Maybe he needed a loan. That wouldn’t be too bad. Eric could always make more money. Though I had no idea how Eric stood financially, I had a little nest egg in the bank since Sophie-Anne’s estate had paid up the money she’d owed me. And whatever Claudine had had in her checking account would be coming to join it. If Eric needed it, he could have it.

But what if money wasn’t the issue? Maybe Appius Livius needed to hole up because he’d gotten in trouble somewhere else. Maybe some Bolshevik vampires were after Alexei! That would be interesting. I could always hope they’d catch up with Appius Livius . . . as long as it wasn’t at Eric’s house.

Or perhaps Eric’s maker had been courted by Felipe de Castro or Victor Madden because they wanted something from Eric that he hadn’t given up yet, and they planned on using Eric’s maker to pull his strings.

But here was my most likely scenario: Appius Livius Ocella had dropped by with his “new” boy toy just to mess with Eric’s head. That was the guess I was putting my money on. Appius Livius was hard to read. At moments he seemed okay. He seemed to care about Eric, and he seemed to care about Alexei. As for Eric’s maker’s relationship with Alexei—the boy would have died if Appius Livius hadn’t intervened. Given the circumstances—Alexei’s witnessing the murders of his entire family and their servants and friends—letting the tsarevitch die might have been a blessing.

I was sure Appius Livius was having sex with Alexei, but it was impossible to tell whether Alexei’s passive demeanor came from the fact that he was in an unwanted sexual relationship or from his being permanently traumatized from seeing his family shot multiple times. I shuddered. I dried off and brushed my teeth, hoping I could sleep.

I realized there was another phone call I should make. With great reluctance, I called Bobby Burnham, Eric’s daytime guy. Bobby and I had never liked each other. Bobby was weirdly jealous of me, though he didn’t have the hots for Eric sexually at all. In Bobby’s opinion, I diverted Eric’s attention and energy away from its proper focus, which was Bobby and the business affairs he handled for Eric while Eric slept the day away. I was down on Bobby because instead of silently disliking me, he actively tried to make my life more difficult, which was a whole different kettle of fish. But still, we were both in the Eric business.

“Bobby, it’s Sookie.”

“I got caller ID.”