Mallory Reads "Dead to the World"
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We
have reached the 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. But with
only 6 weeks to go and 10 books left to read, it’s gonna be close.
When
we last left our heroine, she was de-inviting all vampires from her house and
vowing to stay out of their crap. Why do I have the feeling that will not last
long?
This
new book begins with a kind of intro. It has been a few weeks (I think) since
the events of Club Dead. Sookie gets home from work and finds a note on her
front door.
Dearest Sookie- I wanted to
come over to talk to you when you had somewhat recovered from the unfortunate
events of earlier this month. Probably, you have a lot of questions about what
happened. If you’ll talk to me face-to-face, come to the front door and let me
in.
Unfortunate
events? I’ll say. Questions? Hell yes. Wanna talk? Well, I say no, but she
decides yes. Sookie is still wounded by what Bill did and even though she
doesn’t trust him, per-say, she doesn’t think he’ll hurt her physically. So she
invites him in. Despite herself, she still kinda wants him. I can’t fault her
for that. He is the only guy she’s ever loved and the only one she’s ever had
sex with. Breakups are tough.
He
informs her that he is leaving for Peru on the Queen’s orders. Something to do
with his vampire database. They sit and she asks about Bubba. Bill tells her
that he is back with the Queen in New Orleans. Awkward silence. Then he starts
talking about Lorena.
“As Eric says he told you,
vampire liaisons don’t tend to last long, though they’re very intense while
they’re ongoing. However, what Eric did not tell you was that Lorena was the
vampire who brought me over.” “To the dark side?” I asked, and then I bit my
lip.
He
tells her that after Lorena turned him, they became lovers, which is unusual.
They broke up like 80 years ago.
“But I had to obey her
summons. This is absolutely imperative. When your maker calls, you must
respond.”
This
is something new to add to the list. There is some sort of mystical bond
between a vampire and their maker. So I guess it wasn’t totally Bill’s fault he left. But just because she called him
didn’t mean he had to sleep with her. If he really loved Sookie, I think he
would have been able to fight the bond.
Bill
tells her that Lorena ordered him to leave her or Sookie would die. But this
just makes Sookie mad. He should have at least talked to her first. But he had to go, he says. He halfway asks if
she still loves him and she says she doesn’t know.
“I wouldn’t think you’d want
to come back to me. After all, I killed your mom.”
Burn.
I think. He says they just need more time apart and they can talk when he gets
back. He wants a kiss and even though she wants to, she only kisses his cheek.
He wants to know if she is dating the Were. To which I say, none of your damn
business.
“Which one?” I asked,
resisting the temptation to bat my eyelashes. He deserved no answer, and he
knew it.
Way
to stick it to him. I applaud you, Sookie! He says he’ll be back in two weeks
and she agrees to maybe talk to him then. She tries to give him his keys back
but he insists she keep it in case she needs to get into his house while he is
gone.
“My mail’s getting held at
the post office until I give them notice, and I think all my other loose ends
are taken care of.”
So I was his last loose end.
I damned up the trickle of anger that was all too ready to bubble out these
days.
I
think vampire blood is making Sookie angry.
--------------------------
In
Chapter 1, holy junk.
It’s
New Year’s Eve and Sookie is working the late shift at Merlotte’s. They’re
cleaning up the confetti and counting money. Kenya the cop is coming to
accompany Sam to the bank drop box as she does when he has a lot of money to
deposit.
Sookie
thinks back on the night and how not awesome it had been. Several patrons made
comments about Bill leaving and some jerk named Chuck calls her “vampire
leavings.” Sam steps in and intimidates them I guess cause they apologize. Why
do people have to be mean to Sookie?
We
find out that she did return Bill’s computer and his disks to him after she
de-invited him and Eric from her house. After hearing that Bill left town,
Arlene comes to give Sookie encouragement. Other fish in the sea and all that.
Actually, she calls him a bastard and asks what he ever did for Sookie anyway.
What had bill done for me?
He’d introduced me to sex,
which I really enjoyed. Introduced me to a lot of other vampires, which I
didn’t. Saved my life, though when you thought about it, it wouldn’t have been
in danger if I hadn’t been dating him in the first place. But I’d saved his
back once or twice, so that debt was canceled. He’d called me “sweetheart”, and
at the time he’d meant it.
“Nothing,” I muttered, as I
mopped up a spilled pina colada and handed one of our last clean bar towels to
the woman who’d knocked in over, since a lot of it was still in her skirt. “He
didn’t do a thing for me.”
I’m
starting to think maybe they are really over. Good. She’s better off, and with
time I am sure she will move on. Even though she can’t think of any good thing
to come out of their relationship (besides sex I guess) she still doesn’t like
him being gone since he’s like her only neighbor and people are always trying
to kill her and stuff.
Jason
comes into the bar during the night with a new woman. (…a short, thin, dark twenty-one-year-old from somewhere way out in the
sticks.) But there’s something else about this girl. She’s a shape-shifter.
She and Sam have a stare down, which makes Sookie think this chick doesn’t
shift into a bunny.
Sam himself turns into a
collie when the moon is bright and round. Sometimes he trots all the way over
to my house, and I feed him a bowl of scraps and let him nap on my back porch,
if the weather’s good, or in my living room, if the weather’s poor. I don’t let
him in the bedroom anymore, because he wakes up naked-in which state he looks
very nice, but I just don’t need to be tempted by my boss.
So
I’m pointing out this paragraph for several reasons. For one, later on I want
to point out something related. For another, it is becoming evident that
Sookie’s main reason for not dating Sam is that she works for him. When he
first asked her out and when he’s kissed her, her thoughts are always, “this is
the boss” “boss boss boss”. Sigh.
Sookie
also mentions that there are two other supernatural creatures in the bar. One
is a vampire, just chilling with some humans, but the other is… well, we don’t
know.
One was a magnificent woman
at least six feet tall, with long rippling dark hair. Dressed to kill in a
skintight long-sleeved orange dress, she’d come in by herself, and she was in
the process of meeting every guy in the bar.
Hmm.
I wonder what she could be. Though the real question is, is she dangerous?
That
night, after the crowd leaves, Sam asks Sookie, Arlene and Kenya what their New
Year’s Resolutions are. Arlene is still looking for the right man, and as
Sookie hears in her head, she thinks the new cook, Tack might be it. Kenya’s is
peace between men and women and to bench-press 140. Sam says he has everything
he needs and Sookie knows he means it.
Sookie’s
resolution is to not be beaten up, go to the hospital or get into trouble.
Bless her heart a thousand times. That is my resolution too, Sookie. They all
hug goodbye and go their separate ways. And you would just know that in the
five miles between the bar and Sookie’s house, she finds herself trouble.
Already? The year just started!!
Something white appeared in
the headlights of my old car. I gasped, jolted out of my drowsy anticipation of
warmth and silence. A running man: At three in the morning on January first, he
was running down the parish road, apparently running for his life.
Now
I can tell you what I would do here. Keep driving. But that is because I am not
a brave soul like Sookie. Also, she really needs a cell phone. She slows her
car and notices the man is wearing only blue jeans. He is tall and blonde and
Eric?
Sookie
stops the car and runs after him. Not sure this is such a great idea but okay
sure. He stops and hisses at her, fangs out. He warns her to stay back, but he
calls her woman. Like he doesn’t know her. He asks who she is and she asks him
what the heck he’s doing out there. He doesn’t know. He also doesn’t know who he is. The look on his sad, lost face
makes Sookie sad. Me too.
Eric
knows he is a vampire and that Sookie isn’t, but that’s pretty much it. She
tells him they are kind of friends and he says he won’t hurt her. She gets him
in the car, after a bit of hesitation on his part. Sookie wonder if this is
some kind of trick, but if it is, I can’t figure out why he would do this.
Although I do recall him saying something about not caring why she sleeps with
him, so maybe he developed a plan to act helpless so get to her. I wouldn’t
totally put it past him, but it still seems unlikely. Eric is too proud I
think.
We
find out vampires can freeze when it’s cold, but it can’t kill them. She wraps
a blanket around him in the car because he’s freezing her with no clothes on.
She asks him if he was out that way to see Bill, but he doesn’t know who Bill
is. Sookie explains he is her ex but that rings no bells. They arrive at her
house and Eric is afraid to get out of the car.
I’m
sorry but this is just hilarious. Century old, over-confident, all-powerful
Eric is afraid of… everything. I’m enjoying this.
She
gets him in the house and decides to wash his feet since his lack of shoes
combines with running has made them bleed and all. She instructs him to take
his dirty pants off so that she can wash them. He obliges and is wearing red
bikini-style underwear. Haha. Weird. He wraps back up in the afghan and sits.
They chat while she cleans his feet off.
He
tells her women should not be out alone at night and she should have a man
looking out for her. She tells him she has a brother (when he asks if there are
no men in her family) and he doesn’t understand why Jason is not taking care of
Sookie. LOL. Jason? Take care of Sookie? LOL.
Sookie
decides to call Pam and has to go through the process of explaining who Pam is
to Eric. She’s not completely sure Pam didn’t have something to do with what
happened to him, but she doesn’t have a lot of options. She calls Fangtasia and
Pam indicates there is trouble. They have misplaced Eric. Sookie informs her
that Eric is at her house and Pam mutters something about witches and then says
she and Chow will come get him the next night, since it is close to dawn.
Sookie
explains all of this to Eric and shows him where he will be sleeping, in the
guest bedroom closet.
Bill liked having a
bolt-hole, and I was sure he had some I didn’t know about. If I’d been a
vampire (God forbid), I would have, myself.
Doesn’t
sound like someone who wants to be a vampire in the future.
Eric
asks if he can stay in Sookie’s room with her until sunrise and she agrees
since he has sad puppy dog eyes. I think I would have agreed as well. She gets
ready for bed (in the bathroom) and then climbs in. To her surprise, Eric gets
in the bed, too.
“Woman?” “Hmm?” “What’s your
name?” “Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse.” “Thank you, Sookie.” “Welcome, Eric.”
Because he sounded so
lost-the Eric I knew had never been one to do anything other than assume other
should serve him-I patted around under the covers for his hand. When I found
it, I slid my own over it. His palm was turned up to meet my palm, and his
fingers clasped mine. And though I would not have thought it was possible to go
to sleep holding hands with a vampire, that’s exactly what I did.
----------------------------
In
Chapter 2, never piss off a witch.
