“Yes. You’re the sorcerer. The one they call Barrett.”
Peter’s eyebrow twitched but otherwise he gave no reaction. Barrett was technically his master and Peter was his apprentice before he became a fully-fledged sorcerer.
“And her?” Peter indicated me.
“The vampire. The one without a clan.”
Peter’s face turned thoughtful. “Let him go.”
Say what. I hadn’t caught him in a surprise attack to let him go so he could then kick my ass.
“He’s weaker than us. He won’t try anything. Will you, sphinx?”
“No. I won’t. I swear. Just let me go.”
Peter leaned forward, thrusting his face close to the man’s. “She’s going to let you go, but you’re going to stick around to answer some questions. Otherwise, I’ll hunt you down and use you as ingredients in my spell work.”
It was a good threat. One that had incentivized me to track down a deadly monster last year. One that I would face again if the sorcerer ever got free of the genie cuff I’d trapped him in.
“I won’t run. I swear.”
“Like I’d trust a sphinx’s promise,” the sorcerer sneered.
Then why was I letting him go? If you couldn’t trust someone to answer a simple question, how were we going to trust that he had no plans to attack?
Noticing my hesitation, the sorcerer shot me a look.
I sighed and released the arm, shoving the sphinx away from me. Peter had done me the favor of trusting me when it came to catching our watcher. The least I could do was return the favor until it became evident that our interests didn’t align.
The sphinx looked like a professor, or maybe a grad student, one with a fashion sense that was a few decades older than him. He wore wireframe glasses and his golden hair stuck up in tufts. He was dressed in khakis and a dress shirt with a plaid vest over it. His ears were barely pointed and were partially covered by his hair. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t so close, and he hadn’t been contorting to prevent his arm from breaking.
He looked scared out of his mind.
I hardened my resolve. If he had something to do with Caroline’s disappearance, I didn’t care how scared he looked. I’d make him tell me where she was. If he’d harmed her… Well, I had an extensive knowledge of torture techniques gleaned from years of reading and a friendship with an interrogator in the military, along with the will to use them.
“What’s your name?” I repeated.
“Demetri,” he said.
Sounded Greek, which fit. If I remembered my high school English class, there were stories about the sphinx in both Greek and Egyptian mythology. The Greek version made the sphinx out to be treacherous and murderous. The story I could remember was about Oedipus Rex who became king after killing a sphinx who lured travelers and killed them when they couldn’t answer its riddles.
The Egyptian’s cast the sphinx as a wise and benevolent guardian who protected the entrance of tombs and the like.
These were just stories of course, and I was walking proof that the myths weren’t always true. I wasn’t a soulless killing machine, so I couldn’t assume the sphinx lived up to either version of its mythology.
“Alright, Demetri, let’s try this again. Why were you watching us?”
He looked hunted, his eyes shifted from left to right as if he was determining his best escape route.
“Demetri.” My voice lowered to a threatening growl as I stepped closer. “You don’t want to test me right now. I can’t guarantee I’ll be as gentle as last time.”
He slumped, the muscles in his body relaxing as if he realized how fruitless escape was. I didn’t drop my guard, afraid this might be a trick.
“Now, why were you watching us?”
He lifted his eyes to mine and for a moment it felt like I was falling as a voice muttered incomprehensibly next to my ear.
I shook my head, shutting that voice out. I grabbed him by the collar, yanking him up to my face, and my exposed fangs. “Enough of that unless you want to be dinner. I’ve never had sphinx before. I might like it.”
