Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11)(60)
Author: Charlaine Harris

While Dermot and I were hugging each other, an embrace that was lasting a bit too long, I could hear Bellenos outside. He was circling the house in the rain (which had begun again) and darkness, and his voice rose and fell. I could only catch snatches of what he was saying, but it was in that other language and its meaning was lost on me. Dermot seemed satisfied, and that was reassuring.

"I’ll make this up to you," Dermot said, releasing me gently.

"No need," I said. "I’m good, and since you didn’t have any permanent damage, we’ll just say that was a learning experience." As in, Don’t erase wards without putting in new ones.

Dermot stood, and he seemed very steady on his feet. His eyes were shining. He looked . . . excited, as if he were going to a birthday party or something.

"Don’t you need a raincoat?" I suggested.

Dermot laughed, put his hands on my shoulders, and kissed me. My heart leaped in shock, but I recognized the stance. He was breathing into me.

For a few seconds I thought I’d strangle or suffocate, but somehow I didn’t, and then it was over.

He smiled down at me and then he was gone. I heard the back doors slam after him, and I turned to the window to see a blur as he and Bellenos disappeared into the dark woods.

I couldn’t think of anything to do after such a crisis. I got the blood off the floor in the attic, I put the shawl in the kitchen sink to soak in some Woolite, and I changed the sheets in the guest bedroom.

After that I showered. I needed to wash the fairy scent off me before Eric and Pam got here. Besides, after being rain soaked, my hair was just a mass of nastiness. I got dressed–again–and sat down for a minute or two in the living room, to watch the Weather Channel gloating over the big storm.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up with sand in my mouth. The Weather Channel was still on, and Eric and Pam were knocking at the front door.

I staggered over to unlock it, as stiff as though someone had kicked me while I slept. I was feeling the result of my desperate run through the rain.

"What’s happened?" Eric asked, holding my shoulders and giving me a narrow-eyed look. Pam was sniffing the air, her blond head thrown back dramatically. She gave me a sideways grin. "Ooooh, who’s been entertaining . . . Wait . . . An elf, a fairy, and Bill?"

"You been taking tracking lessons from Heidi?" I asked weakly.

"As a matter of fact, I have," she said. "There’s an art to drawing in air to sample it, since we no longer need to breathe."

Eric was still waiting, and not patiently.

I remembered I’d bought them some bottled blood, and I went to the kitchen to heat it up with the two vampires trailing behind. While I was taking care of the hospitality portion of the evening, I gave them the Reader’s Digest version of my adventure.

Someone knocked on the back door.

The air turned electric. Pam glided over to the door onto the porch, unlocked it, went out to the back door. "Yes?" I heard her say.

There was a muffled answer in a deep voice. Bellenos.

"Sookie, you’re wanted!" Pam sang out. She seemed very amused by something.

I was curious as I stepped out on the porch, Eric right behind me.

"Oh, she’ll be so impressed," Pam was saying, sounding as pleased as I did when someone brought me some fresh produce from his garden. "How very thoughtful." She stepped aside so I could appreciate my presents.

Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea.

My great-uncle Dermot and Bellenos were standing in the dripping rain, each holding a severed head.

Let me just say here that normally I have quite a strong stomach, but the rain wasn’t the only thing that was dripping, and the heads were face forward so I got a good look at each face. The sight overcame me in a very drastic way. I turned and dashed for my bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I retched and ralphed and panted until I’d recovered a bit of my equilibrium. Naturally, I needed to brush my teeth and wash my face and comb my hair after losing everything in my stomach . . . though it hadn’t been much, because I simply couldn’t remember how long it had been since I’d eaten. I’d had the biscuit for breakfast. . . . Oh. No wonder I’d been sick. I hadn’t eaten anything since then. I’m a girl who likes her meals, so it hadn’t been a weight-loss tactic. I’d just been too busy bumping from crisis to crisis. Go on the Sookie Stackhouse Narrow Avoidance of Death Diet! Run for your life, and miss meals, too! Exercise plus starvation.

Pam and Eric were waiting in the kitchen.

"They left," Pam said, holding up a bottle of blood in a toast. "They were sorry it was too much for your human sensibility. I’m assuming you didn’t want to keep the trophies?"

I felt a need to defend myself, but I bit it back. I refused to be ashamed of getting sick after seeing something so horrible. I’d seen a detached vampire head, but it hadn’t had the ghastly touches. I took a deep breath. "No, I didn’t want to keep the heads. Kelvin and Hod, rest in peace."

"Those were their names? That’ll help in finding out who hired them," Pam said, looking pleased.

"Um. Where are they?" I asked, trying not to look too anxious.

"Do you mean your great-uncle and his elf buddy, or do you mean the heads, or do you mean the bodies?" Eric asked.

"Both. All three." I got myself some ice and poured some Diet Coke over it. People had told me for years that carbonated drinks settled your stomach. I was hoping they were right.

"Dermot and Bellenos have left for Monroe. Dermot got to anoint his wound with the blood of his enemies, which is a tradition among the fae. Bellenos, of course, got to take the heads off, which is an elf tradition. They were both very happy in consequence."

"I’m glad for them," I said automatically, and thought, What the hell am I saying? "I should tell Bill. I wonder if they found the car?"

"They found four-wheelers," Pam said. "I think they had an excellent time driving them." Pam looked envious.

I was almost able to smile, imagining that. "So, the bodies?"

"They’ve been dealt with," Eric said. "Though I think the two of them took the heads back to Monroe to show the other fae. But they’ll destroy them there."

"Oh," Pam said suddenly, and leaped up. "Dermot left their papers." She returned with two wet wallets and some odds and ends heaped in her hands. I spread a kitchen towel out on the table, and she dumped the items onto it. I tried not to notice the bloodstains on the bits of paper. I opened the leather billfold first and extracted a driver’s license. "Hod Mayfield," I said. "From Clarice. He was twenty-four." I pulled out a picture of a woman, presumably the Marge they’d been talking about. She was definitely queen-sized, and she was wearing her dark hair up in a teased style that was what you might call dated. Her smile was open and sweet.