Claude shrugged. “That was what Claudine wished. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

“Claude, you’ll have to excuse me being surprised that you care. I would’ve said you didn’t give a flying eff how I felt. Now you’re being all sweet with Hunter, and you’re offering to help me clean out the attic.”

“Maybe I’m developing a cousinly concern for you.” He raised one eyebrow.

“Maybe pigs will fly.”

He laughed. “I’m trying to be more human,” he confessed. “Since I’ll live out my long existence among humans, apparently, I’m trying to be more . . .”

“Likable?” I supplied.

“Ouch,” he said, but he wasn’t really hurt. Being hurt would presuppose that he cared about my opinion. And that was something you couldn’t be taught, right?

“Where’s the boyfriend been?” he asked. “I do so love the smell of vampire around the house.”

“Last night was the first time I’ve seen him in a week. And we didn’t have any alone time.”

“You two have a fight?” Claude settled one hip on the porch railing, and I could tell he was determined to show me he could be interested in someone else’s life.

I felt a certain amount of exasperation. “Claude, I’m drinking my very first cup of coffee, I didn’t get a lot of sleep, and I’ve had a bad few days. Could you just scoot away and take a shower or something?”

He sighed as if I’d broken his heart. “All right, I can take a hint,” he said.

“That really wasn’t so much a hint as an outright statement.”

“Oh, I’ll go.”

But as he straightened up and took a step toward the door, I realized I did have something else to say. “I take that back. There is something we have to talk about,” I said. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you that Dermot was here.”

Claude stood up straight, almost as if he were prepared to bolt. “What did he say? What did he want?”

“I’m not sure what he wanted. I think, like you, he wanted to be close to someone else with a bit of fairy blood. And he wanted to tell me that he was under a spell.”

Claude paled. “From whose magic? Has Grandfather come back through the gate?”

“No,” I said. “But could a fairy have cast a spell on him before the gate closed? And I think you must know there’s another full-blooded fairy on this side of the portal, or gate, whatever you call it.” As I understood fairy morals, it was not possible to answer me with a direct lie.

“Dermot is crazy,” Claude said. “I have no idea what he’ll do next. If he approached you directly, he must be under extreme pressure. You know how ambivalent he is about humans.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“No,” Claude said. “I didn’t. And there’s a reason for that.” He turned his back to me and looked out over the yard. “I like my head on my shoulders.”