The air is thick with tension, the atmosphere charged like the split-second before a lightning strike as Chavo's mocking diatribe hangs unfinished. Zander's jaw is set in a hard line, eyes glinting with a promise more lethal than any threat.
"Enough prattling from that forked tongue of yours," the grizzled medic growls. "We're done playing into your twisted games and mind games, snake. This chapter ends now, one way or another."
Chavo regards Zander with that same sickly smile curling his thin lips. "Ah, the gruff voice of threatened authority barks its pointless demands. Tell me, old man - do you truly believe your feeble postulating carries any actual weight anymore?"
In one fluid motion, far too quick for any of us to react, Chavo's hand dips beneath the tattered folds of his jacke
