Dragon Marked: Supernatural Prison #1 (26 page)

“Not until after the trial. He can’t be stripped of
his position unless he is found guilty.”

Slimy bastard would probably find a way to get out of
this one too.

The noise started to die down around us, and even
craning my neck gave me no better view of what was happening. I was tense, my
hands clenched into fists, my nails biting into the soft pads. Where were the
Compasses? And what had Louis taken off to do. I felt as if I was getting bits
and pieces of a story and the ending was going to shock the shit out of me when
it came. Silence was descending across the thousands of Stratford residents crammed
into the town center. The Four were coming, I could feel their power moving
along the wind.

Then they were there, standing atop the lip on the
fountain, heads above the crowd. I couldn’t stop the gasp which fell from my
lips. Thankfully, I was just one of many who either gasped, screamed, or
coughed at their appearance. So no attention was drawn in my direction.

Unlike the Compasses, these quads were identical, from
their dark red hair right down to their stormy gray eyes. They were dressed
similarly, in black military style clothes and thick shit-kicker boots. They
wore identical cold, hard expressions. Could their parents even tell them
apart? No wonder they were known as the Four, there seemed to be no
individuality about them at all.

And they were mutha-effing-scary.

They stood there and stared out into the crowd, all
four sets of eyes scanning us. Silence echoed around the space, minus the
thousands of hearts beating and the rapid breathing thing that Mischa seemed to
be doing. The girl was about five seconds from hyperventilating.

Number Two opened his mouth. “We are here because
there have been reports of dragon marked in Stratford.” The gray eyes continued
to bore into the crowd. “If you are harboring these fugitives, you need to
stop. Now.” There was a crap-ton of force behind that last order.

Three took over the speech. “The council wants to keep
from you the fact that the recent prison breakouts were dragon marked. Every
single one was a marked. They are free now to bring about the rise of the king.
We cannot let this happen.”

Angry chatter started around the residents. Now I was
seeing where all the rumors had come from. I’d wondered how all the prisoners
and guards had seemed to know the breakouts were from a secret room and that
they were marked. The Four had been making sure everyone knew; they wanted
people to rally against this. They were trying to stir up trouble so no one
would keep the marked a secret.

Number Four had a low, strong voice. “You are all
probably wondering why the marked are imprisoned and not killed. The simple
fact is that we are yet to find a weapon that can kill the marked. For all
intents and purposes, they’re immortal, which makes it doubly important that
they are locked away again.”

I choked on my tongue or something like that. I had to
cover my mouth to halt the harsh barking cough trying to flee.

Immortal.
Mischa and I exchanged glances. Well shit, sounds as
if I don’t have to worry about death anymore. Wish I’d known that when Vlad had
me.

It was time for Number One, who looked to be the hardest of all, to speak:
“There are two female dragon marked, very old and very powerful, breaking free marked
from prisons worldwide. They’re searching for the two to match them. Together
these four will mark the points on the compass that will free the king.”

Compass points.
Was that part of the ritual?

Number One stepped a little in front of his brothers,
the first time they had broken rank from their stance. “We cannot let these
four join together. We cannot let the king rise. He will have a legion of immortal
soldiers at his beck and call and he will destroy us all.”

Shit, he even had me convinced that the dragon marked
were going to take over the world, and I was one of them. I continued spinning
my head around the zone, trying to find the boys. It was very unlike them to
not be with me or their family. Since I could see Jack and Jo close by, I knew
they weren’t with their parents.

I smiled as I noticed the little boy huddled close to
the vampire-sorceress’ side. Jo had an arm tightly wrapped around his shoulders
as if she could keep him safe with her love alone. I was glad that Louis had
managed to spell Nash’s mark and energy. He was too young to be able to access
any of it yet, and for now he was undetectable from the Four. Once this
thousand year thing passed, he might actually have a shot at a decent life. And
if no dragon king rose, well, my hope was that the dragon marked would be free
from this constant persecution.

I was a dreamer.

The First stepped back to join his brothers. “You have
five minutes.” The four of them crossed their arms over their broad chests and
raised their chins in unison.

Gah, that was like the freakiest thing ever, robotic
almost.

Mischa and I had our hands tightly linked. Jonathon
and Lienda were close to us also. The minutes passed in a slow blur of motion.
There were no noises and no one stepped forward to offer up any dragon marked.

