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  Ace Books by Charlaine Harris

  The Sookie Stackhouse Novels

  DEAD UNTIL DARK

  LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS

  CLUB DEAD

  DEAD TO THE WORLD

  DEAD AS A DOORNAIL

  DEFINITELY DEAD

  ALL TOGETHER DEAD

  FROM DEAD TO WORSE

  DEAD AND GONE

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  DEADLOCKED

  DEAD EVER AFTER

  A TOUCH OF DEAD

  AFTER DEAD

  Ace Books Edited by Charlaine Harris

  THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION

  Ace Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

  MANY BLOODY RETURNS

  WOLFSBANE AND MISTLETOE

  DEATH’S EXCELLENT VACATION

  HOME IMPROVEMENT: UNDEAD EDITION

  AN APPLE FOR THE CREATURE

  Berkley Prime Crime Books by Charlaine Harris

  SWEET AND DEADLY

  A SECRET RAGE

  The Harper Connelly Mysteries

  GRAVE SIGHT

  GRAVE SURPRISE

  AN ICE COLD GRAVE

  GRAVE SECRET

  The Lily Bard Mysteries

  SHAKESPEARE’S LANDLORD

  SHAKESPEARE’S CHAMPION

  SHAKESPEARE’S CHRISTMAS

  SHAKESPEARE’S TROLLOP

  SHAKESPEARE’S COUNSELOR

  The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries

  REAL MURDERS

  A BONE TO PICK

  THREE BEDROOMS, ONE CORPSE

  THE JULIUS HOUSE

  DEAD OVER HEELS

  A FOOL AND HIS HONEY

  LAST SCENE ALIVE

  POPPY DONE TO DEATH

  Berkley Prime Crime Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris

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  InkLit Graphic Novels by Charlaine Harris

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  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  AFTER DEAD

  Copyright © 2013 by Charlaine Harris, Inc.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

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  eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63598-8

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Harris, Charlaine.

  After dead : what came next in the world of Sookie Stackhouse / Charlaine Harris.—First edition.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-0-425-26951-0 (hardback)

  1. Stackhouse, Sookie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Vampires—Fiction. 3. Werewolves—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction. 5. Harris, Charlaine—Characters. I. Title.

  PS3558.A6427A69 2013

  813'.54—dc23

  2013030521

  FIRST EDITION: November 2013

  Cover, endpaper, and interior illustrations by Lisa Desimini.

  Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

  Cover photograph of clouds © Elenamiv/Shutterstock.

  HBO® and True Blood® are service marks of Home Box Office, Inc.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  A Note from the Author

