The email from Sophie-Anne – well, from one of her assistants – was waiting for him when he returned to his office. So Bill Compton was now an investigator for Area 5. "Consider him and his possessions officially under your protection." Eric couldn't keep from smirking. Personal business, indeed. Well done, Bill. Leave your girlfriend alone when she's in serious danger, so you can run to the Queen in an effort to keep me from stealing said girlfriend. Apparently my charms are a greater threat to Sookie's well-being than a serial killer. It screamed of insecurity, yet the younger vampire seemed to be perfectly secure in his belief that Sookie would never leave him willingly. Humans weren't exactly "possessions," since they could choose to belong to another. Did Bill honestly believe that this was impossible? And hadn't he, Eric, already told Bill that he wanted Sookie under his protection? Eric rolled his eyes and deleted the email.
Another message, this one from a subject in Monroe. A maenad had been spotted in the woods some ten miles outside the city. Images of St. Petersburg and the maddened vampire, Gregory, poured into his mind, but he banished them. By the gods, he hoped this one would stay far away from Fangtasia. But if anyone had the pride to attract the Bassarid, it would be himself. He smiled in spite of himself, sending the email to the "Saved" folder.
* * *
Some weeks later, he received the call from Stan Davis. It was early evening, only about 7:00, and the bar hadn't yet filled up with its usual crowd. Eric slouched casually in a booth across from Pam, tweaking numbers in a spreadsheet on his laptop while she flipped through the pages of Redbook.
His eyes fell on one page of the magazine. "'Easy 10-Minute Meals,' Pam?" he asked, smirking. "Not hard to find those around here."
"You would know," she retorted.
He laughed and returned to his spreadsheet. Pam was always good company: smart, amusing, no emotional baggage. No emotions of any kind, it often seemed, but he found that relaxing. He sometimes wondered what it would be like to be so dispassionate. More convenient for himself, certainly, but he imagined it would make life even more boring than it already was.
The phone, which was sitting on the tabletop between them, started to ring, and Pam answered. "Fangtasia, where all your darkest dreams c—Oh, hey. Yeah, he's right here." She held the phone across the table and returned to her magazine.
"I am here."
"Sheriff, hello. I am calling on behalf of Stan Davis of Area 6 in Texas." The voice paused, as if waiting for some kind of reaction to this, but Eric had none, so he continued. "We have a vampire who has gone missing from the nest, and Stan wants to know if you have an investigator we can borrow."
"Are there not several investigators in Dallas?" Eric asked.
"None that are especially skilled, Mr. Northman. But you rarely seem to have trouble over where you are, so we figured you had good people."
Eric smiled. "Oh, I have very good people. Very expensive people." Pam looked up and grinned at him as he waited out the long silence on the other end.
"Define 'very good,'" the voice said at last.
"I have a telepath."
"No shit? I heard they had one of them up in Montana back in—"
"I could not care less about that," Eric interrupted. "What are you willing to pay for her?"
"Um… can I call you back?"
"Sure. And while you're at it, I want lodging, transportation, and full amenities thrown in as well. Not just for the telepath, but for her escort. She will not be sent to you alone under any circumstances."
"Got it. We'll get back to you soon."
Eric turned off the phone and went back to his work. He studiously ignored Pam's eyes on him until she gave up and returned to her magazine. That was another great thing about Pam. She didn't care enough about anything to trouble anyone, including herself.
He was surprised when only five minutes passed before the phone rang again. This time he picked it up. "Yes."
"Ten thousand, on top of everything you require."
"Done. I will contact you when I have arranged it." He hung up and smiled at Pam. "Time to call Bill. Sookie's going to Dallas."
Pam raised an eyebrow. "As are you, I take it."
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, I think you know," she said, her eyes back on a Redbook advice column.
Yes, Pam was smart.
