Chapter 13
It was the following Tuesday night, which meant that Mr. C was at Crown Court, the supernatural court. He was there requesting an adjournment for the demon case we'd been working on, since we were still waiting on translations of the old lineage documents from the supe translating service. Mr. C wanted me to stay close to the office in case he needed me to run some documents across to court for him, which wasn't out of the realm of possibility even for something as simple as this. Presiding supe judges at Crown Court were prone to moodiness and often requested strange, esoteric documents for no reason other than the fact that they could. Normally Diantha did the running, but she had a date tonight. So, I was at a little bar called Sally's which was close to the office, nursing a ginger ale and my library book, while my cell phone sat face up on the table waiting for any incoming call or text.
I was soon joined by Danny, Amelia and Hannah and the evening somehow turned into an impromptu double date. I'd sent out a group text to my friends to see who wanted to join me. Sure, I could've been logging more billable hours in the office, but work was always busy, always waiting for me, and I'd been primarily working nights since the takeover. An evening off was a welcome break.
"I don't understand how you can stand to work for her!" Hannah was saying to Danny. "She's terrifying." The 'she' Hannah was referring to was the Orleans Parish district attorney, Florinda Cross, Danny's boss.
"You kidding me? The things I hear on the grapevine about working for the partners in your office?"
"It's not so bad," I said. "You just have to stay out of the way of Mr. Lucretius."
"That's easy to say when you're practically family with Mr. C," Hannah groused.
"Not true, and you know it. You're just bitter after your run in with Lucretius the other week."
Hannah shot me a look telling me to zip-it. She was still sour after having to shred those bespelled documents the other week. She had smelled of sulfur the whole week. The little pot plant she kept on her desk had even wilted.
"That's it," Amelia said, slapping her open palm on the table. "Enough shop talk! I've been patient but you three have been speaking legal-ese, dry-as-hell work patois the whole time we've been here. It is bor-ing ," she said.
"Okay then. What would you like to talk about?" asked Danny. I laughed. Oh, he was sharp, this one.
"Look what I got today," she said without skipping a beat and retrieved from her bag a white envelope edged with a gold filigree design. She placed into the middle of the table. "A courier in a suit delivered it today to my office."
Hannah oohed and picked it up, examining it under the muted glow cast by the pedant light over our table. "It's fancy. What is it?" she asked.
I knew exactly what it was. I'd received one myself.
"I've been invited to Queen Thalia's coronation at the beginning of next month," Amelia couldn't keep the pride from her voice. "And you're going to be my plus one."
Hannah squealed and threw her arms around Amelia. While they kissed, I looked to Danny with a smile that wanted nothing more than to slide right off my face.
"I got one too. Want to be my date?" I shrugged and focused on swirling the ice in my cup with the straw. "It's okay if you say no, it'll be pretty boring."
"Boring?" he said. His arm, which had been slung around the back of my seat, slid down and squeezed my shoulders. "I somehow doubt that."
I smiled more, one of those big fake ones I couldn't seem to control. I liked Danny. But I liked having my personal life and professional life compartmentalized. In two very separate and distinct compartments. I hadn't planned on bringing anyone as a plus-one. In fact, I had planned to show my face with Mr. C and spend some time hobnobbing with Thalia, so our association was public knowledge with all the vampires of note—and then skedaddle back home for an early night.
"I heard that they're closing down the French quarter for a big party in celebration," Danny continued.
"It's going to be amazing," Amelia gushed. "I've been at the palace this last week setting up with security and got chatting with the event planner. They've organized a city-wide event that'll compete with Mardi Gras. It's gonna be big. That's on top of the big coronation gala at the palace. Two different bands are booked for the gala, it's fully catered, open bar, Circe de Soleil performers will be walking through the crowd, as well as performing aerial silk work. Oh, Sookie, don't look so sour. It'll be wild."
"We don't have to go, if you don't wanna." Danny leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. "But I do look pretty damn hot in a tux."
I laughed softly, despite my discomfort, and kicked him lightly under the table. I didn't doubt it. "Okay, okay, let's go."
Amelia and Hannah took off together a little while later, arm in arm, lost inside their own little love bubble discussing what exactly they were gonna wear. I was happy for Amelia, I just hoped that she had ended things with the last guy. Before they'd left, however, Amelia told me, in as vague and cryptic terms as possible, she'd phone me in the morning with some news about Dallas. She didn't seem too concerned, which set my mind at ease. If I hadn't been wearing my necklace, I might've been inclined to pry.
