Dead in the Family ss-10 Read online

  I’d expected this, but it was still a tough moment. I hadn’t really expected her to come back. I’d hoped she’d heal faster in New Orleans—and it was true she hadn’t mentioned Tray. It sounded like more than grieving was going on. “You’re okay?”

  “I am,” she said. “And I’ve been training with Octavia some more.” Octavia, her mentor in witchcraft, had returned to New Orleans with her long-lost love. “Also, I finally got. judged. I’ve got to pay a penalty for—you know—the thing with Bob.”

  “The thing with Bob” was Amelia’s way of referring to accidentally turning her lover into a cat. Octavia had returned Bob to his human form, but naturally Bob hadn’t been happy with Amelia, and neither had Octavia. Though Amelia had been training in her craft, clearly transformational magic had been beyond her skills.

  “So, they’re not going to whip you or anything, right?” I asked, trying to sound as if I were joking. “After all, it’s not like he died.” Just lost a big chunk of his life and missed Katrina entirely, including being able to inform his family that he’d survived.

  “Some of them would whip me if they could. But that’s not how we witches roll.” Amelia tried to laugh, but it wasn’t convincing. “As a penalty, I’ve got to do, like, community service.”

  “Like picking up litter or tutoring kids?”

  “Well. mixing potions and making up bags of common ingredients so they’re ready to hand. Working extra hours in the magic store, and killing chickens for rituals every now and then. Doing a lot of legwork. Without pay.”

  “That sucks,” I said, because money is almost always a touchy subject with me. Amelia had grown up rich, but I had not. If someone deprives me of income, I get pissed off. I had a fleeting moment of wondering how much Claudine’s bank account might have had in it, and I blessed her for thinking of me.

  “Yeah, well, Katrina wiped the New Orleans covens out. We lost some members who’ll never come back, so we don’t get their contributions anymore, and I never use my dad’s money for the coven.”

  “So, the bottom line?” I said.

  “I’ve gotta stay down here. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back to Bon Temps. And I’m really sorry about that, because I really liked living with you.”

  “Same here.” I took a deep breath, determined not to sound forlorn. “What about your stuff? Not that there’s that much here, but still.”

  “I’ll leave it there for now. I’ve got everything here I need, and the rest is yours to use as you see fit till I can make arrangements to get it.”

  We talked a bit more, but we’d said everything important. I forgot to ask her if Octavia had found a way to dissolve Eric’s blood bond with me. Possibly I wasn’t very interested in an answer. I hung up, feeling both sad and glad: glad that Amelia was working off her debt to her coven and that she was happier than she’d been in Bon Temps after Tray’s death, and sad because I understood she didn’t expect to return. After a moment of silent farewell to her, I went to the kitchen to tell Claude that the upstairs was all his.

  After I’d absorbed his gratified smile, I moved on to another issue. I didn’t know how to approach my question, so finally I simply asked him. “Have you been out in my woods back of the house?”

  His face went absolutely blank.

  “Why would I do that?” he said.

  “I didn’t ask for your motivation. I asked if you had been there.” I know evasion when I hear it.

  “No,” he said.

  “That’s bad news.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the Weres tell me a fairy’s been back there very recently.” I kept my eyes fixed on his. “And if it’s not you, who could it be?”

  “There aren’t many fairies left,” Claude said.

  Again, evasion. “If there are other fairies that didn’t make it in before the portal was shut, you could hang around with them,” I said. “You wouldn’t need to stay with me, with my little dash of fairy blood. Yet here you are. And somewhere in my woods is yet another fairy.” I eyed his expression. “I don’t see you excited about tracking down whoever it is. What’s the deal? Why don’t you dash out there, find the fairy, do some bonding, and be happy?”

  Claude looked down. “The last portal to close was in your woods,” he said. “Possibly it’s not completely shut. And I know Dermot, your great-uncle, was on the outside. If Dermot is the fairy the Weres sensed, he wouldn’t be glad to see me.”

  I thought he would have more to say, but he stopped right there.

