Sookie Stackhouse 13
Charlaine Harris
A business man, Copley Carmichael, and his body guard, Tyresse, in New Orleans go to their meeting with a devil. Their end of the deal is their own souls. The business man pulls out his paper contracts, but the devil says they must sign them in blood. The business man is surprised, but still signs. The devil says they were both bad people, but he’s still happy to have them. The devil gives him a signing bonus for bringing another soul. The business man asks to get back to him on what he wanted. Tyresse wishes for a girl named Gypsy to love him the way he loves her. The devil is disappointed in him. He gives the businessman his card and tells him to call the number when he decides what he wants for his signing bonus. He would use it in June. A preacher is on a beach listening to one of his old sermons when a medium size man comes to talk to him. The preacher says a girl brought about his downfall and put his wife in jail. The medium man asks if it was Sookie Stackhouse and the preacher is surprised he knew. Carmichael meets with the devil again and complains about how his daughter things she has special powers. He tells the devil Tyresse is upset because Gypsy is in love with him, but she was HIV positive and now so is he. Carmichael tells the devil he wants him to find a cluviel dor. The devil explains he can’t get one since the fairies have been expelled from their world. Carmichael wants it to fix his daughter’s life and tells him Sookie has a cluviel dor. Three days later, they meet again and the devil tells Carmichael that Sookie used the cluviel dor. However, he completed his signing bonus because Carmichael had asked him to find the object, which he did. He wants the devil to help him get back at Sookie, but the devil doesn’t have any interest. He nods at a round man that Carmichael doesn’t seem to notice before leaving. Carmichael is furious.
The morning after restoring Sam’s life with the cluviel dor, Sookie wakes up to find Sam on her back porch. He says he feels off and is trying to use nature to reconnect himself. He gets in his truck and drives home without thanking her, which Sookie feels is odd behavior for him. She calls his mom, Bernie, and tells her Sam is going to need her. She calls into work to say she has the flu. Kennedy is suspicious because Sam called in with the same excuse. Arlene Fowler is let out of prison on bail until her trail from a man she has met before. He wants her to have a conversation with Sookie. He admits Sookie has given a lot of people some trouble.
Sookie goes to see Erik, but is told she has to leave Fangtasia. Erik tells her they are going over the contract that night. Pam tells her it isn’t safe for Sookie there anymore. The next morning, Sookie does yard work. Tara comes over for a much needed break from the babies and takes Sookie shopping. A were named Rosanne mentions she saw Sookie’s big display of magic bringing Sam back to life the other night. She thinks Sookie is a powerful witch and is scared of her.
Later at home, Bill comes to visit. He warns her that Karin, Eric’s other child, is coming to Bon Temps. She is a simple creature that doesn’t allow any disparagements about Eric. Sookie is pretty upset that Eric won’t even talk to her and just had Pam send her a text saying they could talk later in the week. Bill thinks Eric is upset because their relationship should have meant more to Sookie than Sam’s life. Th next day, Sookie goes back to work. Kennedy tells her a girl that used to waitress there came in looking for her. Sookie blows it off temporarily. She gets people working and then heads out back to go check on Sam. Bernie is on the porch in dog form. Sookie goes in and Sam is siting alone in the dark. Sam allows Sookie to let some sun in through the curtains. Sam is clearly not okay and says the sunlight bothers him because he died.
Bernie comes in to change into a human and get dressed. Sam had to spend some time relearning things like how to walk. He doesn’t remember what happened to Jannalynn, so Sookie fills him in on what happened that night. Bernie says she wants to talk to Sookie later, and she agrees before going back to work. Arlene comes in and tells Sookie her kids have missed her. Sookie didn’t feel it was appropriate to visit them because Arlene had been part of a plot to murder Sookie. Arlene admits she got caught up in the Fellowship. She wants her job back, but Sookie tells her no because she can’t trust her. Arlene decides she will ask Sam, but Sookie explains she is part owner and does the hiring. Arlene leaves in a huff and Bernie comes in. At her request, Sookie tells Bernie what happened to Sam. Bernie decides Sam is going to be okay and is going to go back home the next day. Arlene meets with the men that got her out of jail and they give her a coin that will allow her to slip past any wards that might be put on Sookie's house. They tell her to get one of Sookie’s scarfs and bring it to them. She agrees to do it.
