CHAPTER 21
The building was in a part of Shreveport that I was unfamiliar with. Most of the buildings were brick and it was primarily office buildings, and a few small restaurants and boutiques that were closed at night. This area catered to the high-priced crowd of lawyers and wheeler-dealers I thought, at least during the day. "Hey guys," I said to my vampires trying to get them to slow down as I was hustled up to a nondescript doorway. There was a brass plaque to the side of the door that said "The Alternative" and below that "By Invitation Only".
"I don't think I'm dressed for this place," I said, since I was wearing the jeans and tee shirt that I had brought with me to Eric's, thinking I would just be going home to do Bubba's laundry or something. If I'd known I was going out I would have a least worn my skirt and silk top again.
Jan, who looked like a million dollars even in his khakis and button down cotton shirt, looked me over from head to toe and then turned back to knock on the door. Thalia, who was taking up the rear of our little group, was wearing her usual black Fangtasia slut vampire outfit, and had a big old sword strapped on her back. She didn't even look at my clothes, she just gave me the vampire stare and said, "Our master suggested this place," and of course, that was that.
The door was opened by a young were woman wearing an outfit that cost more than I made in a month working for Sam. She saw Jan and I guess he was acceptable, because she let us in. The were led the way into a small reception area and pointed to a coat check desk. "You will need to check your weapons. There is a half hour wait right now," she said and walked back to the door. There was a vampire behind the counter and I was getting the picture that this must be a supes only place, kind of like a Club Dead for the rich. "Your weapons, " he prompted, nodding at Jan, and Thalia stepped forward.
"Your mistress cannot be left unguarded," Thalia said in her small but menacing voice, and the vampire looked us over more carefully. A brief look of unease passed over his face and he said, "Pardon me Madam," and bowed from the waist. "If you will follow me, I will make sure you are seated immediately," he said as he straightened up and led us into the dining room.
"Wow, Thalia, I guess he wasn't going to mess with you," I said, and Jan snorted, as if I had said something funny. We were led to a table towards the back that had a Reserved sign on it, which the vampire removed before he pulled out my chair. "Thank you," I said and he bowed again. Thalia and Jan got to pull out their own chairs and they both sat down. I sort of scanned the place and yes, it was full of supes, vamps and weres, with just a few humans. The décor was simple but elegant, with fresh flowers and candles on each table and crisp, snowy white napkins. A waiter hustled right over and greeted us as he handed us our menus, a different one for me than he gave to the vampires.
"Good evening, Madam, we are very pleased to serve you tonight," he said formally. "May I get you a beverage?"
"Good evening," I answered back politely. "I think I'd just like some iced tea," I said, since I wasn't drinking these days. He didn't pay any attention to the vampires with me, and left to get my tea. I was thinking it was a good thing I had my new credit card with me, since I wasn't sure if I was paying or not, and I patted my old purse hidden on my lap. I was surprised I hadn't needed a Gucci bag just to get in the door here. The waiter was coming back with my tea already, so I focused on the menu. There weren't that many selections, so I made my choice right away.
"Have you decided yet, Madame?" the waiter asked.
"Yes, please, I will have the New York steak, medium rare with a baked potato and the spinach salad," I said, figuring I could use all the protein I could get. The vamps ordered Royalty Blended, so I knew they would enjoy their dinner. I looked around the room while we waited for our meal and noticed that many of the other patrons were looking over at us. I noticed a few vamps that had been in Fangtasia the night before and they all bowed towards me when I glanced their way. I saw Alcide at one of the corner tables, sitting with two other weres, but he wasn't looking in our direction, and that was fine with me. I was feeling really self-conscious about my outfit and vowed that I would hit Tara's shop for sure this week and get me some new clothes.
By the time our dinner came, I was feeling pretty famished and dug right in. Everything was delicious and I enjoyed every bite. The vampires seemed to enjoy their blood, served in wine glasses placed on little glass plates. Jan said something to Thalia in a language that could have been German, and she laughed a little. It amazed me that in all the time I had known Thalia at Fangtasia, she had always seemed very somber, if not down right nasty. But since I'd been seeing her in different settings, it seemed that she could smile and laugh, although I wouldn't go so far as to say she had a sense of humor. I sort of wondered what Jan had said to her, but it was probably just cryptic vampire stuff anyway.
