Chapter 18
CHAPTER
I was running. I saw someone further ahead, but everything else was blurred.
Lionel?
We were kids, running for our lives; we had stolen bread from a local bakery. It was the only way to survive…
What did they expect? That we simply lie down and surrender to our fate? Give up, because of such a stupid reason as to be born in the wrong place, at the wrong time?
No.
I refused to give up, and so did Lionel. We stayed together, both of us desperate to survive, struggling for a place in this world. We only wished for a chance to live, was that too much to ask for?
We were like two sides of a coin—he stole something, I distracted, or the other way around.
But it always ended up the same with us running for our lives.
Yet, those were fond memories that I looked back on with a smile.
We were close, it was just the two of us, it was easy.
Our days might’ve been uncertain, but at least they were filled with laughter and understanding.
Family.
Something brushed the side of my face, snapping me away from my dream, pulling me back into the reality I dreaded. Instincts took over, as my hand tried to wave away whatever was waking me up.
“Comfy, are we?” an amused voice teased, making my eyes fly up. I felt a hand playing lazily with my hair, like someone bored.
Shit.
Slowly, I turned my head up and was met with his red, smug eyes.
My head was resting on Malakai’s chest, my arms wrapped around him as if he was my pillow…
I jolted back, glaring at how satisfied he seemed to be about the situation.
He rested his head in his hand, half-lying, half-sitting against the trunk.
“Are you going to purr for me next?” he sneered, pushing to get a reaction out of me.
“I merely followed orders and kept my worthless Lieutenant from freezing to death.” I fought to keep control over my voice, keeping it firm and unbothered.
“How considerate,” he chuckled.
I began packing while he watched lazily without moving from his spot. As I walked around, I intentionally kicked his boot, earning a huff from him at best.
Something snapped further into the woods. My head turned towards the direction of the sound, but I saw nothing.
Malakai lunged for me, pulling me back towards him, my back against his chest as his hand pressed against my mouth to silence me. I struggled against it.
“Shh,” he whispered in my ear, making me freeze immediately. I held my breath, trying to sharpen my hearing by staying utterly still.
Another twig breaking, closer than the previous, and I heard Malakai inhale deeply, like he smelled something I couldn’t. I felt his hand tightening around my mouth, his head dipped to my shoulder. I tried to turn to look at him, but then I felt his teeth, threatening my collarbone and I tensed.
I tried to ask what he was doing, but his grip was so hard my sounds were muffled.
His teeth squeezed lightly against the fabric of my shirt and I shivered.
Then they were gone, quick as lightning, I heard him smash his head against the trunk, a strained pant leaving him as he violently pushed me out of his reach.
I fell forward, catching myself with my hands as I swung my head furiously back at him.
But all my anger died when I saw him—the red glowing threads across his skin, his clenched teeth, and those flaming eyes that watched me with utter hatred.
I lost all words, baffled. Was it me he had reacted to? Why? What had I done?
Out of nowhere, an ice shard came at me, piercing into my shoulder. I gasped, the cold mixed with the pain.
“My bad, I thought it was an animal moving,” a man stepped into my view, eyeing me up and down. “Well, I guess it really depends on who you are?” Before he even finished his sentence, he began preparing another ice shard.
“You’re the ‘strike first and ask questions later’ type?” I chuckled surprised, wincing from the pain.
The man shrugged as a dark, twisted smile emerged on his lips and I felt as if the air turned icy cold instantly.
“If you’re a fellow wielder, you’ll be able to defend yourself… unless you’re weak.” He lifted his hand, preparing to throw the other shard at me, before he stopped, eyes widening.
Malakai had tilted his head in the man’s direction, red threads keeping his body locked in place.
“What the…” the man panted, panic creeping into his voice.
Malakai rose, his feet dragging behind him as he closed the distance between them. “You were going to hurt her, without hearing her answer?”
His voice was cold, deadly.
“What… what are you?” the man shrieked, until he finally saw Malakai’s vivid eyes.
“Demon.”
“A very hungry one,” Malakai said dryly, as his hand shot out and grabbed the man’s throat, slamming him into the tree with such force that I swear I heard a crack.
“Don’t, please, don’t,” the man pleaded, his legs kicking wide, his hands scratching against Malakai’s glove.
“Were you going to show her mercy?” Malakai snapped, his voice sharp like a blade. “Or were you about to enjoy torturing her, thinking how sweet her pleas would’ve sounded?”
I grunted, the pain of the shard making itself known. My hand grasped around it and I took a deep breath, readying myself to pull it out.
“Don’t,” Malakai ordered, his eyes darting to me, the intensity in them stopping me outright. “If you pull that out right now, I’ll kill you.”
The man took advantage of Malakai’s sudden distraction. “Demon! Over here!” he shouted as loudly as he could, before Malakai’s hand choked him harder.
“Stop pretending. You’re all alone, I can smell it,” Malakai smirked, and the desperation in the mage’s eyes grew. Malakai tilted the man’s head, getting ready to devour him.
“Wait,” I blurted, making him stop mere inches from his throat. I heard him hiss in response, the restraining word unwelcome, yet he kept himself from seeing it through.
