since Amelia was too far away for conversation, even if she’d been up to it. After about twenty minutes, during which time I was disturbed only by a nurse who wrote down some information, I was surprised to see Eric peer around the curtain.
“May I come in?” he asked stiffly. His eyes were wide and he was speaking carefully. I realized that to a vampire, the smell of blood in the emergency room was enchanting and pervasive. I caught a glimpse of his fangs.
“Yes,” I said, puzzled by Eric’s presence in New Orleans. I wasn’t really in an Eric mood, but there was no point in telling the former Viking he couldn’t come into the curtained area. This was a public building, and he wasn’t bound by my words. Anyway, he could simply stand outside and talk to me through the cloth until he found out whatever he’d come to discover. Eric was nothing if not persistent. “What on earth are you doing here in town, Eric?”
“I drove down to bargain with the queen for your services during the summit. Also, Her Majesty and I have to negotiate how many of my people I can bring with me.” He smiled at me. The effect was disconcerting, what with the fangs and all. “We’ve almost reached an agreement. I can bring three, but I want to bargain up to four.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Eric,” I snapped. “That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard. Modern invention, known as the telephone?” I moved restlessly on the narrow bed. I couldn’t find a comfortable position. Every nerve in my body was jangling with the aftermath of the fear of my encounter with Jake Purifoy, new child of the night. I was hoping that when I finally saw a doctor, he or she would give me an excellent painkiller. “Leave me alone, okay? You don’t have a claim on me. Or a responsibility to me.”
“But I do.” He had the gall to look surprised. “We have a bond. I’ve had your blood, when you needed strength to free Bill in Jackson. And we’ve made love often, according to you.”
“You made me tell you,” I protested. And if I sounded a little on the whiny said, well, dammit, I thought it was okay to whine a little. Eric had agreed to save a friend of mine from danger if I’d spill the truth to him. Is that blackmail? Yes, I think so.
But there wasn’t any way to untell him. I sighed. “How’d you get here, anyway?”
“The queen monitors what happens to vampires in her city very closely, of course. I thought I’d come provide moral support. And, of course, if you need me to clean you of blood . . .” His eyes flashed as he inspected my arm. “I’d be glad to do it.”
I almost smiled, very reluctantly. He never gave up.
“Eric,” said Bill’s cool voice, and he slipped around the curtain to join Eric at my bedside.
“Why am I not surprised to see you here?” Eric said, in a voice that made it clear he was displeased.
Eric’s anger wasn’t something Bill could ignore. Eric outranked Bill, and he looked down his substantial nose at the younger vampire. Bill was around one hundred thirty-five years old: Eric was perhaps over a thousand. (I had asked him once, but he honestly didn’t seem to know.) Eric had the personality for leadership. Bill was happier on his own. The only thing they had in common was that they’d both made love to me: and just at the moment, they were both pains in my butt.
“I heard over the police band radio at the queen’s headquarters that the vampire police had been called in to subdue a fresh vampire, and I recognized the address,” Bill said by way of explanation. “Naturally, I found out where Sookie had been brought, and came here as fast as I could.”
I closed my eyes.
“Eric, you’re tiring her out,” Bill said, his voice even colder than usual. “You should leave Sookie alone.”
There was a long moment of silence. It was fraught with some big emotion. My eyes opened and went from one face to another. For once, I wished I could read vampire minds.
As much as I could read from his expression, Bill was deeply regretting his words, but why? Eric was looking at Bill with a complex expression compounded of resolve and something less definable; regret, maybe.
“I quite understand why you want to keep Sookie isolated while she’s in New Orleans,” Eric