Okay. “Eric and I want to know why you warned us,” I said to Colton. And I wanted to know why I’d thought about him when Eric had told me the story of Chico and his mother.

“I heard about you,” he said. “Heidi told me.”

“You and Heidi are friends?” Eric was intent on Colton, but he spared one of his best smiles for Audrina.

“Yeah,” Colton said. “I worked for Felipe at a club in Reno. I knew Heidi from there.”

“You moved from Reno to take a low-paying job in Louisiana?” That didn’t make any sense.

“Audrina was from here, and she wanted to try living here again,” Colton explained. “Her grandma lives in the trailer down the road, and she’s pretty frail. Audrina works at Vic’s Redneck Roadhouse during the day as a bookkeeper. I work at night at Vampire’s Kiss. And the cost of living is a lot cheaper here. But you’re right, there’s more to the story.” He glanced at his girlfriend.

“We came for a reason,” Audrina said. “Colton is Chico’s brother.”

Eric and I both took a second to work that out. “So it was your mom,” I said to the young man. “I’m so sorry.” Though I hadn’t heard any more of the story, the name had been enough to snag in my brain.

“Yeah, it was my mom,” Colton said. He gave us an entirely blank stare. “My brother Chico is an asshole who didn’t think twice about becoming a vampire. He gave up his life like some lesser asshole would get a tattoo. ‘It’s cool, let’s do it!’ And then he kept on being an asshole, talking shit to Victor, not understanding. Not getting it.” Colton put his head in his hands and shook it from side to side. “Until that night. Then he got it. But our mom was dead. And Chico wishes he was, but he won’t ever be.”

“And how come Victor doesn’t know who you are, know to be leery of you?”

“Chico had a different dad, so he had a different last name,” Audrina said, to give Colton time to recover. “And Chico wasn’t a family type guy. He hadn’t lived at home for ten years. He only called his mom once every couple of months, never went to see them. But that was enough to give Victor the bright idea of reminding Chico he hadn’t signed a contract with the California Angels.”

“More like Hell’s Angels,” Colton said, straightening.

If the comparison bothered Eric, he didn’t let on. I was sure it wasn’t the worst he’d heard. “So thanks to Victor’s employee,” Eric began, “you knew about my Sookie. And you knew how to warn her when Victor was going to poison us.”

Colton looked angry. Shouldn’t have, he thought.