  A

  THE ANCIENT PYTHONESS

  GREG and CHRISTY AUBERT

  B

  CONNIE BABCOCK

  DOKE, MINDY, MASON, and BONNIE BALLINGER

  CHRISTIAN BARUCH

  BATANYA and CLOVACHE

  ISABEL BEAUMONT

  ALCEE and BARBARA BECK

  ANDY and HALLEIGH BELLEFLEUR

  TERRY and JIMMIE BELLEFLEUR

  BELLENOS

  BERNARD

  POLLY BLYTHE

  JANE BODEHOUSE

  ANTHONY BOLIVAR

  KATHERINE (KATE) BOOK

  BOOM

  DERMOT BRIGANT

  DILLON BRIGANT

  NIALL BRIGANT

  AMELIA BROADWAY

  BUBBA

  C

  CALLISTO

  PORTER CARPENTER

  DESMOND CATALIADES

  DIANTHA CATALIADES

  CHARLES CLAUSEN

  HANK CLEARWATER

  PARKER COBURN

  BILL COMPTON

  MIKE COUGHLIN and WILLIE CROMWELL

  ALFRED CUMBERLAND

  CYNDEE

  D

  DEVON DAWN

  BUD and GRETA DEARBORN

  FELIPE DE CASTRO

  MARK DUFFY

  JB DU RONE

  ROBERT THORNTON DU RONE and SARA SOOKIE DU RONE

  TARA THORNTON DU RONE

  DUSTIN

  E

  IMMANUEL EARNEST

  RUSSELL EDGINGTON

  HELEN ELLIS

  ERIN

  F

  OCTAVIA FANT

  FARRELL

  HOYT FORTENBERRY

  MAXINE FORTENBERRY

  COBY and LISA FOWLER

  FREYDA

  G

  LUNA GARZA

  DANIELLE GRAY

  H

  GINJER HART

  HEIDI

  CATFISH HENNESSY

  RUBIO HERMOSA

  ALCIDE HERVEAUX

  BRENDA HESTERMAN

  MR. HOB

  BARRY (HOROWITZ) BELLBOY

  I

  INDIRA

  ISAIAH

  J

  BOB JESSUP

  BROCK and CHESSIE JOHNSON

  KENYA JONES and KEVIN PRYOR

  K

  KENNEDY KEYES

  MUSTAPHA KHAN

  L

  TOM LATTESTA

  ANTOINE LEBRUN

  MAXWELL LEE

  LAYLA LARUE LEMAY

  BEV LEVETO

  LISLE

  DR. AMY LUDWIG

  DAHLIA LYNLEY-CHIVERS

  M

  MCKENNA

  SISTER MENDOZA

  BERNADETTE MERLOTTE

  CRAIG and DEIDRA LISLE MERLOTTE

  SAM MERLOTTE

  FRANKLIN MOTT

  N

  SARAH NEWLIN

  CALVIN NORRIS and TANYA GRISSOM NORRIS

  TERRY NORRIS

  ERIC NORTHMAN

  O

  TOGO OLYMPIO

  P

  PALOMINO

  PRESTON PARDLOE

  DELL and JANICE HERVEAUX PHILLIPS

  JOE PORTUGAL

  LORINDA PRESCOTT

  DANNY PRIDEAUX

  TRISH GRAHAM PULASKI

  SELAH PUMPHREY

  JAKE PURIFOY

  Q

  FRANNIE QUINN

  JOHN QUINN

  R

  RASUL

  SHERIFF PAM RAVENSCROFT

  RED RITA

  S

  SALOME

  ERIN and REMY
SAVOY

  HUNTER SAVOY

  MICHELE SCHUBERT

  TODD SEABROOK

  DELIA SHURTLIFF and RANDALL SHURTLIFF

  EVERETT O’DELL SMITH

  DR. SONNTAG

  JASON STACKHOUSE

  SOOKIE STACKHOUSE

  T

  THALIA

  DAVID and GENEVIEVE THRASH

  TIJGERIN

  JULIAN TROUT

  U

  INDIA UNGER

  V

  JUDITH VARDAMON

  JOSEPH VELASQUEZ

  GLEN and PORTIA BELLEFLEUR VICK

  W

  WARREN

  SARA WEISS

  QUIANA WONG

  X

  XAVIER

  Y

  VERENA ROSE YANCY

  Z

  BETHANY ZANELLI

  For the grandchildren.

  They are our future.

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  After I began writing the final novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I was deluged by questions from readers who all wanted to know the same thing: how to find out what happened to a score of characters who couldn’t make an appearance in the last book. It was obvious I couldn’t fit all of the people in Bon Temps and its environs into Dead Ever After. So in the interest of satisfying the readers who’ve been following Sookie’s adventures for years, I herewith present my coda to the books that have dominated my professional life for over a decade.

  THE ANCIENT PYTHONESS continues to be cared for by the vampires of Rhodes. The donors from the Donor Bureau who are sent to her have to be carefully briefed, because giving her blood is terrifying and definitely unsexy.

  GREG and CHRISTY AUBERT continued to work at Greg’s insurance agency, Pelican State. Greg, a natural witch, struggled with using his innate power to improve his business after he almost ran all the other insurance agents in Bon Temps into the ground. He underwent an intervention (telling the psychologist he was an alcoholic) to change his behavior. Not too surprisingly, the treatment didn’t work very well. Greg finally managed to impress Greg Jr., who was watching from the garage one day when his dad reinflated a tire by pointing his finger at it. Lindsay, Greg and Christy’s daughter, sowed her wild oats and then settled down to teach tap and jazz dancing to little girls in Clarice. She married a farmer.

  CONNIE BABCOCK, the deceitful secretary at Herveaux and Son, was not able to get a comparable job after she was fired. She ended up working as a guard at a correctional facility.

  DOKE, MINDY, MASON, and BONNIE BALLINGER are living happily in Texas. Doke got laid off for a while, but he was called back to work before things got too tight. Mindy got a job working as a secretary at the high school, and she really enjoyed it. Mason had nightmares about the day of his uncle’s wedding, but his parents talked to him a lot and sent him to a counselor, and he got through it. He became a manager at a mattress factory. Bonnie didn’t remember that awful day the wedding was picketed by protesters, but she became an activist for various social causes later in life. She was also the best veterinarian in west Texas.

  CHRISTIAN BARUCH was accused of unprofessional behavior at a meeting of the Vampire Hoteliers Association. He was never seen again.

  BATANYA and CLOVACHE are still working for the Britlingen Collective, which continues its business of providing protection in several dimensions to whoever can pay for it. Batanya thinks Clovache is the best partner she’s ever had, and they’ve had many adventures in many strange situations. So far, they’ve come out alive.

  ISABEL BEAUMONT, Dallas vampire, racked up an impressive body count among the rebels responsible for killing her king, Stan. She still lives in Dallas and has become Joseph Velasquez’s right hand. She never dates humans.

  ALCEE and BARBARA BECK went away for a vacation in Hawaii after the events of Dead Ever After. They returned after two weeks with some very interesting underwear and big smiles on their faces.

  ANDY and HALLEIGH BELLEFLEUR welcomed their daughter, Caroline, two months after the events of Dead Ever After. Caroline was born with a heart defect, but after some surgery she lived a relatively normal life for many years. They had two more children, sons Jared and Clayton. Caroline’s heart defect unexpectedly caused complications when she was a senior in high school, and Andy and Halleigh buried her in her cheerleader uniform. Jared and Clayton both became lawyers like their aunt Portia Bellefleur Vick.

