Deadlocked (24 page)

“I think that’s just possible.” Bill was giving me a long-suffering look.

“The database,” I suggested, and he pulled a little bunch of keys from his pocket. There was a black rectangle attached to the key ring.

“I have it right here,” he said, and I was amazed all over again at Bill’s plunge into the modern world.

“And that would be a what?” I asked.

“This is a jump drive.” Bill looked quizzical.

“Oh, sure.” I’d had enough of feeling dumb for the evening. We went inside so Bill could use my computer. Bill carried over a chair for me and then took his seat in the rolling chair directly in front of the screen.

He inserted the little stick into a slot I hadn’t even realized was on the side of my computer. After a couple of minutes, he had
The Vampire Directory
on the screen.

“Wow.” I looked at the opening, some very dramatic graphics. A pair of Gothic gates hung closed, a giant lock on them. The background music was dark and atmospheric. I hadn’t paid any attention when I’d used a stolen copy of the database before, because I’d been so conscious of my guilt. Now I could appreciate the graveyard humor in Bill’s presentation. A written introduction appeared superimposed on the gates in many different languages. After you selected the language you wanted, a solemn voice read the introduction out loud. Bill skipped through all that. He touched a few keys, and the Gothic gates creaked open to show all our options. As Bill explained, you could sort the vampires in different ways. You could look for vampires in Yugoslavia, for example, or you could look for female vampires in the St. Louis area. Or all vampires more than a thousand years old in Myanmar.

“I can’t believe you did all this,” I said admiringly. “It’s so cool.”

“It was a lot of work,” he said absently, “and I had a lot of help.”

“How many languages is it available in?”

“So far, thirty.”

“This must have made money hand over fist, Bill. I hope you got some of it yourself.” I hoped it wasn’t pouring into the bank account of Felipe de Castro. Who so didn’t deserve it.

“I’ve made some change from it,” Bill said, smiling.

That was a good expression to see on Bill’s face. He didn’t wear it often enough.

In a jiffy, he’d called up the entry for Ra Shawn. The vampire had been about thirty at the time of his human death, but he’d been a vampire for (maybe) a hundred years at the time of his second death. Ra Shawn’s background was hazy, but he’d first been noticed in Haiti, Bill’s sources had told him. The dreadlocked Ra Shawn had long been a cult figure in the black supernatural community. He had been the cool and deadly black vampire, hired by kings, gangsters, and political figures as a fighter.

“Well,” I said, “Maybe Mustapha’s—KeShawn’s—parents were into supernatural African culture. After prison, maybe he became a Blade clone because he wanted a more current model.”

“Everybody needs a hero,” Bill agreed, and I opened my mouth to ask him who his had been. Robert E. Lee?

“What are you two doing?” Eric asked, and I jumped and gave a little yip of surprise. Even Bill twitched.

“It’s only polite to let me know you’re coming into my house,” I said, because he’d really scared me and I was angry in consequence.

“It’s only polite,” Eric said mockingly, imitating my voice in a very irritating way. “I think it’s ‘only polite’ that my wife should let me know when she’s entertaining a male visitor, furthermore one that has shared her bed.”

I took a deep breath, hoping it would help me calm down. “You’re acting like an asshole,” I said, so maybe the deep breath hadn’t helped so very much. “I have never cheated on you, and I have trusted you never to cheat on me. Maybe I should rethink that, since you don’t seem to have much faith in me.”

Eric looked taken aback. “I have never fucked another woman since I took you to wife,” he said haughtily.

I couldn’t help but realize that left a lot of territory uncovered—but now was not the time to ask detailed questions.

Bill was sitting like a statue. I spared a second to appreciate his predicament. Eric was so plainly in a very bad mood, anything Bill said was going to be taken in evidence against him.

A diversion was in order, though I felt a flash of resentment that I had to defuse the situation. “Why are you so mad, anyway?” I said. “Something go wrong at Fangtasia?”

