Fortunately, Eric had a few changes of clothes at Sookie's house, so he threw away his ruined shirt and jeans and dressed in fresh ones. The clothes he kept at Sookie's always smelled of her fabric softener and her house. It was a shame he couldn't keep all of them here, he thought. Ten minutes later, the two of them were in her car, headed to Victor's tacky bar.
"Eric?" Sookie said, turning from the road briefly to look at him.
"Yes, my lover?"
"I'm sorry for hurting you last night." She reached for his hand and laced her fingers into his. "I'm not sorry for breaking the bond because it was something I needed to do. But I'm sorry for not telling you first. That was… high-handed of me."
He tightened his fingers in hers. "You did what you thought you had to do. I have done the same, as you often point out."
"That's what makes me feel bad," she said. "I can't fuss at you for being high-handed and then go and do the very same thing myself."
He smiled. "From now on, we will be even-handed," he said. The English expression meant something slightly different, but she would understand. "As sheriff, I neither need nor expect your permission to take certain actions, but I will tell you of my plans if they concern you. Though I may not choose to act on it, I will always take your opinion into account. I expect the same from you."
He wouldn't have been surprised if she protested this pragmatic and slightly unromantic way of putting things, but he heard the conviction in her voice when she replied, "That's all I've ever wanted. From anyone."
He wondered if she was thinking of Bill, who had treated her like a child requiring protection and guidance, who never seemed to understand that a birdcage is more for the master than for the rare bird inside.
"What are you thinking?" he asked Sookie after a few minutes of comfortable silence.
"Just curious about something. Why do you call me 'my lover' instead of 'my love'?"
Eric paused for a moment as he considered how to word his answer, then said, "I have many loves, from certain activities to certain objects. But I have only one lover."
"You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but how long have I been your only lover?"
"Since Dallas."
She sat up straighter in her seat. "But we… since Dallas?"
"Not because we had any kind of understanding or because I felt some obligation to you. I didn't want anyone else, frankly."
"Huh." Once again, she slid one hand from the steering wheel to clasp his. "You said back at the house that I astonish you sometimes," she said. "Well, sometimes you astonish me, too."
She exited the interstate and pulled off the frontage road into the parking lot of Vampire's Kiss. Instead of circling for a space as Eric had done on their first visit, Sookie parked in the half-empty employee lot behind the bar. Since it was so hot outside, even at night, she kept the car idling as they waited. While Sookie texted someone, Eric relaxed into his seat and listened to the faded, thumping bass beats from inside the bar.
"Did you replace Bobby yet?" Sookie asked him after a little while.
"Yes, I hired a man two days ago," he told her. "He came highly recommended."
"By whom?"
He hesitated before answering her, since Bubba's good word usually didn't count for much in the minds of thinking people. Especially when that good word was in support of a Were. Pam had looked at him as if he were as crazy as the former King of Rock and Roll. But he hadn't yet developed a taste for sequined jumpsuits and cats.
"By Bubba," he admitted.
"He's back!" Sookie exclaimed. "Where's he staying?"
"Right now, he's staying with me." Eric had given Bubba strict instructions not to hunt the cats in his quiet, affluent, suburban neighborhood. "When he asked about Bobby, I had to tell him what had happened. The next night, Bubba brought me this person. He's teachable, I suppose."
In spite of what Pam and other vampires might think, Eric had a reasonable amount of trust for Bubba's opinion. Damaged as he was, Bubba's pigheaded loyalty and devotion were qualities not to be underestimated. Loyalty was something Eric respected. And he would take a recommendation from Bubba over a recommendation from many a cleverer vampire.
"You don't sound too enthusiastic," Sookie observed.
"He's a Were."
Sookie's mouth opened in a silent "Ohhhh," then she said, "Tell me about him – your assistant, that is."
