Alex
“Lilly!” I rushed over to her, ignoring the ‘cubi that had just barged in.
“Lilly!? Are you–” I realized she was unconscious. But alive. So that was–
I felt a knife rip through my wings.
I spun around to face my attacker, letting out a loud growl. In the blink of an eye, I was blazing like a bonfire.
“Whoa!” All three ‘cubi jumped back.
“You picked the wrong room to barge in on.” I let loose a jet of flame.
But it only managed to set one of them alight, and they had the sense to flee.
Another growl as I dropped to all fours and pursued them through the hallway.
I leapt at the closest one, also letting out another burst of fire. I didn’t manage to knock them down, but I could tell by the screams that their blood was beginning to boil from the flames.
One down, two to go. I’d make them pay for hurting Lilly.
“Holy shit!” One of them screamed.
“Is that a fucking dragon?!,” the other yelled.
Within 32 seconds, they were all burning alive.
“Uh… Alex?”
I turned around, saw Lilly staring at me with a mixture of horror and awe.
I quickly extinguished myself and stood up.
“For a pacifist, you seem oddly proficient at fighting.”
“Uh…” was all I could manage.
“Remind me never to cross you.” She smiled and patted me on the back. “Nice work.”
“I–ah…” I looked at the body of one of the ‘cubi. Burnt to a crisp. I’d totally lost control there.
“They were trying to kill us, Alex. Don’t worry about it.”
“They were fleeing, though.”
“Yeah. Okay. You… probably could’ve just let them go. But… I have no right to judge you for that.”
I nodded. “Right.”
“Wait a moment…” Lilly frowned, crouched down and took a closer look at the ‘cubus’ body. “Is that… a collar?”
I crouched next to her, looked at the chunk of metal and leather around the ‘cubus’ neck. “Yeah. Looks like a collar.”
“Why would they–”
“Um… well, some people… like that kind of thing… sexually.” I blushed slightly.
We looked at each other awkwardly.
“‘Cubi thrive on sexual energy,” I said, “I read once that almost all of them try BDSM at some point.”
“Right. Let’s… let’s go.”