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

by Lindsay Buroker

  “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.

  I strapped on my belt and jammed Fezzik in the thigh holster, then slung Chopper’s scabbard across my back. As soon as I shoved my feet back into my boots, I grabbed the vampire’s sample kit.

  I assume he’s on his way here? There’s no way he’s coincidentally flying through the same place as me for a third time.

  Even as I finished the thought, I sensed his big powerful dragon aura. The aura I’d so assiduously scrubbed off. If he gave me a vial of his blood, I’d forgive him for oozing it all over me again. Maybe.

  He’s landing on the roof. Sindari rolled to his feet.

  Mongrel human, a telepathic voice that was nothing like Sindari’s boomed in my head like a wrecking ball slamming into a gong. Come to me. I will speak with you.

  “Is that arrogant blowhard kidding?”

  Sindari gazed blandly at me. Dimitri snored from the living room, his head half hanging off the couch.

  He won’t fit through the balcony door, Sindari remarked. He squashed two patio chairs when he landed.

  So you’re saying he has a big ass?

  All of him is big. You may want to go up there.
If you hope to ask him for a favor, you won’t want to irritate him. Further.

  Can’t I just find a soft spot on his hide and stab him with a syringe when he’s not looking?

  Dragons don’t have soft spots.

  That figures. I slipped out the door onto the balcony and climbed onto the railing so I could grab the gutter and pull my chin over the edge of the roof.

  A pair of large violet eyes glowed at me from the darkness. It took my own eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness and pick out his black scaled form from the rest of the roof. He was big. Seeing him in the wilderness hadn’t prepared me for how large he would be on the rooftop of my apartment building.

  Come up here, mongrel.

  My hands and forearms already ached from holding my bodyweight from my fingers. I wasn’t sure I could pull myself up again after my earlier climbing feat.

  “It’s Val, and humans don’t clamber around on rooftops.” Never mind that I’d done so a half hour ago. “If you want to talk to me, change into something small enough to fit through my door, and come visit me like a civilized person.”

  I dropped back down to the balcony, less to be contrary and more because my fingers were cramping up.

  Remember how we discussed not irritating him? Sindari asked as I walked back inside, leaving the door open.

  I’m not going to drop to my knees in front of him and kiss his slippered toes.

  Not even for a vial of blood?

  A strong breeze gusted through the door, knocking the curtains about, and Zav strode inside, once again in human form. He wore his usual black robe and slippers. Apparently, shapeshifters didn’t need to change clothes. I supposed I should be relieved he didn’t appear naked, like those werewolves.

  “Thank you,” I forced myself to say, and smiled politely. It was possible I bared a lot of teeth during my polite smile. “What are you doing here?”

  Nose in the air, Zav looked at the snoring Dimitri and the disarray of my apartment. Maybe inviting him in hadn’t been a great idea.

  “Wondering why you brought me into this disheveled kobold hovel.”

  “Sorry my apartment isn’t up to your standards. Some goons broke in and tore it apart.”

  “Did you slay them?”

  “No, I’m saving that until after breakfast.”

  He gazed impassively at me, but I had a feeling he couldn’t tell if I was joking or not. Maybe dragons didn’t have sarcasm. Or maybe mongrels weren’t usually sarcastic with them.

  “I am progressing through my list of criminals that I must capture and return to the Dragon Justice Court. It is a tediously long list. This world has been neglected for centuries.”

  “You know what they say. The reward for a job well done is another job.”

  “Do not interrupt me, mongrel.”

  “You paused. I thought it was my turn to talk.”

  “I paused to gather my thoughts.”

  “That is important. Carry on.”

  Val… Sindari’s gaze was less impassive as he looked at me. Don’t goad the dragon.

  He won’t kill me. He wants something from me or he wouldn’t be here gathering his thoughts.

  A dragon can easily lose his temper and inadvertently kill someone he’s talking to. He would have no regrets. He would find someone else to gather thoughts with.

  The arrogant prick rubs my fur the wrong way.

  Have you composed a will? If you die, will my figurine go to Dimitri?

  Is that what you want? He won you over with ten seconds of petting?

  He rubbed my fur the right way.

  I’ll keep your request in mind. Right now, my fourteen-year-old daughter is the heir to my estate. I flicked a finger to indicate the trashed apartment and all its vast wealth. Maybe she would get some use from the coin jug.

  “There are two dark elves on my list,” Zav said.

  “So?” I focused on him and ignored Sindari’s mental sputtering about being lumped in as part of an estate—and going to a teenager.

  “I have learned that you will soon hunt dark elves.”

  “Just one.”

  “You will enter into their lair.”

  “I have to find it first.”

  His violet eyes narrowed, and he stepped closer to me. “Do you never stop interrupting when greater beings speak to you?”

  “I don’t think you know how conversations work.” I rested my hand on Fezzik, though I hadn’t forgotten that he could incinerate bullets. Would he do so as easily with magical ammo?

