Broken Compass: Supernatural Prison Story 1 (18 page)

Screams were in my throat; I had to swallow them down multiple times. I couldn’t stop from thrashing against my chains, hoping movement might offer the slightest relief to the burning. Sitting felt like the worse thing I could be doing.

“Lemmego, bastherd,” I attempted to shout, but the moment I opened my mouth there was a blinding jolt of agony to my brain. Great, so my jaw was probably fractured too. As another stabbing pain lanced through my jaw and temple, I upgraded the injury from a fracture to completely shattered
.

“Nice to see you’ve returned to me,” Kristoff said, appearing to be once again in control of himself.

Crazy got temporarily shelved, making way for the regal sorcerer. Somehow even his hair appeared neater, his clothes less shabby. Had he glamoured himself or something. “Apologies for the
Lunarti oil
. I try not to use this sort of dark magic often, but since your mate bond is not formed, the pain had to be intense.”

“Wht mat bwond?” My garbled words were a mess, but he seemed to understand.

“It surprises me that your idiotic pack members haven’t figured it out yet, especially after the whole Cardia death debacle.”

I felt the skin on my face stretch, pain lancing me again. My eyes widened and lips parted. How did he know about Cardia?

The sorcerer grinned, and strode across the room to retrieve a chair. He placed it before me and sat down. “Let’s have a little chat. There are many things you don’t know, and not even your upbringing with human apes is an excuse for that.”

His whole personality changed again. Now we had the genial council leader. My head was spinning at his rapid shifts in personality.

He got right to the point. “You see, I liked my old life a lot. My position on the council gave me certain privileges that I was not ready to give up. I had a great thing going on with the traveling band of Merry Men. I was one of the originals to start the smugglers. I even came up with the idea that we should tap into the energy of fairytale magic. It’s strong, powered by the belief of millions of humans.

“At first my plan was simple. There’s an old law that if there are no suitable members available to take over council leadership, then the original members continue to lead another term. Another twenty-five years. I had the quads all but locked in Vanguard, but then Louis stepped in. That damn sorcerer barely left his home for decades, and he chose that moment to return to the world.”

I knew I loved Louis for a reason. He had impeccable timing.

“He defended the Compass punks and everything blew up. So then I turned my attention to Larkspur, the dragon king. I decided to take advantage of all the chaos in our world, knowing that once he was free, I could step in and help him rebuild the supernatural world.”

I swayed then, the pain weakening my body. I continued to listen though. I needed to know all of this, needed to hear all the ways he had tried to hurt people I loved.

“Cardia was my daughter. She’s Giselda’s half-sister.”

What the actual heck? Seriously! I really needed my jaw to be usable so I could scream at him. My shifter healing was extra slow at the moment, especially with my leg. The burning was deepening and I could see muscle and tendon now. Something told me the true horror in the oil was that it never stopped torturing. Blood filled my mouth as I bit into my tongue, trying to hold back another scream. The sorcerer was watching me closely, so I held my face immobile.

Eventually, though, I had to take his dangled bait. “How did you fake the mate bond?”

Most of my words came out clearly. He smiled this weird creepy grin which transformed his face. Kind of like that doll who used to come to life and stab people. A few drops of sweat ran into my eyes; perspiration covered me as my body burned. Kristoff’s creepy smile faded away at my continued silence, and then with a loud exhalation he continued.

“From the moment you arrived in Stratford I knew you were my key to taking down the Compasses.” He sneered the last part. “When my original plan fell through, I knew I was going to lose my leadership, so I sought another source of power. The dragon king. Information of the prison break outs was world-wide, and I knew the sanctuary was the best place to start. I sent Cardia there, using a friend of mine to get her inside. She became my spy in there. We learned of Larkspur’s twins, how they were freeing the marked, and that they needed you and your sister to open the doorway. Cardia also started to pave the way for us to be part of the king’s army. His plan to rebuild the supernatural world under his rule was okay with me. I would be happy stepping in as second to all his power. He would need some trusted members to rule with him. I was to be one of those members.”

