Deadlocked

I was more worried about JB than I was Tara. For the past two weeks, he'd been coming in to parade his worries to me. He hadn't been sure he could handle being in the delivery room, especially if Tara had to have a C-section. He hadn't been sure he could remember his coaching lessons. I figured it was good he was presenting a strong face to his wife and saving the worries for a friend, but maybe he should have been sharing his qualms with Tara or her doctor.



Maybe he was passed out on the hospital floor. Tara ... she was made of stronger stuff.



Alcide and Roy ate with the hearty appetites of men who've been working outside all morning-men who also happen to be werewolves-and they drank the whole pitcher of tea. They both looked happier when they were full, and Alcide made a big effort to catch my eye. I dodged it as long as I could, but he nailed me fair and square, so I went over, smiling. "Can I get you-all anything else? Some dessert today?" I said.



"I'm tight as a tick," Roy said. "Those were great hamburgers."



"I'll tell Antoine you said so," I assured him.



"Sam not here today?" Alcide said.



I almost asked him if he saw Sam anywhere in the room, but I realized that would just be rude. It was not a real question. He was trying to segue into another topic.



"No, Kennedy is on the bar today."



"I bet Sam's with Jannalynn," Roy said, grinning significantly at me.



I shrugged, tried to look politely indifferent.



Alcide was looking off into the distance as if he were thinking about something else, but I knew he was thinking about me. Alcide was feeling kind of lucky that he'd never managed to clinch our relationship, because he figured there was something fishy going on between Jannalynn and me. Alcide didn't consider that he himself could be the bone of contention, since Jannalynn had told him she was going to propose to Sam, and I was Eric's girlfriend. But we two women clearly had issues, and he had to wonder how that would affect the pack, which had become the most important thing in the world to Alcide.



He was thinking this all so clearly that I wondered if he was trying to let me know his concerns, projecting them on purpose.



"Apparently we do have issues," I told him. "At least, she does." Alcide looked startled, and half turned. Before Roy could begin asking questions I said, "How's the bar doing?" Hair of the Dog, the only Were bar in Shreveport, wasn't a tourist bar like Fangtasia. It was not exclusively for Weres, but for all the twoeys in the Shreveport area. "We seem to be pulling out of our slump, here."



"It's doing good. Jannalynn is doing a great job of managing it," Alcide said. He hesitated for a moment. "I heard that those new bars were falling off some, the ones the new guy opened."



"Yeah, I heard that, too," I said, trying not to sound too smug.



"Whatever happened to that new guy?" Alcide said, keeping his words guarded. "That Victor?" Though the world knew about the existence of vampires and the two-natured, their infrastructure was not common knowledge. It would remain a secret if the supes had their way. Alcide took an elaborately casual sip of the remaining tea. "I haven't seen him around."



"Me, either, for weeks," I said. I gave Alcide a very direct look. "Maybe he went back to Nevada." Roy's mind was empty of Victor-thoughts, and I was glad that Palomino had kept her mouth shut. Palomino ... who hung out in a Were bar. Now I made the connection. That was why the distributor was leaving TrueBlood at Hair of the Dog ... it was for Palomino. Just Palomino? Was another vamp visiting the Were bar, too?



"Your boyfriend doing well?" Alcide asked.



I came back to the here and now. "Eric's always well."



"Find out how that girl got into the house? The gal that got killed?"



"You-all don't want any dessert? Let me get your check." Of course I had it ready, but I needed to create a little bustle in the air, get them moving. Sure enough, Alcide had pulled his wallet out of his pocket by the time I got back. Roy had gone to the bar to talk to one of the men who worked at the lumber mill. Apparently they'd gone to high school together.



When I bent over to put the check by Alcide, I inhaled his scent. It was a little sad to remember how attractive I'd found him when I first met him, how I'd allowed myself to daydream that this handsome and hardworking man might be my soul mate.



