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  Sean thrust himself into my view and gently touched my shoulder. I looked up at him.

  “Talk to me. What’s on Karhari?”

  “My sister.”

  CHAPTER 2

  I stood in my kitchen and tapped my foot. On the wall the communication screen remained dark with a faint blue ring pulsing every few seconds. Last night I had dug into the available information on Karhari. Things were worse than I thought. Karhari wasn’t just closed. It was under a Holy Anocracy restricted travel seal. The Holy Anocracy consisted of aristocratic clans called Houses, each with their separate domain, and only a handful of Houses were permitted to enter Karhari’s atmosphere. Anyone without an appropriate House crest would be shot down. There wouldn’t be time to explain, bribe, or offer apologies. A quick check of my contacts at Baha-char, the galactic bazaar, told me that the entirety of my savings couldn’t buy me entrance. I was reduced to begging.

  Maud wouldn’t have asked for my help unless she was in imminent danger. I would beg, offer favors, and promise the moon and sky to save my sister. After I got the Ku settled last night, I had placed a message to Arland of House Krahr. It was late morning now. He hadn’t responded.

  Arland and I had a history. He had helped Sean and me to track down the alien assassin, or rather we helped him, since the assassin was here because of the internal politics of House Krahr in the first place. He had also participated in the peace summit, which turned out very well for the Holy Anocracy, in no small part because of me. Technically, I could claim he owed me a favor. Practically, he was the Marshal of a powerful vampire House, who had plenty of responsibilities and probably couldn’t drop them on the spur of the moment.

  The waiting for a response was nerve-racking.

  A seven-foot-tall darkness loomed next to me. Orro thrust a small plate in front of my nose. I looked down at a small bagel covered with purple jam.

  “Eat!”

  “Thank you, I’m not hungry.”

  Orro’s foot-long spikes rose. He growled. Given that Quillonians resembled terrifying monsters who stood upright, had hands armed with savage claws, muzzles filled with fangs, and backs covered with foot-long black quills, the effect would give any sane human a lifetime of nightmares. I was past caring.

  “Eat!”

  He wouldn’t give up until I did. I grabbed the bagel and bit into it. Like everything Orro cooked, it tasted like pure heaven. Orro muttered under his breath, waited until I finished the whole bagel, and stalked away.

  As a Red Cleaver chef, he should’ve been cooking banquets at the best gourmet restaurants in the galaxy. But an unfortunate poisoning accident left him disgraced. I found him at Baha-char, when he was at the end of his rope, and although his contract with me was finished, he refused to leave. Gertrude Hunt was now his home.

  The communication screen was still blinking.

  I paced back and forth. Arland was my best bet. If I couldn’t get him to help me, I had no idea where to go next.

  Pacing back and forth wasn’t going to get Arland to answer any faster. I stopped and forced myself to turn away. Through the kitchen window, I could see the backyard. The boost bike lay opened on the back patio. Sean was elbow deep in it, while the Ku, whose name was Wing, of all things, pranced around him. Beast cavorted around them, gathering sticks and spitting them at Sean’s feet.

  I waved my hand and the inn opened the window, letting the cold air in.

  “…Of course the stabilizer failed.”

  Sean plucked a weird looking gadget from a tool chest. He’d asked if I had tools and I gave him access to the repair garage. He saw the rows of shelves filled with an assortment of mechanical wonders, swore in appreciation, and then picked out a tool chest.

  He reached into the guts of the boost bike, plucked something out, and tossed it on the grass. “That’s what you get for buying spare parts from an Alkonian chop shop.”

  “Cheap parts!” Wing volunteered.

  “Look, it can be fast, good, or cheap. You can have any two but never all three.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s the law of the universe.”

  When did he learn to fix boost bikes?

  Something clicked within the engine. Blue lights ignited on the bike’s dashboard.

  Wing raised his hands and emitted a piercing screech. Discretion wasn’t even in his vocabulary.

  Behind me the communication screen chimed. I jumped.

  “Accept the call.”

