A/N: Hello! I am going to aim for regular Tuesday/Friday updates with this, so we will see how that goes.
Characters and setting are owned by Charlaine Harris. This story is being beta'd by FiniteAnarchy, who is terrific.
Chapter 2 - Shake Your Tail, Vampire
We sat in his car in the parking lot of the strip mall that housed Lux Nails. They weren't the only business that still had their lights on. There was a sandwich place down on the end doing a steady trade, and a clothing shop next door that seemed to be in the process of closing up for the night. It was nearly nine o'clock by now. I've never actually been in a nail salon before, something which the vampire and I apparently had in common.
"We are too cold to the touch," he explained. "The humans would know we were different. And of course, it is only very recently in this century that this male grooming has come back into fashion. But you are a human woman, so what is your excuse?"
"We never had the money, when I was growing up," I shrugged. "And touch amplifies the, my," I waved a hand, as I reached for some descriptor. "Ability."
"You cannot keep them out?" He seemed surprised.
"I've learned to. I am still learning to," I corrected myself. "It's a bit like...Have you ever been in those electronics stores, where they sell all the different televisions?" He nodded and I continued, "Well it's a bit like that. The screens are always on, all the time, all different channels. I've learned to turn the volume down, so to speak, to tune all or most of it out, but it's always an effort to keep it muted." I paused to mull that over and then nodded, pleased with the analogy.
"That sounds unpleasant."
"Why yes, Sheriff. In fact, it is." I smiled at him, bright and false. "But evidently, it can be useful."
"Yes," he agreed, and nodded toward the storefront. "I will wait here. You will enter and request a service, and read the minds of the humans in the store. Find out who this man is, and what is his employ there. Find out if they have seen Pam. When you have finished, come back out here," he finished. Thank goodness he had laid all that out for me. I could never have fathomed such a complex plan. "Will you be able to read other minds while they are touching you?"
"Yes," I answered. With difficulty, and a focus that will likely make me seem as dim to the employees there as he evidently believed me to be.
"Go now, then. If there is any trouble, I will be near."
"Oh, I don't doubt that," I muttered, getting out of the car.
The nail salon was brightly lit. Despite the hour, they seemed to be doing a decent trade. I entered to a bright, mechanical chime as the door swung open, catching the attention of everyone in the shop. There were four other customers and four employees, all human, all female. I reached out further with my other sense. There were hazier brains moving around somewhere off to the left, the workers next door, but no one else nearby. I wrinkled my nose at the choking, acrid smell of whatever kind of shellac was being applied to the nails of the woman at the nearest table. The attendant had a little mask on, just like the kind that nurses wear to keep out germs. I don't reckon it helps more than a tiny bit. How do they breathe this stuff all day and night and not get sick? I quickly forced a smile across my face and turned my eye toward the woman stepping up to greet me.
"Good evenin' sugar, welcome to Lux! How can we help you tonight?" She looked about my age, mid-twenties, and was dressed in tight jeans and the pink shirt that seemed to be the uniform here. She had bold blond highlights in her chestnut hair, a terrible fake tan, and a warm and genuine smile.
"Hi there," I returned, matching her perky cordiality. "I don't have an appointment, but I was hoping maybe someone could fit me in for a pedicure? I've got some peep-toe shoes to wear to work tomorrow and I want to look my best," I grinned. This was actually true. Normally I can dress for comfort, but we had clients coming in tomorrow. I'd be meeting them upstairs, and I try to look professional on these occasions. Had I been at home, I probably would have tended to my own toenails. It occurred to me then that unlike the underfed Daphne, the Sheriff had not offered to cover my evening's expenses. In that case, I'd just have to do my best to try to enjoy this little reconnaissance mission if I could.
"Oh sure!" Perky and Orange enthused. "Diane's just freeing up I think. Diane?" she called over her shoulder. "Got time for a pedi?" I followed her gaze to where another woman sat painting fingernails. She smiled at me and gave a nod. Perky gestured to a wall of nail polish, and after making my selection (Señorita Rose-alita), I was led over to a comfortable leather chair poised above a basin. It was quickly filled with water and a packet of fragrant foot soak and I shucked my shoes and rolled my jeans up to my calves as instructed. The soothing aroma of sandalwood filtered up from the steaming water, doing wonders for the air quality and I sat back, letting myself relax as I lowered my mental shields.
