Almost as though they were magnetic, eyes followed Remi and her cousins. People stopped what they were doing and paused conversations in order to look upon them, though it did nothing to quiet the deafening buzz of overall noise in the streets.

Remi had never liked crowds—or being around anyone she didn't know. Being at such close proximity to so many people, and often being bumped into by those who didn't notice her, made her claustrophobia flare up. Also, just being out in a place where eyes followed her every move made her anxious. She felt like running away, out of view, and hiding until they all went away. Their presence made her irritable.

Bile rose up in the back of Remi's throat as a seller accidentally bumped into her. She didn't fall, but the copious apologies he uttered as he ran away made her extremely uncomfortable.

Fear lingered heavy in the air, but so did lust. Those who were weak were terrified, ducking as they tried to stay out of sight and not get in the way. Those who were strong lusted after the power that would come to their name if they managed to get a Designer under their control to do their bidding.

Remi could understand why their powers were desired after. Designers could stop bodies from aging, torture in a way that could procure information from the most hardened of men, and bring any freshly dead person back to life.

Remi supposed that it was this greed that made the Designers such sought after targets. This was just another reason why it was so important for her to have a bodyguard, her father had said.

The smell of sweat and dirt was pungent in the air and made Remi wrinkle her nose in a grimace.

Many slaves trod the streets as well, chained and bound with painfully heavy bindings as they trailed obediently behind their masters, eyes cold and dead.

Remi glanced at Killure, who was staring at a caravan of slaves being pulled down the road by two horses, and directed by pinched faced men with whips. The pained screams of slaves being whipped pierced the air, mingling in with the regular marketplace sounds.

No one batted an eye, because no one thought of it as wrong.

She watched as Killure glanced back to his own unbound hands and ankles, a questioning look in his eyes.

Remi turned away before he could glance back up at her.

Blue, who had been walking on ahead, beside Bliss with the sailor they'd brought back to life, until now, pulled back to walk beside Remi.

"Mind if I talk to your slave?" he asked blandly.

Remi eyed him suspiciously. "I'd prefer if you didn't harass him."

"I won't."

Remi sighed, grabbing the hem of her shirt and fanning it back and forth in hopes of getting some semblance of relief from the heat. "Alright then."

Blue fell back further, walking alongside Killure now. He had to look up to meet the creature's amused gaze. "Icix. Do you know where we're going?"

Killure only lowered his head, as was customary for slave to do when a superior spoke to them until they had permission to respond.

Blue glanced at Remi, and she quickly caught on. "Permission to speak granted, Killure. Only if you want."

She noticed Blue looking at her oddly, but he soon diverted his attention.

"Well?"

"Captain Rismak's estate," Killure replied flippantly, picking out the dirt from his nails without a care in the world.

"And have you ever been there before? Have you met the man?"

"No." His words were cold and distinct, and although they weren't spoken loudly, they were clear through the deafening chatter and chaos of those around them.

Blue tisked, as if he was talking to an imbecile. "Then how are you supposed to protect my cousin, hmm? You need to be more prepared. What if a siren jumps from the water and rips her apart?"

Killure didn't spare the boy a glance.

"Also," Blue continued. "If you were my slave, I would have broken you as soon as you came into my possession. But my cousin wouldn't do that. So here's what I'm wondering . . . would you still do anything she asked of you?"

Killure smirked dangerously, turning his blue eyes onto Remi. "Anything she asks," he purrs, voice silky smooth.

Remi's eyes widened and she quickly averted her eyes. His cackles followed her.

Blue didn't seem to notice the meaning behind his words. "And so, if someone attacked my cousin right now, would you be prepared to risk your life to save her?"

Killure snickered. "There wouldn't be any risk to my life, so yes, I suppose I would. "

"Well then, here's your chance."

Then, everything happened in a whirl of colours blurring and blending together.

Scaly, green hands and crazed red eyes were flying towards her one second, and gone with a blur of black.

Remi blinked a few times in order to clear her vision, and what she saw shocked her.

A large Conda—mostly man, with large patches of yellow-green scales all over his skin and the intelligence of a human—was crumpled on the ground. What was left of him, anyway.

Killure had acted even before Remi had realized she was being attacked, flying in front of her and attacking the Conda before he could even touch her with his tree-trunk limbs and venomous fangs.

And now, he crouched over the snake-man on all fours, his huge black wings splayed out to their full span as he tore the man up with his deathly sharp claws.

Blood sprayed out on either side of him, splattering onto those trying to pass by and coating Killure's own light-coloured clothes in crimson.

He was already dead, but Killure kept tearing him apart with impossibly fast slices and jabs with his claws, almost as if he couldn't get enough. The Conda's insides were ripped out and laying in jagged pieces around his body.

The terror frozen in the dead man's eyes made Remi snap out of her shocked daze. She started forwards, grabbing onto one of Killure's bloody arms and crying out for him to stop.

Immediately, he did.

Killure slowly sat back, arms now limp at his sides, and turned to face her with an expression that sent her reeling.

The delirious smile on his face was truly frightening. It was eerily wide, demented, and even his pointed fangs were dripping with blood.

But it was the look in his eyes that reminded Remi of why he used to absolutely terrify her. The ocean in his crazed eyes was a tsunami, and could have devastated an entire island of thriving people, twisting around their souls, smashing their frail bodies into jagged objects and forcing its way down their lungs until they died.

He could kill anything, and was almost impossible to kill.

If the bonding hadn't bonded their lives together, guaranteeing Killure's death if Remi were to die, he would be a tornado of death, and her mangled, bloody corpse would probably be left in his wake.

Remi's heart thumped painfully in her chest, and her mind screamed at her to run away. To get away from this sadistic creature who desired death and carnage.

But she couldn't do that. Not when she'd felt the gentle way he tilted her chin up to look at him with his clawed hands, or the bright, triumphant look that lit up his eyes when she told him she liked what he'd baked her.

Not when there was a shred of good in him.

And so, although she was sure her heart would beat right out of her chest, leaving broken, jagged ribs behind, Remi took Killure's hand as he stood up and held on tight.

He hardly noticed her, still drunk off the high of draining the life from someone.

Remi's insides twisted and shrivelled up when she noticed the eyes of ten or eleven people on her and the Icix who'd just torn apart a Conda.

A Conda, which was one of the strongest creatures, with impossibly thick skin that was extremely difficult to penetrate.

The shedding of blood was not an abnormality in these streets. Countless times, Remi had seen bodies lying about in the streets, clearly murdered and left to decay until The Unseen Duke's men came to take it away, and she didn't have enough fingers on her hands to count the number of times she saw someone in the act of murdering someone else.

As a result, rats and flies thrived in these streets.

People often walked around with blood literally crusted on or dripping from their hands, their clothes, or their hair, unable to see the point in washing it off when they'd only get bloody again before long.

However, few had ever seen an Icix, and even fewer had seen one in the act of taking down its prey.

They weren't horrified . . . they were entranced.

Remi shuddered and pulled Killure along behind her.

He turned back to Blue and smiled a smile that was eerily wide. "As I said, no risk."

"Cocky," Blue commented from behind them, as unaffected as ever. Bliss nodded in agreement, her hand tightly gripping the sailer's arm. "Can I kill him?"

"No!"

———

A/N: Be sure to vote and comment if you're enjoying, or to comment / message me if you have any ideas for how I can improve.

Also, I changed Remi's last name to Goldridge, for those of you who were wondering.