  Arland’s face filled the screen. Handsome, with a mane of golden hair framing a powerful masculine face and penetrating blue eyes, Arland would’ve stopped traffic at any major intersection. Women would get out of their cars to take a closer look, until he smiled, and then they’d see his fangs and run away screaming.

  The Marshal of House Krahr looked splendid in full armor, a deep black shot through with blood-red.

  “Lady Dina,” he boomed. “I’m at your command.”

  And he’d lost none of his flair for the dramatic. “Are you going to war, Lord Marshal?” Please don’t be going to war.

  “No, I was attending a formal dinner.” He grimaced. “They make us wear armor to these things so we don't stab ourselves out of sheer boredom. How might I be of service?”

  “I have to go to Karhari. The matter is urgent and I desperately need your help.”

  Sean came in and washed his hands at the sink.

  “Karhari is the anus of the galaxy.” Arland frowned. “What could you possibly want there?”

  “My sister.”

  His blond eyebrows crept up. “You have a sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is she doing at Karhari?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The last time I had heard from Maud was over three years ago, and at the time she was on Noceen, one of the more prosperous of the Holy Anocracy’s planets. Klaus and I had gone to see her when we were searching for Mom and Dad. It was a short visit. Finding out that Mom and Dad had disappeared nearly broke her. She would talk with Mom all the time while my parents’ inn was active, so when communication abruptly ceased, she’d had no idea what had happened. She tried to get passage back to Earth, but her husband was involved in some sort of complicated vampire politics and she couldn’t go. During that meeting, I got a feeling that everything wasn’t going well, but she wouldn’t say what the problem was.

  Caldenia entered the kitchen, wearing a beautiful pink robe, and took a seat at the kitchen table. Orro swept by and a plate with a bagel and jam landed in front of Her Grace.

  She picked the bagel up, biting into the dough with her unnaturally sharp teeth. When most people bit a bagel, we clamped it down and pulled, tearing it. When Caldenia bit a bagel, there was no clamping down and pulling. Her teeth simply sheared it, as if the dough had been cut with big heavy scissors.

  “Lord Arland, my sister sent a message to me asking for help. She isn’t the sort of person to ask for assistance.” In fact, Maud would rather die than ask for help, but she wasn’t willing to gamble with little Helen’s life.

  “It’s very important I get to Karhari as soon as possible. Is there any way you could expedite my application for a permit?”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

  My heart sank.

  “There are no permits being issued for travel to Karhari. As I’ve said, it’s a pit of a planet. Most of it consists of boring plains with large herds of massive herbivores wandering aimlessly through them. There are no good hunting grounds, no great mineral wealth, so it offers very little in the way of value. It was colonized early in the history of the Anocracy and then we lost touch with it for almost five hundred years. The descendants of the original settlers have been cut off for so long that even though the planet was brought back into the Anocracy’s loving embrace a hundred years ago, the rule of law is barely recognized there. It’s the place we send our criminals, exiles, and heretics.”

  My sister was stuck in eighteenth century vampire Australi
a.

  “Is there anything that can be done? Anything at all?”

  “There is only one thing to do.” He hit me with a dazzling smile, displaying his sharp fangs. “I’ll take you there personally.”

  “What?”

  “My uncle’s cousin was granted holdings on Karhari, so House Krahr has a presence there. As Marshal, I can travel there any time I wish.”

  I almost jumped up and down. Still, my history with House Krahr had been complicated already. And Arland had developed a somewhat seasonal infatuation with me. “Are you sure? The fuel expense must be significant…”

  He leaned closer to the screen. “The expense will be minimal. We’ll use the Earth jump gate, bounce off the net here, and will be in Karhari by tomorrow morning. Besides, thanks to you, House Krahr has found itself in a very advantageous position on Nexus. Our profits have soared. I can bounce back and forth between here and Karhari thirty times before the House Steward will gently chide me to keep an eye on the budget. Family is all any of us have. It is decided. Will you be ready in an hour?”

  Just like that. “Yes!”

  “I shall be in orbit in a few minutes. Is it only you or are you bringing anyone with you?”

  “She’s bringing me,” Sean said, stepping next to me.

  Arland’s upper lip trembled. He killed it before it became a snarl and peered at Sean. “What happened to your face? Never mind, not important. Your presence isn’t necessary. Lady Dina will have sufficient protection.”

  “Is the Marshal threatened by my presence?” Sean asked, his voice calm.

  “Hardly.”

  “Then I see no reason why I can’t come along.”

  “Karhari isn’t Earth, werewolf. You’ve never fought a vampire in open combat. You aren’t ready for a planet full of us.”

  What?

  Sean’s face was calm. “As you said, the rule of law is barely recognized on Karhari. I should be right at home.”

  Arland struggled with it for a moment. “Fine. I’m not one to keep a man away from a funeral pyre when he’s jumping over obstacles to get to it. We shall meet in an hour.”

  The screen went black.

  Never fought a vampire… That made no sense. When Sean led the Merchants’ defense on Nexus, he slaughtered enough vampires for several lifetimes. That’s what the peace summit was about. The Holy Anocracy, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the Merchants of Baha-Char had fought over rights to Nexus, a mineral rich planet. Sean had led the Merchants’ forces as Turan Adin, an immortal general in dark armor. It turned out that Turan Adin was very much mortal. The Merchants had been going through mercenaries, and every time one died, they picked out his replacement and put him back in the armor. Sean turned out to be the last and the best. He lasted longer than anyone would have expected, but the war on Nexus was killing him from the inside out. To save him and convince the three factions to agree to peace, I had linked them all, Sean and myself included, to the inn. We had shared memories. Arland was there.

  “Arland doesn’t know. How can he not know you were Turan Adin? You shared Nexus memories with the rest of us.”

  Sean frowned. “When I think back to it, I don’t know which memories were his. I don’t think he knows which ones were mine. When you linked us, you asked only about things that happened on Nexus. I was always Turan Adin on Nexus. The armor never came off. I thought of myself as Turan Adin. I left Sean here on Earth with you.”

  The werewolves of Auul were poets. Sometimes I forgot that, and then he said something like that.

  “Will you tell him?”

  Sean shook his head. “If I do, he’ll try to kill me.”

  “Why?”

  “We met in battle once. I had a chance to kill him, and I didn’t. He knows that.”

  Arland was a proud man. Sean was right; he wouldn’t be able to handle it. Then again, having Sean near Arland wouldn’t be doing wonders for Sean’s recovery either.

  “Are you sure you want to come?”

  He looked at me for a minute. “I’m going to pick up some equipment. Don’t leave without me.”

  “And if I do?”

  “I’ll have to chase you in my ship and blow the galaxy’s existence wide open. Please don’t leave without me.”

  He headed out the door.

  I crossed my arms and looked at Caldenia. “Does everyone have an interstellar ship except us?”

  “You should get one.” She licked the jam from the corner of her mouth. “We do have to keep up with the Joneses, my dear.”

  * * *

  Being catapulted into orbit by the summoning gate was about as fun as riding one of those towering carnival rides without restraints. It made you want to vomit and you were one hundred percent certain that you were going to die. Logic said that only three seconds passed from the point Sean and I stepped into the blood-red glow until the moment we landed in the transport bay of Arland’s ship, but it felt like much longer. I blinked, adjusting my backpack on my shoulders. Arland estimated that the entire trip would only take two days, and I had packed light.

  Sean had packed heavy. A large military-style duffel bag, packed to the breaking point, rested on his back. He carried a smaller duffel. I had a feeling that the smaller duffel was the one with his clothes. He scanned our surroundings like we were in enemy territory.

