XIII.

It was shortly after 9 o'clock, on Tuesday night. Eric and I would be leaving for Las Vegas on Thursday evening. I hadn't been back to work because Sam and presumably Eric, were refusing to let me, saying I needed to rest and recover before going to Vegas. My living room wall had been repaired and re-plastered the day before and the entire room had received a fresh coat of paint today. Alcide had visited in the evening and brought me a pretty bouquet and a little gift bag with nail polishes that he said was from his sister Janice. He said he'd been meaning to give it to me for several weeks but hadn't had a chance to come see me with all the fuss of the Were Revelation.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday an alarm system was installed, with several keypad panels and panic buttons discreetly located throughout the house. The list of contact numbers dialed when the alarm was triggered was substantially longer than just the Bon Temps Police Department and included Sam, Bill, Eric, and Claudine. I didn't even ask about it. I was not in a position to argue. Eric had had Amelia redo the warding of the house and right now the only fairies who supposedly could enter without question were Claudine and Claude. I wasn't holding my breath on that one, though. I looked at it as keeping Amelia busy and productive and therefore not fussing about me. Claude had stayed with me, with relatively little grumbling, all day on Monday and Tuesday so Claudine could rest. He actually told me he was now proud to be related to me. I threw a pillow at him after making a face. Fairies by day, vampires by night. They seemed concerned still about leaving me on my own. I didn't know whether it was because there was really anything else wrong or because they thought I was worried. I didn't argue, though.

Pam stayed with me, while Eric, Bubba and Maxwell went to pick up Bill. She seemed distracted, and somewhat on edge. I tried to ask her if she was okay, but she was evasive. I related.

"Seriously, Pam, you seem really stressed. Is there anything I can do?"

"Everything is fine, Sookie. You look much better than you did on Sunday. Are you finally able to sleep better?"

Well, that was a question I didn't want to answer. Each of us wants to ask questions the other doesn't want to answer… Okay, then let's just avoid talking about anything, I thought to myself.

"Can I braid your hair? I want to try to do a French braid in your hair. I've been dying to do it for years. Your hair is so beautiful, Pam."

"I would let you." She scowled a bit, though, as if she thought she was being really indulgent.

"Good. I'm glad you'll allow it, Pamela," I said seriously. "Let's sit over here."

I sat her down on the ottoman, went to get a brush and comb then climbed into the chair behind her. We watched TV instead of talking, and it seemed to take the edge off things a bit. About twenty minutes later, when I was just finishing, there was a knock at the door. Pam rose, went into high alert mode with fangs down, and pushed me firmly back into the seat. It had to be a vampire because we hadn't heard anyone coming in a car or such.

"Stay put," she hissed at me, giving me a look that said she meant business.

She went to the door and cautiously stood on the latch side, at the wall. Her hands curved into claws. Seeing her prepare for I fight, I got up and got my Benelli out of the closet and turned with it lodged against my shoulder, safety off, facing the door. Pam looked rather mad at me, but I didn't care. I might have learned to accept protection much more graciously but I had also learned that no one was going to do anything to me, or anyone I cared about, without getting a fight from me.

"Who is it? I called out.

"It's me. Thalia," said a quiet voice.

Pam said, "Are you alone?"

"On my own."

Pam seemed somehow satisfied with that answer. She unlatched the door and opened it, letting Thalia in and glancing around.

"You're sure you weren't followed then?" Pam said to her quietly.

"I left several changes of clothes along the way and since I came here instead of Shreveport, I think it's probably fine." Thalia looked over at me, as I lowered the shotgun and put the safety back on. She gasped with delight. "Oh, I wanted to see it. Pam told me about your shotgun." She waltzed over and took it out of my hands and practically caressed it. I looked down at her with amusement. It was almost as long as she was tall.

"I think you'd need a sawed-off shotgun, Thalia. My brother has one. I can ask him to borrow it and one day we can try practicing if you want, out back, toward the woods. We can't go to a range because those short-barreled guns are allowed only by special permit. But you can easily get a permit if you decide you like it."

Thalia grinned and nodded at the suggestion and continued to admire the shotgun.

