It was just a quick reveal. As soon as he blinked again, the lids retreated. If The Wizard wasn’t plugged in, he’d think it a trick of the light.
Gabriel ambled past. Not looking back. He’d made the first move. Now, he’d wait to see what happened next.
Then he caught a scent. Something sweet drifting through all the blending testosterone and smells from the open toilets. Gillian.
As he reached the second tier he turned and leaned against the rail to find her. She was in the control booth, drinking coffee.
Billy Hedron stood behind her, wearing his shades, his mouth set in a grim line. When she shot his friend a glance over her shoulder, a look that said she was hyper-aware of how close he stood, Gabriel had his answer.
Gillian’s tall frame was less tense, the set of her shoulders a little more confident. She’d mated. Proved her attraction in the animal order of things. Whatever problems she bore on her strong frame, her sexuality had been reaffirmed.
Her glance searched the floor then rose to the tiers. When her gaze met his, even at one-hundred-fifty yards away, he could see the slight tightening in her frame.
She remembered what he’d done. All of it. She’d be wary of her unspoken attraction. And he doubted seriously she’d mentioned the dream to her new lover.
Could spell some honesty issues between the couple later on down the road, but Billy knew the score and had his own secrets he couldn’t share.
It was nearing time for the nightly lockdown. When the men would be consigned to their cells for the night. While convicts lay on their bunks and dreamed of family and home or worked their cocks in the darkness for a little sexual release, the demons, if they were indeed here, would be at play.
Gabriel stretched, his arms lifting high above his head. Then he sought The Wizard again and watched as he strode toward the showers. Something about his posture, at the quick, darting glances he made as he entered the doorway alerted him that something might be up.
He walked casually down the steps and to the shower. As he passed, he watched the man as he stood nude in front of the streaming water, arms stretched wide. Maybe he was posing for Priest. Wanted her to watch the definition of his muscles as he flexed. Wanted to shock her with the art that covered nearly every inch of his back and buttocks. The tattoo was an impressive work of art, and seriously disturbing.
Skulls appeared to fly toward the watcher, spindly vines of black roses interweaving like latticework, forging upward into spikes where a crow was impaled, its wings lifted as if caught in the moment of death. A banner in the center proclaimed, “Dark Angels rule the night”—maybe gang-related, but unlike anything Gabriel had ever witnessed. For one thing, it wasn’t like any prison tattoo he’d ever seen, and he’d poured through photos taken of Means when he’d first entered prison. His skin had been free of art.
The Wizard turned and braced apart his legs, his gaze lifting to the woman in the control booth as his hand stroked his engorged cock. The man was huge. No doubt he thought the sight would shock her. Maybe interest her just a little bit.
But Gabriel knew she’d had more impressive dick earlier that day. And she wasn’t the type to react with lust to anything so blatantly carnal, so disrespectful.
“Get your dick washed and dry off,” Billy shouted as he strode by. “Lockdown’s in ten minutes.”
Billy didn’t break his stride as he passed Gabriel, didn’t acknowledge him in any way. As long as Inmate 140849 didn’t cause any trouble, he wouldn’t pay the slightest attention to him o
r risk letting someone wonder about his interest.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. The fluorescent lights shining from the high ceiling of the barracks flickered. Gabriel stilled.
Billy cursed softly under his breath and strode toward the booth. When a crack of lightning sounded, it took four seconds to plunge the housing unit into pitch darkness. Emergency floodlights at the control booth pulsed then glowed but didn’t reach the far corners of the building.
Shouts and gleeful laughter sounded. Fists, freed by the anonymity of darkness to impose punishment, struck soft flesh. Quick, spontaneous takedowns began while officers began to shout, “Get to your cells!”
Wet sounds from a corner beside the stairs had Gabriel’s head turning, his night sight honing in on a man on his knees, his lips sliding down another’s cock for a quick, illicit blow job in the open barracks.
Something he wasn’t interested in, so he moved on. Back to the shower, back to The Wizard. He caught sight of the man slipping naked through the men crowding toward the stairs. His movements weren’t hesitant. He didn’t hold his hands in front of him to find his way. He reached out to the man in front of him as he mounted the first step and grabbed his shoulder, halting him.
Gabriel would have missed it if The Wizard’s face hadn’t been in profile. His lower jaw dropped, seemed to unhinge, then he pulled the man backwards, his head disappearing into The Wizard’s widening mouth. Then The Wizard went to his knees, his body hunching over the man whose arms were swinging wildly behind him. Means brought him down, pulling him toward him, swallowing down his shoulders, his belly. The man’s legs jerked, and then he was gone.
The Wizard shook himself and slowly stood with only a slight rounded bulge in his belly to show for the two-hundred-pounder he’d just consumed. Then the demon’s head turned toward him. His grin, jagged teeth inside an overlarge smile, bisected his face like a lizard’s…or a snake’s.
Gabriel shuddered but managed a nod. One demon to another. So, he had his confirmation. Now, he’d have to wait and see what the hell he was doing here. Because an occasional feast wasn’t something he couldn’t get somewhere else and more easily, too.
No, something big was about to go down.
* * *
Gillian landed face first in her bed. She didn’t bother to undress, just lay there as sleep gradually took her, one limb at a time.
After the blackout that affected their barracks alone, the officers had done a headcount of the prisoners only to discover one was missing.