I pushed myself to my feet, and slowly made my way closer. “Why are you here? Why did you attack me?” I asked the man who turned confusedly to me.
“All ungifted are to be killed, that’s our orders,” he choked out from Malakai’s tight grip.
“Why attack before you knew what I was?” I arched a defiant brow at him. “I… I know magic,” I continued, hesitant, the words almost caught in my throat.
“I’m sorry,” he sobbed, squirming, trying to wiggle out of the grapple, but got nowhere.
“Are there others?” I pressed on.
“Yes… we have a camp, maybe about an hour from here. We’re supposed to guard the border.”
Malakai slowly turned his head, staring at me, waiting for a signal. I swallowed hard as I regretfully nodded and a smirk appeared on his lips. In a swift movement he sank his teeth into the man’s neck. He screamed and I turned my back to them, covering my ears as my heart slammed in fear.
Why did I let him? Was it because I knew Malakai was right about him? That I saw in the mage’s eyes that he was ready to torture me, even if I had given him the right answer?
Some monsters aren’t villains by nature…
It didn’t take long before I heard the body fall to the ground with a thud as a relieved sigh left Malakai.
I pressed my lips together, before I felt his hand grab my wrist and spin me around. My breath hitched at the sight of the blood smeared around his lips, his jaw.
“I’ll pull it out, and you’ll use your fire on the wound,” he instructed, his voice calm again. “We don’t want to risk you getting an infection or bleeding out.”
His hand slithered slowly around the ice shard, locking his eyes with mine.
“Wait,” I murmured. “I… I don’t know how.”
He tilted his head, silence stretching between us as he thought for a moment. Slowly, he leaned in, his face too close, I could smell the blood covering him clearly.
“You want a taste?” he whispered, eyes sparkling.
“I beg your pardon?” I blurted.
“Then beg,” he smirked wickedly. “Beg for permission.”
I swung my hand at him, aiming to strike him, channeling my rage into it. The slap echoed across his cheek and he lazily grabbed my wrist afterwards, as his eyes darted towards my hand, a victorious smile playing on his lips.
My hand was aflame, anger coiling inside of me because of his taunting words.
“There you go,” he chuckled, completely unaffected by my flaming slap. “Ready?”
I cursed underneath my breath. Then he pulled the shard out and I screamed before I pressed my flaming hand against the wound. It didn’t hurt, but I heard my skin sizzling as it touched the fire all the same.
My eyes held Malakai, as I saw him looking at the ice shard, the blood covering it.
My blood.
“You almost bit me,” I accused, the words coming out a bit harsher than I had planned.
“But I didn’t,” he shrugged, his eyes sliding back to mine. “Unless you’re into that?”
“No,” I hissed, my teeth clattering when I clenched them.
He chuckled low. “Relax, a moment of weakness. It won’t happen again.”
“How can you be sure? How can I be sure?”
His arrogant smirk slowly evaporated, his eyes unfocused, yet locked on me.
The blood on his face began steaming, falling off him as if turning to ash, and then blowing away with the wind until his face was spotless once again.
His eyes flickered to the corpse on the ground, then he bent down and went through his pockets.
My brows furrowed, confusion lingering as the silence became suffocating.
But then I heard something, his hands stilled for a brief moment.
I held my breath as he turned towards me again, holding his balled hand out towards me.
Small cracking sounds were heard from within, faint smoke climbing from his grip.
Carefully, I stretched my free hand out, open palm, as he gave me something.
At first glance, they looked like pale pink rocks.
My eyes caught that his palm looked burnt, but I felt nothing holding the shards.
“What’s this?”
“Quartz,” he said flatly.
A raw mineral—pretty, but still, it didn’t answer any of my questions. I looked up to him and he sighed when he spotted my lingering confusion.
“Quartz is lethal to a demon. Even the lesser elementals don’t die from your guns, they simply return to the demon realm, before crawling back out again,” his voice lowered a notch, as if being careful.
“This, however, banishes them for good. If I try to bite you again, use it on me.”
We hadn’t killed the demons we stumbled upon? Only sent them back!?
“You… you’ll die?” My voice was shaking, the answer making me even more puzzled.
“Yes, normal wounds won’t kill someone like me. But this will.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I clenched my hand around the gems.
“You wanted trust,” he clarified. “Isn’t this enough? To know my vulnerability?”
I opened my mouth, getting ready to protest, to accuse him of lying, but no words came out, forcing me to close it again.
Why would the mage have the minerals if it was untrue?
Malakai hadn’t told the rest of the group about my abilities, and he had held himself back from trying to devour my magical energy. What were his true intentions?
Malakai huffed at my silence, brushing away my hand from my collarbone. “Stubborn until the end… How’s the wound?”
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“Aren’t you getting tired of saying that, kitten?” he teased, the corner of his mouth twitching, holding back a mocking smile. “It’s okay to not be okay at times; it doesn’t make you weak, merely human.”
His words had more impact than I cared to admit, but I simply pressed my lips together, forcing the emotions away again.
“Yeah? Maybe I’m not human after all then,” I muttered bitterly.