But it hadn't worked out then, and now it never would. Too much water had passed under that particular bridge. Alcide was getting deeper and deeper into his Were culture, and further and further away from the fairly normal human life he'd managed to live until his father's disastrous attempt to become packmaster.



He was scenting me, too. Our eyes met. We both looked a little sad.



I wanted to say something to him, something sincere and meaningful, but under the circumstances I really couldn't imagine what to say.



And the moment slid by. He handed me some bills and told me he didn't need any change, and Roy slapped his buddy on the back and returned to the table, and they prepared to go back out into the heat of the day to drive to another job in Minden on their way back to the home office in Shreveport.



After they left, I began to bus their table because I didn't have anything else to do. There were hardly any customers, and I figured D'Eriq was taking the opportunity to slip out back to have a smoke or listen to his iPod.



My cell phone vibrated in my apron pocket, and I whipped it out, hoping that it was news about Tara. But it was Sam, calling from his cell.



"What's up, boss?" I asked. "Everything's fine, here."



"Good to know, but not why I called," he said. "Sookie, this morning Jannalynn and I went down to Splendide to make a payment on a table she's buying." Sam had been the one who'd recommended Splendide to me when I'd cleaned out the attic. It still seemed strange to me that the young Jannalynn was an antiques fan.



"Okay," I said when Sam paused. "So, what's going on at Splendide?" That I need to know?



"It got broken into last night," he said, sounding oddly hesitant.



"Sorry to hear that," I said, still not getting the importance to me of this situation. "Ah ... her table okay?"



"The things you sold to Brenda and Donald ... those things were dismantled on the spot, or taken."



I pulled out a chair and sat down in it abruptly.



It was lucky no one was waiting for service for the next few minutes while Sam told me everything he knew about the break-in. Nothing he told me was illuminating. A few little items that had been in the display cases had been grabbed, too. "I don't know if you sold them anything small or not," Sam said.



"Was other stuff taken? Or just mine?"



"I think enough else was gone to kind of camouflage that the targeted stuff had come from your attic," he said, very quietly. I knew other people were around him. "I just noticed because Brenda and Donald pointed out your pieces to show me how they'd cleaned them."



"Thanks for letting me know," I said, strictly on autopilot. "I'll talk to you later, Sam." I shut my phone and kept to my seat for a moment, thinking furiously.



Danny was talking so earnestly to Kennedy that I could tell he'd finally told her why he'd been out of her sight lately. She leaned across the bar and kissed him. I made myself get up to carry the bin of dirty dishes back to the kitchen. Behind me, the door swung open. I looked over my shoulder to check on the size of the party and got yet another unpleasant surprise.



Bellenos was standing in the doorway. I glanced around quickly, but no one-not that there were more than five people in the big room-seemed to be paying the elf any attention. They were not seeing the same creature I was seeing.



Bellenos, who looked very strange in regular human clothes (when he was being himself, I'd seen him in a sort of kilt and a one-shouldered T-shirt), looked around Merlotte's, slowly and warily. When he didn't spot anything threatening, he glided over to me, his slanting dark eyes full of mischief. "Sister," he said. "How are you today?" He showed his needle teeth in a big smile.



"I'm good," I said. I had to be very wary. "How're you?"



"Happy to be out of that building in Monroe," he said. "I see you are not busy. Can we sit and talk?"



"Yes," I said. "Let me clear this table." I was sorry that didn't take longer to do. By the time I sat down with the elf warrior, I was no closer to having a good idea about how to handle this visit than I had been the moment Bellenos walked in. I pulled out a chair to his right. I wanted to talk in a low voice, because I certainly didn't want anyone to overhear our conversation, but I also wanted to keep an eye on the few people in the room.



In the fae way, Bellenos took my hand. I wanted to snatch it back, but there wasn't any point in offending him. The bones stood out so much that his hand hardly looked human-which, of course, it wasn't. It was pale, freckled, and very strong.



