Chapter 21 #2
I momentarily turn to the other woman, waking her for this next part. She’s dazed for a few moments, then her head snaps up. Her eyes dart around, finally settling on the woman next to her. They lock eyes, wide with shock, the naked one still unable to speak.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” she growls at Malakai.
“Oh, not me.” He laughs, nodding at me. “Her.”
I give the woman a little wave, the magical knife still in my hand. “Hi there,” I begin, plastering a smile on my face. “Do you feel like answering a few questions for us?” Her eyes widen at my casual tone, narrowing when I add, “I can either torture you or your friend here. Your choice.”
“Fuck off,” she spits, lunging forward. Her black hair falls in front of her face, and she peers at me through the strands, fire burning in her eyes.
My pulse quickens at her defiance, and my magic buzzes in my ears.
The knife disappears, and I run my bare finger down her friend’s leg.
The touch leaves a deep, burning cut in its wake.
She lets out a muffled scream, then a sob, already at her limit from the pain I inflicted earlier.
The sight of her struggling under my touch, the blood welling up wherever I press. .. it’s beautiful.
“Who sent you?” I release the magical binding around the tortured woman’s mouth, and she immediately gulps for air as if she couldn’t breathe.
Neither of them seems inclined to answer me, so I run my finger down her back, removing skin and muscle tissue to expose her spine. As soon as the white bone appears, a zap of electricity sparks through it. She screams, a bone-chilling sound, as my magic courses through her body. Again and again.
“You want me to make it stop?” I ask her, my eyes shifting to her friend, who glares at me with murderous intent, seething with rage. Releasing some intensity, the tortured woman gasps, relief flooding her.
“Looks like your friend isn’t going to help you out here,” I whisper in her ear, slowly increasing the intensity again. She whimpers, desperately trying to suppress her screams as the pain worsens. “Tell me something—anything.”
She shifts her body as much as the restraining magic allows. I know she’s looking at her friend, pleading without words. One to be helped, the other to remain silent.
“Fine.” I sigh. “Accept this as a show of good faith.”
I adjust my magic to take away the sharp bite of pain but create small, pinprick-like wounds across her body. They slowly drip tiny beads of blood down her limbs and onto the floor.
She sighs in relief, no longer feeling the brunt of the pain, unaware that the bleeding worsens with every breath she takes—until the mesmerizing red pools beneath her bare feet.
There’s a soft snicker behind me, the brush of magic against my back, and I hear Malakai say, “There’s that mean streak again.”
I throw him a look over my shoulder and give him a broad, gleeful smile before turning my attention back to the women.
“Tell me something useful,” I urge again, my voice soft like a kitten’s purr. “And I promise I’ll make it all better.”
Her head falls back, utter bliss transforming her face as her friend yells at her not to say anything. But she’s so out of it, she barely hears her.
“What’s your name?” I whisper, urging my magic to inflict more harm while alleviating some of her pain.
“Emiko.” She sighs, her tone bordering on erotic.
“Nee-san, don’t!”
Malakai chuckles, and the sister goes still, realizing she slipped up. “They’re sisters,” he informs me, and something in his voice suggests he had his suspicions.
“Well then, Emiko, thank you,” I say, relieving some pain without increasing her bleeding. “But it seems your sister”—I glance back at the other woman—“is upset you told me your name. It’s almost like she doesn’t mind your pain.”
“No, no, no,” the sister cries. “Don’t listen to her, Emiko. She lies.”
“Please,” Emiko begs, her voice soft, drowning out her sister’s protests. “It hurts.”
“Let me help you with that. Just give me something small in return—just a few words.”
“A, a woman,” she whimpers. “We were contacted by a woman.”
“What woman?”
“Emiko, please,” her sister begs.
“I don’t know. I never saw her.” Emiko falters, and for a moment, I think I won’t get anything more from her.
“She,” Emiko continues, surprising me, “smelled like... a human. Like sex with a human. A human woman.”
“Good girl,” I praise her, relieving more pain while causing more bleeding. “Just one more thing. Give me one more thing, and I’ll make it stop.”
Emiko’s eyes glaze over, unseeing, her mind not realizing what she’s truly giving up.
“Emiko!”
She opens her mouth, so quiet I pull her head back to hear her next words. “Noriko saw her.”
