Night's Honor (Elder Races #7)(50)

“As I said, it can be ugly. It’s against Nightkind law to turn a drug addict, but it still happens. There’s a whole subculture of addicted Vampyres that infest the tunnels that run underneath San Francisco. Every once in a while, Julian gathers enough resources to burn them out, but either they know of places to hide that his forces can’t reach, or the problem simply continues to multiply. Addicted Vampyres pay or prey on drug-addicted humans. Sometimes they supply the drugs, or turn the humans as payment, or if the Vampyre has become too bestial, they might tear them apart. It’s a twisted, feral place underneath the city.” He waved a hand. “But enough about that. There’s one more way to kill a Vampyre. Have you ever heard of brodifacoum?”

She looked sidelong at him. “No, should I have?”

He shrugged. “If you’re an environmentalist you might have come across the term. Brodifacoum is a highly lethal anticoagulant poison that’s been used in a number of pesticides.”

“Anticoagulant,” she said.

He met her gaze. “A derivative of brodifacoum has been developed that affects Vampyres. The progression of the poison is the same as it is for humans. First it attacks a Vampyre’s small blood vessels then it leads to internal bleeding, shock, convulsions, unconsciousness and eventually death.”

“It makes them bleed to death?”

He nodded. “I’ve seen it, and it’s a grim way to die.”

She winced. “There’s no cure?”

“No real cure to speak of. The only thing that can be done is to try to flush out the poison as quickly as possible and not let it get absorbed into the system. That involves a major blood draining and a massive infusion of untainted blood. Once the poison has been absorbed and causes internal bleeding in all the major organs, it’s invariably lethal.” He cocked a sandy eyebrow at her. “Not that you’ll be handing out drugs or poisons in the middle of a fight, but at least now you have a basic overview. Let’s head back.”

They turned to retrace their steps, and after a few minutes, Raoul continued, “We’re going to focus more of your training on missile weaponry—gun training, knife throwing and archery. That doesn’t mean we’ll neglect the close combat sessions, but if you can avoid going hand to hand, you’ll have a greater chance of hitting kill spots with a higher chance of survivability. Most creatures are vulnerable around their eyes, and your best asset is your hand-eye coordination.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You know, you could become a hell of a sniper, if you chose to.”

She had finally earned a compliment, from Raoul? Trying not to show how much pleasure it gave her, she said, dryly, “Good to know, although it’s not a career choice I’d ever considered before.”

He chuckled.

Looking down the shore into the distance, she tried to sound casual as she asked, “What about the more exotic Elder Races creatures, like the Djinn? What’s their kill spot?”

The laughter died from his face. “They don’t have one, not physically, anyway. If you ever run the risk of tangling with a Djinn, you run away. I run away. I’ve heard of them being killed before, but that’s a rare, dangerous event. It calls for a coordinated attack from a team of creatures who are far more Powerful than either you or I.”

The darkness of disappointment overtook the sun’s bright light. Her shoulders sagged. “That’s what I thought.”

When they got back to the gym, they worked through the details of a new schedule that started later in the morning, took into account the time she would be spending with Xavier in the evenings and incorporated more time on the gun range, and introduced archery. Then Raoul sent her off for an afternoon run.

She let herself out the main gates and started down the road, which was striped with intense sunlight and dark shadows thrown by the surrounding, towering redwoods. Watching her feet as she ran, she stepped in light, then darkness, then light again.

Her thoughts followed a similar pattern.

Light: Malphas hasn’t found me yet. Maybe he won’t. He doesn’t know how humans think, or how we can behave.

Dark: You know that’s a lie. It’s just a matter of time. He got to Eathan, didn’t he?

Light: Eathan wasn’t trying to hide, and I am. I’m virtually living off the grid here. I don’t go anywhere, or use my bank accounts. I haven’t given my Social Security number to anybody, I never do anything meaningful on the Internet or use similar passcodes, and I never let myself develop any kind of search pattern that has anything to do with Las Vegas, or gambling, or Djinn.

Dark: Stop trying to fool yourself, and plan for it to happen. He’ll find you, and when he does, he might do more than just kill you. He might hurt people on the estate, just for sheltering you.

She slowed to a stop, staring blankly down the deserted road.

Turning in a semicircle, she looked back the way she had come. The estate had disappeared, and cool forest surrounded her. Because of how the road curved, she couldn’t see more than a hundred yards in either direction.

Her answers weren’t down either stretch of road, anyway. She already knew what she needed to do.

After a moment, she resumed her jog, but at a slower pace. After all, she didn’t need to push herself. It didn’t matter how fast or how far she ran now. When a half hour was up, she turned and made her way back to the estate. She keyed in the code that would open the gates and stepped back onto the grounds. As the gates swung closed behind her, she walked at a sedate pace back to the attendants’ house.