Scholar of Magic (Art of the Adept #3) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,179

on Tiny’s face. “Please?” The giant warrior was practically begging.

Will stood back up and patted Tiny’s shoulder. “Of course not. I won’t say a word.” Damn, this is serious. He hoped Tiny wouldn’t wind up with a broken heart, and he resolved to try and stop teasing the man.

With that taken care of, he led Tiny up to the small laboratory he was renting and got busy setting up his latest project: Dragon Heart potions. He couldn’t help but think that the name sounded very impressive, despite the fact that the primary ingredient was singularly disgusting. Then again, I guess the same is true of regeneration potions, he realized.

It took half an hour to get everything set up, and once it was going, they had about an hour before Will would need to decant the product into its final vials and activate the potions. As they stood around, Tiny asked, “Are you sure this is the right thing to be spending your time on?”

Will shrugged. “I don’t know what the best course of action is, but although their leader is dead, there’s still an unknown number of vampires hiding in the city, and most of them are young, so they’re likely to continue spreading their corruption. If any of them are still organized, though, then they’ll be attacking en masse tomorrow night.”

“But all this potion does is make someone stronger. That doesn’t seem very important.”

“If you’re going to act as a bodyguard, you’ll need to be able to handle them up close. I can’t use these potions, so if I’m going to have some muscle protecting me, it has to be you.”

“Why can’t you use them?” asked Tiny.

“The potion temporarily alters the internal turyn flow of whoever imbibes it. All the training I went through to become a wizard means that my body will automatically resist something like that. At best it would make me sick, but most likely it would just fail.” Will took that moment to bring out the case he had gotten Blake to acquire.

“What’s that?”

“A present,” said Will, laying the leather case on the worktable. It was roughly two inches thick, seven inches long, and six inches in width. There were rings mounted at every corner along with a collection of straps. Depending on how the straps were used, it could either be put on a belt at the waist or strapped to the leg. The top flap was secured with a unique mechanism that Will had never seen before, a spring-loaded buckle that could be released with a small amount of pressure applied to the right place. It kept the case securely shut but made it quick and easy to open when needed. Will was grateful that he had asked Blake, since obviously the military had seen the need for such an item long ago, and they had put a lot of time and effort into designing it.

Once the top flap was opened, the interior was simple. It was divided into six velvet-lined compartments that had a small amount of woolen batting stuffed loosely into them. The extra bit of wool allowed the compartments to hold a small vial snugly in place. Tiny picked it up, feeling the leather with his hands. “It’s stronger than it looks.”

“The leather is hardened, but there’s also a thin layer of metal sandwiched in between the outer layer and the velvet to help it hold its form if it’s put under stress, say if you fell on it or something.”

“It’s for potions?”

Will nodded. “More specifically, it’s for you. Since you can’t store things in a secret magical space, you’ll need somewhere safe to carry potions so you can use them in a pinch when the time is right.”

Tiny looked hesitant. “Those things are valuable. You should keep them. If I lost them or broke them by accident…”

“You’re more valuable to me, Tiny. More valuable than any amount of gold or magic.”

The big warrior raised his brows and rubbed his chin. “Really? How about Selene, more than her?”

Will pursed his lips.

“See! My love means nothing to you!” They both fell to laughing at that. Then Tiny pointed at the interior of the case