True Blood Book Five Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1

I KNEW MY brother would turn into a panther before he did. As I drove to the remote crossroads community of Hotshot, my brother watched the sunset in silence. Jason was dressed in old clothes, and he had a plastic Wal-Mart bag containing a few things he might need—toothbrush, clean underwear. He hunched inside his bulky camo jacket, looking straight ahead. His face was tense with the need to control his fear and his excitement.

“You got your cell phone in your pocket?” I asked, knowing I’d already asked him as soon as the words left my mouth. But Jason just nodded instead of snapping at me. It was still afternoon, but at the end of January the dark comes early.

Tonight would be the first full moon of the New Year.

When I stopped the car, Jason turned to look at me, and even in the dim light I saw the change in his eyes. They weren’t blue like mine anymore. They were yellowish. The shape of them had changed.

“My face feels funny,” he said. But he still hadn’t put two and two together.

Tiny Hotshot was silent and still in the waning light. A cold wind was blowing across the bare fields, and the pines and oaks were shivering in the gusts of frigid air. Only one man was visible. He was standing outside one of the little houses, the one that was freshly painted. This man’s eyes were closed, and his bearded face was raised to the darkening sky. Calvin Norris waited until Jason was climbing out the passenger’s door of my old Nova before he walked over and bent to my window. I rolled it down.

His golden-green eyes were as startling as I’d remembered, and the rest of him was just as unremarkable. Stocky, graying, sturdy, he looked like a hundred other men I’d seen in Merlotte’s Bar, except for those eyes.

“I’ll take good care of him,” Calvin Norris said. Behind him, Jason stood with his back to me. The air around my brother had a peculiar quality; it seemed to be vibrating.

None of this was Calvin Norris’s fault. He hadn’t been the one who’d bitten my brother and changed him forever. Calvin, a werepanther, had been born what he was; it was his nature. I made myself say, “Thank you.”
“I’ll bring him home in the morning.”
“To my house, please. His truck is at my place.”
“All right, then. Have a good night.” He raised his face to the wind again, and I felt the whole community was waiting, behind their windows and doors, for me to leave.

So I did.

Jason knocked on my door at seven the next morning. He still had his little Wal-Mart bag, but he hadn’t used anything in it. His face was bruised, and his hands were covered with scratches. He didn’t say a word. He just stared at me when I asked him how he was, and walked past me through the living room and down the hall. He closed the door to the hall bathroom with a decisive click. I heard the water running after a second, and I heaved a weary sigh all to myself. Though I’d gone to work and come home tired at about two a.m., I hadn’t gotten much sleep.

By the time Jason emerged, I’d fixed him some bacon and eggs. He sat down at the old kitchen table with an air of pleasure: a man doing a familiar and pleasant thing. But after a second of staring down at the plate, he leaped to his feet and ran back into the bathroom, kicking the door shut behind him. I listened to him throw up, over and over.

I stood outside the door helplessly, knowing he wouldn’t want me to come in. After a moment, I went back to the kitchen to dump the food into the trash can, ashamed of the waste but utterly unable to force myself to eat.

When Jason returned, he said only, “Coffee?” He looked green around the gills, and he walked like he was sore.
“Are you okay?” I asked, not sure if he would be able to answer or not. I poured the coffee into a mug.
“Yes,” he said after a moment, as though he’d had to think about it. “That was the most incredible experience of my life.”

For a second, I thought he meant throwing up in my bathroom, but that was sure no new experience for Jason. He’d been quite a drinker in his teens, until he’d figured out that there was nothing glamorous or attractive about hanging over a toilet bowl, heaving your guts out.

“Shifting,” I said tentatively.
He nodded, cradling his coffee mug in his hands. He held his face over the steam rising from the hot, strong blackness. He met my eyes. His own were once again their ordinary blue. “It’s the most incredible rush,” he said. “Since I was bitten, not born, I don’t get to be a true panther like the others.”

I could hear envy in his voice.

“But even what I become is amazing. You feel the magic inside you, and you feel your bones moving around and adapting, and your vision changes. Then you’re lower to the ground and you walk in a whole different way, and as for running, damn, you can run. You can chase. . . .” And his voice died away.
I would just as soon not know that part, anyway.
“So it’s not so bad?” I asked, my hands clasped together. Jason was all the family I had, except for a cousin who’d drifted away into the underworld of drugs years before.
“It’s not so bad,” Jason agreed, scraping up a smile to give me. “It’s great while you’re actually the animal. Everything’s so simple. It’s when you’re back to being human that you start to worry about stuff.”

He wasn’t suicidal. He wasn’t even despondent. I wasn’t aware I’d been holding my breath until I let it out. Jason was going to be able to live with the hand he’d been dealt. He was going to be okay.

The relief was incredible, like I’d removed something jammed painfully between my teeth or shaken a sharp rock out of my shoe. For days, weeks even, I’d been worried, and now that anxiety was gone. That didn’t mean Jason’s life as a shape-shifter would be worry-free, at least from my point of view. If he married a regular human woman, their kids would be normal. But if he married into the shifter community at Hotshot, I’d have nieces or nephews who turned into animals once a month. At least, they would after puberty; that would give them, and their auntie Sook, some preparation time.

Luckily for Jason, he had plenty of vacation days, so he wasn’t due at the parish road department. But I had to work tonight. As soon as Jason left in his flashy pickup truck, I crawled back into bed, jeans and all, and in about five minutes I was fast asleep. The relief acted as a kind of sedative.

When I woke up, it was nearly three o’clock and time for me to get ready for my shift at Merlotte’s. The sun outside was bright and clear, and the temperature was fifty-two, said my indoor-outdoor thermometer. This isn’t too unusual in north Louisiana in January. The temperature would drop after the sun went down, and Jason would shift. But he’d have some fur—not a full coat, since he turned into half-man, half-cat—and he’d be with other panthers. They’d go hunting. The woods around Hotshot, which lay in a remote corner of Renard Parish, would be dangerous again tonight.

As I went about eating, showering, folding laundry, I thought of a dozen things I’d like to know. I wondered if the shifters would kill a human being if they came upon one in the woods. I wondered how much of their human consciousness they retained in their animal form. If they mated in panther form, would they have a kitten or a baby? What happened when a pregnant werepanther saw the full moon? I wondered if Jason knew the answer to all these questions yet, if Calvin had given him some kind of briefing.

But I was glad I hadn’t questioned Jason this morning while everything was still so new to him. I’d have plenty of chances to ask him later.

For the first time since New Year’s Day, I was thinking about the future. The full moon symbol on my calendar no longer seemed to be a period marking the end of something, but just another way of counting time. As I pulled on my waitress outfit(black pants and a white boat-neck T-shirt and black Reeboks), I felt almost giddy with cheer. For once, I left my hair down instead of pulling it back and up into a ponytail. I put in some bright red dot earrings and matched my lipstick to the color. A little eye makeup and some blush, and I was good to go.

I’d parked at the rear of the house last night, and I checked the back porch carefully to make sure there weren’t any lurking vampires before I shut and locked the back door behind me. I’d been surprised before, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. Though it was barely dark, there might be some early risers around.

Probably the last thing the Japanese had expected when they’d developed synthetic blood was that its availability would bring vampires out of the realm of legend and into the light of fact. The Japanese had just been trying to make a few bucks hawking the blood substitute to ambulance companies and hospital emergency rooms. Instead, the way we looked at the world had changed forever.

