The leader's lips slowly curled upward once more, though this time there was no humor left in his expression.
"So you really are the ruby-eyed monster, Lucen Thornehart," he said, his voice low and rough, as if he were forcing the words through clenched teeth. "That explains why five of my men fell so quickly."
He held up the small object he had taken from his pocket. It was a dark red pill, almost black in the dim light of the alley, with faint silver lines running across its surface like cracked veins.
Jay's eyes widened the second he saw it, and he shouted. "Are you insane!"
The leader ignored him completely. He kept his gaze fixed on Lucen as he rolled the pill between two fingers.
"I would never expect that I would need to use this thing here. Then again, I was not expecting to run into the ever-victorious himself in some filthy alley because of this rat."
