Deadly Sin (Cassandra Farbanks) (34 page)

He shook his head but kept his lips pressed into a tight line. I scowled a little. Why wasn’t he blurting out the truth like butcher had?

“There has been something going on, something about you. It took me a while to notice but it’s definitely there.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” he said through gritted teeth.

“Shall we look at the evidence? You pretend not to know anything about the supernatural no matter how much information is out there. You get these strange looks and give me the ‘leave it alone’ glances when I notice something weird about you. You overreacted when I told you I’d been talking to a demon. You look like you recognized Rin’s E-FIT. You were the only one able to talk me down when I lost it in PCU, and I’m positive that it was you who freed me when I was trapped in the fire. That means you’re stronger than a normal man.” Hamilton put his mug down harshly and shook his head.

“That’s a hell of a fantastical tale you’ve concocted.” He tried to smile at me but I was getting angry now.

“I was lying on your coat!” His smile dropped. I think something like regret passed through his eyes. In his natural pursuit to be a gentleman he had laid it out beneath me so I didn’t have to lie on the ground. It had given him away.

“Cassandra, honestly. You’re making a lot out of nothing, imagining things.” I crossed my arms over my chest, angry and fighting bitter tears. I wasn’t making it up. I was positive, even more so now because the truth serum wasn’t working. It had a one hundred percent success rate on humans. I stared at his mug and he looked down at it suspiciously.

“I’m sure,” I said whisper quiet. “Why can’t you just admit it? It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone.” Hamilton ignored me, contemplating the coffee. His voice was just as quiet when he spoke.

“Cassandra, what did you put in my coffee?”

“Sodium Pentothal.” He pushed the mug away from him disgusted and pushed up out of his seat. He stomped around his desk pointing at the door.

“I think you’d better leave.” I refused and dug my heels in. We were having this out.

“I know you’ve been investigating me. I saw the file!” Hamilton dropped his arm but desperately hung on to his pissed mood.

“Just a simple background check.”

“You met me over a year ago. Why would you wait till now? Why now? Unless you recognized something in me and wanted to be sure.” I turned my own angry gaze on him. “You know something or you’ve figured out something about me, about who I am and I want to know what it is.”

“I don’t know what you’re…”

“Bullshit!” I cut him off. “That’s absolute bullshit. You know more than you’re letting on. You’re keeping something from me and I demand to know what it is.”

“Cassandra, just let it go.”

“No.” I was very close to shouting at him. “Who are you Hamilton? What are you?” I levied my accusation at him. He turned away from me, grabbed the door and wrenched it open.

“Who’s the Scarlet King?” I watched the muscles in his back bunch and his voice came barely above a whisper.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Paris, please,” I begged him. I could feel the tears coursing down my cheeks, and the look of pain on his face when he saw them warred with his desire to protect his secret. “I’m scared,” I confessed. “What if Rin was only the first to come for me? I need to know, to protect myself.”

He shook his head. He wasn’t going to give in. He wasn’t going to tell me a thing. Instead of asking me to leave again he turned to the door to go.

“Don’t you dare call me for help again Paris. I won’t come. I won’t. Not until you’re honest with me. Not until you tell me the truth.” My threat only seemed to bounce off his back as he walked out on me.

Chapter Thirty-One

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there and cried. No one came in and Hamilton didn’t come back. I would stick to my guns, I told myself. Until he told me the truth, I wouldn’t come if he called. He could fix his own mystical messes. I’m sure he knew how. When I’d managed to compose myself I got up and walked out. Several of the faces in the room were studiously not looking at me. I bet it sounded to them like we’d just broken up or something. I didn’t care. I was passed caring.

I wandered the streets wearily. Only after walking almost the whole way there did I realize I was heading to Dante’s. I knew that seeing Aram and maybe getting a few sympathy kisses would make me feel better. Shallow but true. Of course the queue outside was huge as it always was. Which meant Aram would be working till the club closed at 2:00 a.m. I grumped my way past those queuing, some of whom gave me a wide berth. I smiled a little when I saw the new side door. This one was a vast, heavy-duty metal affair, with a lock that looked very sci-fi. On closer inspection it appeared to be a finger print lock. I didn’t know what made me sure my prints would be in the system, but I placed my hand to the pad like I’d done before. The light under my hand flashed from red to green and the door opened. I was going to have to ask Jareth how he got my prints without asking me. I went inside, making sure to pull it closed behind me. I started up the stairs.

“Cassandra? Is that you?” called a familiar voice from somewhere above me.

“Um yes, mysterious disembodied voice.” I heard a chuckle and identified the speaker as Vincent. “Where are you?”

“Follow the stairs round and keep going up. I’m on the roof.”

I gave a small sigh. Aram was going to be busy for a while and Vincent would be a better distraction than sitting alone in his room right now. I followed the stairs never realizing that they continued around the corner from the door I usually exited through. The roof door opened with a clang and I found Vincent sitting in the curve of the ‘O’ in the Dante’s Inferno sign, swigging from a beer. A couple of empties littered the ground.

“Hey! How’d you know it was me?”

“I could smell you,” he said with a strained expression. “I can smell so much. All the people down there, but not one of them smells anywhere close to as good as you do. Like fresh baked brownies, summer sunshine and all those good things I remember about being alive.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I’ll take that as a compliment.” He gave me a very brief smile. I walked over to join him, sitting down on top of an air vent. He offered me an unopened bottle from a six pack I could now see balanced on the lip of the building. He tossed it to me and I caught it one-handed.

“Nice catch.”

“Cheers,” I said taking it and popping the cap off on a metal rivet. “What are you doing up here?” I took a swig of the beer. It was icy cold sliding down my throat.

