Page 72 of Iblis' Affliction
Camilla’s head. Slater. The Hale Family. The Kiliç group. Slater again. Ejder. The police.Fuck… How do I solve this all in one go?
The stinging swarm of his thoughts refused to abate. They throbbed and thrashed in his skull making sleeping impossible, yet, they also refused to form anything more or less substantial, as everything seemed to center around Slater. His invisible presence, sweet, flowery scent, flowing rivulets of his speech, and the electric gaze of his pale, intense eyes.
“Fuck it!” Tossing the blanket away, he got up. The first desire to grab sleeping pills conflicted with a need to keep his head clear. The medication would probably make him drowsy the next day, and he still didn’t know which story to tell. Also, it wouldn’t solve his problem. No drug would.
“I wonder if he has already woken up…”
Tugging on his jeans, he grabbed a clean shirt before storming out of the room. Striding down the corridor, he yanked the door to his office open, hoping to find Dinçer there.
Two pairs of eyes shot up as he stumbled into the room barefoot, the smell of cannabis too vivid in the air. Rolling his head from one shoulder to the other, Ejder brought his hand to his mouth, taking a long draw on a half-smoldered joint. The drug weighted his eyelids and clouded his gaze.
Propping the bookcase with his wide frame, Dinçer cocked a brow. “Weren’t you tired?”
“I need Ifrit. Now.”
“YOU ARE INSANE…”Ejder concluded. Small hiccupping laughter settled in his chest, turning into giggling. The ashes, falling from the tip of his joint, crashed against his blue shirt, but he didn’t seem to notice it. Poking the burning side in the air, toward Dinçer, he added, “You both are if you’re considering it.”
“Back then, you said anyone can be Iblis, didn’t you?” Keeping his voice low and calm, Talha faced Dinçer. “They worked together. Maybe trained together. Can’t he do what Slater does?” Dinçer scowled, and Talha pressed, “I’d like to see him. Now.”
“Savas is nothing like Slater. If Slater is just a crazy psycho with no agenda, Savas is complicated. He seldom smiles, and if he does, you wish he didn’t. There is nothing he enjoys. If you gave him a virus to destroy all life on Earth, he’d release it.” Messing his hair with his hand, Dinçer pushed off the bookcase and shuffled to the window. His fingers gripped the corner, spreading tension up to his broad shoulders. “If I ask him to do what you ask, I don’t know how I’m going to pay for it. Whenever I ask him to do something, he twists my every word.”
“Because he hates you. You ruined his beautiful face,” Ejder remarked, stretching his sinewy body over the cowhide sofa. His face relaxed and his eyes dropped closed.
“Then let me ask,” Talha said.
Dinçer scrunched his face, back facing the window. The gaze of his dark eyes lay heavy on Talha. “I made a deal with him five years ago. Once he grants my three wishes, I have to grant one of his. I used up two of them already.”
“What did you ask for?” Ejder leaned up, his eyes shimmering with curiosity.
“It doesn’t matter.” Dinçer waved his hand in the air. “But I never intended to use the third one.”
“You know, guys, you are insane. You don’t learn, do you?” Ejder’s voice sounded too loud with high-pitched, badly controlled intonation.
Talha cringed. “You are high, and no one wants your opinion.”
“Fuck off, I just started. I have every right to be high. You have no idea what I felt while you were protecting that piece of shit.” Ejder’s fist bumped against the sofa’s backrest. “And even if you don’t want my opinion, I’ll still say this. Things are happening because you brought all this upon yourselves. And you are about to step into the same trap. Kill them both and everyone’s life will be easier. The bullet is your only answer.”
“Shut the fuck up, Ejder,” Talha said, grabbed a book from a shelf, and threw it at his brother.
Despite the visible sluggishness, Ejder’s reactions were quick with a forearm block. He laughed, then closed his eyes.
“It’s not about Slater. It’s about business. We can get rid of the Kiliç group and pacify the Hale Family in one go. If I have Ifrit.”
Shaking his head, Dinçer sighed, “Fine.”
STANDING ON THE WATERSIDE,Dinçer’s mansion overlooked the bright blueness of Bosporus Strait and smelled like sea and citrus. White chiffon curtains flapped in the air as the breeze blew into the room through the opened windows. Sitting on one of the wide, cushioned windowsills in the guestroom, the slender figure dressed in black never moved, even though Talha knew Savas had heard them entering.
While Talha studied his flawless profile, Dinçer perched himself on the opposite side of the windowsill, seeking Savas’ attention. Five years had passed since the last time they’d met. Savas matured. His cheeks hollowed as his jaw squared and stubble grayed his olive skin, yet he was still beautiful. The gentle line of his lips brought to his clean features an almost angelic look, if not for the eyes. Wolfish, yet somehow glassy, they expressed nothing, as if his soul wasn’t present in the shell of his long-limbed, slender body.
Talha voiced his request, but Savas didn’t react, staring somewhere beyond the horizon. Not used to being ignored, Talha glanced at Dinçer but received a shrug in return.
“Did you hear me?” Only Dinçer’s presence stopped him from grabbing the younger man’s shoulder and compelling him to look up.
“I did.” Savas soft, honeyed baritone sounded too smooth for his liking. Slowly, the reaper fixed his unblinking, yellow gaze on Talha. Two perpendicular, ugly scars maimed his right cheek connecting at his cheekbone, where the bullet had hit him. “I don’t work for you, Reis. I never swore to serve you. I can’t help you.”
“Then start now.” Talha cut the distance; a breeze caressing his face intensified the smell of spicy oranges and burned wood. “What do you want for your service?”
The way Savas examined him gave him chills. His gaze was an abyss of a void, not even darkness reigned there. “You can’t give me anything, because you have nothing. You wouldn’t come to me if you had a choice, so I assume that without me your whole Empire will collapse.”
