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"Boy oh boy, can’t do anything in this toithout getting caught," Jason said, but he wasn’t really angry

"That DeeAnne," Gran said warningly as we all started into the house, "she’s been pregnant one time I know of You just take care she doesn’t have one of yours, you’ll be paying the rest of your life Course, that randchildren!"

Gran had the food ready on the table, so after Jason hung up his hat we sat down and said grace Then Gran and Jason began gossiping with each other (though they called it "catching up") about people in our little town and parish My brother worked for the state, supervising road crews It see around in a state pickup, clocking off work, and then driving around all night in his own pickup Rene was on one of the work crews Jason oversaw, and they’d been to high school together They hung around with Hoyt Fortenberry a lot

"Sookie, I had to replace the hot water heater in the house," Jason said suddenly He lives inin when they died in a flash flood We lived with Gran after that, but when Jason got through his two years of college and went to work for the state, he moved back into the house, which on paper is half ot it"

We both make salaries, but we also have a little income from a fund established when an oil as sunk on my parents’ property It played out in a few years, but my parents and then Gran made sure the le, that padding I don’t kno Gran could have raised us if it hadn’t been for that money She was determined not to sell any land, but her own income is not much et an apart with her, that’s reasonable, to her; but if I buy groceries and bring theo home to my house, that’s charity and that et?" I asked, just to show interest

He was dying to tell me; Jason’s an appliance freak, and he wanted to describe his co for a neater heater in detail I listened with as much attention as I could muster

And then he interrupted himself "Hey Sook, you reraduated in the same class"

"Soht"

Gran and I were riveted "When?" Grand asked, puzzled that she hadn’t heard already

"They just found her this veryin her bedroom Her boss tried to call her to find out why she hadn’t shown up for work yesterday and today and got no answer, so he rode over and got the er up, and they unlocked the place You know she had the apartment across from DeeAnne’s?" Bon Te, two-story U-shaped grouping, so we knew exactly where he ot killed there?" I felt ill I remembered Maudette clearly Maudette had had a heavy jaw and a square bottom, pretty black hair and husky shoulders Maudette had been a plodder, never bright or a at the Grabbit Kwik, a gas station/convenience store

"Yeah, she’d been working there for at least a year, I guess," Jason confirive-it-to-me-quick look hich nice people ask for bad news

"She had sohs,"down at his plate "But that wasn’t what killed her She was strangled DeeAnne told o to that vampire bar in Shreveport when she had a couple of days off, so ht not have been Sookie’s vaining slow, chunky Maudette draped in the exotic black dresses fang-bangers affected

"What’s that?" asked Gran She must have missed Sally-Jessy the day the pheno around with varoupies They don’t last too long, I think, because they want to be bitten too et that one bite too many"

"But a bite didn’t kill Maudette" Gran wanted to be sure she had it straight

"Nope, strangling" Jason had begun finishing his lunch

"Don’t you always get gas at the Grabbit?" I asked

"Sure So do a lot of people"

"And didn’t you hang around with Maudette so," Jason said cautiously

I took that to mean he’d bedded Maudette when he couldn’t find anyone else

"I hope the sheriff doesn’t want to talk to you," Gran said, shaking her head as if indicating "no" woulddefensive

"You see Maudette in the store all the tias, you so-to-speak date her, then she winds up dead in an apartment you’re familiar with," I su, and there were so few ht every stone would be turned in its investigation

"I ain’t the only one who fills the bill Plenty of other guys get their gas there, and all of them know Maudette"

"Yeah, but in what sense?" Gran asked bluntly "She wasn’t a prostitute, was she? So she will have talked about who she saw"

"She just liked to have a good tiood of Jason to defend Maudette, considering what I knew of his selfish character I began to think a little better of uess," he added

Jason looked at both of us, then, and saere surprised and touched

"Speaking of prostitutes," he said hastily, "there’s one in Monroe specializes in vaets carried away She drinks synthetic blood to keep her blood supply up"

That was a pretty definite change of subject, so Gran and I tried to think of a question we could ask without being indecent

"Wonder how ure he’d heard, we both gasped

Once we got off the topic of Maudette’sat his watch and exclai that he had to leave just when it was ti on vampires, I found out She cao to work

"How old you reckon the vampire is, the one youonto hold still so I wouldn’t poke myself in the eye, soout for a horror ht remember the War?"

