Kate Daniels 05.5 - Magic Gifts

Peachy.
    A minute passed. Another.
    Ghastek's vamp lay down. "If half of the things they said about draugar were true, it would revolutionize necromantic science. According to legend, they're the spirits of warriors who rise from the grave to guard their buried possessions. They see the future, they control the elements, they shapeshift into animals. They turn into smoke and become giants."
    "Not at the same time," I told him.
    "What?"
    "You said they turn into smoke and become giants. Not at the same time. They're solid in giant form."
    "You're still clinging to this fallacy?"
    I leaned forward. "What would you have done if you had found a draugr in Norway, Ghastek?"
    "I'd try to apprehend it, of course."
    "Suppose you live in a small village in Norway and you know a draugr is nearby. You bring him live game once in a while and you hope to God he leaves you the hell alone. Now some geeky hotshot foreigner shows up on your doorstep and explains to you how his going to go annoy this terrible creature for the sake of 'necromantic science'. You try to explain to him that it's a not a good idea, but he treats you as if you're a childlike idiot."
    "I never treat people like infantile idiots," Ghastek said.
    I looked at him.
    Tracy cleared her throat carefully.
    "Go on," he said.
    "Would you take this foreigner to this undead monster and risk pissing it off or would you steer him as far away from the draugr as possible and hope he'll go away eventually?"
    "That's a sound theory, with one exception. I'm not that gullible."
    Fine. "Bet me."
    The vampire stared at me. "I'm sorry?"
    "Bet me. If the draugr is a hoax, I'll owe you a favor."
    "And if he's real?"
    "Then you will bring me a quart of vampire blood."
    "And why would you need vampire blood, Kate?"
    Because I need it to experiment with making armor out of it, that's why. "I want to calibrate the lot of new scanners the Pack bought."
    A hint of suspicion slid into Ghastek's voice. "And you need a quart of blood for that?"
    "Yep."
    The bloodsucker became utterly still as Ghastek mulled it over.
    "If I win this silly game, you will tell me why Rowena came to see you after the Keepers affair."
    Sucker. "Deal."
    "Excellent." He put emphasis on the x and the word came out slightly sibilant.
    "You need a fluffy white cat. That way you can stroke it when you say things like that."
    Tracy's vamp made a small noise that might have been a clearing of a throat or a choked up laugh.
    A purple vampire popped out of the bushes, dragging something behind it. The bloodsucker strained, tight muscle flexing across its back, and heaved what seemed like a large collapsed leather tent into the open.
    "We found human bones," the vampire reported.
    "In the ravine?" I asked.
    "Yes, ma'am."
    I knew about the spot. Immokalee had described it to me this morning trying to scare me into not going. A few dozen yards to the north the ground dropped sharply into a narrow fissure lined with human skeletons. Some still held their weapons. When a draugr sucked the flesh off your bones, he did it quick, like jerking a shirt off a body.
    "We also found this." The vampire indicated the tent.
    Ghastek's vampire raised the top edge, exposing a dark opening and vanished into it. The leather shifted, mirroring vampire's movement inside it. The bloodsucker emerged into the clear air. "The design is ill-conceived. It is clearly too large for one person, but it has no structure or method of remaining upright as a tent, and besides this side is completely open to the elements. Perhaps it's some sort of communal sleeping bag?"
    "It's not a sleeping bag," I told him.
    "Would you care to enlighten me?" Ghastek said.
    "Look at it from above."
    The purple vampire leapt onto the nearest tree and scurried up into the branches. A long moment passed and then it dropped on the ground next to me without a word.
    "What is it?" Tracy asked.
    The vampire's face was unreadable, like a blank wall. "It's a glove."
    The wind stirred the tree branches. The world blinked, as the tech vanished, crushed under the onslaught of a magic wave. Cold froze the glade. The other vampire burst from the bushes and came to rest by Tracy.
    In the distance something wailed in inhuman voice, its forlorn cry rising high above the tree tops.

    *** *** ***
     
    Gloom claimed the clearing. It came slowly, like molasses, from the dark spaces deep between the roots, washing over trees, leaching color from the greenery, drenching it in shadows, until the