Danny and I left as soon as I got the a-okay from Mr. C via text. The next hearing in the Yanis case was successfully adjourned. Another relief. We walked hand-in-hand down to Canal Street. I had a soft spot for Canal Street. The streets were wide and lined with palm trees, and the constant clacking of the street cars and rumble of traffic and sounds of street performers added a distinctly metropolitan flavor that was as unique to the city as its creole flavors and jazz beats. The atmosphere was heavy with possibility and pleasure-seeking, making it impossible not be swept along with it on the humid breeze.
It was nine pm on a Thursday night and plenty of folks were about, late night shopping, frequenting the bars and restaurants, milling around in loud boisterous groups. Mostly tourists, Danny told me. Not that I could tell. I thrilled at the fact I didn't have to compete with their collective thoughts for space in my own mind. Amelia's little charmed necklace was a life saver.
Danny pulled me into a little Italian ice-creamery called Mi Amor and we ordered gelato in giant waffle cones.
"I live not far from here," Danny said, nodding in the direction past my right shoulder.
"Oh, you don't say?" It was hot tonight. I had to make fast work of my ice-cream to stop it dripping down my wrist.
"Did you want to...?" He let the question hang in the air between us. My attention snapped up from my ice cream when I picked up exactly what he was putting down.
I spoke carefully. "Did you want me to?"
He pulled me in for a cold, chocolate gelato kiss that definitively answered that question for me.
I couldn't tell you what his apartment looked like. We passed through the entry way, lights off, entwined and kissing. I had the vague notion that Danny shared his apartment with a roommate, but the thought was cast aside and replaced with his touch and presence against me. We fumbled into his bedroom, and I pulled him down onto the bed on top of me.
"Wait," he said, pulling away with a soft gasp. "Let me turn the lamp on."
"Don't bother," I said. Pale and thin ambient streetlight entered the room from between his partially closed curtains. I stroked my finger down the side of his cheek. His five o'clock shadow was a rough prickly bristle against my skin. I could only just make out him smiling down at me, and my stomach flip-flopped. Those same nerves continued to prickle through me, head to toe as we made out. My first time with a human.
Things moved quickly from there. It wasn't the rough and raw lovemaking I'd experienced with Sam, or the experienced and confident style I'd been used to with Eric. This was… very human. Whispered words, half-dressed, fumbling grasps, soft laughs; we knocked teeth while kissing at one point, and then there was the awkwardness of waiting for him to put on a condom. It was new and unexpected but so corporeal-it felt very real, wonderfully so. We met together in the dark, and I ghosted on the edge of pleasure, no quite able to relax within myself enough to reach a climax. We lay on our backs panting afterward. Danny finally switched on his bedside lamp and I pulled the covers up over my chest.
"I didn't pick you to be the modest type," he said and brushed a lock of hair from where it had pasted itself to my forehead.
"Oh, I'm a good Southern girl." I spoke lightly, but my mouth ran dry when his hand trailed lower and traced the gunshot scar on my arm.
"What is that?" He knew what it was. It was pretty darn obvious. The scar was round and pock-marked, the flesh a shiny, pearl-pink.
"It's nothing…"
"Really." It wasn't a question. His tone was light but held a quality of you-can't-fool-me.
"I was shot."
"Who shot you?"
"It's a long story."
His brows pinched together in worry or disapproval, I couldn't tell which. I thumbed the hummingbird pendant at my neck. Danny placed a kiss to my shoulder and gently slid the sheet down, revealing my naked torso. I waited, blaze-faced, as he examined the stake scar on my abdomen, and the strange mottled scar tissue on my right breast from where Thing 1 and 2 had gnawed on me once upon a time. He was gentle, his lips caressing me but I felt on display. My life, my history, my past mistakes.
"Was this all by the same person?" he asked.
"Well, no–"
"Your ex? The one I met the other night? Was he responsible for the scars on your legs too? Your back?"
"No!" I sat up and pulled the sheet back over me. Any romantic mood was effectively squashed.
Part of me was tempted to just take my damned necklace off and see what he really thought. See if his internal monologue matched his expression. I saw faint horror and concern there and, worse, a widening gulf between us. One that told me he would never understand me or my life or the experiences I'd been through. I mean, for goodness' sake, there were more scars, worse scars, that I harbored on the inside. I wasn't sure I could ever share those with him if this was his reaction to the few he saw on my body.
"It's not what you think," I said.
He was silent. Waiting for me to fill the space with further explanation. My lips twitched with the need to explain and babble and fill the ghastly silence. That was human nature. And his silence was intentional. It was an investigative trick. A trick employed by police… and by lawyers. My mouth turned down.
"Look, I think I better go."
He protested as I got dressed. I had to fish my clothes from where they were strewn on the bed and pull them on under the covers.
"You don't have to go, Sookie."
