That was why the humans come to vampire bars, and vampire comedy clubs, and vampire dry cleaners, and vampire casinos. “Would you like to come very close and look at mine?” Pam asked in a sultry voice, and the woman shrieked with delighted fear. Now go.” She gave me a get-along pat on the back, and turned to answer a tourist’s question about how often vampires needed to get their teeth cleaned. “You’re protecting your own skin,” Pam said. “What am I doing, Pam?” I asked, jumping on the cautious train way too late. And don’t handle it like it was a garden tool he’d left outside, either.” “Go back to Eric’s office and hand him the bundle,” she said. I simply hadn’t had the leisure to think about it. It appeared to be an expression that compounded exasperation and affection. Pam gave me a look I couldn’t interpret through the veil. “Have you got it?” she whispered in my ear.“Oh, the bundle? It’s in my purse.” I lifted my big brown shoulder bag by its straps. She’d spritzed on a little perfume to eclipse the faint, rather dry, smell of vampire. I was surprised but pleased, and gladly hugged her back.

“My friend,” Pam said, came out from behind the podium to hug me. Her white fingernails were polished scarlet. Tonight the blonde vampire was wearing the obligatory filmy black dress, and she’d camped it up with a long, sheer black veil. I’d known Pam for a while now, and she was as close to a friend as I had among the vampires. She smiled at me broadly, showing a little fang. It was a busy night at Fangtasia, and there was a waiting crowd on benches inside the first set of doors.

Out of sheer perversity, since no one had told me to come around to the employees’ entrance, I entered through the main door. Though I couldn’t help how I felt, I could control my actions. I should have been worried, I should have been apprehensive about what he wanted, I should have asked a million questions about the velvet-wrapped bundle, but I just drove with a smile on my face. I knew I was going to see him, and I was simply happy about it. This was the downside to the blood bond I had with Eric Northman. The closer I got to the vampire bar, the more my pulse picked up.

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris