Deadly Sin (Cassandra Farbanks) (31 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke to the sound of voices. Well, it was actually only one voice, but it sounded like a conversation was going on. I just couldn’t hear the other person’s response.

“I have her and you don’t. I’ve shielded this location so you can’t track either of us. Those are my terms!”

I forced my heavy lids open and looked around. The room was lit by the glow of a fire in a hearth and a few kerosene lamps. It was decorated in rich shades of blue and gold. Drapes hung down over the walls hiding what looked like patches of damp and rough brick. My head swam as I turned my head towards the fire. It was an old hearth, simple and wide, with a bar across that a kettle could hang on to boil. I followed along the line of the wall to wooden stairs going up to a door and windows high up on the walls, at street level. We were in a basement room, my abductor and I. He sat with his back largely to me, staring into a bowl on his desk. I could just about see his face in profile. Rin smiled softly at it.

“I’ll contract you again in an hour to hear your decision.” He splashed water from the bowl with his fingers and adjusted some papers on the desk.

The only exit seemed to be the door at the top of the stairs. To get to it, I would have to go right past him. Maybe if I was quick. If I just rushed at it, didn’t look, just ran. I could make it. I pulled my body up, but my wrists locked into place as I tried launching myself from the bed. I struggled. It was no good, I was held fast. Rin turned at the sound of my struggles and his grin grew wider.

“My sleeping beauty, awake now?” I growled, unable to work out why I couldn’t break free. “Ingenious little spell isn’t it? The more energy you expel trying to break free, the tighter and stronger your restraints become. And even if you relax, it’s still rope that I’ve knotted very tightly.”

I stopped struggling, knowing it was useless. I was still in my nightdress but he’d removed my robe. It hung over a lamp on the bedside table. He turned to look at me fully and I could see the fresh burn scars on his face, neck, shoulder and arm. The skin on his entire left side had bubbled and melted like candle wax, but it was also healing. His ravaged face reminded me that I could call fire and burn the ropes. The flames curled to life around my fingers and spread up my arms. Rin gave an audible sigh, clucked his tongue and got up. He reached for something concealed by the end of the bed and hurled it at me.

I screamed when the ice cold water touched my skin. The fire went out and the satin clung to my body. He swung the bucket back and wagged a finger at me,
tsking
.

“Try to call fire again and you get the bucket again. I almost wish you would. You do look good wet.” I shivered with the cold.

“Was that your version of moral support?”

He grinned at me his “I’m on the edge of bat shit crazy” smile.

“I’d love to offer you moral support but I have questionable morals.”

I didn’t doubt that. Rin refilled the bucket and positioned it at the ready in case I was stupid enough to ignore the warning. He sat back in his chair watching me. I needed some time to think of another way to escape so I asked him questions to keep him busy.

“Who were you talking to?” He stroked his hands down his leg and gave an air of nonchalance.

“To one of the monks.”

“Monks?” I asked curiously while trying to slip my wrist from the loop. The more I tried, the tighter it got. I winced with the pain but luckily he didn’t notice.

“The Monks,” he said as if I should who he was referring to. “The go between, between the four. The servants of the heavens.” I gave an exasperated sigh and rolled my eyes.

“This may have escaped your notice but I don’t have the foggiest hell of what you’re talking about. Four who? Servants of what?” He shook his head in what I thought was pity. “What?”

“Do you even know that you’re a phoenix child?”

“Yeah, I know that. How the hell do you know that is my question?”

“I knew it the first time I saw you. You were trying to hide it, but I could see through the cracks of your protection. But I had to be sure, so I watched and I waited. I felt it when you unleashed your fire and re-birthed yourself in it. I was sure then.” I growled at him, hating the idea that he had been watching me that long, following me around. It just added to his creep factor which was off the charts already.

“How the hell do you know so much? I’m going to ask one last time. Who exactly the hell are you?” He stood dusting himself down and placing an arm over his chest. He bowed at the waist.

“Time for a proper introduction then. As you know I called myself Rin, but my full name is Shi-Rin Lao. I am a dragon child.” My eyes went wide and then I blinked repeatedly.

“A what? How does that relate to me? And aren’t you mortal?” He gave the tiniest of growls as if he were angry at my ineptitude.

“I guess if I think about it, we’re technically cousins.”

I grimaced. As if things couldn’t get worse, my insane stalker was now a cousin with inappropriate feelings. I did not want to be related to this nut job, especially with his unnatural feelings towards me.

“And the mortal part? How come you’re mortal when I’m not?” Rin’s lip curled back over his teeth in a snarl. I was obviously poking a sore wound. Good.

“Because I’m in exile. The majority of my powers were stripped. Its torture to be trapped in this one flesh, not allowed the joy of my dragon shape, denied the beauty of my homeland.”

“They kicked you out? I can’t imagine why.” Rin didn’t seem to notice my sarcasm.

“I tried to overthrow my father and failed.” A few pieces of the puzzle started to slide into place.

“That’s why you were so desperate to get a hold of me.” And I couldn’t deny that at the moment he had me. “You think it will get you back in good with someone.” He smiled.

“Clever girl.”

“Patronizing bastard.”

“You don’t know how important you are to them. They need you. I have you. They will have to agree to my terms to get you.”

“Let me guess, what could you want…” My voice was droll but he took it as a cue. He threw his arms up, fingers curled like claws and his eyes looking skyward.

“Full restoration. Reinstatement. Returning home, with you as my mate.” I pulled a face.

“I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.” Rin strolled over to the bed and stroked the back of his hand over my cheek.

“I will not seem so hideous to you when I have my ability to heal like you do. Even the magic I have cannot undo this the way my true nature would.” I turned my face away from him. He took his hand back. “After a few months in bondage you will find you’ll be more kindly disposed towards me.”

