He threw me a startled look.
“Apparently, there’s a dragon aura clinging to me that I need to scrub off. Tarantula blood too. I’m decidedly grimy.”
“You don’t think it would be better to go to a hotel?”
“Maybe, but I need some ammo and a change of clothes too.” I poked at the tarantula ichor that had hardened all over my duster and the shirt I’d been wearing for two days. Or was it three now? “And some time on the computer to figure out where I can find an entrance to this secret underground.”
My jaw cracked under the influence of a giant yawn. I would need to collect a few drops of blood from Colonel Willard, too, but I’d been up for ages, and I was exhausted. Her blood ought to be the easiest to get, even allowing for the guard she’d mentioned outside of her hospital room door, so I could do it last. Finding the dark-elf alchemist would be a challenge, and I had no idea how to convince a kraken to come to shore so I could get some of its blood. And then there was Zav. How would I convince him to give me a vial from his veins? Was he still in Oregon? The idea of driving all the way back to Bend made me even wearier.
“Do you have a guest room or do I get to sleep in my van?” Dimitri found a spot in front of a dumpster and parked.
“I have a guest… couch.”
“Am I allowed to use it?”
“After driving me all over the state? Yes. I’ve been told it’s moderately comfortable. Assuming there isn’t a government agent sleeping on it now.” I had numerous deadbolts on my door, but Sudo could have gotten permission to force them open.
I put on my borrowed jacket and kept the hood up while leading Dimitri in a circuitous route toward my apartment building. The organic grocery store on the first floor was closed up for the night, but the parking garage was open, as always. I walked past it, glancing in, and spotted a black car with government plates parked near the elevator.
“Yup,” I muttered, continuing on to an alley around the corner. “They’ve got someone here.”
Dimitri didn’t try to convince me to leave. He kept yawning, too, so maybe he was fantasizing about my couch.
I used my lock-pick charm on the fire-escape door in the alley, checked inside, and didn’t spot anyone. We headed up to the fourth floor, out into the empty hallway, and I slowed again when we reached the corner. I peeked around, already assuming someone would be there and that I’d have to climb out the window and over to my little balcony. But the hallway was empty. There was something on my door, some kind of electronic device. It had been mounted right above the knob.
“Hm.” I leaned back around the corner.
Dimitri arched his eyebrows.
Whatever that thing was, I had a feeling it would alert someone if it was touched or the door opened.
“Back door.” I pointed to the window next to the fire-escape stairs.
“That’s a window.”
“It leads to the back door.”
I passed him, used my charm again to unlock it, and looked down before climbing out. The alley was still empty. The brick wall was flat with no ledges, but we were on the top floor, and the gutter along the edge of the roof looked sturdy.
“You can go back to your van if you don’t want to follow.” I hopped onto the sill, leaned out, and stood, fingers brushing the gutter. It was a reinforced metal one, so I wasn’t too worried about it holding my weight. I hopped up, caught the lip, and scooted along the side of the building.
Dimitri leaned out and watched. “How often have you done this?”
“First time. I usually use the front door.”
“How far is your apartment?” He pointed hopefully at the first balcony.
I kept scooting past it. “Third one over.”
My fingers ached from holding up my body weight, and my forearms were quivering by the time I reached my balcony, but I hopped down successfully. Dimitri waited until I nodded and gave him a thumbs-up. He must have found the gutter too flimsy for his greater weight, for he pulled himself all the way up on the roof. He crawled over on his hands and knees, then plopped down with a grunt.
“There’s a rooftop deck up there,” he said. “This is a cool place.”
“Especially for the fancy apartments that have access to it.” I pointed toward the other side of the building. “They have views of the water.” I gestured at my own view of the brick wall across the alley, including a neighbor’s bathroom window, which he unfortunately didn’t have curtains for. Nonetheless, I’d been happy to get an apartment with a balcony, especially one with room for the little table and chair.
“This balcony is larger than my van. It’s still nice.”
“I’m not positive that’s true, but thank you.” I tried the sliding door, even though I’d locked it before I left last time.
It was unlocked, so I wasn’t surprised when I opened it, pushed aside the curtains, and stepped on something. A lot of somethings. Books. Clothes. A couple of canvas grocery bags from the store downstairs… My belongings were strewn all over the combination living room, dining room, kitchen.
