“They agreed to join him in exchange for their superpowers.” Russell slid a new knife into each of his boots. “They made their choice. It’s not my problem if they have to pay for it.”
“Their superpowers came from a demon, so when you kill them, they go to hell.”
“Like I said. Not my problem.” Russell hooked the hand grenades onto his belt.
Howard sighed. “Will you at least go to Japan to see what’s happening? I’ve spent the last six months there with our team of doctors and scientists. They’ve turned more than a hundred of Master Han’s soldiers back to normal.”
Russell scoffed. “Brilliant. Now they have only nine hundred to go.”
“Howard?” Elsa’s voice called down the stairs. “Are you there?”
“Just a minute!” Howard paused at the entrance to the stairwell. “Come back tomorrow night, Russell, so we can talk.”
“No thanks.” Russell opened the box of arrows.
Howard frowned at Zoltan. “I’ll talk to you when I get back from dinner.”
“No hurry. Enjoy your evening.” Zoltan watched as the huge were-bear wound his way up the narrow stone staircase. “The minute he’s out the door, he’ll call Angus.”
“If he waits that long.” Russell swung the quiver off his back and set it on the table next to the box of arrows. “I’ll just fill this up and be on my way.” He glanced at Zoltan. “Are you going to be in trouble now?”
Zoltan snorted. “What can Angus do to me? If he’s in Japan, it might already be daylight there. He’ll call me when he wakes up so he can grouse at me, but in the end, he’ll thank me for taking care of you. He’s not a bad guy, you know.”
Russell gathered a handful of arrows from the box. “We have different priorities.”
Zoltan nodded. Angus and his employees, like Howard, wanted to protect mortals from bad vampires, but Russell simply wanted Master Han dead. The evil warlord had attacked Russell during the Vietnam War, leaving him in a vampire coma for forty years. When Russell had been discovered in a cave in Thailand, Angus had completed the transformation process so Russell could wake up and join the ranks of the Undead. For the last two years, Russell had been searching Master Han’s massive territory, waiting for his chance to kill the evil vampire.
Russell shoved an old arrow aside to make room in the quiver for the new arrows. Zoltan blinked, hardly believing his eyes.
“Wait!” He lunged toward the quiver. The feathers of the old arrow looked familiar.
He pulled it out, his heart racing at the sight of carvings on the staff. Had he found a duplicate after eight hundred years? He zoomed over to the arrow mounted on the wall so he could compare the two. The arrowhead on the new arrow was modern, but otherwise, the two were exactly the same.
He turned to Russell. “Where did you find this?”
A wary look crossed Russell’s face before he turned away to finish stuffing the quiver with new arrows. “I wouldn’t know. I teleport all over southern China, northern Myanmar, and Tibet. And I scavenge along the way. I could have picked it up anywhere.”
“You have to remember.” Zoltan approached him. “It’s important.”
Russell swung the quiver onto his back. “I have no idea.”
“You’re not trying.” Zoltan gritted his teeth. “I have to know—”
“I can’t tell you.”
Zoltan’s heart stilled. Russell was purposely keeping his face blank. “You mean you won’t tell me.”
“I have to go.” Russell grabbed the ice chest. “Thanks for the supplies.”
“Wait!” Zoltan leaped forward and latched onto Russell’s arm just as he began to teleport.
As soon as they materialized, Russell shoved him away. “What the hell are you doing?”
Zoltan quickly regained his balance and looked around. Countryside. Treeless, rolling hills. Yellowish grass nearly to his knees. A half moon and countless stars gleaming in a clear sky. “Where are we?”
“You shouldn’t have come. Go back home.”
Zoltan showed him the arrow, still grasped in his right hand. “This is the only clue I’ve found in almost eight hundred years. Tell me where it came from.”