He was going into crazy mode again, some of the sheen wearing off on his glamour. He brushed back his now unruly hair. “When the Four came looking for you, I had Cardia speak with Quale. He was the one who could convince Louis that the safest place for you was in the sanctuary. The twins would reward us greatly for getting you all there. Plus, we had a plan to make sure you’d co-operate also, which they were very grateful for. You see, I’ve always seen the true mate bond between you and Maximus, and with your naivety of our world I knew that if I took him away from you, your devastation would allow an emotional manipulation by the king’s twins. You’d jump right in to help them.”

And jump like a damn idiot I had.

“So I raced across to the sanctuary and spelled my daughter. I had blood from Maximus, and with his blood I could create a binding. It’s a dark spell which shatters a soul and allows a manufactured mate connection to form. That’s why he suffers in her death. His soul was broken, lost, without direction. But there was no true mate bond there. You’re his true mate.”

I scoffed. He was lying … he had to be. But, dammit, a lot of his words made sense. If Cardia was a plant, that explained why she wasn’t affected by the call of the king, why she’d always treated Maximus with a cold disdain. I’d heard them when they were alone, and it had not always been pleasant. There had been a distance between them.

She wasn’t his true mate. I was.
I let those words mull around my cloudy mind. I wanted to believe them, for a multitude of reasons. For one, it helped explain the whole sanctuary thing, where I’d lost my mind. If he was my true mate, then my actions were more than crazy pregnancy-induced hormones, it was my soul screaming over the loss of a mate. But there was one thing which blew the entire argument out of the water. I swayed forward in my chair. The chains were the only things keeping me up now.

“I’m a shifter, and Max is a vampire. There’s no way for us to be true mates.”

That was the true issue, the one which had been breaking my heart for months now and left me in my current state of knocked-up-ness. I’d refused to accept it before, and look where it got me.

Kristoff gave me a look of derision and sympathy, both of which I wanted to shove down his throat. “You poor, stupid, simple child. The Compasses are many things which have never been seen before. Despite Max’s close bindings to the vampire world, the race he has a physically stronger affinity for, his soul actually contains elements of all four supernatural races. He’s shifter, vampire, sorcerer and fey, all rolled up in one powerful package. All of the quads are. Each of them took on a stronger aspect of one of the races, but they could switch if they knew how to tap into their abilities. The longer they continue to join in their quad bond, the murkier their race distinctions will become. Max’s true mate could have been from any of the supe races, and it just so happens that it’s you.”

No! No! No! No! NO! After everything I’d been through. After accepting that he would never be mine … to find out like this. It couldn’t be true, right? There was no possible way.

He must have read the agony on my face. For the first time I was unable to stop my emotions from showing. Maximus always was my weakness.

“Yes, it’s true. The true bond couldn’t form between you before because he was not linked close enough to the other races within him. He hadn’t joined to his brothers. And then the fake mate spell interfered. It would have faded eventually. That vampire is too strong. Luckily Cardia continued to be a good little soldier. She reinforced the bond. It was in her blood, and every time he fed from her, it secured their fake bond.”

Cardia was an evil bitch. Couldn’t be happier that she’d lost her head. Bet she’d never expected that one when she signed up for her fake mate role.

“It is a shame that she died,” Kristoff said, showing not an ounce of sadness at all. “She delivered a lot of vital intel to me and Larkspur. He almost won because of her. Sometimes kids can come in very handy.”

Was he still talking about Cardia now, or Giselda? The witch was still MIA, and according to Jessa she was as evil and crazy as her father.

The sorcerer stood but I barely even noticed. My body continued swaying, and despite the burning oil seeping into my body, I was shivering, parts of me freezing while other parts burned.

Kristoff wasn’t done monologuing yet. Nope, seemed he still had more to rage about. “I had so many plans, and all of them thwarted by the power of those quads. It’s not natural. They should not exist. So now we have moved on to the less satisfactory but necessary plans for revenge. I find great delight in knowing that I have the power to make them suffer. They took everything from me: my power, my position, my daughter. Maximus didn’t save my child, and now he won’t be able to save his own either.”

My head lolled forward as he left the room. I knew I had to fight, but there was no way to stop the darkness from descending over me.

