Page 20 of I Regret Nothing
I just hoped she opened up soon about the things she was hiding because we needed to hurry if we were going to get out of here. And at the rate she was attracting attention, we needed to get her out of here fast. Faust might protect her now, but we all knew he was a serial killer. He just had that vibe about him, and this was coming from an entire prison of deviants.
Astrid better be dealing with Venus if she wasn’t killing her. The witches weren’t due in the mailroom today, but we also told Astrid we weren’t filling her list until they handled the Venus situation. Venus was a thief. If we gave the witches potion ingredients, she could easily steal something and make poison like she intended to do.
No one was due in the mailroom to make demands today. We were bringing in supplies today. There were cameras everywhere in prison, and we were supposed to scan all the packages. Rajack and I had an entire system for tricking the scanners and avoiding the cameras. There was a blind spot in a large corner where we could separate packages for delivery.
We should get loot for the Vampires today. They knew we couldn’t get bagged blood, so most of their demands were pretty simple. The Vampires really liked kinky books and sex toys they were too embarrassed to ask their family to mail. They got pretty specific about their butt plugs and erotica with Rajack and me, but I guess asking your sister for that was some line that didn’t need to be crossed.
Luckily, today's haul was all books, so we didn’t have to worry about sex toys. There was some book series they were all into, and the latest book came out. One of these days, I would have to sit down and read the series because every single Vampire in Silverhold was waiting on these books.
Someone entered our mailroom when they weren’t supposed to. No one was due today. Rajack and I both turned, and it was one of Astrid’s witches. We knew this one well. She was in here on a murder rap and totally cutthroat. Astrid kept her in line but let her out to play if someone needed to go down.
“Hi, Wren. Unless this involves Rei, the witches aren’t supposed to be in here today.”
Wren tossed her white-blonde hair over her shoulder and glared at us.
“I don’t give two shits about your fox. This is about the witch she pissed off. Astrid says you refuse to fill our order until she’s dealt with. I’m here to tell you she has a plan.”
“Are we going to be let in on it, or are we just being told it’s handled again?” Rajack growled.
“Some people agree with Venus because they don’t know the entire story. Some of our witches think we should take over the mailroom instead of laundry and corner your little black market since you won’t get us shit if we hurt Rei. That’s fucking stupid. None of us even knowhowyou are doing any of this, and they are disrespecting Astrid by disagreeing with her.”
Well, great. Ever since Venus got here, the witches wanted to kill our thief and plan to kill Astrid, and now they were planning to kill us. No one could blame this on Rei biting her. Venus was psycho.
“If Venus comes at us, we’ll kill her and every witch with her,” I said. “You haven’t said how you plan to deal with this.”
“Astrid doesn’t suffer traitors, but we need to know how many there are before we deal with them. If we take care of business and leave anyone standing, we’ll still be in this mess. I’ve buddied up with Venus. She thinks I’m her best friend in here. She’s completely revolting. She got banned from her previous coven, and you have to do nasty shit for that to happen. Now, she thinks she can just walk in here and run things like every single gang doesn’t respect Astrid in here. I’m not helping her recruit, but I’m taking note of everyone who agrees with her.
“Astrid wants to know if, when we have a list of names, you’ll fill our order to deal with them.”
Rajack and I didn’t even need to talk about it. If Astrid was deploying a spy, Wren was going to be the best person for the job. Wren was a killer and could be a bit of a bitch sometimes, but I respected her after I got to know her. Astrid only authorized kills if someone hurt her witches, and she almost always used Wren to do the deed. Wren was a sneaky little bitch who could gut you in your cell and never get caught.
“We’ll fill the order, but how do you plan to kill that many witches and not get caught?”
“Well, so far, only one has officially joined Venus. I’m just faking it. Venus is setting out feelers and whispering. I already know her plan. She wants to kill Astrid and blame your fox. She’ll try to use the wholeI told you soshit to insert herself as coven leader and send everyone after the fox. Once the fox is taken care of, she has her sights on the mailroom.”
Astrid and Wren better hurry up because it sounded like Venus decided to upgrade from thief to killer and had a huge body count planned. Astrid better handle this, or Rajack and I would.
This witch wasn’t just threatening my thief anymore. She’s threatened my friends, my business, and me too.
Chapter 19
Rei
F
aust must hate doing paperwork as much as I hated sitting here doing it for him. If no one could prove he was killing inmates, someone should have had a problem with these massive stacks of files. I still hadn’t gotten to my commissary yet, and I’d been working on them for two days.
I hated him, but I wasbored,and I talked when I was bored. I tried chatting with him. I hoped if I could fake liking him and let him get to know me, he’d drop this stupid hunt and let me work in the mailroom with my friends. Apparently, the psycho wolf wasn’t very good at small talk. He grunted at me a few times, then told me to shut the fuck up. Asshole.
Faust escorted me back to the mess hall and then took a perch against the wall next to the witch table. I could easily find Venus in line because Faust was looking at her with murder in his eyes. It was pretty fucking rich. The wolf hunting me was looking to kill the witch who wanted to murder me so he could just kill me later. It was so fucked up.
Dakarys and Rajack met me at the back of the mess hall. They both slung an arm around my shoulders and led me to the front of the line. That was new. I didn’t think they were touchy-feely. They were cool and quite lovely to me, but I thought that was just because they needed me alive to steal for them.
“I don’t suppose we’re getting more of that pie tonight?” I asked.
Dakarys just chuckled.
“Don’t hold out hope for that one, Rei. There’s no rhyme or reason when we get it. It doesn’t come on the first of the month or the end of the month. It’s random, and there’s never enough. Be grateful they give us pudding on the days we don’t get it. Apparently, before the pudding, it was this nasty lime Jell-O. Silverhold changed contractors for the kitchen, and now we have pudding.”