Past his shoulder, I saw Kennedy glance our way. She shook a playful finger at me. She thought I was flirting with someone besides Eric. I gave her a stiff smile. Ha. Ha.



"There are too many of us crowded under one roof at Hooligans," Bellenos said.



I nodded.



"Claude is a leader. Dermot is not."



I nodded again, just to show I was following his conversation. He wasn't voicing any new ideas, so far.



"If you have any means of reaching Niall, now is the time to make use of it."



"I would if I could. I don't have any such secret." His slanting eyes were a bit disturbing close up.



"Is that the truth?" An auburn eyebrow rose.



"The truthful answer is that I really don't have any certain means of contacting Niall," I said flatly. "I'm not completely sure I would get in touch with him, if I had the ability."



Bellenos nodded thoughtfully. "The fairy prince is capricious," he said.



"That's for damn sure." Finally, we were in agreement.



"I'm sorry that you can't help," Bellenos said. "I hope nothing worse happens."



"Like what?" Did I really want to know?



"Like more fights breaking out." He shrugged. "Like one of us leaving the bar to have some fun amongst the humans."



That sounded like a threat.



I suddenly remembered that Claude had brought me a letter from Niall, one he said he'd received through the portal in the woods. That was what he'd told me when he'd delivered the letter, if I was remembering correctly. "I could write a letter," I offered. "I don't know if it would reach him, but I can try."



I was sure Bellenos would press me for details, but to my relief he said, "You had better try anything you can think of. You don't know me well, but I'm telling the truth in this matter."



"I don't doubt you," I said. "I'll do my best. And I have a question to ask you."



He looked politely attentive.



"A young woman, a woman at least part Were, came to my boyfriend's home a few nights ago," I said. "She was irresistible to him."



"Did he kill her?"



"No, but he drank from her, though normally he has very good self-control. I think this young woman was carrying a vial of fairy blood. She opened it when she got close to Eric to make herself attractive to him. She may even have drunk it herself so the blood would permeate her. Do you have any ideas about where the blood might have come from?" I regarded him steadily.



"You want to know if she got the blood from one of us?"



"I do."



Bellenos said, "It's possible a fairy sold blood without knowing what it would be used for."



I thought that was bullshit, but in the interests of getting an answer, I said, "Certainly."



"I'll inquire," he said. "And you send the letter."



Without further ado, he rose and glided out of the bar, receiving only a casual glance or two. I went back to the calendar to check, the one posted behind the bar. Danny had finally left to return to work, and Kennedy was actually singing to herself as she aimlessly shifted bottles and glasses around. She grinned at me as she "worked."



I was just bending closer to look at the June page when my cell rang. I whipped it out of my pocket. JB!



"What happened?" I asked.



"We got a boy and a girl!" he yelled. "They're fine! Tara's fine! They got all their fingers and toes! They're big enough! They're perfect!"



"Oh, I'm so happy! You give Tara a hug for me. I'll try to get over to the hospital to see those little ones. The minute you're home I'll bring supper over, you hear?"



"I'll tell her," he said, but he was in such a daze I knew he'd forget the minute he hung up. That was okay.



Grinning like a baboon, I told Kennedy the good news. I called Jason, because I wanted to share the happiness.



"That's good," he said absently. "I'm real glad for 'em. Listen, Sook, we may be closing in on a wedding date. There any day you just couldn't be there?"



"Probably not. If you pick a weekday, I might have to change my work schedule, but I can usually swing that." Especially now that I owned a piece of the bar, though I'd kept that to myself. As far as I knew, Jannalynn was the only person Sam had told, and even that had surprised me a little.



"Great! We're going to pin it down tonight. We're thinking in a couple of weeks."



"Wow, that's quick. Sure, just let me know."



There were so many happy events going on. After Bellenos's unexpected visit, it was impossible to forget that I had worries ... but it was fairly easy to put them on the back burner and revel in the good things.