“I’m not sure what you mean by if your approval matters. You matter, and compliments are always welcome.”

He smiled. “Good.” He walked toward me and looked behind me. “I take it that it’s Jean-Claude I hear in the bathroom.”

I couldn’t hear a thing from the bathroom, but I bowed to his superior vampire hearing and said, “Yeah, he’ll be joining us in a minute. Wait. How did you know it wasn’t Nathaniel?”

“He hugged me in the hallway and said he’d be there as soon as he changed from work.”

“There are going to be a lot of disappointed fans at Guilty Pleasures when they learn that he’s not going onstage again tonight,” I said, smiling.

“I’m sorry he had to cut his act short just for me,” Damian said, not smiling.

“Nathaniel is thrilled that we’re going to work on our triumvirate for a change.”

“He seemed happy about it.”

“He is happy about it.”

“But are you?” he asked.

“Happy about it?” I asked. “Your girlfriend almost attacked me when I hadn’t done more than shake your hand. I’m a little worried about her reaction tomorrow night.”

“That’s completely fair,” he said.

“You look like you’re about to bolt back out the door, Damian.”

He came to me then, looking uncertain. “We’re going to be sleeping together tonight, and we’ve been lovers, so why is this awkward?”

“Maybe because we were lovers, but now we’re not and we’re just sleeping together tonight and nothing else.”

He smiled, a little sad around the edges. “I’d be willing to do more, but I know that it wouldn’t be fair to you, or Cardinale, or maybe even to me.”

“If you want a clean break from Cardinale, then do that, but I won’t be the excuse for the big blowout fight. That’s on you and her, not me.”

“I said it wouldn’t be fair to anyone.”

“You did. I guess I’m just beating the point home.”

“I appreciate you and Jean-Claude letting me sleep with you tonight. You are both good masters and try to take care of your people.”

“Thanks. We do our best.”

We stood there, close enough to touch, but not touching, and it was those last few empty inches that screamed awkwardness. The bathroom door opened behind us; Damian looked up, but I kept looking at him. Jean-Claude said, “Have you greeted each other at all?”

I turned and looked at him then. “We said hello.”

“I know you do not kiss hello, but hugging must be allowed even by Cardinale.”

“I think we’ve missed the window for hugging,” I said, frowning at him.

“Do not frown at me, ma petite. It is you who is being silly. You have a Viking warrior in front of you, as striking and beautiful a man as Cardinale is a woman, and yet you refuse to touch him. Even friends touch more than the two of you.” He strode farther into the room dressed in his own comfort robe, but it wasn’t threadbare; it was as beautiful as all his other favorite clothes. The robe was black with more thick black fur at the lapels and sleeves. I knew the fur was even softer and more luxurious than it looked. I loved the way it framed a triangle of his chest, making it look even whiter and more perfect than it was. He’d tied the robe loosely so that it showed more of his chest, enough so the cross-shaped burn scar on his chest showed faint and darker against his skin. Some human had shoved a cross into him in a bid to survive, but I knew that long-ago person had failed. I had a cross-shaped burn scar on one arm; a vampire’s human servant had branded me with it, thought it was funny that it would make me look like holy items burned me like a vampire. I’d killed him, before his master could kill me. Jean-Claude and I had done the same thing for the same reason: If something hurts you and tries to kill you, you fight back. If something tries to kill you, you try to kill it first. Sometimes life comes down to very simple rules.

I looked up at Jean-Claude as he stood there motioning at Damian. I looked up into those green eyes and that face that was more perfect now than when I’d met him, because something about becoming my servant had literally changed his bone structure so he was an even more perfect, more handsome, more sexy vamp than he’d been before. I hadn’t done it consciously, but I had changed things about Damian that had been true for a thousand years, and yet I was nervous about giving him a hug. It was ridiculous when you thought about it.

I stepped forward and put my arms around his waist, feeling the harsher rub of the old velvet. Real velvet isn’t like the modern version; it’s not soft and squishy, more soft but rougher, but Damian was real and solid as I hugged him, and that was the point.

He hesitated a second, then put his arms around me. He seemed to like the way the silk slid under his hands. He looked down at me and smiled. “Greetings, my master.”

“Hey, Damian.”

We smiled at each other and hugged for real, then broke apart.

Jean-Claude threw his hands up at us. “You are exasperating, both of you, and where is our cat? We must to bed before dawn decides things for us.”

He was right. I could feel the press of it in the air even deep underground where we were. It wasn’t as easy to feel the pull of it, but sensing sunrise and sunset seemed to be a natural ability for most animators and necromancers. I’d fought many a night with dawn my only hope of surviving, and I’d had days when sunset meant the monsters would rise and eat me.