Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set

by Charlaine Harris

  This was why she was paying me the big bucks.

  “Ah, do you have any schedule of meetings?” I asked. “It’s just, I’d be ready and waiting if I had any idea when you needed me.”

  Before she could answer, there was a knock at the door. Andre rose and moved to answer it so smoothly and fluidly that you would have sworn he was part cat. His sword was in his hand, though I hadn’t seen it before. The door opened a bit just as Andre reached it, and I heard Sigebert’s bass rumble.

  After they’d exchanged a few sentences, the door opened wider, and Andre said, “The King of Texas, my lady.” There was only a hint of pleased surprise in his voice, but it was the equivalent of Andre doing cartwheels across the carpet. This visit was a show of support for Sophie-Anne, and all the other vampires would notice.

  Stan Davis came in, trailing a group of vamps and humans.

  Stan was a nerd’s nerd. He was the kind of guy who you checked out for a pocket protector. You could see the comb marks in his sandy hair, and his glasses were heavy and thick. They were also quite unnecessary. I’d never met a vamp who didn’t have excellent vision and very precise hearing. Stan was wearing a wash ’n’ wear white shirt with a Sears brand logo and some navy Dockers. And brown leather moccasins. Hoo, boy. He’d been a sheriff when I’d met him, and now that he was king, he was maintaining the same low-key approach.

  Behind Stan came his sergeant at arms, Joseph Velasquez. A short, burly Hispanic with spiky hair, Joseph never seemed to crack a smile. By his side was a red-haired female vamp named Rachel; I remembered her, too, from my trip to Dallas. Rachel was a savage one, and she didn’t like cooperating with humans in the least. Trailing the two was Barry the Bellboy, looking good in designer jeans and a taupe silk T-shirt, a discreet gold chain around his neck. Barry had matured in an almost scary way since I’d last seen him. He’d been a handsome, gawky boy of maybe nineteen when I’d first spotted him working as a bellboy at the Silent Shore Hotel in Dallas. Now Barry had had a manicure, a very good haircut, and the wary eyes of someone who’d been swimming in the shark pool.

  We smiled at each other, and Barry said, Good to see you. Looking pretty, Sookie.

  Thanks, and likewise, Barry.

  Andre was doing the proper vampire greeting thing, which did not include handshaking. “Stan, we are pleased to see you. Who have you brought to meet us?”

  Stan gallantly bent to kiss Sophie-Anne’s hand. “Most beautiful queen,” he said. “This vampire is my second, Joseph Velasquez. And this vampire is my nest sister Rachel. This human is the telepath Barry Bellboy. Indirectly, I have you to thank for him.”

  Sophie-Anne actually smiled. She said, “Of course, I am always delighted to do you any sort of favor in my power, Stan.” She gestured to him to sit opposite her. Rachel and Joseph took up flanking positions. “It’s so good to see you here in my suite. I had been concerned that I wouldn’t have any visitors at all.”

  (“Since I’m under indictment for killing my husband, and since I’ve also sustained a staggering economic blow,” was the subtext.)

  “I extend my sympathies to you,” Stan said with a completely inflectionless voice. “The losses in your country have been extreme. If we can help . . . I know the humans from my state have helped yours, and it’s only right that the vampires do likewise.”

  “Thank you for your kindness,” she said. Sophie-Anne’s pride was hurting in a major way. She had to struggle to paste that smile back on her face. “I believe you know Andre,” she continued. “Andre, you now know Joseph. And I believe all of you know our Sookie.”

  The phone rang, and since I was closest to it, I answered it.

  “Am I speaking to a member of the Queen of Louisiana’s party?” the gruff voice asked.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “One of you needs to come down to the loading bay to get a suitcase that belongs to your party. We can’t read the label.”

  “Oh . . . okay.”

  “Sooner the better.”

  “All right.”

  He hung up. Okay, that was a little abrupt.

  Since the queen was waiting for me to tell her who had called, I relayed the request, and she looked equally puzzled for all of a millisecond. “Later,” she said dismissively.

