The asshole licked his dark lips with a pointed gaze my direction, and while internally I cringed, it didn’t reach my face. It never would. That look of his was what I was used to. His brutality was the thing of legends. The fall of our ancestors. This demon was what I expected when I came here.
The manifestation of evil.
“Would you like me to deal with that human for you?” he asked my silent captor, pretending it was out of service and not self-interest.
Fucking beasts.
I’d nearly forgotten where I was. I’d seen the evilness of men and what they did to women and children. Humans could be just as wicked as demons. I’d seen them break a few Rebels in our group. It took a long time to separate our hearts from our bodies. Not every woman could. It eventually drove them mad.
Not me. I’d disconnected a long time ago. Sex was my weapon now. A tool. A mere inconvenience. If anything, I’d died the day my sister was taken.
As if the question snapped him out of whatever stupor he’d been put into, the vicious leader growled. It was a thunderous noise that echoed in my very bones. My legs quaked, but the demon who thought himself the cruelest in the room had already taken several steps back, afraid of what his leader could do to him.
Coward.
My captor’s head whipped the direction of the retreating demon, blue irises glowing in fury. “Do you think I’m incapable of handling one human by myself, Vektor?”
Vektor shook his head violently from side to side. “Of course not, my Liege.”
“Then I should think you’d leave me to it, yeah?”
It wasn’t a question; it was a warning.
Vektor bowed his head and then dragged his whimpering human with him the other direction. I had to shut down my empathy and detach from my heart. I’d channel all that rage, all that hatefulness, into killing that particular demon one day. I was set on it. He’d be the one I bloodied my hands with when it was time to start a war. Once I discovered how to kill them, he’d be my swan song ending.
Drag marks of blood were left in the human’s wake, and I closed my eyes, hoping the human’s death was swift and his pain was ended sooner rather than later. I hoped it wasn’t dragged out the same way he had been. It was all we human captives could hope for.
A quick death.
When Onyx’s eyes swept the space, the rest of the demons scattered. In no time at all, we were alone again. I ignored the tight constriction in my throat.
I’d seen people tortured, people left dying or dead, but it never got any easier. I hadn’t become immune. Numb, but not immune. I stored each moment in a box inside my head. I’d only open that box when it came time to kill. Then my rage would find its outlet.
It’d fuel a bloody revenge.
“You really know how to clear a room,” I murmured before I could catch myself.
Fuck, I knew better. If he hadn’t planned to hit me before, he would now. But to my eternal confusion, he didn’t. His lips twitched in that odd way of his. The eyes that watched me weren’t angry or frustrated. They were amused.
“It’s a gift,” was his surprising reply before he walked into the room we’d stopped in front of.
Chapter 5
Fuck me.
I should’ve guessed Iris would completely disregard my wishes and put the human in something that made my blood boil rather than cool.
She had a sadistic streak.
As a female dragon, one of few in the Sky Demons, she found amusement wherever she could. Like me, she’d never taken a human captive. Not because she hated humans, but because she cared too much about them. I couldn’t understand heroverreaching compassion. It didn’t fit her scales—the ones she got from her father—but she had a soft spot for them.
She preferred to torment her fellow dragons instead.
Because female dragons were coveted despite their inability to breed, harming them was an act of treason. No male dragon would ever dare challenge her, lest he prefer his wings cut off. Not to mention that she was stronger than any of the spoiled whelps just stupid enough to try.
Iris was like a sister to me, and she had a soft heart. She wanted to save all the humans no matter what trouble it caused in our faction. But since I was the ruling leader, she’d never risk outright taunting me, so Iris found clever ways to do it. I’d expect nothing less of the daughter of the previous leader.
A tight black top was affixed to the human’s torso. Her large breasts were practically spilling out of it. A bloody fucking distraction, that was. Her silky pale hair gave me reprieve by falling over them, and thankfully, she’d avoided shifting or moving much after I put her on the bed.