The
next morning (well like noon) Sookie wakes up alone, of course. Eric has
retreated to the hidey-hole. She goes about her business, meandering around the
house. She is off from work for two days. She washes Eric’s pants, drinks
coffee, looks at her Word of the Day calendar (she really likes that thing) and
just lounges. Jason shows up around four just after she’s showered and is
combing her hair.
He
asks what Sookie thinks about his new woman and she warns him to stay away from
her. She decides it’s time Jason knows about shifters. He doesn’t want to
believe her but he does. Then he changes the subject and starts talking about
Hoyt’s date. Poor man’s truck got stuck in a ditch and they had to walk two
miles back to town.
I
like to see these two interact in a non-hostile way. Jason has his issues but
he’s the only family that Sookie has so I want them to get along.
She
asks if he will go into town to get some synthetic blood and clothes for Eric.
Just as he’s asking who Eric is and why he’s sleeping in Sookie’s house, the
man in question enters the room wearing a bath robe. Guess the sun went down.
“This is your newest man,
Sookie? You didn’t let any grass grow under your feet.”
Well,
so much for getting along.
She
doesn’t want to introduce them, which upsets Jason and offends Eric. They
introduce themselves and shake hands. Jason proceeds to threaten Eric because
he senses that Sookie is in trouble, which she probably is. Then Eric informs
Jason that he should be taking care of his sister. LOL.
Then,
dirty joke!
“Big feet,” Jason commented,
and flashed me a look. “Is the old
saying true?” I smiled at him. He was trying to lighten the atmosphere. “You
may not believe me, but I don’t know.” “Kind of hard to swallow…no joke intended.”
Joke
so intended!! LOLOL!
Jason
heads off to the store and Sookie has to explain to wounded Eric why she didn’t
want the two men to meet. She believes Eric is in trouble and doesn’t want
Jason involved. Eric senses she is sad and knows she has taken his blood. He
asks if they were lovers, to which she half-way honestly answers no. They
haven’t slept together. He asks who the bathrobe belongs to and she has to
explain Bill to him.
I
may have mentioned this before but vampires definitely have reflections in this
world and Sookie is staring at Eric’s in the mirror. Hmm… She tells him Pam and
Chow will be there soon and then has to explain about Fangtasia. But she
doesn’t really know a lot about his life, which he realizes. She ogles his
muscles while he brushes out his hair.
When
Pam and Chow arrive, they discover Eric does not remember them either. Sookie
tries to leave the vamps alone to talk but Eric, who actually seems afraid,
asks her to stay. Another knock on the door and Jason is back. But since he
sounds like something is wrong, Sookie sends Pam around the back of the house
to make sure that he is alone. He is. Though Pam grabs him up off of the ground
anyway. After she lets him down, he changes his tune from angry to flirty. Oh
Jason.
Then
Pam starts glamoring him to tell them what he knows. There are wanted posters
up all over town with Eric’s face on them. The reward for finding him is
$50,000. Pam theorizes that whoever is after Eric put them up in hopes of
catching him before they could find him. Chow wants to kill Jason so he doesn’t
think of cashing in on the reward. Eric wants to know what all of this is
about.
Pam
decides to tell them all what is going on. They sit in the living room, Eric
props against Sookie’s legs, so Pam can explain. A few nights before, they had
been informed of witches arriving in Shreveport.
“Real witches can be women
or men of any age. They are very formidable, very powerful. They control
magical forces, and our existence itself is rooted in magic."
Also,
this particular group of witches is extra powerful. They wanted to take over
Fangtasia or have Eric pay them to leave him alone. And since witches could
cast all kinds of spells to ruin the business, they were in a tight spot to
pay. But Hallow, the leader, decided what she wanted instead of money was Eric.
If he would spend 7 nights with her, she would demand less of his business.
Chow explains that this is unusual because most witches want nothing to do with
vampires. But this coven focuses more on power than religion.
Eric was not entirely
successful at hiding his pleased expression. He was glad to hear he was such a
Romeo. There was a slight difference in the way he looked up at me in the next
moment, and I had a feeling of horrid inevitability-like when you see your car
begin to roll downhill (though you’re sure you left it in park), and you know
there’s no way you can catch up to it and put on the brakes, no matter how much
you want to. The car is gonna crash.
I
am to assume this long analogy means she will inevitably give in to his charms
herself. Anyway, Eric refused the offer for some unknown reason. Pam says they
were trying to talk him into reconsidering when all of the sudden he vanished
right out of the office. Well, he disappeared after Chow tried to attack the
witch.
Then
Jason starts talking about how no one would associate Eric with Sookie. The
vampire has never been to Merlotte’s. What is he getting at? I think I know.
Jason admits he’s been to Fangtasia (news to Sookie) and makes the point that
if Eric is taken back to Shreveport, he may be more easily recognized. There
probably aren’t many witches in Bon Temps either. I freekin know where this is
going. (Though I can’t say I really mind it. J)
Sookie
asks why the witches could just cast a spell to find Eric. They could, but only
if they had something of his to use, which they don’t.
“They can’t get into Eric’s
daytime resting place to find a hair or clothes that bear his scent. And
there’s no one around who’s got Eric’s blood in her.”
Umm…
Chow
doesn’t think a spell would work anyway though since they’re dead, but you
never know. Pam and Chow decide Eric should stay at Sookie’s. Who saw that
coming? Just everyone.
Sookie
doesn’t really want this to happen. Her resolution was to not get beat up
again. Jason insists that if Sookie keeps Eric, the vamps will pay her $50,000.
So this had been his plan all along. Kind of an a-hole move, Jason. He and Chow
argue over the money, but settle on $35,000.
Well,
aside from her brother sucking big time, and being roped back into vampire
issues, there is one thing to look
forward to. I like the new innocent Eric and I have a sneaking suspicion this
car is gonna crash sooner rather than later. If you know what I mean.
----------------------------
In
Chapter 3, oh no.
Sookie
is a bit distraught that she has once again gotten involved in vampire
business. She asks herself how this happened while she sits on the rug in front
of the fireplace. Eric joins her.
“I think this happened
because you have a greedy brother, and because you are the kind of woman who
would stop for me even though she was afraid,” Eric said accurately.
All
true.
Eric
seems glad that Pam and Chow fear him enough to look out for him. It’s kind of
sad that you have to count on people’s fear rather than their love and
compassion. Maybe all Eric needs is love.
They
start chatting about Bill and Eric wants to know all about what happened
between Sookie and her former lover. She tells him about Bill and about what
happened in Mississippi with Lorena. She talks of Club Dead and how she got
staked which inevitably leads to why she took his blood. Sookie is actually
enjoying the conversation, enjoying having someone to talk to with whom she can
share all of the gory details.
After
she reveals that she killed Lorena, Eric wants to know if she has ever killed
someone before that.
“No, I’m a human. I don’t
have to kill anyone to live.” “But humans kill other humans all the time. And
they don’t even need to eat them or drink their blood.”
Good
point. But Eric admits that vampires are still killers. Sookie tries to compare
them to lions, who only eat to live, but Eric points out that vampires are also
capable of loving humans they feed from. They used to be humans. So they’re
behavior can’t just be written off as a need to feed.
Suddenly there was something
in the air that hadn’t been there the moment before. I felt a little like an
antelope that was being stalked-by a lion that was a deviant.
Oh
snap. But Sookie threatens to throw Eric out if he tries anything. Way to kill
the mood, Sookie! But Eric seems surprised that she thought he had any such
intentions. And so she relaxes and they start watching Buffy. It’s a good thing they were watching season one instead of
six. So she goes to bed and a little while later, Eric crawls in as well. He
puts his arm around her but that is all.
She
wakes up the next morning to the phone ringing. It is Catfish Hennessey,
Jason’s boss. Her brother did not show up for work that morning. Sookie
suggests he spent the night with a woman, but Catfish has tried to call him and
sent someone by his house to see if he was there, and he wasn’t. (Let me just
point out that my first thought would be that Chow changed his mind and went
after Jason.) Jason’s truck had been there, however, and the door had been
standing wide open. Sookie gets worried but they decide to hold off on calling
the police for a little while longer.
Sookie
gets dressed and thinks of 3 scenarios of what could have happened to Jason.
One: he met a woman last night, fell in love and ran off with her. Two: the
witches have him. Three: Jason had gone with Pam and Chow to Shreveport and
ended up with some vamp girl for the night.
Why
she doesn’t think those two may have killed him is beyond me. But she does
think that if Pam and Chow know something she will chop some stakes. This
brings back memories of killing Lorena and we see she is still dealing with
this. You can’t just kill someone for the first time and not be affected. Even
if it was a crazy vampire ho. Since she can’t talk to Pam or Chow until dark,
she won’t know if they know anything for a while.
Catfish
calls back later and still hasn’t heard anything from Jason so Sookie calls the
sheriff. Bud actually laughs at her. Apparently he doesn’t think too highly of
Jason and believes the man is probably shacked up with a random woman
somewhere. Bud tells her to call back the next afternoon if Jason doesn’t turn
up. Sookie decides she will drive to Shreveport to ask any humans at Fangtasia
if they know anything. And read their minds of course.
She
considers asking someone to go with her, Arlene, Sam, Alcide… but decides to
buck up and go alone. She leaves a note for Jason, really for Eric but just in
case someone were to come in while she were gone she doesn’t want them finding
out a vampire is sleeping in her house, to say where she is going and when she
will be back. She’s almost afraid to leave Eric alone but decides there is no
way the witches could really know where he was.
Sookie
decides to call local hospitals just to make sure Jason wasn’t admitted
anywhere, and it doesn’t look like he was. She called his friend, his exes, but
no one has heard from him. Then she ventures to his house and finds Alcee Beck,
detective, there. (Al-say just FYI) Alcee doesn’t like Sookie because she kind
of scares him. Bud had asked him to drop by and take a look around. Maybe the
sheriff cares after all.
Sookie
uses her key and lets them both in the house. They look around but do not see
anything suspicious. Sookie decides to get Jason’s rifle to take with her just
in case. They go back outside and she puts the gun in the trunk, bullets in the
dashboard. Is this a law, I guess? Can’t carry bullets and guns together?
There
is a dock down behind Jason’s house and from this distance, there looks to be
something smeared on it. Alcee goes to investigate. Sookie hears him wonder
what kind of boots Jason wore and she answers, even though he hadn’t asked the question
out loud. She also hears him think Jason is probably dead and in the pond and
asks if they plan to search it. He looks all terrified that she knew all of
that and she tries to talk herself out of it. Anyway, there is blood on the
dock and men’s boot prints and Jason better not be dead or I’m gonna be so mad.
