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