QUESTION 1: I understand that vampire fangs retract and expand, but there are references in the books that someone “flashed a bit of fang”. Do vampires have fangs visible all the time, or can they make their teeth look like normal human teeth?

The vampires in my universe have retractable fangs (like a snake). How’s that for sexy?

But it wouldn’t be a problem even if they didn’t. Any vamp worth his or her salt can mess with human heads well enough to blend in. They’d starve otherwise.

QUESTION 2: Why did you decide to portray Marlowe as straight, when most historical evidence points to him being gay? Don’t you realise your readers would enjoy a bit of man-love? Could he at least be bi-sexual in the books?

I never actually recall saying anything about Marlowe’s preferences, one way or the other. Since I deal with historical characters part of the time, I try to keep them as accurate to the historical record as possible. But on some questions, there’s just no reliable info. Like Mircea’s eye color. Did you know there’s no reference for it anywhere that I could find? I ended up going with brown, simply because it’s common in Romania, and because Radu and Vlad (who lived long enough to rate descriptions, I suppose) already had blue and green covered. But I could be wrong. We’ll probably never know for sure.

Likewise with Marlowe’s preferences. There’s no clear, unbiased evidence (in fact, there’s little verifiable info about a lot of his life–always the man of mystery). So it remains a fun topic for scholars to debate. But with people on both sides of the question, it’s hard to know who to believe. But if it makes you happy to think of him as bi, go for it. There’s nothing in the books to contradict you.

As far as man love is concerned, Radu would like to point out that, while he understands that his macho demeanor may have fooled you, he is actually quite progressive on that concept. Quite, quite, progressive. He would be even more progressive, but his boyfriend has stamina issues. After three or four hours, he’s bottomed out. So to speak.

QUESTION 3: If Cassie has visited a place, time or dimension already, can she easily shift there again without effort?

Come now. Has there ever been a “without effort” card in my universe? About anything? Where would be the fun in that? Or the drama. Or the resemblance to real life, which rarely works that way.

QUESTION 4: Has Marlowe’s relationship with The Consul ever been more than strictly business?

Lol. First you want him with dudes and now with…whatever she is these days. You guys need to make up your minds. Or not. After all, that’s what fan fic is for. You know, if it existed. Which it doesn’t.

QUESTION 5: Cassie’s mother is obviously one of the good guys, so her father presumably is too, yet he joined the Black Circle. It says at the end of Hunt the Moon that Artemis joined the Pythian Court as her power was almost exhausted and this was the only source left to her. Did her father hope to use the Black Circle’s power for Cassie’s mother?

Wow, and you guys were doing so well with the non-spoiler questions.

QUESTION 6: In one of the latest Q&A notes you said that Mircea speaks eight languages. Can you tell us what languages they are?

From his early education:
Spoke–Wallachian dialect of Romanian, German, some Turkish (not fluent)
Studied/read (when forced): Greek, Latin, Old Church Slavonic
From his years in Italy:
Italian, Venetian
From his years in France:
French, Spanish, English
From his years in China:
Mandarin