Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set (42 page)

“Well, as to that, who knows?” Pam shrugged. “I meant to pay you a compliment. You must be a modest woman.” She got up and opened a closet door. There were shirts hanging inside; an extra store for Eric, I assumed. Pam pulled one off a hanger and tossed it to me. I reached up to catch it and had to admit that movement was comparatively easy.

“Pam, is there a shower here?” I hated to pull the pristine white shirt over my grimy self.

“Yes, in the storeroom. By the employees’ bathroom.”

It was extremely basic, but it was a shower with soap and a towel. You had to step right out into the storeroom, which was probably just fine with the vampires, since modesty is not a big issue with them. When Pam agreed to guard the door, I enlisted her help in pulling off the jeans and shucking my shoes and socks. She enjoyed the process a little too much.

It was the best shower I’d ever had.

I had to move slowly and carefully. I found I was as shaky as though I’d passed through a grave illness, like pneumonia or a virulent strain of the flu. And I guess I had. Pam opened the door enough to pass me some underwear, which was a pleasant surprise, at least until I dried myself and prepared to struggle into it. The underpants were so tiny and lacy they hardly deserved to be called panties. At least they were white. I knew I was better when I caught myself wishing I could see how I looked in a mirror. The underpants and the white shirt were the only garments I could bear to put on. I came out barefoot, to find that Pam had rolled up the jeans and everything else and stuffed them in a plastic bag so I could get them home to the wash. My tan looked extremely brown against the white of the snowy shirt. I walked very slowly back to Eric’s office and fished in my purse for my brush. As I began to try to work through the tangles, Bill came in and took the brush from my hand.

“Let me do that, darling,” he said tenderly. “How are you? Slide off the shirt, so I can check your back.” I did anxiously hoping there weren’t cameras in the office—though from Pam’s account, I might as well relax.

“How does it look?” I asked him over my shoulder.

Bill said briefly, “There will be marks.”

“I figured.” Better on my back than on my front. And being scarred was better than being dead.

I slipped the shirt back on, and Bill began working on my hair, a favorite thing for him. I grew tired very quickly and sat in Eric’s chair while Bill stood behind me.

“So why did the maenad pick me?”

“She would have been waiting for the first vampire to come through. That I had you with me—so much easier to hurt—that was a bonus.”

“Did she cause our fight?”

“No, I think that was just chance. I still don’t understand why you got so angry.”

“I’m too tired to explain, Bill. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, okay?”

Eric came in, along with a vampire I knew must be Chow. Right away I could see why Chow would bring in customers. He was the first Asian vampire I’d seen, and he was extremely handsome. He was also covered—at least the parts I could see—with that intricate tattooing that I’d heard members of the Yakuza favored. Whether Chow had been a gangster when he was human or not, he was certainly sinister now. Pam slid through the door after another minute had passed, saying, “All locked up. Dr. Ludwig left, too.”

So Fangtasia had closed its doors for the night. It must be two in the morning, then. Bill continued to brush my hair, and I sat in the office chair with my hands on my thighs, acutely conscious of my inadequate clothing. Though, come to think of it, Eric was so tall his shirt covered as much of me as some of my short sets. I guess it was the French-cut bikini panties underneath that made me so embarrassed. Also, no bra. Since God was generous with me in the bosom department, there’s no mistaking when I leave off a bra.

But no matter if my clothes showed more of me than I wanted, no matter if all of these people had seen even more of my boobs than they could discern now, I had to mind my manners.

“Thank you all for saving my life,” I said. I didn’t succeed in sounding warm, but I hope they could tell I was sincere.

“It was truly my pleasure,” said Chow, with an unmistakable leer in his voice. He had a trace of an accent, but I don’t have enough experience with the different characteristics of the many strains of Asians to tell you where he came from originally. I am sure “Chow” was not his complete name, either, but it was all the other vampires called him. “It would have been perfect, without the poison.”

I could feel Bill tense behind me. He laid his hands on my shoulders, and I reached up to put my fingers over his.

Eric said, “It was worth ingesting the poison.” He held his fingers to his lips and kissed them, as if praising the bouquet of my blood. Ick.

Pam smiled. “Any time, Sookie.”

Oh, just fantastic. “You, too, Bill,” I said, leaning my head back against him.

