The hallway was silent, but the air felt heavy, like a storm was about to break.Alex descended the stair, his footsteps clanking on the marble. His mother-in-law Martha followed him. Her visage was pale and was covered with rime of tears and snot and the eyes in her face were still full of venom.Where do you suppose you're heading? Martha screamed, and caught him by the arm. "You crazy fool! Have you heard who was on the phone? That was one of Don Viper's men! Should you out there and deserve them they will here come and kill us all!Alex stopped. He gazed at her hand which hung on his arm. His eyes were so chilly that Martha involuntarily dropped it, and stepped aside, as though it were ice she touched.They spotted my wife, he said to Alex. His voice had no feeling in it. "They are already dead. They just don't know it yet.""You... you are delusional!" Martha shrieked. "You are just a soldier! You must have been cleaning toilets in the army five years! Don Viper owns the police!

"Get in? You want me to get in a coffin?"A loud booming laugh broke the silence in the ballroom.Don Viper tossed his head and laughed to all appearance. The terror at the room disappeared and the bewilderment took its place. The guests gazed at one another, followed by Viper and then at Alex. They started laughing too.It was a mockery. A joke."Did you hear that?" Viper wiped his eye with the tear. He gazed at Alex in naked amusement. This rubbish husband brings ten actors in costume, and believes he can frighten me? Fella, whither, whither stand you?Viper banged his hand on the table. The glass of wine jumped."This is MY city! I am the Emperor here! And you... you are just an ant!"SNAP.Viper snapped his fingers.The concealed doors leading to the side of the ball room burst open at once.Fifty men rushed in. They were not thugs like ordinary ones at the villa. These were mercenaries. They were dressed in tactical vests and were carrying sub machine guns. In a few seconds they

"Ten... ten billion?"The auctioneer suffocated on his own saliva. He dropped his gavel. It struck the podium with a dead thump, but in the quiet room it was like a gunshot.The entire hall was frozen. The rich merchants, the pompous heirs, the pretty ladies in their evening dresses--they all gazed up at the man in the grey coat as though he had a second head. The ten billion was sufficient to purchase a small nation. Alex had just exchanged it with one box of grass."Going once..." the auctioneer stammered, his voice shaking so much that the microphone was vibrating. "Going twice...""Wait."The voice, a harsh, cold cutting-blade, cut through the air like a rusty saw-blade.An old man was standing slowly in the back row. He was dressed in an old fashioned grey robe that seemed to be totally out of place among the tuxedos and designer suits. He himself was long haired and stringy with white hair, and had cloudy dead-fish eyes.He didn't look rich. He didn't look powerful. But as soon

"You dare to feed me Dragon Blood?"The voice that was emanating out of the mouth of Sarah was not hers. It was like banging embers and boiling fires. It was ancient. Divine. Terrifying.Her hand was choking Alex on the throat.Alex choked and his feet were hanging inches above the floor. His eyesight was grayed out.He was the Dragon King. He was able to smash tanks with bare hands. He had survived nuclear explosions and came out of the epicenter. But right now, he was helpless.The reason the hand that was crushing his windpipe was that of the woman he loved more than life itself."Sarah..." With a strangle Alex choked out, scratching at her using his nails. "It's... me.""Lies!" she shrieked.BOOM!A wave of heat burst out of her body. The bed-clothes immediately became ashes. The costly mahogany wardrobe was set on fire. The tragic force of her aura broke the reinforced windows open.There was, at the back of her, a flicker into existence of a gigantic, screaming avian creature of

"No..."Alex tried to crawl. When he scraped with his fingernails on the wooden floorboards it bled.But he couldn't move. His nerves were numb with the Soul Crushing Palm. It was heavy, almost to an impossibility, in his body, which seemed to be in rapidly drying concrete. His organs were dying one by one as the cold and rotting energy was closing them down.He could only watch.The Master was over the couch on which Sarah was lying. Even his black robes seemed to whirl around him like a smoking smoke life, and the room became frozen. He gazed at Sarah with green eyes in a greedy glowing.Beautiful, the Master mumbled in his trembling voice. "The perfect vessel. A soul made in fire, and ready to be eaten.He reached out his hand. His nails were long, black, and had obsidian-like tips, and were pale and skeletal."Don't touch her!" With a scream of spit and a mouthful of black blood Alex screamed. "Take me! Take my soul! Leave her alone!"The Master did not even look at him. He flicke