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"Thank you, Mr Co his se, he turned to blow , too I never thought I’d want to spend time with a human, but you’re more tolerable than most I hope no one hurts you on your birthday" As birthday wishes went, that kind of sucked, but it was genuine Pa She returned it, which made me smile You never kneith Pam Her touch was cold and she smelled of vahly decorated, and pressed it into my hand

She stepped back and looked from me to Eric "I’ll leave you two to whatever talk you want to have," she said, her voice neutral Eric was her maker, and there was a limit to the verbal abuse she could deal out In a , too?" Eric looked down at s to you I need to knohat our situation is," I said I sat down on the back steps, setting my presents carefully to the side Eric sat down, too

I wasn’t happy anyht I’d be when I’d realized we had to have this conversation "I think you owe it to an "For weeks, it seeh you still tell everyone I’m your wife Lately, that’s just uys don’t like relationship talks I don’t think I do, either But we have to have one"

"Let’s go inside"

"No That ain, we need to have an understanding between us"

"I love you" The security light glinted off his blond hair and ed in his all-black getup He’d dressed for a funeral tonight

"I love you, too, Eric But that’s not e’re talking about, is it?"

Eric looked away "I think not," he said reluctantly "Sookieit’s not just a straightforward decision, you over Freyda If it were only one woiven, not a choice at all But it’s not that simple"

"It’s not that sis to select one emotion, to say, That’s the way I feel; I’ry Or I’s, and more Since I couldn’t bear to look at Eric’s face any more than he could bear to look at mine, I looked up at the starlit sky After another moment’s silence, I said, "But it is, isn’t it That siic; not the beneficent kind of love-ic that rips and tears, the enchantave this to me as his last order," Eric said

"I would never have believed you’d try this argu orders’ Come on! You can’t hide behind Appius’s wishes, Eric He’s gone"

"He signed a contract, and it’s legally binding," Eric said, still keeping his co so," I said

"I’e

I looked down at ain, high-heeled and with little flowers on the strap across my toes They looked ridiculously frivolous, appropriate for a single wohth birthday They weren’t kiss-your-lover-good-bye shoes

"Eric, you’re a strong vampire," I said I took his cool hand "You’ve always been the boldest, baddest guy around If your maker were alive, I’d believe you couldn’t help this But I watched Appius die, right here in my yard So here’s my bottoet out of this if you hated Freyda But you don’t She’s beautiful She’s rich She’s powerful She needs you to watch her back, and the reill be lots of the stuff you love" I took a deep, shuddering breath "All I got isto hear a rebuttal I looked up at him I saw no shame I saeakness I saw instead a laserlike intensity in his blue eyes, so like my own

He said, "Sookie, if I turn down this opportunity, Felipe will punish both of us Our lives will not be worth living"

"Then we’ll leave," I said quietly "We’ll go so or queen I’ll find a job"

But even as I spoke the words, I kneould not opt for this In fact, I foundif I would have said it if I’d believed there was any chance he’d say yes On the whole, I thought I would, though it would haveI found dear

"If only there were some way to prevent this," Eric said "But I don’t know of any way, and I can’t tear you away from your life"

I didn’t knohether uish or relief I’d been sure he’d say that

But he didn’t say anything else

He aiting forin ether in a question "What?" I asked "What?" I couldn’t io in this terrible conversation

Eric see up my cue

I continued to be bewildered; he continued to try to force soenuinely didn’t have a clue, Eric said, "You could stop this if you chose" Each word came clear and distinct

"How?" I dropped his hands, spread hfrantically to understand what Eric could rily "You could stop this"

He turned to walk away

"Just tellthe desperation in my voice "Goddammit, just TELL ME HOW"

He cast a look over his shoulder I hadn’t seen that expression on his face since we’d arded me as just another disposable human

And then he was in the air And then he was lost in the night sky

I stood staring up for aletters to appear in the sky to explain his words Maybe I thought Bill would pop out of the woods like a deus ex machina to tell me what Eric had been so sure I would understand