I thought about pointing out that I knew where his coffin was and that I could knock on it anytime, but it sounded like he had a solid lead, so I refrained from snark and texted: Thank you. I’ll head back to the house soon. Tell Nin.
“I have to go.” I put my phone away. “My friend’s grandfather is in trouble, and I need to help her.”
Mary had used my distraction to fill in several lines on her notepad. “Of course. Will you do me a favor?”
“Pay my bill?”
She smiled. “You always do that. In cash.”
“You say that like it’s unorthodox and weird.”
“We usually bill people’s insurance, but we’re happy to take payment however is convenient. A favor?”
“What?” I couldn’t keep the wariness out of my voice.
Mary wasn’t going to ask me to go to that float-tank place again, was she? I’d looked into it. Some people might find floating in a dark coffin of warm water appealing—Zoltan, perhaps—but there was no way I was getting naked in some commercial establishment and climbing into an enclosed box with my weapons on the outside.
“If you trust him and feel comfortable enough to do so, please consider telling Mr. Zavryd about your health problems and discussing your fears with him. Your relationship will be stronger if it’s based on honesty and disclosure.”
My shoulders slumped. It wasn’t that she was wrong; it was just that we hadn’t even had sex yet and I didn’t know for sure that we would have a lasting relationship. Peeling back all my armor and sharing my fears, insecurities, and weaknesses with him would make me feel so vulnerable. I hated being vulnerable.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, more because Mary wanted to hear it than because I thought I would do it.
“Good. I hope you’re able to help your friend.”
“Me too.”
6
Maybe it was because Mary had brought him up, but as I drove back to the house, I found myself missing Zav.
He’d only been gone a day, but he’d been scarce the previous week too. My understanding was that the ordeal with the stolen egg had riled up the entire dragon populace. I had no idea how many clans they had or how many dragons were in each one, but at least three clans were far too aware of Earth now for my liking. And Zav seemed to be in the middle of all their politics. It couldn’t be a healthy place. I wished we could take a vacation somewhere and hang out and have fun, me being snarky, him being pompous, and our enemies having no idea where we were or how to find and pester us.
“Wishful thinking.”
There wasn’t any street parking, so I drove up on the curb at the corner and onto the lawn. The perks of having a Jeep. If the landlord objected, he could put in a driveway.
My senses told me Ti was still inside and that Nin was in the basement. Dimitri had gone to the shop that morning, and Freysha had gone to Willard’s office to help out with a weekend organization project, and a twinge of unease filled me at finding out Nin was alone in the basement with Zoltan. Even if he was a putative ally, he was a vampire. If he was hungry after a long night of research, would he be tempted to sample the blood of the nearest human?
With that thought in mind, I was running flat out by the time I leaped down the stairs to the basement and flung the door open.
A male scream echoed from what had once been Jimmy’s blacksmith shop and was now Zoltan’s laboratory. Belatedly, as daylight streamed inside with me, I realized the reason why.
“The door!” Zoltan cried. “Shut out that light.”
I was already closing it. Since Dimitri had covered all the windows, doing so plunged the basement into darkness, save for a soft red glow coming from the laboratory.
“That was unacceptable,” Zoltan groaned.
“Sorry. I was worried you were down here gnawing on Nin’s veins.” As soon as I made sure the door was too well latched to blow open, I hurried around the corner to check the status of those veins.
Nin was sitting on the magical anvil—apparently, that was an immovable piece of equipment that Jimmy hadn’t been able to take—with her neck unmolested.
“Gnawing?” Zoltan crept warily into view, glancing toward the door before pinning me with a glare. “Really, dear robber. How little you think of me. Even when I drink the blood of my neighbors, my touch is so light that they don’t rouse from their sleep.”
My fingers strayed to my own neck, though I hadn’t noticed any puncture wounds there since moving in. I also slept so poorly that I doubted a dust mote could sneak up on me, much less a vampire.
“I have been studying your blood sample,” Zoltan said tartly. “All night. For many hours. I’ll have an invoice delivered directly to your bedroom.”
“The kitchen table is fine. You said you found the problem? Some weird bacteria?”
“A bacterial infection, yes. The bacteria are like nothing I’ve seen before, but that isn’t surprising if the gnome came from another world and was presumably infected there. I wish I had a DNA sequencer. That would help me determine which world it originated on and whether it’s something natural or, as I suspect, was made by scientists.”