  That was plenty of bad news, and another whopping dollop of dodging the issue. I was still dubious about his goals, but Claude was family, and I had precious little family left. “All right,” I said, opening a kitchen drawer where I stowed odds and ends. “Here’s a key. We’ll see how this pans out. I have to go to work this afternoon, by the way. And we have to have a talk. You know that I’ve got a boyfriend, right?” I was already feeling kind of embarrassed.

  “Who are you seeing?” Claude asked, with a sort of professional interest.

  “Ah, well. Eric Northman.”

  Claude whistled. He looked both admiring and cautious. “Does Eric spend the night? I need to know if he’s going to jump me.” Claude looked as though that wouldn’t be totally unwelcome. But the pertinent issue was that fairies are really intoxicating to vampires, like catnip to cats. Eric would have a hard time restraining himself from biting if Claude was close to him.

  “That would probably end badly for you,” I said. “But I think, with a little care, we can get around it.” Eric seldom spent the night at my house because he liked to be back in Shreveport before dawn. He had so much work to get through every night that he’d found it was better for him to wake up in Shreveport. I do have a hidden place where a vampire can stay in relative safety, but it’s not exactly deluxe, not like Eric’s house.

  I was a little more concerned about the possibility of Claude bringing strange men back to my house. I didn’t want to encounter someone I didn’t know when I was on my way to the kitchen in my nightie. Amelia had had a couple of overnight guests, but they’d been people I knew. I took a deep breath, hoping what I was about to say wouldn’t come out homophobic. “Claude, it’s not that I don’t want you to have a good time,” I said, wishing this conversation were over and done with. I admired Claude’s unblushing acceptance of the fact that I had a sex life, and I only wished I could match that nonchalance.

  “If I want to have sex with someone you don’t know, I’ll take him to my house in Monroe,” Claude said, with a wicked little smile. He could be perceptive when he chose, I noted. “Or I’ll let you know ahead of time. That okay?”

  “Sure,” I said, surprised at Claude’s easy compliance. But he’d said all the right words. I relaxed some as I showed Claude where strategic kitchen stuff was, gave him some tips on the washer and the dryer, and told him the hall bathroom was all his. Then I led him upstairs. Amelia had worked hard on making one of the little bedrooms pretty, and she’d decorated the other one as a sitting room. She’d taken her laptop with her, but the TV was still there. I checked to make sure that the bed was made up with clean linens and the closet was mostly clear of Amelia’s clothing. I pointed out the door to the walk-in attic, in case he needed to store anything. Claude pulled it open and took a step inside. He looked around at the shadowy, crowded space. Generations of Stackhouses had stored things they thought they might need someday, and I admit it was a little on the cluttered and chaotic side.

  “You need to go through this,” he said. “Do you even know what’s up here?”

  “Family debris,” I said, looking in with some dismay. I’d just never worked up the heart to tackle it since Gran died.

  “I’ll help you,” Claude declared. “That will be my payment to you for my room.”

  I opened my mouth to point out that Amelia had given me cash, but then I reflected, again, that he was family. “That would be great,” I said. “Though I don’t know if I’m up to it yet.” M
y wrists had been aching this morning, though they were definitely better than they’d been. “And there are some other jobs around the house that are beyond me, if you wouldn’t mind giving a hand.”

  He bowed. “I would be delighted,” he said.

  This was a different side of Claude from the one I’d come to know and disparage.

  Grief and loneliness seemed to have woken something in the beautiful fairy; he appeared to have come to the realization that he had to show a little kindness to other people if he wanted to receive kindness in return. Claude seemed to understand that he needed others, especially now that his sisters were gone.

  I was a little more at ease with our arrangement by the time I left for work. I’d listened to Claude moving around upstairs for a while, and then he’d come down with an armful of hair-care products to arrange in the bathroom. I’d already put out clean towels for him. He seemed satisfied with the bathroom, which was very old-fashioned. But then Claude had been alive in a time before indoor plumbing, so maybe he saw it from a different perspective. Truthfully, hearing someone else in the house had relaxed something deep inside me, a tension I hadn’t even known I felt.

