“Quinn doesn’t have to tell you his personal information,” I said. What I really wanted was to ask her where Quinn was now, but that would definitely hand the advantage to her, so I was going to keep that question to myself. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work, and I assume you do, too.”
Her dark eyes flashed at me, and she strode off. She was at least four inches taller than me, and very slim. She hadn’t bothered with a bra, and she had little plum-like boobs that jiggled in an eye-catching way. This was a gal who’d always want to be on top. I wasn’t the only one who watched her cross the room. Barry had jettisoned his fantasy about me for a brand-new one.
I returned to the queen’s side because she and Andre were moving into the convention hall from the lobby. The wide double doors were propped open by a really beautiful pair of urns that held huge arrangements of dried grasses.
Barry said, “Have you ever been to a real convention, a normal one?”
“No,” I said, trying to keep my scan of the surrounding crowd up. I wondered how Secret Service agents coped. “Well, I went to one with Sam, a bartending supplies convention, but just for a couple of hours.”
“Everyone wore a badge, right?”
“If you can call a thing on a lanyard around your neck a badge, yeah.”
“That’s so workers at the door can be sure you’ve paid your admittance, and so that unauthorized people won’t come in.”
“Yeah, so?”
Barry went silent. So, you see anyone with a badge? You see anyone checking?
No one but us. And what do we know? The whore might be an undercover spy for the northeastern vampires. Or something worse, I added more soberly.
They’re used to being the strongest and scariest, Barry said. They might fear each other, but they don’t seriously fear humans, not when they’re together.
I took his point. The Britlingen had already aroused my concern, and now I was even more worried.
Then I looked back at the doors to the hotel. They were guarded, now that it was dark, by armed vampires instead of armed humans. The front desk, too, was staffed with vampires wearing the hotel uniform, and those vampires were scanning each and every person who walked in the doors. This building was not as laxly protected as it might seem. I relaxed and decided to check out the booths in the convention hall.
There was one for prosthetic fangs that you could have implanted; they came in natural ivory, silver, or gold, and the really expensive ones retracted by means of a tiny motor when your tongue pressed a tiny button in your mouth. “Undetectable from the real thing,” an elderly man was assuring a vampire with a long beard and braided hair. “And sharp, oh goodness, yes!” I couldn’t figure out who would want a pair. A vamp with a broken tooth? A vamp wannabe who wanted to pretend? A human looking for a little role-playing?
The next booth sold CDs of music from various historical eras, like Russian Folk Songs of the Eighteenth Century or Italian Chamber Music, the Early Years. It was doing a brisk business. People always like the music of their prime, even if that prime was centuries past.
The next booth was Bill’s, and it had a large sign arching over the temporary “walls” of the enclosure. VAMPIRE IDENTIFICATION, it said simply. TRACK DOWN ANY VAMPIRE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. ALL YOU NEED IS A COMPUTER-SMART MINION, said a smaller sign. Bill was talking to a female vamp who was extending her credit card to him, and Pam was popping a CD case into a little bag. Pam caught my eye and winked. She was wearing a campy harem outfit, which I would have supposed she’d refuse to do. But Pam was actually smiling. Maybe she was enjoying the break in her routine.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESS PRESENTS: SANGUINARY SOUP FOR THE SOUL was the sign over the next booth, at which sat a bored and lonely vampire with a stack of books in front of her.
The next exhibit took up several spaces and needed no explanation. “You should definitely upgrade,” an earnest salesman was telling a black vampire whose hair was braided and tied with a thousand colored strings. She listened intently, eyeing one of the sample miniature coffins open in front of her. “Certainly, wood’s biodegradable and it’s traditional, but who needs that? Your coffin is your home; that’s what my daddy always said.”
There were others, including one for Extreme(ly Elegant) Events. That one was a large table with several price brochures and photo albums lying open to tempt the passersby. I was ready to check it out when I noticed that the booth was being “manned” by Miss Snooty Long-Legs. I didn’t want to talk to her again, so I sauntered on, though I never lost sight of the queen. One of the human waiters was admiring Sophie-Anne’s ass, but I figured that wasn’t punishable by death, so I let it go.
