Apparently, Appius Livius was so used to Alexei’s draining him that he accepted it as part of his existence. Maybe—possibly—the Roman felt responsible for the trouble Alexei caused, since he’d brought him over. If that was Appius Livius’s conviction, I thought he was absolutely correct. I was sure that bringing Alexei to Eric, thinking the presence of another “child” would soothe Alexei’s psychosis, was a last-ditch effort to cure the boy. And Eric, my lover, was caught in the middle of all this along with all the problems he was staving off involving Victor.
I felt less and less like a good person every day. As we walked from the driveway to Alcide’s front door, I admitted to myself that since my visit to Fangtasia, I found myself wishing that all of them would die—Appius Livius, Alexei, Victor.
I had to shove all that into a mental corner, because I had to be on my game to enter a house full of Weres. Jason put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a half hug. “Sometime you’ll have to explain to me how come we’re doing this,” he said. “Because I think I kind of forgot.”
I laughed, which was what he’d wanted. I put up a hand to ring the bell, but the door swung open before my fingertip made contact. Jannalynn was standing there in a sports bra and running shorts. (She always came up with wardrobe choices that startled me.) The running shorts showed concave dips by her hipbones, and I sighed. “Concave” was not a word I’d ever used in relation to my body.
“Getting into the new job?” Jason asked her, stepping forward. Jannalynn had to either back up or block his way, and she chose to back up.
“I was born for this job,” the young Were said.
I had to agree. Jannalynn seemed to love doling out violence. At the same time, I wondered what job she could hold in the real world. She’d been bartending at a Were-owned bar in Shreveport when I’d first seen her, and I knew the owner of that bar had died in the struggle between the packs. “Where are you working now, Jannalynn?” I asked, since there shouldn’t be any need to keep that secret that I could see.
“I manage the Hair of the Dog. The ownership passed to Alcide, and he felt I could handle the job. I have some help,” she said, which was a confession that surprised me.
Ham, his arm around a pretty brunette in a sundress, was waiting across the foyer by the opened doors to the living room. He patted my shoulder and introduced his companion as Patricia Crimmins. I recognized her as one of the women who’d joined the Long Tooth pack in surrender after the Were war, and I tried to focus on her. But my attention kept straying. Patricia laughed and said, “It’s quite a place, isn’t it?”
I nodded in silent agreement. I’d never been in the house before, and my eyes were drawn to the French doors on the other side of the big room. There were lights out in the large backyard, which not only was enclosed by a fence that had to be seven feet tall, but was also lined outside with those quick-growing cypresses that shoot up like spears. In the middle of the patio was a fountain, which would make getting a drink easy if you’d turned into a wolf. There was a lot of wrought iron furniture set around on the flagstones, too. Wow. I’d known the Herveauxes were well-to-do, but this was impressive.
The living room itself was very “men’s club,” all glossy dark leather and paneling, and the fireplace was as big as fireplaces got in this day and age. There were animal heads mounted on the walls, which I thought was kind of amusing. Everyone seemed to have a drink in hand, and I located the bar at the center of the thickest cluster of Weres. I didn’t spot Alcide, who because of his height and his presence was usually a standout in any crowd.
I spotted Annabelle. She was in the center of the room on her knees, though she was not constrained in any way. There was an empty space all around her.
“Don’t approach,” Ham said quietly as I took a step forward. I stopped in my tracks.
“You can talk to her later, probably,” Patricia whispered. It was the “probably” that bothered me. But this was pack business, and I was on pack land.
“I’m getting me a beer,” Jason said after he’d had a good look at Annabelle’s situation. “What do you want, Sook?”
“You need to go upstairs,” Jannalynn said very quietly. “Don’t drink anything else. Alcide’s got a drink for you.” She jerked her head toward the stairs to my left. I puckered my brows together, and Jason looked as though he were going to protest, but she jerked her head again.
I found Alcide in a study at the head of the stairs. He was looking out the window. There was a glass of cloudy yellow liquid sitting on the desk blotter.
“What?” I said. I was getting an even worse feeling about this evening than I’d already had.
He turned to face me. His black hair was still in a tumble, and he could have used a shave, but grooming had nothing to do with the charisma that surrounded him like a cocoon. I didn’t know if the role had enhanced the man, or if the man had grown into the role, but Alcide had come far from the charming, friendly guy I’d met two winters ago.
“We don’t have a shaman anymore,” he said with no preamble. “We haven’t had one for four years. It’s hard to find a Were who’s willing to take the position, and you have to have the talent for it to even consider it anyway.”
“Okay,” I said, waiting to see where he was going.
“You’re the closest we’ve got.”
If there’d been drums in the background, they would’ve started an ominous roll. “I’m not a shaman,” I said. “In fact, I don’t know what a shaman is. And you don’t have me.”
“That’s a term we use for a medicine man or woman,” Alcide said. “One with a gift for interpreting and applying magic. It sounded better to us than ‘witch.’ And this way, we know who we’re talking about. If we had a pack shaman, that shaman would drink the stuff in this glass and be able to help us determine the truth of what happened to Basim, and the degree of guilt of everyone involved. Then the pack would decide on proportionate justice.”
