Page 5 of Curse of the Wolf
“Buyers.”
I halted and gawked.
Radomir also noticed me, and he smiled, a smug knowing smile.
A door thumped, Duncan getting out of his van. He looked back and forth from Abrams and Radomir to me, his gaze lingering on me. He could probably sense how close I was to changing. He pointed his chin toward something in the street. A parked police car with two patrol officers in it. I’d almost forgotten it was there. The police had been keeping an eye on the place because of the increased crime of late.
That meant I couldn’t get away with punching, biting, or anything else deemed illegal, not today.
“Ah, there’s our star property manager.” Rory Sylvan lifted a hand toward me. “She keeps costs low by handling numerous duties herself and has been integral in this complex’s success over the years.”
Normally, the accolade would have delighted me, but it was all I could do to keep from snarling as I walked stiffly toward the group.
Kashvi Sylvan, always the supreme professional businesswoman, didn’t smile and wasn’t as warm, but she did nod in my direction and say, “Ms. Valens had been a boon and doubtless knows the buildings backward and forward. Should you wish to keep her on, I believe she desires to stay.”
Radomir and Abrams regarded me, Abrams squinting as if I were a strange bug to examine under a magnifying glass. Radomir… still looked smug.
“Thank you,” I managed to murmur to the Sylvans.
“We’ll do a background check on her and consider it,” Radomir said grandly.
I barely kept from gagging. As if I would work for them, even if their offer was legitimate.
No. I rocked back. There was nowaytheir offer was legitimate. They ran a hugepotionbusiness. None of the addresses that Jasmine’s dad had looked up were multifamily investments. They had farms and warehouses and weird little mushroom grow labs in rustic cabins in the foothills of the Cascades.
“These are the buyers?” I asked Bolin and looked around, half-expecting to have reached the wrong assumption. Maybe they’d comeposingas buyers, because it was open-house day or some such, and someone else had put in the offer that Bolin had mentioned.
Bolin shrugged. “Yes.”
“We like what we see and plan to make an offer.” Radomir nodded to the Sylvans.
My roving gaze—myconfusedgaze—landed on Duncan. He had stopped near the SUVs and stood with his arms folded over his chest as he watched the group and listened. His gaze lingered on Abrams, the man who’d raised him in a time long ago and a place far away. The man who’dmadehim, taking genetic material from a centuries-dead werewolf who’d been buriedunder a glacier. Duncan knew Abrams far better than I did, but I didn’t need to consult with him to know the scientist had zero interest in becoming a landlord.
“We’ll certainly consider it,” Kashvi said. “Is there anything else you’d like to see before you go?”
“Perhaps a couple of the units if you have any vacancies?” Radomir pointed in the direction ofmybuilding.
Because he hoped for a tour of my apartment? And a chance to snoop and see if the wolf case was in there?
Unfortunately, it was. Radomir was, as far as I’d been able to tell, a mundane human being, but he wore rings that emanated power, and I suspected one might let him sense magic—and magical artifacts—if he drew near them.
“I emptied out D-21 and will be getting it ready for a new tenant soon.” I pointed toward the farthest building back, one nowhere near mine.
My alchemist associate, Rue, lived a few units from the vacant apartment, and I silently apologized to her for sending these jerks in her direction. But maybe she would sense their evilness and toss some poisonous potions at them. Oh, and hadn’t she mentioned a concoction that could cause genital warts? Would it be wrong of me to text and ask her to prepare a couple of doses of that?
“This way.” Rory waved for the two men to follow him. “Those units are nice. They have a view of the grounds and trees. I did the original renovations on them back in the eighties.”
Though I was positive Radomir and Abrams had no interest in views of the grounds, they followed Rory without objection. Kashvi received a phone call and walked off to answer it privately. I took the opportunity to pounce on Bolin.
“Those aren’treallythe buyers, are they?” I whispered since his mother remained in the area.
“Yes, they’re the ones who plan to put in an offer. You recognized them?”
“Faster than you would a word with Greek roots at a spelling bee.”
“I’d object to that, since that’s not even a challenge, but you did seem instantly perturbed when you saw them.”
“Instantly.”
