Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons Book 1)

by Lindsay Buroker

  As Sindari raced around the big yard again, automatic sprinkler heads popped up.

  “Uh oh,” I muttered.

  They came on with a hiss and water sprayed everywhere, including at Sindari. His roar turned into the tiger equivalent of a curse, and he sprang over the far fence and into the next yard to escape.

  The stealthed strangers are chasing me, Sindari informed me. And I shall ruthlessly chew off your arm later for that trick.

  I didn’t know about the sprinklers.

  Lies.

  I promise. Thank you for leading them away. Keep them busy for twenty minutes if you can, and then come by to see if I need to be rescued from the vampire.

  May I slay them if they pester me overmuch?

  Not unless they’ve slain innocent humans and are on one of the lists that came out of Willard’s office.

  I’m chewing someone’s arm off tonight. I’m soaked.

  How is this different from when you jumped in the river to bathe? I jogged to the wooden rail fence, hopped over, and ran to the carriage house.

  It’s extremely different. The sun was out then, and I jumped in by choice. I wasn’t attacked by spring-loaded waterspouts.

  Waterspouts? Really, Sindari. I had no idea you were so melodramatic.

  Rivulets of water are assailing my ear canals.

  Dimitri stopped beside me in front of the broken door of the carriage house. “I don’t see a doorbell.”

  “I think this thing predates electricity.”

  Now that we were closer, I could tell the vampire was down below somewhere. But I assumed he could come up quickly if he wished.

  I left the noisy Fezzik in its holster and drew Chopper. When I stepped inside, an ancient floorboard creaked underfoot. So much for silence.

  Piles of junk rose everywhere, enough to bring every garage-sale shopper and picker in droves, and the scents of dampness and moldy straw filled the air. A loft overhead sagged under the weight of more junk, and built-in shelves along the walls held even more. I had a feeling it had all been here long before the people selling the house had moved in. And long before most of the houses on this street had been built.

  A breeze swept in through a boarded-up window, shattered glass on the floor underneath it. Creepy creaks emanated from several directions. I stopped moving. The creaks continued.

  “Did the real-estate listing mention a haunted barn?” Dimitri wasn’t moving either. The creaks and groans came from all around us.

  “I don’t think such features go in the MLS. Not everybody would see it as a selling point.”

  Something broke free from the loft and clattered onto a pile of rusty metal.

  “I’m surprised nobody ever tore this place down,” I added.

  “I bet some of this stuff is cool. I’m tempted to turn on my flashlight app and look for materials for my new projects.”

  “If you want to stay up here and do that, you can. I didn’t mention it earlier, but your fancy neckwear isn’t going to save you if the vampire is hungry.”

  My senses told me the vampire was still lower than we were, but he wasn’t directly under us. He was farther back, behind the carriage house. Was there a root cellar or something back there?

  I wandered toward the rear wall, looking for a trapdoor.

  “You’re making me consider it…” Dimitri tapped on the flashlight app and pointed the beam toward the piles. “But in all the horror movies, doesn’t the guy who gets separated from the person with the gun and the sword usually end up eaten?”

  “You’re thinking of the dumb blonde girl who hears a sound in the basement and goes to explore by herself.”

  He looked at my hair.

  “Don’t say it.”

  “Who, me?” His roving flashlight beam paused on some shelves full of boxes. “Oh, man, is that an old Lionel train set? It’s the box, at least. I gotta see if there’s anything in there.”

  Using my own flashlight app, I kept looking for the trapdoor while he clambered over tarp-covered piles to get to those shelves. There had to be an entrance to a lower level somewhere. The vampire had to go out to find blood now and then.

  The creaks and groans continued, the whole structure sounding like it could collapse at any moment. As I rounded a pile of junk in the back, my light played over the seams of a trapdoor. It was made from the same old wood boards as the rest of the floor, but the seam was clear, as was a pull-out handle tucked into a groove.

  Expecting a tight space, I traded Chopper for Fezzik, put my phone away, and activated my night-vision charm. Dimitri’s nearby flashlight beam made me wince with its brightness, but I kept my back to him.

  When I opened it, the trapdoor creaked even louder than the rest of the carriage house. I might as well have rung a doorbell. There was no way the vampire didn’t know I was coming.

  Nothing so grandiose as stairs awaited me. The dusty rungs of a ladder led down to a tiny bricked-in room. I didn’t see a door, but I assumed there had to be one. All the dust made me frown with doubt. Maybe this wasn’t the way the vampire came and went. Even the undead disturbed dust.

  I dragged a rusty ship’s anchor over and used it to prop open the trapdoor, then climbed down the ladder with one hand. With the other, I pointed Fezzik downward, in case someone popped out or I triggered a trap.

  The carriage house groaned and creaked again, followed by a noise that sounded like branches scraping against a back window. When we’d walked up, I hadn’t seen any trees around the building.

  A puff of dust rose when my boots hit the bottom. This definitely wasn’t the way anyone went. I almost headed straight back up, thinking to check for root cellar doors around the back of the carriage house, but ran my fingers along the walls for a quick search.

