She ducked her head shyly, and Wil said, “The shaman says that normals can take months to recover. I was different because I’m a vampire. Was a vampire. But Nettie will be as right as rain in a few more weeks. Meanwhile, I get to chat without interruption.”

Nettie slapped Wil’s chest, and he said, “Oh, cutie, you know what I like.”

I noticed that my friend was a slightly darker shade of greenish. “Wil, you’ve got a tan! How’s the surfing?”

“Kick-ass, great barrels on the flip side of the island, draw you in, spit you out. I’ve been teaching Matthews a few basics.”

“So you guys are getting along?”

“Yeah, now that he’s loosened up. He’s a changed man. Well, we all are,” Wil said. “I’ll take you to your hotel.”

He helped load our things into a jeep and drove us up a narrow road to a neglected but still grand white hotel among the palm trees.

When we entered the empty terra-cotta tiled lobby, Wil said, “The shaman said that the Poindexters should stay in the village. The tribe is caring for them.”

Wil suggested that we all go to the lounge for a drink. We went into a magnificent old bar with mostly bare shelves. Only a few other people were here, greenish hued and relaxed as they raised their glasses toward us and smiled as a greeting. A few were people who had “disappeared” when Ian was sent to solve an intractable problem.

Ian waved toward them and said to me, “We keep things simple here, darling. I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s lovely,” I said. “It reminds me of a campus that’s been emptied out for the summer.”

Wil went behind the bar and pulled out a plate of sliced mangos and a pitcher of sangria, and Nellie got glasses for us. Wil said, “The local zombies are friendly, but they’re basically nocturnal. Been there, done that—now I want to spend all my time in the sun.”

When we were seated, I said, “How are the Poindexters adjusting?”

“Good.” The surfer grinned. “Anger and aggression, greed, all those things vanish when you change over. I don’t know if it’s seeing death, or because we’re more like plants than people.” He looked at Nettie and took her hand.

“We’re happy,” she said softly, gazing at Wil.

“Everyone should consider becoming a zombie,” he said.

I shook my head. “Weren’t you the one who was talking big ideas about a progressive vampire movement?”

“I was more interested in getting in your knickers,” he said. “You were the one who made the charts and action plan.”

“I thought I was helping. I’ve come to see that maybe it’s better to understand a situation before jumping right in to change things.”

Ian began laughing, stopped himself, and said, “Sorry, darling.”