All Together Dead

through the night, but Barry was failing and I wasn’t much better. Worse, dark was closing in.
    “The vampires’ll be rising,” I reminded the fire chief. He nodded and looked at me for further explanation. “They’ll be hurt bad,” I said. He still didn’t get it. “They’ll need blood instantly, and they won’t have any control. I wouldn’t send any rescue workers out on the debris alone,” I said, and his face went blank with thought.
    “You don’t think they’re all dead? Can’t you find them?”
    “Well, actually, no. We can’t find vamps. Humans, yes. But not undead. Their brains don’t give off any, ah, waves. We’ve got to go now. Where are the survivors?”
    “They’re all in the Thorne Building, right down there,” he said, pointing. “In the basement.” We turned to walk away. By this time, Barry had slung his arm around my shoulders, and not because he was feeling affectionate. He needed the support.
    “Let me get your names and addresses, so the mayor can thank you,” the gray-haired man said, holding a pen and clipboard at the ready.
    No! Barry said, and my mouth snapped shut.
    I shook my head. “We’re going to pass on that,” I said. I’d had a quick look in his head, and he was greedy for more of our help. Suddenly I understood why Barry had stopped me so abruptly, though my fellow telepath was so tired he couldn’t tell me himself. My refusal didn’t go over big.
    “You’ll work for vamps, but you don’t want to stand and be counted as someone who helped on this terrible day?”
    “Yes,” I answered. “That’s just about right.”
    He wasn’t happy with me, and I thought for a minute he was going to force the issue: grab my wallet out of my pants, send me to jail, or something. But he reluctantly nodded his head and jerked it in the direction of the Thorne Building.
    Someone will try to find out, Barry said. Someone will want to use us.
    I sighed, and I hardly had the energy to take in more air. I nodded. Yeah, someone will. If we go to the shelter, someone will be watching for us there, and they’ll ask for our names from someone who recognizes us, and after that, it’s only a matter of time.
    I couldn’t think of a way to dodge going in there. We had to have help, we had to find our parties and discover how and when we could leave the city, and we had to find out who had lived and who hadn’t.
    I patted my back pocket, and to my amazement, my cell phone was still in it and still had bars. I called Mr. Cataliades. If anyone besides me had come out of the Pyramid of Gizeh with a cell phone, the lawyer would be the one.
    “Yes,” he said cautiously. “Miss St—”
    “Shhh,” I said. “Don’t say my name out loud.” It was sheer paranoia talking.
    “Very well.”
    “We helped them out down here, and now they really want to get to know us better,” I said, feeling very clever for talking so guardedly. I was very tired. “Barry and I are outside the building where you are. We need to stay somewhere else. Too many people making lists in there, right?”
    “That is a popular activity,” he said.
    “You and Diantha okay?”
    “She has not been found. We were separated.”
    I didn’t speak for a few seconds. “I’m so sorry. Who were you holding when I saw them rescue you?”
    “The queen. She is here, though badly injured. We can’t find Andre.”
    He paused, and because I couldn’t help it, I said, “Who else?”
    “Gervaise is dead. Eric, Pam, Bill…burned, but here. Cleo Babbitt is here. I haven’t seen Rasul.”
    “Is Jake Purifoy there?”
    “I haven’t seen him, either.”
    “Because you might want to know he’s at least partially responsible if you do see him. He was in on the Fellowship plot.”
    “Ah.” Mr. Cataliades registered that. “Oh, yes, I certainly did want to know that. Johan Glassport will be especially interested, since he has several broken ribs and a broken collarbone. He’s very, very angry.” It said something about Johan Glassport’s viciousness, that Mr. Cataliades thought him capable of exacting as much vengeance as a vampire would. “How did you come to know there was a plot at all, Miss Sookie?”
    I told the lawyer the story Clovache had told me; I figured now that she and Batanya had gone back to wherever they came from, that would be okay.
    “Hiring them proved to be worth the money for King Isaiah.” Cataliades sounded thoughtful rather than envious. “Isaiah is here and completely