Page 104 of Sinner's Secret

“That sounds like begging,” she said, her voice raspy.

“He asks for mercy,” Baz said. “But don’t waste your bullets on him. I’m going to rip his head off instead.”

She fixed Baz in place with a hot glare. “No, you’re not. You’re going to let me shoot him, then you’re going to take these walking corpses and...” her voice trailed off.

“And?” Yvgeny asked.

“What do you normally do with other people like you who attack you?”

“It doesn’t happen often enough for there to be a standard procedure,” Baz said, while Yvgeny grinned. “The last time was at least a couple of hundred years ago, but the circumstances were very different.”

“Call the council,” Yvgeny suggested. “Better yet, call your mom. I can’t wait to hear you explain this one.”

Suddenly the vampire he’d body checked dashed toward Nika. She shot him, but his momentum carried him forward, knocking her down.

Baz was there a moment later, pulling the vampire off her, tossing him aside, then picking her up and checking her for injuries.

“I’m okay,” she said softly with a wince. “I landed on my butt.”

He stared at her, waiting for the truth.

“Okay, I’m going to have a bruised butt.”

“You need to see a doctor.”

Nika gingerly touched her neck with one hand. “Baz, I’m really tired of people right now.”

He studied her pale face and rigid body. “Yvgeny,” Baz said. “We need a different room and some more clean clothes.”

“My dear cousin, you are certainly harder on my budget than usual,” he said with a shake of his head. “Come with me.”

Baz picked up Nika and followed Yvgeny with her in his arms.

“Why did you leave the penthouse?” she asked him in that raspy whisper he now understood was the result of being nearly choked to death.

“Joe was downstairs with a gun. The Ruiz brothers kidnapped him and were going to expose him to the virus that turns us into what we are. Only it doesn’t work most of the time, and everyone else they’d exposed had died. He was completely freaked out and they’d left him in the bar to give me a message.”

“A distraction to get you out of the room.”

“Yeah, and like a fucking moron, I fell for it.” And she’d been injured as a result.

“I fell for it, too,” Yvgeny said. “Somehow we’ve become too civilized or something.”

His cousin led him to what looked like a decorative panel on the wall next to the elevator. The panel was covered in squares etched into the wood. Yvgeny pushed two squares at the same time, there was a click, and the panel popped open. A light came on, illuminating a narrow spiral staircase.

“You’ve got a secret escape route in every building you own, don’t you?” Nika asked.

Yvgeny only smiled at her.

“Does this run in the same shaft as the elevator?” Baz asked.

“Yes.” Yvgeny began descending.

Baz followed him and they went down about two floors.

Yvgeny opened another door revealing a corridor with an elevator. Baz turned to watch Yvgeny shut an identical panel to the one they’d just used.

He led them to another hotel room across the way and opened the door. It was smaller, but just as white and shiny. He offered Baz a room key, and Nika took it for him.

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