Jaime Lannister, when he walks into the bar where we're meeting, could be any high-powered businessman off the street, in for a late drink with a colleague, except for the deep, enticing black of his eyes. He pauses a moment by the door, then walks through as easily as any sighted person, joining me at the bar. His gray suit and the barest flecks of gray in his blonde hair make him look distinguished, but the faint scars around his eyes do as much to make him look dangerous as the eyes themselves.

After being blinded in April of last year, he resigned as CFO of his family's company, Lannister Innovative Technologies, and withdrew from the public eye to recover. In March, he resurfaced as a new vampire, when he famously spent his first night tearing through New York City, smelling people. In June, he agreed to sit down with me, looking better than ever -- and apparently feeling it too. The Lannister charisma is famous; Jaime's twin sister, First Lady Cersei Lannister, is widely credited with securing the election of her husband, Robert Baratheon, to president. Tonight, the charm was turned up to eleven, and it's easy to see how someone unprepared would be helpless to it.

So what about your family? How did your wife and children take it?
I talked it over with them. My younger two children were too little to understand, I think, so we explained it to them in the simplest terms possible. I thoroughly discussed it with my wife [Tamara Drawdes-Lannister] first, and we weighed the pros and cons together. My first priority in this decision was my family, and we decided the benefits outweighed the risks. My oldest just thought the idea was amazingly cool, and once the younger were assured that I would still be around and that I'd still be the same person, they were comfortable with it. We keep in touch by cell phone so I can speak to them or know when I need to go home. That took a few weeks to get used to, just like everything else, but we're doing pretty well now. I end up mediating a lot of arguments by text message.

Text message?
I have Siri on my phone. It works pretty well, Siri is a lot less clumsy than most of the specifically blind-accessible phones out there.

And what about your siblings? How did your father react?
I told them all in advance, of course, and took their feelings into consideration. My brother [Dr. Tyrion Lannister, of Doctors Without Borders] promised to support me no matter what my decision was, and that he knew I'd make the right choice, whatever that was for me. My sister asked me to consider how it would affect the whole family, but was otherwise supportive. My father...well, I don't want to air dirty laundry.

So he didn't take it well?
He's never really understood the complexities of the vampire issue.

Tell us about those complexities. What are the legal implications of your new status?
Well, I think legally I'm not married to my wife anymore, and she could remarry if she wanted. Marriage vows end at death, and...well. [He chuckles.] But as far as I know she has no plans to do so, and I'm still legally the father of my children and financially responsible for them, which seems like an odd contradiction to me. I'm eternally grateful for my circumstances, because if I were any middle-class, working American, and my wife so chose, I could end up financially responsible for myself plus her, three children, and a new husband, and facing the kind of discrimination vampires face in this country, and trying to adjust to a new type of life? I'm not sure it would be possible and I don't see how that's fair, whatever else you might say of vampires.

What's it like, being a new vampire?
It's...a little like being a baby, to be honest. [Laugh.] With the exception of diaper changes, pretty much everything a baby needs, a newborn vampire needs. It's hard to tell when I'm hungry, so I need to drink on a schedule. I don't sleep through the day. It's tough sometimes, but it's a lot easier living with the person who turned me.

Speaking of which, there must be a story there. How did you come to be turned?
Well, I'd been friends with Eric Northman for awhile.

[Interrupting] Friends or friends? Your reputation with men is pretty famous.
[Laughing.] Just friends. We met through some mutual business contacts, friend of a friend of a friend sort of things. When I was blinded about a year ago, he saw that it was hard for me, so he offered, saying it might mitigate my loss, that I'd be able to navigate the world more easily with other senses compensating. I didn't accept right away, of course, and he gave me all the time I needed to get everything in order, discuss it with my family, make sure I was ready. Well, as ready as I could be. I don't think anyone can ever be truly ready.

What was your first night as a vampire like?
It was...[He pauses for a long time, looking pensive.] Overwhelming. It still is, sometimes.

And what's it like being a blind vampire?
It's...different. It's not like being sighted, but it's not like being a blind human, either. At the risk of inviting bat comparisons, I have a kind of echolocation. I can tell where people are by the sounds of breathing and heartbeats. I know where I am by sounds bouncing off walls, my hearing is better so I can tell what's going on in a room without needing to see it. I still have my cane, but I don't think I've used it in months.

One last one before we go: what's your favorite blood type?
[Laugh.] Honestly I don't think I've settled on one yet, it all tastes good to me. But I can tell you my favorite Tru Blood flavor is O positive.



[ full page pictures, embedded with the caption "Jaime as a human in September 2010" ]

Jaime stood against his desk, bent over it slightly, hands planted on the wood, naked. "Bastard," he breathed, gritting his teeth as Justin pushed in.

"You like it," Justin breathed back, making Jaime shiver. Not like it wasn't true -- his cock could cut diamond, and his breath hitched as Justin's hand slid around it, working him with firm, sure strokes as he started to move.

"Fucker," Jaime said, biting back a grunt and arching into that hand.

"Fuckee," Justin returned, and Jaime could hear a smile in his voice that just made him shudder and push back.

"Eat a dick," Jaime told him. "And go faster, Jesus."

"So demanding, big brother."

"Come on," he urged with a groan. "Fuck me like you mean it."

That seemed to spark something, because he moved a little faster, a little harder, making Jaime groan and dig his nails into the wood. "Jaime," Justin breathed, and there was nothing Jaime liked better than his name in that voice, so he shivered. He felt the other hand flatten across his stomach, sliding up his chest, and he just had time to gasp before it was around his throat, forcing him back against Justin's shoulder. Trapped between hand and body, there was nothing he could do but push back or forward and try to breathe, struggling for air as the hand pressed on him.

"You like this," Justin purred in his ear, making him jerk towards the hand around him. "You like it when I fuck you and choke you and play with your cock, don't you?"

"Yeah," Jaime rasped, and immediately regretted wasting the air. He couldn't help it, when Justin got like this there was nothing he could do but go with it. He liked it too much, disconcertingly much.

"Mmm," Justin said, sounding deeply pleased. "Maybe if you're very good you'll get to fuck me later. I'll ride you and choke you and then when you're hard again I'll suck your cock. You'll like that, won't you? You always come so fast with my mouth on your cock, like a slut. I wonder how long you'd take if I stopped and sucked you off right now. Less than a minute, I bet. You want me to suck your cock, don't you?"

Jaime couldn't even try to whisper, so he nodded, and after another moment Justin let go, hand resting on his chest as Jaime gasped for much-needed air.

"Say it."

Jaime's brain was gone. "Say what?"

"Say you like it."

"I like it," he gasped, pushing back desperately on Justin's cock, the way he never did with anyone else. "Oh fuck, I like it, I love it, I love you, fuck, Justin..."

"Yeah," Justin purred, thrusting harder and moving his hand back up, putting pressure on Jaime's throat again, restricting his air. "You're gonna come for me, aren't you? You're gonna come because it feels so good when I fuck your ass."

"Yeah," Jaime moaned, totally lost to it, hips starting to stutter desperately between hand and cock.

"So do it," Justin whispered, lips pressed to Jaime's ear. "Come for me."

Helpless, Jaime obeyed, biting his lip hard and failing to muffle a cry as he came all over his desk, all over Justin's hand, shuddering as he went even tighter. He heard a muffled, desperate grunt and found himself shoved forward, cheek against the wood as Justin bent him over and fucked him hard for a minute before he followed, stinging Jaime a little with the salt in his seed. Jaime just bit his lip and shuddered again.

"Bastard," he breathed again, and heard a breathless laugh.

"Dick."