Touch of Flame

Chapter 8

In the numbness of pain, Malachi sensed a female scent. The sweet scent of daisies woke him up from his drugged state. The vile human king had left him chained to the wall, hanging by his arms. His legs could barely hold him up. He was losing a lot of blood from having been shot with obsidian bullets. Something his body couldn’t push out on its own so he could heal.

Malachi had tried to use his muscle strength to push the stones out from his body but after pushing out a few he got tired. The rest were also placed deeper and he didn’t succeed in pushing them out so he remained enduring the pain and bleeding out.

As the scent came closer, Malachi felt his rage grow. He refused to look weak in front of the enemy so he forced himself to stand up straight. His gaze quickly moved to the entrance and his eyes caught her slender form clad in white. Again. She must love the color and it made her look like the daisies she smelled like.

That was until one looked into her eyes. Those cold eyes that settled on him as she walked further in and stood right across from him. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly. Did the sight of him make her feel bad for him? He didn’t want her pity or sympathy or anything. He hated that white slender vile human being.

Slowly the frown left her face and was placed by that cold, empty look he knew her for. She truly lived up to her name. Women were often kinder, warmer. He had never seen a woman like her before. Human or dragon.

He stared back into her eyes. They were an icy blue, sharp and piercing. Her soft pink lips were always either drawn into a straight line or twisted with disgust. Her nose stood straight and proud. Her gaze traveled along his body and then she turned away to place the tools she brought with her on the floor.

Malachi would have thought she brought those tools to torture him had she not looked away so quickly. But perhaps she would surprise him and try. Why would she otherwise bring those tools?

She placed everything in order on the ground and then pulled out the legs of a portable chair. She put her notebook and pen on it. Then she pulled out a dagger from the small bag she had with her and suddenly turned around crossing the distance between them.

What was she doing? He panicked.

Every time he thought she would stop to keep a safe distance she walked closer until she stood right in front of him. Yes, he was chained and some of them came to him this close to take his blood but if they were only going to torture him then they kept their distance. What would she do with the dagger?

“Obsidians are painful. You must have suffered a lot.” She said with a straight face. Not mockingly or sympathetically. Only as if stating facts. “Just suffer a bit more.” She said and then stabbed him with the dagger.

Malachi’s body strained in pain as he fought the urge to groan. He would not give her that satisfaction. He felt the knife twist in his body and when she pulled it out, he felt some kind of relief.

It took him a moment to realize she pulled out the obsidian stone from his body.

No!

“What are you doing?” He hissed pulling at the chains to free himself.

“Not in a good mood today, I see.” She said without looking at him. She went to pull out the stone in his arm.

“Don’t touch me! I don’t need your help!” He would rather let her torture him.

She looked at him with dead eyes. “Who said I am helping? Don’t flatter yourself.” She stabbed him with the knife again and pulled out those painful obsidian stones. No, he didn’t want to feel this relief of pain.

“Then why are you doing this?”

“Because you hate it.” She shrugged, stabbing him once more time. This time he didn’t even flinch.

He was focused on her. She was too close. If he could only free himself for a while he would get his hands on her and free himself. He tried testing the strength of the chains again despite having done that a thousand times. They were solid. Meant to hold the likes of him.

The woman trusted those chains. She didn’t even flinch when he struggled. “Seems like you have a death wish. I will tear you apart.” He threatened.

She ignored him. She didn’t fear death.

“Maybe I will make you a breeder for our clan first.” He tried instead.

She just smirked. “Is that a threat? I thought breedmates were honored and respected or did you finally realize those three terms don’t go hand in hand?”

“A breeder and a breedmate are two different things.” Of course, it sounded the same to humans.

“Let me guess.” She said taking a step back. “A breeder is only used to breed but a breedmate is someone who is your mate but you also reproduce with them.”

He stiffened. How did she know? Humans often had the wrong conception of breedmates.

She tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. “But you asked me if I wanted to become a breedmate first?”

He did? He tried to remember. Yes, he did. Why would he?