Pam on the other hand, seemed almost hovering, which was totally unlike her. It was as if she was very concerned about something. It was obvious that she would not talk to Thalia with me in the room and so, in the interest of getting her to be less stressed, I asked Thalia if she would like a True Blood.

"I'll have two. Not too warm." She might be tiny, but Thalia really packed away the blood, I had noted in the past.

Okay… I went off to the kitchen and heard hushed whispers. About two minutes later I called out,

"I'm headed back, ladies," just to be sure not to get any grief from Pam. Besides, I have to say, even though I kind of liked Thalia now, there's something about her that scared me a bit.

I handed Thalia her drink and swapped for the shotgun to give her the second one.

Thalia and Pam turned suddenly and Pam walked over to the front door and opened it slightly, clearly listening carefully. Suddenly, there was soft thump on the porch and I jumped and even they looked startled. I already had the shotgun raised again, safety off, when Eric strode through the door, his black coat swishing around him. He was dressed all in black, but I could still see traces of dirt on his pants legs.

"Whoa!" he said, looking at me, only a meter away with the shotgun pointed at his chest. He'd leaned back suddenly, eyes wide, hand up, though lower than the muzzle of the gun.

"Next time, maybe you should call out or something," I said lowering the gun. My heart was pounding. I had felt the warmth of his approach but not trusted that sensation alone. We were all so edgy these days.

Eric glanced at Pam and Thalia with one of those meaningful looks. I sighed. I was supposed to be totally in the dark about all of this stuff. Not knowing what I could do to excuse myself, I grasped at ideas. I had to confirm my schedule with Holly for my return. I could use that excuse to make a quick call in my room. So I said,

"Oh, you know, I forgot I have to go call my friend Holly about work. If you'll excuse me I'll be back in a few minutes." Pam looked at me like she didn't believe me in the least. Oh, she knows I know, I thought to myself. She knows that I know what's going on.

I padded off to my bedroom and spent all of about forty-five seconds on the phone with Holly because she and Hoyt were watching a movie. That clearly wasn't going to be enough time. I'd finished Seabiscuit earlier. I looked around the room, and finally settled on rereading Jane Eyre to kill some time. I got all the way to Chapter 5, when Jane starts at Lowood, before Eric came looking for me.

"You should come and say good night to Pam and Thalia because they're headed back to Shreveport. Bill's here now, too. And Bubba," he said quietly.

I nodded and motioned that he should skedaddle back out and that I'd be out in a minute. I brushed my hair and put it up in a ponytail after changing into my LSU sweatshirt. I went back out into the living room to find Bill and Bubba sitting on the couch and Pam and Thalia waiting near the front door.

"I'm so sorry, I guess I kind of lost track of time," I said coming back out into the living room. Well, it was true. I could always lose myself in the bleakness of Jane Eyre's early life.

Pam eyed me and I knew she was not falling for that line for one minute. She knew me too well and was so observant. I took the opportunity to say hello to Bill and to Bubba, to whom I gave a quick hug.

"I'm real pleased to be here, Miss Sookie. I'm going to help Bill keep watch over you. And I promised Eric that if I kill anybody that I'll tell you right away. I won't hide anybody or anything. No matter what."

I saw Pam rolling her eyes.

"Why thank you, Bubba. It's going to be really nice to have you around again."

I looked at Bill. He just looked ghastly. So pale and drawn. He'd risen when I entered the room.

"Bill," I said, nodding. "I'm glad to see that you're recovering well. If you like, when you watch, you may stay inside or on the porch and then Bubba can keep watch around outside."

Bill looked at me with a bit of surprise but nodded, without saying anything.

Pam smiled and then abruptly said "Well, we need to get back to Shreveport. Thanks for all the True Blood and the hairstyling Sookie. Sorry you were just so busy tonight on the phone." She smirked at me and I just smiled back at her. I gave her a hug, which she accepted with a bit of reserve, since the others were there. She went out onto the porch and waited for Thalia.

"Good night, Sookie," said Thalia nodding to me and then exiting.

Eric told Bubba to head on out and start keeping watch, and then with an odd look, he suggested to Bill that he might want to go check through his mail and email over at his place, as he had mentioned he needed to do. He said he'd let him know when he was leaving. Bill looked a bit pained but nodded to us both, rose and left. I still felt uncomfortable with the whole thing.

