Deadlocked

Mustapha seemed to gather up his stoic Zen-like impassivity, an important part of his image, and within a few seconds he was his cool self. "If Eric don't have a problem with it, why should I?" he said. (It would have been nice if he had realized that earlier.) "I'm here to tell you a few things, Sookie."



"Sure. Have a seat."



"No, thanks. Won't be here long enough."



"Warren didn't come with you?" Warren was most often on the back of Mustapha's motorcycle. Warren was a skinny little ex-con with pale skin and straggly blond hair and some gaps in his teeth, but he was a great shooter and a great friend of Mustapha's.



"Didn't figure I'd need a gun here." Mustapha looked away. He seemed really jangled. Odd. Werewolves were hard to read, but it didn't take a telepath to know that something was up with Mustapha Khan.



"Let's hope no one needs a gun. What's happening in Shreveport that you couldn't tell me over the phone?"



I sat down myself and waited for Mustapha to deliver his message. Eric could have left one on my answering machine or even sent me an e-mail, rather than sending Mustapha-but like most vamps, he didn't really have a rock-solid trust in electronics, especially if the news was important.



"You want him to hear this?" Mustapha tilted his head toward Dermot.



"You might be better off not knowing," I told Dermot. He gave the daytime man a level blue stare that warned Mustapha to be on his best behavior and rose, taking his mug with him. We heard the stairs creak as he mounted them. When Mustapha's Were hearing told him Dermot was out of earshot, he sat down opposite me and placed his hands side by side on the table very precisely. Style and attitude.



"Okay, I'm waiting," I said.



"Felipe de Castro is coming to Shreveport to talk about the disappearance of his buddy Victor."



"Oh, shit," I said.



"Say it, Sookie. We're in for it now." He smiled.



"That's it? That's the message?"



"Eric would like you to come to Shreveport tomorrow night to greet Felipe."



"I won't see Eric till then?" I could feel my face narrow in a suspicious squint. That didn't suit me at all. The thin cracks in our relationship would only spread wider if we didn't get to spend time together.



"He has to get ready," Mustapha said, shrugging. "I don't know if he got to clean out his bathroom cabinets or change the sheets or what. 'Has to get ready' is what he told me."



"Right," I said. "And that's it? That's the whole message?"



Mustapha hesitated. "I got some other things to tell you, not from Eric. Two things." He took off his sunglasses. His chocolate-chip eyes were downcast; Mustapha was not a happy camper.



"Okay, I'm ready." I was biting the inside of my mouth. If Mustapha could be stoical about Felipe's impending visit, I could, too. We were at great risk. We had both participated in the plan to trap Victor Madden, regent of the state of Louisiana, put in place by King Felipe of Nevada, and we had helped to kill Victor and his entourage. What was more, I was pretty sure Felipe de Castro suspected all this with a high degree of certainty.



"First thing, from Pam."



Blond and sardonic, Eric's child Pam was as close to a friend as I had among the vamps. I nodded, signaling Mustapha to deliver the message.



"She says, 'Tell Sookie that this is the hard time that will show what she is made of.'"



I cocked my head. "No advice other than that? Not too helpful. I figured as much." I'd pretty much assumed Felipe's post-Victor visit would be a very touchy one. But that Pam would warn me ... seemed a bit odd.



"Harder than you know," Mustapha said intently.



I stared at him, waiting for more.



Maddeningly, he did not elaborate. I knew better than to ask him to. "The other thing is from me," he continued.



Only the fact that I'd had to control my face all my life kept me from giving him major Doubtful. Mustapha? Giving me advice?



"I'm a lone wolf," he said, by way of preamble.



I nodded. He hadn't affiliated with the Shreveport werewolves, all members of the Long Tooth pack.



"When I first blew into Shreveport, I looked into joining. I even went to a pack gathering," Mustapha said.



It was the first chink I'd seen in his "I'm badass and I don't need anyone" armor. I was startled that he'd even tried. Alcide Herveaux, the packleader in Shreveport, would have been glad to gain a strong wolf like Mustapha.



