Deadly Sin (Cassandra Farbanks) (15 page)

“Do you have a warrant?” I turned to look at Solomon and gave him a little smile of my own.

“Do you have something to hide? Say a dark wizard on the premises, who killed your wife and lawyer for you?” Solomon crossed his arms over his chest.

“Do I need to remind you to whom you speak?”

“No I have an attention span. If you have nothing to hide, where is the harm in letting me have a little look see?” For a moment, he wore a look of pure shock. He couldn’t believe that anyone would speak to him the way I just had. I watched as his face morphed back to smug superiority, his little piggy eyes scanning my body from head to toe again. I was more than ever tempted to punch him in his big, fat, stupid head.

“Go ahead. You won’t find anything untoward.”

“I’ll be the judge, jury and executioner,” I said walking out of the room and scanning the hallway, I left Hamilton to ask his questions while I looked the place over from top to bottom. I decided to locate Solomon’s bedroom and start there. If he was hiding something I was sure that’s where it would be.

The room was just as palatial as the rest of the apartment. The bed was the center of the room, satin sheets in red and black piled with pillows of the same shades. I rolled my eyes at the dramatic statement of sexuality the bed seemed to exude. Either side of the bed seemed to be split into a his and hers space – with the hers mostly vacant, as Solomon’s wife had been in the process of moving out or being chucked out. The more I stared at the back wall, the more it seemed out of place. I walked towards and found that the wall behind the headboard was not the back wall. It was an optical illusion that hid the bathroom. The bathroom was very clean, more so than I would have expected for a bachelor that made me think Solomon probably hired a maid. Probably also made her wear the stupid, little black dress with the apron and garters…the big pervert.

I looked at the wall on his side of the room. A large art print of a naked woman confirmed my opinion of him. Even more so when I realized the mirror on the other side was exactly the same dimensions as the picture, reflecting it perfectly. The other doors on either side opened into walk-in closets. Hers I didn’t bother with, but his I thought deserved a thorough scrutiny. Solomon had an electric clothes rack that operates by buttons at the door. I spun it around and watched his taste in clothes morph from business to casual, and something struck me as odd. There was a deliberate gap in the middle of his suits that exposed a part of the back wall. I paused the rack and walked over to the wall. I smacked my palms against it, feeling it wobble and the sound echo. It was hollow. There were tiny grooves in the plaster that fit my fingers. I pushed but it didn’t move. I turned my hand over so the back of my knuckles touched the plaster and found that the grooves extended in to form a grip. I slotted my fingers into it and pulled. The panel came loose with a soft
clack
. I slid it across the solid wall.

The hole was much easier for a man Solomon’s size to navigate. I lifted one knee over the lip and ducked my head under the top edge. I scrambled to stand. The space was dark, pitch black in fact, and I felt along the wall. Something dangled against my shoulder. I curled my fingers around it and pulled. A light snapped on, blinding me. My eyes adjusted and eventually I could see where I stood. The space was barely big enough to be considered a room. It was more like a cubby, or an ancient priest hole you find in grand, old country castles. It was about half the size of the walk-in closet and I could reach the other side in about three strides. There were iron hooks in the wall and one in the ceiling. I scoffed. This room wasn’t more than a space in which you could keep a person prisoner. Maybe his wife’s accusation about him keeping a slave weren’t unfounded.

Of course, there was no way to prove that, and if I had hoped to find a person hiding inside then, I was deeply disappointed. The room had a very shut off smell to it. It had been cleaned and then closed off for a long time, six months or less. I could still smell the ammonia. That was when another smell caught my nose. It was a rank, fetid smell, like sewer water and drying animal skin. It was unpleasant to say the least, and coming from behind me. I was no longer alone in the space. I looked down at the floor to see another shadow casting itself along the floor. It didn’t look as large as mine so whoever stood behind me didn’t have much height.

