“What about the others?”
I filled her in while Thad worked. She put her hands to her mouth when I told her about Kristin. “I’m so sorry, Vincent,” she said.
I pushed my feelings down, burying them alongside that cold spot in my chest where the Urisk had been. “Like Galahad said, there will be time for grieving later. In the meantime, I have some upyr to deal with.”
“Have you notified the other Caulborn?”
I shook my head. “Right now, the best thing is for them to think we’re dead. What Thad is working on will help reinforce that. Speaking of which…” I glanced at my watch. It had taken nearly twenty minutes for me to tell my story to Petra. “How we doing, Thad?”
“Mostly done,” he called. “It’s a bit trickier doing Gearstripper, I don’t have a gremlin skeleton lying around.”
“Do you have any Jenny Hanivers?” I asked.
“Oooh, swell idea,” Thad replied, and disappeared into the stacks of boxes on the far side of the room.
Petra’s brow crinkled. “Who is Jenny Haniver?”
“A Jenny Haniver is a manta ray carcass that’s been modified to look like a mermaid’s remains,” I said. “It’ll be about the right size for a gremlin.”
We walked over to the worktables where Thad had arranged five human skeletons. Petra looked at Thad. “Thaddeus Piper, what are you doing keeping human remains in your shop?”
Thad put up his hands. “Simmer down, sunshine,” he said. “I deal in antiques, mundane and magical. Old anatomy classrooms used to have skeletons hanging around”—Thad chuckled at his own pun—“and I happen to have a few of them. They’re usually big at Halloween, but this year, no one was interested in them.”
“Lucky for us, too,” I said. “Thad’s enchanting the remains, binding a bit of our genetic material onto those skeletons. Once he’s done, I’ll plant them at the office. Word will get out that corpses were recovered. The rescue workers will find a whole bunch of bodies gathered in one room, which will make sense to the upyr, because they’ll assume we gathered together for one last stand. That’ll buy us a bit more time to plan a counter strike and maybe encourage the upyr to drop their guard.”
As I’d been speaking, Thad had been working out an eldritch equation to apply Gearstripper’s skin cells to the Jenny Haniver he’d pulled from somewhere. The ray’s mangled remains twisted and contorted, then solidified into something much more gremlin-like.
“I don’t envy the firefighter who pulls that out of the rubble,” Thad said with a grimace.
“Okay,” I said. “Get ready to move the remains.” I concentrated, focusing on the place where I’d portaled us out of HQ. Extradimensional energy sizzled around me, resisting me. The space I’d taken us from had gotten a lot smaller, and I couldn’t create a full-sized portal. Instead, I created one about the size of a large pizza, and found myself looking at a huge pile of debris.
“Hmm,” Thad said. “That’s going to crimp your style, isn’t it?”
In response, Petra stepped forward, reached through the portal and pushed up against part of the wall that had fallen. The wall cracked and splintered, but Petra was able to push it up about two feet. I enlarged my portal accordingly.
“This is heavy,” Petra said through clenched teeth. I’ve seen Petra literally throw grown men across the street and punch through solid stone. For her to say something was heavy meant that I should get my ass in gear. Thad and I each grabbed a skeleton and pushed it through the portal. Once we’d gotten all of them through, Petra dropped the wall, and I released the portal.
I dusted my hands off. “All right, that’s done. Now we just need to—”
An alarm interrupted me. Thad spun on his heel, grabbing a feather duster from the shelf and putting the feathers against his face. The first time I ever saw him do this, I thought he’d lost his mind. He later told me the feather duster is a sort of interface to the guards and wards he keeps around the shop. He needed a way to check on the wards’ status, and it had to be something that would be inconspicuous should he have it in the shop, and uninteresting enough that his customers wouldn’t pick it up and play with it. I waited for the duster to relay its information to him. “Perimeter’s been breached, Vincent,” he said. “Just one. It’s on the roof.”
I looked up. Through the skylight, I caught a glimpse of a too-pale face pulling back.
Damn, I’d been spotted.
I portaled onto the roof and saw the upyr dashing away. The sky was overcast, but even so, he shouldn’t be able to walk around in the daytime. He leapt off the building—
—And was most surprised when a portal deposited him right in front of me. He landed hard against the rooftop as I clotheslined him. Being an upyr, he was back on his feet in a flash and was lashing out at me. I misjudged his speed and took a series of claw strikes to the arms and face. My healing powers kicked into overdrive, and I felt the wounds closing as soon as they were inflicted.
Healing or not, the sheer force and speed I was being hit with drove me to the ground, and the fact that I wasn’t dying only seemed to piss the upyr off more.
And then the strikes stopped. I rolled onto my back to see Petra standing over me, the upyr held out at arm’s length, his shoes dangling a foot off the ground. I got to my feet, dusting off my knees. The sleeves of my jacket were shredded again. Dammit, I was blowing through leather bombers left and right these days. I’d need to see if I could get one made out of gorgon hide or something.
I gave a quick glance around. We were high enough up that no one on the street could see us, and I didn’t see anyone on the neighboring rooftops. Good. Well, good for us. The upyr was another story.
