Gabriel said, “He’s not called the Dark Lord because of his hereditary title, Mil. The Council sends him to deal with intractable problems and people have mysteriously vanished, their bodies never found.”

“I know. I heard that Ian was supposed to get rid of me.”

“That may not be true at all. Besides, he wouldn’t have done anything while you were at the ranch with us.”

“It’s a comfort knowing that one’s boyfriend/lover/whatever wouldn’t have disrespected your family by killing me on your property,” I said. “I could never care for someone who’s capable of terrible things.”

“Milagro, you’re capable of terrible things, but you don’t do them,” Gabriel said. “Are you sure you don’t feel something more for Ian?”

“I don’t know. My hormones always hijack my brain every time I’m around him,” I said. “Enough about me. How are things going with you and Charlie and your parents?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows and looked up, an expression that reminded me of his grandmother. “His mom and mine have bonded over the fact that we won’t produce grandchildren. We’re both feeling the burden of our kind’s crappy fertility rates.”

By “our kind” Gabriel meant vampires, who had such low birth rates that they used dating services to make matches that had better chances of bearing children.

I said, “Let’s go out to My Dive on Friday.”

My friend Mercedes owned the club where I spent many of my evenings. She was the only one who knew about my vampire associations and she’d become friends with the vamps.

“Wish I could club it with you,” Gabriel said. “But I’ve got to head to HQ for a confab. The Council’s riled up about an activist in England, Wilcox Spiggott, who’s trying to organize a movement for our kind to come out.”

“Wilcox Spiggott,” I said. “Wil-cox Spiggott.”

“I know—it’s so fun to say. Wil-cox. But the Council isn’t laughing, especially since he’s never gone to them for approval.”

“Shouldn’t someone be setting the groundwork for eventually coming out? Like sometime in the next century.”

“You’re still hopeful that we’ll be accepted despite all you’ve been through,” Gabriel said with a grin. “The Council is happy in their dark coffins, and I’m concerned that Spiggott might be a loose cannon.”

“It would be nice not to have to be careful all the time.”

“We’ll get there eventually, chica.”

When I went home, I got online and tried to find information on Wilcox Spiggott. The name came up only once in the UK. I cross-referenced the address and found dozens of businesses at the location, including something called Crimson Leasing Agents & Realty.

Vampires were wild about real estate. I wrote down the address and the phone number.