Jason went out the back door. A second later, I heard his truck roaring away. Almost as soon as Appius Livius and Alexei had had their drinks, Eric came out of my bedroom in fresh clothes (he kept a change at my house) and smelling very much like my apricot body wash. With his maker around, Eric could hardly have a heart-to-heart with me, assuming he wanted to. He wasn’t exactly acting like my honey now that his dad was in the house. There could be several reasons for this. I didn’t like any of them.

Soon afterward, the three vampires left for Shreveport. Appius Livius thanked me for my hospitality in such an impassive way that I had no idea whether he was being sarcastic. Eric was as silent as a stone. Alexei, as calm and smiling as if he’d never gone mad, gave me a cold embrace. I had a hard time accepting it with equal calm.

Three seconds after they were out the door, I was on the phone.

“Fangtasia, where all your bloody dreams come true,” said a bored female voice.

“Pam. Listen.”

“The phone is pressed to my ear. Speak.”

“Appius Livius Ocella just dropped in.”

“Fuck a zombie!”

I wasn’t sure that I’d heard that correctly. “Yes, he’s been here. I guess he’s your granddad? Anyway, he’s got a new protégé with him, and they’re heading for Eric’s to spend the day.”

“What does he want?”

“He hasn’t said yet.”

“How is Eric?”

“Very tightly wound. Plus, a lot of stuff happened that he’ll tell you about.”

“Thanks for the warning. I’ll go to the house now. You’re my favorite breather.”

“Oh. Well . . . great.”

She hung up. I wondered what preparations she would make. Would the vamps and humans who worked at the Shreveport night-club go into a cleaning frenzy at Eric’s? I’d only seen Pam and Bobby Burnham there, though I assumed some of the crew came in from time to time. Would Pam rush some willing humans over to act as bedtime snacks?

I was too tense to think about going to bed. Whatever Eric’s maker was doing here, it wasn’t something I was going to like. And I already knew Appius Livius’s presence was bad for our relationship. While I was in the shower—and before I picked up the wet towels Eric had left on the floor—I did some serious thinking.

Vampire plotting can be pretty convoluted. But I tried to imagine the significance of the Roman’s surprise visit. Surely he hadn’t shown up in America, in Louisiana, in Shreveport, just to catch up on the geezer gossip.