Page 39 of The Last Slayer
“Okay. I need to find her.” I turned around and trotted toward the main building.
“She was in the lobby the last time I saw her,” Andersen called after me.
I waved to acknowledge him. I wanted to get Valerie’s opinion on what had happened. She wasn’t a dragon specialist, but she was an expert on supernaturals and had a lot of experience. To be one hundred percent honest, I was too emotional at the moment to see everything clearly and needed another perspective. And she was the only one I could really count on.
The smooth maroon marble floor reflected the sun outside. Black veins spread like vipers within it. Several security guards stared, but didn’t approach me. Smart of them. I was dirty and I stank.
I called her name. No answer. Maybe she had gone somewhere else. Broken wardings littered the area, the remnants of their power spilled like the uncollected Sex at “Selena’s” townhouse. The wyrm must have blown them all when it’d surged out of the ground for the “test.”
I followed the wardings toward the elevator bank and found Valerie sitting, her back against the wall, facing the elevators. Her head rested on her knees. She looked tired, and it startled me. She was never tired, never nervous, never frazzled.
“Valerie,” I said softly. “You all right?”
She didn’t respond.
I went to her and touched her gently. “Valerie?”
She slumped forward. Her face would’ve hit the floor if I hadn’t caught her. Her eyes were closed, her skin unusually pale and cool against my hand.
“Valerie.” I shook her gently, then with more force. “Valerie!”
She remained inert. I laid her on the cool marble and pushed her eyelids up. Her eyes looked straight back at me, and the pupils didn’t contract. She was like those dolls with rolling eyelids, the ones whose eyes remain startlingly blue and wide when they’re open. Except Valerie’s were green, like circles of jade—and just as inanimate.
Her breath had a hint of sulfur and something else, something cold and foul. I checked both sides of her neck, her wrists and other likely points of entry. No puncture marks showed on her skin, and her pulse was slow and erratic.
I closed my eyes. Dragon poison. It had to be. I felt pressure right below my eyebrows, and the skin underneath my right eye began to tic. Depending on the type of dragon, who was involved and what was added to it, the venom could create an infinite variety of death. I didn’t know what had been used or how much time I had.
My muscles tightened. Did the Triumvirate of Madainsair believe Valerie was a threat? My ally, maybe?
Now I was pissed. If the triumvirs had a problem with me, they should’ve faced me. Valerie had nothing to do with whatever issue lay between us.
I dragged her toward the entrance. The guards still stared, this time more openly. Utterly useless.
“Andersen!” I didn’t know if he could hear me from outside, but I didn’t care.
In a few moments he was standing next to us. He took the situation in at a glance. “What happened?”
“Dragon poison.” I pulled her closer. “Help me.”
A pair of brackets appeared at the corners of his mouth. “Another dragon came?”
“I don’t know. I need to go. Help me put her into her car.”
Andersen picked Valerie up easily and started toward the parking lot. It made me feel slightly better that she wasn’t being dragged like a sack of potatoes.
People stared as we made our way out to Valerie’s blood-red Ferrari. Andersen huffed slightly. “What are you going to do?”
“What else? Get an antidote.”
I searched Valerie’s purse and found her keys. “By the way,” I said, as Andersen laid Valerie on the passenger seat, “you should advise Swain not to extend any more invitations to dragonlords.” I remembered the military drills of the dragons at Besade. “They’re up to something.”
For once he didn’t argue.
Seven
I headed toward the office, putting the Ferrari’s speed to good use. We had demon toxicologists on our payroll. A tenor screeched on the CD player, making my head hurt. I cut it off—Valerie had terrible taste in music—and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. One part of me suspected Nathanael and his buddies. The other part suspected a setup. Ramiel could’ve hurt Valerie to get me to act against the Triumvirate of Madainsair. I wouldn’t have put it past him. Demigods can make Machiavelli look naïve.
