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Bill nodded.

I tried to think of something of significance to say. Something about cosmic plans. Something about throwing your bread upon the waters. What goes around, comes around?

I tried to leave again. But Bill caught my arm, pulled me to him. “Thank you, Sookie.”

That was the last thing I had expected him to say. “Why?”

“You made me do the right thing with no idea of the eventual reward.”

“Bill, I can’t make you do anything.”

“You made me think like a human, like I was still alive.”

“The good you do is in you, not in me.”

“I am a vampire, Sookie. I have been a vampire far longer than I was human. I have upset you many times. To tell the truth, sometimes I can’t understand why you do what you do sometimes, because it’s been so long since I was a person. It’s not always comfortable to remember what it was like to be a man. Sometimes I don’t want to be reminded.”

These were deep waters for me. “I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, but I don’t know how to be different,” I said. “I’d be miserable if it wasn’t for you.”

“If anything happens to me,” Bill said, “you should go to Eric.”

“You’ve said that before,” I told him. “If anything happens to you, I don’t have to go to anyone. I’m my own person. I get to make up my mind what I want to do. You’ve got to make sure nothing happens to you.”

“We’ll be having more trouble from the Fellowship in the years to come,” Bill said. “Actions will have to be taken that may be repugnant to you as a human. And there are the dangers attached to your job.” He didn’t mean waiting tables.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Sitting on Bill’s lap was a real treat, especially since he was still naked. My life had not exactly been full of treats until I met Bill. Now every day held a treat, or two.

In the low-lit kitchen, with the coffee smelling as beautiful (in its own way) as the chocolate cake did, and the rain drumming on the roof, I was having a beautiful moment with my vampire, what you might call a warm human moment.

But maybe I shouldn’t call it that, I reflected, rubbing my cheek against Bill’s. This evening, Bill had looked quite human. And I—well, I had noticed while we made love on our clean sheets, that in the darkness Bill’s skin had been glowing in its beautiful otherworldly way.

And mine had, too.

CLUB DEAD

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Club Dead

AN ACE Book / published by arrangement with the author

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2003 by The ACE Publishing Group.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability. For information address: The ACE Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is http://www.penguinputnam.com

ISBN: 0-7865-4102-4

AN ACE BOOK®

ACE Books first published byACE Publishing Group,

a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

ACE and the “A” design are trademarks belonging to

Penguin Putnam Inc.

Electronic edition: September 2003

This book is dedicated to my middle child, Timothy Schulz, who told me flatly he wanted a book all to himself.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Lisa Weissenbuehler, Kerie L. Nickel, Marie La Salle, and the incomparable Doris Ann Norris for their input on car trunks, great and small. My further thanks to Janet Davis, Irene, and Sonya Stocklin, also cybercitizens of DorothyL, for their information on bars, bourree (a card game), and the parish governments of Louisiana. Joan Coffey was most gracious with supplying information