“Chilling,” he said, crossing his legs at the ankle. “Jareth says he’ll put me on the schedule when I’m ready.”

“Is that a good thing?” I asked conversationally, resting the beer on my thigh.

“It means a pay rise and access to my own set of willing donors.” I tapped my fingers softly against the side of the bottle and looked down at it.

“You don’t sound like you’re completely happy about that.” When I looked over to him he’d closed his eyes.

“Not completely,” he said then slowly opened them again to look at me. “Don’t get me wrong there are some parts about being a vamp now that I really like and if I think about it, wasn’t this where my life was heading?” He closed his eyes again.

“But…” I said encouraging him to keep going. He did, but kept his eyes closed this time.

“But I did technically die, Cassandra. That’s a heady thing. Also I’m going to miss a lot, sunshine, tanning, solid food. There’s a lot to be said for a completely liquid diet. Also sex.”

“You can’t have sex?” I asked confused. His eyes flashed open and he smiled at me. A smile that was very much rueful.

“Yup, you’ve spoiled me for other women.” I felt the heat in my cheeks and Vincent sighed. “It’s amazing how much more appealing that is, to watch the blood race into your face. It makes me thirsty.” I took a couple of deep breathes, not only trying to stop being embarrassed, but trying to quash the guilt I felt. It was after all, my fault he was like this now. Not in the sense that I’d turned him, but I had made it necessary.

“Do you remember much?” I waved the neck of the bottle between him and myself. He shook his head.

“Barely anything.” His eyes dropped to my chest so it was clear to me which bit he did remember. “But sex is out till I can control my strength properly. I could kill my partner by accident.”

“Bet that’s got to be hard.”

“You have no idea,” he said with a salacious little grin. I couldn’t help but smile back at him. I took another sip of my drink.

“How have your family taken it?”

“My dad died when I was a kid and I haven’t spoken to my mom since she disowned me and kicked me and Tarquin out.”

“Why?”

“My mother was, is, very god squad. She couldn’t abide having one son who liked to work and hang with vamps and another who was a homosexual. She tells people we’re dead anyway.” I hunched over. It was so strange that I felt relieved that he had been on bad terms with his family. It was horrible, but it lessened my guilt just a little bit.

“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been on you.”

“It’s ok. She’d never been much of a mother. Losing dad unhinged something in her. I looked after Tarquin and stayed out of her way.”

“How’s Tarquin doing?” Vincent rubbed the lip of his bottle against his temple.

“Driving me and Sienna insane. He wants to be turned now too. He doesn’t want to end up looking older than me. He wants us to be the same, equal. He’s always been far more hung up on the twin thing than me.”

“Sienna’s reluctant?” He nodded his head.

“It’s not because he doesn’t love my brother. I’m sure he loves him enough to want to keep him forever, but he likes him as he is, warm and breathing. Sienna knows that vamp on vamp relationships, only about fifty percent of them work out.”

“Only about fifty percent of human on human relationships work out. Doesn’t mean that people don’t risk it.” He smiled at me again, a very soft smile.

“If Sienna won’t before his next birthday then he wants me to. He’s pretty sure I won’t tell him no.”

“Will you change him?”

“Maybe. If I have enough control by then to do it. Right now all my feedings are supervised. I mean if push comes to shove. I don’t want to live an eternity without my brother. Surely you and Aram have had to think about it yourselves.”

“It’s not an issue with us.” I took a long pull of the beer and steeled myself to ask the really tough questions. “Do you blame me?”

“What?” he asked and I could tell he was genuine surprised.

“Do you blame me? If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been in that room. This wouldn’t have happened to you. Surely you’ve worked that out.”

He was suddenly in front of me gripping my shoulders. His grip would probably have broken something in a human.

“No, no please don’t think that. Didn’t I tell you my life was heading this way anyway? It would have only been a few more years before I would have asked to be turned. It just happened a little sooner than I thought. I’d planned to have a couple more wild years and I’m just moaning because I don’t get to have them. Please don’t think that’s got anything to do with you.” I nodded slowly until the panic in his face vanished and his grip lessened on my arms. I winced a little.

“Oh god,” he said correctly reading my wince. “Did I hurt you?” I shook my head.

“I’m fine. I don’t damage so easily.”

“Sorry,” he said with a chuckle, running his hand back through his hair. “Don’t know my own strength.”

“You get used to it. Trust me.”

“Sure I will.” He tapped his pocket till he found his cigarettes and lit up. I watched him take a long drag. He studied my face.

“You look like you would have felt better if I had been mad at you.”

“I think I would have been. I wish one of you would blame me. You’re not the first person one of my messes got someone normal changed in a permanent way.”

“Sorry!” He said with a shrug and blew out a long trail of smoke. “Not your fault.”

“Still smoking I see?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s going to kill me now is it?” he said with a grin. I shook my head in mock horror. We hung out for most of the evening talking, having a few brews (of which Vincent had to fetch more as neither of us got drunk easily anymore) and him showing off his new vampire skills. And this was how Aram found us. Me with a drink in hand staring up as Vincent balanced on only one hand on top of the ‘O’.

“Here you are, pet,” he said announcing his presence. I spun, letting my braid whip behind me and placing my bottle to my lips.

“Here I am!” I grinned amused and took a long swig. Aram assessed his young protégé and gave a martyr’s sigh.

“Well done, now come down from there.”

Vincent did a lithe jump, doing a one eighty in the air to land on his feet. He grinned at me when I giggled. Aram looked perturbed, so I wormed my way into his arms and snuggled against his chest. He held me close.

“Vincent, go help close up.” Vincent gave him the full Arnold J Rimmer salute.

“Yes Sir Boss.” He collected up his empties with lightning speed before disappearing like a blur of white down the stairs. Aram turned my face to his.