  A thunderous scrape came from above, and I looked up in time to see the anchor shift aside and the trapdoor thump down. I almost yelled to Dimitri that his joke wasn’t funny, but magic plucked at my senses. And it wasn’t dwarf-yard-art-enchantment magic.

  Wrought-iron bars slid out of holes I hadn’t noticed and clanged into place inches under the trapdoor. I sighed, debating if Chopper could cut through them or the brick walls surrounding me. With enough time, I was sure I could do it, but I sensed the vampire heading in this direction. Somehow, I doubted he would stand patiently by while I hacked at his security system.

  I glanced at the time on my phone. I still had fifteen minutes left of the twenty I’d asked Sindari for. He wouldn’t be coming to rescue me any time soon.

  15

  A rumble came from behind me, and I whirled, Fezzik pointing at the hidden door before it opened.

  “Oh dear,” the male figure standing in the tunnel said, eyeing the barrel. “Are you here to rob me? Do I need to raise my hands? What’s the protocol here?”

  He was strikingly handsome if also strikingly pale, with black hair pulled back in a bun and a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee. He shifted from eyeing my gun to eyeing my neck—maybe I should have borrowed Dimitri’s cervical collar—but his gaze didn’t linger long. He met my eyes, his brows rising in inquiry.

  “I brought you some brochures,” I said.

  “Really? I so rarely get old-fashioned mail anymore. It all comes from the interwebs. Would you like to see my laboratory? You’re not one of my fan-girls, are you? They’re usually younger. An astonishing number of teenage girls are interested in making potions and aren’t put off by my fangs.” He flashed those fangs.

  I tried not to take his interest in teenage girls as creepy. It was hard.

  “I’ll take a tour if you’re offering.” Fourteen minutes until Sindari came looking for me. I didn’t trust Mr. Sexy with his Hungarian accent.

  “Certainly. This way, please.” Zoltan bowed and extended an arm toward the tunnel. “Pardon the dust. You came in the back way. This used to be a meat locker.” He glanced up at the bars and made a hook motion with his finger. “Naturally, I have no use for a meat locker.”

  “Just a refri
gerator for your blood?”

  “Chilled blood? What a dreadful thought. I can’t imagine the vampire who would accept such an off-putting thing. The nutrients are most superior, the flavors most nuanced, when the blood is warm and straight from the vein.”

  “Uh huh. Do you drink wine?”

  “Certainly not.”

  “Guess that answers that.” I pointed the gun down the tunnel. “You go first, friend.”

  “Ah, yes, the robbery. I forgot. Will you need me to show you to my valuables? I didn’t bring that many with me when I left Europe. It was a tumultuous time back then.” He led me through unlit tunnels, and I was glad for my night-vision charm.

  “I’m not robbing you. I’m hoping you can answer a couple of questions. I’ll pay. Also, the brochures are from Nin Chattrakulrak in Seattle.” Sadly, my pronunciation of her last name was even more execrable than my pronunciation of her signature dish. “She makes magical weapons and is branching out into armor and thought you might be interested. Or maybe she thought you’d mention her shop to the teenage girls. I’m not quite sure.”

  “Armor? Interesting. I do have various security systems around the premises, which you’ll discover if you shoot me and attempt to take my wealth, but I rarely feel the need to secure my person. Usually, I find that my superior strength serves sufficiently in confrontations.” He looked over his shoulder as he swung open a door and entered a surprisingly well-lit room. “Unless I’m facing someone with a gun full of magical ammunition. Here we are. Welcome to my laboratory.”

  Laboratory and video studio, I decided as I stepped inside, eyeing a three-monitor computer, mic, and sound-engineering setup that any internet video star would admire. The bright red lights appeared to be infrared rather than LED or fluorescent. Maybe infrared was safe for sensitive vampire flesh.

  The red light gleamed off a huge metal barn door on the wall to the right of us. Was that where he kept his coffin? If so, it was a touch grandiose.

  Opposite the computer setup were counters full of condensers, test tubes, flasks, and lots of other chemistry equipment I couldn’t name. Was that a centrifuge? When Nin had said Zoltan was a vampire alchemist, I’d been imagining bags of herbs and mortars and pestles. The lab rats in cages lining one wall were closer to what I’d envisioned. I decided not to ask if they were for experiments or dinner.

  As I walked deeper into the lab, I stepped on a floor tile that was identical to the others but that shifted underfoot, depressing a half an inch. A fluke of an old floor? No, Zoltan turned, leaned his hip against a counter, and smiled at me.

  The big metal door ground as it shifted along its slider to reveal a dark room. A dark room with two glowing red eyes inside. A sweet earthy smell wafted out, as something made a skittering sound.

  “Food, Luca!” Zoltan clapped his hands.

  A tarantula as tall as I was and much wider hustled out and sped straight toward me. I fired four times before it got close, the bullets sinking into its brown furred torso, and it didn’t slow down. It was probably hopped up on some alchemy potion.

  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.