chapter twelve

“Do we know about the Vampire go between for the Take Back the Night movement and De Castro?” asked Bill.

“We still don’t know who the vampire is, is there any way they could be dealing with De Castro himself and not know it?” asked Eric.

“Possible, but I doubt it. I do know we are dealing with Latesta and he is dealing directly with De Castro,” said Heidi.

“De Castro would not simply give things to a human, he must have told him something valuable,” said Eric.

“Latesta seems to know where another telepath is,” said Heidi.

“That is easy, that would likely be Barry,” said Bill.

“I don’t think it is Barry,” said Heidi. “I think it is someone else.”

“Rasul, what have you learned?” asked Eric.

“Those guardians of De Castro, they have been traveling. The nest in Michigan is in contact with some of the vampires in Vegas. Apparently it is a syndicate deal, they are running vampire blood, human narcotics and dirty cash up here and making the money clean and selling the v and the drugs up north,” said Rasul.

“The human law enforcement is too tight on our kind, and we can’t afford to be connected to organized crime, not so close to the voting on the major rights bills.” Eric looked pensive.

“And the guardians?” asked Bill.

“They are shifters. They are an ancient breed of dog, a sort of gigantic breed of mastiff, they are nothing like modern breeds of the dogs. They have been bred to be large dogs but nothing like what they were when I knew them. These dogs are nearly prehistoric. The Romans used them as war dogs,” said Rasul.

“Apparently they are favored by the Italian vampires in the Mafia in the old country. They have been importing them.”

“They are traveling, where?” asked Eric.

“Everywhere De Castro has an interest. Seems like everywhere those dogs go, there is trouble, vampire businesses and two-natured businesses, even homes, are burned to the ground. Five vampires have been burned to death.” Rasul stopped speaking.

“What?” asked Bill.

“Sookie Stackhouse,” said Rasul. “I think she needs to go into hiding.” Heidi nodded her agreement.

“She won’t go,” said Bill. “She would not even go and stay in my house.”

“She will need to go somewhere not associated with us,” said Eric. “Do you think she would go to King Russell?”

“She may,” said Bill. “She will not want to leave her friend behind.”

“She isn’t that attached to him,” said Eric. “She will leave him.”

“I would not be so hasty,” said Bill. “He was at her house this evening. When Bubba and I walked into her yard, he had his hand on her.” Eric made a face and sat forward leaning his elbows on his desk.

“Then if she is with this faerie, she won’t go to Russell,” said Eric. “Contact Alcide, perhaps he will have a few ideas. I need to speak to Bill alone.” Rasul and Heidi stepped out. Bill sat down across from Eric in the visitors chairs. Eric leaned back and tented his fingers. “We need to get the word out to our other friends in other kingdoms. Russell, Bart, Isaiah, all of them. Tell them to be on guard. According to our channels, this is not the only place we have trouble with our king.”

“I agree, I will do it before I go to ground,” said Bill.

“How is your lady friend?” asked Eric.

“She is well,” said Bill. “Her business reopens tomorrow. She said her tenant is moving in Sunday.”

“We owe Sookie our protection,” said Eric. “I know I am angry with her, but I also know some of the things she said are true. We did bring her into our world.  We did do things that were dishonest. She needs to go into hiding.”

“We need to be very careful about this, if De Castro hears we are trying to hide Sookie from him, he will move on us. He has left us alone, without a regent. I can’t help but wonder why,” said Bill.

“He is hoping we will relax,” said Eric. “Pam, send me Mustafa Khan.” He said this to the room in general in voice no louder than the one he used in normal conversation. The werewolf appeared in his office. “Khan, I need you to sell your soul to a vampire.”

“To whom am I selling my soul?” he asked.

“The regent of Arkansas.  She is a supporter of De Castro, very loyal for now. Christian Baruch is waiting for the chance to take over Louisiana. I expected De Castro to give her Oklahoma but she was given Arkansas. Christian Baruch was given Oklahoma. I suspect he is not that pleased. I want you to make yourself useful to him. Don’t tell her lies, but don’t tell her everything. Report to me and Bill. Tell her whatever you like about why you left.” Mustafa nodded. “Go home now, leave in the morning.”

“I will be in touch,” said Khan.

