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I opened , Iainst the law here Your maker and Eric could both suffer for it"

"When I ithI wanted," Alexei said I really couldn&039;t read his voice at all "I was so sick, they indulged me"

Eric twitched

"I can sure understand that," I said "Any family would be tempted to do that with a sick child But since you&039;re well now, and you&039;ve had lots of years toexactly what you want to do is not a good plan" I thought of at least twenty other things I could have said, but I stopped right there And that was a good thing Appius Livius looked directly into my eyes and nodded alrown up," Alexei said

Again, too many options on what I could say The boy - the old, old, boy - definitely expected me to answer "No, and it&039;s an awful pity what happened to you and your family But - "

And Alexei reached over, took my hand, and showed me what had happened to him and his family I saw the cellar, the royal fa the uns fire, and the bullets found their marks; or in the case of the women, they didn&039;t, since the royal women had seels into their clothes for the escape that never came about The jewels saved their lives for all of a few seconds, until the soldiers killed each groaning and bleeding and screa individual His mother, his father, his sisters, his doctor, his mother&039;sAnd after the shooting, the soldiers went around with bayonets

I thought I was going to throw up I swayed where I sat, and Eric&039;s cold arladder of anything in

"You see," Alexei said triuo my oay"

"No," I said And I was proud that ation to others We have to be unselfish enough to try to live in the right way, so others can get through their own lives without us fouling them up"

Alexei looked rebellious "That&039;s what Master says, too," he h the words tasted bad in my mouth

"Master" waved for the bartender to come over Felicia slunk up to the table She was tall and pretty and as gentle as a vampire can be She had soet you-all?" she said "Sookie, can I bring you a beer or?"

"Soreat, Felicia," I said

"And some TrueBlood for all of you?" she asked the vampires "Or, we do have a bottle of Royalty"

Eric&039;s eyes closed, and Felicia realized her blunder "Okay," she said briskly "TrueBlood for Eric, tea for Sookie"

"Thank you!" I said, s up at the bartender

Paauzy black costutasia, and she was as close to panic as I&039;d ever seen her "Excuse uests "Eric, Katherine Boudreaux is visiting Fangtasia tonight She&039;s with Sallie and a s to explode "Tonight," he said, and one word spoke voluo back tofor further explanation, and Alexei, to my surprise, followed him without any questions If Eric had been in the habit of breathing, I would say that he exhaled with relief when his visitors had left his sight He said a few things in an ancient tongue, but I didn&039;t knohich one

Then a stout, attractive blonde in her forties was standing by the table, another woht behind her

"You must be Katherine Boudreaux," I said pleasantly "I&039;irlfriend"

"Hi, honey I&039;m Katherine," she said "This is my partner, Sallie We&039;re here with some friends ere curious aboutthe year, and we hadn&039;t been to Fangtasia in ht to lad you&039;re here," Eric said sood to see you How&039;s the tax business?"

Sallie, a slihed "Taxes are booht to know, Eric, you pay enough of the along with our hu around the bar, which was so thinly populated it alhtly for a ave that she noticed Eric&039;s business was down

Pam said, "Your table is ready!" She swept her hand toward two tables that had been put together for the party, and the state BVA agent said, "Excuse o pay attention to my company"

After a shower of pleasantries and pleased-to- in a booth in theby ourselves Paer He took my hand with one of his and rested his forehead on his other hand

"Can you tell me what&039;s up with you?" I said bluntly "This is awful It&039;s very hard to have faith in us when I don&039;t knohat&039;s happening"

"Ocella has had some business to discuss with me," Eric said "Some unwelco"

"Yes, he shared that with me," I said It was still hard to believe what I&039;d seen and suffered with the child, through his memory of the deaths of everyone he&039;d loved The tsarevitch of Russia, sole survivor of aMaybe he and Dero through so like that and come out Mr Mental Health, but I&039;ve never experienced anything like that I know it ot to say "

"You don&039;t want to go through it, too," Eric said "You&039;re not alone in that It&039;s clearest for us: Ocella, me, you But he can share that with other people, too It&039;s not as detailed for them, they tell me No one wants that memory We all carry plenty of our own bad memories I&039;m afraid that hethe bottle of TrueBlood around and around on the table "Apparently, it&039;s a nightly grind to get Alexei to do the sis And not to do others You heard his reo into the details Howeverhave you read the papers lately, the Shreveport papers?"

"You ht be responsible for those twoat Eric "The stab wounds, the throats? But he&039;s so s"

"He&039;s insane," Eric said "Ocella finally told me that Alexei had had episodes like this before - not as severe It has led hi Alexei the final death"

"Youhiht "Like a dog?"

Eric looked ht in the eyes "Ocella loves the boy, but he cannot be allowed to kill people or other vaet into the paper What if he were caught? What if sonized him as a result of the notoriety? What would that do to our relationship with the Russian vampires? Most important, Ocella cannot keep track of hiotten out on his own And two deaths resulted Into do here in the United States Not that my maker cares about my position in this country," Eric added, a little bitterly

I gave Eric a sort of heavy pat on the cheek Not a slap A heavy pat "Yeah, let&039;s not forget the two dead men," I said "That Alexei murdered, in a painful and horrible way I mean, I realize that this is all about him and your maker and your personal cred, but let&039;s spare a tip of the hat to those guys he killed"

Eric shrugged He orried and he was at his wit&039;s end, and he didn&039;t care at all about the deaths of two humans He was probably thankful that Alexei had picked victims ouldn&039;t attractave up on ht - if Alexei was capable of turning against his own kind, maybe we could steer hithat you&039;d have so your half brother alive, teaching him some self-control?"

