Swearing, I jumped back into the tunnel, a tunnel that was large enough for the tarantula to fit into. At least it couldn’t get at my sides.
I fired twice more as it chased me back into the passageway. A thick green ichor that did not look natural oozed out of the six wounds. This time, the great tarantula let out a loud, angry hiss, but it kept coming.
As I retreated, my heel bumped against something that hadn’t been there before. A wall. Damn it, I’d walked into a trap.
The tarantula raised its forelegs high and opened a huge mouth, fangs dripping saliva. And venom, I realized, the sickly-sweet scent of its breath washing over me.
I fired one more time, then yanked out Chopper. The fanged mouth darted toward me. I whipped my blade across, cutting off one of those fangs.
Something hot spattered my arm and face. The torso reared up, and I shifted my grip, jamming my longsword up under its jaws before it could bring its fangs close again. A normal weapon might not have pierced the exoskeleton, but my magical blade crunched deep. The tarantula hissed again, battering my eardrums.
It tried to shake my sword loose. I shoved it deeper, hoping to reach its brain. The tarantula charged forward, shoving me against the wall with its body, and pain blasted my torso. I almost lost my grip on Chopper, but I hung on with determination, twisting and driving the blade deeper.
The tarantula backed up, only to ram forward again. My breath whooshed out as it crunched into me. I couldn’t take much more of that.
As the tarantula backed up again, I yanked my sword free. Hot blood and ichor poured out onto me. When the tarantula rushed forward to ram me again, I dropped to the ground and scrambled under it.
The forest of hairy black legs trampled down all around me, trying to smash me. I rolled and twisted, found my feet, and lunged upward, my shoulder against its abdomen as I rammed Chopper through its exoskeleton again and again.
Nasty, sticky blood poured down, but the legs kept thrashing. I drove the blade deeper. The entire body trembled, and at the last second, I realized the tarantula was going to collapse. I tugged out Chopper and dove out an instant before the heavy body hit the tunnel floor.
I flattened my back to the wall nearby, not sure yet if I’d killed my enemy, but not wanting Zoltan behind me. He stood in the tunnel entrance, watching. I pointed Chopper at the tarantula’s backside and Fezzik at Zoltan. He didn’t appear to be armed, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t throw more attacks at me.
Fortunately, the tarantula didn’t move again. I lifted a sleeve to wipe disgusting gore off my face.
“One of your lab critters got out,” I said in as bland and unperturbed a voice as I could manage. As if I weren’t breathing hard, a faint wheeze to my exhalations. Stupid asthma. My fingers twitched toward the pocket with my inhaler, but I didn’t want to use it in front of the vampire.
“Ah, do forgive me.” Zoltan bowed grandly, sweeping his long coat out wide. “I forgot to warn you about my pet.”
“Forgot. Right.” Pointing the gun at him, I walked closer to the lab again.
Zoltan backed away. I wasn’t sure if it was because he found me threatening or he was disgusted by the globs of tarantula ichor falling off my clothes and spattering onto the floor.
“I hear you wheezing. Were your lungs punctured by the fangs of the tarantula?” When most men looked at my chest, they were ogling my boobs, but Zoltan had to be hoping to find fresh blood dripping from a wound. That was just as bad.
“No, and don’t sound so hopeful. I’m fine.” I tried to will away the tightness and breathe more quietly.
Vampires were probably among the magical with excellent hearing.
“An aerosol made from venom from the spiked tail of a manticore and mixed with liquid magnesium sulfate will clear the lungs right up. Perhaps you’d like to trade a small taste of your blood for such a concoction.” He licked his lips. The only thing worse than a vampire was a hungry vampire. “I have the ingredients here.”
“No, thanks. Listen, Zoltan.” I stepped back into his lab and lowered the gun but didn’t put it away. “I need a few minutes of your time, and I’ll be happy to pay your hourly rate. Then you can go buy someone else’s blood.”
“Hourly rate? Madam, do I look like a prostitute?”
“Lawyers, plumbers, and consultants all have hourly rates.”
“Do they? I must get out more in the world. What can I do for you? If I’m able to assist you, perhaps you can owe me a favor, eh?”
“No favors.” I pulled out a wad of cash and smacked it down on the nearest counter. To think Sudo wondered why I needed my combat bonuses delivered in hard currency. Was I supposed to PayPal a vampire? “Two hundred dollars for your time. Do you agree?”
