“It’s called Two and a Half Men,” Dermot was telling his guest.“I understand,” Bellenos said. “Because the two brothers are grown, and the son isn’t.”“I think so,” Dermot said. “Don’t you think the son is useless?”“The half? Yes. At home, we’d eat him,” Bellenos said.”

“We want to climb in with you,' Dermot said. 'We'll all sleep better.'That seemed incredibly weird and creepy to me - or maybe I only thought it should have. I was simply too tired to argue. I climbed in the bed. Claude got in on one side of me, Dermot on the other. Just when I was thinking, I would never be able to sleep, that this situation was too odd and too wrong, I felt a kind of blissful relaxation roll through my body, a kind of unfamiliar comfort. I was with family. I was with blood.And I slept.”

“how shall we go about this?" Dermot asked. He was blond and Claude was dark; the looked like gorgeous bookends.”

“As it was, I couldn't escape the feeling that I was out of my element. I found myself thinking of a book I'd left half-read at home and wishing I'd stuck it in my purse so I could pull it out now.”

“That would do the trick," he said hoarsely. "Jesus, Harper, I don't understand why we don't have guys following us from town to town just to watch you do that." "Because I've never done it for anyone but you," I said. "You don't think I'd say something like that to anyone else, do you?""Please," he said. "Please do that for me. And no one else.”

“[Eric] 'So you want me to go to a human orgy, where I will not be welcome, and you want us to leave before I get to enjoy myself?' [Sookie] 'Yes,' I said, almost squeaking in my anxiety. In for a penny, in for a pound. 'And... do you think you could pretend to be gay?”

“Bill said, "She is mine."I wondered if my hands would move. They would. I raised both of them, making an unmistakable one-fingered gesture. Eric laughed, and Bill said "Sookie!" in shocked admonishment."I think that Sookie is telling us she belongs to herself," Eric said softly.”