Check out our episode here! Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
It's been a short time since Eric's maker died and Sookie and Claude broke the fairy spell on Uncle Dermot, and now, Sookie and her fairy kin are cleaning out her attic. They've decided to pull everything out and put it in the living room, which spills over to the porch and the yard. Most looks like it's headed for the burn pile, but there could be some salvageable things. Hopefully.
Later, at Merlotte's, Sookie talks to Sam about cleaning out the attic and he suggests they go to an antique store in Shreveport the next day to see if anything has value, and to see if Sam can find a gift for Jannalynn, his werewolf girlfriend, who really loves antiques. Merlotte's hasn't been too busy since the were and shifter reveal and now another bar, Vic's Redneck Roadhouse, has opened up only a few miles away, so they've got plenty of time to chat. Kennedy, the newish bartender/excon and Danny, her boyfriend/the bouncer, come in and then, Sookie walks to the window. She sees a light coming quickly toward the bar, then the window shatters as a Molotov cocktail comes crashing through.
Sookie and Sam act fast to get the fire put out and no one is badly hurt, thank goodness, though Sookie's hair did get burned. Fire trucks and Sheriffs come soon, and while Bud Dearborn oddly questions Sookie about how she knows what a Molotov cocktail is, Eric bursts in, full of anger and concern. After the questioning is over, there isn't too much to be done, so Eric takes Sookie home. Pam is there waiting, and she has someone with her.
Everyone piles into Sookie's cluttered house and the extra guest, Immanuel, turns out to be a hairstylist who cuts off Sookie's scorched hair and gives her a new style. Pam is dating Immanuel's sister, Miriam, who is in poor health, and Pam wants to make her a vampire, but for an as yet unknown reason, she cannot. This, along with a comment from Pam about Sookie going antiquing with Sam and living with Claude and Dermot, causes Pam and Eric to get in a kitchen-destroying fight and then Sookie asks everyone to leave.
The next morning, Sam arrives to take Sookie to the antique store, which she honestly didn't think would happen anymore since, you know, Merlotte's was partially exploded the night before, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been and Sam got everything he could taken care of, so now it's time to head to Shreveport. She explains the fight between Eric and Pam and Sam kind of agrees and questions Claude and Dermot's intentions with Sookie, but Sookie knows there's no way they would want anything sexual from her. She does wonder about how they make her feel though. She feels *more fairy* now that they're living with her than she did before. Sam explains he knows a little bit about fairies because the shifters have a special library, but suggests they talk to Claude and Dermot later to ask them personally what's up.
They arrive at the antique store and Sam picks out a nice pair of earrings for Jannalynn and Sookie sets up a time for the antiques dealers to come check out her stuff in the next couple of days, then, they leave for Hooligans, the strip club Claude owns. Before they get there, Remy Savoy calls to ask Sookie if she'll watch Hunter, her telepathic cousin, over the weekend, which she can't, and then he asks if she'll go with him to his kindergarten visit. She agrees, though she feels uncomfortable because everyone in the little town where they live will think she's dating Remy and trying to be Hunter's mother.
When Sookie and Sam arrive at the strip club, they're greeted at the door by an Elf named Bellenos and he's scary looking. As they enter, they see that everyone at the club is some sort of fae, which is astounding. Sam bluntly asks what Claude and Dermot's plans are for Sookie, but they say they'll talk about it later. Sam takes Sookie home so she can get ready for work. He's taking the evening off to spend with Jannalynn.
At Merlotte's, Kennedy worries that the bomber was there for her and that maybe it was a relative of her ex that she shot in self-defense and went to prison for. Surely not though. Sookie tells her that she thinks the bomber was two-natured in some way, so that rules out anyone Kennedy could know. Sookie then gets a text from Eric that he's coming to see her later, which puts her in a good mood, even though he literally just destroyed her kitchen.
