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Judith began her story by asking me a question "Have you ever met Lorena?"

"Yes," I said, and left it at that Evidently, Judith didn&039;t know exactly how I&039;d met Lorena, which had been a few seconds before I drove a stake through her heart and ended her long, nasty life

"Then you know she&039;s ruthless"

I nodded

"You need to knohy I&039;ve stayed away from Bill all these years, when I&039;m very fond of him," Judith said "Lorena has had a hard life I wouldn&039;t necessarily believe everything she&039;s told me, but I&039;ve heard confirmation of a few parts of it fro uess

"How old was she?" I said, just to keep the story rolling

"By the time Lorena met Bill she had been a vampire for many decades She had been turned in 1788 by a man named Solomon Brunswick He met her in a brothel in New Orleans"

"He met her in the obvious way?"

"Not exactly He was there to take blood from another whore, one who specialized in the odder desires of men Compared to so too re ti historyWell, since they&039;d coe courses Bring a vareat attendance

"Solomon had been a vampire for twenty years by then He became a vampire by accident He was a sort of tinker He sold pots and pans, and he oods that were hard to find in New England then: needles, thread, odds and ends like that He took his horse and cart from town to town and farm to farm, all by himself Soloht He told me that he survived the first encounter, but the vaht to his next caain This second attack was a critical one Soloet turned accidentally Since the vampire who drank froe - or at least, I like to think so - Solomon was untrained and had to learn all by himself"

"Sounds really awful," I said, and I meant that

She nodded "It must have been He worked his way down to New Orleans to avoid people ondered why he hadn&039;t aged Where he ca out the back when he spotted her in the dark courtyard She ith a , and in the blink of an eye Lorena seized him and cut his throat"

That sounded like the Lorena I&039;d known

"Soloery and excited by the fresh blood He grabbed the dying man and drained him, and when he threw the body into the yard of the next house, Lorena was impressed and fascinated She wanted to be like he was"

"That sounds about right"

Judith smiled faintly "She was illiterate but tenacious and a treent, but he had poor killing skills By then, he had figured so her over They took blood froe to find others like us, to learn what they needed to learn to live well instead ofThe two of them practiced how to be successful vampires, tested the limits of their new natures, and randfather, since he begat Lorena," I said biblically "What happened after that?"

"Eventually, the bloom went off the rose," Judith said "Makers and their children stay together longer than a merely sexual couple but not forever Lorena betrayed Soloht with the half-drained body of a dead child, but she was able to play a hurabbed her that Solomon was the one who&039;d killed the child, that he&039;d made her carry the body, so the blood was all over her Soloot out of the town alive - they were in Natchez, Mississippi He never saw Lorena again He&039;s never met Bill, either Lorena found him after the War between the States

"As Bill later told h this area It was much harder then to stay concealed, especially in rural areas There weren&039;t as many people to hunt you down, true, and there was little or no coers were conspicuous and with the thinner population, the choices of prey were less An individual death was noticed more A body had to be hidden very carefully, or the death anized law enforceusted This knowledge was nothing new That was how vao

"Lorena saw Bill and his fah the s of their house" Judith looked away "She fell in love For several nights, she listened to the fa a hole in the woods and bury herself At night, she&039;d watch

"Finally, she decided to act She realized - even Lorena realized - Bill would never forgive her if she killed his children, so she waited until he ca wouldn&039;t stop barking When Bill came out with his rifle, she crept up behind hiht of Lorena, so close to h the woodsShe could have corandparents&039; place just as easily, and my whole family history would have been different

"She turned hihts later"

I couldn&039;t ione in the blink of an eye: his whole life taken and altered and given back to hiuess she took him away froed a death for hiun there and rags frootten hiether, and while he was bound to her, he hated her, too He was miserable with her, but she remained obsessed with him After thirty years, she tried toa woosh," I said, trying not to feel sick "You, huh?" That hy her face had been vaguely familiar I&039;d seen Bill&039;s old family pictures

Judith nodded "Evidently, Bill sawto a party with my family He followed ht his fancy When Lorena discovered this new interest, she thought Bill would stay with her if she provided him with a companion"

"I&039;m sorry," I said "I&039;ed "It wasn&039;t Bill&039;s fault, but you&039;ll understand why I had to think about it before I cae Solomon is in Europe now, or I would have asked hiain, and I was afraidafraid she would be here, afraid you would have asked her to help Bill, too Or sheme here, for all I knew Is sheIs she around?"

