Rhade looked down at Anthony's still twitching body and lamented the fact that he felt nothing at the killing but the eternal flames. Neither remorse nor satisfaction, nor anything else. He had hoped his anger might be assuaged, but the flames only burned more fiercely and he cursed himself for hoping anything; that had died along with a great deal else inside.
A noise behind him and he turned to face five men, including the man whose so called evidence had condemned the girl, all pointing guns at him. He considered them calmly. If he died here, then so be it. He wouldn't go without a fight, but he really didn't care what the outcome would be.
The fire fight lasted less than thirty seconds and Rhade was the only one left standing, entirely untouched. Looking at hem coolly, he still felt nothing but the inferno raging on.
As he walked slowly away, a man rounded a corner and bumped straight into him. The man looked frightened and in two minds whether to freeze or run, wavering between Rhade and the way out.
"You're in my way," Rhade informed him flatly and when the man simply stood and gibbered, he calmly and coldly shot him through the head. And still felt nothing.
"The people are very scared of you now," said Thomas as Rhade worked hard to drown the searing fires inside with alcohol.
"Let them be scared," Rhade replied taking another drink.
"They want me to condemn you," Thomas said. "They want me to assure them that you won't turn on them or bring some evil down upon us all."
At that the fire swelled and Rhade laughed nastily, spitting in Thomas' face. "Burn me at the stake, would you? Do it if you dare!"
Thomas recoiled but took himself in hand. "I have a better idea. Be my right hand. If I can show the people I have you under control, you can be under my protection. Be my enforcer, show them only I can control you, no one else."
Rhade started to laugh but thinking about it a little longer, he realised the benefits. He nodded. "But Flavin is then under my protection. Do him no harm."
Thomas' face screwed up in distaste at that. "We have a history," he said. "But I agree to your terms, so long as he does not stir things here."
"Agreed," said Rhade. If Flavin created his own death-trap then that was his problem.
"I have something for you, to seal the deal as it were," Thomas said and brought out a silver flask. "It looks much better to be drinking from this outside a bar. I wouldn't want my enforcer to look like a drunken bum."
Rhade accepted it with a small smile and looked at his reflection in the brightly polished metal. It was face he was growing to hate a little more each day.
FIN