The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

owes her a debt, wants to take her to Las Vegas to use her gift to help him in his business dealings. Sookie wants details about their pledge but is too weary from the day’s events to pursue the conversation and goes home.
    SATURDAY, JANUARY 14. Andy Bellefleur gives the okay to open the bar, and Sookie is relieved when Sam walks in as she is setting up for the day. His mother is healing, but the situation with his stepfather is very tense. When Sookie reveals her marriage to Eric, Sam’s reaction causes her to leave Merlotte’s in a fury. She turns to her best friend, Tara, for advice, telling her the whole story. Tara says that while Sookie could have been smarter about the situation, only the vampires will know about the pledge and she has time to figure things out. Despite her own bad past with vampires, Tara concedes that there are benefits to Sookie’s relationship with Eric. Tara then shares her own news: She is pregnant, and she is fiercely determined to give her baby the childhood she never had.
    Returning to her own house for lunch, Sookie takes a phone message for Octavia from Louis Chambers. When she hands Octavia the note with Louis’s phone number, it is obvious that the gentleman means a great deal to Octavia, and she promptly returns his call.
    Sookie enters Merlotte’s to work her shift that evening to find Sam arguing with Bobby Burnham, who hands her an envelope and tells her that Eric has instructed him to always be at her disposal, much to his humiliation. Sookie enters the dining area and sees agents Weiss and Lattesta at one table and her great-grandfather, Niall, at another. Niall informs Sookie that the agents have been discussing her, and she tells him her fears about being forced to work for the FBI. She asks if he knows about Crystal, and although he has shown no interest in Jason, he tells Sookie that he is always concerned when someone connected to him dies and will look into it. He then makes a vague comment about there being trouble and assures her that he will take care of it, but advises her to be wary of fairies she does not know. She and Sam remain on the outs for the evening.
    Louis Chambers has arrived to take Octavia back to New Orleans by the time Sookie gets off work. After they leave, Amelia tells Sookie that he is a sorcerer, and the two agree that the older couple has little to fear in the Big Easy.
    SUNDAY, JANUARY 15. Andy and Agent Lattesta come by in the morning to discuss Crystal’s death, and after they leave, a slightly chilly Sookie is sunbathing in her yard when she is surprised by a visit from Diantha, who brings a message from Mr. Cataliades. The lawyer has sent his niece to warn Sookie that fairies are moving about in this world and that they will try to hurt her if they can. Sookie learns from Diantha that Niall has many enemies, the most important one being the other fairy prince, his nephew Breandan. When Diantha leaves, Sookie calls her fae cousins Claudine and Claude to meet her for a talk, during which she learns about her fae lineage and why her great-grandfather has enemies. She is told that Breandan hates all humans with fairy blood and believes they should be eliminated because they dilute the fae magic. He wants to close off Faery from the contamination of humans. Claude and Claudine also warn her that her great-uncle Dermot is the spitting image of her brother, Jason, and that she should be very careful because he was involved in her parents’ deaths.
    Disturbed by the warnings, a restless Sookie returns home and decides to work off her disquiet by weeding the flower beds. She is busy with her old trowel when she suddenly hears someone say, “I’ll enjoy killing you for my lord,” and she instinctively lunges upward, shoving the trowel into the speaker’s stomach. As he falls to the ground, she retreats into her house, locks the doors, and calls Niall. Her great-grandfather arrives with his son Dillon, the father of Claudine and Claude, and is pleased that she has killed one of his enemies. As the body disintegrates into a fine glittery dust, Niall warns her again and then leaves.
    A troubled Sookie is pondering the events of the day when Quinn unexpectedly pulls up. Feeling Eric’s rage at Quinn’s presence through the blood bond, Sookie becomes upset as Quinn questions why she is harder on him than on anyone else and voices his fear that Eric is trying to cut her off from the others who care about her. Alerted by Eric, Bill arrives,