Sookie Stackhouse 9
Charlaine Harris
Sookie still has her witch house guests, Amelia and Octavia. Amelia has been dating Trey Dawson, a werewolf. Sookie hears her thinking about the Revelation, where the were-animals will make their presence knows to the entire world, and is surprised to learn that it is happening that night. Sookie goes to work and notices that Bill is in the bar. A special report comes onto the television. One of Alcide’s more bubbly pack members appears talking to a newscaster. She tells them what she is and shifts while the cameras are on her. In the bar, Sam and Trey follow suite and shift as well to show their patrons that the were’s are everywhere. Most of the people around seem to take it well. However, Arlene starts to completely freak out. She yells about how unnatural the whole situation is and that Sookie is the worst of them all. Jason, who Sookie hasn’t talked to in a while stands up for her. Arlene quits and walks out.
Sam gets a call from his stepfather, Don. He is upset because he shot Sam’s mom when she told him that she is a shifter. Luckily, he got her in the shoulder, but Sam needs to go out of town to look after her. He asks Sookie to look after the bar for a few days while he is gone.
Eric’s daytime guy, Bobby Burnham, comes along to tell Sookie to go to Fangtasia that night. Sookie agrees and he hands him a package. Later that night, she takes the package with her to the vampire bar. When she arrives, Pam tells her that Eric is meeting with the new king of Louisiana and to give him the package when she sees him. She goes back and does this. He pulls out the vampire marriage knife that he took from Quinn. Later, Eric explains that he bound them so that the king wouldn’t go after her.
When Sookie wakes up, a couple of FBI agents arrive to talk to her about her and Barry the Bellhop’s involvement in the disaster back in Rhodes. She tells them that they stayed together in a hotel because they were coping with the destruction they had seen. She receives a call telling her to get down to the bar immediately. She invites the agents to go with her. When they arrive, Sookie sees her sister-in-law crucified in the parking lot. Jason arrives shortly after, luckily with an alibi from his promiscuous night before. Calvin, Crystal’s uncle, come up shortly after. He wants to smell the body, but the police officers cannot let him close because they need evidence that will hold up in court. After they are finished, Calvin gets his opportunity, but there are too many scents on the body for him to get anything useful.
Sookie isn’t able to open up the bar, so she heads home. She talks to Octavia, who feels guilty about not being able to contribute to the household. She then heads to Fangtasia to talk to Eric. She tells him what happened to Crystal and he starts to tell her about his past. He explains that his wife, Aud, died when she was giving birth to their sixth child. He tells her about his sire, Appius, and what it was like starting out as a vampire. Sookie continues to tell him about what is going on her life and he offers whatever suggestions he can. Eric explains that he tricked Sookie into the unofficial marriage to keep the king from using Sookie in Nevada.
When Sam returns, Sookie is relieved. They catch each other up on what has been happening. Sookie tells him that she is married to Eric. He tells her that she was an idiot for blindly trusting him. She storms out and goes to talk to Tara. She tells him that it may not have been the smartest move, but it could be much worse. Tara tells Sookie that she is pregnant and is determined to be the best mother she can (the opposite of what she grew up with). Back at home, Sookie answers the phone and leaves a message for Octavia to call Mr. Chambers. When Sookie gives her the message, Octavia cries, and she and Amelia give her some space.
Sookie arrives for work and Bobby Burnham is there. He is angry that Eric sent him to do Sookie’s bidding. She sends him away and Sam makes a comment about Sookie not needing any more enemies. Sookie goes about her work. Her great-grandfather Niall is siting in a booth. She goes over to talk to him for a while, and he tells her to be careful because he has a lot of enemies. The FBI are detectives are in the bar and take special notice of Niall, but Sookie doesn’t give anything away. They ask her a few more questions about her sister in law’s death before she goes home.
When Sookie gets home, Octavia has her things packed up and is ready to go back to New Orleans with Louis. The next day, Diantha shows up with news from Mr. Cataliades. She warns Sookie that the faeries are moving around and that she needs to be careful. Sookie decides to go talk to Claude and Claudine and meets them at the mall. They decide to tell her what is going on. There are two sides of faeries; those aligned with the sky (them) and those of the water. The other side of faeries, lead by Breandan, don’t think that they should be involved with humans at all. They tell her to watch out for a faery that looks like her brother, Jason.
Back at home, Sookie decides to be productive and do some housework. She starts weeding the flower beds and hears someone say they are looking forward to killing her. She turns around and shoves her gardening trowel into a faery. He dies and she calls Niall to see what to do. Her great-grandfather arrives with her uncle Dillion and explains that she killed Murry, a faery that worked for Breandan. His body starts to disintegrate and they leave her to spread the glittery ashes throughout the yard.