After work, Sookie runs into Terry Bellefluer at the gas station and finds out he and his girlfriend, Jimmie, got married. Sookie goes home and finds her drawer is pulled out ever so slightly and the inside seems out of order. She doesn’t think much of it and goes about her day. She calls Eric to tell him they need to talk. He is curt and says he can see her the next night. After responding to a few emails and texts, Sookie goes to bed. In the middle of the night, Eric wakes her up. He tells her to ignore what is going to happen the next night and that he is leaving his child, Karin, there for her protection.
The next morning, Sookie goes into work and finds Sam out back staring into the dumpster. She goes over to see what he is looking at and sees Arlene’s body there with something around her neck. The debate moving the body because they both know how it looks like one of them killed her. They decide to do the right thing and leave the body where it is and call the police. Andy Bellefluer questions them both. Sam tells him his mother was with him all night and he can call her to confirm. Sookie is worried her alibi won’t be considered credible because she is a vampire. Andy doesn’t believe either of them killed Arlene and tells them they can open at 3pm. Sookie and Sam sit together for a while. Sam tells her he came back different when she brought him back to life. He hasn’t figured it out yet, but he’ll let her know when he does. The two men call the man that hired them to confirm they did what they were hired to do, but he says they aren’t quite done yet
Once they are finally able to open the bar, the rumors have already started flying around Bon Temps. Sookie tries to keep away from the topic of Arlene as much as possible. Jane Bodehouse, the town drunk, comes in, but Sookie refuses to server her because she is suing the bar from her injuries. Sam backs Sookie up on the decision once she fills him in on the situation. When Jane’s son, Marvin, comes in, he tries to take his mom home. Sookie points out that most bars won’t let in anymore and they always make sure she gets home safe instead of driving. She tells Marvin he will have to stay home with her every night and he says he will lighten up the suit. Sam agrees to pay Jane’s hospital bills. Karin comes to get Sookie, who was not expecting to be summoned this early. Sam tells her to go and she does. She drives Karin out to Fangtasia and is taken to Eric’s office. Felipe and Freyda are there as well. Eric tells her their marriage is over and she agrees to take part in the ceremony. They cut their arms and tell the other the blood is no longer theirs. Sookie is dismissed and she leaves.
Bill was at Sookie’s house when she got home, but he knew better than to interrupt her rage. Before long, Eric is there. He wants to work out a way to keep Sookie, but she refuses to be his girl on the side. She is even more furious when he says he wish he had turned her without her consent. She rescinds his invitation. She is exhausted and goes to bed. When she wakes up, the police are at her house to arrest her for Arlene’s murder. The two men, Johan Glassport and Steve Newlin, have been moving hotel rooms and waiting to be told they have completed their task from their mystery employer. Steve is especially happy thinking of the horrible things that would happen to Sookie while she was in jail.
While being arrested, Sookie noticed Alcee Beck’s brain seemed strange and black to her. All she could tell was that he was determined she belonged in jail. Jason is at the jail when she arrives and she tells him to call her lawyers and Sam. Sookie is put in a cell with Jane Bodehouse, who is sleeping off her hangover. When Jane wakes up, she is confused why Sookie is there. When Sookie tells her they think she killed Arlene, Jane says she saw Arlene while she was having relations with a man in his car. She had met with two men and then was gone before Jane knew what happened to her. Sookie ends up spending the night in Jail and is taken to the courthouse in the morning. Her attorney, Beth Osiecki, is there even though she does not usually do criminal defense cases. A lot of Sookie’s friends were present as well to vouch for her character. The judge goes through the evidence and knows there isn’t much to hold Sookie on. She doesn’t think she is much of a flight risk since all of her ties are in Bon Temps and sets bail for $30,000. Mustafa, Eric’s daytime guy, pays it and Sookie goes home. After washing the jail off of herself, she listens to her messages. The last one is a voicemail from a man telling her she ruined his last chance and he will make her pay. She calls Andy Bellefleur and tells him he needs to come listen to it. She also tells him to tell Alcee Beck to clean out his car.