My last thought was of my daughter, and whether I could keep my promise to protect her.

A multitude of pain and fire slashed at me even as I drifted in a sea of unconsciousness. There was no true rest, but I managed to keep a section of my wolf energy wrapped around my womb, doing whatever I could to halt the spread of poisonous oil from continuing its insidious journey through my body.

Wetness splashed against me, rousing me to a semi-conscious state. “You need to wake. Your subconscious is hiding from him. Call for your damn mate or I will kill your child.”

The sorcerer’s voice was fuzzy and I barely recognized the words, but something resonated within me. I needed to call for Maximus.

I really didn’t want to. I didn’t want him anywhere near this crazy guy who’d been trying to take him down for months. But I had to think of our daughter, and the fact that Maximus would be expecting me to reach out to him. Maybe I could let him know it was a trap.

In my confused, probably dying state, I wasn’t sure where to start. In the end I decided to just throw my spirit at the tenuous and emotional connection I’d always felt toward the vampire.

Maximus! I need help. Kristoff has us and he’s poisoned me with something. Some sort of oil. I’m trying to protect her but I think I’m failing. He wants you to come. It’s a trap. Please…

Whatever else I wanted to say was lost as a spasm of pain rocked through me and I screamed. My stomach started to heave and I couldn’t stop the vomit from expelling everywhere. There was nothing much left in my gut and the bile burned the entire way up. The darkness was in my chest now, and as I continued heaving, the taint of evil pressed in on me.

“That’s good,” Kristoff said, pushing my hair back from my face. With a snarl I found the strength to rip my head back, out of his grip. “Keep calling for him. He’ll come, and I’ll be waiting.”

I had no more strength, no more fight. Holding on to the last facets of who I was, I slumped and started praying to the gods, to the fey, even to Josephina, Jessa’s dragon. She was pretty much a god.
Keep my baby safe.
Instinct was telling me that even if I died, she was developed enough now to live outside of the womb. Developed and strong enough. Someone had to save her for me, it was my most fervent desire.

Something cold and wet hit my face again, but I had no strength to open my eyes. I barely felt the pain of the chains cutting into me now. It felt as if the blood were sloshing sluggishly through my veins, thick, inky, and evil. A shout penetrated the muffled nature of my head. Kristoff again. Trying to get me to call for Maximus.

Too late, buddy. You didn’t leave me with enough energy to do anything but sit here, fucker.

My mom hated that word, but I think in these circumstances she’d understand.

As my thoughts started to get weird and vapid, the wolf rose. She was often dormant within me, a byproduct of so many years caged. It had tamed a lot of the fire in her, and me also, but we were still wolf, and she did not want us to roll over and show our bellies.

Mate,
she said.

If Kristoff’s crazy ramblings were right, then I finally understood why she always said that.

Mate.

I coughed a few times, and my heart was doing this crazy slow beat. My wolf continued to batter me with growls and “I told you so’s.”

Yes, he’s our mate. I’m sorry I always acted like you were wrong.

I sent reassurances to her and all I got in return was another growl. What did she want then? Why did she keep repeating “mate” to me in that way?

Icy cold water slapped me hard, and there was a burn in my arm I wanted desperately to rub at but couldn’t. With a burst of heat, my mind came to life and my eyes flew open. I gasped, trying to fill my lungs with air. Everything was fuzzy in my vision, but there was no mistaking the sorcerer’s evil, pointy, ugly-ass features.

“They’re here,” he said gleefully. “There’s no point in this show though if you die before they get here. That will limit Maximus’ suffering, and I can’t have that. I’ve shot you up with a special blend of adrenalin. It will boost your shifter side and keep you alive just long enough.”

Mate.
My wolf sounded a bit smug now, which was really unbecoming of a majestic spirit such as hers.

I could feel Maximus. I’d always been hyper aware of him, something I tried not to think much on. Pretty much all made sense now.

This was the first time in hours I’d been able to properly focus, so I attempted to picture the massive vampire in my mind, aiming to touch the connection between us.
It’s a trap.
My thoughts were desperate, but I was going to use whatever had been in that shot to reach him.
Kristoff plans to capture and torture you. Don’t come alone.