Chapter 19
Raven
No matter how hard I tried, I’d failed to leave my corporeal body again during sleep. Whatever had taken me to Alaric that one time no longer worked. It was both infuriating and upsetting.
Not because I wanted to spend quality time with the mage, but because I needed to find a way out of this lunatic asylum.
After more trips to donate blood and contribute medical data, it was rapidly dawning on me that most of the inmates here were insane.
I’d not seen the vampire female again, but I had passed more rooms where unknown species screamed and howled, all of them incapacitated by magic-blocking cuffs or collars.
No kitsunes, thankfully. The thought of little Kenji lookalikes being subjected to inhumane experiments made me want to smite someone. Preferably Tiberius, but Brianna was an acceptable second choice.
Even though I’d asked the staff what was happening here, they all refused to answer my questions.
At least they were feeding me. Not the sort of food I’d have chosen for myself, but mostly it was edible.
I was desperate for a shower, though. My scalp itched like crazy, and my hair hung limp and greasy down my back.
Even I could tell I smelled worse than a skunk shifter.
Did skunk shifters exist? I felt sorry for any poor female with a skunk shifter mate.
Goddess save them all from the stench of a frightened skunk mate.
My cell door swung open and hit the wall with a bang, making me jump.
“Time for your meds,” announced the surly guard who’d been my miserable companion today.
He smelled bad. Almost as bad as a mythical skunk shifter.
He also had nothing interesting to say. Goddess knows I’d tried to engage him in stimulating conversations about diverse topics such as poisonous herbs and candle making.
Nothing landed. The mage apparently had no personality, which didn’t bode well for his dating life.
“Are you a skunk shifter?” I needed to know. Silence wasn’t my friend. Talking to myself for hours had bored the pants off me, which suggested I was a basic bitch. Goddess, did my mates think I was boring?
I cringed.
My poor mates.
No, I refused to think about them in the presence of a skunk shifter.
Who knew what mind-reading abilities the magicals in here had.
I didn’t want to risk giving important information away.
Alaric’s warning about Montgomery rang in my head.
For all I knew, the headmaster had extracted every juicy nugget of information from my head that day in his office.
The guard sneered. “I’m a mage, you moron. Jobs like this are for high-ranking mages, not lesser magicals like dumb shifters.”
Wonderful. A mage supremacist. “It can’t pay that well,” I muttered.
The guard pulled out a syringe. “What the fuck are you talking about, bitch?”
“I’m guessing you can’t afford antiperspirant.”
“How fucking dare you—”
“Ender! Stop conversing with the subject. The boss is growing impatient.” The guard’s back stiffened in response to Miss Whiplash’s rebuke from the doorway.
Ugh. She wasn’t much better than the asshole guard. The bitch deserved an emotionally dysregulated skunk shifter mate. I’d manifest that for her the minute these unpleasant individuals left me alone with my not-boring thoughts.
Ender grabbed my wrist and stuck the needle into my left bicep so hard I shrieked in pain. He pressed the plunger down, sending a rush of heat flooding through my arm.
When Miss Whiplash turned away to talk to someone in the corridor, he leaned in and whispered, “I can’t wait to watch the show later.”
I nearly gagged as a wave of fetid breath washed over me. Goddess, it smelled like something had crawled into his mouth and died. Given his lack of personal hygiene, I guessed he hadn’t flossed for at least a decade.
“Show?” I squeaked when he yanked the needle from my arm, not caring about the blood that trickled out from the sizable hole left behind.
All I received in return was a lecherous smile, which did nothing to quell the nausea in my gut.
Why was it so hot in here? Rivulets of sweat trickled down my back, soaking through the thin cotton top I wore. If this unpleasant fever got any worse, I’d be the stinky one.
My cell door opened again. Stars, I was popular today. Each time I drifted off to sleep on my hard cot, someone disturbed me. The continuous checks were driving me nuts.
What did a witch need to do to enjoy some peace around here?
Not that I felt like sleeping right this minute.
A painful cramp had me gripping the side of the cot so hard it broke. Or was that my sanity? At this point in my forced imprisonment, I could no longer tell the difference.
“Get your ass up, witch. It’s time to shower.”
Lovely. The stinky skunk shifter mage was back, and his mood had not improved in the interim.
“Shouldn’t your shift have finished by now?” I huffed irritably. Instead of waiting for me to drag my carcass off the cot, he strode over and hauled me to my feet, ignoring my pained whimper. My left arm ached from the bruise caused by the needle he’d stuck me with earlier.
“Nope. I volunteered for unpaid overtime.”