I knew I didn't. But for once it was my own thoughts that were crowding out the space in my head. He kissed me at his front door and took a moment to run his fingers through my bed hair, neatening it. My heart softened.
"I've been through a lot," I said. I pressed a light kiss to his full lips. "But my life has been largely very good to me."
Don't judge me. Don't judge me. Don't judge me, I silently chanted.
He didn't speak, though he held my gaze for a long moment. "I believe you. I didn't mean to pry," he said.
"Yeah…" My gaze slid away. But he had.
"And I'm still your plus one?"
"Of course!"
He hugged me, wrapping me tightly in his arms. He was still nude, and I was fully clothed which made for an awkward embrace.
"I'll see you before then," he said and it sounded more like a promise, or a vow, than a statement. It was raining lightly, but still I chose to walk home. It took me over half an hour but I had time to clear my head. What was wrong with me? Danny was lovely. A legitimate catch. I fished my phone from my purse to text him and apologize. A notification for five missed calls flashed on the screen and I groaned. All were from Eric. I tossed my cell phone back in my purse. He was the last person I wanted to talk to.
We'd made no progress in the last week on the murder investigation and Ryker had returned to Washington for Lydia's funeral. The FBI evidently had no intentions of keeping Eric or me in the loop while the President Alpha was out of town. Clearly their efforts to include us had only been a token gesture to appease the President Alpha.
I let myself in at home, dumping my shoes and purse by the front door and took the stairs two at a time up to my bedroom. Diantha still wasn't home from her date, so I was looking forward to showering and watching some late-night garbage on television by myself, maybe help myself to the pint of Ben and Jerry's we kept in the back of the freezer for a rainy day.
I screamed when I flicked on my bedroom light.
Eric lay sprawled on my bed, hands tucked behind his head. I threw my wet cardigan at his face.
"What are you doing here!"
"How did you not sense me?" He seemed genuinely puzzled, his flicked the offending garment onto the floor.
I huffed and strode over to my drawers, taking off my small gold hoop earrings and hummingbird necklace, placing them inside my jewelry box.
"I'm tired and I wasn't expecting a vampire on my bed."
"You weren't answering your phone."
"So? I was busy."
"I needed to talk to you."
"So you thought you'd wait in my bed?" I shook my head at him, tamping the urge to really cuss him out. "How did you even get in my room?"
He pointed to the open window that led onto the small French balcony. "That's impossible! The whole place is warded."
He shrugged. "Evidently not against me."
I growled in frustration and grabbed him by the arm tugging him off my bed. "You can wait downstairs, while I shower and change, thank you."
He passed by me and paused just long enough to inhale deeply.
"You were busy, you say?" His brows lifted, his smile that of a mischievous school boy.
"Get out, get out!" I pushed him through the doorway. I was tempted to drag him by his earlobe, honestly.
I showered, got into a light cotton pajama set and wrapped myself in my new birthday robe from Diantha. An upgrade from my old ratty one that had once served me very well. Eric, absorbed in his phone on the couch, didn't acknowledge my return once I was back downstairs, so I poured myself a glass of dessert wine. I considered it a step up from Ben and Jerry's.
"What did you need to tell me?" I said, sitting down crisscross applesauce in the armchair.
"We're going to Dallas."
You could've dropped a pin all the way over in Russia and I would've heard it.
"Come again?"
"Not unless you're offering. I already have tonight, twice in fact." He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
I pulled a face. "What's this about Dallas?"
He ran a hand through his hair, which was out and loose, and sat up a little straighter on the couch. "Amelia hasn't filled you in?"
"No, we haven't had the chance to talk in private. She said she'd call me tomorrow morning."
"The witch in Dallas didn't murder her mate, though there's credible witnesses to suggest otherwise. Ryker is meeting us there."
"How do the witches know she didn't kill him?"
"The witch, Veronica Williams, was involved in a minor motor vehicle accident; the police attended the scene and she was having her statement taken. While that was happening, the murder occurred on the other side of the city."
"Okay, that's creepy. How can credible witnesses say they saw her murder a person while at the same time she was on the other side of town?"
"And that's why we're going to Dallas."
"We're ? As in you and I?"
"Yep." He smirked and picked up the TV remote. You've got to be kidding me. I took a big gulp of wine.
"Amelia will accompany us; she has been officially contracted through the Queen's office. Ryker will fly in directly to assist," he added.
"What about the FBI?"
"They're pursuing… other leads."
"You mean they don't know about it," I said flatly.
"Essentially."
"They're useless, anyhow," I said. "And I don't want them sniffing around me. I don't trust that Weiss as far I could throw her." From out in the kitchen, I heard my cell phone ring. I got up to check it. It was Danny. I stared at his name on the screen, unsure what to do. I answered after a pause.
