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"How did this happen?" I asked the fire, when they were all gone

All except for the big Viking va on the rug in front of the fire I&039;d just thrown in another piece of wood, and the fla pleasant and co bare foot out of the corner of"I think this happened because you have a greedy brother, and because you are the kind of woh she was afraid," Eric said accurately

"How are you feeling about all this?" I never would have asked the compos mentis Eric this question, but he still seemed so different; ht before, but still very un-Eric "I e that they put in a storage locker, h of ently Not the answer I&039;d expected

"Iperson, when I aood works and kind ways?"

I sniggered

"I thought not"

"You&039;re okay," I said reassuringly, though come to think of it, Eric didn&039;t look like he needed much reassurance However, noas responsible for him "Aren&039;t your feet cold?"

"No," he said But noas in the business of taking care of Eric, who so didn&039;t need taking care of And I was being paid a staggering aot the old quilt froreen, blue, and yellow squares I collapsed back onto the rug beside him

"That&039;s truly hideous," Eric said

"That&039;s what Bill said" I rolled over on

"Where is this Bill?"

"He&039;s in Peru"

"Did he tell you he was going?"

"Yes"

"Am I to assume that your relationship with him has waned?"

That was a pretty nice way to put it "We&039;ve been on the outs It&039;s beginning to look permanent," I said, my voice even

He was on his stomach beside me now, propped up on his elbows so we could talk He was a little closer than I was co issue out of scooting over He half turned to toss the quilt over both of us

"Tell me about him," Eric said unexpectedly He and Palass of TrueBlood before the other va pinker

"You know Bill," I told hiuess you can&039;t remember, but Bill&039;s - well, he&039;s kind of cool and calm, and he&039;s really protective, and he can&039;t seeht I&039;d be rehashing my relationship with Bill with Eric, of all people

"He loves you?"

I sighed, and ht of Bill - Weeping Willa, that was me "Well, he said he did," I muttered dismally "But then when this va" For all I knew, she&039;d emailed him "He&039;d had an affair with her before, and she turned out to be his, I don&039;t knohat you call &039;eht him over, he said So Bill took back up with her He says he had to And then he found out" - I looked sideways at Eric with a significant raise of the eyebrows, and Eric looked fascinated - "that she was just trying to lure hi to get hiroup in Mississippi and bring with hiether for your people, the Louisiana va a little bit for the sake of brevity

"What happened?"

This was asto Arlene Maybe even more, because I&039;d never been able to tell her the whole story "Well, Lorena, that&039;s her name, she tortured him," I said, and Eric&039;s eyes widened "Can you believe that? She could torture someone she&039;d made love with? Someone she&039;d lived with for years?" Eric shook his head disbelievingly "Anyway, you told o to Jackson and find hihtclub for Supes only" Eric nodded Evidently, I didn&039;t have to explain that Supes s "Its real name is Josephine&039;s, but the Weres call it Club Dead You toldfavor, and I stayed at his place" Alcide Herveaux still figured inhurt pretty bad," I concluded Hurt pretty bad, as always

"How?"

"I got staked, believe it or not"

Eric looked properly ih - " And here I stopped dead

He gave every indication he was hanging on ot one of the Jackson vampires to work on the wound, so I&039;d survive for sure and then you gave ht" Reiven me blood made my cheeks turn red, and I could only hope Eric would attribute my flush to the heat of the fire

"And you saved Bill?" he said,beyond that touchy part

"Yes, I did," I said proudly "I saved his ass" I rolled onto my back and looked up at him Gee, it was nice to have someone to talk to I pulled up my T-shirt and inclined partially on my side to show Eric the scar, and he looked iertip and shook his head I rearranged myself

"And what happened to the vampire ho?" he asked

I eyed hi fun of me "Well," I said, "u Bill untied, and she attacked me, and I kind of killed her"

Eric looked at me intently I couldn&039;t read his expression "Had you ever killed anyone before?" he asked

"Of course not!" I said indignantly "Well, I did hurt a guy as trying to kill me, but he didn&039;t die No, I&039;m a human I don&039;t have to kill anyone to live"

"But humans kill other humans all the time And they don&039;t even need to eat theh," he said "We vampires are all murderers"

"But in a way, you&039;re like lions"

Eric looked astonished "Lions?" he said weakly

"Lions all kill stuff" At the moment, this idea seemed like an inspiration "So you&039;re predators, like lions and raptors But you use what you kill You have to kill to eat"

"The catch in that co that we look almost exactly like you And we used to be you And we can love you, as well as feed off you You could hardly say the lion wanted to caress the antelope"

