The Dragon Prince's Obsession

SIX – MIKHAIL

Why did I bring her here? Maybe the Drakii were right to think me insane. I rescued a human. I shivered, disgusted at myself.

Like you want to kiss me.

It was the most preposterous thing a human ever said to me. The most daring for a specie of fragile, feeble limbed people. Someone I could crush without trouble.

She lay sprawled at my feet, head on my bed, body on the floor, her hands closer to my feet than I cared for.

This girl, this human, made me question things that I knew to be true. Why would she see ‘green grass'? It intrigued me more than I liked. Plagued my very existence.

She smelt like a human. She wore the repulsive scent that made my heart pound with fury. I could tell from the frailty of her look even without the scent what specie she belonged. But her sight could not be explained. No one of supreme blood bar myself could get through such magic. But she had the filthy blood of a human.

A Halfling maybe?

But why could I not scent her other half if she had one?

She stirred, jolted by a dream I wanted to know about. Her hand moved, a finger whispering against my ankle. I moved so fast, I startle her awake. She jumped, hair flying back as she got into a rigid stance.

“Where is the trouble?” She gasped, eyes flying about the place before they landed on me, narrowing. I did not wish to smile.

I wanted a cat as a little dragon. I hounded my father for one after seeing a stray in Dracoberg. Dragons did not coexist with other animals but this one had the darkest coat I ever saw, with big, terrified yellow eyes. I looked at it and I felt I had to have one.

“Who would keep it alive?” Nicholas Pendragon had asked, staring down at me with impatient eyes.

“Me?” I asked, a bit unsure of myself after getting an audience with him. It took a great deal of trouble to get to have his attention. As the king, he had a lot of business to attend to. Unless you were a certain black dragon with an uncanny resemblance to him, one did not approach him without a valid reason.

“You?” He smiled down at me like I was a foolish boy. “You nefarious little boy, you cannot be trusted with a life, Mikhail, no matter how insignificant.” Then he messed up my hair and strode out of the Pit.

My nursemaid scurried over, grabbing my hand. I got a good scolding for running off, running off to the Pit of all places.

I had little sense but I knew the lifespan of a cat. It would die before I could change into my beast. I did my research to convince father but it had taken another two weeks to have an audience with him. I did not care for a cat anymore.

I looked at the human settling back at my feet. I could keep her to prove my father wrong. I could be trusted with a life. No matter how insignificant.

Valiant.

His life had been in my hands and I failed him.

I ignored the little chit, getting out of bed to find a shirt. As much as I needed sleep, vengeance brewed in my gut, hotter than the drink lesser men took to heat their breath, cooking me from within. I could not sleep, not with the memories of cages and curses. And a human girl that did not seem wholly human.

“You are going to hunt them down,” She stated. How – could she know?

Perhaps a witch?

My lips curled. That was a double offence in my book. Human and witch.

“What is on my mind now?” I pulled out one of many similar shirts I owned.

“What – what is on your mind?” She repeated. “How am I to know?” So, not a mind reader.

“Am I predictable then?”

“Evil is.” Her chin raised.

I appreciated intelligent people. I did not, however, appreciate that this one had worked out so fast my disinclination to kill her. Perhaps I should kill her. See how predictable that would be.

“They courted my wrath. Only fair that they get it.” I stuck a hand through the sleeve of my shirt as I turned to face her.

“What do you think – I can see you wince as you pull on that shirt. Sense dictates you go back stronger not the same.” It – felt like a lecture.

No one accused me of having no sense. Insanity, I got often. Cruel, I revelled in. Senselessness?

Curious, she did not 'educate' me on the irrelevance of vengeance.

“I have no sense then.” I pretended to be deaf to the words she said under her breath.

“Your eyes are as haunted as they were hours ago. You could very well keel over and die and there will be no one to save you.”

My eyes had been haunted for years. I never expected anyone to save me. If I could not save myself, then I would welcome death. I courted death quite frequently and would not resent him when he came knocking.

“If I perish, I perish.”

“I risked my life for yours and you will throw it away like that?” She hissed.

Something strange was happening. Something I could not quite understand. A human was scolding me. I peered at her, hoping to see something on her face that would save me before things went too far.

“Stop doing that.”

“What?”

“Staring at me like I am a fascinating bug.” She studied my bare feet. I looked at them to see if anything interesting had happened with them. I still had webbed feet. Not all that fascinating to be stared at.

First, it was like I wanted to kiss her. As hard as I shoved that thought around, trying to get it out of my head, it refused to dislodge.