The next morning, Rachel woke up and stretched. She looked around at the windows and was pleased her windows were light tight. She got up and went to the bathroom and washed her face and went down and made some breakfast. She checked her phone messages. Bill usually texted or left a voice mail before he went to bed in the morning. She listened to his soft voice suggesting a quiet evening at her home with a movie. He suggested he could bring her a treat…a Bellefleur cake. She called his phone and got his voice mail. “Movie night…hummmm…sounds lovely. And just a half size cake. I will never be able to eat a whole one.” She hung up. She was working a half day today so she fixed some cereal and drank some coffee and headed up for a shower and to get dressed.

Rachel was happy as she walked to work. She made a mental list get some TrueBlood and thought about what to make for her own supper. A steak salad would be good. Since she needed to go to the store anyway, she knew she would have to get a nice steak and some salad stuff.  She thought about what to watch for a movie. What would Bill like? She ran down in her head what he might like but came up with a blank. Maybe she would just let Bill flip through her CD book and decide. If she played her cards right, they would maybe not really get to the movie. She smiled at her audacity.

Sally was at work, happy to be there and there were people already buying vitamins and herbs and supplements. There were a couple of vampire people, either humans who were day people to vampires or were in a human vampire relationship. A couple of the women sported fang marks. Rachel was not sure how she felt about the new tramp stamp. Would she mind about having Bill’s little calling cards on her neck? One of the girls came up to her.

“Hi, what do you suggest to heal these bite marks? Especially this one, it looks bad,” she said. Rachel looked at it.

“Well, I think you should make sure you clean it really well and not try to put makeup on it.  That looks like you need to go to the doctor and get some antibiotics; it looks infected, probably from the makeup. Then from now on, get your vampire to heal you, they can with just a drop of vampire blood,” she said.

“Well, we only got together briefly, you know what I mean?” she said, winking. “Wham bam fang you ma’am.”

“Ah, well, good anti-bacterial soap after and avoid the makeup and just keep it dry and clean. A little hydrogen peroxide will help it dry up and heal,” she said.

“Thanks,” she said. She swished out, her hips had a dipping little swing in her walk. She looked cheap as hell but there was a part of Rachel that wished she could be tall and leggy and sexy. She knew she would never be comfortable in the ultra high heels and skimpy clothes she was wearing. She wondered if Bill liked that sort of girl.

The shop was busy all morning and she was thinking she may have to have an additional tai chi class for the evenings for vampires interested in the meditative exercise.  She made a note to ask Ming if she would be interested in a night class, she was always after making more money.

She went to her office and remembered Sky needed a couple of strong guys to help move her things. She called Jason Stackhouse and he said he would love it and said Hoyt would likely come and help too and Terry Bellefleur if his bitch wasn’t whelping. Rachel let out a startled sound til Jason explained Terry and his girlfriend were Catahoula hound breeders and they had a female about to come fresh, as his gran would have said.

Hanging up with Jason, she felt like she was getting some things done. She looked at the clock and saw it was noon. She grabbed her purse and headed back out. She said good-bye to Sally and went back to her house and got her car and headed for the store. The Piggly Wiggly was being picketed and though she felt bad about passing it up, she knew she was picking up TrueBlood and she did not want to draw attention to herself. She drove on to Wal-Mart and saw a larger protest. “Damn,” she cursed. She pulled in anyway and parked and took a breath and got out. She walked with a confidence she really didn’t have and passed by the gruesome signs, one of them with a pile of bloody slop and the words: One Good Vampire. That was disgusting. She walked on by and grabbed a cart.

She shopped slowly. She bought her meat and lettuce and baby spinach leaves and tomatoes and onions and a small purple cabbage. She bought some snow peas and some almonds and a few other things and headed for the meat and selected a steak and then wandered around, putting things in her basket. She was in the refrigerated areas and saw TrueBlood in the four-pack case. She reached into the case, grabbed the blood, and put it in her cart.

Rachel got into the checkout line behind a frowzy looking woman. She was chatting loudly with the lady across the way about the protesters.

“Well, I say the quicker them things go back to being dead the better off we will be, and I think the people who fool with those things ought to be locked up, you know they can’t be too healthy wanting to be with those cold things,” she said.

“What about those ones who change?” said frowsy woman 2.