Sookie ends up going into work even though Sam told her to stay home. The entire time she is there, Sam seems to be avoiding her. Most of the staff and customers are supportive. As Sookie is starting to go home, she sees someone skulking around the woods around Merlots. She calls the police station and tells Kenya. Andy Bellefleur calls later to tell Sookie they traced the call from the mysterious message on her machine to a house in new Orleans owned by Leslie Gelbman that was up for sale and had been broken into. Sookie calls Mr. Cataliades’ office and talks to Diantha. Amelia had a vision about Sookie, so they are all coming to Bon Temps and will be there in the morning. Bill comes over with Harp Powell who says he is writing a book about Kym Rowe’s life. Sookie agrees to talk to him, but his questions get out of hand quickly. Sookie can see he’s been fired from his teaching job and has developed an obsession with vampires. Bill takes him out of there as soon as Sookie points these things out. He apologizes to her. He kisses her lips before he leaves.
The next morning, Sookie calls Sam to ask about her work schedule and he tells her to stay home. Amelia calls to let Sookie know they are about an hour away. Sookie does some last minute cleaning in preparation. They arrive and Barry Horowitz the bellboy from Texas is there. Sookie gets everyone settled in their rooms. When Amelia comes into the kitchen to join Sookie, Sookie asks her about the baby. Amelia is surprised to learn she is pregnant. Barry also sensed the baby and thought Amelia already knew. Sookie and Barry leave Amelia and Bob to deal with their news and Barry tells Sookie his story. He was working for Stan, but his recovery was slow. Joe Velasquez wasn’t able to keep control and a vamp named Brady Burke killed Stan and attacked him. Barry was sleeping with Erica, one of Brady’s donors, and Joseph though he should have been able to warn him. Erica was killed and Mr. Cataliades came to get Barry out of there. Barry mentions Eric’s new arrangement with Freyda, but Sookie changes the subject. She accidentally thinks about her cousin’s son, Hunter, who is also telepathic and Barry picks up on it. She warns her that she will do whatever it takes to protect her five year old cousin. He understands and then tells her about seeing Johan Glassport in New Orleans and his mind was opaque. Mr. Cataliades says he Johan has acquired some sort of protection charm. He asks Amelia to hold off telling the news of her pregnancy to anyone for a day or so. They then prepare to discuss the murder of Arlene.
Sookie tells the group everything she knows. A few suggestions of what they should do are tossed around, but Mr. Cataliades decides they should go into town for lunch. While they are out, Sookie runs into John Quinn, who is looking to help her and joins their group. After lunch, they go to WalMart for groceries before heading back to the house. When they are all settled in the living room, Mr. Cataliades starts to give them more information. Amelia’s father, Copley Carmichael, was dining with a devil and made some sort of deal. He was asking for a cluviel dor. Amelia admits she mentioned it to her father while trying to get his attention and feels horrible about it and promises to help Sookie anyway she can. Mr. Cataliades thinks Copley wants revenge on Sookie for using the cluviel dor before he could get it, but he doesn’t think he was behind Arlene’s murder. He senses the tiredness in the room and calls for a break. Sookie goes on a walk with Quinn. He is upset the mother of his were-tiger offspring won’t let him be involved in the birth or raising of the child because of tradition. He has considered dating, but doesn’t have the heart. They aren’t out long before they notice someone is watching them. Quinn thinks it might be someone part fae. They turn around and go back to the house. When they get to the kitchen, they hide for a few minutes with Barry. When nothing happens, they continue making the dinner Barry had started.
