arm around me and pulled me close, and I wondered if I’d sent out the wrong signal.
“Listen, Sookie,” he murmured, smiling down at me in a fond way, “I don’t want to scare you or anything, but someone’s in the woods and they’re walking along the driveway parallel to us. You got any ideas who it might be? If they’re armed?” His voice was not agitated, and I did my best to match his ease. It was incredibly hard not to turn to stare into the woods.
I made myself smile up at Quinn. “I sure don’t. Not a human, or I’d get the brain signature. Can’t be a vamp, it’s daylight.”
Quinn expelled all the breath in his lungs and drew in a chestful of air. “Ask me, it might be a fairy,” he whispered. “I’m just getting a touch of fae. There are so many scents in the air after the rain.”
“But the fae are all gone,” I said, reminding myself to let my expression change. After all, I wouldn’t be beaming at Quinn for five minutes while we strolled down the road. “That’s what my great-grandfather told me.”
“I think he was wrong,” Quinn said. “Let’s casually turn to head back to the house.”
I took Quinn’s hand and swung it enthusiastically. I felt like an idiot, but I needed something physical to do while I sent out my other sense. I finally found the brain signature of whatever creature lurked in the woods, which provided easy concealment due to the natural effects of summer (rain and light) and the benefits of Niall’s blessing on the land. The closer to my house we got, the thicker the vegetation became. The area right at the edge of the yard might almost be a jungle.
“You think he’s going to shoot?” I said with a smile. I swung Quinn’s hand like I was a child walking with her grandpa.
“I don’t smell a gun,” he said. “Enough with the hand swinging. I need to be able to move quick.”
I let go, somewhat embarrassed. “Let’s try to get into the house. Without getting killed.”
But whoever was stalking us didn’t make a move. It was almost an anticlimax to walk across the enclosed back porch, wondering every second if something terrible would happen, and then to make it in the door and shut it behind us . . . and nothing happened. Nothing at all.
Barry had decided to make hamburgers to cook on the grill in the backyard. He was putting chopped onion and seasoned salt and green peppers in the meat and forming the patties, and he was mighty startled when we bolted into the kitchen and ducked.
“What the hell?” he said.
“Someone was out there,” I said.
He crouched, too. He closed his eyes and concentrated. “I have no idea,” he said, after a moment. “Whoever it was, he’s left, Sookie.”
“Smelled like a fairy,” Quinn told Barry.
“They’re all gone,” Barry said. “That’s what the Texas vampires told me. Said they’d cleaned out lock, stock, and barrel.”
“They are all gone,” I said. “I know that for a fact. So either Quinn’s nose is wrong or we have a rogue.”
“Or a reject,” Barry said quietly.
“Or an escapee. Whatever he is, why is he skulking in the woods?” Quinn asked.
But I didn’t have any answer. And when nothing else happened, we three began to think nothing would. Quinn decided to delay his search of the woods until the evening. There wasn’t any point going out there now.
Though it felt anticlimactic, I began slicing tomatoes for the hamburgers, and then I cut up a watermelon. Quinn volunteered to make some home fries. Since he’d put a ten-pound bag of potatoes in the cart today, I was glad he had a plan to use them up.
With all three of us working in the kitchen, supper came together. I pretended not to see when Quinn ate one burger before it was cooked, and Barry hastily volunteered to take the others out to the grill. I put together a baked bean casserole, and Quinn began frying the potatoes. I set the table and washed the preparation dishes.
It was almost like running a boardinghouse, I thought, when I called everyone down for dinner.
Chapter 13
Amazingly, the meal went well. There was just enough room for us at the kitchen table when I opened two folding chairs my gran had kept in the living room closet.
Amelia had obviously been crying, but she was calm now. Bob touched her every chance he got. Mr. Cataliades explained that he