The caveat to mind reading is that I can only see what's there at the time. In the right situation I can guide people to the thoughts and memories that I need to explore, pulling small details to their attention and working slowly through the milieu. This wasn't one of those times. No matter how nice these women seemed, I wasn't about to blurt out, "So, kidnapped any good vamps lately?" to get them thinking in the right direction. Instead I lingered in every mind, hoping to catch anything that might indicate foul play at work here. The other clients offered nothing notable. The woman sitting in the chair across from me was looking forward to her boyfriend reaping the benefits of this pampering. He really loved her feet. I pulled back from her pretty quickly. That sort of thing is very tame in comparison to some people's predilections. I don't have a great amount of sexual experience myself, but owing to my telepathy, I've had an education in kink that would make Dr. Ruth blush.
Thankfully no one else was having thoughts of that nature. The woman who'd been shellacked had left when her nails were dry, thinking only of getting home to watch the soap opera she'd recorded that day before going to bed. The radio was on at low volume, playing fun girl rock with a strong country twang à la Carrie Underwood, and one attendant and another client shared smiles as either sang along to the song they knew. I gave a little moan of pleasure as Diane rubbed her thumbs into the arch of my left foot and resolved to stop resisting and just get lost in her mind for a bit. Mostly she was focused on the task at hand. She was pleased that I appeared to be enjoying myself, because I seemed tightly wound to her. She hoped I'd become a repeat customer here. She was aiming to do an extra good job to ensure that.
"So how'd you hear about us?" she asked.
"I got a flier at the mall," I said.
A wave of relief flooded through her. It was such a sudden and unexpected response that I must have twitched because she paused in her work and looked up at me. I forced myself to grin. "Sorry, you tickled!" I said, half scolding.
"Oops," she grinned back. She is clearly just as good at the smooth veneer as I am. That's interesting, too.
It's fine. It's all fine. Normal. And it's clearly good for business, just like this late night stuff. See? It's just like I said. Everything is fine.
I wanted her to continue this train of thought, but just then the shop's door swung open and without looking up myself, I knew that a vampire had entered. It was coming in loud and clear from each of the workers, along with feelings of awe and possibly excitement. Diane had taken her hands off me and I lost the thread of her specific thoughts in the rush of the others. I half expected to see Sheriff Northman as I turned toward the new arrival, both because I knew him to be just outside, and because he was so obviously vampire when you looked at him. It was part of his whole shtick at the vampire tourist bar. People came there to see vampires, so the vampires there didn't bother trying to blend in. I can tell vampires just at a glance, without even touching their minds. They have a little bit of a glow about them. Most people can't see that, though. Most people take a minute or two to register a vampire. Not the women who worked here, apparently. The vampiress who entered was diminutive with thick black hair and warm brown skin, huge dark eyes, and a sweet face. She was asking Perky about having her nails painted.
This was fortuitous. Too fortuitous, I realized immediately. She'd probably been sent in here by the Sheriff to get people thinking about vamps. Smart of him. It worked. Perky was thinking that this woman was one of the loveliest women she'd ever seen. The woman working across from me was thinking of the only other vampire client she'd had, and how her skin had warmed right up in the water, and it had surprised her. She'd been nervous at first. The vampire she pictured was not the missing Pam. Another woman was wondering what color nail polish the vamp would choose, betting on blood red or black. Diane was wondering if the vampire had a human companion. She was trying to guess if it would be a man or a woman. I guess vampires' generally ambivalent sexuality was pretty well known. Diane didn't seem to have a problem with this, she was just curious.
"Is that a vampire?" I asked in a low voice as Diane got back to work on my toes. I wasn't sure if the vampire could hear me. Probably, if she was listening, even over the radio and the other talking. I wasn't really concerned about it. Diane nodded as she got back to my toes.
"Wow," I said. "Do you get a lot in here? With the night hours?"
"We get some," she answered. She thought of a few of her vampire clients, but it seemed she hadn't focused much on what they looked like above the ankles. She knew to avoid meeting their eyes, and so she'd kept her head down and done her work. I wanted to know why she seemed to know so much about them.