Quinn leaves that night to stay at a hotel. The next morning after breakfast, Sookie sends an email to Sam. She tells him to let her know when she should come back to work and asks him how he’s feeling. Amelia comes in and asks about Sam. Sookie tells her she used the cluviel dor to revive Sam instead of using it to be able to stay with Eric. Amelia points out that Eric may have wanted the cluviel dor for his own reasons. She is glad all he did was break Sookie’s heart. Sookie thinks about it and doesn’t think her heart is really broken, not like with Bill. Amelia points out Bill was the first person that was able to hide something from her.
Mr. Cataliades goes to talk to Sookie’s other lawyer, Beth Osiecki. Barry goes to talk to the Johnsons about Arlene and her plans for the future. Sookie goes to work. She finds Sam is still reserved and she calls him out on it. He looks relieved, but says he swore he wouldn’t tell her anything. When she gets home, she starts going through her drawers. Alcide comes by to take a sniff around her room and finds that Arlene had been in there. Alcide leaves and Barry comes home. Quinn calls to let Sookie know he was checking out the two men and Johan Glassport was around there. He got some other news that he has to set up for Eric and Freyda’s wedding in Oklahoma in two weeks, so he has to leave immediately. Barry tells Sookie that Chessie and Brock Johnson don’t believe she killed Arlene and thought Arlene had seemed nervous when she was there. Arlene had planned on doing something for the two men that would give her a big enough payout to take the kids somewhere and be able to live out the rest of her days with them. Diantha was able to turn herself into the policewoman Kenya and retrieve Sookie’s scarf from evidence while replacing it with a similar scarf. Amelia feels bad that she and Bob haven’t made any progress. She suggests adding more wards around Sookie’s house. Mr. Cataliades takes Sookie aside to tell her her fairy Godmother and great grandfather had left her money from the sale of their properties. Sookie would be getting about $3k/month for the rest of her life.
Alarms go off in the middle of the night and everyone wakes up. They rush out back to find Felipe de Castro’s right hand man, Horst Friedman. Bill comes by because he could feel the magic from his house. Sookie tells him to take the vampire with him to stay on his king’s good side. Amelia and Bob stay up to check their ward while everyone else goes back to bed. Sookie wakes up after everyone else and has a voicemail from Bill. Bill had called Eric to tell him what had been going on. Bill emphasized that Sookie had a lot of friends over to protect her. Eric asked about Sam and laughed when Bill said he hadn’t seen him. Felipe sent his woman, Angie to collect Horst and she didn’t seem too pleased with the matter. Sookie gets up and has breakfast and shortly after, the touch psychic, Delphine Oubre, arrives. Bob instructs them not to give her their names. She uses the scarf to tell them about the murderers and confirm one of them is Johan Glassport. Sookie goes to work and Diantha goes with her. Copley’s bodyguard, Tyresse, is there to kill Sookie for his boss. He has nothing left to lose because his girlfriend committed suicide because she has AIDS and so does he. Towards the end of Sookie’s shift, Mustafa stops in to tell her Eric is leaving the next day and has somethings at Sookie’s house he wants back. Diantha says she is going to stay and wait for Mr. Cataliades. Sookie leaves and leads the way to her house. Before they can go in, Tyresse comes out shooting and Mustafa flings Sookie to the ground to protect her.
Sookie is shot in the shoulder. Warren, who was on the back of Mustafa’s motorcycle, pulls out a gun and kills Tyresse. Warren calls for 2 ambulances. Sookie wakes up in the hospital and asks about Bob. Barry fills her in on what happened and lets her know Bob will be okay. Amelia comes in to apologize for what happened. She had no idea her wards wouldn’t stop someone without a soul. Bob is going to be transported to either Shreveport or New Orleans. Either way, she will be going with him. Sam comes in to see her and holds her hand. Eric is behind him and asks if she wants him to heal her. She declines.
Jason picks up Sookie from the hospital to take her home. An and Michele cleaned up the blood in the house for her and left a casserole. She gets settled and Andy Bellefleur’s wife, Halleigh, came by to visit despite her husband’s opinion of Sookie. Bill comes by to tell Sookie some news about Eric and Sam.