“What is it?” I asked, pointing at the liquid.
“It’s what was left over in the last shaman’s stash.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a drug,” he said. “But before you walk out, let me tell you that the last shaman took it several times without any lasting ill effect.”
“Lasting.”
“Well, he had stomach cramps the next day. But he was able to go back to work the day after that.”
“Of course, he was a Were, and he’d be able to eat things I can’t eat anyway. What does it do to you? Or rather, what would it do to me?”
“It gives you a different perception of reality. That’s what the guy told me. And since I clearly wasn’t shaman material, that’s all he told me.”
“Why would I take an unknown drug?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Because otherwise we’ll never get to the bottom of this,” Alcide said. “Right now, the only guilty person I can see is Annabelle. She may only be guilty of being unfaithful to me. I hate that, but she doesn’t deserve to die for it. But if I can’t find out who killed Basim and planted him in your ground, I think the pack will condemn her, since she’s the only one who was involved with him. I guess I’d be a good suspect for killing Basim out of jealousy. But I could have done it legally, and I wouldn’t have blamed you.”
I knew that was true.
“They’ll put her to death,” he said, harping on the point that would have the most effect on me.
I was almost tough enough to shrug. Almost.
“Can’t I try to do this my way?” I said. “Laying my hands on them?”
“You’ve told me yourself it’s hard to get a clear thought from Weres.” Alcide said it almost sadly. “Sookie, I’d hoped we’d be a couple one day. Now that I’m packmaster and you’re in love with that cold ass Eric, I guess that’ll never happen. I thought we might have a chance because you couldn’t read my thoughts that clearly. Since I know that, I don’t think I can rely on you laying on your hands and getting an accurate reading.”
/> He was right.
“A year ago,” I said, “you wouldn’t have asked this of me.”
“A year ago,” he answered, “you wouldn’t have hesitated to drink.”
I crossed to the desk and tossed it down.
Chapter 14
I went down the stairs on Alcide’s arm. I was already feeling a little swimmy in the head, having taken an illegal drug for the first time in my life.
I was an idiot.
However, I was an increasingly warm and comfortable idiot. A delightful side effect of the shaman’s drink was that I couldn’t feel Eric and Alexei and Appius Livius with nearly as much immediacy, and the relief was incredible.
A less pleasant side effect was that my legs didn’t feel quite real underneath me. Maybe that was why Alcide was keeping such a tight grip on my arm. I remembered what he’d said about his former hope that we’d be a couple one day, and I thought it might be nice to kiss him and remind myself what it felt like. Then I realized I’d better channel those warm and fuzzy feelings into finding out the answers to the puzzles facing Alcide. I directed my feelings, which was an excellent decision. I was so proud of my excellence I could have rolled in it.
The shaman had probably known a few tricks for keeping all this dreaminess focused on the matter at hand. I made a huge effort to sharpen up. In my absence, the group in the living room had swollen in numbers; the whole pack was here. I could feel the totality of it, the completeness.
Eyes turned to look at us as we descended the stairs. Jason looked alarmed, but I gave him a reassuring smile. Something must have been off about it, because his face didn’t smooth out.
Alcide’s second went to stand by the kneeling Annabelle. Jannalynn threw back her head and gave a series of yips. Now I was standing by my brother, and he was holding on to me. Somehow, Alcide had passed me over to Jason’s keeping.
“Geez,” Jason muttered. “What’s wrong with waving your hand in the air or ringing a triangle?” I could assume yipping was not a summons in the panther pride. That was okay. I smiled at Jason. I felt a lot like Alice in Wonderland after she took a bite of the mushroom.
I was on one side of the empty space around Annabelle, Alcide on the other. He looked around to collect the pack’s attention. “We’re here tonight with two visitors to decide what to do about Annabelle,” he said without a preamble. “We’re here to judge whether she had anything to do with the death of Basim, or if that death can be laid at the door of anyone else.”
“Why are there visitors?” asked a woman’s voice. I tried to find her face, but she was standing so far in the back I couldn’t see her. I estimated there were perhaps as many as forty people in the room, ranging in age from sixteen (the change began after puberty) to seventy. Ham and Patricia were to my left, about a quarter of the circle away. Jannalynn had stayed by Annabelle. The few other pack members I knew by name were scattered through the crowd.
“Listen hard,” Alcide said, looking directly at me. Okay, Alcide, message received. I closed my eyes, and I listened. Well, this was absofucking-lutely amazing. I found I knew when his gaze swept the assembled pack members by the ripple of fear that followed. I could see the fear. It was dark yellow. “Basim’s body was found on Sookie’s land,” Alcide said. “It was planted there in an attempt to blame her for his death. The police came to search for it right after we removed it.”
There was a general surge of surprise. from almost everyone.
“You moved the body?” Patricia said. My eyes flew open. Why had Alcide elected to keep that a secret? Because it had been a total shock to Patricia, and to a few others, that Basim’s body was not still in the clearing. Jason moved up behind me and put his beer down. He knew he needed his hands free. My brother might not be a mental giant, but he had good instincts.