"Ever dated one?" I asked her, flashing what I hoped was an impish grin. One thing that everyone did know about vampires was that sex with them is supposed to be incredible. The cover of Cosmo this month featured a model dressed in what had looked to me like 'fangbanger couture' and the headline, "50 Reasons to Date a Vampire." I'd seen it on the stand when I was checking out at the grocery store. There's a whole spate of reasons why this is stupid (maybe even close to fifty), but, this is the kind of thing that women talked about in places like this, isn't it?
Diane shook her head. "Nope," she smiled. "I'm not that daring." She wasn't thinking that dating a vampire was daring, though. In fact, she was judging me unkindly for thinking of vampires in those terms. She liked vampires. Pitied them, even. She was one of those who believed that their condition was a sad fate, that nobody would choose that sort of un-life themselves. Most vampires I'd met were actually very happy being vampires, but Diane's view rang of the sympathetic story they told the world. She changed the subject and started talking to me about a new movie coming out. I was too afraid to risk either upsetting her or being too obvious to continue.
While my polish was drying I cast out a final time, but no one was thinking anything negative. If Pam had been lured here for harm, none of these women were involved. People really aren't able to mask hatred this way, nor guilt, when the cause is in such close proximity. There was none. I was going to have to walk out and tell the Sheriff that overall this place had been a bust. Peachy.
I tipped Diane, and Perky was happy to run my debit card to pay for the pedicure itself. I could have just covered it with the cash I had on hand, but as I hadn't any idea where else the night would be taking me, I didn't want to leave my wallet empty.
"Sookie Stackhouse," she read carefully as we waited for the authorization. "Hey, any relation to Jason?"
"My brother," I grinned. My brother knows a lot of women. This has happened before.
"I haven't seen Jason in ages! What's he been up to?"
"Oh, you know, same old. Still hanging around with Hoyt and the rest of his buddies."
Perky started to tell me what was surely an edited version of the last time she'd seen Jason, and I nodded distractedly. Diane was suddenly thinking of her own brother, tall and sandy-haired with bright green eyes, and her own brother's buddies, who made her worry. Particularly the skinny dark-haired one with the bad skin. The one who'd handed Daphne the flier in her memory. The one named Dirk. Well, it was something at least. They told me to have a blessed evening and I left without letting on that I'd been anything more than a girl who planned on a special day tomorrow.
"What did you find out?" he asked as I got in the car.
"The guy who handed out the fliers is named Dirk. Diane is the woman who waited on me. I think she might be the owner. Dirk is a friend of her brother's, and she doesn't think well of him. I think the brother might have been the other man at the mall."
"Do they have Pam?"
"No one thought of her at all. I'd find it really hard to believe anyone in there would harm her though. I'm assuming that vampire who showed up was an associate of yours?"
"Yes. Indira. I thought it would be useful to make them think about vampires. Possibly they would see her as another target." And he sent her anyway. I made a mental note of that.
"Mmhmm. Well, good thinking there. It worked. Except all they thought were positive things. It was actually, now don't take offense here, but it was actually really peculiar. Most people have some reservations. Even the most accepting humans do, when it comes to vamps. They all seemed to like you guys in there."
"Yes, I can see how that would seem strange," he said dryly.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't even pretend I've hurt your feelings. Anyway, they have a few vampire clients. Maybe I could pick them out if I saw them again, maybe not. One was blond, it could have been your Pam, but I don't know. No one was thinking of her specifically. It all seemed pretty aboveboard in there."
"So we need to find this Dirk."
"Seems like your only lead, yes."
"What is his last name? Where does he live?"
"People don't think like that," I shrugged.
"Explain."
"She didn't think, 'Oh I am concerned about the shady nature of my brother's friend Dirk So-And-So of 123 Maple Street, Shreveport.' It was fleeting worry and distrust along with the name."
The vampire pulled out his phone and dialed. To my surprise, he put his phone on speaker so I could hear both sides of the conversation.
"Fangtasia, the bar with a bite," a sultry female voice answered. "This is Araminta. How may I serve you tonight?"
"This is your master. Give me Clancy."
I couldn't help but snicker as the girl stammered out her "Right away, Master," and put the call on hold. He glanced at me and I just shook my head at the exchange. He looked like he was about to say something when someone else picked up the line.
