“It’s a vampire,” I told Eric in the tiniest whisper I could manage, and he put his arms around me and pulled me into him.
“You’re so much trouble,” Eric said, and yet he didn’t sound exasperated. He sounded excited. Eric loved the action moments.
By then, I was sure that the lurker wasn’t Bill, who would have made himself known. And Charles was presumably busy at Merlotte’s, mixing daiquiris. That left one vampire in the area unaccounted for. “Mickey,” I breathed, my fingers gripping Eric’s shirt.
“Salome moved more quickly than I thought,” Eric said in a regular voice. “He’s too angry to obey her, I suppose. He’s never been in here, correct?”
“Correct.” Thank God.
“Then he can’t come inside.”
“But he can break the window,” I said as glass shattered to our left. Mickey had thrown a large rock as big as my fist, and to my dismay the rock hit Eric squarely in the head. He went down like a—well, like a rock. He lay without moving. Dark blood welled from a deep cut in his temple. I leaped to my feet, completely stunned at seeing the powerful Eric apparently out cold.
“Invite me in,” said Mickey, just outside the window. His face, white and angry, shone in the pelting rain. His black hair was plastered to his head.
“Of course not,” I said, kneeling beside Eric, who blinked, to my relief. Not that he could be dead, of course, but still, when you see someone take a blow like that, vampire or not, it’s just plain terrifying. Eric had fallen in front of the armchair, which had its back to the window, so Mickey couldn’t see him.
But now I could see what Mickey was holding by one hand: Tara. She was almost as pale as he was, and she’d been beaten to a pulp. Blood was running out of the corner of her mouth. The lean vampire had a merciless grip on her arm. “I’ll kill her if you don’t let me in,” he said, and to prove his point, he put both hands around her neck and began to squeeze. A clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning lit up Tara’s desperate face as she clawed weakly at his arms. He smiled, fangs completely exposed.
If I let him in, he’d kill all of us. If I left him out there, I would have to watch him kill Tara. I felt Eric’s hands take hold of my arm. “Do it,” I said, not moving my gaze from Mickey. Eric bit, and it hurt like hell. He wasn’t finessing this at all. He was desperate to heal in a hurry.
I’d just have to swallow the pain. I tried hard to keep my face still, but then I realized I had a great reason to look upset. “Let her go!” I yelled at Mickey, trying to buy a few seconds. I wondered if any of the neighbors were up, if they could hear the ruckus, and I prayed they wouldn’t come searching to find out what was going on. I was even afraid for the police, if they came. We didn’t have any vampire cops to handle vampire lawbreakers, like the cities did.
“I’ll let her go when you let me in,” Mickey yelled. He looked like a demon out there in the rain. “How’s your tame vamp doing?”
“He’s still out,” I lied. “You hurt him bad.” It didn’t take any effort at all to make my voice crack as if I were on the verge of tears. “I can see his skull,” I wailed, looking down at Eric to see that he was still feeding as greedily as a hungry baby. His head was mending as I watched. I’d seen vamps heal before, but it was still amazing. “He can’t even open his eyes,” I added in a heartbroken way, and just then Eric’s blue eyes blazed up at me. I didn’t know if he was in fighting trim yet, but I could not watch Tara being choked. “Not yet,” Eric said urgently, but I had already told Mickey to come in.
“Oops,” I said, and then Mickey slithered through the window in an oddly boneless movement. He knocked the broken glass out of the way carelessly, like it didn’t hurt him to get cut. He dragged Tara through after him, though at least he’d switched his grip from her neck to her arm. Then he dropped her on the floor, and the rain coming in the window pelted down on her, though she couldn’t be any wetter than she already was. I wasn’t even sure she was conscious. Her eyes were closed in her bloody face, and her bruises were turning dark. I stood, swaying with the blood loss, but keeping my wrist concealed by resting it on the back of the armchair. I’d felt Eric lick it, but it would take a few minutes to heal.
“What do you want?” I asked Mickey. As if I didn’t know.
