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Luckily for et ht!" over my shoulder and hared out the back door to my car When I parked behind the house, I noticed Claude&039;s car wasn&039;t there So he was probably still in Monroe, which sie clothes and freshen my makeup, and just as I put on so especially Paht and shining, her pale blue suit looked like a vintage ge hose with seams up the back, which she turned around to show me

"Wow," I said, which was the only possible response "You&039;re looking great" She put my red skirt and red and white blouse to shame

"Yes," she said with considerable satisfaction "I am Ah " She became utterly still "Do I smell fairy?"

"You do, but there&039;s not one here now, so just rein it in My cousin Claude was here today He&039;s going to be bunking with ly beautiful asshole?"

Claude&039;s fa with you?"

"He&039;s lonely," I said

"Do you really believe that?" Pam&039;s pale broere arched incredulously

"Wellyes, I do" Why else would Claude want to stay at my house, which was not convenient to his job? He certainly didn&039;t want to get in my pants, and he hadn&039;t asked to borrow ue," Pa called a fool Pam had stepped over the line, but then "tact" was not her h," I said I must have sounded serious, because she stared at me for all of fifteen seconds

"I&039;ve offended you," she said, though not as if the idea gave her pain

"Yeah, you have Claude&039;shis sisters There aren&039;t any fairies left for hiue with since Niall closed the portal, or doors, or whatever the heck he closed I&039;ot to his kind - which is pretty pitiful, since I just have a dab of fairy in "

Changing the subject when she had nothing left to say was another of Pam&039;s characteristics I had to so?" I asked

"It would be a good thing if Victor met with an unfortunate accident"

"You really mean that?"

"No I really wish soave me a brisk nod We were in synch on the Victor issue

"I suspect his every statement," she said "I question his every decision I think he&039;s out to take Eric&039;s position He doesn&039;t want to be the king&039;s eer He wants to carve out his own territory"

I pictured a fur-clad Victor paddling a canoe down the Red River with an Indian ot into Pam&039;s car, she looked at me darkly

"I don&039;t understand you," she said "I really don&039;t" We went out to Hu a sheriff in Louisiana be a step above being the edoround

" &039;Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,&039; " Pa someone, but I didn&039;t have a clue who it was

"Louisiana is hell? Las Vegas is heaven?" I could almost believe some cosmopolitan vampire would consider Louisiana as less than desirable as a peras - divine? I didn&039;t think so

"I&039;et out fro time Victor is ambitious"

"That&039;s true What do you think Victor&039;s strategy is? How do you think he plans to dislodge Eric?"

"He&039;ll try to discredit hi a beat She&039;d really been thinking about this "If Victor can&039;t do that, he&039;ll try to kill Eric - but he won&039;t do it directly, in co Eric?"

"Yes," Pa "I do believe he is" We&039;d reached the interstate and were on our est to Shreveport "If he challenged Eric, it would be Eric&039;s right to send leaht

"Does Victor have a second? Wouldn&039;t he send that second in?"

Pa about it as she passed a seht Eric surrendered to Nevada," she said "Short beard, an earring? If Eric allowed ht send in Bruno He&039;s irant you But I would kill him in five minutes or less You can put money on that"

Pa lady with a secret wild streak, had been liberated by beco a vampire I had never asked Eric why he&039;d chosen Pae, but I was convinced it was because Eric had detected her inner ferocity

On an impulse, I said, "Pam? Do you ever wonder ould have happened to you if you hadn&039;tsilence, or at least it seery or sad about her lost chance for a husband and children I wondered if she was looking back with longing on her sexual relationship with her maker, Eric, which (like , but had surely been very intense

Finally, just when I was going to apologize for asking, Paht from the dashboard illuminated her perfectly symmetrical face "I would have been a dismal wife, a terriblethe throats of my enemies would have surfaced if I&039;d remained human I wouldn&039;t have killed anyone, I suppose, because that wasn&039;t on s I could do, when I was human But I would have made my family very reat va else to say

She nodded "Yes I aain until we reached Eric&039;s house Oddly enough, he&039;d bought a place in a gated co code Eric liked the daytiuard And he liked the fieldstone house There weren&039;t too many baseh, but Eric&039;s house was on a slope Originally, its downstairs was a walk-in from the back patio Eric had had that door pulled out and the wall reat place to sleep