That’s when I slit her throat in one smooth motion, the claws slicing through her flesh like butter. Blood wells up, cascading down her chest. She sighs as the last thread of life leaves her.
Noriko rages, howling and cursing at me until she finally begins to cry.
“Noriko,” I say, stepping closer to her. I reach out, touch her cheek, and let my finger trail down her face. She bites at my finger, and I slap her across the face. “How about you make this easy on both of us and just tell me what I want to know?”
“Never,” she spits back.
“Really? We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” She glares at me, anger in her eyes, and I sigh dramatically, enjoying this way too much. “Fine, the hard way it is.”
Without touching her, I unleash my magic on Noriko. I flay her like I practiced on her sister, but this time my magic is sharper and cuts deeper. She screams until her voice breaks, bleeding profusely as I rip away piece after piece of her skin.
As suddenly as I started, I stop. Every piece of skin from her neck to her feet is gone. She cries, tears falling onto her exposed muscle tissue, making her gasp.
I smile at her, and she looks at me with pain and fear in her eyes. Then she glances at her sister’s lifeless body, fresh tears filling her eyes. She’s already broken.
“The woman who hired us…” She sniffs, all fight leaving her. “I don’t know what she was, but she—she had the most beautiful red hair. She smelled like apples and nutmeg. And like a human woman, just like Emiko said.”
I almost flinch away from her words. Apples and nutmeg? Just like that, I remember the first scent I encountered when I woke in that prison. The first smell I’ve experienced on multiple occasions since then.
Apples and nutmeg.
The mere memory is enough to make my stomach turn.
I manage to keep my face neutral and my limbs steady, but my magic rages just below my skin. It pounds against me, desperate to break free and destroy.
“Thank you, Noriko. I’ll make it better now.” An icy stillness descends over me. A single flick of my hand, and Noriko is shredded to pieces. Blood and guts fly everywhere—against the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. It drenches me completely, and I let out a startled gasp.
I most certainly did not think this through.
I gaze at what remains of the woman, bits and pieces scattered around me. Her arms still dangle from the ceiling, and the sight cracks me up. I burst into laughter—hysterical, unrestrained. It builds inside me, trying to break free.
Until a pair of strong hands spins me around. Malakai’s lips crash against mine, kissing me feverishly. Once more, I taste blood between us, making me moan into his mouth and arch into his touch.
For a moment, I wonder where this bloodlust comes from. Is it a side effect of everything that has happened to me? His blood magic becoming my own? Or has this always been a part of me, hidden deep inside, waiting for the right time to emerge?
Malakai bites my lip, demanding I open up, and the question slips away. My mouth opens, and his tongue takes me hard as he licks and tastes me. His hands grip my ass, and when he lifts me up, I wrap my legs around his waist.
That’s when we hear footsteps breaking through the moment.
“Well, well,” a voice calls from nearby, the footsteps halting. “Looks like the rumors are true. You’ve got yourself a lovely little wife.”
Malakai releases me and turns to the man, a look on his face that would make anyone else cower.
“Inakr,” he growls. “You dare just walk in here like that?”
The man scoffs. From his appearance, it’s clear he’s inhuman—tall and slim, wearing an all-black suit. His light blond hair is medium-length and neatly styled. His haunting lilac-gray eyes remind me of someone else I’ve encountered.
Inakr sees me looking and grins, a smile filled with violent promise that makes me acutely aware he could tear me apart just as I did to Noriko.
“Don’t request my services and then make me wait,” he says, his full attention snapping back to Malakai. “I’ve done enough of that for one night. I wasn’t about to wait even longer so you could screw your whore first.”
Malakai reacts instantly, unleashing a powerful wave of black magic toward Inakr without warning. Inakr takes a step back, and a pair of snow-white wings springs from his back. He draws them up like a shield, effectively blocking Malakai’s magic.
Inakr flaps his wings, unimpressed, as they retract into his shoulder blades. He brushes something off his shoulder, noticing a trickle of blood on his cheek. He wipes it away, regarding it coldly before licking the blood off his finger.
Malakai hands me my coat while Inakr looks around, completely ignoring us as he assesses the cleanup he needs to manage. He tsks at nothing in particular, his eyes on the mess I made, but I see the cruel grin that transforms his face from beautiful to downright nightmare fuel.