Charlaine Harris [Southern Va Dead in the Family (epub)

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.Eric was supernatural, and he was incredibly strong, and he was a great fighter.But he was not a superhero, and he couldn’t overcome several determined members of his own race.And I realized he’d given me a lot of blood when he himself was healing from the silver chains.Finally, something inside me relaxed at the logic of his story.I believed him in my heart, not just in my head.A red tear fell on my bare shoulder and coursed down.I swept it up on my finger, putting my finger to his lips—offering his pain back to him.I had plenty of my own.“I think we need to kill Victor,” I said, and his eyes met mine.I’d finally succeeded in surprising Eric.MARCHTHE THIRD WEEK“So,” my brother said.“As you can tell, me and Michele are still seeing each other.” He was standing with his back to me, turning the steaks on the grill.I was sitting in a folding chair, looking out over the large pond and its dock.It was a beautiful evening, cool and brisk.I was actually content to sit there and watch him work; I was enjoying being with Jason.Michele was in the house making a salad.I could hear her singing Travis Tritt.“I’m glad,” I said, and I was sincere.It was the first time I’d been in a private setting with my brother in months.Jason had been through his own bad time.His estranged wife and their unborn child had died horribly.He’d discovered his best male friend had been in love with him, sick in love.But as I watched him grilling, listened to his girlfriend singing inside the house, I understood that Jason was a great survivor.Here my brother was, dating again, pleased at the prospect of eating steak and the mashed potato casserole I’d brought and the salad Michele was making.I had to admire Jason’s determination to find pleasure in his life.My brother was not a very good role model in a lot of ways, but I could hardly point fingers.“Michele is a good woman,” I said out loud.She was, too—though maybe not in the way our gran would have used the term.Michele Schubert was absolutely out-front about everything.You couldn’t shame her, because she wouldn’t do something she wouldn’t own up to.Operating on the same principle of full disclosure, if Michele had a grievance with you, you knew about it.She worked in the Ford dealership’s repair shop as a scheduler and clerk.It was a tribute to her efficiency that she still worked for her former father-in-law.(In fact, he’d been known to say he liked her a tad better than he liked his son, some days.)Michele came out on the deck.She was wearing the jeans and Ford-logo polo shirt she wore to work, and her dark hair was twisted in a knot on her head.Michele liked heavy eye makeup, big purses, and high heels.She was barefoot now.“Hey, Sookie, you like ranch dressing?” she asked.“Or we got some honey mustard.”“Ranch will be fine,” I said.“You need any help?”“Nope, I’m good.” Michele’s cell phone went off.“Dammit, it’s Pop Schubert again.That man can’t find his ass with both hands.”She went back in the house, the phone to her ear.“I worry, though, about putting her in danger,” Jason said in the diffident voice he used when he was asking my opinion about something supernatural.“I mean.that fairy, Dermot, the one that looks like me.Do you know if he’s still around?”He’d turned to face me.He was leaning against the railing of the deck he’d added to the house my mom and dad had built when they were expecting Jason.Mom and Dad hadn’t gotten to enjoy it for much more than a decade.They’d died when I was seven, and when Jason had gotten old enough to live on his own (in his estimation), he’d moved out of Gran’s and into this house.It had seen many a wild party for two or three years, but he’d become steadier.Tonight it was very clear to me that his recent losses had sobered him further.I took a swallow from my bottle.I wasn’t much of a drinker—I saw too much overindulgence at work—but it had been impossible to turn down a cold beer on this bright evening.“I wish I knew where Dermot was, too,” I said.Dermot was the fraternal twin of our half-fairy grandfather Fintan.“Niall sealed himself into Faery with all the other fairies who wanted to join him, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Dermot’s in Faery with him.Claude stayed here.I saw him a couple of weeks ago.” Niall was our great-grandfather.Claude was his grandson from Niall’s marriage to another full fae.“Claude, the male stripper.”“The owner of a strip club, who strips himself on ladies’ night,” I corrected.“Our cousin models for romance covers, too.”“Yeah, I bet the girls faint when he walks by [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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