“Your head, bitch,” he said, his narrow features twisted with hatred, his fangs completely out. They were white and glistening and sharp in the bright overhead light. “Get down on your knees to your betters!” Before I could react in any way—in fact before I could blink—the vampire backhanded me, and I stumbled across the small room, landing half on the couch before I slid to the floor. The air went out of me in a big whoosh, and I simply couldn’t move, couldn’t even gasp for air, for an agonizingly long minute. In the meantime, Mickey was on top of me, his intentions completely clear when he reached down to unzip his pants. “This is all you’re good for!” he said, contempt making him even uglier. He tried to push his way into my head, too, forcing the fear of him into my brain to cow me.
And my lungs inflated. The relief of breathing was exquisite, even under the circumstances. With air came rage, as if I’d inhaled it along with oxygen. This was the trump card male bullies played, always. I was sick of it—sick of being scared of the bogeyman’s dick.
“No!” I screamed up at him. “No!” And finally I could think again; finally the fear let loose of me. “Your invitation is rescinded !” I yelled, and it was his turn to panic. He reared up off of me, looking ridiculous with his pants open, and he went backward out of the window, stepping on poor Tara as he went. He tried to bend, to grip her so he could yank her with him, but I lunged across the little room to grab her ankles, and her arms were too slick with rain to give him purchase, and the magic that had hold of him was too strong. In a second, he was outside looking in, screaming with rage. Then he looked east, as if he heard someone calling, and he vanished into the darkness.
Eric pushed himself to his feat, looking almost as startled as Mickey. “That was clearer thinking than most humans can manage,” he said mildly into the sudden silence. “How are you, Sookie?” He reached down a hand and pulled me to my feet. “I myself am feeling much better. I’ve had your blood without having to talk you into it, and I didn’t have to fight Mickey. You did all the work.”
“You got hit in the head with a rock,” I pointed out, content just to stand for a minute, though I knew I had to call an ambulance for Tara. I was feeling a little on the weak side myself.
“A small price to pay,” Eric told me. He brought out his cell phone, flipped it open, and pressed the REDIAL button. “Salome,” Eric said, “glad you answered the phone. He’s trying to run. . . .”
I heard the gleeful laughter coming from the other end of the phone. It was chilling. I couldn’t feel the least bit sorry for Mickey, but I was glad I wouldn’t have to witness his punishment.
“Salome’ll catch him?” I asked.
Eric nodded happily as he returned his phone to his pocket. “And she can do things to him more painful than anything I could imagine,” he said. “Though I can imagine plenty right now.”
“She’s that, ah, creative?”
“He’s hers. She’s his sire. She can do with him what she wishes. He can’t disobey her and go unpunished. He has to go to her when she calls him, and she’s calling.”
“Not on the phone, I take it,” I ventured.
His eyes glinted down at me. “No, she won’t need a phone. He’s trying to run away, but he’ll go to her eventually. The longer he holds out, the more severe his torture will be. Of course,” he added, in case I missed the point, “that’s as it should be.”
“Pam is yours, right?” I asked, falling to my knees and putting my fingers to Tara’s cold neck. I didn’t want to look at her.
“Yes,” Eric said. “She’s free to leave when she wants, but she comes back when I let her know I need her help.”
I didn’t know how I felt about that, but it didn’t really make a hell of a lot of differenc
e. Tara gasped and moaned. “Wake up, girl,” I said. “Tara! I’m gonna call an ambulance for you.
“No,” she said sharply. “No.” There was a lot of that word going around tonight.
“But you’re bad hurt.”
“I can’t go to the hospital. Everyone will know.”
“Everyone will know someone beat the shit out of you when you can’t go to work for a couple of weeks, you idiot.”
“You can have some of my blood,” Eric offered. He was looking down at Tara without any obvious emotion.
“No,” she said. “I’d rather die.”
“You might,” I said, looking her over. “Oh, but you’ve had blood from Franklin or Mickey.” I was assuming some tit-for-tat in their lovemaking.
“Of course not,” she said, shocked. The horror in her voice took me aback. I’d had vampire blood when I’d needed it. The first time, I’d have died without it.
