ERIC: “Area Six in Texas has need of your services.”
BILL: “For what purpose?”
ERIC: “A vampire is missing, a nest mate of the Area Six sheriff. You and Sookie will help locate him.”
BILL: “Sookie?”
ERIC: “Yes, per our agreement, Sookie will assist us.”
BILL: “I believe her agreement was that she would assist you.”
ERIC: “And so she shall. It will be of assistance to me to have the sheriff of Area Six in my debt. You will bring Sookie here tomorrow night, and I will inform her of the assignment.”
Phone: Bill calling Eric after Sookie’s escape from the Fellowship of the Sun.
BILL: “Eric, we have raided the Fellowship. Sookie has gone but there is a dead man with her scent. I believe she had help escaping. We came upon a car accident. Sookie and a shifter were in the car and they were taken to the hospital, but Sookie’s name disappeared from their computers even as I asked about her.”
ERIC: “I’ll go outside and check for her. Perhaps she is unwilling to enter by herself.”
BILL: “Or unable.”
ERIC: “She is strong, Bill. She will be found.”
Phone: Eric calling Bill later that same evening.
ERIC: “Bill, she is here. Some shapeshifters brought her in.”
BILL: “How is she? Is she badly injured?”
ERIC: “Battered but walking.”
BILL: “Can she get into our room? I will be right there.”
ERIC: “Bill, I’ll take her up and start doctoring.”
BILL: “Don’t try anything, Eric. She is mine.”
ERIC: “Bill.”
BILL: “I mean it, Eric. This is not the time for your games. I will be there shortly.”
ERIC: “All right then. Good-bye.”
Phone: Eric calling Bill.
ERIC: “Bill, the shifters in Dallas have contacted Stan about compensation for their aid. He feels their demands are too much, and I agree. I need you to go back to Dallas and parley with them.”
BILL: “You made the original deal with them, Eric. Surely this is your responsibility.”
ERIC: “I have another, more important matter to attend to.”
BILL: “And that would be?”
ERIC: “The maenad was not satisfied with our tribute. While you are in Dallas negotiating with the shifters, I will be in the woods of Bon Temps negotiating with her.”
BILL: “Your tribute was substandard?”
ERIC: “Our tribute was a perfectly acceptable bull, a magnificent specimen, and I didn’t hear you making any better suggestions. She is just being difficult, as usual. I can only be grateful that she has remained in Bon Temps for whatever reason. There’s been no sign of her in Shreveport, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
BILL: “I’ll fly to Dallas this evening.”
ERIC: “I may ask Sookie to join me as a sign of good faith that I understood the importance of Callisto’s message to me.”
BILL: “I would prefer you didn’t.”
ERIC: “Ah, but nonetheless, I still may.”
BILL: “Eric, once again, I remind you that she is mine.”
ERIC: “For now.”
BILL: “And you will do nothing to change that.”
ERIC: “For now.”
BILL: “Eric, even you cannot so flout the rules.”
ERIC: “Of course not, Bill. I accept that Sookie is yours, by her own choice. But should she ever indicate that she is no longer interested in that status . . .”
BILL: “That won’t happen.”
ERIC: “But if it should?”
BILL: “Then you would be within the rules to pursue her yourself.”
ERIC: “Exactly.”
BILL: “But you agree that you will not make overtures?”
ERIC: “I agree.”
As this book was written prior to Definitely Dead and the inclusion of Hurricane Katrina into the series story line, which established a definite time frame for the events of the series, the events in Club Dead do not correspond with the actual full moon.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004. Sookie goes to Bill’s house after work and is devastated that Bill has become so consumed with work that he rebuffs her attempts at intimacy. He tells her he is leaving for Seattle soon and that he has been working on a secret project for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the vampire Queen of Louisiana. He also tells her that he is planning to hide his computer equipment in the hidey-hole in her closet while he is gone. If anything happens to him before he brings the computer, Bill asks Sookie to go to his house during the day and get it. Sookie is even more disturbed when she realizes he is lying to her about where he is going.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2. Sookie deliberately drives by Belle Rive, the Bellefleur home, and sees the work being done courtesy of the mysterious legacy left them by a relative who had “died mysteriously over in Europe somewhere.” She knows that the legacy actually came from Bill, whom the Bellefleurs despise, and Sookie tries not to be bitter though she herself struggles with money problems.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3. Bill calls to let Sookie know he has arrived safely in “Seattle.”
