Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Dermot as an equal and took him back to Faery with them, along with all the other fae at Hooligans. I could be sure they would be happy forever, since it was a fairy tale.
    Then I mentally married off Jason and Michele and gave themthree little boys. I married off Terry and Jimmie and gave their Catahoulas many litters. I named Alcide packmaster for life and threw in a happy marriage to Kandace and a resultant daughter. I gave the du Rone twins full scholarships to Tulane, and for Sam … I simply couldn’t think of the best gift for Sam. Of course, the bar would prosper, but with his tendency to fall for women on the supernatural side … well, the bar would prosper. Quinn would live happily ever after with his tigress, Tijgerin, and she would be able to rehabilitate the unpleasant Frannie, who would become a nurse.
    I was probably skipping a few people. Oh, yeah, Holly and Hoyt. They’d have a girl and a boy, and Holly’s son by her first marriage would love his stepdad and his new siblings. Hoyt’s lifelong friendship with my brother would never come between the couple again, because my brother would never drag Hoyt into trouble. Again.
    India would find some fine young woman, and the state of Louisiana would pass a bill to enable them to get married legally. No one would ever, ever make lesbian jokes or misquote scripture at them … as long as I was fantasizing.
    “Bill, what’s your favorite fantasy?” I asked. Weirdly enough, I felt much better after designing all these happy endings.
    Bill glanced over at me quizzically. We were almost to my house. “My favorite fantasy? You come down into my daytime resting place stark naked,” he said, and I could see the gleam of his teeth as he smiled. “Oh, wait,” Bill said. “That’s already happened.”
    “There’s gotta be more to it,” I said. Then I could have bitten off my tongue.
    “Oh, there is.” His eyes told me exactly what happened after that.
    “And that’s your fantasy? That I come into your house naked and have sex with you?”
    “After that, you tell me that you have sent Eric on his way, that you want to be mine forever, and that to share my life you will permit me to make you a vampire like me.”
    The silence now was thick, and the fun had drained out of the fantasy.
    Then Bill added, “You know what I’d say when you told me this? I’d tell you I would never do such a thing. Because I love you.”
    And this, ladies and gentlemen, concluded our evening’s entertainment.

Chapter 14
    When I woke up in my own bed, the sun was glaring outside. I did not have to work today; getting to skip on your special day was a Merlotte’s rule. Last night had been an incredible night, all in all. I’d rescued two hostages, helped to get a bunch of bad rogue Weres off the streets, and begun unraveling a conspiracy. Hard to top that!
    I’d also been kidnapped and bitterly disillusioned.
    I wanted to look good because my spirits were so low. When I was getting dressed to run errands and to go to an appointment I’d made days before, I put on my makeup and brushed my hair up into a ponytail that cascaded down from the crown of my head. While I was cleaning out my purse in the process of finding a pair of earrings, my hand closed around the cluviel dor. I pulled it out and gazed down at it, the pale green soothing any anxiety I had about the day to come.I rubbed it between my hands and enjoyed the warmth and the smoothness.
    I wondered (for the fiftieth time) if I needed any special spell to activate its magic. On the whole, I figured not. My grandmother would have passed such a spell along to me, though as a staunch Christian she disapproved of magic. But she wouldn’t have neglected some element I might find necessary for my protection.
    I should put it back into my makeup drawer with the usual light camouflage. But I didn’t. After a brief debate, I slid the round object into my skirt pocket. I understood, finally, that having it was no good if it was inaccessible. Leaving it in the drawer was equivalent to having an unloaded gun when burglars broke into your house.
    From now on, the cluviel dor went where I went.
    If Eric … if he decided to leave with Freyda, would I use it? According to Mr. Cataliades, since I loved Eric, if I made a wish for him, it would be granted. I tried to picture myself saying, “Eric must not choose to go with Freyda.”
    On the other hand … if he decided to go with the queen, he loved me less than he loved