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7

SAM WAS IN the bar that night, seated at a corner table like a visiting king, his leg propped up on another chair cushioned with pillows He was keeping one eye on Charles, one eye on the clientele&039;s reaction to a vampire bartender

People would stop by, drop down in the chair across from him, visit for a few minutes, and then vacate the chair I knew Sam was in pain I can always read the preoccupation of people who are hurting But he was glad to be seeing other people, glad to be back in the bar, pleased with Charles&039;s work

All this I could tell, and yet when it came to the question of who had shot hi for the two-natured, someone who&039;d killed quite a few and wounded eventhe identity of the shooter was imperative The police didn&039;t suspect Jason, but his own people did If Calvin Norris&039;s people decided to take matters into their own hands, they could easily find a chance to take out Jason They didn&039;t know there were more victims than those in Bon Teuardedcandidates for the role of assassin so I wouldn&039;t waste ti to (for exahter

I assuuy I knew plenty of wo and plenty more with access to rifles But weren&039;t snipers always men? The police were baffled by this sniper&039;s selection of targets, because they didn&039;t know the true nature of all the victims The two-natured were ha only at local suspects

"Sookie," Sam said as I passed close to hiht by his chair so he could speak in a low voice

"Sookie, I hate to ask you again, but the closet in the storeroo supplies closet in the storerooht, but it was inaccessible to daylight, which was good enough After all, the closet had no s, and it was inside a room with no s

It took ht to another track "You can&039;t tell me he&039;s not able to sleep," I said incredulously Vampires could sleep in the daytime under any circumstances "And I&039;m sure you put a lock on the inside of the door, too"

"Yes, but he has to kind of huddle on the floor, and he says it s stuff in there"

"What I&039; is, would it be so bad for him to stay at your place?"

"Why do you really want ot to be a reasonthe day, when he&039;s dead, anyway"

"Haven&039;t we been friends a long ti and rotten

"Yes," I ad so that he would have to look up at rapevine that the Hotshot couard for Calvin&039;s hospital rooe, too" I acknowledged his unspoken concern "So I guess you heard what they suspect"

Saht mine "You have to take this seriously, Sookie"

"What makes you think I don&039;t?"

"You refused Charles"

"I don&039;t see what telling hi about Jason"

"I think he&039;d help you protect Jason, if it ca, or I&039;d I don&039;t believe it was Jason who shot me"

A knot of tension within me relaxed when Sam said that I hadn&039;t realized I&039;d been worried about what he thought, but I had

My heart softened a little "Oh, all right," I said with poor grace "He can corureed

Sam beckoned Charles over, conferred with hi Charles borrowedin the car After a few naled he&039;d returned my keys to my purse I nodded, maybe a little curtly I wasn&039;t happy, but if I had to be saddled with a houseguest, at least he was a polite houseguest

Mickey and Tara caht As before, the dark intensity of the vampire made everyone in the bar a little excited, a little louder Tara&039;s eyes followedto catch her alone, but I didn&039;t see her leave the table for any reason I found that was another cause for alarm When she&039;d come into the bar with Franklin Mott, she&039;d always taken a , chat with lih I planned to work my way over to have a ith her, I was too preoccupied with Tara&039;s situation As usual, Claudine was surrounded by adot so anxious that I took the vas and went over to Tara&039;s table The snakelike Mickey was staring at our flaaze at htened, and I stood by her and laid et a clearer picture of her head Tara has done so well for herself I seldo s" Benedict, who&039;d apparently died in a fire the previous fall Eggs had been a heavy drinker and a weak personality Franklin Mott had at least treated Tara with respect and had showered her with presents, though the nature of the presents had said, "I&039;irlfriend" But how had it come to pass that she was in Mickey&039;s company - Mickey, whose namea book only to discover that soes from thebrown eyes dull and dead: past fear, past shame

To the outer eye she looked alroo was fashionable and attractive But inside, Tara was in tor withwas eating her up from the inside out?

I wondered what to do next Tara and I were just staring at each other, and though she knehat I was seeing inside her, she wasn&039;t responding "Wake up," I said, not even knohere the words were corabbed my arm and removed my hand fro you to touch my date," Mickey said He had the coldest eyes I&039;d ever seen -our drinks"

"Tara ismy arm, and if a va so someone else hurt her"

"It&039;s none of your concern"

"It isup fro into his face, I knew he could kill me and be out of the bar before anyone there could stop hi or his livestock Before the fear could get a grip, I said, "Let go of h I knew he could hear a pin drop in a stor," he said scornfully

"Let go of me," I repeated

"Or you&039;ll do - what?"

