Quinlan reached into his pocket ring and pulled out a vial.
The glass was small and dark, filled with a liquid so deeply violet it was nearly black.
Quinlan peeled the skin from Ragnar's back again, and while the raw muscle glistened in the winter sun he uncorked the vial and poured.
The violet liquid hit exposed flesh and Ragnar's body locked rigid.
"Black Fang gave me this little vial," Quinlan's voice came wrong against the back of his skull as the venom began to seep. "All she said was 'use this.'"
The words cut through the first wave of sensation as the venom threaded into his muscle fibers, and Ragnar's eye snapped toward the Fujimori lines.
He found her.
Black Fang's katana carved through Tatsumi's guard in a diagonal stroke that split the youngest Fujimori elder from shoulder to hip. The man folded and was dead before his knees hit the ground.
"BLACK FANG!"
The roar tore from Ragnar's throat, raw and ragged.
She paused.
