Chapter 350. Cruce I

Chapter 350: 350. Cruce I

Maisie

"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" Soren asked, tapping his arm calmly, even if he was anything but.

After the incident at the school yesterday, Soren got my visit to the correctional facility approved. He wouldn’t let me see Gruer, and we’d had that fight over in the car, when I’d been tempted to smack him across the face when he said it’d be safer for everyone if Gruer remained in custody.

Who knew what could possess him into trying to kill me again. He wouldn’t take that chance.

A part of me knew he was right, but another part of me also knew that Gruer didn’t deserve to be in there.

The woman frisking me was rougher than necessary, dressed in an all black uniform of a buttoned up shirt with pockets and badges, and a pair of matching pants with boots. Her eyes were hard and unimpressed and I wondered if the sword attached to her back was real as she pointed into a box by the narrow work station, "All sharp objects go into the box."

I glanced up, and my mates were growing down at her, though they didn’t stop her. Soren mouthed apologetically, "Prisoner protocol."

I sighed and began taking out the pretty pins I’d put up in my hair today, too keep the frizz in place. "It’s not like I’m going to attack him," I muttered under my breath.

The woman’s hard gaze met mine. "It is not you who will do the attacking. We’ve lost six during the interrogations. He killed one of them with a plastic straw."

Well. Yikes.

"You shouldn’t go in there alone, May," Quinlan said, having voice his disagreement with me going to see the dragon in the first place. "If you’re worried about my temper, then you should take Jer with you."

I shook my head. "He won’t talk to me if you come in with me. Plus, you’ll be listening from the next room, and Jericho will be manning the door outside. I’ll be fine--"

"It is not the same as being next to you," Quinlan countered, shoving aside the jail guard, so he could take my face in his hands. "A few seconds is all it would take for him to hurt you. Please? Let me come with. I’ll behave. You won’t even know I’m there."

I almost considered it. It was hard not to, when he was looking at me with his pretty blue eyes. But then, I recalled how the dragon hadn’t hesitated in trying to kill him or Mercer that day, and how quick Quinlan was to try rip out a man’s heart if he was irritated.

"I, um, don’t think that’s a good idea," I said, biting my bottom lip.

"I’ll look after her," Jericho said, pushing off the wall, looking good in his grey duster and the black suit underneath. He was dressed for work, all prim and proper, looking nothing like the man who had fucked me so hard, I still couldn’t walk straight this morning.

He looked more relaxed than I’d seen him since I returned. His mark had healed into a crescent on my shoulder, and he had eased up considerably since then, the bounce to his steps I hadn’t realize was gone, returning.

Quinlan didn’t like it one bit, but he leaned over, kissing my forehead. "Be careful."

I nodded, breathing in his dark, spicy scent as I stepped away. The touch of his hands on my skin reminded me of last night and I flushed, trying to remember how to function like a normal person who wasn’t addicted to someone else’s very existence.

"This way," the jail guard said stiffly, directing me and Jericho past the observation room, where Councilman Derek, Zaytsev, and Lord Graham stood, watching us. Zaytsev had her eyes on Jericho, frowning when her gaze snagged the still healing scratches I’d made along his neck.

Her nostrils flared, and though I was wearing Quinlan’s coat around my shoulders, and Jericho’s mark was hidden under it, she knew he’d marked me. Our perfectly mingled scents was more than enough to tip her off.

Zaytsev’s face went hot. Feeling catty, I smiled at her, sliding my fingers through Jericho’s warm, calloused one. Yeah. He’s mine now. Sucks to be you, I didn’t say, but she bristled, and jerked her gaze away, the smell of angry Lycan filling the air.

Jericho chuckled and I froze, face flaming when I realized he’d been watching me the entire time. "I don’t mind," he said, and my face burned even hotter.

There were more than a handful of guards standing outside the door at the end of the white hallway. Heavily armed with guns and darts, they stood nervously, their breaths clouding in front of them.

I frowned at that.

The air had been warmer out in the hall, but the temperature had plummeted so fast in the last couple of seconds, that my exhales burst from my lips in clouds of white vapor and my inhales became charged with ice.

Swell. No wonder Quinlan had forced me into his coat.

I drew it tighter around me, my stomach cramping with nerves when we reached the door. It had taken on a glistening sheen, and I noted the ice crackling along the surface.

Jericho’s hand tightened around mine, his gaze fixed on the ice for a second before flicking back to mine. "Call for me if you need me. Promise me."

I nodded, feeling the ice on my cheeks. "I promise."

He pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like an earpiece. He winced, handing them to me. "The walls are made of silver to hold him in. We can’t communicate with you through the bond with it. This will have to do. Derek will have questions, but do not feel obliged to ask the prisoner if you don’t want to."

When I nodded, wetting my lips as they went dry and chapped, he leaned close, his fingers warm despite the freezing cold as he fixed it to my left ear. My skin tingled where he touched me and I stifled a sigh at the warmth radiating off him.

I might be a Lycan now, but I didn’t radiate as much heat as they did. Must be something the full breds by birth had.

The jail guard nodded towards the CCTV camera, and there was a buzz. The door unlocked, sliding to the side, and I stepped into the room tentatively.

I jumped when the door slid shut behind me, locking me in with... him.