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"Nice toif I should curtsy I&039;d shaken hands with Alcide&039;s father, but Christine didn&039;t extend hers She gave me a nod and a sweet smile Probably didn&039;t want to bruise s, I decided after a squint at her fingers Of course, they s I was outclassed, no doubt about it Eff it, I thought It sees

"Such a sad occasion," Christine said

If she wanted to do polite chitchat, I was up to it "Yes, Colonel Flood was a wonderful man," I said

"Oh, you knew him, dear?"

"Yes," I said As a matter of fact, I&039;d seen him naked, but in decidedly unerotic circumstances

My brief answer didn&039;t leave herin her pale eyes Alcide and his dad were exchanging low-voiced co "You and I are strictly decorations today," Christine said

"Then you know more than I do"

"I expect so You&039;re not one of the two-natured?"

"No" Christine was, of course She was a full-blooded Were, like Jackson and Alcide I couldn&039;t picture this elegant wo into a wolf, especially with the down-and-dirty reputation the Weres had in the shifter coot from her mind were un of the can to replace him," Christine said Since that was otten in two hours from Alcide, immediately I felt kindly disposed toward the older wo extraordinary, for Alcide to choose you as his companion today," Christine continued

"I don&039;t know about extraordinary In the literal sense, I guess I am I have extras that aren&039;t ordinary"

"Witch?" Christine guessed "Fairy? Part goblin?"

Gosh I shookto happen in there?"

"There are more roped-off pews than usual The whole pack will sit at the front of the church, the mated ones with their mates, of course, and their children The candidates for packmaster will come in last"

"How are they chosen?"

"They announce themselves," she said "But they&039;ll be put to the test, and then theyou, or is that a real personal question?"

"I&039;m theof the packmaster prior to Colonel Flood," Christine Larrabee said quietly "That gives me a certain influence"

I nodded "Is the packth is part of the test, males usually win"

"How many candidates are there?"

"Two Jackson, of course, and Patrick Furnan" She inclined her patrician head slightly to her right, and I gave a closer look at the couple that had been on the periphery of my attention

Patrick Furnan was in his mid-forties, somewhere between Alcide and his father He was a thick-bodied ht brown crew cut and a very short beard shaved into a fancy shape His suit was brown, too, and he&039;d had trouble buttoning the jacket His companion was a pretty woman who believed in a lot of lipstick and jewelry She had short brown hair, too, but it was highlighted with blond streaks and elaborately styled Her heels were at least three inches high I eyed the shoes with awe I would break my neck if I tried to walk in theood word to everyone who approached Patrick Furnan was colder His narrow eyescrowd

"Tammy Faye, there, is his wife?" I asked Christine in a discreetly low tone

Christine er if it had issued from someone less patrician "She does wear a lot of makeup," Christine said "Her name is Libby, actually Yes, she&039;s his wife and a full-blooded Were, and they have two children So he&039;s added to the pack"

Only the oldest child would beco?" I asked

"He owns a Harley-Davidson dealership," Christine said

"That&039;s a natural" Weres tended to like motorcycles a lot

Christine s out loud

"Who&039;s the front-runner?" I&039;d been dua to let Alcide have it right between the eyes; but right noas going to get through the funeral, since that&039;s what I&039;d come for

"Hard to say," Christine iven a choice, but Jackson called on our old friendship, and I had to come down on his side"

"That&039;s not nice"

"No, but it&039;s practical," she said, aet Did Alcide ask you to endorse his father?"

"No I&039;d be conorant of the situation if you hadn&039;t been kind enough to fill ave her a nod of thanks

"Since you&039;re not a Were - excuse ure this out - what can you do for Alcide, I wonder? Why&039;d he drag you into this?"

"He&039;ll have to tell me that real soon," I said, and if my voice was cold and oirlfriend disappeared," Christine said thoughtfully "They were pretty on-again, off-again, Jackson tells ht watch your step"

"I don&039;t think I&039;h

"Hhtful look at my face "Well, she was too much of a diva for someone who isn&039;t even a Were" Christine&039;s voice expressed the contempt the Weres feel for the other shifters ("Why bother to change, if you can&039;t change into a wolf?" I&039;d heard a Were say once)

My attention was caught by the dull gleam of a shaved head, and I stepped a bit to my left to have a better view I&039;d never seen this man before I would certainly have remembered hiht He had big shoulders and arms roped with muscle His head and arms were the brown of a Caucasian with a real tan I could tell, because he earing a sleeveless black silk tee tucked into black pants and shiny dress shoes It was a nippy day at the end of January, but the cold didn&039;t seem to affect him at all There was a definite space between hi, he turned and looked at me, as if he could feel my attention He had a proud nose, and his face was as smooth as his shaved head At this distance, his eyes looked black

