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THE RAIN PELTED down as we pulled in to the parking lot of the Grainger hospital It was as small as the one in Clarice, the one er hospital was newer and had nostic ed into jeans and a sweater, but I&039;d resu lass doors, I was pattingboots Weather-wise, the evening was proving as nasty as thewith shifters I could feel their anger as soon as I was inside Two of the werepanthers frouards Jason went to theed so; I don&039;t know At least they didn&039;t rub against one another&039;s legs They didn&039;t seem quite as happy to see Jason as he was to see them, and I noticed that Jason stepped back from them with a little frown between his eyes The two looked at ht and stocky, and he had thick brownish-blond hair His eyes were full of curiosity

"Sook, this is Dixon Mayhew," Jason said "And this is Dixie Mayhew, his twin sister" Dixie wore her hair, the same color as her brother&039;s, almost as short as Dixon&039;s, but she had dark, almost black, eyes The tere certainly not identical

"Has it been quiet here?" I asked carefully

"No probleaze was fixed on Jason "How&039;s your boss?"

"He&039;s in a cast, but he&039;ll heal"

"Calvin was shot bad" Dixie eyed me for a minute "He&039;s up in 214"

Having been given the seal of approval, Jason and I went to the stairs The tatched us all the way We passed the hospital auxiliary "pink lady" on duty at the visitors&039; desk I felt kind of worried about her: white-haired, heavy glasses, sweet face with a full co her watch to upset her worldview

It was easy to pick which rooainst the wall outside, a barrel-shaped ood bodyguards, according to the common wisdom of the two-natured, because they are ruthless and tenacious Froe Weres have But it&039;s true that as a rule, they&039;re the roughest element of the two-natured community You won&039;t find too many Were doctors, for example, but you will find a lot of Weres in construction work Jobs relating to motorcycles are heavily dos doa Were disturbed ht in an outsider Jason ine repair shop between Hotshot and Grainger"

Daas on the alert as we caa denih the material His black leather boots were battle scarred

"We&039;ve co," Jason said "This here&039;s my sister, Sookie"

"Ma&039;am," Dawson ru lascivious about it I was glad I&039;d left h it, I was sure "You want to take off that coat and turn around forhis job I didn&039;t want Calvin to get hurt again, either I took off my slicker, handed it to Jason, and rotated A nurse who&039;d been entering so in a chart watched this procedure with open curiosity I held Jason&039;s jacket as he took his turn Satisfied, Dawson knocked on the door Though I didn&039;t hear a response, he must have, because he opened the door and said, "The Stackhouses"

Just a whisper of a voice cao in," he said Jason started to follow me, but Dawson put a massive arm in front of hian to protest at the saed "Go ahead, Sook," he said There was obviously no budging Dawson, and there was no point to upsetting a wounded man, for that matter I pushed the heavy door wide open

Calvin was by hih there was another bed in the room The panther leader looked awful He was pale and drawn His hair was dirty, though his cheeks above his triown, and he was hooked up to lots of things

"I&039;h many brains had indicated as much, I could see that if Calvin hadn&039;t been two-natured, the wound would have killed him instantly Whoever had shot him had wanted his death

Calvin turned his head to me, slowly and with effort "It&039;s not as bad as it looks," he said dryly, his voice a thread "They&039;re going to take me off some of this stuff tomorrow"

"Where were you hit?" I asked

Calvin olden brown eyes captured mine I went closer to him and covered his hand with ers curled undermy hand

"There&039;ve been others," he said in a whisper of a voice

"Yes"

"Your boss"

I nodded

"That poor girl"

I nodded again

"Whoever&039;s doing this, they&039;ve got to be stopped"

"Yes"

"It&039;s got to be someone who hates shifters The police will never find out who&039;s doing this We can&039;t tell them what to look for"

Well, that was part of the proble your condition a secret "It&039;ll be harder for them to find the person," I conceded "But maybe they will"

"Some of my people wonder if the shooter is sohtened around mine "Someone who didn&039;t want to become a shifter in the first place Soht to click on in my head I am such an idiot

"Oh, no, Calvin, no, no," I said,over each other in o after Jason Please, he&039;s all I&039;ve got" Tears began to run down my cheeks as if soone of you, even if he couldn&039;t be exactly like a born panther He&039;s so new, he hasn&039;t had tiure out who all else is two-natured I don&039;t think he even realized Saonna take hiht be in this bed, I&039;ue against it, and I also knew (froht out of Calvin&039;s brain) that so Jason Calvin couldn&039;t prevent that He ry afterward, but if Jason were dead, that wouldn&039;t ers released mine, and his hand rose with an effort to wipe the tears off my cheek

