“Do you not remem-bair Piere? I was raised from a pup on his tales of your fight with Isstvan.”
“Piere? You know Piere?”
“Do I know him? He is my uncle!”
“No kidding. Hey, Tananda! Did you hear that? Pepe here’s Piere’s nephew. Wait’ll we tell Gus.”
I retired from the conversation, apparently forgotten in the reunion.
“Say, Skeeve,” Vilhelm said, appearing at my side. “It looks like this could take a while. Should I break out the wine?”
That got my attention.
“Wine? You’ve got wine?”
“Stocked up on it after your last visit,” the vampire admitted with a grin. “Figured it might come in handy the next time you came through. I may gripe a bit, but talking to you and your friends is a lot more fun than watching the tubes.”
“Well bring it out . . . but I get the first glass. Unless you’ve got lots there won’t be much left after my partner there gets his claws on it.”
I turned back to the proceedings just in time to see Pepe kissing my apprentice’s hand.
“Do not be afraid, my little flow-air,” he was saying. “Here is one who truly appreciates your beauty, as well as … how should I say it, its quantity?”
“You’re kinda cute,” Massha giggled. “But I never did go in much for inter-species dating, if you get my drift.”
I caught Aahz’s attention and drew him away from the group.
“Could you take over for a while here, partner?” I said. “I’ve been running nonstop since the start of this thing and could use a little time by myself to recharge my batteries before we fire up again.”
“No problem,” he nodded, laying a hand on my shoulder. “I figure we won’t be moving before sunup . . . and Skeeve? I haven’t had a chance to say it, but thanks for the bail-out.”