"He's a black man. He's a lone wolf, unaffiliated." Sookie may not know this, but many werewolves in the South, both black and white, were vehement racists. Perhaps it was the animal in them, but Weres and shifters had a strong sense of "my kind" and "their kind." There were many exceptions, of course, but the tendency was still prevalent. "Alcide has already made overtures to him about joining the Long Tooth pack, but I don't think he's interested." Eric shrugged. "And of course, now that he's taken a job with me, they won't be so anxious to have him."
"And this is the guy you hired?" Sookie asked, looking incredulous. The artificial light from the bar signs glowed in her hair. "A Were, whom you don't trust and have to train? A guy who'll automatically piss off Alcide and the Long Tooth pack?"
"He has an outstanding attribute," Eric replied. He decided not to antagonize her by pointing out that her last statement was something he considered more of a positive than a negative.
"Good!" she said dryly. "What is it?"
"He can keep his mouth shut, and he hates Victor." Well, those were two outstanding attributes.
"Why? I'm assuming he has a good reason."
In Eric's mind, any reason for hating Victor was a good reason, but he admitted to Sookie that he didn't know Mustapha's story yet.
"But you're convinced he's not pulling some elaborate double whammy – that Victor didn't cleverly realize you'd hire someone who hated him, so he primed this guy and shot him over to you?"
Eric was briefly torn between pride in Sookie's acuity and regret that she had been forced to become so cynical. Yes, he'd had his initial suspicions about Mustapha, but those had quickly been laid to rest. It couldn't hurt to have Sookie examine him, though.
"I'm convinced," he assured her, "but I want you to sit with him a while tomorrow."
"If I can get some sleep," she said around a yawn. For several minutes, they watched in silence as a few employees headed out to their cars. Some lights went off inside. At length, Sookie tugged on his sleeve. "Oh, Eric, there he is!" They followed Colton at a safe distance as he pulled onto the frontage road and merged onto I-20 West. When they exited behind him only a few miles later, Sookie made a frustrated "ugh" sound. "We're looking pretty damn conspicuous," she said.
There wasn't any help for that. "We need to talk to him," Eric replied.
"So we're giving up on stealth, huh?" she asked as she flicked off her turn signal.
"Yes," he said shortly.
They turned onto a road called, appropriately enough, Trails End, which was lined with reasonably well-kept mobile homes. Colton parked in front of one of the trailers on the left and got out in a flash. Yes, they had definitely given up on stealth.
Sookie parked beside him and unbuckled her seatbelt. "Let me get out first," she told Eric. She opened her door slowly and set one foot on the loose gravel drive. "Colton, it's Sookie Stackhouse," she said loudly. "You know who I am! I'm standing up now, and I'm not armed."
"Go slow." Colton moved warily around the front of his vehicle.
"Just so you know, Eric Northman is with me, but he's still in the car," Sookie said. Leaving her door open, Sookie raised her arms in the humans' "put your hands where I can see 'em!" posture and stepped forward a little.
"Good," Colton replied.
A woman in a see-through red negligee appeared at the trailer door. "Colton, what's going on?"
"We got some company," Colton told her. "Don't worry about it."
"Who's she?" the woman asked, who clearly intended to worry about it as much as she pleased.
"The Stackhouse woman," he said over his shoulder.
So they had discussed Sookie. Interesting.
The woman squinted into the poor light cast by the low-watt bulb installed just over the door. "Sookie?" she said.
Sookie lowered her arms. "Yeah? Do I know you? I can't see you that well."
"It's Audrina Loomis," the woman said, smiling. Eric had to admire her complete lack of shame about her body. Whereas most human women might cross their arms over their chest or reach for a robe, she seemed to have entirely forgotten that she was wearing next to nothing. "You remember? I went out with your brother for a while in high school."
"It's… been a while," Sookie said carefully, and Eric smirked. She obviously had no memory of this person.
"He still single?" Audrina asked. Eric noticed that Colton shot her a "Really?" look.
"Yeah. Oh, by the way, can my boyfriend get out now?"
Boyfriend. Eric gritted his teeth.
"Who's he?" Audrina was trying to peer into the car.
"His name's Eric," Sookie said. "He's a vampire."
