“You’re the younger sister?” She looked to be about thirty, or at least that had been her death age. She had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and she was short and pleasantly round. She was one of the most nonthreatening vampires I’d ever met, at least superficially. And she looked oddly familiar.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Lorena turned you after she turned Bill? Why’d she pick you?”

“You were Bill’s lover for some months, I gather? Reading between the lines of your message?” she asked in turn.

“Yes, I was. I’m with someone else now.”

“How is it that he never told you how he came to meet Lorena?”

“I don’t know. His choice.”

“Very strange.” She looked openly distrustful.

“You can think it’s strange till the cows come home,” I said. “I don’t know why Bill didn’t tell me, but he didn’t. If you want to tell me, fine. Tell me. But that’s not really important. The important thing is that Bill’s not getting well. He got bitten by a fairy with silver-tipped teeth. If he has your blood, he might get over it.”

“Did Bill perhaps hint to you that you should ask me?”

“No, ma’am, he didn’t. But I hate to see him hurting.”

“Has he mentioned my name?”

“Ah. No. I found out by myself so I could get in touch with you. It seems to me that if you’re Lorena’s get, too, you must have known he was suffering. I find myself wondering why you haven’t shown up before.”

“I’ll tell you why.” Judith’s voice was ominous.

Oh, great, another tale of pain and suffering. I knew I wasn’t going to like this story.

I was right.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Judith began her story by asking me a question. “Have you ever met Lorena?”

“Yes,” I said, and left it at that. Evidently, Judith didn’t know exactly how I’d met Lorena, which had been a few seconds before I drove a stake through her heart and ended her long, nasty life.

“Then you know she’s ruthless.”

I nodded.

“You need to know why I’ve stayed away from Bill all these years, when I’m very fond of him,” Judith said. “Lorena has had a hard life. I wouldn’t necessarily believe everything she’s told me, but I’ve heard confirmation of a few parts of it from others.” Judith wasn’t seeing me anymore; she was looking past me, down the years, I guess.

“How old was she?” I said, just to keep the story rolling.

“By the time Lorena met Bill she had been a vampire for many decades. She had been turned in 1788 by a man named Solomon Brunswick. He met her in a brothel in New Orleans.”

“He met her in the obvious way?”