When the waiter had cleared our plates and glasses away, I started digging in my purse for my wallet, figuring I could afford to treat for dinner and the vamps were sort of working for me as guards, so I should pay. No one brought a bill though, and I doubted we had to go pay up front in a place like this. "Do we need to ask for the bill?" I whispered to Thalia and she and Jan both just cracked up. I was a little hurt, like they were making fun of me, and I choked up, holding back tears. "I'm sorry, I don't usually go to places like this," I said, sniffling a bit as I said it. This made Thalia laugh even harder and now I was getting mad at her meanness. Let's all make fun of the country mouse, I thought, and tears began to roll down my face.
"Miss Stackhouse, we did not mean to upset you. Do you not know?" he asked incredulously and he passed me a clean white handkerchief.
"Know what?" I asked him, dabbing at my face with the hankie.
"You own this restaurant!" he announced and my jaw dropped. He continued to look amused, and I wondered how he would know this if I didn't. I needed to take another look at those papers from Mr. Cataliades and see just what I did own. I was still registering all of this, when Alcide Herveaux walked up to the table. He started to put his arms out, like he was going to give me a big hug when he noticed Thalia pulling the sword out of its sheath on her back. He put his hands palms upwards in a peace gesture and stopped a few feet away.
"Sookie, good to see you. I was going to stop in to see you tomorrow," he said. I got out of my chair and I gave him a big hug, sticking my tongue out at Thalia when she frowned at me. Childish, I know, but I was a little tired of this overprotective vampire shit.
"Hey Alcide, nice to see you too. Sit down a minute, what's on your mind?" I said, more to irritate the vampires than to really see what he had to say. Although there had been a time that I had thought of Alcide as dating material, I had learned that he usually had some agenda that was not in my best interests when he dealt with me. "This is Alcide Herveaux, Packmaster of the Long Tooth Pack here in Shreveport," I told the vampires. "Alcide, this is Thalia, she works for Eric, and this is Jan, he is visiting Eric from Europe. We just finished dinner." Alcide gave a disdainful nod at the vampires and then pulled out the empty chair at the table and we all sat down.
"You're looking a lot better, Sookie," he said. "Everything going okay?"
"Thanks, Alcide. I'm feeling much better and I guess things are okay."
"Listen, I know you had some trouble over to your place. Jim and Dwayne said they only left because you told them it was all okay. They couldn't have stood up to that many vampires," Alcide said apologetically.
"Alcide, there was nothing they could have done, and it all worked out all right."
"I don't want you to think we won't look out for you, Sookie, that's all. There was no use to them getting killed and you told them to go."
"I know they would have fought for me, Alcide. I appreciate the pack looking out for me. You tell them I said thank you and they did the right thing leaving when they did. Anyway, Eric showed up and I had Thalia. So everything turned out fine." He had his pride and it must have galled him that his wolves couldn't take on the vampires, but they would have been dead in minutes.
"Okay, I'm just glad you didn't get hurt again," he said and then changed topics. "Anyway, I was going to stop by to talk to you about something," he began. "I know Eric's big coronation ceremony will probably be in New Orleans, but I was thinking, since you are a friend of the pack and all," he paused, as if trying to think of how to approach this. Jan's eyebrows went up when he heard the whole friend of the pack thing. "I was thinking, if Eric was going to do something here in Shreveport, you know a big party or something, he might want to have the Long Tooth pack do some of the security. We got quite a few guys here from the Barksdale base and we got some guys that could use the work, what with the recession and all. I figured you might say something to Eric. I mean, I'll talk to him myself, of course, but you could put a word in. I noticed he brought in mostly outside people to guard your house, so maybe he figures we aren't able to handle that sort of thing."
Of course, the whole coronation thing was news to me, I hadn't even thought about that. Knowing how vampires were about ceremony and tradition though, it wasn't surprising that they'd do a big ceremonial thing. If Eric had to wear a crown, it would be all I could do to not laugh my ass off though. Just the thought of that had me stifling a giggle. "Well, Alcide, I usually don't get involved in all the vampire political shit, as you know, but I will sure tell Eric that the pack is interested. I have no doubt you all can handle whatever needs doing."
"Thanks, Sookie. Listen, I'll come by and see how your garage is coming sometime soon, okay?"
"Sure Alcide, you come by anytime. I guess they are right on schedule. It just looks like a big hole in the ground to me right now."