By that time the queen and Andre had met with the sheriffs Gervaise and Cleo Babbitt. The broad-faced Gervaise was a small man, perhaps five foot six. He appeared to be about thirty-five, though you could easily add a hundred years to that and be closer to his true age. Gervaise had borne the burden of Sophie-Anne’s maintenance and amusement for the past few weeks, and the wear and tear was showing. I’d heard he’d been renowned for his sophisticated clothing and debonair style. The only time I’d seen him before, his light hair had been combed as smooth as glass on his sleek round head. Now it was definitely disheveled. His beautiful suit needed to go to the cleaner, and his wing tips needed polishing. Cleo was a husky woman with broad shoulders and coal black hair, a wide face with a full-lipped mouth. Cleo was modern enough to want to use her last name; she’d been a vampire for only fifty years.
“Where is Eric?” Andre asked the other sheriffs.
Cleo laughed, the kind of deep-throated laugh that made men look. “He got conscripted,” she said. “The priest didn’t show up, and Eric’s taken a course, so he’s going to officiate.”
Andre smiled. “That’ll be something to watch. What’s the occasion?”
“It’ll be announced in a second,” Gervaise said.
I wondered what church would have Eric as a priest. The Church of High Profits? I drifted over to Bill’s booth and attracted Pam’s attention.
“Eric’s a priest?” I murmured
“Church of the Loving Spirit,” she told me, bagging three copies of the CD and handing them to a fangbanger sent by his master to pick them up. “He got his certificate from the online course, with Bobby Burnham’s help. He can perform marriage services.”
A waiter somehow outmaneuvered all the guests around the queen and approached her with a tray full of wineglasses brimming with blood. In the blink of an eye Andre was between the waiter and the queen, and in the blink of another eye, the waiter swiveled and walked in another direction.
I tried to look in the waiter’s mind but found it perfectly blank. Andre had grabbed control of the guy’s will and sent him on his way. I hoped the waiter was okay. I followed his progress to a humble door set in a corner until I was sure that he was going back to the kitchen. Okay, incident averted.
There was a ripple in the currents of the display hall, and I turned to see what was happening. The King of Mississippi and the King of Indiana had come in together hand in hand, which seemed to be a public signal that they’d concluded their marriage negotiations. Russell Edgington was a slight, attractive vampire who liked other men—exclusively and extensively. He could be good company, and he was a good fighter, too. I liked him. I was a little anxious about seeing Russell, since a few months before I’d left a body in his pool. I tried to look on the bright side. The body was a vampire’s, so it should have disintegrated before the pool covering had been removed in the spring.
Russell and Indiana stopped in front of Bill’s booth. Indiana, incidentally, was a big bull-like guy with brown curly hair and a face I thought of as no-nonsense.
I drifted closer, because this could be trouble.
“Bill, you look good,” Russell said. “My staff tells me you had a hard time at my place. You seem to have recovered nicely. I’m not sure how you got free, but I’m glad.” If Russell was pausing for a reaction, he didn’t get one. Bill’
s face was just as impassive as if Russell had been commenting on the weather, not Bill’s torture. “Lorena was your sire, so I couldn’t interfere,” Russell said, his voice just as calm as Bill’s face. “And here you are, selling your own little computer thing that Lorena was trying so hard to get from you. As the Bard said, ‘All’s well that ends well.’ ”
Russell had been too verbose, which was the only indication that the king was anxious about Bill’s reaction. And sure enough, Bill’s voice was like cold silk running over glass. But all he said was, “Think nothing of it, Russell. Congratulations are in order, I understand.”
Russell smiled up at his groom.
“Yes, Mississippi and I are tying the knot,” the King of Indiana said. He had a deep voice. He would look at home beating up some welsher in an alley or sitting in a bar with sawdust on the floor. But Russell did everything but blush.
Maybe this was a love match.
Then Russell spotted me. “Bart, you have to meet this young woman,” he said immediately. I about had a panic attack, but there was no way out of the situation without simply turning tail and running. Russell pulled his intended over to me by their linked hands. “This young woman was staked while she was in Jackson. Some of those Fellowship thugs were in a bar, and one of them stabbed her.”