"Sheriff," acknowledged the voice of Clancy.
"Pam went two nights ago to a nail salon offering vampire hours. It is not clear whether or not she arrived here, but there is some suspicion regarding those who lured her to this place. Two men. My witness will give you their descriptions now."
He held the phone towards me, and to the best of my ability, I told Clancy what Diane's brother and Dirk each looked like.
"I see no one here at present to match."
"It stands to reason that if they are targeting vampires, they will come to where vampires are. Ask around. I don't have to remind you to be discrete."
"Yes, Sheriff."
"I am going to discover the homes of the men. Call me when you learn something."
"Yes, Sheriff."
He hung up and pocketed his phone, then sat back in his seat.
"What now?" I asked.
"We will wait for the shop to close, and we will follow this Diane home. If the brother is not there, I will glamour her to find out his location."
"Want to just run me home now then?" I asked, letting myself sound hopeful in a way I didn't feel.
"No. I may require you further. You have told your sponsor you will call by sunrise."
Before I could throw back a facetious, "Yes, Sheriff," the vampire Indira appeared at the window of the Corvette, which he opened long enough to hear her mundane account and then dismiss her for the evening. She didn't even glance at me before she thanked him and left.
"How many of your vampires know what I am?" I asked him bluntly, once she'd gone.
"Only Pam. Why do you ask this?"
"Indira would have seen me in the shop, and now she's seen me in your car. What does she think I'm doing here?"
"Feeding me perhaps," he shrugged.
"Well that's not going to happen," I said quickly. "So what, you're just in the midst of a missing person investigation and you just stop for a snack?"
"She does not know that Pam is missing. Only Clancy and Longshadow know."
"What does Indira think she was doing here then?"
"Following an order."
I let out another half a chuckle and turned away. I suppose being bossy and expecting obedience just go part and parcel with the whole Sheriff thing.
"You are very amused by all of this."
"By you," I clarified. "Not by your missing child. I know this is serious. I do hope we find her tonight. Incidentally, yes, I would be willing to stay and help you further. How considerate of you to ask."
We sat there for half an hour saying nothing more to each other. The finger I'd cut was itching and I caught myself fidgeting with the bandage before his sharp intake of breath reminded me to leave it alone. I cracked my window and when he looked over I reminded him pointedly that some of us require air. I lay my head back on the seat. It was getting late, and I was feeling tired, but I was both unwilling and unable to really relax. He went into down time, that perfect stillness that vampires can adopt, almost a trance-like state. I knew he would hear me if I spoke. They always respond to external stimuli, but I wasn't sure if he was hard at thinking or if he'd just gone blank. I was hesitant to disturb him by asking.
Finally the shop showed signs of closing up, and not long after that the three remaining workers came out and headed to their cars. He pressed the button that made my window go up. It was darkly tinted, and I didn't have to ask why he was doing it. I knew it was to prevent us from being noticed. Diane was the last to leave, shutting the lights and locking up the doors. I assumed he would just go talk to her now and save us the bother of following her home. When I said so he pointed upward to the lamp post under which we were parked, and I noticed the camera mounted there. Directly below it, we were out of its view, but if he'd walked across the parking lot, he certainly could have been seen.
Diane was too far away from us for me to get much of a read on her. She was feeling eager, was all I could tell, and that made perfect sense since her work day had just finished. Eric let her leave the parking lot before he turned on his car and swung around to follow her. She hadn't noticed us at all. I felt like a spy. I'm a little ashamed to say it was actually kind of exciting. I found myself leaning forward in my seat. We were a couple of cars back most of the way to her house. Once we were in her development, we drove past the driveway she turned into and the Sheriff pulled over a few houses up. He was out of the car the instant we'd stopped. I wasn't sure what I was meant to do, he was out of sight before his door swung shut. I got out of the car and crept furtively down the sidewalk. The houses were small but tidy. There were some lights on, but for the most part it was quiet.
I peeked around the hedge at the edge of Diane's property and ran smack dab into Eric heading back towards me. He moved so quietly! I stumbled backwards and he caught me by both arms before I could fall. His grip was hard, and it hurt a little, but it was preferable to landing on my butt or my back or worse, cracking my head on the cold cement. His fingers loosened their hold on me as I steadied myself and he just stared down at me until I nodded to him that I was fine.
