Retribution

I could feel his anger from there and I leaned over the table towards the pretty boy before me, threaded my fingers through the back of his hair and then sent his head slamming into the table.

His nose made a crunching sound as blood began to pour from it, it was hard to miss Malachi’s smug smile as he got closer to the table.

By the time he reached us, the pretty boy was staring straight at me in shock and awe. He looked as though he wanted to say something, but Malachi stole that option away as he picked him up by his neck and threw him across the room.

I just sat there, looking up at him impressed, but still very much pissed off with him for leaving me here while he went back to his old conquests.

The smile fell from his lips as he realised that something was wrong, he went to lay a hand on my face but I jerked away.

“Did Troy do something?” He asked, his anger returning, at the mention of his rival’s name.

“No I can handle the pretty boy, I’m like this because you decided that you would rather spend time with two whores, than the girl you brought here with you. What could those chicks offer you, that I wouldn’t?”

I did not understand why that made him smile, and was even more perplexed when he started to laugh.

“Oh love, for a moment there you could have been the girl I fell for all those months ago. It’s funny, do you think they still interest me? You stole my attention from them, the first night we met; you own it, and I guess you even own me.”

A deep longing filled me in that moment and a sense of emptiness, that I had been trying to forget, came to the forefront of my mind.

Seeing Malachi’s eyes glow as he recalled a memory we both should have shared made me wished that I too could have recalled it, and I wanted to hear what had happened that night.

“Malachi, will you tell me about that night?” I asked and he agreed, even if he hesitated slightly.

“You were out with someone else, but the moment I laid eyes on you I knew I couldn’t let you leave with anyone else. I remember approaching you, with those two ‘chicks’ in tow. They were not pleased by my wandering attention, but I couldn’t have cared less in that moment, about their pleasure.

You were so sarcastic with how you addressed me, it Was like a breath of fresh air. I couldn’t resist touching you and using my gift to make you want me, it worked at first, we kissed so passionately it stole my air but then you pulled back. Somehow you could tell I was influencing you and that had never happened to me before, I couldn’t figure out how you did it. You later told me about not being able to feel anything, so you had known it had come from me. But it made me all that more intrigued. I tried to get you to tell me all your secrets that night, but your acquaintance chose that moment to return.

He got to leave with you and I got a punch to the face and sternum, for my efforts. Funnily enough it was a great night for me. Maybe not at the time, I mean I had struck out with you and those two found someone else to entertain. But in the long run it was worth it, I got to know you better and later on I got to experience something even better.”

“What did you experience?” I inquired, wrapped up in his words.

It had looked as though he would answer, but then he shook his head and refused to comment. I let him have that one for the time being, what was the point in pushing him after he had just told me the first story from our past.

Not long after that he took my back to my room and after a long lingering kiss in the doorway he let me be, I wasn’t eager to sleep or anything but I did drift off into a restless slumber.

I had awoken with that same splitting pain in my head, the one I had when I awoke the first time. My vision was filled with black spots and I couldn’t make anything out, I closed my eyes again, but the pain would not abate.

I could hear Adiran speaking to me, but his words were muffled. The intensity was growing more and more unbearable as a new pain emerged within my chest. It felt like something was ripping me open and hunting around inside the cavity, I hoped profusely it wasn’t happening. But it was so intense I found it hard to believe it wasn’t real.

My head was thrashing violently from side to side, and I could feel an icy balm beginning to cover my flesh as the smell of death permeated my nostrils. My eyes cracked open, and was met with the image of Adiran’s shadowy being covering my own.

I tried to convince myself he was trying to help, but the chill that was radiating throughout my body refused to cease. In that moment I doubted just how benign his intentions were, where I was concerned.

I tried to fight him off but was failing, when a sudden bright light filled my room and Adiran shrieked out in pain and disintegrated. I knew he wouldn’t be gone permanently, but the suffocating feeling already began to ebb, unfortunately the pain was only intensifying as the seconds continued to stretch into one another.

“My love, it’s okay. I am right here with you,” stated Malachi, as the bed dipped beside my shaking body and I felt the weight of his body pressing against my own. I wanted to cry out once more, but my mind began to feel at peace. The pain started to die away and I realised, Malachi had used his abilities to control my emotions and help me fight off the agony that had been coursing through me.

He started to let go as my body eased, but I seized hold of his arm and refused to let him move. I could feel the airy laugh that passed through him, but he no longer tried to pull away and I fell back into a state of calm but would not let myself surrender to slumber.

10

Adiran

The more creatures that she killed under my sway, the more power that coalesced throughout my being it was unleashing a hunger within me that could not be sated. It had been intoxicating to revel in the misery and sufferin

g that she had wrought upon her unsuspecting victims, and the fear that followed as others became wise to her new nature.

It had been draining at first, acting like I was her true ally, trying to convince the little morsel that I was the one ‘friend’ that she could trust and rely on. But for my true motives to come to fruition, I needed all distractions and potential threats to be eliminated.