"My girl, here"—and Claudine inclined her head toward me—"fell asleep at the wheel. How come you aren't watching out for her better?"

The colonel, as dignified in his civvies as he had been in his skin, looked a little startled, as if it was news to him that he was supposed to provide protection for me. "Ah," he said. "Uh . . ."

"Should have sent someone to the hospital with her," Claudine said, shaking her waterfall of black hair.

"I offered to go with her," Eric said indignantly. "She said it would be too suspicious if she went to the hospital with a vampire."

"Well, hel-lo, tall, blond, and dead," Claudine said. She looked Eric up and down, admiring what she saw. "You in the habit of doing what human women ask of you?"

Thanks a lot, Claudine, I told her silently. I was supposed to be guarding Eric, and now he wouldn't even shut the door if I told him to. Gerald was still ogling her in the same stunned way. I wondered if anyone would notice if I stretched out on one of the tables and went to sleep. Suddenly, just as Pam's and Gerald's had done, Eric's gaze sharpened and he seemed fixed on Claudine. I had time to think it was like watching cats that'd suddenly spotted something skittering along the baseboards before big hands spun me around and Alcide gathered me to him. He'd maneuvered through the crowd in the bar until he'd reached me. Since his shirt wasn't buttoned, I found my face pressed against his warm chest, and I was glad to be there. The curly black hair did smell faintly of dog, true, but otherwise I was comforted at being hugged and cherished. It felt delightful.

"Who are you?" Alcide asked Claudine. I had my ear against his chest and I could hear him from inside and outside, a strange sensation.

"I'm Claudine, the fairy," the huge woman said. "See?"

I had to turn to see what she was doing. She'd lifted her long hair to show her ears, which were delicately pointed.

"Fairy," Alcide repeated. He sounded as astonished as I felt.

"Sweet," said one of the younger Weres, a spiky-haired male who might be nineteen. He looked intrigued with the turn of events, and he glanced around at the other Weres seated at his table as if inviting them to share his pleasure. "For real?"

"For a while," Claudine said. "Sooner or later, I'll go one way or another." No one understood that, with the possible exception of the colonel.

"You are one mouthwatering woman," said the young Were. To back up the fashion statement of the spiked hair, he wore jeans and a ragged Fallen Angel T-shirt; he was barefoot, though Merlotte's was cool, since the thermostat was turned down for the rest of the night. He was wearing toe rings.

"Thanks!" Claudine smiled down at him. She snapped her fingers, and there was the same kind of haze around her that enveloped the Weres when they shifted. It was the haze of thick magic. When the air cleared, Claudine was wearing a spangled white evening gown.

"Sweet," the boy repeated in a dazed way, and Claudine basked in his admiration. I noticed she was keeping a certain distance from the vampires.

"Claudine, now that you've shown off, could we please talk about something besides you?" Colonel Flood sounded as tired as I felt.

"Of course," Claudine said in an appropriately chastened voice. "Just ask away."

"First things first. Miss Stackhouse, how is Maria-Star?"

"She survived the ride to the hospital in Clarice. They're airlifting her to Shreveport, to Schumpert hospital. She may already be on her way. The doctor sounded pretty positive about her chances."

The Weres all looked at one another, and most of them let out gusty noises of relief. One woman, about thirty years old, actually did a little happy dance. The vampires, by now almost totally fixated on the fairy, didn't react at all.

"What did you tell the emergency room doctor?" Colonel Flood asked. "I have to let her parents know what the official line is." Maria-Star would be their first-born, and their only Were child.

"I told the police that I found her by the side of the road, that I didn't see any signs of a car braking or anything. I told them she was lying on the gravel, so we won't have to worry about grass that isn't pressed down when it ought to be. . . . I hope she got it. She was pretty doped up when I talked to her."

"Very good thinking," Colonel Flood said. "Thanks, Miss Stackhouse. Our pack is indebted to you."

I waved my hand to disclaim any debt. "How did you come to show up at Bill's house at the right time?"

"Emilio and Sid tracked the witches to the right area." Emilio must be the small, dark man with huge brown eyes. There was a growing immigrant Mexican population in our area, and Emilio was apparently a part of that community. The spike-haired boy gave me a little wave, and I assumed he must be Sid. "Anyway, after dark, we started keeping an eye on the building where Hallow and her coven are holed up. It's hard to do; it's a residential neighborhood that's mostly black." African-American twins, both girls, grinned at each other. They were young enough to find this exciting, like Sid. "When Hallow and her brother left for Bon Temps, we followed them in our cars. We called Sam, too, to warn him."

I looked at Sam reproachfully. He hadn't warned me, hadn't mentioned the Weres were heading our way, too.

Colonel Flood went on, "Sam called me on my cell to tell me where he figured they were heading when they walked out of his bar. I decided an isolated place like the Compton house would be a good place to get them. We were able to park our cars in the cemetery and change, so we got there just in time. But they caught our scent early." The colonel glared at Sid. Apparently, the younger Were had jumped the gun.

"So they got away," I said, trying to sound neutral. "And now they know you're on to them."

"Yes, they got away. The murderers of Adabelle Yancy. The leaders of a group trying to take over not only the vamps' territory, but ours." Colonel Flood had been sweeping the assembled Weres with a cold gaze, and they wilted under his stare, even Alcide. "And now the witches'll be on their guard, since they know we're after them."

Their attention momentarily pulled from the radiant fairy Claudine, Pam and Gerald seemed discreetly amused by the colonel's speech. Eric, as always these days, looked as confused as if the colonel were speaking in Sanskrit.

"The Stonebrooks went back to Shreveport when they left Bill's?" I asked.

"We assume so. We had to change back very quickly—no easy matter—and then get to our cars. A few of us went one way, a few another, but we caught no glimpse of them."

"And now we're here. Why?" Alcide's voice was harsh.

"We're here for several reasons," the packmaster said. "First, we wanted to know about Maria-Star. Also, we wanted to recover for a bit before we drive back to Shreveport ourselves."

The Weres, who seemed to have pulled their clothes on pretty hastily, did look a little ragged. The dark-moon transformation and the rapid change back to two-legged form had taken a toll on all of them.

"And why are you here?" I asked Pam.

"We have something to report, too," she said. "Evidently, we have the same goals as the Weres—on this matter, anyway." She tore her gaze away from Claudine with an effort. She and Gerald exchanged glances, and as one, they turned to Eric, who looked back at them blankly. Pam sighed, and Gerald looked down at his booted feet.

"Our nest mate Clancy didn't return to us last night," Pam said. Hard on this startling announcement, she focused once again on the fairy. Claudine seemed to have some overwhelming allure for the vampires.

Most of the Weres looked like they were thinking that one less vampire was a step in the right direction. But Alcide said, "What do you think has happened?"