Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 2) (11 page)

I couldn’t let him fire.

Magic shot from my hand into my broom. The handle split into dozens of long filaments and shot at Officer Marais like some face-hugging monster from a horror movie. The filaments wrapped around him, binding his body into a cocoon. He spun in place and toppled onto the asphalt.

The vampires roared in triumph.

I spun to the vampires. I was so furious, I couldn’t even speak.

The knight with the axe saw my face. A second later he also realized that I was wearing an innkeeper’s robe and that he had done something really, really bad.

I marched to him. He took a few steps back, toward the inn, moving away from the car like a toddler who broke something and was now trying to distance himself from it. His foot touched the inn’s boundary. A root whipped out of the gloom, grasped the vampire, and yanked him back into the ground as if he weighed nothing. One second he was there, the next he vanished.

I glared at the other vampires. “Pick up this car and this man,” I said, forcing the words through my teeth. “Bring them into my driveway undamaged, or I’ll reduce you to bloody spots on this pavement. Now.”

To the right two points of light announced an approaching vehicle.

“Move!” Arland snarled from somewhere behind the hulking vampires.

Lord Soren, Arland’s uncle, grabbed Officer Marais and sprinted to the inn as fast as his enormous armor would allow. Two vampires grasped the cruiser, lifted it, and carried it onto the driveway. The moment the wheels touched the ground, the cruiser sank into the driveway. The ground gulped it and the car vanished. The vampires streamed into the house.

The lights were almost on us.

I stepped behind a tree. The house shifted, hiding the weapons. George stepped behind a different tree.

At the door Arland barked a short command. Three remaining vampires dropped flat.

A white truck roared by.

I waited a couple of seconds and nodded to Arland. The knights rose and ducked into the house. George followed. I paused and surveyed the street. It lay empty.

I waited, straining to hear any stray noises.

No sirens, no outraged neighbors racing out of their houses to see what was happening, no shots fired. The dreary weather and the cold night on a regular old Tuesday kept the inhabitants of Avalon subdivision indoors.

Could we have dodged a bullet?

As an innkeeper, I had only two official duties: to safeguard my guests and to keep their existence hidden from the rest of the planet. The vampires knew this. Arland and his uncle, in particular, knew and understood this extremely well. How could they have put the inn in jeopardy?

Cold drizzle sifted from the night sky.

The subdivision remained silent. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked in short plaintive yips, asking to be let inside. It might have been my imagination, but I thought I heard a door swing open. The barking stopped.

I exhaled slowly and went inside.

The vampire delegation crowded in my front room.

A huge knight, his hair jet black, stood chest to chest with Arland, their armor almost touching. Both had their shoulders back, legs planted, their powerful muscles flexed, ready to grip and tear at each other. Their mouths gaped open, fangs on display, their faces contorted with rage. They radiated aggression like two space heaters emitting heat. Everyone else had backed away, giving them room. They were a second away from direct violence and they were almost exactly the same size and height. It would be a bloody and terrible.

No, uh-uh. They would
not
be having it out in my front room. I snapped my fingers. I didn’t really have to, but I wanted to underscore the point for the rest of the audience. The two vampires sank into the floor up to their waists. I touched my index fingers and moved them apart. The vampires slid away from each other, leaving about five feet of space between them. George walked into this space, leaning on his cane.

“Marshall of House Krahr.” He nodded at Arland. “Marshall of House Vorga.” He nodded at the dark haired knight. His voice was light and cheerful. “Whose idea was it to come through the front door?”

“Where is my knight?” the Marshall of House Vorga snarled.

I sank him another six inches into the floor.

“I demand…”

Another six inches. He was almost up to his arm pits.

The Marshall of House Vorga opened his mouth and clicked it shut.

George turned on his heel. “Marshall of House Sabla, perhaps you would like to clear the air?”

A female knight stepped forward. Long straight chestnut hair framed her face. “Coordinates were presented to us by the Marshall of Krahr. The Marshall of House Vorga entered them personally.”

“Might I trouble you for those coordinates?” George asked.

She raised her hand. A small display ignited on the inside of her wrist. Alien marks dashed across it in pale red.

“Thank you, Lady Isur,” George said. “Let the record show that Arland of Krahr presented the correct set of coordinates to the Houses. Lord Robart, did you enter incorrect coordinates by mistake?”

“We are the knights of the Holy Anocracy,” Lord Robart answered. “We do not slink through the back door. We do not follow the otrokar.”

“I see,” George said. “And you’ve made this decision on your own?”

“I am a Marshall of a Vampire House,” Lord Robart snarled. “I don’t answer to the likes of you.”

George smiled. “Fair enough, although you have already answered my first question, so the impact of your gesture is somewhat diluted. Very well then.” He raised his hand. A scroll appeared in it as if by magic. He let it unroll. A brilliant red symbol of the Holy Pyramid blazed in the middle of it. The vampires knelt as one and I saw Caldenia sitting in a chair, sipping her cup of tea, a small amused smile bending her lips.

“This is a Holy Writ granted to me by His Brilliance, the Hierophant,” George said.

He had a holy writ from the religious leader of the Holy Cosmic Anocracy. Wow. He just unleashed the equivalent of a nuclear bomb.

