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“Here it comes,” Jason said.

“Jean-Claude deserves a woman who will honor him above all other men like a true wife would. Anita will never be faithful to him, never.”

“But she’s willing to marry Jason Schuyler.”

“She’ll cheat on him, too. She is incapable of being true to only one man.” Her carefully made-up eyes were a little wider, her breathing faster. “She is a whore, and whores know no loyalty.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?” the reporter asked, but he moved closer to her, as if encouraging what his words were discouraging.

“She has a string of lovers. Eleven that I know about. There are probably more.”

There was movement behind them, and vampire bouncers came out of the club. They went for the reporters and for Gretchen. The reporters backed up, but kept filming. They filmed as the vampires took Gretchen by the arms and started escorting her into the club. She screamed back over her shoulder, “I love Jean-Claude. I’ve always loved him. Anita doesn’t love him. She doesn’t love anyone but herself. She’s a whore, a…” Then they started having to bleep out what she was saying. The camera crew beat a hasty retreat, with the male reporter saying, “And that’s the scene here in St. Louis where the vampire community is shocked that their Master of the City has been dumped by his girl. Back to you, Candice.”

Jason hit the remote and made the TV go dead. I sat down on the bed with him. My gun was still in my hand, but it couldn’t help us against this. “Mother of God,” I said, “what the hell just happened?”

“Phyllis Dubois helped the rumors along a little, but she didn’t know that she should have helped you get a lower profile, Mr. Schuyler. I wanted to come and assure you that the governor had nothing to do with this, and did not approve this.”

Jason nodded. “I know he didn’t. He would never want me in the spotlight at the same time as his sons. I know that.”

I looked from one to the other of them, with that feeling that I was missing something.

Chuck looked at me; his eyes glanced at the gun in my hand. “You always answer the door with a gun in your hand?”

“Most of the time, yeah,” I said.

He almost smiled. “The governor sent me to tell you that anything you need to help with this mess, you have it.”

“Can we just deny it?” I asked.

They both gave me a withering look, as if I’d said something incredibly stupid. “We can,” Jason said, “but how? How do we deny it, and make it stick?” He looked at Chuck. “What did the press agent do to get things this bad, this fast?”

“She mentioned the surprise marriage thing.”

“Why did she do it?” Jason asked.

Chuck looked uncomfortable. “I’m not at liberty to tell you.”

Jason stood up. “Not at liberty to tell me? You have no idea what you have just done. Jean-Claude isn’t just my boss, he’s my master. I’m his blood whore. He is not going to be happy about this.”

In my head I thought, He’s going to have to punish Gretchen for what she said. The last time they put her in a cross-wrapped coffin, she’d come out crazier. If she went much crazier she wouldn’t be safe out in public. In the old days before vamps were legal citizens he would simply have killed her, probably. A lot of masters would have anyway, but if she vanished now the police would ask questions. Shit.

“What can we do?” I asked everyone and no one.

“You need to leave now, Chuck,” Jason said. “Anita and I need to talk.”

“The governor wants to offer his help.”

“Just go, give us your cell phone if you want, but we need to talk in private.”

He looked at Jason, then at me. I was no help to him. I said, “You heard the man, get out.”

“If you want to wait in the hall you can, but we need some privacy,” Jason said.

Chuck scribbled a number on the back of a business card. “I’ll go to the hotel bar; call when you’re done discussing it.”

Jason took the card without really looking at it. I motioned at the door with the gun. “Get out, Chuck.”

He went. Jason locked the door behind him. He came to stand by me at the foot of the bed. “We’ve