Audrina's eyebrows flew up. If she hadn't seen Sookie since their school days, she might well be surprised that Sookie was dating a vampire. "Cool. Sure, let's have a look," she said. Eric fought a smile at her obvious appreciation of his physical form when he unfolded himself from Sookie's small car. "Well… okay... You two want to come in and let us know what you're doing here?"
Colton joined Audrina in front of the door and eyed Sookie and Eric suspiciously. "You think that's smart?" he asked her.
"He could've killed us about six times already," Audrina shrugged.
Eric liked her. In addition to her lack of prudish modesty, she was smart and pragmatic – her youthful dalliance with Sookie's brother notwithstanding.
Audrina motioned to them, and Eric followed Sookie inside. She invited them to sit on the old and worn sofa in the living room while Colton watched the proceedings with a wary eye. After it had been established that refreshments were not forthcoming, Sookie immediately launched into the reason for their visit.
"Eric and I want to know why you warned us," she began, looking up at Colton, who was leaning against a doorframe with his arms crossed.
"I heard about you. Heidi told me," he said.
Heidi the spy? Eric raised an eyebrow. "You and Heidi are friends?" he asked. He glanced briefly at Audrina and smiled, never one to waste the advantage of physical attraction. Her cheeks flamed red.
Colton, oblivious to all this, replied, "Yeah, I worked for Felipe at a club in Reno. I knew Heidi from there."
"You moved from Reno to take a low-paying job in Louisiana?" Sookie asked, raising a skeptical brow.
Unfortunately, Colton answered with a string of personal information about which Eric didn't give a fuck. "But you're right, there's more to the story," he concluded.
The "more to the story" was obviously the part Eric wanted to know, but he bit back his impatience and followed Colton's gaze to Audrina.
"We came for a reason. Colton is Chico's brother," she explained. She gave Eric a pointed look that said she knew Heidi had told him the story.
"So it was your mom," Sookie said slowly. "I'm so sorry."
"Yeah, it was my mom," Colton said, launching into another exposition of personal information that tried Eric's waning patience.
"And how come Victor doesn't know who you are… know to be leery of you?" Sookie asked.
"Chico had a different dad, so he had a different last name," Audrina explained. "And Chico wasn't a family type guy. He hadn't lived at home for ten years. He only called his mom once every couple of months. Never went to see them. But that was enough to give Victor the bright idea of reminding Chico he hadn't signed a contract with the California Angels." She sighed and turned to Colton.
"More like Hell's Angels," he mumbled.
No, the Hell's Angels are mostly Weres, Eric thought. "So thanks to Victor's employee, you knew about my Sookie, and you knew how to warn her when Victor was going to poison us," he said. Tiring as Colton was, he had done them that service.
Instead of replying, Colton only scowled at Eric.
"Yes, you did what you ought to do. We're people, too," Sookie told him, and Eric understood that she had read Colton's mind. Not that his face left anything to the imagination.
"You are," Eric nodded at Sookie, "but Pam and I aren't. Colton, I want to thank you for your warning, and I want to reward you. What can I do for you?" Judging by the trailer and the ragged sofa, Colton would be wanting money.
But Colton surprised him by saying without hesitation, "You can kill Victor."
"How interesting," Eric said, his fangs scraping his bottom lip as he smiled darkly. "That's exactly what I want to do." Sookie made a frustrated sound, and he turned to her with narrowed eyes. "You're bored, my lover?"
"We've been saying that for months," she said. "All we've done is talk smack. If we're going to do something bad, let's go on and do it, not talk it to death! You think he doesn't know he's on our hit list? You think he's not waiting for us to try? You think he's not doing all this shit to you and Pam to provoke you into something so he'll be justified in smacking you down? This is a win-win situation for him!"
He had never heard Sookie talk this way. She had beaten herself up over killing the Pelt woman in self-defense, and now she was impatient because they hadn't assassinated the regent of Louisiana in a timely manner. She had said once before that they needed to kill Victor, and that in itself had surprised him, but he had never imagined that she herself wanted any part in it. Well, the time had now come and gone to "talk smack." If Sookie was on his side in this, there was nothing left to do but act – and act decisively.