“Zoos, best place for them, my Zeke told me his principal was a werefox or some other sort of weirdness. You can bet I was down to the Board of Education right away to complain. Course you know he said there weren’t nothin’ he could do about it, the principal had tenure. I said I would campaign day and night against that levy for the schools come November and he was speechless, I can tell you that,” she said. The line moved up enough for Rachel to start unloading. The first thing she slammed down was her pack of TrueBlood. The frowsy woman looked at her as if she was an infected insect and pushed her remaining purchases up as far as she could and she looked at her friend. “Get a load of her.” Frowzy woman 2 smirked at her. The woman ahead of her whipped out her welfare card and the checkout girl swiped it and handed it back and then told her the cash total she owed.

When the woman left, Rachel waited patiently as the check out girl checked out her stuff and without being told she said. “Ma’am I’m going to triple bag these so they don’t get broken,” she said, giving Rachel a significant look. Rachel nodded.

“Thank you,” she said.

“My man likes AB negative too,” she said. Rachel nodded. “Don’t let them get you down.” She bagged up the rest of her purchases and Rachel put in her debit card and she was handed her receipt. “You have a nice day now, and be careful going out.”

“You too,” she said.

Rachel made it home before she began to cry. She unloaded her groceries and put everything away and went up and ran a hot bath. She pinned up her long dark hair and poured some bubble bath in the water. She undressed and slipped into the water. She laid back and thought about the two women and the protestors. If she continued on her plan and dated (and slept with) Bill, she would be considered a fangbanger, like the trashy girl with the vamp stamp on her neck.

Then her thought was she needn’t do this, she could call Bill’s phone right now and tell him she didn’t think she should see him anymore. He would leave her be, he would understand. Besides she wasn’t in that deep with him. She had kissed him a few times and she’s touched his fangs and all that, but she wasn’t dating him. But this was wrong to do. What if she was with a man of color? In the Deep South, that was still a big deal even if vampires were out of the coffin. Would she just high tail it, run for cover because of the first little bit of resistance? She didn’t think so.

Besides, it was not like a…what was it, a wham bam fang you ma’am…She was not just looking to sleep with Bill, though she wanted to very much. She wanted to know him, to care about him. Was she ready to take on her own species to be with him? Was she willing to defend his species in public if needs be? She remembered the stories her dad told about the civil rights movement and how he got flack because he hired a black woman to work at the reception desk of the law firm where he practiced law for some years. Then her mother told her about how her own mom had picked up her housekeeper and her neighbor’s housekeeper and brought her to work during the bus boycott and the Klan had thrown rocks at her car.

No, if her and Bill’s relationship didn’t work out, she wanted it to be about compatibility not about the opinions of others about who she loved and how she loved them. She was committed to giving her relationship with a vampire a fair shot. Rachel felt better about the situation when she got out of the tub and went into her light tight bedroom and select her clothes for the evening.

Bill pulled up to the front of her house. In the seat beside him was the half Bellefleur cake. He picked it up and walked up her path and stepped up on her porch and knocked at her door. She answered the door, opening it to admit him. He looked at her. She looked beautiful, dressed in a lavender silk tunic and matching pants. She was bare footed and her hair was long and loose.

“You look beautiful,” he breathed.

“Thank you Bill,” she said.

“This is for you,” he said, handing her the box from the bakery.

“Can I get you a TrueBlood?” she asked.

“That would be very nice,” he said. She took the box and she motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen. He looked at her kitchen done in what seemed to be appliances from the thirties and forties. “Are these antique appliances?”

“No, these were the one things I splurged on. I found a company who made reproductions of old fashioned appliances and I just love them.” She went to the fridge and reached in for a bottle of blood and put it in the microwave. “I had to run quite a gauntlet today to get this blood.”

“Oh?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

“Yeah, those Take Back the Night people were out front of the Piggly Wiggly and Wal-Mart and they had this terrible sign of this pile of blood and the sign said, ‘One good vampire’,” her voice trembled. Bill stepped up to her and cupped her face.

“Would you like me to go?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “It just…It made me feel…”

“Rachel, if things go any further with us, there will be people who will judge you harshly because of me. I would understand if this would be too much for you and you would ask me not to call on you again,” he said.

