Bill returns quickly and confirms that the vampires attacked the Fellowship and freed Farrell, but tells them that Godfrey managed to escape. Bill gently bathes Sookie and puts her to bed.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. Sookie wakes just before dawn with the feeling that there is something that she needs to do. She dresses and takes a taxi to the now-deserted Fellowship grounds, where she waits for Godfrey. The vampire emerges from the shadow, and her tears begin to fall as she looks at his young face. He is touched that someone is there to cry for him as he meets the sun, hoping to see the face of God. Sookie returns to the hotel and falls deeply asleep until Bill rises.
She and Bill go to Stan’s mansion to tell him about Godfrey and discover what punishment Isabel and Hugo have earned. Sookie is relieved to find Hugo alive and forces herself to accept the punishment the vampires have devised for him. Invited to stay and celebrate Farrell’s return, Leif/ Eric and Sookie are talking when she “hears” the Fellowship followers preparing to attack the house. Sookie yells a warning and is protected from a bullet by Eric. Bill leaves to hunt the attackers without even checking to see if she survived the attack. Hurt, she walks out and takes the next plane back to Bon Temps.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27–WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20. Sookie keeps her distance from Bill.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21. Jason stops by the house for lunch and tells Sookie that Bill has been seen over in Monroe with Portia Bellefleur, and Sookie later sees them drive by in Bill’s car.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22. Sookie decides to attend a high school football game and meets up with her friend Tara Thornton, Tara’s date Benedict “Eggs” Tallie, and JB du Rone. Sookie encourages JB to pursue a woman he had been seeing, believing that the woman will be good for him. He kisses her cheek in thanks, and just as she gives him a quick peck on the lips in return, she spots Bill staring back at her from where he is sitting with Portia. When she gets home, Bill is waiting, and they engage in passionate make-up sex. Afterward, she questions him about Portia, and he tells Sookie that he thinks Portia is seeing him in hopes of being invited to the sex club to get information that will help Andy.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23. Bill and Sookie decide to keep their reunion quiet, and Sookie receives an invitation from parish coroner and funeral director Mike Spencer to Jan Fowler’s lake house to “get a little wild,” since he thinks she is a single woman now. Hoping to discover who killed Lafayette, Sookie accepts. She leaves a guarded message for Bill, who has been called back to Dallas, and she’s forced to ask Eric to go along to provide protection.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24. Eric arrives to take Sookie to the orgy up at Mimosa Lake, and she asks him to make certain nothing happens to her. Eric is surprised that she trusts him but tells her that she will be safe. They enter the cabin to find several Bon Temps residents in various states of undress. Jan Fowler, Mike Spencer, Tom and Cleo Hardaway, and Tara and Eggs are all in attendance, apparently regulars. Eggs is attempting to undo Sookie’s shorts, all the while thinking lewdly about Eric, when Eric comes up behind her, and Sookie turns into his kiss, letting her mind roam while he keeps her safe. She finds the memory of Lafayette’s murder in Mike’s mind and sees that Tom was also directly involved. Sickened, she whispers to Eric to get her out, and he slings her over his shoulder, telling the others that he is taking her outside to get her warmed up. He lays her on the hood of his Corvette, intent on his own desires, and tries to seduce her, but she reminds him that Bill is her boyfriend. Bill emerges from the woods, followed by a drunken Andy, who holds them all at gunpoint, demanding to know who was responsible for Lafayette’s murder. Sam, in collie form, joins the group, with the maenad not far behind. She introduces herself as Callisto, telling them she was called to the cabin by the lust and drunkenness of the orgy participants. She reminds them of her first visit. She claims that Lafayette was a fitting offering to her and thanks them for leaving his body at Merlotte’s. She names Mike and Tom as the killers, indicating Cleo as well. Tara hides under a table on the deck, and Eggs stands entranced in the yard. Sookie feels the madness of the maenad overwhelm the group on the deck, and she is almost caught up in it herself, but Bill and Eric hold her between them. When Sookie is able to look at Callisto again, the maenad is smiling and covered in blood. She bids a fond farewell to Sam and drifts off into the woods.
