We talked about Hunter’s routine for a few minutes, and then I hung up. By then, I was dry, but my hair was hanging in damp rattails. After a few minutes with the blow-dryer, I set off to talk to Claude once I was securely dressed in my work clothes.

“Claude!” I yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes?” He sounded totally unconcerned.

“Come down here!”

He appeared at the head of the stairs, his hairbrush in his hand. “Yes, Cousin?”

“Claude, the answering machine would have picked up the phone call. Please don’t come in my room without knocking, and especially don’t come in my bathroom without knocking!” I would definitely employ the door lock from now on. I didn’t think I’d ever used it before.

“Are you a prude?” He seemed genuinely curious.

“No!” But after a second, I said, “But maybe compared to you, yes! I like my privacy. I get to decide who sees me naked. Do you get my point?”

“Yes. Objectively speaking, you have beautiful points.”

I thought the top of my head would pop off. “I didn’t expect this when I told you that you could stay with me. You like men.”

“Oh, yes, I definitely prefer men. But I can appreciate beauty. I have visited the other side of the fence.”

“I probably wouldn’t have let you stay here if I’d known that,” I said.

Claude shrugged, as if to say, “Wasn’t I smart to keep it from you, then?”

“Listen,” I said, and then stopped, because I was rattled. No matter what the circumstances, seeing Claude naked . . . Well, your first reaction wouldn’t be rage, either. “I’m going to tell you a few things, and I want you to take me seriously.”

He waited, brush in hand, looking only politely attentive.

“Number one. I have a boyfriend, and he’s a vampire, and I’m not interested in cheating on him, and that includes seeing other guys naked . . . in my bathroom,” I tacked on hastily, thinking of twoeys of all sorts. “If you can’t respect that, you need to leave, and you’ll just have to cry all the way home. Number two. I’m having company tonight, a little kid I’m babysitting, and you better act appropriate around him. You picking up what I’m laying down?”

“No nudity, be nice to the human kid.”

“Right.”

“Is the child yours?”

“If he were mine, I’d be raising him, you can bet your money. He’s Hadley’s. She was my cousin, the daughter of my aunt Linda. She was the, ah, the girlfriend of Sophie-Anne. You know, the former queen? And she became a vampire, eventually. This little boy, Hunter, is the son Hadley had before all that happened to her. His dad’s bringing him by.” Was Claude related to Hadley? Yes, of course, and therefore to Hunter. I pointed that out.

“I like children,” Claude told me. “I’ll behave. And I’m sorry to have upset you.” He gave a stab at sounding contrite.