"Okay, you take care now," he said and gave me another hug. I guess he figured he didn't get killed when I'd hugged him the first time, so he was probably safe.
"Okay, bye, Alcide," I said and watched him walk back to his table. I dug in my purse then, and pulled out some cash to leave on the table for a tip. Owner or not, which I still found unbelievable, I wasn't going to stiff the waiter. I was a little miffed that the vampires seemed to know more about my life than I did. "I guess we're ready to go?" I snapped at the vampires, and got up and headed toward the door. Jan and Thalia jumped into position flanking me, and we went back out to the car and headed to Bon Temps.
We hadn't been in the car long before Jan looked over at me. I never understood how vamps could keep the car in the lane when they hated keeping their eyes on the road. "You are a friend of the pack to the Shreveport wolves?" he asked with real curiosity in his voice. "How did that come about?"
I told him a little about the witch war and how I'd been a part of it, carefully leaving out the part of Eric being cursed. I didn't know how well known that was, and I wasn't giving anybody ideas of how vulnerable Eric had been to the witch's curse. He seemed very interested to hear about vampires and weres teaming up against a common enemy. "And you saved many vampire lives at Rhodes, I hear," he said when I had finished my story.
"Well, I tried to save as many people as I could, whether they were vamps or humans. It was horrible," I said. I didn't like to remember that day and thinking about how Eric could have died there just made me feel sick. Jan didn't ask any more questions after that, and before I knew it, we were home.
Jan and Thalia got their bags out of the car and I noticed that Jan was carrying a case of True Blood. I was glad he remembered to bring some, because otherwise we would have had to head back out to go shopping. I was sure going through a lot of that stuff these days, what with the place crawling with vamps. Thalia insisted that she go in first, to check the house I guess, and Jan paused at the doorway, looking expectant.
"Oh, sorry," I said, realizing he had never been here before. "You are welcome to come in."
I led him into the kitchen and told him he could put the blood on the table and I would put it away in the fridge. "Feel free to explore," I told him, knowing that vamps always wanted to be familiar with escape routes and such. I wondered where he planned on sleeping, but guessed he would head over to Bill's at some point. With Bill home, it was probably getting crowded over there, but I didn't have anything else to offer, since I assumed Thalia would stay in my hidey-hole. It wasn't my problem I guessed.
I had barely gotten the blood put away before Bubba was at the door. "Bubba!" I greeted him. "You doing okay?" Bubba looked a little bit more put together than he had a few days ago. He was wearing one of his jumpsuits, this one without rhinestones. His hair looked tidy and he was smiling at me as usual.
"Hey Miss Sookie, I'm doin' just fine. Mr. Bill's home now, so I been lookin' out for him. Mr. Eric said you'd be coming home with some blood for us, we're getting' kind a low up to the house."
"Jan just brought some in and I put it in the fridge, Bubba. Do you know Jan?" I asked him.
"I met him the other night, Miss Sookie, he was real nice to me." Bubba said that about almost every vampire, but then the vamps tended to treat him pretty well. He had a very special status, and rather than treat him like damaged goods, they acted like he was a spoiled grandchild sometimes.
"Well, Bubba, you bring your cooler in and fill it up and then if you have laundry, just bring it on over and I'll leave it on the porch tomorrow, like I did last time."
"Yes'm, I'll do that. That fairy ain't been back while you was gone, Miss Sookie, but I'll look out for him now that you're home," he said and headed out the door. He was back in a minute with his cooler and I filled it for him. "Thanks, Miss Sookie," he said and he went off to chase fairies or to do whatever Bubba did.
I wondered if Bill would come over. Oh excuse me! I wondered if Bill had permission to come over. I needed to talk to Eric about that. There were a lot of things I needed to talk about with my vampire. We were never together long enough to really hash out all the important things. Oh, we talked about stuff, he was being more and more open with me about some of the stuff going on in the supe world, but I still felt like a babe in the woods with all of these ancient creatures. What was it Bill had said, that I was naïve or maybe I was one of God's fools? Well, maybe I was.
It was time for me to examine what I was really doing. What would Gran say about all of this? She'd say something cryptic like "All will be revealed in God's good time". And then she'd bake some cookies or she'd clean out a cupboard and things would all seem right with the world. So that's what I did. I got out gran's recipe and some oatmeal and the flour and sugar and I started in on a batch of cookies.
