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TO GETHER AGAIN, MY doubts at least teht I ht have lost him, Bill and I settled into an uneasy routine

If I worked nights, I would go over to Bill’s house when I finished, and usually I spent the rest of the night there If I worked days, Bill would coo to the ht off, or Bill had to refrain frogy And there was the danger, if Bill fed onvitamins and iron until Bill complained about the flavor Then I cut back on the iron

When I slept at night, Bill would go do other stuff Soht; soo out and do hts

If he ever took blood from anyone else, he kept it secret, and he did it far from Bon Temps, which hat I had asked

I say this routine was uneasy because it see of the Monroe nest had enraged Bill and (I think) frightened him To be so powerful when awake and so helpless when asleep had to be galling

Both of us ondering if public feeling against vampires would abate now that the worst troubleh Bill didn’t say anything directly, I knew from the course our conversation took from time to time that he orried about rande

If theout the Monroe vampires would set theirAutopsy reports from the three victims finally proved they had their full complement of blood when they were killed Furthermore, the bite marks on Maudette and Dawn had not only looked old, they were proved to be old The cause of their deaths was strangulation Maudette and Dawn had had sex before they’d died And afterward

Arlene and Charlsie and I were cautious about things like going out into the parking lot by ourselves, ht before we entered the to notice what cars were around us as we drove But it’s hard to keep careful that way, a real strain on the nerves, and I am sure we all lapsed back into our sloppy ways Maybe it was more excusable for Arlene and Charlsie, since they lived with other people, unlike the first two victims; Arlene with her kids (and Rene Lenier, off and on), and Charlsie with her husband, Ralph

I was the only one who lived alone

Jason caht, and hetoto heal whatever breach lay between us, and I responded asmore, too, and his bed had as h he sees for Liz Barrett We worked cautiously together on settling the business of Gran’s estate and Uncle Bartlett’s, though he had more to do with that than I Uncle Bartlett had left Jason everything but ht when he’d had an extra beer that he’d been back to the police station twicehim crazy He’d talked to Sid Matt Lancaster, finally, and Sid Matt had advised Jason not to go to the police station any more unless Sid Matt ith hi you in?" I asked Jason "Thereyou haven’t told me Andy Bellefleur hasn’t kept after anybody else, and I knon and Maudette both weren’t too picky about who came home with them"

Jason looked mortified I’d never seen my beautiful older brother look as embarrassed

"Movies," he ht "Movies?" I said, incredulously

"Shhh," he hissed, looking guilty as hell "We uess I was just as embarrassed as Jason Sisters and brothers don’t need to know everything about each other "And you gave theure out just how dumb Jason had been

He looked off in another direction, his hazy blue eyes ro for the fact that you couldn’t kno this was gonna coonna happen when you decide to get married? What if one of your ex-flao to your bride-to-be?"

"Thanks for kicking me when I’m down, Sis"

I took a deep breath "Okay, okay You’ve quit ht?"

He nodded emphatically I didn’t believe hiht?"

He nodded less firmly

"And you think that’s why Andy is on your case so much?"

"Yeah," Jason said morosely

"So, if they test your semen and it isn’t a match for as inside Maudette and Dawn, you’re clear" By noas as shifty-faced as my brother We had never talked about semen samples before

"That’s what Sid Matt says I just don’t trust that stuff"

My brother didn’t trust the most reliable scientific evidence that could be presented in a court "You think Andy’s going to fake the results?"

"No, Andy’s okay He’s just doing his job I just don’t know about that DNA stuff"

"Moron," I said, and turned away to get another pitcher of beer for four guys froht out in the boonies I could only hope Sid Matt Lancaster was good at persuasion

I spoke to Jason once more before he left Merlotte’s "Can you help nized I was standing by his table, and his date for the night had gone to the ladies’ room

My brother had never asked me for help before

"How?"

"Can’t you just read the minds of the men who come in here and find out if one of them did it?"

"That’s not as easy as it sounds, Jason," I said slowly, thinking as I went along "For one thing, theof his crime while he sat here, at the exact , I can’t always read clear thoughts So to a radio, I can hear every little thing Other people, I just get asomeone talk in their sleep, see? You can hear they’re talking, you can tell if they’re upset or happy, but you can’t hear the exact words And then other tiht, but I can’t trace it to its source if the roo at me It was the first time we had talked openly aboutcrazy?" he asked, shaking his head in auard, but Liz Barrett returned to the table, newly lipsticked and fluffed I watched Jason resu on a heavy coat, and I regretted not getting to talk to hiot ready to leave, Arlene askedIt would be an off-day for both of us, and she wanted to go to Shreveport with Rene to see a o out to eat

"Sure!" I said "I haven’t kept the kids in a while"

Suddenly Arlene’s face froze She half-turned to , then thought again "Willahwill Bill be there?"

"Yes, we’d planned on watching ato stop by the video rental place, to for the kids to watch instead" Abruptly, I caught her"Whoa You mean you don’t want to leave the kids with onna be there?" I could feel ry register

"Sookie," she began helplessly, "honey, I love you But you can’t understand, you’re not a mother I can’t leave my kids with a vampire I just can’t"

"No matter that I’m there, and I love your kids, too? No matter that Bill would never in amy purse overArlene standing there looking torn By golly, she ought to be upset!

I was a little calo home, but I was still riled up I orried about Jason, miffed at Arlene, and al these days that I was a o hoood idea

It was a measure of how much he worried about me that Bill was at my house about fifteen minutes after I should have been at his

"You didn’t come, you didn’t call," he said quietly when I answered the door

"I’m in a temper," I said "A bad one"

Wisely he kept his distance

"I apologize foryou worry," I said after a ain" I strode away from him, toward the kitchen He followed behind, or at least I presumed he did Bill was so quiet you never knew until you looked

He leaned against the door fra why I’d co pissed off all over again I really wanted to throw so This was not the way I’d been brought up, to give way to destructive ia hole," I said, and I marched out the back door I opened the door to the tool shed, removed the shovel, and stomped to the back of the yard There was a patch back there where nothing ever grew, I don’t knohy I sunk the shovel in, pushed it withThe pile of dirt grew as the hole deepened

"I have excellent arainst the shovel and panting

Bill was sitting in a lawn chair watching He didn’t say anything

I resu

Finally, I had a really nice hole

"Were you going to bury anything?" Bill asked, when he could tell I was done

"No" I looked down at the cavity in the ground "I’ to plant a tree"

"What kind?"

"A live oak," I said off the top of et one?"

"At the Garden Center I’ll go sorow"

"What difference would that make to you?" I snapped I put the shovel up in the shed, then leaned against it, suddenly exhausted

Bill rooman," I snarled "I can walk into the house onto you?" Bill asked There was very little loving in his voice, and I was brought up short I had indulged ain"

"What has ry?"

I just couldn’t tell hiet mad, Bill?"

"I tear up a tree," he said "So a hole didn’t seem so bad It had been sort of constructive But I was still wired - it was just h-frequency whine I cast around restlessly for so the syested "Make love with ht mood for love"

"Let me try to persuade you"

It turned out he could

At least it wore off the excess energy of anger, but I still had a residue of sadness that sex couldn’t cure Arlene had hurt s I stared into space while Bill braided

Every now and then I felt like I was Bill’s doll

"Jason was in the bar tonight," I said

"What did he want?"

Bill was too clever by far, so powers He wanted me to scan the minds of the men who came into the bar until I found out who the murderer was"

"Except for a few dozen flaws, that’s not a bad idea"