Bart looked almost startled. “You survived, obviously,” he said. “But how?”
“Mr. Edgington here got me some help,” I said. “In fact, he saved my life.”
Russell tried to look modest, and he almost succeeded. The vampire was trying to look good in front of his intended, such a human reaction that I could scarcely believe it.
“However, I believe you took something with you when you left,” Russell said severely, shaking a finger at me.
I tried to glean something from his face that would tell me which way to jump with my answer. I’d taken a blanket, sure enough, and some loose clothes the young men in Russell’s harem had left lying around. And I’d taken Bill, who’d been a prisoner in one of the outbuildings. Probably Russell was referring to Bill, huh?
“Yessir, but I left something behind in return,” I said, since I couldn’t stand this verbal cat and mouse. All right, already! I’d rescued Bill and killed the vampire Lorena, though that had been more or less by accident. And I’d dumped her evil ass in the pool.
“I did think there was some sludge at the bottom when we got the pool ready for the summer,” Russell said, and his bitter chocolate eyes examined me thoughtfully. “What an enterprising young woman you are, Miss . . .”
“Stackhouse. Sookie Stackhouse.”
“Yes, I remember now. Weren’t you at Club Dead with Alcide Herveaux? He’s a Were, honey,” Russell said to Bart.
“Yessir,” I said, wishing he hadn’t remembered that little detail.
“Didn’t I hear Herveaux’s father was campaigning for packleader in Shreveport?”
“That’s right. But he . . . ah, he didn’t get it.”
“So that was the day Papa Herveaux died?”
“It was,” I said. Bart was listening intently, his hand running up and down Russell’s coat sleeve all the while. It was a lusty little gesture.
Quinn appeared at my side just then and put his arm around me, and Russell’s eyes widened. “Gentlemen,” Quinn said to Indiana and Mississippi, “I believe we have your wedding ready and waiting.”
The two kings smiled at each other. “No cold feet?” Bart asked Russell.
“Not if you keep them warm,” Russell said with a smile that would have melted an iceberg. “Besides, our lawyers would kill us if we reneged on those contracts.”
They both nodded at Quinn, who loped to the dais at one end of the exhibit hall. He stood at the highest level and stretched out his arms. There was a microphone up there, and his deep voice boomed out over the crowd. “Your attention, ladies and gentlemen, kings and commoners, vampires and humans! You are all requested and invited to attend the union of Russell Edgington, King of Mississippi, and Bartlett Crowe, King of Indiana, in the Ritual Room. The ceremony will begin in ten minutes. The Ritual Room is through the double doors in the east wall of the hall.” Quinn pointed regally at the double doors.
I’d had time to appreciate his outfit while he spoke. He was wearing full trousers that gathered at the waist and the ankle. They were deep scarlet. He had cinched the trousers with a wide gold belt like a prizefighter’s, and he was wearing black leather boots with the trouser legs tucked in. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. He looked like a genie who’d just popped out of a really big bottle.
“This is your new man?” Russell said. “Quinn?”
I nodded, and he looked impressed.
“I know you got things on your mind right now,” I said impulsively. “I know you’re about to get married. But I just want to say I hope that we’re even-steven, right? You’re not mad at me, or holding a grudge at me, or anything?”
Bart was accepting the congratulations of assorted vampires, and Russell glanced his way. Then he did me the courtesy of concentrating on me, though I knew he had to turn away and enjoy his evening in a very short time, which was only right.
“I hold no grudge against you,” he said. “Fortunately, I have a sense of humor, and fortunately, I didn’t like Lorena worth a damn. I lent her the room in the stable because I’d known her for a century or two, but she always was a bitch.”
“Then let me ask you, since you’re not mad at me,” I said. “Why does everyone seem so in awe of Quinn?”
“You really don’t know, and you’ve got the tiger by his tail?” Russell looked happily intrigued. “I don’t have time to tell you the whole story, because I want to be with my husband-to-be, but I’ll tell you what, Miss Sookie, your man has made a lot of people a lot of money.”
“Thanks,” I said, a bit bewildered, “and best wishes to you and, ah, Mr. Crowe. I hope you’ll be very happy together.” Since shaking hands was not a vampire custom, I bowed and tried to sort of back away quickly while we were still on such good terms with each other.
