Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Books 1-8) - Charlaine Harris [573]
“I’m fine,” I said, trying not to sound surprised. It wasn’t often Bill passed the time of day; small talk wasn’t his strong point. Even when we’d been a couple, he had not been what you’d call chatty. And even a vampire can be a workaholic; Bill had become a computer geek. “Have things been well with you?”
“Yes. When will you go to New Orleans to claim your inheritance?”
Now I was truly startled. (This is possible because I can’t read vampire minds. That’s why I like vampires so much. It’s wonderful to be with someone who’s a mystery to me.) My cousin had been murdered almost six weeks ago in New Orleans, and Bill had been with me when the Queen of Louisiana’s emissary had come to tell me about it . . . and to deliver the murderer to me for my judgment. “I guess I’ll go through Hadley’s apartment sometime in the next month or so. I haven’t talked to Sam about taking the time off.”
“I’m sorry you lost your cousin. Have you been grieving?”
I hadn’t seen Hadley in years, and it would have been stranger than I can say to see her after she’d become a vampire. But as a person with very few living relations, I hated to lose even one. “A bit,” I said.
“You don’t know when you might go?”
“I haven’t decided. You remember her lawyer, Mr. Cataliades? He said he’d tell me when the will had gone through probate. He promised to keep the place intact for me, and when the queen’s counselor tells you the place’ll be intact, you have to believe it’ll be untouched. I haven’t really been too interested, to tell you the truth.”
“I might go with you when you head to New Orleans, if you don’t mind having a traveling companion.”
“Gee,” I said, with just a dash of sarcasm, “Won’t Selah mind? Or were you going to bring her, too?” That would make for a merry trip.
“No.” And he closed down. You just couldn’t get anything out of Bill when he was holding his mouth like that, I knew from experience. Okay, color me confused.
“I’ll let you know,” I said, trying to figure him out. Though it was painful to be in Bill’s company, I trusted him. Bill would never harm me. He wouldn’t let anyone else harm me, either. But there’s more than one kind of harm.
“Sookie,” Father Littrell called, and I hurried away.
I glanced back to catch Bill smiling, a small smile with a lot of satisfaction packed into it. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I liked to see Bill smile. Maybe he was hoping to revive our relationship?
Father Littrell said, “We weren’t sure if you wanted to be interrupted or not.” I looked down at him, confused.
“We were a tad concerned to see you consorting with the vampire for so long, and so intently,” Father Riordan said. “Was the imp of hell trying to bring you under his spell?”
Suddenly his Irish accent wasn’t charming at all. I looked at Father Riordan quizzically. “You’re joking, right? You know Bill and I dated for a good while. Obviously, you don’t know much about imps from hell if you believe Bill’s anything like one.” I’d seen things much darker than Bill in and about our fair town of Bon Temps. Some of those things had been human. “Father Riordan, I understand my own life. I understand the nature of vampires better than you ever will. Father Littrell,” I said, “you want honey mustard or ketchup with your chicken strips?”
Father Littrell chose honey mustard, in a kind of dazed way. I walked away, working to shrug the little incident off, wondering what the two priests would do if they knew what had happened in this bar a couple of months before when the bar’s clientele had ganged up to rid me of someone who was trying to kill me.
Since that someone had been a vampire, they’d probably have approved.
Before he left, Father Riordan came over to “have a word” with me. “Sookie, I know you’re not real happy with me at the moment, but I need to ask you something on behalf of someone else. If I’ve made