Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set

by Charlaine Harris

  Then Bob laughed, the first time he’d laughed since he’d become human again, and I got it. Bob had white, even teeth and great lips, and when he smiled, there was a kind of sardonic, intellectual sexiness about him.

  Mystery solved.

  When I got home, he would be gone, so I said good-bye to Bob, thinking I’d never see him again, unless he decided to return to Bon Temps to get revenge on Amelia.

  As I drove into town, I wondered if we could get a real cat. After all, we had the litter box and the cat food. I’d ask Amelia and Octavia in a couple of days. That would surely give them time to stop being so antsy about Bob’s cat-dom.

  Alcide Herveaux was sitting at the bar talking with Sam when I came into the main room ready for work. Odd, him turning up again. I stopped for a second, and then made my feet move again. I managed a nod, and waved to Holly to tell her I was taking over. She held up a finger, indicating she was taking care of one customer’s bill, and then she’d be out of there. I got a hello from one woman and a howdy from another man, and I felt instantly comfortable. This was my place, my home away from home.

  Jasper Voss wanted another rum and Coke, Catfish wanted a pitcher of beer for himself and his wife and another couple, and one of our alcoholics, Jane Bodehouse, was ready to eat something. She said she didn’t care what it was, so I got her the chicken tender basket. Getting Jane to eat at all was a real problem, and I hoped she’d down at least half of the basket. Jane was sitting at the other end of the bar from Alcide, and Sam jerked his head sideways to indicate I should join them. I turned Jane’s order in and then I reluctantly went over to them. I leaned on the end of the bar.

  “Sookie,” Alcide said, nodding to me. “I came to say thank you to Sam.”

  “Good,” I said bluntly.

  Alcide nodded, not meeting my eyes.

  After a moment the new packleader said, “Now no one will dare to try to encroach. If Priscilla hadn’t attacked at the moment she picked, with us all together and aware of the danger we faced as a group, she could have kept us divided and kept picking us off until we’d killed each other.”

  “So she went crazy and you got lucky,” I said.

  “We came together because of your talent,” Alcide said. “And you’ll always be a friend of the pack. So is Sam. Ask us to do a service for you, any time, any place, and we’ll be there.” He nodded to Sam, put some money on the bar, and left.

  Sam said, “Nice to have a favor stashed in the bank, huh?”

  I had to smile back. “Yeah, that’s a good feeling.” In fact, I felt full of good cheer all of a sudden. When I looked at the door, I found out why. Eric was coming in, with Pam beside him. They sat at one of my tables, and I went over, consumed with curiosity. Also exasperation. Couldn’t they stay away?

  They both ordered TrueBlood, and after I served Jane Bodehouse her chicken basket and Sam warmed up the bottles, I was headed back to their table. Their presence wouldn’t have rocked any boats if Arlene and her buddies hadn’t been in the bar that night.

  They were sneering together in an unmistakable way as I put the bottles in front of Eric and Pam, and I had a hard time maintaining my waitress calm as I asked the two if they wanted mugs with that.

  “The bottle will be fine,” Eric said. “I may need it to smash some skulls.”

  If I had been feeling Eric’s good cheer, Eric was feeling my anxiety.

  “No, no, no,” I said almost in a whisper. I knew they could hear me. “Let’s have peace. We’ve had enough war and killing.”

  “Yes,” Pam agreed. “We can save the killing for later.”

  “I’m happy to see both of you, but I’m having a busy evening,” I said. “Are you-all just out barhopping to get new ideas for Fangtasia, or can I do something for you?”

  “We can do something for you,” Pam said. She smiled at the two guys in the Fellowship of the Sun T-shirts, and since she was a wee bit angry, her fangs were showing. I hoped the sight would subdue them, but since they were assholes without a lick of sense, it inflamed their zeal. Pam downed the blood and licked her lips.

  “Pam,” I said between my teeth. “For goodness’ sake, stop making it worse.”

  Pam gave me a flirty smile, simply so she’d hit all the buttons.

