Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11)(48)
Author: Charlaine Harris

"Let me get out first," I said, as I pulled up beside the man.

Before Eric could argue, I opened my car door and called, "Colton! It’s Sookie Stackhouse. You know who I am! I’m standing up now, and I’m not armed."

"Go slow." His voice was wary, and I couldn’t blame him.

"Just so you know, Eric Northman is with me, but he’s still in the car."

"Good."

My hands reaching for the sky, I stepped away from the car so he could have a good look at me. The front porch light of the trailer was all he had to see by, but he gave me a thorough scan. While he was trying to pat me down with his eyes, the trailer door opened and a young woman stepped out on the added-on porch.

"Colton, what’s going on?" she asked in a nasal voice with a very "country" accent.

"We got some company. Don’t worry about it," he said automatically.

"Who’s she?"

"The Stackhouse woman."

"Sookie?" The voice sounded startled.

"Yeah," I said. "Do I know you? I can’t see you that well."

"It’s Audrina Loomis," she said. "You remember? I went out with your brother for a while in high school."

So did half the girls in Bon Temps, so that didn’t really narrow my memory down. "It’s been a while," I said carefully.

"He still single?"

"Yeah," I said. "Oh, by the way, can my boyfriend get out now?" Since we were all being just folks here.

"Who’s he?"

"His name’s Eric; he’s a vampire."

"Cool. Sure, let’s have a look." Audrina seemed to be a little more reckless than Colton. On the other hand, Colton had warned me about the fairy blood.

Eric got out of my car, and there was a moment of impressed silence while Audrina absorbed Eric’s magnificence.

"Well, okay," Audrina said, clearing her throat as though it had gone suddenly dry. "You two wanna come in and let us know what you’re doing here?"

"You think that’s smart?" Colton asked her.

"He coulda killed us about six times already." Audrina was not as dumb as she sounded.

When we were all in the trailer and Eric and I were sitting on the couch, which had been covered with an old chenille bedspread and was missing several crucial springs, I got a good look at Audrina. Her roots were dark. The rest of her shoulder-length hair was platinum blond. She was wearing a nightgown that hadn’t really been designed for sleeping in. It was red and mostly sheer. She’d been waiting up for Colton with more on her mind than conversation.

Now that I wasn’t distracted by a leather loincloth and his startling eyes, Colton was much more of an average guy. Some men just can’t radiate sexual attraction unless they take their clothes off, and Colton was such a man. But his eyes were definitely unusual, and he was practically giving me a laser treatment with them now, though not in a sexy way.

"We don’t have any blood," Audrina said. "Sorry." She didn’t offer me anything to drink. She was doing this on purpose, her brain told me. She didn’t want this to seem in any way like a social occasion.

Okay. "Eric and I want to know why you warned us," I said to Colton. And I wanted to know why I’d thought about him when Eric had told me the story of Chico and his mother.

"I heard about you," he said. "Heidi told me."

"You and Heidi are friends?" Eric was intent on Colton, but he spared one of his best smiles for Audrina.

"Yeah," Colton said. "I worked for Felipe at a club in Reno. I knew Heidi from there."

"You moved from Reno to take a low-paying job in Louisiana?" That didn’t make any sense.

"Audrina was from here, and she wanted to try living here again," Colton explained. "Her grandma lives in the trailer down the road, and she’s pretty frail. Audrina works at Vic’s Redneck Roadhouse during the day as a bookkeeper. I work at night at Vampire’s Kiss. And the cost of living is a lot cheaper here. But you’re right, there’s more to the story." He glanced at his girlfriend.

"We came for a reason," Audrina said. "Colton is Chico’s brother."

Eric and I both took a second to work that out. "So it was your mom," I said to the young man. "I’m so sorry." Though I hadn’t heard any more of the story, the name had been enough to snag in my brain.

"Yeah, it was my mom," Colton said. He gave us an entirely blank stare. "My brother Chico is an ass**le who didn’t think twice about becoming a vampire. He gave up his life like some lesser ass**le would get a tattoo. `It’s cool, let’s do it!’ And then he kept on being an ass**le, talking shit to Victor, not understanding. Not getting it." Colton put his head in his hands and shook it from side to side. "Until that night. Then he got it. But our mom was dead. And Chico wishes he was, but he won’t ever be."

"And how come Victor doesn’t know who you are, know to be leery of you?"

"Chico had a different dad, so he had a different last name," Audrina said, to give Colton time to recover. "And Chico wasn’t a family type guy. He hadn’t lived at home for ten years. He only called his mom once every couple of months, never went to see them. But that was enough to give Victor the bright idea of reminding Chico he hadn’t signed a contract with the California Angels."

"More like Hell’s Angels," Colton said, straightening.

If the comparison bothered Eric, he didn’t let on. I was sure it wasn’t the worst he’d heard. "So thanks to Victor’s employee," Eric began, "you knew about my Sookie. And you knew how to warn her when Victor was going to poison us."

Colton looked angry. Shouldn’t have, he thought.

"Yes, you did what you ought to do," I said, maybe a little huffily. "We’re people, too."

"You are," Eric said, reading Colton’s expression as accurately as I read his thoughts. "But Pam and I aren’t. Colton, I want to thank you for your warning, and I want to reward you. What can I do for you?"

"You can kill Victor," Colton said immediately.

"How interesting. That’s exactly what I want to do," Eric said.

Chapter 10

As dramatic statements go, Eric’s had a high impact. Both Audrina and Colton tensed up. But I’d ridden this pony before.

I puffed out my cheeks in exasperation and looked away.

"You’re bored, my lover?" Eric asked, in a voice that could have taught icicles something about chilly.

"We’ve been saying that for months." That might have been a slight exaggeration, but not much. "All we’ve done is talk smack. If we’re going to do something bad, let’s go on and do it–not talk it to death! You think he doesn’t know he’s on our hit list? You think he’s not waiting for us to try?" (Apparently, this was a speech I’d kept secret even from myself, for way too long.) "You think he’s not doing all this shit to you and Pam to provoke you into something, so he’ll be justified in smacking you down? This is a win-win situation for him!"