"Well, that wasn't very kind, Eric," I said with a grimace.

Eric looked at me intently and then said, with raised eyebrow, "It was kinder than making him stay and be within hearing distance, though, now wasn't it?"


We discussed Thalia's news, that she had staked Rasul, while we were lying in bed. My head was on Eric's shoulder and I held his hand, admiring the long fingers. Thalia thought Rasul was giving Victor Madden information about the raid on Magnolia. She had staked him, then captured a Were, rendered him unconscious, imbued the stake and Rasul's apartment with the Were scent, and then had taken the Were off and killed him, dumping the body in a bayou somewhere south of Baton Rouge, before heading back to the Shreveport area.

I found the entire description harrowing. I had liked Rasul, although Eric had pointed out many times that as the sole survivor in Sophie-Anne's camp during Felipe's takeover, that many people felt that Rasul was in on it all along. Eric had been inclined to trust that he hadn't been in on it. Of course, regardless of what Rasul might or might not have been up to during the takeover, I guess one had to take Thalia seriously on the fact that he appeared to be selling Eric and the other Area 5 vamps out to Victor Madden. But the Were had been some innocent bystander, whose family would no doubt look for him for weeks, months or maybe even years, before having any peace and closure.

Eric had told me two days before that it looked like Felipe was very displeased with the Magnolia raid. First, Robert Gawley, the Sheriff of Area 3 in Arkansas, was annoyed that Eric hadn't contacted him about the action in his Area and had complained bitterly to Felipe about it. Eric had apologized about that one, saying he fully understood the concern and would have been displeased if someone had mounted an action in his Area, too. But Felipe was most displeased that Eric appeared powerful enough to kill a lot of Fae, weres and Weres with a small 'army' that he had put together on his own. Eric said the use of the word 'army' on Felipe's part was indicative of the seriousness of his displeasure. Having small 'army' at your disposal was not a characteristic that a King would like in a Sheriff. Simply put, Felipe saw Eric as a potential rival and a serious threat, in spite of the fact that Eric really genuinely did not really have an interest in being a King. The success of the raid appeared to have raised Felipe's threat level with respect to Eric, and that in turn made our trip to Vegas, Felipe's home turf, a much more dangerous prospect. Which was how Eric came to tell me all these things that almost certainly his vampires would think I had no business knowing.

"She scares me," I told Eric, referring to Thalia.

"Why?"

"Because she's so…" I couldn't quite finish it… After all, she apparently was doing Eric's bidding on the issue.

"Ruthless?" he offered.

"Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it. I was going to say 'old school', since she's killing people beyond just other vampires who may be a political threat to your safety. I mean, I liked Rasul, but I can understand that within a certain moral corridor, you have a right to protect yourselves if he was putting all of you at risk. But the Were? The Were was just an innocent bystander. She sacrificed him, seemingly without a second thought, from what you're saying."

"Well, Sookie, if she was 'old school' as you call it, she would have kept him restrained in a basement somewhere and drained him every night for weeks and then killed him. I think it was very modern this way," he said with wry look. "But I agree with you that Thalia is rather intense. Pam is still calling her an untrained pit bull behind her back. I think that as long as she is committed to protecting us as a group, she's well suited to the tasks I assign her precisely because she is ruthless."

It pained me that I just couldn't agree with their choices. It was better not to discuss this stuff because it was only going to end up with Eric angry and claiming I was judgmental and didn't understand their ethos. At least that's what he had said the other night when he told me about Thalia's mission to Baton Rouge. Before she had killed two people.

"So where are you in the full explanation you've promised to give him when we get there?"

"I still don't know what to tell him about your role, why they took you."

"I was thinking about it today, and I really think that you should stick to the simple fact that I can usually read Weres and weres. That could make me kind of like a lie detector in a way. It would have given them the opportunity determine whether their supporters were genuine. Dieter actually tried to do that. But he knew when I lied." I felt tight inside thinking about the poor werelynx. "John Quinn obviously knew that I could read Weres and weres. It's absolutely true, so it's easy to stick to the story for both of us."