"You&039;re a soman," he said "I wish you could love me"

"I wish I could, too," I said So many of my problems would be solved if I loved Calvin Norris I&039;d move out to Hotshot, become a hts a month, I&039;d have to be sure to stay inside, but other than that, I&039;d be safe Not only would Calvin defend me to the death, but so would the other ht of it just made me shudder The ept open fields, the powerful and ancient crossroads around which the little houses clustered I didn&039;t think I could handle the perpetual isolation froed me to accept Calvin&039;s offer He was a steady ood benefits You hable, but wait until you have to pay for your insurance all by yourself; then laugh

It occurred to ht away) that Calvin was in a perfect position to force my compliance - Jason&039;s life for e of it

I leaned over and gave Calvin a kiss on the cheek "I&039;ll pray for your recovery," I said "Thank you for giving Jason a chance" Maybe Calvin&039;s nobility was partly due to the fact that he was in no shape to take advantage of me, but it was nobility, and I noted and appreciated it "You&039;re a good man," I said, and touched his face The hair of his neat beard felt soft

His eyes were steady as he said good-bye "Watch out for that brother of yours, Sookie," he said "Oh, and tell Dawson I don&039;t want no ht"

"He won&039;t take ed to suess"

I relayed the h, as Jason and I walked back to the stairs, Daas going into the room to check with Calvin

I debated for a couple of minutes before I decided it would be better if Jason knehat he was up against In the truck, as he drove home, I relayed my conversation with Calvin to my brother

He was horrified that his new buddies in the werepanther world could believe such a thing of hied for the first ti," Jason said as we drove back to Bon Teh the rain "I was ed, I see it different" He went on and on whileto think of a way out of thiscase had to be solved by the next full ht tear Jason up when they changed Maybe he could just roam the woods around his house when he turned into his panther-man form, or maybe he could hunt the woods around my place - but he wouldn&039;t be safe out at Hotshot And they ainst them all

By the next fullht, it didn&039;t strikeaccused by the werepanther co an assassin, I was the one who&039;d actually shot a shifter I&039;d been thinking of the private detectives&039; appoint And, as I foundthe kitchen for signs of the death of Debbie Pelt Fro Channel, I knew that there was no way I could completely eradicate the traces of blood and tissue that had spattered my kitchen, but I&039;d scrubbed and cleaned over and over I was certain that no casual glance - in fact, no careful inspection by the naked eye - could reveal anything a I could, short of standing there to bethe other cheek? I hoped not, because every instinct in ed un

Of course, I should immediately have reported it But by then, Eric&039;s wound had healed, the oneto shoot me Aside from the testimony of a vampire and myself, there was no proof that she&039;d fired first, and Debbie&039;s body would have been a powerful stateuilt My first instinct had been to cover up her visit to iven s

No, I wasn&039;t bla ht mind at the time It was s through There would have been gunshot residue on Debbie&039;s hand Her gun had been fired Some of Eric&039;s dried blood would have been on the floor She&039;d broken in through ns of her trespass Her car was hidden across the road, and only her fingerprints would&039;ve been in it

I&039;d panicked, and blown it

I just had to live with that

But I was very sorry about the uncertainty her fa I owed the out the washcloth and hung it neatly over the sink divider I dried off otten ry withroom and turned on the television: another mistake There was a story about Heather&039;s funeral; a news crew from Shreveport had come to cover the modest service this afternoon Just think of the sensation it would cause if thehis victi that police in Renard Parish had discovered other clusters of apparently randos in small towns in Tennessee and Mississippi I was startled A serial shooter, here?

The phone rang "Hello," I said, not expecting anything good

"Sookie, hi, it&039;s Alcide"

I foundAlcide Herveaux, orked in his father&039;s surveying business in Shreveport, was one of my favorite people He was a Were, he was both sexy and hardworking, and I liked him very much He&039;d also been Debbie Pelt&039;s fianc¨¦ But Alcide had abjured her before she vanished, in a rite that made her invisible and inaudible to him - not literally, but in effect

"Sookie, I&039; tonight, so I drove over Can I come to the house? I need to talk to you"

"You know you&039;re in danger, co to Bon Temps"

"No, why?"

"Because of the sniper" I could hear the bar sounds in the background There was nothe new bartender was char one and all