Alcee
explains that it might take a few days to find a diver to look in the pond.
Then he delivers what I assume to be bad news. Carla Rodriguez, Jason’s ex was
in town last night. She and Jason used to fight a lot, but he’d also cared
about her more than any girl he’d ever dated. She’s been staying with her
cousin Dovie in Shreveport.
To
Shreveport we go!
---------------------------
In
Chapter 4, Tara’s back!
Alcee
rushes Sookie off after that and she knows that there’s something the detective
doesn’t want her to see. She thinks of calling someone, but decides against it.
She doesn’t want to be the person who shows up when they’re in trouble. When
she starts wishing for her grandmother back and can’t help but cry, she pulls
the car over and tries to come up with a plan.
She’s
considering driving on to Shreveport when a black Camaro pulls up behind her.
In it are Tara and the beautiful woman from the bar- the woman who is not quite
human.
She was as dark-haired as
Tara, though the new woman had reddish highlights that surprised the eye. She
had dark eyes, too, but hers were huge and almond-shaped, almost abnormally
large. Her skin was as pale as milk, and her legs were as long as a stepladder.
She was gifted in the bosom department, and she was wearing fire engine red
from head to toe. Her lipstick matched.
I
wonder what this woman could be. Not a vampire. Tara comes to sit in Sookie’s
passenger seat and asks what happened. She heard on the police scanner that
something was wrong at Jason’s. She drove over to check it out and saw Sookie
pulling out of his driveway. Sookie tells her Jason is missing. Tara asks
questions like, where was he, who was he with, has he been dating anyone new?
Sookie mentions the shifter and gets a surprising reaction. Tara doesn’t know
about shifters and she doesn’t remember what happened at Club Dead. Or, as
Sookie theorizes, she is pretending not to.
This
upsets our heroine because now she feels like she has no one to talk to. Here
she thought, now one of my friends knows about supes and I’m not alone. And
now, no. Finally gets a friend, can’t tell her stuff. Sookie briefly wonders if
Franklin put ideas in Tara’s mind about that night, Sookie getting drunk being
one of them, but she still doubts it. When the girl touches her, she knows the
truth. Tara is lying.
Sookie
decides to ask if Tara knows any witches though, and she admits that she does.
She has friends who are Wiccan. One of them being Holly, fellow Merlotte’s
waitress Holly. Also Danielle. Before they part ways, Sookie introduces herself
to Tara’s friend.
“I’m Claudine,” she said,
with a beautiful smile. Her teeth were Hollywood white. Her skin has an odd
quality; it looked glossy and thin, reminding me of the skin of a plum; like if
you bit her, sweet juice would gush out.
Kind
of a gross comparison, but alright. Claudine explains that she is in town
because of all of the supernatural activity. Vampires, Weres, crossroads, and
other stuff. Sookie also notices herself (and Tara) smiling in the woman’s
presence. They can’t help it. Okay, that’s weird right? What is this woman?
Tara
calls up Holly, who is at home and willing to talk to Sookie, then says she and
Claudine are headed to her store to get ready for their New Year’s sale. But
before they leave, Tara mentions that Bill left a number for her to call while
he is in Peru if she were to need something. (He owns the strip mall her store is
in.) She offers it to Sookie and says Bill seemed all sad when she last spoke
to him, but Sookie informs her that she already has the number and doesn’t want
to hear about Bill’s sadness. She thanks Tara for the info about Holly and they
all leave.
Sookie
drives to Holly’s apartment. We learn Holly’s 4 year old son name is Cody. Also
she used to date Andy Bellefluer but his grandmother didn’t think she was good
enough for him.
When Holly answered the
door, I realized all of a sudden how much she’d changed over the past few
weeks. For years, her hair had been dandelion yellow. Now it was matte black
and spiked. Her ears had four piercings apiece. And I noticed her hipbones
pushing at the thin denim of her aged jeans.
So
being Wiccan turns you into an emo anorexic? Or maybe just these new crazy
witches.
Holly
explains that Cody is at his dad, David’s, house. David just married a new
woman. Sookie asks Holly if she’s a witch. May as well just cut to the chase.
The woman says she is a Wiccan and Sookie asks the difference. This is what I
gathered:
Witches
practice magic. They tap into powers others don’t. Witches are wicked
necessarily.
Wiccans
follow a pagan religion. Connecting with nature and Mother Earth.
You
can be both, one, or the other.
Then
Sookie asks if Holly has heard about the new witches who have arrived in
Shreveport. She has and they are dangerous. The leader, Hallow I presume, and
her brother are evil and the whole coven is pretty just as bad. And what makes
them different than other witches… they’ve had vampire blood. Powerful witches
with super human strength and senses? Sounds mighty dangerous. Also, some of
them are Weres. Well, crap.
Sookie
finally gets Holly to tell her where the witches are, and old business near the
mall. Holly knows all of this because she has been there. Hallow had called a
summit of sorts for all witches in the area. She wanted them all to join her in
her evilness. Since that is all of the info Sookie is getting out of Holly, she
thanks her and leaves.
Instead
of going home to just sit and wait, Sookie opts to go on to Shreveport to talk
to Jason’s ex and the humans at Fangtasia. Hopefully someone will know
something.
JASON
BETTER NOT BE DEAD!!
----------------------
In
Chapter 5, find all the dead bodies!
Sookie’s
first stop in Shreveport is Carla’s, but the girl knows nothing. She said she
was at Merlotte’s the night before but she didn’t see Jason there. Sookie’s
next stop is Fangtasia. She pulls around back to go in the employee entrance as
she always does and find the door open. This is the first sign that something
is amiss. The second is when she approaches the door and hears moaning (not the
good kind) coming from inside. Being the good hearted person she is, she goes
in to see who might be hurt.
Turns
out the injured party is Belinda, one of the waitresses. (Remember her from
Dead Until Dark? She was the first mind Sookie read for Eric.)
Her legs were bent double,
her heels pressed against her hips. There was no blood—in fact, no visible
mark—on her. Apparently, she was having a giant and perpetual leg cramp.
That
sounds pretty awful. Sookie asks her what happened and Belinda manages to tell
her the witches dropped by after Pam and Chow had gone for the night. Only she
and Ginger had still been there. The witches were looking for Eric and they
know someone is hiding him. But the girls didn’t know anything so the witches
hit them with a spell to shorten their back legs muscles. Perpetual cramps
indeed.
Sookie
calls 911 and then looks for Ginger, who is dead. It appears as if she fell and
hit her head when the witches cast the spell on her. Sookie wisely chooses not
to tell Belinda Ginger is dead. No need to dump more on her while she’s in
pain. Belinda says Hallow claims she is as strong as a vampire and points out a
dolly handle the witch bent into the shape of a U. Well great. Sookie decides
to leave before the police arrive because she doesn’t want to waste time
talking to them.
She
leaves not really knowing where she is going next. Eventually, she decides to
just call Alcide. She figures he and the Shreveport Weres need to know about
Hallow and her crew. Alcide is at work and gives Sookie directions to his
office. He seems happy to see her and even gives her a hug when she arrives.
There
is a snooty lady at the front desk who doesn’t think Sookie is good enough to
date a Herveaux. Well screw you, lady. Speaking of, this woman’s been sleeping
with Alcide’s dad for two years. When they get to his office, Alcide starts off
their conversation by apologizing for turning into a wolf and leaving her at
Club Dead when she got staked. She says she knows he couldn’t help it, which is
interesting given she was so pissed at Bill for leaving her that time.
They
decide to go get coffee (at Applebees… am I the only one who thinks this is
weird?) so she can tell him what she needs to tell him. He sits on the same
side of the booth as her so they can share their secrets better. Okay, so let
me rant for a minute. It really bugs me when I see couples sitting on the same
side of a booth in a restaurant. I’m like, I get you’re in love or whatever,
but when you’re sitting next to someone, you can’t really look at their face
when you’re talking. You can make out, which you shouldn’t be doing in public
anyway, but you have no arm space for eating. Anyway, I guess this is
acceptable since they are only getting coffee and talking about classified
information.
Sookie
thinks about how she likes Alcide and thinks he’s a really good guy, but also
how she doesn’t want anything to do with him until he gets rid of Debbie once
and for all. I get that, but a part of me really wished he would be rid of
Debbie cause he and Sookie are cute together.
After
the waiter leaves their table she tells him everything, including Eric being at
her house. Alcide worries about that little detail because he knows that puts
Sookie in danger. When is she never not in danger though? He also tells her not
to worry about Jason too much yet, the blood on the dock might not even be his.
Alcide makes a call to the Shreveport packmaster, which leads to info about
werewolves.
Packmasters
are usually older than Alcide and very very tough. They are elected but have to
pass a “test”. An endurance test of sorts. Sookie first asks Alcide if he is
the packmaster, but he says he is not important enough.
Alcide
tells Sookie he’s never heard of shifter witches, or witches powerful enough to
do what these are doing. This is worrisome. Generally, supes look as witches as
wanna-be harmless humans. Alcide is surprised to learn that Bill has left the
country. He was under the impression that Sookie had taken the vampire back.
Debbie told him. Sookie gets angry that he would believe anything Debbie says.
They
venture off to see Colonel Flood, Shreveport packmaster. He’s a retired Air
Force colonel with one daughter and some grandkids. His wife died a few months
back. The first thing the colonel asks when they come in his house is if Alcide
is seeking permission to get married. His reply is “not today.” Hmm… so maybe
someday?
Sookie
relays the info (leaving out certain parts) to Flood. The colonel decides they
need to call on the pack trackers (those with super good noses, I guess) to
find out where the coven is staying. He informs Alcide that Adabelle, his
second in command, did not show up to the committee meeting the night before,
and he’s afraid she might have gotten involved with the witches. Adabelle had
wanted to be the packmaster and may not have been happy being only second. Flood
wants Alcide to go check on Adabelle since she is not answering her phone.
Before
they leave, Alcide recommends Sookie be made a friend of the pack. I imagine
this has some sort of significance which I think we find out later. On the way
to Adabelle’s, Alcide asks who sent Bill to Peru. Sookie doesn’t really know
for sure, could have been the queen, could have been Eric. Alcide wonders if
this is all some elaborate scheme of Eric’s to get in Sookie’s pants. But
Sookie and I both think that is a little outrageous, even for Eric.