Speaking of vampires (if only to myself), I wondered if Bill Compton was home. Vampire Bill had been my first love, and he lived right across the cemetery from me. Our houses lay on a parish road outside the little town of Bon Temps and south of the bar where I worked. Lately, Bill had been traveling a lot. I only found out he was home if he happened to come into Merlotte’s, which he did every now and then to mix with the natives and have some warm O-positive. He preferred TrueBlood, the most expensive Japanese synthetic. He’d told me it almost completely satisfied his cravings for blood fresh from the source. Since I’d witnessed Bill going into a bloodlust fit, I could only thank God for TrueBlood. Sometimes I missed Bill an awful lot.

I gave myself a mental shake. Snapping out of a slump, that was what today was all about. No more worry! No more fear! Free and twenty-six! Working! House paid for! Money in the bank! These were all good, positive things.

The parking lot was full when I got to the bar. I could see I’d be busy tonight. I drove around back to the employees’ entrance. Sam Merlotte, the owner and my boss, lived back there in a very nice double-wide that even had a little yard surrounded by a hedge, Sam’s equivalent of a white picket fence. I locked my car and went in the employees’ back door, which opened into the hallway off of which lay the men’s and the ladies’, a large stock room, and Sam’s office. I stowed my purse and coat in an empty desk drawer, pulled up my red socks, shook my head to make my hair hang right, and went through the doorway (this door was almost always propped open) that led to the big room of the bar/restaurant. Not that the kitchen produced anything but the most basic stuff: hamburgers, chicken strips, fries and onion rings, salads in the summer and chili in the winter.

Sam was the bartender, the bouncer, and on occasion the cook, but lately we’d been lucky in getting our positions filled: Sam’s seasonal allergies had hit hard, making him less than ideal as a food handler. The new cook had shown up in answer to Sam’s ad just the week before. Cooks didn’t seem to stay long at Merlotte’s, but I was hoping that Sweetie Des Arts would stick around a while. She showed up on time, did her job well, and never gave the rest of the staff any trouble. Really, that was all you could ask for. Our last cook, a guy, had given my friend Arlene a big rush of hope that he was The One—in this case, he’d have been her fourth or fifth One—before he’d decamped overnight with her plates and forks and a CD player. Her kids had been devastated; not because they’d loved the guy, but because they missed their CD player.

I walked into a wall of noise and cigarette smoke that made it seem like I was passing into another universe. Smokers all sit on the west side of the room, but the smoke doesn’t seem to know it should stay there. I put a smile on my face and stepped behind the bar to give Sam a pat on the arm. After he expertly filled a glass with beer and slid it to a patron, he put another glass under the tap and began the process all over again.

“How are things?” Sam asked carefully. He knew all about Jason’s problems, since he’d been with me the night I’d found Jason being held prisoner in a toolshed in Hotshot. But we had to be roundabout in our speech; vampires had gone public, but shape-shifters and Weres were still cloaked in secrecy. The underground world of supernatural beings was waiting to see how vampires fared before they followed the vampire example by going public.

“Better than I expected.” I smiled up at him, though not too far up, since Sam’s not a big man. He’s built lean, but he’s much stronger than he looks. Sam is in his thirties—at least, I think he is—and he has reddish gold hair that halos his head.

He’s a good man, and a great boss. He’s also a shape-shifter, so he can change into any animal. Most often, Sam turns into a very cute collie with a gorgeous coat. Sometimes he comes over to my place and I let him sleep on the rug in the living room. “He’s gonna be fine.”
“I’m glad,” he said. I can’t read shifter minds as easily as I read human minds, but I can tell if a mood is true or not. Sam was happy because I was happy.
“When are you taking off?” I asked. He had that faraway look in his eyes, the look that said he was mentally running through the woods, tracking possums.
“As soon as Terry gets here.” He smiled at me again, but this time the smile was a bit strained. Sam was getting antsy.

The door to the kitchen was just outside the bar area at the west end, and I stuck my head in the door to say hi to Sweetie. Sweetie was bony and brunette and fortyish, and she wore a lot of makeup for someone who was going to be out of sight in the kitchen all evening. She also seemed a little sharper, perhaps better educated, than any of Merlotte’s previous short-order cooks.

“You doing okay, Sookie?” she called, flipping a hamburger as she spoke. Sweetie was in constant motion in the kitchen, and she didn’t like anyone getting in her way. The teenager who assisted her and bussed tables was terrified of Sweetie, and he took care to dodge her as she moved from griddle to fryer. This teenage boy got the plates ready, made the salads, and went to the window to tell the barmaids which order was up. Out on the floor, Holly Cleary and her best friend, Danielle, were working hard. They’d both looked relieved when they’d seen me come in. Danielle worked the smoking section to the west, Holly usually worked the middle area in front of the bar, and I worked the east when three of us were on duty.

“It looks like I better get moving,” I told Sweetie.

She gave me a quick smile and turned back to the griddle. The cowed teenager, whose name I had yet to catch, gave me a ducked-head nod and went back to loading the dishwasher.

I wished Sam had called me before things had gotten so busy; I wouldn’t have minded coming in a little earlier. Of course, he wasn’t exactly himself tonight. I began checking the tables in my section, getting fresh drinks and clearing off food baskets, collecting money and bringing change.

“Barmaid! Bring me a Red Stuff!” The voice was unfamiliar, and the order was unusual. Red Stuff was the cheapest artificial blood, and only the newest vampires would be caught dead asking for it. I got a bottle from the clear-fronted refrigerator and stuck it in the microwave. While it warmed, I scanned the crowd for the vamp. He was sitting with my friend Tara Thornton. I’d never seen him before, which was worrisome. Tara’d been dating an older vampire (much older: Franklin Mott had been older than Tara in human years before he died, and he’d been a vampire for over three hundred years), and he’d been giving her lavish gifts—like a Camaro. What was she doing with this new guy? At least Franklin had nice manners.

I put the warm bottle on a tray and carried it over to the couple. The lighting in Merlotte’s at night isn’t particularly bright, which is how patrons like it, and it wasn’t until I’d gotten quite near that I could appreciate Tara’s companion. He was slim and narrow shouldered with slicked-back hair. He had long fingernails and a sharp face. I supposed that, in a way, he was attractive—if you like a liberal dose of danger with your sex.

I put the bottle down in front of him and glanced uncertainly at Tara. She looked great, as usual. Tara is tall, slim, and dark haired, and she has a wardrobe of wonderful clothes. She’d overcome a truly horrible childhood to own her own business and actually join the chamber of commerce. Then she started dating the wealthy vampire, Franklin Mott, and she quit sharing her life with me.

“Sookie,” she said, “I want you to meet Franklin’s friend Mickey.” She didn’t sound like she wanted us to meet. She sounded like she wished I’d never come over with Mickey’s drink. Her own glass was almost empty, but she said, “No,” when I asked her if she was ready for another.

I exchanged a nod with the vampire; they don’t shake hands, not normally. He was watching me as he took a gulp from the bottled blood, his eyes as cold and hostile as a snake’s. If he was a friend of the ultra-urbane Franklin, I was a silk purse. Hired hand, more like. Maybe a bodyguard? Why would Franklin give Tara a bodyguard?
She obviously wasn’t going to talk openly in front of this slimeball, so I said, “Catch you later,” and took Mickey’s money to the till.

