Deadlocked

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

“It’s only polite to let me know you’re coming into my house,” I said, because he’d real y 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.

Bil was sitting like a statue. I spared a second to appreciate his predicament. Eric was so plainly in a very bad mood, anything Bil 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 stil in town. He may stil bring charges against me for kil ing Victor. At the same time, you can tel he’s delighted we kil ed Victor. He and Freyda have just had a long talk in private. Mustapha is stil 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 energetical y and broke Cherie’s nose. I’l have to pay for her hospital visit, though she did promise not to relate what had happened in return for our not tel ing 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 fel a.”

Bil 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.”

“Tel 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 Bil and Heidi need to scent this Jannalynn, and then we’l know if she was the one who led the girl to my house, who sent her up to Mustapha.

We’l know why he was involved with this plan if we can find him—or his friend Warren—and they’l tel us what we can do to get them out of the picture. Sookie, would Sam cal this woman, if you asked him to do so?”

My mouth fel 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 al of us,” Eric said. “Bil or Heidi goes up to her, shakes her hand— then they wil have her scent, and we’l know. Sam doesn’t need to do anything beyond that. We’l take care of everything else.”

“What would that ‘everything else’ be?”

“What do you think?” Bil 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, Bil ?” 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,” Bil 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’l have to cal 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 cal Alcide, which would official y involve the Long Tooth pack? You couldn’t cal a packmaster unofficial y. But I couldn’t lie to Sam. My back stiffened.

“Al right,” I said. “Cal Alcide.” Eric pul ed out his cel 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’l talk to Sam. I’l 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