“Yes, I was,” he said gracefully, pouring himself some coffee from the pot without asking me. “If there’s enough for me, too. This young man looks like he could eat a lot of pancakes.”

Hunter was delighted with this idea, and he and Claude began topping each other on the number of pancakes they could consume. I was surprised that Claude was so at ease with Hunter, though the fact that he was charming the child effortlessly was no surprise to me. Claude was a professional at charming.

“Do you live here in Bon Temps, Hunter?” Claude was asking.

“No,” said Hunter, laughing at the absurdity of such an idea. “I live with my daddy.”

Okay, that was enough sharing. I didn’t want anyone supernatural knowing about Hunter, understanding what made him special.

“Claude, would you get out the syrup and the molasses?” I said. “It’s in the pantry over there.”

Claude located the pantry and brought out the Log Cabin and the Brer Rabbit. He even opened both bottles so Hunter could smell them and pick which one he wanted on his pancakes. I got the pancakes on the griddle and made some more coffee, pulling some plates out of the cabinets and showing Hunter where the forks and knives were so he could set the table.

We were a strange little family grouping: two telepaths and a fairy. During our breakfast conversation, I had to keep each male from knowing what the other was, and that was a real challenge. Hunter told me silently that Claude must be a vampire, because he couldn’t hear Claude’s thoughts, and I had to tell Hunter that there were some other people we couldn’t hear, too. I pointed out that Claude couldn’t be a vampire because it was daytime, and vampires couldn’t come out in the daytime.

“There’s a vampire in the closet,” Hunter told Claude. “He can’t come out in the daytime.”

“Which closet would that be?” Claude asked Hunter.

“The one in my room. You want to come see?”

“Hunter,” I said, “the last thing any vampire wants is to be disturbed in the daytime. I’d leave him alone.”

“Your Eric?” Claude asked. He was excited by the idea of Eric being in the house. Damn.

“Yes,” I said. “You know better than to go in there, right? I mean, I don’t have to get tough with you, right?”

He smiled at me. “You, tough with me?” he said, mockingly. “Ha. I’m fae. I am stronger than any human.”

I started to say, “So how come I survived the war between the fae and so many fairies didn’t?” Thank God I didn’t. The minute after, I knew how good it was that I’d choked on those words, because I could see by Claude’s face that he remembered who’d died all too well. I missed Claudine, too, and I told him so.

“You’re sad,” Hunter said accurately. And he was picking up on all this, which shouldn’t be thought of in his hearing.