And her name is…

They took my blood once a week for a while, worried about how my powers could have grown on my birthday. That my powers grew annually, or bi-annual as it sometimes was, was apparently only supposed to happen until I achieved my full potential. At a certain point a Sioga’s magic growth would even off, but the earlier years had the biggest jumps and then it was about mastery. If they knew how strong my jumps were they would no doubt have tighter security measures around my cell.

For the next two weeks I didn’t see Wulfric at all. He was the only one allowed to release me from the cell for a proper shower. Kheliq didn’t trust any of the guards and so few others even knew I was there that when Wulfric was away I could go a month without a single shower. With that in mind, when he didn’t show the next week I wasn’t surprised and wondered if he would turn up the week after.

-

“Get out,” Wulfric snaps, snapping me out of my boring story of the year we ran out of garlic.

I’m laying on my cot and roll my head to the side to look at him. The guards all have their backs to me and I let a small smile creep over my lips. He sees it and gives me a stern look in return but I don’t move.

Why do I feelhappy?Like I missed him.

All the guards leave in single file and the door is closed and locked behind them.

“What did you do to me?!” Wulfric demands.

My mouth goes agape and my eyes look stunned.

“What do you mean? I haven’t even seen you since…” I trail off and cover my face with my hands.

He approaches the bars with my dinner tray in hand and almost snarls at me. “I left here…satisfied,” the word is said with so much disbelief that I imagine it took him the whole two weeks to accept that was the most accurate term. “I have never been so relaxed in my damn life and I didn’t even get off. I have fucked half the night away with gorgeous women in my bed, and never slept as well.”

Now I’m sure he rarely drinks my blood and the high from everything commingling and the siphoning I did created a perfect nightcap. I try to show confusion, and not my shit eating grin, at how distraught he is.

“I don’t know what to say,” I admit. “You know what I did. I slipped you some off the berry juice on the bread. I didn’t think you would do anything, but I thought it would be harder for you to laugh at me if you felt the same way.”

His anger falls slightly at my fake admission. “See, I tried that. I’ve tried everything to feel half that content again but even doing the exact same thing with another girl hasn’t done it.”

Again I try to hide my emotions at the image of him pinning a girl up in his shower, half dressed, in his dress clothes, and fingering her just to lick his fingers. I clench my teeth at the thought and have to look away until I can relax my jaw.

No Wulfric, you’re hooked now. I am life and no one will ever make you feel as high as me.

“I think of the two of us I did the least. What didyoudo differently?”

This question makes him pause, for which I’m glad. It was a shot in the dark on whether it would make him think or if he’d already considered it. There was silence and I glance at the tray of food in his hand. Of course it’s the exact same thing I’d had a few weeks ago.

“You don’t look well,” I say softly, but really other than his high strung energy and some minor dark circles around his eyes he looks just as attractive as ever. “I can wait for a shower, maybe you should get some sleep.”

3…2…

His head looks up at me sharply. “Sleep? I can’t sleep! My dreams are where I hear your soft little moans.”

His volume has me flinching, only half an act as I expect something to strike me at the same time. I pull my feet up onto the bed and back up against the wall while he watches me. He sighs heavily in frustration and puts the tray down to slide under the bars of my cell.

“Eat!” He demands and I see him pull a bun off the end of my tray for himself.

He wants to try me again, and I smirk on the way back to my cot with my tray. I have him hook, line, and sinker. Let the games begin.

-

I sit on my bed and eat my food carefully. I can’t sneakily drop any down the waste hole this time, not with his eyes watching my every move. He pulls the chair up to the bars and holds the bun like he’s trying to resist eating it yet, but distractedly takes a bite as I pop a berry in my mouth.

I see his face start to flush and I know he’s put more juice in his bun than I had. I don’t want to be out of my mind, but I debate eating everything so he can see my lack of control and believe I didn’t plan anything. Before I’ve finished eating,hear his chair clatter backwards on to the floor and see him go over to the shower in the wall to turn it on. While he’s turned I quickly hide a few of the berries under my balled up blanket and eat more of the pasta. When I look back up from my plate he’s unlocking my cell and coming to nearly drag me out, taking my tray from me.

“What are you doing?” I gasp, as I struggle to keep up with his biting grip around my arm nearly dragging me along.

