Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale) (8 page)

Now,
Scarlett was.

He
would know that spiced apple scent anywhere.

Marrok’s
eyebrows climbed, trying to figure out how they’d pulled off this new trick. 
Like some kind of bizarre three card monte game, he supposed it meant that
Esmeralda was now disguised as Scarlett and the real Ramona was still in the
dungeon disguised as Esmeralda.  Letty couldn’t do magic, so there was no spell
inhibitor on her ankle to prevent the witch from using a glamor on her, but why
had they bothered?

Or
rather why had
Scarlett
bothered, since there was no doubt in his mind
whose plan this was.  His True Love was the only one in the share circle with
the balls to try a stunt like this.  Was she worried that he was going to rat
out the escape plot?  If so, why in the hell would she dig herself in even
deeper with this Ramona disguise?  What was she up to?

The
woman was a fount of new and interesting ideas.

“Dr.
White.  Hi.”  Scarlett/Ramona straightened her lab coat.  “Right.  Ummm… is
everything, okay?”  She teetered over to flop down in the chair next to Marrok,
as if the length of Ramona’s legs made it difficult for her to balance.  The
fairy topped Scarlett by at least eight inches, so the new taller body must
have been confounding her.

Marrok
found himself smiling.  “You doing something new with your hair, Ramona?  You’re
looking a little… different today.”

Scarlett
ignored him.  “What kind of trouble is he in?”  She demanded, still focused Dr.
White.  “Because, I
know
that he’s a complete and utter jackass, but… I
think he deserves another chance.”

Ohhhh…
she was here to
protect
him.

Despite
himself, Marrok’s heart turned over.  It was stupid as hell to risk herself to
try and help someone like him, but it was just about the
nicest
thing
anyone had ever done for him.  She’d apparently been serious about her All For
One speech.  That was… adorable.  Even in her ridiculous Ramona costume, he
could think of six hundred different things he wanted to do to her body to say
thanks.

Scarlett
adjusted her lab coat again and kept up her persuasive speech to Dr. White.  “Tossing
Marrok in the dungeon at this point in his treatment will just undo all the
hard work I’ve put into making him less horrible.”

“Oh,
I don’t mind doing hard,
hard
work with you, Doc.”  Marrok assured her.

The
glare was the same, but Ramona’s flat gray eyes lacked the punch-to-the-stomach
purity of Scarlett’s crystalline blue gaze.  As much fun as it was to torment
her about the disguise, he really didn’t like looking at his True Love and not
seeing his True Love.  He missed the cherubic redheaded scowling at him. 
Letty’s curvy little body was much more enjoyable to mentally undress.

“Don’t
worry, Ramona.”  Dr. White said coldly.  “Mr. Wolf isn’t in trouble.  I was
just enlisting his help in finding that damn glass slipper.”

Marrok
felt Letty still.

He
shot her a lazy smile.  “Yeah… It seems that Scarlett’s been holding out on us,
Doc.  You got any idea where she might have stashed Cindy’s shoe?”

Gray
eyes flashed to his again, this time wide and a little scared.  “No!  No, I
have no idea where Scarlett put that slipper.  In fact, I’m not convinced she
has it, at all.”

“Oh,
she has it.  The question is how do we get her to talk?”  Dr. White drummed her
fingernails on the desktop.  Each one was painted in silver polish, so they
shone like small mirrors.  Marrok could see his own image reflected in them
like a funhouse.  God, that was creepy.

“I
can get Scarlett to tell me about the shoe.”  He said with just the right
amount of arrogance to
really
piss her off.

Sure
enough, Letty’s fear faded into irritation.  “I highly doubt that.”

“Oh
please.”  He rolled his eyes.  “You’ve seen how she lusts after me, right? 
It’ll be simple.”

“I’ve
seen nothing of the kind!”

“Mr.
Wolf is known for his prowess with women.”  Dr. White said with something less
than clinical detachment.  “That’s why we’re having this little meeting.  He’s
going to use his legendary abilities for the side of Good.  The best looking
man in the Four Kingdom’s can certainly fuck on command.  It’s the only thing
wolves are good for.”

