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choked when a tray slammed down on the bar an inch from my left arm.
    “Axel, my man, gimme an appletini, two piña coladas, and a pink squirrel for table five,” said the new waiter.
    “Pink squirrel.” Axel wrinkled his nose and moved down the bar.
    “Hi,” the zombie greeted me, grinning. “I’m T.J.”
    “You know, I would’ve guessed that.”
    “You would?”
    I nodded at his right hand, resting on the bar. A gold ring, emblazoned with a T and a J in blocky letters, gleamed on his finger.
    “Oh, right.” He grinned again.
    “I’m Vicky.” I put out my hand. T.J. shook it vigorously, the thick gold ring cutting into my palm.
    “Great to meet you, Vicky,” he said, as Axel placed glasses on his tray. T.J. picked up the drink-laden tray and rushed to table five.
    “Enthusiastic,” I noted.
    Axel grunted. Wow, he must really be impressed. Good. I hoped T.J. would work out. Axel could use the help, and with T.J.’s friendliness, some of the customers who’d rather run out of the place screaming than approach Axel might stay long enough to order a second round.
    Axel pointed his chin past my shoulder. “Here comes your roommate.”
    I swiveled on my stool to see a petite, curvaceous vampire slink through the crowd toward the bar. She wore a skintight black minidress and thigh-high stiletto boots. Customers stood aside to let her through, and she left a trail of men with their tongues hanging out. Nobody does, or over does, “hot vampire chick” like Juliet.
    She flipped back her long black hair and slid onto the stool beside me. “Don’t tell me you’re alone again,” she said.
    I looked around, as if checking. “Nope. You’re here, too.”
    “So’m I.” Coming up behind Juliet—or maybe staggering was a better description—was a norm who’d followed her through the crowd. His skin was pasty; purple half-moons shadowed his eyes. He wore a double-breasted suit, his tie was loose, and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. Blood stained his collar. “Hey, pretty lady,” he said to Juliet.
    Vampire junkie. Addicted to the mild narcotic in vampire saliva, a guy like this would bug vampires to feed from him until he passed out. He looked like he was already a couple of pints short.
    “Not interested,” said Juliet.
    “Aw, c’mon,” he breathed, leaning in close. Even from where I sat, I could smell the sourness of his breath.
    Bam! Down came T.J.’s tray. “ ’ Scuse me, sir,” he said in his friendly voice. “We need to keep this part of the bar clear.” He picked up the junkie as easily as he’d have lifted a kitten and carried him to an empty seat on the other side of the room.
    The junkie looked stunned, but he stayed put. T.J. zipped back to the bar, winked at Juliet, and grabbed his tray.
    “Axel’s new waiter is pretty good,” I noted.
    “You haven’t met him before?”
    “I haven’t been here for a few days.”
    “He’s already a favorite with the vampires. Mostly because he’s good at dealing with idiot blood bags.” She jerked her head back toward the junkie.
    Axel set Juliet’s usual drink in front of her. She always ordered a Bloody Mary, because she liked to mess with norms’ heads, telling them it was made with real blood. Like all vampires, she could eat and drink anything she wanted, but she could only get nourishment from living human blood. She stirred her drink with the celery stalk.
    “So why are you here alone?” she asked. “Where’s that scrumptious-looking human cop? I thought you said you were dating him.”
    “No, I said we were going out to dinner.” Dating wasn’t a word that had much to do with my life—and it was definitely a word I didn’t want to think about right now. “Besides, Daniel works norm hours. Meeting me for a drink at five in the morning doesn’t fit his schedule.”
    Juliet smiled, the tips of her fangs resting on her bottom lip. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
    Uh-oh. That sounded like