Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

sister.”
    She laid me down as easily as if I’d been an infant, and she and Bellenos squatted by me. I concluded, with no great certainty, that they weren’t going to kill and eat me. When I could speak, I said, “What were you out here doing?”
    “Hunting,” Bellenos said, as if he suspected my head were addled. “You saw the deer?”
    “Yes. Do you realize you’re not on my land anymore?” My voice was very unsteady, but there was nothing I could do about it.
    “I see no fence, no boundaries. Freedom is good,” he said.
    And the blonde nodded enthusiastically. “It’s so good to run,” she said. “It’s so good to be out of a human building.”
    The thing was … they seemed so happy . Though I knew absolutelyI should read them the riot act, I found myself feeling not only profoundly sorry for the two fae, but frightened of—and for—them. This was a very uncomfortable mix of emotions. “I’m real glad you’re having a good time,” I wheezed. They both beamed at me. “How did you come to be named Gift?” I just couldn’t think of anything else to say.
    “It’s Aelfgifu,” she said, smiling. “Elf-gift. But Gift is easier for human mouths.” Speaking of mouths, Aelfgifu’s teeth were not as ferocious as Bellenos’s. In fact, they were quite small. But since she was leaning over me, I could see longer, sharper, thinner teeth folded against the roof of her mouth.
    Fangs. Not vampire fangs, but snake fangs. Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea. Coupled with the pupil-less eyes, she was really scary.
    “Is this the way you do in Faery?” I asked weakly. “Hunt in the woods?”
    They both smiled. “Oh, yes, no fences or boundaries there,” Aelfgifu said longingly. “Though the woods are not as deep as they once were.”
    “I don’t want to … to chide you,” I said, wondering if I could sit up. They both stared at me, their eyes unreadable, their heads canted at inhuman angles. “But regular people really shouldn’t see you without your human disguises. And even if you could make other people perceive you as human … regular human couples don’t chase deer in the middle of the night. With sharp weapons.” Even around Bon Temps, where hunting is practically a religion.
    “You see us as we really are,” Bellenos said. I could tell he hadn’t known that before. Maybe I’d given away a powerful bit of knowledge by revealing that.
    “Yeah.”
    “You have powerful magic,” Gift said respectfully. “That makesyou our sister. When you first came to Hooligans, we weren’t sure about you. Are you on our side?”
    Bellenos’s hand shot across me, and he gripped Aelfgifu’s shoulder. Their eyes met. In the weird light and shadows cast by the headlights, her eyes looked just as black as his.
    “I don’t know what side that is,” I said, to break the moment up. It seemed to work, because she laughed and slid an arm underneath me, and I sat up. “You’re not hurt,” she said. “Dermot will be pleased. He loves you.”
    Bellenos put an arm around me, too, so our little trio was suddenly positioned in an uncomfortably intimate little scene there on the deserted road. Bellenos’s teeth were awfully close to my flesh. Sure, I was used to Eric biting, but he didn’t rip off flesh and eat it.
    “You’re shaking, Sister,” Aelfgifu observed. “You can’t be cold on a hot night like tonight! Is it the shock of your little accident?”
    “You can’t be frightened of us?” Bellenos sounded mocking.
    “You turkey,” I said. “Of course I’m scared of you. If you’d spent a while with Lochlan and Neave, you’d be scared, too.”
    “We’re not like them,” Aelfgifu said in a much more subdued voice. “And we’re sorry, Sister. There are quite a few of us who endured their attentions. Not all lived to tell others about it. You’re very fortunate.”
    “Did you have the magic then?” Bellenos 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 Bellenos’s question.
    “I couldn’t bear to be shut up in an iron box,” Gift said. “We’ll 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,”