I have a little feeling Nicky is about to have an Awkward Conversation of one stripe or another.

So by the way, nifty side note: there’s a very good reason Theo is going O_O in panel 4. See, most of the time, those human governments that know about vampires very prudently stay the fuck out of their way. This is agreed to be best for everybody. They only intervene in undead affairs when something really Bad is happening — a publicity-garnering string of murder-exsanguinations, Powerz in Public — and the local vampire community is being unusually slow to handle it. Even then, the first warning shot over the bow is usually some discreet/indirect signal to the tune of “hey, you guys clean your shit up or we will clean both it and you.” (Theo would be the guy chosen to receive that message…so he has a vested interest.)

There are, however, a few other sorts of mishap that have historically brought out the black helicopters and the men in nondescript suits and mirrorshades with the nifty vampire-fumigating equipment; and one of those things is when some natural disaster strikes, or troops overseas are getting wounded, and suddenly there’s an unexpected blood shortage because vampires. (Have been sneaking off some of the supply, I mean.)

Nobody likes that. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Humans with top secret security clearances get awful persnickety when they hear about that.

So yeah, it’s a good thing Theo wasn’t drinking the sample yet when Ambie brought it up.