"No? No. No, he didn't. I've been dead all along. I've always been dead. I mean, the body--my body, he'd have me say--was alive at one point, but it's not now, and I'm not, either. Okay?"

Defensive, both because he's protective of Erik and doesn't want him to get into trouble, but also because he's always explaining this, what he is. And often doing it poorly, sometimes on purpose.