There was a moment of silence.

“I was at his apartment when you called,” she said, and I could tell the effort she was expending to keep her voice calm and level. “I had been there a few hours.”

Wow. Unexpected revelation. Jason had hopped out of the grave, and he and I gave each other big eyes. This was like one of Gran’s “stories,” the soap operas she’d watched religiously.

Alcide growled. The ritual howling for the dead had brought out the wolf in him.

“I know,” Annabelle said. “And we’ll talk about it later. I’ll take my punishment, which I deserve. But Basim’s death is more important than my bad judgment. This is my duty, to tell you what happened. Basim got a phone call before yours, and he didn’t want me to hear it. But I heard enough to understand his conversation was with someone who was paying him.”

Alcide’s growl intensified. Jannalynn was standing close to her pack sister, and the only way I can put it was that she was aimed at Annabelle. She was crouching slightly, her hands curved as if they were about to sprout claws.

Alexei had edged close to Jason, and when the tension kept ratcheting up, Jason’s arm slung around the boy’s shoulders. Jason was having the same problem separating illusion and reality that I was.

Annabelle flinched at the sound coming from Alcide, but she kept on going. “So Basim made up an excuse to get me out of the apartment, and he took off. I tried to follow him, but I lost him.”

“You were suspicious,” Jannalynn said. “But you didn’t call the packmaster. You didn’t call me. You didn’t call anyone. We took you in and made you a member of our pack, and you betrayed us.” Suddenly, she hit Annabelle in the head with her fist, actually leaping into the air to land the blow. Just like that, Annabelle was on the ground. I gasped, and I wasn’t the only one.

But I was the only one who noticed that Jason was straining to hold Alexei back. Something about the violence in the air had sent the boy over the edge. If he’d been a little bigger, Jason would’ve been on the ground. I punched Eric in the arm, jerked my head in the direction of the struggle. Eric leaped over to help Jason restrain the boy, who fought and snarled in their arms.

For a moment there was silence in the dark clearing as everyone watched Alexei struggle with his madness. Appius Livius looked profoundly sad. He worked his way into the knot of limbs and wrapped his own arms around his child. “Sshhhhhh,” he said. “My son, be still.” And gradually Alexei grew quiet.

Alcide’s voice was very close to a rumble when he said, “Jannalynn, you are my new second. Annabelle, get up. This is pack business now, and we’ll settle it at a pack meeting.” He turned his back on us and began moving.

The Weres were simply going to walk out of the woods and drive away. “Excuse me,” I said sharply. “There’s the little matter of the body being buried on my land. I think there’s something pretty damn significant about that.”

The Weres stopped walking.

Eric said, “Yes.” The one word carried a lot of weight. “Alcide, I believe Sookie and I need to sit in on your pack meeting.”

“Only pack members,” Jannalynn snapped. “No oneys, no deaders.” She was still as small as ever, but with her field promotion to second, she seemed harder and stronger in spirit. She was a ruthless little thing, no doubt about it. I thought Sam was mighty brave, or mighty foolish.

“Alcide?” Eric said quietly.

“Sookie can bring Jason, since he’s two-natured,” Alcide growled. “She’s a oney, but she’s a friend of the pack. No vamps.”

Eric glanced at my brother. “Jason, will you accompany your sister?”

“Sure,” Jason said.

So it was settled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabelle stagger to her feet and reorient herself. Jannalynn packed a wallop.

“What are you going to do with the body?” I called after Alcide, who was definitely moving out. “Do you want us to cover him back up or what?”

Annabelle took a hesitant step after Jannalynn and Alcide. That was going to be a happy ride back to Shreveport. “Someone will come get him tonight,” Jannalynn called over her shoulder. “So there’ll be activity in your woods. Don’t be alarmed.” When Annabelle glanced back, I noticed she was bleeding from one corner of her mouth. I felt the vampires come to attention. In fact, Alexei stepped away from Jason and would have followed her if Appius Livius hadn’t kept his grip on the boy.

“Should we cover him back up?” Jason said.

“If they’re sending a crew to get him, that seems like wasted effort,” I said. “Eric, I’m so glad you sent Heidi. Otherwise. ” I thought hard. “Listen, if he was buried on my land, it was so he could be found here, right? So there’s no telling when someone’s going to get a tip to come looking for him.”

The only one who seemed to follow my reasoning was Jason, who said, “Okay, we got to get him out of here.”

I was flapping my hands in the air, I was so anxious. “We’ve got to put him somewhere,” I said. “We could just set him in the cemetery!”

“Naw, too close,” Jason said.

“What about the pond behind your house?” I said.

“Naw, dammit! The fish! I couldn’t ever eat those fish again.”

“Aaargh,” I said. Really!

“Is your time with her usually like this?” Appius Livius asked Eric, who was smart enough not to answer.

“Sookie,” he said. “It won’t be pleasant, but I think I can fly carrying him if you can suggest a good place to put him.”

I felt like my brain was running through a maze and hitting all the dead ends. I actually smacked myself on the side of the head to jog an idea loose. It worked. “Sure, Eric. Put him in the woods right across the road from my driveway. There’s a little bit of a driveway left there, but no house. The Weres can use the driveway as a marker when they come to retrieve him. Cause someone’s coming to find him, and coming soon.”

Without further discussion, Eric leaped into the hole and rewrapped Basim in the sheet or whatever the wrapping was. Though the lantern showed me his face was full of disgust, he scooped up the decomposing body and leaped into the air. He was out of view in a second.

“Damn,” said Jason, impressed. “Cool.”

“Let’s fill in this grave,” I said. We set to work, with Appius Livius watching. It obviously didn’t occur to him that his help would make the job go much faster. Even Alexei shoved in piles of dirt, and he seemed to be having a pretty good time doing it. This was probably as close to a normal activity as the thirteen-year-old had come in some time. Gradually, the hole filled in. It still looked like a grave. The tsarevitch tore at the hard edges with his small hands. I almost protested, but then I saw what he was doing. He reconfigured the grave-shaped dent until it looked like an irregular dent, maybe created by rain or a collapsed mole tunnel. He beamed at us when he’d finished, and Jason clapped him on the back. Jason got a branch and swept it over the area, and then we tossed leaves and branches around. Alexei enjoyed that part, too.

Finally, we gave up. I couldn’t think of one more thing to do.

Filthy and frightened, I shouldered one of the shovels and prepared to make my way through the woods. Jason took the other shovel in his right hand, and Alexei took Jason’s left hand, as if he were even younger than the child he looked. My brother, though his face was a picture, kept hold of the vampire. Appius Livius at last made himself useful by leading us through the trees and undergrowth with some assurance.

Eric was at the house when we reached it. He’d already thrown his clothes into the garbage and gotten into the shower. Under other circumstances, I would have loved to join him, but it just wasn’t possible to feel sexy at the moment. I was grimy and nasty, but I was still the hostess, so I heated up some more TrueBlood for the two visiting vampires and showed them the downstairs bathroom in case they wanted to wash up.