“Which races have scientists advanced enough to make bacteria? Can we even do that?” Maybe I was arrogant in believing Earth was more technologically advanced than the worlds in the Cosmic Realms, but I’d been to Elf Land, and they wore buckskins and lived in trees.
“Certainly, we can. As can scientists of many other races, most using magic the way we yield gene-editing tools. Dragons could have done it, gnomes themselves could have done it, and so could elves, dark elves, and even top-of-the-line goblin and troll shamans.”
“I hope dark elves weren’t involved. I don’t want to see them again this year. Or ever.”
“My guess from my analysis would be sunlight elves or dragons.”
I curled a lip. I didn’t want dragons to be involved either. But why would an elf poison a gnome with some bacterial infection? Why would anyone?
“He’s not awake yet to explain how he got this infection, is he?” I looked at Nin.
She shook her head. “I wish he were. I want to know what happened, and also where he has been these last twenty years. My grandmother still lives, and I know she would dearly wish to speak with him, to know why he left all those years ago. I have not called home to tell my family about this yet. Not until I know… that he will survive.”
“If he doesn’t receive a formula that will eradicate the infection,” Zoltan said, “he won’t.”
Nin slumped. I frowned at Zoltan.
“But as I told you, dear robber, I believe I’ve found a formula that will work without harming the host. The gnome, in this case.” Zoltan walked to the counter, grabbed an open book that was older than the house, and brought it over to show me. It wasn’t in English. He pointed at what looked like a list of items. “I have this, this, this, and this. This is not inexpensive, so your bill will rise, dear robber.”
“I will pay for the ingredients.” Nin pressed her hand to her chest.
“Very good. But there is one that cannot be purchased and is not a native plant on Earth.” Zoltan turned the page to a drawing of a stalk of small bell-shaped flowers.
“It looks like foxglove,” I said.
“Similar, but the flowers are teal, and the stigma protrudes. See?”
“I guess.” It was hard to envision the color from a black-ink drawing.
“It’s native to the troll home world and is called guk-laruk.”
“Sexy. If plants here had that name, they would fly off the shelves at the home and garden center.” I propped a fist on my hip. “Does this mean we have to find someone who can make a portal and visit the troll home world?”
“That would be the easiest way to acquire the plant,” Zoltan said, “as it grows rampant in the wetlands there.”
“Since the only person I know who makes portals isn’t on Earth, it’s not easy.”
“Elves are known to cultivate it on their worlds. Since elves and trolls have warred often throughout the millennia, elves started growing some of the plants in wetlands near their cities. They are used in several formulas that can protect against common troll poisons.”
“We’d still need a portal to get there.” Unless Freysha had been lying to me and could make one, we were out of luck until Zav came back. I wondered how Freysha planned to get home. Maybe our father made portals and planned to pick her up eventually.
“True. Will your dragon return soon to bask in your wit?”
“I’m sure he wants to, but I don’t know.”
“I ask because…” Zoltan glanced at Nin. “I would guess that even with your marsupial shifter’s intervention, the gnome only has a few days left to live if he doesn’t receive an effective antibacterial.”
Nin closed her eyes and leaned against a wall for support.
“Dr. Walker? He’s a lion, not a marsupial.” Not that I cared about that. I was worried about Nin. I hated seeing her distressed, and it was a cruel twist of fate that would bring her living grandfather to her side only to die before they had a chance to speak.
“He is a marsupial-lion shifter. The Thylacoleonidae are believed to have gone extinct during the Pleistocene era, so I don’t know his story, but I imagine it’s fascinating.”
I barely heard him. I was trying to think of a way to open a portal to one of these worlds with the plant.
Was it possible one of the artifacts Willard’s people had recovered from Weber’s house could create portals? As far as I knew, Weber had been gathering security artifacts, not means of transportation. I might have better luck asking Gondo if his people could make a portal generator out of dented traffic signs.
“Oh, wait.” I snapped my fingers as an idea came to me. “You say elves cultivate these plants? Is it possible they would have brought them to Earth to grow when they created their sanctuaries here?” I remembered the different climate inside the elven sanctuary I’d visited in Idaho. It had been similar to the Pacific Northwest, which was full of wetlands. Wetlands that might support this plant?