Trying not to pant as heat burned me from the inside out, I scoffed loudly. “Wow, that’s seriously dumb.”
The mage ignored my jibe and dragged me down the corridor.
“I’m not getting naked in front of you,” I said when he shoved me into a bathroom.
The shower cubicle was small but clean, and someone had left a towel and a robe on a chair.
Perhaps they’d changed their minds about the spa day.
I could use a relaxing soak in a hot tub right now. Oh, and a deep-tissue massage.
Tears pricked my eyes when a memory of Maverick massaging my feet popped into my head. He loved to take care of me. I missed my bear. Did he miss me too?
The asshole mage reached into the shower cubicle and twisted a lever. Before I could protest, he’d pushed me under the ice-cold water, laughing at my shocked screams.
It took a few seconds, but I quickly decided the cold water wasn’t so bad after all as it helped cool my overheated skin. That soon wiped the smile off the mage’s face. The minute I sighed in relief, he scowled.
“You have five minutes,” he snapped before pushing the towel aside and sinking down onto the chair.
I glowered. “There’s no shampoo or soap.”
“Not my problem,” he said with a give-no-shits shrug.
Turning my back on him so he couldn’t ogle my tits in my wet top, I closed my eyes as the cold water blasted down. Stars, it felt good.
Nothing stopped the cramps, though. Another one hit me hard, and for an awful moment, I wondered whether this was my time of the month. I’d lost track of my cycle, not having needed to pay attention to such things with Maverick monitoring my health in great detail.
Swallowing a cry as my uterus threatened to tear apart, I thought quickly. The last time I’d bled was when my vampire….
Bad Raven. Naughty thoughts made the throbbing in my core worse.
I doubled over in pain. If giving birth was this painful, I had no intention of ever reproducing.
Maverick could adopt. I was certain there were plenty of poor orphaned bear cubs out there in need of a home.
Perhaps we could visit the shelter once I graduated from Starfall?
Fig would appreciate a cute friend.
Kenji too.
Oh my goddess, Kenji! Where are you?
As much as it pained me to admit it, I missed my kitsune and his endless stream of motivational chatter. Nothing raised the spirits of a miserable witch like being told she was too stupid to live.
Salty tears dripped off my cheeks as excruciating pain turned my insides to lava. Steam rose when the mage leaned in to turn the shower off, and I noticed he no longer smelled so bad.
Oh my goddess.
I sniffed hard, exhaling a shuddering breath as the desire for physical touch became overwhelming.
What in the demon realm was wrong with me?
I threw myself away from him in horror. This disgusting mage was my guard. I hated him. Goddess, he stunk worse than a skunk, so why did my body suddenly crave his very-much-unwanted attention?
Ignoring my unhinged behavior, the mage dug his fingers into my wrist. Water dripped everywhere as he pulled me out of the shower room and threw the robe at me. His touch made the pain worse, but I did my best not to show any reaction.
The corridor was empty as usual. The mage tugged me along, cursing each time I stumbled. We passed through a sliding door into a new corridor. I tried very hard to remember the route, but every door looked the same, and besides, my brain had gone offline.
Finally we stopped, and the mage pushed me into a spartan room containing nothing but a plain bed.
“Wait here while I fetch some dry clothes for you,” the mage ordered, his lip curling in disgust at the sight of my red, sweaty face.
I sank down, resting my heated cheek against the cool tiled floor. The momentary relief it provided soon faded.
Something was wrong.
I whimpered, desperate to escape the agonizing cramps, but endless minutes ticked by and nobody came.
A nagging voice in my brain urged me to escape. Take advantage of the mage’s disappearance. If he’d left the door unlocked, there was nothing stopping me from leaving. Was it even closed?
I tried to focus on the stupid door, but it blurred before my eyes, like a mirage in the desert. The harder I stared at it, the further away it seemed. And besides, my body hurt too much.
So instead, I curled up into a ball and forced my brain to remember all the positivity mantras my favorite witchfluencers claimed helped them remain steadfast in the face of adversity.
After five minutes of chanting I am resilient and I am strong, I realized I was neither of those things and also that witchfluencers were full of shit and a digital detox was necessary when my mates finally rescued me.
“Everything I need is not fucking within me!” I yelled as the agony racking my poor, pathetic body became too much.
The door opened to reveal a tall male wearing tight gray sweatpants. Fresh cramps squeezed my uterus in a vise, and I groaned.
“Raven?” Alaric had found me, and to my everlasting shame, I had never been more pleased to see the storm mage. Or horny.
“I need…you.”