Marrok
stared back at her expressionlessly.

Even
creepier than Dr. White’s nails and the heartless carcasses on the walls was
the way she would leer at him.  She entertained herself with the male
patients.  Marrok knew that and unfortunately her come-ons towards him were
getting more and more blatant.

He
couldn’t even look at Letty, ashamed that she was seeing this.

All
his life, his looks had drawn attention he didn’t necessarily want.  He’d grown
up alone, after his parents had been killed by some punk kid named Peter. 
Marrok barely remembered them.  He’d been on his own and trying survive when he
was drafted into Wolfball.  It was participation or death.

And,
too many times, “participation” meant some woman he didn’t want touching him
because she’d made a deal with his beloved coach.  At the beginning, he’d been
at the mercy of everyone bigger and meaner.  Now, he was strong enough to
defend himself physically, but that didn’t mean as much inside the WUB Club. 
The power structure was different and people would always try to prey on
someone they saw as weaker than themselves.

He
would never escape what he was.  He was resigned to that.

Scarlett
wasn’t.

“You
can’t ask Marrok to sleep with someone to further your own plans.”  She
snapped.  “It’s immoral and unethical.  Besides, we have rules about the
patients engaging in sexual activity.  It’s in chapter three of the handbook.”

Marrok’s
mouth curved.  Both at her heartfelt defense of his honor and because she’d
actually read the stupid handbook they handed out to the inmates.  If she kept
it up, he was just going to die from her terminal adorableness.

“Well,
there are rules and then there are
rules
.”  Dr. White chuckled like she
hadn’t just used the exact same phrasing five minutes before.  “I mean, the man
isn’t called the
Big
Bad Wolf for nothing.  If he seduces that
troublesome ugly stepsister and solves our problems, it’s just nature taking
its course.”

Marrok’s
small smile faded.  “She’s not ugly.”  He reiterated firmly.  “While the
doctors are messing with Letty’s records, maybe we should recheck what exactly
she
is
, because there’s no way she’s an…”

“She’s
Bad.”  Scarlett interrupted.  “
That’s
what she is.  Very, very Bad.”

He
looked over at her in frustration.

She
made “shut-up” sort of face at him.

“Well,
whatever she is, I can seduce her, Dr. White.”  He kept his attention on
Letty.  “I’ll just need constant access to her.  Oh, and there can’t be a lot
of guards around.  The girl will never get naked with an audience.  At least,
not yet.  I’ll need some privacy to get the job done.”

Scarlett’s
mouth parted as she realized that he’d just cleared the way for them to operate
without dwarf surveillance.  Her saw her eyes light up with excited
understanding.

No
Baddie could ever look so delightfully delighted.

“Of
course.”  Dr. White agreed.  “Do whatever you want with her.  Just remember
that we’re on a schedule here and…”  The intercom on her desk buzzed and she
reached over to hit it.  “Yes?”

“Dr.
White?  The cameras are all down and the security office is burning.  We think
it was the fire imps, again.  The dwarves say they need you.”

“Oh
for God’s sake… I have to do
everything
around here.”  Dr. White got to
her feet and went stalking towards the door.  “See him back to the craft room,
Ramona.”  As she passed, she ran her mirrored talons across the width of
Marrok’s shoulder.  “I’ll be expecting a detailed update later, Wolf.”  She
leaned down closer to his ear.  “
Very
detailed.”

Marrok
shifted out from under her touch, stifling a cringe.  He didn’t like being
pawed at, especially not in front of his True Love.  He hadn’t been interested
in Dr. White
before
he found Letty, so he sure as shit wasn’t interested
now.  Wolves were loyal to their True Loves.  Always.  Something else Good folk
could never wrap their brains around.

One
day, Dr. White was going to stop with the “subtle” and start with the demands. 
It was a big reason why he tried to play nice at the WUB Club and not draw her
attention.  He wasn’t going to do what the person in charge of assigning
electroshock therapy
wanted
him to do.  That wasn’t a great spot to be
in.