“Is that what plumbers charge?”
“Yes.” As if I knew. I had a landlord that called the plumbers.
“Very well. I will assume this is reasonable. What is your question?”
“First off, do you know who made this?” I carefully withdrew and unwrapped the vial. “And is there any way you can tell what potion it was holding? If so, and if you can give me an antidote that will magically heal the friend of mine that was made sick by it, I’ll pay more.”
“All this money you’re throwing around, as if I’m going to take off on a holiday to Hawaii with it.”
“Maybe you need another computer monitor.”
“Hm, yes. My equipment is expensive.” Zoltan took the vial from me, his hand cold when it brushed mine.
He went to a Bunsen burner and heated the bottom. I leaned forward, encouraged that he’d known about the heat-activation without me saying anything. I wished I’d thought to ask Nin for alchemist recommendations in the first place. Then I could have avoided that trip to Bend and the run-in with the government agents—and the dragon.
“Mm hmm,” he murmured, and walked to a bookcase full of thick tomes with yellowed pages. Few had titles printed in English. He pulled out one so old that the binding creaked. “Mmm.”
Val? came Sindari’s voice through our link. I cannot find you.
I’m under the carriage house in the vampire’s laboratory. I don’t think the door I used is the best one. Look around back for something.
Are you in danger?
Not at the moment. Will you check on Dimitri? We got separated, and I don’t know his phone number. Nor did I know if I had reception down here. Was Zoltan’s computer setup using a cell signal for internet access? Or had he somehow gotten cables run underground out here? Obviously, he had electricity.
I’ll check on him. I think those people I led around are elves—or dark elves—and I think they realized I was deliberately leading them away from their prey. I expect them to return to this property.
Am I their prey?
Probably. I think you were the target at your colonel’s apartment.
Then I’m glad their aim has been lousy.
Has it? That room you were in burned down, with the roof collapsing on it. If you’d been a little slower to get out…
I take your point. Keep me updated, please.
“Here, you can see this sigil.” Zoltan laid the book on the counter, open to a back page.
Though my instincts warned me about getting too close, I came over, keeping Fezzik between him and me. Zoltan beamed an admiring smile at my neck. I must have caught him on a hungry night.
The familiar symbol was one of four drawn on the page in faded brown ink—or was that blood? The smaller text written around each symbol was in black ink.
“What’s it say about it?” I couldn’t read anything, but the flowing script was in the same stylistic vein as the symbol. “And what language is this book in?”
“The particular alchemical language of the dark elves. They have four different tongues, one for alchemy, one for religious purposes, one for teaching, and one for everyday use. Even in their heyday here on Earth, few people knew the alchemical language.”
“Are you one of those people?”
“You called me a people. I’m honored.” There was that smile again and a slight bow.
“Weren’t you one once?”
“Indeed, indeed. Not so long ago that I can’t remember it. But these days, I merely stay in my dark hole and research and teach, and occasionally contemplate summoning my followers to this place so that I might feast on their blood while turning them into young vampires. I could raise up an army to do my bidding.”
“Followers?”
“Yes. To my channels.” He extended his hand toward the computer setup. “There are millions.” His dead black eyes managed to gleam.
“Oh, the teenage girls.”
“And some boys. Also, my demographics studies have shown that housewives between the ages of thirty-four and fifty-three find me quite the tiger’s meow.”
I squinted at him, suspecting that was to let me know that he knew Sindari was prowling around up there. “Tigers don’t meow.”
“No?”
“What would you do with an army?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Perhaps I could find a way to rule this nation—your political system seems fraught with strife, so it’s clear that a superior option is needed—but my difficulties with sunlight would pose a challenge. And I’m certain your government would field someone like you to come slay me. Which would be tedious.”
“No doubt.”
“And besides, my followers are terribly valuable where they are. My sponsors value them a great deal. Their funds pay for me to have my alchemical supplies delivered. The world has become a fascinating place.”
“Yes. Can you read that?” I tapped the page.
A light warning zap ran up my finger.
Zoltan lifted a hand, shooing mine away. “Only one versed in the language and suitably respectful to the dark elf way may read this book.”
“Does that mean it’s unlikely that some kid—such as one of your followers—found another book like it and taught himself or herself to make the potion that was used against my boss?”