Sookie calls Sam and tells him to come over. She says that Bill told her that Sam had tried to take out a loan against the bar to pay Sookie’s bail, but was denied. So he went to Eric to get the money. Freyda had put conditions on the loan that Sookie wouldn’t enter Oklahoma or ever be alone with Eric. Eric convinced Freyda it would also punish Sookie if Sam promised not to pursue her romantically. Sam admits he wants to be with Sookie. He had spent a lot of time with women he thought were as wild as he was supposed to be. Now he wants to settle down with Sookie. She says she can pay back Eric and do away with their agreement. He helps her with her pain pills and gets her to bed and gives her a note from Mr. Cataliades. He left something for her in her hiding spot while he was out chasing down anyone else that meant her harm. She and Sam check the vampire hole in the spare room closet and find Copley there. Sookie goes to bed and Sam stays there with her in case someone comes around again. The next morning, Sookie wakes up and Tara is there helping out because Sam had to go.
Mr. Cataliades and Diantha take Andy Bellefleur to Alcee Beck’s house. Alcee’s wife is terrified of him when they come out. Alcee allows Diantha to search his car. She finds a talisman and destroys it. He suddenly feels different and needs to lay down. Mr. Cataliades gets a text message from Sookie asking if they left Copley in the closet. Neither he nor Diantha captured him. They go to her house to check it out. Sookie asks them where Barry is and Mr. Cataliades says he was following a familiar brain signature. She shows them the vampire hole and Copley inside it. Pam and Karin come and Karin admits to putting him in there. Karin says she can’t wipe his memory because he doesn’t have a soul. Pam explains the conditions of Eric’s marriage to Freyda, including Sookie not being harmed by vampires. Pam is the new sheriff to everyone’s relief as Freyda did not want Eric to bring his children with him. She uses her blood to heal Sookie’s shoulder. The vampires leave with Copley.
The next morning, the demons leave in search of Barry. Sookie decides to lay out in the sun, but wants her iPod. She heads over to Merlots, but is distracted by Sam when she gets there. She goes to talk to him and they end up having sex. Afterwards, Sam agrees to go line dancing with her, Jason, and Michele later that night. When they get there, Jason and Sookie head out onto the dance floor. It isn’t long before she is grabbed by Steve Newlin and Johan Glassport. Johan stabs the bouncer in their hurry to get Sookie out of there and into the waiting van. Sookie is shocked to find Claude is driving.
Claude explains Niall was having him tortured until one of his followers freed him. He tells her he hates her because Niall wanted to close off Faery for her, but she points out he was going to do that anyway. She tells him she never hated him, and he points out she didn’t want to have sex with him. She reminds him that he is gay and the other two men become enraged. Claude uses his fairy magic to make them feel attraction toward each other. Wen Claude stops the spell, Steve and Johan are furious and attack him. The van goes off the road and into a corn field. Sookie uses the distraction to open the back door and jump out. She starts running through the cornfield away from them until she hears other cars. She goes back towards them and finds people had followed them when they left the bar. Johan follows Sookie out of the corn and is shot dead. Claude attacks Steve and throws him to the ground. Steve hits his head causing and injury that will kill him later. Claude is being put into handcuffs when Sookie yells out that he will be put in human jail. Claude starts to rebel and is shot dead as well. The man that shot him was a war veteran and isn’t happy about killing another person. Sookie says she would have done it herself if she had a gun.
When Sookie gets home, Mr. Cataliades and Diantha have returned with a beaten up Barry. Steve and Johan had found him and wanted to know where Hunter was (Claude had told them). Realizing that Barry has no where to go, Sookie call’s Sam’s mom, Bernie to ask if she’d be willing to take him in. She agrees. Mr. Cataliades agrees to get Barry there after he has been to a hospital. Amelia writes to let Sookie know that Bob was transferred to a hospital in New Orleans and will recover. Sookie later attends Jason and Michele’s wedding. Sam asks about how Claude got out of Faery and Sookie tells him about a note she found growing on a rose bush. It was from Niall who explained he was trying to draw out any more traitors. They agree to take their relationship slow.