Beautiful Stranger

Chapter Eleven

Eric spent the rest of the night holding me. After we'd made love he carried me inside, wrapped himself around me, and just held me. I woke in the morning to find him gone, and felt a sense of loss with his absence. My skin missed his cool touch.

On the bed beside me was a much warmer body, panting softly in my ear as I stirred from sleep. Sam had come back, as a collie, and had taken Eric's place beside me. I ran my fingers absently over his head as I lay in the blissful warmth.

"We need to talk about this, Sam," I told him.

Nature's urges grew too strong. Pulling myself reluctantly from the bed I went looking for a bathroom, dressed only in Eric's shirt. It smelled of him, the scent bringing my memory back to last night. I was still smiling when I stepped out of the shower half an hour later.

Sam had changed back and wrapped a robe around himself while I showered, "I would've made us breakfast but there's nothing but coffee in that kitchen."

"Why did you never tell me about the shape-shifting?" I asked him.

"You never asked," he put his eyes down.

"It's a pretty big secret to keep."

"What would you have said if I'd told you, by the way, sometimes I like to be a dog?"

"Got a point there, so is it just dogs?" I wanted to know.

"Just about anything really, I like the dog."

"But why not a wolf?" I asked.

"They're a funny lot, I'll stick to my dog," he was grinning at me, but he'd told me all he intended to. "Guess we should think about going to work."

"I'll need to go home, get my uniform." Not forgetting clean underwear and shoes I can walk in, and a brush and make-up. And I really better let my Gran know I'm still alive.

"We'll travel together then," he said.

Milton Hawser and Sheriff Bud were waiting at Merlotte's when we got there. The sun was well up, and it was shaping to be another balmy morning. Both men looked deeply unhappy to be here in the heat, but they needed to see me. Sam let them into the shade of the bar, then went over to his double wide to change.

"I just want to run over the events of last night," Bud told me. My face and neck went scarlet, had I been seen with Eric? Then I realized they were talking about the vampires.

"Is there a problem, Sheriff?"

"No, but your friends can't be reached so I just want to go over it with you and get the case closed. We can follow up with them another time."

Both policemen listened intently while I told them a version of what had happened. They didn't need to know about Sam, or about the fact that I thought Eric had waited for the police to arrive before he killed the rogues. The impression I got from both men was that they were filling in the forms, nothing more. I dipped into Sheriff Bud's thoughts to find that he was relieved the whole thing had been settled. If he thought Eric had executed the rogue vampires he would keep the thought to himself.

Changing my attention to Milton Hawser I got his thoughts loud and clear. He was wondering what I had under my uniform, and if he had a chance with a girl who ran with vampires. Maybe his friends in the Fellowship would forgive me for consorting with vampires. Not everything I get is good. With my best fixed smile I asked if they had finished, which they had.

I knew exactly who the Fellowship of the Sun were, a quasi-religious bunch of vampire haters. They wanted all the vampires dead, and were known to be hostile to humans who befriended them too. I would never have guessed that Milton Hawser was one of them.

Sam came back over as they were leaving, exchanging pleasantries as they got back into their car and drove away. We were both at the door when a blue Ford pulled up and Cynthia climbed out. She leaned back in to kiss the driver, a dark haired man in his early forties, on the mouth. Eventually she let him go and came to join us.

"What?"

"Nothing," I lied. What could I say after my own behavior last night.

She bustled straight to the kitchen, the customers would be coming in soon. To prove me right my brother and Berniece pulled up in his work truck.

"Did you hear what happened out on the road?" Jason asked me as he came into the bar.

"I was there when Eric killed them," I told him.

"Eric killed somebody?" he looked puzzled.

"That's what you were going to tell me, wasn't it?" He'd been at my Gran's when we'd left last night, so Jason knew where I'd been. He'd even offered to fetch his rifle and help, but Eric had convinced him that wouldn't be necessary.

"No, it's not. Who did Eric kill?"

Without detail my brother would have been bored, so I told him the whole story, apart from Sam's little surprise. He whistled when I told him about Eric killing the rogues with his sword. He seemed genuinely sorry he hadn't been there.

"So what happened that I don't know about?" I asked him when I'd told him all I could.

"Ground collapsed under one of the trucks near where we found those stairs. Sookie there's a whole bunch of tunnels under the ground out there."

"What kind of tunnels? Did you take a look?" he had me hooked. I wanted to drop what I was doing and go see myself. Sam was at my shoulder and seemed every bit as engrossed as I was.

"Too dangerous. The truck's kind of stuck, we'll need a crane to get it out. When I left we were waiting for the crane."

