The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

alone in an upstairs bedroom.
    THURSDAY, JUNE 1. Sookie leaves bright and early to drive back to her house. She finds Alcide half-naked and asleep in her bed; having heard from Amelia that she broke the blood bond, he came to Sookie’s house to try to reignite their chemistry. Sookie is offended and sends him away. Mustapha Khan, Eric’s new day guy, arrives with a friend to pick up Eric’s car. After they leave, Sookie chastises Amelia and Claude, who let Alcide in, for interfering in her life. Sookie tells everyone to get out of her house. When the others have departed, she finds Dermot sitting on the back steps. Knowing Claude was the real instigator of the two fae, she allows Dermot to stay. She gives him some money and lets him take her car to Home Depot to get more supplies to refinish the attic area.
    At Merlotte’s, Sam confides that the bar is in a real slump, the worst he’s ever faced. Sookie doesn’t know what to say and can offer only small comfort. She leaves work late, stopping to fill up her gas tank and to get some milk and synthetic blood. Pulling up to her house, she is first irritated by the open back door but then recognizes danger and tries to retreat, only to be blocked by a tree falling across the drive. She escapes from her car, smacking a potential attacker with a quart of milk, and runs toward Bill’s house in the pouring rain. She’s able to find the spare key on his front porch and get into his house, but first she discards her soaking clothes and shoes into the bushes so she won’t leave a trail.
    Though Bill never told her, Sookie had figured out the likely location of his daytime resting place while they were dating. Aware of the renovations he has done, she zeros in on a small room off the kitchen and is able to pry up a trapdoor hidden in the floor. Naked and in the dark, she carefully feels around for Bill and finally locates his inanimate naked body in the corner. Sookie can hear her pursuers overhead as Bill struggles to wake, but it takes him several attempts to fully rouse. He finally comes to completely and leaves to search for her assailants while Sookie waits. He returns and dresses, and she wraps herself in an old shawl for the drive back to her house. They find Dermot bleeding and unconscious in the attic, and Bill is intoxicated by the scent of the fairy blood. He manages to leave the house and checks the property. Sookie calls Hooligans to get help for Dermot, and Claude sends Bellenos, who arrives in a matter of minutes. Sookie apologizes to Dermot, explaining that Amelia’s protection wards should have kept the intruders out, but Dermot admits that he deconstructed Amelia’s wards, planning to put up his own because he felt they would be much stronger. Bellenos treats Dermot’s head wound by breathing into him. As soon as Dermot is able, the two leave to hunt for Dermot and Sookie’s attackers. A bit later, Pam and Eric arrive just in time for Dermot and Bellenos to return with the severed heads of the attackers.
    After the fairies leave, taking the heads with them, Sookie, Pam, and Eric discuss who could be behind the attempted kidnapping. When Eric quickly leaves the room to take a phone call, Sookie realizes that something is going on. Sookie faces Eric down and forces him to admit that his maker, before his death, had arranged a marriage for Eric with a vampire queen. So far, Eric has not succeeded in extricating himself.
    Bubba peers in the window, concerned for Sookie because Eric sent Pam outside. Sookie puts her feelings aside as Audrina and Colton arrive, and Pam reenters the house as well to start planning Victor’s assassination. Several ideas are put forth, but Sookie finally comes up with a winner involving Bubba.
    Alone again, Eric asks Sookie for understanding, but she cannot imagine honoring such a deal brokered by a dead maker. Eric doesn’t stay the night. Sookie sees Bill in the yard and goes out to talk to him, briefly telling him about the situation, but Bill actually does understand Eric’s responsibility to his maker.
    FRIDAY, JUNE 2. After sleeping late, Sookie begins preparations for Tara’s baby shower, which is to be held the next day. Dermot returns home and, upon hearing about the shower, asks if he can attend. He begins looking at the old photographs from the attic and points out that some photos of Mitchell, Adele’s husband, are actually Fintan in Mitchell’s form.
    Thinking about her own current fiscal health, Sookie