* * *
Sookie would be arriving with Bill later that evening, and Eric was not at all pleased at the extent of his anticipation. One night he may simply have to take her and get it over with so that his irrational fascination with her would disappear. He told himself that if his lust were satisfied, he would be able to stop thinking of her as often as he did. But if he did take her, if he claimed her on the leather couch here in his office, would he not then want to have her in other positions, other places? His eyes wandered to the couch in question, and he imagined her there, draping her smooth, tanned leg over his hip… His fangs ran out, and he closed his eyes. Damn her.
There was commotion outside, and he clearly heard the voices of Pam and Bill. Just as he stood, Bill burst through the door of his office with Sookie slung over his shoulder. Sookie was covered in her own blood, and it smelled like Valhalla. Eric's fangs were still extended, and he touched his lips with the tip of his tongue, waiting for an explanation from Bill.
Bill shook Sookie, and Eric imagined that that couldn't have felt good. "This is on your account!" he said furiously.
Before Eric could answer, Sookie's weak voice came from over his shoulder. "Go to hell."
"What, my darling?" Bill asked.
"Go to hell!" she repeated.
Eric grinned. Every time he came in contact with this woman, she won more points in her favor. But there was no time to think about that. She was losing blood, and she had to be in a great deal of pain. He could argue with Bill – and fantasize about Sookie – later.
He moved out from behind his desk and approached the pair. "We must lay her on her stomach on the couch. Here, let me," he added, reaching for her legs. They set her down gently, and Eric fought a smile when he realized that here she was, indeed, on his couch. Not quite the circumstances he had been picturing, but even so. He looked up and saw Pam in the doorway, eyeing Sookie's bloodied body with lust. "Pam, call the doctor," he told her firmly, then crouched next to the sofa. He wanted to lick the blood from her face, whisper to her, smooth her hair with his fingers. He wanted to make love to her; he wanted to fuck her senseless. Later. Patience. Instead he asked, "What has happened to you?"
Her eyes were on fire, and he admired her spirit. "I am a message to you. This woman in the woods made Bill's car stop, and maybe even made us argue, and then she came up to me with this hog."
Eric's eyes widened as he remembered the recent email about the maenad in the area. "A pig?" he repeated.
"Oink, oink," Sookie said dryly. "Razorback. Wild pig. And she said she wanted to send you a message, and I turned in time to keep her from getting my face, but she got my back, and then she left."
Anger flared up inside him at the thought of the maenad scarring Sookie's lovely, defiant face. It would be a crime against art, against whatever gods there were, against him. He suspected that the maenad might come after him, but Sookie had never entered the equation.
Bill was pacing the office. "Your face. She would have gotten your face. Eric, her cuts are not so deep. What's wrong with her?"
Eric ignored Bill and addressed Sookie as tenderly as he could through his fury. Her face was so close to his, he could have leaned in only a few inches to kiss her. "Sookie, what did this woman look like?"
"She looked nuts, I'll tell you how she looked. And she called you Eric Northman."
"That's the last name I use for human dealings," he explained. For many centuries it had been Eric the Norseman. He needed to draw her back to the maenad. "By looking nuts," he said slowly, "you mean she looked… how?" He knew what the slang word "nuts" meant, but he needed a more detailed description of the creature if he were to have any kind of certainty.
"Her clothes were all ragged, and she had blood around her mouth and in her teeth, like she'd just eaten something raw." Which, no doubt, she had. "She was carrying this kind of wand thing," Sookie continued, "with something on the end of it. Her hair was long and tangled." She paused, her misery clearly written on her face. "Look, speaking of hair, my hair is getting stuck to my back."
Eric looked at the swollen, bloody tatters of flesh on her back, where her long hair was indeed adhering to her wounds. "Yes, I see." He allowed himself to touch her as he carefully guided her hair away from the raw skin.
Just as he finished, Pam returned with Dr. Ludwig. Eric rose to his feet and moved out of her way, crossing his arms as he watched her work on Sookie.
"What kind of doctor are you?" Sookie asked.
