Charlaine Harris - Deadlocked

“Good God, Sookie,” he said. “You real y know how to have a birthday, huh?”

“The best part of my birthday was my present from you,” I said, and I took his hand.

Sam turned red. “Aw, Sook. You earned it. You deserve it. And look, I didn’t make you equal partner, did I?”

“Trying to make your gift look like less won’t work for me,” I said. I kissed him on the cheek and got up, to make the moment lighten so Sam would be more comfortable. “I got to get home,” I said, though I couldn’t imagine what for.

“See you tomorrow.”

It would be a lot sooner than that.

I felt curiously blank on the drive home to my empty house.

For what seemed like forever, my spare time had been taken up by Eric. We were making plans to meet, or we were together, or we were talking on the telephone. Now that it seemed our relationship was unraveling, I had no idea what to expect from our next meeting. If we had a next meeting.

But I couldn’t imagine how I would fil the hole in my life left by his absence. Now that I knew who’d tried to get Eric into trouble, I knew that his involvement with me had led to this moment. He’d never have been targeted by Claude, by Jannalynn, if it hadn’t been for me, and that was such a reversal on the usual situation—I’d been the object of so many schemes because Eric was my lover—that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. I wondered how much Eric knew of what had transpired, but I couldn’t bring myself to cal him to tel about it al .

He had known I had the cluviel dor, and he had expected me to use it to get him out of the arrangement Appius had made with Freyda.

And maybe I would have done that. Maybe I stil would. It seemed the obvious choice, the most apparent thing to do with the magic. But it also seemed to me that Eric was expecting me to magical y get him out of a situation that he should defeat by his own efforts. He should love me enough to simply refuse Freyda. It was like he wanted the decision out of his hands.

That was an idea I didn’t want to have. But you can’t erase a thought; once you’ve had it, it’s there to stay.

I would love to feel an absolute conviction that yanking that cluviel dor out of my pocket and wishing with al my heart that Eric would stay with me was the right thing to do.

I poked at that thought. I prodded that thought. But it just didn’t feel right to me.

I took a much-needed nap. When I got up, though I wasn’t real y al that hungry, I microwaved a dish of lasagna and picked at it as I thought. No one at the bar had heard news of any more mysterious deer deaths, and now I was sure there never would be. I wondered about Hooligans, presumably now sitting empty, but it wasn’t anything to do with me anymore. Oh, gosh, the guys were sure to have left some stuff upstairs. Maybe this evening I’d pack it up. Not that there was any address to forward it to.

Okay, maybe I’d take the clothes to Goodwil .

I watched television for a while—an old black-and-white movie about a man and a woman who loved one another but had to overcome al sorts of things to be together, a cooking show, a couple of episodes of Jeopardy . (I couldn’t get any answers right.) My only phone cal was from a fund-raising organization. I turned them down.

They were disappointed in me, I could tel .

When the phone rang again, I picked it up without bothering to turn down the sound on the TV.

“Sookie?” said a familiar voice.

I pressed the Off button on the remote. “Alcide, how is Warren?”

“He’s much better. I think he’s gonna be fine. Listen, I need you and Sam to come to the old farm tonight.”

“Your dad’s place?”

“Yeah. Your presence was requested.”

“By whom?”

“By Jannalynn.”

“You found her?”

“Yeah.”

“But Sam, too? She wants Sam?”

“Yeah. She deceived him, too. He has a right to be there.”

“Did you cal him?”

“He’s on his way to pick you up.”

“Do I have to?” I said.

“You whining, Sookie?”

“Yeah, I guess I am, Alcide. I’m mighty tired, and more bad stuff has happened than you know.”

“I can’t take any more than I have on my plate. Just come. If it makes you want to attend this little soiree more, your honey’s gonna be there.”

“Eric?”

“Yeah. The King of Cold himself.”

Fear and longing rippled along my skin. “Okay,” I said. “I’l come.”

By the time I heard Sam’s truck in the driveway, the lack of sleep I’d experienced the night before was hitting me in a major way. I’d spent the minutes I’d waited by refreshing my memory about the route to Alcide’s family place, and I’d written the directions out. When Sam knocked on the door, I stuck the paper in my purse. We were going to be walking around a farm at night; I’d want to leave my purse in the car. I made certain the cluviel dor was stil in my pocket and I felt the now-familiar curved shape.

Sam’s face was grim and hard, and it felt wrong to see him that way.

We didn’t talk on the way to the farm.

I had to turn on Sam’s overhead light from time to time to read my directions, but I was able to steer us right. I think the preoccupation with actual y getting there helped keep us from worrying too much about what we’d see when we arrived.

We found a mess of cars parked higgledy-piggledy in the front yard of the old farmhouse. To cal it “remote” was to be kind. Though there was more cleared land around it than there had ever been at my place, it was even more private. No one lived here ful time any longer. Alcide’s dad’s dad had owned the farm, and Jackson Herveaux had kept it after he’d gone into construction so he’d have a place to run at the ful moon. The pack had used it often. The front of the house was dark, but I could hear voices around the back. Sam and I trudged through the high weeds. We didn’t say a word to each other.

We might as wel have walked into another country.

The meadow behind the house was mowed and smooth. There were lights up. I could see from posts that normal y there was a vol ey-bal net set up across a sand court. A few yards away, there was a pool that looked new. I even spotted a basebal diamond farther back. A Weber gril was under the covered patio. Clearly, this was where the pack came to relax and have fel owship.

I saw the tal and quiet Kandace first. She smiled at me and pointed to Alcide, who stood out among his people as much as Nial did among his.

Tonight Alcide looked like a king. A king in jeans and a T-shirt, a barefoot king. And he looked dangerous. The power gathered around him. The air was humming with the magic of the pack.

Good. We needed more tension.

Eric shone like the moon; he was pale and commanding, and there was a large empty space around him. He was alone. He held out his hand to me, and I took it, to a flare of dismay from the twoeys.

“You know, about Jannalynn and Claude?” I looked up at him.

“Yes, I know. Nial sent me a message.”

“He’s gone. They’ve al gone.”

“He told me I would not hear from him again.”

I nodded and gulped. No more crying. “So what’s going to happen tonight?”

“I don’t know what we’re here to see,” he said. “An execution? A duel? With the wolves, I can’t predict.”

Sam was standing by himself, just under the awning over the patio. Alcide went up to him and spoke, and Sam shrugged, then nodded. He stepped out to stand by Alcide.

I looked around at the faces of the pack members. They were al restless because of the night and because of the promise of violence in the air.

There was going to be bleeding tonight.

Alcide raised an arm, and four figures were led from the back of the house. Their hands were bound. Van, Plump, the bandaged Airman (Laidlaw, Mustapha had cal ed him), and Jannalynn. I didn’t know where they’d caught up with her, but her face was bruised. She’d put up a fight, which was no surprise at al .