I'm rereading Dead Beat right now, and another parasite possibility just occurred to me: Bob.

When he's doing his megalomaniac villain act, he forces something into Harry's mouth and then cackles that it's too late. And now he's asking for a back up vessel. I've previously been of the parasite=Lash camp, but now I wonder, especially because Bob has been known to strike bargains with people. And it did sort of burst out of his skull ... his enchanted one.

2your reading it wrong, her moment of 'birth' was when she killed martin... already said this..

Ok, in that case Maggie's purported infection is older than Susan's and therefor susceptible to the curse.

I think that there are surviving Red Court Vampires: Esteban and Esmerelda. They were protected in the Erlking's realm from the curse, and eventually they will work their way free.

I should probably mention that these guys are being built for a six hour one-shot LARP with a house-made rules system cobbled out of a couple of different sources. So characters that would be unsuitable for PCs in the DFRPG are PCs in this game. The scenario is a pressure-cooker disguised as diplomatic gathering. 20 characters locked in a small nightclub with mortal enemies for a few hours. It's run beautifully twice now, but I want to make it better.

Ok, right now the primary motivation on the female Red Court is revenge on one of the White Court vampires for seducing and destroying what was to become her 'child.' Of course, our hapless WC doesn't even remember the mortal in question. She's smart, and a schemer.

The Black Court vampire was a rather blatant monster. After reading that essay, I'm scrapping him completely, and starting over with a cold, jaded, dispassionate intellectual.

The male Red Court is currently, again, sort of a dumb thug. And while I want to have a few primarily physical characters, he just ... sort of isn't working for me. I do sort of  like the Hannibal Lecter model, but at the same time, I don't want to make this guy too smart. Sometimes people just want to play a barbarian with thews, you know? But he needs something to make him fun to play.

To me, Nicodemus, while unrepentantly evil, is brilliant, scrupulously polite, and has style. Lara, again, brilliant. With her own code of honor, and loyalty to her family. Marcone has his whole 'set of rules' thing going on. He's a born leader, and he's, again, brilliant.

In Even Hand, we get to see Hendricks has admirable traits that Harry never notices. And that sort of makes sense, because just because Harry doesn't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

Worldcon 2011. Or anywhere within a 3 hour drive of Sacramento, CA, really.