Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Books 1-8) - Charlaine Harris [650]
Bubba very seldom sang these days, though every now and then he could be coaxed into belting out a familiar song or two. That was a memorable occasion. Most often, though, he denied he could sing a note, and he usually got very agitated when he was called by his original name.
He trailed along after us as Chester led me further into the building. We had turned, and gone up a floor, encountering more and more vampires—and a few humans—heading here or there with a purposeful air. It was like any busy office building, any weekday, except the workers were vampires and the sky outside was as dark as the New Orleans sky ever got. As we walked, I noticed that some vampires seemed more at ease than others. I observed that the wary vamps were all wearing the same pins attached to their collars, pins in the shape of the state of Arkansas. These vamps must be part of the entourage of the queen’s husband, Peter Threadgill. When one of the Louisiana vampires bumped into an Arkansas vampire, the Arkansan snarled and for a second I thought there would be a fight in the corridor over a slight accident.
Jeesh, I’d be glad to get out of here. The atmosphere was tense.
Chester stopped before a door that didn’t look any different from all the other closed doors, except for the two whacking big vampires outside it. The two must have been considered giants in their day, since they stood perhaps six foot three. They looked like brothers, but maybe it was just their size and mien, and the color of their chestnut hair, that sparked the comparison: big as boulders, bearded, with pony-tails that trailed down their backs, the two looked like prime meat for the pro wrestling circuit. One had a huge scar across his face, acquired before death, of course. The other had had some skin disease in his original life. They weren’t just display items; they were absolutely lethal.
(By the way, some promoter had had the idea for a vampire wrestling circuit a couple of years before, but it went down in flames immediately. At the first match, one vamp had ripped another’s arm off, on live TV. Vamps don’t get the concept of exhibition fighting.)
These two vampires were hung with knives, and each had an ax in his belt. I guess they figured if someone had penetrated this far, guns weren’t going to make a difference. Plus their own bodies were weapons.
“Bert, Bert,” Chester said, nodding to each one in turn. “This here’s the Stackhouse woman; the queen wants to see her.”
He turned and walked away, leaving me with the queen’s bodyguards.
Screaming didn’t seem like a good idea, so I said, “I can’t believe you both have the same name. Surely he made a mistake?”
Two pairs of brown eyes focused on me intently. “I am Sigebert,” the scarred one said, with a heavy accent I couldn’t identify. He said his name as See-ya-bairt. Chester was using a very Americanized version of what must be a very old name. “Dis my brodder, Wybert.”
This is my brother, Way-bairt? “Hello,” I said, trying not to twitch. “I’m Sookie Stackhouse.”
They seemed unimpressed. Just then, one of the pinned vampires squeezed past, casting a look of scarcely veiled contempt at the brothers, and the atmosphere in the corridor became lethal. Sigebert and Wybert watched the vamp, a tall woman in a business suit, until she rounded a corner. Then their attention switched back to me.
“The queen is . . . busy,” Wybert said. “When she wants you in her room, the light, it will shine.” He indicated a round light set in the wall to the right of the door.
So I was stuck here for an indefinite time—until the light, it shone. “Do your names have a meaning? I’m guessing they’re, um, early English?” My voice petered out.
“We were Saxons. Our fadder went from Germany to England, you call now,” Wybert said. “My name