Deadlocked

fortunate.”

“Did you have the magic then?” Bel enos asked.

This was the second time the elf had referred to my having magic. I was very curious to know why he said that, but at the same time, I hated to expose my total ignorance.

“Could I drive you two back to Monroe?” I asked, staving off Bel enos’s question.

“I couldn’t bear to be shut up in an iron box,” Gift said. “We’l run. May we come to hunt on your land tomorrow night?”

“How many of you?” I thought I should err on the side of caution, here.

They helped me to my feet, consulting with each other silently as they did so.

“Four of us,” Bel enos said, trying not to sound as if he were asking me.

“That would be okay,” I said. “Long as you let me explain where the boundaries are.”

I got simultaneous kisses on both sides of my face. Then the two fae leaped down in the ditch, bent over to get a grip below the hood of my car, a nd pushed. The car was back up on the road in seconds. Aside from the severed seat belt, it didn’t seem to be much the worse for the experience: dirty, of course, and the front fender was a little dented. Gift waved at me cheerful y as I took my place behind the wheel, and then the two were off, heading east toward Monroe … at least while I could see them. My car started up, thank God, and I turned around at the next driveway and headed home. My excursion was over. I was completely jangled.

As I pul ed up, I could tel the vampires were stil there. When I glanced at my car clock, I saw that only twenty minutes had passed since I’d left.

Suddenly, I began shivering al over when I thought of the incident—the panicked deer, the swift and deadly pursuit, the faes’ overly loving solicitousness. I turned off the car and got out slowly. I was going to be stiff al over the next morning, I just knew it. Of course Bil and Eric had heard me return, but neither of them came rushing out to see how I was. I reminded myself they didn’t have any idea something had happened to me.

I stepped out of the car and thought I’d go flat on my face. I was having some kind of reaction to the whole bizarre incident, and I couldn’t stop replaying the running figures in my mind. They had looked so alien, so very, very … not-human.

And now I knew that someone suspected I had some powerful fae magic. If the fae suspected it was contained in an item, I didn’t like my chances of keeping it, or of keeping my life, for that matter. Any supe would want such a thing, especial y the hodgepodge of fae trapped at Hooligans. They were yearning for the homeland of Faery, no matter how they’d come to be trapped in our world. Any power they could acquire would be more than they had now. And if they had the cluviel dor … they could wish the doors of Faery open to them again.

“Sookie?” Eric said. “Lover, what’s happened to you? Are you hurt?”

“Sookie?” Bil ’s voice, equal y urgent.

I could only stand staring straight ahead, thinking hard about what would happen if the rogue fae opened the portals to Faery. What if humans could walk into that other country? What if al fae could come and go as they pleased? Would they accept that state of affairs, or would there be another war?

“I had a wreck,” I said, belatedly realizing that Eric had picked me up and was carrying me inside. “I never got to Sam’s. I had a wreck.”

“That’s al right, Sookie,” Eric said. “Don’t worry about going to Sam’s. That can wait. We can make some other arrangement. At least I’m not smel ing any blood,” he said to Bil .

“Did you hit your head?” Bil asked. I could feel fingers working through my hair. Then those fingers stil ed. “You reek of fairy.”

I could see the hunger rising in his face. I glanced at Eric, whose mouth was compressed tight as a mousetrap. I was wil ing to bet his fangs had popped out. The entrancing Eau de Fae—it acted on vampires like catnip on cats.

“You guys need to leave,” I said. “Out you go, before you both use me as a chewy toy.”

“But, Sookie,” Eric protested. “I want to stay with you and make love to you at length.”

You couldn’t get any more frank than that.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, but with me smel ing like a fairy, I’m afraid you might get a little carried away.”

“Oh, no, my lover,” he protested.

“Please, Eric, some self-control. You and Bil need to git.”

It was my mention of self-control that did it. Neither of them would admit to a failure of the trait vampires prized so highly.

Eric went to stand at the edge of the woods. He said, “While you were gone, Thalia cal ed me. I’d sent her to talk to the human, Colton, at his job.

When she got there, they reported he hadn’t come in for work. Thalia went to his trailer. A fight had taken place inside. There was a smal amount of blood. Colton was gone. I think Felipe has found him.” While Eric was stil maintaining deniability over the death of Victor, Colton had actual y been in Fangtasia the night Victor had died. He knew the truth, and he was human and, therefore, could be made to talk.

Bil took a step toward me. “It’l be okay,” he said reassuringly, and even though he was a vampire, I could tel that he simply wanted to be closer.

“Okay, we’l talk about that tomorrow,” I said hastily. At this point, I was sure that al I could do for Colton was pray for him. There was certainly no way to find him tonight.

Very reluctantly, and with many good-byes and hopeful requests that they be cal ed if I felt unwel during what remained of the night, Eric and Bil went their separate ways.