“And you hated to compare me to such when I didn’t even ask you.”

Panic rose inside him. What was she trying to say?

Her eyes swirled around thoughtfully before looking at him. “Do I smell good to you?” She suddenly asked.

He stiffened and then anger rose within him as fast as lightning. The sudden strength of rage made him able to pull at the chains a bit and she stepped back.

“You smell like rotten fish to me and you look even worse with that colorless skin and hair.” He growled. “I can’t tell between you and your dress.”

She frowned and nodded. “Alright.”

He pulled at the chains again wanting to strangle her. It was NOT alright.

“You will be wearing a red dress once I have killed you.” He promised.

“I like red.” She said unfazed.

He felt more rage rise within him but tried to withhold it. He would satisfy this hunger one day when he got his hand around her neck and squeezed the life out of her slowly.

She waited for him to calm down and stepped closer again. “You have a death wish?” He asked her.

“Last one.” She said holding up the dagger. “This one will hurt.” She warned before stabbing the side of his stomach.

He clenched his jaw hard to stop himself from making a sound. Yes, it hurt like hell. It was that one stone that had been causing him the most pain. It was somewhere near his organs. The human twisted her knife back and forth trying to find the stone or maybe just torture him because that pain was excruciating. Yet he made no sound and soon he heard the stone fall to the ground.

“All done.” She smirked looking up at his face. “You are welcome.”

“I never thanked you.” But the breath that left his lips said otherwise.

“I am sure you feel grateful.”

“I don’t.” He snarled.

While he was getting worked up she remained calm.

“I don’t need, nor do I want your help.” He said between clenched teeth,

“Hmm…” She nodded. “I know hunger causes us to be in a bad mood. Unfortunately, I don’t have any food for you.”

“I don’t need your poisoned food.” He spat.

He could not stay calm today. He was raging and she kept poking his wounds.

She turned around and walked away, her strong sweet scent fading away with her. He clenched his hands. She was human. They all smelled disgusting and soon there would be no smell left of them on earth. Once he succeeded with his plan and brought down this castle that was their defense, then he would finish them all.

Of course, killing all of them wouldn’t be easy. It would be like trying to kill all ants on earth.

The princess went to the chain lever and loosened the chains holding him so he could let his arms fall. His muscles were sore and again he felt relieved only to want to lash out.

What was she trying to do? He didn’t want her help.

He watched her carefully as she went back to sit in the chair she brought with her and opened her notebook.

“Ah, is this I helped you so answer my questions thing?” He asked.

“No. It seems like you keep misunderstanding. I need you to heal so I know the true impact of my new inventions that I want to try out. You offered yourself. Remember?”

He looked at the strange tools on the ground. She couldn’t be serious. She was the coward who invented things and let others use them to torture. She wasn’t a torturer herself even though she had caused him more pain than anyone in the short moment she had been here.

“Of course, I do have questions too. You can answer them or ignore them.” She continued.

He sat down on the ground feeling exhausted but pretended that he just wanted to be relaxed. A part of him wanted to make her leave but she was his chance to escape. She was here after all and it was a good sign. She was desperate and it would work to his advantage. If she only knew she was making a mistake by keeping him alive.

“Why are you here?” She asked surprising him.

He tried not to show it. “I should ask you.”

“You are king and no one is here to save you yet? Seems like it is a plan you set up.”

Smart.

“You still sound worried about me.” He said calming down to annoy her instead.

She looked up at the roof and he followed her gaze. He saw the sharp obsidian spearheads that would crush him if he tried to escape. He had already noticed them. Since he came here, observing the surroundings and trying to find an escape route was all he had been doing.

It was much harder than he imagined. The reason he let himself get caught was that attacking the castle from the outside was impossible. This woman and her father made things difficult. So Malachi decided to try a different approach. Destroy the castle from the inside. It turned out to be just as difficult but he would find a way. He just needed a moment of weakness from this woman and then he would burn down all that she worked hard to protect.

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A/N

Please read INFO chapter before chapter 1.