Broken Compass: Supernatural Prison Story 1 (15 page)

Now that he mentioned it, there was a power struggle going on inside of me. I wanted to be closer to the little houses, and it was more than innate curiosity. It was a spell, subtle and slow moving, insidious enough that I wouldn’t have noticed anything until I was snared. That’s why Louis had not moved any closer. He’d known that to step into its boundary would initiate the spell and he’d be unable to escape.

“So how do we break the spell?” Jacob said. “It’s not natural, the forest does not like it. We need to end this now.”

Louis’ grin was back, but it wasn’t nice. It was hard and scary. “Oh, that’s easy enough. We go and introduce ourselves in person. Easiest way to get to The Great Divide.”

Okay, so much for not stepping into it. He crossed the space and the rest of us stayed close to his side. Just like with the girls, a massive wind blew up around us, and the whirling vortex started to usher us closer to the houses. I didn’t bother to wait for it to suck us in though. If Louis said this was the way to Mischa, there was no more time to waste.

Of course I had no idea how I was supposed to fit inside a house which stood only at the height of my waist. Or even which of the three houses to choose.

With no time to debate any further, I ran straight at the middle house, prepared to emulate the big bad wolf and smash it down. Just before I hit it though, the vision changed, and as my hand touched the side of the stick wall, the entire scene vanished, changing into a cage.

My sprint did not halt, and with Louis and my brothers right behind me, the five of us dashed straight into the box. The moment the last of us crossed the threshold, there was a whirring, followed by the crash of the entrance closing.

Louis was still looking all fascinated sorcerer, examining our prison. “Generally the magical illusion would hold much longer than that. Definitely until the lured was inside of the house. But we’re too strong. Maximus smashed the spell. All that’s left is the portal. We should be on our way now to the land between. I’m just hoping we don’t register as a threat. If that happens there’s a possibility the prison will reject us and dump us out halfway.”

We should have gone in one at a time. We were some of the most powerful supes in our entire world. Add Louis in there and nothing could stop us. If there was some sort of magical security system on this place, we could very well find ourselves floating in the abyss. Which I did not have time for.

The whirring grew louder and darkness descended around us, so all encompassing that if I hadn’t been able to feel my brothers crushed against me I wouldn’t have known anyone else was there with me.

My heart clenched and I had to fight through the pain in my chest. Since losing Cardia I’d tried not to be in darkness. When my eyes had nothing to focus on, my brain started to demand attention – the pain started to demand attention. And I did not have the energy to give into it.

This time, though, all I could see was Mischa, with her soft green eyes and rounded belly that held my child. The image was so strong. Why could I see her as if she were standing right before me, and yet when I tried to recall my true mate there was barely a shadow, no detail, almost as if she was fading away from my brain and soul, which, if she’d been a true mate, was damn impossible?

Braxton’s, and now my theory, was starting to feel right. When we got the twins back I was going to focus on finding all the answers. If it turned out Cardia was not my true mate, that someone had falsely created the bond for whatever reason, I would not stop until I broke every single facet of the spell and rid myself of any lingering emotional attachment.

To be dealt with later though. My focus was elsewhere right now. I clutched at the bars before me, my body primed and ready to attack the moment we arrived. I felt the unbreakable strength of the material housing us. They were used to transporting those of power and physical prowess. Were we going to be strong enough to break free?

As if he’d had the same thoughts, Braxton initiated our quad bond; there was a flare of light as our power merged. The space was really too small to house our newly beefed up, bonded bodies, but somehow we fit. Louis was no doubt feeling very uncomfortable.

In the brief bursts of light, it seemed as if we were traveling through a wormhole. Dark endlessness surrounded our cage as it hurtled through time and space.

My brothers were looking grim, Louis not so much. The sorcerer hid his true emotions very well. I wouldn’t want to face him in a poker game, or cross him in a trial. Master of secrecy, he held himself rigidly. But one day that would shatter. No one could contain the level of supernatural power he held indefinitely. He’d crack, and as long as I wasn’t the focus of his explosion, I’d be happy to sit back and enjoy the show. It would be like no other.

