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mouth, and I gagged. His teeth relaxed, and his face fell in on itself. It began to wrinkle. His eyes turned
into gelatinous pools. Handfuls of his thick black hair fell on my face.
I was shocked beyond moving. Hands gripped my shoulders and began pulling me out from under the
decaying corpse. I pushed with my feet to scrabble back faster.
There wasn't an odor, but there was gunk, black and streaky, and the absolute horror and disgust of
watching Long Shadow deconstruct with incredible speed. There was a stake sticking out of his back.
Eric stood watching, as we all were, but he had a mallet in his hand. Bill was behind me, having pulled me
out from under Long Shadow. Pam was standing by the door, her hand gripping Belinda's arm. The
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waitress looked as rocky as I must have.
Even the gunk began to vanish in smoke. We all stood frozen until the last wisp was gone. The carpet
had a kind of scorched mark on it.
"You'll have to get you an area rug," I said, completely out of the blue. Honest to God, I couldn't stand
the silence any more.
"Your mouth is bloody," Eric said. All the vampires had fully extended fangs. They'd gotten pretty
excited.
"He bled onto me."
"Did any go down your throat?"
"Probably. What does that mean?"
"That remains to be seen," Pam said. Her voice was dark and husky. She was eyeing Belinda in a way
that would have made me distinctly nervous, but Belinda seemed to be preening, incredibly. "Usually,"
Pam went on, her eyes on Belinda's pouty lips, "we drink from humans, not the other way around."
Eric was looking at me with interest, the same kind of interest that Pam had in Belinda. "How do things
look to you now, Sookie?" he asked in such a smooth voice you'd never think he'd just executed an old
friend.
How did things look to me now? Brighter. Sounds were clearer, and I could hear better. I wanted to
turn and look at Bill, but I was scared to take my eyes off Eric.
"Well, I guess Bill and me'll go now," I said, as if no other process was possible. "I did that for you, Eric,
and now we get to go. No retaliation for Ginger and Belinda and Bruce, okay? We agreed." I started
toward the door with an assurance I was far from feeling. "I'll just bet you need to go see how the bar is
doing, huh? Who's mixing the drinks, tonight?"
"We got a substitute," Eric said absently, his eyes never leaving my neck. "You smell different, Sookie,"
he murmured, taking a step closer.
"Well, remember now, Eric, we had a deal," I reminded him, my smile broad and tense, my voice
snapping with good cheer. "Bill and I are going home now, aren't we?" I risked a glance behind me at
Bill. My heart sank. His eyes were open wide, unblinking, his lips drawn back in a silent snarl to expose
his extended fangs. His pupils were dilated enormously. He was staring at Eric.
"Pam, get out of the way," I said, quietly but sharply. Once Pam was distracted from her own blood lust,
she evaluated the situation in one glance. She swung open the office door and propelled Belinda through
it, stood beside it to usher us out. "Call Ginger," I suggested, and the sense of what I was saying
penetrated Pam's fog of desire. "Ginger," she called hoarsely, and the blond girl stumbled from a door
down the hall. "Eric wants you," Pam told her. Ginger's face lit up like she had a date with David
Duchovny, and she was in the room and rubbing against Eric almost as fast as a vampire could have. As
if he'd woken from a spell, Eric looked down at Ginger when she ran her hands up his chest. As he bent
to kiss her, Eric looked at me over her head. "I'll see you again," he said, and I pulled Bill out the door as
quick as a wink. Bill didn't want to go. It was like trying to tow a log. But once we were out in the hall he
seemed to be a little more aware of the need to get out of there, and we hurried from Fangtasia and got
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into Bill's car.
I looked down at myself. I was bloodstained and wrinkled, and I smelled funny. Yuck. I looked over at
Bill to share my disgust with him, but he was looking at me in an unmistakable way.
"No," I said forcefully. "You start this car and get out of here before anything else happens, Bill
Compton. I tell you flat, I'm not in the mood."
He scooted across the seat toward me, his arms scooping me up before I could say anything else. Then
his mouth was on mine, and after a second his tongue began licking the blood from my face.
I was really scared. I was also really angry. I grabbed his ears and pulled his head away from mine using
every ounce of strength I possessed, which happened to be more than I thought I had.
His eyes were still like caves with ghosts dwelling in their depths.
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