I didn’t need to ask which war After all, Gran was a charter member of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead

"Could be," I said, turning my face from side to side to ht co"

"At night," I reminded her

"Oh Yes, it’d have to be" The Descendants usually ht about it It would be plain rude to suggest to the vaht to speak to Gran’s club because I’d saved his blood froave a little hint? I didn’t like to, but I’d do it for Gran "I’ll ask him the next time he comes in," I promised

"At least he could come talk to me and maybe I could tape his recollections?" Gran said I could hear her ht of what a coup that would be for her "It would be so interesting to the other club h "I’ll suggest it to him," I said "We’ll see"

When I left, Gran was clearly counting her chickens

I HADN’T THOUGHT of Rene Lenier going to Saht Rene’d been a busy bee, though When I got to work that afternoon, I assuitation I felt in the air was due to Maudette’s murder I found out different

Sam hustledwith anger He reamed me up one side and down the other

Sae of tears

"And if you think a customer isn’t safe, you tellfor the sixth time, when I finally realized that Sa off hi in to your boss led to disaster

It had never occurred to me to ask Sam - or anyone else - for help

"And if you think so lot, your next move is to call the police, not step out there yourself like a vigilante," Sam huffed His fair coolden hair looked as if he hadn’t co to keep my voice even and my eyes wide open so the tears wouldn’t roll out "Are you gonna fire rier "I don’t want to lose you!" He grippedat e of heat rushing out fro accelerates my disability,I stared right into his eyes for a long moment, then I remembered myself, and I jumped back as his hands dropped away

I whirled and left the storeroos Sahts as clearly as I could other people’s I’d had waves of ihts More like wearing aa fax

So, what did I do about either piece of infor

I’d never looked on Sam as a beddable man before - or at least not beddable by me - for a lot of reasons But the simplest one was that I never looked at anyone that way, not because I don’t have hormones - boy, do I have hormones - but they are constantly taine knowing everything your sex partner is thinking? Right Along the order of "Gosh, look at thatwish she’d ht a littlewhy doesn’t she take the hint and?" You get the idea It’s chilling to the e sex, there is siuard up

Another reason is that I like Saetsso I won’t turn into the reclusein an office is hard for riht noanted to mull over the rush of desire I’d felt from him It wasn’t like he’d made me a verbal proposition or thrown s, and I could ignore them if I chose I appreciated the delicacy of this, and wondered if Sam had touched me on purpose, if he actually knehat I was

I took care not be alone with hiht

T HE NEXT TWO nights were better We fell back into our comfortable relationship I was relieved I was disappointed I was also run off my feet since Maudette’s murder sparked a business boo around Bon Temps, and the Shreveport news tearisly death Though I didn’t attend her funeral, randmother did, and she said the church was jahs, wasin death than she’d ever been in life

I was about to have two days off, and I orried I’d randmother’s request He hadn’t returned to the bar, and I began to wonder if he would

Mack and Denise hadn’t been back in Merlotte’s either, but Rene Lenier and Hoyt Fortenberry s I can’t say I was seriously alarhways and trailer parks of Ah to settle down to productive living They never made a positive mark on the world, or aed off Rene’s warnings

But he sure enjoyed relaying them Rene Lenier was small like Sam, but where Sam was ruddy and blond, Rene arthy and had a bushy headful of rough, black hair threaded with gray Rene often came by the bar to drink a beer and visit with Arlene because (as he was fond of telling anyone in the bar) she was his favorite ex-wife He had three Hoyt Fortenberry was more of a cipher than Rene He was neither dark nor fair, neither big nor little He always seemed cheerful and always tipped decent He admired my brother Jason far beyond what Jason deserved, in lad Rene and Hoyt weren’t there the night the vampire returned

He sat at the same table

Now that the vampire was actually in front of otten the alerated his height and the clear-cut lines of his et you?" I asked

He looked up at otten, too, the depth of his eyes He didn’t smile or blink; he was so immobile For the second tiuard, I could feel uessing)

"What are you?" he asked me It was the second tiain deliberatelyhiain My little bit of peace vanished

