Sookie Stackhouse 7
Charlaine Harris
Sookie attends a meeting at Fangtasia to determine who will be going to the vampire summit. The vampires of southern Louisiana have been hit hard from Hurricane Katrina and so have decided to meet further north in Eric's area. Sookie's job is to go and read the minds of the humans that attend. Eric and Bill are also attending. Bill will be marketing his database so that the queen might be able to recover some loses. During the summit, there will be a trial regarding the king of Arkansas' death.
There is a bridal shower for Halleigh (who is marrying Andy) and Sookie attends. She has the duty of writing down who gave what gift. She has some time to update everyone on her roommate, Amelia, who has been staying with her (but leaves out that the visit is because she turned a guy into a cat).
Upon arriving home, Quinn comes out the back door. Not having seen much of Quinn lately, Sookie is about ready to break it off with him. She says that she doesn't want to have a relationship with someone who is never around. Quinn explains that after the summit, he wants to spend an entire month with Sookie. Amelia decides to go shopping to give them some time alone and they have sex.
The next day, Jason calls Sookie and informs her that he is getting married to Crystal. Sookie, Quinn, and Amelia get ready and go down to Hotshot for the ceremony. Sookie, being Jason's only living relative, is made to promise that if Jason is unfaithful in anyway and cannot deal with the punishment for any reason, she must endure it. Eventually, she agrees and the wedding is completed. Amelia ends up staying later and sleeping with one of the panthers.
The next day, Sookie is at work and Selah is there without her vampire boyfriend, Bill. She threatens Sookie, telling her not to try to steal Bill back. She indicates that Sookie has been scheming this for the vampire summit for some time. Sam asks Selah to leave. Tara comes in with J.B. to celebrate his new job at a fitness center. Sookie is happy for J.B. and glad that she and Tara are getting back to normal.
Back at home, Amelia is feeling guilty about sleeping with someone else. She promises Bob that she will not sleep with another guy until he is human again. Claudine shows up and asks Sookie not to go to the summit because it will be dangerous and she cannot follow. Sookie refuses her request.
Sookie sets off the next day for Tara's clothing shop. She buys some new clothes on Eric's credit. Tara expresses her concern for Sookie going to the vampire meeting. Sookie reminds Sam of when she is leaving and he also expresses his concern over the situation.
Pam comes into the bar to talk to Sookie about Eric. Sookie explains that she is with Quinn, but Pam thinks there is still something between her and Eric. Amelia comes in to tell Sookie that Quinn called and meets Pam. The two girls flirt a little before Amelia leaves. Arlene has been attending the Fellowship of the Sun church and says some mean words to Sookie about her relationships. Pam comforts Sookie over her lost friendship and tells her that Eric and she didn't know about Bill being sent by the queen. She then tells Sookie how she became a vampire. Eric shows up expressing his interest in Sookie by kissing her. She denies him again.
On the plane ride to the summit in Illinois, Sookie meets Sophie-Anne's defense lawyer, Mr. Glassport, who was not only in jail for stabbing a prostitute in Mexico, but had also screwed over his partners in Rhodes, Illinois before that.
At the hotel, Sookie mentally runs into Barry, the bellhop from the Dallas hotel she had stayed at, who is now working for the Dallas vampires. The two are fascinated at how they can communicate in each other's head because they are both telepaths. Sookie goes to her room and meets her roommate, Carla, who is dating one of the Louisiana vamps. She goes to the queen’s room and receives a call for someone to pick up a suitcase someone left downstairs. After their work with the vampires is done, Sookie and Barry go down to the lobby together to compare their powers. Jennifer Cater, the King of Arkansas’ second in command, comes along to threaten the queen and eventually Sookie. She storms off after some insults are traded. Quinn comes along and Barry gets a little disappointed that Sookie is not available. Their reunion is brought up short by the Britligen, Batanya (a very expensive body guard from another dimension who is guarding the King of Kentucky).
The pager Sookie has been assigned goes off so she returns to the queen’s room. She tells them what happened in the lobby with Jennifer, and they decide to see if she is willing to talk to them. Jennifer agrees and they all go to her room to meet. However, when they get there, the Arkansas party is dead. There is one remaining vampire, who Sophie-Anne offers her protection to. On their way back to their own room, the queen, Mr. Cataliades, and Andre are contemplating who the queen should marry. Sookie suggests that she make Andre the King of Arkansas and marry him.
Sookie looks around at the vampire booths that are all set up, trying to sell their products. Bill is among them pushing his vampire database. The King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, and the King of Indiana announce that they are going to get married. Sookie speaks with Russell a little guardedly to make sure that he isn’t mad about her leaving Lorena in his pool. He tells her that he never like Lorena and
only allowed her to hold Bill at his place because they had known each other for so long.
At the wedding, Sookie sits next to Jake Purifoy. Eric officiates the ceremony. Afterword, Jake tells Sookie why so many people are impressed by Quinn. His father died when he was little and when he was about 15, his mother (a were-bear) was captured by people who wanted her to pit fight. When she turned back into a human, a man raped her. Quinn (who shifted for the first time that night) found her and killed all the men there. He went to the vampires for help in the clean-up process. They agreed if he would pit fight for them for three years. He accepted and really excelled at fighting. After his three years, he returned to his mom to help her take care of his little sister (a result of the rape).
Sookie meets back up with her group. The queen is talking with other royals and one of them requests that Sookie leave them alone to talk. Sophie-Anne sends her to fetch the suitcase that the man had called about earlier. As she starts heading out, Andre follows and informs her that he is going to make her drink some of his blood so that she is connected to him and the queen. Sookie refuses. Eric shows up in time to save her, but is only able to work out that she will drink his blood instead of Andre’s. Quinn shows up during the whole ordeal and is angry about what is going on. Sookie says that she will talk to him later and storms off away from the three men.
