Page 41 of Sinner's Secret

“The shooter was aiming for a cop, my friend’s partner.”

“So, you saved his life to impress your friend? Who just happens to be a woman you yourself saved?” Yvgeny shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, cousin. You’re making yourself vulnerable.”

Joe appeared in the kitchen doorway. “You two want some coffee or something stronger?”

“No thanks, Joe,” Baz replied. “We’re good.”

Joe waved and went back into the kitchen.

Yvgeny stared after the man. “What’s he doing back there?”

“Prepping his hell-hot chicken wings. In a couple of hours, this place will be full of people begging for glasses of milk.”

“In a bar?”

“Well, okay, not only milk.”

Yvgeny turned shrewd eyes on him. “You spend a lot of time here.”

It wasn’t a question, so Baz didn’t bother to answer.

“That diner a few blocks from here as well.”

Baz shrugged. “So.”

“So,” Yvegny said, watching him intently. “You haven’t stood guard over any group of people in a long time. You know that the bartender is—”

“Family,” Baz interrupted. “Related to you and I some twenty or so generations back? Yes, I know.”

It was several seconds before Yvgeny spoke again. “You swore you’d never do it again.”

Baz barked out a laugh. “If only we knew how time, too much time, could change human beings. Alter their perceptions of life and what’s important.” He leaned forward, bracing his arms on the table. “How many of us have committed suicide over the last few hundred years? You keep track, don’t you? You know that the paranoia and obsession can take hold and turn someone inside out. Make them crazy enough to believe they can survive anything. Or nothing.”

“I honestly thought you’d be one of them,” Yvgeny said softly. “Sometimes I still can’t believe you’re still alive after everything that happened.”

“I stopped collecting things, Yvgeny. I stopped hoarding power. I stopped fighting and killing unless I had no other choice. I try to help people instead.”

“You? Help people?” He sounded scandalized. “You? The biggest monster of us all?” It was his turn to lean forward, putting his face only inches from Baz’s. “I’ve watched you in the two years since you came to New York. At first, I thought you were a lost cause. Lazy, ambitionless, and barely alive. Then I began to see a pattern in your daily routines. You don’t just spend time here and at that diner, you do small things to help the owners, employees, and patrons of both businesses.” Yvgeny sat back and thew his arms up in disgust. “You’re almost n—”

“Do not use the word nice,” Baz ordered.

“—normal.”

“Ugh, that’s almost as bad.”

“You’ve also been starving yourself for a long time. You don’t drink enough blood to keep a bat alive. Then there’s the alcohol, which is fucking crazy.” Yvgeny shook his head again. “Why aren’t you dead?”

Baz frowned. “For the same reason I didn’t kill myself after...they—” He sucked in a deep breath and forced the last word out. “—died. I owe them penance. One so large, I doubt I’ll ever pay it, but I have to try. If I don’t, their deaths were for nothing, and that can’t—” A deep, vicious growl rose up out of his belly to rumble through his throat. “—be true.”

He didn’t know what he looked like at that moment, but Yvgeny suddenly looked nervous and smelled afraid. “Is this what you wanted to say to me? Why you asked me to come here?”

“Nika was taken from her home a few hours ago. She killed at least two of her attackers, though their bodies weren’t at the scene.”

“How do you know anyone died?”

“There was too much blood left on the carpet.”

“What do the police think?”

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