'No,' she said after a perceptible pause. 'I didn't see him again.' I checked her carefully for blank spots in her mind; I could never replace what had been erased, but I might know if her memory had been tampered with. I found nothing. And she was trying to remember, I could tell. I could sense her straining to recall another glimpse of Farrell. I realized, from the sense of her straining, that I was losing control of Bethany's thoughts and memories.
'What about the young blond one? The one with the tattoos?'
Bethany pondered that. She was about half out of her trance now. 'I didn't see him neither,' she said. A name slid through her head.
'What's that?' I asked, keeping my voice very quiet and calm.
'Nothing! Nothing!' Bethany's eyes were wide open now. Her haircut was over: I'd lost her. My control was far from perfect.
She wanted to protect someone; she wanted him not to go through the same thing she was going through. But she couldn't stop herself from thinking the name, and I caught it. I couldn't quite understand why she thought this man would know something else, but she did. I knew no purpose would be served by letting her know I'd picked up on her secret, so I smiled at her and told Stan, without turning to look at him, 'She can go. I've gotten everything.'
I absorbed the look of relief on Bethany's face before I turned to look at Stan. I was sure he realized I had something up my sleeve, and I didn't want him to say anything. Who can tell what a vampire is thinking when the vamp is being guarded? But I had the distinct feeling Stan understood me.
He didn't speak out loud, but another vampire came in, a girl who'd been about Bethany's age when she went over. Stan had made a good choice. The girl leaned over Bethany, took her hand, smiled with fangs fully retracted, and said, 'We'll take you home now, okay?'
'Oh, great!' Bethany's relief was written in neon on her forehead. 'Oh, great,' she said again, less certainly. 'Ah, you really are going to my house? You …'
But the vampire had looked directly into Bethany's eyes and now she said, 'You won't remember anything about today or this evening except the party.'
'Party?' Bethany's voice sounded sluggish. Only mildly curious.
'You went to a party,' the vampire said as she led Bethany from the room. 'You went to a great party, and you met a cute guy there. You've been with him.' She was still murmuring to Bethany as they went out. I hoped she was giving her a good memory.
'What?' Stan asked, when the door shut behind the two.
'Bethany thought the club bouncer would know more. She watched him go into the men's room right on the heels of your friend Farrell and the vampire you didn't know.' What
'What you uncovered in her mind, was that Farrell was at the bar, and that he went into the toilet room with another vampire, a young male with long blond hair and many tattoos,' Stan summarized. 'The bouncer went into the toilet while the two were in there.'
'Correct.'
There was a sizeable pause while Stan made up his mind about what to do next. I waited, delighted not to hear one word of his inner debate. No flashes, no glimpses.
At least such momentary glimpses into a vampire mind were extremely rare. And I'd never had one from Bill; I hadn't known it was possible for some time after I'd been introduced to the vampiric world. So his company remained pure pleasure to me. It was possible, for the first time in my life, to have a normal relationship with a male. Of course, he wasn't a
As if he knew I'd been thinking of him, I felt Bill's hand on my shoulder. I put my own over it, wishing I could get up and give him a full-length hug. Not a good idea in front of Stan. Might make him hungry.
'We don't know the vampire who went in with Farrell,' Stan said, which seemed a little bit of an answer after all that thinking. Maybe he'd imagined giving me a longer explanation, but decided I wasn't smart enough to understand the answer. I would rather be underestimated than overrated any day. Besides, what real difference did it make? But I filed my question away under facts I needed to know.
'So, who's the bouncer at the Bat's Wing?'
'A man called Re-Bar,' Stan said. There was a trace of distaste in the way he said it. 'He is a fang- banger.'
So Re-Bar had his dream job. Working with vampires, working for vampires, and being around them every night. For someone who had gotten fascinated by the undead, Re-Bar had hit a lucky streak. 'What could he do if a vampire got rowdy?' I asked, out of sheer curiosity.
'He was only there for the human drunks. We found that a vampire bouncer tended to overuse his strength.'
I didn't want to think about that too much. 'Is Re-Bar here?'
'It will take a short time,' Stan said, without consulting anyone in his entourage. He almost certainly had some kind of mind contact with them. I'd never seen that before, and I was sure Eric couldn't approach Bill mentally. It must be Stan's special gift.
While we waited, Bill sat down in the chair next to me. He reached over and took my hand. I found it very comforting, and loved Bill for it. I kept my mind relaxed, trying to maintain energy for the questioning ahead. But I was beginning to frame some worries, very serious worries, about the situation of the vampires of Dallas. And I was concerned about the glimpse I'd had of the bar patrons, especially the man I'd thought I recognized.
'Oh, no,' I said sharply, suddenly recalling where I'd seen him.
The vampires shot to full alert. 'What, Sookie?' Bill asked.
Stan looked like he'd been carved from ice. His eyes actually glowed green, I wasn't just imagining it.
I stumbled all over my words in my haste to explain what I was thinking. 'The priest,' I told Bill. 'The man that ran away at the airport, the one who tried to grab me. He was at the bar.' The different clothes and setting had fooled me when I was deep into Bethany's memory, but now I was sure.
'I see,' Bill said slowly. Bill seems to have almost total recall, and I could rely on him to have the man's face imprinted in his memory.
'I didn't think he was really a priest then, and now I know he was at the bar the night Farrell vanished,' I said. 'Dressed in regular clothes. Not, ah, the white collar and black shirt.'
There was a pregnant pause.
Stan said, delicately, 'But this man, this pretend priest, at the bar, even with two human companions, he could not have taken Farrell if Farrell didn't want to go.'
I looked directly down at my hands and didn't say one word. I didn't want to be the one to say this out loud. Bill, wisely, didn't speak either. At last, Stan Davis, head vampire of Dallas, said, 'Someone went in the bathroom with Farrell, Bethany recalled. A vampire I didn't know.'
I nodded, keeping my gaze directed elsewhere.
'Then this vampire must have helped to abduct Farrell.'
'Is Farrell gay?' I asked, trying to sound as if my question had just oozed out of the walls.
'He prefers men, yes. You think—'
'I don't think a thing.' I shook my head emphatically, to let him know how much I wasn't thinking. Bill squeezed my fingers. Ouch.
The silence was tense until the teenage-looking vamp returned with a burly human, one I'd seen in Bethany's memories. He didn't look like Bethany saw him, though; through her eyes, he was more robust, less fat; more glamorous, less unkempt. But he was recognizable as Re-Bar.
It was apparent to me immediately that something was wrong with the man. He followed after the girl vamp readily enough, and he smiled at everyone in the room; but that was off, wasn't it? Any human who sensed vampire trouble would be worried, no matter how clear his conscience. I got up and went over to him. He watched