"You're probably right."

"And what about explaining how you killed Dieter?"

"I'm a really good swordsman?" he chuckled.

"Where is your sword by the way?"

"Ah, you see, I knew it…" he winked at me.

I pushed him and said, "No, seriously, come on. How long have you had it? Is it very old?"

"It's in my house, for safekeeping. It's old to you, but not all that old to me. That was a special longsword from about the late 1400's. It is not the only sword I own. I have two that are made by Ulfberht himself, dating from the era in which I lived. Some Viking swords were shorter and you have to get closer to fight your opponent. Not something I was interested in with Dieter. The sword I used is unusually long. About four feet long. It is quite heavy, but very effective. And of course, it's cold forged steel."

"Hmm." I said. "I'd like to see them sometime," I said, kissing his chest. I was rather curious to see Eric's house. I had seen Pam's back when Eric had stayed with me during the Witch War. I wondered if Eric's was any more distinctive. Perhaps not, however. Vampires are very… guarded. They don't want to give anyone insight into anything personal.

"When we return, I'll show them to you. In the era in which I lived, owning such swords was the mark of great wealth and power. Only jarls, and gothi, or chieftains, owned swords."

"Where did you live in Sweden?" I had so often wondered.

"On an island named Björkö, the birch island, in Lake Mälaren. My family fought for the Kings for many generations. We lived well, in a village called Birka, across from Hovgården, where the king resided, on the neighbouring island of Adelsö. The village was destroyed in 962 AD. That was some years after my human life had ended. In a fight between Christians and vampires near Lake Mälaren, I was forced to fight my own people by my maker. He was a cruel man, my sire."

"How long were you with him?" I asked, propping myself up to look at him. His face looked dark and hard.

"I killed him the following year. I had had my fill. I would not do the things he asked of me. It was a long battle. He thought he would wear me down, but instead he bred my hatred of him. A bond that is based on hatred and compulsion is a dangerous thing."

A bond. I sighed. I was really hoping that if all the furor from the Magnolia raid could just die down, that we could have a brief period of relaxation. No shootings, no sixteen hour work days, no kidnappings, no raids, no life or death situations. I wanted to relax, and laugh and go dancing. And after that, maybe, just maybe, I could get Eric to tell me about our bond. Because trying to get any further info about the bond out of him the past few days was like the proverbial getting blood from a stone. Har har.

Eric seemed to pick up on the fact that I was thinking about it yet again. I was having trouble with some things and I didn't know quite how to express it. For one thing, it was making me really uncomfortable that when we would have sex, I really had to stop myself from wanting to bite him. We'd been together three times in the past week and the first time I did bite him and the other two times I'd wanted to. After tonight, I'd come to see that it was really something not me that was creating the urge. It was the bond. It was like a living, magical thing that existed between the two of us. I'd thought about how Dieter had sensed it. He'd said I was bound by choice to Eric. But the bond hadn't been by real choice, in my eyes. I mean, sure, I'd chosen Eric over Andre. But I had no choice in being bound to one of them. But these days, whatever the bond actually was, it didn't feel the same to me as it had all those months before. The connection between us felt smoother, lighter, and even when Eric was angry or tense, which had happened a lot in the few days, I felt insulated from it. And I perceived that somehow, just as I felt his presence soothing in the months after the bond, that he, too, felt somehow soothed by my presence. At first I thought maybe it was just the relief of being able to talk about the stress of the situation with Felipe, but now I had begun to see that the talking part wasn't really central to things. It was as if just being together had a mutual effect on one another.

My mind just raced even though I knew I was doing little more than getting myself worked up over something that wasn't likely to be answered right now. So, I told myself, quit wasting time. Eric would probably need to leave soon anyway, to go check things at the club and attend to business. It was hard when he left. Now I really missed him when he was gone. I should really be focusing on enjoying his being here, instead of spinning my mind into some question-driven frenzy.

"Alright. Just ask," he said softly, shaking his head. "I can't stand it when you get like this. If this is how it feels in you, I don't know how you can stand it."

"What is it? The bond. What is it? Really."

He sighed, which was not like him.