Lying on a cot inside a jail cell, bleeding from multiple different spots, bones broken, also, in different multiple locations, while in silver handcuffs, I had to wonder how the hell this had happened. Only last week, I had been lying on a soft bed, happy and sated and relaxed with Cain, our first moment of a “possibly-not-just-casual”. And now, I was the exact opposite, gritting my teeth through the pain, and trying to stay conscious.
It probably had something to do with the illegal rave party the Prodigies, plus Fi, Kincaid’s mate I had finally—again—met tonight. Or the possibility of the Com police, eventually along with the MIA, had broken it up. There was also the likelihood of me being separated from Nelson during the mad dash of the raid, and when I had seen Kincaid and Venclaire get stunned, then taken down from behind, and silvered, I may have…reacted…on instinct, coming to their rescue. It more than likely, though, was a result of me failing in that attempt as a swarm of Com police and MIA had surrounded me after I took four down. After that, it all got a bit blurry.
I remembered being on the ground at one point staring directly into Venclaire’s eyes as he shouted at them to stop, right before a foot connected with my gut. I was then strategically taken to another less rowdy room as those caught in the rave were beginning to get hauled away. A few of those in Law enforcement I had taken down beat the living shit out of me while I was silvered.
Currently, I could hear Kincaid and Venclaire down the hallway voicing their opinions loudly that I be released. I was really hoping someone took their advice because I was seriously beginning to wonder if I was going to die, breathing becoming an issue while my heart beat erratically from all the blood loss. Someone else was shouting back at them, they had no jurisdiction because I was Elemental, and not Vampire or Shifter. Well…that would be a Law I would definitely nudge the Prodigies shoulders into changing…if I survived.
Then I heard Kincaid chuckling, and he bellowed over the officer’s shout, “You want jurisdiction? You’ve fucking got it. From what I can see through that little window…he’s walking in through the front door right now.”
Venclaire’s reply was steady. “The last guy to upset him over her ended up spending three days in the ground. So, you might want to run…if you think it’ll help.”
“Where is she?” Fergus’s voice bellowed through the entire jail, sounding farther away, but echoing roughly through the silvered bars.
Venclaire muttered, “Yeah, actually, I’m pretty sure it’s too late for you to run.”
“Kincaid? Venclaire?” Fergus shouted loudly. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Back here!” Kincaid called steadily, but loudly.
The jailer must have tried to run because I heard a hard grunt, then Kincaid murmured almost so quietly I couldn’t hear him, “Nope. You’re going to deal with some of this fallout because if she were my kind…and the state she’s in…I would rip everyone’s fucking head off that did this to her.”
A door banged loudly in the direction of their voices, everyone’s heads inside the different cells, all the captured ravers, staring down the hallway where they were, everyone mute to listen to their conversation. Everyone in my cell staying clear of me like the plague after Kincaid and Venclaire, and King Townsend and King Bridges, who had been by their sides, bailing them out of trouble, while all four of them had stood outside my cell, staring, Kincaid and Venclaire, arguing for a good minute on who should call Fergus, neither one of them wanting to do so. Venclaire got that honor by a lost coin toss, his conversation on the phone, apparently, relieved to have reached the King, and not Fergus, asking him to relay the message I was in jail.
That had been around fifteen minutes ago, lots more blood lost.
And, seemingly, Fergus had entered the cell room, along with many more voices, but I still heard his over the rest when he growled, “Where the fuck is she?”
“Down there.” Kincaid’s voice turned quiet and steady. “Third cell on the right.”
A flurry of voices came closer to us, but I saw Fergus first through the one eye I could still see through, the other swollen shut, and he came to a screeching halt, staring into the cell, glowing amber eyes scanning everyone’s faces while jailers followed behind him, along with King White, who was waving them off, watching his Prodigy closely. And I peered back to Fergus, unable to mutter a single word since I was fairly sure my throat had some internal injury from being choked, and I saw when his eyes landed on me. He couldn’t see all of my injuries, hair hanging in my face, and clothes covering the rest, but he completely froze, eyes dipping to the blood dripping slowly below me on the concrete floor, back to my face, and a voice void of all emotion, he asked slowly, “Who did this to you?”
“I don’t think she can talk,” Venclaire stated, voice overly tranquil.
“Alright.” Fergus’s arm snaked out to an air Elemental, voice still void, and in a second, he had the man’s face and body slammed up against the silver, making the guy cry out in pain. “You, get her out of there.” The guard instantly grabbed for the keys on his belt, apparently, the man who oversaw the inmates—which I was thinking was a blessing for him right now—so Fergus released him, slamming another Elemental guards face against the bars, asking him coolly, “Did you do this to her?”