"Who is that?" I asked Christine,the leaves of the holly bushes planted around the church

Christine darted a look at the man, and she must have knohoradually been filtering through the Weres, going up the steps and into the church Noo men in black suits appeared at the doors They crossed their hands in front of theht nodded at Jackson Herveaux and Patrick Furnan

The twoeach other at the bottom of the steps The assembled Weres passed between them to enter the church Some nodded at one, some at the other, some at both Fence-sitters Even after their ranks had been reduced by the recent ith the witches, I counted twenty-five full-blooded adult Weres in Shreveport, a very large pack for such a small city Its size was attributable to the Air Force base, I figured

Everyone alked between the two candidates was a full Were I saw only two children Of course, soht have left their kids in school rather than bring the the truth of what Alcide had told ued the Weres

Alcide&039;s younger sister, Janice, had e shape, since she was not the firstborn child Her son&039;s recessive Were traits, Alcide had toldability Many professional athletes cae of Were blood

"We go in a second," Alcidethe faces as they went by

"I&039;by "Why didn&039;t you explain this?"

The tallas he walked, his large bodytoward me as he went by, and I met his eyes They were very dark, but still I couldn&039;t distinguish the color He smiled at me

Alcide touched my hand, as if he knew my attention had wandered He leaned over to whisper in my ear, "I need your help I need you to find a chance after the funeral to read Patrick&039;s e my father"

"Why didn&039;t you just ask ht you ure that?"

"I know you killed Debbie"

If he&039;d slapped me, it couldn&039;t have shocked me more I have no idea what my face looked like After the iuilt wore off, I said, "You&039;d abjured her What&039;s it to you?"

"Nothing," he said "Nothing She was already dead to ht it would be a big deal to uess you owed un in my purse, I would&039;ve been tempted to pull it out then "I don&039;t owe you squat," I said "I think you caet me in your dad&039;s car because you knew I&039;d drive away once you said that"

"No," he said We were still keeping our voices down, but I could see fro that our intense colloquy was attracting attention "Well,me The fact is,to help him out And you can help"

"Next time into it I like to help people But I hate to be pushed and tricked" He&039;d lowered his eyes, so I grabbed his chin and lanced up at the top of the steps to gauge howThe talldown at us without perceptible expression But I knee had his attention

Alcide glanced up, too His face reddened "We need to go in now Will you go within with you?"

"It means you&039;re on my father&039;s side in his bid for the pack"

"What does that oblige "

"Then why is it i a packmaster is pack business, itthe Witch War"

Witch Skirh it had certainly been them vs us, the total number of people involved had been fairly small - say, forty or fifty But in the history of the Shreveport pack, it was an epic episode, I gathered

I glared down atinstincts They see One said, "You&039;re at a funeral Don&039;t ood to you, and it wouldn&039;t hurt you to do this for him" The other said, "Alcide helped you in Jackson because he was trying to get his dad out of trouble with the va to involve you in soerous to help his dad out" The first voice chipped in, "He knew Debbie was bad He tried to pull away from her, and then he abjured her" The second said, "Why&039;d he love a bitch like Debbie in the first place? Why&039;d he even consider sticking with her when he had clear evidence she was evil? No one else has suggested she had spellcasting power This &039;spellcasting&039; thing is a cheap excuse" I felt like Linda Blair in the The Exorcist, with her head whirling around on her neck

Voice number one won out I put my hand on Alcide&039;s crooked elbow and ent up the stairs and into the church

The peere full of regular people The front three rows on both sides had been saved for the pack But the tall ht a gli shoulders before I had to pay strict attention to the pack ceremony The two Furnan children, cute as the dickens, went soleht of the church Then Alcide and I entered, preceding the two candidates for pack, with Alcide andthe best man and maid of honor Jackson and Christine and Patrick and Libby Furnan would enter like the parents of the bride and groom

What the civilians , but I&039;et you used to anything, it&039;s being looked over I was dressed appropriately and I looked as good as I could make myself look, and Alcide had done the same, so let them stare Alcide and I sat on the front row on the left side of the church, and moved in I saw Patrick Furnan and his wife, Libby, enter the pew across the aisle Then I looked back to see Jackson and Christine coht flutter of heads and hands, a tiny buzz of whispers, and then Christine sidled into the pew, Jackson beside her

