From the Flames- Book Six

Ch. 28- Different Queendoms

Kalama, a year ago

The wickedness in his eyes was unlike Maxwell. He prowled closer to me until my back was against the wall and there was nowhere to go. Yes, he was my boyfriend but sometimes it seems as though I did not know him at all. Sometimes I don't know why I gave him chance after chance when he did not care about me on occasion. "Darling, why are you stepping back from me?" he tilted his head to the side. "Don't you want me?"

He was drunk. I now smelled the alcohol on his breath that tasted like my own fire. My hands crossed over my chest as I nodded my head. "Not like this, Maxwell. You're drunk."

He took another step closer to me, ignoring me. I noticed his blonde hair that flowed down his neck was a mess and his cheeks were red from the alcohol he drank a while ago. Maxwell was a Vampire like me but he was much older about fifty years. We have been dating for a year now and I loved him with all my heart. I think. "I'm perfectly sober."

"No." I raised my voice. "Go back to your room."

"Or what?" Maxwell questioned, his whole body close to mine. I wanted to run away from him. I wanted to get as much distance from the man that I called my boyfriend. Looking at him now, I wanted to vomit. In a second, his hand clutched to my bottom with a force that took me by surprise. No, don't touch me. "I know you like that."

I pushed him away but he didn't move at all. Get away from me, was what I wanted to say. But I couldn't. "Maxwell, get off me!" I screamed.

His grey eyes darkened. "Don't you forget who I am, Kalama. Everyone knows me. I can make everyone in fucking Ambrosia see you as a whore. What a rumor that would be, huh? The Princess of Ambrosia doesn't seem to keep her pants on." My blood boiled. And this time, I knew it was my fire that was telling me to do something. To fight back from the insults he was throwing at me. Who knows, he might do something more. "You're a monster."

It was the last thing he said before I grabbed both of his hands and turned him to red flames and then to ash. When I looked at what I did, the grey dust in front of me where he used to stand, I knew I lost control. I couldn't do anything but slide down the wall and curl up to my knees and sob.

An hour passed and gentle hands moved a strand of hair out of my face. It was my parents and Aeson, the only three people in the entire world who understood me. Who faced my fire without fear. As if they can take it. My mother was next to me, wiping tears off my face and my father kneeled down next to me, staring at the pile of dust in front of me. Both of them were somber and stayed silent. Aeson, however, had his jaw clenched and it looked like he was ready to explode from anger.

"I killed him." I murmured. "If he didn't, he would have done way worse to me. He called me a monster."

No one spoke for the longest time. Until, eventually, my mother lifted my chin and made me look into her golden eyes. "You are no monster, Kalama. You acted in self-defense and no one is going to blame you for it. That is if you tell others the truth."

"He deserved to go up in flames." Aeson growled.

"I promised you, Kala, that I would protect you when I first held you in my arms." my father started to say. "And I will for as long as I breathe. I am sorry for not protecting you from him. I did not know he was capable of such things."

"As did I." I whispered, tears still pouring out of my eyes. "I loved him, though. And now everyone will hear about it and think I am the one to fear."

"You are not." my mother said with determination.

But I am.

***