tw; violence/blood.

Azriel did not come to me until the following morning. I was mad, fuming that he had trapped me like a dog. I attempted the door multiple times, throwing my weight against it or trying to pick it with a coat hanger, but it did nothing. The window? Yeah, right. That didn't even open. It was bloody locked, too! I was only ten feet up. I'd be unlucky if I broke anything.

The bathroom window opened, but only a crack. It was on some weird hinges that I could snap or use brute force against. My luck was bad karma, and I was trapped in here.

I couldn't stop thinking about the man last night. Not Beau, the one that came after. He seemed so similar, so much like somebody I knew. My brain had an itch I could not reach, my chest feeling heavy whenever I over-thought it too much. It was right there. Right! There! And I couldn't reach it.

I grunted as Azriel finally opened the door, already stood on the other side of it waiting. But before I could bad mouth him, he was sinking his fangs into my neck. I squawked like a damn seagull, trying to pry my fingers into his jaw to have him unlatch me. He was a leech, rough housing me bad enough that I never felt the thrill. My entire body burned, tears pooling and falling from my eyes as I forced myself backwards until I collided with the bed frame. Then he pushed me backwards, crushing me beneath his weight.

Lit by painful flames, I felt my head swim as it took over. My skin rose in goosebumps, my voice dry and hoarse from trying to scream. His fangs embedded themselves into my throat, locking around the flesh and bleeding me dry.

Was he trying to kill me?

I fell limp beneath him, giving into the haze of my mind. Only when I stopped fighting did he pull away. He didn't clean the blood, glaring down at me with dark eyes as it oozed down my skin. The whites of his eyes were red, with angry creases forming across his brows. He bared his teeth at me, his chest rising and falling in quick breaths.

His hand came to my throat, securing around the tender skin. I weakly whined as he pressed a finger into the blood and sneered. It made me choke, eyes fluttering with the intoxicating agony.

"I should just let you bleed out." He hissed.

I flinched at the pain, but my arms were too heavy to even lift from the mattress. I could smell the taint of my blood staining the sheets beneath me.

"I should let you die."

I blinked harshly, choking on the blood that rose in my throat. I could taste it now, pooling under my tongue and dribbling down my face. It was like I had lost all control of my body, unable to even push it from my mouth. Azriel watched me, anger clouding his fascination.

"Look at you, pathetic how humans just give in to the venom."

Venom?

My eyes widened, lips unable to form words.

His fingers dug in, and I managed a cry of pain as he dug them beneath my skin. His venom was excruciating, as though he were tearing me apart from the inside. My skin burned, back arching from the bed and pressing into his stomach. He leaned closer, snarling in my face.

"Did we make a sound?" He tutted. "Is that all you can muster? You pathetic little thing."

Despite the pain, I was angry.

Azriel locked me in this room all night without food, like an animal, and then tore into me like I was a snack. To a vampire, sure, I was their food supply, but he was so barbaric. His two sides were completely at odds with each other, and I wondered how hybrids even survived with so much contrast in one body. What became of his soul? He was half-dead.

With all the energy I could muster, I cursed in his face.

He paused his torture, his hand tensing against my throat.

"What did you say?"

I forced the pooling blood from my mouth, focusing all my energy into holding his gaze. He had no power over me; I was not pathetic.

With a raspy, gurgled croak, I spat in his face. "I said..."

He paused, glaring at the blood spittle on his shirt.

"Fuck you."

His eyes snapped from his shirt to blaze into my own, and I forced myself to laugh, a dark chuckle dying on my tongue. He snarled so loud; I was pretty sure he burst my eardrums. My chest wheezed for breath, my pulse loud in my ears. I didn't drop my smirk, but let my eyes flutter closed, giving into the exhaustion.

Azriel's grip on my throat loosened, and I heard him grunt a curse as the door opened. I wasn't sure who stood there, but Azriel turned his anger to them and not me.