  Eric said, “Pam,” and immediately all the provocation disappeared, though Pam looked a little disappointed. But she sat up straighter, put her hands in her lap, and crossed her legs at the ankle. No one could have looked more innocent or demure.

  “Thank you,” Eric said. “Dear one—that’s you, Sookie—you so impressed Felipe de Castro that he has given us permission to offer you our formal protection. This is a decision only made by the king, you understand, and it’s a binding contract. You rendered him such service that he felt this was the only way to repay you.”

  “So, this is a big deal?”

  “Yes, my lover, it is a very big deal. That means when you call us for help, we are obliged to come and risk our lives for yours. This is not a promise vampires make very often, since we grow more and more jealous of our lives the longer we live. You’d think it would be the other way around.”

  “Every now and then you’ll find someone who wants to meet the sun after a long life,” Pam said, as if she wanted to set the record straight.

  “Yes,” Eric said, frowning. “Every now and then. But he offers you a real honor, Sookie.”

  “I’m real obliged to you for bringing the news, Eric, Pam.”

  “Of course, I’d hoped your beautiful roommate would come in,” Pam said. She leered at me. So maybe her hanging around Amelia hadn’t been entirely Eric’s idea.

  I laughed out loud. “Well, she’s got a lot to think about tonight,” I said.

  I’d been thinking so hard about the vampire protection that I hadn’t noticed the approach of the shorter of the FotS adherants. Now he pushed past me in such a way that he rammed my shoulder, deliberately knocking me to the side. I staggered before I managed to regain my balance. Not everyone noticed, but a few of the bar patrons did. Sam had started around the bar and Eric was already on his feet when I turned and brought my tray down on the asshole’s head with all the strength I could muster.

  He did a little bit of staggering himself.

  Those that had noticed the bit of aggravation began applauding. “Good for you, Sookie,” Catfish called. “Hey, jerkoff, leave the waitresses alone.”

  Arlene was flushed and angry, and she almost exploded then and there. Sam stepped up to her and murmured something in her ear. She flushed even redder and glared at him, but she kept her mouth shut. The taller FotS guy came to his pal’s aid and they left the bar. Neither of them spoke (I wasn’t sure Shorty could speak), but they might as well have had “You haven’t seen the last of us” tattooed on their foreheads.

  I could see where the vampires’ protection and my friend of the pack status might come in handy.

  Eric and Pam finished their drinks and sat long enough to prove they weren’t skedaddling because they felt unwelcome and weren’t leaving in pursuit of the Fellowship fans. Eric tipped me a twenty and blew me a kiss as he went out the door—so did Pam—earning me an extra-special glare from my former BFF Arlene.

  I worked too hard the rest of the night to think about any of the interesting things that had happened that day. After the patrons all left, even Jane Bodehouse (her son came to get her), we put out the Halloween decorations. Sam had gotten a little pumpkin for each table and painted a face on each one. I was filled with admiration, because the faces were really clever, and some of them looked like bar patrons. In fact, one looked a lot like my dear brother.

  “I had no idea you could do this,” I said, and he looked pleased.

  “It was fun,” he said, and hung a long strand of fall leaves—of course, they were actually made of cloth—around the bar mirror and among some of the bottles. I tacked up a life-size cardboard skeleton with little rivets at the joints so it could be positioned. I arranged this one so it was clearl
y dancing. We couldn’t have any depressing skeletons at the bar. We had to have happy ones.

  Even Arlene unbent a little because this was something different and fun to do, though we had to stay a bit later to do it.

  I was ready to go home and go to bed when I said good night to Sam and Arlene. Arlene didn’t answer, but she didn’t throw me the look of disgust she usually awarded me, either.

  Naturally, my day wasn’t over.

  My great-grandfather was sitting on my front porch when I got to the house. It was very strange to see him in the front porch swing, in the odd combination of night and light that the security lamp and the dark hour combined to create. I wished for one moment that I was as beautiful as he was, and then I had to smile at myself.

