Page 86 of Saint

“This is the Order, and last I checked, you are not a member of the board. You have no say on what goes on here, Lake. I decide. Not you.”

“I vote to finally do away with the pretenses,” Yejun suggested, lifting a hand into the air almost comically.

“Seconded,” Nix stated, hatred for Demitrious getting the best of him.

“By all means,” West shrugged, “don’t let me hold you back. I’m in. Lake?”

“What are you talking about?” Demitrious frowned at them. “Did you not hear me? This is the Order, none of you—”

West’s hand came down on Sif’s right shoulder so suddenly the woman jolted in her seat. “Mrs. Helgi, do you remember three years ago when your stocks suddenly crashed and you lost all that money?” He met Demitrious’s furious gaze and grinned deviously. “Did Mr. Burns forget to tell you my dear old dad here was behind that?”

“Excuse me?” the way she said it, was obvious she believed him. She turned to Demitrious. “How dare you! We had to sell our vacation home on Drax because of those losses!”

“He did it for Mr. Dagur.” West pointed at the man at the end of the table, the first one who’d spoken in subtle favor of Juri. “It was to make up for stealing the Hoj business out from under his nose. Not that Mr. Dagur ever figured out it was my father who outbid him.”

“What?!”

“That is enough.” Demitrious slammed his hands on the table and stood with a flourish, staring daggers at his son.

“I don’t answer to you,” West replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “Although, I do suppose the vote wasn’t yet unanimous. Sorry, Lake. Would you like to put yours in now? Should I stop airing Dad’s dirty laundry or should I keep going?”

The ever so slight curve to Lake’s lips was answer enough, but before West could launch into another attack, Juri loudly coughed.

And kept coughing.

Chapter 24:

Nix’s brow furrowed and he actually took a step closer as though to help, watching in growing confusion as the other man’s body jerked with each dry heave.

“What’s going on?” one of the members asked.

“Is he choking on something?” Yejun questioned.

“Should we like, get him some water?” West glanced around the room as though a pitcher would magically appear.

Then Juri hacked and sputtered and this time projectile vomited blood across the table.

People screamed and shot out of their seats to get away as crimson splatted the shiny surface, covering almost the entire image of Nix and Juri that was still up on the screen.

Blood dripped down Juri’s chin as he straightened and swayed on his feet, losing his balance a second later. He crashed into Nix’s arms, both of them going down to the ground. Hishealth deteriorated almost instantly from there, his skin turning sallow so suddenly Nix was almost certain he was imagining it.

He’d caught him out of instinct but now watched in abstract horror as the guy in his arms, the one he’d considered to be a friend only five hours ago, withered away like crumpled paper set alight.

“What’s happening?” the question came out of him on a breathy note, his gaze searching Juri’s face as his skin turned wrinkly as though all of the water was being sucked out of him. He held him tighter, unsure of what to do, momentarily forgetting all about how angry he’d been a second ago.

“I have to tell you,” Juri didn’t sound anything like himself, struggling to get the words out. “It…wasn’t me. Branwen and I, we never…wasn’t…”

“Nix.” Yejun reached down and grabbed onto his arm to pull him away, but Nix refused to budge.

“What’s happening to him?” Nix shook his head. “Juri, stop talking. Just hold on, we’ll get you to a doctor and—”

“Poison,” Juri uttered and Nix froze. “I…” His eyes got glassy and unfocused. “B—”

Juri Ferd made a final wheeze and went limp in Nix’s hold.

“What just happened?” This time when Yejun pulled him, Nix went, Juri’s body slipping through his grasp to settle on the floor.

He didn’t move afterward. Didn’t so much as twitch.

---