Шарлин Харрис - Dead to the World

"I've been to her headquarters," she said.

We all regarded her in silence for a long moment, but not as raptly as the three vampires did.

"Claudine, have you gone over?" Colonel Flood asked. He sounded more tired than anything else.

"James," Claudine said. "Shame on you! She thought I was an area witch."

Maybe I wasn't the only one who was thinking that such overflowing cheer was a little weird. Most of the fifteen or so Weres in the bar didn't seem too comfortable around the fairy. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble if you'd told us that earlier than tonight, Claudine," the colonel said, his tone frosty.

"A real fairy," Gerald said. "I've only had one before."

"They're hard to catch," Pam said, her voice dreamy. She edged a little closer.

Even Eric had lost his blank and frustrated mien and took a step toward Claudine. The three vamps looked like chocaholics at the Hershey factory.

"Now, now," Claudine said, a little anxiously. "Anything with fangs, take a step back!"

Pam looked a bit embarrassed, and she tried to relax. Gerald subsided unwillingly. Eric kept creeping forward.

Neither of the vampires nor any of the Weres looked willing to take Eric on. I mentally girded my loins. After all, Claudine had awakened me before I could crash my car.

"Eric," I said, taking three quick steps to stand between Eric and the fairy. "Snap out of it!"

"What?" Eric paid no more attention to me than he would to a fly buzzing around his head.

"She's off limits, Eric," I said, and Eric's eyes did flicker down to my face.

"Hi, remember me?" I put my hand on his chest to slow him down. "I don't know why you're in such a lather, fella, but you need to hold your horses."

"I want her," Eric said, his blue eyes blazing down into mine.

"Well, she's gorgeous," I said, striving for reasonable, though actually I was a little hurt. "But she's not available. Right, Claudine?" I aimed my voice back over my shoulder.

"Not available to a vampire," the fairy said. "My blood is intoxicating to a vampire. You don't want to know what they'd be like after they had me." But she still sounded cheerful.

So I hadn't been too far wrong with the chocolate metaphor. Probably this was why I hadn't encountered any fairies before; I was too much in the company of the undead.

When you have thoughts like that, you know you're in trouble.

"Claudine, I guess we need you to step outside now," I said a little desperately. Eric was pushing against me, not testing me seriously yet (or I'd be flat on my back), but I'd had to retreat a step already. I wanted to hear what Claudine had to tell the Weres, but I realized separating the vamps from the fairy was top priority.

"Just like a big petit four," Pam sighed, watching Claudine twitch her white-spangled butt all the way out the front door with Colonel Flood close behind her. Eric seemed to snap to once Claudine was out of sight, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Vamps really like fairies, huh?" I said nervously.

"Oh, yeah," they said simultaneously.

"You know, she saved my life, and she's apparently helping us out on this witch thing," I reminded them.

They looked sulky.

"Claudine was actually quite helpful," Colonel Flood said as he reentered, sounding surprised. The door swung shut behind him.

Eric's arm went around me, and I could feel one kind of hunger being morphed into another.

"Why was she in their coven headquarters?" Alcide asked, more angrily than was warranted.

"You know fairies. They love to flirt with disaster, they love to role-play." The packmaster sighed heavily. "Even Claudine, and she's one of the good ones. Definitely on her way up. What she tells me is this: This Hallow has a coven of about twenty witches. All of them are Weres or the larger shifters. They are all vampire blood users, maybe addicts."

"Will the Wiccans help us fight them?" asked a middle-aged woman with dyed red hair and a couple of chins.

"They haven't committed to it yet." A young man with a military haircut—I wondered if he was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base—seemed to know the story on the Wiccans. "Acting on our packmaster's orders, I called or otherwise contacted every Wiccan coven or individual Wiccan in the area, and they are all doing their best to hide from these creatures. But I saw signs that most of them were heading for a meeting tonight, though I don't know where. I think they are going to discuss the situation on their own. If they could mount an attack as well, it would help us."

"Good work, Portugal," said Colonel Flood, and the young man looked gratified.

Since we had our backs to the wall, Eric had felt free to let his hand roam over my bottom. I didn't object to the sensation, which was very pleasant, but I did object to the venue, which was too darn public.

"Claudine didn't say anything about prisoners who might have been there?" I asked, taking a step away from Eric.

"No, I'm sorry, Miss Stackhouse. She didn't see anyone answering your brother's description, and she didn't see the vampire Clancy."

I wasn't exactly surprised, but I was very disappointed. Sam said, "I'm sorry, Sookie. If Hallow doesn't have him, where can he be?"

"Of course, just because she didn't see him, doesn't mean he's not there for sure," the colonel said. "We're sure she took Clancy, and Claudine didn't catch sight of him."

"Back to the Wiccans," suggested the red-haired Were. "What should we do about them?"

"Tomorrow, Portugal, call all your Wiccan contacts again," Colonel Flood said. "Get Culpepper to help you."

Culpepper was a young woman with a strong, handsome face and a no-nonsense haircut. She looked pleased to be included in something Portugal was doing. He looked pleased, too, but he tried to mask it under a brusque manner. "Yes, sir," he said snappily. Culpepper thought that was cute as hell; I was lifting that directly from her brain. Were she might be, but you couldn't disguise an admiration that intense. "Uh, why am I calling them again?" Portugal asked after a long moment.

"We need to know what they plan to do, if they'll share that with us," Colonel Flood said. "If they're not with us, they can at least stay out of the way."

"So, we're going to war?" This was from an older man, who seemed to be a pair with the red-haired woman.

"It was the vampires that started it," the redheaded woman said.

"That is so untrue," I said indignantly.

"Vamp humper," she said.

I'd had worse things said about me, but not to my face, and not from people who intended me to hear them.

Eric had left the floor before I could decide if I was more hurt or more enraged. He had instantly opted for enraged, and it made him very effective. She was on the ground on her back and he was on top of her with fangs extended before anyone could even be alarmed. It was lucky for the red-haired woman that Pam and Gerald were equally swift, though it took both of them to lift Eric off the redheaded Were. She was bleeding only a little, but she was yelping nonstop.

For a long second, I thought the whole room was going to erupt into battle, but Colonel Flood roared, "SILENCE!" and you didn't disobey that voice.

"Amanda," he said to the red-haired woman, who was whimpering as though Eric had removed a limb, and whose companion was busy checking out her injuries in a wholly unnecessary panic, "you will be polite to our allies, and you will keep your damn opinions to yourself. Your offense cancels out the blood he spilled. No retaliation, Parnell!" The male Were snarled at the colonel, but finally gave a grudging nod.

"Miss Stackhouse, I apologize for the poor manners of the pack," Colonel Flood said to me. Though I was still upset, I made myself nod. I couldn't help but notice that Alcide was looking from me to Eric, and he looked—well, he looked appalled. Sam had the sense to be quite expressionless. My back stiffened, and I ran a quick hand over my eyes to dash away the tears.