The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

recommends that Sophie-Anne marry immediately to form an alliance. Sookie suggests that the queen name Andre as King of Arkansas and marry him. Both vampires are pleased with the idea. They locate the booth in the convention hall where Bill is selling the database CDs, and Sookie gets to say a nervous hello to Russell Edgington, the King of Mississippi, who is getting married that evening to the King of Indiana, Bartlett Crowe. After Russell and Bart exchange vows—and blood—in a ceremony that Eric conducts, Sookie persuades Jake Purifoy to fill her in on Quinn’s past and learns he became famous as a pit fighter. Forced to go to the vampires for help when his mother was brutally attacked and raped, he was contracted to fight for them for three years and was known as a most ferocious and successful fighter. Jake also tells her that the event employee who passed out potpourri bags for the wedding is Quinn’s younger sister, Francine, a result of the rape. Disturbed by the story, Sookie leaves Jake to return to work for the queen. When Isaiah, the King of Kentucky, realizes that Sookie can sense his visually camouflaged Britlingens, he asks Sophie-Anne to dismiss her, so Sookie is sent to retrieve luggage that apparently belongs to the Louisiana party from down in the loading bay.
    As Sookie turns to leave, she is approached by Andre and led into an isolated service corridor, where he informs her that she needs to be bound more tightly to either him or Sophie-Anne. He orders her to take his blood. She resists, and he is about to force her when Eric suddenly appears. Eric reminds Andre that he himself is pledged to Sophie-Anne and suggests that since he and Sookie already share a bond, it would be better for her to take his blood. Then he will be able to control her for Andre and the queen. Realizing that Eric is trying to protect her, Sookie is nevertheless furious when she is forced into a significant blood exchange with Eric in front of the watching Andre. Just as it is finished, an infuriated Quinn appears and demands an explanation. Sookie leaves, devastated, wondering what changes she will now face in her relationships with both Eric and Quinn. She locates the errant luggage and is taking it to Sophie-Anne’s room when she notices a soda can sitting discarded in a planter and decides to throw it away. The can is heavier than it should be. Sookie looks more closely. She realizes that it is a fake, probably some sort of bomb. The police are notified, and she stands frozen, afraid to put it down, until they arrive. Quinn demands she hand it to him, as he will heal better should it go off. Eric appears as well, called through the new blood bond by Sookie’s panic.
    The bomb is finally taken by a vampire bomb-disposal expert, and Sookie and Quinn breathe a sigh of relief as they hug, while Eric slips quietly away. After being questioned by hotel security, Sookie returns to her room to find Quinn waiting for her in the hallway. After checking to see that her roommate is out, Sookie invites Quinn in, and they spend a quiet night sleeping in each other’s arms.
    FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. Sookie is dressed and waiting for Quinn to escort her to the ball when he calls with the news that the lawsuit against the queen is going to be heard immediately. She is escorted into the proceedings by Andre, who sits beside her. Sookie learns that the judge (a vampire) is the Ancient Pythoness, the blind oracle that Alexander the Great consulted. Henrik Feith has continued the case against Sophie-Anne. Sookie reads the mind of Henrik’s lawyer—and quite possibly that of Henrik—and learns that Henrik has been told the queen plans to kill him. He is pursuing the case in the hopes of saving his own life. Sookie stands and reassures the terrified man of the queen’s sincerity in offering him a place. The Ancient Pythoness eventually finds Sophie-Anne not guilty, and by the terms of her contract with her deceased husband, the queen inherits the entire kingdom he formerly controlled. Henrik is then asked to name the person who lied to him. Just as the terrified man is about to obey, he is struck in the heart by a wooden arrow thrown by a vampire in the audience. Quinn leaps across the stage to protect Sookie and takes a second arrow in his shoulder. Batanya decapitates the assassin with a throwing star as Sookie tries to aid Quinn.
    Quinn is taken to the infirmary by Were paramedics for further treatment. Since the trial is over,