But Alcide still didn’t look
satisfied. Of course, this was the man who had believed Debbie Pelt when she
said that I was definitely back with Bill. I wondered if I could get some witch
to cast a truth spell on Debbie Pelt, whom I despised because she had been
cruel to Alcide, insulted me grievously, burned a hole in my favorite wrap
and–oh—tried to kill me by proxy. Also, she had stupid hair.
Stupid
hair is always a good reason not to like someone. Just ask Spike. Out. For. A.
Walk. Bitch.
If Alcide had known Bill and
I had parted, would he have come by? Would one thing have led to another? Well,
sure it would have. And there I’d be, stuck with a guy who’d take the word of
Debbie Pelt. I glanced over at Alcide and sighed. This man was just about
perfect in many respects. I liked the way he looked, I understood the way he
thought, and he treated me with great consideration and respect. Sure, he was a
werewolf, but I could give up a couple of nights of month. True, according to
Alcide it would be difficult for me to carry his baby to term, but it was at
least possible. Pregnancy wasn’t part of the picture with a vampire.
Whoa. Alcide hadn’t offered
to father my babies, and he was still seeing Debbie.
Getting
a little ahead of ourselves? That’s okay, though.
They
arrive at Adabelle’s house and find her mother at home. The woman hasn’t seen
her daughter since the day before and she seems worried that something has
happened to her. Adabelle runs Verena Rosa, a bridal shop in town, and called
her mother the night before to let her know she had a last minute appointment
with a new customer before she came home. Alcide and Sookie volunteer to go
check the shop, which turns out to be a bad idea.
They
are dismayed to find specks of blood on a display dress in the shop window.
Sookie checks and there are no brainwaves coming from inside. Alcide can smell
dead things. As her eyes wander around the front of the shop, Sookie spots
something in the flower bed. A hand. With nothing attached to it. Alcide opens
the door to the shop and… Sookie tries not to scream.
Alcide
calls Flood and then the police. They opt to wait for the officers to arrive
since the area is so public and many people could have seen them outside of the
shop. But when the cops show, they start lying through their teeth. Sookie
claims she wanted to come look at wedding dresses because she and Alcide are
getting married. The detective shocks them both when he mentions there are two
bodies.
There’s
not much left of one of them.
After
they are released, Alcide drives them a ways and pulls over to call Flood. He
thinks Adabelle may have taken out one of her attackers and perhaps the witches
tried to take that person’s body parts back with them so no one could ID that
body. After his phone call, he tells Sookie the pack is going to take care of
it and she worries for his safety. He promises to call her to let her know he’s
alright. Awww.
He
also says stupid Debbie is coming over and Sookie suggests the shifter help the
pack but he scoffs at that. Weres clearly do think they are the top dogs of the
two-natured world.
So
two dead bodies in one day. This staying out of trouble thing is really not
working out too well.
------------------------------
In
Chapter 6, my showers are never this exciting.
Sookie
heads back to Bon Temps and makes a run by the grocery store. (Hey, she needs
stuff. Also, Eric needs more blood.) She runs into Jason’s friend Hoyt. They
chat about her missing brother and Hoyt asks if maybe Jason ran off with the
girl he was with on New Year’s, Crystal Norris. He tells Sookie the girl is
from Hotshot, a smaller town than Bon Temps with a bunch of weirdies living in
it. Sookie says she will call the girl tomorrow.
She
gets home, unloads her groceries and calls the police station to see if there
is any news of Jason. There isn’t. Then she goes back through the house to see
if Eric is up yet. She finds him in the bedroom, putting some pants on… sans
underwear.
If there was an international
butt competition, Eric would win, hands down—or cheeks up. He would get a
large, large trophy. I had never realized a woman could have to struggle to
keep her hands off a man, but here I was, digging my nails into my palms,
staring at the inside of my eyelids as though I could maybe see through them if
I peered hard enough. It was somehow degrading, craving someone so…so
voraciously—another good calendar word—just because he was physically
beautiful. I hadn’t thought that was something women did, either.
Whoa!
Insta-turn-on. Eric’s butt must really be fabulous. He notices her and asks if
she is alright. She opens her eyes and starts staring at his pencil
eraser-sized nipples and contemplates… well, you know. But she insists that she
is fine and rushes off to take a shower. A cold shower?
Then:
WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY.
Sookie
hops in the shower and gets ready to wash off when suddenly she is not alone.
I gasped, just short of a
shriek. He had discarded the jeans. He was also in the mood, the same mood I
was in. You could really tell, with Eric. His fangs were out some, too. I was
embarrassed, horrified, and absolutely ready to jump him. While I stood
stock-still, paralyzed by conflicting waves of emotion, Eric took the soap out
of my hands and lathered up his own, set the soap back in its little niche, and
began to wash my arms, raising each in turn to stroke my armpit, down my side,
never touching my breasts, which were practically quivering like puppies who
wanted to be petted.
Eric
asks if they have ever slept together and she says no. He thinks he was a fool.
Though really, he did try super hard to have sex with her before. She would
just never give in. Now it seems she may have changed her tune. She’s certain
that if this were the real Eric, she would have the strength to put an end to
it.
The real Eric came with a
whole package of power and politics, something of which I had limited
understanding and interest.
This
will become an important part of my overall argument for Sookie’s happily ever
after, later. So here are the good/funny parts.
I could feel part of Eric
pressed against my back, and he wasn’t standing that close. Yikes. Yahoo. Yum.
I felt like a car that had
only been operated by one driver…a car its new prospective buyer was determined
to take to the Daytona 500. (I’m not sure, but I think this is an insult to
Bill.)
Oh, to hell with thinking. I
took the soap from the niche and lathered up my fingers. As I stepped very
close to him, I kind of folded Mr. Happy up against Eric’s stomach, so I could
reach around him and get my fingers on that absolutely gorgeous butt. (I’m starting to think
Sookie is a butt person.) I couldn’t look
him in the face, but he let me know he was delighted I was responding. He
spread his legs obligingly and I washed him very thoroughly, very meticulously.
He began to make little noises, to rock forward. I began to work on his chest.
I closed my lips around his right nipple and sucked. He liked that a lot. His
hands pressed against the back of my head. “Bite a little,” he whispered, and I
used my teeth.
His hands began to move
restlessly over whatever bit of my skin they could find, stroking and teasing.
When he pulled away, he had decided to reciprocate, and he bent down. While his
mouth closed over my breast, his hand glided between my legs. I gave a deep
sigh, and did a little moving of my own. He had long fingers.
The next thing I knew, the
water was off and he was drying me with a fluffy white towel (Interruption for my opinion
on fluffy towels. They seem like a good idea at the time, but truthfully, I
don’t feel like they soak up water when they’re fluffy. It takes longer to dry
yourself off and so I prefer un-fluffy towels.) and I was rubbing him with another one. Then we just kissed for a
while, over and over.
To
the bed!
I was so on fire for him I
was surprised that flames didn’t flicker out of my fingertips. I curled my
fingers around him and stroked. Suddenly, Eric was on top of me, about to
enter. I was exhilarated and very ready. I reached between us to put him at
just the right spot, rubbing the tip of him over my nub as I did so. “My
lover,” he said hoarsely, and pushed. Though I’d been sure I was prepared, and
I ached with wanting him, I cried out with the shock of it.
“Watch me,” he said in my
ear, and pulled out. I tried to yank him back, but he began kissing his way
down my body, making strategic stops, and I was hovering on the golden edge
when he got all the way down. His mouth was talented, and his fingers took the
place of his penis, and then all of a sudden he looked up the length of my body
to make sure I was watching—I was—and he truned his face to my inner thigh,
nuzzling it, his fingers moving steadily now, faster and faster, and then he
bit.
I may have made a noise, I
am sure I did, but in the next second I was floating on the most powerful wave
of pleasure I’d ever felt. (Poor Bill.) And the minute the
shining wave subsided, Eric was kissing my mouth again, and I could taste my
own fluids on him (eww), and then he
was back inside me, and it happened all over again.
I wished he would pretend to
breathe, as Bill always had during sex. (This is interesting. I guess the thought of my
sexual partner being dead would freak me out, too.)
“I wish,” I said, “I could
save orgasms in a jar for when I need them, because I think I had a few extra.”
Eric
decides as bedroom talk, he wants to know about how he and Sookie met and all
about their history. Then they have sex again. She tells him he’s beautiful
(which I find slightly strange) and that she likes his butt and it’s her
favorite part of him.
“I would have thought of
another part.” “Well that’s certainly…adequate,” I told him, burying my face in
his chest. I knew immediately I’d picked the wrong word. “Adequate?” He took my
hand, placed it on the part in question. It immediately began to stir. He moved
my hand on it, and I obligingly circled it with my fingers. “This is adequate?”
“Maybe I should have said it’s a gracious plenty?”
I’m
not even sure what to say about that. LOL.
He was ready again, and
honestly, I didn’t know if I could. I was worn out to the point of wondering if
I’d be walking funny the next day. I indicated I would be pleased with an
alternative by sliding down in the bed, and he seemed delighted to reciprocate.
After another sublime release, I thought every muscle in my body had turned to
Jell-O. I didn’t talk anymore about the worry I felt about my brother, about
the terrible things that had happened in Shreveport, about anything
unpleasant.
I had many worries waiting
for me the next day, but thanks to Eric, for a few precious hours I just didn’t
care.
--------------------------
In
Chapter 7, Hotshot.
Sookie
wakes up the next morning, sore but feeling good. She showers and reflects on
the night before. She’d had sex with someone she doesn’t love, and she is happy
about it. She misses the companionship and intimacy she used to share with
Bill. And why should it matter if she sleeps with Eric? Neither of them are in
a relationship. Even though Eric isn’t exactly Eric at the moment, I can’t
imagine the real him would care. In fact, he’d probably be doing a victory dance.
I had regrets, of course. I
would love to get married and have babies. I’d be faithful as can be. I’d be a
good mom, too. But I couldn’t marry a regular guy, because I would always know
when he lied to me, when he was angry with me, every little thought he had
about me. Even dating a regular guy was more than I’d been able to manage.
Vampires can’t marry, not yet, not legally; not that a vampire had asked me, I reminded
myself, tossing a washcloth into the hamper a little forcefully. Perhaps I
could stand a long association with a Were or a shifter, since their thoughts
weren’t clear. But there again, where was the willing Were?
