VIII
I caught up with the Arbiter a few streets away from my lab, huffing and puffing as I tried to make ground on his confident stride. The cool air whisked sweat from my forehead, but I was rapidly overheating and I'd already tripped over my robe more times than I could count.
"Where… are… we… going?" I gasped at him.
He didn't deign to answer, instead continuing his lope through the alleys, hot on the trail like a bloodhound after a rabbit. His manna sword was still sheathed across his back, but every few dozen steps or so his hand would stray to its hilt, protruding from behind his right shoulder. He checked each direction at every cross street; looking at what, I wasn't quite certain.
I followed as he ducked down a thin side alley, and nearly ran into him as he stopped cold. My breath came in wheezing gasps as I tried to catch it; he held up a finger for silence, and I held the air in my lungs for a moment as he listened, head cocked intently.
"They're not far ahead," he said. "Are you going to make it?"
With focus, I was slowly able to return my breathing to normal. Sweat poured off my brow, now that I was no longer moving, but at least I was no longer puffing like a bellows. Swallowing hard, I looked at him and nodded gravely.
His hand wrapped around the hilts of the manna swords on his back and drew them; they came free with a rasp. Cold blue light sprang forth to fill the alley around us, and he strode forward, no longer checking the streets around us, but instead moving with a focused purpose.
Around the corner in the alley up ahead, I could hear voices. Several voices, and it finally clicked in my head that he had said 'they'.
My brain scrambled for something, anything, an incantation which was fast enough to respond in the face of a vampire and might actually be effective. It was the Arbiter's job to hunt horrors – I was a scholarly sorcerer, a practitioner and a student of theory, not a single-minded destroyer of evil. While my power was far more flexible than his, it was also much weaker, particularly against the darkest horrors of corruption. It could make hash out of a human being surely enough, but against something like a vampire…
We rounded the corner just as a group of three silhouettes disappeared into a dimly-lit doorway. The light from within vanished as the door slammed closed, leaving us once again with only the moonlight to see by.
"Could there be more than one?" Tal asked in a hushed tone.
My mind struggled to recall what I'd read of vampires. "It's technically possible, I suppose, but I've never heard of such an occurrence. They're usually solitary, territorial predators. If they've learned how to work together, though…"
"They might have had the combined strength to kill an Arbiter."
A cold shudder ran through me. "It's possible."
He looked at me, his face seeming pale and drawn in the moonlight. "This isn't your fight. You've done enough by helping me find the ones responsible. If you'd prefer to return to your lab, I will kill these vampires and be on my way."
It was a fair assessment. There was a good possibility I'd actually be a hindrance once the swords started swinging, and he'd just given me an out. I could just go back to the safe, warm cocoon that I lived my days in and continue my experiments and my research, knowing that I'd done what I could to avenge a wrongful death… even if the victim had been an Arbiter.
"That's not going to happen," I said, the words surprising even me. "You might be the strongest Arbiter in the world – I don't know you, so I can't say for certain – but against three vampires who already possess the energy of one of your own… you're going to need a wildcard, and I can be that extra factor."
He nodded, though he seemed mildly surprised by my commitment. "Well enough, then. Do you have any sorcerers' tricks up your sleeve that might help disable or kill a vampire? That flash of light you used back at that den of debauchery was fairly effective."
"Oh, that?" I asked. "More of a trick, really. I think I have a few things that might help us more directly."
At that moment – and until the day I die I will never forget that gut-wrenching, grisly, horrifying expression – Tal flashed me a grin.