Eric is waiting for Sookie when she gets home and he's very kindly bought her a toaster. He tells her that, later, they're going to have great sex in a new position he's discovered, but first, they have to go to a new vampire bar that Victor, King Felipe's second in Louisiana, has opened. It's very close to Fangtasia, which isn't good for Eric's business, but there's literally nothing he can do about it except for kill Victor, which he can't really do, though we all want him to since he tried to kill Pam and Sookie in the last book.
When they arrive, Pam meets them, but she's been badly beaten. Eric sent her ahead to make sure the bar was safe and, well, she got beat up for trying to check so... Anyway, they enter the bar, see it's full of Elvis stuff, and talk to Victor who has been made Regent of the state, though he desperately wants to be king, and as Regent, he's allowed to open businesses wherever he wants to and keep all the money. It clicks for Sookie then that Vic's Redneck Roadhouse also belongs to Victor, and that he's really trying to run Fangtasia and Merlotte's out of business. He's the worst.
Victor is also terrible because he has Pam's girlfriend, Miriam, sitting there, too. She's very very ill and, as Regent, Victor has declared that Pam cannot turn her into a vampire. Oohhhh, so that's why Eric won't let Pam do that, because Victor is a dick. Then, Victor tries to share a drink with Eric and Pam, but has poisoned their glasses. The human who serves them clearly pushes this into Sookie's mind, so she uses the blood bond to force Eric not to drink from the glass. He picks up on Sookie's worry and drinks his True Blood straight from the bottle instead and Pam follows suit. Eric, Pam, Miriam and Sookie leave shortly afterward, and we all think that Victor clearly needs to be killed.
Two of Victor's goons escort them out to the parking lot and tell them that they don't like Victor and, you know, like all of us, they want him out of the picture. Eric and Pam pretend offense at the goons' dislike of Victor, thinking this is another ploy of his to find them doing something wrong so he can punish them. The goons comment on how surprisingly weak they think Eric and Pam are and go back inside. Sookie is shocked by Eric and Pam, but then they let Sookie in on the fact that they might be trying to trick them, so she lets it go. Eric asks about the glasses and Sookie tells them they were laced with pure fairy blood, which might have caused her friends to go bonkers with bloodlust. How desperate is this guy?!
On the drive home, Pam makes an odd comment about Sookie being Eric's wife and says that Eric got a letter, but then he turns around and forces her to stop talking. He also forbids Sookie from asking about what in the hell they are talking about. It's very weird. Sookie would have liked to have asked where Victor got the fairy blood for the glasses, but she sits in silence the rest of the way home.
The next day, Sookie finally gets to talk to Claude and Dermot about why they're actually living with her and they explain that when fairies spend time together, they gain strength and vitality from each other. They also say that there is a gap in the barrier that Niall put up to keep Faery separate, and that tiny gap is in the woods by her house. They also say that there is *something* about the house that draws them in. This is a lot for Sookie to process, but it's not as bad as she thought it was going to be. What is bad is when she tells Claude and Dermot that Victor tried to poison Eric and Pam with fairy blood and they realize that one of the fairies at their club that they haven't seen in a while is probably dead.
After all this, Sookie tells Claude and Dermot that the antiques dealers are going to be there soon. Dermot offers to help clean up the newly emptied attic and while they're up there, he asks if he could build a wall up there and create a room to live in. Sookie feels badly for not thinking that Dermot and Claude wouldn't always want to share a space, so she says that he can build a room and that she'll buy all the materials. The antiques dealers arrive and start looking through all of the old Stackhouse treasures and find a secret panel in one of the old desks. They pry it open and inside, Sookie finds a velvet bag that her grandmother Adele used to keep sewing patterns in. When she opens it, she finds a letter instead.
