Arland collapsed on the ground, conveniently rolling onto his back. Helen put her foot on his chest, raised her dagger, and let out a vampire roar.
Should I be horrified or cuted out? I couldn’t decide.
“Good job,” Maud said.
Arland grabbed at Helen’s ankle. She squealed and dashed to the porch.
He sat up, a big grin on his face.
“As you can see, my daughter doesn’t need any instruction from you,” Maud said.
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
No, Arland. No, no.
“Really?” Maud asked.
Arland rolled to his feet. “Your daughter is a vampire.”
“Half.”
He shook his head. “She has the fangs. Humans will see her as a vampire. Vampires will see her as a vampire.”
The look on Maud’s face turned friendly, almost warm. If I were in Arland’s shoes, I’d run now.
“And there is something wrong with the way I train my child with fangs?” Maud casually stepped toward the weapon rack.
Sean entered the kitchen and stood next to me. “What did I miss?”
“My sister is about to destroy Arland.”
On the lawn Arland leaned back. “For a child this young, a challenge issued is a challenge answered.”
Maud pondered the weapons. “What are you implying?”
“A properly trained vampire child wouldn’t have waited for permission to kill,” Arland said.
He just kept digging his own grave.
Sean opened the kitchen door.
“Where are you going?” I whispered.
“I want a front row seat to this.”
I chased him outside and we sat in the chairs.
“She’s too controlled. You say sit, she sits. You say wait, she waits.”
More words, deeper hole.
“She should be guided by instinct. She should be a rassa in the grass. Instead she is a goren on the porch.”
And he just told my sister that her daughter wasn’t a wolf but a trained dog.
I braced myself.
Maud drew a sword from the rack so fast, it looked like the weapon sprang into her hand on its own. She swung it. All pretense of sweetness was gone from her face.
“Perhaps you would care to give me some instruction.”
“If you wish.” Arland picked up a practice mace.
My sister struck. They clashed. One moment Arland was standing and the next he staggered back, shaking his head, the red imprint of the rubber sword blade on the side of his face.
Sean laughed.
Maud lunged into the opening. Arland swung his mace as if it were light as a toothpick and parried her sword, bashing her blade to the right. She drove her left fist into his throat. He spun away from her, choking, but still striking back. She ducked under his swing and rammed the blade of her sword into his armpit.
Sean and I made ouch noises.
Arland roared, his fangs bared.
Maud danced around him, battering his ribs. He knocked her sword blade aside with his left arm and kicked her. My sister flew, rolled in the grass, and came back up from a crouch into a blindingly fast attack.
The sword and mace drummed, clashing. Arland and Maud rampaged across the lawn, beating on each other. Sean and I watched them, wincing when one of them grunted in pain.
Helen sat by my feet, absorbed in the violence of the fight. She was so small and our world had gotten so violent all of a sudden.
“Did you know Draziri taste like chicken?” I asked.
Sean glanced at me, as if not sure if I was okay. “I had no idea.”
“Orro told me,” I told him. “We’re besieged by murderous poultry.”
Sean reached over and took my hand. I let him.
“We’ve got this,” he said. “It will be okay.”
Both my sister and Arland were glistening with sweat. The rubber weapons weren’t designed to cut, but somehow they were both bleeding from a few shallow scrapes. They danced across the lawn back and forth, gaining ground then losing it.
“It won’t be much longer,” Sean said. “They’re getting tired.”
Arland blocked Maud’s sword. She reversed her hold, gripping the blade, and clubbed him with the pommel. The blow landed right between his eyes. Arland went down.
“Yield!” my sister snarled.
Arland burst from the ground, sweeping her off her feet like a charging bull, and drove her into a tree. Maud’s back slapped the bark, her feet four inches off the ground. He pinned her there.
If I interfered, there would be hell to pay.
“Yield, my lady.” Arland bared his teeth an inch away from her neck.
She glared at him. “I don’t yield.”
The ground under Arland’s feet opened and swallowed him up to his knees. He let go. Maud dropped down, picked up her sword, and walked away.
I sighed and let Arland up out of the hole.
Maud threw the sword into the rack and stomped onto the porch.
“You cheated,” I told her.
“Yeah, yeah.” She went into the house and slammed the door behind her.
I took my hand back from Sean.
Arland stretched, wincing, picked up the practice mace and walked to the porch. Red welts covered his pale skin. He looked like someone had worked him over with a sack of potatoes.
Helen stood on her toes and punched him in the stomach.
“Ow,” he said.
Helen hissed, grinned, and ran inside.
The Marshal of House Krahr opened his mouth.
I braced myself.
“Your sister is magnificent,” Arland said.
Maud the Magnificent swished water in her mouth and spat blood out into the bathroom sink. I helpfully held out a towel for her. She looked at herself in the mirror. “No.”
“Suit yourself.”
She turned and took the towel. “I was talking to myself.”
“Oh? Was it no as in no more sparring matches or no as in Arland Krahr is vampire sex on a stick and seducing him would be a terrible idea?” I stepped back in case I had to duck.
She blotted her face with the towel. “No, as in I won’t let myself be goaded again. Also, Dina, seducing? You’ve been hanging out with Caldenia too long.”
“Helen likes him. She punched him in the stomach after you stormed off.”
“Should’ve aimed lower.”
The inn chimed, letting me know the Hiru requested my attention.
I waved my hand. A screen opened in the side of the wall. On it the Hiru leaned forward, his mechanical wheezing fast and loud.
“The second member of the Archivarius!”
“Where and when?” I asked.
“He’s unable to reach Earth. He’s on Baha-char awaiting retrieval.”
“Where on Baha-char?” Maud asked. “It’s a big place.”
“Ninth Row, past the Merchants of Death. The member is arriving in an argon tank in fifteen minutes and will need to be picked up from Aka Lorvus, merchant. Your locator will pick up the signal.”
“Thank you. Will you be joining us for breakfast?”
The Hiru paused. “You do not have to continue to invite me. I know my appearance brings you discomfort.”
“It’s an instinctual reaction and it only lasts a few moments. We’re more than our instincts.”
“I will consider it,” he said. “But I may remain in my room.”
“I understand. Will you tell me your name, at least?”
A long silence stretched.
“Sunset,” the Hiru said finally. “My name is Sunset.”