"Fucking human expects me to revive her after all this shit? I should just let her die!"

"I don't think that's wise... I thought we had a plan..."

Azriel hissed, and they muttered too quietly.

"Fine, I shall stop the bleeding. But she will not get out of it happy."

I peeked an eye open just in time to see the other male come near me. I groaned, shaking my head at the sight of him. It was the vampire from the cells, and he gave me a wince of apology as Azriel bent back over me. A shiver of repulsiveness rippled over me as his tongue wrapped around my throat, forcing it to heal. My body continued to shake, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Fucking hell, you nearly killed her."

"I wanted to." Azriel huffed.

I felt my body burn for an entirely new reason. Instead of tearing itself apart, I could feel the energy force its way around my veins. My heart pumped with the magic adrenaline, and my skin started to itch and burn.

Azriel was still sitting on my thighs, keeping me pinned to the bed. Not like I could move. I felt like I needed to sleep the whole day away.

I forced my eyes open, my chest rattling for breath.

"She isn't a wolf, Azriel, Master. Look after her."

"Why should I?" He spat. "She will die anyway."

I glared at him as my energy slowly returned and spat blood in his direction. "Mother fucker."

His head spanned towards me, eyes blazing with unkept anger. "Don't talk to me that way."

I choked on a laugh. "Please, you only got one up on me because you sank your fangs into my fucking neck."

"I changed my mind, Guy. Can she drown in her blood?" Azriel grumbled, looking to the other male I knew now as Guy.

Oh geez, what a boring name.

Guy tutted. "Grow up."

Azriel glared at him as he turned and left the room, and I watched with faint amusement.

"Do you let all your subjects speak to you like that?" I choked.

My throat was dry and scratchy, but I knew he understood me because he grumbled. His eyes locked onto my neck, and he moved closer. I felt a cool breeze wash over my skin when he ghosted his fingers around it, wondering what it looked like.

"That's going to scar." He murmured.

"Add it to the collection." I grunted, feeling back to normal.

His eyebrows rose. "I am more than happy to give you another for your insolence."

I pursed my lips, testing my strength. I could move more now, grateful for the feature when I pushed myself to sit and slapped him across the face. His head snapped around to the other side, and I didn't have it in me to give a shit. I was tired of people, men like him, treating me so lowly. Just because I differed from him, or whatever beef he had, he needed to grow the fuck up.

His chest rumbled with a growl, and he didn't move from glaring at the wall. I fell back onto my elbows, smirking at him.

"I despise you." I seethed.

Azriel's head snapped toward me, and his eyes blazed with a thousand emotions. "What?"

"I said I despise you. Or did my hand smack the ears off of your head?" I scowled, raising my hand. "I should give you another for your insolence."

That was enough for him to bare his teeth and dart toward me. I raised my knee up from beneath him, forcing it into his chest. It all came pretty naturally from there. I'd say I was a pro. With my knee beneath his chest, my hands pressed into his shoulders, I shoved against his momentum and forced him from my body. From there, I rolled from the bed and landed on my knees on the floor.

I puffed out a breath before standing to my feet and moved to the other side of the room. He looked up at me through his hair, still scowling. I grinned, shrugging at him.

Man, his spit was magical. Gross, but magical.

"They did not show you your place, did they?" He spat.

I suppressed the memories of his words, tensing my body as he stalked towards me.

"Many times, actually." I nodded. "You've seen my scars, right? Or are you going blind too?"

He snarled, coming towards me with brute force. I wasn't sure how the fuck I dodged him with blocks of my own, only to kick him in the shin. His growls grew louder, and the more frustrated he grew, the snakier they turned. I was riling him up, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go that far. But I wasn't about to let him get one over me. I couldn't.

I was better.

I was stronger than that.

If I was to back out now, I-

I screamed as a searing pain shot down my arm. He had counteracted me as my mind ran with jumbled thoughts, and now my broken arm lay in his grip. He had snapped it backwards, behind my back so it lay limp in his palm. It burned brighter than his venom, sending shooting pains up and down my arm.

