09-01-2016, 09:37 PM
"You are a clever one, Marcus. Nobody else puzzled it out. Michael knows, but only because I told him."
A stretch of the arms and Nikolai slipped his jacket from his shoulders. While at it, he pulled the tie from his neck and loosened his shirt collar. Being dusk, he was unlikely to be seen by the public any more this day, and his executive staff knew he had retired for the evening. His appearance was always pristine and perfect. This moment of relaxation was probably odd to witness.
"I was one of them for a short time. Long enough to get the damn tattoo though."
He was rolling up his left shirt sleeve.
"And long enough to learn that the world is teeming with the stuff of nightmares. Theirs is rather a noble cause, if they would forget their zealotry and remember it."
The forearm he showed Marcus was puckered with five long, sick scars. By torturous design, the claws missed the two major arteries of the forearm. Dreyken were infamous for toying with their prey. They knew how to exact pain without endangering life.
But it wasn't scars he was showing Marcus. It was the broken lines of black ink that he demonstrated. "A snake eating its own tail: a symbol for eternity. For no beginning and no end. They all share the symbol in one form or another. A source of pride for them."
He rolled the other sleeve to match. When he killed the Regus tonight, he wanted the man to see apollyon's symbol of the slain beast in the flesh.
A stretch of the arms and Nikolai slipped his jacket from his shoulders. While at it, he pulled the tie from his neck and loosened his shirt collar. Being dusk, he was unlikely to be seen by the public any more this day, and his executive staff knew he had retired for the evening. His appearance was always pristine and perfect. This moment of relaxation was probably odd to witness.
"I was one of them for a short time. Long enough to get the damn tattoo though."
He was rolling up his left shirt sleeve.
"And long enough to learn that the world is teeming with the stuff of nightmares. Theirs is rather a noble cause, if they would forget their zealotry and remember it."
The forearm he showed Marcus was puckered with five long, sick scars. By torturous design, the claws missed the two major arteries of the forearm. Dreyken were infamous for toying with their prey. They knew how to exact pain without endangering life.
But it wasn't scars he was showing Marcus. It was the broken lines of black ink that he demonstrated. "A snake eating its own tail: a symbol for eternity. For no beginning and no end. They all share the symbol in one form or another. A source of pride for them."
He rolled the other sleeve to match. When he killed the Regus tonight, he wanted the man to see apollyon's symbol of the slain beast in the flesh.