Arlene—Sookie’s co-worker and onetime friend, who quit over the shifters coming out—calls, claiming she wants to make amends. Sookie is suspicious and stealthily approaches Arlene’s trailer. She is horrified to learn that Arlene’s friends from the Fellowship of the Sun are planning on crucifying her, although she realizes that they were not the ones who killed Crystal. She is able to call Andy Bellefleur, and police and FBI agents soon arrive, but a shoot-out ensues, killing one of the Fellowship of the Sun members and injuring one of the agents. Hearing that there has been trouble, Alcide sends Tray to guard Sookie. She asks for the protection promised by Felipe, but only Bubba comes to her aid. Both he and Tray are sickened by enemy fairies. Sookie is forced to tell Jason about their fairy heritage when he is confronted in his house by their great-uncle Dermot, who is trying to tell him that his friend and fellow werepanther Mel Hart killed Crystal. Mel admits having been goaded by Crystal and striking her but denies crucifying her. Sookie leaves as Jason, Calvin, Crystal’s sister, and their cousin exact justice for Crystal. When Sookie is unable to get an answer from either Tray or Amelia, who have been dating, she calls Bill for help. He enters Tray’s house to find blood, not all of it the Were’s, and follows Sookie back to her house. She loses him at a light. Sookie decides to run from her car into her house, knowing Amelia is waiting, but she is seized by two of Breandan’s fairies, Lochlan and Neave. They take her to a deserted house in Arkansas to torture her, hoping her abduction will induce Niall to cede his right to the fairy throne. She is rescued along with Tray by Niall and Bill, who is badly injured by Neave and her silver-tipped teeth. Taken to Dr. Ludwig’s hospital, Sookie is given blood by Eric to heal, since they are sure the fairies are going to attack soon. Breandan and his forces arrive, determined to wipe out the opposition. A pregnant Claudine dies, along with Eric’s henchman Clancy, and Tray. The severely wounded Bill kills Breandan as he goes for Sookie. Sookie sadly surveys the carnage as Niall arrives, having defeated Breandan’s forces on every front. Sookie is home trying to recover when Niall visits and meets Jason for the first time. He tells them that he will seal off Faery because the fairies are too dangerous to humankind, and kisses his great-grandchildren good-bye.
Sookie and Eric continue to strengthen their relationship as Sookie tries to restore her physical and mental health. She reestablishes her connection with Jason as well, happy to see him seemingly settled in a good relationship. She allows the Weres to have their full-moon run on her property. They tell her that fairies have been in her woods and that there is a body buried there. Realizing that the body must be Debbie Pelt’s, Sookie tells Eric when she visits him in Shreveport; but she forgets to tell him that Claude has moved in, seeking the company of family and fairy. As Pam is driving Sookie home, they are stopped by Bruno Brazell, Victor’s second, and a female vampire named Corinna. Pam tells Sookie that Victor’s vampires are going to try to kill them. Sookie and Pam manage to turn the tables.
Feeling safe from any threat for the moment, Sookie agrees to watch Hunter overnight while Remy attends a family funeral. Sookie tries to help Hunter cope with his ability and works with him to control it—and what he says about it. After Remy picks him up the next day, Eric awakens in the hidey-hole and they spend the evening together until Eric’s maker, Appius Livius Ocella, and his child Alexei arrive. Since Sookie was told earlier that a second body lies in her woods, Eric is convinced it has been planted there by the Weres. He contacts Alcide, who soon arrives with a small coterie. The whole party troops out to the woods, where the remains of Alcide’s second, Basim al Saud, are discovered.
Bill decides to deliver the family Bible to Caroline Bellefleur when he is told she has inquired about it, and he asks Sookie to accompany him as he reveals his family connection to the dying Caroline. Sookie is worried at his inability to recover from the silver poisoning. Upon discovering that his maker’s blood would have helped him, she uses his database to seek out his sibling, Judith, hoping her blood will serve the same purpose. When Judith arrives, Sookie tells her of the death of her maker, and the vampire happily heads off to help Bill. The following evening, Sookie and Jason attend the Were meeting, where Sookie acts as shaman and identifies the murderers of Basim. Afterward, she feels that something is wrong with Eric, and they rush to his house to find both Eric and Pam badly injured, and Bobby Burnham and vampire bartender Felicia dead—all at the hands of Alexei, who has descended into madness. Sookie drives Eric to her house, where they find Ocella, his back broken by Alexei, lying helpless as Alexei teasingly attacks Claude and an unknown fairy in her yard. Sookie is able to subdue Alexei with a silver chain so Eric can stake him. As she approaches Ocella, considering killing him, she decides instead to ask him to kill Victor Madden in return for sparing his life. While leaning over him, she is attacked by the second fairy, Colman, the father of the late Claudine’s unborn child. Ocella mentally urges her to move out of the way and takes Colman’s sword thrust himself. Colman is stunned by his deed and by the knife suddenly lodged in his back, and Eric is able to seize him and drain him. Sookie’s great-uncle Dermot emerges from the woods, having thrown the knife to save her, and she realizes that he has been bespelled. She and Claude are able to break the spell. After Eric leaves, the fairies climb into bed with her and she relaxes, surrounded by family.
Sookie is working the evening a Molotov cocktail is thrown through the window at Merlotte’s, and she suffers singed hair and skin as she helps put out the flames. Business at the bar has been sparse lately, due to a rival establishment opening nearby, and she, Sam, and the other employees worry that Merlotte’s clientele will dwindle even more when word of the firebombing gets around. Eric arrives, having felt her panic through their blood bond, and sends for Pam and a hairdresser. As Sookie showers after getting her hair trimmed, she comes to the conclusion that the thoughts she picked up from outside just before the bomb was thrown did not come from a human. She is stunned when Eric and Pam come to blows in her kitchen, and then angry at the damage they are doing. When the vampires calm down, she sends them both home.