“Then you have to go to the hospital.” I was really concerned that Tara might have internal injuries. “I’m scared for you to move,” I protested, when she tried to push herself to a seated position. Mr. Super Strength didn’t help, which irritated me, since he could have shifted her easily.
But at last Tara managed to sit with her back against the wall, the empty window allowing the chilly wind to gust in and blow the curtains to and fro. The rain had abated until only a drop or two was coming in. The linoleum in front of the window was wet with water and blood, and the glass lay in glittering sharp fragments, some stuck to Tara’s damp clothes and skin.
“Tara, listen to me,” Eric said. She looked up at him. Since he was close to the fluorescent light, she had to squint. I thought she looked pitiful, but Eric didn’t seem to see the same person I was seeing. “Your greed and selfishness put my—my friend Sookie in danger. You say you’re her friend, too, but you don’t act like it.”
Hadn’t Tara loaned me a suit when I needed one? Hadn’t she loaned me her car when mine burned? Hadn’t she helped me on other occasions when I needed it? “Eric, this isn’t any of your business,” I said.
“You called me and asked me for my help. That makes it my business. I called Salome and told her what her child was doing, and she’s taken him away and to punish him for it. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Yes,” I said, and I’m ashamed to say I sounded sullen.
“Then I’m going to make my point with Tara.” He looked back down at her. “Do you understand me?”
Tara nodded painfully. The bruises on her face and throat seemed to be darkening more every minute.
“I’m getting some ice for your throat,” I told her, and ran into the kitchen to dump ice from the plastic trays into a Ziploc bag. I didn’t want to listen to Eric scold her; she seemed so pitiful.
When I came back less than a minute later, Eric had finished whatever he was going to say to Tara. She was touching her neck gingerly, and she took the bag from me and held it to her throat. While I was leaning over her, anxious and scared, Eric was back on his cell phone.
I twitched with worry. “You need a doctor,” I urged her.
“No,” she said.
I looked up at Eric, who was just finishing his phone call. He was the injury expert.
“She’ll heal without going to the hospital,” he said briefly. His indifference made a chill run down my spine. Just when I thought I was used to them, vampires would show me their true face, and I would have to remind myself all over again that they were a different race. Or maybe it was centuries of conditioning that made the difference; decades of disposing of people as they chose, taking what they wanted, enduring the dichotomy of being the most powerful beings on earth in the darkness, and yet completely helpless and vulnerable during the hours of light.
“But will she have some permanent damage? Something doctors could fix if she got to them quick?”
“I’m fairly certain that her throat is only badly bruised. She has some broken ribs from the beating, possibly some loose teeth. Mickey could have broken her jaw and her neck very easily, you know. He probably wanted her to be able to talk to you when he brought her here, so he held back a little. He counted on you panicking and letting him in. He didn’t think you could gather your thoughts so quickly. If I’d been him, my first move would have been to damage your mouth or neck so you couldn’t rescind my entrance.”
That possibility hadn’t occurred to me, and I blanched.
“When he backhanded you, I think that was what he was aiming for,” Eric continued dispassionately.
I’d heard enough. I thrust a broom and dustpan into his hands. He looked at them as if they were ancient artifacts and he could not fathom their use.
“Sweep up,” I said, using a wet washcloth to clean the blood and dirt off my friend. I didn’t know how much of this conversation Tara was absorbing, but her eyes were open and her mouth was shut, so maybe she was listening. Maybe she was just working through the pain.
Eric moved the broom experimentally and made an attempt to sweep the glass into the pan while it lay in the middle of the floor. Of course, the pan slid away. Eric scowled.
I’d finally found something Eric did poorly.
“Can you stand?” I asked Tara. She focused on my face and nodded very slightly. I squatted and took her hands. Slowly and painfully, she drew her knees up, and then she pushed as I pulled. Though the window had broken mostly in big pieces, a few bits of glass fell from her as she rose, and I flicked an eye at Eric to make sure he understood he should clean them up. He had a truculent set to his mouth.