  “Hey, Sam,” I said. He was behind the bar when I came out of the back room, where I’d left my purse and put on an apron. Merlotte’s wasn’t very busy. Holly, as always, was talking to her Hoyt, who was dawdling over his supper. With her Merlotte’s T-shirt, Holly was wearing pink and green plaid shorts instead of the regulation black.

  “Looking good, Holly,” I called, and she gave me a radiant smile. While Hoyt beamed, Holly held out her hand to show off a brand-new ring.

  I let out a shriek and hugged her. “Oh, this is so great!” I said. “Holly, it’s so pretty! So, have you picked a date yet?”

  “It’ll be in the fall, probably,” Holly said. “Hoyt has to work long hours through the spring and summer. That’s his busy time, so we figured maybe October or November.”

  “Sookie,” Hoyt said, his voice dropping and his face growing solemn. “Now that Jason and I have mended our fences, I’m going to ask him to be my best man.”

  I glanced very quickly over to Holly, who’d never been a big Jason fan. She was still smiling, and if I could detect the reservations she had, Hoyt couldn’t.

  I said, “He’ll be thrilled.”

  I had to hustle off to make the rounds of my tables, but I smiled while I worked. I wondered if they’d have the ceremony after dark. Then Eric could go with me. That would be great! That would transform me from “poor Sookie who hasn’t even ever been engaged” to “Sookie who brought the gorgeous guy to the wedding.” Then I thought of a contingency plan. If the wedding was a daytime wedding, I could get Claude to go with me! He looked exactly like a romance cover model. He’d been a romance cover model. (Ever read The Lady and the Stableboy, or Lord Darlington’s Naughty Marriage? Woo-hoo!)

  I was unhappily aware that I was thinking about the wedding strictly in terms of my own feelings. but there’s nothing more forlorn than being an old maid at a wedding. I realize that it’s silly to feel like you’re on the shelf at twenty-seven. But I had missed some prime time, and I was increasingly conscious of that fact. So many of my high school friends had gotten married (some more than once), and some of them were pregnant—like Tara, who was coming through the door in an oversized T-shirt.

  I gave a wave to let her know I’d come talk to her when I could, and I got an iced tea for Dr. Linda Tonnesen and a Michelob for Jesse Wayne Cummins.

  “What’s up, Tara?” I bent over to give her a neck hug. She had plunked herself down at a table.

  “I need some caffeine-free Diet Coke,” she said. “And I need a cheeseburger. With lots of French-fried pickles.” She looked ferocious.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll get the Coke and put in your order right now.”

  When I returned, she drank the whole glass. “I’ll be sorry in five minutes because I’ll have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “All I do is pee and eat.” Tara had big rings under her eyes, and her complexion was not at its best. Where was the glow of pregnancy that I’d heard so much about?

  “How much longer do you have to go?”

  “Three months, a week, and three days.”

  “Dr. Dinwiddie gave you a due date!”

  “JB just can’t believe how big I’m getting,” Tara said, with an eye roll.

  “He said that? In those words?”

  “Yep. Yes. He did.”

  “Geez Louise. That boy needs a lesson or two in rephrasing.”

  “I’d settle for him keeping his mouth shut entirely.”

  Tara had married JB knowing brains weren’t his strong suit, and she was reaping the result, but I so wanted them to be happy. I couldn’t be all, “You made your bed, now you gotta lie in it.”

  “He loves you,” I said, trying to sound soothing. “He’s just. ”

  “JB,” she said. She shrugged and summoned up a smile.

  Then Antoine called that my order was up, and the avid expression on Tara’s face told me that she was more focused on the food than on her husband’s tactlessness. She returned to Tara’s Togs a happier and fuller woman.

  As soon as it was dark, I called Eric on my cell while I was in the ladies’ room. I hated to sneak off on Sam’s time to call my boyfriend, but I needed the support. Now that I had his cell number, I didn’t have to call Fangtasia, which was both bad and good. I’d never known who was going to answer the phone, and I’m not a universal favorite among Eric’s vampires. On the other hand, I missed talking to Pam, Eric’s second-in-command. Pam and I are actually almost friends.

