Dead among Friends and Neighbors - Chapter 7

A/N:

Thank you again for all your comments and reviews!

I also want to thank Suki59 for betaing this story. I can`t tell you how many commas she`s had to remove and how many she`s added. I seem to have a special knack for placing them entirely wrong. Poor Suki59!

This universe and all the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I`m just trying to find a credible way to bring Eric and Sookie back together again.


Chapter 7

I`d put on a pair of black pants and a short-sleeved blouse and when I walked back into my living room, Eric was no longer talking to Felipe de Castro.

He looked at me with a quick glance at my body and then at my face. He nodded as if I´d said something.

"Is Felipe de Castro coming here?" I asked.

"Yes, eventually. But he wants to meet you at Victor`s old place. The one where we …." He trailed off but I knew what he meant. The one where we`d met Victor and were threatened and ridiculed.

"I own that place now. With Sam." I added the last sentence as a statement of some kind. To let Eric know that Sam was a part of my life even if Sam`s part wasn`t romantic. When Eric left Louisiana with Freyda I`d found happiness of sorts with Sam. And Sam was a very nice man. Gentle and sweet. Unfortunately we`d never really fit. Just because you really like someone and you enjoy spending time with him, doesn`t mean you should start seeing him romantically. Sam had been my best friend, and even if he was a great lover, he`d never really moved out of the friend zone.

It hadn`t helped matters that I´d never really gotten over Eric. I was angry at Eric. I`d even hated him at times. But I`d also loved him deeply and it had been hard to wipe him out of my heart.

"Yes, Sam," Eric said and for once his voice showed emotion. Sam was definitely off Eric`s Christmas card list.

"Why does Felipe want us to meet there? And why only me?" I asked.

"I prefer not to guess why Felipe has picked that place. I`m sure he`s sending some kind of message in his choice of place." Eric was quiet for a long time. "And he wants to see only you because he can`t be seen with me. That wouldn`t be … wise."

Later, when I drove to Sam`s Redneck Roadhouse, I wondered why it wouldn`t be wise for Felipe to be seen with Eric. It had to be connected to Eric`s leaving Queen Freyda and the reasons behind this.

I desperately wanted to know if Felipe was going to punish Eric and if I was going to be in the line of fire. Eric had made it clear to Felipe that I was on my old boyfriend`s side and I wasn`t sure I liked that very much.

I would probably fight on Eric`s side if push came to shove. Especially since Eric`s side was also Pam`s and Karin`s side and Pam and Karin were my two best vampire friends. But it would be so much easier to be on Team Eric if I`d known who the enemy was and when and where the battle would be.

It was a hot humid night but since vampires didn`t sweat they didn`t notice temperatures that often. Out of old habit I took a deep breath when I got out of my car at Sam`s Redneck Roadhouse. Humid nights brought out the smell of nature, especially the flowers that I so rarely got to see anymore.

To my surprise, Sam opened the back door to Sam`s Redneck Roadhouse when I crossed the parking lot. He was usually at Merlotte`s since the Roadhouse had a manager.

I wasn`t happy to see Sam there since I didn`t know what Felipe wanted. I really didn`t want to get Sam caught up in vampire politics. Having seen Sam die once was more than enough for me. Of course, I knew that Sam would probably die before I would (unless Felipe had plans for my meeting the sun in the morning), but I hoped he would die an old man—not a young father with little kids and a wife who would miss him very much.

"Hi Sam." I waved at him and gave him a smile that wasn`t entirely honest.

"Sookie," he said. "You have a visitor."

"I know. I just had a phone call from him. I didn`t know you`d be here, though, or I would have warned you."

I walked past him and into the noise of the Roadhouse. We`d taken down the pictures of Elvis but hadn`t made many changes to the place. Never change a winning team and Sam`s Redneck Roadhouse was a popular place.

Felipe sat in the corner and to my surprise, he was all alone. I did a quick scan of the room and found at least four vampires glancing over where he was sitting which meant his security guys were in place. But he was not sitting with his usual retinue and I found that very strange.

"Hello Felipe," I said when I made it to his table. I didn`t sit down. You just don`t sit down next to your king even if he was the one who invited you to come.

"Sookie!" He sounded pleased to see me but that didn`t necessarily mean anything. Vampires were not compelled to show their accurate emotions. Actually, they weren`t compelled to show emotions at all.

Felipe gestured at the seat next to him. "Sit down!"

I did as he requested.

"It`s been a long time, Sookie." He sounded genuinely sorry, which again meant nothing.

"Yes, it has."

Felipe de Castro had been on Pam`s doorstep the moment I woke up after I`d been turned. He`d wanted me to come to Las Vegas as his personal vampire-telepath. And he could have ordered me there if it had been worth his while. I was one of his vampires to order about, after all.

But when I`d made him believe that my telepathy had disappeared (and passed all the tests he`d put me through), he left me pretty much alone. We`d mainly communicated via texting and skyping and the few times I`d seen him in Louisiana or Nevada he`d been short, bordering on impolite. Yes, it must have been such a disappointment to lose his personal telepath even if he`d lost use of me long before I`d been turned.

Then Felipe de Castro did something completely surprising. He bent close to me and kissed me. It was a polite kiss at first. Almost as if he were asking permission. I hadn`t agreed to anything—I was too stunned—when he pulled me closer and started kissing me in earnest.

When I finally came to my senses—Felipe was my king and his kissing me was about as unexpected as snow in the Louisiana summer—I started pushing at his chest. Yes, Felipe could make me kiss him. He could even make me have sex with him. That was his prerogative as my king just as my maker could have forced me into many years of depraved sex if it hadn`t been for the fact that Pam had fixed him up with a stake in his chest.

It was bizarre for Felipe to kiss me. He`d never shown any romantic interest in me or hinted that he wanted me.

But he sure seemed to want me now. He kissed my jaw and then my neck, working his way up to my ear, which he kissed.

And then he whispered, "Don`t fight me, Sookie. I`m not going to ravish you." Even when he whispered it was with a Spanish accent.

"You could have fooled me," I said a little louder than his whisper.

"Act like you really want me," Felipe continued as if I hadn`t said anything.

It was the word "act" that made me pause. Why would Felipe have me act like I wanted to kiss him or make out with him? What was happening here?

I tentatively kissed his cheek. Not the most romantic of kisses and definitely not the hottest, but Felipe seemed satisfied.

Loudly—at least to any vampire at the Roadhouse—he declared, "I can`t wait any longer, Sookie. Let`s go to your place. I need you now."

I stared at Felipe. And then I saw some reddish hair at the periphery of my eye. Sam had definitely heard Felipe too.

I got up and tried to not feel embarrassed when Felipe`s hand trailed over my back and settled on my butt as we were walking out the front door of the Roadhouse. And I tried not to look in Sam`s direction.

I was fairly sure Felipe wasn`t going to invite himself to do a horizontal tango with me but Sam had no way of knowing that.

I could always explain it to Sam later on but right now I felt awkward leaving the Roadhouse on Felipe`s arm. Not that it was any of Sam`s business but I still didn`t like the look he gave me.

I just hoped Eric would still be at my house when we got there.


A/N:

Do you like the song "Just a Gigolo"? You know, that David Lee Roth song with the sad lyrics and the playful beat? Well, I wrote a one-shot with that in mind and entered it in the I Write the Songs contest.

You should enter the contest as well! There are a thousand songs just waiting for you to write a story about.