“Hey, did you call? I was in the shower,” Amelia said, and I collapsed over the steering wheel, thinking, Thank you God thank you God thank you thank you.

“You okay?” Amelia asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m okay. Where is Tray? Is he there with you?”

“Nope. I went to his house, but he wasn’t there. I waited a while for you, but you didn’t show, so I figured he’d gone to the doctor, and I decided you must have been held up at work or something. I went back to the insurance agency, and I just got home about thirty minutes ago. What’s up?”

“I’ll be there soon,” I said. “Lock the doors and don’t let anyone in.”

“Doors are locked; no one’s knocking,” she said.

“Don’t let me in,” I said, “unless I give you the password.”

“Sure, Sookie,” she said, and I could tell she thought I’d gone over the edge. “What’s the password?”

“Fairypants,” I said, and how I came up with that I have no idea. It simply seemed super unlikely that anyone else in the world would say it.

“I got it,” Amelia said. “Fairypants.”

Bill was back at the car. “I’ve got to go,” I said, and hung up. When he opened the door, the dome light showed his face. It looked grim.

“He’s not there,” he said immediately. “But there’s been a fight.”

“Blood?”

“Yes.”

“Lots?”

“He could still be alive. From the way it smelled, I don’t think it was all his.”

My shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what to do,” I confessed, and it felt almost good to say it out loud. “I don’t know where to go to find him or how to help him. He’s supposed to be working as my bodyguard. But he went out in the woods last night and met up with a woman who said she was your new girlfriend. She gave him a drink. It was bad vampire blood, and it made him sick as the flu.” I looked over at Bill. “Maybe she got it from Bubba. I haven’t seen him to ask. I’m kind of worried about him.” I knew Bill could see me far more clearly than I could see him. I spread my hands in query. Did he know this woman?

Bill looked at me. His mouth curved up in a rather bitter little smile. “I’m not dating anyone,” he said.

I decided to completely ignore the emotional slant. I didn’t have the time or the energy tonight. I’d been right when I’d discounted the mysterious woman’s identity. “So this was someone who could pretend to be a fangbanger, someone convincing enough to overcome Tray’s good sense, someone who could put him under a spell so he’d drink the blood.”