"The reason I didn't even consider it is because of Jannalynn," he said. Jannalynn Hopper was Alcide's enforcer. She was about as big as a wasp, and she had the same nature.



"Because Jannalynn's really tough and she would challenge someone as alpha as you?" I said.



He inclined his head. "She wouldn't leave me standing. She would push and push until we fought."



"You think she could win? Over you." I made it not quite a question. With Mustapha's size advantage and his greater experience, I could not fathom why Mustapha had a doubt he would be the victor.



He inclined his head again. "I do. Her spirit is big."



"She likes to feel in charge? She has to be the baddest bitch in the fight?"



"I was in Hair of the Dog yesterday, early evening. Just to spend some time with the other Weres after I got through working for the vamps, get the smell of Eric's house out of my nose ... though we got a deader hanging around at the Hair, lately. Anyway, Jannalynn was talking to Alcide while she was serving him a drink. She knows you loaned Merlotte some money to keep his bar afloat."



I shifted in my chair, suddenly uneasy. "I'm a little surprised Sam told her, but I didn't ask him to keep it a secret."



"I'm not so sure he did tell her. Jannalynn's not above snooping when she thinks she ought to know something, and she doesn't even think of it as snooping. She thinks of it as fact-gathering. Here's the bottom line: Don't cross that bitch. You're on the borderline with her."



"Because I helped Sam? That doesn't make any sense." Though my sinking heart told me it did.



"Doesn't need to. You helped him when she couldn't. And that galls her. You ever seen her when she's got a mad on?"



"I've seen her in action." Sam always liked such challenging women. I could only conclude that she saved her softer, gentler side for him.



"Then you know how she treats people she sees as a threat."



"I wonder why Alcide hasn't picked Jannalynn as his first lady, or whatever the term is," I said, just to veer away from the subject for a moment. "He made her pack enforcer, but I would have thought he would pick the strongest female wolf as his mate."



"She'd love that," Mustapha said. "I can smell that on her. He can smell that on her. But she don't love Alcide, and he don't love her. She's not the kind of woman he likes. He likes women his own age, women with a little curve to 'em. Women like you."



"But she told Alcide ..." I had to stop, because I was hopelessly confused. "A few weeks ago, she advised Alcide he should try to seduce me," I said awkwardly. "She thought I would be an asset to the pack."



"If you're confused, think how Jannalynn's feeling." Mustapha's face might have been carved in stone. "She's got a relationship with Sam, but you were able to save him when she wasn't. She halfway wants Alcide, but she knows he wanted you, too. She's big in the pack, and she knows you have pack protection. You know what she can do to people who don't."



I shuddered. "She does enjoy the enforcement," I said. "I've watched her. Thanks for the heads-up, Mustapha. If you'd like a drink or something to eat, the offer still stands."



"I'll take a glass of water," he said, and I got it in short order. I could hear one of Dermot's rented power tools going above our heads in the attic, and though Mustapha cocked an eye toward the ceiling, he didn't comment until he'd finished his drink. "Too bad he can't come with you to Shreveport," he said then. "Fairies are good fighters." Mustapha handed me his empty glass. "Thanks," he said. And then he was out the door.



I mounted the stairs to the second floor as the motorcycle roared its way back to Hummingbird Road. I stood in the attic doorway. Dermot was shaving the bottom off one of the doors. He knew I was there, but he kept on working, casting a quick smile over his shoulder to acknowledge my presence. I considered telling him what Mustapha had just told me, simply to share my worries.



But as I watched my great-uncle work, I reconsidered. Dermot had his own problems. Claude had left with Niall, and there was no way of knowing when he'd return or in what condition. Until Claude's return, Dermot was supposed to make sure all was running smoothly at Hooligans. What would that motley crew be capable of, without Claude's control? I had no idea if Dermot could keep them in line or if they'd ignore his authority.



