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“Unless he gets staked,” Quinn said.

I felt a pang in my heart that almost had me clapping a hand to my chest.

“You don’t want that to happen.” Quinn’s mouth was compressed in a hard line.

“No, of course not!”

“You care about him.”

Oh, crap. “Quinn, you know Eric and I were together for a while, but he had amnesia and he doesn’t remember it. I mean, he knows it’s a fact, but he doesn’t remember it at all.”

“If anyone besides you told me that story, you know what I’d think.”

“Quinn. I’m not anybody else.”

“Babe, I don’t know what to say. I care about you, and I love spending time with you. I love going to bed with you. I like eating at the table with you. I like cooking together. I like almost everything about you, including your gift. But I’m not good at sharing.”

“I don’t go with two guys at the same time.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I’m going with you, unless you tell me different.”

“What will you do when Mr. Big and Blond tells you to hop in bed with him?”

“I’ll tell him I’m spoken for . . . if you’re going to speak.”

Quinn shifted restlessly on the narrow bed. “I’m healing, but I’m hurting,” he admitted. He looked very tired.

“I wouldn’t trouble you with all this if it didn’t seem pretty important to me,” I said. “I’m trying to be honest with you. Absolutely honest. You took the arrow for me, and it’s the least I can do in return.”

“I know that. Sookie, I’m a man who almost always knows his own mind, but I have to tell you . . . I don’t know what to say. I thought we were just about ideal for each other until this.” Quinn’s eyes blazed in his face suddenly. “If he died, we’d have no problems.”

“If you killed him, I’d have a problem,” I said. I couldn’t get any plainer than that.

Quinn closed his eyes. “We have to think about this again when I’m all healed and you’ve had sleep and time to relax,” he said. “You gotta meet Frannie, too. I’m so . . .” To my horror, I thought Quinn was going to choke up. If he cried, I would, too, and the last thing I needed was tears. I leaned over so far I thought I was going to fall on top of him, and I kissed him, just a quick pressure of my mouth on his. But then he held my shoulder and pulled me back to him, and there was much more to explore, his warmth and intensity . . . but then his gasp drew us out of the moment. He was trying not to grimace with pain.

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

“Don’t ever apologize for a kiss like that,” he said. And he didn’t look teary anymore. “We definitely have something going on, Sookie. I don’t want Andre’s vampire crap to ruin it.”

“Me, either,” I said. I didn’t want to give Quinn up, not the least because of our sizzling chemistry. Andre terrified me, and who knew what his intentions were? I certainly didn’t. I suspected Eric didn’t know, either, but he was never averse to power.

I said good-bye to Quinn, a reluctant good-bye, and began finding my way back to the dance. I felt obliged to check in with the queen to make sure she didn’t need me, but I was exhausted, and I needed to get out of my dress and collapse on my bed.

Clovache was leaning against a wall in the corridor ahead, and I had the impression she was waiting for me. The younger Britlingen was less statuesque than Batanya, and while Batanya looked like a striking hawk with dark curls, Clovache was lighter altogether, with feathery ash-brown hair that needed a good stylist and big green eyes with high, arched brows.

“He seems like a good man,” she said in her harsh accent, and I got the strong feeling that Clovache was not a subtle woman.

“He seems that way to me, too.”

“While a vampire, by definition, is twisty and deceptive.”

“By definition? You mean, without exception?”

“I do.”

I kept silent as we walked. I was too tired to figure out the warrior’s purpose in telling me this. I decided to ask. “What’s up, Clovache? What’s the point?”

“Did you wonder why we were here, guarding the King of Kentucky? Why he had decided to pay our truly astronomical fees?”

“Yes, I did, but I figured it wasn’t my business.