I was busy all night, but in the spare moments I had, I thought about my brother. For a second night, he was out frolicking under the moon with the other beasties. Sam had taken off like a shot the moment Terry Bellefleur arrived, though his office wastebasket was full of crumpled tissues. His face had been tense with anticipation.

It was one of those nights that made me wonder how the humans around me could be so oblivious to the other world operating right beside ours. Only willful ignorance could ignore the charge of magic in the air. Only a group lack of imagination could account for people not wondering what went on in the dark around them.

But not too long ago, I reminded myself, I’d been as willfully blind as any of the crowd in Merlotte’s. Even when the vampires had made their carefully coordinated worldwide announcement that their existence was fact, few authorities or citizens seemed to take the next mental step: If vampires exist, what else could be lurking just outside the edge of the light?

Out of curiosity, I began to dip into the brains around me, testing to see their fears. Most of the people in the bar were thinking about Mickey. The women, and some of the men, were wondering what it would be like to be with him. Even stick-in-the-mud lawyer Portia Bellefleur was peeking around her conservative beau to study Mickey. I could only wonder at these speculations. Mickey was terrifying. That negated any physical attraction I might have felt toward him. But I had lots of evidence that the other humans in the bar didn’t feel the same way.

I’ve been able to read minds all my life. The ability is no great gift. Most peoples’ minds don’t bear reading. Their thoughts are boring, disgusting, disillusioning, but very seldom amusing. At least Bill had helped me learn how to cut out some of the buzz. Before he’d given me some clues, it had been like tuning in to a hundred radio stations simultaneously. Some of them had come in crystal clear, some had been remote, and some, like the thoughts of shape-shifters, had been full of static and obscurity. But they’d all added up to cacophony. No wonder lots of people had treated me as a half-wit.

Vampires were silent. That was the great thing about vamps, at least from my point of view: They were dead. Their minds were dead, too. Only once in a coon’s age did I get any kind of flash from a vampire mind.

Shirley Hunter, my brother’s boss at his parish roadwork job, asked me where Jason was when I brought a pitcher of beer to his table. Shirley was universally known as “Catfish.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said mendaciously, and he winked at me. The first guess as to where Jason was always involved a woman, and the second guess usually included another woman. The tableful of men, still in their working clothes, laughed more than the answer warranted, but then they’d had a lot of beer.

I raced back to the bar to get three bourbon-and-Cokes from Terry Bellefleur, Portia’s cousin, who was working under pressure. Terry, a Vietnam vet with a lot of physical and emotional scars, appeared to be holding up well on this busy night. He liked simple jobs that required concentration. His graying auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his face was intent as he plied the bottles. The drinks were ready in no time, and Terry smiled at me as I put them on my tray. A smile from Terry was a rare thing, and it warmed me.

Just as I was turning with my tray resting on my right hand, trouble erupted. A Louisiana Tech student from Ruston got into a one-on-one class war with Jeff LaBeff, a redneck who had many children and made a kind of living driving a garbage truck. Maybe it was just a case of two stubborn guys colliding and really didn’t have much to do with town vs. gown (not that we were that close to Ruston). Whatever the reason for the original quarrel, it took me a few seconds to realize the fight was going to be more than a shouting match.

In those few seconds, Terry tried to intervene. Moving quickly, he got between Jeff and the student and caught firm hold of both their wrists. I thought for a minute it would work, but Terry wasn’t as young or as active as he had been, and all hell broke loose.

“You could stop this,” I said furiously to Mickey as I hurried past his and Tara’s table on my way to try to make peace.
He sat back in his chair and sipped his drink. “Not my job,” he said calmly.
I got that, but it didn’t endear the vampire to me, especially when the student whirled and took a swing at me as I approached him from behind. He missed, and I hit him over the head with my tray. He staggered to one side, maybe bleeding a little, and Terry was able to subdue Jeff LaBeff, who was looking for an excuse to quit.
Incidents like this had been happening with more frequency, especially when Sam was gone. It was evident to me that we needed a bouncer, at least on weekend nights . . . and full-moon nights.

The student threatened to sue.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Mark Duffy,” the young man said, clutching his head.
“Mark, where you from?”
“Minden.”

I did a quick evaluation of his clothes, his demeanor, and the contents of his head. “I’m gonna enjoy calling your mama and telling her you took a swing at a woman,” I said. He blanched and said no more about suing, and he and his buds left soon after. It always helps to know the most effective threat.

We made Jeff leave, too.

Terry resumed his place behind the bar and began dispensing drinks, but he was limping slightly and had a strained look in his face, which worried me. Terry’s war experiences hadn’t left him real stable. I’d had enough trouble for one night.
But of course the night wasn’t over yet.

About an hour after the fight, a woman came into Merlotte’s. She was plain and plainly dressed in old jeans and a camo coat. She had on boots that had been wonderful when they’d been new, but that had been a long time ago. She didn’t carry a purse, and she had her hands thrust into her pockets.

There were several indicators that made my mental antennae twitch. First of all, this gal didn’t look right. A local woman might dress like that if she were going hunting or doing farm work, but not to come to Merlotte’s. For an evening out at the bar, most women fixed themselves up. So this woman was in a working mode; but she wasn’t a whore by the same reasoning.

That meant drugs.

To protect the bar in Sam’s absence, I tuned in to her thoughts. People don’t think in complete sentences, of course, and I’m smoothing it out, but what was running through her head was along the order of: Three vials left getting old losing power gotta sell it tonight so I can get back to Baton Rouge and buy some more. Vampire in the bar if he catches me with vamp blood I’m dead. This town is a dump. Back to the city first chance I get.

She was a Drainer, or maybe she was just a distributor. Vampire blood was the most intoxicating drug on the market, but of course vamps didn’t give it up willingly. Draining a vampire was a hazardous occupation, boosting prices of the tiny vials of blood to amazing sums.

What did the drug user get for parting with a lot of money? Depending on the age of the blood—that is, the time since it’d been removed from its owner—and the age of the vampire from whom the blood had been removed, and the individual chemistry of the drug user, it could be quite a lot. There was the feeling of omnipotence, the increased strength, acute vision, and hearing. And most important of all for Americans, an enhanced physical appearance.

Still, only an idiot would drink black-market vampire blood. For one thing, the results were notoriously unpredictable. Not only did the effects vary, but those effects could last anywhere from two weeks to two months. For another thing, some people simply went mad when the blood hit their system—sometimes homicidally mad. I’d heard of dealers who sold gullible users pig’s blood or contaminated human blood. But the most important reason to avoid the black market in vamp blood was this: Vampires hated Drainers, and they hated the users of the drained blood (commonly known as bloodheads). You just don’t want a vampire pissed off at you.
There weren’t any off-duty police officers in Merlotte’s that night. Sam was out wagging his tail somewhere. I hated to tip off Terry, because I didn’t know how he’d react. I had to do something about this woman.

Truly, I try not to intervene in events when my only connection comes through my telepathy. If I stuck my oar in every time I learned something that would affect the lives around me (like knowing the parish clerk was embezzling, or that one of the local detectives took bribes), I wouldn’t be able to live in Bon Temps, and it was my home. But I couldn’t permit this scraggy woman to sell her poison in Sam’s bar.
She perched on an empty barstool and ordered a beer from Terry. His gaze lingered on her. Terry, too, realized something was wrong about the stranger.

