THURSDAY, MARCH 17. Sookie leaves the house early to go to the grocery store and to Tara’s Togs to get a new outfit for her date. Once at Tara’s shop, she waits while Portia Bellefleur makes plans with Tara to outfit a double wedding. Not only are Andy and Halleigh getting married; so are Portia and her fiancé, Glen. After an excited Portia leaves with a catalog, Tara happily helps Sookie pick out an outfit. Sookie then heads to the store and back home in time to fix lunch for Jason. Her brother arrives and tells her that Crystal has suffered a miscarriage. Crystal refuses to go to the hospital because she is afraid of the personnel noticing the advanced healing abilities of the shifters. Sookie calls Dr. Ludwig, the physician who treated her for the maenad poisoning and who attended the packmaster contest, and arranges to have the doctor meet with Jason and head over to his house.
Sookie is dismayed to find Father Riordan waiting for her with the Pelts in Sam’s office when she gets to work. She is once again forced to deny being involved with Debbie’s disappearance. Sam gets a phone call letting him know Holly’s son is missing from his school, and Sookie hurries over to see if she can help with her special ability. She finally locates the injured child in a trash bin, where he was hidden by the custodian after she thought she had accidentally killed him. Returning to the bar, Sookie is suspicious of the new barmaid, Tanya Grissom, whom Sam has called in to cover for Holly.
Sookie gets another visitor that night in the person of Calvin Norris, Crystal’s uncle and the leader of the Hotshot panthers. They discuss Calvin’s interest in Sookie, and he reluctantly acknowledges that they are not meant to be.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18. Dressed and ready for her date with Quinn, Sookie is surprised when Eric arrives on her doorstep. He is not pleased to see her looking beautiful for another man, and they are arguing when Quinn arrives. He not only establishes his interest in Sookie but calmly informs Eric that the queen intends for Sookie to be in her retinue at the vampire summit. They leave a fuming Eric and head for the theater in Shreveport. Sookie and Quinn enjoy each other’s company, and Sookie is pleased that she can read only admiration from Quinn, who apparently has no fear of her gift. As they are leaving the theater after the show, two young half-changed werewolves attack them in the parking lot. Sookie is slightly injured as Quinn fights them off. The police arrive. They are questioned by the police, who are somewhat uneasy about the power that Quinn has displayed. After their questioning, Quinn takes Sookie to a werewolf bar, the Hair of the Dog, where he challenges the local pack over the attack on Sookie, who has been named a friend of the pack. As they return to the car, the attraction between them explodes, and Sookie decides that she needs to go more carefully with Quinn.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19. Sookie doesn’t hear from Quinn the next day but does read in the newspaper that two juveniles were found strangled in the Shreveport holding cells—Sookie and Quinn’s attackers had been silenced. A lovely female vampire comes into Merlotte’s that night and introduces herself as Felicia, the new bartender at Fangtasia. She informs Sookie that Pam has told her to beg for her mercy, as Fangtasia bartenders don’t last long around Sookie.
SUNDAY, MARCH 20. Sookie is suspicious and displeased when Tanya Grissom arrives at her house uninvited and makes obvious overtures of friendship. Sookie’s inhospitable attitude soon sends the shifter away, but her negative feelings are soothed when Quinn calls and they set up another date for the following night. Much to her surprise, Mr. Cataliades soon arrives, expecting her to be ready to accompany him back to New Orleans to settle her late cousin Hadley’s estate. He is equally surprised that his niece Gladiola did not deliver his message and sets out with his other niece, Diantha, to find Glad’s body, knowing that only death would have kept her from her task. Diantha locates Gladiola, cloven in two, at the edge of the woods, and Diantha and her uncle burn the body in Sookie’s driveway. Sookie goes to Sam’s trailer to arrange the time off and leaves the two supes to their solemn pyre. Remembering that Bill has asked if he can join her when she travels to New Orleans, Sookie calls him to let him know they will be leaving soon. As they travel, Sookie tells her companions about the Were attack in Shreveport and about the visit she and Quinn paid to Hair of the Dog. Bill is unhappy because it’s clear Quinn is becoming a part of Sookie’s life. When Sookie asks Mr. Cataliades’s opinion, he suggests that Quinn knows that the Shreveport pack may already be planning a challenge to the new packmaster.
Arriving at Hadley’s apartment in New Orleans, Bill again offers to help. Exhausted, Sookie just wants to be left alone to rest.
MONDAY, MARCH 21. The landlady and apartment owner, Amelia Broadway, who is also a practicing witch, startles Sookie awake. She assures Sookie that wards and a stasis spell (which has kept the place just as it was on the day Hadley died) have protected the apartment. After Amelia returns to her own apartment downstairs, Sookie begins to explore and is disturbed when she finds bloodstained towels in the bathroom hamper. She opens the hall closet and discovers a man’s body. Realizing the body must have been there since Hadley died, she goes in search of Amelia to tell her they have a problem. They have just decided that the stasis spell has kept the body from decomposing when Sookie notices the man’s fingers moving. She realizes they have a rising vampire to deal with. Amelia just has time to call for help before they are attacked and must fight for their lives against the hungry new vampire, Jake Purifoy, a Were. Both are seriously wounded before they are rescued by the vampire police.
While she is awaiting treatment at the hospital, Sookie is surprised by Eric’s arrival. She accuses him of following her. He reminds her of the bond that exists between them because he has given her his blood. He also tells her that he has met with the queen to negotiate for Sookie’s services at the vampire summit. As they are talking, Bill suddenly appears, much to Eric’s displeasure. When Bill accuses Eric of tiring Sookie and asks him to leave, an angry Eric retaliates by forcing Bill to disclose what Eric discovered when he met with Sophie-Anne. Bill confesses that he was sent to Bon Temps by the queen to attract Sookie’s notice and even to seduce her in an effort to gain the use of her gift. Her heart broken by Bill’s betrayal, a physically and emotionally devastated Sookie stumbles back to the apartment.
TUESDAY, MARCH 22. Claudine and Amelia are at Sookie’s bedside when she awakes in deep emotional pain. Claudine reveals that she is Sookie’s fairy godmother, sworn to protect her, and tells Amelia the reason for Sookie’s unhappiness. They decide they need to determine how Jake was killed and turned, so Amelia suggests an ectoplasmic reconstruction of the events on the day of Hadley’s death. Amelia leaves to make preparations, and Claudine explains to Sookie that she must keep her appointment with the queen that evening. They leave to shop for the perfect dress and accessories.
Sookie, correctly clad, arrives at Sophie-Anne’s headquarters and is admitted to the queen’s presence by her twin bodyguards, Sigebert and Wybert. The queen introduces her new husband, the King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill. His personal bodyguard, Jade Flower, stands guard behind her king with a long sword strapped to her back. Sophie-Anne’s personal bodyguard, Andre Paul, armed with a saber and a gun, stands guard behind his queen as well. As Sookie and the queen discuss the conversion of Jake Purifoy, Sookie tells Sophie-Anne about the planned ectoplasmic reconstruction. The queen agrees to pay the expenses of the ritual and declares that she wishes to witness it. She inquires briefly after Bill, and Sookie rather sharply informs her that they are no longer a couple. As they ready themselves to go, the king insists that Jade Flower accompany Sookie and Sophie-Anne.