"I think you need to know what's going on around you, my lover." Eric had never looked more serious. "Last night, while I was working, I found myself distracted by the idea that you might suffer for your ignorance. Pam agreed. She's wanted to give you the background of our hierarchy for some weeks. But I thought the knowledge would burden you, and you had enough problems to handle. Pam reminded me that ignorance could get you killed. I value you too much to let yours continue."
My initial thought was that I'd really enjoyed that ignorance, and it would have been okay with me if I'd retained it. Then I had to hop all over myself. Eric was really trying to include me in his life and its ins and outs. And he was trying to help me acclimatize to his world because he considered me a part of it. I tried to feel warm and fuzzy about that.
Finally, I said, "Thanks." I tried to think of intelligent questions to ask. "Um, okay. So the kings and queens of each state in a particular division get together to make decisions and bond - what, every two years?"
Eric was eyeing me cautiously. He could tell not all was well in Sookieville. "Yes," he said. "Unless there's some crisis that calls for an extra meeting. Each state is not a separate kingdom. For instance, there's a ruler of New York City and a ruler of the rest of the state. Florida is also divided."
"Why?" That took me aback. Until I considered. "Oh, lots of tourists. Easy prey. High vampire population."
Eric nodded. "California is in thirds - California Sacramento, California San Jose, and California Los Angeles. On the other hand, North and South Dakota have become one kingdom, since the population is so thin."
I was getting the hang of looking at things through vampire eyes. There'd be more lions where the gazelles crowded around the watering hole. Fewer prey animals, fewer predators. "How does the business of - well, of Amun, say - get conducted between those biennial meetings?" There had to be stuff that came up.
"Message boards, mostly. If we have to have a face-to-face, committees of sheriffs meet, depending on the situation. If I had an argument with the vampire of another sheriff, I'd call that sheriff, and if he wasn't ready to give me satisfaction, his lieutenant would meet with my lieutenant."
"And if that didn't work?"
"We'd kick the dispute up the ladder, to the summit. In between meeting years, there's an informal gathering, with no ceremony or celebration."
I could think of a lot of questions, but they were all of the "what if" variety, and there wasn't any immediate need for me to know the answers.
"Okeydokey," I said. "Well, that was real interesting."
"You don't sound interested. You sound irritated."
"This isn't what I expected when I found out you were sleeping in the house."
"What did you expect?"
"I expected you'd come over here because you couldn't wait an extra minute to have fabulous, mind-blowing sex with me." And to hell with the corpse, for the moment.
"I've told you things for your own good," Eric said soberly. "However, now that that's done, I am as ready as ever to have sex with you, and I can certainly make it mind-blowing."
"Then cut to the chase, honey."
With a movement too fast for me to follow, Eric's shirt was off, and while I was admiring the view, his other clothes followed.
"Do I actually get to chase you?" he asked, his fangs already out.
I made it halfway to the living room before he caught me. But he carried me back to the bedroom.
It was great. Even though I had a niggling anxiety gnawing at me, that gnawing was successfully stifled for a very satisfying forty-five minutes.
Eric liked to lie propped on his elbow, his other hand stroking my stomach. When I protested that since my stomach wasn't completely flat, this made me feel fat, he laughed heartily. "Who wants a bag of bones?" he said, with absolute sincerity. "I don't want to hurt myself on the sharp edges of the woman I'm bedding."
That made me feel better than anything he'd said to me in a long time. "Did women ... Were women curvier when you were human?" I asked.
"We didn't always have choices about how fat we were," Eric said dryly. "In bad years, we were all skin and bones. In good years, when we could eat, we did."
I felt abashed. "Oh, sorry."
"This is a wonderful century to live in," Eric said. "You can have food anytime you want."
"If you have the money to pay for it."
"Oh, you can steal it," he said. "The point is, the food is here to be had."
"Not in Africa."
"I know people still starve in many parts of the world. But sooner or later, this prosperity will extend everywhere. It just got here first."
I found his optimism amazing. "You really think so?"
"Yes," he said simply. "Braid my hair for me, would you, Sookie?"
I got my hairbrush and an elastic band. Color me silly, but I really enjoyed doing this. Eric sat on the stool in front of my vanity table, and I threw on a robe he'd given me, a beautiful peach-and-white-silk one. I began brushing Eric's long hair. After he said he didn't mind, I got some hair gel and slicked the blond strands back so there wouldn't be any loose hairs ruining the look. I took my time, making the neatest braid I could, and then I tied off the end. Without his hair floating around his face, Eric looked more severe, but just as handsome. I sighed.
"What is this sound coming from you?" he asked, turning from side to side to get several views of himself in the mirror. "Are you not happy with the result?"
"I think you look great," I said. Only the fact that he might accuse me of false modesty kept me from saying, "So what on earth are you doing with me?"
"Now I'll do your hair."
Something in me flinched. The night I'd had sex for the very first time, Bill had brushed my hair until the sensuality of the movement had turned into a very different kind of sensuality. "No, thanks," I said brightly.
I realized that I felt very odd, all of a sudden.
Eric swung around to look up at me. "What's making you so jumpy, Sookie?"
"Hey, what happened to Alaska and Hawaii?" I asked at random. I still had the brush in my hand, and without meaning to, I dropped it. It clattered on the wooden floor.
"What?" Eric looked down at the brush, then up at my face, in some confusion.
"What section are they in? They both in Nakamura?"
"Narayana. No. Alaska is lumped in with the Canadians. They have their own system. Hawaii is autonomous."