Sookie doesn't get to read the letter right away, so she puts it in her nightstand and comes back to continue with the antiques dealers. They end up taking quite a bit of stuff, which is a relief. After they leave, Sookie goes to work. Sam's got some insurance paperwork that he's been avoiding, so Sookie works on it just to help Sam out. He really really appreciates her stepping up. Seriously though, Sookie would do pretty much anything for Sam. He's her best friend, she recently realized. Aww, that's nice!
It's not nice when the private investigators who investigated freaking Debbie Pelt's disappearance come in, but they were sent from Little Rock by Mr. Cataliades to arrive at the exact moment that they did. They tell Sookie that Sandra Pelt, Debbie's little sister who tried to kidnap and kill Sookie a bunch of times several books ago, has gotten out of prison and is possibly coming for her, and then four goons hopped up on vampire blood come in. They say they're there for the blonde, which is obviously Sookie, but nearly everyone gets up to stop them. Sam and Jannalynn fly at the guys and the private investigators pull guns and break arms. Andy Bellefleur is there and he pulls his gun, too, and another bar patron throws a dart. The goons are taken out in less than five minutes and then are taken away by the police. Sookie goes home and pretty much immediately goes to bed.
Sookie wakes up startled the next day and pulls out the letter and velvet bag from her grandmother. She goes down to the kitchen, really wanting to put off reading the letter, so first she calls Mr. Cataliades to see why and how he knew to send the investigators, but he doesn't answer. Then she calls Amelia, who is back with Bob, about the wards protecting the house and if she can help her track down Sandra Pelt. Amelia said she'll ask around the coven and come see her in a few days. Hooray! Amelia again!
Sookie finally opens the letter from her grandmother. It's a confession to Sookie written some years ago. She explains that she slept with Fintan and had her two children and that she was upset with herself for sleeping with someone other than her husband, but she doesn't regret it. She explains that he's part fairy and that you should never say "thank you" to a fairy because it puts you in their debt. She also writes about a big, dark man referring to himself as Sookie's godfather, who she assumes is Mr. Cataliades, left her a gift for protection. It's a small green and gold thing that kind of looks like a makeup compact, and it's called a Cluviel Dor. It can be used only once for protection, but there is nothing about how to use it or what it will do. Sookie hides it in her makeup drawer, though she wants to keep touching it because it makes her feel happy. Is that why Claude and Dermot are there? Does the Cluviel Dor make them happy too?
Sookie goes to work and has a decently normal day, at least for a little while. Andy's at Merlotte's again with Bud Dearborn and he's very happy about his new baby that will be arriving soon. He asks Sookie to tell Bill that Portia is pregnant, too, which could be weird on account of them dating and also being related, but whatever. Andy leaves and Bud tells Sookie she should have a baby because all the other women are having babies and, surprisingly, she's like, no, I don't have to have a baby to be fulfilled. Way to go, Sook.
Shortly after this, Sandra freaking Pelt comes in with a gun, screaming about how she just can't kill Sookie no matter what she does. The fire bomb didn't work, sending goons didn't work, so now here she is to do the job. Sookie keeps Sandra distracted for a little bit while Sam hands Terry Bellefleur a baseball bat. As Sandra's about to pull the trigger, Terry bashes her, then freaks out with PTSD. Sookie holds him and soothes him, and then Terry says something interesting. Niall and Eric have been coming to him for a while for information about Sookie's life and to ask him to keep her safe. He hasn't done such a bad job! Eric arrives after Sandra is taken away and then they head back to Sookie's.
Sookie is anxious to talk to Eric about their future and how she doesn't know if he would want to be with her without their bond. He invites her to move in with him to keep her safe, but is that just because he can feel when she's worried or scared? It doesn't matter to him why he loves her, he just does, but she can't shake the feeling that once she starts aging, he'll be done with her. He offers to make her a vampire, but she doesn't think that'll work either, and then, before they can talk more, Amelia and Bob arrive. They share pleasantries and not-so-pleasantries about why Amelia is visiting and then Eric leaves for Fangtasia and Amelia and Bob go to bed. Just as Sookie's about to go to bed, too, she hears a knock at the door. It's Bill.