“Maybe a hotel would have been better after all,” I muttered.
“Did you leave it like this?” Dimitri stepped in after me.
“I’m not a neat-freak, but I’m not this much of a slob.” I pulled the curtains closed behind him before picking up a small lamp that had been knocked on the floor and turning it on. In case one of the agents watching the place wandered down the alley, I didn’t turn on any brighter lighting that would give us away. “The question is whether the government guys did this or someone else has been here.”
“What would the government have been looking for besides you?”
“Lieutenant Sudo is doing an investigation. Maybe he had some agents come in to see if I have enormous wads of cash stashed anywhere.”
“Do you?”
I lifted the big glass wine jug by the door that held several years’ worth of change. Amusingly, it was still sitting in its spot on the bookcase, probably because it had been too heavy to knock off without effort. Copper was the dominant color inside, and I doubted there was more than a hundred dollars in coins.
“Enough for a few pizzas, eh?”
“Soft drinks too.” I checked the bedroom and found it in a similar state of disarray, with the top mattress flipped and all the bedding on the carpet.
“Sindari,” I whispered, touching my charm. “Will you come back for a bit?”
I wasn’t sure he could so soon, not after I’d had him out for hours, including a fight and a chase, but I wanted his assessment—his keen nose. Also, I wouldn’t mind having him guarding the door if I was going to get naked and take a shower. Assuming I could find my loofah and soap.
When the mist coalesced into the familiar silver tiger, Sindari was on his back with his paws in the air and his eyes closed. By luck or design, he’d ended up in the middle of the comforter on the floor with his head on a pillow.
“Is that your way of telling me it’s bedtime where you are?” I asked.
Yes. I am healing from the wounds those vile dark elves gave me.
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you so soon, but as you can see, someone ransacked my apartment.
He opened an eye and rotated his head, taking in the comforter. You did not prepare this bed for me?
Sorry, no. Would you sniff around and see if you can figure out who was here?
He yawned, displaying his fangs, and his nostrils twitched. No, they sniffed. He was taking my request literally.
I assume you know about Dimitri. Older lingering scents that I detect… someone was chewing cinnamon gum. Odious. There’s also the faint odor of a pine-scented shampoo or soap. Coffee—you don’t drink that, do you?
No. And I doubt dark elves do either. These sounded like the scents of a government agent, or at least a human.
I know little of their culinary preferences, but I do believe the two intruders were human and came at least twelve hours ago.
I glanced at the clock radio currently dangling off the bedside table. It was almost four in the morning. So, after we peeled out of Bend. There’s at least one agent keeping an eye on this building tonight. Will you stand—or lie—guard while I take a shower? Then I’ll let you go back to your realm for a nice long nap.
Very well. Eyes closed, Sindari looked like he would do precisely as asked. Lie guard.
I leaned into the living room to tell Dimitri I’d be busy for long enough to scrub off a dragon aura but found him snoring on the couch already. It didn’t look that comfortable. Someone had thrown the cushions across the room, and he hadn’t bothered to retrieve them.
The bathroom was the least destroyed room in the apartment, so I found my soap bottles—I took all three containers and both kinds of shampoo into the shower with me—and my back scrubber and loofah. The hot water felt amazing after the long day, and I put together a mental to-do list while I thoroughly washed everything.
I would start out studying a map and scribbling down ideas for places to look for entrances to the Underground. I would scour the internet too. In a city this populous, someone had to have stumbled across the dark elves’ doorways before—and lived to tell about.
As I was re-braiding my hair and putting on clean clothing, a growl emanated from the bedroom.
“Sindari?” I grabbed Fezzik—yes, I’d brought my weapons into the bathroom, and no, that wasn’t weird. I also hadn’t opted for pajamas, since, with the government car in the garage, I might have to flee out the balcony door at any moment.
I sense trouble, he informed me.
Heading our way?
Yes.
No… No more trouble. It’s after 4 am. Trouble isn’t supposed to visit after midnight or before dawn. Those are discourteous hours for visitors.
It’s the dragon.
My first instinct was to be pissed and affronted—what was he doing in my state and in my neighborhood like a creepy scaled stalker?—but then I remembered my new task. His blood. I needed it. And I was going to get it.