  In the meantime, the light eyes of the King of Texas were focused on me like laser beams. I inclined my head to him, which I hoped was the correct response. It seemed to be adequate. I would have liked to have had time to go over the protocol with Andre before the queen began receiving guests, but truthfully, I hadn’t expected there to be any, much less a powerful guy like Stan Davis. This had to mean something good for the queen, or maybe it was a subtle vampire insult. I was sure I’d find out.

  I felt the tickle of Barry in my mind. She good to work for? Barry asked.

  I just help her out from time to time, I said. I still have a day job.

  Barry looked at me with surprise. You kidding? You could be raking it in, if you go to a good state like Ohio or Illinois where there’s real money.

  I shrugged. I like where I live, I said.

  Then we both became aware that our vampire employers were watching our silent exchange. Our faces were changing expression, I guess, like faces do during a conversation . . . except our conversation had been silent.

  “Excuse me,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I just don’t see people like me very often, and it’s kind of a treat to talk to another telepath. I beg your pardon, ma’am, sir.”

  “I could almost hear it,” Sophie-Anne marveled. “Stan, he has been very useful?” Sophie-Anne could talk to her own children mentally, but it must be as rare an ability among vampires as it was among people.

  “Very useful,” Stan confirmed. “The day that your Sookie brought him to my attention was a very good day for me. He knows when the humans are lying; he knows what their ulterior motives are. It’s wonderful insight.”

  I looked at Barry, wondering if he ever thought of himself as a traitor to humankind or just as a vendor supplying a needed good. He met my eyes, his own face hard. Sure, he was conflicted about serving a vampire, revealing human secrets to his employer. I struggled with that idea myself from time to time.

  “Hmmm. Sookie only works for me on occasion.” Sophie-Anne was staring at me, and if I could characterize her smooth face, I would say she was thoughtful. Andre had something going on behind his pink-tinged teenage facade, and it was something I had better watch out for. He wasn’t just thoughtful, he was interested; engaged, for want of a better description.

  “Bill brought her to Dallas,” Stan observed, not quite asking a question.

  “He was her protector at the time,” Sophie-Anne said.

  A brief silence. Barry leered at me hopefully, and I gave him an in-your-dreams look. Actually, I felt like hugging him, since that little exchange broke up the silence into something I could handle.

  “Do you really need Barry and me here, since we’re the only humans, and it might not be so productive if we just sat around and read each other’s minds?”

  Joseph Velasquez actually smiled before he could stop himself.

  After a silent moment, Sophie-Anne nodded, and then Stan. Queen Sophie and King Stan, I reminded myself. Barry bowed in a practiced way, and I felt like sticking out my tongue at him. I did a sort of bob and then scuttled out of the suite. Sigebert eyed us with a questioning face. “The queen, she not need you?” he asked.

  “Not right now,” I said. I tapped a pager that Andre had handed me at the last minute. “The pager will vibrate if she needs me,” I said.

  Sigebert eyed the device mistrustfully. “I think it would be better if you just stayed here,” he said.

  “The queen, she says I can go,” I told him.

  And off I went, Barry trailing along behind me. We took the elevator down to the lobby, where we found a secluded corner where no one could sneak up on us to eavesdrop.

  I’d never conversed with someone entirely in my head, and n
either had Barry, so we played around with that for a while. Barry would tell me the story of his life while I tried to block out all the other brains around me; then I’d try to listen to everyone else and to Barry.

  This was actually a lot of fun.

  Barry turned out to be better than I was at picking out who was thinking what in a crowd. I was a bit better at hearing nuance and detail, not always easy to pick up in thoughts. But we had some common ground.

  We agreed on who the best broadcasters in the room were; that is, our “hearing” was the same. He would point at someone (in this case it was my roommate, Carla) and we would both listen to her thoughts, then rate them on a scale of one to five, five being the loudest, clearest broadcast. Carla was a three. After that agreement, we rated other people, and we found ourselves reacting almost as one over that.

  Okay, this was interesting.

  Let’s try touching, I suggested.

  Barry didn’t even leer. He was into this, too. Without further ado, he took my hand, and we faced in nearly opposite directions.