“There are not words for how angry I am with you,” Petra said quietly, giving the upyr a shake.
In response, the undead raked his claws across Petra’s forearm. He yelped as his claws bent backward and then broke against Petra’s skin. The thing about being living stone is, well, you’re made of stone. Things like claws and fangs really don’t do much damage against rocks, which the upyr had just learned the hard way. The upyr was bundled up, showing next to no skin, except for a bit on his face. As Petra held him, I got a look at the unnatural sheen on his cheeks and below his eyes. He was wearing zinc oxide to protect him from the sun’s UV light. Clever.
“Should I twist his head off?” Petra asked me nonchalantly.
“Tempting, but no. I have a better idea. One sec.” I Opened a portal back to my house on Olympus, right next to the Defender’s table. “Megan?”
“Vincent?”
“Hey, I’m going to widen that portal, mind coming through? I’ve got someone here you’re uniquely qualified to talk to.”
A moment later, Megan stepped onto the roof. After the moment of disorientation, she pursed her lips at the captive upyr, who was still lashing out against Petra and had only succeeded in fracturing one of his arms and both of his legs.
“Calm yourself,” Megan said, that commanding edge in her voice. Immediately, the upyr went still. Megan’s ice blue eyes went milky, then became glowing white orbs. “What were you doing out here?”
“My lady told me to watch the associates of the Caulborn and report back to her.”
“When are you supposed to check in?”
“Every hour, using this device,” he produced a sat phone from his jacket pocket.
I checked my watch. We were almost to the top of the hour now.
“Very well,” Megan said. “You will not remember this conversation. You will not remember seeing any Caulborn agents here. You are to tell your lady that the Caulborn’s associates seemed distressed by what happened at Caulborn Headquarters, but they took no action of their own, nor were they contacted by any Caulborn operatives. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” the upyr said, a hint of a slur
in his voice.
Megan paused, her lips pursed. “Are you loyal to your lady?”
“Completely.”
“You would never betray her?”
“Never.”
“You would defend her with your life?”
“Absolutely.”
“Excellent,” Megan said, her eyes glowing brighter. “Remember my voice. When the time comes, I will warn you against a threat to your lady. I trust you will act upon it.”
“Yes,” the upyr slurred.
“Excellent,” Megan said again. “Now then, go sit over there until your mistress summons you home.” Megan gestured to the far corner of the roof. Petra set the upyr down, its arm and legs having already healed. It trotted off to the corner, sat down cross-legged, and stared out over the city.
I portaled us back into Antiquated Treasures. Thad sprang up. “Sweetie, is everything okay?”
“Fine, Thad.” I filled him in. “Come on back with us, you’ll be safer on Olympus.”
Thad shook his head. “No, Vincent, I’ll stay here. The wards in my shop will protect me, and since my magic won’t work on Olympus, I’m no good to you there. I’ll stay behind and be here if you need me.”
“You sure?”
“Sure as eggs,” Thad chirped. There were hugs all around, and then we portaled back to Olympus.
“So,” I said to Megan once we were back in my house. “What was up with that bit about the upyr protecting his lady?”
“I needed to know how loyal the upyr were. Some of the traditional vampire clans are little more than mercenaries; give them enough wealth or blood, and they’ll look the other way. These upyr are different. They’re fiercely loyal to their mistress. Loyalty can be noble, but it can also be manipulated if you know how.”
“And you know how to manipulate an upyr?” I asked.
“I just might,” Megan said. She paused. “That felt good, actually doing something again. I feel like I’ve been sidelined for a very long time.” She gave herself a shake. “All right, I’m going to tell Galahad about what just happened. Let me know if you need me for anything else,” she said as she left the room.
I sat down at the Defender’s table. Petra walked around the room, a smile on her face. “You redid it to look like Courage Point.” She grinned, taking Ms. Infinity’s seat. I’d taken Commander Courageous’s own chair without intending to. It was comfy.
“Have you thought about how to separate Herb’s soul from Cynthia’s?” Petra asked.
“Not really,” I said. “If we pull through this, I’m guessing we’ll need some pretty hardcore magic. Even Hephaestus and Mrs. Rita aren’t sure about how to do it.”
“What about Psyche?” Petra asked.
Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul, was once a mortal who was renowned for her beauty; so beautiful in fact that people started comparing her to Aphrodite. As you can imagine, Aphrodite didn’t take too kindly to this, and ordered her son, Cupid, to shoot Psyche with an arrow that would make her fall in love with the first man she saw. Instead, and no one’s quite sure about why this next part happened, Cupid scratched himself with the arrow, causing himself to fall in love with Psyche.
They eloped. Aphrodite got pissed and bestowed a bunch of trials for Psyche to perform. Psyche managed to pull them off and was allowed to marry Cupid publicly. Once that happened, she ascended into godhood as a goddess of the soul.
I rubbed my face as I considered Petra’s question. “I dunno, love. Psyche can probably do it, but I don’t want to owe anyone any favors if I can help it.”
Petra waved a hand. “Please. Helping you will piss off my mother to no end. Psyche would do it just for that. I’ll talk with her.” She stood from the table and stretched. “You be careful.” She kissed me on the top of the head and left the room.