Hey,
call on me, I know, I know! Actually, I can name two! And speaking of… the
phone rings and it’s Sam. He asks about Jason and if Sookie wants someone else
to take her shift for the day and if there’s anything he can do. How sweet,
right? J She asks him about Jason’s date from New Year’s. A
Norris girl from Hotshot, he says. That community is full of inbreds who
are…different. He can’t give more details over the phone since he isn’t alone,
but he warns her to be careful around the people of Hotshot.
So
immediately she decides to go there. Alone.
There were a few houses
scattered around, maybe eight or nine. These were small houses, none of them
brick. Most of them had several cars in the front yard. Some of them sported a
rusty swing set or a basketball hoop, and in a couple of yards I spotted a
satellite dish.
So
this is a small community. She finds
Crystal’s house and knocks on the door. Crystal invites her inside into the
small living room. There is a baby playing on the floor, Crystal’s sister’s.
Sookie informs the girl that Jason is missing but can tell that she already
knows. Crystal immediately gets defensive insisting she had nothing to do with
it and doesn’t have to say anything to Sookie.
I looked at the doorway to
see a man who was probably on the upside of forty. He had a trimmed beard
salted with gray, and his hair was cut close to his head. He was a small man,
perhaps five foot seven or so, with a lithe build and muscular arms.
His
name is Calvin Norris, and he is Crystal’s uncle. Also a shifter. Sookie
informs Calvin she is looking for her brother and believes that Crystal knows
something. Calvin, who gives off the air of authority demands Crystal say what
she knows. It dawns on Sookie that Sam was trying to tell her everyone in
Hotshot is two-natured. Calvin must be their leader. He asks Sookie if she
knows Sam and she replies that she also knows Alcide and Colonel Flood.
Crystal
then tells her story. She’d met Jason in Wal-Mart on New Year’s Eve and ended
up being his date. She makes a comment about how Jason is in bed and Calvin
slaps her. She continues, saying she went over to his place the next night but
he had to leave to see his sister. When he got back, she heard the truck pull
up but Jason never came inside. She heard him walk around the back of the house
and then walk farther away. She heard some yelling and loud noises and then
nothing.
Crystal
says she didn’t go look but she could smell blood and maybe a hint of a
shifter. She reveals her sense of smell wasn’t as good because she can’t change
unless it is a full moon. Sookie thanks them and Calvin walks her out to her
car. Then Calvin makes the weirdest offer ever. He says that he will protect
her now that Jason is gone. Because he’s known her for more than five minutes.
Then, he propositions her to lend her genes to their community. They are so
inbred that most of them can’t even shift unless there’s a full moon.
He
has heard rumors about her, knows she is more than your average human. And
apparently she looks like a good breeder. Umm…okay. Awkward. She thanks him and
leaves, thinking she’s had worse offers. She wonders on the drive to work if Crystal
was trying to get pregnant when she was with Jason.
Sam
asks how the trip to Hotshot went and Sookie isn’t sure how to explain the
offer Calvin made. It’s not every day someone propositions you to breed with
them. As far as Sam knows, Calvin is a good dude but he tells a story of
Sheriff Dowdy, the old sheriff. He went out to Hotshot to arrest Carlton
Norris, Calvin’s older brother for statutory rape. No one ever saw either of
them again and no one in Hotshot seems to know what happened. The bar crowds up
then and they don’t get to finish the conversation.
I was very fond of Sam,
who’d often had a starring role in some of my most private fantasies, but at
this point, I had so much to worry about I just couldn’t take on any more.
Fantasies
huh?
Andy
and Portia come in to the bar and neither seem that concerned that Jason is
missing. Portia asks about Bill but Sookie snubs them off. Kendra and Kevin
come in. They are curious to know if she knows the vampire on the missing
posters. She admits that she has met him at Fangtasia but doesn’t know anything
about his disappearance.
Two
others come into the bar that night.
The woman coming in was tall
and so slim and broad shouldered that I checked her chest, just to be sure I’d
registered her gender correctly. Her hair was short and thick and brown, and
she was wearing absolutely no makeup. There was a man with her, but I didn’t
see him until she stepped to one side. He was no slouch in the size department
himself, and his tight T-shirt revealed arms more developed than any I’d ever
seen. Hours in the gym; no, years, in the tight curls, and his beard and
mustache were perceptibly redder. Neither of the two wore coats, though it was
definitely coat weather.
Witches.
They are looking for Sam. Sookie sees Holly retreat to the back as the
strangers make their way to the bar. They want to hang a poster up in the bar,
a poster with Eric’s face on it.
When Sookie attempts to read her mind, the witch feels her and Sookie
has to immediately pull back.
This had never happened to
me before. No one, no one, had ever suspected I was listening in.
Okay
wait. I thought that in the first book Sam felt Sookie in his mind. On the day
she found Dawn’s body and he showed up, she had mentioned that his mind
retreated back from her and that he’d shut her out. Doesn’t that count?
Sam
calls Sookie over and introduces the two: Marnie and Mark Stonebrook. He shows
her the picture of Eric and asks if she knows him. She gives them the same
response she gave Kevin and Kenya. Sookie and Sam both wonder why they want to
put the posters up in Bon Temps since Eric is probably not there. The witches
know one vampire lives in town though and think he may know where Eric is. They want to know where Bill lives and
Sookie has to tell them. She doesn’t want to be caught in a lie later on.
The
witches leave and Sam informs her that they are sending witches to the
residences of all vampires in the area. They think one of them is hiding Eric.
He asks if she needs to leave and she does. She has to go home and warn Eric.
While she gives the witches time to be gone from the parking lot, Sam asks if
she thinks they have something to do with Jason’s disappearance. She warns him
about them and tells him they are drinking vampire blood. Sam wants to know
where Eric is, but Sookie plays dumb. She just wants to go check on Bill’s
house after the witches leave.
Yeah…right.
Who believes that? Sam asks if she wants him to go with her but she declines.
She
drives home but before she can get into the house, Eric catches her on the
porch with a kiss. For a moment, she contemplates forgetting about all of the
bad stuff and just having sex with him but manages to tell him they need to
hide. He wants to known from whom and when she tells him about the witches looking
for him at Bill’s, instead of hiding, he has another idea.
What?
What is it? What is he going to do?
I
have a bad feeling about this.
--------------------------
In
Chapter 8, more injuries. Luckily, not Sookie’s.
Eric
throws Sookie on his back and dashes through the woods, right toward the
witches. They pass cars parked near the cemetery and bound all the way to
Bill’s. The witches are going to
break into Bill’s house with a spell but before Hallow can finish chanting,
Mark smells someone. Sookie most likely.
Hallow
instructs him to change and he does. Sookie feels a furry movement at their
legs and knows there is more than one animal in the dark. Eric dashes away,
leaving her with the animal. It presses her to the tree so that she cannot
move. She hears an assortment of growls and sinks down to her knees, hugging to
the… wolf? There are howls of pain and then the sounds of a car and then sounds
of more pain…like an animal being hit by a car. She realizes she is being
shielded by a dog, not a wolf. Sam.
Sookie
jumps up and runs to Bill’s front porch and flips on the lights. The yard is
full of wolves. Eric plops down from the sky. He couldn’t catch the witches in
their car. The dog growls at him and goes to stand by Sookie. One of the wolves
makes his way to Sookie and tugs on her shirt with his teeth. He leads her to
where a bunch of other wolves are standing around.
There was blood on the
ground, and in the middle of the spreading pool lay a young dark-haired woman.
She was naked. She was obviously and terribly injured. Her legs were broken,
and maybe one arm.
Sookie
sends Eric after her car and tells the wolves that she needs at least one of
them to change back to human form. Colonel Flood does and she sends him into
the house to get some blankets. Sookie tries to talk to the injured girl,
Maria-Star Cooper. Flood and Eric get the girl into the car and after telling
Eric he can’t go, Sookie leaves to take Maria-Star to the hospital. She agrees
to meet them all back at Merlotte’s later. The wolves had parked at the
cemetery.
At
the hospital, Sookie has to talk to the police. She tells them she found the
girl on the side of the road and didn’t have a cell phone to call an ambulance.
This is no lie. She needs a cell phone for real. Maybe Eric will buy her one.
The
doctor lets them know Maria-Star is stable and they are transporting her to a
different hospital. Before they take her, Sookie talks to the girl, letting her
know what she told the police in case she was asked to back up the story later.
Feeling
exhausted, Sookie heads back to Merlotte’s. She starts to fall asleep at the
wheel, when a voice wakes her. There is now a passenger in her car. Claudine.
The woman says that she is a go-between of the three worlds. Umm what? Sookie
wonders if she is an angel, but Claudine says she hasn’t gotten that far.
Maybe
it’s because she is tired, or maybe because she’s used to crazy supernatural
stuff happening, but Sookie doesn’t question the woman any further. They arrive
at Merlotte’s and Sookie sees Chow in the parking lot. Super.
Claudine
decides to go inside. She seems a little too excited about it. Why is she so
happy all the time? What’s weirder is the way Chow reacts to her. He seems in a
sort of mystified state. This insanity is just beginning.
--------------------------
In Chapter 9, meeting of
the supernatural minds.
Every supe Sookie knows is
in the bar, in human form. Colonel Flood seems to know Claudine, who is
disappointed in him for not taking better care of Sookie. Eric, Pam and Gerald
are all staring at Claudine the same was Chow had been. Alcide comes through
the crowd and hugs Sookie. He asks Claudine what she is. Finally! Someone else
wants to know as much as me. She lifts her hair to reveal pointy ears and says
she is a fairy.
A fairy? Really?
But she says that that
soon she’ll go one way or the other, something no one understands. Me included.
Flood asks about
Maria-Star and Sookie relays what the doctor told her. She wants to know how
there Weres knew the witches would be at Bill’s. He says their trackers did
their tracking and found where the witches were hiding out. They followed them
to Bon Temps and called Sam to warn him. Sam called him back when Hallow and
her brother left the bar to let them know where he thought there were going.
Sookie is a little ticked that Sam didn’t tell her any of this information.
Pam has some news as well.
Clancy, a nest mate of theirs, went missing. They received a note from the
witches that they would drain a vampire every day until they give Eric up. Eric
wants to know what makes him so special and Sookie believes she knows.
Since Eric is so old, his
blood so powerful, Hallow believes if she drains him, they can make a lot of
money off of his blood. Like $40,000. Add that to taking over his business and
possibly having sex with him and you’ve got a big motive for wanting him.