  The voices came in so clearly, it was like having a full-voice conversation with everyone in the room, all at once. Like pumping up the volume on a DVD, with the treble and bass perfectly balanced. It was elating and terrifying, all at once. Though I was facing away from the reception desk, I clearly heard a woman inquiring about the arrival of the Louisiana vamps. I caught my own image in the brain of the clerk, who was feeling delighted at doing me a bad turn.

  Here comes trouble, Barry warned me.

  I swung around to see a vampire advancing on me with not a very pleasant expression on her face. She had hot hazel eyes and straight light brown hair, and she was lean and mean.

  “Finally, one of the Louisiana party. Are the rest of you in hiding? Tell your bitch whore of a mistress that I’ll nail her hide to the wall! She won’t get away with murdering my king! I’ll see her staked and exposed to the sun on the roof of this hotel!”

  I said the first thing that came into my head, unfortunately. “Save the drama for your mama,” I told her, just like an eleven-year-old. “And by the way, who the heck are you?”

  Of course, this had to be Jennifer Cater. I started to tell her that her king’s character had been really substandard, but I liked my head right where it sat on my shoulders, and it wouldn’t take much to tip this gal over the edge.

  She gave good glare, I’d say that for her.

  “I’ll drain you dry,” she said, harshly. We were attracting a certain amount of attention by then.

  “Ooooo,” I said, exasperated beyond wisdom. “I’m so scared. Wouldn’t the court love to hear you say that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t vampires prevented by—oh, yes—the law from threatening humans with death, or did I just read that wrong?”

  “As if I give a snap of my fingers for human law,” Jennifer Cater said, but the fire was dying down in her eyes as she realized that the whole lobby was listening to our exchange, including many humans and possibly some vampires who’d love to see her out of the way.

  “Sophie-Anne Leclerq will be tried by the laws of our people,” Jennifer said as a parting shot. “And she will be found guilty. I’ll hold Arkansas, and I’ll make it great.”

  “That’ll be a first,” I said with some justification. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi were three poor states huddled together, much to our mutual mortification. We were all grateful for each other, because we got to take turns being at the bottom of almost every list in the United States: poverty level, teen pregnancy, cancer death, illiteracy. . . . We pretty much rotated the honors.

  Jennifer marched off, not wanting to try a comeback. She was determined, and she was vicious, but I thought Sophie-Anne could outmaneuver Jennifer any day. If I were a betting woman, I’d put money on the French nag.

  Barry and I gave each other a shrug. Incident over. We joined hands again.

  More trouble, Barry said, sounding resigned.

  I focused my brain where his was going. I heard a weretiger heading our way in a big, big hurry.

  I dropped Barry’s hand and turned, my arms out already and my whole face smiling. “Quinn!” I said, and after a moment where he looked very uncertain, Quinn swung me up in his arms.

  I hugged him as hard as I could, and he returned the hug so emphatically that my ribs creaked. Then he kissed me, and it took all my strength of character to keep the kiss within social boundaries.

  When we parted to breathe, I realized Barry was standing awkwardly a few feet away, not sure what to do.

  “Quinn, this is Barry Bellboy,” I said, trying not to feel embarrassed. “He’s the only other telepath I know. He works for Stan Davis, the King of Texas.”

  Quinn extended a hand to Barry, who I now realized was standing awkwardly for a reason. We’d transmitted a bit too graphically. I felt a tide of red sweep over my cheeks. The best thing to do was pretend I hadn’t noticed, of course, and that’s what I did. But I could feel a little smile twitching the corners of my mouth, and Barry looked more amused than angry.

  “Good to meet you, Barry,” Quinn rumbled.

  “You’re in charge of the ceremony arrangements?” Barry asked.

  “Yep, that’s me.”

  “I’ve heard of you,” Barry said. “The great fighter. You’ve got quite a rep among the vamps, man.”

  I cocked my head. Something I wasn’t getting here. “Great fighter?” I said.

  “I’ll tell you about it later,” Quinn said, and his mouth set in a hard line.

  Barry looked from me to Quinn. His own face did some hardening, and I was surprised to see that much toughness in Barry. “He hasn’t told you?” he asked, and then read the answer right from my head. “Hey, man, that’s not right,” he said to Quinn. “She should know.”

  Quinn almost snarled. “I’ll tell her about it soon.”

