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I went back to the kitchen, looking forward to h Bellefleur had dropped off at the bar the day before She was a nice young wo a baby I&039;d heard that Andy&039;s grandmother, ancient Mrs Caroline Bellefleur, was beside herself with delight, and I didn&039;t doubt it for a h&039;s baby, Tara&039;s pregnancy, and the last night I&039;d spent with Eric; but the disturbing news Basi

Of all the ideas I had, calling the Renard Parish&039;s sheriff&039;s office was the one that got almost zero brain time There was no way I could tell the illegal about letting the Sheriff Dearborn that a Were had toldAs far as I&039;d known until this moment, all the fairies except my cousin Claude had been barred from the human world At least, all the fairies in America I&039;d never wondered about those in other countries, and now I closed randfather Niall had closed all the portals between the fae world and ours At least, that hat he&039;d told one, except for Claude, who&039;d lived a as I&039;d known hih my woods?

And who could I ask for advice on the situation? I couldn&039;t just sit onfor the self-loathing half-huade Dermot until the moment he closed the portal I needed to face the possibility that Dermot, as simply insane, had been left in the human world However it had come about, I had to believe that fae proxi I needed to talk to soht confide in Eric, since he was my lover, or in Sam, because he was my friend, or even in Bill, because his land shared a boundary with mine and he would also be concerned Or I could talk to Claude, see if he&039;d give ht into the situation I sat at the table with my coffee and my hunk of applesauce bread, too distracted to read or turn on the radio to catch the news I finished one cup of coffee and started another I showered, in an automatic sort of way, andtasks

Finally, I sat down at the coht home from my cousin Hadley&039;s New Orleans apartment, and I checkedthis I know very few people who otten into the habit of looking at es I didn&039;t recognize the return address on the first one I moved the mouse to click on it

A knock at the back door

I pushed back un from the closet in the front rooh the new peephole "Speak of the devil," I muttered

This day was just full of surprises, and it wasn&039;t even ten o&039;clock

I put down the shotgun and opened the door "Claude," I said "Coot Coke and coffee and orange juice"

I noticed that Claude had the strap of a big tote bag slung over his shoulder Fro was ja hi serious and somehow unhappy Claude had been in the house before, but not often, and he looked around at my kitchen The kitchen happened to be new because the old kitchen had burned down, so I had shiny appliances and everything still looked squared away and level

"Sookie, I can&039;t stay in our house by er Can I bunk with you for a while, Cousin?"

I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor before he noticed how shocked I was - first, that Claude had confessed he needed help; second, that he confessed it to me; and third, that Claude would stay in the saht of me as about on the same level as a beetle I&039;ot two strikes against me as far as Claude&039;s concerned Plus, of course, there was the whole issue of Claudine dying into sound only sylanced at the shotgun, unaccountably glad it ithin reach

Claude gave it only a casual glance After aand siure out what to do next

It seemed surreal to be in h he had apparentlyhumans, he was far from warm and fuzzy about them Claude, albeit physically beautiful, was an indiscriotten his ears surgically altered to look huy perpetuating a human appearance And as far as I knew, Claude&039;s sexual connections had always been with hu in the house you shared with your sisters?" It was a prosaic three-bedroo for a little expansion on the the you occupied?" Between owning and operating two strip clubs - Hooligans and a new place he&039;d just taken over - and perforined Claude to be both busy and well-to-do Since he was handsoree, hejob boosted his incorandeous gave wohuntil he opened his er had to share the club income with his sister

"I&039;m busy And I don&039;t lack for money But without the co"

"Are you serious?" I said without thinking, and then I could have kickedme (or anyone, for that matter) seemed so unlikely His request to stay with ran chidedat aand/or accessible to randfather Niall had ended when he&039;d retreated into Faery and pulled the door shut behind hih Jason and I had mended our fences, my brother very randmother were dead, my aunt Linda and my cousin Hadley were dead, and I rarely saw Hadley&039;s little son

I had depressed the hell out of h fairy in me to be any help to you?" That was all I could think of to say

"Yes," he said very simply "I already feel better" This seemed a weird echo of my conversation with Bill Claude halfway smiled If Claude looked incredible when he was unhappy, he looked divine when he smiled "Since you&039;ve been in the company of fairies, it&039;s accentuated your streak of fairy essence By the way, I have a letter for you"

"Who from?"

"Niall"

"How&039;s that possible? I understood the fae world was shut off now"

"He has his ways," Claude said evasively "He&039;s the only prince now, and very powerful"

He has his ways "Humph," I said "Okay, let&039;s see it"

Claude pulled an envelope out of his overnight bag It was buff-colored and sealed with a blue blob of wax In the as iht

"So there&039;s a fairy mailbox," I said "And you can send and receive letters?"

