Dr. Kerr cuts me off. “Okay, thank you, Lydia. I’ll make a note of that. Now . . .” There’s a moment of silence and then he says, “Your mother . . .”

I realize that he is waiting for me to confirm that I am listening. “Yes, my mum,” I say.

“I am afraid that she has found adjusting to life here a little bit challenging.” Dr. Kerr’s tone of voice has changed. He is now speaking very softly.

“Right, okay?” I say.

“Her delusions have become more severe and, well.” Dr. Kerr clears his throat. “This might be a bit shocking for you to hear, Lydia, but she bit one of the nurses on the forearm yesterday.”

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

“No no, no no, please don’t worry about it,” Dr. Kerr says. “Things like this do just sometimes happen, sadly, with our patients with Alzheimer’s, or who suffer from some anxiety, so we are quite used to dealing with this sort of thing. Thankfully, she didn’t draw blood and left only some bruising. But, this is behavior that we would like to help her contain.”

“Right,” I say. “Of course.”

“Can I ask—your mother hasn’t had any violent tendencies since being diagnosed, has she?”

“No.”

“Okay. So, this is the first time,” Dr. Kerr says. It sounds like he is making notes.

“Yes.”

“Please stay on the line for a moment, Lydia. I’ll be back in a moment.” The phone beeps, and I let my head fall back against the wall. I close my eyes.

My mum was diagnosed with “probable Alzheimer’s” several years ago, but I don’t think she actually has Alzheimer’s. I don’t think a vampire could develop the disease. With my mum, it’s something psychological, a kind of midlife crisis: a forgetting of who she is and sometimes even of what she is. My mum had gum disease when she was fully human and, gradually, over the last couple of centuries, her teeth have, one by one, fallen out. The last tooth, a sharp and pointed molar, came out while she slept one night, when I was around twenty, and was there on her pillow in the morning—the last semblance of her demon body, she said, that God had pulled from her mouth, recognizing that she was no longer actively sinning. An achievement. She thanked God for removing this symbol of temptation from her body. But, with it, I think, went something else.