The Forever Drug by Lisa Smedman

Author:Lisa Smedman [Smedman, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, General
ISBN: 9780451457479
Google: MSMPAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0451457471
Publisher: RoC
Published: 1999-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

13

The shot blazed out in the darkened hold, an angry gout of red fire. The smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils as a hot streak of pain tore across my hip. It stung worse than any wound I'd ever had before, as if the bullet that had torn the shallow crease in my flank were made of molten metal. I could feel the skin blistering around the wound and knew in an instant what had happened: I'd been shot with a silver bullet.

This was one wound I wouldn't regenerate from. It would be with me for weeks—assuming I lived that long. If another silver bullet found its mark, I'd be dead.

I threw myself to one side, dropping and shifting into wolf form as I did. I already knew who my adversary was—his scent was strong, even over the gunpowder. The elf Galdenistal must have been in the hold the whole time. Somehow he'd managed to stay hidden, and had lain in wait until I made the mistake of approaching too close to his hiding place. Now he was trying to kill me. If I'd been in wolf form, I suppose I would have smelled him sooner.

Another shot filled the hold with a crash of noise. The bullet smacked into a metal pipe beside my head with a heavy thunk, shattering as it struck. A tiny splinter of silver ricocheted into my ear with a hot sting that felt as if a thousand wasps had concentrated their venom, all in one needle-thin spot. I choked back a whimper. Had I still been in human form, that shot would have taken me through the heart.

The hold was dimly illuminated by the corpse-lights, which cast flickering shadows on the walls. Their foul stench was overpowering, now that they were escaping from their cages. The smugglers must have decided to abandon the corpselights because of the raid, like drug dealers tossing aside their stash during a bust. Whoever had warded the cages must have negated the magic that was holding the corpselights inside, so that the police couldn't track the threads of magical energy that led back to the mage in astral space.

Galdenistal was still invisible—I couldn't even see his shadow. But despite the rotten-meat reek of the corpselights, my sense of smell told me where the elf was, and I used my astral perception to pinpoint him. On the astral plane, his body appeared as it did in the physical world, down to the wetsuit he was wearing and the pistol in his hand.

I sprang at him, teeth bared. I aimed for his wrist, intending to clamp my teeth around it and shake the gun out of his hand. But he was too quick for me. He moved with the speed and grace of a martial artist, flowing with my attack. My teeth brushed against the spongy fabric of his wetsuit, and I tasted rubber. Then I was hurtling past him, the momentum of my leap carrying me into the wall.

I spun around and saw Galdenistal raising his pistol.

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