clothes were his very personal style. This vampire, with his short black hair and run-of-the-mill clothes, looked like someone had looked down a cast list and said, one generic vampire needed. It was boring compared to what I was used to, but I put a smile on my face. I knew how to smile at clients even when I didn’t want to, and this vampire was from the local Master of the City. I could play nice.
I glanced at Nathaniel and found him smiling brilliantly at the vampire. He had his charming game face on. Whatever he was feeling, he put it off his face and down where it didn’t show.
‘Ms Blake, I presume,’ said the vampire, in a voice as bland and unimpressive as his clothes.
I fought the urge to say, Well, I’m not Dr Livingston, but managed to keep the smart-aleck remark to myself. ‘Yes, and Mr Graison.’
The vampire looked surprised. ‘I’m sorry, our usual protocols don’t demand that I acknowledge a pomme de sang or an animal to call.’
Pomme de sang was a term for the person a vampire took blood with regularly, but it was more than that, almost a mistress, though often the relationship was only about sharing blood and not about sex. Nathaniel had started out as that for me, but that had been a few years ago. He was my leopard to call, but … ‘He’s our third; that means he’s more than just food, or a pet.’
‘I’m not familiar with the term third, Ms Blake.’
‘The third part of our couple,’ I said.
‘But we are given to understand that there are a great deal more than just three parts to your romantic life, Ms Blake.’
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, except, ‘Just because I’m not monogamous doesn’t mean those closest to me aren’t important to me. Think of Nathaniel and Micah as my spouses.’
He gave a little bow from the neck. ‘My apologies, I did not realize you took your lovers so seriously, except for your master, of course.’
‘It would be a mistake to assume my priorities by normal vampire protocol,’ I said.
‘I’ve angered you,’ he said.
‘It’s okay, Anita,’ Nathaniel said.
I shook my head. ‘No, it’s not.’
‘So, you’re saying this is personal business for you,’ the vampire said.
‘You know it is,’ I said.
‘But yet you are wearing your weapons,’ he said.
‘I rarely go anywhere unarmed.’ I let go of Nathaniel’s hand so I could stand facing the vampire more head-on. He’d let me know my concealed carry wasn’t concealed from his vampire eyes. Or maybe he’d been guessing and I’d confirmed it for him. Shit, I so didn’t want to play my-balls-are-bigger-than-yours while trying to support the men in my life. Had I started this game of mine’s-bigger-than-yours? Maybe; I hadn’t meant to.
‘What’s your name?’ I asked.
‘I am Alfredo.’
‘Great, okay, Alfie.’
‘How did you know my master calls me Alfie?’
I’d actually just used the nickname to irritate him and throw him off his game. The fact that I’d accidentally used his real nickname just made it better. I smiled knowingly. ‘Look, I appreciate you coming to the airport to meet us. I appreciate Fredrico behaving like a civilized master vampire, but I’m honestly here to support my boyfriend and meet his family. I don’t want, or feel the need, to play who’s the biggest and the scariest, okay?’
Alfie looked at me, eyes narrowed. ‘I have not …’
‘Look, just stop, okay? I’ll stop, if you will. You had to make a point of letting me know you’d spotted my weapons. I made a point of knowing your nickname, but I’m not going to have time or energy to play games like this, so let’s just behave like normal people. Thanks for coming to pick us up. I didn’t realize Micah’s cousin was going to be coming, too.’
‘Normal people?’ The vampire laughed, a short, abrupt, very human laugh. I put his age at under fifty years. If I’d wanted to let my necromancy out of the box, I could have told his age within a year or two, five at the outside, but if I trotted any of my metaphysical abilities out like that, he could take it as an insult. ‘Normal people do not have bodyguards. Normal people would not be given royal treatment by my master. You cannot be normal, Anita Blake; you are the Executioner, and now you are the American queen to our new king, Jean-Claude. You are a necromancer and I don’t know what else; the list of your