Sam shifts back to his human form as Eric and Bill examine the carnage on the deck. They find Tara alive, and after Eric erases her memory of the evening, Sam drives her and a still almost-catatonic Eggs home. The vampires then set fire to the cabin to burn the evidence of the slaughter. Portia Bellefleur pulls up, frantic about her brother, and Bill wakes him from his trance. Sookie tells him that Mike and the Hardaways killed Lafayette, but Andy bemoans the lack of proof. Eric searches the cars and finds blood, Lafayette’s wallet, and his clothing in the trunk of Mike Spencer’s Lincoln. Andy tells them to leave everything as it is so that the police can find it and clear his name.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25. Sookie sleeps through the day, and Bill wakes her when he rises. He finds a foil-wrapped chocolate cake on her front porch, a gift from Andy and Portia’s grandmother, who has left a message thanking Sookie for helping Andy. When Bill hears that she is named Caroline Holliday Bellefleur, he asks Sookie to get his family Bible from his house, and they look over his family tree together, realizing that Caroline is Bill’s great-granddaughter. After more than a century of hating the Bellefleurs for their ancestor’s responsibility for the death of one of his friends during the Civil War, Bill decides to secretly assist his struggling descendants financially and shares a warm moment with Sookie.
The Secret Dialogues of Bill and Eric
TO: WILLIAM COMPTON,
AREA FIVE INVESTIGATOR
INVESTIGATOR COMPTON,
YOU ARE SUMMONED TO A MEETING WITH ME AT FANGTASIA TOMORROW NIGHT.
ERIC NORTHMAN
SHERIFF OF AREA FIVE
In person at the meeting:
BILL: “Why am I here, Eric?”
ERIC: “Area Six in Texas has need of your services.”
BILL: “For what purpose?”
ERIC: “A vampire is missing, a nest mate of the Area Six sheriff. You and Sookie will help locate him.”
BILL: “Sookie?”
ERIC: “Yes, per our agreement, Sookie will assist us.”
BILL: “I believe her agreement was that she would assist you.”
ERIC: “And so she shall. It will be of assistance to me to have the sheriff of Area Six in my debt. You will bring Sookie here tomorrow night, and I will inform her of the assignment.”
Phone: Bill calling Eric after Sookie’s escape from the Fellowship of the Sun.
BILL: “Eric, we have raided the Fellowship. Sookie has gone but there is a dead man with her scent. I believe she had help escaping. We came upon a car accident. Sookie and a shifter were in the car and they were taken to the hospital, but Sookie’s name disappeared from their computers even as I asked about her.”
ERIC: “I’ll go outside and check for her. Perhaps she is unwilling to enter by herself.”
BILL: “Or unable.”
ERIC: “She is strong, Bill. She will be found.”
Phone: Eric calling Bill later that same evening.
ERIC: “Bill, she is here. Some shapeshifters brought her in.”
BILL: “How is she? Is she badly injured?”
ERIC: “Battered but walking.”
BILL: “Can she get into our room? I will be right there.”
ERIC: “Bill, I’ll take her up and start doctoring.”
BILL: “Don’t try anything, Eric. She is mine.”
ERIC: “Bill.”
BILL: “I mean it, Eric. This is not the time for your games. I will be there shortly.”
ERIC: “All right then. Good-bye.”
Phone: Eric calling Bill.
ERIC: “Bill, the shifters in Dallas have contacted Stan about compensation for their aid. He feels their demands are too much, and I agree. I need you to go ba
ck to Dallas and parley with them.”
BILL: “You made the original deal with them, Eric. Surely this is your responsibility.”
ERIC: “I have another, more important matter to attend to.”
BILL: “And that would be?”
ERIC: “The maenad was not satisfied with our tribute. While you are in Dallas negotiating with the shifters, I will be in the woods of Bon Temps negotiating with her.”
BILL: “Your tribute was substandard?”
ERIC: “Our tribute was a perfectly acceptable bull, a magnificent specimen, and I didn’t hear you making any better suggestions. She is just being difficult, as usual. I can only be grateful that she has remained in Bon Temps for whatever reason. There’s been no sign of her in Shreveport, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
BILL: “I’ll fly to Dallas this evening.”
ERIC: “I may ask Sookie to join me as a sign of good faith that I understood the importance of Callisto’s message to me.”
BILL: “I would prefer you didn’t.”
ERIC: “Ah, but nonetheless, I still may.”
BILL: “Eric, once again, I remind you that she is mine.”
ERIC: “For now.”
BILL: “And you will do nothing to change that.”
ERIC: “For now.”
BILL: “Eric, even you cannot so flout the rules.”
ERIC: “Of course not, Bill. I accept that Sookie is yours, by her own choice. But should she ever indicate that she is no longer interested in that status . . .”
BILL: “That won’t happen.”
ERIC: “But if it should?”
BILL: “Then you would be within the rules to pursue her yourself.”
ERIC: “Exactly.”
BILL: “But you agree that you will not make overtures?”
ERIC: “I agree.”
