Chapter 33

Remember The Time When Sookie Stackhouse Brought The Wrath Of God Down Upon Merlottes?

While I was jumpier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, Quinn seemed to be perfectly at ease. He rambled on about his Aunt, his professional fighting career (bragging about his undefeated status) and about how he spends a great deal of his time traveling to his fights. I also found out that in his spare time, he was the head of security for one Sophie-Ann Leclerq, Vampire Queen of Louisiana. My mouth snapped shut loudly when he revealed that detail.

"I only have that particular job when she travels to meet with other high profile Vamp leaders, though. Have you met many vampires yourself?"

"A few." I really didn't know him well enough to feel bad about that half-truth.

"Did Aunt Grace tell you that she was with a vampire for over 30 years?"

"She did mention that, yes."

"And what do you think about that?" Why was he so curious? Maybe he wanted to make sure I wouldn't be the type to judge his beloved Grace. I could appreciate that.

"Frankly, I think people should be free to love whomever they choose, mortal or undead. Heck, if werewolves existed, they'd need love too, right?"

His laugh sounded strained. Had I said something to offend him? I scooted closer to the door, realizing what a fool I had been to hop so eagerly into this strangers car all because he had a nice aunt.

"Everything okay Sookie? Is all this talk of vampires making you uncomfortable?"

"Not at all." I forced a smile at him and tried my best to read his thoughts.

The inside of his mind felt muddled and twisted. I had never had such a hard time reading a human and that scared me.

I had been so busy trying to get inside his head that it shocked me to see that we were in the parking lot of Merlotte's. This was bad, this was very bad!

"This place has a great atmosphere and the food is fantastic for bar food. I know the owner, Sam."

I just nodded my head, trying my best to think of a way out of going inside. I hadn't seen or talked to Sam since the night he dropped me off at home and I'd discovered that there was something different about him. I didn't know how well I would be received here anymore.

"I've been here a few times, in fact, I'm thinking that I maybe have seen you in here before?"

"Yeah, I used to work here." Used to, the thought of my employment in past tense made me feel sick to my stomach.

"We can go somewhere else if you'd like."

"No, don't be silly. The food here IS excellent and it will be good to see everyone again."

He unfolded himself out of the Escalade with extreme grace for such a large man. He hurried around to open my door and even offered a hand to help me down out of my seat.

When we walked in the door, I can't be sure if the room got so quiet because of the sheer size of my date, because I dared to show my face in here again or a combination of the two. I adjusted my mind to block the wall of thoughts that came rushing in like floodwaters and walked towards the only open booth in the place.

Quinn sat across from me and began talking again.

"So, how do you personally feel about non-human and human relationships?"

"I feel that there's nothing wrong with humans dating Vampires, but sometimes I wonder of there's any way it could possibly work out. The differences are so great."

"But aren't you supposed to believe that true love can conquer all? Isn't that written in the female DNA code or something?"

I laughed. "Maybe once upon a time, but now I know that you can love someone with all of your heart and still find out that they aren't who you thought they were."

"He was a vamp wasn't he?"

A sad smile settled on my mouth. "How'd you know?"

"My aunt had a feeling. She said you'd smelled like vamp. She swears they have their own, dry smell. I never noticed, never really got close enough to one besides Uncle Eddie. And he'd always just smelled like Uncle Eddie to me."

"You're aunt is right, they do have a smell. I don't mean to be rude, but can we talk about something else. I just want to try and forget all about the past and look forward to some happiness."

A new waitress I'd never seen before came to the table and asked what we wanted to drink. Quinn ordered a Warsteiner, and I ordered a diet cherry coke.

Quinn was busy looking at the menu and stopped the girl, who name was Daphne according to her nametag, and started ordering food. A lot of food.

"Can we get some of the hot pickled okra, deep fried pickles, breaded mushrooms, shrimp cocktail and a huge bowl of the Gumbo." Just as I was about to be offended that he'd ordered for me, he looked me in the eye and said, "What would you like, Sookie?"

I laughed and ordered a Burger Lafayette. This was going to be fun to watch him try and eat all that food.

"Oooh, that sounds good, let me have one of those too."

We made some more small talk while we waited for the food. He consumed four Warsteiner beers before the food started coming out. I did most of the talking after that, telling him about my parents untimely death, my Gran raising me and Jason and then about her murder. I saw a vein in his forehead start to bulge as I relayed that it was a so-called friend who had killed her. He relaxed and seemed more than impressed when I told him that I was the one who had eventually figured out who he was and had played a big role in catching him. I left out any details that required explaining my telepathy.

He grew very quiet and I could see he was on the verge of saying something. He was struggling with something.

"You are an amazing woman, Sookie Stackhouse. I wish I could have met you under different circumstances. Right now, I need to get you out of here."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're in danger and I don't have time to explain, just know that I came here as one of the bad guys but now I can see that you are much to wonderful to let anything bad happen to."

"Oh my god, Eric."

"It wasn't Eric who sent me."

"No, Eric's here. I can feel him."

Just as I was about to stand up, the front door to the bar splintered as if it had been hit by a bomb. Eric blurred inside and stood toe to toe with Quinn. He roared like an enraged lion and his hand was around Quinn's neck, lifting him 6 inches off the floor.

"I will split you open and bathe in your blood you putrid tiger! You dare to squire my intended? Sookie, outside now, there's no need for you to see this!"

I felt the room start to spin and it seemed like a million tiny bugs were devouring my peripheral vision until everything went black. The last I remembered was thinking that I hoped I fell so that no one in Merlotte's could see my underwear.