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Then Quinn snarled.

The sound came from deep in his belly, and it was thunderous, the deep sound of it penetrating every corner of the bar. The bartender, a biker type with beard and hair of considerable length and tattoos that covered his bare arms, reached down below the bar. I knew he was pulling out a shotgun.

Not for the first time, I wondered if I shouldn’t start going armed everywhere I went. In my law-abiding life, I had never seen the need until the past few months. The jukebox cut off just then, and the silence of the bar was just as deafening as the noise had been.

“Please don’t get the gun out,” I said, smiling brightly at the bartender. I could feel it stretching my lips, that too-bright grin that made me look a little nuts. “We come in peace,” I added, on a crazy impulse, showing them my empty palms.

A shifter who’d been standing at the bar laughed, a sharp bark of startled amusement. The tension began to ratchet down a notch. The young woman’s hand dropped to her side, and she took a step back. Her gaze flickered from Quinn to me and back again. Both the bartender’s hands were in sight now.

“Hello, Sookie,” said a familiar voice. Amanda, the red-haired Were who’d been chauffeuring Dr. Ludwig the day before, was sitting at a table in a dark corner. (Actually, the room seemed to be full of dark corners.)

With Amanda was a husky man in his late thirties. Both were supplied with drinks and a bowl of snack mix. They had company at the table, a couple sitting with their backs to me. When they turned, I recognized Alcide and Maria-Star. They turned cautiously, as if any sudden movement might trigger violence. Maria-Star’s brain was a motley jumble of anxiety, pride, and tension. Alcide’s was just conflicted. He didn’t know how to feel.

That made two of us.

“Hey, Amanda,” I said, my voice as cheerful as my smile. It wouldn’t do to let the silence pile up.

“I’m honored to have the legendary Quinn in my bar,” Amanda said, and I realized that, whatever other jobs she might have, she owned the Hair of the Dog. “Are you two out for an evening on the town, or is there some special reason for your visit?”

Since I had no idea why we were there, I had to defer to Quinn for an answer, which didn’t make me look too good, in my opinion.

“There’s a very good reason, though I’ve long wanted to visit your bar,” Quinn said in a courtly, formal style that had come out of nowhere.

Amanda inclined her head, which seemed to be a signal for Quinn to continue.

“This evening, my date and I were attacked in a public place, with civilians all around us.”

No one seemed awfully upset or astonished by this. In fact, Miss Fashion-Challenged shrugged her bare skinny shoulders.

“We were attacked by Weres,” Quinn said.

Now we got the big reaction. Heads and hands jerked and then became still. Alcide half rose to his feet and then sat down again.

“Weres of the Long Tooth pack?” Amanda asked. Her voice was incredulous.

Quinn shrugged. “The attack was a killing one, so I didn’t stop to ask questions. Both were very young bitten Weres, and from their behavior, they were on drugs.”

More shocked reaction. We were creating quite the sensation.

“Are you hurt?” Alcide asked me, as if Quinn weren’t standing right there.

I tilted my head back so my neck would be visible. I wasn’t smiling anymore. By now the bruises left by the boy’s hands would be darkening nicely. And I’d been thinking hard. “As a friend of the pack, I didn’t expect anything to happen to me here in Shreveport,” I said.

I figured my status as friend of the pack hadn’t changed with the new regime, or at least I hoped it hadn’t. Anyway, it was my trump card, and I played it.

“Colonel Flood did say Sookie was a friend of the pack,” Amanda said unexpectedly. The Weres all looked at each other, and the moment seemed to hang in the balance.

“What happened to the cubs?” asked the biker behind the bar.

“They lived,” Quinn said, giving them the important news first. There was a general