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I really couldn&039;t think of anything remotely normal to say "So you cut out sorave," I said,grew back," he said reassuringly "We had to burn my bones a little They had burned Maria and ed, "Why was that necessary? To put your bones there?"
"Master wanted s He reasoned that if my bones were found, there would be no more controversy Of course, by now no one would expectlike I did then Perhaps eren&039;t thinking clearly When you&039;ve been out of the world so longAnd in the first five years after the revolution, I was seen by a couple of people who did recognize me Master had to take care of them"
That, too, took a minute to sink in Jason looked nauseated I wasn&039;t far behind hih I didn&039;t want "Master" to think ere plotting against him
"Alexei," Appius Livius called in a sharp voice "Is all ith you?"
"Yes, sir," Alexei said, and hurried back to the Roman
"Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea," I said, and turned to carry the tray of bottles into the living room Jason was clearly unhappy, but he followed me
Eric was fixed on Appius Livius Ocella like a 7-Eleven clerk watches a custoen, now that he&039;d had a little time to recover froh the bond, I felt a wash of overwhelht about that, I believed I understood Eric was relieved beyond ht a bedood impression of indifference about his many years as Ocella&039;s sexual coness when he actually saw hishi Eric, the sheriff, from his abrupt reversion to Eric, the new vampire and love slave
The way I perceived Eric would never be quite the sa from Eric was that it wasn&039;t so much the physical aspect as the mental; above all else, Eric did not want to be under the control of his maker
I served each of the va it on a napkin At least I didn&039;t have to worry about serving an acco snackunless Ocella decided all three of them would feed from me In which case, I had no hope I would survive, and there wouldn&039;t be a da I could do about it This should have made me the model of discretion I should have determined to sit there with my ankles crossed and not let butter melt in my mouth
But it just pissedmy mood He wanted to tell me to tone it down, to cool off, to coht not want to be under Ocella&039;s sway again, but he loved the vaiven the Roman a chance I didn&039;t really know his I didn&039;t like about his I would like or admire If he&039;d been Eric&039;s for-real father, I&039;d have given him lots of chances to prove his worth
I wondered how clearly Ocella could sense my emotions He was still tuned in to Eric and alould be, and Eric and I were bonded But it sees didn&039;t carry over; the Rolance my way I cast my eyes down I would have to learn how to be stealthier, and in a hurry Nor what I felt, but the nearness of the ancient va¨¦, their blood so like Eric&039;s, had thrown me for a loop
"I&039; the Rorandmother&039;s best company voice
"You may call me Appius Livius," he said, "since you are Eric&039;s wife It took Eric a hundred years to earn the right to call me Appius, rather than Master Then centuries to be able to call ot to call him Ocella Fine with e Alexei was sitting as still as if he&039;d taken a huge tranquilizer, his synthetic blood sitting on the coffee table in front of hi
"Thanks," I said, aware that I didn&039;t sound very thankful I glanced over at ood idea about what he wanted to call the Roave my head a s these days," Appius Livius said He sounded genuinely interested His hand went over to Alexei, and I saas stroking the boy&039;s back, as if Alexei were a puppy But I couldn&039;t deny there was affection in the gesture
"I&039;m very well Area Five is prosperous I was the only Louisiana sheriff to survive the takeover by Felipe de Castro" Eric ed to sound ave the older vampire a rundown on the political situation with Victor Madden When he thought Appius Livius was up to speed on the Felipe de Castro/Victor Madden situation, Eric asked him, "How did you co man?" Eric s to, now that I&039;d heard Alexei&039;s horrifying tale about "salting" his grave While Alexei Romanov sat by his side in re down the Russian royal fa of the sort, I had to move much faster than I had anticipated," Appius said He finished his bottled blood "The decision to execute them was made so swiftly, conducted at such speed No one wanted the men to have time to think twice about it For "
"Why did you want to save the Romanovs?" Eric asked, as if Alexei weren&039;t there
And Appius Livius laughed He gave great laugh "I hated the fucking Bolsheviks," he said "And I had a tie to the boy Rasputin had been giving him my blood for years I happened to be in Russia already; you re Massacre?"
