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There was a significant pause while Eric and Pam considered my question

"I think Victor will do his best not to openly cause you har in his own right," Paship, all pro" Eric nodded in agreereat" I probably sounded petulant and selfish, because that was the way I felt

"This is all assu we don&039;t find a way to kill hithat creeped reed that Victor should die, about the three of us talking abouthim

"And you think this Heidi, who&039;s supposed to be such a great tracker, is here in Shreveport to be Victor&039;s eyes and ears?" I said briskly, trying to throw off the chill that had fallen on me

"Yes," said Pam "Unless she&039;s here to be Felipe&039;s eyes and ears, so Felipe can keep track of what Victor is doing in Louisiana" She had that oet her vaame on You did not want Pam to look that hen your name entered the conversation If I were Heidi, I would take care to keep my nose clean

"Heidi," which conjured up braids and full skirts in ination, seemed like a very perky na Tooth pack&039;s warning?" I said, to bring the discussion back to the original proble to send Heidi to my place to try to track the fairy? I have to tell you so else Basim scented a body, not a fresh one, buried very deep at the back of my property"

"Oh," Eric said "Whoops" Eric turned to Pah the kitchen I heard the back door shut

Eric said, "I&039;m sorry, my lover Unless you&039;ve buried someone else on your property and kept it from me, that body is Debbie Pelt&039;s"

That hat I&039;d been afraid of "Is the car back there, too?"

"No, the car is sunk in a pond about ten miles south of your place"

That was a relief "Well, at least it was a ho found it," I said "I guess we don&039;t have to worry about it, unless Alcide can identify her scent They won&039;t go digging the body up It&039;s none of their doings" Debbie had been Alcide&039;s ex-girlfriend when I&039;d had theout the story, but she&039;d tried to kill st of her death Eric had been with ht mind And that&039;s yet another story

"Come here," Eric said His face held lad to see it because I didn&039;t want to think too iveeye

"I think you know very hat I will give you I think you love ive it to you"

"Soyou don&039;t enjoy it at all?"

Before I could blink he was on his knees in front ofin to kiss me "I think you kno I feel," he said, in a whisper "We are bonded Can you believe I&039; of you while I work? When ers got busy, and I gasped This was direct, even for Eric "Do you lovemine

This was a little difficult to answer, especially considering what his fingers were doing "I love being with you, whether we&039;re having sex or not Oh, God, do that again! I love your body I love e do together You h, and I love that I like to watch you do anything" I kissed hiet dressed I like to watch you undress I like to watch your hands when you&039;re doing this to me Oh!" I shuddered all over with pleasure When I&039;d had a moment of recovery, I murmured, "If I asked you the same question, ould your answer be?"

"I would say exactly the sa," Eric said "And I think that means I love you If this is not true love, it&039;s as close as anyone gets Can you see what you&039;ve done to me?" He didn&039;t really have to point It was pretty damn obvious

"That looks painful Would you like e

In reply, he sirowled We switched places in an instant I knelt in front of Eric, and his hands rested on uy, and this was a part of our sex life that I&039;d had to work on But I thought I was getting pretty good at it, and he seehtened in my hair after a o and gripped the couch instead He growled, deep in his throat "Faster," he said "No!" He shut his eyes and his head fell back, his hands opening and closing spas that power over hi in an ancient language, and his back arched, and I ave me

And all this with h love for you?" he asked, his voice slow and dreamy

I climbed into his lap and woundNow that I had recoveredafter a session with Eric; but this was h it azine" to ad each other, Eric told er at the bar, and we laughed about it I told hibird Road hile the parish was patching it I suppose this is the kind of thing you talk about with soure they&039;ll care about trivial topics, since those things are important to you

Unfortunately, I knew that Eric had ht, so I told hio back to Bon Te while he worked It&039;s not easy to arrange alone ti the hours of darkness

He gave me a kiss to reht after next," he said "She&039;ll verify what Basim says he smelled in the woods Let me know if you hear from Alcide"

When Pa The rain put a little chill in the air, and I turned the heat on low in Pam&039;s car It wouldn&039;t make any difference to her We drove for a while in silence, each lost in our own thoughts I watched the windshield wipers fan back and forth

Pa with you" "Oh, gosh!" I put my hand over my eyes "No, I didn&039;t There was so ot"

"You realize Eric won&039;t like anotherin the same house with his woay"

"But very beautiful and a stripper" Pa Pa

"You can strip all you want to - if you don&039;t like the person you&039;re looking at while you&039;re naked, it&039;s not going to happen," I said tartly

"I kind of understand that sentence," she said, after asuch an attractive ood, Sookie"

"You&039;re kidding ay Not only does he like men, he likes men with beard stubble and oil stains on their blue jeans"

"What does that uys ith their hands Or their fists"

"Oh Interesting" Pam still had an air of disapproval She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Eric hasn&039;t had anyone like you in a long, long tih to keep on course, but you have to consider his responsibilities This is a perilous ti since Sophie-Anneto Eric, since he&039;s the only surviving sheriff froo down If Victor succeeds in discrediting Eric or so into his base here in Shreveport, we&039;ll all die"

I hadn&039;t put the situation to myself in terms that dire Eric hadn&039;t spelled it out tonu in front of you, Sookie Truly, Eric&039;s a great vampire, and very practical But he isn&039;t practical nowadays - not when it co you don&039;t think Eric and I should see each other anylad that vampireI was used to knowingand feeling, rather than wondering if I was right

