“We may be confronting rogue vampires during this investigation,” Darius said as the tunnel walls pushed in on us. “They should be killed as quickly as possible. You seem familiar with the easier ways to kill us—cut off the head, or destroy the heart. You do not need to use wood or metal for these things, as you clearly know. Sunlight is the easiest, of course. The older we get, the longer we can stay out in direct sunlight, but even someone my age can only last a half-hour before disintegration. I can remain in indirect sunlight for a few hours, I believe. Maybe longer—I haven’t tested that in decades. It is horribly painful.
“The last, least common way to kill a vampire is hellfire. Only a few magical beings can create that kind of fire naturally, and few mages have enough power and know-how to create it magically. A certain type of fae is one of those natural beings, from royal lineage, which is why I have always kept my distance from that group. We have allied ourselves with most of the other wielders of hellfire so that we may watch them closely.”
“Why not have the fae in alliance so you can watch them?” I asked as we reached a door.
Darius barely twitched his fingers before the lock magically disengaged.
Being predators of humans, vampires assumed a lot of heightened traits, like vision, hearing, and strength. Basically, they were the lions of the cat world. Part of being predators had to do with sneaking up on their prey. Since humans slept inside locked dwellings, somewhere along the line, vampires had developed the magic to circumvent any padlock or deadbolt. Needing to invite a vampire inside your house was pure myth.
The door swung open by itself. He stepped back and swept his hand toward the exit. “Please. After you.”
A girl could get used to this. I glided through like an idiot, pretending I was a princess. The night embraced me softly. I breathed in a wonderfully sweet smell drifting on the breeze.
“The elves have a firm hold on the fae.” Darius stepped out beside me and closed the door. “They are out of our reach. As far as I know, however, fae cannot see in the darkness.”
“I’m not fae.”
He’d probably figured that already. “Unlucky,” he said. “They are privileged within the Realm.”
“Why unlucky? If I were fae, you wouldn’t be my friend. Then who would you ambush with rock-men and mostly hidden underground spells?”
He sniffed. I had no idea what that meant.
“I thought I was down there for longer.” I checked my watch. It said nine o’clock, the same time I’d entered the Realm.
“We live in eternal night. It is our natural habitat, after all.” He gently touched the small of my back while holding out his other hand, ready to escort me like a guy out of a Jane Austen book. “Please.”
“What era are you from?”
“You can hardly expect me to reveal my past if you are unwilling to reveal yours.”
“I did expect that, yes.” I patted my weapons and tuned into my surroundings. The lightheartedness of the moment dried up as the great wide world of the Realm stretched out before us. We took up a path that led parallel to a long string of mountains, blocking the northern way.
“You can move faster than a human when fighting. Is that also true of walking?” Darius asked, his stride perfectly matching mine. He was only hinting at rushing me. Very polite.
“Not really, for reasons I don’t understand. It seems like battle is the only time I can increase my speed to non-human proportions.”
“And your strength?”
“Strong like a bull.” I made a fist and flexed my bicep. “Always.”
“Your sword?”
“Is lovely, don’t you think?” The height of the grass around us increased as we walked, hiding boulders and pitfalls. We stayed to a solid dirt track that slowly rose above the surrounding area, big enough for three people to walk abreast—or one normal person and one wide-shouldered Darius.
“It is magical?” he asked.
“Of course. Normal swords can’t cut through spells.”
“Normal magical swords can’t cut through spells either, unless a counteractive spell is fed to the blade before each interaction. You did not use a counteractive spell, and there is no way you could’ve guessed what to pre-load it with.”
“No one likes a know-it-all, Darius. Just so you know.”
I felt his glare beating against my temple, but he didn’t ask for more information. I got the feeling he was tired of being turned down. It probably wasn’t something he had much experience with.
A glimmer at the base of the grasses alongside us suggested we were heading into swamplands, which made the raised dirt path necessary unless we wanted to slip on rubber boots. Another mile, and my suspicion was confirmed by the soggy mud at the edges of the path and the standing water leading away from it. Very few mud islands rose above water level, which meant the path we were on was man-or mage-made.
Near us, a line of grass moved in a wave, indicating something at its base was traveling the same way we were. Judging by the waves it was making, the creature, probably a water serpent, was mighty big. Four feet? Five?
“How close is the next solid path that leads this way?” I asked.
“A mile up we will intersect a path that leads down from the north. A mile after that, we will intersect a path that leads up from the south. There is a path that leads to our destination from the west. Only two paths, this size, go in. They are closely monitored.”
“By that thing in the water, or something on two legs, or…”
“By vampires,” he said. “We always post sentinels. One will be stationed at each intersection, and there will be a third at the entrance of the enclosure. The serpent is just one of a great many dangers lurking in those waters.”
The serpent continued to dog our steps, later joined by another on the other side.
“Do those fairly giant serpents eat people?” I asked, surveying the water lapping the bottom of the raised dirt path, which was now basically a continual mound rising about two or three feet from the water. Though I couldn’t see how deep the swamp got in some places, I bet that those rubber boots would have to be mighty big to keep a person dry.