“I see,” Eric said after an appreciable pause. “So protection is necessary.”
“Yes.”
“And you ask this as . . . ?”
If he’d been with his own underlings, he’d have told them to leave so he could talk to me frankly. Since he hadn’t done that, he was probably with one of the Nevada vamps: Sandy Sechrest, Victor Madden, or Felipe de Castro himself, though that was unlikely. Castro’s far more lucrative business ventures in Nevada required his presence most of the time. I finally realized Eric was trying to find out if I was asking as his bed buddy and “wife,” or as someone he owed big-time.
“I ask this as someone who saved Felipe de Castro’s life,” I said.
“I’ll present this petition to Victor, since he’s here at the bar,” Eric said smoothly. “I’ll get back to you this night.”
“Great.” Mindful of vamps’ extreme hearing, I added, “I appreciate that, Eric,” as if we were friendly acquaintances.
Mentally dodging the question of what we actually were to each other, I tucked away the cell phone and went into work, hustling because I was a couple of minutes late. Now that I’d talked to Eric, I felt much more optimistic about my chances of survival.
Chapter 14
I kept my mental ears open that night, so it was a hard evening for me. After years of practice and some help from Bill, I’d learned to block out most of the thoughts of the humans around me. But tonight was just like the bad old days, when I’d smiled all the time to cover the confusion in my head caused by the constant bombardment of mental mutterings.
When I walked past the table where Bud Dearborn and his ancient crony Sid Matt Lancaster were having chicken baskets and beers, I heard, Crystal’s no great loss, but no one gets crucified in Renard Parish. . . . We gotta solve that case, and Got me some genuine werewolves for clients. I wish Elva Deane had lived to see this; she woulda loved it. But mostly Sid Matt was thinking about his hemorrhoids and his spreading cancer.
Oh, gosh, I hadn’t known. My next pass by his table, I patted the venerable lawyer on the shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything,” I said, and met his turtlelike stare with a blank face. He could take it any way he chose, as long as he knew I was willing to help.
When you throw out your net that wide, you come up with a lot of trash. I found out over the course of the evening that Tanya thought she might be settling down permanently with Calvin, that Jane Bodehouse thought she had chlamydia and wondered who was responsible, and that Kevin and Kenya, police officers who always requested the same shift, were actually living together now. Since Kenya was black and Kevin couldn’t be whiter, this was causing Kevin’s folks some problems, but he was standing firm. Kenya’s brother wasn’t too happy about her living situation, either, but he wasn’t going to beat up Kevin or anything like that. I gave them a big smile when I brought them bourbon and Cokes, and they smiled back. It was so rare to see Kenya crack a grin that I almost laughed. She looked about five years younger when she smiled.
Andy Bellefleur came in with his new wife, Halleigh. I liked Halleigh, and we hugged each other. Halleigh was thinking she might be pregnant, and it would be mighty early in the marriage for them to start a family, but Andy was quite a bit older than her. This maybe-pregnancy hadn’t been planned, so she was pretty worried about how Andy would take the news. Since I was laying myself out there tonight, I tried something new. I sent my extra sense down into Halleigh’s belly. If she really was pregnant, it was too soon for the little brain to be registering.
Andy was thinking Halleigh had been quiet the past couple of days, and he was worried something was wrong with her. He was also worried about the investigation of Crystal’s death, and when he felt Bud Dearborn’s eyes on him, he wished he’d picked any other place in Bon Temps for his evening out. The gunfight at Arlene’s trailer was haunting his dreams.
Other people in the bar were thinking about typical stuff.
What are the all-time most popular thoughts? Well, they’re really, really boring.
Most people think about their money problems, what they need from the store, what