I came to pick up my next order and stood by her. She needed a bath, and she’d been in a house heated by a wood fireplace. I made myself touch her, which always improved my reception. Where was the blood? It was in her coat pocket. Good.
Without further ado, I dumped a glass of wine down her front.

“Dammit!” she said, jumping off the stool and patting ineffectually at her chest. “You are the clumsiest-ass woman I ever saw!”
“ ’Scuse me,” I said abjectly, putting my tray on the bar and meeting Terry’s eyes briefly. “Let me put some soda on that.” Without waiting for her permission, I pulled her coat down her arms. By the time she understood what I was doing and began to struggle, I had taken charge of the coat. I tossed it over the bar to Terry. “Put some soda on that, please,” I said. “Make sure the stuff in her pockets didn’t get wet, too.” I’d used this ploy before. I was lucky it was cold weather and she’d had the stuff in her coat, not in her jeans pocket. That would have taxed my inventiveness.

Under the coat, the woman was wearing a very old Dallas Cowboys T-shirt. She began shivering, and I wondered if she’d been sampling more conventional drugs. Terry made a show of patting soda on the wine stain. Following my hint, he delved into the pockets. He looked down at his hand with disgust, and I heard a clink as he threw the vials in the trash can behind the bar. He returned everything else to her pockets.

She’d opened her mouth to shriek at Terry when she realized she really couldn’t. Terry stared directly at her, daring her to mention the blood. The people around us watched with interest. They knew something was up, but not what, because the whole thing had gone down very quickly. When Terry was sure she wasn’t going to start yelling, he handed me the coat. As I held it so she could slide her arms in, Terry told her, “Don’t you come back here no more.”

If we kept throwing people out at this rate, we wouldn’t have many customers.
“You redneck son of a bitch,” she said. The crowd around us drew in a collective breath. (Terry was almost as unpredictable as a bloodhead.)
“Doesn’t matter to me what you call me,” he said. “I guess an insult from you is no insult at all. You just stay away.” I expelled a long breath of relief.

She shoved her way through the crowd. Everyone in the room marked her progress toward the door, even Mickey the vampire. In fact, he was doing something with a device in his hands. It looked like one of those cell phones that can take a picture. I wondered to whom he was sending it. I wondered if she’d make it home.
Terry pointedly didn’t ask how I’d known the scruffy woman had something illegal in her pockets. That was another weird thing about the people of Bon Temps. The rumors about me had been floating around as long as I could remember, from when I was little and my folks put me through the mental health battery. And yet, despite the evidence at their disposal, almost everyone I knew would much rather regard me as a dim and peculiar young woman than acknowledge my strange ability. Of course, I was careful not to stick it in their faces. And I kept my mouth shut.

Anyway, Terry had his own demons to fight. Terry subsisted on some kind of government pension, and he cleaned Merlotte’s early in the morning, along with a couple of other businesses. He stood in for Sam three or four times a month. The rest of his time was his own, and no one seemed to know what he did with it. Dealing with people exhausted Terry, and nights like tonight were simply not good for him.
It was lucky he wasn’t in Merlotte’s the next night, when all hell broke loose.

Chapter 2

AT FIRST, I thought everything had returned to normal. The bar seemed a little calmer the next night. Sam was back in place, relaxed and cheerful. Nothing seemed to rile him, and when I told him what had happened with the dealer the night before, he complimented me on my finesse.

Tara didn’t come in, so I couldn’t ask her about Mickey. But was it really any of my business? Probably not my business—but my concern, definitely.

Jeff LaBeff was back and sheepish about getting riled by the college kid the night before. Sam had learned about the incident through a phone call from Terry, and he gave Jeff a word of warning.

Andy Bellefleur, a detective on the Renard parish force and Portia’s brother, came in with the young woman he was dating, Halleigh Robinson. Andy was older than me, and I’m twenty-six. Halleigh was twenty-one—just old enoughto be in Merlotte’s. Halleigh taught at the elementary school, she was right out of college, and she was real attractive, with short earlobe-length brown hair and huge brown eyes and a nicely rounded figure. Andy had been dating Halleigh for about two months, and from the little I saw of the couple, they seemed to be progressing in their relationship at a predictable rate.

Andy’s true thoughts were that he liked Halleigh very much (though she was a tad boring), and he was really ready for her to give it up. Halleigh thought Andy was sexy and a real man of the world, and she really loved the newly restored Bellefleur family mansion, but she didn’t believe he’d hang around long after she slept with him. I hate knowing more about relationships than the people in them know—but no matter how battened down I am, I pick up a trickle of stuff.

Claudine came in the bar that night, toward closing time. Claudine is six feet tall, with black hair that ripples down her back and bruised-looking white skin that looks thin and glossy like a plum’s. Claudine dresses for attention. Tonight she was wearing a terra-cotta pants suit, cut very snug on her Amazonian body. She works in the complaint department of a big store at the mall in Ruston during the day. I wished she’d brought her brother, Claude, with her. He doesn’t swing in my direction, but he’s a treat for the eyes.

He’s a fairy. I mean, literally. So’s Claudine, of course.

She waved at me across the heads of the crowd. I waved back smiling. Everyone’s happy around Claudine, who is always cheerful when there are no vampires in her vicinity. Claudine is unpredictable and a lot of fun, though like all fairies, she’s as dangerous as a tiger when she’s angry. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen often.
Fairies occupy a special place in the hierarchy of magical creatures. I haven’t figured out exactly what it is yet, but sooner or later I’ll piece it together.

Every man in the bar was drooling over Claudine, and she was eating it up. She gave Andy Bellefleur a long, bigeyed look, and Halleigh Robinson glared, mad enough to spit, until she remembered she was a sweet southern girl. But Claudine abandoned all interest in Andy when she saw he was drinking ice tea with lemon. Fairies are even more violently allergic to lemon than vampires are to garlic.

Claudine worked her way over to me, and she gave me a big hug, to the envy of every male in the bar. She took my hand to pull me into Sam’s office. I went with her out of sheer curiosity.

“Dear friend,” Claudine said, “I have bad news for you.”
“What?” I’d gone from bemused to scared in a heartbeat.
“There was a shooting early this morning. One of the werepanthers was hit.”
“Oh, no! Jason!” But surely one of his friends would’ve called if he hadn’t gone into work today?
“No, your brother is fine, Sookie. But Calvin Norris was shot.” I was stunned. Jason hadn’t called to tell me this? I had to find out from someone else?
“Shot dead?” I asked, hearing my voice shake. Not that Calvin and I were close—far from it—but I was shocked. Heather Kinman, a teenager, had been fatally shot the week before. What was happening in Bon Temps?
“Shot in the chest. He’s alive, but he’s bad hurt.”
“Is he in the hospital?”
“Yes, his nieces took him to Grainger Memorial.”

Grainger was a town farther southeast than Hotshot, and a shorter drive from there than the parish hospital in Clarice.