  I parked my car in the front and got out. Tried to walk quietly going up the steps so I wouldn’t wake Amelia, whose bedroom overlooked the front. The house was dark, so I was sure they were in bed, unless they’d been delayed at the bus station when they delivered Bob.

  “Great-grandfather,” I said. “I’m glad to see you.”

  “You’re tired, Sookie.”

  “Well, I just got off work.” I wondered if he ever got tired himself. I couldn’t imagine a fairy prince splitting wood or trying to find a leak in his water line.

  “I wanted to see you,” he said. “Have you thought of anything I can do for you?” He sounded mighty hopeful.

  What a night this was for people giving me positive feedback. Why didn’t I have more nights like this?

  I thought for a minute. The Weres had made peace, in their own way. Quinn had been found. The vampires had settled into a new regime. The Fellowship fanatics had left the bar with a minimum of trouble. Bob was a man again. I didn’t suppose Niall wanted to offer Octavia a room in his own house, wherever that might be. For all I knew, he had a house in a babbling brook or under a live oak somewhere deep in the woods.

  “There is something I want,” I said, surprised I hadn’t thought of it before.

  “What is it?” he asked, sounding quite pleased.

  “I want to know the whereabouts of a man named Remy Savoy. He may have left New Orleans during Katrina. He may have a little child with him.” I gave my great-grandfather Savoy’s last known address.

  Niall looked confident. “I’ll find him for you, Sookie.”

  “I’d sure appreciate it.”

  “Nothing else? Nothing more?”

  “I have to say . . . this sounds mighty ungracious . . . but I can’t help but wonder why you seem to want to do something for me so badly.”

  “Why would I not? You are my only living kin.”

  “But you seem to have been content without me for the first twenty-seven years of my life.”

  “My son would not let me come near you.”

  “You told me that, but I don’t get it. Why? He didn’t make an appearance to let me know he cared anything about me. He never showed himself to me, or . . .” Played Scrabble with me, sent me a graduation present, rented a limousine for me to go to the prom, bought me a pretty dress, took me in his arms on the many occasions when I’d cried (growing up isn’t easy for a telepath). He hadn’t saved me from being molested by my great-uncle, or rescued my parents, one of whom was his son, when they drowned in a flash flood, or stopped a vampire from setting my house on fire while I was sleeping inside. All this guarding and watching my alleged grandfather Fintan had allegedly done had not paid off in any tangible way for me; and if it had paid off intangibly, I didn’t know about it.

  Would even worse things have happened? Hard to imagine. I supposed my grandfather could have been fighting off hordes of slavering demons outside my bedroom window every night, but I couldn’t feel grateful if I didn’t know about it.

  Niall looked upset, which was an expression I’d never seen him wear before. “There are things I can’t tell you,” he finally said. “When I can make myself speak of them, I will.”

  “Okay,” I said dryly. “But this isn’t exactly the give-and-take thing I wanted to have with my great-grandfather, I got to say. This is me telling you everything, and you telling me nothing.”

  “This may not be what you wanted, but it’s what I can give,” Niall said with some stiffness. “I do love you, and I had hoped that would be what mattered.”

  “I’m glad to hear you love me,” I said very slowly, because I didn’t want to risk seeing him walk away from Demanding Sookie. “But acting like it would be even better.”

  “I don’t act as though I love you?”

  “You vanish and reappear when it suits you. All your offers of help aren’t help of the practical kind, like the stuff most grandfathers—or great-grandfathers—do. They fix their granddaughter’s car with their own hands, or they offer to help with her college tuition, or they mow her lawn so she doesn’t have to. Or they take her hunting. You’re not going to do that.”

  “No,” he said. “I’m not.” A ghost of a smile crossed his face. “You wouldn’t want to go hunting with me.”

  Okay, I wasn’t going to think about that too closely. “So, I don’t have any idea of how we’re supposed to be together. You’re outside my frame of reference.”

  “I understand,” he said seriously. “All the great-grandfathers you know are human, and that I am not. You’re not what I expected, either.”