Bill has come to check on Sookie since they haven't spoken for several weeks. He's fully healed from the silver poisoning thanks to Judith, his sister-lover's blood, which he wouldn't have gotten without Sookie's help. Then he tells Sookie that he doesn't really feel anything for Judith, but he feels badly about it because she loves him so much. Thankfully(?) she's eavesdropping in the woods and leaves on her own. She just can't compete with Sookie. As Bill is about to go back to his house, free from his obsessive sister-lover, Sookie gets a phone call from Bud. Sandra escaped from the hospital and is probably going to come after her. Oh great. Bill decides to keep watch.
The next day, Sookie goes with Remy and Hunter to Hunter's kindergarten visit. It goes pretty well and Sookie works with Hunter on keeping his telepathy a secret, though both the telepaths pick up on some very bad vibes from one of the teachers. Luckily Remy can let the school know that he doesn't want his son in that classroom. While Remy and Hunter explore other classrooms, Sookie talks to the creep teacher and the rest of the day goes well. They eat ice cream and Sookie goes back home.
Amelia and Bob are resetting the wards on Sookie's house when she gets back, so she goes exploring in the woods to see if she can find the gap to Faery. She's able to spot it pretty easily and sits for a minute, talking to Niall through it, though she has no idea if he's there or not. When Sookie gets back to the house, they cook a steak dinner and while they're eating, Amelia tells Sookie that she learned how to break the blood bond between her and Eric. Without much thought of the consequences, Sookie asks her to do it. Eric calls in a panic to make sure she's okay and is angry when he learns what she's done. If Victor ever realizes, it's going to be bad for Sookie. After he's had some time to cool off, Amelia and Bob go to the movies and Eric comes over. Even though the bond is broken, they still love each other very much and have sex outside on the porch swing and then they brush each other's hair. True love.
Sookie and Eric decide they need to do something about Victor now that the bond is broken. Eric's mad that Victor won't let Pam turn her sick girlfriend, and then Eric tells a story that Heidi, his tracker that is a spy for Victor, told him about Victor removing the tongue from the human mother of a vampire, Chico, that wronged him. Victor made Chico eat the tongue, so he got sick and the mother died. Yeesh. They make a plan to go talk to the guy at Vampire's Kiss who tipped her off about the fairy blood. They follow him home from the club and learn that he is Colton, Chico's brother, and his girlfriend, Audrina, used to date Jason, so she knows Sookie. They all feel like they can trust each other and they all want Victor dead, so they plan to meet up the next night at Sookie's.
When Sookie gets home the next morning, Alcide is in her bed. He heard from Amelia that the bond is broken, and Jannalynn suggested that he just go to her house and get in her bed to try to win her over. Bad plan all around. They talk a little, but Eric's new day man, a lone werewolf named Mustapha who Eric hired because of Bubba, will be there soon to pick up Eric's car that he left there the night before, so Alcide needs to go. They talk about Sookie being Shaman a little bit, but she's just not interested in anything Alcide right now. He leaves.
Mustapha arrives a little bit later with a helper to drive Eric's car back to Shreveport, but Sookie doesn't really get much from him except for the fact that Mustapha is a chosen name and that he doesn't think much of vampires, except for Bubba, and by association, Eric. That's good enough for Sookie so she lets Mustapha and his pal Warren leave. Then she turns on Amelia and Claude. She's mad at Amelia for telling Alcide about the bond and also mad at Claude for just letting him come inside and get naked that she kicks them all out.
Dermot sits out on the porch, not really knowing what to do with his life, unlike Claude, so Sookie decides to let him stay and continue to work on the attic. Sookie asks what Claude's purpose in being there was, but Dermot won't betray his confidence. Oh well, she'll just have to worry about that later. As Dermot leaves to get supplies, he tells Sookie that he really likes the house, which makes her think about the Cluviel Dor. Sookie asks Dermot to stay out of the house later that night because she's having a murder planning committee come over, and he's just fine with being outside and away.
