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not only raise, but successfully maintain a vampire army for the first time in history. And word went global.”
    “You must be a charismatic bastard,” Yuri droned, scrutinizing Bastien as though he were some peculiar new insect species.
    “He is,” Melanie said. Honestly she didn’t know why that would surprise any of them. “Charismatic, that is.”
    Richart turned narrowed eyes on Bastien. “I don’t see it.”
    Melanie rolled her own. “Well, if any of you had bothered to visit the vampires living at the network, you would. Spend any time at all talking with them and you’ll see just how much they respect Bastien and how much they like him.”
    “Dr. Lipton,” Bastien protested.
    “What?” she said. “It’s true. Even Vince liked and respected you and Vince was already descending into madness when he surrendered.”
    “You knew that?” Bastien asked.
    “Not at first. But now that I know the more subtle signs . . . yes. I can see that the brain damage the virus causes was progressing more rapidly in him.” She looked around the table. “Even when they’re succumbing to madness, what the vampires experience during lucid moments can alter their behavior. I interacted with Vincent daily. Spoke with him. Made him feel less like a vampire or lab subject and more like an ordinary guy. He liked me. He trusted me. And when those swift psychotic breaks would come upon him with no warning, he didn’t hurt me. He never hurt me. Anyone else who happened to be in the room . . .” She shrugged. “But not me. Because he trusted me.”
    Lisette pursed her lips. “I have noticed that the vampires who travel in groups no longer seem to prey upon each other as they have in previous centuries.”
    “The vampire king did,” Ami corrected. “I saw him tear into his followers with a machete.”
    Stanislov grimaced. “And Yuri, Bastien, and I all saw the mess he left behind.”
    Sarah wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Yes, but the vampire king was crazy as a bedbug. He wasn’t descending into madness. He was already there. I seriously doubt he gave a rat’s ass about his followers. If he considered them expendable when he was lucid . . .”
    Étienne shook his head. “Isn’t all of this moot? Even if we actually considered embarking upon this befriend the vampire plan, it would be impossible to implement. Vampires hate immortals. They would never listen to us if we attempted to converse with them and coax them into . . . I don’t know . . . joining forces with us. And, though they might have listened to Bastien the vampire leader, they certainly won’t listen to Bastien the Deceiver, as he is now known. They despise him as much as or more than they do us . Where does that leave us?”
    “They don’t have to like you to listen to you,” Tanner insisted. “Most of the vampires in Bastien’s army hated my ass.”
    “I find that hard to believe,” Lisette said with a glance at his ass and a flirtatious wink.
    Melanie grinned when Tanner seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment while he stared at the lovely French immortal.
    Étienne nudged him.
    “What? Oh.” Tanner smiled. “Right. Anyway, ah, the vampires in Bastien’s army hated me, but none of them ever tried to hurt me.”
    “They knew I would destroy them if they did,” Bastien said blandly.
    “That’s part of it,” Tanner acknowledged. “But I think it was also because we were on the same side, working against common enemies.”
    Melanie’s interest increased. This confirmed her own hypothesis about the vampires’ subconscious holding on to what they felt in lucid moments even when the madness directed their other actions.
    Richart shook his head. “Even if we could sway some of the vampires to our side and get them to warn the other vamps to beware of Emrys and stay away from his men, such would require us to let the vampires live and continue to prey upon humans. I don’t think any of us here can in good conscience allow