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“Salome’ll catch him?” I asked.

Eric nodded happily as he returned his phone to his pocket. “And she can do things to him more painful than anything I could imagine,” he said. “Though I can imagine plenty right now.”

“She’s that, ah, creative?”

“He’s hers. She’s his sire. She can do with him what she wishes. He can’t disobey her and go unpunished. He has to go to her when she calls him, and she’s calling.”

“Not on the phone, I take it,” I ventured.

His eyes glinted down at me. “No, she won’t need a phone. He’s trying to run away, but he’ll go to her eventually. The longer he holds out, the more severe his torture will be. Of course,” he added, in case I missed the point, “that’s as it should be.”

“Pam is yours, right?” I asked, falling to my knees and putting my fingers to Tara’s cold neck. I didn’t want to look at her.

“Yes,” Eric said. “She’s free to leave when she wants, but she comes back when I let her know I need her help.”

I didn’t know how I felt about that, but it didn’t really make a hell of a lot of difference. Tara gasped and moaned. “Wake up, girl,” I said. “Tara! I’m gonna call an ambulance for you.

“No,” she said sharply. “No.” There was a lot of that word going around tonight.

“But you’re bad hurt.”

“I can’t go to the hospital. Everyone will know.”

“Everyone will know someone beat the shit out of you when you can’t go to work for a couple of weeks, you idiot.”

“You can have some of my blood,” Eric offered. He was looking down at Tara without any obvious emotion.

“No,” she said. “I’d rather die.”

“You might,” I said, looking her over. “Oh, but you’ve had blood from Franklin or Mickey.” I was assuming some tit-for-tat in their lovemaking.

“Of course not,” she said, shocked. The horror in her voice took me aback. I’d had vampire blood when I’d needed it. The first time, I’d have died without it.

“Then you have to go to the hospital.” I was really concerned that Tara might have internal injuries. “I’m scared for you to move,” I protested, when she tried to push herself to a seated position. Mr. Super Strength didn’t help, which irritated me, since he could have shifted her easily.

But at last Tara managed to sit with her back against the wall, the empty window allowing the chilly wind to gust in and blow the curtains to and fro. The rain had abated until only a drop or two was coming in. The linoleum in front of the window was wet with water and blood, and the glass lay in glittering sharp fragments, some stuck to Tara’s damp clothes and skin.

“Tara, listen to me,” Eric said. She looked up at him. Since he was close to the fluorescent light, she had to squint. I thought she looked pitiful, but Eric didn’t seem to see the same person I was seeing. “Your greed and selfishness put my—my friend Sookie in danger. You say you’re her friend, too, but you don’t act like it.”

Hadn’t Tara loaned me a suit when I needed one? Hadn’t she loaned me her car when mine burned? Hadn’t she helped me on other occasions when I needed it? “Eric, this isn’t any of your business,” I said.

“You called me and asked me for my help. That makes it my business. I called Salome and told her what her child was doing, and she’s taken him away and to punish him for it. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes,” I said, and I’m ashamed to say I sounded sullen.

“Then I’m going to make my point with Tara.” He looked back down at her. “Do you understand me?”

Tara nodded painfully. The bruises on her face and throat seemed to be darkening more every minute.

“I’m getting some ice for your throat,” I told her, and ran into the kitchen to dump ice from the plastic trays into a Ziploc bag. I didn’t want to listen to Eric scold her; she seemed so pitiful.

When I came back less than a minute later, Eric had finished whatever he was going to say to Tara. She was touching her neck gingerly, and she took the bag from me and held it to her throat. While I was leaning over her, anxious and scared, Eric was back on his cell phone.

I twitched with worry. “You need a doctor,” I urged her.

“No,” she said.

I looked up at Eric, who was just