Club Dead
Timeline
As this book was written prior to Definitely Dead and the inclusion of Hurricane Katrina into the series story line, which established a definite time frame for the events of the series, the events in Club Dead do not correspond with the actual full moon.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004. Sookie goes to Bill’s house after work and is devastated that Bill has become so consumed with work that he rebuffs her attempts at intimacy. He tells her he is leaving for Seattle soon and that he has been working on a secret project for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the vampire Queen of Louisiana. He also tells her that he is planning to hide his computer equipment in the hidey-hole in her closet while he is gone. If anything happens to him before he brings the computer, Bill asks Sookie to go to his house during the day and get it. Sookie is even more disturbed when she realizes he is lying to her about where he is going.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2. Sookie deliberately drives by Belle Rive, the Bellefleur home, and sees the work being done courtesy of the mysterious legacy left them by a relative who had “died mysteriously over in Europe somewhere.” She knows that the legacy actually came from Bill, whom the Bellefleurs despise, and Sookie tries not to be bitter though she herself struggles with money problems.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3. Bill calls to let Sookie know he has arrived safely in “Seattle.”
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6. Much to Sookie’s surprise, Bubba shows up at her door and tells her that Eric has sent him to guard her. When Sookie arrives at work with Bubba in tow, she is attacked by a Were wearing a gang vest, but Bubba saves the day. Pam soon arrives and explains that Bill is missing and that he has been in Jackson, Mississippi, not Seattle. Pam calls Eric and puts Sookie on the phone. Eric tells Sookie to be careful until he can get over to her house to explain. She goes home and cries herself to sleep.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7. A depressed Sookie spends the day in bed, rousing only long enough to confirm that Bill has left his computer equipment in the closet hidey-hole. When she awakens again, she finds Eric with her, and he forces her to get up and dressed. Eric tells her that humans who live in the kingdom of Mississippi have informed him that Bill has been kidnapped. He speaks of the work Bill was doing for the Queen of Louisiana and eventually reveals that Bill had actually gone to Mississippi to see a vampire that he had been involved with long ago. He had become enamored with her again but had planned to return to Bon Temps to make “financial arrangements” for Sookie’s care. Eric admits that he has not informed the queen of the kidnapping or Bill’s missing project because of fears she will punish him and Pam for Bill’s misadventure. He asks Sookie to go to Jackson with a Were who owes him a debt, and use her “gift” to try to discover where Bill is being held. Sookie agrees to try to find and rescue Bill.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8–THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9. Sookie prepares to leave for Jackson.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10. Alcide Herveaux arrives to take Sookie to Jackson. They are immediately at ease and realize they are attracted to each other.
Once in Jackson, Alcide suggests that Sookie visit his sister’s beauty salon while he takes care of some business, and she learns that his ex-girlfriend, Debbie Pelt, will be celebrating her engagement that evening. Later, Sookie and Alcide eat at the Mayflower Café before heading for Josephine’s, a supe club. Debbie is indeed at the club, and since Sookie is posing as Alcide’s new love, she immediately earns Debbie’s hatred. Alcide realizes Sookie’s talent, and they use it to put Debbie in her place.
Sookie casts about in Josephine’s to see if she can “hear” anything about Bill. Sookie zeros in on a human with a vampire at the bar and finds that Bill is being tortured for information about the work he has been doing. When Sookie is assaulted by Jerry Falcon, a Were gang member, she is rescued by the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, who insists that she and Alcide return to Josephine’s the next night as his guests. Sookie and Alcide return to Alcide’s apartment and are surprised by a visit from Eric, who has come to Mississippi himself to keep an eye on things.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11. Alcide runs errands in the morning, so Sookie finds herself back at Janice’s salon. Later that afternoon, she and Alcide sit down for a friendly game of Scrabble, and afterward, while putting the game away, Sookie discovers the source of an odor both had been noticing: the body of Jerry Falcon, his neck broken, has been stuffed in Alcide’s hall closet. They work together to dispose of the body, fearing they will be blamed for the murder. The moon is full as they return that evening to Club Dead, the locals’ name for Josephine’s. As they are chatting with the guests at Edgington’s table, Sookie “hears” the thoughts of a human assassin who plans to stake Edgington’s second-in-command, Betty Joe Pickard. While attempting to foil the attack, Sookie is staked and seriously injured. Compelled to shift by the full moon and the excitement of the blood, Alcide runs after the would-be killer’s accomplice. It is left to a thinly disguised Eric to assist Sookie. Edgington insists that they return to his compound, where one of his people can use his healing gift to save Sookie.
After the healing of her wound, Eric and Sookie are surprised when Bubba appears. Eric gives Sookie his blood to heal her quickly and orders Bubba to look for Bill. Bubba returns with the news that he has found Bill on the property, and Eric and Sookie make plans for his rescue.