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Clean Sweep Ilona Andrews 30250K 2023-08-31

He loomed over me Didn’t like that, did he?

"Nobody has to know you surrendered the dahaka"

I raisedI compromise my honor?"

Lord Soren paused I’d backed him into a corner Honor wasn’t a concept a vaht

"If you were to revoke his welcouest"

"We do not surrender our guests to the first armed person who co minute "Then we shall set up caive me any information Time to end this "That would be quite useless, uest"

"Do not toy with nals"

"These trackers?"

I pulled the two trackers out of ive orders to her," Sean called

Werewolf hearing Much more sensitive than I’d anticipated

"Explain, please," Lord Soren said

"He’s killing Earth’s citizens, livestock, and hounds He killed s, so I killed his stalkers in retaliation"

Lord Soren pondered the situation "You activated the trackers Why?"

"To draw him near"

"That isn’t your way You are neutral"

"Lord Soren, I run a specialized type of inn, catering to a very specific clientele I don’t handle things the way other innkeepers do You and your men are welcome to join us and wait until he shows up"

Lord Soren looked at his men, looked at Sean, and back at me "No As I said, the House’s honor is involved We will handle it alone"

Anything I could say would be perceived as i his honor, and his House’s honor, and his men’s honor, and the honor of their parents and their parents’ parents "That’s your prerogative, my lord"

Lord Soren studied the trackers in my hand "House of Krahr desires to purchase the trackers fro to part with one"

"It will do," he said "Name your price"

I held my hand over the boundary and dropped one tracker into his palood will, my lord Perhaps next time we meet, on’t open our discussion with threats I ask only that you do not involve hbors in your battle"

He blinked and bowed "It will be so"

Lord Soren raised his hand with a tracker in it and bared his teeth His inch-long fangs glistened in the streetlaic and his rinned back at him, their sickle teeth on display

He turned to Sean "This is our hunt Stay out of it"

"Knock yourselves out," Sean said

I walked over to him and atched them pile into their Hum my back," I said

"No problem Vampires, huh?"

"Mhm"

"I heard a heartbeat and I saw one of them sweat They’re not undead"

"No, they’re a predatory strain of humans We are situational predators and oet mistaken for corpses?"

"They have thick skin They don’t blush, their core body temperature is lower than ours, and you sa pale their lips are They also tend to put themselves into stasis in coffin-liketo be stuck on our planet and they’ll have to wait for a long time to be picked up Sometimes they bury these modules because they don’t want to be accidentally found"

We started back toward the house

"That’s a long way fro corpse," Sean said

"Myths tend to spiral out of control Do you howl at the full moon and steal maidens to devour?"

"Depends on thedidn’t really go with flirting, but his tone of voice did Was this hoolves flirted? Hey, baby, if I had to kill any girl and eat her flesh, it would be you

"They look human" Sean shook his head

"They’re similar to us Our species are compatible There have been vampire-human hybrids"