Eric and I drove to Vampire’s Kiss again. The parking lot was crowded, maybe not as much as it had been on our previous visit. We parked out back behind the club. If Victor was actually in the club that night, there’d be no reason for him to check out the employee parking lot, and there’d be no reason for him to remember which car was mine. While we waited, I got a text from Amelia telling me that they were back at the house, and how was I doing?

“Am ok,” I texted back. “We’re good. C & D there?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Sniffing porch, don’t know why. Fairies! Got ur keys?”

I told her I did, but that I wasn’t sure I’d be home that night. We were a little closer to Shreveport than Bon Temps, and I’d need to take Eric home unless he flew. But his car would be . . . Oh, well, that was why he always had a daytime guy.

“Did you replace Bobby yet?” I asked. I hated to bring up a sore subject, but I wanted to know.

“Yes,” Eric said. “I hired a man two days ago. He came highly recommended.”

“By whom?”

There was a silence. I looked over at my honeybun, instantly curious. For the life of me, I couldn’t see why that was a critical question.

“By Bubba,” Eric said.

I could feel the smile all over my face. “He’s back! Where’s he staying?”

“Right now, he’s staying with me,” Eric said. “When he asked after Bobby, I had to tell him what had happened. The next night Bubba brought me this person. He’s teachable, I suppose.”

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.”

“He’s a Were,” Eric said, and I instantly understood Eric’s attitude. The Weres and the vampires really don’t get along. You’d think that as the two largest supernatural groups they could form an alliance, but that doesn’t happen. They’re capable of cooperating on some mutually beneficial project for a short period of time, but after that they revert to distrust and dislike.

“Tell me about him,” I said. “Your assistant, that is.” We didn’t have anything else to do, and lately we hadn’t had much time for general conversation.

“He’s a black man,” Eric said, as if he were saying the new assistant had brown eyes. Eric could remember, vividly, the first black man he ever saw . . . centuries before. “He’s a lone wolf, unaffiliated. Alcide has already made overtures to him about joining the Long Tooth pack, but I don’t think he’s interested, and of course now that he’s taken the job with me, they won’t be so anxious to have him.”