“Who did it?”
“No one knows. Someone shot him early this morning, when Calvin was on his way to work. He’d come home from his, um, time of the month, changed, and started into town for his shift.” Calvin worked at Norcross.
“How’d you come to know all this?”
“One of his cousins came into the store to buy some pajamas, since Calvin didn’t have any. Guess he sleeps in the buff,” Claudette said. “I don’t know how they think they’re going to get a pajama top on over the bandages. Maybe they just needed the pants? Calvin wouldn’t like to be shuffling around the hospital with only one of those nasty gowns between him and the world.”

Claudine often took long side trails in her conversation.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said. I wondered how the cousin had known Claudine, but I wasn’t going to ask.
“That’s okay. I knew you’d want to know. Heather Kinman was a shape-shifter, too. Bet you didn’t know that. Think about it.”

Claudine gave me a kiss on the forehead—fairies are very touchy-feely—and we went back into the bar area. She’d stunned me into silence. Claudine herself was back to business as usual. The fairy ordered a 7-and-7 and was surrounded by suitors in about two minutes flat. She never left with anyone, but the men seemed to enjoy trying. I’d decided that Claudine fed off this admiration and attention.

Even Sam was beaming at her, and she didn’t tip.

By the time we were closing the bar, Claudine had left to go back to Monroe, and I’d passed along her news to Sam. He was as appalled by the story as I was. Though Calvin Norris was the leader of the small shifter community of Hotshot, the rest of the world knew him as a steady, quiet bachelor who owned his own home and had a good job as crew foreman at the local lumber mill. It was hard to imagine either of his personas leading to an assassination attempt. Sam decided to send some flowers from the bar’s staff.

I pulled on my coat and went out the bar’s back door just ahead of Sam. I heard him locking the door behind me. Suddenly I remembered that we were getting low on bottled blood, and I turned to tell Sam this. He caught my movement and stopped, waiting for me to speak, his face expectant. In the length of time it takes to blink, his expression changed from expectant to shocked, dark red began to spread on his left leg, and I heard the sound of a shot.

Then blood was everywhere, Sam crumpled to the ground, and I began to scream.

Chapter 3

I’ D NEVER HAD to pay the cover charge at Fangtasia before. The few times I’d come through the public entrance, I’d been with a vampire. But now I was by my self and feeling mighty conspicuous. I was exhausted from an especially long night. I’d been at the hospital until six in the morning, and I’d had only a few hours’ fitful sleep after I’d gotten home.

Pam was taking the cover charge and showing the customers to tables. She was wearing the long filmy black outfit she usually wore when she was on door duty. Pam never looked happy when she was dressed like a fictional vampire. She was the real thing and proud of it. Her personal taste leaned more toward slack sets in pastel colors and penny loafers. She looked as surprised as a vampire can look when she saw me.

“Sookie,” she said, “do you have an appointment with Eric?” She took my money without a blink.

I was actually happy to see her: pathetic, huh? I don’t have a lot of friends, and I value the ones I have, even if I suspect they dream about catching me in a dark alley and having their bloody way with me. “No, but I do need to talk to him. Business,” I added hastily. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was courting the romantic attention of the undead head honcho of Shreveport, a position called “sheriff” by the vamps. I shrugged off my new cranberry-colored coat and folded it carefully over my arm. WDED, the Baton Rouge–based all-vampire radio station, was being piped over the sound system. The smooth voice of the early night deejay, Connie the Corpse, said, “And here’s a song for all you lowlifes who were outside howling earlier this week . . . ‘Bad Moon Rising,’ an old hit from Creedence Clearwater Revival.” Connie the Corpse was giving a private tip of the hat to the shape-shifters.

“Wait at the bar while I tell him you’re here,” Pam said. “You’ll enjoy the new bartender.”

Bartenders at Fangtasia didn’t tend to last long. Eric and Pam always tried to hire someone colorful—an exotic bartender drew in the human tourists who came by the busloads to take a walk on the wild side—and in this they were successful. But somehow the job had acquired a high attrition rate.

The new man gave me a white-toothed smile when I perched on one of the high stools. He was quite an eyeful. He had a head full of long, intensely curly hair, chestnut brown in color. It clustered thickly on his shoulders. He also sported a mustache and a Vandyke. Covering his left eye was a black eye patch. Since his face was narrow and the features on it sizable, his face was crowded. He was about my height, five foot six, and he was wearing a black poet shirt and black pants and high black boots. All he needed was a bandanna tied around his head and a pistol.

“Maybe a parrot on your shoulder?” I said.
“Aaargh, dear lady, you are not the first to suggest such a thing.” He had a wonderful rich baritone voice. “But I understand there are health department regulations against having an uncaged bird in an establishment serving drinks.” He bowed to me as deeply as the narrow area behind the bar permitted. “May I get you a drink and have the honor of your name?”
I had to smile. “Certainly, sir. I’m Sookie Stackhouse.” He’d caught the whiff of otherness about me. Vampires almost always pick up on it. The undead usually note me; humans don’t. It’s kind of ironic that my mind reading doesn’t work on the very creatures who believe it distinguishes me from the rest of the human race, while humans would rather believe I was mentally ill than credit me with an unusual ability.

The woman on the barstool next to me (credit cards maxed out, son with ADD) half turned to listen in. She was jealous, having been trying to entice the bartender into showing her some attention for the past thirty minutes. She eyed me, trying to figure out what had caused the vamp to choose to open a conversation with me. She wasn’t impressed at all with what she saw.

“I am delighted to meet you, fair maiden,” the new vampire said smoothly, and I grinned. Well, at least I was fair—in the blond-and-blue-eyed sense. His eyes took me in; of course, if you’re a woman who works in a bar, you’re used to that. At least he didn’t look at me offensively; and believe me, if you’re a woman who works in a bar, you can tell the difference between an evaluation and an eye fuck.
“I bet good money she’s no maiden,” said the woman next to me.

She was right, but that was beside the point.

“You must be polite to other guests,” the vampire told her, with an altered version of his smile. Not only were his fangs slightly extended, but I also noticed he had crooked (though beautifully white) teeth. American standards of tooth straightness are very modern.
“No one tells me how to act,” the woman said combatively. She was sullen because the evening wasn’t going as she’d planned. She’d thought it would be easy to attract a vampire, that any vamp would think he was lucky to have her. She’d planned to let one bite her neck, if he’d just settle her credit card bills.
She was overestimating herself and underestimating vampires.
“I beg your pardon, madam, but while you are in Fangtasia, most definitely I shall tell you how to act,” the bartender said.

She subsided after he fixed her with his quelling gaze, and I wondered if he hadn’t given her a dose of glamour.

“My name,” he said, returning his attention to me, “is Charles Twining.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said.
“And the drink?”
“Yes, please. A ginger ale.” I had to drive back to Bon Temps after I’d seen Eric.
He raised his arched brows but poured me the drink and placed it on a napkin in front of me. I paid him and deposited a good tip in the jar. The little white napkin had some fangs outlined in black, with a single drop of red falling from the right fang—custom-made napkins for the vampire bar. “Fangtasia” was printed in jazzy red script on the opposite corner of the napkin, duplicating the sign outside. Cute. There were T-shirts for sale in a case over in a corner, too, along with glasses decorated with the same logo. The legend underneath read, “Fangtasia—The Bar with a Bite.” Eric’s merchandising expertise had made great strides in the past few months.

