The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

the enemy here?”

From Dead to Worse

Timeline
    SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2005. While working at the Bellefleur double wedding with Sam, Sookie is surprised when she is asked by a tearful Halleigh to be a fill-in bridesmaid after one of the original bridesmaids has an appendicitis attack. Sookie participates in the ceremony and requisite pictures, then changes back into her work clothes to tend bar. Portia’s new husband, Glen, has invited several of his vampire clients and honors them with a bottle of Royalty Blended, a premium mixture of real and synthetic blood, so that they can toast the happy newlyweds. Jonathan, a Nevada vampire, introduces himself as he gets another drink at the bar, and Sookie is a little concerned at his interest in her. She notices a tall, slim man observing the proceedings from a distance, a man whom the vampires all acknowledge with nods of respect.
    Jonathan startles her as she is getting into her car and claims to have spoken to Pam about her, but Sookie knows he is lying. As they speak, she again sees the slender stranger watching them.
    Sookie returns home and recounts her extraordinary evening to her roommate, Amelia. Amelia has her own news. Her father, Copley Carmichael, a wealthy building contractor from New Orleans, is visiting the next evening.
    SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9. Sookie attends church in the morning, stopping at the grocery store before heading home to help Amelia, who has been on a cleaning spree. Her father arrives. He is a clear broadcaster like Amelia. Since Sookie has no trouble picking thoughts out of his head, she is able to control her reaction when Copley deliberately brings up Sookie’s cousin Hadley. He tells Sookie that he knows Hadley’s ex-husband and child. Copley also tells Amelia that a woman named Octavia Fant has called his house, looking for her. After he leaves, Amelia reveals to Sookie that Octavia is her mentor and the head of her coven. Octavia is the reason she left New Orleans after her magical mishap with Bob, convinced there would be a terrible punishment for turning her lover into a cat. Resigned, Amelia knows that she will soon have to deal with Octavia. She also confesses that Eric called the previous evening but that she had forgotten to tell Sookie. Anxious to ask him about the strange incident with Jonathan, Sookie calls Eric at Fangtasia. To her surprise, Eric invites her out to dinner and informs her that he will be introducing her to someone who has asked to meet her. Intrigued, she agrees to go to dinner with him in Shreveport the next evening.
    MONDAY, OCTOBER 10. When Sookie and Eric arrive at Les Deux Poissons restaurant, she discovers that the man she is to meet is the beautiful stranger she saw at the wedding. He shows her his ears, and she realizes he is a member of the fae. Eric introduces the man as Niall Brigant, then leaves after reassuring Sookie that he will be nearby if she needs him. To her astonishment, Niall tells her he is her great-grandfather. As the evening progresses, Sookie learns the story of her grandmother Adele’s involvement with Niall’s son Fintan, who is revealed as her true grandfather. She shares part of her own life. By the time they part, she is pleased, albeit disconcerted, to have found a loving new member of her family. Eric and Sookie are speeding back toward Bon Temps when they are pulled over by a police car. As the officer approaches, Sookie realizes something is wrong and that the man is a Were just as he reaches the open window with gun drawn. When he tries to shoot Sookie, Eric takes the bullet but is still able to disarm the Were by breaking his arm. As a bleeding Eric gets caught in bloodlust and begins to pull the assassin in through the window, Sookie gets out of the suddenly crowded Corvette and checks the attacker’s car to see if she can discover who sent him and why. Eric’s car is empty when she returns, but Eric appears beside her and kisses her, still caught up in the lust of feeding. They quickly get back on the road, and Sookie doesn’t question what Eric has done with the body. When she arrives home, Amelia tells her that Alcide called.
    TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11. Octavia Fant appears on Sookie’s doorstep, informing Sookie that she is there to see Amelia. Sookie leaves them to talk and goes in to make herself some coffee and read the paper. She is shocked and saddened to read of the death of Maria-Star Cooper, Alcide Herveaux’s girlfriend, and her grief is compounded when Alcide