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“Not exactly . . . hmmm.” Amelia looked at the building, her head tilted sideways.

“It needs to slant more,” I said, and she nodded.

“You’re right. It’s like they wanted to have a pyramid, but they didn’t really need enough floors to make it look right. The angle’s not steep enough to make it look really grand.”

“And it’s sitting on a big rectangle.”

“That, too. I expect those are the convention rooms.”

“No parking,” I said, peering at the screen.

“Oh, that’ll be below the building. They can build ’em that way up there.”

“It’s on the lakefront,” I said. “Hey, I get to see Lake Michigan. See, there’s just a little park between the hotel and the lake.”

“And about six lanes of traffic,” Amelia pointed out.

“Okay, that, too.”

“But it’s close to major shopping,” Amelia said.

“It’s got an all-human floor,” I read. “I’ll bet that’s this floor, the one that’s lighter. I thought that was just the design, but it’s so humans can go somewhere to have light during the day. People need that for their well-being.”

“Translation: it’s a law,” Amelia said. “What else is there? Meeting rooms, blah blah blah. Opaque glass throughout except for the human floor. Exquisitely decorated suites on the highest levels, blah blah blah. Staff thoroughly trained in vampires’ needs. Does that mean they’re all willing to be blood donors or fuck buddies?”

Amelia was so cynical. But now that I knew who her father was, that kind of made sense.

“I’d like to see the very top room, the tip of the pyramid,” I said.

“Can’t. It says here that that’s not a real guest floor. It’s actually where all the air conditioner stuff is.”

“Well, hell. Time to go,” I said, glancing at my watch.

“Oh, yeah.” Amelia stared gloomily at the screen.

“I’ll only be gone a week,” I said. Amelia was definitely a person who didn’t like to be by herself. We went downstairs and carried my bags to the car.

“I got the hotel number to call in case of emergency. I got your cell phone number, too. You pack your charger?” She maneuvered down the long gravel driveway and out onto Hummingbird Road. We’d go right around Bon Temps to get to the interstate.

“Yeah.” And my toothbrush and toothpaste, my razor, my deodorant, my hair dryer (just in case), my makeup, all my new clothes and some extras, lots of shoes, a sleeping outfit, Amelia’s traveling alarm clock, underwear, a little jewelry, an extra purse, and two paperbacks. “Thanks for loaning me the suitcase.” Amelia had contributed her bright red roller bag and a matching garment bag, plus a carry-on I’d crammed with a book, a crossword puzzle compendium, a portable CD player, and a headset, plus a small CD case.

We didn’t talk much on the drive. I was thinking how strange it was going to be, leaving Amelia alone in my family home. There had been Stackhouses in residence on the site for over a hundred and seventy years.

Our sporadic conversation died by the time we neared the airport. There didn’t seem to be anything else to be said. We were right by the main Shreveport terminal, but we were going to a small private hangar. If Eric hadn’t booked an Anubis charter plane weeks ago, he would’ve been up a creek, because the summit was definitely taxing Anubis’s capabilities. All the states involved were sending delegations, and a big hunk of Middle America, from the Gulf to the Canadian border, was included in the American Central division.

A few months ago, Louisiana would have needed two planes. Now one would suffice, especially since a few of the party had gone ahead. I’d read the list of missing vampires after the meeting at Fangtasia, and to my regret, Melanie and Chester had been on it. I’d met them at the queen’s New Orleans headquarters, and though we hadn’t had time to become bosom buddies or anything, they’d seemed like good vamps.

There was a guard at the gate in the fence enclosing the hangar, and he checked my driver’s license and Amelia’s before he let us in. He was a regular human off-duty cop, but he seemed competent and alert. “Turn to the right, and there’s parking by the