“And you’re telling me this because you’re going to do something bad to me in public,” I said, sadly unsurprised.
“I hope it won’t come to that,” he said, and he put his arms around me. In happier times, I’d found that being close to Eric in the summer was very pleasant because his body temp was so low, but I wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the sensation just at the moment. “I have to go,” he said. “I had only an hour when I wouldn’t be missed. I was angry when you saved Sam. But I can’t just dismiss you as if I didn’t care. And I can’t leave you unprotected tonight. My guard will be here if you consent.”
“What guard? Okay,” I said dazedly. He was leaving someone in the yard?
I felt him get off the bed, and after a second I heard the back door open.
What the hell?
I collapsed back onto the bed, and I spent a few minutes wondering if it was even possible I’d get some more sleep. I looked at the clock. Eleven forty-five p.m.
“Sure, wander in and get in bed with me. I don’t mind,” I said. “Please, wake me up and scare me to death. I love it!”
“Is that an invitation?” said a voice from the dark.
I did scream then.
Chapter 6
“Who the hell are you?” I asked, fighting the paralysis in my throat.
“Sorry!” said an accented voice. “I’m Karin.”
I couldn’t place the accent—not Cajun or Spanish or English. . . . “How’d you get in?”
“Eric let me in. You said you consented to be guarded.”
“I thought he meant someone would be outside.”
“He said, ‘here.’ ”
I thought back over the conversation I’d just had, which I didn’t remember any too well. “If you say so,” I said doubtfully.
“I do,” said the calm voice.
“Karin, why are you here?”
“To guard you,” she said, with obvious patience.
“To keep me here? Or to keep other people out?”
“Other people out,” Karin said. She didn’t sound irritated, just matter-of-fact.
“I’m going to turn on the light,” I said. I reached over to my bedside lamp and switched it on. Karin the Slaughterer crouched by the door to my room.
We regarded each other. Weirdly, after a moment, I could see Eric’s progression. If I was a golden blonde and Pam was a paler true blonde, Karin’s hair was at the ash blond end of the spectrum. It fell in heavy waves down her back. Her face was utterly bare of makeup and utterly lovely. Her lips were narrower than mine, as was her nose, but her eyes were wide and blue. Karin was shorter than me or Pam, but just as curvy. Karin was Me 101.
Eric ran true to type.
The biggest difference was not in our features but in our expressions. When I looked into Karin’s eyes, I knew she was a stone-cold killer. All vampires are, but some have more aptitude for it than others. And some take more pleasure in it than others. When Eric had turned Pam and Karin, he’d gotten blond warriors.
If I became a vampire, I’d be like them. I thought of things I’d already done. I shivered.
Then I saw what she was wearing.
“Yoga pants?” I said. “A dread vampire wears yoga pants?”
“Why should I not? They are comfortable,” she said. “Freedom of movement. And very washable.”
I was on the verge of asking her what detergent she used and if she washed them on the cold cycle when I stopped myself. Her sudden appearance had really thrown me for a loop.
“Okay, I’m betting you heard everything Eric said to me. Would you care to expand on his very unsatisfactory conversation?” I asked, moderating my voice to a calm-and-casual level.
“You know as well as I what he was telling you, Sookie,” Karin said. “You don’t need me to interpret, even assuming my father Eric wanted me to do that.”
We kept silent for a moment, me still in the bed and her crouching a few feet away. I could hear the bugs outside when they resumed droning in unison. How’d they do that? I wondered, and realized I was still stunned with sleep and shock.
“Well,” I said. “It’s been fun, but I need to get some rest.”
“How is this Sam doing? The one you returned from the dead?” Karin asked unexpectedly.
“Ahhh . . . well, he’s having a little trouble adjusting.”
“To what?”
“To being alive.”
“He was hardly dead any time,” Karin scoffed. “I’m sure he is singing your