Page 37 of Caress of Fire
Ignio Marula filled the two glasses to the brim and pushed one toward Fedryc, spilling some liquid across the table until it dripped onto the soft leather of his pants. Fedryc ignored the drink, even as Ignio Marula drank half his glass in a single gulp, then snapped his lips in apparent pleasure before wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
“I will repay you and any expenses you incurred while he was under yourcare.”
Fedryc spit out the word ‘care’ with all the aversion he felt for the man, and was rewarded when Ignio Marula’s civilized façade dropped to reveal the ugliness of the man hidden inside. His face twisted, lining his mouth in wrinkles, and his crimson eyes reduced to slits as the smile on his face morphed into a cruel sneer.
“It almost sounds as if you don’t respect me, my Lord.” Ignio Marula articulated each word carefully. “I am a man to be respected in these parts. You need men like me to keep these animals in line.”
“The only animal I see here sits in front of me.”
Fedryc’s words had the effect of a slap on Ignio Marula’s entire demeanor. Violence gleamed in his eyes and he jumped to his feet. “Horacio, Rela,” Ignio Marula shouted, not taking his eyes off Fedryc. “Bring me Devan Jansen.”
A few loud thumps followed by a man’s moans of pain made Fedryc look up, despite the threat around him. A door opened just at the top of the stairs, and a young man—still more a boy than a man—appeared in the doorframe, held by the scruff of the neck by a large Delradon man with a hard, scarred face. Behind him was a painfully thin woman, who stood too far in the shadows for Fedryc to see with any clarity.
It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was Devan Jansen, and Devan Jansen was an inch from death.
Devan had the same flaming red curly hair and pale skin as Marielle, but the comparison stopped there. One eye was completely gone in a mangle of flesh and blood, while the other stared blankly in front of him as if in a nightmare. It was obvious from the boy’s heavy limp and his moans of pain that he couldn’t put weight on his left ankle, which bent at a sickening angle. His right arm curved impossibly inward and was obviously broken.
Wrath took hold of Fedryc as he brought his stare back to Ignio Marula. The thug stood, the sneer on his face as broad as the hole in his soul.
“As you see, my Lord, I took greatcareof the boy.”
Ignio Marula chuckled, and a chorus of sick laughs echoed behind Fedryc, reminding him of the danger surrounding him and Devan. Fedryc could take care of the humans and Delradon if they were foolish enough to attack, but protecting Devan at the same time was another thing, and somehow, he knew Marielle would never forgive him if her brother died.
Ignio Marula was a dead man walking, but Fedryc had to wait. He had to secure Devan before making his move on the thug and his men.
“Here is your money,” Fedryc said as he threw a small leather pouch on the table before standing up as well. “Consider the debt repaid and let’s part ways.”
To his right, Devan let out a screech as the scarred-faced Delradon man pushed him down the steps and the boy’s body fell with a sickening noise of broken bones. The woman standing behind the Delradon screamed and squeezed her slim body past the thug then hurtled down the steps within a few seconds, landing just by Devan. From this proximity, Fedryc could see her now. She was young, as young as Devan, and strikingly pretty despite her painful thinness. Her hair was dirty and dark, tucked behind pointed ears, but as she looked up at him with pleading eyes, they shone brown and vivid.
A child of mixed blood, then.
“Please, my Lord, save my Devan,” the girl pleaded between sobs as Devan moaned in pain on the wooden floor.
“Shut up, whore.” Ignio Marula took a step to the side and a violent slap made the girl fall down on her stomach, but she crawled over Devan’s body protectively as Ignio Marula sent a kick to her ribs. “You waste of blood.Sordied sangui.”
Fedryc’s face lost all warmth as he stared at Ignio Marula, the old words of the Knat-Kanassis coming out of the thug’s mouth like pure poison.
“What did you say?” Fedryc took a single step toward the man, his hand on the hilt of his sword, pulling the dragon-forged blade halfway out.
“Sordied sangui, mors abomina!” Ignio Marula shouted.
Then the entire room erupted in blood and violence. Fedryc pulled his sword as men shouted and screamed behind him, and the scarred-faced Delradon man jumped down to the ground, his face splitting in two with a fierce smirk. A wicked, curved blade shone in the thug’s large hands as he stood in front of Fedryc. Three interwoven half-circles were tattooed inside the man’s wrist. The mark ofSacer Sangui. The pure of blood.
Knat-Kanassis. This was the symbol for Knat-Kanassis.
In a fast motion, the thug bent over Devan’s limp body as the girl screamed in fear, finally pulling away from the boy, her eyes fixed with terror on the blade.
There was only one thing to justify such fear.
Venemum Ardere. My father was killed with Venemum Ardere.
It was the only poison capable of killing a Draekon or his dragon with a single cut, and had always been the Knat-Kanassis’ weapon of choice to eliminate any Draekon who stood up to them. This made so much sense, but Fedryc couldn’t take the time to think about anything else as Ignio Marula quickly bent and grabbed the girl, the pouch of money already in his grip. Two more Delradon men, the symbol of the order also inside their wrists, appeared from a doorway tucked behind the bar and grabbed Devan roughly by the shoulders, then pulled him away as he whimpered weakly, barely holding on to the thread of life.
Fedryc made a move to go after them but the scarred-faced Delradon man lifted his poisoned blade, stopping him in his tracks. Before Fedryc could react, the door slammed shut behind Ignio Marula and Devan Jansen.
“You are a traitor to your blood,” the scarred-face man muttered, his deadly blade making a large arc as Fedryc held his own dragon-forged blade high. “And now you will rejoin your traitor father.”
Wrath coursed through Fedryc’s veins as he understood what the man meant.