A little later at Merlotte's, Sookie encounters a downtrodden Sam paying bills. He's actually worried about not being able to pay them right now because business is so bad, but there's not really anything Sookie can do to help, so she works hard and then heads home, but stops for some groceries on the way. As she's getting out of the car, it starts raining really hard and she notices the back door of her house is open. Surely Dermot wouldn't be so careless. Then she's attacked!
Sookie bashes an attacker with a jug of milk and takes off running through the rain toward Bill's house. She strips naked and sneaks inside and down to Bill's crawlspace where he's currently dead for the day, also naked. He wakes a little a couple of times and gets *excited* that Sookie is nakedly there with him, but then he realizes that she's there for a reason. There are people in his house! Sookie hears them talking about taking one of that guy's ears, which sounds bad for Dermot, but nothing about who they are or why they're after her. She and Bill stay hidden until the strangers leave, then he goes out to investigate. After not finding anything or anyone, Bill drives Sookie back over to her house.
Upstairs, they find an injured Dermot and Bill wants to eat him, so Sookie forces him to leave and she calls Claude for help. Bellenos the Elf answers his phone and comes over to help since Claude isn't really welcome in Sookie's house anymore. Bellenos breathes into Dermot and he begins healing and we find out that Dermot took down Amelia's wards with plans to put fairy wards up instead, but forgot when he started working on the attic. Bellenos puts some Elf wards up and then he and Dermot go out looking for the humans that attacked them.
While they're gone, Eric and Pam, part of the murder planning committee, show up, but not much later, Bellenos and Dermot return with the heads of the attackers. Sookie barfs and then they look through the belongings of the guys and find that they are both normal humans with $300 each in their wallets and some cards for Vic's Redneck Roadhouse. So someone paid them to come after Sookie. Probably Sandra Pelt or Victor. Before the Victor murder planning can begin, Eric gets a phone call from who Sookie assumes is King Felipe, but it's the Queen of Oklahoma instead. Pam hints to Sookie that this is bad and Sookie realizes that Eric's got a thing with the Queen.
When Eric gets off the phone, he forces Pam to leave and comes clean. Before Appius Livius died, he arranged a marriage between Eric and the Queen of Oklahoma that he can't get out of. He can't keep Sookie as his wife if he marries Oklahoma, so Sookie is pretty devastated. Eric is still trying to get out of the arranged marriage, though, so maybe everything will be fine. Soon enough, Colton and Audrina arrive and Pam comes back, and Bill and Bubba come in, too, so they plan the murder of Victor. Sookie has a brilliant idea involving Bubba. Vampire's Kiss was full of Elvis stuff after all...
The next morning, Sookie cleans house and gets ready for the baby shower she's hosting for Tara the following day. Dermot arrives while she's looking through pictures from the attic and he spots his brother Fintan in several of the photos pretending to be Sookie's grandfather. That's weird, but Dermot says that Adele loved both her husband and Fintan, so it's not *that* weird. Sookie resumes cleaning and then she decides to take a check from her savings account and give money to Sam for the bar. It takes some convincing, but he agrees to take the money and pay her back when he can. She feels better after giving him money, especially when she figures she's probably going to die when they try to kill Victor later that night anyway.
Sam calls Sookie when she gets home and tells her that he has a message for her from Amelia that she needs to check her email, so she does. She also sees an email from Mr. Cataliades which she reads first. He tells her that Sandra Pelt is still on the loose and to be careful. He also learned from Amelia's brain when he ran into her at her magic shop in New Orleans that she was researching a Cluviel Dor, so that must mean that Sookie found the one Fintan left for them. He tells her to think hard before she uses its magic and that he hopes to get by soon to explain more to her. After reading, Sookie thinks for a good long while about what a coincidence it is that Mr. Cataliades is also a telepath.