  “Yeah, I got that.” Did I even know any other great-grandfathers? Among friends my own age, even grandfathers were not a sure thing, much less great-grandfathers. But the ones I’d met were all 100 percent human. “I hope I’m not a disappointment,” I said.

  “No,” he said slowly. “A surprise. Not a disappointment. I’m as poor at predicting your actions and reactions as you are at predicting mine. We’ll have to work through this slowly.” I found myself wondering again why he wasn’t more interested in Jason, whose name activated an ache deep inside me. Someday soon I was going to have to talk to my brother, but I couldn’t face the idea now. I almost asked Niall to check on Jason, but then I changed my mind and kept silent. Niall eyed my face.

  “You don’t want to tell me something, Sookie. I worry when you do that. But my love is sincere and deep, and I’ll find Remy Savoy for you.” He kissed me on the cheek. “You smell like my kin,” he said approvingly.

  And he poofed.

  So, another mysterious conversation with my mysterious great-grandfather had been concluded by him on his own terms. Again. I sighed, fished my keys out of my purse, and unlocked the front door. The house was quiet and dark, and I made my way through the living room and into the hall with as little noise as I could make. I turned on my bedside lamp and performed my nightly routine, curtains closed against the morning sun that would try to wake me in a few short hours.

  Had I been an ungrateful bitch to my great-grandfather? When I reviewed what I’d said, I wondered if I’d sounded demanding and whiney. In a more optimistic interpretation, I thought I might have sounded like a stand-up woman, the kind people shouldn’t mess with, the kind of woman who speaks her mind.

  I turned on the heat before I got into bed. Octavia and Amelia hadn’t complained, but it had definitely been chilly the past few mornings. The stale smell that always comes when the heat is used the first time filled the air, and I wrinkled my nose as I snuggled under the sheet and the blanket. Then the whoosh noise lulled me into sleep.

  I’d been hearing voices for some time before I realized they were outside my door. I blinked, saw it was day, and shut my eyes again. Back to sleep. The voices continued, and I could tell they were arguing. I cracked open one eye to peer at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was nine thirty. Gack. Since the voices wouldn’t shut up or go away, I reluctantly opened both eyes at one time, absorbed the fact that the day was not bright, and sat up, pushing the covers back. I moved to the window to the left of the bed and looked out. Gray and rainy. As I stood there, drops began to hit the glass; it was going to be that kind of day.

  I went to the bathroom and heard the voices out
side hush now that I was clearly up and stirring. I threw open the door to find my two housemates standing right outside, which was no big surprise.

  “We didn’t know if we should wake you,” Octavia said. She looked anxious.

  “But I thought we ought to, because a message from a magical source is clearly important,” Amelia said. She appeared to have said it many times in the past few minutes, from the expression on Octavia’s face.

  “What message?” I asked, deciding to ignore the argument part of this conversation.

  “This one,” Octavia said, handing me a large buff envelope. It was made of heavy paper, like a super-fancy wedding invitation. My name was on the outside. No address, just my name. Furthermore, it was sealed with wax. The imprint in the wax was the head of a unicorn.

  “Okey-dokey,” I said. This was going to be an unusual letter.

  I walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and a knife, in that order, both the witches trailing behind me like a Greek chorus. Having poured the coffee and pulled out a chair to sit at the table, I slid the knife under the seal and detached it gently. I opened the flap and pulled out a card. On the card was a handwritten address: 1245 Bienville, Red Ditch, Louisiana. That was all.

  “What does it mean?” Octavia said. She and Amelia were naturally standing right behind me so they could get a good view.

  “It’s the location of someone I’ve been searching for,” I said, which was not exactly the truth but close enough.

  “Where’s Red Ditch?” Octavia said. “I’ve never heard of it.” Amelia was already fetching the Louisiana map from the drawer under the telephone. She looked up the town, running her finger down the columns of names.

  “It’s not too far,” she said. “See?” She put her finger on a tiny dot about an hour and a half’s drive southeast of Bon Temps.

  I drank my coffee as fast as I could and scrambled into some jeans. I slapped a little makeup on and brushed my hair and headed out the front door to my car, map in hand.