Living Dead in Dallas

toxic level. After a dragon has bitten you, the creature tracks you for hours, waiting for the bacteria to kill you. For maenads, the delayed death adds to the fun. For Komodo dragons, who knows?”
    Thanks for the National Geographic side trip, Doc. “What can you do?” I asked, through gritted teeth.
    “I can dose the exterior wounds. But your bloodstream has been compromised, and your blood must be removed and replaced. That is a job for the vampires.” The good doctor seemed positively jolly at the prospect of everyone working together. On me.
    She turned to the gathered vamps. “If only one of you takes the poisoned blood, that one will be pretty miserable. It’s the element of magic that the maenadimparts. The Komodo dragon bite would be no problem for you guys.” She laughed heartily.
    I hated her. Tears streamed down my face from the pain.
    “So,” she continued, “when I’m finished, each of you take a turn, removing just a little. Then we’ll give her a transfusion.”
    “Of human blood,” I said, wanting to make that perfectly clear. I’d had to have Bill’s blood once to survive massive injuries and once to survive an examination of sorts, and I’d had another vampire’s blood by accident, unlikely as that sounds. I’d been able to see changes in me after that blood ingestion, changes I didn’t want to amplify by taking another dose. Vampire blood was the drug of choice among the wealthy now, and as far as I was concerned, they could have it.
    “If Eric can pull some strings and get the human blood,” the dwarf said. “At least half the transfusion can be synthetic. I’m Dr. Ludwig, by the way.”
    “I can get the blood, and we owe her the healing,” I heard Eric say, to my relief. I would have given a lot to see Bill’s face, at that moment. “What is your type, Sookie?” Eric asked.
    “O positive,” I said, glad my blood was so common.
    “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Eric said. “Can you take care of that, Pam?”
    Again, a sense of movement in the room. Dr. Ludwig bent forward and began licking my back. I shrieked.
    “She’s the doctor, Sookie,” Bill said. “She will heal you this way.”
    “But she’ll get poisoned,” I said, trying to think of an objection that wouldn’t sound homophobic and sizist. Truly, I didn’t want anyone licking my back, female dwarf or large male vampire.
    “She is the healer,” Eric said, in a rebuking kind of way. “You must accept her treatment.”
    “Oh, all right,” I said, not even caring how sullen I sounded. “By the way, I haven’t heard an ‘I’m sorry’ from you yet.” My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation.
    “I am sorry that the maenad picked on you.”
    I glared at him. “Not enough,” I said. I was trying hard to hang on to this conversation.
    “Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me.”
    “That’s more like it.” I would have taken more satisfaction in Eric’s words if I hadn’t been jabbed with pain just then. (The doctor’s treatment was not exactly comfortable.) Apologies had better be either heartfelt or elaborate, and since Eric didn’t have a heart to feel (or at least I hadn’t noticed it so far) he might as well distract me with words.
    “I take it the message means that she’s going to war with you?” I asked, trying to ignore the activities of Dr. Ludwig. I was sweating all over. The pain in my back was excruciating. I could feel tears trickling down my face. The room seemed to have acquired a yellow haze; everything looked sickly.
    Eric looked surprised. “Not exactly,” he said cautiously. “Pam?”
    “It’s on the way,” she said. “This is bad.”
    “Start,” Bill said urgently. “She’s changing color.”
    I wondered, almost idly, what color I’d become. I couldn’t hold my head off the couch anymore, as I’d been trying to do to look a little more alert. I laid my cheek on the leather, and immediately my sweat bound me to the surface. The burning sensation that radiated through my body from the claw marks on my back grew more intense, and I shrieked because I just couldn’t helpit. The dwarf leaped from the couch and bent to examine my eyes.
    She shook her head. “Yes, if there’s to be any hope,” she said, but she sounded very far away to me. She had a syringe in her hand. The last thing I