Eric smiled as the small woman answered, "The healing kind. You have been poisoned."
Sookie's voice was dismal. "So that's why I keep thinking I'm gonna die."
"You will, quite soon." Dr. Ludwig, always direct. That was one of the reasons Eric liked her and kept her close. He had no time to waste on the alternative.
"Thanks a lot, Doc," Sookie said sarcastically, winning another smile from Eric, even though she couldn't see him. "What can you do about that?"
His mind wandered as the doctor explained maenad bites to Sookie. He had been bitten in St. Petersburg, and the pain was something he would not soon forget. It must be even worse for a human. The mention of blood pulled him back into the present.
"Your bloodstream has been compromised," Dr. Ludwig was saying. "And your blood must be removed and replaced. That is a job for the vampires." She turned away from Sookie and addressed the vampires in question, who – if Eric's own feelings were any indication – were positively giddy at this prospect. "If only one of you takes the poisoned blood, that one will be pretty miserable. It's the element of magic that the maenad imparts. The Komodo dragon bite would be no problem for you guys. So, when I'm finished, each of you take a turn, removing just a little. Then we'll give her a transfusion."
Eric looked at Sookie, who was crying now. He wanted to shake the tiny doctor and demand that she hurry the fuck up. Sookie was in pain, and he was practically salivating at the thought of tasting this woman's blood for the first time. The circumstances were not ideal, but he didn't care at this point. But it would take all his concentration and restraint to remove "just a little."
Sookie's pained voice came from the couch. "Of human blood," she said with resolve. She didn't quite realize what she was asking, but Eric would give it. There wasn't a great deal he wouldn't give this woman, and that disturbed him on a fundamental level.
Dr. Ludwig was the one who answered her. "If Eric can pull some strings and get the human blood, at least half the transfusion can be synthetic. I'm Dr. Ludwig, by the way."
Eric always had strings available to pull. "I can get the blood, and we owe her the healing. What is your type, Sookie?"
"O positive."
Perfect. "That shouldn't be a problem. Can you take care of that, Pam?" He met his child's eyes across the room, and she was gone in a flash.
He turned back to the couch, where Dr. Ludwig was beginning her ministrations on Sookie's back. How he envied that tiny woman at this moment! Sookie made a sharp sound of protest, and Bill tried to soothe her with an explanation.
"But she'll get poisoned!" Sookie protested.
Eric spoke to her firmly, as if she were a panicking child. "She is the healer. You must accept her treatment."
"Oh, all right," she said in a voice that was both submissive and defiant. "By the way, I haven't heard an 'I'm sorry' from you yet."
He was amused, but he kept his voice conciliatory, with only a trace of mockery. "I am sorry that the maenad picked on you."
"Not enough."
He could tell that she was on the edge of unconsciousness. A little teasing would help her hang on, and, after all, he couldn't keep from grinning at her boldness. "Angelic Sookie," he crooned, "vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked, evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me." In a way, it was true, he thought. She was still crying in pain, and he wanted to kneel beside her and lick away her tears.
"That's more like it," she said. "I take it the message means that she's going to war with you?"
"Not exactly," he said vaguely, noticing that she was losing color rapidly. Her face was almost completely white. If Dr. Ludwig let this woman die… He clenched his fists. Where was the damned blood? "Pam?"
Pam stepped beside him. "It's on the way. This is bad."
"Start! She's changing color!" demanded Bill, his face lined with worry.
They were losing her. The only thing keeping her conscious at this point was the pain, and she had started to cry out openly. Eric gave a sharp look to Dr. Ludwig, who was looking intently into Sookie's eyes.
"Yes," said the doctor, "if there's to be any hope."
Ignoring all the others, Eric sped to Sookie's side. He would go first. He was tired of wasting time. As he leaned in to her, he caught her eyes and winked. There wasn't another way he could think of, at this moment, to assure her that he would take care of her and to try to soothe her. But she only lasted another second before she sank into the relief of unconsciousness.
