“Klim. I just wanted you to know, before you die, that you lived your life stupidly. You should have found a mate for your leopard and someone to love you. Nothing you have is worth being alone and rotten inside.”
Klim opened his eyes. His leopard stared at Gedeon with sick, crazed eyes. He nodded. “I know, but it was too late to turn back.”
Gedeon broke his neck.It’s done.
Come out now.
Meiling was like a breath of fresh air in his mind. He wanted to cling to her. There was no malice in her. No need for revenge or an eye for an eye. She wanted evilstamped out, but she didn’t think in terms of making them pay. Because she was able to be so calm and think that way, she allowed him to be the same.
Gedeon was grateful for Meiling’s calming effect as he entered Makar Turgenev’s apartment. This was the man who had initiated the murders of his family. He was responsible for the murders of the family in North Korea as well as Meiling’s family. The hatred and fear had originally begun with this man. Gedeon didn’t want to feel that same hatred. He didn’t want any part of Makar Turgenev’s legacy in him.
As he walked silently through the man’s living quarters, Gedeon was struck by how lavish and decadent each room was. Unlike the other apartments, Turgenev hadn’t collected art or spent his fortune so much as hoarded it. There were gold bars stacked in several rooms. Other than enormous plants and a variety of beautiful water features in each room, the apartment’s décor was mainly about the life of its occupant. On the walls were photographs of Turgenev duplicating the poses in portraits of powerful men from the past. He had them on the walls in every room. Some were paintings. The portraits were all of him. There were mirrors everywhere.
This was a man who appeared, on the surface, to be self-absorbed and vain. One might accuse of him of feeling superior to everyone else. Looking around the apartment, Gedeon got the impression it was just the opposite. He believed Makar Turgenev had no self-esteem and was doing everything in his power to build it.
There on the shelves in his library was an entire section of self-help books on building self-confidence. Self-image. This man had crushed the other families out of real fear. He had been afraid of them, so much so that he had devised a plan to wipe them all out so their children wouldn’t have gifts that could allow them to slip past his guards, enter his home and confront him, just as Gedeon was doing.
“Turgenev. I think you know why I’m here and who I am.”
Makar Turgenev stopped in the middle of doing a kata. He wore nothing but a loincloth as he performed his evening ritual before going to bed. He kept fit, practicing mind and body fitness regimens in order to be in as good shape as possible at all times.
“Volkov? I wondered about you. You were too confident. No one has ever been confronted by all of us and handled it the way you did. You impressed the others, but you made me suspicious.”
“And yet it was still easy for me to get to you.” Gedeon allowed amusement to creep into this voice.
“Why are you here?”
“You call yourself justice,” Gedeon said. “But I seek justice. You plotted the murder of my family and Meiling’s family. I’m here to see that justice finds you.”
Makar glided closer, drying the sweat from his hands and face with a small towel. “That may be rather difficult if I don’t agree to it.”
“Then agree,” Gedeon said and moved into Makar’s attack.
The older Russian sprinted toward him, teeth bared in a vicious snarl. Saliva drooled in two long strings from the corners of his mouth as he snapped at Gedeon. His hands came up and he pushed a wall of flames at Gedeon.
Gedeon was prepared for whichever dragon move the Russian would choose to use. He had pulled every drop of water from the air in the apartment as he’d moved through it. Knowing he’d need it, he called on the water features Makar had incorporated into his décor. The rain clouds were already heavy, and the moment the flames rose seeking him, Gedeon countered the dragon fire with a leap into the air. His soaring move took him over the wall of flames as he dropped the deluge of water on the fiery blaze.
As he leapt over Makar, Gedeon delivered an extremelystrong front kick that snapped the Russian’s head back and sent him flying across the room. Makar landed on his back and Gedeon was on him, knee to the chest, hand around his throat, eyes blazing gold and green.
“You missed a boy as well as Meiling when you sent a mob to murder innocent families, Turgenev. Yes, we have gifts and we’re fast and capable, but unlike you with your petty jealousy and fear, Meiling is all about compassion and kindness. She makes the world a better place. You make me ashamed to be a shifter. She makes me proud to be one. Your kind feel superior to the women because you think you’re so much stronger than they are. You’re killing our people, stamping them out of existence, and you’re too stupid to see it. Women like Meiling would have saved us.”
As he spoke the truth as he saw it, his fingers bit into Makar’s throat and his knee pressed into his chest. He was enormously strong. He was leopard. He had gifts. He didn’t have Meiling’s compassion in these situations, although he was desperately trying to be a better man for her. He stared right into Makar’s eyes as the life went out of him, looking to see if the shifter had any regret or realization of the crimes he’d committed. He saw nothing but hatred. There was no remorse. What was wrong with these men that they would trade hundreds of lives, maybe thousands, for wealth that did nothing for them? It made no sense to him.
It is done, my love. Come back to me. We have more work to do before we go home.
Gedeon left Makar on the floor with his oiled body and his loincloth that no longer covered his flabby genitals. The Russian’s eyes were wide open, staring up at him without life. Makar lived no life, and it occurred to Gedeon that he hadn’t been living until Meiling entered his life.
Stop. Come back to me, Leopard Boy.
Love flooded his mind. “Fuck you, Turgenev. You don’t get any more of me. Not ever again.” He turned and left the apartment, not once looking back.
Bolin Wang sat in his hot tub, bubbles churning all around him. The room was dark, but the tub had ever-changing colors glowing on the walls and ceiling. The man’s head rested on a pillow, and he was staring at the ceiling watching the colors change. Classical music played low but matched the rhythm of the changing colors.
“I knew you would come tonight, Gedeon,” Bolin said, without turning his head. “The moment you walked into the room, I knew you were the one to bring retribution for what we’ve done to our people. So many mistakes. So many deaths on our heads. Once a path is chosen and we start down it, leaving it seems impossible.”
“And the women you traffic? The women bought and sold? Brought into this place to pleasure your soldiers and then killed when you no longer wanted them around? What of them, Wang? Many of these women are really young girls. Is that one of these paths you started down and then couldn’t get off of? Did you use these women and girls for pleasure and cast them aside as well?”
Gedeon saw the golden knife Bolin wielded beneath the water. The blade sliced into skin and a scarlet ribbon snaked through the crystal water.
