Dead to the World

direction. But Alcide said, “What do you think has happened?”
    “We got a note,” Gerald said, one of the few times I’d ever heard him speak out loud. He had a faint English accent. “The note said that the witches plan to drain one of our vampires for each day they have to search for Eric.”
    All eyes went to Eric, who looked stunned. “But why?” he asked. “I can’t understand what makes me such a prize.”
    One of the Were girls, a tan blonde in her late twenties, took silent issue with that. She rolled her eyes toward me, and I could only grin back. But no matter how good Eric looked, and what ideas interested parties might have about the fun to be had with him in bed (and on top of that, the control he had over various vampire enterprises in Shreveport), this single-minded pursuit of Eric rang the “Excessive” alarm. Even if Hallow had sex with Eric, and then drained him dry and consumed all his blood—Wait, there was an idea.
    “How much blood can be got from one of you?” I asked Pam.
    She stared at me, as close to surprised as I’d ever seen her. “Let me see,” she said. She stared into space, and her fingers wiggled. It looked like Pam was translating from one unit of measurement to another. “Six quarts,” she said at last.
    “And how much blood do they sell in those little vials?”
    “That’s . . .” She did some more figuring. “Well, that would be less than a fourth of a cup.” She anticipated where I was heading. “So Eric contains over ninety-six salable units of blood.”
    “How much you reckon they could charge for that?”
    “Well, on the street, the price has reached $225 for regular vampire blood,” Pam said, her eyes as cold as winter frost. “For Eric’s blood . . . He is so old. . . .”
    “Maybe $425 a vial?”
    “Conservatively.”
    “So, on the hoof, Eric’s worth . . .”
    “Over forty thousand dollars.”
    The whole crowd stared at Eric with heightened interest—except for Pam and Gerald, who along with Eric had resumed their contemplation of Claudine. They appeared to have inched closer to the fairy.
    “So, do you think that’s enough motivation?” I asked. “Eric spurned her. She wants him, she wants his stuff, and she wants to sell his blood.”
    “That’s a lot of motivation,” agreed a Were woman, a pretty brunette in her late forties.
    “Plus, Hallow’s nuts,” Claudine said cheerfully.
    I didn’t think the fairy had stopped smiling since she’d appeared in my car. “How do you know that, Claudine?” I asked.
    “I’ve been to her headquarters,” she said.
    We all regarded her in silence for a long moment, but not as raptly as the three vampires did.
    “Claudine, have you gone over?” Colonel Flood asked. He sounded more tired than anything else.
    “James,” Claudine said. “Shame on you! She thought I was an area witch.”
    Maybe I wasn’t the only one who was thinking that such overflowing cheer was a little weird. Most of the fifteen or so Weres in the bar didn’t seem too comfortable around the fairy. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble if you’d told us that earlier than tonight, Claudine,” the colonel said, his tone frosty.
    “A real fairy,” Gerald said. “I’ve only had one before.”
    “They’re hard to catch,” Pam said, her voice dreamy. She edged a little closer.
    Even Eric had lost his blank and frustrated mien and took a step toward Claudine. The three vamps looked like chocaholics at the Hershey factory.
    “Now, now,” Claudine said, a little anxiously. “Anything with fangs, take a step back!”
    Pam looked a bit embarrassed, and she tried to relax. Gerald subsided unwillingly. Eric kept creeping forward.
    Neither of the vampires nor any of the Weres looked willing to take Eric on. I mentally girded my loins. After all, Claudine had awakened me before I could crash my car.
    “Eric,” I said, taking three quick steps to stand between Eric and the fairy. “Snap out of it!”
    “What?” Eric paid no more attention to me than he would to a fly buzzing around his head.
    “She’s off limits, Eric,” I said, and Eric’s eyes did flicker down to my face.
    “Hi, remember me?” I put my hand on his chest to slow him down. “I don’t know why you’re in such a lather, fella, but you need to hold your horses.”
    “I want her,” Eric said, his blue eyes blazing down into mine.
    “Well, she’s gorgeous,” I said, striving for reasonable, though actually I was a little hurt.