Galahad came up to me. “Did it work?”
“We planted the skeletons,” I replied. “Now I need more information. I’m going to hit up Cather and the Loremaster for what they know.” And with that, I portaled right into Cather’s foyer. This wasn’t exactly polite, but I had to assume the upyr were watching the place. As I stepped through the portal, I found Kleep dusting a table.
“Lord Corinthos,” Kleep said, giving a low bow. “You honor us with your presence.”
“Happy to be here, Kleep,” I said. “Is the master of the house at home?”
“Indeed I am, old friend.” Cather beamed as he walked into the entryway. Today, he was dressed in a sharp tuxedo complete with polished golden cufflinks, which somehow accentuated his bright green eyes and red-blond hair.
“Playing James Bond?” I asked him, gesturing to the tuxedo.
Cather beamed. “Quite perceptive of you, Vincent. This happens to be the very ensemble worn by none other than Sean Connery himself during the filming of Dr. No.” He turned to Kleep. “Kleep, my good fellow, take Vincent’s bomber and fetch the man a Pepsi. If you don’t mind my saying so, Vincent, you look a sight.”
“It’s been one of those weeks, Cather,” I said. “I need your help.”
“Right this way, then,” he said, gesturing me to follow him. We walked through the library, where half a dozen kobolds lounged in chairs, paging through old Commander Courageous comics. They popped to their feet and bowed as I passed, and I gave them each a blessing of health and strength. It was something I’d often done for the Urisk, and I quickly forced my former followers from my mind.
Instead, I focused on the hallway we’d just entered, and how Cather had added a few new sketches to the tapestries on the walls. From there, the dragon in human form opened a polished oak door and gestured me inside. Cather’s study was furnished in rich leather and mahogany trim. An antique globe, the kind that sat in a waist-high wooden stand, sat next to the desk. “Now, then,” Cather said, giving the globe a spin as he flopped down at the desk. “What can I do for you?”
“There’s a clan of upyr that recently moved into the city. You were keeping tabs on them. I need to know where they’re holed up.” The basement that Jeal had liberated people from earlier was now abandoned; I’d been able to learn that much.
Cather steepled his fingers. “That’s no small feat you’re asking for. These upyr are nearly as clever as I am. They’ve set up so many false trails that it’s going to take some time to—” He paused. “Why do you want to know?”
In response, I picked up the TV remote and clicked on the news, which was still running images of the building fire. The reporter onscreen was saying how firefighters had just pulled several more bodies from the building’s wreckage, and that so far, they had found no survivors. Hopefully, the skeletons we’d left for them to find would lull the upyr into a false sense of ease.
“Egad,” Cather whispered. “Is that—”
“It was, yeah,” I said. “The upyr did this, and we need to deal with them. In order to do that, I need to know where they are. You had the kobolds running recon on them, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but the upyr seemed more violent than the other vampires in the area; many of the other paranormals here in the Undercity are afraid of them. I’ve only sent a handful of kobolds into their lairs.”
“What?” I shot forward, grabbing Cather by the lapels. “You’ve sent them into the upyr lairs? Those are my people, Cather. Running recon is one thing, but you can’t risk them like that!”
Cather displayed no irritation at my manhandling him. Being a dragon, he could quite literally pick me up and break me in half. “Vincent, have you met the kobolds? They are a curious, clever race. They tend to find danger, or it tends to find them, depending on how you want to look at it. I am allowing them to indulge the inquisitive aspects of their nature while still looking out for them.” I must not have looked convinced, because he continued, “Vincent, you told me once that you knew when the Urisk
were frightened or in danger. How was it you knew that again?”
His tone told me he was well aware of how I knew that, but I humored him. “They prayed to me,” I said. “And when they were scared of something, they prayed even harder.”
“Can you hear kobold prayers the same way?”
“There are some differences, but basically, yes.”
“And have they prayed to you about this? Have they said anything like, ‘Please, Lord Corinthos, don’t let this barmy git of a dragon get us killed tonight?’”
I hesitated, then finally said, “No.”
Cather spread his hands. “There you are. If the kobolds felt any fear at what they were doing, or if they believed I was being reckless with the situation, I have absolutely no doubt that you would know about it. The fact that you didn’t speaks to their faith in their skills.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “And if there was a problem, they would pray to you. And you, being the noble and protective person you are, would drop whatever you were doing and pop over to save them.” He removed my hands from his lapels. I hadn’t realized I was still holding on to them.
He looked at me. “You’ve always been protective of your followers, of course, but this is new. Has something happened to the Urisk?”
I didn’t want to talk about this. “No time for this, Cather. I need you to find out where the upyr are holed up. Can you do that?”
“The kobolds and I will, of course.” He regarded me. “And thank you.”
“For what?”
“You could have just commanded the kobolds to do this for you. They would do it willingly; they’d probably think it fun. By coordinating through me, you’re saying you still trust me. Trust is not something that comes easily to gods or dragons. I want you to know I appreciate it.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Don’t mention it,” I said, waving a hand. “But please, I need this information like, yesterday.”
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