The tray slams down on the table, sliding to hit the wall just I do as he pins me there by my throat. “What did you do to me?!”

I cough, displaying my very real surprise and fear, but words won’t come out around the tight hold he has on my throat. I’m clawing at his hand, to get any sort of gap in his fingers for even a sliver of oxygen, but my nails are chewed to numbs from boredom and, if I’m being honest, a constant state of dread. I can feel my vision getting hazy and my kicks don’t hold the same power I started with.

I could die right now and never get out of this fucking prison, but if I siphon enough energy from him to matter he’ll for sure notice. I’m not ready to escape yet. My magic is only good in small range scenarios but my fighting skills are trash. If I give them any reason to tighten my already tight security I’ll never get go, and right now I have at least six people to contend with any timeexceptwhen Wulfric is here. He is the weak link in my security but I still need a way out passed the wall.

He obviously had no sympathy for my situation, so I need another way to get him to lower his guard. I need to make him feel like the only one in control. I need to make him feel like I trust him.

My mind fights against what I know I have to do, and that’s just hope he stops. I try to relax my body and accept that I am not ready to try my escape right now. This is the only option.

His eyes are looking back into mine even as my life is draining away and the dark ring around my vision grows.

My world is turning black.

…Fuck no willWulfricbe the one to take me out!

I try to blink him into sight to claw at his eyes when I hit the ground. The stone vibrates through my knees and I crumple as I try to get my hands out for support. The burn of dragging oxygen into my lungs is just as painful as suffocating at first, but that pain subsides and is replaced with the pain of swallowing.

I look up to see him pacing the room in front of me and I envision him being one of the dried up husks of people the people I killed. I grit my teeth, and it is an effort to keep my fangs hidden. Revealing that fact about me will narrow their search for my Sioga lineage and that’s not something I’m ready for them to have against me.

Not bothering to try and stand, I push myself up to sit against the wall while the room settles into place and watch him. My fear is already turning into anger but I try to keep that look off my face in favour of the one he would expect me to have. I cough a few times when I try to speak and give up, rubbing my throat irritably. It will heal, and my magic can’t heal me unless I take the energy from someone else to do it.

I watch him sit in the chair and cover his face with his hands. All I can think about is how much he’s trusting me to not be able to kill him right now. I stand slowly and walk the distance to my cell, but find myself unable to close the door. I can’t believe I’m seriously considering putting myself back in this cage when the weak leak in my containment is breaking down.

Instead I move to my blanket and find the berries I hid there, dividing them between my hands before walking cautiously to Wulfric. I stretch my hand down to his line of sight and jump when his hands flashes out to grab my wrist. Taking a big breath, I uncurl my hand to show him the berries, and when his face moves up to mine I show an equal amount in my other hand.

I bite my lip for a minute before saying, “I don’t know what happened to make you so upset, but if trying it again is what you want, I will.”

He looks at me with momentary confusion before looking at my hand again. My fingers curl around the berries as I start to pull it back, but he just barely restrains himself from jumping out of his seat to grab my hand, so I paused.

My hair tickles my shoulders as I shake my head. “I don’t know why I’m bothering like you didn’t just try to kill me, but it was … nice to feel something like that,” I whisper and continue softly, “something other than pain. And it’s not like anyone would believe me if I said after six years,nowis when you want to touch me.”

I look away.

I should have tried to seduce him when I was more beautiful, but the way he joked about it.. my pride wouldn’t take it, but now I’m desperate. Besides, it’s only been recently that I’ve seen it all wearing on him, I just didn’t see how much. Maybe I should have acted sooner. It was a stupid plan anyway, and I start to turn to my cell but he’s standing and his hand grabs my chin.

Just like the time before he turns my head to look at him, and demands, “and why is that?”

Before I’ve told them to my eyebrows meet in the middle in blatant confusion. “Why what?”

“Why did you try this now?” He confirms and I think fast for the lie.

“You’re the only person who’s never tried to hurt me, not physically. I’ve been alone in this cell. Just one night I wanted to go to bed content, and not worry about how I would wake up.”

I make sure to slip in the word he’d used. Let him feel like we have something in common and have similar interests, it will only be to my benefit. He considers me for a few moments and I bite my pride and stay put. Turning and going back to my cell might push him away, and he’s so close.