As I waited my turn for Eric’s attention, I watched Charles Twining work. He was polite to everyone, served the drinks swiftly, and never got rattled. I liked his technique much better than that of Chow, the previous bartender, who’d always made patrons feel like he was doing them a favor by bringing them drinks at all. Long Shadow, the bartender before Chow, had had too much of an eye for the female customers. That’ll cause a lot of strife in a bar.

Lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t realize Charles Twining was right across the bar from me until he said, “Miss Stackhouse, may I tell you how lovely you look tonight?”
“Thank you, Mr. Twining,” I said, entering into the spirit of the encounter. The look in Charles Twining’s one visible brown eye let me know that he was a first-class rogue, and I didn’t trust him any farther than I could throw him, which was maybe two feet. (The effects of my last infusion of vampire blood had worn off, and I was my regular human self. Hey, I’m no junkie; it had been an emergency situation calling for extra strength.)

Not only was I back at average stamina for a fit woman in her twenties, my looks were back to normal; no vampire-blood enhancement. I hadn’t dressed up, since I didn’t want Eric to think I was dressing up for him, but I hadn’t wanted to look like a slob, either. So I was wearing low-riding blue jeans and a fuzzy white long-sleeved sweater with a boat-neck. It stopped just at my waist, so some tummy showed when I walked. That tummy wasn’t fish-belly white, either, thanks to the tanning bed at the video rental place.

“Please, dear lady, call me Charles,” the bartender said, pressing his hand to his heart. I laughed out loud, despite my weariness. The gesture’s theatricality wasn’t diminished by the fact that Charles’s heart wasn’t beating.
“Of course,” I said agreeably. “If you’ll call me Sookie.”
He rolled his eyes up as if the excitement was too much for him, and I laughed again. Pam tapped me on the shoulder.
“If you can tear yourself away from your new buddy, Eric’s free.”

I nodded to Charles and eased off the stool to follow Pam. To my surprise, she didn’t lead me back to Eric’s office, but to one of the booths. Evidently, tonight Eric was on bar duty. All the Shreveport-area vampires had to agree to show themselves at Fangtasia for a certain number of hours each week so the tourists would keep coming; a vampire bar without any actual vampires is a money-losing establishment. Eric set a good example for his underlings by sitting out in the bar at regular intervals.

Usually the sheriff of Area Five sat in the center of the room, but tonight he was in the corner booth. He watched me approach. I knew he was taking in my jeans, which were on the tight side, and my tummy, which was on the flat side, and my soft fuzzy white sweater, which was filled with natural bounty. I should have worn my frumpiest clothes. (Believe me, I have plenty in my closet.) I shouldn’t have carried the cranberry coat, which Eric had given me. I should have done anything but look good for Eric—and I had to admit to myself that that had been my goal. I’d blindsided myself.

Eric slid out of the booth and rose to his considerable height—around six foot four. His mane of blond hair rippled down his back, and his blue eyes sparkled from his white, white face. Eric has bold features, high cheekbones, and a square jaw. He looks like a lawless Viking, the kind that could pillage a village in no time at all; and that’s exactly what he had been.

Vampires don’t shake hands except under extraordinary circumstances, so I didn’t expect any salutation from Eric. But he bent to give me a kiss on the cheek, and he gave it lingeringly, as if he wanted me to know he’d like to seduce me.

He didn’t realize he’d already kissed just about every inch of Sookie Stackhouse. We’d been as up close and personal as a man and a woman could be.
Eric just couldn’t remember anything about it. I wanted it to stay that way. Well, not exactly wanted; but I knew it was better all the way around if Eric didn’t recall our little fling.

“What pretty nail polish,” Eric said, smiling. He had a slight accent. English was not his second language, of course; it was maybe his twenty-fifth. I tried not to smile back, but I was pleased at his compliment. Trust Eric to pick out the one thing that was new and different about me. I’d never had long nails until recently, and they were painted a wonderful deep red—cranberry, in fact, to match the coat.

“Thank you,” I murmured. “How you been doing?”
“Just fine.” He raised a blond eyebrow. Vampires didn’t have variable health. He waved a hand at the empty side of the booth, and I slid into it.
“Had any trouble picking up the reins?” I asked, to clarify.

A few weeks previously, a witch had given Eric amnesia, and it had taken several days to restore his sense of identity. During that time, Pam had parked him with me to keep him concealed from the witch who’d cursed him. Lust had taken its course. Many times.

“Like riding a bicycle,” Eric said, and I told myself to focus. (Though I wondered when bicycles had been invented, and if Eric had had anything to do with it.) “I did receive a call from Long Shadow’s sire, an American Indian whose name seems to be Hot Rain. I’m sure you remember Long Shadow.”
“I was just thinking of him,” I said.

Long Shadow had been the first bartender of Fangtasia. He’d been embezzling from Eric, who had coerced me into interrogating the barmaids and other human employees until I discovered the culprit. About two seconds before Long Shadow would have ripped out my throat, Eric had executed the bartender with the traditional wooden stake. Killing another vampire is a very serious thing, I gathered, and Eric had had to pay a stiff fine—to whom, I hadn’t known, though now I was sure the money had gone to Hot Rain. If Eric had killed Long Shadow without any justification, other penalties would have come into play. I was content to let those remain a mystery.

“What did Hot Rain want?” I said.
“To let me know that though I had paid him the price set by the arbitrator, he didn’t consider himself satisfied.”
“Did he want more money?”
“I don’t think so. He seemed to think financial recompense was not all he required.” Eric shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, the matter is settled.” Eric took a swallow of synthetic blood, leaned back in his chair, and looked at me with unreadable blue eyes. “And so is my little amnesia episode. The crisis is over, the witches are dead, and order is restored in my little piece of Louisiana. How have things been for you?”
“Well, I’m here on business,” I said, and I put my business face on.
“What can I do for you, my Sookie?” he asked.
“Sam wants to ask you for something,” I said.
“And he sends you to ask for it. Is he very clever or very stupid?” Eric asked himself out loud.
“Neither,” I said, trying not to sound snippy. “He’s very leg-broken. That is to say, he got his leg broken last night. He got shot.”
“How did this come about?” Eric’s attention sharpened.

I explained. I shivered a little when I told him Sam and I had been alone, how silent the night had been.

“Arlene was just out of the parking lot. She went on home without knowing a thing. The new cook, Sweetie—she’d just left, too. Someone shot him from the trees north of the parking lot.” I shivered again, this time with fear.
“How close were you?”
“Oh,” I said, and my voice shook. “I was real close. I’d just turned to . . . then he was . . . There was blood all over.”
Eric’s face looked hard as marble. “What did you do?”
“Sam had his cell phone in his pocket, thank God, and I held one hand over the hole in his leg and I dialed nine-one-one with the other.”
“How is he?”
“Well.” I took a deep breath and tried to make myself still. “He’s pretty good, all things considered.” I’d put that quite calmly. I was proud. “But of course, he’s down for a while, and so much . . . so many odd things have been happening at the bar lately. . . . Our substitute bartender, he just can’t handle it for more than a couple of nights. Terry’s kind of damaged.”
“So what’s Sam’s request?”
“Sam wants to borrow a bartender from you until his leg heals.”
“Why’s he making this request of me, instead of the packmaster of Shreveport?” Shifters seldom got organized, but the city werewolves had. Eric was right: It would have been far more logical for Sam to make the request of Colonel Flood.
I looked down at my hands wrapped around the ginger ale glass. “Someone’s gunning for the shifters and Weres in Bon Temps,” I said. I kept my voice very low. I knew he would hear me through the music and the talk of the bar.

