Deadlocked

Claude closed his eyes and nodded.

Maybe he wanted them to kill him on the spot. Kym Rowe hadn't been the only person to develop a wish to die.

"So I get how you did it ... but why? Why did you want Eric to lose control? What benefit to you?"

"Oh, I know that one!" Dermot said brightly.

I sighed. "Maybe you would explain."

"Claude told me several times that if we could get Niall to return to your side, we could attack him here in the human world, where he wouldn't be surrounded by his supporters," Dermot said. "But I ignored his scheming. I was sure Niall wouldn't return and couldn't return, because he was firm in his resolution to stay in Faery. But Claude argued that Niall loves you so much that if something happened to you, he'd come to your side. So he tried to ruin Eric, thinking that at best you and Eric would fight and Eric would hurt you. Or you'd be arrested for murdering him, and you'd need your great-grandfather. At the very least, you would throw Eric aside and your misery would bring Niall running."

"I was pretty miserable," I said slowly. "And I was even more miserable last night."

"And here I am," said a voice I recognized. "I've come in response to your letter, which opened my eyes to many things."

He was glowing. My great-grandfather hadn't troubled with his human appearance, either. The white-blond hair floated in the air around him. His face was radiant, his eyes like fairy lights on a white tree.

The little cluster of fae in my living room fell to their knees.

He put his arms around me, and I felt his incredible beauty, his terrifying magic, and his crazy devotion.

There was nothing human about him.

He put his mouth right by my ear. "I know you have it," he said.

Suddenly we were standing in my bedroom instead of in the living room. "You gonna take it?" I asked, in the smallest possible voice. Those were fae in the living room. They might hear.

"Don't even show it to me," he said. "It was from my son to his loved one. He intended it for a human. It should stay in human hands."

"But you really, really want it."

"I do, and I have very poor impulse control."

"Okay. No looks." Danger. I was trying to relax, but it's not easy loving and being loved by a powerful prince who has no human frame of reference; furthermore, one whose great age has kind of unhinged him. Just a little bit. From time to time. "What will happen to the fae in my living room?"

"I will take them with me," Niall said. "I have taken care of a lot of things while Claude was with me. I never let him know what I already understood about him. I know what happened to Dermot. I have forgiven Dermot."

Okay, that was good.

"Will you close Faery? For good?"

"Soon," he whispered, his lips again uncomfortably close to my ear. "You have not asked yet who told your lover that you have the ... object."

"That would be a good thing for me to learn."

"You need to know." His arms grew uncomfortably tight around me. I made myself relax against him.

"It was me," Niall said, almost inaudibly.

I jerked back as if he'd pinched my butt. "What?"

The brilliant eyes bored into mine. "You had to know," he said. "You had to know what would happen if he believed you had power."

"Please tell me you didn't engineer the whole Appius thing?" That would be more than I could bear.

"No. Eric is unfortunate in that people feel the need to take him down a peg, including his own maker. The Roman wanted to keep control over so vital a being even after his own death, which became far more likely once he turned the child. So unstable. Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire. Eric's only flaw is you."

"But ..." I couldn't think of what I'd been about to say.

"Of course, that's not how I perceive it, dearest. You are the one right impulse Eric has had in five hundred years or more. Well, Pam is all right. Even Eric's other living child does not rival her maker."

"Thanks," I said numbly, the words not sinking in at all. "So you knew Appius?"

"We met. He was a stinking Roman asshole."

"True."

"I was glad when he died. Out in your front yard, wasn't it?"

"Ah. Yes."

"The ground around your house has become soaked with blood. It will add to its magic and fertility."

"What happens now?" I said, because I simply couldn't think of what else to say.

He lifted me and carried me out of the bedroom like I was a baby. It didn't feel like the times when Eric had carried me, which had had a definitely carnal edge. This was incredibly tender and (like a lot of things about my great-grandfather) incredibly creepy.

He put me on the couch as carefully as if I were an egg. "This is what happens next," he told me. He turned to the other fae, still on their knees. Claude had stopped thrashing and was looking up at Niall with resignation. For the moment, Niall ignored his grandson.

"Do you all want to go home?" he asked the others.

"Yes, Prince," said Dirk. "Please, with our kindred waiting at Claude's club? If we may? If you will."

Dermot said, "With your blessing, I'll stay here, Father."

For a moment they all looked at Dermot incredulously, as if he'd just announced he was going to birth a kangaroo.

Niall folded Dermot to him. I could see Dermot's face, and it was ecstatic, frightened, everything I had felt in Niall's embrace. Niall said, "You won't be a fairy anymore. The American fae are all leaving. Choose."

The conflict on Dermot's face was painful to see. "Sookie," he said, "who can finish your upstairs work?"

"I'll hire Terry Bellefleur," I said. "He won't be as good as you, Dermot."

"No television," Dermot said. "I'll miss HGTV." Then he smiled. "But I can't live without my essence, and I am your son, Niall."

