The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

into the living room, where Annabelle is on her knees all alone in the center of the floor. Jannalynn instructs Sookie to go upstairs to Alcide. She finds him in the study waiting for her, and he bluntly tells her that a pack shaman would be able to determine what had happened to Basim. They haven’t had one in four years; she is the closest they’ve got. By drinking a shaman’s potion, she should be able to discern who was involved and their degree of guilt. When she tells him that a year ago he wouldn’t have asked her to do this, he replies that a year ago she wouldn’t have hesitated. Sookie drinks the potion.
    As Alcide helps an increasingly unstable Sookie downstairs, she realizes with a sense of relief that she is becoming unable to feel the vampires through her bond. Sookie views the pack through the effect of the drug, and as she concentrates, she realizes she can see them as colors and knows immediately what colors to look for. She accuses Hamilton Bond of betraying the pack by inviting government people to camp on Alcide’s land, even knowing that they were looking for dirt on the Louisiana packs to use to push through anti-shifter legislation. She gets him to admit that he was jealous of Basim, and he finally confesses that he saw Basim meeting with a fairy and heard their plan to implicate Sookie in a murder by burying a body on her property. Ham decided to kill Basim and bury him instead, and then collect the reward promised by the fairy himself. Ham tells them that he was supposed to meet the fairy on Sookie’s property after the meeting that evening. Sookie names Patricia Crimmins, originally from the St. Catherine Parish pack, as Ham’s accomplice. Patricia tries to throw herself on the mercy of the pack, as she did after the Were war, claiming that her only crime has been loving the wrong man, but Ham declares that her motive was purely retaliation for not being chosen by Alcide as his lover. Annabelle is guilty only of being unfaithful to Alcide. Jason and Sookie leave as the Weres are deciding on the punishment, and Sookie is confident that enforcer and second Jannalynn will successfully argue for the deaths of Ham and Patricia.
    The drug is already wearing off as they exit the house, and Sookie is sick in the yard before she and Jason reach the truck. As her mind clears, Sookie suddenly begins to feel Eric through the bond again and becomes aware of his unhappiness and physical pain. She urges Jason to get her to Eric’s house as quickly as possible, and she fears the worst until they enter the home and Eric answers her call. They find him horribly wounded, and Bobby Burnham and his vampire girlfriend, Felicia, have been murdered. Eric tells them that Alexei finally snapped, killing the two when Appius left him alone to speak to Eric and then fleeing. Appius has gone after Alexei. Sookie orders her brother to push Eric’s broken ribs back in so that he can heal, and after doing so, Jason goes to the bathroom to wash off the blood. Sookie confronts the defeated Eric and taunts him until he reacts. When Jason staggers back into the room, he reports finding a severely injured Pam and that he has given her blood. Jason’s cell phone rings, and his girlfriend tells him that Alexei has been to his house looking for him, that Appius arrived soon after, and that she has sent them both to Sookie’s house. Sookie immediately calls Claude and warns him to get out, since the vampires can enter her house. She and a recovering Eric leave Jason with Pam and rush to Sookie’s house.
    They have almost reached the house when Eric doubles over with pain that is not his own. They arrive in her yard to find the security light on and Claude and a fairy Sookie has never seen before standing back to back, armed with knives and a sword, while Alexei circles them, occasionally darting in to strike. Appius lies nearby, head bloodied, and Eric asks him if he still lives. Appius replies that his spinal cord is severed and that he cannot move until he heals. As Sookie pleads with Alexei not to kill the fairies, she learns that the stranger is Colman, the father of Claudine’s baby, and that he blames Sookie for the death of his mate and child. Alexei dashes forward between the fairy blades to punch Colman and is wounded by Claude.
    Sookie realizes that Alexei is beginning to tire and runs into the house to retrieve the silver chain that the Drainers had used to restrain Bill so long ago. Returning to the yard,