The vampires are edging
closer to the fairy. Claudine reveals that her blood is intoxicating to
vampires so Sookie instructs her to go outside.
The Weres begin discussing
how to take down the witches. They are trying to get the Wiccans in the area to
assist them. Claudine has been to the witches’ layer (fairies love danger or
something) but there was no sign of Jason. Two of the Weres, Portugal and
Culpepper, are given the job of contacting the Wiccans. Amanda, another Were,
decides vampires are to blame and when Sookie defends them, Amanda insults her.
Eric gets all fangy, defending her, and Flood stops them from fighting. But
it’s too late because now everyone knows something is going on between Sookie
and Eric.
I couldn’t help but notice that Alcide was looking
from me to Eric, and he looked—well, he looked appalled. Sam had the sense to
be quite expressionless. My back stiffened, and I ran a quick hand over my eyes
to dash away the tears.
Aw, poor Sookie. Stop
judging her, people!
To make things worse,
Debbie Pelt walks in. She rubs on Alcide. This proves you have no room to
judge, Alcide! You’re still with a woman that makes you miserable!
The vampires leave and
take Sookie with them. Sookie and Eric get back to her place and he wonders why
she’s used to people saying mean things about her. When she tells him, he
showers her with compliments to make her feel better.
“You are beautiful.” No one had ever looked me in the
eyes and said that. I found I had to lower my head. “You are smart, and you are
loyal,” he said relentlessly, though I waved a hand to ask him to quit. “You
have a sense of fun and adventure.” “Cut it out,” I said. “Make me,” he said.
“You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen. You’re brave.” I put my
fingers across his mouth, and his tongue darted out to give them a quick lick.
I relaxed against him, feeling the tingle down to my toes. “You’re responsible
and hardworking,” he continued. Before he could tell me that I was good about
replacing the garbage can liner when I took the garbage out, I replaced my
fingers with my lips. “There,” he said softly, after a long moment. “You’re
creative, too.”
It’s hard to be Team Eric
since this guy isn’t the real Eric. But hell, Team This Eric!
After an hour of sex, they
cuddle and he tells her that once this is over, he will share everything he has
with her. She knows this isn’t going to happen, but she’s not gonna let that
get her down right now.
“You’ve made me very happy,” I said, which was
certainly the truth.
I just worry what will
happen once he gets his memory back.
--------------------
In
Chapter 10, Team Sam again!!
Sookie
wakes up to visitors the next morning. Alcee, Andy and Catfish arrive with
news. The pond behind Jason’s house was searched and he was not in it. They
have also come to tell her that the blood on the dock was feline blood, panther
blood. Since panthers do not usually reside in Northern Louisiana, Sookie
thinks the blood belongs to a shifter.
The
detectives want to know about the girl Sookie dropped off at the emergency
room. For some reason, they think this girl was like Jason’s sex slave or
something, and that after he went missing Sookie set her free and ran over her
with a car. They also say they believe Jason may have been Renee’s accomplice
in the murders a few months back. Yeah, it’s ridonkulous. Catfish jumps up to
defend Sookie and her brother, telling the other two men they can go to hell.
Thumbs
up, Catfish!
The
policemen leave and Catfish informs Sookie that they have organized a search
party to look for Jason. She is exceptionally touched by this. Cop Kevin is
coordinating it and Maxine Fortenberry and other women are bringing coffee and
food for the searchers.
Sam
is there cause he’s awesome like that.
Sam was there, and I was so
glad to see him I almost began crying again. Sam was the best boss I’d ever
had, and a friend, and he always came when I was in trouble.
Like
I said, awesome.
Sookie
does begin to worry though. What if Jason really is out there in the woods
somewhere?
Sam was standing beside me,
when I could hear and see again. He’d pulled off a glove, and his hand found
mine and clasped it. His felt warm and hard, and I was glad to be holding on to
him.
He
aims thoughts at her, asking if she thinks Jason is out there and alive. She
isn’t sure.
He kept hold of my hand, and
I was glad of it.
Arlene
and Tack arrive and Sookie also sees Tara, who is not an outdoor person. Yay
friends! Holly and Danielle are there as well. I am tearing up with you,
Sookie. Kenya has accompanied Kevin, who instructs everyone to split up into
groups of five, each with a rifleman in case of any danger. I guess in case
they run into any panthers.
Sam put his arms around me,
though in our coats it was quite awkward.
Coat
hugs are awkward. Especially big puffy coat hugs. Also, this is awkward:
Anyway…
It seemed to me I could feel
the warmth of him even through all the material.
Sam
says he will be able to smell Jason if he is out in the woods.
“Sam,” I said, my eyes
filling with tears. I tried to thank him, but the words wouldn’t come. I was
lucky to have a friend like Sam, and well I knew it. “Hush, Sookie,” he said.
“Don’t cry. We’ll find out what happened to Jason, and we’ll find a way to
restore Eric to his mind.” He rubbed the tears off my cheeks with his thumb.
“Then,” Sam said, a distinctly grim edge to his voice, “we can get him out of
your house and back to Shreveport where he belongs.”
Team
Sam so much! Stop judging him, you judgers! He’s just worried about Sookie’s
safety. This Eric might be great and stuff, but when real Eric comes back,
things won’t be so fantastic.
He
asks about her word of the day. Aww, he cares about her word of the day.
Sookie
realizes that Sam isn’t the only two-natured person in the group. Calvin,
Crystal and another dude are also there. Calvin introduces the other dude as
Felton Norris. Sookie joins their search group, along with Reverend Jimmy
Fullenwilder.
They
wander through the woods for a while, Sookie sometimes distracting the reverend
while the Norris’ zip up tree stands and other un-human-like things. No one
finds anything. And then there is screaming. There is the sound of a rifle
being fired and Sookie races to the source. What she finds is a feral pig, much
like the one who’d been accompanying the maenad the night she’d slashed
Sookie’s back all up. The animal had injured her before Jimmy shot it.
Calvin
and Felton struggle not to change at the sight and scent of blood.
Felton seemed to be normal,
until I observed what was at the end of his arms. They weren’t really hands
anymore…but not really wolf paw, either. They were something very odd,
something big and flat and clawed.
Hmm…
Others
show up and the men pick up Crystal to take her to the hospital. Since the
search is over for the day, Sookie goes home. Sam follows.
She
wonders upon going into the house if Eric is conscious at all.
Sam began to make coffee. He
was somewhat at home in the kitchen, as he’d dropped in a time or two when my
Gran was alive, and he’d visited on other occasions.
Sookie
wonders why the Norris’ were even at the search and Sam says it is because
Calvin is attempting to court her. Weird still. Crystal just wants to find
Jason and Felton was forced along because he is a good tracker.
Sam knelt in front of me and
put his hands on my knees. “You’re entitled to be cranky,” he said. I bent over
him and kissed the top of his head. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I
said, without any thought at all. He looked up at me, and there was a long, odd
moment, when the light in the room seemed to dance and shiver. “You’d call
Arlene,” he said with a smile. “She’d come over with the kids, and she’d try to
spike your coffee, and she’d tell you about Tack’s angled dick, and she’d get
you to laughing, and you’d feel better.” I blessed him for letting the moment
pass.
Why
must the moment pass? Sigh. I guess now is not really the best time for
moments, but I still want them!
They
drink some coffee and Sookie listens to the messages on her answering machine.
They are all from Pam. Apparently, the vamps and Weres are joining forces to
attack the witches at dusk. She wants Sookie to come and bring Eric. If nothing
else, he will be help in the fight. She also wants Sookie there so she can use
her abilities. Must find out if she can be extra useful to the vampires in the
future. :-/
Sam
instructs her that she needs to sleep. He wants her to leave Pam’s number so he
can reach her if there is news of Jason.
“So you think I should do
this?” I was bewildered. “No, I’d give anything if you wouldn’t. But I think
you have to. It’s not my fight; I wasn’t invited.” Sam gave me a kiss on the
forehead and left to go back to Merlotte’s. His attitude was interesting, after
all the vampire insistence (both Bill’s and Eric’s) that I was a possession to
be guarded.
I
think this says a lot about Sam’s character. He is willing to step back and let
Sookie make her own decisions even though he doesn’t agree with them. I wonder
if this will impact their relationship in the future.
Sookie
contemplates her New Year’s resolution not to get beat up and hopes that she
can stick to it. I hope so, too.
---------------------------
Sookie
takes Sam’s advice and sleeps. When she wakes up, Eric is there. He tells her
she smells like shifter. She assumes he means Sam but he says he smells more
than one kind of shifter. Hmm… But this thought is quickly pushed aside when he
asks what she’s been up to. She explains about looking for Jason. He says he’s
sorry but
“Look inside yourself, Eric.
Are you really, really sorry? Worried about Jason?” Because the real Eric, in
his right mind, would not have cared one little bit. “Of course,” he protested.
Then, after a long moment—I wished I could see his face—he said, “Not really.”
He sounded surprised. “I know I should be. I should be concerned about your
brother, because I love having sex with you, and I should want you to think
well of me so you’ll want sex, too.” You just had to like the honesty.
Yeah…
I don’t know about that. However,
“But you’ll listen, right?
If I need to talk? For the same reason?” “Of course, my lover.” “Because you
want to have sex with me.” “That, of course. But also because I find I really
do…” He paused, as if he were about to say something outrageous. “I find I have
feelings for you.”
Eric,
real Eric, did say something about not liking feelings in the last book
(implying he had them for Sookie) so I can still find this sweet. Sookie admits
she has feelings for him, too. Not love, but something close. This is
dangerous, having feelings for someone who could, at any moment, disappear. It
is possible that once Eric becomes himself again, that he will still have these
feelings, but he won’t be this guy,
the guy she has the feelings for.
Then
they do things to each other…at the same time…
After,
Sookie starts getting worried because it is time for them to go to Shreveport.
Actually, it’s past time.
I didn’t tell him Pam
thought using me in the battle would be a good idea. I didn’t tell him he was
going to be used as a fighting machine. I didn’t tell him I was sure someone
was going to die tonight; maybe quite a few someones, human and Were and vampire.
It was probably the last time I would use an endearment when I addressed Eric.
It was perhaps the last time Eric would wake up in my house. One of us might
not survive this night, and if we did, there was no way to know how we’d be
changed.
See,
it’s already getting sad. Why does Sookie’s life always have to be sad?