Amelia's email is a big apology about trying to set her up with Alcide and has more information about the Cluviel Dor. Amelia learned that the Cluviel Dor is a very rare fairy love token that can grant one wish. Oh wow. Fintan must have really loved them to leave such an amazing gift. Sookie wonders what she should do with the wish. Should she use it to get rid of Victor? Could she use it to get rid of her telepathy? Or maybe Hunter's? She takes Mr. Cataliades' advice to think hard about what she'll use it for, but she does bring it to Fangtasia with her that night for the Elvis-Themed Victor Murder Party.
They decide to have the Elvis-Themed Victor Murder Party after hours at Fangtasia. There aren't too many people there, but they have a good set up. When Victor arrives with his entourage including a new second in command who has a sword, everyone gets arranged and then Bubba comes out and starts singing. Victor is mesmerized and the plan almost goes off without a hitch, except for the sword guy notices as Eric moves in on Victor with a stake for the kill. It takes some effort and an unwanted death or two, but after only a short time, Sookie has nearly decapitated Victor with sword guy's sword while Pam holds him still and Eric finishes the job.
Bill takes Sookie home because she's still upset about Eric and the Queen. They talk about how they both know that Eric likes being powerful and Sookie worries because, in this situation, she really has no power at all. She goes to sleep because the next day is baby shower day and she needs her rest. The baby shower goes well and everyone is happy, so that's good. Then Mr. Cataliades arrives, kind of disheveled. He hangs out in the kitchen eating sandwiches until the party is over.
Sookie asks Mr. Cataliades about him being her sponsor and what that means. He says he visited with her father and her aunt after they were born to see if they had a certain spark in them in order to give them a gift, but they did not. Then he came back to meet Jason and Sookie and was pleased to see that Sookie did have the spark. What spark is that, you ask? It's an openness to the other world. Mr. Cataliades gave a little of his blood to Adele when she and Fintan got together and if that blood passed through to any of her relatives who had that spark, Mr. Cataliades' blood would give that person the gift of telepathy. Sookie almost mentions how Hunter has it too, but stops herself.
Mr. Cataliades then explains the Cluviel Dor a little. Fintan gave it to Adele but she never used it and it can't be used to take away Sookie's (or Hunter's as it were) telepathy unfortunately. It can't be used to cure world hunger or poverty but it can be used to kill someone if it's to protect someone you love. Sookie then asks about Hadley and how she ended up with the Queen of Louisiana, but apart from Hadley having some fairy blood, he doesn't really know how they ended up together, or even that Bill ended up being sent to her by the Queen. Mr. Cataliades says he's being followed by someone and they're catching up to him, so he abruptly leaves. Before he does, he tells Sookie not to tell anyone at the fairy club that she has a Cluviel Dor because they will kill her for it. Good to know.
Sam calls after Mr. Cataliades leaves and asks Sookie to come to Merlotte's because someone left her a nice big package with a big bow. His voice is kind of odd, so Sookie asks if he can just bring the gift to her at her house. He asks someone in the background, which is also odd, and then says they'll be right over. Sookie's got a good idea of who left her this gift, so she gets her shotgun out of the closet and waits.
Sure enough, when Sam arrives with Jannalynn, Sandra freaking Pelt is with them. When they get out of the car, Sookie shoots at Sandra, hitting her in the arm, then Jannalynn starts fighting her. Sam helps a little and Sookie does, too, and the fight ends pretty quickly with Sandra's broken neck and smashed head. Sookie breaks down because of all the death she's witnessed in a short period of time, especially this one which was exceptionally violent. Even Sam seems a little queasy about it. Sookie then decides where to dispose of the body. They carry it to the gap in the woods that leads to Faery and shove it through. Work done, Sam and Jannalynn leave and Sookie goes inside to watch Jeopardy. Finally, something normal.