From Dead to Worse

said. He was right there in front of me. I had to explain.
    “Oh,” he said, his voice was full of amazement.
    “I just found out,” I said apologetically.
    Niall stopped soaking up the moonlight and his eyes opened. “My great-granddaughter,” he said, as if my presence in the Merlotte’s parking lot was a pleasant surprise. “Who is your friend?”
    “Niall, this is Sam Merlotte, who owns this bar,” I said.
    Sam extended his hand cautiously, and after a good look at it, Niall touched it with his own. I could feel Sam give a slight jerk, as if my great-grandfather had had a buzzer in his hand.
    “Great-granddaughter,” Niall said, “I hear you were in danger in the fracas between the werewolves.”
    “Yes, but Sam was with me, and then Claudine came,” I said, feeling oddly defensive. “I didn’t know there was going to be a fracas, as you put it, when I went. I was trying to be a peacemaker. We were ambushed.”
    “Yes, that’s what Claudine reported,” he said. “I understand the bitch is dead?”
    By which he meant Priscilla. “Yes, sir,” I said. “The bitch is dead.”
    “And then you were in danger again one night later?”
    I was beginning to feel definitely guilty of something. “Well, that’s not actually my norm,” I said. “It just happened that the vampires of Louisiana got overrun by the vampires of Nevada.”
    Niall seemed only mildly interested. “But you went as far as dialing the number I left you.”
    “Ah, yes, sir, I was pretty scared. But then Eric knocked the phone out of my hand because he thought if you came into the equation, there’d be an out-and-out war. As it turned out, I guess that was for the best, because he surrendered to Victor Madden.” I was still a little angry about it, though, even after Eric’s gift of the replacement phone.
    “Ahhh.”
    I couldn’t make head nor tail of that noncommittal sound. This might be the downside of having a great-grandfather on site. I’d been called on the carpet. It was a feeling I hadn’t had since I was a young teen and Gran had found out I’d skipped taking out the trash and folding the laundry. I didn’t like the feeling now any more than I’d liked it then.
    “I love your courage,” Niall said unexpectedly. “But you are very frail—mortal, breakable, and short-lived. I don’t want to lose you just when I finally became able to speak to you.”
    “I don’t know what to say,” I muttered.
    “You don’t want me to stop you from doing anything. You won’t change. How can I protect you?”
    “I don’t think you can, not a hundred percent.”
    “Then what use am I to you?”
    “You don’t have to be of use to me,” I said, surprised. He didn’t seem to have the emotional set I had. I didn’t know how to explain it to him. “It’s enough for me—it’s wonderful—just knowing you exist. That you care about me. That I have living family, no matter how distant and different. And you don’t think I’m weird or crazy or embarrassing.”
    “Embarrassing?” He looked puzzled. “You’re far more interesting than most humans.”
    “Thank you for not thinking I’m defective,” I said.
    “Other humans think you’re defective ?” Niall sounded genuinely outraged.
    “They can’t be comfortable sometimes,” Sam said unexpectedly. “Knowing she can read their minds.”
    “But you, shapeshifter?”
    “I think she’s great,” Sam said. And I could tell he was absolutely sincere.
    My back straightened. I felt a flush of pride. In the emotional warmth of the moment, I almost told my great-grandfather about the big problem I’d uncovered today, to prove I could share. But I had a pretty good feeling that his solution to the Sandra Pelt-Tanya Grissom Axis of Evil would be to cause their deaths in a macabre way. My sort-of cousin Claudine might be trying to become an angel, a being I associated with Christianity, but Niall Brigant was definitely from another ethos entirely. I suspected his outlook was, “I’ll take your eye ahead of time, just in case you want mine.” Well, maybe not that preemptive, but close.
    “There is nothing I can do for you?” He sounded almost plaintive.
    “I’d really like it if you’d just come spend some time with me at the house, when you have some to spare. I’d like to cook you supper. If you want to do that?” It made me feel shy, offering him something I wasn’t sure he’d value.
    He looked at me with glowing eyes. I could not read his