  “Soon?” Quinn’s thoughts were full of turmoil and violence. “Like now?”

  But at that moment, a woman strode across the lobby toward us. She was one of the most frightening women I’d ever seen, and I’ve seen some scary women. She was probably five foot eight, with inky black curls that hugged her head, and she was holding a helmet under her arm. It matched her armor. The armor itself, black and lusterless, was very much like a rather tailored baseball catcher’s outfit: a chest guard, thigh protectors, and shin guards, with the addition of thick leather braces that strapped around the forearms. She had some heavy boots on, too, and she carried a sword, a gun, and a small crossbow draped about her in appropriate holsters.

  I could only gape.

  “You are the one they call Quinn?” she asked, coming to a halt a yard away. She had a heavy accent, one I couldn’t trace.

  “I am,” Quinn said. I noticed Quinn didn’t seem to be as amazed as I was at the appearance of this lethal being.

  “I’m Batanya. You are in charge of special events. Does that include security? I wish to discuss my client’s special needs.”

  “I thought security was your job,” Quinn said.

  Batanya smiled, and it would really make your blood run cold. “Oh, yes, that’s my job. But guarding him would be easier if—”

  “I’m not in charge of security,” he said. “I’m only in charge of the rituals and procedures.”

  “All right,” she said, her accent making the casual phrase into something serious. “Then whom do I talk to?”

  “A guy named Todd Donati. His office is in the staff area behind the registration desk. One of the clerks can show you.”

  “Excuse me,” I said.

  “Yes?” She looked down an arrow-straight nose at me. But she didn’t look hostile or snooty, just worried.

  “I’m Sookie Stackhouse,” I said. “Who do you work for, Miss Batanya?”

  “The King of Kentucky,” she said. “He has brought us here at great expense. So it’s a pity there’s nothing I can do to keep him from being killed, as things stand now.”

  “What do you mean?” I was con
siderably startled and alarmed.

  The bodyguard looked like she was willing to give me an earful, but we were interrupted.

  “Batanya!” A young vampire was hurrying across the lobby, his crew cut and all-black Goth ensemble looking all the more frivolous when he stood by the formidable woman. “The master says he needs you by his side.”

  “I am coming,” Batanya said. “I know my place. But I had to protest the way the hotel is making my job much harder than it needs to be.”

  “Complain on your own dime,” the youngster said curtly.

  Batanya gave him a look I wouldn’t have wanted to have earned. Then she bowed to us, each in turn. “Miss Stackhouse,” she said, extending her hand for me to shake. I hadn’t realized hands could be characterized as muscular. “Mr. Quinn.” Quinn got the shake, too, while Barry got a nod, since he hadn’t introduced himself. “I will call this Todd Donati. Sorry I filled your ears, when this is not your responsibility.”

  “Wow,” I said, watching Batanya stride away. She was wearing pants like liquid leather, and you could see each buttock flex and relax with her movement. It was like an anatomy lesson. She had muscles in her butt.

  “What galaxy did she come from?” Barry asked, sounding dazed.

  Quinn said, “Not galaxy. Dimension. She’s a Britlingen.”

  We waited for more enlightenment.

  “She’s a bodyguard, a super-bodyguard,” he explained. “Britlingens are the best. You have to be really rich to hire a witch who can bring one over, and the witch has to negotiate the terms with their guild. When the job’s over, the witch has to send them back. You can’t leave them here. Their laws are different. Way different.”

  “You’re telling me the King of Kentucky paid gobs of money to bring that woman to this . . . this dimension?” I’d heard plenty of unbelievable things in the past two years, but this topped them all.

  “It’s a very extreme action. I wonder what he’s so afraid of. Kentucky isn’t exactly rolling in money.”

  “Maybe he bet on the right horse,” I said, since I had my own royalty to worry about. “And I need to talk to you.”

  “Babe, I gotta get back to work,” Quinn said apologetically. He shot an unfriendly look at Barry. “I know we need to talk. But I’ve got to line up the jurors for the trial, and I’ve got to set up a wedding ceremony. Negotiations between the King of Indiana and the King of Mississippi have been concluded, and they want to tie the knot while everyone’s here.”