"Yes That&039;s one of the reasons he&039;s here"

"Appius Livius having sex with the kid can&039;t be helping Alexei&039;s mental health," I said, since I simply couldn&039;t not say it

"Please understand In Ocella&039;s time, that was not a consideration," Eric said "Alexei would be old enough, in those tie theuilt or question Ocella doesn&039;t think in the s As it happens, Alexei has beco sex now Ocella is an honorable man" Eric sounded very intent, very serious, as if he had to persuade rity And all this concern was about the man who&039;d murdered him But if Eric admired Ocella, respected him, didn&039;t I have to do the sa anything for his brother that I wouldn&039;t do for ht, andsex with Alexei, who is he having sex with?" I asked in a small voice

"I know this is your business, since we&039;reI&039;ve insisted on and you&039;ve belittled," Eric said, and the bitterness was back in his voice "I can only tell you that I&039; sex with my maker But I would if he told me that hat he wanted I would have no choice"

I tried to think of a way to round this conversation off, escape with sonity "Eric, you&039;re busy with your visitors" Busy in a way I&039;d never i at Alcide&039;s Monday night I&039;ll tell you what happens, when and if you callyou up to speed on, if you ever have a chance to co on my doorstep That was a story Eric would be interested to hear, and God knoanted to tell hiht ti to see you no ," Eric told me He sounded a littleyou a present"

"That sounds like a great night to e of hope "I don&039;t need a present, just you So I&039;ll see you Tuesday, no ht?"

"That&039;s what I said"

"Okay then, until Tuesday"

"I love you," Eric said in a drained voice "And you are my wife, in the only way thaton the last half of his closing stateo, and Pam appeared by my side to walk et up and walk over to the Boudreaux table to make sure his important visitors were happy

Pam said, "He&039;ll ruin Eric if he stays"

"How so?"

"The boy will kill again, and on&039;t be able to cover it up He can escape if you so ues with hi the boy down"

"Paht since ere by ourselves I could take the huge liberty of calling Eric&039;s maker by his personal name "I&039;m serious Eric&039;ll have to let him kill you if you take Alexei out"

"You care, don&039;t you?" Pam was unexpectedly touched

"You&039;re my bud," I said "Of course I care"

"We are friends," Pa to end well," Pale thing to say

She was right

I ate a Little Debbie cinnaht I deserved one I was so worried I couldn&039;t even think of going to bed just yet Alexei had given ht, hu able to transmit a memory like that It struck me as peculiarly horrible that it should be Alexei as so "gifted," when he had such a ghastly h the royal faain I could understand why the boy was the way he was But I could also understand why he ht have to be - put to sleep I pushed up frohly exhausted I was ready for bed But

You&039;d think, living out in the country at the end of a long driveway through the woods, that I would have plenty of warning of guests But that wasn&039;t always the case, especially with supes I didn&039;t recognize the woh the peephole, but I knew she was a va invited, so it was safe to find out why she was there I opened the door, feeling mostly curious

"Hi, can I help you?" I asked

She looked me up and down "Are you Sookie Stackhouse?"

"I am"

"You e-mailed ht "Judith Vardamon?"

"The same"

"So Lorena was your sire? Your maker?"

"She was"

"Please co a big iven up hope that Judith would respond to e Since she&039;d coht I owed her that much trust

Judith raised her eyebrows and stepped over my threshold "You must love Bill, or else you&039;re a fool," she said

"Neither, I hope You want some TrueBlood?"

"Not now, thank you"

"Please, have a seat"

I sat on the edge of the recliner while Judith took the couch I thought it was incredible that Lorena had "made" both Bill and Judith I wanted to ask a lot of questions, but I didn&039;t want to offend or irritate this vae favor

"Do you know Bill?" I said, to kick off the talk we had to have

"Yes, I know him" She seeer she was than I

"You&039;re the younger sister?" She looked to be about thirty, or at least that had been her death age She had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and she was short and pleasantly round She was one of thevampires I&039;d ever met, at least superficially And she looked oddly fa your pardon?"

"Lorena turned you after she turned Bill? Why&039;d she pick you?"

"You were Bill&039;s lover for soe?" she asked in turn

"Yes, I was I&039;m with someone else now"

"How is it that he never told you how he came to meet Lorena?"

"I don&039;t know His choice"

"Very strange" She looked openly distrustful

"You can think it&039;s strange till the cows come home," I said "I don&039;t knohy Bill didn&039;t tell me, but he didn&039;t If you want to tell me, fine Tellis that Bill&039;s not getting well He got bitten by a fairy with silver-tipped teeth If he has your blood, he et over it"

"Did Bill perhaps hint to you that you should ask me?"

"No, "

"Has he mentioned et in touch with you It seeet, too, youwhy you haven&039;t shown up before"

"I&039;ll tell you why" Judith&039;s voice was o I kneasn&039;t going to like this story

I was right