Jason and Berniece sat in my area and ordered burgers and Dr Pepper. Some of the other men who had drifted in from the road crew ordered beer, but my brother never drank when he was working. My area ended up full of Jason's workers while the rest of the bar was still empty. Arlene drifted over to give me a hand.

During lunch a pretty girl with long dark hair and dark eyes came in. All the men turned to look at her, as she made her way to Sam at the bar. They chatted for a few minutes, then she wrote something down for him. When she left I envied the way she moved her hips. I could see Sam watching her too, before he put the paper in his pocket.

"Who was that?" I asked him when I got a minute.

"Just someone looking to waitress, I've kept her number. She says she's been in plenty of places before," he told me. The grin he was wearing said he knew I'd noticed how pretty she was. None of my business to tell Sam who to hire or fire, and I knew it, but there was something wrong about the girl. Just wish I could have put my finger on it.

"Cathy Hawser, she's called, her brother's a deputy," Sam told me. Now I knew something was wrong. But I still couldn't say what.

Around an hour before my shift ended Milton Hawser came back into the bar, and sat on the edge of my area. He had changed from his uniform to blue jeans, boots and checked shirt, and had the most ridiculous cowboy hat I'd ever seen perched on his head. Everything he wore was neatly pressed or just new. Oh brother, another adoring fan. I went to take his order, and couldn't help dipping in to read his surface thoughts. He was a strong broadcaster, and his reason for being here was exactly as I suspected.

Arlene has been my friend since I met her, and she seemed to sense how uncomfortable the off duty deputy was making me. When we were both waiting for trays of food from Cynthia she nudged her hip against mine to get my attention.

"Problem honey?"

"I think the deputy's sweet on me, but he's really not my type," I told her.

"Swap areas with me then girl, because he's definitely mine. I like a big strong boy like that one!"

I was grateful to her, Arlene's a good friend, and if she liked Milton she was welcome to him. With a grin that said thank you I went back to work her area. Sam saw the change and nodded, guessing the reason for the change. At first Milton seemed disappointed that I'd ditched his table, but Arlene soon took his mind off me.

Over in Arlene's area I almost gasped when I saw the large swarthy skinned man the plate of food belonged to. I recognized Max from Fix-a-flat on sight. My smile was genuinely warm as I approached him, I remembered his kindness when he'd seen to my car.

"Max," I said, setting the fried chicken basket down in front of him, "do you need another beer or anything."

"No thanks," he said, automatically. But then he looked up and recognized my face. His bright white teeth gleamed at me as he smiled in recognition.

"How's that brake?"

"Good, thank you. How you doing?" I remembered what I'd picked up from his mind when we met the last time. His daughter was a fangbanger who was losing herself more and more to the vampire circuit. Max had been tormented with trying to find a way to help her.

"I'm alright, I suppose, just came down this way to get out of Shreveport for a few hours," he told me.

"How's that daughter of yours, the one who is the same age as me?" He'd told me that himself when he fixed my brake and didn't charge me. His face changed, I saw the pain there, before he did a good job of covering it.

"Don't hear from her much lately," he admitted.

"Pity, Max. I'd love to meet her," his warm smile returned when I said that.

"Maybe I'll bring her with me next time. It'll do her good to get away from those people she's hanging with."

Not much chance of that in Bon Temps, Eric would be here later, and perhaps Bill and Pam too. It was the first time I'd thought about Eric for a while, and I was aware I'd been avoiding the subject of my vampire lover. Really I had no idea whether he would show up or not, but I hoped he would.

Glancing over to Arlene I saw that she was engaged in a game of cat and mouse with Milton Hawser. She had him hooked, now she just had to reel him in. Maybe I should have told her about his being in the Fellowship, but I couldn't see what difference that would make to Arlene. Besides how could I explain what I knew? Arlene didn't like to be confronted with the knowledge that I could read minds. She could accept I was different, but better not to keep reminding her why.

Holly and Tara arrived to take over. They had been shopping all afternoon together and were settled deep into a conversation between themselves that would likely run all night. We exchanged pleasantries before I rolled my apron into the linen basket and got ready to go home. On the way out I stopped to say goodbye to Max, then followed Arlene out.

"Well, how did it go with the deputy?" I asked her.

"Think he's interested," she told me.

"And?"

"That's it for now, he gave me his number, I've to call him."

"I didn't know you were single again," I told her, sorry that I'd missed this trauma in my friend's life.

"I'm not, Sookie!" she laughed.

Credence Clearwater Revival were playing on the radio when I got into my car. I sang along on the way home to my grandmother's house. As days go it hadn't been a bad one, and I was singing at the top of my lungs as I turned into our drive and saw the smoke. Our house was on fire.