“Hello,” I said, and as she recognized my voice, as her expression began to change to one of shock, I said, “Invite me in.” At once, she stood aside and said, “Come in.” This was a bit of vampire theater. I knew it, and I was fairly sure she knew it, too. She had probably been brushing up on vampires recently. Of course, I didn’t need permission to enter her home or anyone else’s. I did find it interesting, though, that human beings made up these fantasy safeguards, little magics, like garlic and crucifixes, that would somehow keep them safe from my kind—or from what they imagined my kind to
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