I cast my mind back to a time when I had been interested in the barbaric things of my people. The last time I had any interest in doing things with a woman’s body. I always found important things to spend my time on but the few times the urges became too strong to ignore, I had preferred the company of fair-skinned, curvaceous and innocent beauties. Those I could corrupt the way I saw fit. This one did not have any of my desired qualities.

Human, Mikhail. Scum of the earth. Not worthy of anything bar your wrath. I reminded myself. I could never find any desired quality in a human.

“You are fascinating but nothing like a bug.” I strode to the balcony, my favourite place in this house. She came scampering after me, her shoulders pulled back and determined etched on her brows.

“I warned you before but you refused to listen. You are being foolish. If you plan to get yourself killed then I must ask for the directions out of this place before you –“ The buzzing in my ear increased till I heard no more.

What liberties I had allowed. Enough for a human girl to speak to me in such a manner. To call me a fool.

Her steps faltered.

A red haze followed the buzzing, blooding my sight. My legs moved of their own will. She stepped away. Then she fled the room.

Prey.

My beast surged to the front, eager and panting to give chase. To hunt down and pull down. A hunter on his prey.

I did not make hefty dragons shake in their boots by giving into the mindlessness of my beast at odd times. She could run but she could not fly and she needed wings to get far from this place. I continued to the balcony.

The split-second during a change where I was both man and beast was my favourite part of life. The merging of bodies, of having only one form for however short. If I could bottle up the dizzying euphoria, I could be a happier man.

I surged into the breaking dawn, speed decreasing upon every hour I spent on flight. The human did not lie. My strength failed me. At odd times, it seemed I would tumble out of the skies as my wings became too heavy to move.

I tumbled into Nico's palace, sending his servants scampering away. The few that stayed frozen managed a short greeting as I walked past.

Nico.

As of yesterday, one witch had usurped him on my most hated list. Making him number three.

Our father had been killed. As had our brother. But he crossed his arms across his chest and said 'No’ when we asked for his help. Valiant would live still if he had helped. I remembered the earlier days of the war. The only time the three of us had fought as brothers. The destruction we had wrought together. We were unstoppable together. But he would not help.

“What are you doing here?” Lucille spotted me first as I pushed open the dining room, right on time for breakfast. Green eyes fell on me as did my brother’s. His fist clenched together, his body tight.

Not only did he refuse to avenge our father and brother, but he also mated with Mystique Hunter. The very daughter of the man that killed Valiant. A spawn of the family that killed our father. She too hunted our kind and in turn, he made her queen of the people she killed.

We had no queen for as long as I knew. Yet, that spot had been filled by a human. A human hunter born to Eric Hunter.

I laughed.

“I have come to have breakfast with my family.” I took a seat. My nose wrinkled. Humans. Too many of them. One served me. How easily they could be wiped out. How much I thirsted for that.

“You look half-dead. Are we to celebrate anytime soon?” Mystique said. I laughed again. Her words could not irk me. It was her existence that pushed a thousand needles into my skin.

“You do not look well, brother. Is anything the matter?” I smiled at Lucille. She looked whole but sadness brought her shoulders hunching forward.

“I have warned you from returning here.” I turned to Nico. He looked too much like me for comfort. I could not think of strangling him without feeling a prickling in my throat.

“Ah, but Nico, you forget this is our father’s castle.” Getting treated like the only heir did not make him the only son. “You look too gloom for a girl who just escaped the clutches of the witches, ” I said to Lucille. Nico swiped the dishes before him to the ground.

“Did you have a hand in this, Mikhail?” He stood. I would too but I held myself. It was best to stand guard for when this brute would start to rage but I sat.

A wench had accused me of being predictable so now, I would spruce up my game. Visiting with my recently abducted sister rather than tearing down the witch’s stronghold was not evil and could not be predicted. I laughed.

“Think, Nico. Why, in the name of our father, would I have my sister taken by the witches?” He used his strength more than he used his senses.

“Why do you do any of the evil you do?” The stupid redhead piped up. “Because you know no better, Mikhail. And I swear to god –“ Another buzzing filled my ear.

Should have killed the w***e when I got the chance. Should have killed the w***e before she became unkillable. Still, I would like to try.

“No need to fight.” Lucille’s quiet voice broke through. “I am fine, Mikhail. I am only sad as we have not found Adela yet.”

“The human?” The temperature dropped. Even Lucille turned stern.

“How do you know Adela?” She demanded just as Mystique piped up.

“What have you done to her?” With the matching look of rage on all their faces, I regretted a statement for the first time in a long time.

“No need to be gloom. She is fine.” The rage morphed to shock and distrust.

Maybe evil really was predictable.