Niall beamed down at Dermot, which was what Dermot had wanted his whole life.

I got up because I couldn't stand to have him leave without a hug. I even started crying, which I hadn't expected. They all kissed me, even Bellenos, though I felt his teeth scrape lightly on my cheek, and I felt his chest move in a silent chuckle.

Niall made some mysterious signs over my head and closed his eyes, just like a priest giving a blessing. I felt something change in the house, the land.

And then they were gone. Even Claude.

I was stupefied. I was willing to bet that over at Hooligans, the bar stood empty, the doors locked.

The fae were gone from America. Their departure point? Bon Temps, Louisiana. The woods behind my house.

Chapter 16

As you can imagine, it wasn't easy to go on and have a normal day after that.

I hadn't slept all night, and the traumas had just kept on coming.

But after I showered and straightened up the living room, which had suffered a bit during the fight, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table trying to absorb everything: last night, this morning.

It was taking a lot of energy to do that. About halfway through setting my mental house in order, I had to think about something else. Luckily, there was something right in front of me that would serve.

Among the presents I'd tossed to the table last night was Pam's little box, Bill's box, and Sam's envelope, which I'd never examined. Pam had given me perfume, and I liked the smell of it very much. Bill had given me a necklace with a cameo pendant. The likeness on it was my gran's. "Oh, Bill," I said, "you did great!" Nothing could top such a gift, I thought, as I reached for Sam's envelope. I figured he'd picked a fancy birthday card-with, maybe, a gift certificate enclosed.

Sam had officially made me a partner in the bar. I legally owned a third of Merlotte's.

I put my head on the table and swore. In a happy way.

This past twenty-four hours had been my personal trail of tears. No more!

I picked myself up out of that chair, slapped on about a ton of makeup and a sundress, and put a smile on my face. It was time to rejoin the land of the living, the everyday world. I didn't want to learn one more secret or suffer one more betrayal.

I was due to meet Kennedy for breakfast at LaLaurie's, which (she'd told me) served a great Sunday brunch. I didn't think I'd ever eaten a meal and called it "brunch." Today I did, and it was really excellent. White tablecloths and cloth napkins, too! Kennedy was wearing a pretty sundress, too, and her hair was in full pageant mode. The hickey on her neck was not quite covered by her makeup.

Kennedy was in an excellent mood, and she confided in me way more than I wanted to know about the wonderfulness that now lay between Danny and her. Danny was even now running errands for Bill Compton since he didn't have to work at the lumberyard, which was closed on Sunday. It was going to work out. He'd be making a living wage. When their finances stabilized, maybe they would move in together. "Maybe," she emphasized, but I wasn't fooled. Their cohabitation was a done deal.

I thought of my happy fantasies of the night before; had it really just been the night before? I tried to remember all the happy endings I'd imagined for everyone, and I tried to recollect if I'd included Danny and Kennedy in the roundup.

After I left LaLaurie's, full and happy, I knew I couldn't wait any longer to thank Sam for his amazing gift. His truck was parked in front of his trailer. His carefully watered hedge and yard were flourishing despite the heat. Not many men would try to keep a yard around their double-wide if it was parked behind a bar. I'd always tried to let Sam's house be his house. I could count on my fingers the times I'd knocked on his door.

Today was one of them.

When he answered the door, my smile faded away. I could tell something was mighty wrong.

Then I realized that he knew what Jannalynn had done.

He looked at me bleakly. "I don't know what to say to you," he said. "This is the second time I've been with a woman who tried to do you harm."

It actually took me a second to remember who the other one had been. "Callisto? Oh, Sam, that was a while ago, and she was hardly a woman. She didn't mean any of it personal. Jannalynn, well, she definitely did. But she's an ambitious young woman; she's trying ..." My voice trailed off. She's trying to take over the pack from her packmaster, to whom she swore loyalty. She's trying to make sure my boyfriend gets arrested for murder. She conspired with a fairy to pay Kym Rowe to go to her death. She kidnapped Warren. She left him to die. She was trying to kill me, one way or another.

"Okay," I said, conceding defeat. "You fucked up with Jannalynn."

He blinked at me. His reddish-blond hair was standing up like porcupine quills all over his head. He tilted his head to one side as if he wasn't sure I was quite in focus.

His mouth quirked up in an unwilling grin. I grinned back. Then we both laughed. Not a lot, but enough to clear the air.

"Where is she?" I asked. "Do you know what happened night before last?"

"Tell me," he said, standing aside so I could come in.

Sam had heard a sketchy version from a pack member who'd become a friend of his, a young man who worked for Jannalynn at Hair of the Dog. "You didn't tell me what you suspected about her," Sam said. He left that sitting there between us.

"Sam, let me tell you about what's happened the last couple of days, and you'll understand, I promise," I said, and with a certain amount of editing, I told him.

"Good God, Sookie," he said. "You really 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 fill 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 call him to tell about it all.

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 still 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 magically 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.