I turned my head out into the crowd again. I was
starting to jitter on the spot and I knew I had to stop it. If I continued to
act like a guilty dick, the Four were going to find me with absolutely no help
from anyone. And where the effing hell were the Compasses? I was going to
throat punch each of them when they appeared, worrying me like this. It was,
well … very annoying. Yeah, let’s go with annoying.

Then I was going to hug the hell out of them. So the
order of actions was clear: throat punch, then hug.

Spinning back to the fountain, my eyes widened and I
felt more shivers caress my body. Where the hell had the Four gone? There was
space where they’d been standing and I had not heard or sensed them move at
all. My fidgeting was getting worse. Something told me they were searching the
crowd. They were going to find us. I just knew it.

“Stay calm, Jessa.” Jonathon loaned me some of his
power, easing my nerves. “You will be fine. I would never let anything happen
to you or Mischa.”

His words were low and calming and yet I was not
calmed at all. If anything, my nerves were increasing. Freeing my hands, I spun
around and started to blindly push my way through the crowd. I knew drawing
attention to myself in this manner was dangerous, but the fear was choking me.
I needed to shift into my wolf. Problem being, my dragon was also stirring. She’d
unfurled herself and was nudging at the thin, flimsy barrier that surrounded
her now. I could almost scent the smoke from her nostrils, the shimmer from the
scales and fur that coated her skin. She was just under my skin the way my wolf
often was. If I lost control of her now, the Four would be on me faster than
Maximus when he scented a sexy vamp girl.

People got out of my way, and finally I made it to the
edge of the crowd, which, thankfully was close to the forest. I was going to be
able to run, shed the human skin and be a wolf for a while. I hoped, too, that
would ease the tumult of my dragon. I sighed as the cool dark of the forest canopy
surrounded me. The earthy scent, a mix of dirt, plants, and flowers flowed over
me, and in itself this was soothing.

“Going somewhere?”

The low voice came from the shadows and froze me to
the spot. I straightened as I prepared for them to emerge. Sure enough, the Four
stepped free from where they had been hidden in my forest. My beautiful forest
now tainted by them.

One of them, no idea which, came at me from the east.
The others fanned out to the other points. North, south, and west.

East started speaking. “We sent out a little energy. It
stirs the dragon mark, causes fear and unease.” They seemed so casual as they
closed in on me. “You’re a strong girl. We can feel the power under your skin.
You could have resisted had you known.” He tilted his head to the side, sizing
me up like a predator. “Which is why we like to minimize the information on
dragon marked. Knowledge is power.”

“I’m not dragon marked,” I said, and I was grateful
that my voice didn’t shake.

The west one bared his teeth at me. “There’s no point in
lying, we have no doubt you’re the one we’re hunting.”

I was screwed, but there was no way I was going to let
them take me without a fight. I’d end up buried in some prison somewhere, never
to be found again. I knew this time they would not risk anyone breaking out the
dragon marked. We would be locked in the bowels of the Antarctic. Or even that
prison which was rumored to be buried under the ocean.

The east one came at me then. He held no weapons. I
guess he thought he didn’t need them. I dodged the first swipe of his hands,
spinning in the last moment and kicking out. I actually connected, smashing him
in the gut and knocking him back a few feet. He staggered for a moment before
recovering himself and stepping back into alignment.

The Four paused, their identical faces observing me.
They seemed intrigued by the fact I’d attempted to fight back.

“You can never beat us. Why do you fight?” This was the
one at the west. He seemed genuinely curious about this fact.

“I’m a wolf, I won’t be caged. My lifetime is long,
and I won’t live it like that. I will always fight.”

My impassioned words rang out through the trees.

“Your life is longer than that, it is eternal. The
marked are immortal, but…” He broke off. “Don’t despair of your long life,
there’s a weapon that can kill the marked and we’re getting very close to
finding it. Then we will end the existence of all dragon marked.”

I calmed myself, but didn’t lower my hands. “You are
evil, more evil than the king you proclaim to be defending the supernaturals
from. You’ve stolen innocents, locked away babies and children, tortured and
attempted to kill. If there was ever a wicked supernatural that we needed to be
protected from, it’s you four.”

 I couldn’t understand how they didn’t see this, that
in their quest to prevent evil they had become evil.

They stopped moving again and as one unit spoke:
“Sometimes good men must be ruthless. Sometimes you must sacrifice the few for
the many.” The four of them repeated this, over and over.

