I didn’t say a word. I waited. I felt like my eyes were shooting flames.
“I love you,” he said.
I waited.
“My maker, Appius Livius Ocella” — the dead Appius Livius Ocella — “was in the process of making a match for me before he died,” Eric said. “He mentioned it to me during his stay, but I didn’t realize the process had gone as far as it had when he died. I thought I could ignore it. That his death canceled it out.”
I waited. I could not read his face, and without the bond, I could only see that he was covering his emotion with a hard face.
“This isn’t much done anymore, though it used to be the norm. Makers used to find matches for their children. They’d receive a fee if it was an advantageous union , if each half could supply something the other lacked. It was mostly a business arrangement.”
I raised my eyebrows. At the only vampire wedding I’d witnessed, there’d been plenty of evidence of physical passion, though I’d been told the couple wouldn’t be spending all their time together.
Eric looked abashed, an expression I’d never thought to see on his face.
“Of course, it has to be consummated,” he said.
I waited for the coup de grace. Maybe the ground would open up and swallow him first. It didn’t.
“I’d have to put you aside,” he admitted. “It’s not done, to have a human wife and a vampire wife. Especially if the wife is the Queen of Oklahoma. The vampire wife must be the only one.” He looked away, his face stiff with a resentment he’d never expressed before. “I know you’ve always insisted that you weren’t my true wife, so presumably that would not be so difficult for you.”
Like hell.
He looked at my face as if he were reading a map. “Though I believe it would be,” he said softly. “Sookie, I swear to you that since I received the letter, I have done everything I could to stop this. I have pleaded that Ocella’s death should cancel the arrangement; I have said that I’m happy where I am; I have even put forward our marriage as a bar. And as my regent, Victor could plead that his wishes supersede those of Ocella, and that I’m too useful to him to leave the state.”
“Oh, no.” I found myself finally able to speak, though only in a whisper.
“Oh, yes,” Eric said bitterly. “I’ve appealed to Felipe, but I haven’t heard from him. Oklahoma is one of the rulers eyeing his throne. He may want to placate her. In the meantime, she calls me every week, offering me a share of her kingdom if I’ll come to her.”
“So, she’s met you face-to-face.” My voice was a little stronger.
“Yes,” he said. “She was at the summit in Rhodes to make a deal with the King of Tennessee about a prisoner exchange.”
Did I remember her? When I was calmer, I might. There’d been several queens there, and not an ugly one among ’em. There were a thousand questions crowding to get out of my head and into my mouth, but I clamped my lips shut. This was not a time to speak, but a time to listen.
I believed this arrangement hadn’t been his idea. And now I understood what Appius had told me when he was about to die. He’d told me I’d never keep Eric. He’d died happy about that, that he’d arranged such an advantageous connection for his beloved son, one that would take Eric away from the lowly human he loved. If he’d been in front of me, I’d have killed Appius again and enjoyed it.
In the middle of this brooding, and while Eric was saying everything all over again, a white face peered in the kitchen window. Eric could see from my face that something was behind him, and he whipped around so quickly I didn’t see him move. To my relief, the face was familiar.
“Let him in,” I said, and Eric went to the back door.
Bubba was in the kitchen a second later, bending over to kiss my hand. “Hey, pretty lady,” he said, beaming at me. Bubba had one of the most recognizable faces in the world, though his heyday had been fifty years before.
“Good to see you,” I said, and I meant it. Bubba had some bad habits, because he was a bad vampire; he’d been too soaked in drugs when he’d been brought over, and the spark of life had been almost extinct. Two seconds later, it would have been too late. But a morgue attendant in Memphis, a vampire, had been so overwhelmed at seeing him that he’d brought the King over. Then, vampires had been secret creatures of the night, not on the cover of every other magazine the way they are now. Under the name “Bubba” he’d been passed around from kingdom to kingdom, given simple tasks to do to earn his keep, and every now and then on memorable nights, he wanted to sing. He was very fond of Bill, less attached to Eric, but Bubba understood the protocol well enough to be polite.