"No, not exactly" Pahtful "I would hate to see hiht "But if he&039;s worried about you, he won&039;t react the same as he would - as he should "

"If I weren&039;t in the picture"

Pa for a while Then she said, "I think the only reason Victor hasn&039;t abducted you to hold you over Eric is because Ericto cover his ass by doing everything by the book He isn&039;t ready to rebel against Felipe openly He&039;ll still try to show justification for whatever he does He&039;s walking on thin ice with Felipe right now because he alet killed"

"Maybe Felipe will do the job for us," I said

Pahtful "That would be ideal," she said "But we&039;ll have to wait for it Felipe&039;s not going to do anything rash when it co a lieutenant of his That would make his other lieutenants uneasy and uncertain"

I shook my head "That&039;s too bad I don&039;t think it would bother Felipe very much at all to kill Victor"

"And it would bother you, Sookie?"

"Yes It would bother ht to

"So if you could do it in a rush of rage when Victor was attacking you, that would be far preferable to planning a way to kill hiht back effectively?"

Okay, put like that my attitude didn&039;tto kill so so about the circumstances was ridiculous

"It shouldn&039;t make a difference," I said quietly "But it does Victor has to go, though"

"You&039;ve changed," Pam said, after a little silence She didn&039;t sound surprised or horrified or disgusted For that h she&039;d realized I&039;d altered my hairstyle

"Yes," I said We watched the rain pour down some more

Suddenly, Pam said, "Look!" There was a sleek white car parked on the shoulder of the interstate I didn&039;t understand why Paainst the car had his arms crossed over his chest in an attitude of total nonchalance, despite the rain

As we drew abreast of the car, a Lexus, the figure waved a languid hand at us We were being flagged down

"Shit," Pam said "That&039;s Bruno Brazell We have to stop" She pulled over to the shoulder and stopped in front of the car "And Corinna," she said, sounding bitter I glanced in the side otten out of the Lexus

"They&039;re here to kill us," Pam said quietly "I can&039;t kill the to try to kill us?" I was really, really scared

"That&039;s the only reason I can think of that Victor would send two people on a one-person errand," she said She sounded cal much faster than I was "Showtime! If the peace can be kept, we need to keep it, at least for now Here" She pressed so into er"

I reray skin and the sloay he ry with er froet out, huh?" I said I tried to smile "Okay, showtime"

"Sookie, be brave and ruthless," Paht I sent a last waft of love toward Eric by way of good-bye while I was sticking the dagger through ot out of the car into the pelting darkness, holding my hands out to show they were empty

I was drenched in seconds I shovedin hts were on, it was very dark The only other light cahts frohtly lit truck stop a mile away Otherwise, ere nowhere, an anonymous stretch of divided interstate oods on either side The vampires could see a lot better than I could But I knehere everyone was because I cast out that other sense of ister as holes to ative tracking

No one spoke, and the only noise was the pelting of the rain dru vehicle "Hi, Bruno," I called, and I sounded perky in a crazy way "Who&039;s your buddy?"

I walked over to hi west If the driver caught a glih two Good Samaritans had stopped to help some people with car trouble Humans see what they want to seewhat they expect to see

Now that I was closer to Bruno, I could tell that his short brown hair was plastered to his head I&039;d seen Bruno only once before, and he earing the saht he&039;d been standing in my front yard ready to move in and burn down uy in the same way I&039;m a perky kind of woman It was a fallback position

"Hello, Miss Stackhouse," Bruno said He wasn&039;t any taller than me, but he was a burly man The vaht Corinna was - had been - African-A off the tips of her intricately braided hair The beads worked into the braids clicked together, a sound I could just pick up under the dru of the rain She was thin and tall, and she&039;d added to her height with three-inch heels Though she earing a dress that had probably been very expensive, her whole ense it had taken She looked like a very elegant drowned rat

Since I was al

"You got a flat tire or soine what else you&039;d be doing out here in thefor you, bitch"

I wasn&039;t sure where Pam was, and I couldn&039;t spare the brainpower to search for her "Language, Bruno! I don&039;t think you knoell enough to callEric&039;s house"

"We do Whenyou two leaving together, it sees"

Corinna hadn&039;t spoken still, but she was looking around her warily, and I realized she didn&039;t knohere Parinned "For the life ofall this It seelad to have so for him Why can&039;t he appreciate that?" And leave us alone

Bruno took a step closer to ht was too poor for me toserious I thought it was strange when Bruno took the tiood "Eric is a great vampire But Eric will never bow to Victor, not really And he&039;s accu his oer at a pace that reat-grandfather may have sealed himself away, but who&039;s to say he won&039;t come back? And Eric can use your stupid ability whenever he chooses Victor doesn&039;t want Eric to have that advantage" And then Bruno had his hands around my neck He&039;d moved so quickly I couldn&039;t possibly react, and I knew vaguely over the pounding inon to my left I reached behind me to pull the knife, but ere suddenly down in the tall, wet grass at the edge of the shoulder, and I kicked et on top I kind of overdid it, because we began rolling down into the drainage ditch That was a pity, because it was filling ater Bruno couldn&039;t drown, but I sure could Wrenching my shoulder with the force of my effort, I yanked the knife out of ain I saw dark spots in front of my eyes I knew this was my last chance I stabbed Bruno up under his ribs

And I killed him