“Please, Bill, stay. Please,” she said. She reached up and pulled herself against him and he lowered his head to her and she kissed him hard. Tears slid down her face and Bill could taste the saltiness of them and she held him tighter. He picked her up and walked back through the house to the stairs. “First room on the right.” In seconds, they were up the stairs and in the room. He put her on her feet and he smoothed her hair from her face.

“Rachel, are you sure? I only want this if you are sure,” he said.

“I have never wanted anything more in my life,” she said. Her hands crept up to his shirt and began to unbutton it. She could see the pelt of hair on his chest and the pale skin underneath. She leaned forward and kissed his chest. She looked at him and he stood still while she untucked his shirt. He took the bottom of her blouse and pulled it up and over her head, carefully minding her long black hair. He smoothed it with his cool hands.

Rachel put her hands on his hips and kissed him again and he slid his hands around her and unhooked the matching lavender bra. He slid his hands around and touched the tiny russet colored nipples and they awakened to his touch. She moved her hands around to his belt and began to unbuckle his pants and unbutton them. His hands slid around the front of her pants and he found the string ties of her pants and he untied them and pulled them loose so they slid down her legs. She unzipped his pants and he sat on her bed and toed off his shoes and slid out of his socks and stood up and slid off his pants and underwear. He sat down on her bed and pulled her to stand between his legs.

Bill kissed her belly and his hands gathered the ends of her hair, which came to just below her waist. His lips found her nipples and he sucked one and then another. Her hands went to his head and her fingers slid into his thick dark hair. He looked up at her and she bent to kiss him. He held her close to him and he growled softly in the back of his throat. His hands slid to her panties, he slid them down, and she helped him slide them off her. “Stand over there, let me look at you.” She stepped away from him and he looked at her. His fangs were down and he gazed at her. “You are so beautiful. I want you but we don’t have to go any further, I do not want you to feel as though you are obligated.”

“You want to leave a lady wanting?” she asked. He smiled.

“I would never leave a lady wanting,” he said. He slid back onto her bed, she stepped toward him, and he took her hand and pulled her into her bed. She lay down beside him and he lay on his side, his hand caressing her face. “I wondered what your hair would look like on a pillow. It looks like the sky at midnight.” He ran his fingers down her face, over the bridge of her nose, down to her lips. He kissed her gently, letting her feel his fangs in his mouth. Her mouth was sweet as honey and her blood very nearly sang to him.

Rachel slid her hand over his chest and down to his belly. She wrapped her hand around his length and stroked. He panted a little, feeling the heat of her palm. He laid his leg across hers and rocked against her as his own hands slid between her thighs. His fingers played in the dark curls there. Then they circled her pearl and she moaned a little under her breath. His hands were cool but they felt good against the tender and fevered skin. He gently probed her and slid one of his fingers inside her. Her hips thrust gently against the palm of his hand as he prepared her for him. She was still stroking and gently squeezing him in her hand.

When Rachel came, he pushed her legs open slowly and slid his body on top of her. She put him against her and looked into his eyes. “I want you to bite me while we make love.”

“That is not necessary, “he said.

“I want you to Bill, I want you to,” she said. She pulled him down to her and he slid inside her. Feeling Bill inside her was a marvelous feeling. He was not as warm as human men but again, just as his finger had felt delicious inside her, his penis was just as wonderfully cool inside her.

Bill began to move slowly, holding himself on his palms and looking at her and her body as they moved together. He took long strokes, and there were times he threatened to leave her body but then he would slide his whole length inside her. She came hard and loud, feeling unfamiliar wet warmth between her legs. Bill’s movements became faster and harder and he buried his face her neck and his hands gripped her shoulders and he nipped her neck. “Yes Bill, yes, please,” she moaned and he opened his mouth and bit her. She came with the sudden prickles of pain and he growled deep in his throat as he came and fed at the same time. He raised up and looked at her.

“Are you okay sweetheart?” he said softly. Rachel could see her blood on his mouth.

“Yes,” she said. He leaned back down and she could feel his tongue on her neck, licking her. She stroked his hair as he cleaned her wounds. He raised up and pierced his finger and rubbed the spots of blood on her neck and the holes simply healed. “You didn’t have to heal me.”

“Next time, I will put them somewhere more discrete,” he said. He stroked her face. “Are you sure you are okay? No regrets?”

“No regrets Bill,” she said. “Was it okay?”

