"Pam."
"Sookie."
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Waking you up so we can do this transference business. Also, your hair looks terrible – I was trying to fix it." She wore a smile and the same purple dress she'd had on all night.
"I don't like it. I don't want to do it. I want Eric." I sat up.
"I don't either. That's why I was trying to fix it."
"Not my hair, Pam. This blood business. What if she is lying?"
"Eric told me tonight that I should trust her with my life. I did not realize he knew something was about to happen. Did you know?" She fixed her gaze on my eyes.
I nodded. "I guess Eric didn't have a lot of time to tell you everything."
"You knew she was going to take over?" Pam was offended I hadn't told her.
"Only for sure since earlier tonight." I swung my feet out and realized there was coffee and croissant on the nightstand. "Did you bring this?" She nodded. "Thank you." I grabbed it and took a sip.
"Now that you're sitting up, I can fix your hair. You don't want to meet Anderson Cooper this way." She took a brush to it more gently than I expected.
"Pam, maybe we shouldn't meet him. I mean, she lied and told Felipe she didn't know where we were. A lot of people already know, and we don't want to be caught on camera," I told her.
"She's right, Pam." Viviane leaned against the open door. "I'd like you to come back here after we finish. You can watch." She pointed to the enormous flat-panel TV hanging on the wall. "Alcide will join you as well. I'm sure it is assumed he is with me, but why take that chance?"
I noticed she wore a robe and not much more that I could see when Pam started to question her.
"Why should we trust this transference?"
"Look, we all want Eric back, no? But we can't have you passing out from whatever pain he is going through when we get closer. You may be blocking it some now, but the minute we land in Vegas, you'll be back where you started." She walked over to the closet, pulled out a robe, and held it open for me. "It's not permanent – one blood exchange with Eric will erase it. I'll even go first."
"Why do you need to do this?" Pam asked. I met Viviane's eyes to see whether she'd tell her or lie.
"They are holding someone with whom I have blood ties." Not a lie, just not the truth.
"Charlie?" Pam offered.
"Perhaps." Poker face. Damn, she is good. "Come along." She shook the robe at me. I shoved the last bit of croissant into my mouth and pulled away from Pam to stand.
"Let's do this. I want to save Eric, but the pain I'm in even now nearly is unbearable," I told Pam as I shrugged into the robe Viviane held. Pam evaluated me as I tied the sash.
"Fine, but I want it known I'm not thrilled with this. I think I should be able to track him when we get there." Pam put her hands on her hips when she stood. She was eye-to-eye with Viviane over my shoulder.
"You'll still be able to, it's just much fainter. Like if you'd given your blood to a human a few months ago." Viviane hooked my arm. "We're set in the kitchen."
We walked in silence through the halls, which were upscale but not over the top. Plush rugs, muted wall colors, interesting art – I wanted to look at it all later.
Benny, Shawn and Dr. Ludwig stood at the table. Well, who I thought was Dr. Ludwig from behind actually was a man. When he turned around, I stifled a gasp. He looked nearly like Dr. Ludwig.
"Dr. Ludwig, thank you for coming on such short notice," Viviane said as she released me and shook his hand.
"As long as you pay, I'll always come," this Dr. Ludwig replied. His voice was pitched higher than mine. It would be annoying if he spoke too much. He turned his eyes to me and squinted. "You must be Northman's – my sister said you were the bloodsuckers' favorite."
"Um, thanks. Maybe?" I answered.
The doctor adjusted the flame burning under a beaker of bubbling yellow liquid.
"All right, pop a vein, old man," the doctor ordered Benny.
"Now, Benny, you know the terms of the contract," Viviane said.
"Yes, and I'd sign it if that demon would hurry up." He rolled his eyes when the round man appeared.
This man had orange hair and yellow eyes. He was something far into the other category without me being able to "hear" him.
"Your majesty, Ms. Riga," he sputtered. "Here it is. Terms provide for long-term respect should the bond be unresolved and assurances that neither party will send the other to final death to revoke it."
"Sounds good," Viviane said as she signed her name.
"Sure you won't tell me who your maker is?" Benny asked.
"Maybe at my coronation."
"Now I have something to look forward to – meeting the asshole who made you," he laughed. "Although, he's probably suffered 1,000 years of you, so that was punishment enough."
She threw the pen at him. "You know you like me – you'd be bored without my antics."
