Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

what he wanted here, he thought perhaps it was in the furniture you sold. He went to that shop and broke in to examine all the furniture again.”
    I felt a little bubble of rage float to the top of my brain. “ThoughI was nice enough to let him live with me. He searched my house. Went through my stuff. While I was gone.”
    Dermot nodded. From the guilty glance he gave me, I was pretty damn sure Claude had enlisted my great-uncle in his search.
    “What was he looking for?” Harley asked curiously.
    “He sensed a fairy object in Sookie’s house, a fairy influence.”
    They all looked at me, simultaneously, with sharp attention.
    “Gran—you-all know my fairy blood comes from my grandmother and Fintan, right?” They all nodded and blinked. I was sure glad I hadn’t been trying to keep that a secret. “Gran was friends with Mr. Cataliades, through Fintan.” They nodded again, more slowly. “He left something here, but when he stopped by a few days ago, he picked it up.”
    They appeared to accept that pretty well. At least no one leaped up to say, “You liar, you have it in your pocket!”
    Claude thrashed on the floor. Clearly, he wanted to put in his two cents’ worth, and I was glad the bra was in his mouth.
    “If I’m getting to ask questions …” I said, waiting for Bellenos to interrupt, to tell me my time was up. But that didn’t happen.
    “Claude, I know you tried to sabotage me and Eric. But I don’t know why.”
    Dirk raised interrogative eyebrows. Did I want him to remove the gag?
    “Maybe you can just let me know if I get something right,” I suggested, hoping that the gag stayed in. “Did you go to Jannalynn for help because you wanted to enlist a shifter of some kind?”
    Glaring at me, Claude nodded.
    “Who’s that?” Dermot whispered, as if the air would answer him.
    “Jannalynn Hopper is the second ofthe Long Tooth pack in Shreveport,” I said. “She’s been dating my boss, Sam Merlotte. But she hates me, which is a long story for some other time, though it’s pretty boring. Anyway, I knew she’d love to do me a bad turn if she could. And the young woman who got murdered in Eric’s front yard turned out to be a half-Were with a death wish and severe financial problems, ripe for a desperate plan, I figure. Claude, you gave her some of your blood to make her alluring to Eric, I think?”
    The fae all looked absolutely aghast. I couldn’t have said anything more abhorrent to them. “You gave your sacred blood to a mongrel?” hissed Gift, and kicked Claude heartily.
    Claude closed his eyes and nodded.
    Maybe he wanted them to kill him on the spot. Kym Rowe hadn’t been the only person to develop a wish to die.
    “So I get how you did it … but why? Why did you want Eric to lose control? What benefit to you?”
    “Oh, I know that one!” Dermot said brightly.
    I sighed. “Maybe you would explain.”
    “Claude told me several times that if we could get Niall to return to your side, we could attack him here in the human world, where he wouldn’t be surrounded by his supporters,” Dermot said. “But I ignored his scheming. I was sure Niall wouldn’t return and couldn’t return, because he was firm in his resolution to stay in Faery. But Claude argued that Niall loves you so much that if something happened to you, he’d come to your side. So he tried to ruin Eric, thinking that at best you and Eric would fight and Eric would hurt you. Or you’d be arrested for murdering him, and you’d need your great-grandfather. At the very least, you would throw Eric aside and your misery would bring Niall running.”
    “I was pretty miserable,” I said slowly. “And I was even more miserable last night.”
    “And here I am,” said a voice I recognized. “I’ve come in response to your letter, which opened my eyes to many things.”
    He was glowing. My great-grandfather hadn’t troubled with his human appearance, either. The white-blond hair floated in the air around him. His face was radiant, his eyes like fairy lights on a white tree.
    The little cluster of fae in my living room fell to their knees.
    He put his arms around me, and I felt his incredible beauty, his terrifying magic, and his crazy devotion.
    There was nothing human about him.
    He put his mouth right by my ear. “I know you have it,” he said.
    Suddenly we were standing in my bedroom instead of in the living room. “You gonna take it?” I asked, in the smallest possible voice. Those were fae in