Just then a man lurched up to the booth, a young serviceman from Barksdale Air Force Base, which is a part of the Shreveport area. (I pigeonholed him instantly from his haircut, fitness, and his running buddies, who were more or less clones.) He rocked on his heels for a long moment, looking from me to Eric.

“Hey, you,” the young man said to me, poking my shoulder. I looked up at him, resigned to the inevitable. Some people court their own disaster, especially when they drink. This young man, with his buzz haircut and sturdy build, was far from home and determined to prove himself.

There’s not much I dislike more than being addressed as “Hey, you” and being poked with a finger. But I tried to present a pleasant face to the young man. He had a round face and round dark eyes, a small mouth and thick brown brows. He was wearing a clean knit shirt and pressed khakis. He was also primed for a confrontation.

“I don’t believe I know you,” I said gently, trying to defuse the situation.
“You shouldn’t be sitting with a vamp,” he said. “Human girls shouldn’t go with dead guys.”

How often had I heard that? I’d gotten an earful of this kind of crap when I’d been dating Bill Compton.

“You should go back over there to your friends, Dave. You don’t want your mama to get a phone call about you being killed in a bar fight in Louisiana. Especially not in a vampire bar, right?”
“How’d you know my name?” he asked slowly.
“Doesn’t make any difference, does it?”

From the corner of my eye, I could see that Eric was shaking his head. Mild deflection was not his way of dealing with intrusion. Abruptly, Dave began to simmer down.

“How’d you know about me?” he asked in a calmer voice.
“I have x-ray vision,” I said solemnly. “I can read your driver’s license in your pants.”
He began to smile. “Hey, can you see other stuff through my pants?”
I smiled back at him. “You’re a lucky man, Dave,” I said ambiguously. “Now, I’m actually here to talk business with this guy, so if you’d excuse us . . .”
“Okay. Sorry, I . . .”
“No problem at all,” I assured him. He went back to his friends, walking cocky. I was sure he’d give them a highly embellished account of the conversation.

Though everyone in the bar had tried to pretend they weren’t watching the incident, which had so much potential for some juicy violence, they had to scramble to look busy when Eric’s eyes swept the surrounding tables.

“You were starting to tell me something when we were so rudely interrupted,” he said. Without my asking, a barmaid came up and deposited a fresh drink in front of me, whisking my old glass away. Anyone sitting with Eric got the deluxe treatment.
“Yes. Sam isn’t the only shape-shifter who’s been shot in Bon Temps lately. Calvin Norris was shot in the chest a few days ago. He’s a werepanther. And Heather Kinman was shot before that. Heather was just nineteen, a werefox.”
Eric said, “I still don’t see why this is interesting.”
“Eric, she was killed.” He still looked inquiring.

I clenched my teeth together so I wouldn’t try to tell him what a nice girl Heather Kinman had been: She’d just graduated from high school and she was working at her first job as a clerk at Bon Temps Office Supplies. She’d been drinking a milkshake at the Sonic when she’d been shot. Today, the crime lab would be comparing the bullet that had shot Sam with the bullet that had killed Heather, and both of those with the bullet from Calvin’s chest. I assumed the bullets would match.

“I’m trying to explain to you why Sam doesn’t want to ask another shape-shifter or Were to step in to help,” I said through clenched teeth. “He thinks that might be putting him or her in danger. And there’s just not a local human who’s got the qualifications for the job. So he asked me to come to you.”
“When I stayed at your house, Sookie . . .”
I groaned. “Oh, Eric, give it a rest.”

It griped Eric’s butt that he couldn’t remember what had happened while he was cursed. “Someday I’ll remember,” he said almost sullenly.

When he remembered everything, he wouldn’t just recall the sex.
He’d also recall the woman who’d been waiting in my kitchen with a gun. He’d remember that he’d saved my life by taking the bullet meant for me. He’d remember that I’d shot her. He’d remember disposing of the body.

He’d realize that he had power over me forever.

He might also recall that he’d humbled himself enough to offer to abandon all his businesses and come to live with me.

The sex, he’d enjoy remembering. The power, he’d enjoy remembering. But somehow I didn’t think Eric would enjoy remembering that last bit.

“Yes,” I said quietly, looking down at my hands. “Someday, I expect you will remember.” WDED was playing an old Bob Seger song, “Night Moves.” I noticed Pam was twirling unself-consciously in her own dance, her unnaturally strong and limber body bending and twisting in ways human bodies couldn’t.

I’d like to see her dance to live vampire music. You ought to hear a vampire band. You’ll never forget that. They mostly play New Orleans and San Francisco, sometimes Savannah or Miami. But when I’d been dating Bill, he’d taken me to hear a group playing in Fangtasia for one night while making their way south to New Orleans. The lead singer of the vampire band—Renfield’s Masters, they’d called themselves—had wept tears of blood as he sang a ballad.

“Sam was clever to send you to ask me,” Eric said after a long pause. I had nothing to say to that. “I’ll spare someone.” I could feel my shoulders relax with relief. I focused on my hands and took a deep breath. When I glanced over at him, Eric was looking around the bar, considering the vampires present.

I’d met most of them in passing. Thalia had long black ringlets down her back and a profile that could best be described as classical. She had a heavy accent—Greek, I thought—and she also had a hasty temper. Indira was a tiny Indian vamp, complete with doe eyes and tikal; no one would take her seriously until things got out of hand. Maxwell Lee was an African-American investment banker. Though strong as any vampire, Maxwell tended to enjoy more cerebral pastimes than acting as a bouncer.

“What if I send Charles?” Eric sounded casual, but I knew him well enough to suspect he wasn’t.
“Or Pam,” I said. “Or anyone else who can keep their temper.” I watched Thalia crush a metal mug with her fingers to impress a human male who was trying to put the moves on her. He blanched and scurried back to his table. Some vampires enjoy human company, but Thalia was not one of them.
“Charles is the least temperamental vampire I’ve ever met, though I confess I don’t know him well. He’s been working here only two weeks.”
“You seem to be keeping him busy here.”
“I can spare him.” Eric gave me a haughty look that said quite clearly it was up to him to decide how busy he wanted to keep his employee.
“Um . . . okeydokey.” The patrons of Merlotte’s would like the pirate just fine, and Sam’s revenue would jump in consequence.
“Here are the terms,” Eric said, fixing me with his gaze. “Sam supplies unlimited blood for Charles and a secure place to stay. You might want to keep him in your house, as you did me.”
“And I might not,” I said indignantly. “I’m not running any hostel for traveling vampires.” Frank Sinatra began to croon “Strangers in the Night” in the background.
“Oh, of course, I forgot. But you were generously paid for my board.”
He’d touched on a sore spot. In fact, he’d poked it with a sharp stick. I flinched. “That was my brother’s idea,” I said. I saw Eric’s eyes flash, and I flushed all over. I’d just confirmed a suspicion he’d had. “But he was absolutely right,” I said with conviction. “Why should I have put a vampire up in my house without getting paid? After all, I needed the money.”
“Is the fifty thousand already gone?” Eric said very quietly. “Did Jason ask for a share of it?”
“None of your business,” I said, my voice exactly as sharp and indignant as I’d intended it to be. I’d given Jason only a fifth of it. He hadn’t exactly asked, either, though I had to admit to myself he’d clearly expected me to give him some. Since I needed it a lot worse, I’d kept more of it than I’d initially planned.
I had no health insurance. Jason, of course, was covered through the parish plan. I’d begun thinking, What if I was disabled? What if I broke my arm or had to have my appendix out? Not only would I not put in my hours at work, but I’d have hospital bills. And any stay in a hospital, in this day and age, is an expensive one. I’d incurred a few medical bills during the past year, and it had taken me a long, painful time to pay them off.