"Mother-

"Fucker. Yes, I have fucked many people's mothers." He taunted.

I glared at him as he forced me into the wall. He breathed into my ear, tightening his hold on my broken bones. I kept my lips sealed, not wanting to rise a reaction out of him. People like this, like Darius too, loved the power they had over making you scream.

"Do you ever wonder how you can move so fluidly?" He whispered. "I caught onto your patterns, though, as I watched my brother train a similar way."

My jaw tightened with his hold, but he caught my attention.

"I don't know how your brother trains." I seethed.

"Don't lie to yourself. You have watched him train." He chuckled. "Following his patterns, every wolf learns a certain way. It is the sparring that is sporadic. It is no wonder he upped that. Fewer people to see his slip ups."

"You are keeping tabs on him?" I exhaled, trying to ignore the new pain.

"Always. I was waiting for the right time. I have people everywhere."

"Of course, vampires are quiet." I clicked my tongue. "When I get out of here, I can't wait to tell him-

"If you get out of here." He mused. "You may not live to see the end of that, yet."

I scowled. "You want me alive. Otherwise Guy would not have stopped you from killing me just five minutes ago."

"And yet you live," He sighed, flexing his fingers against my skin. "I have a plan, you see, and it needs you alive. But not for long."

Staring into his eyes, I found them dimming back to the midnight blue I called home. The only actual difference was in the way Asra's had a hint of silver in the iris, but Azriel's had a flicker of amber-green within the blue. Like little stars, they changed as they both grew dark. But even beyond the pretty blue eyes, I saw nothing but vengeance.

Right then, I knew his plan.

He was going to kill me in front of Asra and then kill Asra.

"It won't work."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? It won't? I didn't realise you had all the answers when you are the one needing them, Princess."

"What are you even talking about?"

"We had a deal. Do you want an answer?"

Like whiplash, I stared at him incredulously. Now he was back onto the question thing?

I honestly don't think I will ever understand how vampire-wolf hybrids work. The vampire side was bloodthirsty and murderous, but the wolf liked to play games.

"You mean after you tried to kill me?"

"Emphasis on tried." He smirked.

"You have broken my arm."

"That is your own fault for learning patterns and not naturally moving."

"I have learnt nothing."

"Oh, haven't you?"

My eyes darted between both of his, searching for the answer between his words. What was he implying? My brain racked with questions and memories, falling upon a few that I could recall as suspicious.

I remember running through trees in my dreams, exhausted from exercise. Or others where I felt like I was going to do the self-defence moves in the book. I even recall Rio and Eliza question my motives when battling it out so many moons ago. Rio had a suspicious look on his face then. Did he think the same thing?

That I was trained?

But if Azriel was right, then how much could a book actually teach you without a subject or trainer?

Who trained me?

How?

My childhood wiped, and my teenage years full of work and hardships, I barely remembering having the time before Darius.

But how did it come so naturally? My body moved without me thinking, so what if I actually applied myself? What could I accomplish?

Who helped me? Without a father, who helped me?

"That looks like a question." Azriel stated.

I glared at him, still aware of my broken arm in his grip pulsating with pain. It was slightly amusing how easily I drowned out the pain. Broken bones were a thing of the past, the amount of times I 'fell down the stairs' or had 'too much drink and slipped'.

Child's play.

Everything was.

I have played games before, I could do it again. Bluffing, poker faces, misdirection's...

"Okay, I will give you a question." I smirked.

He rose his eyebrows, lips parting as he waited.

"The second man in the forest, I know him." I started, and his eyebrows lowered into a frown. "What pack does he originally belong to?"

He wasn't expecting this one.

******
A looooot going on atm

Azriel is f king nuts
and Ailia ... she's just as crazy tbf.

But honestly, as wild and wacky as Azriel is, he is two creatures at war with each other. Vampires love to kill humans, don't forget