“It was my privilege,” he said, controlling his temper with an effort.

“You two had a fight before Sookie’s encounter with the maenad?” Eric asked. “Is that what I heard Sookie say?”

“That’s our business,” I snapped, and the three vampires smiled at each other. I didn’t like that one bit. “By the way, why did you want us to come over here tonight, anyway?” I asked, hoping to get off of the topic of Bill and me.

“You remember your promise to me, Sookie? That you would use your mental ability to help me out, as long as I let the humans involved live?”

“Of course I remember.” I am not one to forget a promise, especially one made to a vampire.

“Since Bill has been appointed investigator of Area 5, we have not had a lot of mysteries. But Area 6, in Texas, has need of your special asset. So we have loaned you out.”

I realized I’d been rented, like a chainsaw or backhoe. I wondered if the vampires of Dallas had had to put down a deposit against damage.

“I won’t go without Bill.” I looked Eric steadily in the eye. Bill’s fingers gave me a little squeeze, so I knew I’d said the right thing.

“He’ll be there. We drove a hard bargain,” Eric said, smiling broadly. The effect was really disconcerting, because he was happy about something, and his fangs were out. “We were afraid they might keep you, or kill you, so an escort was part of our deal all along. And who better than Bill? If anything should render Bill incapable of guarding you, we will send another escort right out. And the vampires of Dallas have agreed to providing a car and chauffeur, lodgings and meals, and of course, a nice fee. Bill will get a percentage of that.”

When I’d be doing the work? “You must work out your financial arrangement with Bill,” Eric said smoothly. “I am sure he will at least recompense you for your time away from your bar job.”

Had Ann Landers ever covered “When Your Date Becomes Your Manager”?

“Why a maenad?” I asked, startling all of them. I hoped I was pronouncing the word correctly. “Naiads are water and dryads are trees, right? So why a maenad, out there in the woods? Weren’t maenads just women driven mad by the god Bacchus?”

“Sookie, you have unexpected depths,” Eric said, after an appreciable pause. I didn’t tell him I’d learned that from reading a mystery. Let him think I read ancient Greek literature in the original language. It couldn’t hurt.

Chow said, “The god entered some women so completely that they became immortal, or very close to it. Bacchus was the god of the grape, of course, so bars are very interesting to maenads. In fact, so interesting that they don’t like other creatures of the darkness becoming involved. Maenads consider that the violence sparked by the consumption of alcohol belongs to them; that’s what they feed off, now that no one formally worships their god. And they are attracted to pride.”

That rang a chime. Hadn’t Bill and I both been feeling our pride, tonight?

“We had only heard rumors one was in the area,” Eric said. “Until Bill brought you in.”

“So what was she warning you of? What does she want?”

“Tribute,” Pam said. “We think.”

“What kind?”

Pam shrugged. It seemed that was the only answer I was going to get.

“Or what?” I asked. Again with the stares. I gave a deep sigh of exasperation. “What’s she gonna do if you don’t pay her tribute?”

“Send her madness.” Bill sounded worried.

“Into the bar? Merlotte’s?” Though there were plenty of bars in the area.

The vampires eyed each other.

“Or into one of us,” Chow said. “It has happened. The Halloween massacre of 1876, in St. Petersburg.”

They all nodded solemnly. “I was there,” Eric said. “It took twenty of us to clean up. And we had to stake Gregory, it took all of us to do that. The maenad, Phryne, received tribute after that, you can be sure.”

For the vampires to stake one of their own, things had to be pretty serious. Eric had staked a vampire who had stolen from him, and Bill had told me Eric had had to pay a severe penalty. Who to, Bill hadn’t said, and I hadn’t asked. There were some things I could live quite well without knowing.

“So you’ll give a tribute to this maenad?”

They were exchanging thoughts on this, I could tell. “Yes,” Eric said. “It is better if we do.”

“I guess maenads are pretty hard to kill,” Bill said, a question in his voice.

Eric shuddered. “Oh, yes,” he said. “Oh, yes.”

 

D
URING OUR RIDE back to Bon Temps, Bill and I were silent. I had a lot of questions about the evening, but I was tired from my bones out to my skin.

“Sam should know about this,” I said, as we stopped at my house.