"Come," he said, and turned away again. He spoke softly but not in a whisper. "Can you search the house for other minds? Human or Vampire? Do this now."
I didn't bother quibbling, I just did it. Diane was standing along the side of her garage staring vacantly at the ground. I brushed over her to see the same white fog and knew he'd doubled back to glamour her before she could get inside her home. With me here, I realized it was probably the worst that would happen to her, when without me... Actually without me the vampires would never have known about Diane and so technically any danger she hypothetically would have been in, had I refused to help out, was also my fault. Sort of. I rubbed my head.
"There's no one here. Only the neighbors, at a distance. There's a cat inside. House cat," I clarified. As opposed to a werelion or something. You always want to err on the side of specificity when dealing with supes.
He crossed back to Diane then and started speaking.
"What is the name of your brother?"
"Jack Mason."
"Where does he live?"
"He's got a place over in Red Chute," she said. A near suburb of Shreveport, just to the east.
On it went. Whereas I could provoke no response in someone the vampire had glamoured, he commanded her full attention. He got the address, he got Dirk's last name (Palfry). She didn't know Dirk's address, but it wouldn't be too hard to look up, if we couldn't find it out from Jack. He asked her where he hangs out, she said a bar, but she didn't know which one. While he was talking to her I followed along in her mind. It was like he was calling up specific records in a database without any additional context. I could see where the usefulness of their glamour as an interrogation tool ran out. If they didn't know exactly what questions to ask, they'd get nothing. I saw that when he was asking about Jack and Dirk's stomping grounds.
"Do you know the vampire, Pam Ravenscroft?" he asked.
"No."
"Did she come in to your shop two nights ago?"
No answer. There was only more static, doubly more, in fact. She had said she didn't know Pam, so a question about her specific whereabouts was illogical, and unanswerable.
"Describe her," I said. "She doesn't know the name. She has no idea who you mean, so anything you ask to follow that up is blank."
He gave me a look that seemed to say, 'I'm the one asking the questions right now,' and I just shrugged. He could take or leave my advice. I am standing here at this point out of curiosity, and to make sure that Diane gets inside safely, though truly I didn't think he would do her harm. He might need her again if this didn't pan out with the brother.
Once he told Diane what Pam looked like, the image of her seated in the salon came into view. Before Diane could answer I blurted out, "She was there. Diane waited on her."
"When did she leave the shop?"
"She doesn't know. It isn't there," I explained Diane's silence. Finally I realized what this feedback was. He continued his barrage of questionings getting more and more annoyed with her lack of elucidation.
"Sheriff Northman," I said firmly, interrupting him. "She doesn't know. I think she was glamoured by someone else, to forget," I tried to explain what I was seeing in her head but words were failing me. "Is it possible Pam herself glamoured Diane as she left?"
"It is possible. I see no reason why she would."
"Possibly that is the point. The reason has been erased." He pondered that for a moment and then turned back to face the target of his glamour.
"Diane. You have just come home from work. You will not recall seeing this woman after she left your shop earlier this evening. You will forget me entirely. Go inside and feed your cat." After another long gaze he released her, and she turned without acknowledging either of us and went in her house.
I walked down the driveway ahead of him. I didn't bother creeping as I paced toward his car. I yawned as he got in beside me, and buckled my belt. I turned and watched as he failed to yawn in response, as if I needed another reminder that he wasn't human.
"Nice of you to think of the cat," I remarked. When he didn't say anything I asked, "Where are we headed now? Jack's house?"
"I am surprised you need to ask."
"Why?"
"I would expect you to read it out of my head."
"I can't hear vampire thoughts. We told you this."
"And surely, there is no reason at all for you to lie to me about that."
"Oh, there's every reason why I would," I answered, as I thought again of the flash I'd seen earlier. "But the fact is, I didn't. You're either too dead or too different for me to read."
"We are going to Fangtasia. I need to speak with Clancy and Longshadow together."
"I won't be able to read them."
"So you say."
"I'll wait in the car," I said.
"You will wait in my office."
