Page 94 of Sinner's Secret

“Is there a way to lock the elevator at this floor?” he asked the man.

“Yes, sir,” the manager said. “There are only three keys that can do it.” He pulled a metal wand with a grooved pattern out of his pocket, stepped into the elevator, and stuck it into a slot on the control panel. One turn to the right and the lights on the panel changed to from white to red.

The manager stepped out.

Baz held out his hand for the key.

The other man hesitated, then slowly put the key on his palm with a pinched look on his face. Did this guy ever look happy?

“Who else has a key?” Baz asked him.

“Mr. Breznik and the hotel engineer.”

Not ideal, but it would have to do. “Please make sure no one tries to use this elevator,” Baz ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Baz studied him for a moment. The man’s face still looked too strained, too stressed. He’d spent a lot of time with regular humans for several years now, and this one looked like he was either constipated or he was contemplating doing something completely stupid.

Stupid was unpredictable.

Stupid was dangerous.

Stupid could mean anything at all.

Baz gave him a wide smile, letting his sharp eyeteeth show prominently. “Just so we’re clear,” he said in an undertone. “If anyone should go up to the penthouse before I come back, I will break that person into very small pieces. I won’t use a knife. I’ll do it with my bare hands. You get me?”

“Y...yes, s...sir.” The man nodded his head like it was on a spring, too fast and at a wobble.

Baz sighed, then walked away, leaving the manager behind.

The bar wasn’t too far, across the lobby and down a few feet. At the entrance stood a security guard in a dark suit and wearing a discreet earpiece. As Baz approached, the other man nodded briskly at him, but kept his gaze on a roving pattern of the lobby.

Baz passed him, entering the bar, and noticed that the place was empty except for one bartender, and a couple of people sitting at a table at the back. He recognized Yvgeny’s trademark suit and hair—a little too long. All he could see of the other person sitting at the table was the top of his head with its receding hairline and thinning hair.

Baz strode up to the table and put a hand on Yvgeny’s shoulder. “Here you are. I thought you were coming upstairs to check on me?”

Yvgeny’s practiced smile was firmly in place. “My apologies, cousin. I’ve been entertaining your friend, Joe.”

Baz took in the man, who looked pale, sweaty, and scared out of his mind. “Hey Joe, what brings you to this part of town?” Baz took a seat between Yvgeny and Joe, so there was a man on either side of him.

Joe’s eyes were too wide and his hands were shaking. One of them was partially hidden by a napkin. The metal edge of a gun could just barely be seen. “Are...are you one of them?” He asked in a quavering voice. “Th...the other guys said you were.”

“One of them...what?” Baz asked.

“Those monsters?” Joe leaned forward and whispered, “Vampires.” He glanced around nervously, as if expecting something to leap at him from the shadows. “He said you’d...change me into one, but that I might not make it.”

Baz sighed. Yvgeny was right, someone wanted to ruin all their lives. “There’s no such thing as vampires,” he said with more care and gentleness than he usually used. “I do have a rather strange disease. It’s an autoimmune disease. Do you know what that is?”

“Like arthritis?”

“Yeah, sort of like that, only it doesn’t destroy my joints it...fixes everything that’s wrong with my body. Including aging.”

“Oh.” Joe frowned. “Wait...aging? How does it fix that?”

“Well, my body simply...repairs itself. Constantly. So, if I’m injured, I heal. If I’m exposed to a disease, my body prevents it from getting a foothold inside me. If my cells age too much, my body replaces them with new ones. I don’t age. I don’t get sick. It’s very difficult to kill me or anyone like me.”

Joe, who’d gain some color in his face, paled all over again. “You are like him, aren’t you?”

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