“You were perfect,” he said. He slid away from her and looked around at her room. “I like your room.” He looked at the window and then his eyebrows drew down a little. “What is so odd about your windows?”

“I made them light tight,” she said. “In case you should ever want to stay with me, you could sleep in my bed during the day.”

“That is very generous of you,” he said. “And there will be nights I can stay but not tonight.”

“I understand,” she said. “I didn’t know it would be like this.”

“With a vampire?” he asked.

“No, with you,” she said. “You were so slow and gentle and patient.”

“I wanted to make this good for you,” he said. “I care a great deal for you and I never want to hurt you and I always want to make what we are doing special whether we are walking around a lake, watching a movie, making love, I want it to be something special.”

“It was Bill,” she said.

“Rachel, I am not very good at emotions. Most vampires aren’t but I feel a great deal for you and I am just as scared about what this is and what it will mean to us, I just want to do right by you, to be fair and honest with you,” he said.

“I want that too,” she said. “I care about you too.”

                Bill leaned down and kissed her and then again, pulling her against him and then on top of him.

                Sky was standing in the middle of her apartment. The kids had just left after loading her U-Haul and her office assistant had promised to be there in the morning to drive her car to Bon Temps. She turned on her little cd player and the disc of Wagner’s Gotterdammerung was playing when her phone rang. She turned the music down. “Hello?” she said.

                “Wagner,” the voice purred.

                “Eric?” she asked.

                “That would be me,” he said. “I thought I would call. I heard you were moving tomorrow up to Bon Temps and I wondered if you needed any help.”

                “Thank you Eric, but I don’t need any help,” she said. “I have someone to help me but it was very thoughtful of you to offer.”

                “Then perhaps you will allow me to treat you to supper,” said Eric. Sky scratched her head.

                “I’m a little confused,” she said. “Are you asking me on a date?” Sky heard nothing on the other end. “Eric, you there?”

                “Yes,” he said.

                “Yes to what?” she asked.

                “Yes, I am here and yes, I am asking you on a date,” he said.

                “Well, can I take a rain check for tomorrow night? I won’t be unpacked and I will be pretty worn out,” she said.

                “I suppose you would be,” he said. “A rain check it is.”

                “Then I hope I hear from you soon,” she said.

                “Good night Sky,” said Eric.

                “Good night Sheriff,” she said.

                Bill lay curled against her back feeling her warmth against him and her breathing. She had his hand captured between hers against her chest. He suspected she also captured his heart. He lay there with his eyes closed, hearing her heart beating and smelling her skin. She was wearing some sort of spicy scent, something like mulled cider or ginger and apple.

                “Rachel,” he said softly.

                “Um?” she said.

                “I wish I could stay but I have to go,” he said.

                “Okay,” she said.

                “I can find my own way out,” he said.

                “Just hold me a little longer,” she said.

                “Okay,” he said, kissing her shoulder.

                Rachel woke alone in her bed and stretched dreamily. Bill had made love to her one more time before he left and she hated to see him go but loved watching him gathering his clothes and dressing. He was a beautiful man, his broad back was hard and muscled and his hips were narrow and his behind gently curved and tight. He looked like the statue of the Greek athlete she’d seen in an art book. She slid into her robe and walked him out. He kissed her mouth gently and he held her for a long time. “I’ll call you tomorrow night, would you mind if I came over?”

                “You are always welcome to come over,” she said.

                “I promise, I will sleep in your bed one day,” he said. “I’ll keep you up and you can sleep with me.”

                “I’ll be looking forward to it,” she said. He hesitated as if he had wanted to say something else and then he kissed her again.

                “Goodnight darling,” he whispered.

                She got up and made up her bed, smelling the scent of sex and vampire in her sheets. She picked up her silk blouse and pants and picked up her panties and walked naked to the bathroom. She stood there and looked at herself in the mirror. Her neck was healed but there were two tiny fang marks on the inside of her right thigh. She turned on the shower and got in and washed her long hair and then soaped up and rinsed off. She thought about what it would be like to shower with Bill, or a long bath.

                She got out and wrapped her hair in a towel and dried off and went back to her room. She went through her drawers and found a tee shirt and a pair of denim shorts. She put on her panties and bra from the night before, and slid into the tee shirt and shorts. She combed through her long wet hair and braided it. She snagged a pair of socks and went to her closet and pulled out her tennis shoes and went down stairs and put them on and grabbed her keys and some money and headed out toward her store to wait for Sky.