The coffin, draped with an elaborately embroidered cloth, heeled up the aisle as we all stood, and then the soh the litany, which Alcide showed me in the Prayer Book, the priest asked if anyone would like to say a feords about Colonel Flood One of his Air Force friends went first and spoke of the colonel&039;s devotion to duty and his sense of pride in his command One of his fellow church enerosity and applauding the ti the church&039;s books

Patrick Furnan left his pew and strode to the lectern He didn&039;t do a good stride; he was too stout for that But his speech was certainly a change froiven "John Flood was a rean He was a h I didn&039;t knoho&039;d written his remarks, it was someone educated "In the fraternal order we shared, he was always the one who told us the direction we should take, the goal we should achieve As he grew older, he reht turn fron speech I wasn&039;t the only one who&039;d noticed this; all around h taken aback by the reaction he&039;d aroused, Patrick Furnan plowed ahead "I told John that he was the finest man for the job we&039;d ever had, and I still believe that No matter who follows in his footsteps, John Flood will never be forgotten or replaced The next leader can only hope to work as hard as John I&039;ll always be proud that John put his trust in ht hand" With those sentences, the Harley dealer underscored his bid to take Colonel&039;s Flood&039;s job as packmaster (or, as I referred to it internally, Leader of the Pack)

Alcide, toin the front row of a funeral, he would have loved to address a few remarks to me on the subject of Patrick Furnan On the other side of Alcide, I could just barely see Christine, whose face looked carved out of ivory She was suppressing quite a few things herself

Alcide&039;s dad waited a in his trip to the lectern Clearly, he wanted us to cleanse our ave his address

Jackson Herveaux, wealthy surveyor and olf, gave us the chance to exaan, "We will not soon see the likes of John Flood A man whose wisdom had been tempered and tested by the years" Oh, ouch This wasn&039;t going to be pointed or anything, no sirree

I tuned out for the rest of the service to think ht We stood as John Flood, Air Force colonel and packmaster, exited this church for the last ti the ride to the ceraveside service, and got back in the car when it was over and all the post-funeral handshaking was done

I looked for the tall man, but he wasn&039;t at the cemetery

On the drive back to Bon Temps, Alcide obviously wanted to keep our silence nice and clean, but it was time to answer some questions

"How did you know?" I asked

He didn&039;t even try to pretend toabout "When I came to your house yesterday, I could smell a very, very faint trace of her at your front door," he said "It took h"

I&039;d never considered the possibility

"I don&039;t think I would&039;ve picked up on it if I hadn&039;t known her so well," he offered "I certainly didn&039;t pick up a whiff anywhere else in the house"

So allhad been to some avail I was just lucky Jack and Lily Leeds weren&039;t two-natured "Do you want to knohat happened?"

"I don&039;t think so," he said after an appreciable pause "Knowing Debbie, I&039; you only did what you had to do After all, it was her scent at your house She had no business there"

This was far fro endorsement

"And Eric was still at your house then, wasn&039;t he? Maybe it was Eric?" Alcide sounded almost hopeful

"No," I said

"Maybe I do want the whole story"

"Maybe I&039;ve changedit to you You either believe in me, or you don&039;t Either you think I&039;ood reason, or you know I&039;ht I&039;d be I was very careful not to slip into Alcide&039;s head, because I was afraid Ithat would have been even more painful

Alcide tried several times to open another conversation, but the drive couldn&039;t end soon enough forand I kneas yards away fro I couldn&039;t scraht behind me

"I don&039;t care," he said in a voice that was alotten to my front door, and the key was in the lock

"I don&039;t care"

"I don&039;t believe that for one minute"

"What?"

"You&039;re harder to read than a plain human, Alcide, but I can see the pockets of reservation in your mind Since you wanted me to help you out with your dad, I&039;ll tell you: Patrick Whatsisna proble more underhanded and supernatural than the truth "I&039;d read his mind before you askedtiain He looked like I&039;d hit hi to your head makes me feel bad" Of course, there were several different reasons they did, but I didn&039;t want to enumerate them "So, thanks for the ride to the funeral" (Iof her probability of sarcasm here) I entered the house, shut the door on his startled face, and locked it just to be on the safe side Iroom so he could hear my steps, but then I stopped in the hall and waited to listen while he got back in the Lincoln I listened to the big car rocket down the driveway, probably putting ruts in ravel

As I shed Tara&039;s suit and bundled it up to drop at the dry cleaner&039;s, I confess I was mopey They say when one door shuts, another one opens But they haven&039;t been living atscary crouched behind them, anyway