How to Kiss a Vampire novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Old Law

"Elder," said Ragnar, and his voice stayed soft. "This is a family dinner."

"It is a Count," said the old woman. "You called it one. I am old enough to remember what that means."

She stood up.

It took her a long time, and no one at the table said a word.

She was the size of a ten-year-old, and every vampire in the room watched her.

"The Lakehouse Law has three articles," she said. "Everyone knows the first. A human who knows must forget or die."

"Everyone knows the second. The House protects what it has hushed."

"Few remember the third. I was there when it was written, in a lumber camp, by a hungry man with a pencil."

She looked down the table at Ragnar.

"The third article says no one of this House may harm a hushed human, or her kin, or her house."

"A master who does loses the seat at the next Count, and it passes to his first-made."

Nobody moved.

Torsten had gone completely white.

Across the table, in a chair that was too big for him, I saw a young vampire swallow.

"That is the law," said the elder. "Ragnar knows it. He has not read it aloud in a hundred years, I think."

"A charming history lesson," said Ragnar. "What does it have to do with a dinner?"

"Everything," I said.

I opened my tool bag.

My hands were steady now.

It's strange how that happens, when you finally know what job you're doing.

I took out a plastic freezer bag.

Inside it was a short steel bolt as long as my hand, and I set it on the white tablecloth.

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