Dead and Gone

“You’re great,” I said.

“Thanks. Listen, I’m really worried about Tray. I tried calling him back after a few minutes, but he didn’t answer. I hope he’s just sleeping it off, but I’m going over there after I leave work. Why don’t you meet me there? We can figure out what to do about getting you some more security.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll come over right after I get off work, probably around five.” Phone in my hand, I jumped out and grabbed the mail from my mailbox, which sat up on Hummingbird Road. Then I got back in my car quick as I could.

That had been stupid. I could have gone without checking the mail for one day. Habits are very hard to break, even when they’re unimportant habits. “I really am lucky you live with me, Amelia,” I said. That might have been spreading it on a little thick, but it was the absolute truth.

But Amelia had gone off on another mental path. “You’re speaking to Jason again? You told him? Aboutthings ?”

“Yeah, I had to. Great-grandfather can’t have everything his own way. Stuff has happened.”

“It always does, around you,” Amelia said. She didn’t sound angry, and she wasn’t condemning me.

“Not always,” I said after a sharp moment of doubt.In fact, I thought, as I turned left at the end of Hummingbird Road to go to my brother’s,that point Jason made about everything changing when the vamps came out . . . that just might have been something I really agree with .

Prosaically, I realized my car was almost out of gas. I had to pull into Grabbit Quik. While I was pumping the liquid gold into my car, I fell back to puzzling over what Jason had told me. What would be urgent enough to bring a reclusive and human-hating half fairy to Jason’s door? Why would he tell Jason . . . ? I shouldn’t be thinking about this.

This was stupid, and I should be watching out for myself instead of trying to solve Jason’s problems.

But after a few more seconds of turning the conversation over in my head, I began to have a sneaking suspicion that I understood it a little better.

I called Calvin. At first he didn’t get what I was saying, but then he agreed to meet me at Jason’s house.

I caught a glimpse of Jason in the backyard when I pulled into the circular driveway of the neat, small house my dad had built when he and my mother were first married. It was out in the country, out farther west than Arlene’s trailer, and though it was visible from the road, it had a pond and several acres lying behind it. My dad had loved to hunt and fish, and my brother did, too. Jason had recently put in a makeshift range, and I could hear the rifle.

I decided to come through the house, and I took care to yell when I was at the back door.

“Hey!” Jason called back. He had a 30-30 in his hands. It had been our father’s. Mel was standing behind him, holding a box of ammo. “We decided we better get in some practice.”

“Good idea. I wanted to be sure you didn’t think I was your crazy caller, come back to yell some more.”

Jason laughed. “I still don’t understand what good Dermot thought he’d do, coming up to the front door like that.”

“I think I do,” I said.

Jason held out his hand without looking, and Mel gave him some bullets. Jason opened the rifle and began loading. I looked over at the sawhorse he’d set up, noted all the empty milk jugs lying on the ground. He’d filled them with water so they’d sit steady, and thanks to the bullet holes, the water was flowing out onto the ground.

“Good shooting,” I said. I took a deep breath. “Hey, Mel, you want to tell me about Hotshot funerals? I haven’t ever been to one, and Crystal’s will take place as soon as the body comes back, I reckon.”

Mel looked a little surprised. “You know I haven’t lived out there for years,” he protested. “It’s just not for me.” Except for the fading bruises, he didn’t look like he’d been thrown across the room by anyone, much less a crazed half fairy.

“I wonder why that guy threw you around instead of Jason,” I said, and felt Mel’s thoughts ripple with fear. “Are you hurt?”

He moved his right shoulder a little. “I thought I’d broken something. But I guess it’s just going to be sore. I wonder what he was. Not one of us.”

He hadn’t answered my question, I noticed.

Jason looked proud that he hadn’t blabbed.

“He’s not entirely human,” I said.

Mel looked relieved. “Well, that’s good to know,” he said. “My pride was pretty much shot to hell when he threw me around. I mean, I’m a full-blood panther, and it was like I was kindling or something.”

Jason laughed. “I thought he’d come on in and kill me then, thought I was a goner. But once Mel was down, this guy just started talking to me. Mel was playing possum, and here’s this fella looks a lot like me, telling me what a favor he’s done me . . .”

“It was weird,” Mel agreed, but he looked uncomfortable. “You know I’d’ve been on my feet if he’d started punching on you, but he really rang my bell, and I figured I might as well stay down once it looked like he wasn’t going to go after you.”

“Mel, I hope you’re really okay.” I made my voice concerned, and I moved a little closer. “Let me have a look at that shoulder.” I extended my hand, and Jason’s eyebrows knit together.

“Why do you need to . . . ?” An awful suspicion was creeping over his face. Without another word, he stepped behind his friend and held him firm, his hands gripping Mel on either side right below Mel’s shoulders. Mel winced with pain, but he didn’t say anything, not a word; he didn’t even pretend to be indignant or surprised, and that was almost enough.

I put a hand on either side of Mel’s face, and I closed my eyes, and I looked in his head. And this time Mel was thinking about Crystal, not Jason.

“He did it,” I said. I opened my eyes and looked at my brother’s face across Mel’s shoulder. I nodded.

Jason screamed, and it wasn’t a human sound. Mel’s face seemed to melt, as if all the muscles and bones had shifted. He hardly looked human at all.

“Let me look at you,” Mel pleaded.

Jason looked confused, since Melwas looking at me; he couldn’t look anywhere else, the way Jason was holding him. Mel wasn’t struggling, but I could see every muscle under his skin standing out, and I didn’t think he’d be passive forever. I bent down and picked up the rifle, glad Jason had reloaded it.

“He wants to look at you, not me,” I told my brother.

“Goddammit,” Jason said. His breathing was heavy and ragged as if he’d been ru

I stepped back and raised the rifle. At this distance, even I couldn’t miss. “Turn him around, since he wants to talk to you face-to-face.”

They were in profile to me when Jason spun Mel around. Jason’s grip refastened on the werepanther, but now Jason’s face was a foot from Mel’s.

Calvin walked around the house. Crystal’s sister, Dawn, was with him. There was also a boy of about fifteen trailing along. I remembered meeting the boy at the wedding. He was Jacky, Crystal’s oldest first cousin. Adolescents practically reek of emotion and confusion, and Jacky was no exception. He was struggling to conceal the fact that he was both nervous and excited. Maintaining a cool demeanor was just killing him.

The three newcomers took in the scene. Calvin shook his head, his face solemn. “This is a bad day,” he said quietly, and Mel jerked at the sound of his leader’s voice.

Some of the tension leaked out of Jason when he saw the other werepanthers.

“Sookie says he did it,” he said to Calvin.

“That’s good enough for me,” Calvin said. “But, Mel—you should tell us yourself, brother.”

“I’m not your brother,” Mel said bitterly. “I haven’t lived with you for years.”

“That was your own choice,” Calvin said. He walked around so he could see Mel’s face, and the other two followed him. Jacky was snarling; any pretense at being cool had vanished. The animal was showing through.