While I measured and stirred and plopped the dough onto the trays, I made a few decisions. Maybe I had lived all my life here in Bon Temps, but there wasn't much left for me here now. If I was going to be Eric's wife, then I needed to be where he was, wherever that happened to be. I needed to stop assuming he would be there for me, if I weren't willing to be there for him. He had done everything he could to protect me. He had jeopardized his own life to insure that I could stay here, just because I told him I didn't want to leave home. He had promised to raise my child as his own. He had done everything he could to demonstrate his love for me, and I was here in Bon Temps holding onto the past, when Eric was my future. This wasn't really home anymore. Home was wherever Eric was. I was a fool if I didn't whole-heartedly embrace the one that I loved, for better or for worse.
I had the first tray of cookies cooling on the counter when the vampires came back into the kitchen. Thalia got a bottle of blood out of the fridge and after warming it up, sat down at the table. "What is that enticing smell?" Jan asked and he walked over to the cookies and sniffed.
"That is oatmeal cookies," I replied, as I put some on a plate and poured myself a glass of milk. "You usually have milk with cookies," I continued. "It's just about the perfect combination," I informed him as I took a big bite of the warm cookie. "Some people like them with coffee, I guess, but that just never seemed right to me." Jan was watching me closely as I took another bite. He didn't seem uncomfortable with my eating, and even if he was, it was my kitchen so I wouldn't let it spoil my pleasure. The timer dinged and I got up to get the rest of the cookies out of the oven and lay them out to cool. The whole kitchen was smelling heavenly and I was feeling pretty good about the world again.
"So, what do you do with yourself when you're not out hunting down your dinner?" I asked Jan. "You have a job or a hobby or something?" I said flippantly, as I picked up my glass.
He considered for a moment, his brows furrowing as if weighing the seriousness of my question. "I have done many things but I suppose you could say my hobby was painting."
"Oh, like landscapes?" I asked excitedly, my interest piqued. "I don't think I've ever known a real artist."
"No, primarily I do portraits," he answered, looking pleased at my reaction.
"Wow, that's so interesting! You make your living painting people?" I asked curiously.
He considered again, this time pausing long enough that I thought he wouldn't answer. I tried to hide my embarrassment at asking a personal question by going back to my milk and cookies.
"Sometimes I do commissioned portraits," he answered finally. "But more often, I 'make my living' as you put it, as an assassin."
"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, and choked on my milk, spraying it all over the table as I coughed and sputtered. Thalia, who had been sitting quietly at the table with her bottle of blood, burst out laughing. As good as I was at controlling my features after a lifetime of hearing people's most secret thoughts, I couldn't conceal the shock on my face. If this man, vamp, whatever, came into Merlotte's I would have to card him. He looked like a boy! He should be playing with his X-Box or Rock Band! An assassin? I got up from the table to get a dishtowel and mopped up the mess I had made. How did you respond to a revelation like that?
"Excuse me," I said, disconcerted, and sat back down. Jan was watching me intently, as if to see what I would do next. "Well," I said again, "that's interesting." I turned to Thalia, who was no longer laughing, but was definitely looking entertained, like this was the Greatest Show on Earth. "So, Thalia, what did you want to do tonight?"
Thalia looked pleased to be asked. She went off towards the bedroom to get her bag and was back in a flash, digging through it. "I have a movie," she said, and she pulled out, of all things, "Twilight".
"Oh, that's great! I haven't seen that yet. You can get it ready to go while I just wash up in here," I told her. Jan was still sitting at the table watching me, and I still didn't have a clue what to say, so I just started on the dishes in the sink. When everything was washed up, I grabbed a coke out of the fridge and turned towards Jan. "Are you going to watch the movie with us?" I asked him. He just nodded his head and followed me into the living room.
Thalia hit play on the remote as soon as we were all settled onto the sofa. I thought the movie was supposed to be a romance, but the vamps seemed to think it was a comedy, especially when the Twilight vampires got all sparkly. I probably should have been considering the ramifications of Jan's revelation and why I wasn't throwing him out in moral outrage, fear or a sense of self-preservation. But, their laughter was infectious and I found that I was enjoying the company of my two unlikely companions. I didn't make it through the whole movie before I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, my head resting on Jan's shoulder.