“Are you sure, your highness?” Mischa bowed her head slightly. “Your safety is important to us.”

“Lizzie has assured me there is no malice in the Thaumaturgic’s mind. Besides, the Strategos will be waiting at the top of the stairs. I will be well protected.”

Apparently, the Strategos atop the stairs bit was news to Mandla. “Your highness, I think it would be in your best interest for us to stay. The Polemarch ordered us to ensure your safety.”

“And I’m ordering you to wait upstairs.” The power focused on the African. “Will you defy me?”

“No, your highness.” He bowed with stiff shoulders and firmly set jaw. When he rose he turned his glare to me. “If even one hair on her head is harmed, you will come to a slow, painful end.”

I nodded - because how else was I supposed to respond to that? - and Mandla followed the others out the door.

Which left me alone with the chick who would one day stab me to death in the middle of a field.

Awesome.

“How do you find your accommodations?” she asked, leaning against the wall opposite my cage. She crossed her ankles and arms, looking for all the world as if she was comfy and relaxed. I may have believed it if I hadn’t been able to feel the power whipping around or seen the way her pulse skipped in her throat.

“The Ritz has nothing on you Alphas.” I plopped down on the mattress, tucking one leg up underneath me. Two could play at this It’s All Cool game.

Her chin pitched up a fraction of an inch and those dark, dark eyes met mine. “It’s meant as a punishment, not a restraint.”

“Really?” They didn’t mean to restrain me? Good to know the steel bars and generator backed-up force field were just for show. “And what am I being punished for?”

The curve of her lip told me something I hadn’t even considered until then. She didn’t believe I was one of the rumored Thaumaturgic. No, this was personal between she and I. Problem was, I had no idea what her issues were. After all, I just met her.

“Crimes against our species, of course.”

“Of course,” I said, infusing my voice with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “All this is just a rather elaborate form of being grounded. Has nothing to do with the fact that you’re scared to death of me.”

A surge of power. “I am not afraid of you.”

“Then why are you all the way over there?”

Jase has often accused me of being antagonistic. According to him, the reason I had less than a handful of friends in school wasn’t because the general populace was as mentally deficient and unkind as I suspected, but because I met even the hint of conflict or criticism with a snarl and complete disdain. I think he exaggerates to the point of lying, but there was something in me that felt the need to push when things started getting ugly. Usually, it wasn’t a big deal. Loud, obnoxious boys backed off when they realized I wouldn’t cower like a little girl. Snarky, condescending girls tended to shut their mouths when insults got slung back in their direction.

Perhaps the battle techniques which worked well for the war known as school wasn’t best employed on the Alpha Female.

The concrete walls nearly vibrated with the power slamming through the basement. Sarvarna jerked from the wall and strode over to the cage, mouth tight and eyes hard.

“You don’t want to do that,” I said as she reached for the handle of the cage. “At least turn off the electric fence first. Getting shocked hurts like dammit.” Which I knew from the time last night when I forgot about that aspect of my prison.

She froze with her hand an inch from the metal.

“Unless they’ve given you the code, you’re going to have to call one of the Muscle Set down here to open it.” I leaned back onto my hands as if we were discussing shades of toenail polish. “Although, I doubt they actually do it. Unlike you, they seem to have the good sense to know that even if I can’t win, I will certainly take a few of you down with me.”

When her arms went lax down at her sides, her held tilted to the left, and her eyes went unfocused, I thought I’d managed to actually scare her. Which probably wouldn’t have been a win in the long run - people tend to just flat out kill things that make them pee their pants - but I had a brief moment of pure and total joy.

Then our other conversation started.

You didn’t think I would find you? Sarvarna’s in-the-head Seer voice sounded pretty much the same as her regular voice, except the British accent didn’t sound so much Elizabeth Bennett as Delores Umbridge.

“I haven’t exactly been hiding,” I said out loud as an act of rebellion.

You’ve broken the rules, Lilith. Choosing a human? Smart, but against the rules.

“Scout. The name is Scout. Is it really that hard to remember?”

I will not let you take what is mine.

I could’ve pointed out how I was yet again clueless, but what the heck? The chick was full-on crazy and really starting to piss me off. I let a small smile play at my lips. “You can’t stop me.”

Chapter 24

That was my last visit until the night before my trial.

For two weeks, the only person who fully entered the basement was the slender woman who obviously belonged to Akay and mini-Akay. I never learned her name since the others only referred to her as “Omega,” which was apparently what the Alphas called their servants. She would bring in my food three times a day, and take my trash and dishes back at the end of the night. She never spoke or looked at me directly. And the entire time she was in the basement, one of the Shifters stood at the door and pointed a 9mm at my head.

I never really understood the whole prison as a punishment thing until then. I always thought it sounded more like a vacation than anything else. You didn’t have to go to school or work or whatever it was that ate away the time you should use to actually live your life? No responsibilities, all your needs taken care of? Didn’t sound like a bad gig.

I was so very wrong. Being cut off from the people and life you know is a very special torture, one guaranteed to get under you skin and drive you to distraction. Staring at the same four bare walls day in and day out? An ocular nightmare. Pacing the same fifteen by fifteen square foot of concrete over and over again? Cabin fever at its finest. Knowing nothing you did was private, that someone was always aware of where you were and what you were doing? Creeptastic. Having no one to talk to? The voices in your head just get louder and louder to fill the silence.