“No, I got here in time to interrupt what would have been a fatal feeding. Right, Eric? Could you have stopped?”
He looked profoundly embarrassed. “Maybe not. My control was almost gone. It was her smel . When she came up to me, she seemed so ordinary. Wel , attractive because of the Were blood, but nothing real y special. And I certainly didn’t offer her money. Then, suddenly …” He shook his head and gulped.
“Why did her attraction suddenly increase?” Pam was nothing if not pragmatic. “Wait. I apologize. We don’t have time to get lost in the whys and wherefores. We must get through this tonight, us three,” she said, looking at me and at Eric in turn. I nodded again. Eric gave a jerk of his head.
“Good,” she said. “Sookie, you got here just in time. She wasn’t here by accident. She didn’t smel and taste that way by accident. A lot of things happened here tonight that reek of a plot. My friend, I’m going to repeat myself—you have to put aside personal pain for tonight.”
I gave Pam a very direct look. If I hadn’t gone into the bedroom, Eric might have drained the woman, and the woman herself had considered that result. I had a hunch something had been set in motion to catch Eric red- handed—red-fanged, more appropriately.
“Go brush your teeth,” I told him. “Real y scrub. Wash your face; rinse out the sink with lots and lots of water.”
Eric didn’t like being told what to do, but he understood expediency very wel . He went into the bathroom, leaving the door open. Pam said, “Let me go check on what’s happening with our special guests,” and disappeared down the hal into the living room, where the low music had continued without a break.
Eric stepped back into the bedroom, drying his face with a towel. He looked more alert, more present. He hesitated when he saw I was by myself. Eric was pretty much a stranger to relationship problems. From little clues and reminiscences he’d let drop, I’d gotten the picture that during literal y centuries of sexual adventures he’d cal ed the shots and the women had said, “Whatever you want, you big handsome Viking.” He’d had a fling or two with other vampires. Those had been more balanced connections, but brief. That was al I knew. Eric was not one to brag; he simply took sexual relationships for granted.
I was already feeling calmer. That was al to the good, since I was alone in a room with a man I’d wanted to shoot a few minutes before. Though we weren’t bonded anymore, Eric knew me wel enough to realize that he could now speak.
“It was only blood,” he said. “I was anxious and hungry, you were late, and I didn’t want to just bite into you the moment I saw you. She came in while I was waiting, and I thought I’d have a quick drink. She smel ed so intoxicating.”
“So you were trying to
“I acted impulsively.” And his mouth compressed into a straight line.
I considered him. I acted on impulse sometimes, myself. For example, the few previous times I’d been this angry or this hurt, I’d walked out of the situation—not because I wanted the last word or because I wanted to make a dramatic statement, but because I needed alone time to cool off. I took a deep breath. I looked Eric in the eye. I realized we both had to make a huge effort to move past this, at least for tonight. Without conscious thought, I had identified the subtle scent that must have screamed out at Eric’s senses.
“She’s already part Were, and she was doused in the scent of fairy blood to make you want her more,” I said. “I believe you’d have had better sense, if not for that. She was a trap. She came here because she expected to make a lot of money if you fed from her, and maybe to flirt with her death wish.”
“Can you manage to carry on with the evening as if we were in harmony?” Eric asked.
“I’l do my best,” I said, trying not to sound bitter.
“That’s al I can ask.”
“You don’t seem to have any doubt that you can cope,” I observed. But then I closed my eyes for a moment, and I used every bit of my self-control to pul myself together into a coherent person. “So if I’m here to official y greet Felipe and he’s supposed to be talking to us about the
‘disappearance’ of Victor, when’s al the whoopee out in the great room going to stop? And just so you know, I’m seriously mad about the table.”
“Me, too,” he said, with unmistakable relief. “I’l tel Felipe that we must talk tonight. Now.” He looked down at me. “My lover, don’t let your pride get the better of you.”
“Wel , me and my pride would be delighted to get back in my car and go home,” I said, struggling to keep my voice quiet. “But I guess
With that, I went into the bathroom and shut the door, very quietly and deliberately. I locked it. I was through talking, at least for a while. I had to have a few seconds when no one was looking at me.
From outside the door, there was silence. I sat down on the toilet lid. I felt so ful of conflicting emotions that it was like walking through a minefield in my high-heeled black sandals with the sil y flowers on them. I looked down at my bright toenails.
“Okay,” I said to those toes. “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “You knew he took blood from other people. And you knew ‘other people’ might mean other women. And you knew that some women are younger and prettier and skinnier than you.” If I kept repeating that, it would sink in.
Good God—are “knowing” and “seeing” ever two different things!
“You also know,” I continued, “that he loves you. And you love him.”
I repeated sternly. “You’ve been through so much with him, and he’s proved over and over that he’l go the extra mile for you.”
He had. He had!
I told myself that about twenty times.
