Page 103 of Shadows in Bloom

“Come on, the game is over. You’ve been caught. Might as well save yourself some pain and anguish by answering my questions.” He hummed as he took in the rest of him. “Judging from the curly, pastel hair, you are Vital. The eyes come from somewhere else?”

Vitality was a popular planet due to its riches, and it wasn’t uncommon for people to settle down here. Vitals were known for either having dark, naturally colored hair tones or lush pastels, like the mixture of buttery yellows and soft oranges that this guy was sporting.

“Just kill me and get it over with already,” the man finally spoke, his voice feathery and not at all what Ledger had been expecting from someone bold enough to break into Friction.

He pulled off the intruder a bit more, lifting to check his clothing and quirking a brow when the man made no moves even to attempt to slip free. There was an embroidered tiger lily on the back of his black varsity jacket but nothing else to help identify him.

“You’re not dressed like a spy or an assassin,” Ledger noted. “You just look like a regular college student.”

“I’m not.”

“Not what? Regular, or a college student?”

The man shook a little, his eyes locked onto a spot on the wall as if he were too embarrassed to make eye contact. “I don’t go to college.”

“Why are you ashamed of something like that?”

He snorted. “Easy for someone like you to say.”

“Someone like me?”

“You attend Vail University,” the man stated.

Vail was one of the most prestigious schools in the galaxy, with the best programs and a hefty tuition fee. Ledger wasn’t stupid by any means, but he was hardly a genius, and anyone who knew him would know the only reason he’d been offered enrollment was because of his position within the Retinue.

It wasn’t surprising that he knew who Ledger was, most people on planet did. It also wasn’t shocking that he knew Ledger went to Vail. But if he wasn’t a student himself, that most likely meant he didn’t have any connections with Ledger’s friends or the rival gang who sometimes went against the Brumal. And if that were the case…

“All right, Tiger, want to tell me what you were doing in here?” Because, for the life of him, Ledger couldn’t guess. When he didn’t get an immediate response, he planted a knee at either side of the guy’s hips and grabbed his arm, flipping him onto his back with more force than necessary.

The guy winced and bit down on his bottom lip, but remained lying down, not bothering to fight with Ledger. The spot beneath his right eye was swollen, and he’d managed to reopen a wound on his lip just now, a speck of bright blood staining his skin.

Ledger had been rough, but not that rough. Curious over the reaction, Ledge yanked the thick sleeve of his jacket down, uncovering a mess of blotches in various states of healing there as well. He’d been in a fight recently, that much was obvious.

He let out a low whistle. “I definitely didn’t do all this when I took you down. Get on someone’s bad side?” Ledger paused, an uncomfortable thought occurring to him. “Wait, were you here waiting for someone, Tiger?”

There weren’t many rules between the Retinue and the Satellite, but not messing with each other's things was one of them.

“That’s a question you’re going to have to answer,” he warned. “I’m not about to get a knife to my back because I’m straddling someone else’s plaything, even one as pretty as you are.”

It wasn’t unheard of for a Devil to bring a fling here to watch the fights, but Ledger had never heard about midnight rendezvous. Then again, not really something he imagined was worth sharing. Unless it affected the rest of the group, people’s private matters deserved to be kept as such.

“So, which is it?” he said. “They beat you up or fuck you up—literally?”

“Fuck—” the guy’s eyes went wide and he vehemently shook his head. “No. No, nothing like that.”

“You just get treated like a punching bag then?” There weren’t many Devils who got off on that sort of thing, unless they were taking out their frustrations on someone they thought deserved it. As far as Ledger recalled, no one had any outstanding beef at the moment… “Who’d you piss off, Tiger?”

“Oran Orson.”

Ledger frowned. “Who?” That wasn’t a Devil. Also, “That can’t be a real name.”

“It is,” the guy insisted.

“Yeah? What’s your name then, and why’d this Oran guy beat you to a pulp?”

“Nikita Vizant,” he replied. “And it’s because he’s my brother.”

“Your brother did this?” That was…hard to understand. He and Pavel got into their spats now and again, like all siblings, but some of these injuries looked bad. They’d never even dream of leaving marks on one another that would take longer than a day to heal. “How badly did you hurt him back?”

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