I woke to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I turned on the light beside my bed and watched the door open. Dr. Ludwig came into the room.

"How are you feeling? I see you're nearly keeping vampire hours," she said.

I climbed out of bed and excused myself to use the bathroom. When I came back into the bedroom, she asked me to sit at the foot of the bed while she examined me.

"Have you been feeling dizzy? Faint?" she asked.

"No."

"How's your appetite?"

"Fine."

"I'm going to clear you for work, but keep the choker on. I don't think you should be bitten just yet."

"Okay. Thanks for coming, doctor."

"No problem. I'll check on you again soon."

I showered and dressed and went downstairs to eat. When I came back up, Rasul was waiting for me at my door.

I took his arm, but we headed in the opposite direction from the main room.

"Do you feel up to working tonight?" he asked.

"Yes. I saw Dr. Ludwig."

"Good. We're ready for you downstairs."

I sat at a conference table beside Rasul. We were joined by two more vampires that I didn't know—a black man and a short white woman named Zeke and Carolina, respectively.

Within a few minutes, a white-shirted human escorted a police officer into the room. He sat in the empty chair beside me.

Carolina explained to him that they had a few questions to ask him.

"You're guarding the front of the palace, is that correct?" Carolina began to the officer.

"Yeah," he said.

"What are your feelings in general about vampires?" she asked.

"They're okay," he said. A little creepy. I saw a sleeping child which made no sense.

"Do you mind if I touch you?" I asked.

He looked a little uncomfortable. "No, I guess not."

I placed my hand on his arm and asked, "How do you feel about vampires?"

"They're fine." He thought Carolina looked a little like his daughter and that gave him the creeps. That made more sense to me, so I looked to Carolina to continue.

"What are your feelings about the BVA?" she asked.

"They seem pretty corrupt. It's fucked up." But I appreciate the overtime.

"Have you ever wanted to harm a vampire?" she asked.

"No." But I've seen a couple I'd like to fuck.

Carolina looked at me and I nodded.

"Thank you, officer. You may go back to your post," she said.

As soon as the officer left, Zeke asked me, "Anything?"

"He's fine. He's sexually attracted to vampires and has no wish to hurt them," I replied.

Zeke stood and said, "I'll get the next one."

We worked through all the police officers working outside until I got hungry and also needed a bathroom break. Rasul sat with me in the cafeteria while I ate and then we went back to work, this time with some palace employees.

Carla was among the humans I read, and she was surprised to see me in my new position and realized that I must be the telepath the Queen sought through Bill, but thought more about how close I'd be to Gervaise than anything else.

I grew tired and asked to end the evening around 4 a.m. Rasul walked me to my room and said good night.

As I fell alseep, I wondered where Eric was and how Pam was. Even though we couldn't really openly communicate in the palace, I'd gotten some comfort just knowing he was in the building. Without him here, I felt very much alone.

I placed my pillows in a line down the bed and slept on top of them, wishing they were Eric. I tried to remember how safe and secure I'd felt lying on top of him in Magnolia Grove, and wondered if I'd ever feel safe again.

As soon as I woke the following day, I called Sam.

"Sookie, how are you?"

"I'm okay."

"We had the service today. It was really nice. I'm so sorry you couldn't be here."

"Jason's service?"

"Yes. Eric Northman called and explained that you couldn't come. He took care of the arrangements."

"Oh. That was nice."

"When do you think you can come home?"

"I have no idea, Sam. I'll let you know."

"Take care of yourself, Sookie, and be careful."

"I will."

I hung up and sat and had a long cry for Jason and the fact that I'd missed his funeral. It seemed so strange that he was gone and I longed for a chance to give him a final goodbye. I was growing more and more resentful of the vampires here. Thinking of Eric taking care of what should have been my responsibility made me miss Eric even more.

The next two nights were spent reading the human employees. There were more of them, of course, than there were police officers protecting the palace, so it took a lot longer. Amazingly, I didn't find a single person with plans to do harm to the vampires. Even without telepathy, Minh and his staff had done a good job of reading the intentions of people as they were hired.

I missed Eric desperately, but had heard nothing about him. I wondered how long it would take to heal Pam and if he would come back to New Orleans. It was obvious that my fate here was sealed and I was trying not to panic about that and just get through each night.

Dr. Ludwig came to see me late in the afternoon the day after I'd finished reading all the humans.

"Are you feeling well?" she asked as she examined me.

"Yes."

"Able to eat and sleep normally?"

"Under the circumstances, yes."

"Good. I think it's safe to leave off that choker then. Most vampires will ask first if they can bite. Don't let more than one bite you in a single night."

"When you say, 'don't let them,' what exactly does that mean? Can I tell them no?"

"Yes, if you've already been bitten, just say so. They're not barbarians, and you are a special and valuable employee. They won't want to see you drained again. You're not much use to them if you're too sick to work."

"I suppose that's true. Thank you, Doctor."

"Call me if you need me."

"I will, thank you."

I dressed and ate and waited in my room until dusk. When I stepped out into the hall to greet Rasul, his eyes immediately dropped to my bare neck and I felt very uncomfortable. I realized that the choker had made me feel at least a little safer, and without it, I felt extremely vulnerable. I didn't want to be bitten by anyone but Eric, but knew it was impractical to hope that no one else would bite me.

Rasul began to walk me towards the main room.

"I see that you've been cleared by the doctor and that your health has returned," he said as we walked.

"Yes, I'm better."

He opened the door and led me inside as he asked, "May I taste you this evening?"

We were just barely inside the room and I was panicking at the thought of giving Rasul an answer, knowing that I really had no reason to say no to him. But before I'd had a chance to answer, there was a blur of movement in front of us and suddenly, I felt excruciating pain in my neck.

I cried out at the pain at the same time I realized Andre had attacked me and was sucking on my neck. His approach was too fast for me to track with my eyes.

No sooner than the cry of pain escaped my lips, I felt Andre's fangs tear my skin as he was yanked away from me by an equally fast-moving Eric.

Before I could even register what had happened, I clutched my throat, feeling the blood running down my neck and looked down to see Eric and Andre in a frenzied tangle on the floor, growling and tearing violently at each other with their fangs like two mad dogs.

Every person in the room turned to see the spectacle, and more than a few vampires approached the scene quickly. I looked up to see that some of them weren't looking at the fight on the floor, but at me with the unmistakable expression of blood lust on their faces.

I turned and ran from the room, still holding my bleeding neck. I ran down the hall and opened my door, running through the bedroom and into my bathroom. I knew there were no locks on the doors and that any one of the vampires in the palace could run in and bite me and wondered what in the world would stop them. Eric couldn't fight them all.

I climbed into the shower stall and crouched down into the corner, waiting to see who would come in and bite me.

I kept pressure on my neck, hoping that the bleeding had stopped, and waited for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, I heard someone come into my bedroom. I was terrified and started to cry. The bathroom door opened and Eric appeared in the doorway. He was covered in blood and his suit was torn in several places.

He opened the shower door and came in and sat in the floor, pulling me into his lap. I let go of my neck and clung to him and cried into his bloody shirt.

He stroked my hair and said, "Shhh" and "You're okay," until I'd calmed down.

Once I'd stopped crying, he said, "Let me see," and looked at my neck. He bent down and began to gently lick where Andre had torn the flesh. "It's not too bad," he said into my ear when he'd finished licking.

He took a deep unnecessary breath and said, "Let's get you cleaned up," as we started to get up off the shower floor.

Eric picked me up and sat me on the bathroom counter and began to unbutton my blouse. He licked the blood from my neck and chest as he peeled the blouse away. Once he had my blouse off, he set it on the counter beside me and reached behind me to unhook my bra.

He removed my bra and set it aside and continued licking and cleaning me. I closed my eyes and thought of the times he'd licked me under other circumstances and felt so sad at the loss of our private little world in Magnolia Grove. I remembered Eric's warning that there were cameras everywhere and so I refrained from touching him or responding to his touch in a sexual manner.

Once my neck and chest were clean, Eric took my hand that I'd covered my neck with and thoroughly licked it clean as well.

Eric stepped back and assessed his progress, giving a little nod of approval. He took the stained blouse and bra into the bedroom and returned with a new bra and clean blouse. He set the blouse down on the counter and bit the tags off the bra before tossing them into the trash. I put the bra on and he helped me into the blouse. I buttoned the blouse up as he wet a wash cloth and worked on getting some blood from my hair.

I heard my bedroom door open and the Queen appeared in the bathroom doorway and asked, "How are we doing in here?"

"Fine," Eric answered, still concentrating on cleaning my hair with the wash cloth.

"Oh, good, that doesn't look too bad. I don't think it will leave a scar. Nice work, Eric."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," he said.

He ran his fingers through my hair and was apparently satisfied that it was free of blood. Then he walked past the Queen into the bedroom, I assumed to add the wash cloth to the laundry bag in my armoire.

The Queen turned around and said, "Eric, why don't you go and get changed or you'll be late. I'll stay with Sookie."

"Yes, Your Majesty," I heard him say, and then I heard the door open and close again.

The Queen stepped into the bedroom and said, "Come in here, my dear. You and I need to have a little talk."

I hopped off the counter and walked into the bedroom. The Queen was sitting on my bed and patted the spot beside her. I sat down and waited to see what the vampire Queen of Louisiana had to say to me.