So Fangtasia had closed its doors for the night. It must be two in the morning, then. Bill continued to brush my hair, and I sat in the office chair with my hands on my thighs, acutely conscious of my inadequate clothing. Though, come to think of it, Eric was so tall his shirt covered as much of me as some of my short sets. I guess it was the French-cut bikini panties underneath that made me so embarrassed. Also, no bra. Since God was generous with me in the bosom department, there's no mistaking when I leave off a bra.
But no matter if my clothes showed more of me than I wanted, no matter if all of these people had seen even more of my boobs than they could discern now, I had to mind my manners.
"Thank you all for saving my life," I said. I didn't succeed in sounding warm, but I hope they could tell I was sincere.
"It was truly my pleasure," said Chow, with an unmistakable leer in his voice. He had a trace of an accent, but I don't have enough experience with the different characteristics of the many strains of Asians to tell you where he came from originally. I am sure "Chow" was not his complete name, either, but it was all the other vampires called him. "It would have been perfect, without the poison."
I could feel Bill tense behind me. He laid his hands on my shoulders, and I reached up to put my fingers over his.
Eric said, "It was worth ingesting the poison." He held his fingers to his lips and kissed them, as if praising the bouquet of my blood. Ick.
Pam smiled. "Any time, Sookie."
Oh, just fantastic. "You, too, Bill," I said, leaning my head back against him.
"It was my privilege," he said, controlling his temper with an effort.
"You two had a fight before Sookie's encounter with the maenad?" Eric asked. "Is that what I heard Sookie say?"
"That's our business," I snapped, and the three vampires smiled at each other. I didn't like that one bit. "By the way, why did you want us to come over here tonight, anyway?" I asked, hoping to get off of the topic of Bill and me.
"You remember your promise to me, Sookie? That you would use your mental ability to help me out, as long as I let the humans involved live?"
"Of course I remember." I am not one to forget a promise, especially one made to a vampire.
"Since Bill has been appointed investigator of Area 5, we have not had a lot of mysteries. But Area 6, in Texas, has need of your special asset. So we have loaned you out."
I realized I'd been rented, like a chainsaw or backhoe. I wondered if the vampires of Dallas had had to put down a deposit against damage.
"I won't go without Bill." I looked Eric steadily in the eye. Bill's fingers gave me a little squeeze, so I knew I'd said the right thing.
"He'll be there. We drove a hard bargain," Eric said, smiling broadly. The effect was really disconcerting, because he was happy about something, and his fangs were out. "We were afraid they might keep you, or kill you, so an escort was part of our deal all along. And who better than Bill? If anything should render Bill incapable of guarding you, we will send another escort right out. And the vampires of Dallas have agreed to providing a car and chauffeur, lodgings and meals, and of course, a nice fee. Bill will get a percentage of that."
When I'd be doing the work? "You must work out your financial arrangement with Bill," Eric said smoothly. "I am sure he will at least recompense you for your time away from your bar job."
Had Ann Landers ever covered "When Your Date Becomes Your Manager"?
"Why a maenad?" I asked, startling all of them. I hoped I was pronouncing the word correctly. "Naiads are water and dryads are trees, right? So why a maenad, out there in the woods? Weren't maenads just women driven mad by the god Bacchus?"
"Sookie, you have unexpected depths," Eric said, after an appreciable pause. I didn't tell him I'd learned that from reading a mystery. Let him think I read ancient Greek literature in the original language. It couldn't hurt.
Chow said, "The god entered some women so completely that they became immortal, or very close to it. Bacchus was the god of the grape, of course, so bars are very interesting to maenads. In fact, so interesting that they don't like other creatures of the darkness becoming involved. Maenads consider that the violence sparked by the consumption of alcohol belongs to them; that's what they feed off, now that no one formally worships their god. And they are attracted to pride."
That rang a chime. Hadn't Bill and I both been feeling our pride, tonight?
"We had only heard rumors one was in the area," Eric said. "Until Bill brought you in."
"So what was she warning you of? What does she want?"
"Tribute," Pam said. "We think."
"What kind?"
Pam shrugged. It seemed that was the only answer I was going to get.
"Or what?" I asked. Again with the stares. I gave a deep sigh of exasperation. "What's she gonna do if you don't pay her tribute?"
"Send her madness." Bill sounded worried.
"Into the bar? Merlotte's?" Though there were plenty of bars in the area.
The vampires eyed each other.
"Or into one of us," Chow said. "It has happened. The Halloween massacre of 1876, in St. Petersburg."
They all nodded solemnly. "I was there," Eric said. "It took twenty of us to clean up. And we had to stake Gregory, it took all of us to do that. The maenad, Phryne, received tribute after that, you can be sure."
For the vampires to stake one of their own, things had to be pretty serious. Eric had staked a vampire who had stolen from him, and Bill had told me Eric had had to pay a severe penalty. Who to, Bill hadn't said, and I hadn't asked. There were some things I could live quite well without knowing.
"So you'll give a tribute to this maenad?"
They were exchanging thoughts on this, I could tell. "Yes," Eric said. "It is better if we do."
"I guess maenads are pretty hard to kill," Bill said, a question in his voice.
Eric shuddered. "Oh, yes," he said. "Oh, yes."
***
During our ride back to Bon Temps, Bill and I were silent. I had a lot of questions about the evening, but I was tired from my bones out to my skin.
"Sam should know about this," I said, as we stopped at my house.
Bill came around to open my door. "Why, Sookie?" He took my hand to pull me from the car, knowing that I could barely walk.
"Because..." and then I stopped dead. Bill knew Sam was supernatural, but I didn't want to remind him. Sam owned a bar, and we had been closer to Bon Temps than Shreveport when the maenad had interfered.