dead until dark | Page 2

have the bottled synthetic blood?" he asked.
"No, I'm so sorry! Sam's got some on order. Should be in next week."

"Then red wine, please," he said, and his voice was cool and clear, like a stream over smooth stones. I
laughed out loud. It was too perfect.
"Don't mind, Sookie, mister, she's crazy," came a familiarvoice from the booth against the wall. All my
happiness de­flated, though I could feel the smile still straining my lips. The vampire was staring at me,
watching the life go out of my face.
"I'll get your wine right away," I said, and strode off, not even looking at Mack Rattray's smug face. He
was there almost every night, he and his wife Denise. I called them the Rat Couple. They'd done their
best to make me miserable since they'd moved into the rent trailer at Four Tracks Cor­ner. I had hoped
that they'd blow out of Bon Temps as sud­denly as they'd blown in.
When they'd first come into Merlotte's, I'd very rudely listened in to their thoughts—I know, pretty
low-class of me. But I get bored like everyone else, and though I spend most of my time blocking out the
thoughts of other people that try to pass through my brain, sometimes I just give in. So I knew some
things about the Rattrays that maybe no one else did. For one thing, I knew they'd been in jail, though I
didn't know why. For another, I'd read the nasty thoughts Mack Rattray had entertained about yours
truly. And then I'd heard in Denise's thoughts that she'd abandoned a baby she'd had two years before, a
baby that wasn't Mack's.
And they didn't tip, either.
Sam poured a glass of the house red wine, looking over at the vampire's table as he put it on my tray.
When Sam looked back at me, I could tell he too knew our new customer was undead. Sam's eyes are
Paul Newman blue, as opposed to my own hazy blue gray. Sam is blond, too, but his hair is wiry and his
blond is almost a sort of hot red gold. He is always a little sunburned, and though he looks slight in his
clothes, I have seen him unload trucks with his shirt off, and he has plenty of upper body strength. I never
listen to Sam's thoughts. He's my boss. I've had to quit jobs before because I found out things I didn't
want to know about my boss.
But Sam didn't comment, he just gave me the wine. I checked the glass to make sure it was sparkly
clean and made my way back to the vampire's table.
"Your wine, sir," I said ceremoniously and placed it care­fully on the table exactly in front of him. He
looked at me again, and I stared into his lovely eyes while I had the chance. "Enjoy," I said proudly.
Behind me, Mack Rattray yelled, "Hey, Sookie! We need another pitcher of beer here!" I sighed and
turned to take the empty pitcher from the Rats' table. Denise was in fine form tonight, I noticed, wearing
a halter top and short shorts, her mess of brown hair floofing around her head in fashionable tangles.
Denise wasn't truly pretty, but she was so flashy and confident that it took awhile to figure that out.
A little while later, to my dismay, I saw the Rattrays had moved over to the vampire's table. They were
talking at him. I couldn't see that he was responding a lot, but he wasn't leaving either.
"Look at that!" I said disgustedly to Arlene, my fellow waitress. Arlene is redheaded and freckled and
ten years older than me, and she's been married four times. She has two kids, and from time to time, I
think she considers me her third.
"New guy, huh?" she said with small interest. Arlene is currently dating Rene Lenier, and though I can't
see the at­traction, she seems pretty satisfied. I think Rene was her sec­ond husband.

"Oh, he's a vampire," I said, just having to share my delight with someone.
"Really? Here? Well, just think," she said, smiling a little to show she appreciated my pleasure. "He can't
be too bright, though, honey, if he's with the Rats. On the other hand, Denise is giving him quite a show."
I figured it out after Arlene made it plain to me; she's much better at sizing up sexual situations than I am
due to her experience and my lack.
The vampire was hungry. I'd always heard that the syn­thetic blood the Japanese had developed kept
vampires up to par as far as nutrition, but didn't really satisfy their hunger, which was why there were
"Unfortunate Incidents" from time to time. (That was the vampire euphemism for the bloody slaying of a
human.) And here was Denise Rattray, stroking her throat, turning her neck from side to side... what a
bitch.
My brother, Jason, came into the bar, then, and saunteredover