Beast sat by the crate in my bedroom, looking scandalized.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “It’s just an extra permanent guest.”

I gently pried the carrier open. The grey cat stepped out on soft paws, looked about and hid under the bed.

Beast whined at me.

“Not you too.” I shook my head. “I had a rough day.”

The Beast whined again.

I went into my bathroom. Here is hoping soap and hot water would wash today off.

“Resume recording,” I murmured.

The emerald bounced on the screen. Otrokari and vampires walked past it, preoccupied with their own tasks. The big green gem lay forgotten like a cheap glass bauble.

“Fast forward,” I instructed. “Four times the speed.”

The recording sped up. The otrokari and knights hurried about like actors from a silent movie, their movements exaggerated by the accelerated recording. An otrokar brushed by it. The emerald slid to the side. I yawned.

This would be so much more fun if Sean was here to make fun of it. He once called Arland Goldilocks and then told him that he should try to get his woodlands friends to help him if he got in trouble.

I pictured myself reaching into my mind, taking that thought out, and setting it aside. Sean Evans wasn’t here. Maybe I could make a deal with myself. Once the summit was over, whichever way it went, I would go down to Wilmos’s weapon shop and have a nice long conversation with Mr. Evans. Since he bugged me so much, I could ask him if he was planning on coming back in the near future. That way I wouldn’t waste my time obsessing over…

The emerald vanished.

“Stop!” I jerked upright and almost collided with the screen.

The recording froze.

“Rewind at normal speed.”

The screen blurred and suddenly the emerald popped back into existence on the floor.

“Stop. Play forward, one quarter speed.”

Slowly, part of the screen blurred slightly, moving toward the emerald. It wasn’t an obvious, pronounced blur, more like someone had taken a magnifying glass and passed it over the screen. I had never before seen anything like it. The inn’s sensors weren’t infallible, but they were pretty close.

The blur touched the emerald and the green gem vanished.

“Thermal imaging, same time.”

The screen blinked. A blob of yellow with a bright red center passed over the emerald. So whatever this was shielded the wearer from thermal imaging as well. It had to be some kind of device that was projecting a field that tampered with the inn’s feed. My stomach churned.

Someone moved unchecked in my inn and I didn’t know how or why.

In my inn. In Gertrude Hunt.

I had to find out and fast. The lives of my guests depended on it, because while this was going on, any guarantees of security I promised weren’t worth the hot air that came out of my mouth as I made them.

I stared at the distortion on the screen. You want to play games? Fine. I will find you and when I do, you won’t like what will follow.

Chapter 9

It was Thursday and we were back in the grand ballroom, watching the negotiations stall. Three days had passed since I discovered tampering with the inn’s recordings. I was no closer to finding the culprit. I still didn’t know who took the emerald.  The cat still hid. Once or twice, while half-asleep, I felthim on the edge of the bed, but when I woke up, he was always gone. I made sure he had water and food and I cleaned his litter box, but that was the extent of our interaction. I clearly failed at making friends. The otrokari and the vampires were still bored and irritable, despite the distractions I provided. And most importantly, the peace summit still made no progress.

The only thing I managed to accomplish was to ensure that Orro’s banquet was scheduled and ready to go tonight.

At the far end of the grand ballroom, a large otrokar rose, his gaze fixed on a point behind me. I’d been reading up on the otrokari war classes and he looked like a basher to me. During war, his kind wore the heaviest armor the Horde could provide and were fitted with arm guns that fit over their shoulders and limbs and weighed over a hundred pounds each. Bashers were huge mobile guns. They punched through the enemy ranks, while lighter war classes hid behind them, and rained death on their opponents. This particular specimen was over seven and a half feet tall with shoulders that were probably too big for my front door. If he ever had to negotiate it, he’d have to turn sideways.

I turned so I could see the summit meeting taking place behind the transparent partition and the basher at the same time. At the negotiations table, the Marshall of House Vorga leaned forward, his fists on the table. When vampires confronted danger, they unconsciously tried to make themselves larger, like cats before a fight. Lord Robart positively loomed over the table, his face contorted by fury. The soundproof barrier robbed him of his voice, but he looked like he was screaming. Well, at least his fangs weren’t bared.

The male otrokar started forward, moving deliberately, his head lowered slightly, his eyes unblinking, their gaze focused on Lord Robart with terrible intensity. Oh-oh.

Jack peeled himself from the wall by the partition and casually strolled down on an intercept course.

The Khanum said something, her face projecting derision.

And here go the fangs.

A slim, hard looking otrokar female smoothly moved into the big soldier’s path. “Where are you going, Kolto?”

“I’m going to wring his neck,” the large otrokar growled.

“First, you won’t get through.”

“Watch me.”

“And if you did manage it, the Khanum would rip off your balls and make you eat them. She’s got it. If she needs our help, she’ll call for it.”

Behind the partition, Dagorkun said something, his pose relaxed, his arms crossed on his chest. The other two otrokari guffawed. The Khanum cracked a smile. Lord Robart did his best to propel himself and his high tech armor into a massive leap, but Arland, Lady Isur, and the Battle Chaplain grabbed him and pulled him back. Nuan Cee put his furry head on the table, face down. Lord Robart snarled, his fangs out, trying to break free.

This wouldn’t end well, I just knew it.

“See, she has it,” the female otrokar said. “And you’re still in one piece.”

The male otrokar frowned at her. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t know.” The female otrokar arched an eyebrow. “Maybe I have an interest in you staying intact.”