Difficult, hearing Armand invoked. Pressure upon bruising, pain that comes from within the body.

Louis is here partly because of Armand. What Armand neatly snipped out of his mind. (What Louis willingly discarded, perhaps.) They shared a life for seventy-seven years. Louis chose him. Louis had believed him, when he had said Yes in answer to that fateful question.

Daniel is smiling. Daniel laughed, and Louis likes hearing him laugh very much. He lets these things offset the spiraling cascade of thoughts in his head, circuitous and guilt-drenched and angry, and draw him back.

"I could make a list," is only a stop on the way to: "Are they still hoping to rope you in?"

Or is it disqualifying, the vampirism?