                Jason, Hoyt, and Terry were huffing and puffing, carrying up the professor’s boxes. She had a considerable library in those boxes and even though she managed to give some of her books away, she could not bring herself to give her favorites away. Finally, the boxes and hangers of clothes wrapped in garbage bags were all gone and up in her apartment and she paid the boys $100 dollars each and they all went away happy.

                “So, do you want some Chinese food? Pappa Wongs delivers,” said Rachel.

                “Moo goo gai pan,” she said. “Fried rice and egg roll and teriyaki chicken on a stick.”

                “Sounds good,” she said. She called Pappa Wongs and made the order and got the total and gave her address.

                “I can pay,” said Sky.

                “Nonsense,” she said. “I want to make your first meal my treat. So when do you start teaching?”

                “Not til the fall, so I have some time yet,” she said. “Four different classes, four day classes, three night classes. But Fridays off.”

                “That is not so bad,” said Rachel.

                “Not too bad,” she agreed. “I won’t make as much money as I did at LSU, but damn, I was tired of Baton Rouge. It was getting too weird.”

                “How so?” asked Rachel.

                “Well, we have our government in Baton Rouge and all that, and vampires have their government in New Orleans but then a bunch of strange people began to come in. A lot of like radical people, anti-vampire and anti-two natured some other groups and it got to where there was all this stuff about humans who do business with vampires and the two natured. I never thought a liberal college town would get so buttoned up,” she said.

                “Well, if you came to Bon Temps thinking you were getting away from the bad old Klan South you are wrong,” said Rachel. She told Sky about the protestors outside of Wal-Mart but did not discuss what Bill told her about the beauty shop in Shreveport that got fire bombed and a vampire effigy hanging on a light pole.

                “I didn’t expect anything less from Bon Temps, I mean I had a great aunt who lived in Bon Temps during the bad old Jim Crow days, but in little towns you sort of know what to expect and you learn to ignore it because you expect it,” said Sky. “So, how did all that make you feel?”

                “Well, in light of the thing with the shop, then the whole thing with the sheriff afterward and how mean he was about it, and how he didn’t seem to want to help me and then the thing at the Wal-Mart,” said Rachel. “I thought for a brief second about calling Bill and telling him I couldn’t see him anymore.” There was a knock at the door and Rachel went to pay for the food and brought it in. She set the bag on the counter and unpacked it and they began to eat.

                “So, did you break it off with him?” asked Sky.

                “No, I took him to bed instead,” she said.

                “The big eff you to the anti-vampire movement,” said Sky. Rachel looked up at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest you didn’t mean it. But you have to admit, you sort of told them to stuff it.”

                “I guess I did,” she said. “But it was wonderful, I had never experienced anything so intense, so right, so…”

                “Are you afraid?” asked Sky.

                “Only of what I am feeling. It seems so fast but I think I have fallen in love with him,” she said.

                “Rachel, vampires…you have to be careful, they become very attached and very protective and very intense very quickly. They love so hard and so deeply it can take their life over,” said Sky. “If you aren’t sure of what you feel, break it off with Bill.”

                “I think it is too late,” she said.

                “Well, the plus side is, he will fight to the death for you,” said Sky.

                “Oh man,” she said.

                She left Sky after her supper, and went home. She took a shower and put on her robe and went downstairs. She turned on some light classical music and peeked outside and saw the sun going down. She stretched out on her couch and closed her eyes.

 About an hour later Bill called and said he was on his way.  She went and rinsed off her face and brushed her hair and teeth and went back down. There was a knock at her door. It was Bill. He stepped in and closed her door and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

                Sky was freshly showered and in her favorite sleep shorts and tee shirt. She grabbed her bag and dug out the novel she was reading and grabbed a cold soda out of the fridge and went out on the porch. She settled down on the couch and opened her book and began to read. It was a new novel written by a vampire. She was heavily engrossed and did not notice Eric standing at the top of her stairs.

                “Jesus, you scared me,” she said.

                “I have been called many things before but not that,” he said smiling a rakish lop sided grin.

                “You don’t even have to try do you Sheriff,” she said.