  TERRY and JIMMIE BELLEFLEUR welcomed many litters of pups to their double-wide, and three of the pups won prizes at Catahoula shows. Eight years after their marriage, the couple died in a two-car accident as they returned from a grandchild’s birthday party. Terry was sincerely mourned by Jimmie’s children and grandchildren, and they gave a donation to the VA hospital in Shreveport in Terry’s honor. It was earmarked for the treatment of prisoners of war.

  BELLENOS the elf was glad to return to Faery with Dermot, and they go hunting together often. When Bellenos found a female elf to marry, Dermot gave him a handsome wedding present: a metal relief plaque embellished with the likenesses of the heads of those Bellenos had slain. It has a place of honor above Bellenos’s hearth.

  BERNARD the vampire, a great friend of Russell Edgington’s, became an even better friend of Christopher Hauser, the vampire king of Germany. Bernard was named Christopher’s consort. He’s unchangingly cute.

  POLLY BLYTHE was fired from her position with the Fellowship of the Sun. She found a job as a public relations contact with a Pat Robertson–style ministry but was fired from that, too, after she told a newscaster during an on-air interview that he was bound for Hell. She became a telemarketer.

  JANE BODEHOUSE died five years after the end of Dead Ever After. She blacked out while she was sitting on the toilet and cracked her head against the edge of her sink. Marvin found her the next day. Marvin Bodehouse never got married, but he also never took a drink.

  The vampire short-order cook ANTHONY BOLIVAR became a celebrity chef and appeared on the Food Channel several times. After he was arrested for picking up a prostitute and overdrinking from her, the Food Channel asked him to pack his knives. He began traveling again and occasionally takes a night shift at a restaurant . . . maybe one near you.

  Lawyer KATHERINE (KATE) BOOK is still an undead activist. She has to practice in night court, of course, but she’s featured in magazines all the time as a poster woman for all that is good about vampires.

  BOOM still works on the bomb squad in Rhodes.

  Shut away in Faery forever, DERMOT BRIGANT is extremely happy. He basks in his father’s affection and has a very uncomplicated sex life. He is spell-free.

  DILLON BRIGANT had already disowned his remaining child, Claude, well before Claude escaped from Faery. Dillon spent the next few hundred years keeping a low profile, because he didn’t want to remind his father, Niall, that a family member tried to overthrow Niall’s government.

  NIALL BRIGANT spent a few decades suspecting that there were plots against him behind every door because of Claude’s rebellion, and many of the fae suffered for Claude’s misbehavior. Every now and then, Niall thought of Sookie and sent her a letter via rosebush.

  AMELIA BROADWAY had a son with Bob. After many arguments over what to do with her father’s business and money after he was declared legally dead (Bob wanted to give it to charity), the couple split up, but they shared custody of their son, Felix, until he was eighteen. Amelia sold her father’s business to a large chain, invested the proceeds, and used her witch skills to play the stock market. She amassed a huge amount of money and married her banker. Felix became an animal wrangler for the film industry, specializing in big cats.

  BUBBA continued to be passed from vampire kingdom to vampire kingdom, but while he was in Tennessee, he escaped from his minder to visit his gravesite, causing a near riot. After that, the vampire council censured Tennessee and ruled that Bubba couldn’t enter the state for fifty years. He is in Canada now. He hates the winters.

  CALLISTO drifted over to the Middle E
ast, where she caused dreadful bloodshed but went unnoticed.

  Wright’s PORTER CARPENTER took special courses to become an expert in crowd control. He got the job of police chief of Arlington, and then he was hired by Fort Worth.

  DESMOND CATALIADES remained a friend to Sookie, developing a habit of dropping in before Christmas every year. His children didn’t approve of his attachment to a human, but in view of what happened when their father was unhappy, they never spoke to him about it. Mr. Cataliades declared New Orleans a devil-free zone, and he enforces that doctrine vigorously. He continues to practice law.

  DIANTHA CATALIADES was a teenager for only ten more years. She still has a startling sense of fashion, and she still works for her uncle. She also has a seasonal job at a fireworks factory.

  CHARLES CLAUSEN finally found a nice lady wereowl to nest with.

  HANK CLEARWATER contracted gonorrhea.

  PARKER COBURN lived with Rubio Hermosa and Palomino for fifty-seven years. After a fight about who had left the bathroom light on, Parker moved to Las Vegas, where he’s become a door-opener at a casino owned by Felipe de Castro. He’s looking for congenial vampires with whom to nest.

  BILL COMPTON developed a warm relationship with Karin the Slaughterer. He built a secret daybed for her on the second floor of the Compton house. Though eventually their physical ardor abated, Bill was glad to have Karin’s input when he began creating and producing violent vampire-themed video games. He recruited a stable of young computer-oriented men and women who agreed to work for Bill exclusively for twenty years in exchange for being brought over. Eventually, Bill had to add on to the Compton house to accommodate his nest. He became extremely rich and was featured in all the vampire magazines, and not a few human ones. He strolled across the cemetery to visit with Sookie from time to time. He always loved her. A surprising development was made possible by all the money he earned from his computer empire: see Felipe de Castro.