From Dead to Worse

gold earrings did the decorating for me. I’d had a tough day at work, but I was too curious about the evening ahead to feel tired.
    Eric was on time, and I felt (surprise) a rush of pleasure when I saw him. I don’t think that was entirely due to the blood bond between us. I think any heterosexual woman would feel a rush of pleasure at the sight of Eric. He was a tall man and must have been seen as a giant in his time. He was built to swing a heavy sword to hew down his enemies. Eric’s golden blond hair sprang back like a lion’s mane from a bold forehead. There was nothing epicene about Eric, nothing ethereally beautiful, either. He was all male.
    Eric bent to kiss me on the cheek. I felt warm and safe. This was the effect Eric had on me now that we’d swapped blood more than three times. The blood sharing hadn’t been for pleasure but a necessity—at least I’d thought so—every time, but the price I paid was steep. We were bonded now, and when he was near, I was absurdly happy. I tried to enjoy the sensation, but knowing it wasn’t completely natural made that hard to do.
    Since Eric had come in his Corvette, I was extra glad I’d worn pants. Getting into and out of a Corvette modestly was a very difficult procedure if you were wearing a dress. I made small talk on the way to Shreveport, but Eric was uncharacteristically silent. I tried to question him about Jonathan, the mysterious vampire at the wedding, but Eric said, “We’ll talk about that later. You haven’t seen him again, have you?”
    “No,” I said. “Should I expect to?”
    Eric shook his head. There was an uncomfortable pause. From the way he was gripping the wheel, I could tell that Eric was building up to saying something he didn’t want to say.
    “I’m glad for your sake that it appears Andre didn’t survive the bombing,” he said.
    The queen’s dearest child, Andre, had died in the bombing in Rhodes. But it hadn’t been the bomb that had killed him. Quinn and I knew what had done the deed: a big splinter of wood that Quinn had driven into Andre’s heart while the vampire lay disabled. Quinn had killed Andre for my sake, because he knew Andre had plans for me that made me sick with fear.
    “I’m sure the queen will miss him,” I said carefully.
    Eric shot me a sharp glance. “The queen is distraught,” he said. “And her healing will take months more. What I was beginning to say...” His voice trailed off.
    This wasn’t like Eric. “What?” I demanded.
    “You saved my life,” he said. I’d turned to look at him, but he was looking straight ahead at the road. “You saved my life, and Pam’s, too.”
    I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well.” Miss Articulate. The silence lengthened until I felt I had to say something else. “We do have the blood tie thing going.”
    Eric didn’t respond for a stretch of time. “That’s not why you came to wake me, first of all, the day the hotel blew up,” he said. “But we won’t talk further about this now. You have a big evening ahead.”
    Yes, boss, I said snippily, but only to myself.
    We were in a part of Shreveport I didn’t know too well. It was definitely out of the main shopping area, with which I was fairly familiar. We were in a neighborhood where the houses were large and the lawns were groomed. The businesses were small and pricey ... what retailers called “boutiques.” We pulled into a group of such shops. It was arranged in an L, and the restaurant was at the rear of the L. It was called Les Deux Poissons. There were maybe eight cars parked there, and each one of them represented my yearly income. I looked down at my clothes, feeling suddenly uneasy.
    “Don’t worry, you’re beautiful,” Eric said quietly. He leaned over to unbuckle my seat belt (to my astonishment), and as he straightened he kissed me again, this time on the mouth. His bright blue eyes blazed out of his white face. He looked as if a whole story was on the tip of his tongue. But then he swallowed it back and unfolded himself from the car to walk around to my side to open the door for me. Maybe I wasn’t the only one this blood bond worked on, huh?
    From his tension I realized that some major event was coming at me fast, and I began to be afraid. Eric took my hand as we walked across to the restaurant, and he ran his thumb absently across my palm. I was surprised to find out there was a direct line from my palm to my, my, hootchie.
    We stepped into the foyer, where there was a