"True." He signed and promptly slit a vein with the available knife. The lawyer snatched the contract up and left.
Benny's thick blood pooled in the beaker Dr. Ludwig held. Benny had to reopen it once at the behest of the doctor.
"The fae blood," the doctor asked, holding out a hand. Viviane placed one vial in it.
I watched as the doctor poured Claude's donation in and followed with Benny's. The concoction bubbled and foamed up before suddenly stopping.
Dr. Ludwig nodded. Viviane swiped the beaker and chugged in down before she offered her throat to Benny, whose fangs popped out as the gleam twinkled in his eye.
"I'm going to enjoy this," he said as he embraced her and sank his fangs into her neck. A soft moan escaped her lips as she wrapped her hands around his biceps.
Tension crackled through the room. I'd never really watched someone else be bitten when it was consensual like this was. A flash of arousal shot through me.
Ugh, I guess that means I like being bitten – a lot.
Benny released his hold on her, licking her neck clean before she sank her fangs into his. He shuddered and groaned. Viviane released him much faster than he'd done.
"Can you feel me now?" she asked with a giggle.
"I'd like to do more than feel you in my mind." He leered at her.
"You should leave now. Sookie is a modest woman."
"I'd rather stay."
She smirked at him. "Off you go."
He doubled over. "What the hell, Viviane?" he growled, looking up at her. "How did you do that?"
"What?" Shawn asked.
Viviane's eyes widened. "I have the upper hand here – intriguing. It's no longer a command, just a request."
Benny stood up and frowned. "You need to remember who is the monarch here."
She tapped her fingers on her lip. "Sorry. I'll watch myself." She smiled as sweet as can be.
"I cannot wait for this to be over," he said, leaving with Shawn on his tail.
She turned to Dr. Ludwig, who smiled.
"I like you for a bloodsucker," he said.
"You're just saying that because you're afraid of me." She smiled.
"So? Pop a vein. One at a time."
She did the same as Benny had. "So Pam, going first?" she asked as the red liquid oozed.
Pam had a lusty gaze as she answered. "Oh, yes."
I slipped onto the chair, not really looking forward to this. "This is the only way?"
Viviane nodded as her wound healed, and the doctor added the fairy blood to the mix.
Pam chugged her dose and exposed her neck.
"Eric is going to strangle me," Viviane muttered just before she sank into Pam's neck. Pam purred as Viviane drank. It was a sight. Although Viviane was right – Eric was liable to be very upset about this even if it saved all of our lives.
Viviane sealed Pam's wound and offered her neck. She smiled at me as the younger vampire drank.
She pushed on Pam's head. "That's enough. I have to do this twice."
Pam leaned up, licking her lips. "It's like Eric was never in there. I feel him, but you are so strong. Are his commands null right now?"
"Yes, but as your temporary maker, I order you to not try to have sex with me. Eric will stand only so much from me." Viviane shrugged as she bled into a beaker – for me this time. We exchanged a private look. We shared a secret I wished Pam could know.
As soon as Pam had a little more time, I suspected she could figure it out. Then she'd be pissed for not telling her.
Dr. Ludwig took my pulse as Viviane mixed this time.
"You are the first human undergoing this transference. I will take all your vitals and notes on your experience. I hope I might call on you after it is reversed," he asked me.
"Sure, anything to help." Great, so this could be for nothing or do strange, untested things to me. I wondered whether they had supernatural medical journals, but I didn't ask.
"Is there something I could do to relax you?" Viviane asked. I shook my head. I was nervous, and it was probably going to hurt when she bit me.
Viviane handed me the beaker after it stopped bubbling. It was cool, not at all what I expected. I pinched my nose and tipped it back. It was like drinking iced blood. It wasn't so horrible.
I handed the beaker back to Viviane, who sat it on the counter. I tilted my head back.
"Close your eyes and think of Eric," she whispered into my ear. I closed my eyes and pictured Eric and the way he always looks at me just before he bites. Just remembering it made me relax and get a little wanting for a private moment with him.
That's when she bit. I heard someone moan, then realized to my horror it had to be me when I heard Pam laughing. Viviane took several pulls, as Eric does, and licked the wound closed. I watched her through a bit of a haze as she sliced her wrist open and pressed it to my mouth.
I drank until she pulled back. The pain fell away, I "heard" the donor in the next room, and I felt Viviane's mind buzzing in mine.
There was no "first exchange" about this.
