Page 70 of Sinner's Secret

Baz would have ended his miserable life, but Nika touched his arm, and her warm hand froze him in place. It calmed him, and he marveled at how great that felt.

“How about we leave this one alive?” she suggested.

“What for?” he asked, genuinely curious, because witnesses to the sort of weirdness that surrounded him was never a good idea.

She glanced at the man on the ground. “Because he’s going to tell his friends that mugging people in this neighborhood is a bad idea. Right?”

The man nodded so fast it looked like he was having a seizure.

She met Baz’s gaze again. “Right?”

He crouched down on his haunches, so he was uncomfortably close to the knife wielding idiot’s face. “Right?”

“Whatever you say, Batman,” the guy wheezed out.

Nika laughed, but Baz didn’t think it was all that funny.

The guy finally got to his feet, a little unsteady, still bent over and cupping his crotch, but he stumbled across the street and into another alley. He didn’t give his dead friend a second look.

Baz shook his head, took Nika’s hand, and continued down the street toward the address Yvgeny had given him.

The old firehall was in a brick building that still retained its character. A few of the bricks were showing their age in crumbling corners, but most of it looked in good shape. They moved away from the street entrance, down a short walkway to a small side door that had an employees only sign tacked above it.

He put the key in, unlocked the door, and they went inside.

After closing and locking the door behind them, he turned to evaluate the interior, but the large windows had been papered over, leaving the huge space full of shadows.

Nika huffed and he felt her brush past him toward the door. A second later, an overhead light turned on. Just one, right above them.

To their right were the parking bays for the firetrucks and a lot of storage cabinets lining both walls. To their left was another door marked: Office. In front of them was a narrow flight of stairs going up.

“Do you think there’s anything left of the bunks up there?” Nika asked.

“Let’s find out,” he said.

They went up the stairs where it was even darker. There was a large kitchen area with some tables, then over the parking bay were several bunk beds. They’d been pushed up against one wall, three deep.

Nika walked over to look at them. “No blankets, but there are still mattresses.” She dropped her bags and laid down. “Is it safe to stay here long enough for me to get some sleep?”

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything safer. Yvgeny told me he’d recently bought this place. He wants to turn it into a restaurant, but he hasn’t started renovations yet.”

Baz walked over to take a look at the mattress. Old, but still usable. Nika already had her eyes closed. “He said the utilities were still on, so you could have a shower if you want.”

Her eyes opened, but only half-way. “Baz, I’m so tired my own thoughts aren’t coherent anymore.”

That made him smile. “Okay, you sleep. I’m going to shower, change, then try to rest myself.”

“Do you?” she asked on a breathy exhale, her eyes closed again.

“Do I what?”

“Sleep?”

A shiver raced down his spine. She’d seen so much, knew too much.

“Can’t actually,” he said slowly. “The closest I can get to sleep is a sort of mediative state. It seems to do what sleep used to do for me when I was...normal.”

“Okay,” she said, the words slurred a bit. “As long as you don’t turn into a giant bat.”

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