Thank him for helping clean you up.

I lay on the floor of the washroom on my stomach, naked, my arms to my side to cover what little I could.

I hissed in pain as he touched a deep one.

"Deep breaths," he said.

"Trying," I muttered back.

He cleaned my wounds in silence for a while.

"Thanks," I said suddenly.

"No problem."

"Thanks for caring," I corrected.

He didn't reply.

"I know you do, you just won't say so."

"I'm trying not to get too attached to you," he said quietly. "Kind of hard, when I'm responsible for taking care of you."

"But I was sent here to kill you. I could save you from assassinations, then we'd be even."

"No, we're already even."

I turned my head slightly, trying to look at him, wincing. "But I haven't done anything for you."

"You've noticed I always punish you right after you do something wrong. Hit you, starve you, or make you admit you're my ****. So we're even."

I nodded. "Alright."

"But you didn't deserve to get whipped."

"It could've been worse," I offered.

He sighed. "I don't want you to associate me with cruel punishments. Punishments, yes. Cruelty? No."

"I don't associate you with cruelty."

"The King is set on changing that."

There was another long silence.

"There. Now come on." He handed me a robe and led me back to his chambers.

.

~ ~ ~

.

The Prince applied new bandages to me as I lay on the carpet and said, "Stay."

I did. Meanwhile, we went over and searched my cage. "What're you looking for?" I asked.

He pulled out a bow and arrow fashioned out of wood chips from the bedframe, string from my sheets, and sharpened chicken bone, which I'd made the day before. "This."

"I don't feel right without a weapon," I said quickly, standing up.

He threw it out the barred window and strode towards me.

"I'm sorry, I promise not to--"

"You ought to trust me," he said flatly. "You don't need to defend yourself. If the need arose, I'd do that for you."

"But I still--"

"Quiet." He kept walking towards me, and I stepped back until I hit the wall. "Akira, you need to learn to submit."

"I don't--"

He pinned my wrists to the wall. "You're still doing it. You're still trying to defend yourself against me, be it with sharpened bones or words."

I didn't reply.

"There, much better," he replied to my silence. "What are you?"

"I'm not doing this again."

"Yes you are. What are you?"

"You know what I am, stop asking!"

"I need to hear you say it. If you don't say it and submit, you'll never trust me, and we're not getting out of this alive unless you trust me. Got it?"

Hesitantly, I nodded.

"What are you?"

"Your ****."

"And what's that make me?"

I looked away. "My master."

"Look at me," he insisted. "Now what am I?"

I stared him dead in the eyes. "My master."

"Good girl. What's your mission?"

I sighed. It wasn't worth protesting. "To obey your every word."

"And how well are you doing that?"

"As well as could be expected."

"That's not the answer I'm looking for. How good are you at obeying my every word?"

"Not good."

"Correct."

"Will you stop pinning me down and making me inflate your ego?" I asked sarcastically.

He was taken aback. "I can do whatever the hell I want to you."

I didn't respond.

"I know you want this. Life is simpler when you're just a soldier following orders, with someone to depend on. That's why you never killed me."

"I can think for myself."

"That doesn't mean you want to. At least now you have someone you can depend on and trust, but again, you're going to need to open yourself up to depending on and trusting me."

"Yes Master," I replied.

"You know, that just ruined your chances of getting cock tonight," he said flatly.

I sighed, my heart sinking. Him...and what he could do to me...it was stuck on my mind. It was all I could think about.

He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down to sit against the wall. "Stay," he ordered.

He stood back up, leaned one hand against the wall over me, and used the other to pull out his cock.

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked.

I bit my lip. "Yes, Master."

So he jacked off, inches from my nose, and made me watch.

My mouth watered.

No, damn it... I've got a wet pussy right here, just use it! Fuck!

He worked his shaft, relishing the heartbreak in my hungry gaze.

He made me sit there and watch for a couple minutes. By the end of it, I was grinding on the floor.

He slapped his dick against my cheek. "So cock-hungry," he teased.

I tried to take it in my mouth, so he put his cock back in his pants and slapped me.

"Bad girl." He stepped back. "Go back to your damn cage. Rest up and heal up, and let me know if you need anything. If you don't take care of those wounds like I tell you, I might not help you heal the next ones."

I nodded and took my leave.

"The King has requested a formal meeting with me and his attendants," he said as I lay down in my bed. "It's at noon. I'm locking your cage with a key only I have. You should be alright."

"But...what if they--"

"Just because we're both thinking it doesn't mean you need to say it," he interrupted. After a pause, he added, "Sorry if I've been a bit on edge this morning."

"Not your fault," I said simply.

He sighed. "Here, eat your breakfast." He handed me my tray, which consisted of a small bowl of vegetable soup and a roll.

My stomach growled. "Will I ever be fully fed?" I asked, careful with my wording.

"Not until I'm King. And don't let anyone see you exercise. They'll decrease your portions."

"Could you request more food for yourself, and share with me, maybe, please?" I asked politely.

"We'll see."

.

~ ~ ~

.

I waited for the Prince to return all afternoon.

He was nowhere to be seen.

I tried fashioning a new weapon, my hands sweaty. I peeled pieces off my bedframe using my four-inch horns, but I couldn't get any sizeable pieces off.

I tried using the bars on the cage to sharpen them, but my hands were beginning to tremble, my movements frantic. My horns must've been pretty sharp, because they sliced my finger, leaving me with what looked like a nasty papercut.

I sharpened the wood chips on the bedframe, and using paper, I folded them into something I could throw at attackers, before chipping more wood off the bed.

There was a knock on the door.

I scrambled back into my bed, as if I could hide. The Prince doesn't knock on his door.

It was opened by the chef, who realized his mistake. "Oh, oops." Holding my dinner, he approached my cage anxiously.

He held the tray out shakily.

"Please don't eat me," he begged. "You like blood, right? I could get you a drink from anything else!"

"Where is the Prince?" I hissed from my end of the cage.

"He's...he's still with the King," the chef stammered. "W-Why do you ask?"

I walked forward to accept my tray, but he jumped back.

"No no no, you stay back there, demon," he said. I sat on my bed. He set the tray on the ground and backed up. I ate it by reaching through the bars.

The chef cautiously crept away, then hurried down the hall, the door closing behind him. He fled as if I were chasing him.

My anxiety made my stomach hurt more than it already did, so half my dinner went cold. I tried picking the lock with wood chips, but it didn't work.

There were footsteps down the hall. If it was the Prince, he wasn't alone.

The door opened, and the King walked in, and the Prince was being carried by a guard behind him.

Furious, I rushed forward and banged on the bars, releasing a furious elvish battle cry loud as a lion's roar and piercing as nail's on a chalkboard.

The guards cowered at the sound, but the King must've had an earplug spell. "Silence, demon, he's fine," the King snarled. He lay the Prince down in his bed and approached me, holding a vial. "Drink it."

I lunged for the drink, hoping to knock it out of his hands, but I couldn't reach far enough. The guards around him grabbed my arms, pulling me against the bars.

They grabbed my horns and **** my head back as the King poured the potion down my throat.

I choked on it, coughing and spitting, but it still made its way down like a slimy slug.

As they let me go, I collapsed; tensed, convulsing, and in pain.

I hardly noticed them unlocking the cage door and leaving. All I knew was that when I looked up, they were gone.

Everything was blurry. My vision faded in and out in rolls of delirious black.

Everything began to go numb, my limbs began falling asleep. My mouth started hissing "Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill."