“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.”