“No,” the guy stammered instantly.
“Kincaid?”
“Truth.”
“Alright.” Fergus shoved the guy away, his eyes never leaving my face. “Get a medic here now.” The guard nodded quickly, starting to walk away, but Fergus stated steadily, “Run, not walk, before I kill you, too, for challenging my order.”
And…he was serious. I could see it in his cold eyes, the icy kind that feeds from the soul as he stared at me. Intelligently, the guard started running.
I heard the door bang again, way before the guard could have gotten there, then Elder Merrick’s voice could be heard, booming, his tone frigid, all business. “King Townsend, Kincaid, what the hell’s going on? I got a call from MIA—”
Fergus’s actions cut him off as he took a step back as the jail cell door opened, conveniently putting him in reaching distance of another Elemental guard, an air, and he shoved his face against the bars, asking him, “Did you do this to her?”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Elder Jacobs’s voice instantly cut in, apparently, having come in with Elder Merrick.
That guard didn’t answer, and I was pretty sure I vaguely remembered him as one who had been in that back room.
“Finally,” Fergus muttered, ignoring the Elder Elemental, and…in a heartbeat…the guards neck was snapped, his lifeless body falling to the ground where Fergus absently kicked the guard’s hand to rest against the silver bars. He didn’t have a shot in hell of healing, or anyone healing him, while he stood there, calmly gazing back at me as my mind screamed silently, getting nauseous in fear, not wanting his fate to be on death row, everyone having witnessed him…killing…without a trial or witnessed verdict or…anything Lawful.
“Jesus!” King White barked into the silence descending on the room, even as Fergus reached out and grabbed another guard, slamming his face against the silver bars over the dead guard’s body, making the man freak the hell out, but he shut up nicely when Fergus squeezed his throat tighter. “Fergus! Stop! Make your argument!”
“What the hell is going on?” Elder Jacobs shouted, the sound ringing throughout the room.
Kincaid’s eyes were just as cold and remote as Fergus’s when he tilted his head toward me, glancing wherever Elder Jacobs and Elder Merrick were standing behind the guards. “Sadie’s in there. It’s bad. What they did,” his head jerked back and forth, “it’s fucking wrong.”
Fergus didn’t stop, keeping his hold tight, but stated coolly, “Law seventy-one clearly states that if Law enforcement should unduly beat a Mystical, or if a Mystical unduly beats a Com, per the peace treaty, their punishment is up to death. And my ruling is that she has been unduly beaten. And I choose their deaths.” He slammed the guards face again, asking calmly, “Did you do this to her?”
“She resisted arrest!” the guard shrieked, even as I heard grunting from the mass of guards.
“They took her to a back room after she’d already been taken down and silvered, then beat her,” Venclaire stated, his voice still serene.
“Did you?” Fergus asked voice void.
No answer, except for a pitiful whimper.
His neck was snapped instantly, his body falling on top of the other dead guard, hand also kicked against the silver bars, and Fergus stated coolly to the guard inside the cell, “I said get her out of there.” The air Elemental glued to the middle of the cell snapped out of his daze of staring at the dead guards, and moved toward me, but the grunting from the guards mass was Elder Jacobs and Elder Merrick ramming through their ranks, barging into the jail cell, both of their expressions upset, the other inmates of the cell backing the hell away, actually shoving their backs against the silvers bars. It was Elder Merrick who held my attention, his face trying to be so carefully blank, but his eyes were furious navy blue orbs, his gaze hooded, his hands fisted. Both saw me at the same time, and Elder Jacobs muttered a curse, but started racing toward me while Elder Merrick froze completely until his body jerked and he leapt easily through the air, swatting the guard back onto the floor, the man smacking his head so hard he was unconscious, his own bit of blood pooling from his head. Elder Jacobs only jumped over him as he knelt next to Elder Merrick, who wasn’t saying a word, his jaw clenched tight as he blinked repeatedly before his gaze started running over my frame in a professional manner. Elder Jacobs turned, and grabbed the keys from the jailer, even as Fergus questioned another guard who said no, and it was honest, so was released from Fergus’s hold.
Elder Merrick’s voice was completely void of all emotion as he stated monotone loudly, “We’ll have to take her out on the cot. We can’t move her without injuring her more without it. Both legs and arms are broken in several places, and the way she’s breathing, I’m betting,” he inhaled slowly, carefully, “her ribs are probably also broken.”
