“And?”
He sighed and didn’t look at me. “And yes, I knew they were planning something, but since I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t tell Joseph. I knew he’d come down on Erica like a ton of bricks to get it out of her, and I just couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe it was anything as drastic as a change of regimes.”
“And what happened to Erica?”
“She was dead before I even knew about the coup.”
There was a depth of self-loathing in his voice.
“We have limitations,” I said. “We can’t get accurate readings of every thought in every brain every minute. You know people don’t think in whole sentences, like, ‘I’m going to the First National Bank today at ten o’clock, and when I get there, I’m getting in line at Judy Murello’s window. Then I’m pulling out my .357 Magnum and robbing the bank.’ ”
“I know that.” The storm in his head subsided a little bit. “But Joseph decided I didn’t tell him because of my relationship with Erica. Mr. Cataliades showed up out of nowhere. I don’t know why. Next thing I knew, I was leaving with him. I don’t know why he rescued me. Joseph made it pretty clear I would never work for vampires again; he was putting the word out.”
Yep, Mr. C had definitely not told Barry about their blood relationship. “You think Erica knew about Brady’s plan?”
“Yeah,” Barry said, sounding tired and sad. “I’m sure she knew enough to warn me, and she didn’t. I just never picked up the plan from her. I’m sure she was sorry she hadn’t told me, before she died. But she died, anyway.”
“Tough,” I said. Inadequate, but sincere.
“Speaking of tough, I hear your vamp’s going to get hitched to someone else.” Barry was all too quick to change the subject.
“It’s all over vampireland, I guess,” I said.
“Sure. Freyda is outstanding. Plenty of guys have been trying to get in line to get a piece of Freyda since it went around that she was looking for a consort. Power plus looks plus money, and plenty of room for expansion in Oklahoma. Casinos and oil wells. With an ass-kicker like Eric behind her, she’ll build an empire.”
“That’ll be just lovely,” I said, sounding as tired and sad as he had. Barry seemed much more plugged into the gossip in the vampire world than I’d ever been. Maybe I’d been “among but not of” more than I’d needed to be. Maybe there was more truth to Eric’s accusations about my prejudice against vampire culture than I’d believed. But vampires were users of humans, so I was mostly simply glad I’d never told Eric about my cousin Hadley’s son, Hunter.
“So, there’s another one of us?” Barry asked, and the question hit me hard. I was so damn used to being the only mind-reader around. In a second I was about an inch from his face, and my hand was gripping the front of his T-shirt.
“You say anything about Hunter to anyone, and I’ll bet you have a really bad visitor some night,” I said, meaning it with every atom in my body. My cousin Hunter was going to stay safe if I had to be the bad visitor myself. Hunter was only five, and I wasn’t having him kidnapped and trained to serve some vampire king or queen. It was hard enough to reach adulthood if you were telepathic. Having people wanting to snatch you for the advantage you could give them? That would be a million times worse.
“Hey, back off!” Barry said angrily. “I came here to help you, not to make things worse. Cataliades must know.”
“Just keep your mouth shut about Hunter,” I said, and stepped away. “You know what a difference that will make. I’m not worried about Mr. Cataliades telling anyone.”
“All right,” Barry said, relaxing a fraction. “You can be sure I’ll keep my mouth shut. I know how hard it is when you’re a kid. I swear I won’t tell.” He expelled a deep breath to let out all the agitation. I did, too.
“You know who I saw ten days ago in New Orleans?” Barry said, his voice so hushed I had to lean forward to hear. I raised my eyebrows to let him know to get on with it. Johan Glassport, he said silently, and I felt a shiver run down my spine.
Johan Glassport was a lawyer. I’ve known many nice people who were lawyers, so I’m not going to make a lawyer joke out of this; Johan Glassport was also a sadist and a murderer. Evidently, when you’re a brilliant lawyer, you can get away with a lot of stuff. He had. I’d last seen Glassport in Rhodes. I’d understood he’d gone to Mexico to hide out after the terrible explosion at the hotel. He’d been on television then, part of the bedraggled and injured cluster of survivors, and I had always thought he feared he might be recognized by someone. There had to be plenty of people who dreaded the sight of him. Did he see you? I asked.
“I don’t think so.” He was on a streetcar, and I was on the sidewalk.
“It’s never good to see Johan,” I muttered. “Why is he back in the States?”
“I hope we never find out. And I’ll tell you something strange. Glassport’s brain was opaque.”
“Did you tell Mr. Cataliades?” I said.
Yes. He didn’t say anything, though. But he looked grim. Grimmer than usual.
“I did see him,” Desmond Cataliades said, making one of his sudden appearances. “In fact, New Orleans has been full of unexpected creatures lately. But more about that later. Glassport told me he’d got business in Louisiana. He’d been hired by someone who had a great store of wealth. Someone who didn’t want to be seen by anyone. Glassport said he had been out of the country recruiting at this someone’s behest.”
“I wonder who?”
“Ordinarily, I could have told you,” the part-demon said. “But as Barry has said, Glassport has acquired some kind of protection charm, perhaps fae in origin. I can’t hear his thoughts.”
“I didn’t know you could buy such an item!” I was surprised. “Surely that’s a hard thing to create?”
“Humans aren’t capable of it. Only a few supernaturals.”
That was why we were all looking anxious and concerned when Amelia came out of the kitchen, hand in hand with Bob.
“Aw, that’s so sweet! But don’t worry about us,” she said, smiling. “Bob and I are happy as clams about the baby, now that we’ve gotten over the shock of it.” I was glad to see her happiness, and Bob’s, but I was also sorry I couldn’t pursue the conversation about Johan Glassport to its conclusion. It was bad news that he was anywhere in Louisiana.
Amelia’s smile began to falter when she didn’t get the reaction she’d expected.
“Amelia and Bob are having a baby!” I said, making myself beam at Mr. Cataliades. Of course, he already knew it.
“Yeah, I’m pregnant, Mr. C!” She recovered her excitement in telling the part-demon lawyer. Obligingly, he did his best to look startled and delighted.
“We’re going to raise the baby together. Wait until I tell my father! He’s gonna be so ticked because we’re not married,” Amelia said. She seemed a bit pleased at vexing her father, who ordered other people around all day, every day.
“Amelia,” I said, “Bob doesn’t have a real father left to share with this baby. This baby might enjoy having a grandfather.”
Amelia was totally taken aback. I hadn’t known I was going to say that until it popped out of my mouth. I waited to see if she’d be angry. I saw the flash of offense cross her mind, then a more mature thoughtfulness. “I’ll think about that,” she said, and that was certainly more than enough. “My dad’s changed a lot lately, for sure.” I could hear her thinking, And kind of inexplicably. I didn’t know what to make of that.
“Interesting that you said that, Amelia,” the demon lawyer said. “Let’s talk about why we’re here. There’s much I wanted to say on the drive up here, but not only was I busy trying to check to see if we were being followed, I didn’t want to have to repeat everything for Sookie.”