Now I was profoundly glad I’d had that twinge of caution. In the normal course of things, I don’t look real far ahead, because I’m used to living day to day. But Sam’s injury had opened my eyes. I’d been thinking of how badly I needed a new car—well, a newer secondhand one. I’d been thinking of how dingy the living room drapes were, how pleasant it would be to order new ones from JCPenney. It had even crossed my mind that it would be a lot of fun to buy a dress that wasn’t on sale. But I’d been shocked out of such frivolity when Sam had his leg broken.

As Connie the Corpse introduced the next song (“One of These Nights”), Eric examined my face. “I wish that I could read your mind as you can read the minds of others,” he said. “I wish very much that I could know what was going on in your head. I wish I knew why I cared what’s going on in that head.”
I gave him a lopsided smile. “I agree to the terms: free blood and lodging, though the lodging won’t necessarily be with me. What about the money?”
Eric smiled. “I’ll take my payment in kind. I like Sam owing me a favor.”

I called Sam with the cell phone he’d lent me. I explained.

Sam sounded resigned. “There’s a place in the bar the vamp can sleep. All right. Room and board, and a favor. When can he come?”

I relayed the question to Eric.

“Right now.” Eric beckoned to a human waitress, who was wearing the low-cut long black dress all the female human employees wore. (I’ll tell you something about vampires: They don’t like to wait tables. And they’re pretty poor at it, too. You won’t catch a vamp bussing tables, either. The vamps almost always hire humans to do the grubbier work at their establishments.) Eric told her to fetch Charles from behind the bar. She bowed, fist to her opposite shoulder, and said, “Yes, Master.”
Honestly, it just about made you sick.

Anyway, Charles leapt over the bar theatrically, and while patrons applauded, he made his way to Eric’s booth.

Bowing to me, he turned to Eric with an air of attentiveness that should have seemed subservient but instead seemed simply matter-of-fact
.
“This woman will tell you what to do. As long as she needs you, she is your master.” I just couldn’t decipher Charles Twining’s expression as he heard Eric’s directive. Lots of vampires simply wouldn’t agree to being at a human’s beck and call, no matter what their head honcho said.
“No, Eric!” I was shocked. “If you make him answerable to anyone, it should be Sam.”
“Sam sent you. I’m entrusting Charles’s direction to you.” Eric’s face closed down. I knew from experience that once Eric got that expression, there was no arguing with him.
I couldn’t see where this was going, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Let me get my coat, and I’ll be ready anytime it pleases you to leave,” Charles Twining said, bowing in a courtly and gracious way that made me feel like an idiot.

I made a strangled noise in acknowledgment, and though he was still in the down position, his patch-free eye rolled up to give me a wink. I smiled involuntarily and felt much better.

Over the music system, Connie the Corpse said, “Hey, you night listeners. Continuing ten in a row for us genuine deadheads, here’s a favorite.” Connie began playing “Here Comes the Night,” and Eric said, “Will you dance?”

I looked over at the little dance floor. It was empty. However, Eric had arranged for a bartender and bouncer for Sam as Sam had asked. I should be gracious. “Thank you,” I said politely, and slid out of the booth. Eric offered me his hand, I took it, and he put his other hand on my waist.

Despite the difference in our heights, we managed quite well. I pretended I didn’t know everyone in the bar was looking at us, and we glided along as if we knew what we were doing. I focused on Eric’s throat so I wouldn’t be looking up into his eyes.
When the dance was over, he said, “Holding you seems very familiar, Sookie.”

With a tremendous effort, I kept my eyes fixed on his Adam’s apple. I had a dreadful impulse to say, “You told me you loved me and would stay with me forever.”
“You wish,” I said briskly instead. I let go of his hand as quickly as I could and stepped away from his embrace. “By the way, have you ever run across a kind of mean-looking vampire named Mickey?”
Eric grabbed my hand again and squeezed it. I said, “Ow!” and he eased up.
“He was in here last week. Where have you seen Mickey?” he demanded.
“In Merlotte’s.” I was astonished at the effect my last-minute question had had on Eric. “What’s the deal?”
“What was he doing?”
“Drinking Red Stuff and sitting at a table with my friend Tara. You know, you saw her? At Club Dead, in Jackson?”
“When I saw her she was under the protection of Franklin Mott.”
“Well, they were dating. I can’t understand why he’d let her go out with Mickey. I hoped maybe Mickey was just there as her bodyguard or something.” I retrieved my coat from the booth. “So, what’s the bottom line on this guy?” I asked.
“Stay away from him. Don’t talk to him, don’t cross him, and don’t try to help your friend Tara. When he was here, Mickey talked mostly to Charles. Charles tells me he is a rogue. He’s capable of . . . things that are barbarous. Don’t go around Tara.”
I opened my hands, asking Eric to explain.
“He’ll do things the rest of us won’t,” Eric said.
I stared up at Eric, shocked and deeply worried. “I can’t just ignore her situation. I don’t have so many friends that I can afford to let one go down the drain.”
“If she’s involved with Mickey, she’s just meat on the hoof,” Eric said with a brutal simplicity. He took my coat from me and held it while I slid into it. His hands massaged my shoulders after I’d buttoned it.
“It fits well,” he said. It didn’t take a mind reader to guess that he didn’t want to say any more about Mickey.
“You got my thank-you note?”
“Of course. Very, ah, seemly.”

I nodded, hoping to indicate this was the end of the subject. But, of course, it wasn’t.

“I still wonder why your old coat had bloodstains on it,” Eric murmured, and my eyes flashed up to his. I cursed my carelessness once again. When he’d come back to thank me for keeping him, he’d roamed the house while I was busy until he’d come across the coat. “What did we do, Sookie? And to whom?”
“It was chicken blood. I killed a chicken and cooked it,” I lied. I’d seen my grandmother do that when I was little, many a time, but I’d never done it myself.
“Sookie, Sookie. My bullshit meter is reading that as a ‘false,’ ” Eric said, shaking his head in a chiding way.

I was so startled I laughed. It was a good note on which to leave. I could see Charles Twining standing by the front door, thoroughly modern padded jacket at the ready. “Good-bye, Eric, and thanks for the bartender,” I said, as if Eric had loaned me some AA batteries or a cup of rice. He bent and brushed my cheek with his cool lips.

“Drive safely,” he said. “And stay away from Mickey. I need to find out why he’s in my territory. Call me if you have any problems with Charles.” (If the batteries are defective, or if the rice is full of worms.) Beyond him I could see the same woman was still sitting at the bar, the one who’d remarked that I was no maiden. She was obviously wondering what I had done to secure the attention of a vampire as ancient and attractive as Eric.

I often wondered the same thing.