                “Oh dear, back to formalities Miss Faulconer,” he said. “May I sit?”

                “Make yourself at home,” she said, motioning to the chair. “I’m sorry, I still don’t have any blood to offer you.”

                “I ate earlier,” he said sitting down. “How has your day been?”

                “Busy, I am tired to the bone,” she said.

                “Are you completely moved?” he asked.

                “I am,” she said. “One evening I have something to show you, some Norse art, I am hoping you can indentify it for me.”

                “And how do you know I am Norse?” he asked.

                “Well, I suspect you are, or you are of that time,” she said. “Am I wrong?”

                “No, I am Norse,” he said.

                “Troubles in your town?” she asked. He nodded.

                “But I don’t care to discuss them,” he said. “I have been thinking about what you said, about the woman I was involved with.”

                “Have you?” she asked.

                “I think there were many things I cared about with her, but there was a lot that was connected with the blood,” he said. Eric felt relieved he could say that for some reason.

                “Well, then you could move on,” she said.

                “Perhaps,” he said. “Do you like teaching about our kind?”

                “Vampires are very interesting. I don’t think we have scraped the surface yet about your kind,” she said. “I hate the text books that came out about vampires, so I am preparing to write my own text book.”

                “That should be interesting,” said Eric. “I would like to read it.”

                “Are you self educated?” she asked.

                “I am,” he said. “I was illiterate when I was made, but my maker told me education was important.”

                “Was he an educated man?” she asked.

                “He was,” said Eric. “He was Roman and he taught me to read Latin and Greek and then I learned many different languages. It is one of my gifts.”

                “How many gifts do you have?” she asked.

                “Two. The gift of languages and the gift of flight,” he said.

                “You can fly?” she asked.

                “Yes, “he said. “It is a rare gift. Would you let me take you up?”

                “I don’t know, tonight?” she asked.

                “No, not tonight, I have to conserve my energy so I can get home tonight without having to feed again,” he said.

                “Ah,” she said.

                “Sky, can I see you?” he asked.

                “I beg your pardon?” she said.

                “Can I see you again, can I…” he seemed to be searching. “I want to see you, again.”

                “Yes, I will go out with you,” she said.

                “Would you accompany me to supper?” he asked.

                “Would you be comfortable sitting and watching me eat?” she asked.

                “I think I would be comfortable doing anything with you,” he said.

                “Give me a few days Eric, to unpack and give me a call and I will be happy to go out with you,” she said.

                “Until then,” he said. “Good night Sky.”

                “Good night Eric,” she said. And he was gone.

                Bill lay on his back and Rachel laid her head on his chest. She was totally relaxed as Bill stroked her hair. She kissed his chest, right on his nipple and stroked her hand down his belly to Adam’s thicket. He let her idly stroke his body, enjoying the warmth of her skin. “Can you stay?” she asked, her voice soft. Bill was silent for a long time and she was about to tell him it was okay when he spoke.

                “I’ll stay,” he said. She looked up at him and stroked his hair back and he pulled her against him and he kissed her. She settled back against him and pulled the blankets around them both. Rachel giggled. “What dearest?”

                “I bet you are a treat on nights when the air conditioning is down,” she said, looking up at him. He was smiling at her.

                “I bet you are a treat on a cold night,” he said.

                “You bet,” she said. He chuckled, a silent little shaking and heaving of his chest. He squeezed her tighter and settled in to relax with his lover in his arms. Bill thought about all those times he would get up and leave Sookie in his bed to sleep under his house. Why didn’t he make his room light tight so he could sleep next her? Was it because it would mean more? Was he afraid of his safety? Was it because he knew why he was with Sookie from the beginning and he knew feeling her curled against him, or holding her in his arms and smelling her, even deep in his death like sleep would make it harder for him to accept the inevitable end?

                Now there were no facades and there were no deceptions and she was not a person of interest to vampires and his meeting her had no guile. He was with her because he wanted to be with her, he wanted to know her, and he wanted to make love with her. She was not inexperienced but she had been choosy, and she made him feel alive and free. He stroked her hair and felt her wiggle a little closer to him, her leg sliding over his and her body pressing closer. Bill could feel her little breasts against his body and her heart beating beyond that. He lay there in the darkness, counting each beat til dawn shut his eyes.