Page 79 of Iblis' Affliction
THE WEAKENING DRUG,streaming in his veins, dry-cured his organs and initiated a maddening thirst. His tongue too dry and bloated to swallow. His throat was raw, and his whole body felt desiccated as if mummified alive. For the third time, whenever he’d opened his eyes, another injection of colorful nightmares infused into his system. In them, Master had always left him. In them, the opera ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ haunted him, stuck on a loop. Time after time, shrill violins sawed his brain to pieces, summoning demons. Red and black, they wore masks made from the faces of his victims. They sniggered, waltzing around him, as the music progressed to a mind-numbing crescendo. He hated this music as it attracted more and more demons. Hundreds of clawed hands seized his limbs, dragging him back while Master kept moving forward. No matter how hard Slater fought, how many demons he killed, he couldn’t break the demonic embrace and reach out to him.
Suffocating and gagging in powerless fury, he wrestled with the barbed wire of demonic claws, his skin ripping apart. In the next instant, a soothing hand caressed his forehead, shooing them all away. Wide and cool, it smelled like bitter almond and leather. Like Master. Slater groaned. Chasing the sensation, he rolled his head after the hand and opened his eyes, but only bright, colorful stains greeted him.
“Master,” he heard himself croak; every syllable scratched his palate.
The hand retreated, unsettling his nerves.
Forcing through the drug-numbed pain and weakness, he lifted up, using his elbows as levers in a last attempt to regain the skin contact. The colorful flickers bled into the streaming light, coming from the corridor, illuminating the contours of Master’s face as another figure fell into the picture. Liquid ice washed over his spine, coating him in a cold sweat as he stared into the wolfish eyes, an amused smile playing over the mutilated face.
Slater blinked, trying to shake the nightmare off, but Savas didn’t dissolve.
No, Master can’t… Not him…A jab of betrayal shot through him. His breathing hitched, as his head jerked to the side, unable to process the image. The chilling dread, radiating from his spine, seeped into his stomach, frosting him from inside.
Slater’s eyes latched onto Talha’s, as the man examined him with sad disappointment.
“Master…” Slater rasped, grabbed Talha’s hand, but Master sighed, shook off his grip, and stepped away.
“Miraç!” Talha called. A shadow in blue scrubs passed around Savas, approaching the bed. “Sedate him.”
“No, Master. Slater needs to tell you something…” Slater gasped as the doctor pinned him down, secured his arm, and something prickled his inner elbow. Heat flared through his veins as a new dose of colorful nightmares rushed up to his brain. Darkness dressed in red, and the Ride of the Valkyries sounded again.
Blinking with heavy lids, Slater watched Master approach Savas, slap his shoulder, and say, “Follow me, Ripper. I want to make a deal.”
No, Master can’t… Please, don’t leave Slater…
He blinked again, but this time his eyes refused to open.
SAVAS SLUMPED ONTOthe medical bed and stretched his limbs across the crumpled bedsheet. His eyes disappeared in a wide yawn as he extruded a low, exhausted noise.
Leaning against the wall, Talha folded his arms over his chest, watching the ripper.
“What made you change your mind, Reis?” Prying one wolfish eye open, Savas rolled to his side, every move dripping with laziness.
“Does it matter?” Watching the ripper now, he doubted Savas could be useful. Delicate, slender, he had a fragile feel about him. Slater was lithe too, but he exuded danger and power with every breath he took, even when submitting. His iron muscles were for speed, not strength, still, they weren’t weak. Savas looked weak.
“No-o-o, not really.” Savas stretched the words rolling onto his belly. Propping himself on his elbows, he looked like a cat playing with a meal. “But what to do, Reis? I have already promised you that I won’t offer the deal twice. I can’t go back on my word, can I? What kind of a man would I be?”
“Can we skip this game and get straight to the price? I know you want something; otherwise, you wouldn’t offer me the deal. Why don’t you name your price?”
“Hmm… Fine. You want to talk business, here it is. You have three wishes. They can’t be too complex. Nothing impossible like ‘I want you to develop a channel to England’ after what Slater did, is it clear? I’m a reaper, not god.” Savas’ words hardened with metal. “After I grant them, you will grant one of mine. No cheating, no renunciation. It’s as simple as this. If you try to cheat your way out of the deal, I’ll kill you.”
“Fair enough.” Talha nodded his agreement. “Once, my brother said that any of you can be Iblis. Is that true? Can you do what Slater does? Do you know how to use karambits?”
Savas wrinkled his nose. His eyes dimmed, as his attention shattered, and he picked up an orange pill bottle. Without any interest, he shook it in his hand, popped the lid open, then smelled the drug. The reply sounded lazy. “Yeah, yeah, I can use his savage weapon... I can do what he does, don’t worry, Master.”
The title, Talha had grown used to hearing from Slater, sounded painfully wrong, cringe-worthy, coming from someone else.
“Don’t call me that.” Talha corrected. “Use my name, it’s fine. And give me your phone number, so I know how to find you if I need you.”
“I’m not staying with you?” Savas’ eyes narrowed as he put the lid back on the bottle and tossed it on the bed before scrambling to his feet.
“No, you aren’t. You’ll stay with Dinçer, as always. We will have a solely business relationship.”
“Why?” A deep line cut his porcelain forehead but instantly cleared. “Ah, I see. You aren’t going to get rid of him, hmm? It’s a bad idea. You can’t have two rippers at once, Reis. It never works.”
“I’m not going to have two reapers at once,” Talha dodged. “And you should keep your mouth shut. I don’t want people to talk about this, clear? If this is settled, give me your number and go.”
The ripper laughed, picked up a pen from the white nightstand near the bed, then skidded to Talha. Fingers sizzling hot, he flipped Talha’s palm up, and a ballpoint slithered over his skin with a ticklish coolness.