Quinn shows up that night to talk to Sookie. He wants to be with her, but she explains that he has too many other obligations. He tries to argue that everyone else has other priorities and she judges him harder than the rest. Bill shows up and starts to fight with the were-tiger. Sookie is hurt in the shuffle and Eric arrives to take her in and heal her with his blood. They spend the night together.
The next day, Amelia leaves a message for Sookie to check the answering machine. She plays them back and Sam asks her to give him a call. There is also a message from Arlene, wanting to make up. Sookie calls Sam first. He tells her that Arlene apologized and asked for her job back. He says he doesn’t think he can do it. Sookie tells him that she also called her. She calls Arlene back next and asks if she can stop over. Arlene asks her to give her a few minutes to clean up.
Sookie doesn’t wait and decides to park at the abandoned house next store and walk through the woods to get to the trailer. She sees one of Arlene’s friends taking the kids somewhere. Sookie can hear the thoughts about what Arlene’s Fellowship of the Sun friends plan to do to her. They thought crucifying Crystal was a good idea and they want to do the same to Sookie. She calls the police and Andy says he will bring the FBI agents with him. Arlene is getting ready to drive away, so Sookie makes her presence known. The Fellowship of the Sun men come out with guns. Andy and the agents arrive shortly after. There is a shootout. One of the agents is hurt, but they manage to kill one bad guy and injure the other. Paramedics arrive and take most of the participants to the hospital. Sookie sits for a while waiting for everyone to be done with her and sees a faery in the woods watching her with contempt.
Sookie eventually makes it to work. One of her co-workers, Antoine, tells her that there was a faery around the bar. The rest of the night is fairly uneventful. Sookie goes home and talks to Amelia about faeries. She realizes that she has lemon juice in the fridge that she can use as a weapon. Remi, Sookie’s cousin Hadley’s ex-husband, calls to talk to about his son’s, Hunter’s, telepathy. She wants to help him, but she has the issue with the faeries that she doesn’t want to drag them into, so she asks to delay it until things calm down. He explains that Hunter already scared away his girlfriend. Amelia tries to set Sookie up with one of Trey’s friends, who happens to look like her brother, Jason. She warns her roommate about him and calls Eric to ask the King for help because he owes her.
That night at the bar, Sookie listens in on people’s thoughts to see if she can find anything out about Crystal’s murder. She doesn’t come up with anything useful. When she leaves for the night, Bubba is outside waiting for her. He follows her home where Trey is also waiting to help. In the middle of the night, Trey starts throwing up. He tells her that she had claimed to be Bill’s new girlfriend. She came over without him and she compulsed him to drink vampire blood. Trey thought she was a fang banger, but Sookie is pretty sure it was a faery.
After talking to Niall, Sookie calls Jason for protection. He tells her that a guy that looks like him stopped by. She tells him to come over. Sookie tells him about Durmont, their great uncle, that is trying to kill her. Jason is upset to learn about his new-found family. He asks Sookie to pick him up after he checks his rifle back at the house. Sookie gets ready and cautiously heads to his house. When she is there, she makes an excuse to touch his friend, Mel’s, hand. She sees that Mel was the one that killed Crystal. Calvin arrives. Mel admits that he accidently killed Crystal, but he didn’t hang her on the cross; the body was stolen when Mel went inside.
On her way home, Sookie realizes that she was supposed to meet Amelia at Trey’s house. She turns around and heads back to town. When no one is home, so Sookie starts freaking out. Bad thoughts start going through her head. She calls Bill for help and he comes immediately. He checks inside the house and tells her that Bill isn’t there. Sookie talks to Amelia and starts heading home, where her roommate is safely waiting. Bill follows. The two are separated by a traffic light and Sookie hurries home and tries to get inside, but she hears someone behind her and then goes blank.
When Sookie wakes up, there are two faeries around her and she is being restrained. They explain that they are going to torture her to get Niall to agree to Breandan’s terms of surrender. His faery clan wants to seal the bridge between their two worlds. The two faeries tell her that they helped kill her parents. Sookie is tortured for a long time before Bill and Niall arrive. She passes out in the commotion and wakes up in a hospital for supes. Claudine is watching over her until Eric arrives. When her vampire husband does come along, he gives her some blood to help the healing process. He takes her to Bill so she can thank him.
The faeries come to attack. Trey, who was in the bed next to Bill’s is killed, and so is one of Eric’s minions. Sookie is finally able to return home. Niall comes later to tell her that he is going to seal the world from the faery to protect the humans. He leaves telling her that the vampire is a good man, but doesn’t specify which one.