His fangs ran out. "The shirt will have to come off," he said. Bill made a sound of angry protest, but Eric raised his hand to silence him. "There is no other way to do this."
He lifted Sookie slightly as Bill came to her side and gently removed the garment. Eric helped him with the back, since pieces of the shirt had gotten stuck in her blood. It was a mercy that she slept through this. Eric spared a moment to admire her breasts; it would have been an insult not to. They were everything he had imagined, and that was saying a great deal.
"Eric!" said Bill.
Grinning at the younger vampire, he lowered his head to Sookie's back and began to draw the poisoned blood up from her wounds. As he did this, Bill raised Sookie slightly and slipped under her, holding her upper body in his lap.
Even through the maenad's terrible magic, he could taste the sweetness of her. He was getting aroused, but there was no help for that. He groaned with pleasure as her blood filled his mouth, and he swirled his tongue around his teeth, not wanting to miss a single drop. After a time, with great reluctance, he raised his head, his eyes hazy with want.
"I shouldn't take any more," he said. "Bill?"
As Bill moved to take Eric's former position, Eric began to move where Bill had been. He wanted to hold her as Bill had done, and no, his reasons were not entirely pure. But, he told himself, they weren't completely impure, either.
"What are you doing?" Bill asked, narrowing his eyes.
"It's easier this way," Eric said. "You have better access to her back."
"And you have better access to her breasts," Bill muttered, but he said nothing more as he leaned to draw more of the poison out of Sookie's body.
Eric was proud of himself for being so good; he didn't lay a hand on her breasts. No: the first time he put his hands to them, he would be alone with her, and she would be conscious. He swept his tongue around his mouth again, hoping that her taste would still be there somewhere.
He saw Pam watching them with interest. "You should get Chow," he said. "We need more than three for this."
The four of them took turns holding her and drawing her blood. When Dr. Ludwig returned to do the transfusion, she must have been amused at the idea of being in a room with a dying woman and four very turned-on, frustrated vampires.
Pam leaned towards him to whisper in his ear. "She's so…" Her thickened voice trailed off.
"Yes," he said.
After an anxious few minutes, Dr. Ludwig turned to them. "She will recover."
Bill gave a visible sigh of relief, running his hands through his messy hair. "Thank you."
"Stay with her," Eric told Pam. "I will go with Bill and Chow out to the bar. She can wear one of my shirts when she wakes up."
"Why me?" Pam asked.
"She'll feel more comfortable, I think, with a woman instead of a man."
Pam smirked. "Not her boyfriend?"
"He needs to calm down," Eric said sensibly.
"You're the boss."
Hours later, Pam came out to let them know that Sookie was awake and showered, waiting in the office. Bill jumped up that second to go to her, and Pam took his place.
"How does she look?" Eric asked her.
"Oh, she's fine. Rather miffed that we all saw her breasts, but otherwise undamaged."
Eric laughed. "Good. Go ahead and lock the place up. Pay Dr. Ludwig whatever she requires." Pam left, and he called over his shoulder, "Chow! Come with me."
The new bartender followed him to the office, where they found Bill brushing out Sookie's wet hair. Eric almost bit his tongue. Sookie was sitting in his chair, wearing his shirt, not wearing a bra, not wearing pants. The heat of the shower had brought all her blood and all her scents up to the surface, and the room was filled with her. He had never wanted anyone, human or vampire, more badly.
"All locked up," Pam said, slipping into the room behind him, startling him out of his reverie. "Dr. Ludwig left, too."
Sookie looked embarrassed, but she met their eyes in turn. "Thank you all for saving my life."
"It was truly my pleasure," said Chow smugly. "It would have been perfect without the poison."
"It was worth ingesting the poison." Eric grinned at her and kissed his fingertips.
"Any time, Sookie," Pam added.
Sookie leaned her head back against Bill and thanked him as well. Though Bill was plainly uncomfortable with the fact that three other vampires had tasted his girlfriend that evening, he replied, "It was my privilege."