Until we&039;d become blood bonded, I&039;d never been to Eric&039;s house

So so closely yoked with Eric, and soh I could scarcely believe it, the sex was even better now that I&039;d recovered, at least in large part, from the attack At thisbecause I was near hie-door opener, and she pressed it now The door swung up to reveal Eric&039;s car Other than the gleas of grass seed or half-e boots Eric didn&039;t need any of those accoutreidly planted and mulched flower beds - but a lawn-care service trirass there, pruned every bush, raked every leaf

Pae door once ere inside The kitchen door was locked, and she used a key so we could pass froely useless to a vaerator is necessary for the synthetic blood, and a microwave is handy to heat it to rooht a coffeemaker for me, and he kept some food in the freezer for whatever human was in the house Lately, that huh the door Pam and I took off our shoes, which was one of Eric&039;s house rules

"Oh, go get your greeting over with!" Paot some TrueBlood and some Life Support to put away"

I passed fro roo rooh it wasn&039;t often reflected in his clothing, Eric harbored a love of deep colors The first ti room had surprised the hell out ofand baseboards a pure, glea white The furniture was an eclectic collection of pieces that had appealed to him, all upholstered in jewel tones, some intricately patterned - deep red, blue, the yellow of citrine, the greens of jade and e : heavy, sturdy, and streith pillows

Eric came out of the doorway to his home office When I saw him, every hormone I had stood to attention He&039;s very tall, his hair is long and golden, and his eyes are so blue the color practically pops out of the whiteness of his face, a face that is bold andepicene about Eric He wears jeans and T-shirts, ood thing when Eric decided his talents lay in building a business eht he was shirtless, sparse dark gold hair trailing down to the waist of his jeans and glea out his hands and s start, and leaped Eric caught me, his hands clamped aroundThen he lowered s around his torso,irl Ti ave hi," he said "Do you want Paured he&039;d tell her anyway

The two vampires sat at opposite ends of the dark red couch, and I sat across froold and red love seat In front of the couch was a very large square coffee table with inlaid ork on the top and elaborately carved legs The table was scattered with things Eric had been enjoying recently: the s that he&039;d been asked to endorse, a heavy jade cigarette lighter (though he didn&039;t smoke), and a beautiful silver boith a deep blue ena My own house was kind ofcu in it but the kitchen cabinets and appliances - but my house was the history of my family Eric&039;s house was the history of Eric

I brushed a finger across the inlaid wood "Day before yesterday," I began, "I got a call fro that the two vampires had a reaction to iven to extravagant expressions), but it was definitely there Eric leaned forward, invitingthe Tooth pack, including Basim and Annabelle

"I&039;ve seen this Basim," Patasia one night with another Were, another new onethat Annabelle, the brown-haired woh I&039;d suspected asto ht

Eric raised an eyebrow "Not what you thought Alcide would pick, my lover?"

"I liked Maria-Star," I said Like so many other people I&039;d irlfriend had rieved for her

"But before that, he had long associated with Debbie Pelt," Eric said, and I had to struggle to control my face "You can see that Alcide&039;s catholic in his pleasures," Eric continued "He carried the torch for you, didn&039;t he?" Eric&039;s slight accent made the out talent, to a sweet photographer, to a tough girl who doesn&039;ta vampire bar Alcide has very variable taste in woether before

"He sent Annabelle and Basi the newspapers lately?" Pa the papers"

"Congress is thinking of passing a bill requiring all the olves and shifters to register Legislation and issues regarding them would then fall under the Bureau of Va to us, the undead, do now" Pariht!" Then I understood how that would sound - as if I thought it was okay to require the vaister, but Weres and shifters shouldn&039;t have to Thank God I didn&039;t open ly, the Weres are furious about this In fact, Alcide has told overn that they would then give soress who are considering this bill He doesn&039;t believe it&039;s only his pack that&039;s being singled out Alcide has good sense" Eric sounded approving "But he believes he&039;s being watched"

Now I understood why Alcide had been so concerned about the people ca on his land He&039;d suspected they weren&039;t what they appeared to be

"It would be awful to think your own govern on you," I said "Especially after you&039;d been thinking of yourself as a regular citizen your entire life" The enorislation was still sinking in Instead of being a respected and wealthy citizen in Shreveport, Alcide (and the other al aliens "Where would they have to register? Could the kids still go to school with all the other children? What about the men and women at Barksdale Air Force Base? After all these years! Do you think the bill really has a chance of passing?"