I started to launch a boatful of worry about that, but I gave myself a reality check. I couldn't assume responsibility for Hooligans. It was none of my business. For all I knew, Claude had a system in place and all Dermot had to do was follow it. I could only worry about one bar, and that was Merlotte's. Kind of alternating with Fangtasia. Okay, two bars.



Speaking of which, my cell phone buzzed me to remind me we were getting a beer delivery that morning. It was time for me to hustle in to work.



"If you need me, you call me," I told Dermot.



With a proud air, as if he'd learned a clever phrase in a foreign language, Dermot said, "You have a nice day, you hear?"



I took a hasty shower and pulled on some shorts and a Merlotte's T-shirt. I didn't have time to blow-dry my hair completely, but at least I put on some eye makeup before I hustled out the door. It felt excellent to shed my supernatural worries and to fall back on thinking about what I had to do at Merlotte's, especially now that I'd bought into it.



The rival bar opened by the now-deceased Victor, Vic's Redneck Roadhouse, had taken a lot of customers away. To our relief, the newness of our rival was wearing off, and some of our regulars were returning to the fold. At the same time, the protests against patronizing a bar owned by a shapeshifter had stopped since Sam had started attending the church that had supplied most of the protesters.



It had been a surprisingly effective countermove, and I am proud to say I thought of it. Sam had blown me off at first, but he'd reconsidered when he'd cooled off. Sam had been pretty nervous the first Sunday, and only a handful of people talked to him. But he'd kept it going, if irregularly, and the members were getting to know him as a person first, a shapeshifter second.



I'd loaned Sam some money to float the bar through the worst time. Instead of repaying me bit by bit as I'd imagined he would, Sam now regarded me as a part owner. After a long and cautious conversation, he'd upped my paycheck and added to my responsibilities. I'd never had something that was kind of my own before. There was no other word for it but "awesome."



Now that I handled some of the administrative work at the bar and Kennedy could come in as bartender, Sam was enjoying a little more well-earned time off. He spent some of it with Jannalynn. He went fishing, a pastime he'd enjoyed with his dad and mom when he was a kid. Sam also worked on his double-wide inside and out, trimming his hedge and raking his yard, planting flowers and tomatoes in season, to the amusement of the rest of the staff.



I didn't think it was funny. I thought it was real nice that Sam liked to take care of his home, even if it was parked behind the bar.



What gave me the most pleasure was seeing the tension ease out of his shoulders now that Merlotte's was on an even keel again.



I was a little early. I had the time to make some measurements in the storeroom. I figured if I had the right to accept beer shipments, I had the right to institute a few changes, too-subject to Sam's approval and consent, of course.



The guy who drove the truck, Duff McClure, knew exactly where to put the beer. I counted the cases as he unloaded them. I'd offered to help the first time we'd dealt together, and Duff had made it clear it would be a cold day in Hell before a woman helped him do physical work. "You been selling more Michelob lately," he remarked.



"Yeah, we got a few guys who've decided that's all they're gonna drink," I said. "They'll be back to Bud Light before too long."



"You need any TrueBlood?"



"Yeah, the usual case."



"You got a regular vamp clientele."



"Small but regular," I agreed, my mind on writing the check for the shipment. We had a few days to pay it, but Sam had always paid on delivery. I thought that was a good policy.



"They take three, four cases at Vic's," Duff said conversationally.



"Bigger bar." I began writing the check.



"I guess vamps are everywhere now."



"Um-hum," I muttered, filling it out carefully. I was serious about my check-writing privileges. I signed with a flourish.



"Even that bar in Shreveport, that one that turned out to be for werewolves, they take some blood drinks now."



"Hair of the Dog?" Hadn't Mustapha mentioned a vamp who was hanging out at the Were bar?



"Yeah. I delivered there this morning."



"Huh." This news was unsettling, but husky Duff was a huge gossip, and I didn't want him to know he'd shaken me. "Well, everybody's got to drink," I said easily. "Here's your check, Duff. How's Dorothy?" Duff tucked the check into the zippered pouch he kept in a locked box in the passenger floorboard. "She's good," he said with a grin. "We're having another young'un, she says."