"What exactly am I listening for?" I asked, knowing my voice was sharp.
"Someone has embezzled about sixty thousand dollars from us," Eric explained.
Boy, somebody had a death wish.
"And rather than put all our human employees to death or torture, we thought perhaps you would look into their minds and tell us who it was."
He said "death or torture" as calmly as I said, "Bud or Old Milwaukee."
"And then what will you do?" I asked. Eric seemed surprised.
"Whoever it is will give our money back," he said simply. "And then?"
His big blue eyes narrowed as he stared at me. "Why, if we can produce proof of the crime, we'll turn the culprit over to the police," he said smoothly.
Liar, liar, pants on fire. "I'll make a deal, Eric," I said, not bothering to smile. Winsome did not count with Eric, and he was far from any desire to jump my bones. At the moment. He smiled, indulgently. "What would that be, Sookie?"
"If you really do turn the guilty person over to the police, I'll do this for you again, whenever you want." Eric cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I know I'd probably have to anyway. But isn't it better if I come willing, if we have good faith with each other?" I broke into a sweat. I could not believe I was bargaining with a vampire.
Eric actually seemed to be thinking that over. And suddenly, I was in his thoughts. He was thinking he could make me do what he wanted, anywhere, anytime, just by threatening Bill or some human I loved. But he wanted to mainstream, to keep as legal as he could, to keep his relations with humans aboveboard, or at least as aboveboard as vampire-human dealings could be. He didn't want to kill anyone if he didn't have to.
It was like suddenly being plunged into a pit of snakes, cold snakes, lethal snakes. It was only a flash, a slice of his mind, sort of, but it left me facing a whole new reality.
"Besides," I said quickly, before he could see I'd been inside his head, "how sure are you that the thief is a human?"
Pam and Long Shadow both moved suddenly, but Eric flooded the room with his presence, commanding them to be still.
"That's an interesting idea," he said. "Pam and Long Shadow are my partners in this bar, and if none of the humans is guilty, I guess we'll have to look at them."
"Just a thought," I said meekly, and Eric looked at me with the glacial blue eyes of a being who hardly remembers what humanity was like.
"Start now, with this man," he commanded.
I knelt by Bruce's chair, trying to decide how to proceed. I'd never tried to formalize something that was pretty chancy. Touching would help; direct contact clarified the transmission, so to speak. I took Bruce's hand, found that too personal (and too sweaty) and pushed back his coat cuff. I took hold of his wrist. I looked into his small eyes.
I didn't take the money, who took it, what crazy fool would put us in danger like this, what will Lillian do if they kill me, and Bobby and Heather, why did I work for vampires anyway, it's sheer greed, and I'm paying for it, God I'll never work for these things again how can this crazy woman find out who took the fucking money why doesn't she let go of me what is she is she a vampire, too, or some kind of demon her eyes are so strange I should have found out earlier that the money was missing and found out who took it before I even said anything to Eric . . .
"Did you take the money?" I breathed, though I was sure I already knew the answer.
"No," Bruce groaned, sweat running down his face, and his thoughts, his reaction to the question, confirmed what I'd heard already.
"Do you know who did?"
"I wish."
I stood, turned to Eric, shook my head. "Not this guy," I said.
Pam escorted poor Bruce out, brought the next interrogee.
My subject was a barmaid, dressed in trailing black with lots of cleavage on display, her ragged strawberry blond hair straggling down her back. Of course, working at Fangtasia would be a dream job for a fang-banger, and this gal had the scars to prove she enjoyed her perks. She was confident enough to grin at Eric, foolish enough to take the wooden chair with some confidence, even crossing her legs like Sharon Stone—she hoped. She was surprised to see a strange vampire and a new woman in the room, and not pleased by my presence, though Bill made her lick her lips.
"Hey, sweetie," she said to Eric, and I decided she must have no imagination at all.
"Ginger, answer this woman's questions," Eric said. His voice was like a stone wall, flat and implacable.
Ginger seemed to understand for the first time that this was a time to be serious. She crossed her ankles this time, sat with her hands on the tops of her thighs, and assumed a stern face. "Yes, master," she said, and I thought I was going to barf.
She waved an imperious hand at me, as if to say, "Begin, fellow vampire server." I reached down for her wrist, and she flung my hand away. "Don't touch me," she said, almost hissing.
It was such an extreme reaction that the vampires tensed up, and I could feel that crackling the air in the room.
"Pam, hold Ginger still," Eric commanded, and Pam appeared silently behind Ginger's chair, leaning over and putting her hands on Ginger's upper arms. You could tell Ginger struggled some because her head moved around, but Pam held her upper body in a grip that kept the girl's body absolutely immobile.
My fingers circled her wrist. "Did you take the money?" I asked, staring into Ginger's flat brown eyes.
She screamed, then, long and loud. She began to curse me. I listened to the chaos in the girl's tiny brain. It was like trying to walk over a bombed site.
"She knows who did," I said to Eric. Ginger fell silent then, though she was sobbing. "She can't say the name," I told the blond vampire. "He has bitten her." I touched the scars on Ginger's neck as if that needed more illustration. "It's some kind of compulsion," I reported, after I'd tried again. "She can't even picture him."
"Hypnosis," Pam commented. Her proximity to the frightened girl had made Pam's fangs run out. "A strong vampire."
"Bring in her closest friend," I suggested. Ginger was shaking like a leaf by then with thoughts she was compelled not to think pressing her from their locked closet. "Should she stay, or go?" Pam asked me directly.
"She should go. It'll only scare someone else."
I was so into this, so into openly using my strange ability, that I didn't look at Bill. I felt that somehow if I looked at him, it would weaken me. I knew where he was, that he and Long Shadow had not moved since the questioning had begun.
Pam hauled the trembling Ginger away. I don't know what she did with the barmaid, but she came returned with another waitress in the same kind of clothes. This woman's name was Belinda, and she was older and wiser. Belinda had brown hair, glasses, and the sexiest pouting mouth I'd ever seen.
"Belinda, what vampire has Ginger been seeing?" Eric asked smoothly once Belinda was seated, and I was touching her. The waitress had enough sense to accept the process quietly, enough intelligence to realize she had to be honest.
"Anyone that would have her," Belinda said bluntly.
I saw an image in Belinda's mind, but she had to think the name.
"Which one from here?" I asked suddenly, and then I had the name. My eyes sought his corner before I could open my mouth, and then he was on me, Long Shadow, vaulting over the chair holding Belinda to land on top of me as I crouched in front of her. I was bowled over backward into Eric's desk, and only my upflung arms saved me from his teeth sinking into my throat and ripping it out. He bit my forearm savagely, and I screamed; at least I tried to, but with so little air left from the impact it was more like an alarmed choking noise.
I was only conscious of the heavy figure on top of me and the pain of my arm, my own fear. I hadn't been frightened that the Rats were going to kill me until almost too late, but I understood that to keep his name from leaving my lips, Long Shadow was ready to kill me instantly, and when I heard the awful noise and felt his body press even harder on me I didn't have any idea what it meant. I'd been able to see his eyes over the top of my arm. They were wide, brown, crazed, icy. Suddenly they dulled and seemed to almost flatten. Blood gushed out of Long Shadow's mouth, bathing my arm. It flowed into my open mouth, and I gagged. His teeth relaxed, and his face fell in on itself. It began to wrinkle. His eyes turned into gelatinous pools. Handfuls of his thick black hair fell on my face.