Deadlocked

“My kindred are getting restless,” Bel enos said, in what was not quite a warning. “We would al like to get out of the club. We would al like to visit your woods, experience the peacefulness of your house.”

I shoved my deep uneasiness down into a little pocket inside me. I could fish it out later and have a good look at it after Bel enos left. “I understand,” I said, and offered him water. When he nodded, I poured a glass ful of cold water from the pitcher in the refrigerator. He gulped it al down. Hunting deer in the dark with your bare hands was apparently thirsty work. After the water was gone, Bel enos asked if he could clean up, and I pointed out the hal bathroom and put out a towel.

When the door was safely shut, I gave Dermot a look.

“I know you have reason to be angry, Sookie,” he said. He came closer and dropped his voice. “Bel enos is the most dangerous. If he gets tense and bored, bad things wil happen. It seemed wisest to give him a safety valve. I hope you’l forgive me for granting him permission, since we’re family.” Dermot’s big blue eyes, so like my brother’s, looked at me imploringly.

I wasn’t too pleased, but Dermot’s reasoning made al kinds of sense. The image of a repressed elf final y cutting loose on the people of Monroe was a picture I didn’t want in my head. “I get what you’re saying,” I told him. “But if you ever want to let someone run free on my land again, check with me first.” And I gave him a very level look to let him know I meant it.

“I wil ,” he said. I wasn’t convinced. Dermot was a lot of good things, but I couldn’t see him as a strong or decisive leader. “They’re tired of waiting,” he said hopelessly. “I guess I am, too.”

“Would you leave for Faery?” I asked. I tried a smile. “Can you live without your HGTV and your Cheetos?” I wanted to ask my great-uncle if he could live without me, but that would be too pitiful. We’d gotten along without each other just fine for most of our lives—but there was no denying I was fond of him.

“I love you,” he said unexpectedly. “The happiest I’ve been in years is the time I’ve spent here with you, in this house. It’s so peaceful.”

This was the second time in a few minutes that a fae had said my house was peaceful. My conscience stirred inside me. I suspected very strongly that it was not me or the house that attracted creatures with fae blood; it was the hidden presence of the cluviel dor.

Bel enos came out wrapped in a towel, holding out his bloody clothes. His pal or—and his freckles—extended al over. “Sister, can you wash these in your machine? I had only planned to scrub my face and arms, but I thought how good it would feel to be completely clean.”

As I took the stained clothes to the washer on the back porch, I was glad I’d taken Mr. Cataliades’s warning to heart. If the cluviel dor had such influence when they couldn’t even see it, didn’t even know it was present, how much more would they want to touch it if they could? What would they do if I wouldn’t give it up?

After I’d started Bel enos’s clothes on the cold cycle, I remained on the back porch looking out through the screen door at the night. The bugs were in ful symphony. It was almost noisy enough to be annoying. I was glad al over again for the blessed invention of air-conditioning, even if the house was cooled by window units instead of central heat and air. I could close and lock my windows at night and keep the drone of the insects at bay … and feel safe against the appearance of other things. One of those other things was strol ing out of the trees right now.

“Hey, Bil ,” I said quietly.

“Sookie.” He moved closer. Even when I knew he was there, I couldn’t hear him. Vampires can be so quiet.

“I guess you heard my visitor?” I said.

“Yes. Found what was left of the deer. Elf?”

“Bel enos. You’ve met him.”

“The guy who took the heads? Yeah. Dermot is home?”

“He’s here.”

“You real y shouldn’t be alone with Bel enos.” Bil , a serious guy, sounded very grim indeed when he said this.

“I don’t intend to be. Dermot wil take him back to Monroe, either tonight or tomorrow morning. Eric cal you tonight?”

“Yeah. I’m going to Shreveport in an hour. I’m meeting Heidi there.” He hesitated for a moment. “I understand she stil has a living relative.”

“Her son in Nevada. He’s a drug addict, I believe.”

“To have living flesh of your flesh. It must be a very strange feeling to be able to talk to your immediate kin. This age of vampires is so much different from that when I was turned. I can hardly believe that I now know my great-great-great-grandchildren.”

Bil ’s maker had ordered him out of Bon Temps and even out of the state for a long time, so he wouldn’t be recognized by his wife and children or his local acquaintances. That was the old way.

I noted the wistfulness in his voice. “I don’t think it’s been very healthy for Heidi to keep in touch with her son,” I said. “She’s younger than he is, now, and …” Then I shut up. The rest of the sad story was Heidi’s to tel .

“Several days ago, Danny Prideaux came to me to ask if he can be my daytime man,” Bil said suddenly, and after a moment I understood that Bil was thinking of human connections.

So that was Danny’s big secret. “Huh. He already has a part-time job at the lumberyard.”

“With two jobs, he thinks he can ask his young woman to marry him.”

“Oh, wow! Danny’s gonna ask Kennedy to marry him? That’s wonderful. You know who he’s dating? Kennedy, who works behind the bar at Merlotte’s?”

“The one who kil ed her boyfriend.” Bil seemed displeased by this bit of information.