"I'd prefer not." I really would. Neither time that I'd been in there had been pleasant. The foot fetishist was as nothing to some of the thoughts swirling around in there.
"Your preference does not enter the equation. I am tasked with returning you safe. Therefore, you will accompany me to the more secure location."
We arrived at Fangtasia a short while later, pulling in to the side parking lot and entering through the employee door. I was led down the short hallway to a very ordinary office. The Sheriff had me sit in one of the guest chairs while he sat behind his desk. The seating arrangement was not my first choice. It would put my back to anyone entering the room. He deemed the setup useful as I wouldn't be facing anyone who entered. I was to pretend to be the same glamoured "witness" I'd been on the phone to Clancy, so I'd need to feign vacant serenity. I am able to control my face very well no matter what I overhear, a product of a lifetime's exposure to people's most private thoughts. He wasn't to know that though.
He asked if I could read the minds in the bar, to search for anyone thinking of Pam or ill intent in general. I grimaced, but nodded.
"You object to the request?"
"Oh, just not looking forward to hearing whatever sick fantasies are floating around out there."
"Yet another conversation for another night, Miss Stackhouse."
"Sookie. And no, that's not a conversation I care to have at any point."
He signaled me then to assume my glamour pose; dead, downcast eyes, facing him, and general stillness. A knock at the door signaled the arrival of a waitress teeming with lusty thoughts about the vampire sitting in front of me. I never got more than a sidelong glance at her as she stepped over to his desk and set down a bottle of the synthetic blood. That's what had been responsible for the vampires' newly found place in the entirely figurative sun. This was another part of the story they told the humans, that they could subsist entirely on the synthetic. It was probably true, but very few vampires actually did. I figured it would compare to giving up home-cooked meals for protein bars, indefinitely. Technically the synthetic blood provided what they needed to live, but it certainly wasn't enjoyable. And really, as the woman to my right was demonstrating expertly, why would any vampire deny himself the real deal when there were so many humans eager to throw themselves at anything with fangs?
"Hi sweetie," she cooed. "Is there anything else I can get you?" She was stroking her neck in what she perceived to be a subtle hint that she would gladly put herself on the menu if he preferred more substantial fare.
"Tell Longshadow and Clancy that I need to see them."
"Is that all?" Oh brother.
"Yes. That is all," he dismissed her.
I saw myself through her eyes then as she looked down at me, little more than a bowed blond head. She assumed that I was his meal for the evening, as well as his entertainment. She hated me instantly.
"Ginger. Go now."
She did. He didn't glance up, which was a good thing because I would have been tempted to laugh at the stern Sheriff Sweetie behind the desk, totally betraying the illusion of my hypnosis. The vampires arrived and were brought up to speed as much as was possible without revealing my part. They weren't concerned with how he'd come by the information. As they talked I did let my mind wander beyond the wall that blocked this room from the bar and the dance floor outside. As predicted it was sex, sex, curiosity (tourist), sex, kinky sex, and sex. At least these were easy to skip over. I had to take little breaks, refocusing my attention. There were so many people. I didn't have to try to keep a vacant and distracted look on my face. Sifting through this many minds was a task and a half. I happened across the same sorts of petty lawbreakers as before, but saw no need to report them. There was no impending raid on the bar by bigoted police tonight. There was a drainer scouting for targets though, and that was something to speak up about, especially if we already had one missing vampire on our hands.
Vampire blood has a variety of interesting properties when ingested by humans. It can heal you, if you're wounded. It can hype up your libido. It can give you some extra strength, even make you more physically attractive. It can make you feel good. Then of course, like any hard drug, there's always the risk that it could turn you full on batshit crazy. It's the hottest illicit substance out there these days, and the vamps don't supply it willingly. Teams of vampire blood drainers capture and forcibly drain their victims, and then most often, just leave them to burn up come the sunrise. This would be the worst case scenario in the matter of the Sheriff's missing child.