"You can&039;t stay awake forever If it&039;s not me, it&039;ll be so I don&039;t think it was h I meant it from the tips of my toes to the roots of h he&039;d pulled a string "Sookie, don&039;tMickey is my man now Don&039;t embarrass me in front of hi my eyes off Mickey to look down at her She definitely wanted me to back off; she was co about her motivation was curiously murky

"Okay, Tara Do you need another drink?" I asked slowly I was feelinga wall of ice, slippery and nearly opaque

"No, thank you," Tara said politely "Mickey and I need to be going now"

That surprised Mickey, I could tell I felt a little better; Tara was in charge of herself, at least to some extent

"I&039;ll return your suit I took it by the cleaner&039;s, already," I said

"No hurry"

"All right I&039;ll see you later" Mickey had a firrip on h the crowd

I got the elasses off the table, swabbed it down, and turned back to the bar Charles Twining and Sa the whole sed, and they relaxed

When we closed the bar that night, the new bouncer aiting at the back door for ot my keys out of my purse

I unlockedto have me in your ho back No point in being rude

"Do you think Eric willhere?" Charles asked as we drove down the narrow parish road

"It&039;s not his say-so," I said curtly It irked me that he automatically wondered about Eric

"He doesn&039;t come to see you often?" enquired Charles with unusual persistence

I didn&039;t answer until we&039;d parked behind my house "Listen," I said, "I don&039;t knohat you heard, but he&039;s not we&039;re not like that" Charles looked atas I unlocked my back door

"Feel free to explore," I said after I&039;d invited him over the threshold Vampires like to know entrances and exits "Then I&039;ll show you your sleeping place" While the bouncer looked curiously around the hu up my coat and putCharles if he wanted soerator, and he seelad to sit down and drink after he&039;d studied the house Charles Twining was a peaceful sortof guy to be around, especially for a vampire He didn&039;t letch afterfrouest bedroom closet I told him how the television remote worked, showed him my little collection of uest bedroo else you can think of you ht, though I don&039;t think she ever iined I&039;d have to be hostess to a bunch of vampires

"No, thank you, Miss Sookie," Charles said politely His long white fingers tapped his eye patch, an odd habit of his that gave ruesoht" I was tired, and it was exhausting work er

"Of course Rest easy, Sookie If I want to roam in the woods ?"

"Feel free," I said iot it out of the drawer in the kitchen where I kept all the keys This had been the odds and ends drawer for perhaps eighty years, since the kitchen had been added onto the house There were at least a hundred keys in it Sohty strange looking I&039;d labeled the ones froht pink plastic key ring froent "Once you&039;re in for the night - well, for good - shoot the dead bolt, please"

He nodded and took the key

It was usually a mistake to feel sympathy for a va sad about Charles He struckpathetic about loneliness I&039;d experienced it myself I would ferociously deny I was pathetic, but when I viewed loneliness in so of pity

I scrubbed my face and pulled on some pink nylon pajamas I was already half-asleep as I brushed randrandreat-aunt Julia had eh I ht actually be alone in the world - with the exception of my brother, Jason - I went to sleep surrounded by my family

My deepest sleep is around three arip of a hand on my shoulder

I was shocked into total awareness, like a person being thrown into a cold pool To fight off the shock that was close to paralyzing rip

"No, no, no, ssshhh" calish accent Charles "So around outside your house, Sookie"

My breath was as wheezy as an accordion I wondered if I was going to have a heart attack I put a hand over my heart, as if I could hold it in when it seemed determined to pound its way out of ht into my ear, and then I felt him crouch beside my bed in the shadows I lay down and closed my eyes almost all the way The headboard of the bed was situated between the ts in the roo around ood look atstill and as relaxed as I could get I tried to think, but I was just too scared If the creeper was a vampire, he or she couldn&039;t come in - unless it was Eric Had I rescinded Eric&039;s invitation to enter? I couldn&039;t re I need to keep track of, I babbled to myself

"He&039;s passed on," Charles said in a voice so faint it was alhost of a voice

"What is it?" I asked in a voice I hoped was nearly as soundless

"It&039;s too dark outside to tell" If a vampire couldn&039;t see as out there, it must be really dark "I&039;ll slip outside and find out"

"No," I said urgently, but it was too late

Jesus Christ, shepherd of Judea! What if the proas Mickey? He&039;d kill Charles - I just knew it

"Sookie!" The last thing I expected - though frankly, I ay beyond consciously expecting anything - was for Charles to call to me "Come out here, if you please!"

I slid my feet into my pink fuzzy slippers and hurried down the hall to the back door; that here the voice had been coht," I yelled Didn&039;t want anyone to be blinded by the sudden electricity "You sure it&039;s safe out there?"

"Yes," said two voices almost simultaneously

I flipped the switch with my eyes shut After a second, I opened them and stepped to the door of the screened-in back porch, in my pink jah it wasn&039;t cold tonight, it was cool

I absorbed the scene in front of raveled area where I parked, and he had an elbow around the neck of Bill Coht after the Civil War We have a history It&039;s probably just a pebble of a history in Bill&039;s long life, but in mine, it&039;s a boulder