I tried to put my arm around Tara to help her into my bedroom, but my wounded shoulder gave a throb of pain so unexpected that I flinched. Eric tossed down the dustpan. He picked up Tara in one smooth gesture and put her on the couch instead of my bed. I opened my mouth to protest and he looked at me. I shut my mouth. I went into the kitchen and fetched one of my pain pills, and I got Tara to swallow one, which took some coaxing. The medicine seemed to knock her out, or maybe she just didn’t want to acknowledge Eric anymore. Anyway, she kept her eyes closed and her body slack, and gradually her breathing grew even and deep.
Eric handed me the broom with a triumphant smile. Since he’d lifted Tara, clearly I was stuck with his task. I was awkward because of my bad shoulder, but I finished sweeping up the glass and disposing of it in a garbage bag. Eric turned toward the door. I hadn’t heard anyone arrive, but Eric opened the door to Bill before Bill even knocked. Eric’s earlier phone conversation must have been with Bill. In a way, that made sense; Bill lived in Eric’s fiefdom, or whatever they called it. Eric needed help, so Bill was obliged to supply it. My ex was burdened with a large piece of plywood, a hammer, and a box of nails.
“Come in,” I said when Bill halted in the doorway, and without speaking a word to each other, the two vampires nailed the wood across the window. To say I felt awkward would be an understatement, though thanks to the events of the evening I wasn’t as sensitive as I would’ve been at another time. I was mostly preoccupied with the pain in my shoulder, and Tara’s recovery, and the current whereabouts of Mickey. In the extra space I had left over after worrying about those items, I crammed in some anxiety about replacing Sam’s window, and whether the neighbors had heard enough of this fracas to call the police. On the whole, I thought they hadn’t; someone would be here by now.
After Bill and Eric finished their temporary repair, they both watched me mopping up the water and blood on the linoleum. The silence began to weigh heavily on all three of us: at least, on my third of the three of us. Bill’s tenderness in caring for me the night before had touched me. But Eric’s just acquired knowledge of our intimacy raised my self-consciousness to a whole new level. I was in the same room with two guys who both knew I’d slept with the other.
I wanted to dig a hole and lie down in it and pull the opening inside with me, like a character in a cartoon. I couldn’t look either of them in the face.
If I rescinded both their invitations, they’d have to
walk outside without a word; but in view of the fact that they’d both just helped me, such a procedure would be rude. I’d solved my problems with them before in exactly that way. Though I was tempted to repeat it to ease my personal embarrassment, I simply couldn’t. So what did we do next?
Should I pick a fight? Yelling at one another might clear the air. Or maybe a frank acknowledgment of the situation . . . no.
I had a sudden mental picture of us all three climbing in the double bed in the little bedroom. Instead of duking out our conflicts, or talking out our problems, we could . . . no. I could feel my face flame red, as I was torn between semi-hysterical amusement and a big dash of shame at even thinking the thought. Jason and his buddy Hoyt had often discussed (in my hearing) that every male’s fantasy was to be in bed with two women. And men who came into the bar echoed that idea, as I knew from checking Jason’s theory by reading a random sample of male minds. Surely I was allowed to entertain the same kind of fantasy? I gave a hysterical kind of giggle, which definitely startled both vampires.
“This is amusing?” Bill asked. He gestured from the plywood, to the recumbent Tara, to the bandage on my shoulder. He omitted pointing from Eric to himself. I laughed out loud.
Eric cocked a blond eyebrow. “We are amusing?”
I nodded wordlessly. I thought, Instead of a cook-off, we could have a cock-off. Instead of a fishing derby, we could have a . . .
At least in part because I was tired, and strained, and blood depleted, I went way into the silly zone. I laughed even harder when I looked at Eric’s and Bill’s faces. They wore almost identical expressions of exasperation.
Eric said, “Sookie, we haven’t finished our discussion.”
“Oh yes, we have,” I said, though I was still smiling. “I asked you for a favor: releasing Tara from her bondage to Mickey. You asked me for payment for that favor: telling you what happened when you lost your memory. You performed your side of the bargain, and so did I. Bought and paid for. The end.”
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