The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

relieved.
    “They didn’t come help us,” I said, and I found that my lips and mouth had been so tense that I could hardly talk now.
    Sam turned the truck off and shuddered, having his own reaction. “They were trying,” he said, his voice ragged. “I don’t know how hard they were trying, but they were on their way.”
    “I guess this was a little more than they could handle,” I said, making a determined attempt to be less than furious.
    “Let’s not beat them up,” Sam suggested. “What do you say?”
    “Right. Contraindicated,” I said.
    Sam managed to laugh, though it was a sad little snort of amusement.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. “Before we get out and the madness starts all over again . . . forgive me for dragging you into this.”
    “Sam, not necessary!” I said, genuinely surprised. “We’re friends. Of course I’m here, and glad to do it. Don’t bring it up again, you hear? I’m just glad Mindy’s already married!”
    My weak joke lightened his mood. He grinned at me and leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, and we both opened our doors.
    The noise had begun rising again. The car’s passengers had emerged, too. Mindy and Doke, carrying their children, hurried up the steps of the church. Bernie, her fists clenched, faced the crowd, her eyes fixing on face after face. Some people had the grace to look ashamed, and some people were cheering for her, but some faces were twisted with loathing for this small, ordinary woman. Sam stood by his mother, his back straight.
    I was so proud of him.
    Craig moved to flank them, and I seized his hand. “Craig, you need to go on in the church now. We’ll be in there in a second,” I said, and I felt the anger come through him for a second before he understood that I was right. After giving his mother and brother one more look, he hurried into the church to reassure his bride that he’d arrived intact.
    “Sam, you and your mom need to go in,” I said. “See, Togo’s brought Trish.”
    All the two-natured who’d flooded into Wright were pressed into service by Quinn and his new friend. Togo carried the stunned and bleeding Trish into the church and laid her on a back pew before he took his place in the shifter barrier that formed around the church. The three Biker Babes and the Suburban Weres were joined by the Wright law enforcement officers, though some were more willing than others to man the barricade. They were joined by a score of others.
    I saw a tiny woman I knew. “Luna!” I exclaimed, and gave the twoey a hug. I hadn’t seen her since I’d stayed in Dallas; it seemed like years ago, but it wasn’t.
    “You always in trouble?” she asked, flashing me a grin. “Hey, look down the line.”
    A few bodies away in the living chain, two Weres grinned and waved. One called out, “Hey, Milkbone,” and I realized that they were the ones who had picked us up in Dallas. Amazing.
    “It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole,” Luna yelled, to be heard over the noise of the crowd. “We may have busted up that phony church in Dallas, but I bet some of the same people are still here yelling that we ought to die. In fact, I already saw one of ’em. Sarah’s here!”
    I gaped at her. “Sarah Newlin?” She was the wife of the founder of the Fellowship of the Sun, and she’d gone underground with her husband after the raid.
    Luna nodded. “Ain’t that something?”
    “I got to get into the church,” I said. “I came all this way to go to a wedding, and I better go watch it. I hope I get to talk to you later.”
    She nodded back and turned to scream in the face of a man twice her size who said he wanted to get into the church to shoot the minister who’d perform such a travesty of a ceremony. That’s exactly what he said, though he stumbled over “travesty.” (Prompted? I think so .) Luna didn’t even use words to respond. She just screeched. She scared the hell out of the man, who stumbled backward.
    I ran quickly up the steps to the double doors of the church, amazed at Luna’s revelation and cursing my high heels. (Today had turned out to be about so much more than looking good.) The FBI had been looking for the Newlins since the night Luna and I had escaped from the Fellowship building. They’d found all kinds of interesting things—guns, a body—concealed in the huge building, a former church. Steve and Sarah Newlin had continued their ministry of hate while on the run. The