“All that lives dies. Such is the way of existence. Planets die. Stars die. People are nothing.”
Shay snorted. “Well, aren’t you just a bag of sunshine? Let me put it this way, asshole—I’m the woman with the gun, and I want answers.”
“I’ve given you your answers.”
“Let me rephrase it. Did you kill these people?”
“Yes. I needed their lives. It’s been so long. I was so hungry and overwhelmed that I risked losing my vessel, but I’m calm now.”
“Good for you.” Shay’s face twitched. She doubted it would be more than a couple of minutes before she emptied her gun into the elf.
The scarred elf inhaled deeply. “You smell of magic, and…something else.”
Shay blinked. “Since when can elves fucking smell like that?”
“The vessel is unimportant.” He tilted his head like a curious bird. “You stink of something else, too. Unfamiliar, yet familiar. How long has it been since I’ve smelled that?”
“Where’s the artifact? In the bag?”
“Artifact?”
“You killed a man here for an artifact, didn’t you? Then killed all these people? Ripped some of them apart.”
The elf continued to tilt his head from side to side. “I killed them all, but the artifact? Oh, my prison. It’s gone now.” He patted the pouch. “Other things he had. Interesting things.”
“Give me that.”
“Ah, I know.”
“Know what?”
The elf pointed at Shay. “The stench—it’s gnome mixed with just a hint of elf. The smell of gnome is strong. No. You can’t have what I hold, She Who Stinks of Gnome. It gives me hints. Places to visit. For the future.”
“You know what, fuck this! I’ve had enough of this shit. Just die already.” Shay fired at his head.
Unlike her last encounter, the bullet hit its target. The elf jerked back and blood sprayed, covering the ground. He straightened, and the wound started closing immediately
Shay emptied her magazine into his body. It shook with each blow, but he didn’t so much as grunt in pain.
The elf shook his head. “The vessel is strong.” His eyes glowed red. “I will not return, She Who Stinks of Gnome.”
The tomb raider holstered her pistol and pulled one of her adamantine knives.
“This what you smell, asshole? I think I’ve got this figured out.” She pointed at him with the knife. “I don’t know what the fuck you are, but I think you’re wearing that elf like a suit. I’ll tear it off you and send you back to whatever freaky place you belong.”
“No. You will die. Everything that lives dies.”
Shay grinned. “Nope. Here’s the thing…you killed everyone here, but you haven’t come after me. You know what I think? I think you’re fucking afraid, and I think my gnome stink has something to do with that.”
The elf stepped toward a wall and punched through it. Chunks of adobe and brick shot from the hole. “You will die.”
“Everything that lives dies. That includes you, right, asshole?”
“No. I don’t live, I exist. I cannot die.”
“Guess we’ll to put that to the test then, huh?”
The village was dominated by low walls forming lots of narrow passageways between the homes, and a lot of flat roofs. This could work. Fighting this possessed elf or whatever the fuck he was wasn’t high on Shay’s list of favorite things, but she wanted whatever artifact he had on him.
For that matter, she didn’t like the idea that he’d slaughtered a village. If she could help Brownstone get revenge for a dog, she could spare a few minutes to teach some supernatural asshole not to underestimate humanity.
Shay rushed toward the elf, her knife at the ready. He threw a punch, but she dodged to the side. He might be strong, but he was slow—at least at that moment, and she didn’t want to wait around for him to get hungry again. She slashed his neck with her blade and took several steps back.
The blood poured from the wound, but the elf didn’t go down or even look mildly inconvenienced. It pissed Shay off.
Smugness swallowed the anger when she noticed the wound wasn’t closing.
“How that’s for gnome stink?” Shay taunted.
The elf bounded toward her and Shay jumped and grabbed the lip of the roof, yanking herself up in time to avoid the iron grip of her enemy. The glowing-eyed elf stepped a few feet back, then leapt into the air.
“Shit, that’s one way to do it.”
Shay threw the knife at the elf, then ran and hopped onto the next rooftop. She spun to face him and grabbed another knife. No, Lily is not quite ready for this shit.
The elf landed with a thud and the knife sticking out of his chest. He yanked it out and tossed it away. Like her slash to his neck, the new wound didn’t close.
A blow to the brain sounded good in theory, but Brownstone’s recent experiences with zombies convinced her it was no guarantee of a win. She pulled out her remaining adamantine knife.
The elf jumped again, and Shay sprinted and leapt back to the original roof. She offered her enemy a wink. Nothing like taunting a possessed elf.
He punched through the roof and yanked up a large chunk of adobe and Shay jumped backward off the roof to avoid the makeshift projectile. She rolled into her landing to mitigate the worst of the fall, but knew she’d be feeling it the next day.
Her enemy was already plunging toward her when she stood and brought up both her knives and sliced. The elf’s body slammed into her as his head flew in the opposite direction.
She pushed off the headless corpse, surprised she’d managed the decapitation with the knives, but the asshole’s downward momentum and the gnome-enhanced sharpness of the blades had helped.
Shay stepped back and waited for the body to rise, but it remained motionless as a pool of blood formed beneath it.
Brownstone had the right idea. Sometimes you just had to behead the motherfucker.
The tomb raider sheathed her knives and recovered the third. They’d proven their worth, and she doubted she’d be able to replace them easily.
Shay jogged back to the body
