Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,38

just Lady Dina’s fine qualities. A certain rivalry may have played a role.”

“Sean Evans,” Maud guessed.

“I decided back then that I do not like werewolves,” Arland said. “I have yet to change my mind. Ghastly creatures.”

They sat together in comfortable silence while she picked at her plate. He was right. Food helped. Of course, if she relied on food to stave off her anxiety, she would soon have to get a new set of armor.

“We do not get many outsiders here,” Arland said. “Kacey, my cousin’s stepbrother’s wife, is the first human I had ever seen. As adolescents, we were all fascinated by her. She was different. When I visited the inn, I had never before met anyone like Lady Dina. Feminine, wrapped in mystery, yet firmly in control of her domain.”

“The mystique of the innkeepers,” Maud murmured.

“Yes. Sometimes meeting someone so different obscures the real person underneath. One becomes more fascinated with what a person represents than who they are.”

“Mmmm.” Where was he going with this?

His voice was intimate and sure. “What I’m trying to say is, I see you. I would love you if you were a vampire or a human, because of who you are. You don’t need an inn or a broom to fascinate me. You only have to look my way and you’ll have all of my attention.”

Something fluttered in her chest. Something left over from before Karhari and her marriage.

She tilted her head and gave him a narrow smile. “What if I were a werewolf?”

He sucked in air, pretending to think it over. “I would love you still.”

She laughed quietly and rested her head on his shoulder.

7

The door chimed.

Maud sat up on the bed, instantly awake, and for a confused moment, tried to open the door with her mind. Then reality sank in: She wasn’t back at Dina’s inn. She was in her quarters in House Krahr’s castle.

She’d dreamt of being small and weak, running for her life through the garden at her parents’ inn. Something chased her, something huge and monstrous. She tried to see what it was, but all she could remember were teeth. Enormous teeth as tall as Helen.

The door chimed again.

Maud shook her head, trying to clear the last shreds of the nightmare from her mind. Yesterday she’d stayed in Arland’s room way too long. They’d ended up talking about the space station long after Helen had fallen asleep.

“Time?” she asked as she pulled on soft sweatpants.

Glowing red numbers ignited on the wall above the fireplace. 9:30. Daesyn had a thirty-hour cycle, each hour being fifty minutes, each minute fifty moments. It was early. In Earth time, around 6:30 am.

The door chimed once again.

“Open.”

The door slid aside, and Karat swept in wearing black armor. Not her best military set, either. When a military set suffered damage, it was often repaired while in battle or shortly after. Fixing syn-armor required a quiet environment, a lot of time, and a steady hand. Under battle conditions all three were frequently in short supply, which was why war armor showed scars and imperfections. The black set Karat wore now looked like it had just come from a nanite forge. Whatever damage it had suffered had been mended without a trace.

Karat dropped into the nearest chair. “How was my cousin?”

Maud blinked at her.

“You spent most of the night in his rooms.”

“You’re spying on me.”

“Of course we’re spying on you. We know you went back to your room with Helen. We also know that the current usage in his room was elevated until well after midnight, which is atypical of him, so we deduced that you dropped off your child and returned via the private passageway. I trust everything went well?”

Vampire cousins. “The armor stayed on.”

“What? Why?”

“We’re not to that stage of the relationship.”

Karat stared at her. “Have you ever?”

“No.”

“That’s absurd. How do you know you’re compatible? How could he ask you to marry him without first verifying this?”

“You would have to ask him,” Maud growled.

“What were you doing all that time in his rooms?”

“Helen watched a movie. We talked. It was sweet.”

“So, you took the child with you…Wait.” Karat paused. “Did you just say my cousin was sweet? Arland Krahr? The Bloodmace? The Bone Crusher? The Ravager of Nexus? That Arland?”

“Yes. He was sweet and there was no ravaging.” The way he looked at her last night gave her no doubt he wanted to. She wanted to as well, but something held her back. She was like a bridled horse. Every time she thought about