“There’s a car outside,” Hod said thoughtfully. His voice was much closer, right outside the open pantry door. He was thinking about getting back to Shreveport and taking a hot shower, putting on dry clothes, maybe having sex with his wife. Ew. A few too many details along with that. Kelvin was more prosaic. He wanted to get paid, so he wanted to deliver me. To whom? Dammit, he wasn’t thinking about that. My heart sank, though I would have sworn it was already down to my toes. My bare toes. I was glad I’d painted my toenails recently. Irrelevant!

A bright line of light suddenly appeared in the thin, thin outline of the hatch or trapdoor or whatever Bill called it. The light had been switched on in the pantry. I held as still as a mouse, tried to breathe shallowly and silently. I thought how bad Bill would feel if they killed me right next to him. Irrelevant!

He would, though.

I heard a creak and realized one of the men was standing right above me. If I could have switched my mind off, I would have. I was so conscious of the life in other people’s minds that I had a hard time believing that anyone could ignore a conscious brain, especially one as jittery as mine.

“Just blood in here,” Hod said, so close that I jerked in surprise. “The bottled kind. Hey, Kelvin, this house must belong to a vampire!”

“Don’t make no difference as long as he’s not awake. Or she. Hey, you ever had a female vampire?”

“No, and don’t want to. I don’t like to hump dead people. Course, some nights, Marge ain’t much better.”

Kelvin laughed. “You better not let her hear you say that, bro.”

Hod laughed, too. “No danger of that.”

And he stepped out of the pantry. Didn’t switch off the light, wasteful asshole! Evidently the fact that Bill would know someone had been here was not a concern of Hod’s. So he was really stupid.

And then Bill woke up. This time he was a little more alert, and the second I felt him move, I crouched on top of him and put my hand over his mouth. His muscles tensed, and I had time to think Oh, no! before he smelled me, knew me. “Sookie?” he said, but not at full volume.

“Did you hear something?” said Hod above me.

A long moment of a lively, listening silence. “Shh,” I breathed, right into Bill’s ear.

A cold hand rose and ran down my leg. I could almost feel Bill’s surprise—again—as he realized I was naked . . . again. And I knew the second the fact that he’d heard a voice overhead penetrated his awareness.