Strange Beasts

by Susan J. Morris

“Well, that’s just a security hazard,” Hel complained of the secret tunnel. “There weren’t even any guards.” “It’s not very secret if you post guards,” Sam pointed out. Unsurprisingly, what guards had been on-site the night before hadn’t seen anything, and were remarkably unalarmed about the potential invasion of rogue mistresses. In fact, they seemed to find the whole affair rather amusing. As if a mistress couldn’t also prove a murderer⁠—or whisper word to one. She would hardly be the first spy to sharpen an assassin’s aim. “It’s foolishness,” Hel grumbled. “If security by obscurity doesn’t work for vampires, it’s certainly not going to work for the Senate, whose members are severely lacking in the Suggestion and Hypnosis departments.” “Unless, of course, some of them are vampires,” Sam said. Though that was unlikely. The world had gotten much better at detecting vampires in the aftermath of her parents’ Transylvanian affair. “They could at least invest in a lock.”