Bill came around to open my door. “Why, Sookie?” He took my hand to pull me from the car, knowing that I could barely walk.

“Because . . .” and then I stopped dead. Bill knew Sam was supernatural, but I didn’t want to remind him. Sam owned a bar, and we had been closer to Bon Temps than Shreveport when the maenad had interfered.

“He owns a bar, but he should be all right,” Bill said reasonably. “Besides, the maenad said the message was for Eric.”

That was true.

“You think too much about Sam to suit me,” Bill said, and I gaped up at him.

“You’re jealous?” Bill was very wary when other vampires seemed to be admiring me, but I’d assumed that was just territorial. I didn’t know how to feel about this new development. I’d never had anyone feel jealous of my attentions before.

Bill didn’t answer, in a very snitty way.

“Hmmm,” I said thoughtfully. “Well, well, well.” I was smiling to myself as Bill helped me up the steps and through the old house, into my room; the room my grandmother had slept in for so many years. Now the walls were painted pale yellow, the woodwork was off-white, the curtains were off-white with bright flowers scattered over them. The bed had a matching cover.

I went into the bathroom for a moment to brush my teeth and take care of necessities, and came out still in Eric’s shirt.

“Take it off,” Bill said.

“Look, Bill, normally I’d be hot to trot, but tonight—”

“I just hate to see you in his shirt.”

Well, well,
well.
I could get used to this. On the other hand, if he carried it to extremes, it could be a nuisance.

“Oh, all right,” I said, making a sigh he could hear from yards away. “I guess I’ll just have to take this ole shirt off.” I unbuttoned it slowly, knowing Bill’s eyes were watching my hands move down the buttons, pulling the shirt apart a little more each time. Finally, I doffed it and stood there in Pam’s white underwear.

“Oh,” Bill breathed, and that was tribute enough for me. Maenads be damned, just seeing Bill’s face made me feel like a goddess.

Maybe I’d go to Foxy Femme Lingerie in Ruston my next day off. Or maybe Bill’s newly acquired clothing store carried lingerie?

 

E
XPLAINING TO SAM that I needed to go to Dallas wasn’t easy. Sam had been wonderful to me when I’d lost my grandmother, and I counted him as a good friend, a great boss, and (every now and then) a sexual fantasy. I just told Sam that I was taking a little vacation; God knows, I’d never asked for one before. But he pretty much had figured out what the deal was. Sam didn’t like it. His brilliant blue eyes looked hot and his face stony, and even his red-blond hair seemed to sizzle. Though he practically muzzled himself to keep from saying so, Sam obviously thought Bill should not have agreed to my going. But Sam didn’t know all the circumstances of my dealings with the vampires, just as only Bill, of the vampires I knew, realized that Sam was a shapeshifter. And I tried not to remind Bill. I didn’t want Bill thinking about Sam any more than he already did. Bill might decide Sam was an enemy, and I definitely didn’t want Bill to do that. Bill is a really bad enemy to have.

I am good at keeping secrets and keeping my face blank, after years of reading unwanted items out of peoples’ minds. But I have to confess that compartmentalizing Bill and Sam took a lot of energy.

Sam had leaned back in his chair after he’d agreed to give me the time off, his wiry build hidden by a big kingfisher-blue Merlotte’s Bar tee shirt. His jeans were old but clean, and his boots were heavy-soled and ancient. I was sitting on the edge of the visitor’s chair in front of Sam’s desk, the office door shut behind me. I knew no one could be standing outside the door listening; after all, the bar was as noisy as usual, with the jukebox wailing a zydeco tune and the bellowing of people who’d had a few drinks. But still, when you talked about something like the maenad, you wanted to lower your voice, and I leaned across the desk.

Sam automatically mimicked my posture, and I put my hand on his arm and said in a whisper, “Sam, there’s a maenad out by the Shreveport road.” Sam’s face went blank for a long second before he whooped with laughter.

Sam didn’t get over his convulsions for at least three minutes, during which time I got pretty mad. “I’m sorry,” he kept saying, and off he’d go again. You know how irritating that can be when you’re the one who triggered it? He came around the desk, still trying to smother his chuckles. I stood because he was standing, but I was fuming. He grasped my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Sookie,” he repeated. “I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard they’re nasty. Why does this concern you? The maenad, that is.”