Rasul popped up at my elbow. He smiled when I jumped. Those vamps. Gotta love their sense of humor.
I’d only seen Rasul in SWAT gear, and he’d looked good in that. Tonight he was wearing another uniform, but it was also pretty military looking, in a kind of Cossack way. He wore a long-sleeved tunic and tailored pants in a deep plum with black trim and bright brass buttons. Rasul was deeply brown, quite naturally, and had the large, dark liquid eyes and black hair of someone from the Middle East.
“I knew you were supposed to be here, so it’s nice to run into you,” I said.
“She sent Carla and me ahead of time,” he said lightly in his exotic accent. “You are looking lovelier than ever, Sookie. How are you enjoying the summit?”
I ignored his pleasantries. “What’s with the uniform?”
“If you mean, whose uniform is it, it’s the new house uniform of our queen,” he said. “We wear this instead of the armor when we’re not out on the streets. Nice, huh?”
“Oh, you’re stylin’,” I said, and he laughed.
“Are you going to the ceremony?” he said.
“Yeah, sure. I’ve never seen a vampire wedding. Listen, Rasul, I’m sorry about Chester and Melanie.” They’d been on guard duty with Rasul in New Orleans.
For a second, all the humor left the vampire’s face. “Yes,” he said after a moment of stiff silence. “Instead of my comrades, now I have the Formerly Furred.” Jake Purifoy was approaching us, and he was wearing the same uniform as Rasul. He looked lonely. He hadn’t been a vampire long enough to maintain the calm face that seemed to be second nature to the undead.
“Hi, Jake,” I said.
“Hi, Sookie,” he said, sounding forlorn and hopeful.
Rasul bowed to both of us and set off in another direction. I was stuck with Jake. This was too much like grade school for my taste. Jake was the kid who’d come to school wearing the wrong clothes and packing a weird lunch. Being a com
bo vamp-Were had ruined his chances with either crowd. It was like trying to be a Goth jock.
“Have you had a chance to talk to Quinn yet?” I asked for lack of anything better to say. Jake had been Quinn’s employee before his change had effectively put him out of a job.
“I said hello in passing,” Jake said. “It’s just not fair.”
“What?”
“That he should be accepted no matter what he’s done, and I should be ostracized.”
I knew what ostracized meant, because it had been on my Word of the Day calendar. But my brain was just snagging on that word because the bigger meaning of Jake’s comment was affecting my equilibrium. “No matter what he’s done?” I asked. “What would that mean?”
“Well, of course, you know about Quinn,” Jake said, and I thought I might jump on his back and beat him around the head with something heavy.
“The wedding begins!” came Quinn’s magnified voice, and the crowd began streaming into the double doors he’d indicated earlier. Jake and I streamed right along with them. Quinn’s bouncy-boobed assistant was standing just inside the doors, passing out little net bags of potpourri. Some were tied with blue and gold ribbon, some with blue and red.
“Why the different colors?” the whore asked Quinn’s assistant. I appreciated her asking, because it meant I didn’t have to.
“Red and blue from the Mississippi flag, blue and gold from the Indiana,” the woman said with an automatic smile. She still had it pasted on her face when she handed me a red-and-blue tied bag, though it faded in an almost comical way when she realized who I was.
Jake and I worked our way to a good spot a bit to the right of center. The stage was bare except for a few props, and there were no chairs. They weren’t expecting this to take very long, apparently. “Answer me,” I hissed. “About Quinn.”
“After the wedding,” he said, trying not to smile. It had been a few months since Jake had had the upper hand on anyone, and he couldn’t hide the fact that he was enjoying it. He glanced behind us, and his eyes widened. I looked in that direction to see that the opposite end of the room was set up as a buffet, though the main feature of the buffet was not food but blood. To my disgust, there were about twenty men and women standing in a line beside the synthetic blood fountain, and they all had name tags that read simply, “Willing Donor.” I about gagged. Could that be legal? But they were all free and unrestrained and could walk out if they chose, and most of them looked pretty eager to begin their donation. I did a quick scan of their brains. Yep, willing.
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