Page 102 of Shadows in Bloom

Someone was here, and they were…running?

All of the annoyance pooled out of him as he headed in that direction, and he paid more attention to his surroundings, preparing himself for anything. There was only one reason he could think of for someone to be hiding from him.

They didn’t belong here.

A very limited number of people had access to this building, and not a single one of them would bother to hide from Ledger—avoid him, sure. But hide? No. He debated whether or not to call his brother but since he didn’t know who or what he was dealing with yet, decided to hold off.

Pavel was the opposite of him in more ways than one, a night owl who was currently at his fancy restaurant/club.

Or spying on their fellow Retinue member, Zane.

One or the other.

The lights were off inside the locker room when Ledger pulled the door open and slowly entered. He slipped one of the short daggers he kept hidden on his person out, ready to defend himself at any given moment as his eyes scanned the area in front of him.

The door led to a storage space of sorts and then turned right into the actual locker area, then deeper to the showers. Unsurprisingly, no one was standing in the middle of the square-shaped room waiting to be caught, and Ledger was forced to make his way down toward the shower stalls.

He refrained from the taunts he’d used earlier, keeping his eyes peeled and ears open for any slight sound that could give the intruder away. The first two stalls he checked were empty, but there were only eight in total, and he didn’t anticipate this taking much longer with his prey short on hiding places.

Once he’d made it past the first half, he stopped being so quiet, shoving the doors open so they clattered loudly against the tiled wall. Let whoever was in here get scared, knowing he was close. His brother always blamed him for being the type to play with his food, but the way Ledge saw it, what was the point of living if not taking advantage of all its little pleasures?

Like teasing and taunting and tasting.

Some might call it cruel, but Ledger was a Devil of Vitality. The Devils were split into two groups: the Retinue, who followed the Imperial Prince Kelevra Diar, and the Satellite, who followed the leader of the Brumal Mafia, Baikal Void. The planet couldn’t be run without both, a well-known fact throughout the galaxy, and one that gave the members of these groups the power to do as they pleased.

If he murdered this intruder, he’d have to call the cleaners, and at this hour…Ledger scowled. If it came to that, he’d be lucky to make it into bed before the sun rose in the sky.

Maybe just a little maiming then, enough to teach whoever this was a lesson before sending him on his way. He’d take his ID and hand it off to someone else to follow up on. That could work. It was annoying to curb his bloodlust, but sleep had always been his biggest weakness.

He kicked in the last stall, ready to grab whoever was hiding within, only…

It was empty.

That was…unexpected.

Tipping his head up, he caught sight of one of the ceiling panels slightly off-center, not enough to be noticeable if he hadn’t been paying attention to the details on purpose.

They’d climbed into the ceiling?

Seriously?

“Cute,” he mumbled to himself, twisting on his heels. He wasn’t slow or careful now as he bolted from the locker room and back into the central area of the fight club. Fortunately, he made it just in time to spot a figure dressed in all black making a run toward the exit.

Though he had a good amount of distance on him already, Ledger wasn’t worried, confident he could easily catch up. There was a reason Kelevra had assigned this task to him, after all. He liked to do everything at three times the speed of the average person; running was nothing to him, and he was the fastest Devil in either group.

The intruder made it close to the door, with only twenty or so feet left to go, and he’d almost reached it by the time Ledger took him down.

He slammed into him, both hitting the ground and rolling as they struggled for the upper hand. The man beneath him—because it was clear now it was a man, had absolutely no fighting skills, however, and only managed to elbow Ledge in the side once before he was successfully pinned on his stomach.

Ledger spread out over him, covering him as much as possible so there was barely any wiggle room for the intruder to even try to use as an escape. He held him down at the wrists at either side of the man’s head and then tilted to stare down at him once he was confident there’d be no more pushback.

The man was young, probably around Ledger’s age, so early twenties. His cheeks were bright red, and there were already tears pooling in the corners of his purple and gold eyes.

“Those are interesting,” Ledger said, inspecting the deep violet shade that made up the outer rings of the man’s irises. Gold made up the center, blotching outward into the purple, almost like spilled ink. “Don’t think I’ve seen any eyes like that before. Are you a Vital?”

Vital was what those native-born to Vitality were called, and Ledger knew many, but none of them were this…pretty. It was an odd thing to think of given their current circumstances, but Ledger found himself inspected the other man more closely. He might have been wrong about the age. He could be younger than him even.

The man’s pouty, full pink lips pressed together, a show of defiance that actually made Ledge chuckle.

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