pain. You can do that. We all can if we just try. It’s an old trick. Almost insulting that they’re using it.”

I was surprised he could even speak still. I couldn’t even think past this pain. Had he been conditioned to ignore it?

Burning continued to assault my skin. It was like being licked by flames. A tiny whimper escaped my lips, and Cypress huffed before placing his hand over my mouth. Tears burned my eyes, and I squirmed under his hard body, seeking some sort of relief from the painful intensity of their sun bomb. Who was doing this?

I drew my focus to Cypress, who didn’t seem bothered by the pain. He basked in light above me, so he had to be tortured even more than I was. But his eyes didn’t flare. His teeth weren’t clenched. He didn’t shake or moan. He was still as a statue, and the reality of his severe presence suddenly hit me. He wasn’t affected by pain. What kind of person didn’t feel...this? He wasn’t immune, I knew that in my gut. He wasn’t immune, I knew that in my gut, though I couldn’t have said why. But I’d learned to trust my instincts over the years.

“Focus on me, Princess,” he whispered. The pain grew and grew and grew. I clutched at his chest and buried my face in his neck, using his skin to block the screams threatening to break past my teeth. Embarrassment at being so close to this heartless man