"She&039;s dead Didn&039;t you know?"

Judith&039;s round blue eyes ide She couldn&039;t be anyoThat was Lorena&039;s death?"

I nodded

"That&039;s why she hasn&039;t summoned me Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful!"

Judith looked like a different wouess I&039;et in touch with you to tell you"

"Maybe he thought I would know it Children and ood to be true" Judith ss "Where is Bill?"

"He&039;s through the woods" I pointed in the right direction "In his old home"

"I&039;ll be able to track him once I&039;m outside," she said happily "Oh, to be with him without Lorena near!"

Ah What?

Before, it had been okay for Judith to sit and talk my ear off, but now all of a sudden, she was ready to take off like a scalded cat I was sitting there withwhat I&039;d done

"I&039;ll heal him, and I&039;m sure he&039;ll thank you after," she said, and I felt like I&039;d been dismissed "Was Bill there when Lorena died?"

"Yeah," I said

"Did he sufferher?"

"He didn&039;t kill her," I said "I did"

She froze, staring atShe said, "I owe you hly of you"

"I believe he does," I said To my embarrassment, she bent to kiss ether now," she said "Finally! I&039;ll see you another night to tell you how grateful I ao to hih the woods to the south before I could say Jack Robinson

I kind of felt like a very large fist had hit me upside the head

I would be a total sleaze to feel anything but happy for Bill Now he could hang around with Judith for centuries, if he wanted to With the never-aging duplicate of his wife Ihappy didn&039;tjacks, then twenty push-ups Okay, that&039;s better, I thought, as I lay onroo I remembered the workouts the Lady Falcons softball coach had put us through, and I knew Coach Peterson would kick my butt if she could see me now On the other hand, I wasn&039;t seventeen anymore

As I rolled over to lie on my back, I considered that fact soberly It wasn&039;t the first occasion I&039;d felt the passage of time, but it was the first occasion that I&039;d noticeda little less efficient I had to contrast that with the lot of the vampires I knew At least 99 percent of them had become vamps at the peak of their lives There were a feho had been younger, like Alexei, and a feho had been older, like the Ancient Pythoness, but e from sixteen to thirty-five at the time of their first death They&039;d never have to apply for Social Security or Medicare They&039;d never need to worry about hip replace cancer or arthritis

By the tie (if I was so lucky, since h risk"), I would be slowing down in perceptible ways After that, the wrinkles would only grow and deepen, my skin would look looser on my bones and sport a spot or two, anda little, andin one position I&039;d have to get reading glasses

I ht have a blocked artery My heart ot the flu, I would be very sick I&039;d fear Parkinson&039;s, Alzheiie-bears that hid under the beds of the aging

What if I told Eric I wanted to be with hi he didn&039;t screa he actually changeda varow old and die I would sleep in the hidey-hole in the closet floor ht not like e to attack people, to bite theers to me I&039;d think of people as food I stared up at the ceiling fan and tried to i to bite Andy Bellefleur or Holly Ick

On the other hand, I&039;d never be sick again unless someone shot me or bit me with silver, or staked me, or put er I could be with Eric foreverexcept for that bit where va

Okay, I could still be with Eric for a few years

Hoould I ? I could only take the later shift at Merlotte&039;s, and that after dark had fallen, if Sarow old and die A nenera pero back to college and take night classes and coree In what?

I&039;d reached the liination I rolled toa slight stiffness in ht, despiteand very scary day The silence of the house pressed in around ot up the next ish and dispirited I found two envelopes shoved under my front door on my way to the porch with my coffee The first note was from Mr Cataliades, and it had been hand-delivered by his niece Diantha at three am, she&039;d noted on the envelope I was sorry to rateful she hadn&039;t woken me I opened that envelope first out of sheer curiosity "Dear Miss Stackhouse," Mr Cataliades wrote "Here is a check for the amount in Claudine Crane&039;s account when she passed away She wanted you to have it"

Short and to the point, which was more than most people I&039;d talked to recently I flipped the check over and found that it was for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars

"Oh my God," I said out loud "Oh ers suddenly lost their power, and the check drifted down to the porch I scraain to make sure I hadn&039;t beenwith the classics, because saying anything else seeine what I would do with so ive myself a little space until I could think about this unexpected legacy with any rational plan