"Red wine," he ordered, and if he was disappointed I couldn’t tell by his voice

"Sure," I said "The synthetic blood should come in on the truck tomorrow Listen, could I talk to you after work? I have a favor to ask you"

"Of course I’m in your debt" And he sure didn’t sound happy about it

"Not a favor for randuess you will be - when I get off work at one-thirty, would you veryme at the employee door at the back of the bar?" I nodded toward it, and my ponytail bounced around my shoulders His eyes followed the hted"

I didn’t know if he was displaying the courtesy Gran insisted was the standard in bygone ti ue at him or blow a raspberry I spun on ht him his wine, he tipped me 20 percent Soon after that, I looked over at his table only to realize he’d vanished I wondered if he’d keep his word

Arlene and Dawn left before I was ready to go, for one reason and another; mostly because all the napkin holders in my area proved to be half-empty As I retrieved my purse from the locked cabinet in Saood-bye toaround in theto fix the leaky toilet I stepped into the ladies’ room for a second to check my hair and makeup

When I stepped outside I noticed that Sahts Only the security light on the electricity pole in front of his trailer illu lot To the amusement of Arlene and Dawn, Sam had put in a yard and planted boxwood in front of his trailer, and they were constantly teasing hiht it was pretty

As usual, Sam’s truck was parked in front of his trailer, so my car was the only one left in the lot

I stretched, looking from side to side No Bill I was surprised at how disappointed I was I had really expected him to be courteous, even if his heart (did he have one?) wasn’t in it

Maybe, I thought with a smile, he’d jump out of a tree, or appear with a poof! in front ofhappened So I trudged over to ot

Mack Rattray juh to clip me in the jaw He didn’t hold back one little bit, and I went down onto the gravel like a sack of ceround knocked all the air out of me and some skin off of me, and I was silent and breathless and helpless Then I saw Denise, saw her swing back her heavy boot, had just enough warning to roll into a ball before the Rattrays began kickingI threwonthe first fes, that they’d stop and hiss warnings and curses at me and leave But I remember the exact moment I realized that they intended to kill , but I would not lie there and be killed

The next tirabbed it and held on forto at leastI had

Then, froht a dog, I thought The groas definitely hostile If I’d had any leeith my emotions, the hair would have stood up on my scalp

I took onestopped

The last kick had done so, stertorous, and a strange bubbling sound that sees

"What the hell is that?" Mack Rattray asked, and he sounded absolutely terrified

I heard the growl again, closer, right behind me And froan wailing, Mack was cursing Denise yanked her leg frorown very weak My arround They seeh ht arm was broken My face felt wet I was scared to continue evaluating , and then Denise, and there see on around me, but I couldn’t move My only vieas my broken arm and my battered knees and the darkness under my car

So whined A cold nose poked ue licked it I tried to raisethat had undoubtedly saved h It see the fact, I said, "I’an to seem more andthe ht had fallen silent at all the activity and noise in the parking lot, so my little voice cah, soon after that I heard two voices

Then a pair of knees covered in bloody blue jeans came into my view The vampire Bill leaned over so I could look into his face There was blood s white against his lower lip I tried to sht

"I’ to pick you up," Bill said He sounded calm

"I’ll die if you do," I whispered

He looked me over carefully "Not just yet," he said, after this evaluation Oddly enough, thishow ured

"This will hurt," he warnedthat wouldn’t

His aret afraid I screaently

"We’re going back in the woods out of sight," Bill said, cradlingto bury ht? After he’d just rescued me from the Rats? I almost didn’t care

It was only a small relief when he laid me down on a carpet of pine needles in the darkness of the woods In the distance, I could see the glow of the light in the parking lot I feltblood, and I felt the pain of ony of deep bruises, but ashat I didn’t feel

I didn’t feel s

My abdoed in hts, such as they were

"You will die unless you do as I say," Bill told me

"Sorry, don’t want to be a vampire," I said, and my voice eak and thready

"No, you won’t be," he said ently "You’ll heal Quickly I have a cure But you have to be willing"

"Then trot out the cure," I whispered "I’ onsignals frorunt as if he’d been hurt Then soainst ue, e the flow of blood froed But I wanted to live I forced ain

Suddenly the blood tasted good, salty, the stuff of life My unbroken arm rose, my hand clamped the vampire’s wrist to my mouth I felt better with every s And after a minute, I drifted off to sleep

When I woke up, I was still in the woods, still lying on the ground Someone was stretched out beside low I could feel his tonguee him

"Do I taste different from other people?" I asked

"Yes," he said in a thick voice "What are you?"

