Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1)(31)

Bill’s eyes were totally dark in the moonlight. “I don’t think so,” he said.

“You are . . .”

“I’m a vampire, Sookie. I don’t think like you. I don’t care about people automatically.”

“You protected me.”

“You’re different.”

“Yeah? I’m a waitress, like Dawn. I come from a plain family, like Maudette. What’s so different?”

I was in a sudden rage. I knew what was coming.

His cool finger touched the middle of my forehead. “Different,” he said. “You’re not like us. But you’re not like them, either.”

I felt a flare of rage so intense it was almost divine. I hauled off and hit him, an insane thing to do. It was like hitting a Brink’s armored truck. In a flash, he had me off the car and pinned to him, my arms bound to my sides by one of his arms.

“No!” I screamed. I kicked and fought, but I might as well have saved the energy. Finally I sagged against him.

My breathing was ragged, and so was his. But I didn’t think it was for the same reason.

“Why did you think I needed to know about Dawn?” He sounded so reasonable, you’d think the struggle hadn’t happened.

“Well, Mr. Lord of Darkness,” I said furiously, “Maudette had old bite marks on her thighs, and the police told Sam that Dawn had bite marks, too.”

If silence can be characterized, his was thoughtful. While he was mulling, or whatever vampires do, his embrace loosened. One hand began rubbing my back absently, as if I was a puppy who had whimpered.

“You imply they didn’t die from these bites.”

“No. From strangulation.”

“Not a vampire, then.” His tone put it beyond question.

“Why not?”

“If a vampire had been feeding from these women, they would have been drained instead of strangled. They wouldn’t have been wasted like that.”

Just when I was beginning to be comfortable with Bill, he’d say something so cold, so vampirey, I had to start all over again.

“Then,” I said wearily, “either you have a crafty vampire with great self-control, or you have someone who’s determined to kill women who’ve been with vampires.”

“Hmmm.”

I didn’t feel very good about either of those choices.

“Do you think I’d do that?” he asked.

The question was unexpected. I wriggled in his pinioning embrace to look up at him.

“You’ve taken great care to point out how heartless you are,” I reminded him. “What do you really want me to believe?”

And it was so wonderful not to know. I almost smiled.

“I could have killed them, but I wouldn’t do it here, or now,” Bill said. He had no color in the moonlight except for the dark pools of his eyes and the dark arches of his brows. “This is where I want to stay. I want a home.”

A vampire, yearning for home.

Bill read my face. “Don’t pity me, Sookie. That would be a mistake.” He seemed willing me to stare into his eyes.

“Bill, you can’t glamor me, or whatever you do. You can’t enchant me into pulling my T-shirt down for you to bite me, you can’t convince me you weren’t ever here, you can’t do any of your usual stuff. You have to be regular with me, or just force me.”

“No,” he said, his mouth almost on mine. “I won’t force you.”

I fought the urge to kiss him. But at least I knew it was my very own urge, not a manufactured one.

“So, if it wasn’t you,” I said, struggling to keep on course, “then Maudette and Dawn knew another vampire. Maudette went to the vampire bar in Shreveport. Maybe Dawn did, too. Will you take me there?”

“Why?” he asked, sounding no more than curious.

I just couldn’t explain being in danger to someone who was so used to being beyond it. At least at night. “I’m not sure Andy Bellefleur will go to the trouble,” I lied.

“There are still Bellefleurs here,” he said, and there was something different in his voice. His arms hardened around me to the point of pain.

“Yes,” I said. “Lots of them. Andy is a police detective. His sister, Portia, is a lawyer. His cousin Terry is a veteran and a bartender. He substitutes for Sam. There are lots of others.”

“Bellefleur . . .”

I was getting crushed.

“Bill,” I said, my voice squeaky with panic.

He loosened his grip immediately. “Excuse me,” he said formally.

“I have to go to bed,” I said. “I’m really tired, Bill.”

He set me down on the gravel with scarcely a bump. He looked down at me.

“You told those other vampires that I belonged to you,” I said.

“Yes.”

“What exactly did that mean?”

“That means that if they try to feed on you, I’ll kill them,” he said. “It means you are my human.”

“I have to say I’m glad you did that, but I’m not really sure what being your human entails,” I said cautiously. “And I don’t recall being asked if that was okay with me.”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably better than partying with Malcolm, Liam, and Diane.”