Pam said, "The Weres believe it does Maybe it&039;s paranoia Maybe they&039;ve heard soress who are two-natured Maybe they know so we don&039;t know Alcide sent this Annabelle and Basiht be in the same boat with us soon They wanted to know about the area representative for the BVA, what kind of woman she is, how they could deal with her"

"Who is the rep?" I asked I felt ignorant and ill-informed Obviously I should have known this, since I was intimately involved with a vampire

"Katherine Boudreaux," Pam said "She likes worin "She also loves dogs She has a steady lover, Sallie, who shares her house Katherine is not interested in having a side affair, and she is unbribable"

"You&039;ve tried, I take it"

"I tried to interest her sexually Bobby Burnham tried the bribe" Bobby was Eric&039;s daytime man We disliked each other intensely

I took a deep breath "Well, I&039;lad to know all this, but my real problem ca at reat attention, all of a sudden "You let the Weres use your property for their monthly run?"

"Well, yeah Ha out on the Herveaux land, and now that I&039;ve heard what Alcide&039;s told you - and I&039; why he didn&039;t tell me all this - I can see why he didn&039;t want to have a run on his own land I guess he thought the caency be called?" I asked It wouldn&039;t be BVA, would it? If the BVA was still only "representing" varess proposes it be called the Bureau of Vampire and Supernatural Affairs"

"Get back to your issues, my lover," Eric said

"Okeydokey Well, when they were leaving, Basim came to the front door and told me he&039;d s through my land And my cousin Claude says he wasn&039;t the fairy"

There was a ," Eric said

"Very odd," Paers over the manuscript on the coffee table as if it could tell hi around my property "I don&039;t know the credentials of this Basim, except that he was thrown out of the pack in Houston and Alcide took him in I don&039;t knohy he was expelled I expect it was for some disruption We&039;ll check on what Basiirl, Heidi, says she&039;s a tracker"

"You got a new vamp?" I asked

"This is one sent us by Victor" Eric&039;s ri the state with a tight hand He sent Sandy, as supposed to be the liaison, back to Nevada I suspect Victor thought he didn&039;t have enough control over her"

"How can he get New Orleans up and running if he travels around the state asBruno Brazell in charge," Pam said "I think Bruno pretends Victor is in New Orleans, even when Victor isn&039;t The rest of Victor&039;s people don&039;t knohere he is half the time Since he killed off all the New Orleans vampires he could find, we&039;ve had to rely on the information of our one spy who survived the massacre"

Of course I wanted to veer off and discuss the spy - ould be that brave and reckless, to spy for Eric in the bailiwick of his enemy? But I had to stick to the main subject, which was the sneakiness of Louisiana&039;s new regent head honcho "So Victor likes to be in the trenches," I said, and Eric and Pam looked at rasp of the vernacular "He likes to see for himself and do for himself, rather than rely on the chain of command," I explained

"Yes," Pam said "And the chain of command can be quite heavy and literal, under Victor"

"Pa about Victor on the drive over here I wonder why Felipe de Castro chose Victor to be his representative in Louisiana?" Victor had actually seemed okay the two times I&039;d met him face-to-face, which only went to show that you can&039;t judge a vaood ht about that," Eric said, stretching his long legs out in front of his looked spread wide on crumpled sheets, and I forced ave ) before he continued "One is that Felipe wants Victor as far away as he can get hi chunk of red meat, he won&039;t be tempted to try to snatch the whole steak"

"While others of us," Pam said, "think that Felipe simply appointed Victor because Victor is very efficient That Victor&039;s devotion to Felipe is possibly sincere"

"If the first theory is correct," Eric said, "there isn&039;t perfect trust between Felipe and Victor"

"If the second theory is correct," Paainst Victor, Felipe will kill us all"

"I&039; from First Theory (shirtless with blue jeans) to Second Theory (cute vintage suit) "I hate to sound really selfish, but the first thought that popped into my mind is this Since Victor wouldn&039;t let you come to help me when I needed you - and incidentally I know that I owe you big-ti the promise, huh? Felipe promised ht to have, because I saved his life, right?"