Suddenly there was so in the air that hadn&039;t been there thestalked - by a lion that was a deviant

I&039;d feltcare of a terrified victim

"Eric," I said, very cautiously, "you know you&039;re uest here And you know if I tell you to leave, which I will if you&039;re not straight without in the middle of a field somewhere in a bathrobe that&039;s too short for you"

"Have I said so to make you uncomfortable?" He was (apparently) co with sincerity "I&039;ht Do you have soet for me? Your brother is a very cleverwhen he told ht cost hiot up to fetch the WalMart bag, hoping that Eric liked his new Louisiana Tech sweatshirt and cheap jeans

I turned in aboutEric absorbed in my tapes of the first season of Buffy the Vaift froht the shoas a hoot, especially the way the vaot blood-lusty Fro all the way back in my roo to hear soer than usual to fall asleep, because I was thinking over the things that had happened that day Eric was in the witness protection progra the safe house No one in the world - well, except for Jason, Pam, and Chow - knehere the sheriff of Area Five actually was at thisinto my bed

I didn&039;t want to open my eyes and quarrel with hi When he&039;d cliht before, Eric had been so afraid that I&039;d felt quitehis hand to reassure hi him in the bed with me

"Cold?" I murmured, as he huddled close

"Um-hum," he whispered I was onHe was on his side facing me, and he put an arm across my waist But he didn&039;t move another inch, and he relaxed completely After a moment&039;s tension, I did, too, and then I was dead to the world

The next thing I knew, it wasOf course, I was by h my open doorway I could see across the hall into the smaller bedroom The closet door was open, as he&039;d had to leave it when dawn caht hole

It was bright and war for the fifties I feltthe day before I kneas happening now; or at least I knew more or less what I was supposed to do, how the next few days would go Or I thought I did When I answered the phone, I discovered that I ay off

"Where&039;s your brother?" yelled Jason&039;s boss, Shirley Hennessey You thought a man named Shirley was funny only until you were face-to-face with the real deal, at which point you decided it would really be better to keep your amusement to yourself

"Hoould I know?" I said reasonably "Probably slept over at some woman&039;s place" Shirley, as universally known as Catfish, had never, ever called here before to track Jason down In fact, I&039;d be surprised if he&039;d ever had to call anywhere One thing Jason was good about was showing up at work on tih the ood at his job, which I&039;d never fully understood It see his fancy truck at the parish road departo on the door, and driving around telling various road crehat to do It also seeet out of the truck to stand with otherholes in or near the road

Catfish was knocked off balance by my frankness "Sookie, you shouldn&039;t say that kind of thing," he said, quite shocked at a single woin

"Are you telling me that Jason hasn&039;t shown up at work? And you&039;ve called his house?"

"Yes and yes," said Catfish, who in o out to his place" Dago (road crew lielmi, who had never been farther from Louisiana than Mississippi I was pretty sure the sarandparents, though there was rumor they&039;d once been to Branson to take in the shows

"Was his truck out there?" I was beginning to have that cold creeping feeling

"Yes," Catfish said "It was parked in front of his house, keys inside Door hanging open"

"The truck door or the house door?"

"What?"

"Hanging open Which door?"

"Oh, the truck"

"This is bad, Catfish," I said I was tingling all over with alarht He was over here visiting with me, and he left about oh, let&039;s see it must have been nine-thirty or ten"

"He have anybody with hiht anybody with hihta call the sheriff?" Catfish asked

I ran a hand over my face I wasn&039;t ready for that yet, no ive it another hour," I suggested "If he hasn&039;t dragged into work in an hour, you let uess it&039;sup after Catfish had repeated everything he&039;d said several ti No, I can&039;t read minds over the telephone line, but I could read it in his voice I&039;ve known Catfish Hennessey for many years He was a buddy of my father&039;s

I carried the cordless phone into the bathroom with me while I took a shower to wake up I didn&039;t wash ot dressed,braid All the ti, which is so still

I came up with these scenarios

One (This was my favorite) Somewhere between my house and his house, my brother had met up with a woman and fallen in love so instantly and cootten all about work At this reat sex

Two The witches, or whatever the hell they were, had somehow found out that Jason knehere Eric was, and they&039;d abducted him to force the information from him (Icould Jason keep the secret of Eric&039;s location? My brother had lots of attitude, but he actually is a brave man - or maybe stubborn is a little more accurate He wouldn&039;t talk easily Maybe a witch could spell hiht be dead already, since they&039;d had hier and Eric was doo at any minute, since witches are not bound by darkness Eric was dead for the day, defenseless This was definitely the worst-case scenario