  I looked around, too. Gray square stones lined the floor under my feet. Similar stones climbed the hundred-foot-tall bulkhead of the huge chamber around us. Long vines with narrow pale green leaves dripped from the stones, their delicate pink flowers spicing the air with a gentle aroma. The crimson banners of House Krahr stretched over the walls. In the middle of the chamber a beautiful old tree with black bark spread its massive branches with wide green leaves and crimson blossoms. A stream rushed through an artificial river bed, falling in an artful cascade of small waterfalls and winding under the arches of the tree’s roots. The illusion of standing in the courtyard of a vampire castle was so complete, I could barely believe we were on a spaceship.

  I glanced at Sean. “Extravagant.”

  He shrugged. “It’s space. No friction means little need for aerodynamics.”

  “But mass is still a factor.” The heavier the ship, the longer it took to accelerate and decelerate and the more fuel it required.

  “Vampires,” Sean said, the way parents usually said “teenagers” when their children were out of earshot.

  A door slid open in the far wall and Arland appeared, in full armor, moving briskly toward us. The sight of a vampire in syn-armor was impressive. Arland had taken it up a notch. He didn’t walk, he strode, like a tiger within his domain.

  “Look,” Sean said under his breath. “He’s making an entrance.”

  Keeping the two of them civil would prove a challenge. “He’s doing me a big favor. Do you think you could refrain from baiting him for the duration of this trip?”

  “I’ll try. But it’s going to be difficult.”

  A female vampire, also in full armor, ran up to Arland and thrust some high tech tablet under his face. Arland waved her off and marched on.

  “Very difficult,” Sean said.

  “Try harder,” I murmured, trying to keep a friendly expression on my face. “I’m sure you can do it.”

  “My deepest apologies.” Arland hit me with a dazzling smile. “I was held up by the petty minutia of House matters.”

  “No apologies necessary,” I told him. “Thank you so much for your help. I’m deeply grateful.”

  Arland turned to Sean and narrowed his eyes. “That’s a lot of hardware.”

  They must’ve scanned Sean’s big duffel.

  “Better to be prepared.”

  “Where did you get the weapons?”

  “I have my ways,” Sean said.

  “I’m watching you,” Arland told him.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  And that’s just about enough. “Lord Arland, it’s so kind of you to lend us your ship.”

  He smile
d. “It’s my pleasure. Please, this way, Lady Dina.”

  Arland held out his arm bent at the elbow. I was on the grounds of House Krahr. When in a vampire ship… I rested my hand on his forearm just below his wrist. He didn’t shoot Sean a triumphant glance but his expression told me he wanted to. We strolled down the path around the tree to the exit.

  “I must ask your forgiveness. While this is my personal vessel, humble as it may be, it is still of military purpose and by necessity of function is spartan in appearance.”

  I caught a glimpse of Sean’s face. His expression was completely neutral.

  “It’s very beautiful, my lord.”

  “It pleases me immensely that you like it. It is home away from home, so to speak.”

  We passed through the doors into the hallway.

  “I’m curious, how will the inn fare without you?” Arland asked.

  I had avoided thinking about the inn for almost three minutes. He had just broken my winning streak.

  “My sister provided me with exact coordinates. With luck, she will be waiting for us, so we should only be gone for a short while. The inn can take care of itself.” Assuming Officer Marais didn’t come snooping, Caldenia didn’t murder anyone because she found them appetizing, Orro didn’t have a nervous breakdown because he couldn’t buy groceries for two days, and if all of them plus Beast managed to keep their cool, the inn should be fine. I hoped. At least Wing had checked out before I left. He asked for the nearest inn, and I sent him to Brian Rodriguez near Dallas with strict instructions to not take any detours.

  Mr. Rodriquez ran Casa Feliz, one of the largest, best known inns in the entire southwest. He used to be friends with my parents. We, the innkeepers, were a reclusive, paranoid lot. Interactions between us were rare, unless two inns happened to be close together and the innkeepers were friends. Most of our business ran on a handshake and communications took place in person or via encrypted channels. In a show of great trust, Mr. Rodriguez had given me his personal cell phone number and I had used it a couple of times to ask him for advice. He was the reason Orro huffed and puffed in the kitchen. His staff would be able to handle a Ku without any issues.