Eric nodded "I do indeed I had not seen you in li Massacre before A vaeful maenad, and it had taken twenty vauise the results
"After that night, when so ory was subdued, I developed a fondness for the Russian vampires - and the Russian people, too" He tacked the Russian people on with a gracious nod toward me and Jason, as representatives of the hu Bolsheviks killed so rieved The deaths of Fedor and Velislava were particularly hard They were both great vampires, and hundreds of years old"
"I knew theet out before I started to look for the royal family I could track Alexei because he&039;d had my blood Rasputin knee were Whenever the empress would call him to heal the boy when the he some of my blood and the boy would recover I heard a ruan following the scent of ine how like a crusader I felt!"
They both laughed, and I suddenly understood that the two vainal Christian knight crusaders When I tried to comprehend how old they were, how much they&039;d witnessed, how many experiences they&039;d had that al the earth reot thecoo, but if you could stick around for a while, I&039;d appreciate it," I said I wasn&039;t happy with having Eric&039;s maker and the poor child Alexei here, and since Alexei was clearly happy with Jason, his presence ht help ease this uncoo put the table out in the truck and call Michele," he said "Alexei, you want to come with rew tense Alexei looked over at the ancient Ro pause, Appius Livius nodded at the boy "Alexei, remember your company manners," Appius Livius said softly Alexei bobbed his head
Having been given permission, the tsarevitch of Russia went outside with the road-creorker to stow a table in the back of a pickup
When I was alone with Eric and his ht through the bond I had with Eric I wasn&039;t the only one around here orried And their conversation appeared to be at a standstill
"Excuse me, Appius Livius," I said carefully "Since you were in the right eht ti at the hallilling Alexei to reappear "The carpenter? No, I didn&039;t see hi an effort to be courteous "The Jew died right around the tied As you will appreciate, I had s to think of In fact, I didn&039;t hear the whole e as a result of his death"
That would really have been a Godeven if he called hi the Roman - not for what he&039;d done toto Alexei, but for what he ht do to all of us, if he took a ood in people, but the best I could say of Appius was that he had good taste in those he picked to beco to Eric how conveniently it had worked out in the cellar in Ekaterinburg Alexei had aliven the boy a big gulp of his blood -at superspeed, and therefore invisible to the execution squad Then he&039;d watched from the shadohile the bodies were throell The next day, the royal faain since the ht follow the deaths of the Romanovs
"I followed them the minute the sun set the next day," Appius said "They&039;d stopped to rebury them Alexei and one of his sisters "
"Maria," Alexei said softly, and I ju behind Appius&039;s chair "It was Maria"
There was a silence Appius looked hugely relieved "Yes, of course, dear boy," Appius said, and he did h he cared "Your sister Maria was coone, but there was a tiny spark in you" Alexei put his hand on Appius Livius&039;s shoulder, and Appius Livius reached up to pat him
"They had shot him many times," he explained to Eric "Twice in the head I put my blood directly in the bullet holes" He turned his head to look at the boy behind him "My blood worked well, since you had lost sohappy times Hoo, boy The Roman turned back to look at Eric and me, and he smiled proudly But I could see Alexei&039;s face
Appius Livius genuinely felt that he&039;d been a savior to Alexei I wasn&039;t so sure Alexei was totally convinced of that
"Where&039;s your brother?" Appius Livius suddenly asked, and I pushed to ether, and I understood that Eric&039;s maker wanted to be sure Alexei hadn&039;t drained Jason and left hi roo his cell phone into his pocket He narrowed his eyes Jason was not a nuance kind of guy, but he could tell when I was unhappy "Sorry," he said "Talkin&039; to Michele"
"Hmmm," I said I made aalone with huht was growing older, and I had things to find out "I hate to change the subject, but there are a few things I need to know"
"What, Sookie?" Eric asked, looking directly at me for the first ti caution down the bond between us
"I just have a couple of questions," I said, s as sweetly as I could "Have you been in this area for any length of tiain It was hard to take Appius all in, somehow; I found I couldn&039;t look at him as a cohesive individual He scared the shit out of me
"No," he said mildly "We have not We&039;ve come here from the south-west, from Oklahoma, and we have only just arrived in Louisiana"
"So you wouldn&039;t know anything about the new body buried at the back ofit up? Unpleasant, but doable You are wanting to see who it is?"