Enough sentimental claptrap. "You two had a fight before Sookie's encounter with the maenad? Is that what I heard Sookie say?"
Sookie glared at him. "That's our business." Ah, touchy. Eric turned and smiled slightly at Pam. All was not well with Bill and his human. "By the way," she continued, "why did you want us to come over here tonight, anyway?"
Stan Davis and his missing nestmate were at the very back of his mind at this point, but he drew them back up to the fore. "You remember your promise to me, Sookie?" he asked gently. He was sincere in his desire not to upset her again; she had been through enough tonight, and he wanted her to be in a good mood when he told her about her assignment. "That you would use your mental ability to help me out, as long as I let the humans involved live?"
"Of course I remember," she said, and she sounded defensive.
"Since Bill has been appointed investigator of Area 5, we have not had a lot of mysteries. But Area 6, in Texas, has need of your special asset. So we have loaned you out."
She seemed to be processing this, but she didn't take her eyes off his. At last she said, "I won't go without Bill."
He grinned at her, realizing that his fangs were still extended. Well, no harm in her knowing that he wanted her. "He'll be there. We drove a hard bargain. We were afraid they might keep you or kill you, so an escort was part of our deal all along. And who better than Bill?" Me! "If anything should render Bill incapable of guarding you, we will send another escort right out. And the vampires of Dallas have agreed to providing a car and chauffeur, lodgings and meals, and of course, a nice fee. Bill will get a percentage of that. You must work out your financial arrangement with Bill. I am sure he will at least recompense you for your time away from your bar job."
The end of his little speech was meant to annoy Bill, naturally, and by the look on the younger vampire's face, it seemed to have worked.
But Sookie had already shifted to another subject. "Why a maenad?" she asked. "Naiads are water and dryads are trees, right? So why a maenad, out there in the woods? Weren't maenads just women driven mad by the god Bacchus?"
He stared at her, this little barmaid with her knowledge of classical mythology – not to mention her ability to take it in stride when a vampire painted her boyfriend as her pimp. "Sookie," he said slowly, "you have unexpected depths." He didn't know what else to say. In fact, he didn't really remember the question.
Chow was the one who answered her, explaining just why a maenad would have issues with a proud bar owner.
"We had only heard rumors one was in the area, until Bill brought you in," Eric added.
"So what was she warning you of?" Sookie asked. "What does she want?"
"Tribute, we think," said Pam.
"What kind?" None of them answered. "Or what?" Again the room was silent. Sookie was getting impatient. "What's she gonna do if you don't pay her tribute?"
"Send her madness," said Bill darkly.
"Into the bar? Merlotte's?"
Eric looked at Chow and Pam, giving them silent permission to be more open with her, and Chow answered, "Or into one of us. It has happened. The Halloween massacre of 1876, in St. Petersburg."
Eric shuddered. "I was there. It took twenty of us to clean up. And we had to stake Gregory. It took all of us to do that. The maenad, Phryne, received tribute after that, you can be sure."
Sookie was staring up at him with wide eyes. For himself, he was surprised that he had been so forthcoming about such an unpleasant piece of his past. But there was plenty more where that came from.
"So you'll give a tribute to this maenad?" Sookie asked.
"Yes, it is better if we do," he replied.
Bill looked uneasy. "I guess maenads are pretty hard to kill."
He thought of Phryne and the bloody ruin she left behind her. She was probably still alive today, though the gods only knew where. "Oh, yes." He looked at Sookie, who finally looked as afraid as she should be. "Oh, yes." Watching the movement of her throat as she swallowed, he said in a lighter voice, "Dallas. Will you go?"
She nodded but said nothing.
"When?" Bill asked.
"Soon. I will contact you."
They left soon after, and Eric settled into his chair, which was still warm from Sookie's body. He himself had some preparations to make, since he was going to Dallas as well.