They
drive to Shreveport. On the way, Eric tells Sookie her word for the day is
annihilate. Well, I’m not sure if that is a good sign or not. They arrive and
he offers to go back with her.
“We could go back to your
house. I can stay with you always. We can know each other’s bodies in every
way, night after night. I could love you.” His nostrils flared, and he looked
suddenly proud. “I could work. You would not be poor. I would help you.”
LOL.
It was sweet until the end there, which was still kinda sweet but also funny.
She contemplates this.
And he would never be
himself again. He would be a false version of Eric, an Eric cheated out of his
true life. Providing our relationship (such as it was) lasted, he would stay
the same, but I wouldn’t.
Tis
true. She would always wonder, always feel guilty. Also, the same rules apply
to this relationship as to her and Bill’s. He’s a vampire and he will never not be one. She will grow old. He won’t.
So much depression.
So
they get out of the car and go inside. Pam, Chow, Gerald and two other vamps
are there along with Flood, Alcide, Amanda, Sid, Culpepper, and…Debbie. Ugh,
Debbie. There are also a group of good Wiccans who have come to help.
Pam
chastises the two for being late. They were…umm…busy. Everyone acts like they
expect Eric to take charge, but of course he doesn’t. Pam starts going over the
plan. They’re all going to creep into the neighborhood, parking a ways back
from the building the witches are holed up in. Sookie is to go in first (not
really in the building, just outside
of it) to determine how many witches are inside. Also, to make sure they don’t
know the attack is coming. Bubba, who has appeared, volunteers to go with her
in case she needs protection.
The
others will then raid the building and kill all of the witches. The Weres do
not seem too keen on the killing part but the vampires make the good point that
they really don’t have any other options. The witches would kill them all given
the chance.
Bubba
asks about Bill and Sookie says he’s in Peru.
“No, I’m not,” said a cool
voice, and my heart flip-flopped. “I’m back.” Out of an open doorway stepped my
former flame.
Oh
great. Bill’s back. I can’t contain my excitement. Or my sarcasm apparently.
Poor
Sookie though. She’s never had an ex and doesn’t know how to act, especially
since Eric is clinging to her and stuff. Super awkward. But Bill brings another
shock to the group. He wants to know what Debbie is doing there. Sookie wonders
how he recognizes her since she doesn’t remember them meeting face to face.
“She joined in while I was
being tortured in the king of Mississippi’s compound,” Bill said. “She enjoyed
my pain.”
Oh
snap. Doesn’t this throw a monkey wrench in? Not only did Debbie try to kill
Sookie, she also tortured Bill. Alcide seems super shocked by this. Debbie
tries to make excuses for herself. She was just visiting a friend and there was
nothing she could have done to help him. But that doesn’t excuse her for
joining in. Also, she knew about there being a prisoner and didn’t tell anyone.
But it was vamp business, she says. Not her problem.
“But why would any decent person
join in torture?” Alcide’s voice was strained.
Good
point. Bill throws in how she tried to kill Sookie and then Alcide does
something serious. He abjures Debbie. All of the Supes seem to know what this
means and they all look like:
“I see you no longer. I hunt
with you no longer. I share flesh with you no longer.”
So
it’s like, you’re out of my life for good. Well, it’s about damn time.
Debbie
begs him not to, but he doesn’t even acknowledge her anymore. Sookie actually
feels a little bad for her because Sookie is a good person.
Pam
moves on with the plan. Once Sookie reads some minds, she is to go back to the
car. This seems like a great idea. She has made it pretty far in this book
without being beaten up or stabbed so let’s try to keep it that way. The vamps
plan to spare Mark, Hallow’s brother, so that he can break the spell on Eric.
The good witches are going to cast some weakening spells on the bad witches
from a safe distance. Debbie tries to leave but Bubba stops her. They can’t have
her running off to tell the witches they’re coming. They put Bill in charge of
watching the shifter.
Before
they leave, Eric makes Pam promise to pay Sookie the money owed her if he dies.
Eric also asks Pam if she knows where Jason is. He thinks she may have taken
him to make sure Sookie did not betray them.
That
is what I’ve been saying!! Why did this not occur to Sookie? She is too
trusting of these vamps.
But
Pam insists they do not have Jason and volunteers to look for him after this is
all over. Strangely, Sookie wonders if they sent flowers to Belinda (the
injured waitress). Chow says they did.
Bill
approaches Sookie and Eric looms over her back. She asks about Peru. Eric wants
to know if this is her former mate and he and Bill have a stare down. Sookie is
not one of those people who enjoys her ex’s jealousy. She’s just feeling
awkward. Once Bill is convinced Eric actually doesn’t remember anything (he
thought the same as Alcide…that Eric was just trying to get in her pants), they
all leave. Bill does not ride in the car with Sookie and Eric, which is a good
thing.
Eric
asks on the way if Sookie will still see him if he gets his memory back. She
says she will, but only because she doesn’t want to upset him. She knows if he
gets his memory back, they will be over.
They
park at the E-Z Mart and set out. Sookie notices that most of the houses are
dark, which is a good thing. The closer she and Bubba get to the witches, the
more magic she can feel. It’s almost as if the magic is trying to repel them, keep
them away.
Magic smells like I imagine
a bazaar in some exotic foreign country might. It reeks of strange, the
different.
Sookie
contemplates on how much her life has changed and isn’t entirely convinced that
it has been for the better. She gets close enough and opens her mind. She
determines there are about 15 people inside and none of them seem to know about
the impending attack. She sends Bubba to tell Pam what she has learned.
Once
she’s alone, she starts wondering why the building isn’t being guarded.
At that moment, I was seized
from behind.
Well,
crap.
In
Chapter 12, it all goes down.
Someone
is holding a knife to Sookie’s neck and demands to know who she is. But it’s
obvious this person is not a Were and has not drank any vampire blood.
With both hands, I reached
up and grabbed her knife wrist, and I twisted it as hard as I could while I hit
her hard with my lower body. Over she went, onto the filthy cold pavement, and
I landed right on top of her, pounding her hand against the ground until she
released the knife.
The
girl has basically surrendered. It is Holly. Apparently, Hallow knew she was in
Merlotte’s that night and threatened her son if she did not help them. There
are three others inside who were also forced into helping. Now Sookie has a new
mission. She wants to ensure that the three are not harmed.
Sookie,
I feel like you should just go back to the car.
In
other bad news, Holly has not seen Jason. Sookie tells her to run. Not too long
after, Alcide (in wolf form) appears beside her. She tells him about the
innocents but he can’t really do anything now. Bill arrives, angry that Sookie
has not gone back to the car. I guess it is time Bill and I both learn that
Sookie is not the ‘go back to the car’ person. She is a doer. She tells him
what she told Alcide. Debbie walks up and claims to want to help save them. She
thinks by helping she can earn Alcide’s trust back.
Here’s
another fact about abjurement. She is not allowed to change with Alcide’s pack
or they have the right to kill her. Change, change, change, change! Debbie
reveals she shifts into a lynx.
That was appropriate.
Pam
and Bubba arrive and Sookie gets an idea. She sends Bubba back to tell the good
witches to cast a spell to make the innocents stand out so they are not harmed.
When he disappears, Pam wants to know where Sookie sent him.
“But he has to come back
now. He has to break down the door for me!” “But…” I was disconcerted at Pam’s
reaction. “He can’t go in without an invitation, like you.” “Bubba is brain
damaged, degraded. He’s not altogether a true vampire. He can enter without an
express invitation.” I gaped at Pam. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She just raised
her eyebrows. When I thought back, it was true that I could remember at least
twice that Bubba had entered dwellings without an invitation. I’d never put two
and two together.
Oh…
well it all makes sense now. I was wondering how Bubba managed to get inside
Alcide’s apartment and dump that body. I can’t remember the other time he got
in but… anyway, mystery solved.
Bad
news is, now Sookie has to go in first and invite the vamps in. (This will work
because the witches do not actually own the place. These are complicated rules.
I guess since the property isn’t “public property” the vamps still need an
invite, but since it’s not a private residence, anyone can get them in.) Pam
kicks in the door and Sookie runs in and shouts a come in. The witches are all
stunned at first but then all hell breaks loose.
Sookie
picks out two of the innocents and gets them to a corner. The Wiccan’s spell
starts to work and they start glowing. Sadly, the third is already dead. All
shifters have shifted and it is pure chaos. Debbie runs up and leads them out.
Mark
is the only witch in his human form and he is chanting. A mist appears and
clouds the room, making it hard to see and breathe. Sookie stumbles around,
once running into Hallow, who was injured and in human form. She passes a dead
Mark and then it starts to rain inside, which clears the mist a little. Enough
for Sookie to see Debbie, half changed, and charging at her. Sookie has picked
up a knife she saw laying on the floor and is prepared to use it when someone
grabs Debbie by the neck. But then a wolf knocks her down.
Someone,
maybe the same someone, gets it off of her and the mist clears even more.
Portugal, the Were, is dead. Pam tackles Hallow and they struggle with each
other. Another witch comes up and bites Pam, draining her blood to weaken her.
Sookie decides to take action (a doer!) and pokes her knife at the witch’s
neck. He lunges at her (apparently not realizing that the knife is still at his
neck) and impales himself.
Not
gonna lie, this is humorous in a dark sort of way.
On
the bright side, the battle seems to be over and it looks as if Sookie’s side
won. She is sapped of energy though and just lies back on the floor. She sees
everyone recovering, some appearing to have enjoyed the fight. She notices
Debbie approach Alcide, who bites her on the hand.
Her eyes met mine and almost
glowed with hatred. She would never forgive me. She would blame me for the rest
of her life for Alcide’s discovery of her dark nature.
Sookie
finds herself wishing whoever had grabbed her during the fight had killed her.
Amanda comes by and apologizes for her outburst at Merlotte’s, odd, and Alcide
shifts back and crawls over to Sookie.
I was too exhausted to care
that he was naked, but I had a floating idea that I should try to remember the
sight, since I’d want to recall it at my leisure later.
LOL.
If I were her, I’d probably be storing it up, too.
Also,
yay! Sookie is not injured. Alcide tells her no sign of Jason and also Chow is
dead. She says she is sorry about Debbie, but he just says, Debbie who?
I’m
just glad Sookie managed to save some people and kill a witch and not get
stabbed or hit or anything.
Sookie
finds out that Flood was also injured but he’s alive. Pam plans to torture Hallow
until she finds out what they were up to and get the witch to reverse the spell
on Eric. Sookie isn’t sure what her next move should be. But no one is paying
her any attention, so she decides to just leave.
