Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1)(40)

We were silent on the way to the Community Building, which was in the older part of Bon Temps; the part that predated the War. The structure was not antebellum, but there had actually been a building on that site that had gotten destroyed during the War, though no one seemed to have a record of what it had been.

The Descendants of the Glorious Dead were a mixed bunch. There were some very old, very fragile members, and some not quite so old and very lively members, and there were even a scattering of middle-aged men and women. But there were no young members, which Gran had often lamented, with many significant glances at me.

Mr. Sterling Norris, a longtime friend of my grandmother’s and the mayor of Bon Temps, was the greeter that night, and he stood at the door shaking hands and having a little conversation with everyone who entered.

“Miss Sookie, you look prettier every day,” Mr. Norris said. “And Sam, we haven’t seen you in a coon’s age! Sookie, is it true this vampire is a friend of yours?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you say for sure that we’re all safe?”

“Yes, I’m sure you are. He’s a very nice . . . person.” Being? Entity? If you like the living dead, he’s pretty neat?

“If you say so,” Mr. Norris said dubiously. “In my time, such a thing was just a fairy tale.”

“Oh, Mr. Norris, it’s still your time,” I said with the cheerful smile expected of me, and he laughed and motioned us on in, which was what was expected of him. Sam took my hand and sort of steered me to the next to last row of metal chairs, and I waved at my grandmother as we took our seats. It was just time for the meeting to start, and the room held maybe forty people, quite a gathering for Bon Temps. But Bill wasn’t there.

Just then the president of Descendants, a massive, solid woman by the name of Maxine Fortenberry, came to the podium.

“Good evening! Good evening!” she boomed. “Our guest of honor has just called to say he’s having car trouble and will be a few minutes late. So let’s go on and have our business meeting while we’re waiting for him.”

The group settled down, and we got through all the boring stuff, Sam sitting beside me with his arms crossed over his chest, his right leg crossed over the left at the ankle. I was being especially careful to keep my mind guarded and face smiling, and I was a little deflated when Sam leaned slightly to me and whispered, “It’s okay to relax.”

“I thought I was,” I whispered back.

“I don’t think you know how.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. I was going to have a few things to say to Mr. Merlotte after the meeting.

Just then Bill came in, and there was a moment of sheer silence as those who hadn’t seen him before adjusted to his presence. If you’ve never been in the company of a vampire before, it’s a thing you really have to get used to. Under the flourescent lighting, Bill really looked much more unhuman than he did under the dim lighting in Merlotte’s, or the equally dim lighting in his own home. There was no way he could pass for a regular guy. His pallor was very marked, of course, and the deep pools of his eyes looked darker and colder. He was wearing a lightweight medium-blue suit, and I was willing to bet that had been Gran’s advice. He looked great. The dominant line of the arch of his eyebrow, the curve of his bold nose, the chiseled lips, the white hands with their long fingers and carefully trimmed nails . . . He was having an exchange with the president, and she was charmed out of her support hose by Bill’s close-lipped smile.

I didn’t know if Bill was casting a glamor over the whole room, or if these people were just predisposed to be interested, but the whole group hushed expectantly.

Then Bill saw me. I swear his eyebrows twitched. He gave me a little bow, and I nodded back, finding no smile in me to give him. Even in the crowd, I stood at the edge of the deep pool of his silence.

Mrs. Fortenberry introduced Bill, but I don’t remember what she said or how she skirted the fact that Bill was a different kind of creature.

Then Bill began speaking. He had notes, I saw with some surprise. Beside me, Sam leaned forward, his eyes fixed on Bill’s face.

“. . . we didn’t have any blankets and very little food,” Bill was saying calmly. “There were many deserters.”

That was not a favorite fact of the Descendants, but a few of them were nodding in agreement. This account must match what they’d learned in their studies.

An ancient man in the first row raised his hand.

“Sir, did you by chance know my great-grandfather, Tolliver Humphries?”

“Yes,” Bill said, after a moment. His face was unreadable. “Tolliver was my friend.”

And just for a moment, there was something so tragic in his voice that I had to close my eyes.

“What was he like?” quavered the old man.

“Well, he was foolhardy, which led to his death,” said Bill with a wry smile. “He was brave. He never made a cent in his life that he didn’t waste.”

“How did he die? Were you there?”

“Yes, I was there,” said Bill wearily. “I saw him get shot by a Northern sniper in the woods about twenty miles from here. He was slow because he was starved. We all were. About the middle of the morning, a cold morning, Tolliver saw a boy in our troop get shot as he lay in poor cover in the middle of a field. The boy was not dead, but painfully wounded. But he could call to us, and he did, all morning. He called to us to help him. He knew he would die if someone didn’t.”