When I giggled out loud, he stirred and looked at me.
“How you feeling?” he asked sternly.
“Okay,” I said. “I must be taking some excellent painkillers.” I was aware that my shoulder really hurt, but I didn’t care very much.
“Dr. Tonnesen took care of you. We got to talk, now that you’re awake.”
While Andy took me through the story of what had happened that evening, all I could think about was how weird it was that he and Alcee had the same initials. I pointed out that fact to Andy, and he gave me a look of sheer incredulity. “Sook, I’m going to come back to talk to you tomorrow,” he said. “You ain’t making any sense.”
“Did you tell Alcee to search his car? There’s something bad in there,” I said solemnly. “Now I’ve told you three times. He should do it. Do you think he’d let a friend of mine check it?”
Andy looked at me, and this time I could tell he was taking me seriously. “Could be,” he said. “Could be I’d let someone do it if I was standing right there. Because Alcee ain’t acting like himself, not at all.”
“Okeydokey,” I said. “I’ll take care of that just as soooooon as I can.”
“Doc’s just keeping you for the night, she says.”
“Good.”
As soon as Andy left, Barry came in. He looked like he’d been rode hard and put up wet. There were actually circles under his eyes. He told me what had happened in my house.
“How’s Bob doing?” I asked him out loud. I couldn’t even think at him, I was so out of it.
“He’s alive,” Barry said. “He’s stable. Of course, that’s where Amelia is.”
“Where’s Mr. C and Diantha?” I asked.
“Don’t you want to know who the dead man was?”
“Oh. Sure. Who?”
“Tyrese Marley,” Barry said.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Of course, I’m really on some drugs. Excellent drugs. Tyrese split some firewood for me the last time he was at the house. But why was Tyrese at my house, and why did he try to shoot me?”
“You should see the inside of your head, Sookie. It’s like a rainbow in there. Tyrese drove Copley Carmichael’s car, but he left it in the cemetery and walked through the woods to your house.”
“So where is Copley? Did they really sell their souls?”
“No one knows where Copley is, but I’ll tell you what Tyrese told us . . .”
Barry told me about Tyrese’s Gypsy, about the HIV, about Copley’s conviction that by using the cluviel dor (Barry had trouble explaining that part since he didn’t know much of anything about the cluviel dor) I had robbed Copley of regaining possession of Amelia and her life.
I listened to all this with very little comprehension. “I don’t get why Tyrese would set off to kill me when he learned that Gypsy was dead. Why wouldn’t he shoot Amelia’s dad? It was his fault.”
“My point exactly!” Barry sounded triumphant. “But Tyrese was like a gun pointed in one direction, and her suicide pulled the trigger.”
I shook my head very, very gently. “How’d he even get to the house? Amelia and Bob put wards on the house,” I pointed out with great clarity.
“The difference between the vampire who got fried and Tyrese . . . Well, there are two big differences,” Barry said. “Tyrese was a live human without a soul. The vampire was a dead person. The wards stopped him, not Tyrese. I don’t know what to make of that, and when Amelia can spare time to think of it, maybe she can tell us. Maybe we can talk about it tomorrow, okay?” he said. “Meanwhile, there are some other people waiting to see you.”
Sam came in silently. His hand found mine.
“You gonna tell me what’s wrong?” I whispered. I was fading into sleep.
“I can’t,” he said. “But I couldn’t stay away when I heard you got shot.”
And then Eric was behind him.
My hand must have jerked, because Sam’s tightened around it. I could tell from his face that he knew Eric was there.
“Heard you were going,” I said, with an effort.
“Yes, very soon. How are you? Do you want me to heal you?” I couldn’t interpret his voice or the fact that he was here. I was too exhausted to try.
“No, Eric,” I said, and I only sounded flat. I just couldn’t find nice words. “Good-bye. We need to let go of each other. I can’t do this anymore.”
Eric glared at Sam. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Sam came because I was shot, Eric. That’s what friends do,” I said. Each word was a labor to enunciate.
Sam didn’t turn to Eric, didn’t look him in the eye. I held on to his hand so I wouldn’t drift away.
Eric spoke once again. “I will not release you.” I frowned. He seemed to be speaking to Sam. Then he walked out of the hospital room.
What the hell? “Release you from what?” I said, trying to will Sam to tell me what was going on.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Don’t worry, Sookie.” And he kept my hand.
I fell asleep. When I woke up hours later, he was gone.
Chapter 17
Before I checked out of the hospital the next day about noon, Amelia came in. She looked exactly like someone who’d been held hostage by an armed gunman and watched her boyfriend get shot and sat up all night by a hospital bed. Which is a long way of saying she looked like hell.
“How are you?” She stood by the bed and looked down at me, swaying slightly on her feet.
“Better than you, I think.” My head was a lot clearer today. I was going to defer the painkillers until I got home.
“Bob’s going to be okay,” she said.
“That’s a huge relief. I’m so glad. You going to stay here?”
“No, he’s being transferred to Shreveport. The best I can tell, once he’s had a day there, they’ll reevaluate. Maybe they’ll be able to send him down to New Orleans, which would really be better for me, but maybe he’ll have to stay in Shreveport if transporting him would be too hard on him.”
A lot of uncertainty. “Any word from your father?”
“No, and none from Diantha and Mr. C, either.”
There were ears all around at the hospital, and we didn’t need to say any more to know we were both worried about that silence.
“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly.
“About your dad? You didn’t have anything to do with it. That’s all on him. And I’m sorry about Bob.”
“Totally not your fault. We okay?”
“We’re okay. Please let me know how he progresses. And the baby.” I could feel the presence of another mind—but not any thoughts, of course. This baby was going to be an exceptional witch; I’d never been able to detect a pregnancy this early.
“Yeah, I told the ER doctor, and she gave me a quick exam. Everything seems okay. She gave me the name of an ob-gyn in Shreveport, in case Bob stays there.”
“Sounds good.”
“Oh, and the wards. Sorry. I couldn’t have known that a soulless person wouldn’t be affected, so I think I can give myself a pass on that one. How often do you meet someone with no soul?”
“You’ve got a new piece of lore to tell your coven,” I said, and Amelia brightened a bit, as I’d known she would. “Evidently Bill came by here last night while I was out of it, and he left me a note. I can see his handwriting. Would you mind handing it to me?” I pointed to the rolling table, which a nurse had shoved against the wall. Obligingly, Amelia handed me the envelope. I’d read it when she left.
“Sam came by to ask if I needed anything,” Amelia told me.
“Not surprised. He’s a good guy.” And if I felt well enough, next time I saw him I was going to shake the hell out of him, because I wanted to know what was going on between him and Eric.