"Hey," he said. "I just wanted to check you're okay. Things felt weird."
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I'm sorry, I made things weird."
"I'm sorry if I made you feeling uncomfortable," he went on, "or if I rushed you into things. I didn't plan for you to end up back my place tonight, honest. I really like you, I do, I get you have a past so you don't–"
"This isn't really a good time to talk," I said, cutting him off. I looked over my shoulder to Eric who'd turned on the TV and was poking around in DVD cabinet. "You didn't make me uncomfortable. I had a good time, really. Can we talk more tomorrow? I'm about to go to bed."
"I'm putting on the second episode!" Eric called loudly.
"Who's that?" Danny asked.
"No one. Diantha has a friend visiting." I gave Eric one of my 'if-looks-could-stake-a-vampire' stares.
"Do you think that's funny?" I snapped once I got off the phone with Danny. "And I am going to bed. It's time for you to leave."
"No, you're not. You're still finishing your wine." He gestured to where my glass sat on the coffee table. I considered tossing the rest of it in his face. One way to finish it... but then I'd have to clean the area rug.
"Fine." I sat back down with a huff. "I'm drinking my wine and then you're going."
"We haven't finished discussing Dallas. Here's your itinerary." He withdrew a piece of folded paper from the pocket inside his leather jacket and handed it to me. "The travel costs and per diem is covered by the President Alpha's office." He sat back on the couch while I examined it.
The three of us were to fly on the coming weekend. American Airlines. "Not Anubis?"
"We're scheduled to depart at first dark. It's only a 90-minute flight. I don't foresee there being any problems." I bet it saved several thousand in flight costs too. Anubis Airlines charged a premium to cater specifically to vampire clientele.
"We're staying three nights?" I said with some degree of shock. "Was this cleared with Mr. Cataliades?"
"Yes, he said he can spare you for that length of time." Of course, he would say that. Mr C could be a little clueless when it came to the extent of my workload. And of course Eric would check with my boss and not consult me. I grumbled under my breath and picked up my glass. Sure, Mr. C could spare me, but my in-tray would be that much higher once I returned to work.
Eric had cued up the second episode of the X-Files and just as he pressed play, he asked innocently, "Trouble in paradise with your human?"
"Mind your own business."
"Oh, I do, Sookie, I do."
We watched two episodes. I admit the show had hooked me. Eric even topped up my glass of wine part-way through. Despite how interesting it was (a serial killer who could manipulate his body to squeeze through impossibly small spaces!), I was starting falling asleep upright.
"Sure you don't want me to check the air vents?" Eric asked as I ushered him out the door. He was kidding around of course, but I did feel spooked. While I enjoyed horror, I wasn't in the habit of watching it often. Particularly when the topic was murder that escaped the bounds of reality. A little too close to home.
"I'm fine, really."
"You don't need to tell me," he quipped. I rolled my eyes.
"Can I ask a question?"
"You just did."
I ignored this.
"How's Sigrid?" I said. "Has she faced any legal trouble after Freyda's death?"
His brows lifted as if surprised by the question.
"She will sit trial at the next summit, which is some months away. She has good legal representation, so I expect it won't be too troublesome. And if she meets the true death, Christof will continue his rule as King." He said it so blandly, when really it was quite terrifying. The vampire ruling class really lived a very different kind of life.
"What about you? Will be you culpable?"
"I'm not, so I won't."
I narrowed my eyes at him. He said it so coolly. Too coolly. He had to be lying.
"Accessory to murder is a felony in supe law," I said. "Even for vampires." When he'd visited me that last time in Bon Temps, he'd been worried about legal repercussions of what was coming. He'd definitely had a hand in whatever went down.
"Please, I've been around a thousand years. I can evade a murder charge."
"How am I to believe that when you couldn't even evade a marriage contract?"
Eric was taken aback for all of half-a-second and then guffawed so loudly I was afraid one of the neighbors might emerge to see what the ruckus was about.
"Thanks for arranging the check from Felipe," I said. I hadn't forgotten what Thalia had told me. I was grateful that he made it happen before Thalia went all French-revolution on Felipe's royal neck.
"Couldn't have you chewing me out again."
"Any more than I do already."
"Exactly. Now, how exactly do you intend to show me your thanks?"
"Alright, Eric, time for you to get lost," I said. I gently shuffled him onto my front stoop. "I'll see you tomorrow night."
Then, before he could say anything further, I shut the front door. It occurred to me that the only time I ever felt like I could speak openly with Eric was when there was a door readily available for me to close between us.
It also occurred to me that it was probably better that way.