Page 7 of Angel Captive

I forced my gaze from her sleeping form to stare outside in the dimly lit hallway.

Though it was refreshing she hadn’t tried to seduce me or punish me for not mating with her… unless that had been a trick.

I stood, suddenly needing to move around and not think of the beautiful, intriguing woman mere feet away from me.

I'd been here so long in this prison that I had no idea how much time had passed. In the beginning, I'd counted the days faithfully every morning but with the beatings dragging on day after day and being zoned out in my healing sleep to try to recover, I had lost track of the days many moons ago. I'd been in this dungeon level for so long that there was no window to even see the moon.

How long had I been here? Eight months, eight years?

I shook my head. Frustration squeezed my chest. I had my life draining away in this hellhole. But I would not give up. I would not let the fucking Roulex get their hands on my offspring, nor give them any of my people's secrets. Nor give up hope that I would somehow escape this hell hole and get back to my people and be able to see Jax and Ximena. That was what kept me sane that was what kept me alive.

This had to be the way. Resigning myself to do whatever it took to either escape or to stop this nightmare.

I went over to the bars. Glancing at it from several angles again trying to find what the human had been trying to accomplish by climbing up it. The spacing between the bars was too small, despite her petite form, to be able to squeeze through. Not to mention the guards at each end of the hallway, the ones blocking the elevator and various numerous points throughout the prison.

Thunder boomed outside, shaking the prison bars. The numerous storms on our planet had increased once the Roulex had gotten here and part of me believed it was as though our planet itself rebelling against their vile intrusion.

I closed my eyes, briefly recalling the sweet scent of rain and feeling it against my face and on my wings when I was free. How I used to chase Jax and Ximena through the lightning storms. They’d been eight when I’d last seen them. Jax had a crush on a young Angelimir and had wanted me to show him how I'd shown off for the females by being able to dodge the bolts and not get singed.

Thunder boomed again and I put my hand on the bars to feel the vibration as it shuddered through the prison.

A groan sounded behind me and I turned to see the human stirring in her sleep. She blinked up at me, her eyelids hooded, and her pupils dilated as though she were still dreaming. “Are you real?”

I grunted, crossing my arms.

“Where am I? Do you know if they have my friend, Melody too?”

Part of me wanted to reach out to her and console her, to give her what little comfort I could, but that was exactly what the Roulex wanted. The urge to avoid punishment rang; it had caused many in this prison to give in and do whatever the Roulex wished.

Not me. The only way out of this was escape or death.

5

Riley

Fluorescent lights blurred my vision as I woke. I groaned and turned, something hard beneath me. A shooting cramp spasmed in my hip and my neck from sleeping on the stone floor. I squinted at the bars on the cell door. Still a hell of a way up to the locking system. At least I could still do calisthenics and get my muscles stronger and attempt the climb again. I wouldn't give up. Even if I had to do two hundred planks, push-ups, sit-ups, and squats to reach the top, I would every day.

Aside from the tech on the bars and the lights, this place looked like a medieval dungeon. My stomach knotted at why I was here and what they were going to do to me.

I prayed all this was a nightmare and I’d wake up for real and be back home in my apartment. I rubbed at my neck, wishing I had my handheld heated massager. The coldness of the prison’s stones seeped into my bones and all I wanted was a hot bath, a good book, and a glass of wine.

Stretching, I sat all the way up when I felt someone staring at me. I froze. Horned Angel guy gawked at me, as if he could see straight through my itchy prison shirt to the intricate tats along my stomach and hips. In any other circumstance, I would be flattered, but as I was in a prison and didn’t know what kind of criminal this guy was, uh, not so much. I didn’t even know him. He could be some psycho killer. His black horns curled from his temples and were blunt at the ends. Had the prison shaved his points down to keep him from injuring the guards or other prisoners? I shuddered, curling my shoulders forward and scooting farther away from him.

As much as I wanted to run away, I was trapped, and I needed answers. "Do you know why we're here?"

His eyes narrowed and I swallowed. Why did I feel like I was asking for a raise from my penny-pinching boss?

"Or what they want with us? It's not to sell our organs, is it?" Even though I tried to make light, my stomach rolled at being in a dank prison with a stranger.

"Not exactly.” His baritone voice sounded divine.

I pushed my hair off my forehead. "Thank goodness you speak. It would be awkward if we had to use universal sign language. I failed that course in high school." I was rambling, but I couldn't seem to stop with the guy standing way too close to me. Or maybe it was that we were in a tiny cell together and he seemed to take up most of the space. "Why are you in here?"

He grunted.

“Oookaaay.” It seemed my new roommate wasn't the talkative type. However, I needed to get him to talk so I could figure out why I was in prison. “Look, I’m not trying to interrogate you or anything, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”

Maybe, if I could figure out who took me, I could figure out how long whoever had kidnapped me and stuck me in this prison planned to hold me and why. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, so it had to be something else. Right? Couldn’t be for ransom. Mom hadn't had life insurance, and any extra money from my paycheck went to buy gadgets to help me with my computer repairs.

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