The problem was that I couldn't see the man; I could only hear his intent. I strained to hold on to the thread of his thoughts as I lifted my eyes to the Sheriff. He must have caught that flicker of movement because his eyes drifted to me and I widened mine perceptibly. I wasn't sure how else to communicate the threat. He took my meaning well enough and began to wrap up his chat with his two underlings. As he did so, I probed the minds nearest the drainer. Maybe someone was looking at him? A waitress! He saw her approaching, and took the last swig of his beer and ordered another. She'd checked up on him three times in the last hour and he just wanted her to leave him the hell alone. I jumped to her, but she was already heading back to the bar. She waited for the bartender to hand her the bottle, which she placed on her little round tray and carried back... to Dirk Palfry.
I held still, even as I felt my nerves jangle. I was sure that the vampires in the room would sense my sudden spike of anxiety. A smooth facade is one thing, but I can't control my body chemistry. The Sheriff stood then and strode from his office, the other two trailing in his wake. I watched through the drainer's eyes as the three of them entered the bar and spread out. Dirk was locked on the Sheriff, noticing that the other vampires present seemed to defer to him. He was thinking the Sheriff must be pretty powerful, and was weighing him up as a target. He decided on the spot that it probably wasn't worth the risk. Generally they targeted the weaker vampires, the younger ones. Dirk went back to sizing up the small female vampire surrounded by male admirers. Idiot. Even through his eyes I could tell she was ancient.
When two hands fell on my shoulders I practically leapt up from my chair.
"What did you hear?"
"Did you see him?" I asked. "Dirk?"
He paused to recall his sweep of the bar. "The brown haired one. Pockmarks on his face. Sitting alone and drinking a beer."
"He's a drainer! Or he's scouting for them. It's all he's thinking about."
"Do they have Pam?"
"I don't know."
He was gone again. I found myself pacing the office with worry for the unknown Pam. I stayed on Dirk, but he wasn't thinking about past targets, only future ones. It occurred to me quite suddenly that I may just have signed the man's death warrant. At that thought I slumped down on the couch and hovered over my knees with my head in my hands. It was the hour, the strain of using my abilities so often and so intensely this evening, the ebb of my adrenaline receding, the worry and the fear both for myself and for a woman (well, vampire) that I had never met; I was utterly exhausted.
"He will be followed when he leaves and pulled aside so we may question him."
I hadn't heard him reenter, but I looked up with bleary eyes. "I don't think I can," I said honestly.
He was giving me his appraising look once again. "Very well," he said finally. "Come," he beckoned.
With an effort I lifted myself from the couch. I had a moment of dizziness as the blood rushed from my head. I felt his firm grip around my arm again, steadying me. I took a moment and then nodded gratefully and let him lead me from the club. He was back on the phone issuing orders as we walked.
I was too tired to question the fact that he knew without being told where I lived, nor that my car was still sitting in the Splendide parking lot. It would be okay for the night, even guarded only by a mere human. I was probably too tired to drive anyway. That didn't seem normal. I must be seriously out of practice. We pulled up to the little house I rented and he was around the car and taking my arm again before I could so much as fumble for the latch. I let myself in the house and stood in the doorway. He did not turn to leave right away as I expected.
"Please don't think me ill-mannered, but I'm not going to invite you inside tonight. It is too late for me to be entertaining guests, and I don't have anything to offer you anyway."
"You have a phone call to make."
Ah, right. He wanted to be certain I remembered to call Mr. Cataliades to inform him that I'd arrived home safe and sound. I took a couple of steps back into the entryway and made the call, letting my sponsor know that the Sheriff had kept his word, and that I'd phone tomorrow with the details of my evening.
"There you are then," I said to the vampire, who still did not seem ready to leave. "Please let me know when you recover Pam, I'll be worrying for her."
"She feels the same to me. The bond is still muted. No stronger, but no weaker. That is something. Hopefully before this dawn."
"Hopefully," I agreed. "Well, good night, Sheriff."
"Eric."
"Hm?" I yawned.
"This is my name. You may use it. You have corrected me twice with yours."
"Oh. Well, good night, Eric," I repeated.
"Good night, Sookie."
I went to close the door but suddenly caught myself. "Oh, Sheriff? Er, Eric? I know you'll have to question him, but you should know that Dirk himself is not a killer of vampires. He really is just a scout."
"I will leave it to Pam to decide his fate," he said ambiguously. "Do not waste your concern on that scum."
I could only nod, and shut my door. I was barely able to get out of my jeans and sneakers before I collapsed on top of my bed.