Eric
catches up with her, worried about her departure and wants to go back home with
her. Instead of arguing with him, she lets him come with her. They get back to
her place and go inside.
When I turned on the light,
Debbie Pelt was smiling at me. She had been sitting in the dark at my kitchen table,
and she had a gun in her hand. Without saying a word, she fired at me. But
she’d reckoned without Eric, who was so fast, faster than any human. He took
the bullet meant for me, and he took it right in the chest. He went down in
front of me.
She hadn’t had time to
search the house, which was lucky. From behind the water heater, I yanked the
shotgun I’d taken from Jason’s house. I pumped it—one of the scariest sounds in
the world—and I shot Debbie Pelt while she was still staring, shocked, at Eric,
who was on his knees and coughing up blood. I racked another shell, but I
didn’t need to shoot her again. Her fingers relaxed and her gun fell to the
floor.
I sat on the floor myself,
because I couldn’t stay upright anymore.
Holy
crap. Sookie just killed Debbie.
Who
do you call? Sam? Pam? Alcide? Arlene? Tara? The police?
She
opts for no one. But Eric is recovering, his wounds healing. She gives him some
True Blood. But hold up.
I saw an amazing thing. The
bullet that had hit him popped out of the wound.
Now
we know Eric is a dirty liar. In Living
Dead in Dallas he insisted she had to suck the bullet out or it would heal
inside him.
Sookie
can’t help but cry (she did just kill a mostly human) but Eric reassures her.
Apparently he was the one who grabbed Debbie’s throat earlier. He wishes now he
had just killed her. Sookie doesn’t think that excuses her and that the
reverend would not approve.
“I was never a Christian,”
Eric said. Now, that didn’t surprise me. “But I can’t imagine a belief system that
would tell you to sit still and get slaughtered.”
Sometimes
you just gotta do bad things. Surely, God understands.
They
proceed with wrapping the body up and cleaning up the kitchen. Why do people
keep getting murdered in Sookie’s kitchen? Eric takes the body to bury it and
then Sookie sends him to get rid of Debbie’s car, which he finds down the road.
After
the kitchen is cleaned and bleached, Sookie showers and goes to bed.
It occurred to me that I was
lethal for exes. I’d dusted Bill’s big love (and his mom); now I’d killed
Alcide’s off-and-on-again sweetie. I knew hundreds of men. I’d never gone
homicidal on their exes. But creatures I cared about, well, that seemed to be
different. I wondered if Eric had any old girlfriends around. Probably about a
hundred or so. Well, they’d better beware of me.
I
really hope Sookie is able to recover from this. Killing Lorena was one thing,
she was a vampire. But Debbie was human (for the most part). I feel like she
needs a hug.
In
Chapter 14, we still haven’t found Jason!
Sookie
sleeps well into the next afternoon and by the time she gets dressed and such,
Eric is up. But…
“Sookie,” he said slowly,
“Am I in your house?”
Uh-oh.
“You’ve been here for
safekeeping. Do you know what happened?” “I went to a meeting with some new
people,” he said, doubt in his voice. “Didn’t I?” He looked down at his
Wal-Mart clothes with some surprise. “When did I buy these?” “I had to get
those for you,” I said. “Did you dress me, too?” he asked, running his hands
down his chest and lower. He gave me a very Eric smile.
He didn’t remember.
Anything.
Well,
this adds to the mess, doesn’t it? Here we thought, what will happen once Eric
is himself again? With all the thoughts of what they shared, will he still be
the same? Turns out, no. He doesn’t remember a thing.
He
asks where Pam is and Sookie wonders if he remembers anything about the day
before. He doesn’t. But, on the bright side (and downside), he doesn’t remember
Sookie killing Debbie. Also, ironically, now no one knows where the body is.
Sookie
tries not to get down about the whole thing, but just can’t seem to help it.
Also, it looks like it might snow outside.
Pam
eventually shows and Sookie goes to work. Sam wants to know how the night
before went but she doesn’t get to tell him about it until later in the night.
In the meanwhile, no word on Jason, and she hears in their thoughts that Kevin
and Kenya are in love with each other but neither has told the other.
After
everyone is gone, Sookie and Sam have a chat. She recounts what all went down,
including that Eric has his memory back but also lost memory from the past week
or however long it’s been. He asks if she’s okay with that (even though we all
know Sam is sad because he loves her
and doesn’t want to hear about her liking someone else) and she replies she
thinks it is for the best. Though, she is also sad because now she will have to
be lonely again.
Sam
informs her that Calvin Norris came in that afternoon, probably hoping to see
her. Sam thinks the older man is serious about courting Sookie. And maybe he’s
joking when he says it, I really can’t tell. But either way Sookie is offended
for some reason and tells him she doesn’t have to take up with a werewolf just
because he offered. This is when things take a crazy interesting turn.
Sam looked mildly puzzled.
“You wouldn’t have to. The people in Hotshot aren’t Weres.”
Wait,
but if there not Weres…
“No, not Weres with a
capital W. They’re too proud to call themselves shifters, but that’s what they
are. They’re were-panthers.”
OMG!
Seems no one told Sam a panther print was found on Jason’s dock. Also, the
people in Hotshot have Jason!!! Prolly that Crystal. I never trusted her. But
then Sam reveals that Felton, the dude who helped in the Jason search, is in
love with Crystal. (Sam also did not know Crystal was the girl Jason was with
on New Year’s. Does no one tell the man anything?)
Felton!
Sam
suggests they drive over to Hotshot and see what goes on. It’s late and snowing,
but Jason is missing and Felton most likely has him captive. Sam makes a
comment about her coat being too light for the weather (well, her other one got
blood all over it) so he lends her a sweatshirt.
They
drive out to Hotshot and decide to go to Calvin’s house, since he’s in charge.
Calvin was also unaware that a panther print was found on the dock by Jason’s.
Sookie tells him they think Felton is responsible. They head over to the
suspect’s house and Calvin demands to know where Jason is. After a little slap
to the face, Felton points to the shed out back.
Sookie
bolts out the door, Sam and Calvin following. She runs back to the shed and
Calvin opens the padlock.
At first I wasn’t sure I was
looking at my brother, because this creature looking nothing like Jason. He was
blond, sure, but he was so filthy and smelly that I flinched, even in the
freezing air. And he was blue with the cold, since he had only pants on. He was
lying on a single blanket on the concrete floor.
Also
he’s been bitten… a lot.
Felton
tries to defend himself, saying he didn’t kill Jason, but now he has bitten
him, which means that it is likely that at the next full moon he will become a
half panther. Calvin and Sam carry Jason to the truck and put him inside.
Calvin promises to punish Felton and Sookie agrees not to tell the police the
truth.
In
Chapter 15, alls well that ends well, I guess.
Once
they get Jason back to Sookie’s, he showers and she puts Neosporin on his
bites. Soon after, he heads to bed.
Sam
is waiting in the kitchen. They theorize Felton would have kept Jason until the
next full moon, a few weeks from now, to see if his plan worked. Sookie still
isn’t sure what she and Jason are going to tell the police. Then she notices
something on her table. It is a check for $50,000. More than agreed upon. How
nice.
Sam
wonders what she will do with all of the money and she tears up, saying she
will just relax and not have to worry about money. Sam opens his mouth,
presumably to say he could have helped her out, but she says she could never
borrow from friends. He suggests her selling her house and land and moving into
town. She says she’ll think about it, but doesn’t seem too keen on the idea. He
gets up to leave so she can go to bed.
We stood and I gave him a
hug. It turned into a longer hug than I’d planned, because hugging him was
unexpectedly restful and comfortable.
Hmm…
She
thanks him a few more times and he leaves. The next morning, Sookie fixes Jason
some coffee and they talk. She tells him about the search and that she took hit
shotgun. He looks at it and knows she has fired it, but she asks him never to
ask why she had to shoot it. So he doesn’t. They discuss what to tell the
police, eventually deciding on nothing. Jason is going to pretend he doesn’t
know anything.
Sookie
also tells him that he is going to have to go to Calvin come full moon time for
help if he changes and he’s not thrilled.
Alcee
and Andy arrive to question them and are frustrated about the story. Jason
remembers hearing a noise and being hit over the head. He woke up after someone
threw him in Sookie’s driveway. Sookie doesn’t have her car because Sam drove
her home since she didn’t want to drive in the snow (Sam is backing up this
story.)
The
detectives do not believe him and think it can’t be a coincidence that the
missing vampire has also turned up with no memory of where he’d been either.
Though, that actually was a coincidence.
Later,
Arlene takes Sookie to her car, she tries to thank Sam some more, and she takes
Jason back to his place. Before work that evening, Eric shows up at her house.
He informs her that Hallow is dead and the reason she was in Shreveport to
start with had to do with her parents. They were jailed there (they were also
witches) and the local supes refused to help them.
Eric
also wants to know about the time he spent at Sookie’s. She deflects him and
asks about work. He mentions he heard Jason is back and then wants to know why
there was brain tissue on his shirt. Okay, gross. Also, Sookie doesn’t want to
tell him the truth because she thinks he will use it as some sort of power over
her.
“I liked you a lot better
when you didn’t remember who you were,” I said, and with that truth forefront
in my mind, I knew I had to keep quiet.
Harsh.
About
that time, the Were Amanda comes knocking. It would seem that Debbie is missing
and her family is worried. The Weres have all agreed to ask around to see if anyone has seen her. They are
somewhat afraid that since Alcide has abjured her, that she will try to harm
herself. Sookie claims to know nothing and Amanda accepts that and leaves. But
Eric, who wandered out of the room during their conversation, does not. He
tells her she better get a new jacket and destroy hers before leaving.
He
knows Sookie had something to do with it! Uh-oh.
I knew, as sure as I knew my
name, that tomorrow he would send me another coat, in a big fancy box, with a
big bow on it. It would be the right size, it would be a top brand, and it
would be warm.
It was cranberry red, with a
removable liner, a detachable hood, and tortoiseshell buttons.
Ever
thoughtful, rich Eric.
We
have reached the end of book 4! Like I said before, it is hard to be Team Eric
at this point, since the Eric I grew to like in this book wasn’t the real Eric,
but I have a feeling that her relationship with the vampire is not over.
This
book is one of my favorites for sure. Not too much Bill, more Sam (I’m still
holding out my hope for him), and Sookie didn’t get beat up not one time!
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