Scarlett’s
eyes narrowed.  Her head whipped around to look at him as Dr. White swept from
the room.  “She’s sexually harassing you!”  She said with righteous indignation

Marrok’s
jaw ticked.  “Yeah, well, I’m just an irresistible guy.”

“It’s
not a joke.”  Scarlett had been openly hostile to him for weeks, mostly because
he’d been trying to get a rise out of her.  Now, her hostility faded and she
gazed at him with genuine concern.  “Does she treat you that way all the time?”

“A
lot of people treat me that way.”  He said flatly.

“People
just expect you to sleep with them, because you’re good looking?”

“People
expect me to sleep with them, because they think I’ll trade sex for whatever it
is they’re offering.  Buying yourself a player for the night is just part of the
wonderful game of Wolfball.”

“That’s
not a game.”

Why
would this girl be the only one to understand that?  Not even Marrok could
explain his hatred of the age-old process.  Good folk were constantly angered
and confused by his resistance.  Most of his Badness arrests were directly
related to his refusal to submit.  But, even knowing that it would just mean
more pain and trouble, he’d never willingly sold himself.  Maybe, on some level,
he’d been imagining this exact conversation with his True Love.  He’d wanted to
be able to look her in the eye and tell the truth.

He
met her gaze.  “You were right earlier.  I never wanted to be a part of those
stupid games.  A lot of us don’t.  They force the wolves into it.  Out there is
worse than in here for me.  No matter where I go, I’m caged.  At least here, I
don’t get attacked or pawed at as much.”

“You’re
supposed to be safe in this hospital, though.  Instead, Dr. White is using her
position to exploit you. You shouldn’t have to put up with being threatened,
Marrok.”

“I
have never touched that woman.”  It was important that she know that.  “I won’t
sleep with Snow White, not matter how many times she offers me a better room,
or a shortened sentence, or a…”

“Of
course you won’t!”  Letty interrupted as if that was obvious.

Even
Marrok had questioned why he bothered to resist Dr. White.  He could’ve been
out of here months ago if he just submitted.  He’d done far worse things, but
he’d never been able to bring himself to even consider it.  Scarlett clearly
never doubted he’d make the pointlessly moral choice, though.

He
wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“I’m
sorry.”  Scarlett continued.  “I didn’t know how hard it was for you.  No
wonder you want to escape from the hospital
and
from Wolfball.”

He
didn’t want Letty to know about any of this.  It would be hard for someone so
clean to ever fully comprehend what it meant to feel dirty.  “I never
considered escaping until you came along.”  He said honestly.

Maybe
it took someone Good to have that much optimism.  To think they could stage a
jailbreak and make things better.  Baddies were used to losing.  They just sat
behind bars and endured.  The WUB Club didn’t have breakouts because none of
the inmates had enough hope to even try for freedom.  It was why the staff was
so complacent and arrogant.

Aside
from Trevelyan, no one had ever escaped.  And even the dragon had been
convinced he’d be killed in his jailbreak attempt.  He just hadn’t care. 
Trevelyan had reached the point where he’d rather die trying than stay
imprisoned.  No doubt he’d been shocked when he actually got away.  That was so
different than Letty’s boundless faith.

“Well,
we’re going to get out of here, okay?”  Scarlett leaned forward and gently took
hold of his hand.  It was quite possibly the first time in his life he’d been
touched with nothing but caring.  “It isn’t your fault.”  She said sincerely. 
“Don’t worry.  I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

No
one had ever said that to him before.

Marrok
folded his fingers around her palms, not sure how to respond.  What she’d said
was ludicrous.  It was the exact kind of bullshit he’d normally scoff at, but
he was actually touched by her words.  He’d been a provoking jackass to
Scarlett every day since they’d met.  He was twice her size and a thousand
times more ruthless, but she was promising to keep him safe.  And she
meant
it.