I was amazed at Alcide’s cleverness in setting up the scene. I might not get Were thoughts that clearly, but Were emotions. That was what he was after. Now that I was concentrating, focusing on the creatures in the room, almost out of my body with the intensity of it, I saw Alcide as a ball of red energy, pulsing and attractive, and all the other Weres were circling around him. I understood for the first time that the packleader was the planet around which all others orbited in the Were universe. The pack members were various shades of red and violet and pink, the colors of their devotion to him. Jannalynn was a blazing streak of intense crimson, her adoration making her almost as bright as Alcide himself. Even Annabelle was a watery cerise, despite her infidelity.
But there were a few spots of green. I held my hand out in front of me as if I were telling the rest of the world to stop while I considered this new interpretation of perception.
“Tonight Sookie is our shaman,” Alcide’s voice boomed from a distance. I could safely ignore that. I could follow the colors, because they betrayed the person.
Green, look for the green. Though my head remained still and my eyes closed, I turned them somehow to look at the green people. Ham was green. Patricia was green. I looked the other way. There was one more green one, but he fluctuated between pale yellow and faint green. Ha! Ambivalent, I told myself wisely. Not a traitor yet, but doubtful about Alcide’s leadership. The wavering image belonged to a young male, and I dismissed him as insignificant. I looked at Annabelle again. Cerise still, but flickering with amber as her intense fear broke through her loyalty.
I opened my eyes. What was I supposed to say—“They’re green, get them!”? I found myself moving, drifting through the pack like a balloon through the trees. Finally, I was right in front of Ham and Patricia. This was where the hands would come in handy. Ha! That was funny! I laughed a little.
“Sookie?” Ham said. Patricia shrank back, letting go of him.
“Don’t go anywhere, Patricia,” I said, smiling at her. She flinched, ready to run, but a dozen hands grabbed her and held her firmly. I looked up at Ham and put my fingers on his cheeks. If I’d had some finger paint, he’d have looked like a movie Indian on the warpath. “So jealous,” I said. “Ham, you told Alcide there were people camping on the stream and that was why the pack needed to run in my woods. You invited those men, didn’t you?”
“They—no.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, touching the tip of his nose. “I see.” I could hear his thoughts as clearly as if I were inside his head now. “So they were from the government. They were trying to gather information on the Were packs in Louisiana and anything bad the packs might have done. They asked you to bribe an enforcer, a second. To describe all the bad stuff he’d done. So they could push through that bill, the one that’ll require you-all to register like aliens. Hamilton Bond—shame on you! You told them to force Basim to tell them stuff, the stuff that had gotten him kicked out of the Houston pack.”
“None of this is true, Alcide,” Ham said. He was trying to sound all Big Serious Man, but to me he sounded like a squeaky little mouse. “Alcide, I’ve known you my whole life.”
“And you thought that Alcide would make you his second,” I said. “Instead, he picked Basim, who already had a track record as an enforcer.”
“He got thrown out of Houston,” Ham said. “That’s how bad he was.” The anger broke through, pulsing in gold and black.
“I’d ask him, and I’d know the truth, but I can’t now, right? Because you killed him and put him in the cold, cold ground.” Actually, it hadn’t been all that cold, but I felt I was due a little artistic license. My mind soared and swooped, way above everything. I could see so much! I felt like God. This was fun.
“I didn’t kill Basim! Well, maybe I did, but it was because he was screwing our packleader’s girlfriend! I couldn’t stomach such disloyalty!”
“Beep! Try again!” I fanned my fingers over his cheeks. We needed to know something else, didn’t we? Some other question had to be answered.
“He met with a creature in your woods on our moon night,” Ham blurted. “He, I don’t know what he talked about.”
“What kind of creature?”
/>
“I don’t know. Some guy. Some. I’ve never seen anything like him. He was really handsome. Like a movie star or something. He had long hair, really pale long hair, and he was there one minute and gone the next. He talked to Basim while Basim was in his wolf form. Basim was by himself. After we ate the deer, I’d fallen asleep on the other side of some laurel bushes. When I woke up, I heard them talking. The other guy was trying to frame you for something because you’d done something to him. I don’t know what. Basim was going to kill someone and bury him on your land, and then call the cops. That would take care of you, and then the fair. ” Ham’s voice died away.
“You knew it was a fairy,” I said, smiling at Ham. “You knew. So you decided to do the job first.”
“It wasn’t something Alcide would have wanted Basim to do, right, Alcide?”
Alcide didn’t answer, but he was pulsating like a skyrocket on the periphery of my vision.
“And you told Patricia. And she helped,” I said, stroking his face. He wanted to make me stop, but he didn’t dare.
“Her sister died in the war! She couldn’t accept her new pack. I was the only one who was nice to her, she said.”
“Aw, you’re so generous to be nice to the pretty Were woman,” I said mockingly. “Good Ham! Instead of Basim killing someone and burying them, you killed Basim and buried him. Instead of Basim getting a reward from the fairy, you thought you would get a reward from the fairy. Because fairies are rich, right?” I let my nails dig into his cheek. “Basim wanted the money to get out from under the government guys. You wanted the money just because you wanted the money.”
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