  He flicked a finger, and Fezzik flew out of its holster and across the room. I jumped as it smacked into the wall, almost hitting my change jug, and clunked to the floor.

  “Do not threaten me, mongrel,” Zav growled, his eyes slits as they bored into me. “In my realm, you would be slain for presuming to carry a weapon in a dragon’s presence.”

  “No wonder everybody there flees to Earth.” I folded my arms over my chest, refusing to admit that I was shaken by his presence—by him. Even though I’d encountered plenty of enemies who could knock my weapons aside if I wasn’t fast enough, I could feel his aura crackling in the air like electricity on a high-voltage line. I knew Sindari was right, that he could kill me by accident, and that I wasn’t strong enough to fight him.

  “Only criminals flee,” he said softly, dangerously. “As the two dark elves I seek did. They recently joined the horde of them living under your city like ants under a rotten log. When you enter the dark-elf lair, you may encounter a high priestess, Yemeli-lor, and her odious mate, a warrior named Baklinor-ten.”

  Though numerous sarcastic comments popped into my head, I managed to keep my mouth shut and listen.

  “The two I seek stole from a prominent dragon family an artifact of cultural and historical significance,” Zav continued, “and they are using it in their foul sacrifices to their bloodthirsty goddess. If you see them, you will bring them to me. If you see the artifact, you will retrieve it for me.”

  “Uh.” I lifted a finger to protest further, but he reached for me.

  Startled, I tried to leap back, but some invisible power immobilized me, and I couldn’t move. He pressed the heel of his palm against my forehead, his fingers resting against my hair. What the hell?

  “It looks like this.”

  An image surged into my mind on a wave of power that would have dropped me to my knees if his magic hadn’t been holding me. I saw a thick platter carved from some purple and blue swirling stone or gem that I didn’t recognize, and on it lay a great gilded eggshell cracked into two pieces and adhered to the surface. The interior of the broken egg glowed with a soft blue light.

  Zav removed his hand, and the power gripping me disappeared. I locked my knees before they could buckle and did my best to hide the shakiness of my breath.

  He watched me for several long seconds.

  “Is it my turn to speak now?” I asked.

  “It would be appropriate for you to obediently say you’ll do my bidding.”

  “Uh huh. I don’t know how you know I’m looking for a dark elf—maybe you’re a fan of Zoltan’s internet alchemy channel—but the ones you named aren’t the one I’m looking for. I need a cure for my boss, not a weird dragon artifact.”

  His eyes narrowed again. Sindari stood next to me and bumped his hip against my side. Possibly, it was a show of support, but more likely, he was reminding me not to irk the dragon.

  “I may be willing to help you,” I continued, though I was already daunted by my own quest, “in exchange for a small vial of your blood for Zoltan.”

  “Nobody takes a dragon’s blood to use for magical debauchery. Or for any other reason. I have already told that alchemist that he will get himself killed—further—if he attempts to collect such a thing.”

  “That’s probably why he wants me to collect it.”

  “No doubt he sees you as expendable.”

  “What were you doing talking to him, and why can’t you get your own dark elves?”

&
nbsp; “I sensed that several dark elves were above the surface and easily accessible. I went to see if any of them were the two I sought. They were not, but I am no longer surprised when you are found in the presence of the magical. Whether you accept the honor or not, you are my perfect bait. And I will continue to use you as such.”

  He looked so smugly pleased at having discovered my secret utility. I wanted to punch him in the nose. It was a straight, strong handsome nose, so it would feel particularly satisfying to smash it, but even if he looked like a human, I doubted he was as fragile as a human.

  “When you aren’t sending me in to do your work for you,” I said.

  Fresh irritation—or maybe that was indignation—rose to his eyes. “Find the criminals and the artifact, and I will reward you.”

  “By not using me as bait?”

  “No. I will use you as bait. The sooner I complete my task, the sooner I may leave this vermin-infested world. What other reward would you wish?”

  “A vial of your blood.”

  “Not that.”

  “A cure for my boss.”

  “I am not an alchemist.”

  “Then I need a vial of your blood. What’s the big deal? I saw how humongous you are. It’s not like you’re going to miss it.”

  Most guys would be delighted to be called humongous, but Zav stepped back, tension snapping into his body. It was only then that I realized he’d been speaking to me normally, almost pleasantly. Until I’d pissed him off again.

  “No dragon would allow his blood to be experimented on, not by another dragon, and definitely not by some vampire vermin.”

  I had a feeling he considered everyone who wasn’t a dragon to be vermin. “That’s my price. Why can’t you find their lair and get your own dark elves, anyway?”

  “I can. I choose to delegate.”

  “I didn’t sign up to be your assistant. I have my own mission, someone’s life to save. Sorry, but that’s more important to me than your to-do list.” I waved to the open balcony door. “You can see yourself out.”

  He strode toward me, not away, his eyes darkening with his anger. Sindari growled and crouched. I reached for Chopper.