Down in the basement, Sookie finds a whole stack of unclaimed suitcases. She helps another man who is also searching through them, looking for his own states luggage. They find it odd that no one has mentioned missing luggage and that the hotel employees didn’t just bring them up. After a strange encounter with the security guard, Sookie starts heading back upstairs. When she gets off the elevator on the queen’s floor, she notices a pop can in a decorative tree. She picks it up and quickly realizes that it is a bomb. Quinn and Todd Donati (head of security for the hotel) come along. Quinn offers to take the can from Sookie, but she is afraid to set it down. Donati calls the bomb squad and Quinn stays with Sookie. Eric shows up. The two men try to get Sookie away from the bomb, but she refuses until Boom, a man in a special suit from the bomb squad shows up.
Later, Eric explains that Bill didn’t rush to Sookie’s rescue like Eric and Quinn did because Eric made him stay at his booth. Sookie yells at the vampires about Andre’s behavior and the bomb situation. She realizes this is unwise and heads back to her room. Quinn meets her there and tells her that there might not be a trial for Sophie-Anne because Jennifer is dead. He also lets her know that he is not working during the ball, so they can spend it together.
The next day, Sookie gets ready for the ball. Shortly after she finishes prepping herself, she is called down for the trial. Henrik, the surviving vampire from Arkansas, testifies that Sophie-Anne killed his companions and would kill him next. Sookie sees in his lawyers head that this is something Henrik was told. She tells the Ancient Pythoness the truth of what is going on, explaining that she can read minds (with the exception of vampires). She tells Henrik that Sophie-Anne didn’t intend to kill him. The Ancient Pythoness is told that Sookie is also their witness for the death of Peter Threadgill, the King of Arkansas. The Ancient Pythoness declares that the queen is innocent and grants her Arkansas. She then turns her attention back to Henrik, but before he can tell her who has been lying to him, he is staked with an arrow. There is a second arrow for reassurance, but Quinn takes that one in the shoulder while trying to protect Sookie. Batanya kills the assassin right away.
At the ball, Sookie dances with Eric. She meets a witch who specializes in weather and she takes him to meet the queen. After a while, she decides that he was only hired to tell the vampires of the future weather. He did not cause Hurricane Katrina. Sookie goes off to dance with Barry and Eric stops her, saying that she was being inappropriate. The two professional dancing vampires separate them. Sookie enjoys the company of Sean, but eventually leaves to visit Quinn. They talk about the whole situation with Eric. When she leaves, Batanya’s underling, Clovache, tells Sookie that the Britligens are there because the King of Kentucky found a member of the Fellowship of the Sun that had infiltrated their ranks.
Eric gives Sookie the job of tracking down the hit man during the day. Bill gives her a list of archery places to investigate. She meets up with Barry in the morning. They are approached by Donati, who informs them that his boss, the hotel owner, is interested in marrying Sophie-Anne. He then tells her to have the queen ask his boss for the security tape to see who planted the pop bomb. The two telepaths set out through the town to find the archer. The third place they end up has a woman that has seen the assassin. She tells Barry to come back after she gets off work so that she can show him the tape. When they return, the girl is dead.
Sookie attends a few more minor vampire trials. Between events, she notices that the waiters are avoiding her and Barry. There is also a strange appearance of an extra coffin marked as belonging to Louisiana. Mr. Cataliades refocuses Sookie and sends her along to commerce with the queen. She helps her negotiate the terms with the vendors that are trying to assist her in rebuilding New Orleans. When Sookie gets some free time, she stops to talk to Jake. He tells her to have Quinn take her out the next day. She then goes to tell Andre her theory about the pop bomb. To top her day off, she runs into Bill, who is still trying to get back with her.
Barry wakes up Sookie in the middle of the day using his mind. He shows her Jake’s body. Everything clicks into place and Sookie gathers anyone she can think off that the sun won’t hurt. She explains the elaborate plan some of the waiters, security guards, and Jake had planned. They are going to blow up the building in the middle of the day. Sookie calls Quinn and tells him to get him and his sister out. She goes to get Eric and Pam. Eric wakes up eventually, but the explosions have already started. They put Pam in a coffin and ride it down the side of the hotel (with some help from Eric’s flying abilities). Sookie covers them from the sun and the ambulances arrive. She tells them to take the vamps to a dark basement to hide. She finds Quinn and sees that he and his sister will be all right after a few weeks. They find Andre buried under some rubble and Quinn stakes him so that he will not have a hold over Sookie.
Sookie and Barry get together and find humans buried in the rubble of the hotel. The police officers assist them after they realize what they can do. Then the officers want to use the two of them for their own plans. They refuse to hand over their names. Sookie (who luckily grabbed her cell) calls Mr. Cataliades (who also has his). They work out a plan for Sookie and Barry to go to a motel to avoid further questioning of their abilities.
The next day Mr. Cataliades brings the two telepaths some money and informs them that there is a plane leaving for Dallas and from there to Shreveport. Barry decides to take the opportunity to go home, but Sookie doesn’t want to be anywhere near the vampires because she realized that they were the ones that had killed the Arkansas clan. She goes to visit Quinn and sees that Frannie, his sister, is there with him. Quinn is really out of it and can’t really communicate well. Frannie explains that she has an extra car that Sookie can take back to Bon Temps, since her and Quinn drove separately, but are now going to the same place. Sookie accepts the offer.
Sookie comes home to a very excited greeting from Amelia. Tara and JB arrive, announcing that they eloped.