Dead Reckoning

couldn’t hear too well, and they seem to have hit him on the head. I don’t know what with.”
    “Has the bleeding stopped?” he asked, and I could hear Claude’s voice in the background.
    “Yes, it’s clotted.”
    There was a buzz of voices while Bellenos consulted with various people, or at least that was what it sounded like.
    “I’m coming,” Bellenos said at last. “Claude tells me he’s not welcome in your home right now, so I’m coming in his stead. It’ll be nice to get out of this building. No other humans around besides you? I can’t pass.”
    “No one else besides me, at least now.”
    “I’ll be there soon.”
    I relayed this information to Dermot, who was simply looking puzzled. He told me a couple of times he didn’t understand why he was on the floor, and I began to get worried about him. At least he seemed content to stay there.
    “Sookie!” Before it had started raining, Dermot had opened the windows because of the sanding. I could hear Bill clearly.
    I trailed over to the window with my fringe swaying.
    “How is he?” Bill asked, staying well away. “How can I help?”
    “You’ve been wonderful,” I said, meaning it. “One of the fae from Monroe is coming over, Bill, so you better go back to your house. When my clothes get dry, could you just leave them on my back steps sometime when it’s not raining? Or if you just put them on your front porch, I can pick ’em up any time.”
    “I feel I’ve failed you,” he said.
    “How come? You gave me a place to hide; you cleared my driveway; you checked out the house so no one could ambush me again.”
    “I didn’t kill them,” he said. “I’d like to.”
    I didn’t feel hardly creepy at all at his admission. I was getting used to drastic pronouncements. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” I assured him. “Someone will, if they keep doing stuff like this.”
    “Did you form any idea of who had hired them?”
    “I’m afraid not.” I really regretted that. “They were going to tie me on some vehicle and take me somewhere.” I hadn’t seen the vehicle in their thoughts, so that part was fuzzy.
    “Where was their car parked?”
    “I don’t know. I never saw one.” I hadn’t exactly had time to think about it.
    Bill stared up at me longingly. “I feel useless, Sookie. I know you need help getting him down the stairs. But I don’t dare try to approach him again.”
    Bill’s head turned with a suddenness that made me blink. Then he was gone.
    “I’m here,” called a voice from the back door. “I am Bellenos the elf, vampire. Tell Sookie I’m here to see my friend Dermot.”
    “An elf. I haven’t seen one of you in over a hundred years,” I heard Bill’s voice, much fainter.
    “And you won’t again for another hundred,” Bellenos’s deep voice responded. “There aren’t many of us left.”
    I went down the stairs again, as fast as I could without breaking my neck. I unlocked the back door and stepped across the porch to unlock the porch door. I could see both the elf and the vampire through the glass.
    “Since you’re here, I’ll be on my way,” Bill said. “I can’t be of any help.” He was out in the yard. The harsh security light mounted on the pole made him look whiter than white, truly alien. The rain was only dripping now, but the air smelled pregnant with moisture. I didn’t think it would hold off for long.
    “Fairy intoxication?” Bellenos said. He was pale, too, but no one could be more washed out than a vamp. Bellenos’s light brown freckles looked like little shadows on his face, and his smooth hair seemed an even darker auburn. “Elves smell different from fairies.”
    “Yes, you do,” Bill said, and I could hear the distaste in his voice. Bellenos’s smell seemed to repel at least one vampire. Maybe I could scrape some skin cells from Bellenos to scatter over my great-uncle so I could have vampires over. Oh, gosh, what was I going to do about the meeting with Eric and Pam?
    “Are you two through swapping how-de-dos?” I called. “Because Dermot could use some help.”
    Bill vanished into the woods, and I opened the door for the elf. He smiled at me, and it was hard not to twitch when I saw the long, pointed teeth.
    “Come in,” I said, though I knew he could enter without being invited.
    As I led him through the kitchen, he was looking around him with some curiosity. I hoisted my trailing wrapper to precede him up the stairs, and I hoped Bellenos wasn’t getting