"This letter, anyway"

Fae were very good at evasion I huffed out a breath of exasperation

I got a knife and slid it under the seal The paper I extracted froranddaughter," it began "There are things I didn&039;t get to say to you and et to do for you before my plans collapsed in the war"

Okay

"This letter is written on the skin of one of the water sprites who drowned your parents"

"Ick!" I cried, and dropped the letter on the kitchen table

Claude was byaround the kitchen as if he expected to see a troll pop up

"This is skin! Skin!"

"What else would Niall write on?" He looked genuinely taken aback

"E!" Even to irly But honestlyskin?

"It&039;s clean," Claude said, clearly hoping that would solve ritted randfather&039;s letter I took a deep, steadying breath Actually, thea desire to put on oven

"Before I left your world, I ents talked to several people who can help you evade the scrutiny of the huovernment When I sold the pharmaceutical company ned, I used much of my profit to ensure your freedo up a little He olly, he&039;d done soovernment officials to call off the FBI? Is that what he&039;s done?"

"I have no idea," Claude said, shrugging "He wrote me, too, to let me know that I had an extra three hundred thousand dollars in my bank account Also, Claudine hadn&039;t made a will, since she didn&039;t "

Expect to die She had expected to raise a child with a fairy lover I&039;d never met Claude shook himself and said in a cracked voice, "Niall produced a human body and a will, so I don&039;t have to wait years to prove her death She leftShe said this to our father, Dillon, when she appeared to him as part of her death ritual"

Fairies told their relatives they had passed, after they&039;d translated to spirit form I wondered why Claudine had appeared to Dillon instead of to her brother, and I asked Claude, phrasing it as tactfully as I could

"The next oldest receives the vision," Claude said stiffly "Our sister, Claudette, appeared to me, since I was older than her by a minute Claudine made her death ritual to our father, since she was older than I"

"So she told your dad she wanted you to have her share of the clubs?" It was pretty lucky for Claude that Claudine had let someone else know about her wishes I wondered what happened if the oldest fae in the line was the one as doing the dying I&039;d save that question for later

"Yes Her share of the house Her car Though I already had one" For souilty Why on earth would he look guilty?

"How do you ride in it?" I asked, sidetracked "Since fairies have such issues with iron?"

"I wear the invisible gloves over exposed skin," he said "I put them on after every shower And I&039;ve built up a littlein the human world"

I returned to the letter "There may be more I can do for you I will let you know Claudine left you a gift"

"Oh, Claudine left , too? What?" I looked up at Claude, who didn&039;t look exactly pleased I think he hadn&039;t known the contents of the letter for certain If Niall hadn&039;t revealed Claudine&039;s legacy, Claude ht not have Fairies don&039;t lie, but they don&039;t always tell all the truth, either

"She left you the ned "It contains her wages from the department store and her share of the income from the clubs"

"Awthat was so nice of her" I blinked a couple of ti account wasn&039;t too healthy because I&039;d missed a lot of work recently Plus,waitresses make more than sad waitresses

I could sure use a few hundred dollars Maybe I could buy some new clothes, and I really needed a new toilet in the hall bathrooet a check fro the estate"

Mr Cataliades - if he had a first name, I&039;d never heard it - was a lawyer, and he was also (al affairs of many supernaturals in Louisiana I felt subtly better when Claude said his name, because I knew Mr Cataliades had no bone to pick with me

Well, I had to make up my mind about Claude&039;s housemate proposal

"Let me make a phone call," I said, and pointed to the coffeepot "If you need sory?"

Claude shook his head

"Then after I call Amelia, you and I need to have a little chitchat" I went to the phone in my bedroom Amelia was an earlier riser than me, because my job kept"Sookie," she said, and she didn&039;t sound as gloomy as I&039;d anticipated "What&039;s up?"

I couldn&039;t think of any casual way to lead into my question "My cousin would like to stay here for a while," I said "He could use the bedroom across from mine, but if he stays upstairs, we&039;d each have a littleback anytio on and put his stuff in the downstairs bedroom I just didn&039;t want you to co in your bed"

There was a long silence I braced myself

"Sookie," she said, "I love you You know that And I loved living with you It was a godsend to have soht now I&039;m stuck in New Orleans for a while I&039;m justin the middle of a lot of stuff"

I&039;d expected this, but it was still a tough moment I hadn&039;t really expected her to come back I&039;d hoped she&039;d heal faster in New Orleans - and it was true she hadn&039;ton "You&039;re okay?"

"I a with Octavia some more" Octavia, her mentor in witchcraft, had returned to New Orleans with her long-lost love "Also, I finally gotjudged I&039;ve got to pay a penalty for - you know - the thing with Bob"

"The thing with Bob" was A her lover into a cat Octavia had returned Bob to his human form, but naturally Bob hadn&039;t been happy with Ah A in her craft, clearly transforic had been beyond her skills