“That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me,” I told him, choking up just a little.

“Don’t cry!” He waved his hands in front of him as if to ward off my tears.

I swallowed hard. “So, do you have a plan about Victor?” I used Eric’s shirttail to dab at my eyes.

Eric looked grim. Well, grimmer. “Every time I make one, I run up against an obstacle so large I have to discard the plan. Victor is very good at self-protection. I may have to openly attack him. If I kill him, if I win, then I’ll have to stand trial.”

I shivered. “Eric, if you fought with Victor alone, bare-handed, in an empty room, what do you think the outcome would be?”

“He’s very good,” Eric said. And that was all he said.

“He might win?” I said, testing the idea out loud.

“Yes,” Eric said. He met my eyes. “And what would happen to you and Pam afterward . . .”

“I’m not trying to bypass the fact that you would be dead, which would be the most important thing to me in that scenario,” I said. “But I’m wondering why he would be so sure to hurt Pam and me afterward. What would be the point?”

“The point would be the lesson he’d be making to other vampires who might be thinking of trying to overthrow him.” Eric’s eyes focused on the mantelpiece, crowded with Stackhouse family pictures. He didn’t want to look into my face when he said what he was going to tell me next. “Heidi told me that two years ago, when Victor was still a sheriff in Nevada, in Reno . . . a new vampire named Chico talked back to him. Chico’s father was dead, but his mother was still living, and in fact had married again and had other children. Victor had her abducted. To correct Chico’s manners, he cut out the mother’s tongue while Chico watched. He made Chico eat it.”

There was so much disturbing about that, that I had a hard time thinking it through. “Vampires can’t eat,” I said. “What . . . ?”

“Chico was violently ill, and in fact threw up blood,” Eric said. He still didn’t meet my eyes. “He became too weak to move. While he lay on the floor, his mother bled to death. He couldn’t crawl to her to give her blood to save her.”

“Heidi volunteered this story?”

“Yes. I had asked her why she was so pleased she’d been sent to Area Five.”