Eric’s face relaxed just a fraction. “Nothing is right,” he said. “Felipe and his companions are still in town. He may still bring charges against me for killing Victor. At the same time, you can tell he’s
delighted
we killed Victor. He and Freyda have just had a long talk in private. Mustapha is still missing. The police have been by Fangtasia to question me again. They wanted me to permit
cadaver dogs
to go over my property. I had to say yes, but it makes me furious. How stupid would I be to bury someone on my own property? They’ve searched the house again. T-Rex and his women came into the bar tonight, and he acted as though he were my best friend. The women used drugs in the bathroom. Thalia rousted them a little too energetically and broke Cherie’s nose. I’ll have to pay for her hospital visit, though she did promise not to relate what had happened in return for our not telling the police she’s a drug user.”

“My goodness,” I said gently. “And then you walk in your girlfriend’s house to find her
looking at a computer screen
with another man. You
have
had a terrible night, poor fella.”

Bill raised an eyebrow to let me know I was troweling it on too thick.

I ignored him. “If I’d seen you around, or had a conversation with you that lasted longer than thirty seconds, I’d have told you that Mustapha had come by here,” I said in a sweet voice. “And I’d have told you what he said.”

“Tell me now,” Eric said, in a much more neutral voice. “If you please.”

Okay, he’d made an effort. So once again, I related the account of Mustapha’s visit, his warning about Jannalynn, and his concern for Warren’s safety.

“So Bill and Heidi need to scent this Jannalynn, and then we’ll know if she was the one who led the girl to my house, who sent her up to Mustapha. We’ll know why he was involved with this plan if we can find him—or his friend Warren—and they’ll tell us what we can do to get them out of the picture. Sookie, would Sam call this woman, if you asked him to do so?”

My mouth fell open. “That would be terrible of me, to ask him to bring her in, to betray her. I won’t do it.”

“But you can see that would be best for all of us,” Eric said. “Bill or Heidi goes up to her, shakes her hand—then they will have her scent, and we’ll know. Sam doesn’t need to do anything beyond that. We’ll take care of everything else.”

“What would that ‘everything else’ be?”

“What do you think?” Bill asked impatiently. “She has information we need to learn, and she seems to be a key part of the plot to implicate Eric in a murder. This woman is a murderer herself, most likely. We need to make her talk.”

“The same way the Weres made you talk in Mississippi, Bill?” I snapped.

“Why do you care if something happens to the bitch?” Eric said, his blond eyebrows rising in query.

“I don’t,” I said instantly. “I can’t stand her.”

“Then what’s your issue?”

And I had no answer.

“It’s because we were talking about involving Sam,” Bill told Eric. “That’s the stumbling block.”

Suddenly they were on the same side, and that side was not mine.

“You’re sweet on him?” Eric said. He couldn’t have been more surprised if I’d said I had a crush on Terry’s Catahoula.

“He’s my boss,” I said. “We’ve been friends for years. Of course I’m fond of him. And he’s nuts about that furry bitch, for whatever reason. So that’s my issue, as you put it.”

“Hmmm,” Eric said, his eyes examining my face with a sharp intensity. I didn’t like it when he sounded thoughtful. “Then I’ll have to call Alcide and make the request for Jannalynn’s scent official.”

Did I do as they requested, which would in some way be a betrayal of Sam? Or did I let Eric call Alcide, which would officially involve the Long Tooth pack? You couldn’t call a packmaster unofficially. But I couldn’t lie to Sam. My back stiffened.

“All right,” I said. “Call Alcide.” Eric pulled out his cell phone, giving me a very grim look as he did so. I could see a war starting, another war. More deaths. More loss. “Wait,” I said. “I’ll talk to Sam. I’ll go into town to talk to him. Right now.”

I didn’t even know if Sam was home, but I walked out of the house and neither vampire tried to stop me. I’d never left two vampires alone in the house before, and I could only hope it would be intact when I returned.

Chapter 10

When I began driving back into town, I realized how tired I was.
I thought very seriously about turning back, but when I contemplated facing Bill and Eric again, I kept driving north.

That was how I came to see Bellenos and our Hooligans waitress bounding across the road after a deer. I braked desperately, and my car slid sideways. I knew I’d end up in the ditch. I shrieked as the car slewed and the woods rushed up to meet me. Then, abruptly, my car’s motion stopped—not by hitting anything, but by being nose down in the steep ditch. The headlights lit up the weeds, still whipping, bugs flying up from the impact. I turned off the engine and sat gasping.