I saw Fergus over their heads as Elder Jacobs leaned over me, talking softly, soothingly as he removed my cuffs, not even flinching when he grabbed onto them, working them deliberately slowly as to not cause any more pain on my body. If I could talk I would tell him…a bit more pain wouldn’t matter, seeing as how my brain was utterly disoriented from it, lying in a hazy daze as I was. Fergus finally unfroze, bending slowly, grabbing one of the guns off a dead guard, checking the clip efficiently, probably making sure they were silver, and in a quick round of questioning with Kincaid’s assistance of honest answers, he shot the other two dead in the head. Elder Merrick stated clearly, voice still so cool and emotionless, his eyes as cold as death, “King Bridges or Venclaire, we need you in here before we lift her and someone make sure the medic’s ready.”
Venclaire was inside in a blur, bringing a breeze with him, Elder Jacobs tossing the silver cuffs outside the jail cell’s door, moving to the bottom of the cot, since Elder Merrick had already risen and moved to the top. Venclaire sucked in a harsh breath as he bent, pushing the hair back from my face, revealing the good package of swelling, probably making me appear like a phantom.
Elder Merrick ordered gruffly, possibly a bit too harshly, “Venclaire, if you can’t handle it, get the fuck out and let your King take care of business.”
Instant. “Fuck off.” And then…peace…sweet beautiful peace touched down on me as Venclaire instantly touched me, making me sigh on a wheeze, and I noticed my body had been shaking even worse than I had imagined as it stopped quaking, settling like dead weight on the cot. “She’s good. You can move her.”
They lifted me carefully, but I wasn’t feeling anything but peace even if they did jostle me because Venclaire stayed connected to me while they gently moved through the cell and out the cell’s door, actually stepping on the dead, not even bothering to step over them, earning a small gasp from a few of the frightened guards, but Venclaire stated quietly to Fergus, who walked next to him, Kincaid on the other side on me, “Remember, she doesn’t heal as fast as other Mysticals.”
Brusque words from Fergus. “I remember.” Then Fergus, the Prodigy, who was protecting like the King he would be one day, remained mute thereafter as guards quickly scattered to the bars as we passed, the sound of the three Kings talking quietly behind me as they followed, King White giving barking orders to one of the guards to dispose of the bodies. When the Elders stopped, lowering me in a small medical room inside the Com police station the Mage medic had shown us to, I was fairly sure Elder Merrick leaned more heavily against the wall across the room, everyone cursing quietly, and not so quietly, when the Mage evaluated my body with knowledgeable eyes, asking, “Is there any chance she may be pregnant?”
If Venclaire hadn’t been squatting next to me, keeping his power ramped through me, I might have been in the same predicament as Elder Merrick, because if I was pregnant, any chance of a live baby inside my broken body would be a shot in hell.
Elder Jacob’s voice was a mere hiss when he spoke. “There’s always a fucking chance if she’s sexually active.”
The Mage began to bend over me, hands glowing. “I was only asking if she’s pregnant.”
“I…I don’t think she is,” Fergus answered gruffly after a moment, and a few seconds later he was bending next to me, running gentle fingers through my tangled, blood dried hair, staring down into my eye as the Mage began working, only feeling peace, and damn appreciative as disgusting bone cracking noises jarred the air. “How did you get caught?”
“Us,” Venclaire stated instantly. “She was trying to free Kincaid and me after we had been taken down. She could have run, but instead, she took down four—the four you killed—before a shit load of Com officers and MIA took her down.”
King Townsend asked in disbelief, “This little woman took down those four officers?”
Kincaid snorted. “She knew what the hell she was doing.” Snapped fingers. “She took them down like they were child’s play. If they hadn’t ganged up on her, fifteen-to-one, which it took them five minutes to take her down with that ratio, anyway, I’m guessing she would have cleared the room.” A pause, sounding awed. “She did it all without using her powers or her weapons. She was trying not to kill them, just incapacitate.”
“But, they did take her down,” Elder Jacobs growled quietly, and everyone shut up around us while the Mage continued his work. Dark eyes stared down into my one eye. “Taking on a room full of Com police and MIA officers—alone—wasn’t…well thought out, was it?”
I let my eye narrow the barest bit, not really appreciating him having this conversation—something I already knew now that I wasn’t reacting on instinct—in front of all these powerful people.
Yellow eyebrows rising the barest bit, speaking through gritted teeth. “I’ll save it for now.” More grinding of his teeth. “But, so help me, Ms. Farrow, we are having this fucking discussion again later.” Well…if the roles were reversed…I might not have had the willpower to hold back yelling at anyone for this kind of stupidity, so I closed my eye, and finally let drained sleep take me under, floating in a mist of magical peace.