Smoke and Mirrors

Sapphire Ragna Nightborne

I am going to kill him…no I am going to do more than that, I am going to… I am going to… I can’t even imagine what I wanted to do to him as nothing seemed good enough.

I growled as I paced back and forth in this glorified prison cell Damien had locked me in. I could not escape even if I wanted to as just like the rest of this forsaken house, silver barred the windows preventing them from aiding me. Moreover, that monster had used the time I was unconscious to coat the door and walls of this room in melted silver preventing me from even touching them, let alone escaping. The floor of my cage was littered with fragments of wood from the furniture I had thrown against the bars as well as the door but alas, what could wood do against silver.

My first plan after the usual physical approach failed me was to escape the moment they hopefully serve me food but curse Damien for thinking of that, that man actually had his guards sit on some type of bench before being hoisted up two floors to serve me food through the bars of my window, the freaking window, he gets my respect for creativity, I’ll give him that. The only consolation was that whoever put their dirty paws through those silver bars left with their tail between their legs and a nice reminder of me on their arm. The food was removed untouched after an hour by the same method so whoever it was on that day received two reminders of me.

“You’re starving yourself, Sapphire.”

That was what he said to me after food came back untouched on the tenth day.

“I have survived longer without food.”

I remembered the dark and dirty cells where I chose to starve instead of fighting my own brethren for food. That shut him up and he dropped the subject.

The pile of untouched clothes kept growing with each passing day as Damien threw more and more expensive clothes at me as if I were his personal doll. The very thought of seeing his face made me sick to my stomach and I would almost be content with living in this gilded cage for the rest of my life if I never had to see his mug ever again, but of course, when has fate ever been kind to me.

Everyday Damien would actually get his men to hoist him to my window, so he could talk to me as if I was his princess locked in a tower and every single day the same offer came.

“Sapphire, you are punishing yourself for no reason. Be mine and all of this will be over, you will be free again.”

Every day he got to hear the wide range of vocabulary I learnt from my trainer in the past. I hoped that one day he would get tired of trying and decided that I was more trouble than I was worth, I hoped that he would try to come in and kill me, but unlike the last time, this time I was ready and fit to fight.

The rattling coming from outside my window received an eye roll from me, let the propaganda begin… again. The clicking of nails, a habit of mine, quickened the closer Damien got to my window, that had always been my tell-tale sign of when I was angry or annoyed, and annoyed I was as Damien’s face came into view. That monster had a full-blown grin on his face as he looked at me through the bars if he could just be considerate enough to lean closer everything would have been perfect.

My mind decided to zone out, as he repeated the same damn thing that he had been saying the last five days, to think about my favourite things: animals, killing Damien, music, killing Damien…. I continued to list them down before I realised that he had stopped speaking, the sales pitch was finally finished. So, I decided to reply him with a new set of words from my large vocabulary, see unlike him, I actually take the effort to ensure he hears different things coming out from my mouth every day.

I waited for his face to fall into the scowl that had graced his face every day after I told where he could stick his idea of me becoming Alpha Female, however today was different, his lips morphed to form a grin, this caused my hair to stand as his smile looked like that of a cat that had finally cornered the canary. I was about to ask why the heck was he smiling when he pouted, he actually pouted.

“Aww Sapphy, and here I thought you actually cared for your pack, being the insufferably noble person you are.”

Wait, pause and rewind. What did he say about my pack? In my rush to get answers I had gripped the silver bar, I could feel the burn spread through my hand but at this moment I did not care, I wanted answers. Damien actually laughed at my reaction, his laughter quickly died down and was replaced with a smirk as he realised that he had caught my attention. The urge to rip his lips and tongue suddenly spiked.

“Good, I caught your attention. I just thought that you ought to know that my scouts have found some survivors of you pack camped a few miles away from your Northern Border.”

His features morphed into a look of annoyance as he continued.

“Your pack are just like cockroaches, you can just never seem to stamp them out completely without others crawling out of the woodwork.”

His grin came back after he heard the growl that left my lips after that jab.

“Anyway, my scouts were there to survey your land, or should I say my land, so long story short, your pack members are still kicking, well some of them anyway.”

My heart started to pound faster as almost jumped for joy, some had survived, this was not the end of the Blackwater Pack, however, my celebratory mood quickly cooled when I realised that this piece of news had come from Damien’s mouth and that it was his scouts that had found them.

His eyes glittered as he spoke.

“I’ve got a proposition for you that I think you would want to hear.”

This was why he radiated confidence when he went up to my window today, he managed to pull out a trump card.

“How do you I know you are not lying to me? I want evidence that you have my pack and that they are currently still alive, unharmed.”

I felt a tooth crack as I clenched my teeth, his laugh causing my nails to dig into the skin of my palm.

“You are not exactly in a good position to demand things from me, are you? I leave it up to you. You can believe me and save your pack, or, believe what you will and lose any chance of saving the pack you swore to protect. Just remember the stakes at risk and tell me of your decision by tonight.”

He had finally got me.