“All right,” I said in a much more conversational tone. “Let’s take this thing from the top. Who says we’re trying to kill you?”
“Matt does,” the vampire responded. “He’s the one who filled me in on you and your pet demon. To be honest with you, I had never even heard of you until Matt explained whose home we had stumbled into.”
“Matt?” I frowned.
Then I remembered. Of course. The third member of the fugitive party. Luanna’s old con artist partner who nobody had been paying attention to at all. A germ of an idea began to form in my head.
“And he says we’re out to kill you?”
“That’s right. According to him nobody crosses the Great Skeeve or makes a fool of him and lives . . . and using your house as an escape route definitely qualifies.”
The reputation thing again. I was beginning to realize why so many magicians preferred to lead the lives of recluses.
“That’s crazy, Vic.” I said. “If I tried to kill everybody who’s made a fool of me, I’d be armpit-deep in corpses.”
“Oh yeah?” he shot back. “Well. if you aren’t out to kill me, why did you send your pet demon after us?”
Despite my resolve to settle this thing amicably, I was starting to get annoyed.
“First of all, he’s not my pet demon. He’s my partner and his name is Aahz. Secondly, I didn’t send him. He knocked me out cold and came himself. Third and final, he was never out to kill you. He was trying to bring you and your cohorts back to Deva so we wouldn’t get stuck paying off the people you swindled plus a hefty fine. Are you getting all this, or am I going too fast for you?”