I carried the a check into the house and put it in a drawer, terrified soot it to the bank Only when I was sure it was safe did I even think of opening my other note, which was from Bill

I carried it back out to the porch chair and took a gulp ofcoffee I tore open the envelope

"Dearest Sookie - I didn&039;t want to frighten you by knocking on your door at two in thethis for you to read in the daylight I wondered why you had been in my house last week I knew you&039;d come in, and I knew that sooner or later your iven ht I would see Judith after the last time we parted There were reasons I didn&039;t call her over the years I understand she told you why Lorena picked her to turn vampire Lorena didn&039;t ask me before she attacked Judith Please believe this I would never condemn someone to our life unless she wanted it and toldI&039;d never drea that Bill had asked Lorena to find hi his late wife

"I would never have been brave enough to contact Judith ain And her blood, freely given, has already worked a great healing in ht! That had been the whole point

"Judith has agreed to stay for a week so we can &039;catch up&039; with each other Maybe you will join us so? Judith was most impressed with your kindness Love, Bill"

I forced myself to smile down at the folded piece of paper I&039;d just write hiht back and tell him how pleased I was that he was better and that he&039;d renewed his old relationship with Judith Of course, I hadn&039;t been happy when he was dating Selah Pumphrey, a human real estate dealer, because we had only recently broken up, and I knew he didn&039;t really care about her Noas deter to be one of those awful people who gets all bent out of shape when the ex acquires a replacement That was hypocritical and selfish to the extreme, and I hoped I was a better person than that At least I was deterood i "That turned out great"

"Would you rather talk to me than to your coffee?" Claude asked

I&039;d heard feet on the creaky stairs through the open , and I&039;d registered that another brain was up and working, but I hadn&039;t foreseen that he&039;d join ot in late," I said "You want et you a cup of coffee? I made plenty"

"No, thank you I&039;ll have some pineapple juice in a minute It&039;s a beautiful day" Claude was shirtless At least he earing drawstring pants with the Dallas Cowboys all over them Ha! He wished!

"Yeah," I said, with a marked lack of enthusiasm Claude raised one perfectly shaped black eyebrow

"Who&039;s down in the dumps?" he asked

"No, I&039;m very happy"

"Yes, I can see the joy written all over your face What&039;s the et the check froenerous" I looked up at Claude, putting all my sincerity into my face "Claude, I hope you&039;re not mad at ot a clue what I want to do with it"

Claude shrugged "That hat Claudine wished Now, tell "

"Claude, you&039;ll have to excusesurprised that you care I would&039;ve said you didn&039;t give a flying eff how I felt Now you&039;re being all sith Hunter, and you&039;re offering to helpa cousinly concern for you" He raised one eyebrow

"Maybe pigs will fly"

He laughed "I&039; to beexistence a to be more "

"Likable?" I supplied

"Ouch," he said, but he wasn&039;t really hurt Being hurt would presuppose that he cared about ht, right?

"Where&039;s the boyfriend been?" he asked "I do so love the sht was the first time I&039;ve seen him in a week And we didn&039;t have any alone tiht?" Claude settled one hip on the porch railing, and I could tell he was determined to show me he could be interested in someone else&039;s life

I felt a certain a et a lot of sleep, and I&039;ve had a bad few days Could you just scoot away and take a shower or sohed as if I&039;d broken his heart "All right, I can take a hint," he said

"That really wasn&039;t so o"

But as he straightened up and took a step toward the door, I realized I did have so we have to talk about," I said "I haven&039;t had a chance to tell you that Derht, almost as if he were prepared to bolt "What did he say? What did he want?"

"I&039;m not sure what he wanted I think, like you, he wanted to be close to someone else with a bit of fairy blood And he wanted to tell ic? Has Grandfather coate?"

"No," I said "But could a fairy have cast a spell on hiate closed? And I think you must know there&039;s another full-blooded fairy on this side of the portal, or gate, whatever you call it" As I understood fairy morals, it was not possible to answer me with a direct lie

"Dermot is crazy," Claude said "I have no idea what he&039;ll do next If he approached you directly, he must be under extreme pressure You kno ambivalent he is about humans"

"You didn&039;t answer my question"