I strained my ears but couldn’t hear through the walls to note whether Hamilton was still talking in the other room. If Solomon had done something to Hamilton just to get me alone, I would hurt the pudgy bastard till he squealed. Slowly I began to turn, preparing to defend myself from an attack.

Chapter Eleven

I looked further down to face the creature behind me. It was a goblin about the height of your average two year old. His skin was the color of green algae that floats unpleasantly atop a pond, but with a little shimmer of moisture to it. I knew if I touched him he’d be slimy like a frog secreting a kind of mucus. He had a fat, little head with a beaked nose and black, beady eyes that were more intelligent than usual. I had the strange feeling, as he looked at me, that we’d met before. I could not prove it was male as both sexes of goblin were the same. I had no idea how they reproduced and honestly, the thought of rutting goblins made me feel sick.

The only thing that made me think male was the fact that he was wearing pants. They were of a brown weave that looked very much like the remains of a burlap sack used to holding potatoes or flour. I realized I had seen this pants wearing goblin before, and saw that he was now also wearing shoes. Trainers in blue, red and white, the kind made for a small child. The ends were slashed in several places where his vicious, sharp toes poked through the leather. The laces had been removed, braided together, and acted like a belt around his waist.

For a couple of minutes we just stood regarding each other. Well, he stood while I crouched down. His little tongue, a dirty gray triangle of flesh, darted out to wet his lips and run over his yellowed teeth.

“Not in here,” he croaked in the same dark little voice it’d used before. He spoke English in clipped, monosyllabic sentences.

“What’s not in here?”

“Youse look for, not in here.” His coal-colored eyes darted around the space. I followed his gaze once again, checking for myself that the space was indeed empty. I focused back on the goblin and he gave me a little feral grin as if to say, “See, nothing there.” I rested my elbow on my knee to support my chin as I watched the creature. His eyes never faltered from mine. I gathered he wasn’t trying to stop me from discovering the room’s other exit.

“What is it I’m looking for?” I asked in almost a patronizing tone. The kind I use for children who think they are going to outsmart me.

“Him!” I darted another, quick look behind me. No one was there sneaking up on me and taking me out while my back was turned. However, my nervous reaction pleased the goblin.

“Him? Him who?”

“He who wants!” He said that to me before in almost a threat. He who wants, the dark wizard stalking me. That meant that the dark wizard who’d used his magic to steal a demon’s power to kill and my stalker were definitely the same person.

“Where is he?” I said hurriedly through gritted teeth. I wasn’t sure I was ready to meet him, especially on my own.

“Take you to,” he said proudly in his same, stinted English. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I didn’t want to be taken to him. I wanted to know where he lived so an armed unit could bring him down. Not me on my own.

“Where is he?” I demanded, mentally chiding myself for being a coward. His little foot lashed out, thrusting the sole of his shoe against my knee. It didn’t hurt as he wasn’t very strong, but it was enough to make me wobble and fall onto my butt on the floor.

“Take you to, stupid!”

I growled feeling absolutely ridiculous being put on my butt by a goblin. My fingers flexed and tiny flickers of flame danced out from the delicate webs of skin between them. The goblin ran and I scrambled to throw myself through the hole after him and get to my feet. I was going to throttle the little beast. I rushed out of the closet catching my foot on the edge of the rug and tripping. I went down on one knee and grabbed the comforter on the bed, pulling it all askew. The goblin stopped in the doorway to laugh at me. Graceful I was not. I pushed up on my foot and launched myself to grab him, but he darted into the hall as I landed hard against the door. I hit my shoulder making it smart. To add insult to injury, the goblin stuck his thumbs into his ears, waved his fingers and waggled his tongue. I wasn’t going to throttle him. I was going to spit roast him. I got to my feet, threw my head in the direction of the living room and yelled for Hamilton before giving chase. The goblin skittered around the corner and through a half open door. I wrenched it open to find stairs going up. Roof access? I ran up the stair and burst out onto the top of the building. I scanned the area in front of me. The door behind me slammed shut. I whirled and tried pulling it back open, but it was sealed. I cursed loudly and the sound of a masculine chuckle filled the air. My hands froze on the handle as I turned my head just enough to peer over my shoulder.