My poor car was nose down at a steep angle. The rain had had twenty-four hours to soak into the previously parched soil, so the ditch was fairly dry, which was a real blessing. Bellenos and the blonde appeared, working their way around the car to get to my door. Bellenos was carrying a spear, and his companion appeared to have two curved bladed weapons of some kind. Not exactly swords; really long knives, as thin at the point as needles.

I tried to open the door, but my muscles wouldn’t obey my command. I realized I was crying. I had a sharp flash of memory: Claudine waking me when I fell asleep at the wheel on this same road. Bellenos’s lithe body moved across the headlights, and then he was by my door and wrenching it open.

“Sister!” he said, and turned to his companion. “Cut this strap, Gift.”

A knife passed right by my face in the next second, and the seat belt was severed. Oh,
damn
. Evidently, they didn’t understand buckles.

Gift bent down, and in the next instant I was out of the car and she was carrying me away.

“We didn’t mean to frighten you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry, my sister.”

She laid me down as easily as if I’d been an infant, and she and Bellenos squatted by me. I concluded, with no great certainty, that they weren’t going to kill and eat me. When I could speak, I said, “What were you out here doing?”

“Hunting,” Bellenos said, as if he suspected my head were addled. “You saw the deer?”

“Yes. Do you realize you’re not on my land anymore?” My voice was very unsteady, but there was nothing I could do about it.

“I see no fence, no boundaries. Freedom is good,” he said.

And the blonde nodded enthusiastically. “It’s so good to run,” she said. “It’s so good to be out of a human building.”

The thing was … they seemed so
happy
. Though I knew absolutely I should read them the riot act, I found myself feeling not only profoundly sorry for the two fae, but frightened of—and for—them. This was a very uncomfortable mix of emotions. “I’m real glad you’re having a good time,” I wheezed. They both beamed at me. “How did you come to be named Gift?” I just couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“It’s Aelfgifu,” she said, smiling. “Elf-gift. But Gift is easier for human mouths.” Speaking of mouths, Aelfgifu’s teeth were not as ferocious as Bellenos’s. In fact, they were quite small. But since she was leaning over me, I could see longer, sharper, thinner teeth folded against the roof of her mouth.

Fangs. Not vampire fangs, but snake fangs. Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea. Coupled with the pupil-less eyes, she was really scary.

“Is this the way you do in Faery?” I asked weakly. “Hunt in the woods?”

They both smiled. “Oh, yes, no fences or boundaries there,” Aelfgifu said longingly. “Though the woods are not as deep as they once were.”

“I don’t want to … to chide you,” I said, wondering if I could sit up. They both stared at me, their eyes unreadable, their heads canted at inhuman angles. “But regular people really shouldn’t see you without your human disguises. And even if you could make other people perceive you as human … regular human couples don’t chase deer in the middle of the night. With sharp weapons.” Even around Bon Temps, where hunting is practically a religion.

“You see us as we really are,” Bellenos said. I could tell he hadn’t known that before. Maybe I’d given away a powerful bit of knowledge by revealing that.

“Yeah.”

“You have powerful magic,” Gift said respectfully. “That makes you our sister. When you first came to Hooligans, we weren’t sure about you. Are you on our side?”

Bellenos’s hand shot across me, and he gripped Aelfgifu’s shoulder. Their eyes met. In the weird light and shadows cast by the headlights, her eyes looked just as black as his.

“I don’t know what side that is,” I said, to break the moment up. It seemed to work, because she laughed and slid an arm underneath me, and I sat up. “You’re not hurt,” she said. “Dermot will be pleased. He loves you.”

Bellenos put an arm around me, too, so our little trio was suddenly positioned in an uncomfortably intimate little scene there on the deserted road. Bellenos’s teeth were awfully close to my flesh. Sure, I was used to Eric biting, but he didn’t rip off flesh and eat it.

“You’re shaking, Sister,” Aelfgifu observed. “You can’t be cold on a hot night like tonight! Is it the shock of your little accident?”

“You can’t be frightened of us?” Bellenos sounded mocking.

“You turkey,” I said. “Of course I’m scared of you. If you’d spent a while with Lochlan and Neave, you’d be scared, too.”

“We’re not like them,” Aelfgifu said in a much more subdued voice. “And we’re sorry, Sister. There are quite a few of us who endured their attentions. Not all lived to tell others about it. You’re very fortunate.”