“This writ grants me the power of life and death over every single one of you,” George said. “I may kill any of you at any time without reason or fear of retribution. To defy me is to defy the Hierophant. Should you choose to do so, you will be excommunicated. Upon your death, your soul will be turned away from Paradise, forced to wander the lifeless icy plains of Nothing, where no sun shines upon you, no animal crosses your path, and no sound interrupts the silence. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal clear,” Lady Isur said, her head still bowed.

George rolled the scroll and slid it into his sleeve. “Rise.”

The vampires rose.

George looked at me. “Dina, you may release the Marshalls.”

I let both vampire rise from the floor. Neither of them spoke. The room was absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop. George had their complete attention.

“This Galaxy’s interactions with Earth are governed by a Treaty of the Cosmic Senate,” George said. “Lady Dina, what is the most important provision in it?”

“The existence of other intelligent life in the Galaxy must remain secret,” I answered.

“What is the punishment for breaking this provision?”

“Banishment,” I said.

Lord Robart locked his teeth.

“Would House Vorga suffer consequences if Lord Robart’s transgression became public?”

“Yes. His House would be dishonored and banned from Earth.”

A couple of vampires winced. Earth was a vital waypoint. Losing access to it meant House Vorga would be severely impaired in their travel. Other Houses would happily take advantage of that.

“Lord Robart of House Vorga,” George said. “I don’t believe in starting these peace negotiations with blood. Nor do I feel House Vorga should suffer penalties for what was likely a transgression resulting from pride rather than malice. However, your actions nearly compromised this summit and atonement must be made for us to proceed. Lady Dina, do you recall the demonstration you provided earlier? If you could open that door one more time, please.”

Making George angry was a really, really bad idea. I pushed with my magic. The back wall dissolved. I faced the far wall and pushed with my magic. The wood fell apart, melting into nothing, revealing the endless orange sea under the grey sky. In the distance ragged dark crags pierced the water under the broken necklace of red planets glowing gently in the sky. The salty breeze washed over us and the planet exhaled in my face.

A body sliced through the orange water, thick, scaly, and crowned with a long ridged fin. Its coils kept going and going, sliding and coiling under the surface.

George looked at Lord Robart. “One hour, Marshall. We will postpone formal introductions until your return.”

The vampire raised his head.

If he stepped into that water, his armor would be too heavy. He would be too slow. He would drown. To go into that water at all was suicide.

Lord Robart bared his fangs.

They wore their armor as if it were their second skin. He would never…

Lord Robart unsheathed a short brutal axe and clasped the House crest on his armor. The black metal fractured, falling off him, leaving him standing in a plain black bodysuit. He stepped out of his boots, primed his axe with a flick of his wrist, and jumped into the water. It came up to his chest.

“Seal the doorway, please,” George said.

I let the wood flow back, hiding the vampire knight from view. We’d need a countdown. I murmured to the inn and a large digital clock appeared on the wall, counting the seconds down from sixty minutes.

George turned to me. “We still have the problem of the car and the police officer.” He gave me a brilliant smile. “This is your area of expertise. The delegation of the Holy Anocracy, my people, and I are at your disposal, my lady. How would you like to handle that?”

I turned to Arland. “Marshall, I’ll need your best engineer. The rest of you must go to your quarters.”

“Hardwir, with me,” Arland commanded.

An older dark haired vampire shouldered his way to the front of the group.

“I’m coming as well,” Lady Isur announced.

“Rest of you, through the hallway on the left. Go. Do not attempt to leave. The inn won’t permit it.”

The majority of the knights left the room, but five of them remained behind. “We cannot abandon our marshal,” a female knight said.

Lady Isur glanced at me. “Innkeeper?”

“You may choose two of your number,” I told them. “You can keep watch here. If you attempt to move from this room, you will be detained.”

The female knight and older grizzled vampire took up post by the wall. The rest went to their quarters. Caldenia still sipped her tea, looking perfectly satisfied.

Now I had to fix this nightmare.

“Follow me.” I started down the long hallway. The stables occupied the north-eastern corner of the house, opening into the orchard. From the outside, they would look just like a screened in porch.

Beast darted back and forth in front of me, scampering in pure excitement. Well, at least someone was having fun.

“I could kill him,” Lady Isur offered.

“That would only make more problems,” Jack said.

“Law enforcement here is very well organized,” Arland said. “If one falls, the rest converge on the area. It would make everything exceptionally difficult.”

The door flew open in front of me and I emerged into the stables. My hands shook slightly. Too much adrenaline and too much magic expended too quickly. With the guests within the inn, I would rebound, but right now I felt jittery, as if I’d drank three cups of strong coffee on an empty stomach.

Officer Marais lay on the floor, next to his ruined squad car, flanked on both side by the stalls. A female from Nuan Cee’s clan was quietly distributing feed to the buckets. She saw us and stopped. As I approached, the filaments slid off his body, leaving the inn’s hard roots anchoring him to the floor. The filaments streamed to me, smoothly reforming into the broom in my hand. The roots gagged Officer Marais’s mouth, but his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He was furious. If he could’ve gotten loose, he would fight all of us for his life.