As our quad power settled down, the light above us started to wane, and soon we were back in darkness. But this time there was no need to worry. I had plenty of voices in my head to keep me company. And annoy the hell out of me.

Jacob started on me again:
Max, I’ve never seen your vamp side quite so in control
.

This time it was hard for me to escape the probing nature of my fey brother. I could hear his concern.

I did not want his concern.

I’m angry. So goddamned angry that I can barely continue to function without wanting to tear the world into a million pieces. Someone took my girl and my child. No one touches what is mine.

I hadn’t expected to let so much of my inner fury free, but there was nowhere else for it to go. I trusted my brothers above all others; they would never use my weakness against me. Braxton adjusted his stance; through our connection, blasts of his fear and anger continued fueling my own. Joined like this I could feel that Tyson and Jacob weren’t that far behind us in the pissed-off-level. They loved Mischa and Jessa too. They had slightly less to lose, but in a pack we were all family. We all had everything to lose.

We’ll not lose them
,
Braxton managed to rasp out.
If it’s the last fucking thing I do, I’ll shake this goddamn land until it gives me my mate back.

For the first time I got glimpses of what it had been like for him when Larkspur took Jessa to Faerie. The same sort of emotions were swarming through me too, like there was a bubbling pit of hatred inside of me, like I could lose the last facet of humanity which I had clung to when Cardia died. If I lost Mischa and our child, there was nothing I could cling to, nothing that would stop me from going rogue.

What is Mischa to you, brother?

Tyson was uncharacteristically serious. I realized that the bond I’d witnessed between them was stronger than I’d thought. Clearly it had developed in the time I’d been gone from here, in the time I’d cut her out of my life with ferocious and cruel intent. I was too messed up to give Tyson any other answer than the one which was thrumming through me.

She’s mine. She’s everything.

I felt the confusion, theirs and my own.

Someone messed with us, with you, Max.
Jacob was tuned in to everything, always speaking to the gods and nature. He knew shit.
There’s no way Cardia was your true mate, so how the hell did she end up at the sanctuary? How did she form the bond with you?

I was breathing deeply, aware that if I couldn’t keep it together I would probably hurt my brothers. We were too close. There was nowhere for me to release. Braxton’s hand slammed onto my shoulder and I knew he was promising me that he would step in if I lost it. He would protect the others.

That thought calmed me. Just enough for rational thought.

As soon as we rescue the girls, I’m going to investigate my bond with Cardia. You’re all right, it was not a normal true mate connection. I need answers. I need to know who screwed around with my life.

Ask Louis
,
Tyson said.
I might detest the cocky dick, but he is powerful. And old as shit. He probably has the best knowledge of whether this is even possible
.

Damn. He was right. I hadn’t been utilizing my best source of information. Of course the moment I opened my mouth to ask him, our cage reached its destination, slamming to a halt in a place which was damp and had next to no scent.

We’ve arrived, boys. Time to introduce ourselves.

Tyson sounded a little too happy. He was really looking forward to releasing his inner anger on whatever stupid assholes had decided to touch our pack mates.

They were all going to die. The thought brightened my day.

Wherever we had landed was cloaked in a magical darkness. There was rarely any place truly without light or shadow unless magic was involved. This didn’t bother Louis though. The sorcerer just flicked his fingers and some sort of bulbous light appeared above our heads. Its beams cut through the darkness, and despite the small size, managed to spread a decent amount of light in all directions.

I could see our cage clearly now. It had a solid roof and floor, and all four sides were floor-to-ceiling bars, thick and heavy duty. Magically reinforced for sure.

Braxton reached out and gripped the bars. Through our bond I could feel him connecting to his dragon. The beast was ferocious, almost completely untamed as it searched for its mate. The strength which coursed through my brother was enviable. I did not have the same within me, but the vampire was not without its own benefits. No one else moved. We could assist him without laying a single finger on the cage. I sent my energy along the bond; Tyson and Jacob did the same. The dragon thrashed within the inner cage Braxton had imposed around him, and I felt his control slipping as more and more power flooded through his body.

