“You’ve certainly gotten to see the bad part of the American experience today. Sorry about that.”

“No, no,” she said again. “The demonstrations in the Netherlands were just as bad.” Polite. “I am glad to be here. Glad to meet Quinn. There are not so many tigers left, you know?”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” I said. I looked from her to Quinn. “I know you’ll learn a lot while you’re here, Tij. I hope the rest of your stay in America is better than today.”

“Oh, sure, it will be!” she said blithely. “Here we are at a party, and I am meeting many interesting people. And the praying at the church, that was very interesting, too.”

I smiled in agreement—“interesting” was one word for it. “So, Quinn,” I asked, since we were being very polite in front of Tij, “How’s your mom?”

“She’s doing all right,” he said. “And my sister’s gone back to school. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but she seems a little more serious about it this time.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said.

“How’s Eric?” Quinn was really making an effort. Tij looked mildly inquiring.

“Eric is my boyfriend,” I explained to her. “He’s a vampire.” I automatically looked out at the backyard to gauge how much sunlight was left. Eric wouldn’t be up for another hour. “He’s fine, Quinn.”

Tij seemed intrigued, but Quinn took her arm and steered her away. “We’ll talk later,” he said.

“Sure.” They fell into conversation with Togo. The three looked like trees among regular people.

Deidra and Craig had already made a round of handshaking, thanking the people who’d come to save their lives and their wedding. Then the newlyweds changed and slipped away on their honeymoon, which was the most sensible thing in the world for them to do. Quinn and Tijgerin walked them out to Craig’s car, and when they came back inside, Quinn tracked me down in the kitchen, where I was mining Bernie’s pantry for some more garbage bags.

Quinn looked very serious. We were alone in the kitchen, which was pretty amazing.

“Hey,” he said, and leaned against the counter. I pulled a bag from the cardboard box and shook it out. Then I pulled the crammed bag from the kitchen garbage can and cinched it shut.

“It’s been a long day, huh? What did you want to talk about?” Might as well get right to it. I stuck the full bag by the back door and inserted the new one.

“The last time I saw you, Bill and I got stupid and you got hurt,” Quinn said. “Eric ordered me out of Area Five, and I had to go. I don’t know if you realized that E(E)E and Special Events are mostly vampire owned?”