Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Books 1-8) - Charlaine Harris [465]
As Connie the Corpse introduced the next song (“One of These Nights”), Eric examined my face. “I wish that I could read your mind as you can read the minds of others,” he said. “I wish very much that I could know what was going on in your head. I wish I knew why I cared what’s going on in that head.”
I gave him a lopsided smile. “I agree to the terms: free blood and lodging, though the lodging won’t necessarily be with me. What about the money?”
Eric smiled. “I’ll take my payment in kind. I like Sam owing me a favor.”
I called Sam with the cell phone he’d lent me. I explained.
Sam sounded resigned. “There’s a place in the bar the vamp can sleep. All right. Room and board, and a favor. When can he come?”
I relayed the question to Eric.
“Right now.” Eric beckoned to a human waitress, who was wearing the low-cut long black dress all the female human employees wore. (I’ll tell you something about vampires: They don’t like to wait tables. And they’re pretty poor at it, too. You won’t catch a vamp bussing tables, either. The vamps almost always hire humans to do the grubbier work at their establishments.) Eric told her to fetch Charles from behind the bar. She bowed, fist to her opposite shoulder, and said, “Yes, Master.”
Honestly, it just about made you sick.
Anyway, Charles leapt over the bar theatrically, and while patrons applauded, he made his way to Eric’s booth.
Bowing to me, he turned to Eric with an air of attentiveness that should have seemed subservient but instead seemed simply matter-of-fact.
“This woman will tell you what to do. As long as she needs you, she is your master.” I just couldn’t decipher Charles Twining’s expression as he heard Eric’s directive. Lots of vampires simply wouldn’t agree to being at a human’s beck and call, no matter what their head honcho said.
“No, Eric!” I was shocked. “If you make him answerable to anyone, it should be Sam.”
“Sam sent you. I’m entrusting Charles’s direction to you.” Eric’s face closed down. I knew from experience that once Eric got that expression, there was no arguing with him.
I couldn’t see where this was going, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Let me get my coat, and I’ll be ready anytime it pleases you to leave,” Charles Twining said, bowing in a courtly and gracious way that made me feel like an idiot. I made a strangled noise in acknowledgment, and though he was still in the down position, his patch-free eye rolled up to give me a wink. I smiled involuntarily and felt much better.
Over the music system, Connie the Corpse said, “Hey, you night listeners. Continuing ten in a row for us genuine deadheads, here’s a favorite.” Connie began playing “Here Comes the Night,” and Eric said, “Will you dance?”
I looked over at the little dance floor. It was empty. However, Eric had arranged for a bartender and bouncer for Sam as Sam had asked. I should be gracious. “Thank you,” I said politely, and slid out of the booth. Eric offered me his hand, I took it, and he put his other hand on my waist.
Despite the difference in our heights, we managed quite well. I pretended I didn’t know everyone in the bar was looking at us, and we glided along as if we knew what we were doing. I focused on Eric’s throat so I wouldn’t be looking up into his eyes.
When the dance was over, he said, “Holding you seems very familiar, Sookie.”
With a tremendous effort, I kept my eyes fixed on his Adam’s apple. I had a dreadful impulse to say, “You told me you loved me and would stay with me forever.”
“You wish,” I said briskly instead. I let go of his hand as quickly as I could and stepped away from his embrace. “By the way, have you ever run across a kind of mean-looking vampire named Mickey?”
Eric grabbed my hand again and squeezed it. I said, “Ow!” and he eased up.
“He was in here last week. Where have you seen Mickey?”