The words were spinning through my mind and I had to
force myself not to vomit. Of course my stomach was empty, which helped with
keeping the contents down. They would never be convinced from their path; they
were unwavering in their belief. They were crazy as fuck. And it was really
hard arguing with an insane person. I knew from my many years fighting with
Giselda aka BEF.

“We’re going to take you now,” the north one said, his
voice calm and kind even. “Please do not fight us. We don’t want to hurt you
any more than we have to.”

Oh, I was going to fight.

They came at me again, all of them at the same time. I
kicked, screamed, and fought at all angles. But before I could even think about
another avenue or call on my wolf, they had me, each one holding one of my arms
and legs. I was held aloft, suspended above the ground and unable to move.
Their strength was apparent, I could not muscle my way out of this. I had just
one option left. My dragon. I hadn’t called for her because I thought there
might have been a chance to talk myself out of being taken. Continue to deny I
was marked. But they either knew something or didn’t care. They were taking me
no matter what.

I reached for my energy, bypassing the wolf and going
straight for the dragon. She rose to attention and caressed me. But I couldn’t
connect to her. Generally, when shifting I’d call for the energy and the change
would come. But something was stopping it. I opened my eyes and stared at the hands
holding me. Could the Four prevent me from touching that energy, was that part
of their combined power? Okay, well I only had one
other
option.

I screamed, loud, long, and echoing. Surely we were
close enough for someone to come and investigate. The Four didn’t stop me, they
let me scream until I was hoarse. I knew where we were going. They were moving
toward the border of Stratford. Once we got outside of this area, there was no
coming back for me. I would disappear.

I still screamed for help, but my voice was barely
above a whisper now. The ache in my throat felt permanent. I had done a bit of
damage.

Tears were building in my eyes, but I would not give
myself the luxury of crying. Or them the satisfaction.

I sniffed a few times, blinking rapidly.

“How did you know?” I whispered hoarsely. “That I was
marked.”

There was no point denying it now.

“We were in the prison, investigating the breakout,” the
man on my right arm answered. “Your energy called to us and we knew there was
an active marked in there. For your energy to blast through as it did, you were
not in the special marked area with its securities. We set up these secret
rooms in all of the prisons, we know the five elements which limit the power of
the marked and we thread them through each of the prisons worldwide.” His gray
eyes flashed down at me. “Since you weren’t in the secret room, then you were
in the main prison. After that it wasn’t hard to figure out who you were. Other
than the male, you were the only one to leave the prison, and he is dragon,
they are never marked.”

“Can you trace the marked energy from anywhere? Will
you be able to find all the ones who were freed?”

The same four answered me again. “No, we must be in
close proximity, although there is a bit of a pull for the stronger ones.
Generally, supernaturals contact us and report a marked. Then we go to that
area and it is pretty easy to find them after that.”

So if I actually had run, they might never have been
able to find me. I bit my cheek hard enough that I tasted blood. “What did you
do to the Compasses?”

“Nothing,” he said. And that was all I got from them.

We reached the edge of Stratford. I could see the
shimmery dome which prevented the outside world from just walking into our
town. Of course a human couldn’t see these protections, but they still worked
on keeping them out. This dome was supposed to keep me safe … but, in the end,
nothing had kept me safe. The man holding my left leg halted, he reached out
with a hand to touch the barrier. About an inch from connecting, he stopped …
or froze.
What the hell?
 My eyes flicked up between all of them. None
of them were moving. 

What was going on?
Had the barrier done something to them?

I started to wiggle, to see if I could free myself. Sure
enough, as I started to move and squirm I managed to wrench my left leg free,
followed by my arm on the opposite side. Then with a huge intake of breath, I
closed my eyes and jerked the remaining arm and leg clear.

I hit the ground hard, jarring up my body and into my
brain. But I didn’t stop for a second, I had to get away before whatever halted
the Four lifted.

Just as I was springing forward, my arms pumping ready
to sprint, a familiar figure stepped into view. I ground to a halt before
throwing myself into his arms. “Louis,” I gasped. “You saved me.”

I should have known. Only a sorcerer as powerful as he
could have done this.

He hugged me back hard, before pulling away to stare
down at me. “Listen to me, Jessa, I can only hold them for a short time. They’re
joined and they’re very powerful.” There was strain on his face. “You need to
run. Go now, out of the dome and into the car I have waiting for you at the end
of the road. Do not hesitate. Get to the private supernatural airport and onto
the plane that’s waiting there ready to take off. The Four will come after you.
This is our one chance to get you to a safe place. Wait for me there and I will
come once I make sure your family is protected.”