“Keep your fifty shades fantasies to yourself.”

He laughed at me with a mad glint in his eye, returned to his chair and gave his back to me.

With his back turned, my mind split in two. The part of me that knew I had to use his inattention to my advantage to escape was at war with the part that wanted to ask him more questions. When would I get this opportunity again to learn more about myself and where I came from? I could always escape later. The survivalist part of my brain told me there might not be a later. He was going to contact whoever, the monks, in an hour. Then presumably if I was as needed as he believed, they would collect us both. I had to go before that happened. Once the deal was made there was no way to tell how quickly things would progress. They might not travel the way a human would.

I couldn’t pull free of the rope or burn through them. The last bucket of ice cold water clung to my skin in a strange way that I could feel impeding the burn. It would take longer to get a full burn on. By which time, he would just throw another bucket over me. Rin didn’t seem to be in any kind of amorous mood in which I could trick him into untying me. Any shift in my regard to him would also be a tip off that I was trying to play him. Rin wasn’t a stupid man ruled by his hormones. He tried that route and regarded it as a failed attempt. He wouldn’t buy that I had changed my mind so readily.

What I needed was an extra pair of hands, but how did I get that? I looked around the room, zeroing in on my robe and what lay in the pocket there. Something had made me pick up the card, an unknown need of it and a tingling premonition that didn’t become full-blown because I was so tired. That was the only reason I could think of that Rin had been able to sneak up on me. That, and the fact that he didn’t intend to threaten my life. When extremely exhausted as I had been, only life and death could trigger the full-on sepia visions.

I was supposed to use his card when I knew who had been sucking their powers, but I’d been too preoccupied to give it a moment’s thought. Now I had Rin, in a manner of speaking, right where he would want him. It seemed right to use it.

I reached for the robe. If my wrists had been bound together or directly to the headboard I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But I had been restrained by looping one knot around my wrist and the other around the wood so that my arms hung by my sides. There was just enough slack that I could reach the pocket of my robe with my outstretched fingers. I could feel the edges of it through the thin material and pushed it so that it was on its end instead of its side. The tip peaked out just above the top of the pocket and I strained towards it. The rope bit into my wrists painfully as the spell viewed my stretching as another attempt to break free. I felt the sharp point of the corner press into the pad of my finger as I pushed against it with my nail. It was like some survival crane game. I needed to secure the prize in order to survive.

I pulled the card from my pocket, pushed it firmly into the palm of my hand and fell back as the tension in the ropes was released. It rocked the bed, loudly. I curled my fingers in a fist around the card quickly as Rin turned around to see what I was doing. He eyed me speculatively. Now came the tricky part. I slid my hand with the card behind my back trying to conceal it. Rin walked over to the bed and I pushed my fisted hand further away from him. Without a word, he grabbed my arm at the elbow and pulled it back into view. I clenched my fist even tighter but the tiniest edge of the card showed underneath. He
tsked
me again and began prying my fingers loose. I resisted of course, but it wasn’t enough. Rin tore the card away from me and I whimpered meekly.

“And what did you think you were going to do with this?” I didn’t answer him. I just set my jaw and looked stricken to be caught and have it taken away from me. Rin smiled and with his flair for the dramatic that I’d observed, flung my salvation into the open fire.

I bowed my shoulders and head. I knew he was watching me shake and was smug as hell till he realized that I was laughing. I did it. I tricked him.

“I’d say how stupid can you be, but I think you’re starting to view it as a challenge. That reverse psychology shit always works on you people,” I said cutting my laughter off so I could breathe in. “A little help.” I looked past him as I spoke.

“My pleasure.”

Rin barely had time to turn before he went flying across the room.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sam straightened his impeccable grey suit and flashed a dazzling smile at me.

“Might I say this is a look on you that I could get used to?” I gave him a skeptical look and he bowed over me, freeing one wrist and then the other. I rubbed at the sore, red marks. Sam stroked his chin as I sat up, trying to pull myself into better order.

“Now,” he said still smiling, “correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t give you that card so I could enact a daring rescue. Unless, you’ve changed your mind?” He arched his brow over a leering eye, taking in my appearance. I grabbed the robe wanting to be covered more than anything and slipped it on.

“You wanted me to let you know when I found who was siphoning your powers. Here he is.”

Sam’s heated gaze turned menacing as he looked at the crumpled body that was Rin, who groaned and shook his head as the daze from his impact with the wall wore off. Sam took a couple of steps closer.

“This, piece of meat, stole from me.” Each one of his words dripped with hostility and venom. Rin turned sharply, cussing out a quick bit of magic that sent Sam flying back past me through a curtain that ripped off its hooks with the impact and revealed a bathroom.

“Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?” Rin growled. I shimmied back onto the bed getting out of the way. I was a strong believer of staying out of others people’s fights – I got in enough of my own. Sam picked himself up, his eyes focused on a torn seam in his suit jacket.

“Hell is an apt word,” he growled removing his jacket and poking a finger through the tear. I swear I could see little, dusty, red-colored horns protrude from the blonde of his perfectly styled hair as he got mad. He tossed the jacket onto the bed and thrust the heel of his hand into the air below Rin’s chin. It didn’t connect with flesh but the blow still sent Rin flying. Rin hit the wall and slid down it till he was crouched on the balls of his feet.

“You can’t have her. She is my prize.”

I snorted disgruntled. Sam only seemed to get offended by his challenge, like Rin couldn’t tell him that he couldn’t have me if he wanted me, even if he didn’t. He gripped the air much like Darth Vader would and cut off Rin’s air supply. Rin clawed at his throat desperately. Sam took a couple of intimidating steps closer to him.