Dead as a Doornail

loved so much? Are you protecting him? If I didn’t kill her, did he? Did she die in front of us?”
    Eric had gripped my shoulders, and the pressure was excruciating.
    “Listen, you’re hurting me! Let go.”
    Eric’s grip loosened, but he didn’t remove his hands.
    My breath began to come faster and shallower, and the air was full of the crackling of danger. I was sick to death of being threatened.
    “Tell me now,” he demanded.
    He would have power over me for the rest of my life if I told him he’d seen me kill someone. Eric already knew more about me than I wanted him to, because I’d had his blood, and he’d had mine. Now I rued our blood exchange more than ever. Eric was sure I was concealing something important.
    “You were so sweet when you didn’t know who you were,” I said, and whatever he’d been expecting me to say, it wasn’t that. Astonishment played tag with outrage across his handsome face. Finally, he was amused.
    “Sweet?” he said, one corner of his mouth turning up in a smile.
    “Very,” I said, trying to smile back. “We gossiped like old buddies.” My shoulders ached. Probably everyone in the bar needed a new drink. But I couldn’t go back in just yet. “You were scared and alone, and you liked to talk to me. It was fun having you around.”
    “Fun,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m not fun now?”
    “No, Eric. You’re too busy being . . . yourself.” Head boss vampire, political animal, budding tycoon.
    He shrugged. “Is myself so bad? Many women seem to think not.”
    “I’m sure they do.” I was tired to the bone.
    The back door opened. “Sookie, are you all right?” Sam had hobbled to my rescue. His face was stiff with pain.
    “Shifter, she doesn’t need your assistance,” Eric said.
    Sam didn’t say anything. He just kept Eric’s attention.
    “I was rude,” Eric said, not exactly apologetically, but civilly enough. “I’m on your premises. I’ll be gone. Sookie,” he said to me, “we haven’t finished this conversation, but I see this isn’t the time or place.”
    “I’ll see you,” I said, since I knew I had no choice.
    Eric melted into the darkness, a neat trick that I’d love to master someday.
    “What is he so upset about?” Sam asked. He hobbled out of the doorway and leaned against the wall.
    “He doesn’t remember what happened while he was cursed,” I said, speaking slowly out of sheer weariness. “That makes him feel like he’s lost control. Vampires are big on having control. I guess you noticed.”
    Sam smiled—a small smile, but genuine. “Yes, that had come to my attention,” he admitted. “I’d also noticed they’re pretty possessive.”
    “You’re referring to Bill’s reaction when he walked in on us?” Sam nodded. “Well, he seems to have gotten over it.”
    “I think he’s just repaying you in kind.”
    I felt awkward. Last night, I’d been on the verge of going to bed with Sam. But I was far from feeling passionate at this moment, and Sam’s leg had been hurt badly in his fall. He didn’t look as if he could romance a rag doll, much less a robust woman like me. I knew it was wrong to think of indulging in some sex play with my boss, though Sam and I had been teetering on a fine edge for months. Coming down on the “no” side was the safest, sanest thing to do. Tonight, particularly after the emotionally jangling events of the past hour, I wanted to be safe.
    “He stopped us in time,” I said.
    Sam raised a fine red-gold eyebrow. “Did you want to be stopped?”
    “Not at that moment,” I admitted. “But I guess it was for the best.”
    Sam just looked at me for a moment. “What I was going to tell you, though I was going to wait until after the bar closed, is that one of my rental houses is empty right now. It’s the one next to—well, you remember, the one where Dawn . . .”
    “Died,” I finished.
    “Right. I had that one redone, and it’s rented out now. So you’d have a neighbor, and you’re not used to that. But the empty side is furnished. You’d only have to bring a few linens, your clothes, and some pots and pans.” Sam smiled. “You could get that in a car. By the way, where’d you get this?” He nodded at the Malibu.
    I told him how generous Tara had been, and I also told him I was worried about her. I repeated the warning Eric had given me about Mickey.
    When I saw how anxious Sam looked, I felt like a selfish creep for burdening him with all this. Sam had