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6. Much to Sookie’s surprise, Bubba shows up at her door and tells her that Eric has sent him to guard her. When Sookie arrives at work with Bubba in tow, she is attacked by a Were wearing a gang vest, but Bubba saves the day. Pam soon arrives and explains that Bill is missing and that he has been in Jackson, Mississippi, not Seattle. Pam calls Eric and puts Sookie on the phone. Eric tells Sookie to be careful until he can get over to her house to explain. She goes home and cries herself to sleep.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7. A depressed Sookie spends the day in bed, rousing only long enough to confirm that Bill has left his computer equipment in the closet hidey-hole. When she awakens again, she finds Eric with her, and he forces her to get up and dressed. Eric tells her that humans who live in the kingdom of Mississippi have informed him that Bill has been kidnapped. He speaks of the work Bill was doing for the Queen of Louisiana and eventually reveals that Bill had actually gone to Mississippi to see a vampire that he had been involved with long ago. He had become enamored with her again but had planned to return to Bon Temps to make “financial arrangements” for Sookie’s care. Eric admits that he has not informed the queen of the kidnapping or Bill’s missing project because of fears she will punish him and Pam for Bill’s misadventure. He asks Sookie to go to Jackson with a Were who owes him a debt, and use her “gift” to try to discover where Bill is being held. Sookie agrees to try to find and rescue Bill.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8–THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9. Sookie prepares to leave for Jackson.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10. Alcide Herveaux arrives to take Sookie to Jackson. They are immediately at ease and realize they are attracted to each other.
Once in Jackson, Alcide suggests that Sookie visit his sister’s beauty salon while he takes care of some business, and she learns that his ex-girlfriend, Debbie Pelt, will be celebrating her engagement that evening. Later, Sookie and Alcide eat at the Mayflower Café before heading for Josephine’s, a supe club. Debbie is indeed at the club, and since Sookie is posing as Alcide’s new love, she immediately earns Debbie’s hatred. Alcide realizes Sookie’s talent, and they use it to put Debbie in her place.
Sookie casts about in Josephine’s to see if she can “hear” anything about Bill. Sookie zeros in on a human with a vampire at the bar and finds that Bill is being tortured for information about the work he has been doing. When Sookie is assaulted by Jerry Falcon, a Were gang member, she is rescued by the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, who insists that she and Alcide return to Josephine’s the next night as his guests. Sookie and Alcide return to Alcide’s apartment and are surprised by a visit from Eric, who has come to Mississippi himself to keep an eye on things.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11. Alcide runs errands in the morning, so Sookie finds herself back at Janice’s salon. Later that afternoon, she and Alcide sit down for a friendly game of Scrabble, and afterward, while putting the game away, Sookie discovers the source of an odor both had been noticing: the body of Jerry Falcon, his neck broken, has been stuffed in Alcide’s hall closet. They work together to dispose of the body, fearing they will be blamed for the murder. The moon is full as they return that evening to Club Dead, the locals’ name for Josephine’s. As they are chatting with the guests at Edgington’s table, Sookie “hears” the thoughts of a human assassin who plans to stake Edgington’s second-in-command, Betty Joe Pickard. While attempting to foil the attack, Sookie is staked and seriously injured. Compelled to shift by the full moon and the excitement of the blood, Alcide runs after the would-be killer’s accomplice. It is left to a thinly disguised Eric to assist Sookie. Edgington insists that they return to his compound, where one of his people can use his healing gift to save Sookie.