Jessa
,
I mentally reminded him. With a roar, Braxton wrenched on the side of the cage. Once, and then again. I heard the screeching of metal and that burning metallic scent of a spell being destroyed. With one final yank, the side of the cage was completely torn free and flung out into the darkness. It landed against another cage, which I’d only just noticed was across from ours.

In fact, as I stepped free of the box, I realized that this entire place was filled with cages. Eyes started to follow our movements. Every single barred box held a prisoner. There were so many demi-fey: gargoyles, trolls, imps, centaurs; and also supes like us: magic users, vampires, shifters, and fey. There might have even been some humans there, or at least supes with very little magical energy.

As the magical light moved across the large building, more faces were reflected back at us. There were hundreds. I moved across to a vampire two cells down from ours. He was gaunt, emaciated to the point where a swift breeze would have knocked him down. Our cells worked double-time to keep us in perfect health, but without a regular influx of new blood, our bodies started to turn on itself, sucking the very life from us.

“How long have you been here?” I asked him, as his flat, dark eyes locked onto mine.

He blinked a few times, opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out. Weird. I reached forward to the bars, and found my hand bouncing off it, about a foot from the cage.

“There’s spells on the outside of these prisons,” Louis said, his voice low and brittle. “Noise can go in but nothing comes out. You also can’t touch the bars from the outside.”

“What the hell is this place? Why are they holding all of these supes?” Tyson asked, wandering along the row.

Louis took a moment to answer, and it sounded as if he was trying to keep his emotions in check. “I believe it’s a smuggling ring, supe auction of sorts. Lure them in, cage them up, and then once all the cages are filled, host a huge auction event and offer them up to bidders.”

A damn smuggling ring! “We need to find the girls immediately,” I all but roared.

Louis shook his head. “They’re not in this room. I have already scanned. I have no idea the time difference here. For all we know they could have been sold months ago.”

Braxton was beyond listening to him now. All of us dived out of the way when he lost control and burst into a massive black and blue dragon. His bulk crushed the cages on either side of him, and the dragon magic completely circumvented whatever spells lined these prisons.
      

For many minutes Braxton raged along the row and smashed free the prisoners, Louis’ light following along with him. Supes spilled out into the path we were on, each of them emerging in a burst of rage. Looks like we had found ourselves some allies.

“Let’s find the assholes who stuck us in here,” Jacob roared, his white-blond hair flying behind him as his fey energy lit him from within. “They must pay for this. This must be stopped so no more of us are sacrificed.”

This was also our best chance of finding Mischa and Jessa. Whomever was running this thing had information. The supes around me were shouting and beating on the wreckage of the cages near them. I let my vampire free, and as my gums ached and fangs released, I knew it was going to be difficult to return to my more civilized side when this was all over. Of course, if I didn’t find Mischa, that wasn’t going to be a concern.

Braxton’s shift to dragon had broken our quad connection, but that was okay, I could still sense my brothers. All of us were charging along the path with a bunch of enraged supes and one pissed-off dragon. We pushed past all the smashed cages, heading in one direction and hoping it was the right way. The place was still dark beyond Louis’ light, but then more of the magic users sent out their own lights, leaving very little darkness for anybody to hide within.

At the end of this path was a platform, probably where the prisoners were paraded across to be purchased. We smashed through the chairs and up onto the elevated area. Not everyone was going to fit on here; there was at least a hundred of us now, but there was a doorway on the other side. We all kept moving. Louis didn’t hesitate, blasting out with his energy and slamming the door open. Lights flooded through the opening, and once I made it through I could see another stage.

With a roar I pushed my way to the front, determined to be the first on the other side. Braxton’s dragon came through next. Neither of us waited for the others. We were on a mission.