“They’re from the Brotherhood,” I said, my frustration at the situation making me snappish. “This is my friend Magda. She was with me in Iceland. She knows all about the vampires and you people.”

“Then she must know how vital it is that you use your abilities for good, not evil,” Janice started to say, but my temper was becoming more and more frayed. If it wasn’t the vamps wanting me for one thing, it was the reapers wanting me to do their dirty work. I rubbed my temples, irritated at being caught in the middle of a war that was not of my own doing. “You cannot turn your back on humanity now, not when we are in such a strong position, not when we have the opportunity to eradicate the vampires once and for-”

“Just how many vampires have you met?” I shouted, startling Janice into silence.

Magda blinked at me. “Pia, I doubt if yelling at the poor woman-”

“Well, I don’t doubt.” I turned from Magda to Janice and pinned her back with a look that should have scared her to her toenails. “How many?”

“I . . . We . . .” Janice shot a worried look at her husband, who took her hand and answered for her.

“We haven’t actually met any vampires, but we don’t need to be on a friendly basis with evil to recognize it.”

“Evil, schmevil!” I stormed, my hands waving around as I stomped toward them. I realized I was being rude, but I’d had as much as I could take.

To my secret enjoyment, they backed up. Magda gave me a tolerant smile as she told the couple, “The vamps really aren’t that bad, you know. Some of them are very nice, in fact. I think they’ve probably just gotten a bad rap over the years because of the fact that they’re kind of intense. Nice, but intense. And sexy as hell.”

“Nice!” Janice choked on the word.

“Yes, nice. They’re no more evil than you are,” I said, trying to calm myself down. “No, I take that back-they’re a whole lot less evil than you, because they don’t blindly follow some dogma that requires them to hate an entire group of people based solely on their origins. Honestly, at times I think the Brotherhood is no better than the Nazis! How dare you tell me that vampires are evil when you haven’t even bothered to meet one!”