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“Okay, okay, I promise I’ll stop being an asshole.” I threw my hands up, the universal gesture of placation. “Like I told your buddy here, I’ve never heard of Diaz, and I’ve never heard of a jewel.”
Salimah’s eyebrow, shaped very much like a scimitar, raised in a sharp curve. “Then why was a man who looked exactly like you prowling around Nirvana? Why is the Heartstopper missing?”
“Nirvana? And why is the Heartstopper – look, lady, now you’re just making up words. I don’t know about no jewel, and I sure as hell haven’t heard of any Heartstopper. What is it, like an artifact?”
Salimah stared and said nothing. After a tense few seconds, she spoke again.
“Connor. Break one of his fingers.”
Meathead – Connor – smiled wide, far wider than I’d seen him smile all night. I yelped.
“Wait. Wait. What can I do to prove that I wasn’t the guy who stole your whatever it was? What if I – what if I helped you find it?”
Salimah tilted her head, her lips pursed as she considered my proposal. As if I needed to owe these two anything. I needed more vampires in my life like I needed a hole in the head.
“Connor,” Salimah said.
I breathed in relief.
“Break two fingers.”
I struggled harder than ever, the flesh at my throat so much colder from contact with Connor’s fingers, and I turned my head, aching to see if I was casting a shadow against the wall behind me. Could I step into it if I didn’t have the freedom of motion? Hell, could I possibly shadowstep away from the fingers threatening to crush my windpipe? One way to find out.
But I never did. A streak of silver crashed through the alley, slamming bodily against Connor with a horrible crack. The hand holding me by the throat whizzed away as the vampire was knocked off of me, and I crumpled to the ground, clutching my neck and wheezing for breath. My head spun, looking for where Connor had been thrown. I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out who my savior was.
I grimaced. Yes, I like being alive, but no, I don’t like being indebted to Sterling. God, I knew he was going to lord this one over me for days, if not weeks. Months. If I live long enough, years, but seeing as how I couldn’t even set foot outside the hideout for a hamburger without being half-murdered, maybe I’d be dead sooner rather than later.
Sterling growled as he held Connor against the ground, both of his hands clenched against his collar. The best way to describe Sterling was that he was slender, the kind of guy who dressed like he was the lead in a rock band, all piercings and leather and long hair. But as lanky as he looked, there was a reason Carver kept him around. I’d seen Sterling smash through a door as if it were made out of paper.
Salimah stood over the two of them, teeth bared, her upper body pushed forward like she was on the brink of attack, but something in her posture was hesitant. Clearly the two knew each other. Either she and Sterling were evenly matched, or he was her superior. Something about age, the way it worked with mages as well: chances are, the older something is, the more capable it is of breaking your face.
“Keep your fingers off him,” Sterling said, his tone even and warning. It was weird hearing him being protective over me, but hey, I was going to take what I could get.
Salimah huffed, her eyes ripping like daggers in the brief moment that she glared at me. “Does he belong to you?”
For some seconds, Sterling and I locked gazes. If he said yes, then I was off the hook, possibly, but gross. Come on. I wasn’t one of his thralls. Not my kink. But what if he said no?
“He belongs to someone stronger than me,” Sterling said. “You don’t want to mess with that.” He slammed Connor one last time against the ground, then got to his feet, scraping the dust from his knees. “What do you want with this idiot, anyway?”
“Hey,” I said, but Sterling’s glance told me it was best to keep my mouth shut.
“Something belonging to Diaz is missing,” Salimah said. I still had no idea who this Diaz was. “And I was informed that someone who looks very much like your ‘friend’ here was responsible for its disappearance.”
Sterling rolled his eyes. “And you two immediately resorted to violence to handle this?”
“We were only going to scare it out of him. There wasn’t going to be any real violence.” She gave me a longing look. “Well, maybe a quick drink.”
Sterling shook his head. “No more of this shit. I work with this kid. Nothing goes through our territory without me knowing. If he says he didn’t steal it, he didn’t steal it.”
My eyes went wide. Wow. Was Sterling actually being nice to me?
“Plus he couldn’t strategize on his own if his life depended on it. He’s too dumb for that.”
My hero.
“We’ll leave it at that for now,” Salimah said. “But if he comes anywhere close to Nirvana – ”
“Fine,” Sterling barked. “No Nirvana, as long as you remember to course this through me next time.”