That was an unexpected offer Eric was looking at me very oddly "I&039; to tell you when our unexpected guests showed up"
"Not Debbie," he said
"No, Heidi says there&039;s a new burial But we do need to knoho it is, and we need to find out who put it there"
"The Weres," Eric said instantly "This is the thanks you get for letting them use your land I&039;ll call Alcide, and we&039;ll have a et the chance to do so bosslike He whipped out his cell phone and dialed Alcide before I could say anything
"Eric," he said into the phone by way of identification "Alcide, we have to talk" I could hear the buzz on the other end of the line
A ood, Alcide, and I am sorry to hear you have troubles But I have other concerns What did you do on Sookie&039;s land?"
Oh, crapanola
"You should come here and see, then I think some of your people have been bad Very well, then I&039;ll see you in tentriumphant "Alcide was in Bon Temps?" I asked
"No, but he was on the interstate and nearly at our exit," Eric explained "He&039;s returning fro to present a united front to the governoing to work" Eric snorted, clearly scornful "The Weres are always - what did you say the other day about FEMA, Sookie? &039;A day late and a dollar short,&039; right? At least he&039;s close, and when he gets here we&039;ll get to the botto to s would go so far so fast I asked Eric, Appius Livius, and Alexei if they wantedbored I glanced at the clock
"I&039;m afraid I have only one spot that&039;s suitable for a va to sleep, come the dawn? I just want to know in case I need to call around and find a place"
"Sookie," said Eric gently, "I will take Ocella and his son back to uest coffins there"
Eric ordinarily slept in his bed, because his bedroom less There were a couple of other coffins in the guest bedroos that looked sort of like kayaks, which he kept stowed under the beds Thewith Eric was that if they were there, I was definitely staying here
"I think your darling would love to co the day and sink a stake into our chests," Appius Livius said, as if that were a big joke "If you think you can do it, young woman, you are welcome to try"
"Oh, not at all," I said, absolutely insincerely "I wouldn&039;t drea to Eric&039;s dad" Not a bad idea, though
Beside me, Eric twitched all over; it was a funnyin its sleep "Be polite," he told me, and there was no ele me an order
I took a deep breath It was on the tip of ue to rescind Eric&039;s invitation to my house He&039;d have to leave, and presumably Appius Livius and Alexei would, too It was that "presu alone with Appius Livius even for a second tru out backward
It was probably lucky for all of us that the doorbell rang then I was out of ood to havea suit He was flanked by Annabelle, earing a dark green sheath and heeled pumps, and Jannalynn, Sah it was a style that left me stunned She had on a shiny silver dress that barely covered her assets and silver high-heeled sandals that laced up the front The silver eye shadow over her heavily outlined eyes coreat Sam certainly dated women ere extraordinary in so characters, which was a thought I&039;d have to save for later Maybe it was a two-natured thing? Alcide was the sa, and I said hello to Annabelle and to Jannalynn, who gave me a curt nod
"What is this proble as I stood aside to let them enter When the Weres realized they were in a room with three vampires, all of thelanced back at the va, too, and even Alexei was on the alert
Jason said, "Alcide, good to see you Ladies, looking ear "Hi, you-all!" I said brightly "It was so nice of you to come at such short notice Eric, you know Alcide Alcide, this is Eric&039;s longti with his, ah, prot¨¦g¨¦, Alexei Eric, I don&039;t know if you&039;ve met Alcide&039;s friend Annabelle, a new packTooth pack for ages Jannalynn, we&039;ve never had a chance to talk much, but of course Sam talks about you all the time And I think you all know my brother, Jason"
Whew I felt like I&039;d run an introduction marathon Since va cereet them all to sit dohile I offered the volley "Alcide, one of my trackers went over Sookie&039;s land after Basiers he smelled in her woods Our tracker has found a new body buried there"
Alcide looked at Eric as though he had begun speaking in tongues
"We didn&039;t kill anyone that night," Alcide said "Basim said he told Sookie we smelled an old body, and a fairy or two, and a vampire But he didn&039;t mention a fresh body"
"Yet there&039;s a new burial there now"
"Which we had nothing to do with" Alcide shrugged "We were there three nights before your tracker se coincidence, doesn&039;t it? A body on Sookie&039;s land, right after your pack is there?" Eric was looking aggravatingly reasonable
"Maybe it&039;s more of a coincidence that there was already a body on Sookie&039;s land"
Oh, boy, I really didn&039;t want to go there
Jannalynn was actually snarling at Eric It was an interesting look, with the eye htly away fro to see which way she needed to ju off into space, which seemed to be his fallback stance, and Appius Livius sio see who it is," Jason said unexpectedly
I looked at hi up a corpse