It was the third time he’d asked Third time’s the charm, Gran always said

"Hey, I’m not dead," I said I suddenly reled my arm, the one that had been broken It eak, but it wasn’t flopping any longer I could feel led them, too I breathed in and out experigled to sit up That proved to be quite an effort, but not an impossibility It was like my first fever-free day after I’d had pneumonia as a kid Feeble but blissful I are I’d survived so, he’d put his arainst a tree I felt very coainst his chest

"What I ahts"

"Even mine?" He sounded merely curious

"No That’s why I like you soI couldn’t seehts

I felt his chest ruh was a little rusty

"I can’t hear you at all," I blathered on, my voice dreamy "You have no idea how peaceful that is After a lifeti"

"How do you ht is still surely how to get you into bed"

"Well, I don’t Manage And frankly, at any age, I think their goal is get a woman in bed I don’t date Everyone thinks I’m crazy, you know, because I can’t tell them the truth; which is, that I’hts, all these heads I had a few dates when I started working at the bar, guys who hadn’t heard about me But it was the sa co a head of stea if you dye your hair, or thinking that your butt’s not pretty, or i what your boobs look like"

Suddenly I feltto this creature

"Excuse me," I said "I didn’tet you at all," he said I could tell there was rage just under the calm surface of his voice "If I had had the courtesy to be on time, it would not have happened So I owed you so"

"Are they dead?" To ulped I couldn’t regret that the world was rid of the Rats But I had to look this straight in the face, I couldn’t dodge the realization that I was sitting in the lap of a murderer Yet I was quite happy to sit there, his arms around me

"I should worry about this, but I’ to say I felt that rusty laugh again

"Sookie, why did you want to talk to h I wasphysically, I felt a little hazy randmother is real anxious to kno old you are," I said hesitantly I didn’t kno personal a question that was to a vah he were soothing a kitten

"I was made vampire in 1870, when I was thirty hu face was expressionless, his eyes pits of blackness in the dark woods

"Did you fight in the War?"

"Yes"

"I have the feeling you’re gonna get mad But it would make her and her club so happy if you’d tell them a little bit about the War, about what it was really like"

"Club?"

"She belongs to Descendants of the Glorious Dead"

"Glorious dead" The vah, he wasn’t happy

"Listen, you wouldn’t have to tell theots and the infections and the starvation," I said "They have their own picture of the War, and though they’re not stupid people - they’ve lived through other wars - they would like to know more about the way people lived then, and unifors"

I took a deep breath "Yep"

"Would it make you happy if I did this?"

"What difference does that make? It would make Gran happy, and since you’re in Bon Teood public relations uy you could evade "Well, yes"

"Then I’ll do it"

"Gran says to please eat before you coh, deeper this ti her now Can I call on you soht, and the day after I’ht" I lifted lass was covered with dried blood "Oh, yuck," I said, wettingthe watch face off with spit I pressed the button that illuasped when I sahat tiet home I hope Gran went to sleep"

"She ht by yourself," Bill observed He sounded disapproving Maybe he was thinking of Maudette? I had aif in fact Bill had known her, if she’d invited him to come home with her But I rejected the idea because I was stubbornly unwilling to dwell on the odd, awful, nature of Maudette’s life and death; I didn’t want that horror to cast a shadow on my little bit of happiness

"It’s part of my job," I said tartly "Can’t be helped I don’t work nights all the tiave round

"Better tips Harder work No tierous," he said disapprovingly

He ought to know "Now don’t you go sounding like randmother," I chided hi lot

"I’ht the conversation up short

After I stepped out of the woods, I stood staring The parking lot was as serene and untouched as if nothing had ever happened there, as if I hadn’t been nearly beaten to death on that patch of gravel only an hour before, as if the Rats hadn’t hts in the bar and in Saravel et, but not bloody

My purse was sitting on the hood of ?" I said

I turned to look at my savior

He wasn’t there