The man standing a few feet behind me was way over six feet, probably closer to seven and built thick. His arms and legs were well muscled. I knew from experimentation that I could lift a car enough to flip it over. No details please. It’s not a fun story. My point is I don’t look like I have that kind of strength. So how strong was a guy who looked like he did? It had to be double mine. He had a large neck and I could see the edge of a black and silver tattoo. His head was smoothly shaved and his eyes were a shade of blue so dark almost black. I didn’t like his eyes at all. I turned to face him. He was clad in tight, black jeans with a silver skull belt buckle, a black vest so you could see all his arm muscles flex and motorcycle boots. The ensemble screamed bad to the bone.

“Alone at last.” His voice was a deep base that wasn’t far off the growling tone used by slightly pissed off shifters. His smile was eerie, like the Cheshire cat. He held a crushed up baseball cap against his hip that the goblin leaped at.

“Gip did good, yes, give to Gip.” I watched him turn his attention down towards the goblin, letting the hat fall from his grip.

“Yes, as I promised Gip. Take it and go.” Gip retrieved his hat, put it onto his fat, little head and ran in a fast clip for the fire escape. The man took a step toward me.

“Oh no you don’t, you just stay right where you are!” I pointed emphatically at the spot where he had just been. “Just who the heck are you?” I looked from side to side. I’d walked into a trap. God damn it, how could I be so careless?

“My name is Rin, Cassandra.” I glared at him and made a waffling motion between us.

“We are not on a first name basis.” He took another step towards me still smiling.

“Yes we are.” He took in my appearance from head to toe. “I have watched you slumber.” I didn’t need any more confirmation. My stalker wasn’t just your regular nut job. He was a murdering, dark magic wielding nut job.

“I’m not going to ask why. I’m just going to assume that it has something to do with stupid.” Rin smiled brightly at me. There were only two kinds of people who smiled like that in my experience, and if we’d been in a car showroom I might have believed he was trying to sell me something. You’d didn’t want to meet the other kind of person that smiled like that, even in a brightly lit car show room.

“You didn’t like my gifts?” His voice sounded puzzled but he kept smiling. I was fast coming to the conclusion that he was nuttier than a fruit cake, and I was trapped on the roof with him between me and my most obvious exit.

“You should have stuck to flowers. Poison candy sends the wrong kind of message.” As Rin took a step towards me again, I took a step back and had nowhere to go but towards the edge of the other side of the roof. I didn’t know if Hamilton had heard me, so I couldn’t trust that any kind of help was coming my way. I needed a weapon. I looked for something discarded, a piece of pipe or something. Going magic against magic could be explosive, and physically he had it all over me. He followed my roving eyes and halted his step towards me.

“You are not flattered by my attention, princess?” I locked eyes with him and tried ascertaining whether what he said was a nickname for women or an actual title. He smiled. “You have no idea who you are, do you? What men will do to have you?” My eyes finally landed on a loose piece of piping. I gripped it in both hands.

“You’ve set the bar high with a couple of dead people.”

“Oh I didn’t kill them for you. That was for my employer,” he said smiling. His eyes roamed over my body and made me shiver in loathing, but at least I could check something off my list: one confession, check. “I would kill for you if you asked it of me.” He advanced on me again, and I raised the pipe prepared to strike him.

“Yet I tell you to stay where you are and you ignore me.”

I analyzed him for attack. I could smash his arm or his femur, and with my strength I could probably break it. If I smashed it down on his head or the back of his neck it would probably disable him enough for me to get around him and onto the fire escape. Rin muttered something under his breath, waving his hand. The pipe was torn from my hands, the metal grazing the inside of my palms and making my fingers raw. It spiraled through the air, far out of my reach. I drew a line in the air between us.