Blessed by Night

87  Starting Off On The Wrong Foot

Malachi was currently in the back of a very nice limousine with blacked out windows. He'd been riding for quite some time now and he wasn't completely sure about just how much longer he had to go. His phone wasn't receiving any cell service, nor was it able to pinpoint his location on the map. He was completely and totally isolated. 'Sun's still out... once it goes down I should be able to get a better grasp of my surroundings.'

As soon as he had the thought, the car began to slow down. A few minutes later, he finally came rolling to a stop and the door was unlocked. Pushing open the door, Malachi was briefly blinded by the bright white lights coming from above.

Once his vision adjusted, he could see that he was in a hangar surrounded by military vehicles that looked like they were straight out of a sci fi movie. Armored trucks, tanks, and even a helicopter were all on standby, looking as if they were freshly polished. "It's this way." Malachi glanced at Lamont and noticed that he was much less talkative than before. He wasn't sure if it was due to the fact that he'd almost lost his life earlier, or if he was just tired from the long drive. It was likely a healthy mix of both. Malachi followed carefully behind him while keeping an eye on his surroundings. The two of them entered into a high speed express elevator, alerting Mal that he was in a very large structure. Lamont pressed the button for the highest floor, and it took a minute before they actually started moving. "The boss is a no nonsense kind of person, so whatever you do be sure to be polite." He warned. Malachi didn't say anything, and continued to have a bored and empty look on his face as if he wasn't at all interested by the fact that he was in a highly secure military base. "Seriously... what has happened to you?" "..."

Ding!

The doors to the elevator finally came sliding open, and Mal strode through before Lamont did. Inside he found a luxurious penthouse office with monitors lining every corner of the walls. Furniture was scarce, consisting of only a wooden desk with a computer on top and a small table lined neatly with alcohol. Sitting behind the desk was a proper looking woman with black hair and full lips. She wore a dark black pantsuit with prim looking glasses and a beauty mark beside her lip. 'Weird... she kinda looks like-'

"Malachi Saint? You're late." The woman said in a stern tone. "Ain't like I knew about this beforehand. I had things to do."

For some reason, the scowl on the woman's face only became worse and Lamont felt like he was going to pass out from fear.

"I-I'm sorry, Director J. He's just been feeling a bit out of sorts today and-"

"Fuck off, Lamont."

"Yes ma'am, right away."

Lamont practically threw himself back into the elevator, and he felt like he couldn't press 'close door' fast enough.

Once the two of them were alone, the director stood up and came from behind her desk. As the sound of clicking heels came closer and closer to Mal's ears, he began to feel a very unpleasant feeling spreading within his chest. Directer Joanne stopped a few inches away from Mal's body and his stone-like expression finally broke as his face twisted up in disgust. 'What the hell is this... She smells horrible.'

Let it be known that Director Joanne bathed religiously and she never stepped out of her house without wearing the finest of perfumes. Even now, a random passerby would get a single sniff of her hair and find themselves captivated entirely by the scent of Channel no 86.

So whatever Mal was smelling... it was a scent only he could notice. But Director Joanne was not aware of such a thing, and Malachi's facial expression only caused her already sour mood to plummet. "You have something you need to say, boy?"

"Nah... just back away from me."

"What was that...?" Joanne asked in a hushed tone.

Instead of answering, Mal took a step back on his own and tried to prevent the unfortunate disaster of throwing up in this office. He didn't really care about first impressions anymore, but he still had to maintain some level of dignity. "In all my life I have never..." Joanne closed the distance between the two once again, and raised her hand to smack Malachi directly across the face. Because he was faster than she was, Mal easily caught her attack with one hand. But as soon as he made contact with her, his feeling of revulsion skyrocketed to new heights. He could feel something... odd, coursing through her body.

It was strange and honestly quite alien in nature, and he was no longer quite sure how to describe it. Suddenly, he noticed a silver bracelet on her wrist in the shape of thorns. It seemed like they were... embedded in her skin?

Pow!

Mal was only able to get a glance for half a second before a heeled foot connected with his temple. The world immediately went dark and he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness, but he bit down on his tongue to prevent such a thing from happening. His vision returned just in time for him to see Joanne's heel coming towards his chest. BOOM!

Malachi flew like a kite with it's strings cut, and his body slammed hard into the elevator doors. "Damn... quite the business meeting." Mal muttered. "You disrespectful brat, you don't seem to understand how things work here. You take orders from me, you do not speak unless you're spoken to and you do not-"

"You are making this a hell of a lot easier." Mal said.

"What did I just-"

FWOOSSHHH!!!!

Before Joanna could react, Malachi opened up his palm and a blast of golden fire sprang forth. Ever since he first smelled this woman, he could feel his instincts screaming out that action had to be taken. He thought maybe he was just becoming irrational and irritated because of the stench, so he held back until this point.

But something about being yelled at like he was a two year old made him lose all of his hesitation.

Mal allowed his golden flames to run unrestrained, and they embraced the body of the director and swallowed her up. For some reason, neither herself nor the clothes on her body were being affected by the heat of his attack, but she still dropped to the ground while screaming and clutching her left wrist. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Malachi hoped that this room was soundproof, or else he was about to have a lot of company in the next few minutes. Suddenly, the sound of something dripping onto the ground could be heard and Mal could see that this woman's silver bracelet had started to melt off. She also had begun to bleed some sort of dark silver-ish liquid from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

While this was undoubtedly a scary sight, Mal knew that this woman wasn't actually dying. Whatever unnatural thing that was within her body was simply being burned out and this was merely the proof of that.

After what felt like an eternity of screaming and burning, Joanne's eyes finally rolled into the back of her head and she fell forward, her head striking against the marble floors of her office. Malachi's flames disappeared a moment later, leaving him in this now quiet office with an unconscious woman a few feet away from him. *Sniff, Sniff.* "... At least the smell's gone."

-

"Ugh..."

Director Joanne rubbed her head as she finally stirred awake. Her mind felt a bit foggy, but as she rubbed her temples a bit she was able to recall everything that had happened before she went to sleep. "That boy... he-"

"Sorry for frying you right after we met. I'm usually more laid back than that."

"!"

Joanne stumbled upwards looking for the source of the familiar voice. She found Mal floating in the corner a few feet away, with his legs crossed and his usual emotionless expression as he scrolled through all of the photos on his phone. Although if one looked close enough, a bit of light could be seen in his eyes, as he was currently only looking at photos he had with his friends. "But given the fact that you kicked me... twice... figured we're even." He added. "You... you did it..." Joanne muttered. "You freed me..."

"Freed you? From what-"

Mal was suddenly alerted to the sound of sniffling coming from the woman on the ground, and he tucked his phone into his pocket as he floated above her. "Easy now. Tell me what's wrong with-"

BOOM!

Suddenly, Joanne slammed her fist into the ground and cracked the floor. "That bastard... how dare he violate me and manipulate me like this...! He'll never see the light of day again!!"

Mal finally placed both feet on the ground and kneeled in front of the raging woman. "Still a lil clueless over here, miss. You wanna fill me in anytime soon?"

For the first time, Mal understood why Lamont was so afraid of his boss. The way Joanne was looking at him now... it was as if she was going to burn the whole world down at any second. "That bastard Alex Heller... I will strip the flesh from his bones!!"

I ain't get no good barbecue today this 4th wasn't hitting on nothing frfr. Feel like I missed out a lil bit.

AnathaShesha

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