Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #1) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,60

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