  “I am here, my lover,” Eric said. It was hard not to shiver when I heard his voice, but the atmosphere of the ladies’ room in Merlotte’s was not at all conducive to lust.

  “Well, I’m here, too, obviously. Listen, I really need to talk to you,” I said. “Some things have come up.”

  “You’re worried.”

  “Yes. With good reason.”

  “I have a meeting in thirty minutes with Victor,” Eric said. “You know how tense that’s likely to be.”

  “I do know. And I’m sorry to pester you with my problems. But you’re my boyfriend, and part of being a good boyfriend is listening.”

  “Your boyfriend,” he said. “That sounds. strange. I am so not a boy.”

  “Foof, Eric!” I was exasperated. “I don’t want to stand here in the bathroom trying to talk terminology! What’s the bottom line? Are you going to have free time later or not?”

  He laughed. “Yes, for you. Can you drive over here? Wait, I’ll send Pam for you. She’ll be at your house at one o’clock, all right?”

  I might have to hurry to get home by then, but it was doable. “Okay. And warn Pam that. Well, tell her not to get carried away by anything, hear?”

  “Oh, certainly, I’ll be glad to pass that very specific message along,” Eric said. He hung up. Not big on saying good-bye, like most vampires.

  This was going to be a very long day.

  Chapter 3

  Luckily for me, all the customers cleared out early, and I was able to get my closing work done in record time. I called, “Good night!” over my shoulder and hared out the back door to my car. When I parked behind the house, I noticed Claude’s car wasn’t there. So he was probably still in Monroe, which simplified matters. I hurried to change clothes and freshen my makeup, and just as I put on some lipstick, Pam knocked at the back door.

  Pam was looking especially Pammish tonight. Her blond hair was absolutely straight and shining, her pale blue suit looked like a vintage gem, and she was wearing hose with seams up the back, which she turned around to show me.

  “Wow,” I said, which was the only possible response. “You’re looking great.” She put my red skirt and red and white blouse to shame.

  “Yes,” she said with considerable satisfaction. “I am. Ah. ” She became utterly still. “Do I smell fairy?”

  “You do, but there’s not one here
now, so just rein it in. My cousin Claude was here today. He’s going to be bunking with me for a while.”

  “Claude, the mouthwateringly beautiful asshole?”

  Claude’s fame preceded him. “Yes, that Claude.”

  “Why? Why is he staying with you?”

  “He’s lonely,” I said.

  “Do you really believe that?” Pam’s pale brows were arched incredulously.

  “Well. yes, I do.” Why else would Claude want to stay at my house, which was not convenient to his job? He certainly didn’t want to get in my pants, and he hadn’t asked to borrow money.

  “This is some fairy intrigue,” Pam said. “You were a fool to be taken in.”

  Nobody likes being called a fool. Pam had stepped over the line, but then “tact” was not her middle name. “Pam, that’s enough,” I said. I must have sounded serious, because she stared at me for all of fifteen seconds.

  “I’ve offended you,” she said, though not as if the idea gave her pain.

  “Yeah, you have. Claude’s missing his sisters. There aren’t any fairies left for him to intrigue with since Niall closed the portal, or doors, or whatever the heck he closed. I’m the closest Claude’s got to his kind—which is pretty pitiful, since I just have a dab of fairy in me.”

  “Let’s go,” Pam said. “Eric will be waiting.”

  Changing the subject when she had nothing left to say was another of Pam’s characteristics. I had to smile and shake my head. “How’d the meeting with Victor go?” I asked.

  “It would be a good thing if Victor met with an unfortunate accident.”

  “You really mean that?”

  “No. I really wish someone would kill him.”

  “Me, too.” Our eyes met, and she gave me a brisk nod. We were in synch on the Victor issue.

  “I suspect his every statement,” she said. “I question his every decision. I think he’s out to take Eric’s position. He doesn’t want to be the king’s emissary any longer. He wants to carve out his own territory.”