A/N: Thanks again for all the reading, following, and reviewing! In this chapter, our Sookie is reminded that vampires still have a way to go in their dealings with humans (and mostly humans). Warning for mild violence.

Disclaimer: everything belongs to Charlaine Harris, although we're headed in a different direction.

I apparently didn't require an escort away from the very secure suite, so I headed toward the elevator, the two door guards watching me as I walked away. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous about who I might encounter on the long ride back down, I decided to take the stairs. I would soon realize that I should have just gone with the elevator.

I had detected a vampire's void right away, but didn't think much of it because he was obviously on the phone. It wasn't too unusual for people to step into stairwells to get a little privacy for a call, even though the sound tended to travel all the way up and down. When I reached a landing two floors down, I recognized the vampire as one of the guards who had been sent away from the council's suite.

And then he struck.

I felt the pain in my neck and barely got out a muffled scream due to the vampire's huge hand completely covering my mouth. He squeezed my bicep and his body pressed my back against the wall, so it was impossible for me to move to either side. As the tall, dark-haired vampire sucked enthusiastically at my neck, a river of thoughts flooded my brain. He had made no attempt to glamor me, or to conceal his identity, so he wasn't worried that I'd report him. Uh oh. Maybe he didn't like my proposal to the council, didn't want vampire society to change? Maybe he didn't want me working too closely with vampires, because he thought I'd reveal something he'd done? Hell, maybe he'd just heard how delicious I am.

It takes a while to tell it, but those thoughts all rushed through my mind at once, along with the continuing pain of the vampire's bite. I needed to focus and find a way to get free. Despite my more elaborate recent training with Karin, I saw an opportunity for a simple, no-expertise-required attack.

I kneed him in the balls.

When he doubled over, I grabbed the silver spray tucked in my purse and sprayed him right in the face. When he finished screaming, he shouted up at me from his kneeling position on the concrete landing. "Woman! What the hell? I wasn't supposed to hurt you, and you silver me?!"

I gave him my own "what the hell?" face, just as Karin showed up ready to fight. She quickly took in my dripping, bloody neck and the guard's sizzling face, and gave me an approving smile. Then she kneed the kneeling vampire right in the chin for good measure, sending him into the air and crashing into the opposite wall. Grin still in place, she looked me up and down. "Sookie, well done. I felt your fear and excused myself as quickly as the council would allow, but I see you have the situation well in hand. We'll need to report this to the council right away."

She didn't offer to heal the bite marks, which would probably be needed as evidence. Karin simply tossed the other vampire over her shoulder like a sack. Without speaking further, she and I trudged back up to the suite, where she deposited the offender unceremoniously on the plush carpet. At the end of a very long night, I had to give a statement to some of the highest ranked vampires in the country about how I'd kicked one of them in the family jewels.

When I finally made it back to my room, I stripped off all of my clothes and entered the bathroom for a very long, hot shower. After we left the suite Karin had healed my puncture wounds, but my neck still ached. As I scrubbed, I went back over some nagging thoughts. Like why a vampire I'd just met had attacked me, but didn't try to glamor or move me, and hadn't really physically harmed me. He'd had pretty good control, considering.

I remembered the attacker saying he wasn't supposed to hurt me, although I knew vampires often underestimated how much a bite could hurt an unglamored human. I thought back to what the King of Kentucky had said. The council couldn't cancel the contract if no terms had been broken. I'd been attacked. The terms had been broken. That's probably what all that whispering and consultation with Mr. Cataliades had been about - confirmation that a bite would do it.

I'd been set up. I'd be willing to bet my house that this little maneuver would give the council some power over Eric and Freyda. Vampires just love power. Maybe they'd split them up, maybe they'd make them renegotiate the terms, or maybe the council would simply tell them they were doing them the favor of not interfering with the contract when they could have. I was less sure of this, but guessed that the vampire guard who'd attacked me had recently done something to anger his monarch, so killing him for biting me would be no big loss to the King or Queen who'd sent him.

Whatever they stood to gain, it would be something that would outweigh the possibility of losing the cooperation of a pissed off telepath. They had treated me respectfully regarding my ideas for vampire government, so they had to assume I was smart enough to figure it out. Had they simply counted on my knowing when to keep my mouth shut? Did they think breaking the contract would be a favor to me?

Rinsing my hair, I decided it had been a hastily assembled plan, because the council had been surprised by the "nobody hurts Sookie" provision. I wondered why they didn't know about this loophole earlier, since they must have approved the contract. Maybe the council didn't bother itself with the specific details when it came to humans, but just signed off on the big vampire parts. The wedding and territory was probably the main thing for them, and everything must have been worked out between Eric, Freyda, Felipe, Eric's maker before he died...and Mr. Cataliades, who would have provided the relevant information as soon as they waved him over during our discussion earlier.

Strangely, I thought the bite might turn out to be a good thing, overall. That's not something I ever thought I'd say about being attacked by a vampire, but this little incident hardly registered compared to everything else I'd been through. Whether he realized it or not, the guard would be killed for the attack on me. I knew the council members would never publicly take responsibility, but I couldn't think of any real reason I needed them too. If they were humans, and had different motives in mind, I'd be determined to never work with them again. For good or ill, I was learning to accept the differences in how vampires got things done - and I saw my new position as an opportunity to help them do things in more human-friendly ways.

I resolved that I would carry on as planned - it's not as though I really trusted those vampires before, and it wasn't the first time I been used for vampire scheming. I'd executed this whole plan because I didn't trust them not to constantly fight over and try to control me. Whatever happened with Eric and Freyda as a result of the attack might or might not end up being my problem, but it wasn't at the moment, and I was glad if it got Eric out of the contract. I was pretty sure this whole episode would give me better leverage when negotiating my pay with the vampires, if I approached it right. Once I recognized it as a reasonable plan from their perspective, all that was left for me to do was figure out how to benefit from it.

In the end, I was most bothered that Karin had been held back to allow the attack to happen. I wondered what they'd told her between the time I left and the attack, but it would have to wait until tomorrow night. Karin had settled into her adjoining room already, and I wasn't up for any more conversation. I finally dragged myself out of the shower, dried off with the thick hotel towel, ran a comb through my hair, and pulled on soft blue pajamas. I collapsed into the huge bed and didn't stir again for until late the next day.

A/N: So, do you think Sookie has the council's motivation properly figured out? Or were they trying to help her? Or, like she once told Eric, did what they thought was good for her simply march right along with what was good for them?