"So what's your solution?" he asked her. "Do you have a plan?"
"Let's meet with Pam tomorrow night. She should be in on this."
He smiled at her briefly. However shocking it was to see her this way, he welcomed it and relished it. "All right," he agreed. "Colton, Audrina, are you both sure you want to risk this?"
They were.
"How do we know you won't be on the phone the minute we're out of the trailer?" Sookie pointed out.
"How do I know you won't do the same?" Audrina shot back. She was right, of course. "Colton done you a good turn in letting you know about the fairy blood," she went on. "He believed what Heidi said about you. And I guess you want to live through this as bad as we do."
While Audrina said this, Sookie had fished a pen and a scrap of paper from her purse. "Survival is my middle name," she said, and Eric watched as she scribbled the directions to her house. "See you tomorrow night at my house," she told them, handing the paper to Audrina.
"We'll be there," Colton said.
Both Colton and Audrina saw them out, and Eric caught Audrina giving him a last once-over before she closed the door. He smirked.
"Will you drive?" Sookie asked, tossing him her keys. "I'm likely to fall asleep at the wheel."
He pushed the driver's seat back far enough to accommodate his long legs, started the engine, and waited for Sookie to buckle her belt. As soon as he began to back out, the bulb over the trailer door went off.
"I will take you to my house," he told her. "It's closer."
"Okay."
Sookie loosened her seatbelt slightly and leaned closer to him to rest her head on his shoulder. She was asleep in minutes. When they reached his house, he put a hand on her leg to jostle her.
"We're home, dear one," he said, nuzzling her hair with his nose. She made a little noise that was half protest at being awakened, half happy sigh. He slipped out of the car and flashed around to her side to open the door and lift her out. Once he had carried her to the doorway of the bedroom that would one day be theirs, he set her down, though he continued to hold her body tightly to his. "Just how sleepy are you?" he whispered.
"Very. And sore, too."
"I could heal you with my hand. You wouldn't have to drink from me." He slid one hand down the slim line of her waist and over the curve of her hip. "It would be my pleasure. And yours."
She tilted her head back to smile up at him. "I'm sure. But I'm still sleepy. I'd be like a zombie. Have you developed a sudden interest in necrophilia?"
He grinned broadly, then laughed outright. "No, I like you alive…" He scraped his fangs against the pulse in her neck. "And warm…" He caressed the line of her throat with the back of his index finger. "And wiggling." There was a little spot just below and behind her ear that always made her gasp, and thus always begged to be kissed. He kissed it, and sure enough, he heard her breath catch. "I think I could wake you up enough," he smiled into her skin.
"Mmmmrrrm," she yawned.
He laughed again. "I'm going to find Pam and bring her up to date. I should ask about her friend Miriam, too." He stroked her hair back. "In the morning, Sookie, go home when you get up. I'll leave a note for Mustapha about the car." There was no telling how Mustapha would react if he found an unfamiliar car in Eric's garage. The man had a short temper, even for a Were.
"Who?" she asked, blinking.
That's right. He hadn't actually told her Mustapha's name. "My new daytime man's name is Mustapha Khan."
She seemed to find that name amusing for some reason. "Seriously?"
"Plenty of attitude," he nodded. "Be advised."
"Okay." She peeled her body from his and looked over her shoulder. "I think I'll stay in the upstairs bedroom since I have to get up," she said.
After accompanying her upstairs and leaving her safely in her bedroom, he went down to his office and called Pam. Then he called Bubba, who needed to know that Sookie was also at the house tonight.
Pam arrived a half hour later. She had already changed out of whatever black leather get-up she'd been wearing at the bar, though her hair was still pulled back into a tight bun.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Where's Sookie? I saw her car."
"Upstairs. Sleeping now, I assume." He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk. "We're going to kill Victor."
Her eyes gleamed as she smiled. "About fucking time."